Well, it’s been great to take a break. I’ve had time to think and process a few things, plus it was nice to not try and come up with stuff to write about for a while!
Some highlights from the past week:
- Ministry is going well. A lot of good things are happening. A lot of good things are about to happen. I can’t even imagine where God is going to take us.
- We had a small, short gathering for Sunday’s service (since it was labor day, and since there was a community worship service at the LifeLight Music Festival). It was great. Nice, intimate atmosphere. The most fun was hearing a little guy pray out loud behind us when Pastor Wade asked us to pray with who we came with - so cool to hear that kind of stuff!
I came across a link that I think would be super valuable for families. Often we struggle with how to lead worship in our homes (which is the place that teaching about worship and Jesus should begin with). Here is a great podcast from Sojourn Church, talking with their children’s ministry director about implementing a family worship time. I highly recommend it. (My browser is having a hard time showing the audio player, so you might need to download it from their itunes feed.)
I’ll admit it. My prayer life is probably the one area of my Christian walk that needs the most work. And yes, learning how to pray and pray consistently is work, but as we learned in The Truth Project last night, the word ‘work’ has been twisted into an ugly thing instead of the privilege that God gave to us.
Pastor Wade encouraged and challenged us to just plain spend time with God, to “trust in Him at all times…pour out your heart before Him, (because) God is a refuge for us.” He encouraged men to realize that we can’t afford to NOT be praying and we have to model it for our families. Good, good stuff.
We sang:
- Psalm 9 (a great lead/echo song right from Scripture)
- Oh Lord, You’re Beautiful (classic Keith Green)
- Sweet Hour of Prayer
- Strong Tower (Furler/Taylor)
The transition to EasyWorship seems to be going well, but we still need to work on getting some bugs out like making sure all the songs are on the default text so that it’s large enough and making sure songs and Scriptures are broken into more manageable screens.
And another fantastic part about yesterday…spending time with my daughter (lots of laughs from peek-a-boo and shoulder rides!) while being able to let my wife rest and catch up on some much needed sleep.
This week, since the Scribit widget in the sidebar has been utilized, we’ll look at different ways to worship God and not just on Sundays.
So what happens when we think we don’t have the right people in place to raise up? It’s time to ask some questions:
- Are you praying? If you aren’t praying for a person to train and raise up, chances are that God’s not going to give you one. It’s possible that He would, but much more likely that He will if you ask Him.
- Are you looking? Or are you just saying “There’s no one available” when you haven’t even looked?
- Are you asking? It’s very likely that your pastor or another ministry leader would know of someone with the gifts and abilities you’re looking for. Ask them!
- Are you equipping? Surely you already have several volunteers involved in your music and worship ministry. Have you been training all along, with the intention of raising up someone out of that group?
In summary, the best way to avoid burnout in your ministry is to let go of our selfishness and our fear, learn how to train and equip, and pray, look, and ask if there is anyone available to raise up. Once that person (or persons) is found, the burnout we would face from trying to do everything ourselves will go away, and a new leader will emerge.
It’s been tough for me to blog lately. I’ve been a bit discouraged and down, but have had some wise advice from people and am resting in God’s strength.
I really would love to get to know who is reading, even if I know you. Would you leave a comment and just say hello and where you’re from?
Today I saw a great example of worship. There is going to be a festival coming up here to promote the various ministries within the church. The festival is in the Fellowship Hall and I just walked out into the narthex to drop off some sheets of paper on a table and happened to peek into the fellowship hall and see our small groups pastor walking the tables and praying. How awesome to see that act of worship today.
Remember to always pray. Pray that God would provide, and pray that you would have the wisdom to rest in Him when He might not.
I don’t think I’ve ever heard of an occasion of a church with no piano player, but I’m sure it has happened. Here are some ideas:
- Find great songs that work accapella. Sometimes there is nothing more glorious than listening to God’s people sing without anything else accompanying them. A great many hymns work extremely well for this. There are also several newer songs that work well.
- If you have a guitarist, teach them to play melodically. Most guitarists are rhythm guitarists, not lead guitarists, so we (myself included) have a hard time playing melodically. Teach them to finger pick, teach them to be able to play a solo line as an intro or outro.
- Help the bass player be confident. The piano covers all the octaves, so when there is no piano and perhaps you have a guitar and bass, if the bass isn’t confident on the low end it will stand out and be distracting. Even if it’s being able to play whole notes with confidence, teach them to play confidently.
- Help your singers be able to hear. The singers will have to tune themselves to the guitar, since there is no piano, so help them get used to that. Spend time in practice without the bass and drums. Make sure that the bass and drums are not overpowering the guitar, so the singers can hear it.
- Enjoy your organ! Perhaps you don’t have a piano because the church isn’t ready for that transition yet. Pray that God would give you patience and that He would give you great joy in worshiping in a traditional style. If we rely on style to be able to worship God, our foundations of what worship is have not been laid properly, and will crack and crumble when styles change.
