Preson Phillips – Being the domino God uses to touch the lives of others
Worship
- Show reverence and adoration for (a deity); honor with religious rites.Noun: The feeling or expression of reverence and adoration for a deity 
If you have ever listened to Preson Phillips it would be very easy to add to that definition; “what happens when listening to the music of Preson Phillips”. Preson Phillips is the lead pastor of Watermark Tampa, a church with a message: “We are a community who are attempting to live in the path of Jesus. (Spiritual Formation) We desire to be servants to Tampa (Social Justice) who live and speak the Gospel(Cultural Renewal).” Preson is also a recording artist, one of the artists signed with Come&Live. Preson currently has 2 releases – The Observant & The Anawim and Weep… He Loves the Mourners Tears. The songs are a spiritual documentary of sorts, a written account of his walk with the Lord. The music on The Observant and The Anawim was written for their studies on the Book of Acts and Galatians, and featured Timothy McTague and Aaron Gillespie. The music is folk rock, mostly acoustic guitar and drums, the lyrics are inspiring, the melodies – haunting. Each song is a step that takes you into deeper spiritual awakening. His unique vocal styling accompanied by his acoustic guitar, and scripture inspired lyrics will captivate you with every second of every song. The message of Weep is summed up best on the C&L page “”Weep…..” begins with a call to worship, and ends with a call to bring others in to worship with us. It is our mission, it is our existence. We will worship something, the question is, what will it be?” Psalm 23 is the highlight of this release for me. A beautiful folksy rendition of the Psalm of David, it doesn’t take long to get caught up in the emotion and the passion of Preson’s vocals. Isaiah 53 also makes its way into the chorus, resulting in a powerful worship experience. If you were to ask someone what their definition of worship is, you will get a lot of responses. The music of Preson Phillips is the domino that God uses to draw others closer to Him. I don’t think just any band can achieve this, but Preson understand worship. He knows that it is more than just songs, it is a lifestyle, our mission, and our existence.
Interview with Preson Phillips
Tell us a little bit about yourself and your church Watermark Tampa.
I became the pastor of Watermark Tampa in 2007 after the previous pastor moved on after many years of service. I had recently been relocated to a poor urban neighborhood in Tampa called “Sulphur Springs” and had moved into an old 1915 Theatre that became a porn theatre in the 70′s. We assembled a new leadership team and started ministering and the church went from about 30 or 40 to around 200 right now. Mostly young families with very young children. A very eclectic group. We write music and poetry and do art shows as we work our way through individual books of the Bible. We are very serious in our worship, we desire to keep everything very simple and humble. No big shows, no stage. We gather in a circle (even the band) and sing, pray and preach. Nothing fancy.
That sounds pretty incredible. Humble isn’t something you see very much of in our present day and age.
How did you get connected to Come and Live?
I met Chad Johnson at a pastors conference in Seattle when he was doing A&R (airplanes & restaurants, lol) for tooth&nail. One of the bands on Solid State goes to Watermark and got us a place to stay at his house. We connected great, his beautiful family took us in for a week and took care of us and showed us around. After the week ended I was on my way out the door and I slapped a demo of my worship music that I write for Watermark on his kitchen counter and said that he should listen to it if he ever had a free minute (how many bands wish they had the opportunity to do that?). About 7 months later he called my cell phone and told me his plans for a new label and asked me to consider coming aboard.
That sounds incredible! I imagine a lot of bands would love to have had that opportunity.
I’ve heard some compare your musical style to that of Bob Dylan. What are some of your musical influences?
I am actually a huge Dylan fan. I listen to a lot of Elvis Perkins, Cocoon, Elliot Smith and everyone who respects the acoustic guitar, really.
What are some of the biggest struggles you face in the ministry?
Really the biggest struggle that I have is trying to figure out what God wants of me. I’m not an experienced pastor, and I’m not especially filled with empathy. I struggle most with seeing other pastors who know exactly what a good pastor should be doing and how to truly change lives and I often times feel like I will work tirelessly to break through to one person when I see other skilled men of God who seem unstoppable and have the ability to change lives with one well placed sentence. It’s stuff that comes with age and maturity, and I’m just trying to get there.
Tell us about your release “The Observant and the Anawim”.
It’s a pretty straightforward folk americana album that, I feel, is approachable and easy to sing corporately. I write these songs to lead the people of watermark in as we worship God in our corporate gathering. They come from our studies through different books of the Bible, and each one stands in my mind as a place marker of what God was doing in our congregation in that very moment.
Hallowed Be Thy Name is a personal favorite of mine. It stands out to me above and beyond the typical worship song. Can you share with us what was going on in your life, when writing this?
That was actually my first real attempt at writing a song for the church to keep. I had been writing songs for myself and recording them, but there were these prayers that I wanted us to pray together and make our motto. “Let us be freed from what keeps us from your will, led us be healed from all that causes us to fail…”. I wanted us, as a church, to reach our potential and throw off what Paul calls “the weights that so easily beset us”. I wanted movement and change. I liked change before it was cool.
That is really encouraging! Are you working on any songs for a new release?
Yes, I actually just finished recording a new album. It will be Called “Wrath” and will hopefully be out this fall. These songs are, I believe, much more engaging and emotionally heavy worship songs than the last two albums, and I’m pretty stoked to see how people interact with them.
If you only had 1 message to give to others without hope, what would you tell them?
I would ask them why they believe they are without hope? The entire message of Jesus is that there is always hope. It cannot be found in yourself, or any other member of the human race. We must go to the creator knowing that, if He can create, then He can REcreate.
Be the domino God uses to touch the lives of others (think Domino effect) What does that mean for you personally?
When Jesus was serving communion to his disciples, he said “What I received from the Lord I also delivered unto you…”. The Domino is given momentum when it is touched and it, in turn, gives momentum to the domino that it touches. Whatever we have received from the Lord, we were not the end game, we are the domino that gives exactly what we have received to the next person: grace, mercy, forgiveness, hope, love, acceptance, redemption…etc. What you have received, give it.
Thank you so much Preson for taking the time to answer these questions.
To find out more about Preson Phillips you can visit his C&L page or visit his website . To find out more about Come&Live read our interview with Chad Johnson or visit their website for more information. Click below to listen to “Hallowed By Thy Name”
