just doing something crazy and something
unique. Something I absolutely adore about
the UPPERROOM, and this is what I tell every
other person that I get to or whoever asks, is
that one of the most valuable things that I’ve
learned from UPPERROOM is that you don’t
necessarily just try to create something within
the church to be captured, but you go about
doing your things and then let the Lord bless it
and capture that.
The UPPERROOM is that story, it was never
doing something to get people, never doing
something to be seen. The UPPERROOM felt
like there was a “Davidic” calling to minister to
people, and that is why it’s a prayer room and
not a church, except for Sundays. Because of
that, by the time the world saw UPPERROOM,
they’d already been doing this for years. Almost
nothing was different, we just hadn’t turned
on YouTube and gotten a great live stream, it
was just something that had been going on
for years and years and had not been public.
Even Michael Miller felt like UPPERROOM
Surrounded
wasn’t even supposed to have a website for
the longest time. It was this longtime hidden
prayer room in Dallas. So, when I came along,
I started the YouTube offerings, and really the
reason I came on is that the pastor felt it was
really time for the UPPERROOM to start being
seen in a sense.
[WM] One of the great songs emanating out
of UPPERROOM is “Surrounded” (This is How
I Fight My Battles), written by Elyssa Smith.
What’s the history behind that song?
[Matt] Because the UPPERROOM is just a
prayer room. There is not a pressure to have to
cram everything in on Sunday services. So, if
you’re involved in a Sunday service or if you’re
a core part of the team at UPPERROOM,
you’re required to serve in the prayer room.
All of these worship leaders and musicians are
serving every week in the prayer room. There
are prayer sets, there are full band sets, and
there are devotional sets with just someone
on piano or acoustic guitar or something like
that. Sometimes there are two people in the
room and sometimes there are hundreds, it
just depends. The reason that’s so important
is because it’s that Davidic calling to worship
and minister to the Lord with what we’re doing
without having to do it the same way every
week on a Sunday or cram in everything in
that way. The reason that’s so important is
because it’s the worship in the secret place,
which I’m calling the prayer room, which is this
worship that can be unstructured. It’s getting
the freedom to just minister to the Lord and see
what happens to your music, not just having to
play certain songs and so certain things. It’s the
ability for all of these people in the room to learn
July 2020
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