Kansas City Worships! Antioch Family Worship Center

Pastor Kevin Seaton is the Worship & Creative Arts Pastor at Antioch Family Worship Center in Overland Park, KS. I had the most intense and delightful interview with him. Through our conversation about worship, God’s people and the local church I was inspired, energized and encouraged. Pastor Seaton is a vibrant, intense worshiper. His commitment to God and his zeal to fulfill the plan and purpose of God on his life, to bring real and life-changing worship to the local church setting, is evident in everything about him. 

Kevin and Janet Seaton work together in the worship ministry. Kevin oversees musicians, vocalists, dance and drama, as well as recruitment and training for these areas. He and his wife, Janet, have a passion and a zeal for raising up new worship leaders, mentoring the next generation, and promoting the power of the local church. 
 
The following is the content of our time together. I have purposefully kept it unedited and candid. May you be encouraged as you read this article that will be in two parts. This is the time for worshipers like never before. Be blessed as you read about worship at Antioch Family Worship Center.

About Kevin Seaton

Kevin came to Antioch Family Worship Center in Overland Park, KS from Tennessee. All he knew was that God said go! There was no lightning bolt experience – he and his wife of 25 years, Janet, just had the peace of God and followed it. Even after being here for two years everything still looked like they logically shouldn’t have come. But, they knew they had heard the voice of the Lord. Now, 10 years later, they can totally see what God was birthing. Kevin said, “Sometimes we have to walk and trust”.

Kevin has two daughters age 22 and 18. They are both in college, the youngest one just starting. The Seatons met in college, Lee University in Tennessee. Lee U is a Spiritfilled, Christian college where Kevin also led worship. Kevin and Janet were both part of a singing group and when he was a junior in college, they married.  He holds a Bachelor of Music Education degree.
 

 

What made him want to worship?

Kevin grew up as a church geek. He led worship as a teen in the late 70’s- early 80’s. He knew at age 13 or 14 that worship was what God had called him to do. In high school he did all he could to train for it. He was in choirs, ensembles, band, and drama. He majored in music education so that, if he needed to, he could fall back on teaching. Ministry was his first choice and he has done that for 21 years. 

A scripture that is a guiding force for him is Rom 12:1. Kevin talked about how in The Message translation it talks about presenting your body as a living sacrifice, how worship is getting up, going to work every day, etc. “We are who we are 24/7. God needs realness in His worship leaders and teams. The church deserves to see authentic people, not perfect people”.

 Rom 12:1 The Message says:

So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for Him. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

“Rom 12:1 keeps ‘Kevin’ before the Lord”. (He pointed to himself meaning the person that he is) It also challenges him to teach the team that, “As much as they all love corporate worship and coming together as a church, everything we do should be an act of worship to God. What we see, hear, think, do - all is worship. It makes us think about a worship lifestyle when we look at it that way. ‘Whatever we do in word or deed, do all to the glory of God’ (Col 3:18).That is what the Lord is looking for, not an hour and half on Sunday morning. What have you done during the week?”

 

Kevin has done 3 cd’s with Antioch’s worship ministry. All the music on the cd’s are original songs written by members of the worship ministry. Kevin personally works with the songwriters. The projects sprung out of a request from the people of the church.  The people came to them wanting music to take home with them. So, they did the first cd project in 2003, then a DVD/CD (live recording) in 2008 and a studio cd project in 2008. With raising money and writing the songs a project takes about a year to put together. They will do another in 2010 or 2011.

About the worship ministry at Antioch - the guiding principles and Kevin’s heart toward worship

Kevin’s wife, Janet works with him in the ministry full time. They have over 100 people in the worship ministry. They have sat down one on one with all of them. They know their hearts, background and testimonies. They help people get involved in the church. Is it easy? No. is it time consuming? Yes. Does it take careful planning? Yes. Is it worth it? Absolutely! “That’s why everyone is not cracked up to do this. You deal with flawed people. There are no perfect people. This is not a gig where you do your music and walk away and forget the audience”. Kevin and his staff will help people work with their gifts if they want it. If you want to work with people – Kevin can use you.

“The Holy Spirit brings the people to the church and it is our responsibility to find who those people are and why they are brought there.” Every now and then at Antioch they have an open plea for all who are interested in the ministry to come together and talk about the ministry there, what is required to be involved and the vision of the church. After they have done that, those that want to know more meet with Kevin and the staff as a group and they interview each person one by one. By the time they reach audition stage, which is the last stage of the process, Kevin and the staff already know each person’s testimony, background, heart toward worship and what kind of relationship they have with God. That is what the interview process is for. Then the audition simply helps to find where that person can best serve. Kevin feels as leaders of the worship ministry they are there to facilitate the creative gifting of the people.

“We feel we have a responsibility to the teams we lead so we have implemented a Discipleship program. The team members must commit to this program to be a part of the worship ministry. They are broken down into small groups and meet once a month in homes. No one can minister if they are not a part of the Discipleship program. The worship ministry is such a visible ministry that we have to be sure our lives are in order. We have to help the team walk the walk. They study authenticity, servanthood  and worship as a lifestyle”.

The main thing the Lord told Kevin when he came from TN to KC to be the Worship and Creative Arts Pastor at Antioch was to disciple the people He would send to be a part of the worship.

“We have to teach the Word on worship. If we are not careful our whole ministry life can be fashioned around our craft and our ability to do what we do.” Kevin tells prospective team members that if that is their perspective, don’t commit to the ministry there. It brings destruction to the church. “They have to walk in the love of God and His people more than the love of musicianship. That is what keeps people anchored to the church. Some musicians use the church as a gig, another job, not a place to serve people with their gift.  That is what we must teach musicians to do - love God and His people. The Discipleship Class the team members participate in every month teaches them to do just that”. For Kevin, there is no getting away from the bottom line.

“Gifted people are different!! (Kevin and I agree on that!) Musicians and creative people are by nature weird, self absorbed and full of pride. But, that doesn’t work in the church. As a Worship and Arts Pastor you have to address that up front. It is a daily struggle to crucify that ‘natural thing’ every day. We have to lay all of that at the cross and submit it to the Lord every single day.”  (There was a profound reason God showed us in Is 14 what Lucifer was like - so we could be aware of how he would try to trip up every creatively gifted person.)

Creative Expressions Class

At Antioch they started a class out of the worship ministry called the Creative Expressions Class. “There are a lot of creative people in the church that may not be associated with worship or arts at all.  This class taught them that it’s ok to express their creativity to God. The premise is that they don’t have to be an artsy, craftsy person that ministers on the Worship Teams to use their creativity for God. The class swelled to over 100 people and ran for over a year!  There were musicians, poets, painters, sculptors, chefs, fashion designers – all different kinds of people wanted to learn what God said about their gifts and how to use them in service for Him. Just because they may never be on stage doing vocals doesn’t mean their creativity can’t be used for God. You may be a shrub designer, but when you do it unto the Lord, it is a ‘worship’ to Him”.

Part II is coming soon! Keeps your eyes peeled. You don’t want to miss it!  Until then… worship!