Interview with Ryan Day:

If you’re anything like me you love worshipping God. One of the ways we do that is by singing songs at Church but worship, as it turns out, it’s not a spectator sport, in fact it’s more a training session.

Berni: As I said today and indeed this week on the program I’m joined by Christian artist and worship leader Ryan Day who’s just released an amazing new album called ‘The Sending’. It’s an interesting name for a worship album and that’s because Ryan has an interesting and I believe powerful take on what this worship thing is all about. Ryan welcome today to the program.

Ryan: Hi Berni.

Berni: Now tell us a bit about this new album and why you called it ‘The Sending.

Ryan: Well this album really encapsulates my journey as a worship leader, as someone who’s trying to understand worship and it’s based on John 20:21 from the Bible where Jesus says, “As the Father has sent me so I am sending you.” So that’s really the core idea behind the album.

Berni: Alright we’ll dig a bit more deeper in a moment, let’s go back and tell us a bit about yourself, how did you get to the point of being a muso and releasing a worship album?

Ryan: I grew up in a musical Christian family, we went to Church, I was involved in all kinds of music through school and when I was a teenager God really impressed on my heart the importance of worship. It set my heart on fire and I really wanted to be involved in worship ministry in a big way. And it took a little while for me to journey with God to be ready to do worship as a ministry but about five years ago God opened up the opportunity for me to be able to serve as a worship leader and worship co coordinator in Church.

Berni: Good stuff. Well let’s get back to this whole idea of ‘sending’. You said that sending was always part of God’s plan but in your mind what does that actually mean, not so much in a dry theological sense, I mean we’ve probably heard some dry old sermons on that over the years, what does it actually mean to me, to you, here and now today in the lives we’re leading to be sent?

Ryan: To me it means that each of us has a Kingdom purpose, that God has a purpose for each of our lives, something that He is calling us to do to contribute to His plans, His purposes to save and to restore the world and really to live a life that looks like Jesus, how He would live if He were living our life.

Berni: Now someone might be listening to you and think ‘well that’s okay for this guy on the radio, he’s a worship leader, he’s released an album, it’s fantastic for you Ryan but me, I can’t see God sending me’.

Ryan: I think that God has actually sent each of us, it’s not just something for special people but for everyone. He loves everyone as a child and He has a purpose for each of us, He’s uniquely created us to contribute to His Kingdom, to be loved by Him and to love others. I think that’s relevant to everyone.

Berni: Hey that is really exciting isn’t it? We’ve all got a part in God’s plan no matter how small or insignificant we see ourselves.

Ryan: Absolutely.

Berni: I’m sure that there have been times when you had your call to be a worship leader and then to release a worship album, when you thought ‘what am I doing here?’

Ryan: Lots of moments of doubt and fear and uncertainty and ‘God is this something you really want me to do? Are you really calling me to take this step of faith?’ And really it’s just one step at a time, I’m not special compared to anyone else, I’m just trying to figure out how to live the life that Jesus has called me to live.

Berni: Okay, I hope everyone is listening to that. So if you are feeling insignificant, if you feeling like ‘I don’t’ know if God’s called me’, the guy whose talking on the radio who just released a worship album has exactly the same problem from time to time, we ALL do. Now listen one of the songs, one of the tracks of this album is called ‘King of Calvary’, let’s have a bit of a listen and we’ll come and talk about it.

“Thank you for the cross where you gave your life for me. Thank you that you that you rose again, the King of Calvary.”

Berni: Hey, great sound, great stuff, what’s the heart beat behind this song?

Ryan: The heart beat behind this song is that the Christian life starts with looking at the life of Jesus, that’s how we understand what sending is. When we look at what He’s done our first response and the first response of understanding what it means to be sent is to be thankful for what Jesus has done for us on the cross.

Berni: Especially at Easter time, we look at the cross and what Jesus did and we kind of skim by that and forget about it and yet what Jesus has done on the cross is relevant to every moment of every day of our lives isn’t it?

Ryan: Absolutely. What Jesus did has changed everything, every moment is different because of what Jesus has done now for us.

Berni: Okay. So you worship, say you go to Church on Sunday or Wednesday or whenever you go to Church and you’re worshipping and you’re singing a song, you then walk out of that and you go back to work or go back to home or, how does this worship thing connect into life?

Ryan: Jesus made a way for us to connect with God and that fundamentally alters the way that we live every other day in the week, it’s not just a Sunday thing but it fundamentally changes the direction or our orientation of our whole life.

Berni: Let me ask in your life, how does the cross change the way you live Monday morning? Maybe I should ask your wife that.

Ryan: Yeah, that’s right. The cross means that I am called to live a life that is about Gods love, a life that is orientated towards God and not towards myself, I think that is the fundamental difference. That’s the example we see in Jesus and that’s the reason why He came, so that we would be reconnected with God in relationship with Him and live a life of purpose. I think that’s the difference Jesus makes in everyday life.

Berni: Do you reckon you have more of a sense of purpose in your life now than you had maybe five years ago?

Ryan: Well I know that the closer that I draw to God and get to know Jesus more the more I feel filled with purpose and my life starts to reflect that.

Berni: It’s interesting I get a lot of emails in response to this program and one of the really common themes in that is ‘I lack a sense of purpose’ and I’m like you, the closer I get to God the more I know that I’m in the right place.

Ryan: That doesn’t need to be something that just happens for some people but that’s something that’s available for all of us because God is near to us. He says to us in His Word that when we seek Him we will find Him and that’s a great promise.

Berni: Another verse that I love is Ephesians chapter 2 verse 10 where it says “We are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do the good things that God prepared beforehand for us to walk in.” God’s got a plan.

Ryan: Yep, now that’s an amazing promise isn’t it? That He has planned our lives out and we walk in that. What a great truth.

Berni: Okay so Jesus was sent, do we then take that on as our personal model for mission too?

Ryan: Well I believe so because Jesus’ invitation to the people in His day and it echoes through to us today is follow me. He invites us to take up our cross and follow Him and that means to live a life for Him and not for ourselves. And so I think the mission that Jesus gave to His disciples is the same mission that we have as well.

Berni: Yeah I love that and again for anybody who’s listening who is kind of uncertain and think ‘I don’t know where my life is going, it’s kind of rudderless, how do I find what Gods calling is for my life?’ My answer and I reckon Ryan you’ll probably agree is just draw closer to Jesus, just draw closer to the cross and the empty tomb and in that relationship somehow God speaks, the Holy Spirit speaks and the Holy Spirit opens doors and we get a sense of who we are and what our purpose and calling is.

Ryan: Absolutely, I thoroughly agree.

Berni: We were just talking before, we were having a cup of tea together right? And the whole idea of going to work is a complete nonsense to me. I ‘work’ (in inverted commas) twelve hours a day but none of it feels like work. I guess worship doesn’t feel like work to you either.

Ryan: I think when you’re operating in what God has called you to do there’s a certain ease and flow about it, that it’s enjoyable and sometimes there are things where it is challenging but ultimately when we’re walking in the purpose of God then there is life and freedom, it’s great.

Berni: Mate thank you, we’ll catch you again tomorrow. That’s all we have time for today, I want to pick up again tomorrow and talk about our sending, mine and yours.

Interview with Ryan Day:

Here’s a question, do you believe that God has a plan for your life, a unique, made to purpose plan to use the gifts and abilities he’s given you to achieve something amazing? So if you do when all of a sudden one day God comes along and taps you on your shoulder and says ‘go’ would you go?

Berni: This week I’m joined on the program by my special guest, Christian artist Ryan Day who’s just released a wonderful worship album called ‘The Sending’. And the thing that so interests me about him is not just his music, it’s his radically different understanding of what this whole worship thing is all about. Ryan, gidday and welcome to the program.

Ryan: Gidday Berni.

Berni: Now just take me through your understanding of what worship is all about and why you called this latest album of yours The Sending?

Ryan: Well The Sending comes from my belief and understanding that God has a plan and the Bible tells us that His Kingdom will become a reality on earth. We have a role to play and that’s what we’re sent into, we’re sent to participate and join in with what God is doing.

Berni: You find sometimes you know people and you can see that God has a call on their life and they just don’t want to go.

Ryan: We sometimes get struck by fear or we’re just reluctant to maybe take steps of faith but God has something that is great in store for each one of us and it’s worth taking the risk.

Berni: It’s always struck me that the great commission, you know Matthew chapter 28 verses 19 and 20 where Jesus sends His disciples to Somalia and the end of the earth right? The great commission never seems to happen in your comfort zone does it?

Ryan: Yeah but when we walk out of our comfort zone that’s where we trust God and we see His power and His love at work in our lives.

Berni: Sometimes I think when we read that passage too where we think ‘oh He’s talking to them, those guys over there, they’re the ones that He’s sending and we want to sit comfortably in the nice soft pews in our Church and go ‘well Ryan you’re sent, Berni you’re sent, oh I’m not sent’.

Ryan: I thing that’s a natural human inclination isn’t it? But when we really realise that God is sending each one of us, that He has a calling and a purpose that He wants us to walk into, I think that’s when we realise fullness of life in the freedom of God.

Berni: We tend to look at other people and think ‘well they’re super ministry, super spiritual, I’m just an ordinary person, God doesn’t send ordinary people.’

Ryan: O He always sends the ordinary people. You just look at the disciples in the Bible, Jesus disciples, they were ordinary, ordinary people and they messed up, they didn’t get things, they didn’t understand what Jesus was doing but He used them powerfully to change the world.

Berni: John chapter 20 verse 21.

“As the Father has sent me so I am sending you.”

Ryan: This is how we’re sent. When we look at the idea of ‘sending’ understanding that God has sent each one of us then Jesus is saying to His disciples in this verse, that if you look at my life and understand how God has sent me then you’ll understand how He has sent you as well.

Berni: How do you see sending and worship relate to each other ’cause we think of worship as standing in the Church maybe with our hands lifted, maybe not, singing songs.

Ryan: Well worship is integral to understanding sending because we understand sending when we understand Jesus and the idea of worship is that it draws us together as God’s people and helps us fix and orient our lives around Jesus, it helps us remember what He’s done and that’s integral to understanding how we’re sent.

Berni: We kind of understand that service is part of a normal Christian life, serving other people but I think if you did a straw poll in your Church or in my Church the notion of sending, people think of that as an exclusive small number of people and yet in Mark chapter 10 verses 43 to 45 Jesus says;

“Whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant and whoever wishes to be first among you must be a slave of all for the son of man came not to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many.”

So God sends Jesus into the world, God sends Him and His reflection of that is ‘I came to serve’.

Ryan: And isn’t that a great example for us? To understand ourselves as being sent then we look at Jesus’ example as a servant and that models for us how we are to live.

Berni: Now your trade, your background is a chiropractor right?

Ryan: That’s correct.

Berni: What’s a chiropractor doing sitting in the chair here chatting with me about worship and sending and all that sort of stuff? I thought your job was to crack bones and things like that.

Ryan: Well it’s a great question Berni and I’ve often asked myself the same question. That’s been an important part of my journey, God led me down the road of studying and to earn a profession and to work in that world but the main thing that God taught me through that season was, I was in a place where I could serve people up close, I could get to know people and use my gifts and abilities to help them and that was one expression that I needed to learn about how to serve people.

Berni: Sometimes I think we have sacred things over in one box, worship and prayer and going to Church, all that stuff and then we have ‘life’ things, profane things like being a chiropractor right? Or for me being an IT consultant over in another box and yet as I read the Bible God doesn’t seem to separate them does He? Like the fishermen, Peter, right? Was a disciple and yet still a fisherman and there was no separation between the two.

Ryan: You don’t just have to work in a Church or be a minister or a missionary to be able to serve people for the greater good, for the cause of Gods Kingdom. Any occupation, just about, that reflects Gods Kingdom can bring Him glory and that’s the way that we can serve and be like Jesus.

Berni: And be light and salt.

Ryan: Absolutely.

Berni: One of the tracks on your album is called Shine Like The Stars, let’s have a bit of a listen and we’ll come back to that.

“His name is Jesus, yeah. So let Him shine like the stars in the sky holding on to the Word of life. Shine through the darkest night ’cause you are the hope and the whole world needs you. Shine, will shine.”

Berni: It’s a great sound, its great stuff. What are you thinking there? What’s the idea that you’re trying to get across?

Ryan: Well Berni this song is based on Philippians chapter 2, a couple of verses there, 14 to 16 and really the idea of those verses is that God’s people, that’s us, people who are following Jesus, as we become like Him we become like shining lights in the world, like salt and light and we’re pointing people to God as we shine like stars.

Berni: Yeah. I look at what you do and there’s no way I could do what you do, you enjoy what you do right?

Ryan: I really do but God has created each of us uniquely and we express His love and His light in the world, we shine His light like stars differently.

Berni: I think that’s an important thing, I mean I get a whole buzz out of what I do, you enjoy what you do so this whole serving thing, it’s not so much of a straight jacket because that’s how some people see it right?

Ryan: And God’s Word tells us that those that the Son has set free are free indeed. So serving isn’t to be a burden, it’s in giving our lives for others we actually find life.

Berni: Yeah and the thing, I guess, that took me a long time to figure out is that this real sense of freedom and liberation, when you’re actually living your life using the gifts that God gave you to use.

Ryan: It’s incredible and what a privilege that God has wired us to do things that we enjoy, that expresses His love and light into this world and we feel a sense of fullness and freedom in doing that.

Berni: To me that sounds like a really positive message, a really powerful message, there’s this kind of link between servanthood and who God made us to be.

Ryan: There’s a really strong connection there. The more that we’re serving others for the sake of God with His love I think the greater we sense His love and life in us and we find our true purpose.

Berni: Ryan thanks for joining me, we’ll catch up again tomorrow.

Ryan: Great, looking forward to it.

Interview with Ryan Day:

It’s one thing to believe that God has a plan for our lives, it’s another thing entirely to be prepared to live out that plan. Today I’m joined again by Christian artist and worship leader Ryan Day to talk about the heartbeat behind his latest worship album The Sending.

Berni: This week I’m joined on the program by my special guest Christian artist Ryan Day who’s just released an amazing worship album called The Sending. And the thing that so interests me about him is not so much his music, his music is great, it’s his radically different understanding of what this whole worship thing is all about. Ryan it’s great to have you on the program.

Ryan: Thanks for having me Berni.

Berni: Now I’d like to pick up in this fascinating discussion that we’ve been having about worshipping and sending. In a nutshell what’s your point in putting together your latest worship album The Sending.

Ryan: The album’s about the fact we are all sent as followers of Jesus to contribute to the plans that God has for healing and restoring the world. Not just missionaries and ministers but all of us.

Berni: When you were a kid what would you imagine you wanted to do with your life?

Ryan: Well my very first memory was as a six year old and at school we were asked what we wanted to be when we grew up and ….

Berni: Was it a fireman or a policeman?

Ryan: That’s right. I remember my answer was that I wanted to be a poet.

Berni: A poet? I was a fireman, I definitely wanted to go with the fireman thing, you and I are clearly wired differently. A poet?

Ryan: I know.

Berni: At six?

Ryan: I know, weird and funnily in a strange kind of way, as a song writer, I guess I kind of am or I try to be. I have opportunities to craft words that hopefully convey a message and emotion that is helpful for people.

Berni: I wonder how many people listening wanted to be a poet when they were six years old. I reckon you’re the only one.

Ryan: Probably.

Berni: So you’re growing up, you’re being a teenager doing all the stupid stuff we did as teenagers, did that kind of dream disappear for a little while, what happened?

Ryan: It did. In my late teens I really discovered a passion for worship, I’d been involved in music for many years at that point and as I went through my twenties, ’cause I had a dream of creating music but that dream did kind of die for a while and God in His own time and in His own way restored it and now I’m in a fortunate and blessed position where I get to do it as a full time ministry.

Berni: When I was thirteen, fourteen I wanted to be a minister.

Ryan: Wow.

Berni: And that disappeared for twenty years. It went away and all of a sudden at age 38/39 guess what? Here we are, the poet and the minister right? Isn’t it funny how God sometimes plants dreams in our heart early on and then we forget about them and we grow up and we get all these other things, we get mortgages and kids and it’s so easy to lose the sight of the dream that God’s put in our DNA.

Ryan: That’s right and somehow when we trust God and in His time, it may not be in our time but He’s a God of restoration and He will restore the dreams that He put in our hearts in His time.

Berni: It’s kind of sad when you see people take their abilities and their dreams and kind of turn them around and make it about themselves, it’s all about me and my priorities and me being famous and wealthy and rich and all that sort of stuff.

Ryan: Yeah well that’s our culture isn’t it and it’s so easy for us to buy into that, to allow that to frame how we think and what we believe but as we talked about yesterday God says that to be the greatest I used to be the servant of all.

Berni: Yeah, you know a PR consultant would want to do something with that right? We want to put some spin on that to make it a little bit more palatable and digestible but there’s no other way of putting it.

Ryan: It’s very confronting because I think our human nature is to serve ourselves but Jesus flipped our world upside down, the Kingdom of God is paradoxical compared to our world, it’s upside down. So we see that Jesus, for instance, teaches us to be the greatest we need to be the least or to be the servant and it’s upside down compared to what we would think.

Berni: And yet the satisfaction and the contentment that comes from serving using the gifts that God’s given you is unspeakable isn’t it?

Ryan: I agree and Jesus tells us in His Word that it is better to give than it is to receive.

Berni: And it’s actually true.

Ryan: It is.

Berni: I mean it sounds bizarre, it’s better to give than to receive and you think ‘no it’s not, it’s better to receive really, I’d rather really get given stuff than have to give it away’ yet that’s so empty and vacuous.

Ryan: And it’s, the Kingdom of God is so controversial really isn’t it, that it rails against our culture and our human nature?

Berni: So what does a human life look like that reflects the character of God? I mean are there any common themes, any common characteristics if you will that are present in the life of someone who is determined to live for Jesus?

Ryan: Well I found the author N T Wright to be really helpful, he’s a theologian, he talks about some common characteristics in the heart of every person that reflects the Kingdom of God. A few of those things are beauty, creating Kingdom beauty not necessarily what the world regards as beautiful but things that are beautiful in God’s Kingdom, in His creation, things that are beautiful in heaven. Things like relationships are important, they’re an important part of God’s Kingdom.

A spirituality, a seeking out of God and who He is and who we are in Him and then things like justice are a really important reflection of Gods Kingdom as well.

Berni: So if I’m someone who wants to set my life course in the direction of following Jesus how do I do that, what’s the practical application, how do I go about that?

Ryan: Well I think it’s important to submit our goals and dreams to the plans and purposes of God. Sometimes we can have a dream but really it can be self serving but if we submit our dreams to God and allow Him and His plans to become our life goal I think that really helps us having a life that reflects Gods Kingdom. It means in the ordinary things of life, learning to see the opportunities for Gods Kingdom to come to bear for beauty and justice, relationships.

Berni: A risky way of living isn’t it?

Ryan: It is.

Berni: Well it feels like it is.

Ryan: It can be. It means living with a different perspective.

Berni: Okay let’s go back to worship again, your central thesis for this album, if I can call it that, is that worshipping is in fact a sending. Why is it that you a muso, an artist, a worship leader, why is a guy like you thinking about this stuff and talking about this stuff and singing about this stuff.

Ryan: Well Berni I started leading worship as a teenager and that was fifteen, twenty years ago now and over those years I’ve really wrestled with what impact or what difference does it make when we worship together as Gods people? For me who’s someone trying to invest my life in it, why is it important and that’s what led me on this journey of thinking about how worship makes a difference for God’s Kingdom in the world and that’s what our sending is, its worship and sending.

Berni: I love the song on your album Give You All The Praise, it kind of talks about that, let’s have a bit of a listen.

“You’re calling us to follow you. More than just a song to sing, in our whole lives as an offering to you. Our praise is to follow every day, our love is to walk in all your ways. We worship the name above all names. Give you all the praise.”

Berni: Right, we’re almost out of time but if you could say just one thing to a person who loves Jesus, who wants to be sent, who wants to get out there and live their lives for Him but is kind of teetering on the edge a bit right now, if you could say just one thing to that person what would you say?

Ryan: I’d say for a life filled with love and purpose, a sent life, look to Jesus. Ask Him to help you to figure out how to reflect His Kingdom in your daily life, that’s the best place to start.

Berni: Yeah, sage, sage advice. Jesus said;

“Whoever loves me will keep my Word and my Father will love them and we will come to them and make our home with them.”

If we could just get our lives focused on Jesus which is what worship is, man how different life would be.

Interview with Ryan Day:

Okay, so you believe that God has a plan for your life. You believe that God wants to send you out into this world to do good. You’ve been dreaming about this and that but when all is said and done you realise that you really don’t have what it takes – huh join the club.

Berni: So far this week Ryan and I have been chatting about this whole idea, in fact you could say it’s the very heartbeat of his latest album, that worship isn’t just an spectator sport, that in fact worship is all about Jesus sending us out into this world the way His Father sent Him into the world. Ryan welcome to the program.

Ryan: Hi Berni.

Berni: Is that a reasonable summary of what you’re saying in this worship album?

Ryan: Yeah exactly right Berni, that’s the heart of this album. It’s based on John 20:21 where Jesus tells His disciples and us I believe that as the Father has sent Him so He is sending us.

Berni: It’s not a comfortable idea of worship, I mean we like to go to Church to be entertained a little bit, great music up front, excellent muso’s like you, we sing some songs, we feel good but then we want to go out and have some lunch and dinner and do stuff with our friends, do you really want to be sent in the worship song, to go out and serve Jesus, really?

Ryan: I think worship only makes sense in the context of sending. We don’t worship just to make ourselves feel good…..

Berni: Oh really, oh, dang.

Ryan: Unfortunately not, that’s actually to remind us who God is, who we are and what He’s called us to do so we can go live a life filled with God’s purpose.

Berni: Good theory but it can feel a bit daunting can’t it? I mean how did you feel as a worship leader, putting together an album, putting it out there in the marketplace? It’s something that non muso’s take a bit for granted, that you muso’s produce albums but it must have been a bit daunting, unnerving to step out of your comfort zone and start doing something different.

Ryan: It always is a bit daunting to put yourself out there particularly for people with creative kind of expressions, we hold it very personnel I suppose, we take it personally when people don’t like what we do. So to put something out there is a little bit daunting but I feel that it was part of what God has been doing in my heart and calling me to do is to encourage people who are trying to follow Jesus about this important message that we’re all sent.

Berni: So you’re an average guy right? I’m an average guy, people tune into radio and think ‘ooh they’re the guys on the radio, they must be special’ but I know you, we’ve had a cup of tea together and a yarn and lunch, you’re an ordinary normal human being called to step out of your comfort zone.

Ryan: Completely normal and I experience all the same emotions that anyone else would when God calls you to do something. Being unsure, being uncertain, perhaps a bit fearful but that is the best place for us to be so that we are trusting God not ourselves.

Berni: You think we’d have that expectation that following Jesus is going to be easy and then maybe we realise that it isn’t and we wonder to ourselves ‘what am I doing here?’

Ryan: Yeah, when God calls us to do something that we don’t feel prepared to do, we might feel inadequate or yeah, it feels hard and I think that if it was easy it probably wouldn’t be worth doing because God has things for us that we can’t even ask or imagine and so if we want to see those things become a reality we actually need to trust and have faith and believe that He could do those things through us and in us.

Berni: I remember the first time I sat in this chair in this studio, Max my producer was on the other side of that glass and it was not easy stepping into this role, doing this thing and trying to think on your feet and have conversations, it was horrible. I’m sorry it was, I felt horrible. How did you feel when you finally had the genesis and the germ of this idea that what you had to do was go and produce a worship album?

Ryan: Well I knew I was in for a big learning curve. I really didn’t know where to start, God in His grace provided the people and the resources and the support of my wife Julie and the support of my Church who championed me and encouraged me to go and do it, God in His time provided what I needed but it was about taking that first step of faith to say ‘God if this is what you’re calling me to do I want to give it my best shot in Your strength’.

Berni: What is it you think that lies at the heart of this dilemma, this tension between wanting to follow hard after Jesus’ call on your life on the one hand and that sense of inadequacy and uncertainty on the other?

Ryan: I think it’s that, we wonder if we can do it. I think it’s the challenge of knowing ourselves enough to know that if God’s calling me to do that I can’t do it and I think that’s actually what God is looking for because He doesn’t expect us to do it on our own, He actually provides us, gives us, fills us with His Holy Spirit and it’s by His Spirit’s power that He empowers and enables us to do what He is calling us to do.

Berni: Is there anything in God’s Word that talks about this? What’s He got to say, what’s His take on us following our calling?

Ryan: Well John 14 is a good place to start where Jesus says;

“If you love me obey my commandments. So if you love me then do what I’m asking you to do.” (And He says) “I will ask the Father”.

And it’s a beautiful promise.

“And I will give you another advocate who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit who leads you into all truth.”

It’s an incredible promise isn’t it because He guarantee’s us that when we seek to obey Him and we walk in obedience then He will give us what we need to be able to do what He’s calling us and asking us to do.

Berni: That is so important and you don’t really get to know that until you’re out in the place where you’re going to fail unless Jesus shows up.

Ryan: So true and that’s a scary place to be but that’s the place where God wants us to be so we’re relying on Him not on ourselves.

Berni: Let’s take a little bit of a break and I want to play a portion of a track on your worship album, it’s called We Are Ready and my question to us when we listen is ‘are we really?’

Berni: So what that’s saying, I think, is that it’s almost the opposite of being fearful and uncertain, it’s about being ready. Why are we ready, how can we possibly be ready if we’re about to step outside our comfort zone?

Ryan: Well we can be ready because we know and believe and trust that the Holy Spirit is at work in us and in the world and that’s what that song is trying to capture, that we don’t go out just being confident in ourselves but confident that God is working and that He is calling us to join Him in His work.

Berni: Acts chapter 1, verse 8;

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.”

Do you have a sense of the Spirit’s presence when you’re leading worship at Church, when you’re working in the studio to produce an album?

Ryan: Absolutely, I rely on it. If God isn’t present in what I’m doing there really isn’t any point in doing it and that’s become my philosophy and my heart is to try and I do it falteringly but to try and seek God in everything I’m doing whether it’s ministry or with my family or speaking to friends at my son’s school or whatever the case may be, to try as best as I can to understand what God is up to and to try to follow Him each moment.

Berni: Mate that’s awesome. So as you look ahead what dreams has God placed on your heart to use your gifts in the future?

Ryan: I would love to continue to write and create music that encourages people in their faith, that encourages people to connect and engage with God, I think that that journey is about turning my sense of inadequacy into trust which is what we’ve been talking about, to trust that God will provide all the resources for His plans to unfold for me and it’s hard, it’s really walking day by day with Jesus. I think if I continue to focus on that then everything else will fall into place according to His plans.

Berni: Amen. It’s not always the way we would have planned it but God has a way of bringing His plans to fulfilment that we could never ever have predicted. Ryan it’s all we have time for, I’m going to catch you again on the program tomorrow.

Ryan: Great, thanks Berni.

Interview with Ryan Day:

I guess we all love to go to Church and worship God. Well maybe not all of us but most of us. Something amazing happens when we truly open our hearts to worship Him but as we’ve been discovering this week on the program worship isn’t just a spectator sport, at least not according to my special guest Ryan Day.

Berni: Ryan welcome again to the program, our last day together.

Ryan: Hi Berni.

Berni: Now look Ryan’s a Christian artist and worship leader and we’ve been chatting this week about the ideas behind his latest album which has to do as I understand it Ryan, correct me if I’m wrong, with the powerful link between worship and the lives that we lead.

Ryan: I agree, I think that there’s such an important connection between what we do when we gather to worship and the kind of lives that we live for Jesus every other day of the week.

Berni: Jesus made the point that what we do, what we say comes from our heart right? And when we get that ‘heart connection’ with God when we worship Him it changes you doesn’t it?

Ryan: That’s the thing that excites me so much about worshipping God whether it’s individually or together with other people is that opportunity to really focus on God. God is always present to us but when we really put our attention and affection towards Him then He works in us and changes and transforms us for His glory. It’s an incredible thing.

Berni: I guess one of the tensions we experience particularly with our western mind set where we separate spiritual from day to day life, it needs a bit of explaining. On the one hand worship seems to be about getting away from the world and being with God at least that’s how we traditionally think about it whereas what you’re saying is that it’s also about getting out there in the world and living our lives for Christ. How do we bring those together, what’s the link?

Ryan: It is this tension where God calls us to be separate and different and unique from the world but at the same time He has such a heart for the world that He’s calling us to go and express His love in the world, to be salt and light and so there’s this tension of living in both of those realities, called out and sent to.

Berni: Yeah. So you’re a chiropractor by training, give me a practical example. You lead worship at your Church right?

Ryan: That’s correct.

Berni: When you get up there Mr Chiropractor and you do that what are you hoping to achieve in people’s lives, where are you going with that?

Ryan: Well I believe that God sent me on a journey of becoming a chiropractor so I would understand what it’s like for most people because most people don’t work in a Church.

Berni: Praise God.

Ryan: And to understand what it’s like to have kind of a regular job where you’re doing things outside of the Church or ministry context and for me to learn what it’s like to wrestle with how is God present in this situation. And so when I gather with my Church or with other groups of people to worship God my hope is that as we worship together God is working in us and transforming us and preparing us to go out to be His people to represent Him in the places where He sends us whether it’s our workplace, school, university, in our homes, anything we do, wherever we go that He is present with us.

Berni: Okay so worship isn’t an end in itself, what you’re saying but if so how do we live out that worship beyond the twenty minutes on Sunday where we belt out the songs at the top of our lungs?

Ryan: The author Kevin Navarro says this in his book. He says;

“Worship is the reason for the existence of the Church.”

And so in a way worship is kind of an end to itself but this side of heaven because in heaven mission will finish but worship won’t.

Berni: Say that again.

Ryan: In heaven mission will finish but worship won’t, worship will continue.

Berni: Yeah.

Ryan: Will continue in the presence of God forever.

Berni: Wow that’s a good thought.

Ryan: That doesn’t mean that we will be singing worship songs all the time I don’t think but that may be a part of it, who knows what heaven will be like completely, we only get glimpses of it in God’s Word but worship will continue for eternity as our eternal vocation.

Berni: And there are some big grand descriptions of what worship looks like before God in heaven particularly the Book of Revelation.

Ryan: Absolutely. We do get some glimpses of just the adoration and the amazing presence of God and we see in the songs of Revelation little glimpses of creation worshipping God and people worshipping God for what Jesus has done, it’s incredible.

Berni: Yeah. It’s interesting, I remember when I was an IT consultant, like you I have a work background aside from full time ministry and I’d be sitting in a difficult meeting with a client, you know, with million dollar paintings hanging on the wall in the boardroom and that sort of stuff and it’s tough and brutal and just this sense of the presence of God in the middle of that, just this sense that while all this conflict was going on around me I could turn to God and just speak to Him and sense His presence is there. It’s kind of worship isn’t it?

Ryan: It is. A mentor of mine encouraged me a while ago that the presence of God is only a breath away and I just love that because sometimes I just forget that God is around, that He’s near to me, that He’s in every circumstance, so sometimes now I just take a deep breath and it just gives me the space to remember that God is near you and I can trust Him and His Spirit is at work and I just need to be aware of it.

Berni: 1 Peter chapter 2 verses 9 and 10 says;

“You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, Gods own people in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light. Once you were not a people but now you are Gods people. Once you had not received mercy but now you have received mercy.”

I hear something like that, what God is saying about you and me because of what Jesus did for us and I just want to start singing, I just want to start praising God because of the awesome things He’s done for you and me.

Ryan: Completely understand that.

Berni: I won’t sing people, I won’t otherwise you’ll want to switch off. You know the sentiment that I’m expressing?

Ryan: It is incredible, what we’ve received through Jesus, that we are actually called His people and we have a significant role to play and it’s Gods desire that all people will declare His praise not just you and me Berni but all people and so we see in this passage such a clear connection between worship and mission because we’re not just to keep the worship to ourselves but we want to see worship, by Gods grace, overflow throughout the whole world that all people might declare His praise.

Berni: Beautiful. Now Ryan we’ve almost finished out time together this week on the program, I just want to play my favourite track from your latest worship album The Sending, it’s called How Great Is The Love. Let’s just have a listen to a part of this and how beautiful it is.

“How great is the love. How great is the love that you have poured out for us, poured out for us. For all that you’ve done hear our praises. Jesus, Saviour, no one greater. There is nothing like your love. How great is the love.”

Berni: Hey that is really awesome, it’s that whole idea of how great God’s love for us in the person of Jesus Christ is that makes us want to reach out to God through worship.

Ryan: Yeah, He has called us His children, it’s amazing, like we read in that 1 Peter passage that we’re a chosen people, that we could be called the children of God gives us an identity from which we are sent out, we’re sent to live like Jesus because He’s called us His children.

Berni: Ryan it’s been great to have you on the program this week. I just want to finish up with this observation.

So many people are struggling with so many issues in their lives and we think we have to run around and fix this and fix that and the more we run around and the harder we work at running around trying to fix this and that the more we realise that we’re getting exhausted and we don’t have what it takes to fix it and yet the closer we draw to God in worship the more He reveals Himself to us the more our heart is filled with the Holy Spirit the more we discover the power that God always wanted to give us so we could go and do what He called us to do and be who He made