At Elim worship we are planning various interviews with people involved in worship around the world. The first one is with Aaron Keyes. - Aaron is involved in worship in America at Grace Fellowship Church (outside Atlanta, GA). Kingsway music have recently released "Not Guilty Anymore" How did you start getting involved in musical worship?
It was by accident! I grew up playing piano, and picked up the guitar in college, but never meant to do anything musically at all. I was serving for a summer camp in California as a counselor, river guide, and wilderness coach when halfway through the summer the worship leader at the camp left! We had nobody to lead that very night, and everybody made me do it because I happened to play piano. I didn't even sing!
I got up and struggled all the way through it; I'm sure it was just awful. But God spoke to me and led me to walk down this path. 12 years later, I'm still trying to walk it well.
Tell us about your album, “Not Guilty Anymore” the heartbeat behind it and what you hope it will achieve?
I grew up in a legalistic environment: fundamentalist family, Independent Baptist church, small Christian school, and on top of all that, a pastor's kid. I never realized it until a few years ago, but guilt and shame had become a large part of my life experience. I'd really lay on the guilt when my kids would disobey or make a mistake, and finally I thought, "What is this? Why do I do this?" It led to a season of reflection, counsel, and prayer, and I'm still growing, but the Grace of God finally broke through in my life. I finally realized that He's not only acquitted me, He's accepted me. It's more than just pardon, it's adoption. I've no reason to live in condemnation anymore, because there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
I hope that anyone who hears this album (and particularly the Title track) will hear the merciful voice of God speaking life, love, and freedom, and anyone living under the weight of guilt and/or shame can be freed by the grace of God.
Your song “Psalm 62” is a popular song. Can you tell us how you wrote this song and the inspiration behind it?
I had the honor of connecting with Stuart Townend a few years ago. I'd long respected him as a writer and worship leader, and he was gracious enough to have me into his home a few times while I was in the UK. We sat down in his living room one day and came up with the melody to the verse of the song, and at first all we had was a melody.
We began talking about what we wanted the melody to be about, and we'd both recently been meditating in Psalm 62. Stuart shared some of what He'd learned, and I sent him all of my notes from my journal, and then the verses were sort of formed.
The chorus came last, and I don't remember where the idea came to put the ancient hymn in as a bridge, but it just felt right, especially as it echoed the sentiment of the chorus.
We ended up sending a few different versions of the song back and forth over emails, until we finally landed on where it is to this day!
I guess the driving messages behind the song would be about resting in God alone, delighting in his presence, trusting his faithfulness, and celebrating his victory over sin and death.
What new songs apart from your own are using at the moment?
I'm loving "Forever Reign" by Reuben Morgan right now. Also "Our God" by Chris Tomlin. Love some of Rick Pino's songs like "We Prepare the Way" and "My Romance." Chris McClarney has a new song I love called "Who is this Amazing Love," also.
How do you approach putting together a Song List for an event or on a sunday morning?
My philosophy is that “the service is the message.” I want every song to contribute to what God’s doing in our midst. From the first note strummed to the closing word of the benediction, I hope to lead our congregation down a logical, conscious thought process. This can involve music, videos, communion or baptism, a sermon, an offering, prayer, etc. My hope is that the entire ‘liturgy’ would be congruent and fluid, having focus and solidarity.
The first thing I do is talk to my pastor about how he hopes to see God move in our time together and what sort of message he’s going to be teaching. If he’s teaching on Lamentations, I don’t want to plan a worship set that talks about how good God is and how great our lives are. Better to worship God through lament. Conversely, if he’s teaching on gratitude, I don’t to plan a worship set about confession or mercy. So, the first thing I try to do is get in stride with my pastor, and ultimately, the Holy Spirit.
From there I pray and brainstorm for several hours about any songs that might fit well with what the morning is going to be crafted around. I ask the Lord to guide me to the songs He’d like to hear, as well as to get me on board with how He’ll be speaking and moving in our midst. So a while ago my pastor taught on the Great Commission, so I searched through all the songs I’ve charted out and all my iTunes library for songs about the nations, salvation, or the glory of God going into all the world to get a list of 10-20 songs that could fit.
The next thing I do is consult the Church Calendar. I like to look through the Lectionary, to identify with what Christians worldwide will be using to construct their worship services as well. Oftentimes I’ll find rich direction here. So for instance, in the season of Pentecost, I’ll try to think of songs that would fit well with that, and try to connect them back to the sermon. It was easy connecting the Great Commission with Pentecost. In the worship set then, I’ll try to connect what God’s doing that given day in our local congregation to what God’s doing in congregations worldwide, to remind our congregation that while we’re just a few thousand gathered around Atlanta, there are thousands upon thousands gathered all over the world for the same reason that we are. It puts a much bigger perspective on our entire morning too, which I love.
I then begin to just worship, using these songs as a starting point. I see if any of them fit well together thematically, lyrically, or musically. I end up scrapping most of them, but I try to narrow it down to the five or six songs that fit well together, fit well with the sermon, and work well for the type of band we’re using that week.
As I arrange songs in a loose order, I try to include verses or passages of Scripture that might segue one song to the next. I place a great emphasis on things making sense in the order of worship. It should not be sporadic and arbitrary, but well thought through and cogent. When I talk with my wife, we don’t bounce from one topic to another, with no resolution of anything in between. We naturally go from this thought to the next, then on to the next. I try to structure worship services this way too, not jumpy with all sorts of elements disconnected from one another. In other words, I try to eliminate distractions. If my wife and I are out on a nice date, I don’t want to have distractions between us all night, be they over-zealous young waiters or blaring loud music or having a table located by the front door... I want to be able to just enjoy her, and enjoy our time together. In worship, we’re trying to create environments where people can enjoy God, sans distractions. There’s enough distraction in life already; when we come to worship, it’s nice to be able to just gaze on God.
Musically, there are a few very simple things we can do to help in this. Just arranging our songs in keys that flow together is a huge, but very simple, step. If you’re singing “Here I am to Worship” in E and you want “I Love You Lord” to follow in F, just transpose it down to E. This gets rid of those few moments between songs where your guitarist is moving a capo, your band is getting ready to start the next song, and you’ve got to change keys as well. Then don’t even stop between the two songs. Just make it one seamless thought: “You’re altogether wonderful to me, I love You Lord...” This is very simple, and by just removing a 4 second gap between those two songs you might really help some of us retain our focus (especially those of us who are more prone to ending up on Adirol at some point in our lives!) and remain “lost in wonder, love and praise.”
Ultimately, we do all we can, asking God to guide us, and then we give it God and ask him to take it wherever He pleases. So I hold on to my set-lists pretty loosely. Rarely does a week go by when we actually play everything exactly like I’d planned. Generally, we see how God’s moving, and we try to get in line to move with Him. If that requires tossing a song and inserting another, we’ll do it. Last week, I felt sure we needed to lead a song we’d never rehearsed, so I printed out the chart in the middle of the sermon, handed it
out to the band, and told them to follow me! It was the exact thing that needed to happen. And the band did just fine!
Can you give us one piece of advice for our worship leaders within the Elim movement?
The Word, the Word, the Word! Lead with the Word. It is a lamp to our feet and a light unto our path. To lead without the Word of God is to lead people into darkness. Do everything possible to speak, sing, and exhort the Scriptures over your congregation. His Word never returns void. His word washes us like water. His Word is powerful and effective--my words are not. You cannot go wrong if you simply worship as the Bible prescribes. You almost certainly will go wrong without it. Hide it in your heart, let it be on your lips, and let the Holy Spirit bring back to your remembrance (in public) what He has spoken to you (in private) for the blessing, encouragement, and edification of your people.
About Aaron Keyes
Aaron has served as the worship pastor at Grace Fellowship Church (outside Atlanta, GA) for the past seven years. His heart is to restore the Word of God to the foundation of corporate worship, and to see a shift in the next generation of worship leaders (who lead songs) to becoming more biblically empowered worship pastors (who lead people).
Four months out of the year, Aaron has younger worship pastors living in his home as part of an intensive worship discipleship course, involving daily teaching, mentoring, coaching, and community.
Aaron's band travels internationally, leading worship and coaching worship leaders as the Lord gives opportunity, and Aaron works with Kingsway Music, from the United Kingdom.
Aaron and his wife of 10 years, Megan, have four sons - Cooper, Judah, Nyle, and Linen. Aaron and Megan graduated from Furman University in Greenville, SC, where they were a part of planting CrossRoads Community Church (in Simpsonville, SC) with Aaron's parents, Steve and Becky. Aaron led worship at Crossroads for seven years before moving to Grace.
Between church life, traveling, song-writing, discipleship and parenting, Aaron and Megan are loving their lives and excited about their next season of life, love, and music.
checkout Aaron @ www.aaronkeyes.com
