Apart from David Crowder’s crazy rigging of a Guitar Hero© controller, what is the most different or unusual instrument you’ve seen used by a worship team? I’d love to hear it all - even if you’re from another country and think that using a guitar is unusual!

Let’s hear it!

Hebrews 10:14

One of the verse that has jumped out at me lately and spoken to me over and over again is Hebrews 10:14.  Let’s take a look:

For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.

At first glance this might not look like a particularly amazing verse of Scripture - but it is so packed full of truth that it is mind-blowing.  The part I want to take a quick look at now is the phrase “perfected for all time.”

Greek’s Perfect Tense

Unlike the English language, Greek has a lot more ways of saying things just by switching to a different tense.  We English-speaking folks think of past tense, present tense, and future tense.  In Greek there is the perfect tense, combining all three tenses into one, signifying that:

1. Something happened in the past.
2. Even though it already happened, the results of what happened are continually happening in the present.
3. The results of what happened will continue to happen forever in the future.

The phrase “perfected for all time” is in the perfect tense in Greek.  So what’s amazing is, Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross not only happened - it happened with lasting results. And these lasting results won’t fade.  In fact, they’re eternal.  Do you realize what that means for us?  We change daily.  We can’t rely on ourselves.  We will not go a day in our lives without sinning.  But if we trust in the Cross and what Jesus did there, the power of what happened didn’t stop! It is continually applied to us if we are trusting in the blood of Christ!  Even though we waver and fall, our status in Christ doesn’t! Even though we offer imperfect offerings because of our sin - Jesus has made them perfect forever through His blood!

What an amazing promise!

From the Rebelution: Brett Harris just posted this great article on worship. Very cool to see the younger generation stepping up.

National Worship Leader Conference: If you’re like me and have a hard time getting to any worship conferences lately, you can “go there without going there” in a couple of different ways.  A couple worship leaders I’ve connected with are currently attending the National Worship Leader Conference in Austin, TX.  Jim Drake is keeping a pretty regularly updated twitter feed. And Fred McKinnon will be blogging and posting to his twitter feed as well.  Slake, Worship Leader magazine’s new blog, will be blogging from the conference as well.

Also, I will be preaching at our church this week.  For the rest of the week, I’ll blog on thougths that God leads me to as I prepare for the message.

Yesterday was a great day - full of family times, which I really loved.  It was also a good, albeit, slightly stressful day at Living Word.

Our service starts at 9:20.  I had the day off from leading worship yesterday but of course, like most of you out there, I was still keeping an eye out for anything that might be amiss.  Well, 9:20 comes and I realize that no one is sitting at the projection computer.  I quick find Pastor Wade and ask if the person who usually sends the file for projection had sent it or if she was coming.  Minimal panic ensues.  When I say minimal, though, I really mean it - it was quite amazing how much peace I ended up feeling, even knowing that we might not have any words for the screen.

So, after a phone call and a few minutes we realize we have the words on Pastor’s laptop, but no jump drive.  He makes a transition into announcements and calmy asks if anyone has a jump drive.  Someone does and we’re able to get up and running with all of the lyrics with a few, but not many hiccups.  The worship service goes well and God was glorified.  However, He could be glorified even more with a little bit better planning and communication.  Moral of the story - always, ALWAYS have many people in the communication loop when you’re all at different locations.  I’m really looking forward to being in our building early next year so some of these problems will hopefully go away - but at the same time, we need to work harder to make them go away now, so that we don’t face the same problems in the building.

But God was good, and blessed us anyway with great music and great teaching on “You shall not Murder.”  We sang:

• We are Called to Be God’s People
• Bless That Wonderful Name
• Knowing You
• Thou Art Worthy,  CCLI  14789
• The Wonder of it All

And Pastor Wade led us in two choruses of “I Have Decided” after hearing the pianist playing it as a music bed under the prayer time.

Subscribing to This Blog

Many of you are aware and many of you might not be that you can subscribe to this blog to get the content coming to you instead of remembering to visit every day.  Now it’s a little easier as I have added a link to subscribe at the top right corner of the blog.  Just click on the link and your browser or feed reader should automatically tell you what to do with the subscription.  If you don’t have a feedreader - you should get one.  Here is a good one for PC and here is a good one for Mac.

Also, if you happened to subscribe to this blog without using the feedburner link at the top right but used the default feed link, would you mind please resubscribing using the feedburner link at the top right that is now available?  It helps me keep track of visitors to the site and I would really appreciate it!  Thanks so much!

Music Theory at The Worship Community

My first article at The Worship Community has been published.  Check it out, especially if you’re wondering why it’s important to know music theory as a worship leader.

Gravatars

Secondly - do you wonder how some people get cool little images next to there comments in the comments section and some don’t?  I wondered about that for a long time as I was visiting other blogs as well and as I was designing the new theme for this one I figured out the secret - Gravatar.com! What this site does is allow you to register email addresses and assign an image to them or, a globally recognized avatar.  Every time you sign in somewhere to post a comment or something similar, if the website is set up properly, it will automatically grab your gravatar and post your image.  Pretty nifty!

Have a great weekend!

Five Questions on Worship

1. What does Worship Mean to You?

Worship means exalting something greater than we currently or previously have exalted it in our own mind.  We could worship a situation.  We could worship an experience.  We could worship a thing.  To me, I try above all else to worship God.  This means surrending myself, my thoughts, whatever I might be exalting at any given moment in time and exalting Him above it all.  This means letting myself decrease and Him increase.  This means letting God be the object of my worship every minute of each day.

2. What Causes You to Worship?

Ultimately - the Holy Spirit.  I can’t worship without the power of God prompting me to do so.  It’s impossible, so the Holy Spirit is what causes me to worship.  But as far as what the Holy Spirit uses to prompt me to worship:  music is a given for me.  So many types of music are used to prompt me to worship.  It helps immensely if the music directs my thoughts toward God and who He is, but I can also be prompted by the beauty and design of orchestral music or the spontaneity and skill of jazz music.  I can see the Creator’s hand in the creativity and complexity of both of these types of music.  I am also prompted by seeing people honor and glorify God in decisions they make and situations they’re in.  Mountains also prompt me to worship.  They show me how puny I am and how amazingly huge God is.  If the mountains are that majestic - how much more the One who Created them!

3. How is Worship Displayed in Your Life?

I hope that it is displayed in the way I live it.  I desire to live a life that exalts God every day and puts to death everything that doesn’t.  I want to offer my life as a living sacrifice to Him.  I hope that worship is displayed in my marriage, my relationship with my daughter, my relationship with my church and pastor, my relationship with my co-workers and through every interaction I have with people.

4. What is Your Favorite Song and Why?

Can it be the top 50? :-)  I think at the moment the song that the Holy Spirit is using most to speak to me would be “Let Your Kingdom Come” by Sovereign Grace Music off of the Valley of Vision album. I keep coming back to it and it keeps replaying in my mind.  It is such a good declaration to lift God’s cause higher than our own and to get my priorities out of the way and make my life about His priorites.

How would you answer these four questions?  (You can be brief, if you like!)

Without Rhythm and Melody - Chords Don’t Go Anywhere

As I’ve begun to teach several piano players how to play by chords instead of by the piano music I’ve run into a problem that I completely didn’t expect.  Chords, without being driven by rhythm and melody, don’t really go anywhere.  I can tell the piano player to “just play by the chords on this one” and it leads to a great fit when I’m leading from the guitar.  I can carry the rhythm from the guitar and let the piano color and accent the song.  But if I say, “I’d like to you lead this one on the piano,” many of the piano players are not quite sure what to do.  They can play the chords, but haven’t really been taught the rhythms to apply the chords to - so the song lacks movement.  They can play the chords, but haven’t really been taught how to break them up and use passing tones to create interest - so the song lacks character.

What to Do?

I guess that is my dilemma.  I can show the piano players what to do by saying, “Let me sit for a second and show you what I’d like.”  But then they’re just watching me do something instead of actually learning how to do it.  I would love to know what you’ve done to teach piano players how to play chords but play them rhythmically and melodically - able to lead a song well.  Some things I can think of might perhaps be:

• Writing out piano parts for them for a while - then saying, “Okay - your turn to apply it - make up your own now.”
• Having a workshop with piano players on how to do these things - which is something I’d like to do - I just lack the time at the moment.
• Have the piano players listen and watch professionals to try and develop their ear and mimic what the professionals are doing
• Create an online youtube / vimeo video to help train - another thing I’d love to do - again with a lack of time

Are there any other suggestions that could help?

We sang:

• Rise Up O Church of God
• Blessed Be Your Name (Redman)
• How Great is Our God (Tomlin)
• Speak O Lord (Townend / Getty)
• We Are Called to Be God’s People

We had a bit of a glitch with the final hymn - but those things happen.  I was so encouraged by several things yesterday:

• The lady battling cancer continues to raise her hands in worship with a joyous smile on her face.
• A visiting friend of a young teenager in our congregation closes her eyes in worship and I could see her mind exalting Jesus Christ through it.
• A young man raises his hands to God during the Lord’s Prayer (I had to have my eyes open because I was holding my squirmy daughter )
• Finding out that two new regular visitors sing, play the bass and play the guitar

Wade preached a fantastic sermon on the 4th commandment - very convicting and encouraging.  We are able to bring our daughter to the zoo and thouroughly enjoy watching her “ooh” and “oh” and scream in delight at giraffes, squirrel monkeys and many other animals.  Ended the day with a movie with my wife and got to bed slightly early.  A great Sunday.

I never realized the time and effort and dedication that volunteer worship leaders who oversee an entire ministry put in.  As I’ve begun to balance planning and vision in the local church with working a job and making sure I honor and put my family first, I’ve come to realize how amazing volunteer worship leaders really are.  So the purpose of this post is two-fold.

First - Thank You Volunteers

Thank you for working an entire day at your “real” job and still giving the energy to pick music and lead a rehearsal all night long for church.

Thank you for having vision to see what needs to be done in two places (both at work and in the church.)

Thank you for supporting your pastor and your team members even though you are probably running out of energy.

Thank you for your selflessness in deciding to make time available to the church instead of your own pursuits.

Thank you Jordan Volk, for your tireless passion at Abiding Savior.  Thank you Paul Stigge, for the time and effort you spent developing a worship and music ministry at Lord of Life.  If you know a volunteer worship leader that you’ve never thanked for their time, stop right now and figure out a way to do so.

One word of caution - however, as someone just mentioned to me the other day - it’s easy to burnout if you are working full time and leading a worship ministry as a volunteer.  Be careful, prayerful and intentional about keeping yourself healthy and epsecially keeping your family healthy.  I need to remember to heed those words as well.

Second - An Encouragement to Paid Staff

Those of you who are privileged to be on a staff as worship leaders - don’t ever forget that is what it is - a privilege and an honor.  You are given the privilege to:

• Plan services so that there will be minimal distraction so that God will be exalted
• Pick and suggest music for the local church
• Love on, encourage and recruit volunteers for the team
• Serve God completely as your profession
• Help others live lives that glorify Jesus Christ

The best privilege of all is that we, staff and volunteer alike, get to honor and glorify our Lord Jesus Christ - together.

One of the coolest things about it is that it is featuring “every-day worship leaders,” those of us that are “in the trenches” in the local church.  As great as it is to see writing and resources from “the big names” it’s so cool to see a bunch of local people featured.

Another cool thing is that I’ve been asked to write for the site!  I’m very excited to be a part of it and so thankful that God has blessed the time spent on this blog to be able to expand and encourage others.  So please, check it out and join the forums or leave a comment on any articles that are there.  It will definitely encourage you!