Matthew Harden: A Powerful Testimony of Worship, Leadership, and Raising Up the Next Generation

When Mr. Matthew Harden first touched a piano key, it wasn’t love at first note. In fact, it started with one-finger hymns, awkward restarts in the middle of church, and a strong dislike for the instrument. But over time, God’s calling, a community that refused to give up on him, and the lasting influence of his late mother transformed his music into a ministry that inspires both children and adults. In this candid conversation, Mr. Matthew shares his journey from reluctant player to passionate worship leader, the life lessons music has taught him, and his vision for raising up the next generation of church leaders.

I was deeply inspired by his ministry growing up, and I couldn’t think of a better person to launch the Adaia worship leader interview series. While you’ll read his moving testimony here, you’ll unfortunately miss out on the laughter and unforgettable comedic timing that brought his story to life. This interview was pure joy and encouragement. I’m truly grateful to Mr. Matthew for sharing his time and heart, and sending him the happiest of birthdays as well!

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Jade: Can you tell me a bit about your journey? How did you first get involved in music and worship leading?

Mr. Matthew: Actually, when I was younger, my older brother, my younger brother and I, we would sing songs in our church for Christmas and we were called The Wise Men in Black 'cause we wore black suits and we would sing Kirk Franklin songs in front of this church. It would be very embarrassing.

Jade: I bet it sounded good though.

Mr. Matthew: It did not.

Jade: Oh.

Mr. Matthew: I've mentally blocked it from my memory. The sound of it at least. I knew for a fact I could not sing at that point.

Jade: Wow. So you weren't always singing?

Mr. Matthew: No.

I was making sounds, out of tune. But making sounds

It started with that and it didn't really go anywhere . But then, the pianist at my church, she started to develop arthritis. She would play one song, and that was the song she knew, and that was the song she played. And we sung it because that's what she liked.

So we sang that song every week, but eventually she couldn't play anymore. And so my mom went to my siblings and I and said, all right, we have a guitar, drum, and a piano. Pick one, you guys are playing in church.

I picked the piano. My younger brother picked the guitar. My older brother picked the drums.

I absolutely hated it. I hated the piano. From the beginning, I absolutely hated it. I practiced like an hour every other day in my mom's room for the songs that we're gonna be singing in church. My church was very flexible, so they knew that I was learning it. They let me play the songs for our church with one finger. And that's how I played the songs, all of the hymns in church. And if I messed up, we started over.

Jade: In church?

Mr. Matthew: In church. We started the song over until I got it correct. So everyone was my little tutor.

Jade: That's one way to learn!

Mr. Matthew: That is the best way to learn. I think church was the best way to learn 'cause it's learning by experience. Baptized by fire. And so after a while, I started getting better. And reading more, learning how to play by reading more. Then one Thanksgiving, we went to my uncle and aunt's house and he was a music teacher as well, and he had a music studio in the little shed area of his house where he would do his lessons and stuff like that. And he took us in there, me and my younger brother, and he had showed us some of the things that he did on the piano, and I remember being absolutely fascinated with that. Like, how is he playing this? There's nothing in front of him. There's no sheet music in front of him.

We just sung a song for Thanksgiving and he just played it and that's it. With ease. And so eventually he told me, you just learn chords. Learn chords and learn scales. Then you're good to go. You can do whatever you want.

And I'll never forget to this day what he said: "When you start learning the piano, you are learning the fundamentals and the basics and stuff like that and trying to navigate your way around it. But when you really start to understand the piano, then you develop freedom to do what you want."

And so once I started understanding the piano and developing that freedom to do what I want, then I started liking the instrument.

I hated it before I started to understand it. And when I started to understand it, I was playing it all the time. I was getting better and better in church. I was practicing doing more chords. I was doing jazz chords and everything like that until, what I have today. And I'm still learning to do different things on the piano as well. So that's where I started.

Jade: And the singing just kind of came along with it?

Mr. Matthew: So, my ear got better with hearing the piano.

And I'm a firm believer that everyone has the ability to do everything. You just have to want it bad enough. So people that might be tone deaf, at some point in their life, if they keep practicing and doing it over and over again, eventually their ear is going to hear that... this don't sound right.

And so that's what happened to me. Because I played the piano for so long and started playing it more and more often, I started to hear what sounded bad. So I would fix my voice so it didn't sound bad.

Jade: So vocally, you're completely self-taught.

Mr. Matthew: Mm-hmm.

Jade: How did you first get involved in worship? Leading?

Mr. Matthew: So that started happening when I used to work at a summer camp in Pennsylvania. In that summer camp, they had a band that played. So at this point now, my piano's pretty well developed, to where I can play whatever I want.

Jade: How old were you at this point?

Mr. Matthew: I was 18 or 19. Before that I didn't really sing at all like that. I kind of kept to myself. I sung on my bicycle rides, stuff like that. But in church I wasn't really singing or leading worship or leading songs or any of that stuff.

I didn't sing until after my mom died.

That sucked. 'cause she was an amazing singer. She was a phenomenal opera and gospel singer. And she used to be in the Florida Mass Choir.

Jade: So the talent is hereditary.

Mr. Matthew: Possibly.

And so at that summer camp, they had a band, and I used to play the piano in that band. And then every once in a while, they'd have a mic in front of me and I'd sing along with them. Once they started noticing that my voice got a little better, they would start saying, Matthew, why don't you lead this song? And at first I was like, no thanks.

In those worship experiences, some of those songs were really deep and passionate. So then I got more comfortable singing songs like that and then singing in front of people, especially when I did it every morning. In front of kids. Every day.

And then, that moved over to like, leading the camp prayer songs and stuff like that. And, because I was the program specialist at that time, I did all the camp prayer songs.

So the more I just was singing in front of people, the more comfortable I got.

There were two songs my mom would lead every year before she passed away, called Guide My Feet, and Wade in the Water. Someone decided in our church we should sing this song. And everybody's like, who's gonna sing it. And then one day, there was no one leading the song.

So I just decided I'm gonna just start singing. And then ever since then I've been singing those two songs at my church.

Jade: Is it the same church that you've always gone to?

Mr. Matthew: I've been at this church since I was five years old.

Jade: Wow. That's awesome! Just to back track a bit, when you started singing with those kids, was that when you first felt called to continue serving God through music? Or was there a moment where you were like, I wanna make this a big part of my life, like I want this to be my ministry?

Mr. Matthew: Yes. I did feel called to start singing more at that time. In those bands, I wanted to branch out a little bit more and be more creative with some of the stuff that was there.

But I was still kind of like, let me stand in the back and play the piano. So I wasn't really saying, we should play this song instead, or do it this way. I wasn't in that mindset yet, but the more I got involved in different things, the more willing I was to do different things with music. I know that when I started doing the gospel choir here at Holy Cross and the adults Gospel Choir is when I really started to develop some creativity to do different things with music and, that was when I felt more of a calling that, okay, this is something I could see myself doing when I'm older, leading mass choirs and stuff like that or making CDs.

Jade: When was that?

Mr. Matthew: That was 14 years ago. And that was up until COVID hit. And then once COVID hit, we stopped the adult choir, the gospel choir. And then I started doing a little bit more, once I started teaching music here and started doing the praise team, songs for chapel and stuff like that. It was rough, kids were good, but it was rough. But I was seeing them start to develop, and I was starting to teach myself how to teach children to sing in harmony, or something like it. 'Cause it is unusual, for kids elementary-middle school age to sing in harmony.

In fact, I showed one of my friends at the school that I went to today, she's the music and fine arts director there. And, she said she wanted to see our praise team. I showed her a video and she saw them singing in unison. She said they sound really good. And then she heard 'em, singing in parts and she double took like, wait, what?

Took my phone from me. And was listening closer. She's like, they're singing in parts. I was like, yes, they do. She said, that is strange. You guys need to sing here next year. So we will be singing, at Westminster next year, but that's how it all started and that's how I felt my calling when I started in the gospel choir and it started moving, with the youth Praise team.

Jade: How has your relationship with God shaped the way that you lead both the adult and the children's choir?

Mr. Matthew: Pre my mom's death, my relationship with God was a little transactional. I always tell the kids, when I pray, I imagine certain things in my head. So when I was younger and I prayed, I imagined I was sitting on the floor right in front of God, he was on his throne and he had a checkbook. And he's writing down the things that I'm saying that I want. And that was what my relationship with God was. "I would like this for Christmas. Make it happen. Thanks." And that's almost how I treated my music as well. When it came to playing in the church. I wasn't really passionate about doing other songs.

When they'd asked me to do the song, it was always taxed with, can we get McDonald's afterwards? Can I get candy afterwards? Can they start paying me? And it never really felt like I was just doing it for God, and to glorify God. It was very transactional.

Then my mom passed away, and in my mind when I prayed, God was not there. The vision that I had in my head, whenever I would pray, I'd be under a dark, grey sky; it would be windy. I'd be in a wheat field up to my knees and I would just be calling out and there's nothing, no answer, nothing.

And so that was that way for a good five or six years.

Jade: Wow.

Mr. Matthew: Five or six years. I was very, angry.

And when something bad would happen, and they're like, legit things that are bad, like, someone stole my bicycle or someone robbed my house and stuff like serious things to be upset about, when I would be complaining and venting about it, I'd always circle back to say, "and God took my mom away too." And so when someone had pointed that out to me, I started doing therapy and getting that under control and started understanding that.

He didn't take her away. He relieved her from the sickness that she had and took away her pain and now she's able to be with him. She's able to be with him and one day I will be able to be with her and him as well. So once my mindset changed with that, then my worship and playing music and my reasoning for playing music and worshiping changed as well.

Now when I pray, I don't see it as a big open, grey field. I see it more as now we're sitting on a park bench having a conversation with each other.

So that's how it's changed now, to where there's points where my throat is hurting me, but I will still sing. Because I feel like he's worth it. He's worth putting that effort in. He's worth putting your all into it. Even if your all is scratchy and cracks here and there, he's still worth putting your all into.

I tell the kids all the time, you're not singing for me. You're not even singing for yourself. You're singing for God. And he's worth every bit of that voice, so unleash it.

Jade: Wow, that is beautiful. Thank you for sharing that. In your view, what is the spiritual purpose of music in the church or in schools? What does it do and why do we need it ?

Mr. Matthew: The spiritual purpose of music in the church?

Several times in the Bible, music is what brought people closer to God, and music was a way that people showed or honored God's power. So that's one of the ways that we can bring glory. That's one of the ways we worship him that God absolutely adores and loves that we do in honor of him.

So why not do it to your fullest extent?

And when it comes to school, there's so much you can gain from music.

There are math skills you can gain, critical thinking skills. Reading music. Hand-eye coordination when it comes to playing instruments. Dancing, developing rhythm and stuff like that , and learning how to count. Fractions; there's so many things you can get from music.

For example, my younger kids' classes, they can't read right now. But I still play music and we do a steady beat. I've watched them from the point where they cannot hold a steady beat to save their life, and now they can keep that steady beat. And now once they've had that steady beat, we can add in a little side to side. Or they can start counting with the beat or doing their alphabets with it and stuff like that. There's things that you develop through music that you can't really develop with a lot of other things.

Jade: And what kind of impact do you hope to leave on the students you teach?

Mr. Matthew: This is going back to what I was saying before. So a lot of churches are dying out and the main reason why is because they're not training their youth to be the Church of Tomorrow.

It's partially because Gen Z kids are not really wanting to do anything in the church and their parents don't want to force their kids to do anything either. Whereas my parents, had me sitting in that room and playing that piano for an hour every time I needed to practice.

But a lot of these churches, they don't really use their youth for anything. My church, it's one of the things that I love about my church. The kids are involved.

I was taught to play piano in that church, and we're currently doing that with some of our kids now. Some of our kids, they collect the offering plates. They read the scripture. They do the scripture readings every Sunday morning, sometimes they do sermons. Last week they did the sermon for our church for youth Sunday. They do a lot of our fundraising things. Sometimes they'd ask, "Can we set up the altar this Sunday?" and we let 'em do it.

If there is something they feel like it's their calling to do, if there's something that they want to do to glorify God, we do not stop them from doing it no matter what it is. Even if it's to play a song, and it's not even a Christian song, on the piano at my church, we let 'em do it. If they want to do that, and show that to the church and do it to God's glory, go ahead. Go ahead and do it. I think that's what a lot of churches lack nowadays. So I want to develop a future where we have leaders and I actually see it developing in them today, where I have some kids and they're not only developing music wise, but it's developing them in their life in general and how they treat others and how they do things. A student cussed in my class the other day. And he felt absolutely sorry about it. Got me a Popeye's gift card, wrote a nice apology letter, and gave me a hug and everything and promised never to do that again.

Another great example, our Praise Team tech leader. He comes early himself and sets up the microphones and gets the songs ready himself. And I don't have to tell him to do anything.

Things like that where they start to develop their better character and a better walk with Christ. They don't like to do certain things because it might be wrong or shameful in the eyes of Christ. And they'll treat each other a little better and stuff like that. We don't really have any fights in, in praise team because everyone gets along.

They're happy. And that's part of what the worship experience gives them as well. It gives them a sense of responsibility, knowing that that spirit that they are gaining from worshiping and the feeling that they're getting from worshiping, they're inspiring others to have that experience as well.

And that gives them a sense of leadership as well to where you have some of them stepping up to be leaders in their classes. Especially in seventh grade and a couple eighth graders right now. Hopefully next year or maybe in a few years, I could just show up to praise team and say, all right, guys, pick three songs, work on them, and I'll just be the warm body in the room to fix certain things. And they'll figure that out on their own. It's getting to that point.

So it's creating leaders of tomorrow. Not too many of them are given those opportunities to serve in the church and to be leaders in the church. When they get older and they have this training to be a leader in the church, they will then step up and say, I want to do this. Instead of waiting for someone to say, can you do this? So that's what I'm hoping comes out of it.

Jade: What would you say to someone who feels called to serve through music but is unsure where to start?

Mr. Matthew: Be willing to make mistakes. I tell people all the time, learning is making mistakes. The only way to learn is to make mistakes. When you make mistakes, it gives you the ability to adapt to different things and being too afraid to make the mistakes, that's usually the reason why people are afraid to do things later in life. They don't want to do things out of their comfort zone because they don't want to make a mistake in front of people. Or sound bad in front of people. But when you do that and choose not to do things, then you lose those opportunities that could develop your voice or develop your skills in whatever aspect it is.

So be willing to make mistakes. It's okay to make mistakes. Mistakes are how you learn. If you don't make mistakes, you're not gonna learn.

Jade: How can we as a community support and uplift worship leaders and music educators?

Mr. Matthew: How can we support and uplift them? Pay them. Allow 'them the freedom to do what they want to do. Creative liberty. There was a church that I was at that I used to play the piano at, even though I've gone to my church all my life, maybe I'll take a little job here and there, and this church, I would introduce like, a different kind of melody or feel of music. They'd be like, "go back, go back to the way that we were doing it." There was no liberty to do anything other than what people knew. And so when you do that, it doesn't make people excited to do it anymore.

Jade: And my last question: is there a scripture or song that has anchored you in difficult or joyful seasons? Or both?

Mr. Matthew: I know it. It's actually my mom's favorite verse too. It was 1 Corinthians 10:31: "So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." So whether you are singing a kids song or even if your throat is hurting or you're not feeling real well, if you have to get up there and sing it, do it to the best of your ability and do it, for the glory of God.

Don't just do anything with half effort. Don't do anything 50%.

Give your 100.