Kurtis Parks – Humility is a lost art.

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Kurtis Parks is the Worship Pastor at Destination Church in…

“Humility is a lost art.” – Kurtis Parks – #Truth. When building a worship team there can be nothing more important than the condition of the heart of those who serve on your team.

John 4:23–24

“The hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

Those words were spoken by Jesus to the woman at the well in John and still resonate today. The hour is now here and Jesus is saying that there is a delineation between worshippers and “true” worshippers. Is your heart as a Worship Leader focused on God’s spirit working through your spirit and bringing truth to bear in your own life? Are you then speaking truth from your platform?

Kurtis Parks is a prolific songwriter having written over 1200 songs and leading worship since the age of 13. He recently founded and lead Bridges Nashville, but now God has called him back to writing songs and leading worship. He appeared in the 4th season of American Idol, has shared the stage with many well-known artists, and served alongside Mark Batterson in Washington DC at the National Community Church.

In this Worship Sound Bite he gives some insight into what he looks for in a team member.

More Team Building Tips Here

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Transcription

You know, humility is a lost art today. I mean, I had a dream the other night, since I was a teenager, I’ve asked God every night before I go to bed, I said, give me the dreams, prophetic dreams, speak to me in my dreams, teach me things and cause I’m sleeping, I can’t talk back. So isn’t that the greatest time for God to work when you can’t talk back?

And so I had a dream the other night and it was right after the Grammy’s happened. Okay. Maybe that was coincidence, I don’t know. But I just had this dream that there were all these people on stage and they were like, look at me, look at me. And it was Christian artists and it was Christian music. You can’t point to Jesus.

If you’re tapping your own chest and saying, look at me, and that’s not what we’re called to do as worship leaders and worship team members and so I think humility attracts the presence of God, right? You ask, why did the angels show up to the shepherds before anybody else? It was the most humble people group at the time.

And so God was like, these guys will listen to me and they’re going to know where Bethlehem, the Savior is not going to listen. So I think, I think humility, you got to look for that. Cause talent is easy. Right? Talent’s pretty easy to spot. Hey, I’m going to have you audition, play, play this, sing this, listen to the harmony and listen to the right notes. Talent is kind of easy to spot, but humility will always show itself eventually, or the opposite pride will.

Right. And so I look for humility. I look for authenticity. I want to know. You’re not just looking for a spot on the team to get onstage, to be seen, but you’re looking for a community that you can grow with. Like, I mean, we call people that are in the production booth, just as much as the worship team. Cause that’s how they worship through the soundboard or through running lights or ProPresenter.

And so it can’t just be about the onstage spot, but what we look for is that authentic I want to serve God with blank. Or I want, you know, I want to know God more through serving in this capacity. So authenticity and humility are key.

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Kurtis Parks

Kurtis Parks is the Worship Pastor at Destination Church in Hopewell, VA. There he leads up the team and songwriting with Destination Worship. Kurtis is a church planter, music producer, a two time author, and has written over 1200 songs. From 2010-2017, he was the worship director at National Community Church, a multi-site church led by Pastor and NY Times best-selling author Mark Batterson in the Washington DC area. He founded NCC Worship, the music team made up of nearly 150 singers and musicians, signed with Integrity Music. Some may recognize him as a top 50 finalist on American Idol’s fourth season. Kurtis has also appeared on the Fox Morning Show, BET’s Bobby Jones Gospel Hour, and his song “Forever Changed”, written for his beloved Virginia Tech community after the April 2007 tragedy was featured on NBC News and CNN. He was also a VH1 “Song of the Year” finalist with his song “Everything That You Are.” His song “Burn it All Down” hit Billboard’s Hot Gospel top 20, written with Joel Buckner, fellow worship leader. Parks was one of the featured worship leaders and writers on “ONE a Worship Collective”, which hit #1 on Soundscan in it’s first week! Many of his worship choruses are being sung around the world in churches every weekend. Kurtis is the author of two books for worship teams and leaders - “Sound Check” (released with David C Cook) and most recently “Worshipology” (released with Core Media). He is also the host of the weekly podcast Worshipology, featuring interviews with pastors, songwriters and worship leaders. His heart is to equip worship leaders and pastors everywhere. Kurtis is married to Sarah, and they live in the DC area with their two kids, Norah and Moses, and their three-legged dog Lilah.