Why do I do these things? I THINK it’s because I like when people discuss things. I like seeing multiple sides of a conversation. I like to see how the sparkle and how each one stands up to pressure. Probably why I like diamonds. Or something like that…

For as long as I’ve been leading worship in the church, there have been MANY opinions about the way things should go. Some people share their opinions with you. Some don’t. But there are always opinions. I learned that you have to listen to them presently and consider them privately. Or at least that’s how it works for me. Why? I’m an internal processor and it takes me a while to work through a concept or an idea. Also, people are passionate about their ideas and if you don’t totally agree with them and I don’t think through it up front I could end up doing some damage to that relationship. Private consideration allows me to really dig into the words that are said and prepare a proper response. One word that I hear a lot is happy. One word I don’t hear a lot is joy. I believe that there is a difference in these two and in some ways this difference is causing some real difficulties in today’s church.

Happiness is a tough thing to shoot for a couple reasons in my mind. The things that make us happy don’t change. But the things around us change. So as things change sometimes we can become unhappy with a situation. Also, searching for happiness tends to be a backwards approach. As musical styles change, the we are introduced to things that we may have never heard before. We may or may not like those things. And they don’t make us happy. And we tell the worship leader. This situation makes things hard for the worship leader because we can’t make everyone happy. It’s not our job because it’s virtually impossible. Have we tried before? Yes, that’s why we all know it doesn’t work. Ask one and they will tell you.

I believe that the trap we fall into is looking for the church or musical style to make us happy. We all have differing levels of happiness. That’s part of the reason we have so many denominations in the Protestant church. When we can shift our focus from what we like to who we’re worshiping then things start to come together. I am a St. Louis Cardinals fan. I lots of them. I know some that think TLR (Tony LaRussa for my non sports friends) is crazy. I know some thing think he’s a genius. He doesn’t make them all happy. But there’s one common interest that brings joy to both sides; the team themselves. No matter what we think about that one person, the overall team brings joy and those people can sit next to each other in the stands and cheer for the team because of that common joy.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that we shouldn’t want to be happy. I like being happy. When it comes to worship, we should enjoy that as well. Sometimes, the situation won’t look exactly like what we want it to look like. That’s when we have to reach deeper and find what brings us joy. If that is the Gospel of Christ and his death, resurrection and coming return then you can find tons of people who share in that joy and worship together with them. You’ll also find tons of music to celebrate that fact. Is it your style? Maybe, maybe not. But if you let your long term joy take over instead of your short term happiness, you may find some of both at the same time. It could happen…

Happy March everyone! Yes, I used a ridiculous pun just now. But I couldn’t really find any other link between the two major things I wanted to mention this morning. The first of them being how crazy it is that we’re already in March. It seems like I was just bringing in this year yesterday with friends and watching 2010 fade away. Now we’re starting the end of the first quarter of the year. This life moves so fast and sometimes I wonder what in the world I’m doing here. I was already wrestling with this thought last night and when I woke up this morning my friend had already written a similar post. I would implore you to go check it out. Here’s a link to Bry’s blog. But read it after this one .  However, I came to my conclusion as a result of something a little different.

So in the Christian author and theology world there is a huge controversy going on right now. Normally I don’t get into these big time theological debates. And I don’t really plan to get into this one, but I was intrigued by this and have paid a little more attention. Evidently Rob Bell, who is one of today’s most popular Christian figures with books, videos and sermons being accessed all over the globe, has made a splash with his upcoming book “Love Wins” where it sounds as if he has taken a rather awkward view of Christianity and God Himself. Since this news came out I have read many blog posts and other articles about this and they range from blasting his face off to at least giving him some benefit of doubt until the book comes out. Now based on this video, the stance that Rob has taken says that there is no way that a loving God could send anyone to hell. Now that sends people reeling in all kinds of directions, and I’m not trying to fight that battle right now. But I find something really interesting. The whole concept of this book is that love will reign supreme in the end. Now, I don’t know where you stand on this whole idea, but I do believe that love should reign in our lives. We have to love each other no matter what they believe. Differences will always occur, but we can’t let them drive us to where we treat people in horrible ways. This book hasn’t even come out yet and we have nailed Rob Bell to the wall. From the sounds of the video, it’s pretty safe to say that we know what to expect when we read it. But at the end of the day, until March 29th gets here the only people that know what are on the pages between that cover are Rob himself, publishers, editors and anyone he’s had to help him in this writing process. I don’t know any of those people, but I’m pretty sure that it isn’t ANY of the people that have blasted him on the Internet.

Now I say all of that to say that sometimes it’s REALLY easy to see why people tend to shy away from Christianity and everyone associated with it. If we blast someone this bad that is supposedly one of our own, what in the world does it look like to non believers? Are we displaying love? I think if nothing else Rob has proven yet again that we will like you if you agree with us. And if that’s the message we are sending out then it’s no wonder that people are already looking at a world that is post Christian and how that will affect the world that we live in. Now I plan on reading this book because I want to see what it is that he’s really saying. In the mean time I will, and you should, be praying for this man. Right or wrong he needs to be loved with the true love of Christ. In the same vein, there is someone around you in your neighborhood, on your job, at the store you frequent that doesn’t know the saving love of Christ. Pray for them. Love them. Love them to the foot of the cross. Happy March 1st.

Have you ever been on stage, getting ready to start singing, everyone is listening to the intro music and ready to give their all in worship, and then it happens… You start to sing and NO ONE goes with you. The song is too high. The women are screaming and the men don’t want to sing in the key that you are in so they try to sing lower and they are growling. But you’ve already started the song and you hav to finish. You’re stuck in Wrong Key Land. You can’t get out for another 3 minutes or so. Those 3 minutes feel like FOREVER! You can’t do anything to fix it. You wonder why you ever started singing in the first place. You want to cut off your hands and hide in a box for a month…okay maybe not THAT bad but you get the picture.

Right now I am still in that stage at my new church. Worship leaders will tell you this and non worship leaders may have never thought about it, but churches have a key. And sometimes finding that key takes a little time. Sometimes you find it rather quickly, like I did at my previous church. Sometimes it takes a few weeks, like it’s taking at my current church. My hope is that it doesn’t take too long because people will eventually stop singing and they look at you in that ‘poor kid, he has no idea’ look.

If you’re an experienced worship leader that has experienced this, how did you fix it? Or did you? If you haven’t had much practice with this, just know that it WILL happen.

Being a worship leader is SOOOO much more than putting worship sets together during the week, running rehearsals and singing on Sunday. It even goes past the numerous workshops and planning meetings that seem to be never-ending. It takes us past webinars and blogging. Sometimes it is as simple (and as difficult) as being a shepherd within the church in which we are serving.

Encouragement can sometimes be the hardest thing to do even though it can be one of the easiest things to execute. We spend so much time making sure that all of the big time, super important, worship leadery things are taken care of that sometimes we overlook the people that are helping us out on a day to day and week to week basis. I have found that it’s easy for me to let my perfectionist nature when it comes to music overtake my desire to be an encourager of the people that are giving of their time and talents to the ministry as well.

I’m thinking about this a lot today as I’m going to prepping for the first choir rehearsal at the new church. They have been excited to have a choir with a consistent leader before I ever walked in the door good. Well I’m in the door and they have been chomping at the bit. Sunday after service there may have been 1700 people come to me saying that they would be there tonight (which is funny because there were only about 125 people there). I am working through music and all these things and plans for rehearsal, but I am also making sure that I have ways built into my teaching that are encouraging and loving so that we move forward together. I believe that this whole choir concept is going to be a little different than what some of them expect and that’s the plan. I’m ready to see what God’s gonna do because I think it will be fun. I’ll let you know how it goes…

This whole blog is about taking what we have known or have learned about worship and turning upside down to be focused on God and not ourselves. I have tried to share how that transformation happened in me. I remember when the thought process changed for me and how, even though it wasn’t ‘easy’, it was definite and I went with it. Ever since then I have been doing my best to make this change in my mind and heart. In my mind, I have always thought that if I got something, then I must be the last one to figure it out and everyone else has been doing this for awhile. This thought process has changed over the years, but this concept has all be completely cured me of that way of thinking.

I started working at a new church this month and what a joy that has been! The people are sweet and I’m already starting to make some friends. The other thing that is happening is the learning of the culture of this church. As a musician and someone who has spent all of my life in church, it doesn’t take long to get an idea of the way a church flows. This church is no different. I was brought into this church not only to fill a void musically, but to help be a part of changing a culture within this church. Now I have been asked to do this multiple times before and I haven’t always said yes to the challenge. But this time I did. This time I felt like there was a chance that this could really work. Not trying to discount the Father and His power at all, but in other instances I wasn’t sure if what was being asked was a good idea.

I believe that there are 3 ways to change a culture within a church, or anywhere for that matter. If you have these 3 things in place, you have a MUCH better chance for success. Here they are:

Have a Clear, Deliberate Vision

The church that I’m currently a part of is really wanting to move forward from some of the really old things and ways of doing church to new ways of ‘being’ church. They are trying to do some really cool new things with the sermons, musically, and relationally that look different than church used to look 20, 30, 40 years ago. What’s tough is that there are some people still there from 40 years ago. That makes it hard. But the vision is clear. So even though it may be a tough ride, everyone knows what they are working toward.

Have a Committed Team

It’s one thing to have a vision that is clear, but it can be hard to change a culture when you’re the only one thinking that way. When you have a group that is flowing together with the vision that has been set before them you are going to be able to sustain through the struggle of change.

Lead, Don’t Drag

I think this may be the most important. If I’ve learned nothing from being a part of churches, people don’t do change well. If I’ve learned nothing from Baptist churches, I’ve learned that they don’t like change EVER! Obviously I say that jokingly, but it’s really hard to move people in church from the things they are comfortable with. So when you want to change something, you cannot drag people along or they will NEVER go for whatever it is that you’re doing. You may bring them to a point, but they may never totally accept it (You can lead a horse to water…). If we lead our people with clear explanation of what God is doing and how and why, we have a much better chance of them following. Besides, dragging people hurts both the people and you. You give them ugly scars and you get a nasty backache from putting a whole church on your back.