WorshipGod09 Q & A with Ben

Could you share a little about your WorshipGod09 experience?

I think anytime you can get about 1,500 believers in one who room who love to sing to the Savior always makes for some memorable times of worship. Personally, every worship session uniquely affected me by reminding me of different truths of God and how much I need Christ.

The Lord met me there in an extremely personal way particularly through the heavyweight teachings from John Piper, Thabiti Anyabwile, and Jeff Purswell. It was also a blast trying to get the seven dudes I was rooming with each their own shower time every morning!

Was there anything in particular that struck you from the teachings?

There was so much truth being taught at this conference. I’m still trying to soak it all in by going over my notes every day since the conference and just reflecting on certain questions I wrote down for myself.

First, was a point John Piper made about how the heart of a worshiper is not one trying to come before the Lord bringing something. If that person thinks they are, then they are missing the purpose of worship. Piper countered that by saying the heart of a worshiper is one that desperately comes to the Lord empty and crying out for the Lord to fill him. This was a refreshing reminder.

Second, and probably most vivid, were the few things said throughout the conference about the dangers of making worship about myself and not about the Lord and serving his people.

Jeff Purswell made two comments on different occasions which hit this point home for me personally, “A danger exists in corporate worship where we can enter into a form of idolatry where we are worshiping worship” and he also pointed out that, “When you begin to love being a worship leader more then a worshiper of the Lord; we’ve got a big problem”.

What was it like experiencing this conference with those who attended from SRC?

By far the highlight of the weekend was being able to not only spend every single session sitting together as the Lightswitch band but also hanging out together during meals and after the sessions. Probably some of the most exciting times of worship were the times when I was able to look to my left or my right and see all of us together worshiping or praying.

We had the unique opportunity to do “what we do together” in a new context and it just made the whole conference all the more fruitful. It was apparent that all who came were not just excited to get things out of the conference for themselves but were equally excited to hear about what everyone else was learning or had been affected by in each session. I’m convinced that it would not have been the same if we hadn’t been together.

To listen to any of the teachings from WG09 visit Sovereign Grace.