WORSHIP. PERIOD.

“Sunday’s Coming” Movie Trailer from North Point Media on Vimeo.

We’re creative beings as humans.  Afterall, we’re patterned after The Ultimate Creator.  You don’t have to look or listen very far to find examples.  Heck, you should see the systems I come up with to carry laundry downstairs and avoid 2 trips.  Laziness is the mother of creativity, or something like that.

That being said, sometimes we hit a creative wall.  I’m sure you’ve been there.  You sit there with your guitar and all that comes out is  G – D/F# – Em – C  over and over…you keep rhyming “tree”, “me” and “thee” repeatedly until they don’t sound like words anymore…or maybe after “Lost”, “Heroes” and “Grace Anatomy”, you’ve run out of TV shows to rip off for your sermon series branding.  Happens to the best of us.

So what do you do to reignite some creativity?  One humble suggestion I would make is to change your perspective.  We tend to get into ruts and routines that slowly build fences around our creative ability.  For example, my fingers are usually in the shape of a G chord before I even get a hold of the neck – it’s just kind of my default.  Like I alluded to earlier, we tend to fall into patterns that we know, or even more so, rules that we’ve agreed to.  If I start on a G, well the next chords have to either a C, D, Am7, Em, etc.  That’s just how it is.  I’m not saying free yourself by casting off all musical theory and become a improv jazz player or anything.  Just try something to make yourself look at your instrument or creative situation/challenge from a different perspective.  Maybe it means fooling around on an instrument you don’t know how to play.  Chances are you’ll see it in a way that others who are trained on it don’t.  You won’t be stuck with preconceived assumptions of how to use the instrument – you’ll be driven by results…how does it sound?

I’ve got a couple examples of people who look at common things a bit differently.  First up:  Bobby McFerrin.  Remember “Don’t Worry, Be Happy”?  Well, if that’s you’re only experience with this dude, you’re missing out.  Let’s just say when Bobby thinks about singing and the human voice, he thinks about it with an entirely different set of assumptions and rules than I do.  Exhibit A – Check this out (this is all one dude, one voice, one mic, live):

Pretty cool, right?  Something tells me when he started his journey musically, he didn’t think about his voice with the same fences that most of us do.  Sure it likely took decades of trial and error and relentless practice on some counts, but the point is he was willing to try stuff and most importantly must’ve been ok with looking stupid while he experimented.  How often do you let yourself go and risk the ridiculous in your creative process?

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I’m sitting in my office, at a desk which I’ve recently moved to the other side of the room.  Funny thing is, this is about where it was when I first moved into this office.  If you’re like me, sometimes you just need a change of scenery.  Every once in a while don’t you just need to do some rearranging?

Well, that’s kind of a weak way to introduce an idea but I needed a way to get the word “rearranging” in there somehow.  Thanks for continuing to read.

Recently when I was preparing an upcoming service, I was going over some song choices.  I found myself thematically drawn towards a certain song that was a great fit lyrically with where we were going.  My first reaction was to dismiss it because of where it would be located in the flow of the service.  “I can’t use that one, it’s a “fast” song and I need something more reflective here.”

Needless to say, I caught myself and gave my head a shake.

Sometimes I think we get bound by an arrangement of a song as we first heard it or learned it.  Or maybe it’s how the song appears on an album.  Whatever it is, how often do you revisit a song’s arrangement with “no holds barred”, so to speak?

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A little while ago I was pulling up to a busy intersection in my fair town, and one of the few that ever has any homeless-type dudes. You know the ones, they make the rounds up and down the waiting cars with their sharpie and cardboard signage hoping for some guilt-ridden eye contact. There’s all kinds of debate about whether or not giving these cats money is actually helping them or not, but I kind of tend to think that’s just an excuse on our part. Sure, maybe the risk is there that my young friend will use my pocket change for ill rather than good, but I have yet to read anything about evaluative generosity in my Bible, so I’m just going to have to trust God and give, I think.

Anyway, this dude came sauntering up to my Jeep and I’m not much of a cash-carrying guy in today’s land of plastic money, so I was out of luck. Then I noticed it on my dash – a half used Tim Horton’s gift card with at least a few bucks left on it. “Huh”, I thought, “at least he could get a hot coffee and maybe a sandwich”. So I gave him the card and got a curious smile in return and I was on my way with something to think about…at least until the next light.

Fast forward, in my daily distractionary web surfing, I stumble on this site. It’s called Gift Card Giver. I’m not going to write a big long explanation or intro to this, it’s just cool and people should do it. Great idea. (If you don’t get the connection to worship, read Amos 5 or Isaiah 1.)

I love it when I find out my ideas aren’t original, and that someone has done a bigger and better job already.

I love those soccer announcer dudes. Best part of soccer if you ask me (those of you who know me will know that likely that’s the only good part about soccer, in my view, but I digress. Keep doin’ yer thing, Beckham.)

Goals are one of those things that can be a bit “buzz word”-ish, and some of us artist types can get a bit skiddish and shy away from that stuff. I really do think that setting goals makes a difference in our ministries.

What are your goals for your worship ministry in 2010?

If you don’t typically engage in this process, I encourage you to give it a try. They can be from the practical to the ethereal, and everything in between – a balance of ‘em all is gets my vote. Do you have punctuality issues with yourself or your team? Set a goal to clear it up this year. Give yourself steps: I will be 15 minutes early for every service and rehearsal this year. Does your flock need a fresh infusion of new songs? Set a goal of discovering and teaching some new worship tools to your congregation this year and pursue it with passion. Maybe your crew needs some grounding and teaching in the theology of worship. How can you meet that need this year? Make a plan and work it.

My encouragement to us all with the calendar about to flip once again is to take some time with God to consider what He might have for each of us and our ministries this year and to set some goals to get us there. What an opportunity to give Him the thanks and praise you’ll have this time next year when you can look back and see the ways God has carried you and yours to meet those things He set in your heart a year ago! Sure things will change, new needs will arise, and some of the goals you set now will need to morph and adjust as time passes. But none of those things negate the benefit of time spent with God considering what paths he’d have you follow over the coming year.

Something to consider: Throw yourself in the deep end from time to time. I like to try and consider with God some dreams for our ministry that seem so outrageously large that only He could accomplish them. That way, if and when they come to pass, only He gets the credit. It’s a good thing to purposely set ourselves up for a reminder of who’s driving the bus, now and again.

So, what are some of your goals this year? Let’s share ‘em with each other and run the race together!

Have you ever had a moment in your life when someone said something, or you read something, or heard something that made you feel really stupid about an opinion you held in the past that seemed so right at the time? Chances are, if you’re human, and honest with yourself (but if you’re human there’s always a chance you’re not honest with yourself) you have.

This happened to me just a few weeks ago. I’ve been reading a book by Francis Chan called “Crazy Love”, a great book that’s kind of like a wake-up call for Christians to start living the radical life of “crazy love” that God both demonstrates and calls us to. In the accompanying DVD, Chan tells a story about a girl in a worship team he knows who seems so joyful and refreshed every time she’s worshipping God. So much so that she stands out from the other members of her team. When he asks her why everything seems new and exciting to her in her worship time, she replies:

“I just ask God to do something new in my life and my worship every day, and He does.”

Such a simple request – and so obvious! Of all God’s many wonderful and mysterious attributes, the Bible tells us that He is first of all a creator – and not just any creator, but the Creator of all!

Genesis 1:1 – “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

To me, as an artist and a pastor of worship arts at my church, this means that God is the ultimate Artist. He created breathtaking beauty and splendor from absolute nothingness. What other artist living or dead can make that claim? Since God is the ultimate artist – and all artists love to create – it shouldn’t surprise us that He wants to create something new in our own lives every time we give Him the opportunity.

My problem is that I don’t often give Him the opportunity, which brings me back to why I was feeling stupid recently.

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