Eden: Thanks for being willing to do the interview! I’m excited to talk to you and hear your story and hear what’s going on in your life.
Jake MacAdam: Yeah! Thank you!
Eden: Well, I typically like to start with hearing a little bit about you. So what are a couple of things that bring you joy?
Jake MacAdam: Things that bring me joy? Well, I’m married. We’ve been married for three years now, and we have a two-year-old and then another baby boy coming in five weeks.
Eden: Congratulations!
Jake MacAdam: It’s pretty awesome.
Eden: That’s so great.
Jake MacAdam: So things that bring me joy? I love just being with them. Like Breckie. My son’s name is Brecken, and his favorite thing is tractors, trucks, parks, and stuff, or throwing rocks in the pond behind the house is his dream. So we do that a lot. I love doing that.
Meg and I, we do—getting away for a coffee date is amazing every now and then.
Eden: Especially for young parents.
Jake MacAdam: Totally. It’s amazing, but it can kind of be like, “where is the other person on the other side?” You know, because there’s so much that takes place when having a toddler. So we do that.
And I love coffee. I love making coffee and pour overs and stuff. Just the crafty thing. I really enjoy that.
And then songwriting.
Eden: Awesome. Awesome. And you said your son’s name is Brecken. Is that right?
Jake MacAdam: Brecken. Yep!
Eden: I love that! Where did you find the name? What inspired you to name him that?
Jake MacAdam: I have no idea. We like the name Brennan, and then we like the name Beckett. But we were like “Brecken.” I don’t know, we wanted to do something kind of different because Jake is super standard and boring, and Meg is like—let’s do something different. So that’s kind of what we did there.
Eden: Very fun, I love that.
Jake MacAdam: Thank you.
Eden: Well, thanks for sharing and we’re excited for your new one (baby!). You said in five weeks is when he or she is due?
Jake MacAdam: Yeah. Baby boy. It’s going to be incredible. (Since the podcast was recorded, Jake’s second son has been born!).
Eden: Yeah. That’s so fun.
Is there a part of God’s Word that’s especially precious to you? And if so, why?
Jake MacAdam: Great question. I think, at least right now, I’ve been going through Romans 7-8—both chapters over and over, just listening to it. It’s so full of the gospel. The law could never save us. And we’re totally helpless on our own to save ourselves because of our sin (Romans 8:3-4). But God who is rich in mercy and full of grace, he transforms us, and he ransoms us from our sin. And not only that, but—what does it say? He gives life to our mortal bodies through his Spirit (Romans 8:11). He doesn’t just save us, but he saves us for something. I love that. That’s one of my favorites lately.
Eden: That’s a really helpful reminder for me today. I think it’s so relieving to hear we can’t save ourselves because I think even as Christians, sometimes we live our lives trying to do things that make us more right with God, which is the wrong way of thinking (Galatians 3:11). And it’s so relieving to hear, “You can’t do it, and I’m going to do it for you. I did do it for you.”
Jake MacAdam: Yes. Absolutely.
Eden: Awesome. So you’re going to talk a little bit about songwriting. I would love to hear about that. But before we get into songwriting—I know that we grew up in church together—but I would still love to hear how you came to trust Jesus.
Jake MacAdam: I also grew up in a Christian family, and we went to church all the time. I think I believed in God when I was like eight. But I feel like I realized my need for a Savior, and I understood my sin and made Jesus Lord of my life when I was 16—so middle of high school, I think that was the time for me.
Eden: Was there anything particularly at that time that drew you to really think about that, or was it a slow working of Jesus in your heart?
Jake MacAdam: I think it was a big identity period for me. I was like, who am I? You know? Everyone’s asking that question. Am I the sport that I’m doing? Am I this friend circle that I’m in? Who am I and why am I here? Those kinds of questions. And I was trying to fill it with all the things that I was doing instead of who I was which is, at that point, I’m an enemy of God because of my sin (Romans 5:10), and I need a Savior. And I think that realizing that it’s futile for us to try and make an identity for ourselves. It’s letting the Lord save us from our sin, and then being a child of God, that’s our purest, most fundamental identity we’re made for. I could say a lot more.
Eden: Amen. That’s awesome to hear. And you’re right. Jesus is someone that we can be so familiar with, and yet we don’t really come to love him or know him until we know our need for him. I love how you point that out.
Jake MacAdam: Need. Totally.
Eden: I would love to hear how you got involved in creating music. That was definitely a talent I was unaware that you had.
Jake MacAdam: Oh, that’s nice of you.
Eden: I would love to hear how you got started in creating music. And I was only familiar with Irving Ave. And then, I’d recently saw that you have your own profile now on Spotify. I would love to hear about that development and (for you) to tell us your story in that realm.
Jake MacAdam: Yeah, totally. Thank you. I was thinking back—when I was thinking of this question—it’s cool because when I was six, I remember writing the first song with my friend who I’m writing songs with now, today, which is crazy. We were writing these terrible, but really cute songs of worship. Anyway, so I bring that up only because now with worship music, I’ll write a song and I’ll send it to him and he’ll do all the guitar, the electrics, and everything. And so we’re doing it together now, which is really cool. That’s fun for me. That’s not how it started, though. That’s just a fun little thing.
I think where it started was in college. My friend Alec and I, so we do Irving Ave together, and it’s like pop rock music—for anybody who’s listening—so, separate from worship. But he was testing out some speakers in his room, and he was like, “Oh, I have this song that I can test it out with.” This is awesome. And so, it literally was we were like, “hey, let’s go jam together.” And I don’t know, at that point when we would play together in Edmond Chapel at Wheaton, we would come up with songs. And then we were like, “Let’s record it.” And it was a terrible recording, but it was the beginning of something. And I guess I bring that up because the pop rock music that turned into, I guess Irving Ave, which turned into giving me experiences or I guess some skills with songwriting and everything and introducing me to it. So that in a way helped me to start doing worship music. Like I wouldn’t know how to record at all if I didn’t do some kind of grungy rock songs for a while, you know? That’s kind of how it started.
Eden: Cool. Tell us about the worship music side of things. So it seems like that’s what you’re focusing on more now yourself. Is that something that you’re hoping to serve your local church with or what’s your vision for continuing to do that?
Jake MacAdam: I think at a certain point with the rock music we were writing, it felt a little bit like the band NEEDTOBREATHE or like Switchfoot in the sense that we’re Christians and we’re writing about Christian themes, maybe subversively or themes about following the Lord, but it wasn’t ever explicit “God, you are this and this is the gospel.” Or like, “Thank you Jesus, for saving me.” Things like that. And that’s fine—more rock music and stuff like that. But I just felt like, man, if I was to die tomorrow and Breckie, my son, grew up and he’s like, “What are the songs that dad wrote?” Would it be these angsty rock songs and stuff? And I was like, that’s fine, but wouldn’t it be so much better if he grew up and he was like, “Man, dad loved Jesus, and he wrote a bunch of songs about that.” To help himself in a sense with following the Lord, but like also let it be hopefully a blessing or encouragement to other people. So I kind of had this existential moment. I’m like, “I really enjoy this, but what’s the bigger picture?”
I really love—this ties in. I found out a couple years ago, when was “In Christ Alone” (by Keith and Kristyn Getty) written? This core song of the faith that’s so full of the gospel. Usually those are like 1600s. It was in 2000 that song was written! Like, what? I don’t know why that was so surprising to me, but I was like, whoa, I can do songwriting like I was doing before—but this might come across wrong—but like how much of a gift or a help that could be to the church to write music full of the gospel to help us sing the Word and sing about who God is and what he’s done? And I just was like, oh, that’s so much more meaningful. That was part of the shift for me, thinking can I write songs for our church to sing about the gospel.
Eden: Wow, that is beautiful.
Jake MacAdam: Does that answer what you were talking about?
Eden: Yes it does. That’s so beautiful. I think a lot of people are so concerned with how far their music will take them or how many people it will reach, that they are less concerned with what they’re singing. I love that you say you’re concerned with, “what does this say about me and my heart to have my songs be about the Lord and his Word versus things anyone could sing—maybe not anyone could come up with—but anyone could sing about?” That’s wonderful.
And I think of, when you were talking about writing songs as a kid, I thought of in Ephesians where it says that God has prepared good works for us to walk in (Ephesians 2:10), that when he saves us, and like you said, he saves us for something. That thing that he saved us for—to glorify and honor him—it often comes out in our lives in very different ways, and it’s sweet when we can kind of see his preparation, like you as a little kid, him stirring in your heart to love writing songs and love singing. And then seeing how that can be a blessing to the church today. It’s neat to see his wisdom and his care for us in those things.
Jake MacAdam: Totally.
Eden: I wondered if you could give us a little bit of insight into writing your music? I thought maybe you could talk about one of the pop rock songs that’s your favorite and what inspired one of those. And then talk about a worship song you’ve written and what inspired that song?
Jake MacAdam: That’s a great question. Thank you. Thanks for the thought you put into these questions. I think one that comes to mind, one of the more pop songs, is this song I wrote called “California.” I guess the purpose behind that one was that kind of came out of a season with Breckie—having a new baby, the sleepless nights. It’s so hard and there’s so much stress at times. Kids can put a wedge between spouses if you’re not really intentional and careful about that. And so that was a season where there’s a little more conflict because there’s stress. I wanted to—it’s more of a love song remembering back to what brought us together and what that was like, and saying that’s still today. That’s still the same us. And even though things can feel really far, and it feels chaotic at times, this is just the next part of our story. And I think it was a sweet thing for us to remember some of that in the chaos.
Eden: Beautiful. Awesome.
Jake MacAdam: And then, you said a worship one. One of my favorite ones I think that we did was the song, “Only You.” I wrote that song, it’s called, “Only You.” And it’s more of a testimony song with gospel narrative in it. I guess what I was thinking with this—one thing I’ve been trying with writing worship music is, on Sundays, our first song is usually—we do different themes. Usually the second song is gospel story. Let’s sing the gospel together. So that’s kind of what I was trying to do with this song. And so I did other songs for those other themes, but this one was let’s do a gospel-heavy song.
That one was fun because I used to be the youth pastor here at our church, Community Fellowship (West Chicago, IL). And so these students that I was working with and discipling, we got to come together and write this song together. So that was really fun to—it’s special when…I spent two years that I was in that role and teaching “this is the gospel” and trying to do good Christo-centric teaching as best as I could. But then coming together and then writing a song and being able to hear them contribute these gold nuggets about what the gospel is and how the Lord saves us. I was like, “yes!”
Eden: Yeah. That’s awesome.
Jake MacAdam: It was great! It was fun to do it with them. But then it was also really a rewarding moment to be like, whoa! The Word really took root in their hearts. It didn’t just go in one ear and out the other. It was like they remembered it and now we can put together a song and we’re going to sing it next week at our church.
Eden: Wow! That’s exciting!
Jake MacAdam: Super fun. That was a meaningful song to do.
Eden: Yes, yes. And so neat to see, as you said, God’s Word taking root in their heart and them being able to tell you back the gospel that you’ve been sowing into their lives.
Jake MacAdam: Yeah, totally.
Eden: That’s so awesome. You’ve mentioned working at church and working with the youth. Are you currently the worship pastor at your church?
Jake MacAdam: Yes. So I did youth ministry for the first two years, and then they switched me over to doing worship full time, and then they hired someone else.
Eden: Wow. Worship at your church is your full-time work and then creating music is on the side in your free time?
Jake MacAdam: Yep, just a hobby, a side thing.
Eden: Awesome. Well, it’s beautiful when your hobby can also contribute to your job, and when they’re both something that you really delight in. Essentially the same thing.
Jake MacAdam: Definitely. They do kind of feed into each other.
Eden: Very cool. Well, I would love to hear, also, if there’s a resource or a book that has transformed your life that you would recommend to our audience.
Jake MacAdam: So a book I’m working on right now is called Worship by the Book by Carson. It’s an amazing book. If you’re listening to this, you should go buy that book. Worship by the Book D.A. Carson. He talks about what is worship and is it our singing or is it more than that? Is it a whole life thing? What does “whole life worship” mean? And he talks about what’s the point of worship. It’s amazing. It’s super rich. And so that’s something I’ve been working on right now. And it’s helped me a lot in my role at the church. That’s one.
Eden: Those questions that you said he asks, have you gotten any of the answers to those yet as you’re reading?
Jake MacAdam: Yeah. He talks about worship is the proper response of all sentient beings acknowledging—he gets really in the weeds about it, but he gives us a broad definition of it is our singing, but it’s so much more than that. If we’re just like, “Oh, Sunday. That’s when we worship—when the music starts.” That’s such a shallow and even not very Christian way of thinking about worship. And yes, it’s supposed to be all of our lives submitted to serving the Lord. And we can praise God for who he is in our singing. But if it’s just that and then the rest of the week we’re not reading the Word or we’re not being a good witness in the spheres that the Lord’s put us in, that’s a prime opportunity for us to worship God with our lives and be witnesses for him by representing him well to the world. So it’s really expanded that for me as well.
Eden: Yes, yes, that sounds like a great book. And we love D.A. Carson. He’s a great author and Bible teacher.
Jake MacAdam: Totally. So, Carson. I guess one other thing if people are looking for music, Matt Merker is amazing. Matt Merker is my hero. He’s written every amazing hymn of the faith that’s been so formative to me as a believer.
Eden: What’s an example of one of his hymns?
Jake MacAdam: The song, “His Mercy Is More.” He wrote.
Eden: Wow. We sing that all the time.
Jake MacAdam: He wrote, “He Will Hold Me Fast” and “Christ Our Hope In Life And Death.” So go check out Matt Merker! He’s amazing. I love that he gives—for Christians going through trials and suffering and life—he focuses on, here’s an attribute of God that we can cling to or something that’s true about the Lord. And what’s great about music is that you carry it with you. And something about music just really cements things in our minds, and we get to carry it with us. I’ve so appreciated him and his work that he’s done.
Eden: We’ll look him up. Those three songs that you mentioned are such rich, beautiful songs that I know my church sings all the time. For anyone listening, those would be great songs to check out and memorize and hold with you.
Jake MacAdam: Totally.
Eden: Well, I so appreciate your time and your willingness to talk and share with us about your life.
Jake MacAdam: Totally. Yeah. Thank you so much.
Eden: Thank you so much for listening to our podcast today. If you enjoyed our conversation, I would encourage you to like or subscribe to our podcast so that you can hear the next conversation. And if something that you heard today spoke to your heart or got you thinking, I would encourage you to not let the day go by without talking to God about what’s on your mind. We believe that he loves you and that he’s pursuing you today out of that love.