I can’t even begin to explain how good God is! When God is working, there’s nothing else that you can do but sit back and watch the show. This first month without a permanent job has been so much more than I thought it would be. I was just hoping to get by and do what I had to do. Instead, we met our neighbors and have started a great friendship with them. I met a radio celebrity (she’s probably gonna kill me for that one!), got to sing and lead worship with 2 amazing bands, and build connections that would have never happened otherwise…and that was all at one church! That doesn’t even include my trip to Godfrey at the beginning of the month which was totally awesome. I had such a great time riding with and leading worship with my friend, Erica DeVilbiss. I’ve also met people from a couple of churches who have shown interest in me. I’m pretty sure that I wouldn’t have met any of these people had it not been for God’s working. I can’t wait to see what he has in store for next month.

If you are interested in where we’re going next, the month of July looks sort of like this…

July 5th I’ll be at TimberRidge Community Church. Still not sure if I’m leading there yet, but we’re going for a visit. Love the people down there.

July 12th I’ll be leading worship at Rockwood Baptist Church in Wildwood, MO. This is becoming one of my favorite places to go. There are some really nice people there and they love God. I love leading for churches that love God…

July 19th I will be leading worship with family at West Hills Community Church. There’s not much else to say about this one except for this is family. Pastor Gary and his wife Jenny are lovely people and it’s always good to go home.

So as I was saying, sometimes you have to look back and realize that things are happening in ways that only God can make them happen. OH! Before I forget, my expectations were really blown away this month. I set a goal for myself to have 200 visits to my blogsite here. I thought it would be a stretch, especially since last month netted about 50. Either way, I set my sights and went for it. That meant a lot of writing for me, and also a lot of praying. The last time I checked we were sitting at about 320 visits for this month alone! Thanks friends for continuing to check in a read what I have to say. I’ll keep writing if you keep reading. Have a blessed week. You’ll probably hear from me again.

[polldaddy poll=1738498]

So, I’m sitting in the office area in my house and this feels old. My wife and I have been trying for the past few weeks to find something substancial for employment and nothing seems to be working. Or at least that’s how it feels…

I think that right now it seems really hard to wait and it seems really hard to know what to do next. Being stuck in the middle is not fun, but evidently this is where God wants me to be. What am I supposed to learn from this? Have I learned it? What’s next out there for me? Only God knows…

I think I’m just writing this so I can say how I’m feeling. If no one reads this one I’m totally fine with that. However, I had to share my heart with my friends. I could really use some encouragement right now because as I sit here today, I’m feeling a little scattered and alone. Please pray for us…

²⁷ Why do you say, O Jacob,
and complain, O Israel,
“My way is hidden from the LORD;
my cause is disregarded by my God”?²⁸ Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.

²⁹ He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.

³⁰ Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;

³¹ but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.

So I was reading this passage a couple days ago as I was preparing for Sunday. Worship leaders always try to find a scripture that will work with a particular song or theme that they are trying to follow for the service. As I was searching and reading I came across Isaiah 40. We all know this passage for the famous 31st verse. I decided that I would take a trip back a little and see what words led up to that verse.  As always, I loved what I found. It seemed to fit so perfectly with my life at this time.

My wife and I have been dealing with the loss of our job and the difficulty in finding a new one. Of course, we are hoping that something works out soon because we have a house to pay for and 2 little girls to feed. Even though we know full well that God is taking care of us and knows our every step, sometimes we feel like the Israelites in verse 27. We feel like our cause is being disregarded by God.

However, we are gaining strength as we wait on the Lord. This is such an interesting concept. As we wait on the Lord…wait…not moving forward…not making plans…not staying on top of the bills…not having food…strength is rising. I am constantly amazed at how that continues to work. We have sent resumes all over the country over the past week or so and we have heard back from a couple. They have all said the same thing. But we still have hope. Things are starting to take shape in a few places, and we are just waiting to see what God’s gonna do. If you wait on the Lord, strength will rise…

So today was an amazing day. That’s how I start this post. I can’t believe how it all came together. So without any more delay, let me break this down.

So as I’ve said before, I was slated to lead worship this week and next for the Quest service (younger, contemporary) at First Evangelical Free Church is West County. I had been in talks with the director of this service all week making plans and getting things lined up. I got to the church this morning and ran into some of the band members and we were getting ready and talking through things and I finally met Alisha (the director) face to face. We begin talking through details and all that stuff and she asked was my wife there. I explained that she wasn’t because we only had one car and all these things. Well, she asked where I lived and I said south St. Louis. Then she said, “So do I.” As we continue to break down where we live we figure out that we share an alley and have been living across the alley from each other for over a year! We realized that we’ve crossed passed before and didn’t really know it. Her husband Jim, tried to run my wife over in the car last night (not really, but I’m messing with him). That was such an amazing connection and it set the tone for what ended being a simply marvelous day.

We ended up sharing with the congregation that it’s amazing what you find out once you step outside your door. We found a new set of friends. It was something that only God could have done. Now, I have no idea what God is doing or will do with today, but I do know that He’s working. And when God is working it’s best to stay out of the way and let Him do His thing. I’m glad that I met Jim and Alisha this morning. Only God knows what this relationship will lead to. I do know that we share an alley and we’ll be eating dinner together soon. Promise…

Well, I’m doing my best to continue writing my thoughts about worship styles and how I see them. In response, to my friend Charlie, I’m making sure to write about worship from a contemporary viewpoint today. I may take a break tomorrow and write about another on Monday. With all that being said…

So my answer to this question will be the same as the answer to the previous blog’s question…NO! I will step out on a limb and say that everything about contemporary worship is not good. We have gotten some great songs over the years from some great musicians and writers. We have also seen this music be something that has brought up some new musicians. We think about songs like “How Great is Our God” and “Your Grace is Enough” and you wonder how anything about contemporary music can be bad. But here is what I feel has been the BIGGEST issue with the world of contemporary music. Surprisingly enough, it won’t have anything to do with Chris Tomlin or Steve Fee. It has to do with the people in our churches…

People who have contemporary worship services tend to be alienating of other worship styles. Most of my experiences with people who sing contemporary music has been where the singers have negative thoughts about hymns of the past.  Now I know that to some degree this is an overgeneralization, but I’m just speaking for arguement sake.  I feel that sometimes we can get so excited about something new that we just blast whatever was old. That is something that hurts harmony within the body. Then we start seeing seperate services for traditional and contemporary in the same morning. Although I’m not a huge fan of separate services because of differences in style, I’ll take it over the other thing that tends to happen.

Some churches will attempt to update music and do things in a new way, but with people who don’t understand the music. When musicians try to do things they aren’t familiar with without the help of someone who IS familiar with it, that is really frustrating to me. I will try my best not to run off on a tangent, because I’m sure that’s not helpful to anyone. I think at this point I’m going to stop and leave this up for discussion…

Well, in one word, the answer to that question is an emphatic NO! Tradition worship has its place even in today’s world. Is it for everyone? I don’t think so. For some reason, people look at was is older than them and think it’s bad. You may not like it, but it doesn’t mean it’s bad. I was having a conversation about this very thing with my dad and he was telling me that when he was young, they used to hear the stuff that his parents listened to and thought it was weird.  Some of us have looked back at the music of the 70′s and thought “really???” We always look to the things before us with sort of a mindset that that’s old and everything we do now is so much better.

So how should we approach traditional worship today? Well, we MUST have a healthy appreciation for it in order to express our love for the whole body of Christ. Our older body members are still important to the body. Sometimes we tend to push them to the side after a while, and they still have great validity. How do we handle this situation, well, that may be different from a church to church basis. However, I will tell you this. If you don’t respect them, you are automatically bringing tension within the body that can never be beneficial. Plus, if you listen long enough, you might learn something from those who have been around awhile. Church doesn’t have to be about reinventing the wheel. But we can do things to make it continue to roll. Whether  you want to believe it or not, traditional music was contemporary at one point. It knows a little bit about rolling…

So I’ve been thinking about this a for a little while now. I’ve decided that I’m not a huge fan of the word ‘blended’.  The other thing that I have decided is that there is so much emphasis put on this style of worship because people seem to think this is the answer to the problems within the church.  The thought is that you can do newer songs without losing some of the older songs that people have come to know and love. I believe that this is a key element in leading the church in worship. Songs have meaning and they generally mean different things to different people at different times. This makes it difficult as a worship leader to choose songs because you want to keep current without leaving people behind. So how current is TOO current? How far back do you reach?

A few years ago before he died, Robert Webber begun calling this style “Converged”. I think this is a good name for it, and I believe that this is a little more than just semantics. Robert Webber was an amazing thinker and always took many things into consideration. I believe that this type of approach is the one that needs to be taken in order for this style of worship to actually work.  Bringing different styles and different eras together on a weekly basis may be the hardest thing to do. I applaud those who do that weekly (I have been one of them for a while). There has to be a continued reach toward fine tuning this idea. Who’s going to step up?

So, I’ve been looking lately for different ministry positions for different churches all over the country. One of the things that churches always put on the front of their page is the type of worship style they have. There are many different styles (trust me, I’ve studied them all) and everyone has its place. I think the one thing that I’ve decided that these differences can sometimes be divisive and problems come from that divisiveness.  I then decided that I would sort of write some of my own personal thoughts about these different styles.  Keep checking in because I will trying to write one everyday this week about some of the different styles that are out there.

In other news…the job search continues. The search has been expanded to the rest of the country now (which is sort of sad…), but we are finding some prospects. Keep praying that God will show us where he wants us to be. I’ll keep you posted on that, too.  Check in starting tomorrow for the first worship breakdown.