Songs4Worship.com: What has been the greatest challenge you've faced since you began pursuing music as a calling and a career?
Dave Lubben: To not pursue it first! Jesus told us to seek first His kingdom. I confess that I am not naturally bent in that direction. Naturally I seek first my kingdom and my agenda. The Word says that we are all this way... We each turned to our own way (Is 53:6). So the greatest challenge I face is to deny myself daily and to seek Jesus first in my life. Praise God! He has given us His Holy Spirit to overcome our resistance to His kingdom coming in our lives! There is only one kingdom that will endure victorious throughout all eternity, and that's the Kingdom that I want to seek first!
Listen to the new worship album, A Place Called Surrender, by Dave Lubben.
S4W.com: What has been the most profound lesson you've learned about worship over the past few years?
Lubben: Humility. The more I learn about worship and the more I get to know God, the more I realize how little I know! I love what [the theologian] Spurgeon said. He described watching a little bird fly over the ocean as it swooped down to fill it's beak with water. The water in its beak is how much I know of God and the water left in the ocean is the untapped truth of who God is that I have yet to see and know. That is a humbling truth! I know that God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. When I look at Him, I see so clearly how great He is, and it humbles me as I see how small I am!
S4W.com: What is the most profound lesson you've learned about life over the past few years?
Lubben: It's not about me!
S4W.com: What is the most common misunderstanding about worship you see in the current worship climate, and how have you tried to reshape it?
Lubben: That worship is not a warm up for the message! May our messages be offerings of worship. Worship is not just songs! May our attitudes, decisions and whole lives be offerings of worship! Worship is not for us! May we leave our worship gatherings satisfied that God has been worshiped!!! Worship is not a fad! Praise God that we will worship Him forever and ever AMEN! Worship is a life ascribing to God the glory due His name! I've fallen short in every one of these misunderstanding, but I think the best way that any of us can reshape these is to live the truth.
S4W.com: What does 'worship lifestyle' mean to you?
Lubben: Obedience that permeates my everyday life. I John 5:3 says "This is love for God: to obey His commands!" "Those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and was raised again" (2 Corinthians 5:15). Jesus You are worthy!!!
S4W.com: This is kind of the desert island question. What are the five ministry essentials you could not do without?
Lubben:
1. God The Father.
2. God The Son.
3. God The Holy Spirit.
For the other two, revert to 1-3.
S4W.com: How do you explain the powerful connection between music and worship expression?
Lubben: It's a beautiful mystery to me. For some reason the Creator designed sonic waves to blend together to capture our attention and to move our hearts. For some reason He made a natural expression of our hearts to be song! My God is in heaven, and He does whatever He pleases. I'm just glad that He was pleased to put a new song in my mouth! (Ps 40:3).
S4W.com: Describe one of the most compelling, most powerful worship experiences you've had and tell how that affected you as a worshiper and as a leader since that time.
Lubben: It was a deeply personal moment, and it happened on a field in Tennessee at a gathering called [Passion:] Oneday. As I sang an ancient song about the wonderful cross with countless people from my generation, I was overwhelmed by the mystery of the cross. Why does He love me that much? A giant cross was carried to the place where I was worshiping, and I was so broken by HIS love that I wept at the foot of the cross for what seemed like an eternity. Although this wasn't the day of my salvation, it was a moment when I was so awakened to the weight of the cross and the worth of the Savior that it was as though I was attending my own funeral (Galatians 2:20). I knew that what Christ had done for me deserved nothing less than my everything! Something unexplainable happened in that moment. All I know is that after that day I was not the same!
S4W.com: What compels or inspires you to write new songs for worship?
Lubben: The Word. Nine times out of ten, I'll be reading the Word and I'll read the phrase "Sing a new song to the Lord," and I'll obey. Or there's the "Aha! moments" where God reveals His truth in His word in ways I've never seen, and my heart just wells up with a song. For real! One example is a song called "Speak to Me"on my CD, A Place Called Surrender. This song was birthed in the middle of a message at my church. We were reading in God's Word about the first time the Lord spoke to Samuel. My heart was overwhelmed! I just began to sing the words and melody "I want to be where You are...." The song came to my heart and was finished in the middle of the message. I ran upstairs and typed it on PowerPoint, and we sang it as a congregation in response to what the Lord was speaking to us through His Word that night! All glory to God! Praise HIM! It doesn't always happen like that, but if I'm seeking Jesus first in my life and not a song, He tends to just put songs in my heart! I'm always asking the Lord to fill my heart with the songs that He wants His people to sing to Him and with songs that will reveal His glory to the nations! I pray that they will be filled with sticky melodies and saturated with the word so that the words of Christ will dwell in our hearts richly!
S4W.com: What person has influenced your ministry/your music the most and how?
Lubben: The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit! There was a kid in Sunday school class who was asked who the first president was. And since he was in church he said "I think the answer is George Washington, but I'm gonna say Jesus." I share that because I know my answer may seem like the answer that kid gave, but it's the truth! I have no ministry and no song without my God. What's the point of life without Him anyway! He's given me new life, a new song and a new mission! I will live and sing for Him as long as He lends me breath!