Welcome to the Mariners Church Life Group leader podcast. This weekly conversation is designed to equip and resource youth to build a healthy life group community that studies God's word, practices spiritual rhythms, and changes the world together. Hey leaders, this is Sam Smith, discipleship director here at Mariners, and today we sit down with the one, the only DKHUM lead worship pastor at Mariners to discuss what it means to live a lifestyle of worship. We talk about what it truly means to worship God with all areas of our lives, and not just in song.
We also chat about how to incorporate worship into your life group meetings. Don't miss this episode. We also discuss an amazing upcoming event you don't want to miss. On October 4th, we are having an all church worship night.
The theme for the night is called Sing of Your Love. We will have worship pastors and congregants from all congregations coming together to praise our incredible Lord. Let's come together and sing his praises with one voice. October 4th at 645 PM, Mariners Irvine worship center, no registration needed.
Bring your group, it's going to be awesome. See you there. Scott, I are here with DKHUM. What's up guys?
I got to ask, what does DK stand for? You probably get that a lot. I'm going to ask the same thing. We have to know.
It's not a big mystery. It's my full name, Daniel Kim. It's my government name, the name that my parents gave me. But in college, it morphed into DK because as a joke, one of my friends would say, DKLA, like DKNY, but because we're on the West Coast, it was DKLA.
It was a joke. And then it pretty soon, the next year, the incoming freshmen of our college ministry heard that and just started calling me DK. And it just got shortened over time to DK. And then the following freshman class only knew me as DK.
And from that point on, that's what my name is. And the legend was born. And so now, when people call me Daniel and it's not my wife or my parents, I get really weirded out. And I'm like, yo, I don't think you're allowed to call me that.
You don't know me like that. So DK has my name at Mariners, but so technically when my name tag says DK Kim, it's redundant. It's Daniel Kim Kim. That was probably the number one question people ask you.
That's it. End of podcast. Thank you guys. Yeah.
It was a good time. So first off, I just want to say you lead us so well on the weekends. You bring everyone into a posture of just loving our Lord and praising him. And your title is lead worship pastor, yeah, lead worship pastor at Mariners.
I think it would be really helpful for everyone to know your journey to being a worship pastor here, how God put on your heart to go into the worship ministry. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. So I realized a couple weeks ago, I was speaking with some students at the School of worship that meets on our campus here.
And I realized I did the math. And I've been leading worship for almost 30 years because I started leading worship when I was 15 and I'm 44 now. So 30 years of leading worship. And when I first started leading out, I did not want to be a worship leader because by default, I was only kid in the youth group who knew how to play guitar.
So my youth pastor forced me to start leading. And this is a common source of a lot of worship leaders actually. You grew up in a small church and you're forced into this. And it was not cool at the time.
You know, you're viewed as a nerd who was being forced to lead worship. So I did it reluctantly, but over time just got better at it, fell in love with it. And that's how I discovered this is how I really connect with Jesus in a personal way. And then the stream for being in ministry really got cultivated during those high school years.
And I thought I was going to be a youth pastor at first because a worship pastor position was not really a thing back then. I just thought, okay, I'll be a youth pastor that leads worship once in a while. But after I graduated from college, the church that I was a part of invited me to be an intern, a worship intern for the college ministry. And that began my journey into vocational ministry and the area of worship.
And a lot of some of the people out there know this, but right after college, I was invited to be a worship pastor for our first church plant, our first international church plant in Thailand. And so that was my first full time worship leader position. And it was in Thailand for almost two years. That's where my wife and I started our marriage.
And it was an adventure, learned so much. We still say that those were the best two years of our life of our marriage. It was amazing. And then came back and became the worship pastor of the church that I was with at the time.
And that was also an Irvine that was in 2007. So from, yeah, long story long, 2007 to 2014 was worship pastor of that church. And then that's when I went through the transition and ended up at Mariners in on August 19, 2014. I celebrate that anniversary every year.
I make mention of it on my Instagram just because I'm super thankful and want everybody to know like what God has done that year. And here we are 11 years later at Mariners church as serving in this role of the worship pastor. When I first joined, we were only a couple of congregations. We're now what nine going on 12.
Right. And just so honored to work with a team that I get to serve with and under the leader that we get to serve under right with Eric and just so grateful for his love and vision for worship as well. And I love that we have such a worshiping church. I want to affirm our church.
I want to affirm our listeners right now. Like y'all are a worshiping church. I love leading for our church. It's a dream come true to see what God has done in your hearts and your lives and the way that you express your worship.
So thank you for coming ready to worship. You can. I'm a little older than you. I was actually a worship leader back of the days.
Right. Thank you. But not only do you lead so passionately here at Mariners church and just leading us every weekend and leading your team, but you're also, as you mentioned, encouraging the next generation of worship leaders and you mentioned the worship school that is here at Mariners. Can you speak a little bit more about that?
Yeah. What's really cool is through a partnership with likewise worship. It's a paratrooped type ministry, not really tied to a church. They encourage worship leaders around the country.
They do cohorts. They do resourcing. Amazing. I'm a best friend, Scott Cunningham.
He's one of the executive directors for that ministry. He used to lead a school of worship in Orange County years ago and that then closed down and basically felt like the Lord was serving in the hearts of the likewise ministry team to start a new school of worship. When he mentioned that, things start to connect for me and my brain because knowing where we are as a church, quickly expanding, building new congregations, we are always looking for the next generation of worship leaders and pastors. Just thought, man, what if likewise school of worship happened here on our Mariners or on campus?
We have an amazing facility as everybody knows and we have a lot of meeting rooms during the week that are already occupied so well. But during the mornings, which is when the school would take place, thought this would be a great location for it. We have an inaugural class of about 20 students from all over Southern California, some I believe from out of state as well. It's an amazing class of 20 students and they meet three times a week and they're receiving instruction and inspiration on all manner of ministry related to worship.
Down from the practicals of getting better at their instruments all the way to heart and leadership principles. I'm speaking at these about once a month as well and very invested in terms of the heart and philosophy behind this. So, thankful that it's happening. We're excited for what this could mean for the next generation of worship leaders and pastors.
And then of course, in addition to that, we have an ongoing passion to develop worshipers within our church ministry as well. Hey, you launched something new recently called worship collective. Yes. That's exciting.
We saw that happen a few weeks ago. Can you talk a little bit more? Absolutely, man. There's so much to talk about.
So awesome. Yeah, worship collective was birthed from a dream to really come up with basically a new version of the choir. Choirs are awesome and we've had a wonderful choir for years here at Maryna's Church. We realized that some of our younger next generation of worshipers were not really joining our choir and I realized, man, we need something new.
And so through the buy-in of our team and we started dreaming together, we said, let's come up with a new thing. And it really felt inspired by God, honestly. We decided to give it a new name, worship collective. And we started recruiting people for this back in April, May.
And then from May up until August, we had monthly team nights where we would train them up along with the rest of our worship ministry. So once a month, our entire worship ministry gathers together on a Monday night to worship together, to connect with one another and to get equipped together. That's our threefold mission for these nights basically. And it's been so amazing.
And yeah, we launched this worship collective with about 50 people, multi-generational with a leaning towards younger folks. So we have high school students all the way to people in their 60s, beautiful reflection of God's Kingdom. And every time they're up on stage, it's only been, we've only had them up once so far the next time there's this coming weekend. I don't know when this episode airs, but Irvine and I just love worshiping with them.
It's been so fun. Wow. When you are leading others in worship, just our own team, what do you say to them to get them into a posture of leading others? So how do you encourage your own team?
That's a great question. The thing that, there's so many things. The first is to remind ourselves that, yeah, worship as fun and as fulfilling as it is. It really isn't about us.
We are a serving ministry. So we step onto that platform with an open hand and an open heart, recognizing that we are, though it's a very visible position of service, it requires every bit of our heart, mind, body and soul. And there's this temptation to make it about us, but it really isn't about us. So I think that's a good starting point for us.
I'll remind you that, hey, we are stepping into serve and we're setting the table, preparing basically to sacrifice so that the Lord could provide the fire. We're not responsible for life change. We're not responsible for the spirit moving in the room. We're merely setting the table and we're showing up ready, prepared in our hearts, but also in our craft and our skill.
We come in with this expectation that the Holy Spirit will do what only He can do. So there's a bit of expectation, a holy expectation that we approach the services with. And another thing I try to encourage our teams with is, yeah, as much as we are here to serve, please also remember that this is not a performance, meaning the service is not something that we put on for people, but it's something that we together are a part of. We're joining in the eternal chorus of heaven.
So to get out of the performance mindset of like, oh, I'm putting something on for people and we're like, no, I'm joining in on what's already happening in heaven. So remembering that this is also, though this is not about me, it's also for me. Like it's for me to engage with wholeheartedly. I'm not a performer on stage.
I am worshiping Jesus. I am encountering His presence. I am singing these songs through a fresh lens and allowing Him to do a fresh work in my spirit in real time. So those are a couple of reminders that I give to our teams.
Most of the time I open them up. What encouragement would you give to our lifewift leaders listening on this, sharing with them what it means to have a lifestyle of worship that worship is more than singing. So what encouragement would you give to us? Yes.
That's such a great question because we tend sometimes we tend to compartmentalize worship, right? Our understanding of worship is limited to the 20, 25 minutes on a weekend when there's singing happening and depending on your journey of maturity with the Lord, sometimes you worship as a setup to the message and you're like, as long as I hear the sermon, I'm good. I had church, but that's not what we believe. Worship is a vital part of our discipleship journey as followers of Jesus.
And worship, ultimately, is a response to what God has done and who He is. It's not just the singing. Singing is one compartment, one component of how we respond, but worship is ultimately surrender. And for our life group leaders to lead our life groups in that manner of reminding people, hey, the journey of the Christian life is a life of surrender, of laying down our crowns, laying down our pursuits, our preferences, the dying to self so that the life of Christ might be made more present in our every day.
So yeah, the life group leaders leading the discussions in that way and helping everybody in the groups understand that. Yeah, the singing is one component of worship, but we sing because this is our heartfelt response to what the Lord has done. So grateful people, I believe, truly grateful people are going to show up on a Sunday and pour out their hearts and worship. They're not going to see this as a burden or as a time filler before the message.
It's like, no, this is the main event. We are coming together to encounter Jesus for who He is. And with a whole heart, I'm laying down my life as a sacrifice. And that is expressed in this moment through the song.
So good. I'm just thinking practically, what are some simple ways that a life group leader could incorporate worship, whether it's singing, whether it's something else, incorporating that into a normal group night. Yeah, that's so great. Yeah.
I think there's so many ways, right? Sometimes your life group, you might have a worship leader, a gifted musician, wonderful. Yeah, without that guitar or piano, and let's sing a couple songs. I think that's great.
I've also been a part of other settings where, and I'm sure other life group leaders would resonate, there are some people who are not super musically gifted and the worship time could be kind of awkward. And, but God bless them. You know, I love that we're given an effort. So I think going back to the last question, really understanding that worship is not just about the music or the singing.
It really is about the surrendered life. So framing everything that we do in life group as worship, I think is one practical way that we help people live out the lifestyle of worship. So for instance, when we do a serve opportunity, really framing that is, I hit this, we're going to worship together by going to the Sukkitian or to our community center, to the First Door and start the Saturday. That's worship.
We're going to worship right now as we share how God has moved in our life this past week as you share your highs and lows, as you're giving thanks. That's worship. Yeah. And then when it comes to musical stuff, encouraging the life group leaders to even share songs that you've been listening to during the week, like, Hey, did you check out the latest Mariners worship or, you know, or Matt Redman song?
Yeah. And songs that have been blessing your heart, just putting that into group thread and on communities, encouraging people, like sharing playlists, putting playlists together. So of course, the musical side of worship, there's a lot of practical things you can do, but ultimately my encouragement is, yeah, frame everything you do as worship. Because everything we do is from that place of gratitude as a response to what God has already initiated in us and for us.
Yeah. You know, in our life group, we actually do that. We send out messages throughout the week and just share some songs that have been resonating with our hearts. We also sometimes actually start out, we don't do this all the time, but we start our life group, play a worship song on my phone or just watch a YouTube video of a worship song and we'll sing along.
And that just really sets the tone, our focus on Jesus and then we go into our group discussion after that. We just started incorporating worship. One of our guys has a guitar that helped bring down. And man, does it set the tone for the night to just love on Jesus, to know Him deeper, it's just just amped up and just to receive the Holy Spirit.
We're excited. Yeah. Love that. Yeah.
And we're helping to facilitate and create that worship culture. Yeah. We have worship nights here where families, individuals, life groups can come, join and participate in this extended worship time. And I know one's coming up in October and we could just share with our leaders about that.
Yeah, I'm so excited about it. October 4th, Saturday night, I'm hoping that all the life groups at Mariners Irvine show up for this come to the 530 service, stay afterwards. And what's cool is I'm for the worship nights, I'm encouraging parents to go pick up their kids from the kids building after the 530 service, bring them right back to the worship center. Worship with your kids, begin that discipleship journey, help your kids understand the power and the value and the worth of worship as part of how they follow Jesus.
The theme of that night, it's called us Sing of His Love. And there's a few things to it. We're currently in the series Proverbs for Your Love Life, learning so much. And so why not get together and sing songs of love and thanks to Jesus together.
There's going to be a couple surprises. I won't say which ones, but there's going to be some throwback songs that we haven't sung in a while. And the church for a long time, you're like, man, how can we sing this song? And that's a couple of those might make an appearance.
I can sing of your love, maybe. I'm not going to confirm or deny any of the stuff. And then what's also really special is for this one, our team is really taking point on it. In the past, we have partnered with Matt Redmond, amazing member of our team here.
But this particular one, it's our team, Barbara Steven, as well as some of our congregation worship leaders are going to be leading us in worship. So it's going to feel like an all church type of event. And I want that room to be filled up with people who want to worship him. So yeah, like we're, mine, Kerzmann, is out.
Do this as a group. And we're only going to do about four of these this next year. Before in years past, we've done eight of these. We're cutting them down in half.
So my hope is that you value every single one and that you make it a point to come to every single one. So yeah, this next one October 4th Saturday and then the next one will be announced to be sometime early in 2026. But yeah, what an amazing way to grow together as a life group, but also teach your kids and your students in your life more about what it means to encounter Jesus in these gathered times of worship. You could listen to songs all day in your car.
You don't get the communal experience that you do when you gather together. And if I can say one more thing about the worship night, the Proverbs for your love life has been about really dealing with some of the Proverbs and wisdom we're hearing from the world and then putting that against, well, here's what the Lord is saying through his word. The worship night is an expression of that truth where the world tells us, and especially in Orange County, hey, it's go time, go, go, go, hustle. And it's all about the grind.
Move on to the next thing. Fill your schedules up. If you're not moving, you're not growing at all that stuff, right? And meanwhile, the word through the, the Lord through the word says, be still and know that I'm God and how counter that is to the message of Orange County and life here in our country, right?
So the worship night is an invitation to be still and know that I'm God without hurrying on to the next thing. And yeah, don't make a dinner appointment that night, you know, the no need for dinner reservations, plan on staying at the church, rest in his presence, choose what is better instead of going into the hustle and bustle of life. So it's a, it's a beautiful microcosm of a moment that you could spend together with your life group and your families. Yo, I am fired.
Come on. I am, I'm in our life group to go to that. That's the hope, man. Come on.
Yeah. What an epic conversation with DK Kim. Um, brother, we love you. We love you guys.
We appreciate everything that you do for this church. Everything you've given today, we pray that our life group leaders are just that much more encouraged and resource and you've given us a reminder of what it means to truly worship for God. So would you mind closing us in prayer and praying over our life group leaders, um, to continue to care for their group members, but also, um, to encourage them to incorporate worship and also I say we pray to fill up that building. Yes.
Or worship night. You wouldn't mind. Yes. We'll be so honored.
Thank you so much. Heavenly Father, we come before you right now and we're so thankful, thankful for the life that we have in your son, Jesus and how every time we gather, we are reminded of your, your power and your love, Lord, the strength, the wisdom that we get from you, God. But more importantly, Lord, thank you that you call us sons and daughters, Lord, that we have this identity that nobody can start from us, uh, no pressure or stress of this world to take that away from us. So thank you for this conversation and this reminder, Lord, that our only rightful response to your goodness and your greatness is to, to live a life of worship.
And um, there's so many ways to express our worship unto you, God. And one of those ways is to not forsake the gathering of your people, to come together, to, to value those precious moments and minutes together as we sing corporately, corporately to you and for you and about your God. And I pray Jesus that you would do something in the life of our church, that we will continue to grow as a worshiping church, uh, not, not merely a church that consumes, but a church that pours out God as a response to how much you have poured into us, how much you have given unto us and who you are to us. We pray Jesus in faith that October 4th would be a night to remember that we would never forget that you would fill up that room, God, that room of 3000 people.
We believe Lord that you will bring the worshipers, that you would inspire people right now who are listening. And even those who don't know anything about this podcast, Lord, that the word would just spread and that you would gather your people to encounter your presence in a fresh and powerful way. So Lord Jesus, we invite you now, um, because you exist out of time and you see that night with clarity, help us God to catch the vision of Lord, what you want to accomplish that night, bring your people together and Lord, knit our hearts together and worship of your name. So we love you God, would you be glorified and we, um, just give all of this unto your hands, God and we thank you.
We pray all this in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Not just a passionate worshiper, passionate pickleball.
Oh, yes. Let's go one day we need an episode just on pickleball. Dude, let's have a fun conversation. We could go on that.
The light's got cutting hand and that. Let's do it. I mean, we could link that to the word, you know, yeah. That's the truth in it.