What does a Worship Leader REALLY do day to day…???

If you’re in ministry, you’ve heard this joke more than once.  ”Must be nice working only one day a week!”  And we all have a good laugh.  But I always wonder, “Do you really think that I only work one day a week?”  I feel like I work fairly hard, but my job is sometimes hard to quantify except to say that I do a lot more grunt work and paper work than most people realize.  And then I saw this pic come through the Facebook stream awhile ago…

Now this really is FUNNY!  And as I was laughing it got me thinking…Everyone has a different view of what I do!  DO I EVEN KNOW WHAT I DO EACH WEEK?  So I thought I’d keep a log of my week and help everyone clarify just what I do with my job each week…so here goes…a week in the life of an ECC worship leader…

Monday

8:25-Roll into office

8:30-Fill out Weekly Staff report

9:30-Eval meeting

9:50-Worship Leadership meeting

10:15-Service Brainstorming meeting

11:00-Staff Team building event (with LUNCH!)

1:30-Staff Meeting

2:00-Check email

2:15-Small clean up of Worship Center.

2:30-Meeting about upcoming drama for sermons and Summer sermon series.

3:00-Meet w/ Visual Artist about wall mosaic for current series.

3:15-Look for upcoming sermon series graphics.  Start on template.

4:15-Leave office

6:30-Watch kids at home so my wife, Sara, can attend Pastor’s Wives event.

9:00-Kids in bed and house cleaned up.  More work on Sermon Presentation Template.

9:30-Shut-down computer.

Tuesday

8:15-Roll into the office

8:20-Organize/print music, worship orders, lyric sheets and tech sheets for secretaries to print for Tuesday night rehearsal.

9:00-Create slides in WC and copy to FLC MAC.  Also create lighting presets in WC.

11:15-Meet w/ Office Manager to talk about printing new PUSH prayer bookmark.

11:30-Make lunch in kitchen and eat in my office.

12:00-Prep for Tuesday night’s devotional.

12:30-Make vocal notes for arrangement, harmony, solo singing, etc.

1:00-Fix ProPresenter computer program glitch. (Yes, it happens even on a MAC!)

1:30-Research videos for upcoming series.

1:45-Meet w/ Chris Kuntz about video needs.

1:55-Upload SFX MP3 for special music this week.

2:05-Check Twitter/email.

2:15-Respond to potential volunteers from our eConnect classes.

2:20-Work on Denominational Worship Leaders Summit coming up in May!

2:40-Leave office to pick up daughter at school.

6:00-Back at ECC for dinner w/ musicians and techies!

6:30-Lead devotional.

6:45-Dismiss everyone and reset for rehearsal.

6:50-Start soundcheck.

7:15-Start rehearsal.

9:00-Finish rehearsal and talk while cleaning up.

9:30-Head home!

Wednesday

8:20-Roll into office.

8:30-meet w/ contractor from ESCO to talk about upcoming video project.

8:45-Hand off to Chris and I go to talk to Anna Edgar about upcoming REACH service and meeting the needs of our missionary guest speaker.

9:00-Check email.

9:30-Find MP3 music for rehearsal Wednesday night.

9:40-make CD master to hand out and give to secretaries to make copies.

9:50-set up meeting w/ Pastor Denny to work through future expansion issues.

10:00-Call another upcoming guest speaker to arrange schedule, lodging, transportation, etc.

10:30-Find hotel room and book for the guest speaker.

11:15-Meet w/ Office staffer about PUSH prayer bookmark and overall communication.

11:45-Lunch w/ staff in kitchen.

12:30-work on new To-do program and update rotating reminders.

1:30-Review information for meeting on Thurs.

1:45-Work on Denominational Worship Leader Summit in May.

2:00-Finalize two possible presentation templates for upcoming sermon series.

2:30-Leave ECC

6:15-Back to ECC for Emmanuel Theatre Co. rehearsal.

6:30-Community time and prayer requests.

6:45-Rehearsal.

8:15-Head home.

Thursday (This is usually Friday, but my schedule got changed this week!)

8:25-Roll into office.

8:30-Check email.

8:50-Insert another slide onto MAC for REACH prayer time this weekend.

8:55-Touch base w/ Bible Study Fellowship women leaders about technology needs.

9:10-Write WorshipNotes.

10:00-Review and Sign Payment Authorization forms for rest of Worship Arts staff.  File my own bills.

11:00-Meet w/ Lead Pastor Denny Miller about upcoming tech needs.

1:00-head home for lunch.

2:00-Post and send WorshipNotes.

2:30-Shut computer.

Friday-Day off

Saturday

3:50PM-Roll into FLC for service.

4:00-start final rehearsal/soundcheck.

5:00-Open doors for service.

5:15-Talk through service w/ whole team and prayer.

5:27-Saturday 5:27 service.

6:30-Start shutting down.

6:50-Head home.

Sunday

6:30-AND THIS IS 6:30 AM!!  Roll into office.

6:35-Turn on equipment and set up.

7:15-Staff meeting/prayer.

7:30-Final rehearsal/soundcheck.

8:20-Soundcheck Speaker’s mic and check live video feed to FLC.

8:35-Listen to Chris Kuntz talk through service w/ tech team on COMM system.

8:45-Talk through service w/ Worship Center team and prayer.

9:00-Worship Center and FLC concurrent services.

10:30-Worship Center and FLC concurrent services.

11:40-Start clean up and equipment shut-down.

12:00-Head home.

Looking back over my week, there is a LOT of administration to keep everything going.  I see that I need to make more time to meet with people and learn about their lives and what God is doing outside of the office.  But I do hope and pray that whether it’s in the office or over lunch or singing during a weekend service that I am able to give glory to God and to help others worship.

Choose Humility

Humility is one of those tricky things, isn’t it?  As soon as you declare yourself humble, you cease to be so.  And the other irony is that both the arrogant and the truly humble probably won’t think of themselves as humble!  So is it something we’re born with or something we simply pick up along the way like additional candles on our birthday cake?  John Dixon doesn’t think so.  He is the author of a great book called, Humlitas: A Lost Key to Life, Love and Leadership.  I highly recommend it for leaders and anyone who wants to better follow Jesus.

Dixon thinks that it’s something we can choose and cultivate and he starts out with a basic definition that might re-orient your thinking from the get-go.  He writes,

Humility is the noble choice to forgo your status, deploy your resources or use your influence for the good of others before yourself.

Does that sound like Jesus?  I’m still working through it.  But, I think it does.  There were a ga-zillion great quotes, but I thought I would just focus on some of the reasons to choose humility first and share the other thoughts in later posts.  So let’s jump in and think about humility…

1.  ”Knowing a great deal in one area of life is no guarantee of proficiency in another.”  Dixon tells a great story of a plane that is at a high altitude and has engine failure.  The passangers are forced to jump until it gets down to three people, but there are only TWO parachutes left.  The first person makes a long speech about how they are a famous professor and have knowledge the world needs so he should get one of the last two parachutes.  He grabs one and jumps.  The last two people are just normal folks.  One is a student and the other an adult.  The adult looks at the student and asks, “What should we do?”  The student replies, “I think we should take the last two parachutes.  That professor just jumped out of the plane with my back-pack”.  It’s true.  Knowing a lot in one area doesn’t make you smart in all areas.  That is one good reason for all of us to choose humility.

2.  ”It is a  fact of our nature, it seems, that most of us have a grossly exaggerated sense of our own abilities.”  I see that in myself.  I think I am SO GOOD AS SO MANY THINGS when in reality I’m not.  I get a sense of this when I watch Dan play the piano.  I get a sense of this when I watch my Dad, a building contractor by profession, put in a new faucet at my house in an hour when it would take me a whole day and still leak!  I get a sense of this as I try to be a good Dad to my kids.  I think I am doing a good job until I loose my temper or do something stupid or thoughtless.  I think I’m so good, but most of the time it’s a bit over exaggerated.  It is better to choose humility.

All that to say, choose humility.  Not a false sense of humility where you pretend you don’t have status, or resources or abilities or influence.  No, it means that you acknowledge all these things and then use them for the good of others.  Jesus did just this when he didn’t think equality with God was something to hold onto, but made himself a human, a servant, to live with use and redeem the whole world.  As Dixon writes, “Humility is not an ornament to be worn; it is an ideal that will transform.”  I want to be transformed by Jesus.  I want to be transformed by humility.  I pray the same for you.  Choose humility.

What I Learned from Starbucks-Prt 2

So it’s that time again.  It’s time to hit the St.Arbucks drive-through and order your favorite drink of choice.  In your case it might be a…

Venti 1 pump caramel, 1 pump white mocha, 2 scoops vanilla bean powder, extra ice frappuchino with 2 shots poured over the top (apagotto style) with caramel drizzle under and on top of the whipped cream, double cupped.

…or maybe not.  That’s more of a summer drink anyway.

Either way, I wanted to share the second half of what I learned from Starbucks.  So here goes…

1.  Howard Schultz writes in his book Onward  that ”I could not save Starbucks on my own…like any leader, I needed to surround myself with strong talent who would bring new ideas and, with courage, challenge the old as well as they challenge me.” (178)  I feel the same way.  It is great to work with you, Dan, Chris, Linda Hall, Sarah Wall and so many other people who are creative and keep bringing new ideas, looks, songs, dramas, etc…I can only meeting my creative potential with people around me.

2.   Things in the news are scary.  The economy, politics, nuclear bomb escalations, terrorism, job loss and the list goes on and on.  Schultz talks about how this can impact a whole culture.  He writes, “…many of our partners were burdened with fear.  Fear of risk.  Fear of public failure.  And in an uncertain economy, fear of their own futures, which were tied to the future of the company.  But I could not allow this fear to hold us back.” (254)  Isn’t this part of our call as believers?  We have a better story to tell.  A story that is aware of sin and fear, but tries to live in the light of what Jesus has done!

3.   One area that I believe the church universally falls short is in our aesthetic.  By that, I mean that we have abdicated the idea that our buildings, art, color choices, conversations, etc all communicate about the God we serve.  Now this can be taken to extremes.  Many of the cathedrals of Europe speak to that.  However, it still holds true that our environment is important and the one we create at ECC communicates.  Schultz elaborates, “Ideally, every Starbucks store should tell a story about coffee and what we as an organization believe in.  That story should unfold via the taste and presentation of our products as well as the sights, sounds and smells that surround our customers…Interior hues, textures, the shapes and materials of furniture and fixtures, as well as their origins.  The art on the walls.  The music.  The rhythm of the coffee bar and how our partners move and speak behind the counter – and what they speak about.  Each store’s ambience is the manifestation of a larger purpose…” (274)  How we greet people, how we sing, what we show on the screen, what we hang on the walls, what we eat…it all matters in that it helps tell the story of God in us.

4.   Lastly, I realized that I need to make sure I’m always open to feedback.  If you have an idea, please call me, email me, talk to me and share it.  I can’t guarantee that we’ll use it, but I’m going to listen and consider it.  As Schultz puts it,  ”‘If this was your store, what would you do differently?’” (285)

So the next time you order your

Triple Grande 140 degree no foam cinnamon dolce latte with caramel on the whip.

You can ponder a few of  these thoughts right before the caffeine and sugar hit you.  Thanks Starbucks for all the coffee and a few thoughts about worship along the way…

P.S.  If you still want more to chew on…here are the sound-bites for leadership from the book, Onward.  “Grow with discipline.  Balance intuition with rigor.  Innovate around the core.  Don’t embrace the status quo.  Find new ways to see.  Never expect a silver bullet.  Get your hands dirty.  Listen with empathy and over communicate with transparency.  Tell your story, refusing to let others define you.  Use authentic experiences to inspire.  Stick to your values, they are your foundation.  Hold people accountable but give them the tools to succeed.  Make the tough choices; it’s how you execute that counts.  Be decisive in times of crisis.  Be nimble.  Find truth in trials and lessons in mistakes.  Be responsible for what you see, hear and do.  Believe.” (309)

What I Learned from Starbucks-Prt 1

I recently finished the book, Onward, written by Starbucks founder and CEO, Howard Schultz.  I don’t read a lot of leadership books, but I really enjoyed this one.  First off, my wife and I love coffee houses and affectionately refer to Starbucks as St.Arbucks.  But I also had a number of take-away thoughts for the church.  So go get your own…

Grande coffee in a venti cup with 2 pumps hazelnut, 2 pumps vanilla, 2 pumps caramel, 2 equals and 4 sweet and lows filled to the top with cream, with extra cream on the side, double cupped with no sleeve, a stir stick, and a stopper put in the top

…and enjoy reading what I learned from Starbucks…part 1…

1.  I loved the fact the Howard Schultz identified writing as a way to connect with the other people at Starbucks.  He writes, ”Writing helped me stay in touch with myself as well as our people, and I resurrected one of my favorite modes of communication:  composing frequent memos to Starbuck’s partners.”  I hope you know that this is what I do every week via WorshipNotes.  It helps me stay in touch with myself and with you.

2.  He identifies a coffee house as a “3rd place” and I think the same applies for churches.  A 3rd place is not your home and it’s not where you work.  It’s a “social yet personal environment between one’s house and job, where people can connect with others and reconnect with themselves” (13) and I would add that in the church we also are able to reconnect with God, our maker, redeemer and restorer.

3.  When he talks about merchants he has a great perspective on how the ordinary can point us to the extraordinary.  Again he writes, ”We take the ordinary – a shoe, a knife – and give it new life, believing that what we create has the potential to touch others’ lives because it touched ours.”  Later he says something similar except he points out that we take the ordinary and “infuse it with emotion and meaning” and then we tell the same story over and over and over again…This is the goal of believer artists.  I am not extraordinary.  And no offense, but you aren’t extraordinary either!  We work with soundboards, instruments, mics, music, props, costumes, projectors, computers…this things are just ordinary things.  Most of what we use isn’t even cutting edge technology.  But we give them a new life, emotion and meaning that points to the creator.  We believe that this story that we tell over and over and over again has the power to touch others’ lives because it touched ours.  Not through anything we do.  We are ordinary.  But because of who he is…he is an extraordinary God.

4.  ”We are genuinely interested in educating our customers.”  (11)  That’s a big part of why ECC exists.  We are a teaching church because we believe that you need to have basic knowledge of God to be in a right relationship with him.  We also believe that ”…knowledge can breed passion…” (78)  It’s not always true, but when you know the truth…it will set you free and that is inspiring.

5.  We have talked about the need to work on our talent/craft because it is a God-given gift and something we try to offer back to him in worship.  We’ve also talked about how people will know quickly if we are true or false.  Shultz identifies these two key ingredients when he writes ”…quality and transparency are prerequisites to participating.” (20)  We must work to hone our craft to remove distractions and we must do this with transparency or you might say authenticity.

6. As I was reading Onward, I was struck by this quote because it reminded me of the importance of you, our volunteers.  ”Our partners’ attitude and actions have such great potential to make our customers feel something.” (117)  We do want to educate people who attend ECC, but a big part of what we do as believer artists is help those people connect their head knowledge with their heart’s emotion.  We can’t just sing the truth.  We have to sing the truth as if it is life itself and is the most important thing to us.  So important that it’s changed our lives and we believe EVERYONE needs to experience that same transformation.

 

This isn’t scripture.  These are just some thoughts from a book that I found inspiring…and I don’t think it was just the caffeine coursing through my veins!  It was a chance to re-envision what we do and also realize that we are doing so many things right.  The most right thing being that we are working to help people learn HIS WORD so we can apply it to OUR WALK.  Next week…we’ll order a

Venti Non-fat, no foam, no water 6 pump extra hot chai tea latte

…and jump into Prt 2…

Creative Tension

cre·a·tive 

the ability or power to create

plus

ten·sion

 either of two balancing forces causing or tending to cause extension

equals

cre·a·tive  ten·sion

the ability of either of two balancing or extending forces to create

The ECC staff is gearing up for our yearly staff retreat.  And I can honestly tell you, it’s a blast.  What a great time of laughing together and getting past the daily routine.  It’s also a good time to plan and strategize together about ministry and how better to serve the kingdom as a team.  I am going with a wonderful sense of possibility for us and for the kingdom.  It’s going to be a great year of ministry together.

As I sit here now, the phrase that comes to mind is “creative tension”.  And that is a good thing!  I think we have great creative tension at ECC.  We have different people with different gifts and personalities and that enables us to excel in our area of ministry.  I don’t do what Bob Bruce does well.  And Bob Bruce doesn’t do what I am gifted to do.  Think about it, if everything and everyone was exactly the same, we wouldn’t grow.  But through creatively working through differences and giving up some of our personal desires we find something better.  Proverbs says it this way, “

As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.(27:17)

This is worship in everyday life.  The way that we creatively find solutions to our differences honors God and creates something greater than when we started.  I can find a solution by myself, but if we work together as brothers and sisters in Christ to find an even better solution we create new possibilities through the power of the spirit.  David, the man after God’s heart, even wrote about creative tension.  “How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!” (Psalm 133:1)  This isn’t something that just happens…unity is when different people work together to overcome and leverage those differences.

I’m still learning to live in creative tension, but am confident that God will continue to use us if we are open to our differences and his creative possibilities.

The Times They Are A’Change’in

Things change. That’s true in life as well as at Emmanuel.  And that’s a good thing…change, I mean.  Just think, if change wasn’t possible we would still be sinners with an unchangeable eternity.  So change is good.  And if nothing else, working at ECC is never boring!

Now as most of you know, we are making a big change with our services.  As of Nov 5th we will have two services in the Worship Center and FLC at 9 and 10:30am.  Pastor Denny has already explained the logistics and how we envision the change will play out with the children (new programming is Sat night!) and students (attendance with the whole family and more opportunities for service.  I think the change is a great idea for many reasons.  I am excited that volunteers will have a shorter time commitment on Sunday morning for one!  But there is an even bigger reason to be excited about this change…there is potential for even more people to hear God’s word!   So there will be changing ministries, changing staff descriptions and the ever-changing Emmanuel Community Church.  But more than that, this change represents changed lives.

We believe strongly in the power of the arts to touch the human soul.  Because of that, we view the 30-35 minutes before the sermon as a treasure to “preach the word with many voices”.  What takes place in that 1/2 hour can count for eternity.  When music, drama and tech are all working together, along with solid teaching – watch out!  God can unleash His power in amazing ways.

Why God has blessed us is a mystery to us, but we are growing as a church.  Our intention is simply to continue being faithful to His Word and Our Walk…and so, in the end, to bring all glory to God as we lead others in worship.

New Music Ministry Teams for 2011-12

Hey gang, we are pleased to announce the teams for this next year.  We had a good number of people audition which meant we had some hard decisions to make for some positions and we still have openings for some other positions!!  Below you will see the various teams (with their amazing new NAMES, I might add) and then the Sunday morning rotation schedule. So without further talk…drumroll please!…

New 2011-12 Music Teams

Sat Night Team (1 team for the whole year)

Metal Messiah (MM)

Sop-Carrie Dennison

Alto-Carla Embree / Ann Carmien

Ten-Monica Herbst

Elec-Steve Cooper

AG-Chris Kuntz

Bass-Mark Stein/MAC

Key-Mike McDonald/Dave Loveless (level 3)

Drum-Dan Friend/MAC/Larry Holzinger

Sun Teams

The Jump in Jehoshaphats (JiJ)

Sop -Shaana Robrock

Alto-Kay Salter

Ten-Jim Cates

Elec-Tim Yanes

AG-Kyle Luithly

Bass-Erin Chaney

Key-Dan Friend/MAC

Drum-Larry Holtzinger

The Bible Belters (BB)

Sop-Lora Lemon

Alto-Shelly Ping

Ten-Randy Beery

Elec-Jerry Grider

AG-Sam Ward/Chris Kuntz

Bass-Rick Navrotsky

Key-Dan Friend/MAC

Drum-Tim Muntzinger

Dirge of Confession (DoC)

Sop-Lora Lemon/Julie Navrotsky

Alto-Lori Ashton

Ten-Dave Hazen/Lyle Smith (after 6 mo)

Sax/flute-Dave Hazen

AG-Jim Collins

Bass-Jim Johnson (level 3)/MAC

Key-Dan Friend/MAC

Drum-Rick Navrotsky

Pontius Palm Pilots (PPP)

Sop-Shellie Friend

Alto-Kay Salter

Ten-Jim Cates

Elec-Tim Tilburry

AG-Tom Mohr

Bass-Erin Chaney

Key-Dan Friend/MAC

Drum-DeWayne Salter

2011-12 ECC Sunday Music Teams Rotation Schedule

	Family Life Center	Worship Center
Sept	JiJ	BB
Oct	DoC	PPP
Nov	BB	JiJ
Dec	PPP	DoC
Jan	JiJ	BB
Feb	DoC	PPP
Mar	BB	JiJ
Apr	PPP	DoC
May	JiJ	BB
Jun	DoC	PPP
Jul	BB	JiJ
Aug	PPP	DoC

The Willow Leadership Conf…in short

It was the third year for the Willow Global Leadership Summit (GLS) and it was great…again.  A chance to get charged up and remember again, why I do what I do.  That I am called to make hard decisions and that leadership won’t be easy, but it will be God’s best for me.  I thought I’d share some of my “ah-ha” moments with you via my Twitter feed.  If you want to see all the Twitter comments from the whole conference (and there are a LOT of them), click on the #wcagls hashtag.  These here are my little nuggets of wisdom in 140 characters or less…

• People need to be reminded more than they need to be instructed…good reminder! :->-John Dixon #wcagls

• Humility is common sense, beautiful, generative, persuasive and inspiring and that is the reality shaped by the cross. #wcagls

• You don’t need the power to hire and fire or legislate or armies to change people in our church and the world…this is character and passion.#wcagls

• The most persuasive person in the world is the person who you know has your own best interest at heart. -John Dixon(from Aristotle) #wcagls

• Our culture is now cruciform…shaped by the cross (the greatest man we have ever known sacrificed himself humbly for others) #wcagls

• 1st record of this change in lit. is Paul’s writing in Philippians…”In humility consider others greater tinyurl.com/3hch82z #wcagls

• There was a humility revolution in the 1st century…Jesus’ crucifixion changed the way ancient people thought about greatness. #wcagls

• We are more attracted to the great who are humble instead of the great who know they are great. -John Dixon #wcagls

• B/c we know the Bible trumps all other books, we assume we are experts on politics, business, etc..to teach well, you have to listen!#wcagls

• Expertise in one area doesn’t count in another…a brilliant prof. can still jump out of a plane w/ a backpack instead of parachute! #wcagls

• Humilty is to hold power in the service of others. – John Dixon #wcagls

• Fools can change… And Christ died for this recovering fool!-Dr. Henry Cloud #wcagls

• The fool will adjust light, change truth and must have consequences.#wcagls

• A wise persom thanks u for feedback…good or bad #wcagls

• A wise person adjusts when the light(truth) comes to them #wcagls

• What does a person do when the truth comes to them? #wcagls

• “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves (children too), for the rights of all who are destitute.” -Prov 31:8-Michelle Rhea #wcagls

• At the end of the day, great is thy faithfulness. God, give me strength to do it all over again even when it hurts.-Bill Hybels #wcagls

• Am I at the intersection of wanting to be faithful &wanting to be successful in the eyes of the world? Honestly? yes. still learning #wcagls

• Mama Maggie’s words are the words of God (literally, she speaks scripture) & her life is the life of God thru the Spirit. humbled.#wcagls

• “To be in silence is to be fully inside your own self. It’s not easy. But there we discover the taste of eternity. The Kingdom is within.-Mama Maggie

• “When I touch a small child. I am touching Jesus. -Mama Maggie serving Egypt’s poorest. #wcagls

• Forgiveness is not between you and another. It is between you and God. Mama Maggie paraphrasing David. http://tinyurl.com/4yovdnd #wcagls

• “My soul magnifies the Lord, for he has done great things for me. -Mama Maggie quoting Mary. http://tinyurl.com/3mwr3k2 #wcagls

• Persecuted pastor in Ethiopia prays, facing death, for US Christians suffering from lack of prayer and too many churches/bibles. #wcagls

• We assume that if we have great leadership, everything we lead will grow & succeed…tell that to Jeremiah, eh Bill? Tough calling. #wcagls

• As tribes spring up things are changing because the still want what everyone wants…to be in synch with what OUR people are doing. #wcagls

• This notion of average products for average people doesn’t work…we’ve branded ourselves to death. -Seth Godin -#wcagls

• Pentecost was the birthday of the CHURCH. From the beginning, the church was designed to be a global movement! #wcagls

• Jerusalem (our own hometown) is the place where we have to speak truth, to power and confront people who loo… (cont)http://deck.ly/~yhgRG

• Emerging leaders are global by default. How have we responded? Have we pushed thru?-Brenda Salter McNeilhttp://tinyurl.com/3jn8x3l #wcagls

• God is convening his people (from all nations) and God is talking to us (truth) through Brenda Salter McNeil fromhttp://tinyurl.com/3jn8x3l

• You are the result of a grand conspiracy of love…what will you do?-Cory Booker #wcagls

• Stop worrying about what you want to do and worry about what you want to do NEXT…a yoga principle to avoid a world of HURT! #wcagls

• Ways to create: Take small steps with what you have, Limit the risk for step, step into reality and have some resources round you. #wcagls

• “If you can’t predict the future, create it.” #wcagls

• We are all entrepreneurs, but too few of us get to practice it.#wcagls

• You must be re-inventing yourself at least 3-5 times through your career! #wcagls

• Why can’t the next 10 years in the ECC Worship Arts Ministry can’t be the best ones yet? Do I WANT that? Yes, God please help me. #wcglas

• My job, in God’s power, is to move the ECC Worship Arts ministry from here to there…we leaders need to have the faith to do that! #wcglas

• “I need my boldness back. I’ve lost my faith along the way.”-Hybels What kinds of risks am I willing to take…will I take action? #wcglas

• What 5 words distill the gospel for you? Hybel’s are love/evil/rescue/choice/restoration. #wcglas

• The church is in the business of human transformation through the gospel into disciples! But sometimes we get fuzzy on the message #wcglas

• When was the last time we examined the “core” of who we are? I am way overdue with this one…our ideas are tired & need a retread! #wcglas

• By not NAMING problems we don’t face or resolve them and the Kingdom of God is weakened and demoralized! Acts6 church did just this! #wcglas

• Am I naming, facing and resolving the issues in my ministry? That’s a “buck stops here” type of question…#wcglas

• Is there a pattern of a bad attitude with people you work with? That is the time to intervene & the 30 day clock starts ticking….#wcglas

• The line exercise forces to prioritize & ask good questions. Are people under challenged, on wrong tasks, or is a hard talk needed? #wcagls

• What is your plan for dealing with challenging people in your ministry? #wcagls

• Do you think it’s possible for whole organizations to be Under/Appropriately or Over challenged? With too much going on? #wcagls

• You don’t want to be “under-challenge”…you will atrophy and you won’t bring your best game to ministry #wcagls

• Leaders do their best work when just in the “Dangerously Over Challenged”…too far into that zone & you’re in danger, but a little is good.

The Chandlers On Leading Your Family Through Suffering

Again from the Resurgence…good words of wisdom from the Chandlers. Thanks, Matt and Laura.

The Chandlers On Leading Your Family Through Su…, posted with vodpod

7 More Reflections on UB Worship Summit 2010

Sitting here in the the Atlanta airport, thoughts from this past week are crowding into my head. In an attempt to both remember and organize them, I’m going to post some thoughts. First, I want to say that this was a lot of extra work and when first tasked with the project I wasn’t excited about it. It seemed to be just another item on ye old to-do list. But this weekend was a divine appointment from God that I was allowed to be apart of. We came together as strangers and leave as brothers and sisters in Christ. We came from different parts of the US and leave with a deep connection and desire to continue the connection online.

For those of you who followed our twitter feed, you know the play-by-play of what we learned and did. If you’d like to see the whole event, search twitter for the #ubworship hashtag and you’ll see everyone’s various tweets in one column. But apart from the specific events, here are some of my take-aways…
1. Unity of the Body of Christ. As I mentioned before, we came as strangers, but during communion last night we experienced a profound sense of unity in Christ. We truly became UNITED brethren around the body and blood. We sat at a table and passed the bread and cup from one to another and spoke blessing over each other before hand. Phil mentioned this morning that he kept playing that over and over in his head as if he had heard words from God affirming who he was created to be. Dan, who doesn’t speak “liturgy” as his worship language was deeply moved by our liturgical communion together.
2. The need for believer artists to be in community. A number of times one of the guys there would say something like, “Well, I’m a little different from other people.” OR “You might think that’s a little weird, but…” And the rest of us would say, “No, we’re different too and we do that just like you.” Artists are uniquely gifted and sometimes feel a little alone like strangers in the crowd. Gathering together was refreshing for all of us. WE NEED TO BE IN COMMUNITY! To quote “The Princess Bride”, “Anyone who tells you differently is trying to sell you something.”
3. The need for rest and renewal. People in ministry can get worn down. This was a wonderful chance to kick back. Most of the people there ended up taking a nap at some point. That tells me we are running at a fast pace and need to kick back sometimes and allow our batteries to recharge.
4. The power of God’s word in worship. We started the week by attending Northland Community Church in Longwood outside of Orlando. It was a wonderful experience to worship together and not be in charge. It’s also inspiring to see how the arts can be done well in the church context. We also sang accapella together overlooking the ocean. That too was a wonderful time of worship. Later we took time to pray and lay hands on each other and also one of the guys who worked at the hotel and attends Hollyhills UB. He served us and we wanted to pray for his ministry in that hotel. Both were times of worship in the power of God.
5. The power of the Holy Spirit to bring things together. He did…especially in taking communion together.  He does.  He will again.
6. The honor of leading God’s people in worship. I came back home remembering that I GET to do this.  It’s easy to make ourselves in to martyrs, but the reality is that we have a privilege to invite God’s people to worship Him with all of their lives in spirit and truth and then come together as a body to express that in community.
7. Harnessing the power of technology. I came back geeked to try and harness the creative energy of that group via the web.  Look for something called “UB CREATIVE” or something like that in the next couple weeks.  Actually, it might take us a bit longer to have something to share, but the collaboration will be up quickly so we can ride the wave after being together.

As I said before, it was an amazing experience.  Artists NEED to be in community.  The understanding and affirmation is so needed and inspiring.  Thank God for UB Worship Summit 2010.