Jonathan David Helser playing guitar on stage

Jonathan David Helser and his wife, Melissa Helser, lead worship around the world and are deeply entwined with their artistic community in North Carolina. We are grateful that Jonathan took time to discuss with us the relationship that men have with worship music and also the beauty and power that occurs when guys let go and engage in worship wholeheartedly.

AS: What obstacles do men, both leaders and participants, encounter in worship?

JH: The obstacle goes all the way back to the first question God asked us in Eden: Where are you? Will we dare to own where we are and step out from behind our fig leaves of performance, step out from behind posing, and dare to say, “God, this is where I actually am.” That’s what captured God’s heart when King David would come before Him with his broken and bleeding heart as his sacrifice. The book of Psalms has every emotion, moments of high joy and deep pain.

So we need to decide we’re not going to hide behind performance and instead rip our hearts open. To say “God, here I am. Have all of me. I pour myself out to you. I will dare to own where I am with You right now.” Think about the tax collector in the Temple (Luke 18). The Pharisees look down on him but the tax collector is asking God for mercy, praying David’s prayer from Psalm 51: “Have mercy on me, oh God.” He knows he’s a mess and he’s in touch with his heart. So who do you think went home from that event closer to the heart of the Father?

AS: What happens when men go all in and freely worship?

JH: I think many of us have become so familiar with certain scripture passages that we’re no longer fascinated by them. Things sound cliché. Many of us have heard the scripture “God inhabits the praises of his people” most of our lives, but we have lost touch with the sheer wonder of what that really means. I am fascinated by this verse! God fills the room, our bodies, and our thoughts when we praise. He can’t stay away when we open our hearts in that way. Anything can happen.

I host a mens retreat on our property called Becoming a Wholehearted Man. Last year, 55 men attended. After two days of deep heart work, we had a worship night. The sound was freedom, wild joy and deep passion. We then went into a time of praying for their families. Men were crying out for their kids, their wives, their homes and their cities. Thunder and war were erupting from their hearts. The God who is lion and lamb came into the room. And there is nothing like a room full of men fully surrendering and saying yes. Kingdom multiplication happens. Warfare occurs.

Worship is a picture of the heart, not necessarily music. In both Greek and Hebrew, it means to bow, to kneel, to press your face against the earth in reverence and adoration. Praise has much more to do with music. In fact, there are seven Hebrew words for praise and one of them is “Zamar,” which means to pluck the strings of an instrument. Praise is very musical! If you play me one of the songs that Melissa and I fell in love to, the posture of my heart turns to my wife. It remembers. It rekindles. Music has a way of causing us to remember. So when we praise, we turn our hearts to the Lord. And yes, worship is way more than music, but I am so grateful for how music helps me fall in love. When King David played the harp, demons fled (1 Samuel 16:23). When King Jehosophat positioned worshippers in front of the army of Judah, they routed their enemies (2 Chronicles 20:20-22). Something mysterious happens when music is combined with the presence of the Lord.

Jonathan David Helser and Melissa Helser

AS: And what happens when men decide not to engage?

JH: When just a few people are saying no, that little bit of yeast affects the whole room. I have seen the spirit of just a few people shut things down in a room. I have felt the judgment of guys standing in the back with their arms crossed, frowning on the whole thing, with the position that the expression of worship is too much, too extreme, and not necessary in order to touch God’s heart. It brings to mind the woman with the alabaster jar of perfume that was worth a year’s wages that she broke and anointed Jesus’ feet with (Mark 14). If you remember, there were people in the back of the room questioning her worship and saying it was too much. They asked, “Why didn’t she sell that and use the money to help the poor?” But Jesus said she had done something beautiful for him.

AS: When you’re leading worship, do you notice what’s happening in people’s hearts?

JH: I love getting to lead worship with my wife. She is so aware of how people in the room are responding to the Lord, and she can be in touch with her emotions a lot faster than I can. I learn from her every time we lead together. One of the things we always try to pray is that God will give us his love for the people in the room we are leading. That we would see them with His eyes. There can be a tendency as worship leaders to check out, close your eyes and focus on the Lord, but we want and need to be loving people with God’s heart in those moments.

AS: You’ve said that your music reflects your desire for the Earth to look just like Heaven. What does that mean to you?

JH: It’s in the prayer that Jesus taught us to pray—Your kingdom come on Earth as it is in Heaven. Jesus pierced the veil between Heaven and Earth.

When we worship, we want to see hearts released, fear gone, people walking in with broken hearts and walking out wholehearted, broken bodies healed … Heaven poured out in the room, in cities, in homes, in marriages and in hearts.

AS: Have you seen physical healings happen during times of worship?

JH: This might be one of my favorite stories. A couple of years ago, our dear friend Joel’s 2-year-old son, Jackson, was in the intensive care unit, and one night the doctor said he would not survive the night without a miracle. Melissa and I were at home getting this news and being asked to pray like never before. I felt a giant of unbelief rise up in front of me. Heaviness and disappointment and resignation that the boy would die. But a violent hope was also building deep in my gut. I started singing this line, “I raise a hallelujah” … I saw a picture of a desolate battlefield where a soldier picks up and raises a fallen flag and ignites hope in the army. It was messy. Emotion and tears and singing. I recorded a voice memo of this song and sent it to Joel. When Joel got the song he would hold the phone over his son and play this song. Not only did Jackson survive the night but he was out of the hospital a week later. Six months later, when we recorded “Raise a Hallelujah,” Jackson was right there on his dad’s shoulders.

Another crazy story: a family was vacationing on the beach and their 12-year-old son went limp in the water. He was blue. No pulse. He was gone. Nurses who happened to be on the beach started CPR, and minutes were flying by with no change. The family was in a panic. Then the boy’s younger sister and her cousins started singing “Raise a Hallelujah.” Suddenly, there was a heartbeat. Long story short: Full recovery, no brain damage, totally fine. And all this from a broken little prayer in our living room.

I would say that I am thankful but not satisfied. I long to see more healings happen like those we read about in the gospels as we gather to worship. And in that I include my wife, who has had a chronic illness since we’ve been married.

AS: What kind of lyrics do you write in worship and why?

JH: I write worship songs that seek to create a meeting place for God’s heart and the hearts of his kids. Songs that say something to God and expect Him to say something back to us. I think about the elders in Heaven casting down their crowns at Jesus’ feet (Revelation 4). They do this over and over, but who keeps putting the crowns back on their heads? We are God’s beloved. He puts crowns back on our heads.

So I want to create songs that cause us to remember who He is. I ache as a songwriter to help people say something to God that their hearts want to say but perhaps they don’t know how. I am constantly frustrated by worship songs, even my own, because there is so much more I want to experience in God. I want to write the kind of music that causes my heart to see another side of God’s face. Songs help us see a part of Him that we haven’t seen before. Imagine angels who have been with God for [millennia] seeing new aspects of His face. God, help me see another part of who you are.

AS: What is challenging about worship music also being an industry?

JH: I believe one of the greatest acts of warfare is when we fully engage worship, when we fully pour out our hearts. If the enemy can’t stop people from worshiping, he’ll try to distract them with money, fame, and influence. I can see where we’ve both failed the test and passed it. So my prayer is for clean hands and a pure heart. A person might hear a song on Christian radio that doesn’t come from the heart and associate it with all Christian music. But I know that God’s doing good things in the industry. There’s warfare in it. And I have had to repent about the judgment of the industry and pray for people. Some in the industry are heartbroken.

AS: What is your hope for men who find themselves in a worship setting?

JH: I long for men to slow down and surrender to the love song that God has been singing over them their whole life. To move beyond what’s on the screen and sing what’s really happening in their hearts to the Lord. We love God because he first loved us. Don’t rush into trying to perform for the Lord. Slow down, pause, and realize Jesus has been chasing you for your whole life, asking “Where are you?” Psalm 139 says His thoughts outnumber the grains of sand on the shore. God, pour an ocean in each of our chests.

I am grateful that we have the songs of David to draft on. One hundred and fifty raw, honest prayers. You might want to read one every day. Read with your body, your tongue, your voice. Move with the psalm. Let David’s words wake something up in you. n

Editor’s Note: Find Jonathan Helser wherever you stream music and online at JonathanHelser.com.