Podcasts / Devotionals

Editing Yourself | Ep 229

February 9, 2021

Taking a Step Back

Branon Dempsey / Message me: branon@worshipteamtraining.com

Guest: Rich Kirkpatrick
Author, Musician. Rich Kirkpatrick was recently rated #13 of the “Top 75 Religion Bloggers” by Newsmax.com, having also received recognition by Worship Leader Magazine as “Editor’s Choice” for the “Best of the Best” of blogs in 2011, 2014, 2015 and 2016. He is the author of, The Six Hats of the Worship Leader, building into the life of church ministry through consulting, coaching, and speaking. Rich is a ministry veteran, serving in roles from worship leadership, communications, to executive teams. Currently, Rich writes for his blog RKblog.com, Sharefaith.com, and several other sites and publications. He teaches across the country for the National Worship Leader Conferences. As a musician, Rich is a songwriter and recording artist, currently with the group A Beautiful Liturgy while employed as a local church musician.

Watch the Recent Video Thursday Episode with Rich!

EXTRA READ
"There’s a difference between self-expression and being selfish."
How do we creatives and leaders balance our tendency to focus on ourselves? The best songs written seem to sing for me things I couldn’t express with my own words. As an artist, we value our self-expression for this reason. This is not always due to selfishness, however. It has been proven in research that expressing our trauma is healing. This is the creative artist’s pattern: Use the pain in your life to honestly feel your humanity, which in turn is our gift. Yes, our gift is for those that enjoy our songs, our paintings, or our words, to feel their humanity as well. For this reason, self-expression is not selfish. 

Express yourself! In fact, being self-serving is not being selfish at all. Standing up and expressing your emotion should not invite others to heap judgme
ear a mask misses the mark. You see, selfishness is delusional. It is dishonest. It hyperbolically exaggerates our presumed victimhood in order to gain attention. The lie is that attention heals us when, in reality, creating something does. Real art makes something. Selfish art destroys something. Why? It’s based on a lie.

There’s a fine line between self-expression and selfishness.

So, while we appreciate the creativity of the man in face paint wearing animal pelts “protesting” at the U.S. Capitol this past week, we see vapid selfishness at work. Destruction is the prooftext of selfish behavior. It destroys property, relationships, and even potentially…democracies. 

Artists protest by creating from the honest, truthful, and dark corners of ourselves and society. Something new. Something true. Something from me, but bigger than me. We heal, even when we disrupt and offend. In fact, offending people is the pastime of great artists. We have a voice, in other words. With that voice, we must also have ethics. There is a fine line drawn here: will we create out of truth or destroy out of selfishness.

- Rich Kirkpatrick, Excerpt Blog Post "Wear A Mask" Read More Posts by Rich


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    Author Bio

    Branon Dempsey

    Branon Dempsey is the founder and CEO of Worship Team Training and Worship Team Training University WTTU.co He has over twenty years of leading worship and teaching worship theology, music and songwriting for churches ranging from 500 to 5,000 members. He has had the opportunity to train and study worship at Maranatha! Music as well as some of the most well-known churches in the country, including Coast Hills Church, and Saddleback Church, where Rick Warren is pastor. Branon Dempsey holds an M.Div in Worship Theology and Worship Arts, along with a Bachelors of Music in Composition and Performance, along with an emphasis in worship leader training by Maranatha and Integrity Music. Branon is a devotional writer for Bible.com Youversion and selling author / teacher with Faithlife (Logos Bibles) for worship teaching and training material. WTTU exists to help individuals understand their personality, their learning style and their spiritual maturity, which, in turn, helps the individuals sharpen their quality development and gain the needed confidence to reach the upward call of God in Christ Jesus Ephesians 2:10 and Philippians 3:14. Follow Branon: @BranonDempsey @worshiptt

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