ENTER HIS GATES PODCAST

transcript

We get to talk about Enter His Gates and that moment on the album. And that's a really unique one for the album because it's the only one that only has Mark playing on it. And so I want to give some backstory to what this is from. 

So this is a set that happened in our prayer room. but it wasn't a corporate set. So a corporate set is when we have a full band, singers, we're doing corporate worship, we're doing intercession. It's usually a pretty full room of people, but this was a devotional set. And so what we do for a devotional set is it's one hour long and it's usually just one person on an instrument or maybe an instrument and vocals, but really stripped down, really simple, just singing to Jesus. 

And so oftentimes the room is more empty, there might be a couple people in the room, but it really is, the goal of it is just to minister to the heart of God and connect with Him. And so I want us to talk about specifically Enter His Gates and that moment that you had, Mark. But, but first, I thought it would be cool for us to even just talk a little bit about devo sets. We call them devo sets, devotional sets, and how we approach those. 

And so I'd love to hear you guys first talk about how you build a set. So you're coming in and it's just you on keys and vocal or something like that. And how are you coming in going, "I'm going to fill an hour.." How are you building your set? 

Yeah, I think for me, I always have like a passage of scripture that I'm wanting to dig into. It's usually something that I know already, have spent some time in. So you just like Psalm 23 or like Psalm 63, something where I have some history but I get to like dig deeper into it. Yes. And then I'll always bring like one like chorus, bridge or something like that, just to kind of start out the set. And part of that's for me to like get my ear, my ears all set up. And then I think it helps sound too, just to kind of have a baseline of kind of where I'm going to be at. 

And then if there are people in the room, I feel like it maybe helps them have an on ramp too. But yeah, I like to have scripture as kind of the main piece of my set. And I'll just go kind of line by line through, like, oh, the Lord is my Shepherd. And I'm just gonna think of cross references and kind of do like a Bible study, but sing the Bible study. And that's what I like to use scripture for. 

And then it's cool because it doesn't really matter if anyone's in the room or not, because I'm just, you know, going into the mine, you know, we talk about going into the mine and like mining for like truth and mining for like God's character. And it's like, oh, I can get to know You better through this, whether anyone's participating in it with me or not. And there's kind of, I was just, I had this picture of like wading into water and like the mine has water in it and I'm like digging. And that's also like as I'm digging, I'm like getting washed in the Word and like it's renewing my mind. 

So kind of like that's, I usually want to bring a scripture as the main piece of what I do. And then I'll bring that chorus and bridge maybe and kind of weave it throughout of like now I can sing this in a different lens because of that context. I don't know that's kind of how I usually prep for it is like a scripture and then like a chorus and bridge kind of thing. 

Wow come on so good. I'd say for me I'm getting better at being prepared for devotional sets in the term of I have my anchor and all these tags and and not just depending on my gift set 'cause I can sing around stuff forever but having an anchor and having a plan is paramount because if you don't need it, you don't need it but if you need it, you need it. If you're running out and you're on Matthew 4 and you've sung, man does not live by bread alone for the 50th time and you're running out of cross references it helps to have a set list. 

And so I'll make sure that the scripture is something that I'm familiar with to cross reference. And I've got all these different places I could go, but in a key that I could play in my sleep and never really neglecting like the four or the five as that's where I can, those are like easy places to mine and not get in my head. and start to feel things out with the Lord. But yeah, that's how I've generally gotten better at preparing for devotional sets. 

I love that. I also think we, I think all of us do this, but we all bring a scripture in. It's like every devo set is structured around a scripture. That's not like one of us does that. It's like that's kind of our format. We all do that. Yeah. And I think for me, it basically everything that I do in a devo set is coming out of like the secret place. It's like, I've sat in my basement and played with all of my pedals and created different sounds and create just like created with Him. And then the devo sets are kind of like an extension of that. Yes. Come on. Yeah. That's kind of how I approach them. 

Yeah, I want to just hear it. Let's just talk about Enter His Gates. I think just tell us whatever you want to tell us about it. How did you come into it? What was your scripture? What was kind of your lens coming in? How did you experience that hour? - 

Yeah, so I was pretty nervous for this one. I don't know really know why. I don't often and I'm not always nervous, but I was just kind of feeling it. Probably feeling some like I don't know if I should be up here. I don't know if like this is what I'm supposed to be doing or like if I'm good enough to be here to minister to Him. But it was yeah, I was on Psalm 100 for that night and I often I'll start myself sets out. I'll just start kind of playing something repetitive. And then I'm just reading the scripture. 

And then I like read it four or five times. And then I'm just asking Holy Spirit, it's like, hey, what are You highlighting here that I'm supposed to then articulate musically? And I just felt for this set, it was the trying to remember. Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and then make a joyful noise unto the Lord. It's like a couple of phrases that's within that Psalm. And then I just got a picture of like actually entering His gates and like, okay, what is the angel? What is like the angelic sound like? And then that's like, if you listen to the track, it's like that some of that like really high, fluttery, like random things is what I was picturing when I was playing those things. And then it's basically just like a going on a journey of exploring that musically. 

Yes. Wow. Come on. Do you have any notes on like effects you were using or any of that? 

Most of what I was doing is coming from a pedal called the hologram microcosm. Tell us more. Yeah, it basically it just it's doing all that top-end like fluttery stuff it's like really random and there's like a lot of depth to it. And this is all on bass, yeah, this so we haven't even talked about that. Yeah so this is all from base, very a lot of sounds you're gonna hear on this track are not common to a bass player. And I know that. But I love gear and it inspires me and it challenges me in like new ways of exploring Him. And it's like that's why I Have invested so much into gear is because it's so inspiring and it's like new ways of hearing Him. And new tools to articulate what I feel like He's doing or saying. 

Wow. Whoa. Yeah, so sorry, I don't remember your question. I think you answered it. I mean, I'm just thinking about how we were even trying to figure out what part of the set to grab and it was like, we want the whole hour to be on the album. I mean, it just, to be able to just soak in this. I think um the way that you you expressed entering His gates was just so beautiful. And so I'm excited for people to be able to encounter Him through that. 

I want to close with one other question as it relates to devotional sets. Much of the time, a devotional set is in like an empty room. So it's like you're in the prayer room and maybe there's no one else there except you doing this set for an hour. How, what motivates you to do a set for an hour and like take time out of your schedule, plan a set and then sit in a room that no one else is in and sing to Him for an hour. I would love for you guys to like open your heart and share like what drives you to even do something, I think, something like that, because I think it could look like a waste of time. 

Yeah I there’s like a, I want to say discipline to it of, if I'm at home and I sit down at my keyboard and I'm like, "Oh, I'm going to sit and play for an hour and just minister to the Lord." It's really easy to like, "Oh, it's been 30 minutes, and I just thought of something I need to do. I'm going to get up and go like do that thing”. And like, unless you're really intentional with it, it's, it can be really difficult to spend a whole hour, at least it's for me. 

But if I'm in a room where this is a scheduled time and this is like my, not my job, but like this is my duty right now to, to minister to Him and this is like, I've signed up for this and this is like part of, you know, my service and what I'm giving, there's an accountability to it. And then there's a clarity, I think, to it as well of like, this is normally where I run out of things to say and I actually want to have more things to say, Lord. And so there's like, and then I have to dig deeper. So I think it's like, I selfishly really like it for me because I think it forces me to grow in like well what more is there to explore with you Lord and I kind of have to dig into that I think. But I think it's also significant just to give Him I mean it's like yeah I can do it at home and I can do it in this room and it's like significant to like give Him this offering yeah. 

I would say spending time with Him is never a waste. Come on, yes. It's like you can't waste enough time spending and being with Him and learning about Him and exploring with Him. It's like yeah it's, I've walked away from almost every one of my sets so like refreshed it's like, oh I just got like an hour with Him of dedicated time of just like man yeah soaking in one scripture scripture, and it's like letting it soak into every piece of you. And you're like forced to slow down. You're forced to just like take a breath and acknowledge Him in a different way than I think we are even sometimes at home. It's like, yeah, it's, I don't know, I think they're super, super valuable. 

Yeah. Yes. I agree. I always think empty rooms are the great exposer and the great purifier of motive. Exactly. And when you look at, it's such a motive check to go into an empty room and go, I've prepped this. Who did I prep this for? Did I prep this for a man or did I prep this for Him? Yes. And it's that healthy gut check as a worship leader and musician to go, I'm in this for You. And I go, man, I don't, wherever, whatever worship leader that you could think of is, you know, has all this fame or notoriety or whatever it is, it's like to never outgrow the empty room. Yes. Yeah. And the great reminder of who this is unto, who it's from and who it's back to. 

And I just think the gift that an empty room is to the soul as we minister to Him. Because that's what we're saying, right? It's like every, you know, whether it's a Sunday or if it's prayer room or whatever, anytime we're worshiping corporately that we're going, "This is unto Him. This isn’t for man, this is for the Lord. We're ministering to His heart”, but then the rubber meets the road when you walk out on platform and no one else is there. 

And was it a waste of your time, or is it your greatest honor to minister before Him, when no one else is ministered to by your ministry to Him? And so I just, I'm so grateful for the empty room and just watching the way that you guys steward these devotional sets is amazing.