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.

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.

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.

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!

Last night we had our first pre-launch community group for Horizon and it was awesome. Just to finally have most of our group together in one place for a couple hours was very encouraging. As most church groups do we had food to eat and a time to just hung out before we jumped into some study. We are starting to study the book of John, and last night we spent close to an hour studying and discussing the first chapter.

Things went well, and I thought that our group really got into some great study and discussion, but on the way home my wife and I both felt the same way about the study time. We both felt like it was a time that would have been really hard for a non-Christian to jump into. We couldn’t pin point a specific problem, but it just felt like a very typical situation to the both of us. We really didn’t use an abundance of confusing “church” words or anything like that, but it still felt very “churchey” and neither one of us could really figure out how to make it true Bible study and yet still appealing to non-believers.

As a church, we want to do everything that we can to reach out to the lost and broken of the community; so here’s the question I am posing. What kind of elements would a Bible study that targeted non-Christians have? To me, making simple Bible study appealing and relevant to non-Christians is probably one of the true keys to reaching a community and growing a church. Thoughts?

Last week I had the opportunity to travel to Orlando, FL with six other church church planters from the great state of Kentucky to the Exponential conference (or the National New Church Conference). It was the most encouraging week I have experienced since the start of our plans to plant Horizon. Not only did I get to share stories with other church planters, but I was reminded of why I am so passionate about planting this church; to see people who are lost in this crazy world come to know a God who loves them.

More than just the basics of encouragement I was also challenged by the ideas presented. You see, in many my mindset towards being a church planter has been this: “When Horizon ceases to be a church plant, I will cease to be a church planter.” And while my plans are to stay with Horizon long after it ceases to be a church plant, I learned this week that I can NEVER cease to be a church planter. Because the second I get comfortable with my situation, and the church I helped to plant, and stop focusing on creating more churches to do just what Horizon will be doing, then that’s the second that the devil wins.

Planting churches is not about being a part of something new, exciting, and inspiring (though it is all of those things). It’s about filling a gap and meeting a need that the people of this world have in one specific geographic region. And if we as ministers, pastors, and Christ followers ever stop trying to create that for more people, then we have blown the whole point for our existence. We exist to spread the Gospel message to the world.

Here’s a few questions directed straight at pastors, ministers, and church leaders that I think we all ought to consider: What is your church doing to ensure that real churches exist in every corner of this nation? How are you actively involved the process of church multiplication?

Last week my wife and I moved all of our stuff out of our beautiful home into a 10′ X 20′ storage facility until we make the final move to NKY this summer. We moved ourselves into the home of our good friends George and Mary Yokley who have gone out of their way to accommodate us for a few months until our relocation. There’s a lot of cool things that have come out of us living with the Yokely’s, but to me the coolest thing is that they own a Bowflex. If you don’t know what a Bowflex is then you need to get out from underneath your rock more often, but in short it is a revolutionary workout machine that can transform your body in just 20 minutes a day, 5 days a week! I know, it’s exciting stuff.

As we awaited our move into their home I found myself giddy with excitement to use the Bowflex to rejuvenate my once sculpted and athletic body to its former glory. I would constantly say to Jenna, “When I can use the Bowflex, things will be different and I will make it happen. I’ll finally stick with a regular exercise routine.” It didn’t matter than I have failed to stick to a workout routine since we have been married. The Bowflex was going to make things different.

Then, the other day we were discussing Horizon stuff and I uttered these words. “I can’t wait until we launch Horizon. Things will be different than they ever have been, and God will make it happen!” While I believe every word of what I said, and I believe that God is currently and will in the future do GREAT things through our work at Horizon I realized that we have to walk a fine line with this thinking.

We can’t present this church to people as a Bowflex. We can’t tell them that this church will solve all of their problems or revolutionize their commitment to God and the Bible. I REALLY think that this church will be able to help people do this in ways they couldn’t before, but no church is a Bowflex. No matter what church you attend, or what denomination you ascribe to God is still God, and our inability to commit to Him will stare us in the face no matter where we go.

Even though I believe Horizon will be a revolutionary kind of church that is more accepting, active, and committed to God than your average church, attending our services just because we are fresh and new will not be a magic potion to cure commitment issues with God. We have to be the ones to make it happen. We can’t expect a church to do it for us. No church is a Bowflex!

FYI - I have been on the Bowflex EVERY DAY since our move to the Yokley’s. Boo Yah!

The past few weeks in Louisville have been anything but typical as far as weather goes. Last week we had a foot and a half of snow that made it impossible to do anything, and this week it has been so sunny and warm that I have ridden my motorcycle to work every day. I am just amazed at the difference a week can make. Personally, I pretty much hate the snow. There are times when it is fun and not annoying, but for me those times are few and far between. I love warm weather that allows me to be outside enjoying the day.

I think there are many people who share my feelings about this when it comes to weather, but it’s scary to think that those same people also have these feelings about life, church, and their friendships. Sure they love things when the sun is shining and things are dandy, but the minute something bad pops up they drop all communication, all involvement, and all interest.

On a separate but related note, my wife and I were discussing how we would handle the future discipline of our child last night and on things that both of us agreed on is that we want to raise our child with an emphasis on not just his actions, but also his attitude. If he does what he is supposed to it simply won’t be good enough. He will be expected to maintain the proper attitude while doing right. I firmly believe that this has been missing from American households for far too long. Our society places more stock in actions than attitudes.

This is the last things I’ll say: even when things in life stink; when your friends are acting like jerks, when your spouse is annoying, and nothing seems to go right don’t shut down or isolate yourself from those things. Meet them head on. There’s always warmer weather on its way.

I think we’ve all heard the saying, “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.” But, after today I know that just isn’t true because today my family and I ran some errands over lunch at our neighborhood Costco. I was already hungry when we got there and so I bought a fountain drink for 55 cents to tide me over, but before I knew it I had already eaten lunch! There was a wide variety of free samples all around me, and the kind distributors were constantly reminding me that I could have as much as I wanted. How cool is that! My wife was in awe as I tried each and every sample without hesitation. She was amazed that a very picky eater like myself would shove any free sample that I came by into my mouth without hesitation. I guess that truly attests to my true nature of “good stewardship”. I’d rather eat food I don’t like for free than pay for something I like.

After the whole experience was over I thought to myself, “What can the church learn from Costco?” This is a tactic I have seen Mike use a lot with Starbucks.

I think the one truth that rings through is that people appreciate it when you pay attention to them. Costco doesn’t have to offer 55 cent fountain drinks or an endless supply of free samples to sell their wholesale products, but they do those things anyway. These things enhance what they offer. Now, while I don’t think we should view the church as a store and church-goers as consumers, I do think that the church sometimes loses sight of the fact that people love it when we go the extra mile to enhance things.

When we are courteous enough to have someone escort them from their car to the door on a rainy Sunday.

When we have someone waiting at that door to help them find a seat.

When the worship service engages and involves each person in the congregation and spurs them on to live a more disciplined life for Christ.

Sure, we have the best product in the world, even better than the stuff they sell at Costco, and the message of God’s love and grace needs no real enhancement to be amazing. But I still think it’s okay to give people more than just the message at our churches. It’s okay to put extra effort in making sure that every little detail is taken care of so that people can more easily see God through what we do. In fact, it’s more than okay. It’s awesome when churches do that, and I know God appreciates the effort we put forth to communicate His Gospel to the world.

Well, today the very long pause on my blog in recent days will be fully explained. After MUCH thought, consideration, prayer, and research I have decided to leave River Valley this summer to lead a church plant in Highland Heights, Kentucky. The church will be called Horizon Christian Church and will officially launch on September 7, 2008. The church will be a very modern and contemporary effort to reach the young adults and young families of the surrounding communities, and I feel very strongly that God has called me to step out a lead in this specific way and am excited about the opportunity.

We are currently building support for the church and hope to find as many missions minded people who will be dedicated to reaching the lost of this world to join us in the endeavor. Please be in prayer for our entire team as we work to get this church off the ground.

There will be more Horizon information to come in the very near future so keep an eye out.