Worship Musician Magazine September 2020 | Page 51

Editor’s Comment: Chad was the youth pastor
at a church I attended here in Puyallup, WA.
When the senior pastor was on vacation I
would look forward to it hearing Chad take his
turn on the platform. He would always deliver
something great. He’s got a new book called
Help! I Work with People, and I do the same,
I work with people - so I need to hear about
this. What I also like about Chad is, one day
he called me up and said, “Bruce, I’m thinking
about learning guitar.” Now, he’s a man of
vision, he wasn’t just going to get an acoustic
guitar, or an electric guitar, he said, “I’m looking
for a black Les Paul!” Remembering that is
where this interview starts…
[WM] Chad, did you ever start playing guitar?
[Chad Veach] You know, I was going to learn
it, and then I just realized all these kids in our
youth group were just ten times better, so I just
let them go and I stuck to the keys.
[WM] You’re the founding pastor of Zoe
Church there in Los Angeles, tell us about that?
[Chad] Yeah, we moved from Puyallup down
to Los Angeles and started a church, and we
are turning five years old. In five years we’ve
seen a ton of amazing things happen and a lot
of people come to Jesus. We’re just enjoying life
here in LA, and it’s been a thrill ride adventure.
[WM] How has it been through the virus?
[Chad] Yeah, it’s been kind of wild, especially
in the beginning of the virus people really turned
to faith. We saw a lot of amazing things happen
in the beginning of Coronavirus, and everyone
is just trying to do as good of a job as they can.
[WM] In the opening chapter of your book
Help! I Work with People you say that, “we are
actually the protagonist in the story of our lives”.
Explain to us what you mean by that?
[Chad] I think that, to the best of our ability, we
have to do a great job at letting all of the energy
flow out of us. At the end of the day one of my
favorite lines is, “My spirit is my responsibility.”
So I’ve first got to learn to lead myself, I’ve got
to address all of my wounds, all of my post
traumatic stress, any abuse and anything I’ve
gone through, because ministry and life flows
our of me first. So I think it’s important that we
look at the man in the mirror. One of my favorite
songs, John Mayer’s “Waiting on the World to
Change”, while the world is waiting on us to
change. So I think we’ve got to do a great job,
especially in this era, to look in the mirror and
go, what’s going on with me? Am I good, am I
healthy? Do I have my life right? Because when
I’m healthy life is really easy. But if my soul and
my life are not right, life gets really hard.
[WM] Under the heading “Love Yourself, Lead
Yourself” you say that you have to separate
your worth as a person from your function as
a leader and that Shame and Fame lose their
power when they are detached from our worth.
Can you expound on that for us?
[Chad] The problem is that if we read our
press clippings and we drink the Kool-Aid of
fame and success, you’re going to live and die
by the opinions of others. The thing I love about
the gospel is that my worth is out of my birth.
This means that I don’t get my worth based on
my achievements or my righteousness or how
good or bad I’m doing, the Son of God - He
loves me. So I have to live from acceptance,
not for acceptance, and that’s pivotal because
that determines the presence of my life.
And we’ve been around those people, (Bruce)
September 2020
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