Joshua Swanson Welcome to The Walk; a devotionals podcast for worshippers.
In this episode, Jaime Jamgochian, who’s a songwriter worship leader, and artist, tells her story of coming to faith.
Here we go.
Jaime Jamgochian: It is so great to be here today with you guys. Um, I’ve been looking forward to this time together, honestly, because worship and worship music played such a significant role in my life. When I was 21, I was studying jazz piano at Berkeley, and it was the first time I was introduced to what we now call worship music.
Growing up in Boston, we didn’t have the Christian radio stations or the churches with their hands raised that I knew of or anything like that. I had visited a few churches and would call myself maybe a churchgoer. But was not yet a follower of Christ.
And um, I’ll try to keep this short, but it was through a classmate who was so on fire for the Lord and she gave me a cassette tape, so I’m dating myself, but it had one song on it, Shout to the Lord, that she bootlegged because this was a long time ago when we thought it was okay to do that. And um, I was just, A season of life that maybe some of you are in, when, who listened to this podcast. I was broken. I was discouraged, I was a little lost. And, um, looking for truth searching and I can remember she said, “you have to listen to this song. I know you’re gonna love it.”
And I turned it on. And I remember hearing Darlene Zschech for the first time I had ever heard worship music. Um, she’s saying “nothing compares to the promise I have in you.” And I wanted to know who this “you” was. Jesus. I wanted to know what I felt when I listened to this music versus my, gosh, back then, Debbie Gibson, Gloria Estefan, whoever would’ve been the pop star of the day, dating myself again, but I felt something different. I now know I felt the Spirit of God. I felt the anointing, the presence of the Lord literally come into my room, a little dorm room that day as a 21 year old, girl into music searching. And I, I think that’s what I, where I wanna land today is the power and the presence of God.
The worship is the vehicle, but it’s his presence that changes us. As a worship leader now, as we get into his presence, then what does it say? The joy of the Lord comes peace in his presence comes; clarity, direction, just giving him honor. Giving him glory. But back then I wouldn’t have known any of that.
So worship to me is coming to know the person of Jesus more and coming back to him more. And I think now, 25 plus years later, sometimes I get grieved um, and I’m guilty of this too, when our worship become all about us or you know, me, me, me.
And I’m like, we just need to bring it back to you, Lord. And um, just the authenticity I felt that morning listening to Shout to the Lord for the first time. Um, I just feel like God’s calling us back to that place of simplicity and true heart. I call it heart worship, one-on-one worship, my Jesus time, whatever you wanna call it, but just coming back to him and that place of truth and authenticity in spirit and in truth, I believe is what he is asking each one of us for.
So bit of my story is, I come to know the Lord through that song, which is kind of crazy. I went back to the classmate and said, I need to know about this Jesus, the Shout to the Lord, and she ends up leading me to the Lord, giving me my first Bible. Yeah, and I could not get enough of who God was and found a local church in Boston and did experience what corporate worship then looked like and could not get enough of that.
Just being in God’s presence and being around other like-minded, um, believers and growing and just all I wanted was more truth. And now that led me to Seattle, Washington, where I got to be part of a beautiful movement at a, great church out there, which led me to Nashville and all the music stuff um, the Lord has so graciously opened up these last 20 years.
But I think today my heart just wants to get back to the basics, back to simplicity, back to why we worship, who we worship, and, um, spending time with him this morning as you listen.
So something I feel like the Lord has really been stretching me with and putting on my heart, um, that does go back to my testimony, is just going back to the basics. No more striving, no more trying to figure things out. Literally, when you first meet the Lord, there’s such a place of raw surrender, raw trust.
Um, I can remember just being like, oh, Jesus says to do that in the Bible, I’m gonna do that. Oh, he doesn’t want me to do that. I’m not gonna do that. It’s just that beautiful, uh, I called it like blind obedience. I didn’t even know, but if, but if God said it in his word, I would do it. And I think sometimes in our walks, uh, five years in, 10 years, in 20 years, in 25 years in, we can start to complicate things and we can start to almost think that we need to conjure up things or make things happen.
And I know with Jesus, um, the most beautiful times I have with him is just when I’m alone with my Bible, my journal, my keyboard and I’m just pouring my heart out to him with my own words, my own song, whatever he’s putting on my heart that morning.
And recently, God has been taking me to the book of Proverbs. It’s Proverbs 31:25, and it says, “She is clothed with strength and dignity and she laughs without fear of the future.”
And there is so much anxiety and fear and chaos and confusion as we all know and in, in the atmosphere, in the spiritual realm of our world right now. But when we get back to who God is, who we are in him, our identity in him as a son or a daughter of God, that brings such peace and that brings such confidence even, and my God is in control of all things.
Joshua Swanson: When we come back, Jaime talks more about our need for strength this year, but not just the physical kind, spiritual strength built on a surrendered heart. But first I had a great conversation with Aaron Stewart from Planning Center, who is this episode’s sponsor.
But first I had a great conversation with Aaron Stewart, the Co-founder of the Planning Center and the sponsor of this episode.
Aaron Stewart: We started Planning Center to solve a need in our own church. And we wanted to keep focused on solving things we cared about and that we felt like we had solutions for and at the beginning it was worship teams. As time went on, we saw a lot more areas in the church that could use our help that we gained new passions for. And so we developed products to help people give, to connect the small groups, to register for events to maintain their entire church calendar. And now we’re an entire church management system that can make sure that all of that administration from your church happens in one central place.
Joshua Swanson: Since so many of us use Planning Center to plan out our worship services, I asked Aaron, what are some of the other features that our audience should know about?
Aaron Stewart: Our People Membership Database is especially helpful to make sure that none of the people fall through the cracks, and there are lots of features to make sure that you know what’s happening in your church so that you can prevent that and reach out to people.
The second part is our group’s product, which keeps anybody in small groups or other types of groups, not only connected with each other by being able to have like a chat app on their phone, but also to make sure that they’re connected with the church as well.
Joshua Swanson: And then, finally, I asked them about some of the great stories of people using Planning Center and, and being blessed by it.
Aaron Stewart: The types of stories that I especially love hearing are from people who are bi-vocational. They have a different job and are trying to help out their church in whatever ways they can and being able to use software that they can get on their phone or from their work or from, um, from home that helps them organize the church and helps make sure that they’re following up on the people that they care about at church, um, is one of the things that I love that Planning Center empowers anybody to be able to do.
Joshua Swanson: We’ll put the link in the show notes, but of course you can head over to www.planningcenter.com to check out more. And thanks again, Aaron, for your time.
And also just one more reminder. Head over to songdiscovery.com with your latest music.We want to hear it.
Okay, back to Jamie.
Jaime Jamgochian: He’s been speaking to me about this word strength. and how, how we need to be strengthened in this coming year and so I’ve just been asking him what does that look like? And I feel like he’s taken me back to that 21 year old girl, the basics. Getting back into just a true hunger for his word, not for any other reason of needing a direction or what to do or need to hear from you, God, but just to know him more, to know his truth, to know what he says. Um, when there’s so much your truth being spun around in our, in our world right now, what does God say? What does his word say, his ultimate truth say?
Um, getting back to basic prayer time, not when I’m even necessarily praying for my needs and my family and the things I desire, but asking God, what’s on your heart? What do I need to pray into today? And you know, maybe it’s for my city, maybe it’s for our country, maybe it’s for different things going on in the world. And then of course, you know, personal, private prayers, getting back to the basics of worshipping, to worship Jesus for no other reason.
Not to put a set list together, not to, um, write a new song for a new project. None of that simple one-on-one first, love adoration worship where you just allow the songs and the melodies to come out of your heart to him in such a pure place that I remember, uh, when I was 21, that was just my greatest desire was just to get behind my keyboard and sing to him before I even knew that Nashville had a whole worship music genre.
So I guess this word, strength and bringing us back to basics, to me just comes from a heart posture of God I want more of you. I’ve seen you move mountains. I’ve seen you heal. I’ve seen you deliver. I’ve seen you do really incredible things in my life. Promises come true I never would’ve thought of. Dreams that aren’t there yet, things I’m still waiting on, but coming back to you because he will strengthen us.
Another verse that he’s been really highlighting with this word, strength, um, and not striving is in the book of Psalms. It’s Psalms 84:7. It says this, “they go from strength to strength till each appears before him and Zion.”
And I think we can draw strength from ourselves sometimes, we’re all guilty of it. We can draw strength from getting wisdom from people, even people we look up to that, you know, have more wisdom than us. But I think true strength just comes from settling our hearts down in Christ. Asking God, what do you say? What does your word say about this situation? What do you want me to do? And allowing him to strengthen us spiritually, even mentally, emotionally, and physically.
I felt like when he, um, challenged me, it wasn’t just strength in my spirit. I think for some of us listening, we’re good with like listening to another podcast and you know, getting into the word and, but maybe there are some other areas that he wants to strengthen. I feel challenged even physically to, I’ve had some health challenges, am I taking care of this temple you’ve given me, Lord? And whether that be walking or more water or whatever that might be, or emotionally, am I allowing the Lord, um, he cares about our soul, our mind, our will, our emotions. Am I allowing him to tend to those areas of our lives, um, and to strengthen that area of life as well.
So this concept of God making us strong, nothing else, not our titles, not our positions, not what we do, not our financial bank account, not where we live, not what we’re known for. But we’re known to be strong, strong in the Lord, strong in his word, strong in who he says we are, which is so simple, a son or a daughter of God. And that is where you find your strength.
So let me pray over you today. Lord, I thank you that you are our strength. You’re our shield. You’re our defender. God, you’re everything we need you to. Right in this very moment, whatever your son or your daughter is needing actually comes back to you. And so Jesus, would you help us to just posture our hearts?
Would you take each one of us back to the beginning, back to the basics? Maybe for some it’s not when they were 21 in a dorm room listening to Shout to the Lord, but would you take them back to that place where they first encountered you and your love and your truth and would you strengthen us? God, I’m thinking for those who are weary today, I’m thinking of those who are weary physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.
Would you come in and up-gird them through your word, through prayer, through just getting away with you for no other reason, God, but to spend time with you for the worshippers listening, the worship leaders listening, would you help us just to get away with you and just sing to you, and play to you and worship you for no other reason than to pour out our hearts to you?
Because that’s then when you come and you fill us with your presence of joy and peace and all those things are the added benefits, but it’s really just that time alone with our first love. So would you strengthen people even in that area of getting back to you? Lord, I pray that he or she would be clothed this year with strength and dignity and that we would laugh without fear of the future.
God, for anyone that is fearful today or anxious today or just feels caught up in the chaos of life, I pray they would take a minute just to center themselves with you, to take a few deep breaths and just to come back to who you are and their life. Son, daughter, called anointed set apart, but simply loved by the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. And would you be the one to give us strength today? In Jesus name, amen.
Thank you, Jaime for being a part of our podcast. We’re inspired by your strength and your great leadership. I’m gonna play out this episode with a song that Jaime wrote and performed called Beautiful Story.
As always, special thanks to Matt McCartie for producing and editing today’s episode. Jacob Fairclough produced our theme song. The Walk is brought to you by Worship Leader, which is an Authentic Media brand. I’m Joshua Swanson. Here’s, Beautiful Story.
