This past weekend I was able to enjoy a day-long worship seminar from Tom Kraeuter hosted by the Association Free Lutheran Theological Seminary.  It was highly beneficial for me (and hopefully many others there).  What was interesting was that I came expecting a workshop on practicals and mechanics of worship ministry (namely – musical training) but was instead taught skillfully from God’s word about what worship is, developing worshipers, how to worship God in the hard times and more.

One thought that struck me deeply and has me thinking differently about a lot of things was this question that Tom asked:

Are you more interested in leading worship or in developing worshipers?

It is so easy for us to get caught up in the “importance” of leading worship and try to force fruit out of our congregation all the while forgetting that we must look at the root of where worship comes from.  If our people don’t have a biblical understanding of worship in their hearts and minds (root), no evidence of worship (fruit; excitement, physical expressions, etc.) will even be possible.

No amount of musical technique, words of exhortation, or any other way to urge people to worship will work if they don’t understand who it is their worshiping, why they’re doing it, and how to do it.

Lord, help me be someone who is much more interested in developing worshipers than leading worship.

What are some ways you’ve taught people how to become worshipers instead of just church-attenders and spectators?

Last week I shared some thoughts about how I need to determine my focus as it’s been a bit off lately.  I want to spend a couple minutes looking at where I think worship leaders and musicians in the local church should be focused.  I’m hoping that in the next couple months (no, more like weeks and days – don’t want to put it off!) I can shift my mind to being laser-focused on these areas.

• Extreme passion to see God magnified and to see His Word proclaimed.  All other focus areas flow from this.  If God is magnified and His Word proclaimed in every area of life, all areas will be blessed.
• Being the best husband I can be for my wife and the best father I can be for my daughter (and future children.)  If everything else in life is going smoothly but my family life is suffering, my focus is incorrect.
• Being a servant leader in music ministry and as a worship leader.  Instead of letting my experience and expertise define my leadership, I want to focus on letting humility and service combined with my experience and expertise define my leadership.
• Amazing support for my pastor and other church staff and leadership.

What about you?  Have you needed to redetermine focus in your ministry?  Do any of these things resound with you or are there more you could add to the list?

I just wrote about the fact that my life has become fractured and my focus was every which way but where it should be.  Today I want to spend some time on what I need to do to determine where my focus actually lies.  Next I’ll look at where it should be.  Hopefully this process can help many of you who wear many hats in ministry as well.  Here are some steps I’m going to take to determine what my current focus is (particularly in music/worship ministry):

• What do I spend my time thinking about?  Do I think about how to encourage, teach, and build up – or do I think about where I’d like things to be in the future and how they’re not there yet?  Vision can’t happen without small steps in the meantime.
• What do I spend my time thinking about?  I know that’s the same question – but this time I ask it wondering what I spend time thinking about when there’s “nothing else” to think about.  Those places can be dangerous and I need to evaluate them regularly.
• Do things I need to do well become an afterthought for something else?  For instance, does spending quality time planning and scheduling become an afterthought for being able to arrange some music or chart out a song?  What’s more important?

There are many more questions I’ll be asking myself to determine where my proper focus should be.  How do you step back and evaluate what needs to be changed in how you approach ministry?

My life has been fragmented a lot for a quite some time and I’m not sure what to do about it.  I work out of town at a full time job that requires my brain to connect and interact with hundreds of customers I don’t know.  I spend time doing volunteer work for my amazing congregation.  I try to lead the music ministry team (need to do much better there), plus try to advance our efforts in marketing, web design, social media, and more for the church.  I spend time trying to stay connected with the hundreds of people I know on Facebook.  I spend time trying to connect with the hundreds of people I wish I actually knew on Twitter.  I watch my favorite television shows.  I spend time encouraging and nurturing my relationship with my beautiful wife and amazing daughter.  Sometimes I spend time in God’s Word.  Whoops.

Something’s wrong with the paragraph above and it’s summed up in a word:  focus.  The focus of my life is backwards and it has been for some time now.  Many of the things listed above should be reversed.  Some could possibly be cut out completely.  The most important thing, for me, has ended up last in the list.

So where do I go from here?  It seems like I’ve asked myself that question many times before facing the exact same issue.  Here’s what I’ve come up with:

Determine what my current focus actually is, then determine what it should be.  I can determine my current focus by seeing where my time is spent and what my mind is thinking about.  I can determine what it should be by first understanding who I want to be.

Over the next few blog posts I’d like to spend some time on proper focus.  Will you join me in the discussion and perhaps evaluate your own life as well?