In my darkest time, as a 14-year-old boy who wasn’t a Christian yet and was crying out for help from God, I heard hope. The song "Don’t Waste Your Life" was the one that spoke to my heart. As I listened to the song, again, and again, that day, I heard the voice of a Christian hip hop artist named Lecrae Moore rapping “I know a lot of people are scared they gonna die.” I thought to myself "That’s me." The song went on and the lines hit me deeper. He said: “Paul said if we ain’t resurrected we have wasted our lives,” I thought: "How can I start over?" Finally, towards the end of the song, the words hit me: “This news should change your life.” It did just that. Two days later I found Christ and the road to healing began.

Fast forward to 2014. My faith in Christ had been growing and taking gigantic steps. I was a junior in high school and I was confused about what my future would look like and if I really wanted a career as a full-time journalist. It was during worship, on a Youth for Christ trip to Florida, that God gave me my calling with Seth Condrey’s “No One Higher” playing in the background. The words, “There is no one higher, no one greater, no one like our God, There is none more able, Christ our savior, great and glorious,” entered my ears and my heart.

Then it was like time stopped.

I heard a voice. It said: “Shawn I want you to be a youth pastor.”

I had heard God’s voice. I was confused, but content, and I felt humbleness in my heart. It was like I had just been sent out on a mission. It was true; I had been set on a mission to change the youth of this world for the better.

Those moments showed me that God can reveal himself through worship. (Yes, Christian rap is a form of worship to me!)

However, there is a problem that has developed in the way we worship now.

I am here to tell you that God works through music; whether it is the Father, the Son, or the Holy Spirit, God has the ability to touch our hearts.

I honestly get a bad taste in my mouth when people get upset over worship. We shouldn’t be just going to church for the worship and bright lights. We know this. But to say that God doesn’t work through music is like saying we don’t breathe oxygen.

We have gotten so crazy in the church today about the music we play and we even split our services up: a traditional (hymnal) service and a contemporary service with modern music.

Why are we split up? Can’t we agree that God can work through hymns in the same ways he does with contemporary worship?

How hard is it to play a hymn or two to please those who like it, and also play a contemporary song or two to please that crowd? I don’t mind a little bit of both in my church service if that is what it takes to let us come together again on this subject.

We are getting about as divided on this as Team Captain America and Team Iron Man and it’s really silly and unnecessary.

After all, we are the Body of Christ, aren’t we? The key word there is “Body.” We are supposed to be together, not apart.

God working through music changes lives, just as it did for me.

I understand if you are the kind of person who doesn’t always get into worship and you would rather hear your pastor preach, but understand God can reveal the exact same message to a person in worship as he can in a sermon.

God made music to be a beautiful form of art. He gave the ability to the people who make that music, and we must respect that.

So let’s try to let music impact our hearts again during worship no matter if it is “Come Thou Fount” or "You Won’t Relent.”

Let’s worry less about who wants to hear what and more about letting God speak to us because he has plenty to say and if we don’t hear him, we might just miss something huge.

Let’s stop being divided on little issues like this.

There are bigger things we need to be doing as the Body of Christ.