Just in case you forgot, I don’t always get it right. Actually, more times than not I get it horribly wrong. But then there are sometimes that things couldn’t go any worse even if you wrote the script for the new Meet the GrandFockers movie for Ben Stiller (that’s not a real upcoming movie. I made that up). It is times like these that make you wonder why it is you do what you do everyday. Am I the only one that has had moments like these? I have put together worship sets, scheduled a band and rehearsals, laid everything out for all the team players, given advance notice to everyone that requested it, only to have 2 vocalists get sick, someone forget rehearsal, 3 people changed their emails and didn’t tell me so they never got the memo about the TPS reports (I’m all movie references today), and then Sunday morning half of the board doesn’t work.

Looking at that situation as it stands, it would be easy to just chalk up a week like this one as a loss. I’ve wanted to do that many times. But it’s times like these that God steps in and does what He was always planning to do. There’s no way to know just how He is going to work, but His work is ALWAYS evident. Something that hit me earlier today. I was writing out some plans on my big board and realized that when God is in the plans. It isn’t like that I didn’t know that already, but people frequently talk about how when I stepped out of the way then God stepped in. Well, my words of wisdom for today is that we (myself included) should be including God earlier in the process. Whenever I spend the time to ask God what He wants me to do before I even start planning, I find that even the planning process goes much better. Then when I get to the end and look back, I can see His hand through the whole thing. Sometimes I may want this huge band, and God wants to break things down to where we are forced to let Him fill in the voids created by silence. Sometimes, He wants to use that still, small voice to firmly guide us toward the cross.

We always look to the famous passage about God’s plans for us (Jeremiah 29:11) because it talks about our prospering and having a hope and future and all that fun stuff. But the plans won’t just pop into your lap as you’re walking down the street. The verses that follow give verse 11 something to stand on. When I go and pray to Him, He will come to me. If I go and seek Him with my whole heart, He will come and find me (my paraphrase of verses 12-13). When I’m planning out my services, I have to seek God out in THAT stage, then even those plans will be revealed as I work. When you are in the beginning stages of a plan or idea, add God then. See how much of the back end crazy gets avoided when you do that…

This is going to sound weird and horrible, but bear with me. I realized on Sunday that I haven’t written much, if not at all about one of the most important things I can do as a Christ follower. You can scour through the w180 archives and you probably won’t find much about prayer. Why? I don’t know. I do talk about praying for people and things (see Sunday’s post), but I haven’t done much talking in depth about it and how it pertains to worship. So guess what I’m going to do today (in my Phineas voice)? If you haven’t guessed it yet, well…we are going to talk about prayer.

I can say that I have come a long way from “Now I lay me down to sleep…”, but when I think about that prayer that my parents taught me at a young age I think about how I was taught then to petition the Lord for my needs. The simplicity of that prayer was a foundation builder for my approach to prayer even today. I didn’t know it then, but I was creating my relationship with Christ during that few seconds each night that I prayed for restful sleep. From there I learned to pray for other people, upcoming tests, and even frivolously to not get into TOO much trouble when I broke the rules. It was much later that I learned that about the effectiveness of prayer in the lives of Christians and how it’s a critical part of this lifestyle. The Bible talks a whole lot about prayer because of the extreme importance. Just click on this link and go through all the different passages about prayer and see the different situations in which prayer is mentioned.

Prayer and worship go hand in hand. When I was growing up we used to have an altar call every Sunday right in the middle of the service. I actually used to loathe this time when I was younger because it took FOREVER! But as I look back at those times, I remember how people used to walk to the front and the petitions would be laid at the altar. I can still hear “Pray for me, pray for me. O-ooooOOO my brother, pray for me…” I think in all of my years I went up there like twice. Of course at that time I saw it as taking away from the songs that I would hear. Now that I recognize how effective a time that was for us as a people, it’s hard to find anywhere that places that emphasis and time DURING the worship service. Quick side note, I may be working that time back into the fabric of our worship experience. I’m being moved to do so even as I write this.

Psalm 141:1-2 gives us a unfiltered moment between David and the Lord where in verse 1 David cries out to God to hear his prayer. Then in verse 2 he asks that his lifted hands (worship) be “as the evening sacrifice”. I think it was on purpose that David was in prayer and worship at the same time. We cannot overlook the importance of prayer in our worship times. They go hand in hand. I know that for me sometimes prayer seems like something that gets in way of the busyness that is my life. But what would happen if we just slowed down and really talked to the Lord and let Him talk to us? During worship? What a concept…

Here’s a challenge, take some time this week and slow it down long enough to listen to God. Let me know how that goes. I’ll be sure to share my experience as well.

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…

We are all busy. That’s the way of the world today. 40 hour weeks have turned into 50, 60 and even 70 hour weeks. But when it’s all said and done, we love when Friday night gets here because we know that it’s the weekend and we can sit back relax in whatever ways that we relax. How do you kick back during the weekend? How would you LIKE to kick back during the weekend? I personally have ‘kicked back’ in quite awhile because I’m always assuming that there will be something else that I have to do. Either way, I’d love to hear from you guys. What do you do to wind down from all the busyness of life?

Here’s my challenge for myself and you. I know that I don’t do a good job of taking time away from the grind and enjoying this life that God has given me. My goal is to take some time in the near future and go off on my own and write some new music. Just because it has been so difficult for me to find money and opportunities to record and get that whole thing going doesn’t mean that I should sit on the gift that God has given me. My creativity has been a little stale lately and I know it’s because I haven’t sat down to write in FOREVER! What are you going to do? What type of commitment will you make to slowing down from the craziness that is life in today’s world? Share you thoughts and maybe we can pray for each other. Have a good Saturday and weekend.

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’d like to announce to you all that the beginnings of the new website are up! Yes, it’s true. Worship180.org is officially up and working! Thanks to my buddy, Charlie, who has been helping me get things up and running, there is a website to go to now. As of right now, you can find there what you see here, but the format is different and you can see the new logo/banner. There has been a lot of work put into this and even more to come, but I am excited about what has happened already. Things to look forward to: Once we start to put some things in place, there will be a page for tour dates and opportunities to worship together. I’m also doing what I can to get some more video and hopefully some audio up in the near future. I’m working on getting some recorded so maybe we can have some sneak peeks posted. Keep checking in.

There’s a lot of great things happening right now. I’m currently sitting in Kaldi’s Coffee in Chesterfield Valley getting myself prepared for rehearsal at Rockwood Baptist in a couple hours. I’m also putting some music together for tomorrow night’s rehearsal. That’s gonna be fun as well. OH! Something else I almost forgot. Me and a couple of my favorite guys, Daniel Meyer, Evan Pitchers and Tim Schafer are going to be playing at the Gateway House of Prayer Friday night from 10pm-12am. If you want to come and worship with us for a couple hours during the Watch for the Lord, come join us. While I’m sitting here, I think I’m going to put a quick page together with upcoming dates and stuff like that. I’m singing in a few different place over the next month.

Before I go, I want to just say that God can truly bless you even in an intense storm. I am totally speaking from current experience. Even when things seem so out of whack and we don’t know where money is coming from or what utilities we will be able to keep, God is still working in ways that continue to surprise me. As I sit here right now, I don’t know what you might be going through, but I do know that God can handle whatever that is. He has that kinda power. He is GOD! Just in case you were wondering…

Well, it seems like I’m starting off July with a bang! June was the my best blogging month ever and I have all of you my friends and family to thank. I thought I’d keep it going with something that happened last night. My wife and I and my good friend Brittany Howard and Smitty went to see Square Peg Alliance at Grace Community Chapel last night. Most of the gang was there. Ben Shive, Andrew Peterson, Andy Gullahorn, Jill Phillips, Andrew Osenga, Randall Goodgame, Jeremy Casella and Eric Peters. If you don’t know who these people are, and you like great songwriting, click on the name of the group. That was the best 2 hours I had spent in a while. I even got to meet Ben Shive and Andrew Peterson after the concert was over.

If you’re not familiar with SPA, they are singer/songwriters from the Nashville area that have created a community to write and they travel together and do these concerts. If any of you came to the Story:Song:Life concert back in February, that’s where we got the idea from. They shared stories and amazing music throughout the night. At the end of the night, they all stood on the stage and we sang ‘It Is Well’ together sort of in memory of Rich Mullins. Peterson shared a story of a concert that he had gone to and he said that Rich Mullins would frequently end his concerts with that song and at the end would say “Now THAT’S Christian music!” So that’s what we did. What an awesome time!

So the second part of this dual blog came on the way home from the concert. My wife asked me what was my excuse for not following my dreams. We currently don’t have a job and can do whatever it is that we want. Also, Britt and I had worked to make SSL come together and our goal was to start a similar community and we just kinda left it at “Man, that was a fun concert!” But she hit me in the face with that question on the way home. What’s stopping you from following your dream? What’s stopping you from making a CD? What’s stopping you from creating a community of singers and songwriters? I realized that I make excuses for not doing the things that I want to do. We weren’t originally talking about our dreams, which was really funny. She had read an article about “What story is your fat telling you?” Some sort of way that’s where we ended up. Anyway, at the end of the conversation, I decided that I can’t continue to make excuses for not doing the things that know I’m supposed to do and want to do. So the first thing I am doing is writing this so all of you can keep me accountable for doing what I say I’m going to do. I will appreciate your prayers and even emails asking me am I doing what I say I’m going to do (you know, like accountability or something ). So that was my night and it took me a while to get to sleep, and now I’m up ready to get going. So I guess this means that I’m launching the writing recording process as well as currently (even as I write this) talking to Britt about getting Story:Song:Life rolling forward. Keep your eyes and ears open. This could start moving fast…thanks again, to my wife.

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…

Joshua 5-6

How I really needed that one today! This passage is a story and it wouldn’t seem to have anything to do with my life right now. But when you’re struggling, God seems to find a way to get through to you.  I don’t even normally do the daily reading, but thought I might see where it was. Generally, I don’t sit down long enough on a daily basis and after this one I’m thinking that I should…

Right now it seems so easy for me to just keep trying to push and move and keep busy and do all this stuff because that’s what I’m used to doing. However, at this current moment I don’t really have anything to be running toward. Go figure! The thing that everyone talks about is the walking around the wall, blowing the trumpets and the wall falling down. What stood out so much for me as I read this today was the faith that Joshua had to step out and do what God told him to do. All God wanted him to do was walk. There was no elaborate war plan or strategy for taking over. All they were supposed to do was walk…

Honestly, that is so hard for me right now. All I have to do is walk. God has given me the opportunity to spend some time with my family and enjoy the time. I finally finished my degree and it was well worth it. My current job is coming to an end and I should be enjoying those people and memories. Instead, I’m worried about what is coming next and I can’t see anything. I want to run into whatever is up next, but God is just asking me to walk.  I was JUST able to see that today. It doesn’t mean that I now know what’s coming next, but it does mean that God has it under control and if I walk with Him he will lead me in the right direction. I have had ‘Endejan Brain’ for the past 2 weeks and it’s been driving me crazy!!! I don’t know how you do it, friend, I don’t know how you do it…

So I’m sitting here right now trying to slow myself down long enough to walk like God is asking me to. I don’t know what the future holds, but I know that God is the one who holds the future. I trust Him…