Archive for August, 2008
21 Days of Shifted Focus
Horizon right now, but this is probably the coolest. Starting this Monday, September 1, we will be starting our first series of emphasis together called SHIFT. This series will be 21 days of shifted focus for everyone in the church. We will be asking everyone to spend at least 30 minutes each day shifting their focus to specific things we have outlined in our daily focus guide.
The study will be on the books of Joshua and Nehemiah, as we hope to draw parallels between their callings from God and our calling to start Horizon Christian Church. It will be a neat time of unified and shifted focus for our whole group, but it’s not just for Horizon partners. If you would like to join us in this exciting initiative then please go online and download the daily focus guide and email me to let me know you will be participating.
Baby Strollers and Monster Trucks
Last night my family took a trip to the local mall to get my son’s one year pictures taken. Admittedly this is NOT my favorite thing, I would put it up there with a root canal, but the even was worsened when we put our plump little boy in his stroller and discovered that the tires were almost flat. We have one of those cool strollers with real tires on it, and I have loved it, until last night. We struggled through the trip and today I found myself with the job pumping up the tires on the stroller.
So, my son and I took a trip to the local gas station to use the air pump this afternoon and as soon as I pull up and get the stroller out of the back of the SUV a HUGE, jacked up, knobby tire, larger than life, Dodge monster truck pulls up behind me and proceeds to wait to use the air pump. Of course this truck was loud and macho in itself, but along with that the driver had a painful look of disgust on his face as he waited for me to fill up the stroller tires. I was pretty sure he was going to get out and ask for my man card right there, but I eventually finished and went along my way without incident.
I don’t really have a point to go along with this story other than to say this:
Sometimes in life you will be pumping up stroller tires, and other times you will be driving a monster truck. But in no matter which role you find yourself in you should pleased, because you are still yourself.
No More Olympics!
Well, last night marked the end of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. I really got into these games with all of the awesome stories from Michael Phelps to the Redeem Team, but most of all I just love sports. I guess we will just go on wanting for another two years until it’s time for the winter games in 2010. Until then, I’ll be waiting!
Weekend Update
This weekend has been a great weekend for Horizon. On Friday we had the opportunity to spend the day helping the new students on NKU’s campus move into their dorms. It was a long, hot day of hard work, but it was really great getting to meet a ton of new people. We were also able to give out over 700 magnets to the students with local pizza numbers on them. From an advertisement standpoint this isn’t much publicity for us (our logo and website were on the bottom corner), but we just wanted to do this to show the students that we want to help them in their college transition; whether they ever visit out church or not.
Friday night we spent some time at the BSU with their leaders and members and had a great time getting to know this vital campus ministry a little better. We are so thankful that they were willing involving us in the activities that they already had planned, and for giving us an avenue to reach out the the NKU students. Brian and his team are great.
Awesome stuff!
Jam Packed Friday!
This Friday is an exciting day for Horizon. We having our first of many days of service at Northern Kentucky University. We will be spending the entire day helping new NKU students move into their dorms, and then that night we will be hosting a welcome event at the BSU in the center of campus. Hope to see all of you Horizon people out there, and if you’re an NKU student come join us around 6pm at the BSU.
So You’re Dead! (Now What?)
I just finished watching a series of messages from Craig Groeschel called “So You’re Dead…Now What?” and I just wanted to encourage you to check them out. I was really impressed by the boldness with which he approached the very difficult subject of death and the afterlife. They are so well put together that I watched all of them in one sitting.
A Worship Minister Reflects (4 of 4)
For my final reflection I have saved the most important thing that I have learned from Worship Ministry.
Musical ability will never be as important as spiritual zeal
Coming from a pretty diverse musical background playing in bars, clubs, festivals, and churches the one thing I knew when I entered worship ministry was that I had to be good. I thought that my musical ability and how well I presented the music would lead people to worship, and while I also see that as an important part I now know that it is not nearly the most important thing.
If a worship minister displays zeal and passion for seeking God and doing whatever it takes to lead people to His feet in worship people, will likely follow. That kind of heart is easy to follow, but when we are only concerned with what the music sounds like and how the set flows, then we are totally missing the point of leading people into worship of God.
Believe me, I’m the first guy to preach quality and excellence in our church’s presentation of worship, the line I walk seeking perfection every week is sometimes a struggle for me, but the day that becomes more important than keeping an ear open to God’s leading is the day that we have missed the point of worship.
Now, I don’t do this very often because I hate it when people give me advice that I didn’t ask for, but here’s some free advice for all you Sr. Ministers out there. When your looking for a worship minister to transform the way your church thinks about worship and take your services to the next level, DON’T HIRE THE GUY YOU THINK HAS THE MOST TALENT! Hire the guy that you think has the most PASSION for seeking God and growing in their relationship with Him. Worship is all about growth and coming to a greater understanding of God, and if the leader ain’t growing, then no one is gonna.
It has been good to reflect, and with these final words I am going to release my involvement in vocational worship ministry for good. I’m okay with that because at Horizon I have a great guy to hand it to. It’s all your B-rye.
A Worship Minister Reflects (3 of 4)
The third reflection I would like to offer from my time as a worship minister is this:
Helpful feedback is hard to find
If you are a musician or have ever done anything on a stage at church you might be shaking your head saying, “people are ALWAYS willing to give me feedback. It isn’t hard to find.” So let me reiterate: “HELPFUL feedback is hard to find.”
More so than any other position within a church, EVERYONE thinks they know a little something about how to do the music, and accordingly it seems that everyone is willing to share that with their worship minister. They’ll say things like, “I loved that song, I just wish there were a picture on the screen for me to look at while you sang it.” or “I just don’t like that song, we just sang the same words over and over.”
While most of the time, the feedback received from members of the congregation is meant to help, it just doesn’t. Most people in the church that offer you advice, are really only trying to do one of three things: encourage you, discourage you, or convince you to help them accomplish their own personal agenda. (Notice I said MOST people. There are always exceptions, so please don’t send me an email about how I have tried to lump every church goer in America together.)
For these reasons I believe that it is VERY important that every worship minister find a few people who they can trust to be truly honest with them and ask them to offer regular constructive criticism. The best candidates for this role are often the people that never offer their advice unless it is asked for. It would also be helpful if these people were from outside the church.
The truth is, ministers (no matter what their job is) cannot let all of their feedback come from their general congregation. While it is good to have a grip on how your congregation views your ministry, we must constantly have people making us aware of how we are performing our ministry with an unbiased eye.
A Worship Minister Reflects (2 of 4)
The second reflection I would like to offer from my time as a worship minister is this:
People notice how you do your job.
I have always been surprised at how much attention most people paid to how I did my job. Notice I didn’t say how well I did my job, just how I did it. As most of my friends know I am a very anal person. I like things done in a very specific, very neat, and very efficient way. And whether people see that as a positive or negative, they notice it, and they let me know that they notice it.
Team members can tell when you have put 10 hours into planning a service and are prepared for rehearsal, but they also know when you put 2 hours into it and haven’t even run through the songs yet. I don’t care what kind of business you run your people will notice the class and maturity with which you handle your duties. If you are constantly a mess and scrambling to get things done, most people won’t be able to deal with that for long, and you will find yourself with a rotating cast of team members, staff members, or employees. This is an all-to-common situation that most churches find themselves in.
I believe that the mark of any good leader is that he or she is always OVER-prepared to lead their team, and prepared to modify that plan to fit the ever-changing situation.
A Worship Minister Reflects (1 of 4)
Today marks my final day as a worship minister. After today I will officially be out of the professional music biz, and because of the impact this job has had on my life over the last 6 years I wanted to share some of the things that I have learned, with you.
Musical style doesn’t matter!
I have been in traditional old churches and contemporary new churches and even though their styles were drastically different I have learned that the type or style of the music we play doesn’t really matter. I believe that every problem person I have ever met, and everyone of my biggest fans would have remained on the same side of the fence no matter what style of music I introduced (within reason of course). Sometimes, people use musical style as an excuse for why they don’t like you, and if you are a worship minister you have to realize that they probably wouldn’t like you no matter what your style was, and you should NEVER let that bother you.
This world has problem people, but I believe that there are more compassionate and caring people than we often let ourselves believe there are. I have, by far, had more fans than foes over the year, and what I have come to realize is that the people who loved me and supported my ministry didn’t do so because of style, they did it because of my heart. They weren’t looking at how well I performed my job duties, they were looking at character, integrity, and class with which I did those duties. I believe that how you do the job is always more important than how well you do the job.
More to come, later this week. Peace out Louisville, KY!