Interview With Brian Petak
Date Posted: 3/9/2006
Author: Worship Together




WorshipTogether: Do you have a “life verse”?

Brian: I have a bunch of favorite verses, but I think the one that usually rises to the top of my list is Psalm 78:72. The psalmist says of David: “With upright heart he shepherded them and guided them with his skillful hand.” I would want this to be said of me as well.

WorshipTogether: I understand you have a blog? Why did you start a blog, and what is its purpose?

Brian: Yes, a couple months ago, I started a blog called “Heart Soul and Might” – the URL is www.heartsoulandmight.com. I would love for anyone to check it out. For a while, I was sending out weekly emails to our worship team, staff, prayer team, etc. with “worship quotes” and other thoughts to encourage, inspire and challenge us in how we view God. I started thinking that a weekly email felt a whole lot like SPAM, and I didn’t want people to resent what I was sending them. That would defeat the purpose! So, I started the blog and just let people know about it – that way, they can visit it if they’d like. It’s also really encouraged me to keep growing myself, so I have something worthwhile to share. I love God’s word and I love reading, so this is my outlet to share what’s on my heart. It’s really just kind of a snap shot of my walk with the Lord and what’s He’s saying to me.

WorshipTogether: Where did you come up with the name “Heart Soul and Might”?

Brian: A few years ago, my wife Heidi and I were expecting our first son and were praying about what to name him. We came across the story of King Josiah in 2 Kings 23 and after reading about his life, we knew we needed to name our little boy Josiah. It was verse 25 that put it over the top for us. It says that King Josiah “sought after the Lord with all his heart, with all his soul and with all his might.” This is my desire for not only my sweet little boy, but for my whole family. We started praying these words over both of our boys every night, and so “Heart Soul and Might” is truly an extension of my life – you could say 2 Kings 23:25 is one of my life verses. I would encourage everyone to read about King Josiah in 2 Kings 23, and seek to emulate his passionate for the Lord.

WorshipTogether: It sounds like you really value your family.

Brian: The Lord has really blessed me with a wonderful family and yes, they are second only to the Lord. Heidi really is an incredible woman. She has a deep passion for the Lord as well, and consistently points me to the Father. And not only is she a great mom, but she is an extremely talented artist as well. She writes drama sketches and is a communications coach. I think she’s working on her third or fourth musical with a music publishing company. And, I can’t say enough about my two boys, Josiah and Jonathan. Josiah is three and Jonathan is 20 months old. They keep us really busy. Josiah is our musical one – he sings, plays the piano, guitar, drums, and anything else he can turn into a drum. Jonathan – our red head - just tries to destroy everything in his wake. He has a ton of passion that we are praying will be used for God’s glory at some point!

WorshipTogether: Brian, thanks for sharing some of who you are with us. Do you have a parting comment for our readers?

Brian: I would just encourage each of you to seek the Lord like King Josiah did – with all your heart, soul and might. And, come check out my blog at www.heartsoulandmight.com and say hello. Thanks for letting me share my heart. I’m humbled that you would ask me to be a part of what you’re doing here at Worshiptogether.com.
WorshipTogether: Brian, you are the pastor of worship and arts at a church here in Brentwood, Tennessee. Tell me a little about your church.

Brian: I’ve been here at Fellowship Bible Church since just after it started as a small bible study in 1997. I came in 1998. We were a church plant from Little Rock, AR and the Lord has blessed us with considerable growth over the eight years. We started out meeting in a high school and three years ago were able to move onto some land we purchased just south of Nashville. I think we average somewhere around 4,000 in weekly attendance. I’m not fixated on the number, but as an equipping church that teaches verse by verse through books of the Bible, I’m excited that so many people in the Nashville area are being challenged to grow and give their lives away for the Kingdom.

WorshipTogether: That’s a lot of growth in only eight years. Has your position changed during that time?

Brian: I would have to say I’m in a totally different role now than when the church started. I was the second guy hired in addition to the two teaching pastors who started the church, so at first there were only four of us on the church staff. Now, we have 8 full-time and a number of part-time just in the worship and arts department. In fact, I just hired a great guy as our worship director and he’s taken over my responsibilities on Sunday mornings, so I’m in more of an oversight, pastoral and management role now.

WorshipTogether: That’s a big change. Do you enjoy it?

Brian: I love it. We have an incredible worship and arts staff team with a lot of talented people. I’m blessed to be able to provide leadership to this team, as well as focus more energy in other areas of passion within our ministry.

WorshipTogether: What areas are those that you’re able to put more energy towards now?

Brian: Well, I have a huge heart for prayer and a life of dependence, and I’m able to give more energy toward encouraging and equipping our church body in those areas. We’re a young church and are growing in what it means to be dependent before the Lord, so I’m excited about what God is going to do here. I’m not great at prayer, myself, but I see that Biblically, prayer is a lifestyle, not an event so we’re growing together in that way. We also have a huge community of talented artists at Fellowship, so we spend a lot of time and energy dreaming of ways to encourage and inspire artists, as well as integrate their art into the life of the church. In May, we’re holding our 2nd annual EXPRESS Festival of the Arts, and if this year is anything like last year, we’ll have over 200 artists expressing themselves to the glory of the Lord, enabling the church family and community to interact and engage with their art as well. Painters, sculptors, dancers, musicians, songwriters, metal workers, wood carvers, you name it. It’s a huge event.

Probably what I’m most passionate about, though, is what we call Worship Global. We sense the Lord calling us to teach, equip and lead in parts of the world that lack the resources we have. I’ve led a number of missions trips to Hungary, Nigeria and Peru over the last few years, and am now in the planning stages for an October trip to Kenya. My heart beats for the world because I know God’s does too. I absolutely love watching what God does among other tribes, nations and people groups as we partner together in ministry.

WorshipTogether: Sounds like there’s a lot going on. Do you still lead worship too?

Brian: Definitely. That’s a big part of who I am. I love being able to journey with God’s people in gaining a better understanding of who He is, and helping us respond to Him with all that we are. But now, instead of being the only worship leader, we have a team of 5-6 very talented worship leaders, so I lead once or twice a month. I truly love leading worship, but I will admit that leading every week for five or six years was really tiring me out. I’m glad to have a breather now and I feel more refreshed when I lead. We now also are running another worship venue in “The Barn” simultaneous to our main service with the message being sent via live video feed. Everything else is live, so we definitely have the need for a larger team to pull that off each week.

WorshipTogether: What do you see as non-negotiable in your life as a worship leader?

Brian: Saturating my life with God’s Word. A worship leader cannot do what he or she is called to do if they’re not in the Word. Our public worship has to be an extension of our private life of worship, and we can’t rightly know or worship God without knowing His Word well.

WorshipTogether: What do you do to stay in the God’s Word on a consistent basis?

Brian: I’ve tried all kinds of methods over the years. I’m not by nature a disciplined person, so for many years, I lacked consistency with my time in the Word. But last year, I went to an event where the featured speaker was one of my favorite authors and teachers, John Piper. When asked a similar question, he shared that for fifteen years, he’d read through the Bible each year using the Discipleship Journal Bible reading plan. So, I went to their website (www.discipleshipjournal.com), downloaded the plan and have used it ever since. It’s great, because each day, you read from four different sections of the Bible. I don’t keep up with it perfectly, but for an undisciplined person, it’s really helped me be much more consistent in hearing from God through His Word. I usually find one or two things each day that the Lord wants to say to me personally.
Page1/1   Previous   Next