i am an offering

I definitely don’t have it all figured out by any means, and I’m still working on the process, but some thoughts that were shared with me a while back really keep striking home.  Take a look at 1 Timothy 3:12-13:

A deacon must be the husband of but one wife and must manage his children and his household well. Those who have served well gain an excellent standing and great assurance in their faith in Christ Jesus.”

Whenever I’ve looked at and pondered those verses in the past all I saw was the qualification of a deacon to manage his children well, but the verse says children and household.  Household encompasses a great deal!  Managing your household includes, but is not limited to:

• Having the means to provide and sustain your family. (Getting out of debt if your in it and staying debt free, not living paycheck to paycheck, making wise financial decisions, etc.)
• Having the discernment to not let that provision and sustenance become your idol and god.  It is very easy to fall in love with your job, especially if it pays well and you like it.  Family comes before working 70-80 hour weeks.
• Deciding where to spend your time. (Do you spend it watching hours of TV, trying to find an excuse to go play a round of golf - or do you spend your time wisely, knowing when to stop working, when to enjoy leisure, and when to get things done that need to get done.)

The last factor of managing a household is key.  Instead of trying to balance the time that you have, begin to manage it.  If you’re like me, and are a pretty spontaneous person who also tends to procrastinate, conisder setting up a schedule.  Of course you’ll need to schedule in some spontaneous time that you can just enjoy, but a schedule might be extremely helpful.

I’m just starting to really think about these things and haven’t officially applied them yet, but after thinking about Paul’s words to Timothy to charge deacons to “manage (a) household well” I’m beginning to be convicted that I’m not really doing that - and something needs to change.  Join me and the journey - and maybe you have some ways that you’ve learned how to manage your time and household.

Throughout the last few weeks I’ve been involved in lots of things - looking for a new job, trying to develop ways for me to freelance, working my current job, figuring out how to stay on top of volunteer worship ministry, spending time with my wife and daughter and trying to spend time in God’s Word and prayer.  That’s a whole life in itself, but I still love taking pictures, reading, watching a few select TV shows and doing enjoyable things.  Then there’s housework, yard work and more.  Yikes.

I’ve been thinking a lot about how our time management is part of how we worship God.  I want to spend some time thinking about our time, using my own life as an example and talking about some ideas of how time can be managed.

Teaser for tomorrow:  There’s a huge difference between managing your time and balancing your time.

See you tomorrow.  In the meantime, our pastor wrote one of the best blog posts I’ve seen dealing with our nation’s financial issues and the political race. You should check it out.

Yesterday I was blessed to have an article in the “featured articles” section of The Worship Community.  I wanted to point you over there to take a read.  The article talks about five things that are needed to orchestrate effective rehearsals.  Here are the five things (read the article to get the details about each step).

1. Preparation.
2. Have the Right People in Place.
3. Proper Use of Time.
4. Respect Each Other.
5. Leaders lead.  Followers follow.

Go over and take a read - and while you’re at it sign up to participate in the forums.

Well, I have kind of veered away from the ultimate purpose of this blog within the last few posts.  That purpose is to share teaching, tips and training on leading worship within the local church.  Even though it’s been fun to build community (which I love, by the way, so please keep joining in the comments) I miss just pouring out my heart with what I’ve learned in leading worship and raising up worship leaders within the local church - so it’s time to get back to it.

Building a Worship and Music Ministry

At my former church, I was blessed to be able to be hired into a pretty well-established ministry.  I just needed to continue to work with those who were already involved and recruit some more volunteers who wanted to be involved.  Currently, the situation’s a little different.  I’m in a church plant that’s about five years old that has had kind of an on-again, off-again worship ministry going on.  So basically, I’ve jumped in with a little bit of a ministry, but not much.  There’s been some great growth, but now I’m stuck.  Why?

Instead of taking small steps to build things up gradually and consistently over time, I’m wanting to take huge steps to have a full-fledged ministry right now.

I sent out a Twitter post a couple of days ago asking for some advice on building a worship ministry.  Billy Chia sent me this:

Do Less - fewer songs, fewer people, fewer “extras”. Keep it basic and add one new component at a time.

I think he nailed it.  When we begin to build a worship ministry, or any ministry for that matter, we need to look at the big picture slowly.  Yes, it’s good to have a huge vision, but don’t get discouraged when that vision doesn’t happen over night.  My roadblock has been just remembering to take the small steps, the fifteen minutes a day that doesn’t seem like much but will ultimately have me going, “Wow, how in the world did this ministry grow so quickly?”

Slow and Steady Wins the Race

So, make a point to take things slowly, yet with persistance.  Take one small step at a time.  Soon that small step will lead to a bigger step yet that bigger step will seem as small as the original small step.  So, what’s the next small step you need to take in order to persistently build the ministry?  Mine is setting up a meeting and making a few phone calls I’ve been putting off.  Let’s get to it.