lead to some interesting conversations . One was titled “ Holiness vs Helpfulness ”. Tell us about this new effort ?
[ Matt ] I had it in my heart to record a podcast for a while because there were certain things about worship and worship music in 2021 that I really felt it timely to have some conversations about . So it was a wonderful blessing to be living near my friend , Jeremy Riddle . And we were having some coffee shop conversations around worship , and I realized this could turn into a podcast . And it didn ' t hurt with the fact that there was some alliteration , and we can have the title ‘ Redman & Riddle ’, ha !
But actually , I couldn ' t imagine anyone else more qualified . Jeremy has such a heart to see pure worship happen in the worldwide church . And I think really in this series of podcasts ; we ' re asking the question what does Kingdom of God worship look like in 2021 ? In other words , when you take the values of the Kingdom of God , how do you express them in a relevant , powerful , biblical , meaningful way in 2021 ? Because , we can ' t just take our cues from the world . We can ' t just take our cues from the culture around us . We veer off-course strongly when we do that . We have to take our cues from scripture and from the throne room that we see portrayed in scripture . So we ’ re trying do that on this podcast . We don ' t have all the answers , but we ' re just trying to throw some fuel on the fire of this conversation .
The first episode is entitled “ Entertainment vs Encounter ”. It ' s asking the question as worship leaders , are we performers , or are we priests ? Another one you mentioned “ Holiness vs Helpfulness ”. That ' s all about praising God for the sheer worth of who He is even before we come into the equation . We might need songs where we don ' t even get mentioned in the song . They ' re all about Him and His glory . We praise
Him for His holiness , not just His helpfulness . We praise Him for the fact that He is God and worthy beyond all of our imaginations - and don ’ t just praise Him for the things that He can do for us . Sometimes we can get stuck at praising God just for the aspects of His nature and character that benefits our lives directly . We have to take a step back and realize there ' s a bigger picture .
And we go into some other themes , “ Dependence vs Experience ”, “ Immanence vs Transcendence ” and a few other subjects , too .
[ WM ] You are the keynote speaker at the upcoming Songwriting Academy in August . When you address the group of songwriters that Azusa Pacific University will have there , what do you intend to talk to them about ?
[ Matt ] To be honest , we may well dive into some of the themes I mentioned when I talked