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.

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!

The other day I was posting on this blog when I noticed that I had inadvertently blown past my 100th post. No big deal, but I think that’s something worth celebrating. For almost two years now I have been sharing my thoughts, hopes, and fears with the world through this blog and like all milestones I think it would be worthwhile to stop and reflect on how I got here and what I learned I the process. Allow me to share.

I have learned to value others’ opinions
If you blog, you know that not everyone is going to agree with everything that you say. There are even some people who will vehemently oppose your viewpoints and will not be shy about letting you know it. But through it all I have learned that you don’t need to agree with someone to learn something from them.

I have learned to be transparent
Something that I have grown into over these last 106 posts is becoming more transparent as a leader. Nobody wants to follow someone who is always right and pretends to have zero problems. Those kind of people aren’t easy to relate to. So, I have tried to be as transparent about my struggles, fears, and opinions as possible on this blog, and I think it has helped people see the real me.

I have learned to be committed to sharing my life with others
Knowing that I should blog two or three times a week, or probably more, has helped me to stay more committed to sharing my life with others. This has even spread to more than just the cyber world for me. Since, I have been blogging I feel like a portal to my life has been opened for all to see, and I have become more willing to share about my life and experiences; something that I have found infinitely useful as a teacher.

I hope I learn as much from the next 107 posts as I did the first.

This past weekend was great! My family and I had the chance to hang out with some of our dearest friends and unexpectedly see many friends that we hadn’t seen in years. We got to see some of our old pals from Grant County, and even some old band mates of mine from back home. It was really a rejuvenating experience for me because one of my favorite things to do is reminisce with old friends.

I’m not sure why, but I get a great deal of satisfaction out of sharing stories and reliving experiences with the people I’m closest to. I think life is great the first time through, but each time you relive it with someone, it gets better. I think this is because when we are able to look back on our lives, we look back on it with a new perspective. In the moment we don’t see or understand all that we understand later looking back on the moment.

So, today I want to encourage you with this thought. The things that you do that seem earth shattering now, might not seem so pivotal in hindsight. Live you life and quit worrying about the petty details. Because if you don’t live your life now, what will you reminisce about later?

PS - My son’s love of fire did not carry over to a love for fireworks. He screamed for nearly two hours at his first fireworks show. Bummer.

This week is a pretty exciting week for me. It combines two of my favorite things, old friends, and fireworks. Since we live in Cincy full-time now I’m going to be able to get up the North American Christian Convention. Not just will this be a great place to meet new people and spread the word about Horizon, but I will also get a chance to see some old friend who live across the country.

I also have the chance to travel to the church where I grew up to preach and present details about Horizon. I haven’t been there in about six years so it will be a nice trip down memory lane.

Also, with it being forth of July weekend I am going to get to play with fireworks all weekend. Pray that I don’t get burned! Make the most of your week and enjoy the day.

This weekend was crazy, but GREAT! I had the chance to have dinner with a couple that is going to Nigeria in two weeks to continue their mission work in the area. It was neat to hear how the same struggles that we deal with all the time at Horizon are ones they have to deal with in Africa. It’s just funny how people are people no matter where in the world you go.

I also had the chance to teach at River Valley this weekend on the “Cultural Gospel”. The lesson was based of Paul’s Journey to Athens in Acts 17 and how it is vital for us to create a gospel that is culturally relevant to EVERYONE. It was just exciting to see the look in people’s eyes as we talked after church. I really feel that god used me that morning to inspire some change in people’s life, and I really get excited when God starts changing people’s mindsets.

We also had another great week of community group meetings with Horizon. We have had quite a few new people try out one of our groups and we are excited about the new relationships that have started through the groups. We’re going to be doing something big and cool as one large group soon so keep an ear out on our site for what, where, and when.

I don’t like coffee either, but when I saw this sign I just had to laugh out loud.

In case you can’t read it, the second line says that they sell, “Coffee Crappuccino”.

I love it! Coffee drinkers proceed to hate on me if you must.