Alex Early » Worship Music Calling Study Church Leadership Wisdom

Just a Guy Playing a Guitar

In my experience, I’ve often observed the preaching pastor to be more of the theological heavyweight of the church and the worship pastor usually can get by with just knowing the basics of the gospel as long as he pulls his job off well for five songs on Sunday mornings.  

But that’s just a guy playing a guitar who needs a gospel-centered education. A worship pastor is someone entirely different. 

Talking Theology in a Bar

Our worship pastor is Gregg Katz.

Before coming to Four Corners, he was a security project manager in the field of electrical engineering. Though good with electrical work, God had entrusted to Gregg an incredible gift in another field: music. Writing, arranging, playing, instructing, leading through song, and pastoring were all buried in Gregg’s heart. 

When we started Four Corners Church in January 2009, Gregg and his family came after friends invited him, though he himself came reluctantly. 

He was reluctant because

1. We were meeting in a bar. (That said, it wasn’t the bar itself didn’t scare him, but the thought of What could they be teaching in there? that was a concern.) 
2. He knew that theologically he differed in some ways from Four Corners.

But something intrigued Gregg. This was the first time he was actually meeting lots of men from the Reformed tradition who were missionally engaging the culture and seemed genuinely concerned about people.

Gregg and his family started coming to Four Corners and fell in love with the people and the vision that God had given us. He and I would meet up with friends there at the Alamo and just hang out, talk about music, sports, news, politics—just anything. Without a doubt, our differences in our own theological understandings would surface, and I’d explain to him some of the doctrines of grace. We never got heated, we just seemed to disagree as gentlemen. 

However, I could tell Gregg’s wheels were turning and he couldn’t let this go.

God used Re:Train to change Gregg’s life forever.

One day, out of the blue, Gregg walked up to me and said, “Hey man, I’ve been listening to Mark Driscoll, Matt Chandler, and other guys from Acts 29. I’m selling everything. Me and my family are moving to Seattle to join Mars Hill Church and I’m going to Re:Train.”

I stood there speechless. I couldn’t believe it! He said, “I don’t know where this is going to end up—I just know I have to go.”

So, Gregg did just that. He quit his job, sold most of his possessions and relocated he and his wife and three children to Seattle to live in a tiny rental house, be rained on, underpaid as an electrician, and served and equipped by Mars Hill Church.

A Man Sharpened in Training

God used Re:Train to change Gregg’s life forever. About three months before his graduation from the program, Gregg and Gina began to feel called to come back to Georgia. God put it on our elders’ hearts that he was the man to be hired as our first full-time pastor of Music & Arts. 

Since returning from Re:Train, Gregg has come back grounded in his theology, more in love with his wife than ever, missionally engaged, competent to handle the Scriptures as an elder should, excited about Jesus, filled with the Spirit, and is driven to be thorough in his work.

Many worship pastors today aren’t wired to be “kingly” in their approach to their work. But after Re:Train, Gregg’s kingly skills were sharpened all the more as he saw the incredible need to be diligent in all things entrusted to him. 

A Church Benefitted by a Pastor’s Training

As he leads on Sundays, he is deep and winsome to everyone in our church whether they are an unbeliever, a brand-new Christian, or a mature believer. It is normal for us to see Gregg hanging out with people who don’t know or love Jesus because Gregg is a friend of sinners. 

Every song, prayer, and movement in our corporate gatherings have more definition, intentionality, and direction toward a specific destination of where we are going as a body by the leading of the Holy Spirit through Pastor Gregg. 

Four Corners Church weekly reaps the benefits of Pastor Gregg’s education and time well-spent for a year at Re:Train.

Applications for 2013-14 ReTrain school year are now open. Apply today to get world-class theological instruction, along with practical ministry expertise from pastor and scholars serving in church ministry.

« Newer Older »