Are You Living in Your Element?

Dan Wilt is talking about how God has gifted each person. He talks about how we need to use our gifting to glorify God. We should be using our strengths to glorify God and expand his kingdom. If we use our strengths, we are able to affect more people. He talks about how we need to be rooted in our faith and have a strong foundation. We should be living an inspired, empowered, and communal life.

I liked how Dan Wilt compared different attributes about how we should live our lives to different elements of nature. I think it really helped me to understand what he was talking about. I think that he is right about how we first of all have to be rooted in faith. After that, we can use our gifting to further expand the kingdom. The more we serve others using our gifting, the more effective we are in expanding God’s kingdom.

Songwriter Essay

       Matt Crocker is best known as one of the songwriters and members of Hillsong United. He started playing drums initially, but later transitioned to playing guitar and singing. One of the events in Crocker’s life that affected him greatly includes the death of his older sister when she was only 15. Crocker grew up in Hillsong Church in Sydney, but he first became involved in worship in the youth ministry. He played drums and learned how to write music, leading to him falling in love with writing music. Joel Houston and Marty Sampson, two well known worship leaders, encouraged Crocker to write music for the youth worship team. 

       He published his first song at the age of 18. A few years later, he was able to collaborate with other songwriters at Hillsong Church. Years later, Crocker has published many well known worship songs as well as traveled around the world, touring with Hillsong UNITED. He continues to write songs not only for Hillsong UNITED, but also for Hillsong Church. He continues to lead worship at Hillsong Church when he is not touring with Hillsong UNITED. 
       Many of the songs Matt Crocker has written have personally impacted my life, especially the song “I Surrender”. Hillsong has been incredibly inspirational to me because I know God has called me into the ministry of worship, and members of bands like Hillsong UNITED have dedicated their lives to serve God and follow his calling for their lives. For example, Hillsong UNITED has gone on missions trips to serve the Syrian refugees in the Middle East. One of the things I admire most about Hillsong UNITED is that some worship leaders may act like they are better then the people they are leading, however Hillsong UNITED engages with the people they lead and they serve people that others would ignore. Matt Crocker is such a great example of following God wherever he calls and leading worship wholeheartedly and focused on God. 

Songs written or cowritten by Matt Crocker

I Surrender

Open Heaven (River Wild)

Prince of Peace

Relentless

Search My Heart 

Scandal of Grace

Oceans (Where Feet May Fail)

Glorious Ruins

Gracious Tempest

This I Believe (The Creed)

Oh You Bring