Also available on Amazon and Audible.
In our performance-driven culture, we have a tendency to want to bypass the day of small beginnings. We want impact and we want it now. At best, we tolerate small beginnings as long as they lead us (preferably quickly) to big stages and meaningful influence.
What if we could begin to grasp the fact that the mundane emptiness that we want to leapfrog over is the very season that God is excited about experiencing with us?
In Empty Rooms, Justin Rizzo shares how his experiences over 18 years of leading worship gave him a deep desire to live before the eyes of God alone. Leading worship for thousands of hours in a room that was mostly empty taught him the value of truly living for an audience of one and he shares his insights in this timely book.
ENDORSEMENTS
We live in a world gone mad. Addiction to phones, likes, clicks, and the drive for fame consumes our culture today. It is an increasingly rare thing to find a man, particularly a young man, who has circumvented this trap and pressed into the heart of God with his whole being. Justin Rizzo is such a man. He has made it his intention to live before the eyes of God alone and in doing so, has experienced realities that many of us only read about. The truths Justin unpacks in the pages of this book give biblical credence and earthly validation to a life of sacrifice, devotion, and wholehearted love. The true beauty of Empty Rooms is that its realities are not exclusive; rather, it invites anyone who has felt the emptiness of quiet and seemingly barren moments to meet the Creator in those places and be forever changed.
John and Stasi Eldredge
New York Times best-selling authors
The need to cultivate deep wells of worship and wonder in our hearts has never been greater. In a world of frenetic activity, confusion and chaos, we need leaders with courage, depth and wisdom—a non-anxious presence. Leaders like this are shaped in the hidden place before God. This book is full of lessons learned, practical insights and a vision to see Christ-centered worshippers released here on earth.
Tim Hughes
Lead pastor, Gas Street Church, Birmingham, worship leader and songwriter
I have known and worked closely with Justin Rizzo for over 17 years—he is the real deal. I have seen his life and can say with confidence that he is faithful, diligent, hardworking, and very sincere in loving and serving Jesus and His people. He is tireless in his pursuit of encountering the heart and beauty of Jesus. I have seen him sit before God consistently in the prayer room here in Kansas City. I have seen him grow and have rejoiced to see him mature as a leader who equips and pastors others with integrity. In his book titled Empty Rooms, Justin writes with authority on the topics of silence, solitude, and the secret place because he has learned these truths through years of personal experience. It is my privilege to recommend Empty Rooms to anyone who longs to meet with God in the quiet, everyday places of life and discover the gifts He has prepared for those who look to Him and love Him.
Mike Bickle
Founder, International House of Prayer of Kansas City
Each one of us spends time in empty rooms and spaces throughout the course of our days. Justin Rizzo helps us identify those seemingly empty places as doorways where God wants to meet with us. Let Justin’s experience and skill guide you to a place of renewed encounter with the Lover of your soul.
Bob Sorge
Author of Secrets of the Secret Place
Your life has been wasted are five words that none of us ever want to hear from Jesus when we meet Him on the final day. But what is His metric for evaluating a fruitful and successful life? Most of the time, it has little to do with what the eye can see and what this world would deem successful. The essence of your life is what is behind the face, the place where no one else sees, where it is you and God alone. Empty Rooms is a divine invitation into deeper communion with Jesus. In the pages of this book, Justin lays out the fact that the world may judge your life as wasted time in empty rooms, but the reality is that the love you have poured out in those very places of barrenness and solitude will be forever remembered by Heaven.
Misty Edwards Singer, songwriter
I’ve heard it said that the definition of integrity is being the same person when nobody’s looking. That’s my friend Justin Rizzo. When a man spends thousands of hours worshiping God in a room full of empty chairs, that is a man with a real heart after God… and a man who has something to say about true worship. I pray this book challenges worship leaders to look inside and ask the question, “Would I still sing praises to Jesus if the room was empty?”
Jesse Reeves
Songwriter, pastor at KingsPorch
I’ve known and run alongside Justin Rizzo for 17 years in the prayer room and I can fully attest to the things written in this book. They didn’t come from reading books or hearing stories, but from the thousands of hours in mostly empty rooms with no one but him and God. That kind of stuff doesn’t come cheaply, but is fleshed out in the slow process of knowing God. We as a culture are in desperate need of leaders who can call us to the ancient paths of seeking and knowing God, and I believe that Empty Rooms is the book for a time like this. I wholeheartedly endorse the author and the message and believe this will be a game-changer for all who read it and take it seriously.
Corey Russell
Author of Teach us to Pray
Simple, nuanced, relevant. Justin takes timeless and timely truth and communicates it with depth. If there was a book that speaks to our cultural moment, this is it.
David Brymer
Artist, worship leader, writer of "Worthy of it All"