Growing up, I loved worship and music. In the ninth grade, I bought a guitar so that I could create my own sound, my own worship for God, and not just sing along with someone’s CD. Although I tried (unsuccessfully) to lead worship a couple times my senior year, I didn’t really have any aspirations to be the next Chris Tomlin or Hillsong United. However during my DTS, God spoke clearly to me through my school leader that He was calling me to be a worship leader, which set me on a journey that would change my life.
A year later, I did our School of Worship (SOW) here at YWAM Tyler, and God laid in me a foundation of worship and His goodness. I discovered different aspects of my personality and giftings, and I obtained practical tools for worship leading that I would build on for the years to come.
This September marks my ten year anniversary at YWAM Tyler, and my passion and calling for worship has grown and become clearer over the last decade. First and foremost, I love worship and leading it because the purpose of worship is to honor and love Yahweh. He is so worthy because of His goodness, His great kindness, His mighty power, and I could go on. But I also love leading worship because I long to take people deeper into the presence of God where they experience intimacy with Him and receive revelation of who He is, and in turn, who they are as well. I love seeing the restoration that happens when God uses me to lift people’s eyes and hearts to Him and to encounter the Holy Spirit as He moves in the room. Yes, God is worthy of worship just because He is, but it’s also amazing to see how life-changing worship can be!
For the last eight years, I have had the chance to work with seven SOW's here in Tyler and three in Germany as our YWAM Tyler team pioneered the school there in Herrnhut. I have had the joy of seeing our students go through the same processes that I went through: encountering God and receiving revelation of who He is, experiencing great personal freedom in their lives, growing in the depth of their worship and their leadership skills, and discovering the calling and destiny that God has on their lives.
With another SOW having just started this Fall, I expect God to do it again because He can’t help Himself. He can’t help but to encounter and reveal Himself to those who seek Him. He can’t help but to redeem, transform, and lead those who surrender their lives to Him. He can’t help but to be faithful. And this is one - just one - of the many reasons why I love to worship Him.
~ Dennis
Find out when the next School of Worship (SOW) begins and how you can discover your calling and destiny.