Brian 'Head' Welch to Christians: Transformation Doesn't Happen Overnight, Let God Do His Work (Interview)
One transgender man he met asked him "Do you love transgender people?" Welch replied: "What do you think? Of course I do."
"I then gave him a big hug and really started to melt my heart," Welch said.
CP asked Welch where else he has seen God use his testimony to change lives.
As it turns out, rock concert attendees are not the only ones who God touches and often convicts when they hear his story.
One guy who is now a good friend of his, Welch recounts, told him that when he watched Welch share his story on CNN, he repented from a life of sinful, destructive habits.
"This guy was a porno-master, and was into all kinds of kinky stuff. And he used to make fun of me, and he ended up watching a video of my testimony just so he could mock it. But then, all of a sudden, he couldn't get it out of his mind and said to himself, 'I have to find out what is in that book.'"
That friend ended up in church, got a Bible, and in Welch's words, "he got totally, radically saved."
"His wife said he went crazy for about two weeks," Welch added with a laugh, "but then she started going to church and she got saved."
Welch also emphasized that he is not out to disparage churches.
"I also go and speak at churches, and some of them are more conservative. I mean, I'm all over the place. I love Jesus' Church! I love the charismatics, the Calvary Chapels, the non-denominational ones, and even the ones that don't believe in the gifts [of the Spirit]."
CP also asked Welch how he's dealing with criticism about his decision to rejoin Korn after many years.
Welch said it was not a decision he made lightly, but through a series of providential events and much prayer and discernment he sensed God leading him to be a witness in the rocker world.
"It's a special calling. Not everybody understands it, not everybody is called to that, but I am." he said.
"It's great because I'm not the only one," he added, noting that his own bass player, Fieldy, is now a Christian and other rockers, like Alice Cooper, know the Lord.
"So we're positioned here and we're doing what we're supposed to be doing, and we're light in a dark place," he said.
As CP reported last week, Welch recently spoke to the Arizona Republic about rejoining the band: "If it was a crazy party still, I would not have gone back. I mean, I'm around parties and we go to bars sometimes. I hang out with my friends and some of them drink mildly, but if there was, like, cocaine and bong rips thrown in my face every day, I couldn't do it."
Justin Stumvoll, one of the creators of The Liberation Project podcast who CP interviewed last month, is also a friend of Welch's. Stumvoll ministered to people alongside Welch at the concert in Mountain View last month and was asked what it was like to watch the rocker share Jesus with people.
"Even in all of his self-admitted flaws, Brian is one of the most humble, bold, loving men I have met. I truly believe that because of this, Brian will go down in the Christian history books as one of the most prolific evangelists of our generation," Stumvoll said in an email to CP. "I don't believe the Church knows what to do with him in this moment, but the undeniable fruit that he is producing behind the scenes, hidden from plain sight, will one day come to light."
The bottom line, Welch emphasized, is this: "I know that, especially in my own life, that the more we lay down stuff — and I truly believe this — the stuff in our lives that we struggle with, the more of God we have. And so the more we die to this world the more we come alive. I want people get that too. It's all about God's timing."
To check out Brian Head Welch's latest book, With My Eyes Wide Open: Miracles and Mistakes on My Way Back to Korn, click here.