Grace Rocks

 I can't say thanks enough for God's mercy.   Thank you Lord,  thank you thank you thank you...

Rule Number 1

My boy.  Such concentration - we had a lot of fun.  

I coached both my sons in little league and I loved it.  I did it for about 5 years.  I started out pretty green.  I had to learn the sport and how to coach it as I went.  I got to be OK at it.  I even developed a system that the kids seemed to respond to really well.  But one day, one of the kids found a blaring flaw in my method and politely asked me "Coach, How many rule number ones do you have?"  Hmm.  He got me on that one.  Most of my rule number ones had to do with safety issues like "Rule no. 1 - Make sure no one is around you before you swing a bat."  but others had to do with effort "Rule no. 1 - No walking, always run, always hustle."  I guess I sort of abused the whole rule no. 1 thing and caused it to lose some of it's effectiveness.  I probably should have thrown numbers 2-10 in the mix somewhere.

   I didn't want to make the same mistake again in my service to God.  So I thought long and hard and I prayed about what should be Rule No. 1 in this ministry.  I feel like God said to me...

humility

  Whatever happened to good ol' basic humility?  I've noticed that there is ambition to be "known" by worship leaders in the church culture.  I see very talented worship leaders time and again give little to no value to humility - something so vital to their protection.  It is the buffer to pride which leads to various pitfalls.   It can be the source undying respect and loyalty to those serving under you.  Like the general who leads the charge - men will bend over backwards for leaders who operate in humility.  We all want a little recognition.  We just need to remember who's recognition is most important.  Man's or God's.

  Then again, I wonder if I were able to play and sing at an extremely high level, would I be humble?  I'd like to think so.  I do think so - unless maybe everyone around me was always telling me how awesome I was.  I mean, they would just be confirming what I already knew - that God gave me this gift and who am I to act like it doesn't exist, right?  He didn't make me this talented for no reason - to hide it away and bury it.  Talent like this can't be learned or taught - it is God given so of course people are going to recognize it.  Mmmmm, this koolaid tastes pretty good.    

         

Silk Purses

  Ok, so maybe you've heard the idiom "You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear."

 Isn't that what sound crews are expected to do sometimes?  Take the hodgepodge produced by the worship team and make it sound like a professional recording?

 Often the vocals are a tremendous challenge because many volunteer teams consist of varying levels of talent.  Yes we have options like pitch correction, reverb, eq, compression that can do a decent job of hiding weaknesses and showcasing strengths.  That's all well and good but we can only do so much with the sound presented to us.  We may spice it up a little but it is only as good as the musicians making it.  The better the sound, the better the mix we can present.  Being a guitarist I have learned that hyper-processing signals can kill tone anyway.  Don't get me wrong, I like me some effects but I shoot for more of an organic sound.  The more skilled the band is, the less challenges there are.

  And vise-versa.  I have caught myself thinking "Whoa, there is nothing I have here that can help that sound."  It's true.  There is no button, dial, fader or effect on the planet that can help a musician who lacks the talent to actually play the song.  Hence the sow's ear.  If the bass player is playing the wrong notes, it will throw people off.  If the singer can't actually hit the notes, the rest of the team loses confidence in the sound they are producing.  So what do we do?

Gardening 101

One last faithful hurrah that
I didn't have the heart to pluck.    

  I am a guitarist and a music guy.  My passion is for music and pretty much all things related, especially music as it pertains to the church.  I wouldn't say I was a great, or even a good musician by some people's standards but I love it nonetheless.  I love glass tubes that glow, wood that resonates, strings that sing, circuits that do magical things that I don't want to understand for fear of losing the mystique.  That being said...

  I recently developed an interest in gardening thanks to my wife's prodding.  I won't say a hobby, definitely not a passion, but an interest.  It's actually been pretty fun.  But when the long California growing season was over and all of the tomato plants were pretty much done, my wife asked that I clear the garden, till it and compost the rest.  So I did.

  That's when I came upon one tomato plant that we planted in a prime spot, watered regularly, protected from predators, fed and loved just as much as the rest.  This plant gave us one stinkin tomato all season.  One.  So I know it was capable of more but for whatever reason it just took up space and looked promising with all of it's pretty little deceitful flowers.  We even had about 3 or 4 volunteers that popped up from last year's garden uninvited.  All of them went off with tomatoes without all the love and nourishment afforded to this huge, beautiful plant.  

  I yanked it with extreme prejudice and I thought to myself, " How sad - all that potential gone to waste.  Good riddance."   That's when God spoke to me in my spirit and said,


"Now you know how I feel about my people who claim to know me and love me but do nothing to show it."


  Ouuuuch!  Mucho conviction.  Produce fruit or risk getting uprooted.    

Running Out Of Heros

Thank you Veterans for your service

 









  I just watched an amazing documentary called  Conscientiousness Objector about Desmond Doss, a WW2 vet who refused to take a weapon in his hand due to his strong faith.  He was nearly chased out of the army but eventually was awarded with the Congressional Medal Of Honor.  Check it out if you get a chance.

  It makes me sad that we are daily losing the great men from this generation and soon we will have none left.  I feel like they bought us a time of peace and prosperity.  I look at the men of my generation (including myself) and wonder if that time is coming to an end...  



 

What?

How do you want people to think of you when you leave this earth?

   So uh, why does the world think we are a bunch of freakos?  Why can't they relate?  Why is our message so ineffective sometimes?  Maybe it's because of productions like this.  I don't want to be mean.  I know these guys put a lot into this.  This was probably a special event (it was special).  Most likely for a holiday like Easter ot Christmas where they were counting on having non-church going people attending.  (Shudder)  Sets were built, awesome moves were choreographed, songs were written, countless rehearsals, advertising, equipment rented, tech crews recruited and so on.  

  But at no time in this process did no one raise their hand and say "Uh, excuse me..."?!

  I was planning on using this to segue into a serious discussion about the state of creativity and the arts in the church today but my mind feels like it has been stained.  It will need to wait for another day.

 Make it stop.

"The renewed mind is the key, dun dun dun dun dee dee deeeee..."

Pressure Cooker

  I don't pretend to understand how much stress today's worship leader is under.  Here's to you modern worship leader.  (me raising my coffee cup)   You are expected to play not too loud, not too soft, not to rock, not too gospel, not too country, not too traditional.  Smile, be friendly, virtuous, inviting, outgoing, charismatic.  Be on your game every single week.  Make a rag-tag team of volunteer musicians sound like a tight, professional sounding band.  Use sparsely trained volunteer tech teams to achieve unrealistic, ridiculously ambitious productions - on a weekly basis.   Mentor and even pastor the people under your leadership.  Maintain and replenish the volunteer staff.  Research new song ideas, new equipment, put together holiday programs, special events, write new music, teach music, network, settle disputes.  Maintain your marriage, family time and often a full time job elsewhere because you are receiving a small stipend or volunteering your dang self.  If you are lucky enough to serve at a fiscally robust church, you may be actually be paid a competitive full time salary.  Which only elevates all the above expectations.  

  This makes me kind of glad I can't sing.  I would not want to try and fill those shoes.  Oh and don't forget, this is a ministry that for some reason, satan loves to target.  Maybe because he is all too familiar with that weakness that seems to plague every talented worship leader.  PRIDE.  Sometimes the line is blurred between confidence and pride.  If you start to drink your own kool aid, you can fall into the trap.  

  I know this makes it sound like it's all bad but the pursuit of the Lord's presence is an immensely rewarding task.  I would venture to say it's worth all of the stress.  The bottom line is if you want to know how to to really serve your worship leader pray for them, pray for them and keep on praying for them.

All things to all men? Part 2

   Trying to please the masses, churches will sometimes try to be something they're not.  You may have seen a retirement aged worship team absolutely destroying a modern worship song in an effort to to "be relevant".  And on the flipside the 22 yr old worship leader trying to put some jacked up twist on a hymn "for the older folks."  There are many talented worship teams that can do both really well but even Clint Eastwood would tell you "A man's got to know his limitations." 

  I think the same goes for the sound crew.  To that point, if you only enjoy classical music and an occasional polka romp you may not be the best suited to help create a guitar-driven rock sound for your church.  If your sound person is not musically inclined whatsoever it may be impossible to accomplish everything you desire.  People that never even listen to worship music outside of church can't be expected to re-create the sound in a church service.  I would love to expand on this subject more but it deserves it's own post so I'll save it for later.

  The bottom line - we need to be of one mind and have the same goal if we are going to be successful in a ministry that can't hope to please everyone.  Don't worry about pleasing everybody, please God and the rest will fall into place.  When Paul said he was all things to all men, it was his method to find common ground with anyone and everyone so that they could hear and receive the gospel.  I don't think he tried to please everyone in the process as evident by the amount of persecution he received for his efforts.  But he was faithful and fulfilled his calling with obedience to the end.

Unequally Bloked?

 Should you have a non-saved person on the worship team?

 Should you have a non-saved person on the tech team?

  This subject has been covered a lot in  resource sites pertaining to the worship ministry but it seems everyone has a differing opinion.  And not that you asked, but I am going to throw in my two cents.

All things to all men? Part 1

Mmmm, donuts and fish!

I don't know about you, but when I try and please everyone I usually please no one.  Yet worship leaders today are often expected to try and appeal to every demographic out there.  You have culture, age and the huge variety of musical tastes that a worship leader will attempt try and satisfy.

  Sound teams can also be expected to please everyone.  Some like it loud, some people's teeth hurt if the volume is above 80db.  Some just want to hear the vocals and could care less about the instruments.  Some don't believe in having electric guitars and drum sets in the church but "tolerate" it for one reason or the other.        

I made the team?

I pity the foo!

Hopefully you are coming to the realization that just because you might sit in a booth all the way in the back of the room and hide behind a console or computer screen, it doesn't mean you are off the hook.  You are no longer that mysterious guy who knows what all those pretty lights and buttons do.  Yep, you are on the team.  The team that helps God change lives for generations, forever.  The team that helps people not just learn about God but helps them experience Him.  The guy (or gal - whenever I write guy, I am thinking (or gal) in my head, ok ladies) who is responsible for people to hear from God.

Spirit and Truth

(My first guitar, 1983 Gibson spirit)

John 4:23  New International Version 
Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks


I have to admit before taking a worship class from the local "mega-church" (which was awesome BTW) I had always passed over this verse as something I already had a firm grasp on and needn't consider any further.  I thought Jesus simply meant that we should worship with a spirit of truth when we worship God.  In other words we should be sincere and forthright in our intentions.  Which of course is good but that's not at all what He is saying.  He says God is looking for people who will worship Him in Spirit and in Truth.  Does that mean he wants us to worship Him in our spirits?  In our truth?  I don't think so.  Simply put, our spirits and our truths (on their own merit) aren't worth squat.

So whose Spirit?  Whose Truth?  Or is it more like Who is Spirit?

What is worship and who's on the team?

 I'll go to any and every worship/tech conference or training that I can and have attended the local "school" of worship because I want to know true, authentic, spirit and truth-filled worship for myself.  I am a junkie for worship leading, church tech, guitar playing blogs and I follow a quite few of them.  Most of them being Christian bloggers and most of them at some point cover the subject of what worship truly is.  I also listen to podcasts from worship leaders from around the world and something bothers me about the prevailing perception of what is worship and who is considered a part of the worship team.

Epiph

  A long time ago my pastor said in a sermon that he had something just short of an epiphany - it was more of an epiph.  I loved it and I am shamelessly stealing it.  Thanks PB.  This is the origin of my epiph.