About This Episode - 

No band has had as big of an influence on modern worship than the UK based band Delirious. Stuart Garrard (AKA- Stu G) served as “the Edge” to lead singer Martin Smith’s “Bono.” In this episode, Stu G tells the amazing story of courage and faith that led him from humble electrician to world renown electric guitarist. Deeply humble and reflective, Stu G shares how the counter-cultural teachings of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount have inspired “The Beatitudes Project,” a creative endeavor that has brought together some of the most influential musicians and worship leaders of our day. Finally, Stu G shares his thoughts on why men need to worship, and the profound power of trusting God to do the impossible.

Warren Mainard is the National Director of IMPACT Players, an author, speaker, and connector. He has 30 years of ministry experience as a pastor, nonprofit leader, and church planter. You can connect with Warren on Facebook, Instagram, and X. Warren is also available to speak on your podcast or event! Email him at [email protected].

Stu G is a guitarist, songwriter, author, filmmaker, and collaborator. Above all, he loves to walk alongside people and see them flourish. Stu G was the lead guitarist of a rock band called Delirious? from the 90s. When that ended, he dove into studying his favorite part of the Bible: The Sermon on the Mount. This deep study led to the creation of The Beatitudes Project. You can connect with Stu on Instagram and Facebook.

To find out more about IMPACT Players, visit www.impactplayers.org.

Additional Resources Mentioned:

• Words from the Hill: An Invitation to the Unexpected by Stu Garrard

Listen: Apple | Spotify

Transcript -

Warren Mainard: Hello guys, and welcome back to another edition of the IMPACT Players Linking Shields podcast. A podcast designed for men who want to grow to be better husbands, fathers, and leaders. The Linking Shields podcast is all about finding leaders of men who are making an impact in inspiring the hearts of other men to grow in the relationships that matter most. And I have got to tell you guys that I am absolutely thrilled. This is a thrill of a lifetime for me to be able to have the lead guitarist of one of my all time favorite Christian rock bands. The band is Delirious?, the guitarist is Stu G. And we are in for a great, great treat today as we get a chance to hear his story, the story of Delirious?, and what God has led him to do since his time hanging up the guitar from Delirious? in 2009. So, Stu, thank you so much for being a part of the Linking Shields podcast and just tell us a little bit about yourself and what you're doing right now before we kind of get into your full story. Yeah,

Stu G: Yeah, yeah. Thank you for having me, Warren. I really appreciate it and love the work you're doing, so that's awesome. Yeah, so I live in Spring Hill, Tennessee. My wife and I and our daughters, got two daughters. We moved over in 2010, and we are now citizens and all that good stuff. My daughters are married and having children, so we're imminently becoming a fourth time grand, grandparent with a grandson due tomorrow.

Warren Mainard: Wow.

Stu G: So we shall see. But yeah, we love it here. We go to Hope UC church in Thompson Station here with Dustin Smith and, yeah. And so work-wise, what I do now is that I tour live with Michael W. Smith. So whenever he does a tour, I'm his guitar player. And I love doing that. And then, in the bits in between, you know, I write songs, I play guitar for different people in the studio, whatever. And I have a project called The Beatitudes Project, which we'll talk about in a little while. And I am also creating a resource for musicians and guitar players and worship teams that is a practical guide to how I play guitar and how I've done my thing. But at the same time, it's gonna, each module is gonna have a formation element, like a spiritual formation element, and I'll be pulling from The Beatitudes Project in that. But, yeah you know, I, my, the season that I'm in right now and for the foreseeable future, as far as I know, is one of like, I'm really hungry to pass on what I've learned from a lifetime of ministry and playing, you know, music. And so, just trying to, you know, figure what that out, what that looks like. Also, still being a father and a grandfather and having to pay the bills. So, I'm like...

Warren Mainard: Yeah.

Stu G: ...just trying to figure all that out.

Warren Mainard: Absolutely. And I mean, that's, to me, what an IMPACT Player is all about. You know, our mission is inspiring men to be great husbands, fathers, and leaders by equipping them to thrive in the relationships that matter most.

Stu G: Yeah.

Warren Mainard: And we know that you can have all the success in the world in your career, but if you don't have that success at home, and more importantly, that success with the Lord, you're never going to be fully satisfied. And so...

Stu G: Yeah.

Warren Mainard: ...I'd love to go back into the story a little bit. You know, you're British man who's transferred over to the United States, but your origin, of course is in England.

Stu G: Yes.

Warren Mainard: And England is certainly a country that has a religious history, but is not, you know, a place right now where there is a strong foundation of Christianity, at least statistically. So how did you come to know the Lord, to discover music and guitar, and then how did all that culminate in becoming a part of one of the greatest Christian rock bands of all time?

Stu G: Thank you. Yeah, it's interesting. So, my parents, like when I was growing up, they were part of a small Baptist church. And you know, the UK is a little bit different to what it's like in America. There's not such a, well, certainly in the Bible belt here in Tennessee, you know, there's not such a religious kind of like overtone or atmosphere in the UK. But what there is in the UK is lots of like pockets of, like, I can only describe as revival, you know, it's kind of, there's some really strong believers running some amazing churches in the UK. And anyway, growing up, I didn't know about that side of things. And this, you know, I was in like a little religious church and didn't really mean that much to me. So, I left school, I started an apprenticeship with a company to become an electrician. I met my wife, my, well, who was gonna be my future wife and we got engaged. And then, I'm kind of scooting a load of information here, but we were invited to London because I was, I had just started playing guitar when I was 16. And I was a big fan of a guitar player from America called Phil Keaggy. And Phil is a Christian and has made some amazing music over the years. One of the best guitar players in the world, without a doubt. And someone had given me a record of his, and I heard that he was coming to London. And so, we had some family members that were running a church in London, and it was kind of like, the family kind of like, were a little bit arms length from their church life because they spoke in tongues, raised their hands and heard from the Lord, you know? And so, we decided to go and stay with them. They were, and go this concert. Well, the concert turned out, that it turned out that there was an evangelist there, and he spoke, and both my wife and I, unknown to each other, we wanted to go forward, you know, and like give our lives to the Lord. But we just did it in our seats not wanting to tell each other, right. And it wasn't until like a week later that we talked about it and said, you know, I gave my life to Jesus. And so anyway, that was awesome that that happened at the same time. So not long after that, I was still an electrician. My wife was a bank clerk, and our friends in London, we used to go to London to church like all the time. We used to drive there on a Sunday, two hours from where we lived, just to be around that environment 'cause we loved it so much. And it wasn't long before they said, Stu and Karen, why don't you leave your jobs, sell your house. Why don't you come and live with us in London and be part of the church? Like we'll teach you how to lead worship, and, you know, you can travel with us and minister with us and kind of get discipled really. Like we were very early twenties. And so in the end, that's what we did. And we moved to London and traveled with them. We were living with them for about six, seven years. We helped plant a church in Belgium at the same, you know, for one year we lived in Belgium, and then I had a band, and we moved back to London and like, we're in the church there and playing around the rock clubs and Christian festivals and stuff like that. And it was towards the end of the time that we lived in London, that we were playing a festival somewhere, my band. And, I had started to work with a producer called Andy Piercy. Now, Andy Piercy at the time was the worship director of Holy Trinity Brompton in London. But, he had been in a band called After the Fire, and they had a massive hit in America, actually, Der Kommissar. And so he was helping me, like, produce the band that I was a part of. And he told me about this young guy called Martin Smith, who was a sound engineer in a studio down on the South coast. And so I kind of like started to hear about what was happening down there, and Andy was helping Martin, like, produce his songs. And so, then one thing led to another, and I was playing at a festival, and I saw, and I met Martin and a guy called Tim there, who, Tim was a keyboard player in Delirious?. And, you know, Delirious? didn't exist at this time. This was like way in the future. But, so they were aware of who I was and, you know, running around, jumping up and down playing guitar. And I had the opportunity to play with a couple of people in the worship world. One was Noel Richards, worship leader from the UK, who went on to have an event called Champion of the World at Wembley Stadium. And that was amazing. Like, a couple of years, I played with him and we led worship around the country and over Europe. And then, I also had a opportunity to work with American worship leader called Kevin Prosch. And Kevin was coming outta the Vineyard at the time in Anaheim and incredibly prophetic guy and was amazing musically. And so he was really encouraging me and Martin and like the young guys in the UK that, to, you know, give God our worship with the music that we loved. We don't have to sound religious or old fashioned. And so that's really what kind of inspired us to take our influences and kind of create music that we wanted to worship with. So, Noel Richards, who I mentioned earlier, he had a forum in London for worship leaders and musicians, and that met like once a month. And so I got to know Martin and Tim there, and they invited me down because they'd just started an event called Cutting Edge, and that was a worship night for kids in the church, like youth in the church. And it started with 70 children, well, not children. It started with 70 kids in a in a school drama hall. And we quickly, quickly outgrew that hall. But, so I went down there, I went back home, and I said to my wife, Karen, I said, "There's something going on here. We should go down together next time." We went down together. And it wasn't long before we decided to move down because, bear in mind that I was a worship leader and like a director of worship for three congregations, and I had to give that up and go back to being an electrician just for a few years. But, we wanted to be around what was happening at that youth event called Cutting Edge because there was something drawing us to it, you know? And we loved that raw expression of worship that was coming out. So yeah, we went down and joined Martin and Tim and Stu and were part of the church. And once a month we'd have these events and they were growing really fast, like people from all across the South coast would start to come. And so we ended up like maxing out the biggest venue that we could find in our hometown, which was about 13 or 14 hundred people. And so what we did was that once a year, we would, we lived on a seaside town, in a seaside town called Little Hampton. And, that has a, this huge green that's right by the beach. And so once a year we'd hire some flatbed trucks and so get permission from the police and all that and have an outdoor event. And we had 10,000 people show up. That was a police estimate. And this was all like, to worship God, and like, listen to music. And I remember Pete Greg, who runs 24/7 Prayer. He was there and preaching, and we were baptizing people like there. And then, and it was just really exciting, you know, those days were really exciting. And so Martin at the time was writing most of the songs for that Cutting Edge event, and he had this one: 'Did You Feel The Mountains Tremble?' And I remember one night the first time that we played that one, that's the only song that we played for about 45 minutes, you know, and we'd just be flowing in and out and, you know. But this thing about open up the doors and let the music play, you know, the idea that we were encouraging ourselves and people to not leave what we've got here inside the formals of the church, but to kind of like break it open and take it out into the towns into the, into our workplaces, into our schools, colleges, whatever we did. And we thought that what we would do is we wanted to see our songs and our music in the High Street, you know, at the HMV stores or in the Virgin Music stores. You know, in the UK there's not a huge Christian music industry.

Warren Mainard: Yeah.

Stu G: And, so to be legit, you just have to be out there with U2 and Radiohead and Muse and everyone else, you know? And so that's what we did. We started to release singles and then, Martin had an accident, car crash, and was in hospital, and he was like, I feel like I've been given a second chance. Should we just give our jobs up and go full time? And so we all decided to do that, and we became Delirious? at that point...

Warren Mainard: Wow.

Stu G: ...when we decided to go full time. So, now Delirious was a, an unusual outfit because we weren't signed to anyone. We had started to release these six, five or six track EPs on cassette. And, you know, we made 250 and sold them, and then that paid for the next 250, and we sold them, and then that paid for the next recording. And so, what we were doing was starting a record label, and we didn't know it. And so, but what that also meant was that, you know, so we were making like four pounds per cassette tape and if we'd signed to a record label, we'd have made 92 pence or something, you know. So we never did like give our stuff away. We just created our own record label, our own publishing, and our own distribution. And then we got people from the mainstream industry to come and run it with us. Famously a guy called Tony Patoto, who's living over here now. But, yeah, so we had this vision for music that was, that we could use for worship, but that was good enough to be on the radio and out in the High Street. And, you know, in our career, we ended up with five top 20 hits in the UK and a number two in Germany. And we played Glastonbury Festival and a number of mainstream festivals across the, across Europe. We toured with Bon Jovi.

Warren Mainard: Yes.

Stu G: We toured with Brian Adams, and we did a gig with Muse in New York when they were starting. And, you know, so we had a lot of fun. But the thing is with us is that like we wanted to make music that was good enough to be on the radio, but if you cut us open, like we would bleed worship, like that was in our, so as many as, you know, we might have deviated a couple of times and tried to do some radio stuff or rock stuff, you know, we always would come back to like a record like World Service and have songs like Majesty or Rain Down and stuff like that. So, we traveled the world. We were going for, including the Cutting Edge years, 17 years. And then we finished in 2009, and you know, we had an incredible run, really, and absolutely love it. And I, and I miss it to this day. I think that we had such a vision and a mission like to not separate praise and worship from good music. You know, we were just trying to like do the one thing, like make music and have it all sit on the same record and to the best of our ability. And the same songs that we would sing on a Sunday, we were singing in a stadium with Bon Jovi, you know? So we did our best to do that and to varying degrees of success, but we had an amazing career, and it brought us to America and around the world, you know, my passport, when I had, when I applied for my Green Card, first of all, you know, I had to go back over 10 years of travel to let the US Immigration know how many countries I'd been in, you know. And it was almost 50. So, you know, we'd done a bit of traveling.

Warren Mainard: Well, yeah, and I get, I wanna step in here just to share. You know, for me, I'm 49 now, and so when, when Delirious? kind of came into my life, I was a youth pastor...

Stu G: Yeah.

Warren Mainard: ...at the time, I was about 22 years old. And the term that you guys have there, The Cutting Edge, was really so appropriate because I remember being in this amazing season where we were seeing the whole context of worship begin to be transformed. And, you know, Chris Tomlin was just getting started. We were just starting to hear about Matt Redmond, Vineyard and Maranatha were kind of the predecessors to that.

Stu G: Yeah.

Warren Mainard: But like, you know, this, the youth, like the young people were the ones that were ushering in this new age of worship for the church. And so when I heard Cutting Edge and then when King of Fools was released and that song History Makers came out...

Stu G: Yeah.

Warren Mainard: I mean, Stu, it was like a life anthem for me, you know? It was like, this is what I want to be about it. And I mean, the song History Makers, if you haven't heard it before, go out and listen to it. The absolute high point of the song is your guitar solo in...

Stu G: Oh, thank you.

Warren Mainard: ...in just the epic, soaring, anthemic way that you guys put your songs together. It's always kind of right at that moment when the guitar solo gets going and Martin starts bellowing out to the crowd that you just wanna...

Stu G: Yeah.

Warren Mainard: ...run through a brick wall for Jesus and for the Lord. So for me, you know, I have told people for the last 20 something years that the worship that we enjoy today is a direct derivative of what you guys brought in, truly as The Cutting Edge. And so a lot of people may know, you know, some of those all time classics like, I could Sing of Your Love Forever, and Did You Feel the Mountains Tremble? and Majesty. And the list just goes on and on and on. I've got my own playlist that I play all the time.

Stu G: That's great.

Warren Mainard: From you guys. But I wonder how much of that did you fully understand was happening in you and through you at that time? I mean, I know that you had a vision to bring worship and music for the Lord to the masses in a way that was, you know, at the same level of quality. But did you realize that that worship around the world was being transformed through the music that you guys were producing?

Stu G: No, we didn't realize that. No. But we, all we knew was, when we were, you know, writing these songs in small rooms, we imagined ourselves in a, in on big stages. It was kind of like, we could imagine we were trying to write songs that you could lead in a stadium, you know, or at a big festival. And, but most of the time, we wouldn't have presumed that we would ever see ourselves doing that. It was like, you know, it was just, we, it was just our imagination.

Warren Mainard: Yeah. I love that idea of like, you know, picturing the big room.

Stu G: Yeah.

Warren Mainard: To me, every one of your albums is amazing. But just recently, Stu, I had the opportunity to drive my son to college for the first time. He is a freshman in college.

Stu G: Okay.

Warren Mainard: He is going to Grand Canyon University. So we drove about 24 hours in the car from Seattle to Phoenix.

Stu G: Yeah.

Warren Mainard: And my son is a drummer.

Stu G: Yeah.

Warren Mainard: He's a musician. And he is a true fan of music. And so we listened to classic rock albums, some of the greatest music of all time.

Stu G: Yes.

Warren Mainard: And we took turns where we would listen to an album at a time. And I know we live in a world where today people don't really listen to whole albums. They listen to singles.

Stu G: Yeah, that's right.

Warren Mainard: They've got their individual songs on playlists.

Stu G: Yeah.

Warren Mainard: But we're listening to the whole album together. And so for me, I said, okay, my turn, and I chose, World Service, which you...

Stu G: Oh, great.

Warren Mainard: ...mentioned. No, no, no, no. Let me back up. Sorry. Was it World Service? It was Glow. It was Glow.

Stu G: Okay, yeah.

Warren Mainard: Which Glow has those Glow interludes in it.. And, you know, and I just said, alright, we gotta turn this all the way up. And I said, just imagine as you're listening to this, being in a stadium full of 20, 30, 50, 60,000 people 'cause that's what I got to experience. And after we got done with that album, he goes, "Yeah, that was legit. That's really awesome music."

Stu G: Wow.

Warren Mainard: And so that was really cool as a dad to be able to pass on, you know, that love for Delirious? that I had and for him is, you know, who considers himself to be a legit musician, to affirm the quality of the music...

Stu G: Yeah.

Warren Mainard: ...that you guys put together.

Stu G: Thank you. That's amazing.

Warren Mainard: Yeah. So, let's talk a little bit about post-Delirious?.

Stu G: Yep.

Warren Mainard: You guys, you stepped away in 2009.

Stu G: Yep.

Warren Mainard: And you've been continuing to make music on your own. You're touring, like you said, with Michael W. Smith. You've also been with Kari Jobe and Cody Carnes and, you know, countless other musicians, Amy Grant, One Sonic Society, of course Martin Smith as well.

Stu G: Yeah.

Warren Mainard: So, what are some of the things that, you know, have really kind of captured your heart and your passion over these last 15 years or so?

Stu G: Yeah. Well, first of all, you know, when Delirious? was, we knew that we were gonna finish for about a year. So in that last year of touring, whenever we were in America, I would add on a couple of days, come to Nashville, or go to LA like make sure I stay connected with friends in the music industry over here. And as it kind of happened, I ended up with a song publishing deal in Franklin, here in Tennessee with Essential Worship. And my friend Jason Ingram and my friend Paul Mayberry, we started something called One Sonic Society. And that was kind of like a kind of a continuation of what I was doing in Delirious? in some ways, in that, you know, we were trying to, it was, we were three different kind of like, individual musicians and producers, and, but we got together to make worship music, you know? And that was a really cool time. I started to work with Michael W. Smith. I started to do a load of sessions and a load of songwriting and, you know, and we moved here during that time. And yeah, that really set up an environment of friendships and relationships and work that then led towards the conversations around the Beatitudes Project which I'd been thinking about for a long time. I thought that it would be a Delirious? record to be honest, you know so, in America here, when we were on tour, we'd get, if we did a signing at the end of the night or something, we'd all be along a table, and then these youth groups would kind of file past us and say, put your favorite scripture on the cd. And, you know, I'd always put Matthew five, six and seven, you know, the Sermon on the Mount. And over the years, it kind of narrowed down to the Beatitudes as I was kind of just reading and studying and thinking, you know, we hear about these things and learn about 'em in Sunday school, and then we just kind of forget them, they're just very familiar words. And there was something about, you know, the poor, poor in spirit. Like mourning, like how can this be blessed? Meek, like the underpowered. It's like, what? We know who's blessed, really, that's the most powerful, you know? And so there's this kind of contradictory thing going on, and I said to the guys, it'd be great to make a record. There's eight themes here. We could, it's always a good time to sing about peacemaking, showing mercy, the poor. You know, this would make a great record. And so, everyone thought it was a great idea and we never got round to it as Delirious?. And so I kind of continued that journey after Delirious? finished, also with a little bit more of an understanding, because the finishing of, the ending of Delirious? kind of threw me upside down for a little while. You know, I didn't really want it to finish at the time. And it was kind of very difficult. And so I was kind of turned upside down and kind of felt that God wasn't far away in the upside down space. And that kind of related to the Beatitudes being this upside down message and that, you know, you're blessed when you are poor. You're blessed when you are grieving, you're blessed when you are hungry and thirsty for righteousness and justice. It's like, well, that's completely upside down to what we think and what we're told. And we, I came up with this idea that the blessing is presence. That the blessing is not like you get your situation fixed quickly, but that God is with you in it. And it's divine presence in your situations. And if you wanna know where God is, then look for the poor and the poor in spirit. Look for those who mourn, look for those who are meek and hungry and thirsty, and the peacemakers, et cetera. And so it very much became this idea of presence is the blessing, and then also the invitation. So what I mean by that is if the blessing is presence, God with us, then the invitation is for us to be present to our own poverty of spirit, to our own places where we are sad, where we've lost things most dear to us, to the places in our lives where we are aching for something, you know, aching for something to be put right. So it kind of became more than a music project at that point. And I had a call from book, a book publisher who said to me, "Have you ever thought about writing a book? I've heard the conversations and they're really exciting." And, and I said, "No, never. Never thought about it." And he said, "Well, would you try?" And so went on that journey and ended up writing a book, and it became a film and it became a study materials and a record. And I just pulled on all my friendships to make the record. People like Michael W. and Amy and Martin Smith, Amanda Cook, John Mark McMillan, Matt Mahr, like Hillsong United. It just keeps kind of going on and on. But, that was a great time. And we created all these study resources. And so I was able to, every now and then get out to a church and like, do a little presentation or help start off a series on the Beatitudes. And then, and that was, I really loved doing that. And I thought, oh, great. If I do this for the rest of my life, this would be amazing. I'd love to do it. And the, what happened was that Covid happened and shut...

Warren Mainard: How wany conversations have started out that way before?

Stu G: Right? And it shut everything down. And so, long story short, we put everything online and I had to scramble to make a living all of a sudden, you know, outta music and like, whatever I could do. So because all the gigs went away, all the concerts, there was no in-person sessions, you know, it's kind of, it was rough for a little while. And so, but now I'm in this space where the idea, like The Beatitudes Project is all up online at thebeatitudesproject.com and it's doing its thing, but I'm still really passionate about it and it won't leave me. And so, I'm looking forward to reinvigorating it a little bit and making people aware that I'm available to come and speak, even if it's to worship teams and musicians or small groups in your church. You know, I'd love to get out and do that stuff again.

Warren Mainard: Alright, guys, well, if you're listening to this and you have any connection to a church or a worship leader, tell 'em to reach out and let's get Stu G in front of some folks to train them how to lead worship. I mean, how amazing of an opportunity would that be? And that's a great transition, Stu, because you know, this podcast is all about men. It's all about inspiring men to be great husbands, fathers, and leaders. And one of the knocks on men over the last few decades has been that men have been passive in the church. Men are not taking spiritual leadership in their home. And one of the things that we hear a lot about from men is that they, they're not engaged in worship. So, you know, which for me, like when, when I listened to a Delirious? song, as a man, I'm just ready to run through a brick wall after hearing a Delirious? song. But what are some things that you might be able to share to our guys about, you know, why men need to worship and maybe what kind of an impact worship can have on a man's life in particular?

Stu G: Yeah, that's kind of a difficult question to answer, but I think that, you know, because we see, like in our workplaces for instance, and in business, you see kinda men being like, completely the opposite, kind of being a bulldozer and it's all about getting the most and getting the success and being really engaged in being a successful business leader. And you see the fallout of that with the way that people are treated and stuff like that. And then, you know, in church it's a little bit different. I think that you know, well, just thinking about the beatitudes, that life isn't about the most and the best and the most powerful and, you know, selling the most books and making the most money and blah, blah, blah, but that God is on the side of those who are at the end of themselves. And I think that a lot of us, we don't really know how to be in a church environment, you know? And I think also that, you know, when it says the pure in heart are blessed, right? Blessed of the pure in heart, for they shall see God. I think that a pure heart isn't just about like a moral purity, I think that men are challenged with that enough, but I think that it's about a divided heart, you know? So pure heart is a whole heart and an undivided heart. And I think that for a lot of us, we've experienced something in our past that causes shame or regret. And Carl Jung, a psychologist, he said that the heart divides at that moment, and you create this, you put down those feelings of like, not wanting to experience that shame and guilt again. And so you kind of keep it down and it creates a shadow. Well, you know, I think that men are as free as they can be when they are, when what you see on the outside is what is on the inside, and what on the inside is what is on the outside, right. And I think that we have this kind of divided heart nature sometimes where we are not really free enough to really show what we are thinking, to really kind of express what we're feeling. And to be free in worship, you need to be able to express those things outwardly, you know? And so I think that that's a, that is a thing. And also I feel like we, like we need God. I think that a lot of times we are fixers, men are fixers, like we take care of things.

Warren Mainard: Yeah.

Stu G: You know, we are the ones that are hustling, looking after our families, and it's on our shoulder and we, but we let it be on our shoulders when sometimes we need to let God be God and say, not by my strength, but by your Spirit. And, we try a lot. We work really hard and we do a lot of things in our own strength. And, you know, one of the things about the what's going on on the inside not being on the outside, that kind of stuff, is that a lot of times we can be showing that we are doing well, running hard, and on the inside it's like, I've got nothing left.

Warren Mainard: Yeah.

Stu G: And that is a poverty spirit, like when Matthew says blessed are the poor in spirit, you know, it's like Eugene Peterson, he said, "You're blessed when you're at the end of your rope." And I think that a lot of us feel at the end of our rope a lot of the time.

Warren Mainard: Yeah.

Stu G: Because we don't know, especially those of us in the gig economy, sometimes we don't know how we're gonna pay the bills next month, and it's up to us to fix it, you know, whereas sometimes, and this is, I'm speaking to myself here, if I look back over 30 years, I know that God's gonna have my back one way or other.

Warren Mainard: Yeah.

Stu G: You know, there'll be some kind of surprise work or something and, yeah. So I think there's some worry that gets in the way. There's some anxiety that gets in the way, and there's that feeling of, I should be strong, I should be the one to fix things. I should be the one to take care of things. And I think that all of this stuff, kind of separates us a little bit from our need for God and our total reliance on the Holy Spirit.

Warren Mainard: That's so good. That's so good. And I think you're absolutely right, just that there's that pride that keeps us from being able to fully surrender ourselves to...

Stu G: Right.

Warren Mainard: ...the role that we want and give that control to God.

Stu G: Yeah.

Warren Mainard: And that's what worship is when you see a man fully surrendered to God in worship, you see a man who is completely free. And that's a powerful man is the man who's completely free and completely surrendered. And yet you have to, like Paul says, you've got to come to the terms of your own weakness, order to, you know, accept and receive the strength that comes from God above. And so it's his great, his strength and his grace is sufficient for us. And that's what worship is, is that declaration of our need for God. I wanna ask you one more question.

Stu G: Yeah.

Warren Mainard: Going back to your story, because I think no matter who is listening to this story and what their career is or anything like this, I think there's a moment where almost every man will be in a situation like what you described. And actually for you, it happened a few times where you basically said, we decided to surrender everything to give up our job, our home, our plans, to follow God and to be a part of something that he was doing. You talked about moving to London to help, you know, start the church or be a part of the worship, then you went to Belgium, and then you moved out to the sea coast to work with this little youth explosion that was taking place.

Stu G: Yeah.

Warren Mainard: And then ultimately, you stepped away from your job as an electrician to start Delirious?.

Stu G: Yeah.

Warren Mainard: So talk to our guys about just what it takes to make that kind of a decision. Like, how were you and your wife able to do that? How were you able to come to that kind of a courageous decision, and what did God prove to you as a result of your willingness to step out of the boat over and over again?

Stu G: Yeah. Like sometimes, when I look back, I kind of think, oh, they weren't always the most sensible things to do, you know. 'Cause we moved away from family and everything and so I mean, I've got an amazing wife. She has been nothing but supportive over the years of what I've been doing. But we, in all of those decisions, we've felt together on them. And I think that it takes a pioneering kind of spirit to do that, you know. I think also, like prophetic imagination of having a hunch that you can see something beyond what's immediately in front of you. Nothing's guaranteed, but you have a hunch like, if we try this, this could happen, you know? And so every single time Karen and I were together on it, and we could imagine God doing something if we take a step. And then, what was the second part of your question?

Warren Mainard: Just what has God proven to you about taking those chances?

Stu G: Yeah.

Warren Mainard: And what he does when you, when you were willing to take those chances?

Stu G: Yeah. I think, you know, I think because as far as we know those intentions and those steps we took, as far as we know, they were real pure motives and intentions. I think that looking back, God has honored that with his faithfulness. And like we, we're in a little bit of a different place to other bands that have been there, because some bands go for a few years, they finish and they can all retire or that's what it looks like, right? And we set it up differently to that. So in that, like all the money we made off Delirious? masters in publishing went back into the company and we paid ourselves a salary.

Warren Mainard: Right.

Stu G: Because we wanted to have longevity and we wanted to have our companies and we wanted to have staff and stuff like that. And that's how we did it. So we weren't setting up a little nest egg for us. And I think that, that what I've seen God's faithfulness in provision, but for what is enough and not for what is a cushion.

Warren Mainard: Yeah, yeah.

Stu G: And no, no one's ever asked me stuff like that before, and I've not said that before, but I think that that is what I would say is that God has proven to me that he's been faithful and he's been a provider of enough, yeah. And not, not an excess.

Warren Mainard: Well, Stu, you truly are a history maker and this is just gonna go down as such a highlight for me.

Stu G: Thank you.

Warren Mainard: I'm so grateful that you allowed me to take this time to talk to you, to share stories with you. I hope, if I come out to Nashville, I might be able to give you a buzz and...

Stu G: Yeah.

Warren Mainard: ...and see if you're in town but...

Stu G: Of course.

Warren Mainard: How can guys follow you or connect with you or just learn more about what you're doing?

Stu G: Yeah. Well, I'm on LinkedIn as Stu Gerard and I'm on Instagram as stugio. Now funnily enough, people think that that's a joke on studio and stugio. It's not. It's because I'm a massive golf fan and someone coined, someone nicknamed me "stugio" because my favorite golfer was Sergio Garcia.

Warren Mainard: Oh, hilarious.

Stu G: And so anyway, that stuck. So stugio, @stugio on Instagram and Stu G on Facebook. And yeah, if anyone wants to, are interested in The Beatitudes Project, that is simply thebeatitudesproject.com. And you can see what we say about it there. And you can see that E-course. And, yeah, I'm excited to be in touch with folks.

Warren Mainard: All right. Well, thank you again, Stu.

Stu G: Thank you.

Warren Mainard: Everybody, thank you for listening to this IMPACT Players Linking Shields podcast. Please share this with your friends, with other men, with worship leaders in your church, pastors, whoever you think would be blessed and encouraged to hear Stu, his story. All the Delirious? fans that you may know, pass it on to them. But, we hope that you're encouraged and inspired by another man who is fighting the good fight and trying to do all that he knows to do, to be the husband, father, and leader that God's called him to be. We'll look forward to catching you guys next time. But thank you again. And thanks once more, Stu.

Stu G: Thank you, Warren. It's really great to be with you.