I’ve heard it said many times before that it is always good to share your vision on a regular basis. I have seen the importance of this many times. I don’t think I’ve been the vision caster in the same way until this week. I have been thinking and praying a lot this week about the direction of the worship design team that I created at my church. That have been a hard working bunch, but I really felt like we needed to take some time and refocus ourselves on our goal and purpose. As I have worked through those things in my heart I came to the conclusion that I should revisit my focus for everything that I do, including writing this blog. So I thought I would take the rest of the week and put back into focus the vision for why I write this.

When I originally came up with the idea for worship180 I wanted to share my endless pursuit of true worship. And I just sounded like a Lexus commercial. Anyway, I didn’t think that it was any different from other people’s desire for worship, but I thought that maybe it would be a spin that someone hadn’t thought of before. I knew that I wanted to experience worship that wasn’t about who I am or how good I can sing or play an instrument. I wanted it to be all about the all around relationship between me and God, me and the people I worship with and lastly me and the people that might not understand what worship really is. So I thought about how that would look and what that would truly mean if I tried to do that each and every day. I knew that my first tier of this thing had to be my relationship with Christ. That’s why the first part of the vision is Encounter the Savior. There’s no way to really worship without knowing who you’re worshiping. So I know that I have to continuously seek the Kingdom of God. That automatically changed my approach to what I do. My approach to my job changed. I added a different element to how I prepared for a worship set as well as Sunday morning. When you start to seek God you quickly learn how much you were thinking about yourself. A shift has to happen pretty quickly or you will find it hard to encounter the Savior. You have to be willing to step out of the way to make room for Him to share His heart with you.

So the question is this. Are you taking time to encounter the Savior in worship? Are you leaving your heart open to what God wants to say to you as you are giving back to him? Have you ever taken this approach into worship? I guess that’s more like 3 questions… If you haven’t had this mindset about worship before now, I would ask you to try it. See what God has in store for you in worship. Sometimes it’s as simple as a change of focus.

Today was just one of those days. From a production standpoint, it was horrible. I didn’t do ANY of the things I actually set out to do. That is proven by the simple fact that I’m writing today’s blog at 9:30. I wanted to write when I woke up this morning and that didn’t happen. So why was this day so great overall? Well, for those of you in St. Louis, you know that it was simply gorgeous outside. I ended up spending the day with my 3 girls. We spent the morning and part of the afternoon at the park on a blanket. Then we came home and pulled out the grill for the first time this year. Welcome back, grill. Anyway, it turned out to be a great day.

The thing that struck me as odd and wonderful was that when I was so focused on trying to do what I wanted to do, I ended up doing things that caused me to pay more attention to God and His details in my life. I noticed that my daughters are growing up so fast and even though I’m with them pretty frequently I’m still missing stuff. I noticed that my wife is an extremely gorgeous pregnant woman. This was evident with our first two girls, but it’s been almost 6 years. I noticed that I can focus on things when my brain isn’t so scattered. I noticed that my wife has been working terribly hard to get our house ready for this new baby and it’s coming along quite nicely. I noticed that it’s next to impossible to keep your car clean when your driveway is under a power line. Overall, I noticed that God is truly wonderful and this life is truly a gift. He doesn’t have to give us anything that He gives us on this earth, but He does anyway. That, my friends, is wonderful to me. I didn’t deserve the beautiful day with my family that I had because I spent most of the morning try to get out of it. But I was given the chance anyway. I’m glad I took it.

Devos. Quiet Times. Bible Study. Whatever you call them, we all strive to do them. But why? Why is it that we are all so bent on making sure we get these times in on a daily basis? Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that this is a bad thing. I mean, I work hard at trying to spend that daily time with God as well. I just remember a few years back wondering just WHY I was doing it. I was struggling with the idea that it had become just a part of the daily routine and not something that I was doing to actually look to spend time with God and really have an encounter with Him. And when something becomes a simple routine for me, it generally gets knocked out of the box because I get bored. I have struggled with this off and on for my whole Christian life. Lately, I have really tried to focus more on the opportunity to spend time with someone I love that loves me that much more. This has really changed my perspective. When I take the time daily to spend with God, it makes me totally happy. When I don’t take the time to do that, I’m pretty much messed up. This has seemed to help me seeing that I am such a social person. This is the time that I get to hang out with God.

Have you ever stopped to think about the purpose of your quiet times and devotions? Have you built yourself into a rut because this is something that you are ‘supposed’ to do? Or are your times spent with God purposeful and meaningful and special where you go expecting to hear from Him and you expect to be led? I’ve been on both sides and I tell you, I love being in the place where that time is special and meaningful. I had just dealt with this and I thought that I’d put this thought in your heads as well…

I have been playing piano for 26 years now. That always baffles me when I say it because I’m 29. That also means that I’ve played in a few different places. For any of you who play piano, you know that unlike a guitar that you can carry with you wherever you go, you’re kinda subject to whatever a church has. That means that sometimes you can go to a church and see some pretty rough stuff. I remember one time in particular that my dad was preaching at a church on the North Side (That’s north St. Louis City for those that don’t know or aren’t from here) and as was dad’s custom, he asked me to come up and play a song before he started preaching. Now I was only about 12 or 13, so nothing special by any means. However, when I sat down to play whatever song he had asked me to play (probably Amazing Grace, the standard ‘before the sermon’ song), I noticed a couple things. First off, some of the keys weren’t even ivory anymore. The tops were gone! That’s okay as long as they play though. But this piano was all kinds of jacked up. The middle C didn’t work (BUMMER!) and The D above the C above middle C (that was a lot, but musicians know what I’m talking about. I guess I could have put D4). The song I was playing was in G and that means that my D was completely NOT there. I totally remember singing that D out loud when I got to it so it wouldn’t be lost in the music. But that was what I was given and so I played that piano to the best of my ability, which again wasn’t the best.

Now, I thought about taking the simple road and going into how God uses us as His broken instruments and uses us for His glory all the time, but I think that was something that EVERYONE could see coming. So I’ve decided to take a different approach. My question is this. Why is it that when things are working well we can say things like this, but when we are in the midst of trials we seem to forget that God loves us and continues to work in and through us? I have been dealing with a lot of struggles in my life over the past few days and I’ve felt useless. However, I’m the same one who is constantly trying to help others realize that God loves them no matter what. Sometimes it feels hypocritical to say when sometimes I find difficulty in believing it myself.

I think what I and we have to realize is that we are ALWAYS broken instruments. Surely, there are times that we are more broken than others, but at the end of the day, we’re still broken because we’re still flawed. At our best we still have a major defect. The difference between us and that piano that I played over 16 years ago was the one making up the difference. I know that I did the best I could with that old upright Hamilton, and I know for sure I could have worked around it even better today. But even now, there is only so much I can do in my own power. My life is way more jacked up than that piano sometimes and God uses this life of mine and makes it look so much better because He is filling in the gaps.

So what brought on this whole thought for me? Well simply enough, I got to lead worship in chapel at Missouri Baptist yesterday and the drool producing Yamaha that is in the auditorium. That piano is ALWAYS right and I love it. I started thinking about all the bad pianos I’ve played and the rest is written up there. Have you ever played an instrument that was so bad that you didn’t know what to do with it? Has anyone given you their guitar to play and when you started you felt like it had never been tuned before? Share with me your bad instrument stories.

Who am I, that you would love me so gently? Who am I, that you would recognize my name? Who am I, that you would speak to me so softly? Conversations with the Love Most High… Who am I?

-Nathan and Christy

I love the words to this song. I could end there, but that would be a totally lame blog and wouldn’t blame any of you for never reading anything I write ever again. But this chorus speaks so many things into my life and whenever I hear it I’m challenged to worship my Creator. This concept is so far beyond anything that I can really understand. I don’t know why He loves me so much. I’m just glad that He does. Here’s what I know, anyone that loves each and every person THAT much is worth my worship.

The Lord’s unfailing, unconditional love the most pure thing this world will ever know. More precious than silver, more costly than gold (bringing back the old school…). Sometimes I overlook just how much the Father loves me. Even when I’m looking at the Word that He gave specifically for us I tend to look past the fact that the Word was given because we are loved. When I think about that, I’m more inclined to spend some time with my God. The time that I spend ‘Encountering the Savior’ becomes a little more sweeter.

Are you overlooking the real, true love that the Father has for you? Are you spending quality time with the Father? Or are you fulfilling your daily duty? I know I’ve done that…

Woe to those who are at ease in Zion, and to those who feel secure on the mountain of Samaria, the notable men of the first of the nations, to whom the house of Israel comes! …O you who put far away the day of disaster and bring near the seat of violence. Woe to those who lie on beds of ivory and stretch themselves out on their couches, and eat lambs from the flock and calves from the midst of the stall, who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp and like David invent for themselves instruments of music, who drink wine in bowls and anoint themselves with the finest oils, but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph!

Amos 6:1-6

I was sitting in a Sunday school class this pass Sunday when they started their lesson on this passage. The lesson was on social justice this passage was discussed in many different ways. I was impacted by these words and wrote them down with the idea that I would write about them now. So that’s what I’m doing.

As I sit here this morning getting ready to start this ridiculously long day, I think about just how much time I spend ‘stretched out on the couch’. So much time gets spent with us trying to relax or doing the things that we want to do. I also think about those of us who spend time trying to emulate people that we see on TV and wanting to have what they have. We would never say it, but when we obsess about all these things and toys and cars and such, we are making them our idols; our God. I say we because I am guilty of this as well. I have been obsessing about some music software and it has clouded my thinking as far as the rest of the world goes. I have cared so much about this and other things including this current holiday that I have ‘put far away the day of disaster’. I haven’t spent much time caring about what’s going on in the world. It’s times like these that when I need a new God. That doesn’t mean that the God of this universe, the Savior of the world needs replacing. It means that I have replaced that God with all of the earthly things that I obsess about. I need to turn my focus back to who God is and what He has done.

I watched this happen to me this past week. Because I haven’t led worship for a church in quite awhile, I hadn’t focused much on reading or doing any of the things that I normally do to keep my mind sharp. It took me a LOT longer than it normally does to put together a worship set because I was so out of ‘practice’. I have had to do my share of ‘Encountering the Savior’ lately.

The question…is there anything out there that has taken the place of God in your own life? Is it money or the pursuit of it? Is it trying to find a better job? Is it trying to find the perfect guy or girl? Will any of these things better your life in a way that God can not?

I have been feeling like this whole worship180 ministry idea and this blog has lost something over the past couple months. I’m pretty sure that I know why. Without having a job and not focusing on the importance of who I am and what God has called me to do, my ideas have been so scattered. I haven’t channeled my thoughts about worship because a lot of that came from having a job where I thought about it constantly. Which is super wrong. There have been glimpses of smart thoughts, but overall they have been few and far between. I had a lot to think about and work through this weekend and so my mind has had to work. The biggest thing I got from all that time was that I’ve been neglecting the thing that God has put inside of me. Sharing about worship and my experiences and asking questions and all those things have been missing.

Here are some things that are going on, and then I’m gonna share a thought from yesterday. First, I’m going to be recording a radio spot for KSIV (local radio station) talking about what worship180 is. That was scary because I hadn’t quite put that all together in a way that I could share with radio listeners. So I had to figure that out this weekend. With the help of some friends, we came up with an idea and a mission statement. I’m gonna share it with you now. Worship180 is a consulting firm that exists to train leaders and build worship ministries by teaching churches and individuals to Encounter the Savior, Enrich their Community and Engage the world. So I’m working with that idea in my head now. So I guess that means that I’m starting worship consulting. I am personally not completely sold on the consulting word because I think it bottles up what I do and who I am. I’m still working on that. Anyway, I’m excited about the opportunity to figure out just how effective this idea will be with churches and people in the area. A bit of market research, if you will… That’s a prayer point, btw

So my idea for the day.

Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the Lord. This gate of the Lord; the righteous shall enter through it. I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation. The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Psalm 118:19-24

I read this passage at the church that I led worship for yesterday. It has been a staple in my father’s church for quite a while. I can remember my Aunt Barbara making the whole church memorize it so we could internalize this message. It has been stuck in my heart and mind for years. But I can honestly say that it had become a routine and some of the message has been lost. We all keep the last verse and say it all the time. But the verse that seemed to stick out to me this weekend was verse 23. “This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes” That is such a key verse for me. With all the things that I have gone through in my life over the past few months it’s hard to see that this is the Lord’s doing. But if I only look at the tough or bad things, it’s easy to feel that way. In reality, He’s also done so many great things and has sustained my family.

As you are going through the challenges of life, are you able to keep in mind that this is the Lord’s doing? I know I’ve had a tough time doing that. I’m thinking that maybe it’s time for me to get back to the basics…

I can’t believe how amazing this weekend has been!!! I haven’t felt THIS encouraged about life in a really long time. God is so good and I’m so thankful for everything that has happened this weekend. Quick recap…

Friday- I got to visit my buddy Alisha. She wasn’t doing too well that day. I got to pray for her. I love Alisha. Busch Stadium with the Quest people. What a BLAST!!! Had a great time with my friends Jeremiah and Stephanie. We stinkin’ love them. Or at least I do stinkin’ love them I hope they love us, too. If not that would be COMPLETELY awkward…

Saturday- Went to a workshop to help us keep our house and didn’t really learn anything. Next the family went to visit Alisha. She was doing TONS better than she was on Friday. I’m still praying for her and Jim. Then I was supposed to play for a church in the area, and let’s just say I don’t think that’s going to happen anymore. If you wanna know just ask me about it and I’ll tell you… After that we spent the evening with the Misseys. It was great to reconnect with them.

Sunday- I spent the morning at Waypoint Church in St. Peters, MO. Great time with Lance and the crew there. I can’t wait to go back next week. It’s great to see what God is doing with that church. Then I got to spend some time at Cross Keys Baptist Church and make some new friends. We had some great connections with the pastor and his wife, who are MoBap alums! We had a great service and then hung out at Sonic. It has been a great weekend and I’m glad that God has brought us through this weekend.

I’m sure that I’m missing something, but I can’t remember. I also got to spend good time with my family which is always good. God is really teaching me some really cool things lately. I’m learning that I have to step out and let God be God. More and more I am learning to trust God with my life and my family. I almost forgot that I got to hang out with to AMAZING people, Kim and Gina on Tuesday. I will try to be a lot better at blogging this week. Someone hold me to it!!!

I don’t know about you, but I am amazed at how much I need people in my life. I am so tired right now, but it’s because we’ve had such a good weekend so far. Last night, we got to hang out with some great people from our church as we took a field trip to Busch Stadium. We spent the evening with Jeremiah and Steph the Yarn Wizard (I can explain if you need me to…). Let me say this…this couple is quickly becoming one of my favorites. I love these two and having them in our lives is just flat out great!

We got to go see Alisha this afternoon. I was glad to see that she was looking better. I’m so praying for you, sweetie. I just finished before I started writing this. For more on The Wee Couple, AKA the Amazing Barnards, check out my blogroll and click on Jim Barnard.

After that, I had an interesting meeting with a church in South County. I still don’t know what to think about it yet, so I don’t know exactly how to write about it. Check in tomorrow for that one…

We spent the evening with Matt (Cheetah) and Shannon Missey (blogroll Shannon Missey). This is the PERFECT way to end a late summer evening. This couple is straight up amazing. They are that beautiful couple that we should all be jealous of. If Eva and I weren’t so amazing already, we’d be jealous of them, too. HAHAHA Anyway, they had us down to their house in Crystal City and it was a great time with friends.

We are so blessed by the friends that God has placed in our lives during this extremely tough time. God knows what we need even when we don’t know what we need. Never ever forget that friends. God knows you so much better than you know yourself. Even though this was quite a long day that started really early for us, I wouldn’t trade it for anything because we spent this day and this weekend up until now with people that we confidently know love us and we love them as well.

Now I’m going to sleep because I will be leading worship with my friends at Waypoint Church in St. Peters, MO. If you don’t get this before tomorrow morning, come check me out next week as I will be leading out there next Sunday as well. Actually, check out the Upcoming Dates section as I will be updating it with some new things, including a Chili Dinner and Concert September 18th. I’ll have more information about that in the near future. Be blessed and hopefully I can keep up with the plan of a full weekend update tomorrow evening.

I’ve been given an awesome opportuinity. I am so happy about it! I can’t believe that I’ve been blessed in this way. It may not seem like a lot to those who read this, but I’m pumped! So here it is…

I am going to be working with a couple of the ministry groups on campus at Missouri Baptist this year. I spent some time with someone who has always been in my corner this afternoon and he presented this opportunity to me. I must say, I’m totally elated that I get to use the abilities that God has given me to help train and teach others.

Before you ask, it’s not a paying thing, but I am gaining some real experience working in a school AND I’m getting some exposure on campus as someone other than a student. Who knows what will come of this? I don’t know… but I do know that I’m going to have some fun and really pour myself into this while I have the chance.

In other news, if I had money I’d go into the studio. If we can figure that out, I’ll start recording. That’s my plea for help. LOL!!!!

If I haven’t said it in awhile, thanks SOOO much for continuing to check in and read this blog. I appreciate you. You keep me going. Be blessed!