WeLuvSanDiego
The Faith, The Fashion, and The Worship
Join us today for fashion tips for the aging male (me not Adam) and also some great talk about keeping Jesus at the Center of our worship.
Join us today for fashion tips for the aging male (me not Adam) and also some great talk about keeping Jesus at the Center of our worship.
Thank you for joining us on we Love San Diego. Our host, ryan McFadden, is one of the most in-demand evangelists today. As an actor who shared the screen with the likes of Robin Williams and Don Johnson and later became part of the MTV Comedy Tour, ryan had his life mapped out in front of him but, through the power of the gospel, god radically changed his life and perspective to go on from being served to serving. Today, ryan and his wife Rose run one of the premier Christian outreach organizations in the country, called we Love San Diego, as they bring church to the people, bringing hope to the hopeless and serving those that society often turns a blind eye towards. Join us today, as Ryan shares a message of hope that we believe will impact your life and inspire you to live the life that God is calling you to live Now. Here's your host of we Love San Diego, ryan McFadden.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you so much for joining us today on we Love San Diego. I'm Ryan McFadden and I pray that this show today blesses your life and that God reveals a truth to you that only he can. Well, I'm really excited. Today I have a special special guest with me. I actually had him on our live show that we did several weeks back, but we wanted to give him more time because he's so elaborate with his words. I don't know if elaborate's the right word, but he's very creative, he's very thoughtful. That's, I think, the phrasing I was looking for in the answers he was giving, and I asked him if he would just be able to come on to this show with us so we can spend more time with him.
Speaker 2:That guy by the name is Adam Rainey and he is the worship pastor of Dream City Church in Phoenix, arizona, which to this day, is still one of the most influential churches in the United States. He also co-wrote the song Jesus at the Center with Israel Houghton, and if you haven't downloaded his newest album, heart Anthem, on Apple Music, I encourage you to do so. It's a fantastic, amazing worship album. So, without any further ado, can we welcome our special guest to the show, adam Rainey. Adam, welcome to we Love San Diego.
Speaker 3:Hey Ryan.
Speaker 2:How are you man? Great to be on the show. I'm doing good, man. Thank you so much for being here and I feel bad. This is how we started, I think, on the live show. I was asking this, but I feel bad because I didn't get you a card, I didn't send a text and I saw a couple weeks ago that Phoenix set the record for the hottest day. Now, not hottest day ever, but it was the hottest day. It was like June 17th, whatever day, it was the hottest like June 17th ever. And, man, congratulations. Like what an accomplishment, yeah.
Speaker 3:Thank you very much.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I did that myself. I went outside and I was like you know I'm, which is unreal because when you think of how long have they been keeping the weather, like knowing what the temperature is and it set the record. It was like the mid-70s here and I'm like, oh my gosh, how are we going to survive this? I don't know how we're going to survive.
Speaker 3:It was 118 degrees, it was what like 40 degrees hotter there than it was here and I'm like, oh my god, I don't know. I don't know how we're gonna do it. But congratulations, yeah, and that's actually odd for june. June kind of sits in the 105s, one 108s, and then kind of cools, maybe a little bit, and then all of a sudden, july is when it gets crazy, but I don't know, june decided to show up and, uh, throw his name in the hat. I guess I don't don't really know. We were all over here, like what's going on?
Speaker 2:I love that you say 105 to 108. Like, oh, that's just mild, like that's just, you know, june gloom. June gloom was only one. Luke told me that. Luke told me that when I was coming out there, before I actually took the position in Glendale, luke was like you know, I can deal with 107. I can even deal with 108., but once we start hitting 109, it's just a little uncomfortable thinking like are you kidding me?
Speaker 3:Like 107, 180 was acting like oh, it's fine. Yeah, those third-degree seatbelt burns are no joke.
Speaker 2:I know, I know. And then here's my other question for you because you're a fashionable, you're someone. When I came to the church, I fought the skinny jeans fad for so long. So I was like there's no way this is going to catch on. No one's going to, no people are not going to be wearing skinny jeans like for a long period of time. So I didn't jump in and I remember I showed up to the church and I saw every. Because Dream City is a fashionable church.
Speaker 2:You have Dream City College, like they're up on the trends and I remember seeing you distinctly and I was like, like they're up on the trends. And I remember seeing you distinctly and I was like I, I don't have those shoes, I don't have those pants, I need to upgrade my, my wardrobe. Here I even got shoes that's similar to what you were wearing. I don't even know what they're called, but I actually and no joke, I actually saw what you're wearing. And here's my question for you have you jumped into the baggy jeans fad? Are you, are you guys there, or are you guys fighting that?
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, no, it's there. It's there, it's uh. Things are nuts joggers, it's, it's, uh, it's, it's um a little bit looser fit, maybe straight leg kind of cuff at the bottom, it just depends. I think there's, it's all over man, there's no one's wearing skinny jeans anymore.
Speaker 2:No one, I mean yeah no, they still are.
Speaker 3:I think what's breaking my heart the most right now is that it wasn't the spirit of the Lord in the house or the worship that captured your attention. It was probably my Chelsea boots. That's what they are their Chelsea boots. Yes, it means I missed the mark.
Speaker 2:No, you showed me. Hey, if you're going to get on board, you need to get on board. And it lit a fire in me. But I say this because I am wearing baggy jeans right now and I feel ridiculous. I'm wearing joggers Okay. I feel like I'm wearing clown pants right now and this is how we used to dress Like 20 years ago. This is how we always, you know.
Speaker 3:Are they like hammer pants or what no?
Speaker 2:no, I was going to say they're not Judah Smith baggy, because this is why everyone loves Judah. Judah can show up to a Sunday service wearing hammer pants and bedroom slippers and no one cares. Everyone's like, yeah, that's Judah, that's Judah. They're not Judah Smith baggy, they're just bad. I just feel ridiculous wearing them. But they've caught on, man. I don't know what I'm going to do a year from now. I'm going to have to upgrade my wardrobe again and try to fit in better.
Speaker 3:Gosh If you're going to move this way, I'll just send you some snapshots and we'll take some pictures and I'll say here you go.
Speaker 2:Could you do that Before you show up? Do that? I'm going to have to go secret. I'm going to sit in the third deck in Phoenix and I'm just going to kind of observe what everyone's doing, and just so I'm ready to go when, when we're back out there, because it's just it's different. It's different than what we're doing here, but no, I can't believe that caught on.
Speaker 2:So all right, now that I've wasted all your time, I said hey, I want you to come on my show so we can spend more time together, and now I've just wasted all of your time on these ridiculous questions. But maybe someone listening to this life has just been blessed by that, and God has spoken to them. He can do incredible things when you—.
Speaker 3:And they've gotten free from skin aging Amen.
Speaker 2:So, here's what I want to talk to you about. We talked about this on the live show a bit, but again, this is a very different audience that's listening to this show here. So there was something that Kim Walker-Smith and I love Kim Walker, she is someone that I've listened to gosh 20 years. I mean. She has just been phenomenal and she said something gosh maybe about six to eight weeks ago that really resonated with me, where she was talking about the industry, meaning the Christian music industry, and how it's really crept into the Sunday worship and, in essence, like muddied the waters, like it started to creep into something that was sacred and really kind of messed that up a bit in her words. Now, is that something that you agree with, disagree with? Is this something that you've noticed? Like? What are your thoughts on that topic specifically?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think she's very spot on. I feel like what I've noticed over the last even decade, maybe even a little bit longer, I mean, and I'll talk from a real surface value, initially, god's the creator of music, which means he's a creative God, which means that the Holy Spirit lives within us, which he does, and we have the ability to be creative from heaven's voice directly to us. And I remember it's probably, yeah, 15, 20 years ago is when it started, and then probably I started to notice a whole lot more 15 to 10 years ago, where bands would start to take sex, their artists, musical movements and risks and stuff like that and implement them in worship songs. So like, oh, we can do, we could do that Michael Jackson, lick right here. Or we can do that Prince, lick right here. Or we can do this, luther, or we could do you know this, um, whatever like right, you know uh earth, wind and fire.
Speaker 3:Or or take this, just Justin Bieber, you know, shot right here, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And to be not to say holier than thou, definitely not not saying that it used to irk me I would be like why are we doing that?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Like why are we doing that? Why do we find the need, when there might be somebody that's in church that is looking to? They're looking for something different than what they're used to. And I'm all about being creative, being musical. I am about pulling inspiration, you know, because, again, god is the God of all creativity in those things. And so when somebody is choosing to use it for their own selfish gain or for the things of the world, right, the Bible says gifts and callings are without repentance. So if he's given you the gift of being creative, then that's why those artists and section of music is so powerful is that the enemy knows how to tweak it.
Speaker 3:What I'm saying is, along with what Kim was saying about the sacred, is that we have started to bring in this spirit, this mindset that it has to sound like the world, it has to look like the world, it has to emulate the world.
Speaker 3:And I think, on one hand, the world gets something done very accurately, and that is excellence. Right, the world tries to focus on excellence. Well, and the church should too. But I think when we start trying to act like, sound like, look like, emulate you, when we're trying to be imitators of the world, when the gospel tells us to be imitators of Christ, then I think that's what we're running into is that worship is a sacred, holy thing and it's the house of the Lord. It's God's house and when we start muddying the waters, like you said, we start muddying the waters when we start pulling in things that don't glorify the Lord. We start pulling in things that don't glorify the Lord, like imagine you're pulling a musical lick or a line or something from a song that just is borderline anti-God and, for the sake of being creative and musical, we think it's cool.
Speaker 3:You see what I'm saying, as opposed to going like, I don't have a problem with saying, hey, there's this musical movement in this one song. I don't want to do it, but I do like the musicality of it. Let's see if we can find something that pushes us in a direction. Let's be creative, let's not settle— you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:That kind of a deal, yeah, no, absolutely. And how is it that you're—because here's one thing that's always stood out to me about you okay, so, regardless of how large the congregation is in front of you, the audience is in front of you. I mean, look, you were the worship pastor. I know I'm telling you things you know, but the audience here you were the worship pastor for Jensen Franklin for a period of time Dream City Church is. You know, at one point was largest church in America. You have Joyce Meyer that will come out there once a year and there's not an empty seat in the house. You have the Dream Conference, where you have pastors, thousands of pastors from all over the world that come out to find out what Dream City Church is doing and try to emulate that back at their home church.
Speaker 2:And the thing that's always struck me about you is you. When you're on stage and you're singing, regardless of how large that crowd is in front of you, that congregation is in front of you. You're so genuine. It's never about you. I've seen churches, I've seen worship leaders that you know all of a sudden you can just see, like man, you know, whether they turn into a vintage James Brown up there, or whatever the case is, where it's just like man, like when did that become you and not God? And you've never been that person to me, and I don't mean to embarrass you, but like that's just something that's always struck me about you is the genuineness. How do you keep not to play on words but Jesus at the center? How do you keep that when you're on stage in front of such a large audience wanting to do well, obviously, but still keep it about Jesus?
Speaker 3:Man. Well, first of all, that's humbling to hear, for sure, and I and I appreciate that Cause I could tell you, I think there's been times where I don't feel like I've been that guy and I think what always grounds me and pulls me back is a couple of things. Before I ever could sing, before I ever had the ability to sing, I started teaching myself piano at 10 years old and just started to play and just loved it. 10 years old and just started to play and just loved it. And, and I remember there would be these times then when I'd be about 12, 13 years old, it was a lot better, you know, getting better and getting better.
Speaker 3:But specifically somewhere in that 13 to 15 year old range, I would sit down and play for like hours, a couple of hours at a time. My dad would come home from a long day's work and he would sit on the couch, he'd lay down on the couch right next to the piano and he would, he would like, fall asleep instantly to me playing, and it used to be a running joke. I'd be like man, it was so bad at put my dad to sleep, like we'd be silly, like that, but, of course, the loving dad that he he was. He would actually say to me he'd say, no, it's the most peaceful part of my day.
Speaker 2:He goes.
Speaker 3:I find myself the most at rest when you're playing, and I would remember knowing that the Spirit of the Lord was with me in those moments, like there'd be times I'd be playing and I'd be in tears and I could feel God's presence welling up.
Speaker 3:And I believe what it was is before I ever had the ability to stand on stage in front of anybody, I was learning who the voice of the Lord was for myself and understanding what it meant to worship, not to play on a churchy cliche, but worshiping for an audience of one.
Speaker 3:And when it was just me and the piano and the Lord at times, or my dad snoring next to me, you know, asleep, but even understanding. In those moments, to me he was the king, he was a lion and it was like I was for a moment, maybe David playing before a king's heart. You know my dad, my hero, and seeing him at peace and at rest in those moments, and all that to say is that I think for me. When I, when it's like for me, when I want to feel him the most, I just play. I don't even sing, and so I think for me it was when I began to develop a voice, around 19 years old and started to sing and sing more. I think I've just always carried this understanding that I don't even know how or why I'm on the front of this stage.
Speaker 2:How did I get?
Speaker 3:here Because I couldn't sing. My mom this was the funny joke, dude, Like for real, this was hilarious she said she would hear me trying to sing and she would pray Lord, give him a voice that would supersede, exceed his expectations. Wow, she told me she used to pray that when she'd hear me trying to like utter, utter melody lines or whatever. I think, at the end of the day, what I've learned I grew up in a very small church and that has never left me just this understanding, because what I've come to learn in my life is that, especially when you've gone through trials and traumas and heartbreaks and grieves and losses and deaths and things like that, and you realize who's been your anchor all along, like all along, and I at times go back to those moments of when it was just me playing for the Lord and understanding he was with me before anyone ever knew me and he was with me before I ever had a stage and learning.
Speaker 3:I think it's in those moments. For me, the genuineness that you're talking about is just this purity of knowing, like the Lord and not to sound arrogant, but I felt like the Lord gave me a promise when I started leading worship and he said if you'll do it for me, if you'll make me the focus, I will always show up in any service that you and that sounds arrogant. It felt like a promise from him and I don't even know how else to say it except for that I think we, as worship leaders, have to never lose sight of that, no matter how old we get or how long we've been doing. It is that he's the giver of the gift and he's worthy of that attention.
Speaker 2:So at some point in your life were you genuinely not a good singer? Like this just is blowing my mind Like could you really not sing at all?
Speaker 3:I tried out for the high school ensemble and didn't make it and that's from a really Christian school and about eight of us tried out and I was the only one that didn't make it.
Speaker 2:Are you kidding me? No, wow, did they get? Did they? Were they polite to you? Did they just say, you know what? We can only fit eight of you on the stage. Gosh, you're so good at them. We just oh, if we can only fit nine, but man, we just don't have the room.
Speaker 3:I mean, oh yeah, she said well, it was hilarious and and actually, like our families have been friends for years and she is one of the sweetest, she's a powerful woman of God. She said back then she said you know, I hear that you have potential, but you're really pitchy. There's a lot of things like you need some voice lessons and I just don't think we can move forward with it right now. And it's funny because then if you ask her to this day, she's just like I know I'll never live it down. I this day, she's just like I know I'll never live it down, I'll never live it down. She's like I cut you and now you sing on stages in front of thousands of people.
Speaker 2:Wow, wow, that's incredible, man. What an encouragement to people that are listening, that have that desire to sing and lead worship and maybe they're just not quite there yet and knowing, like man, you've really hit the. I mean again, I know you always have goals and dreams above man, you have really hit the. I mean again, I know you always have goals and dreams above where you're at, but you know you've really hit that top of the mountain. And to know where you came from, like that's unreal, that's not something I was aware of at all. That's that's incredible. And now to know that you have an album I mean, I know you've done, uh, multiple albums in the past be of heart, anthem, that out now.
Speaker 2:And just going through that process, like in the few moments that we have left, you know, for someone that's listening to this, that first of all, they're encouraged by the fact that, hey, you might not start out as the greatest, but you can actually really accomplish great things when God is on your side. Someone that's going to start out, that has a desire to record an album. What does that process look like? Like, you know, walk me through that. Like, is that a long process? Is it something that God just downloads songs on your heart and you're just writing fast. Like what does that look like to actually sit down and say you know what I'm going to create? An album? Like what does that timetable look?
Speaker 3:like yeah, I think the timetable, it's a couple of things I think if you never set a date, then you're probably not going to do it. That's what it was for me was, as I finally had to come down to like if I don't put a date on the calendar, then I just don't have a goal and I'm just going to keep wishful thinking. And but the album is made up of songs, some songs that were written two, three weeks before the album, some songs that were written one to two years before, or three, four or five months before. Some of the other songs on there were started four years earlier.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 3:And then and then I shelved them and then I came back to it and it was like I really liked that idea and then got into some collaboration modes and and it just saw the songs come to life in beautiful ways. And I think I think the process isn't a direct, it's not a direct line. There's several different ways to get there, but it starts with, I think, having the plan to do it, having, um, you definitely want to have the songs, um, you want to have definitely, uh, um, somebody that has a producer mind that can just help bring things to life. Like, some people are just super musically creative and they don't, they won't need that producer mind, but it helps to have, second, a second voice in there to just help drive direction and and creative process. But yeah, I mean, there's a whole lot that goes into a live album comparative to a studio album, right, and so those are two different processes.
Speaker 3:Completely especially today, yeah, there's still a lot of artists that are putting out full albums. Churches, completely especially today, yeah, there's still a lot of artists that are putting out full albums. Churches are putting out full albums. But as far as to the individual, I would say to somebody start off with a single, start off with one song and do great with that one song, learn the process in the one song and then do another song and sharpen your tools in the next song, and then just keep getting better song by song before you try to adventure out on a full album. I think we live in a digital age that people don't download full albums anymore. They download the songs that they like anyway.
Speaker 3:So you might as well spend time making the one song great or do like a three song EP or four song kind of a deal and just set tangible goals and targets that you can run towards. And just set tangible goals and targets that you can, you can run towards and then just fight for the creativeness like, fight for quality, fight for for excellence in it. Don't just settle like like surround yourself with musicians and vocalists that can pull out that. I think for me that's kind of that was my what I needed to do. I needed, I need, I needed a person that could pull up harmonies and movements that I just couldn't hear. So my vocal, my, my worship team part the vocal team shined and sounded amazing. And then I needed the same thing musically. I needed to surround myself with musicians that could just play the circles around me and then tap into their brains and let them take in what they're hearing from me and pull it out even more. So I think that's the beautiful part of collaboration.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. And again want to remind you guys, if you have not downloaded Heart Anthem, go on Apple Music, download that. Again, it'll bless your life. Adam, in our final minute that we have here with all that you've accomplished, I mean there's, I think, with all of us, that people can always look at what we've done and say, well, geez, how could this person think bigger than where they're at now? You've done so many things. I mean TBN flew you out to Israel to lead worship there. I mean TBN flew you out to Israel to lead worship there. I mean you've checked off so many amazing boxes in your life, but with all the time that you do have left, is there that dream that you're chasing or that final goal that you say this is what I'd like to do in my final stamp in life? Is there that dream out there for you?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think it's a couple of things Continue to do music I just finished a single I don't have a release date on it yet, but I'll get that over to you once I do personal traumas in the process and learning how to put God's word to to music in different ways and creative ways, not just, you know, it doesn't have to necessarily be a worship song.
Speaker 3:So I think for me, some of the stuff lately that's been pushing on my heart is is when I read God's word, I see it, I try to find the humanity in it, and that's what's been helping me. And I feel like if there's another mission that I'm pushing towards is to continue to do music but then also learn how to just mentor a younger generation coming up of worship leaders, but not just worship leaders, but just ministry in general, learning how to find our humanity in God's word and slow it down and see ourselves in the story, so that way God's word becomes more tangible and reachable and understandable. I think for me it's going to be that mentoring side of things. It's going to be that shepherding mentoring. You know, raising up another generation to grab a baton. That's awesome.
Speaker 2:Adam, we're out of time. I wasted too much of your time, but you're awesome. You're one of my favorite people in this world. I love you're awesome. You're one of my favorite people in this world.
Speaker 3:I love you so much. Thank you for being on the show today and just have a blessed, blessed week.
Speaker 2:You too man, All right buddy.
Speaker 1:Thank you for joining us for we Love San Diego with Ryan McFadden. We pray that this message has blessed your life. If you'd like to learn more about we Love San Diego or to partner with us, visit welovesandiegoorg. Visit welovesandiegoorg. Spell W-E-L-U-V-SanDiegoorg. That's W-E-L-U-V-SanDiegoorg. For additional messages, find us on iTunes or wherever you listen to podcasts at we Love San Diego. Also, if you live in the San Diego area, you can find out where and when the next outreach event is by following we Love San Diego on Facebook and Instagram. We so value you listening to our show today and hope you tune in next Sunday at 9 am as we bring another message of hope to you and your family. And, as Ryan always says, find a need and fill it, find a hurt and heal it. This has been we Love San Diego.
Speaker 4:There's jewelry, and then there's jewelry by Isabella Rose Design Company. Isabella Rose Design Company makes handmade jewelry for a cause. All their sales go towards fighting human trafficking, using polymer clay and precious metals. Their modern jewelry designs have helped them become one of the fastest growing jewelry companies in the world. Feel good and look good, knowing that you're making a difference in the area of human trafficking. Visit them today at IsabellaRoseDesignco. That's IsabellaRoseDesignco.
Speaker 5:When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, we Love San Diego sprung into action, giving out over 30,000 pounds of food and supplies, as well as over 50,000 diapers, to those in need. Today, the outreach continues, as they give out over 60,000 pounds of food and supplies to over 10,000 families who otherwise wouldn't know where their next meal was coming from. Visit WeLoveSanDiegoorg to help out and become the hands and feet of Jesus. That's WeLoveSanDiegoorg.