I’ve never been an American Idol fan, to be honest (or Canadian Idol, for that matter). I’m like a lot of people, in that I catch myself watching the trainwreck auditions during the first few episodes (which always reminds me that man’s capacity for self deception is limitless), but I don’t generally watch beyond that. I’m not going to get into all the debate about it or play the snooty musician role and whine about how “unpure” and “non-artistic” it all is, just never been a fan.
Last night, however, after my PVR finished providing me with the season finale of ‘House’, the live tv feed came on to the American Idol finale. I watched for a while because it happened to be in the middle of the Simon Cowell send off. Turns out he’s leaving the show that he put on the map (and it he) and made him a very rich and famous grouch. I thought it was interesting to watch for a couple reasons. Firstly, based on the snippets I’ve seen from him he’s a bright guy and pretty astute when it comes to spotting talent. He seems to take the nasty role a bit “out past the breakers” sometimes for the purposes of good tv, but to be honest I’ve always thought he was right on the money by telling people how it is. What help is it to massage these folks delusions and encourage them down a path that obviously isn’t right for them? It’s a singing competition. If you want someone to tell you how great you are no matter what, sing for your mom. But I digress.
The other reason I found it interesting is because he is leaving a very popular (always at or near the top) show which also happens to make him the highest paid dude on tv. So why leave? Or better yet, how do you bring yourself to leave all that? I thought he had an interesting quote, in which he said, “A friend once told me you’ve got to know when to leave the party.” Huh. Sounds simple enough.
This weekend marks the end of an era for me (among others). I’ve been fortunate enough to have been part of the founding and fruition of a monthly worship event called “The Spot” for nearly 10 years now. On the last Sunday of every month we’ve gotten together with young adults from our area to simply worship God and that’s it. Hence our motto: “Worship. Period.” (you may recognize that slogan from somewhere).
The creation of The Spot came out of a passion I had to see my peers given an opportunity to go deeper and express themselves in worship in a way that was culturally accessible to them. At the time, the churches in our area were fairly traditional across the board with regard to their Sunday morning worship experiences, to generalize a bit. That and the struggle churches often have with ministering to the young adult “20-Something” crowd made for a bit of a hole (or niche) that something like The Spot could help fill. We had a blast doing it. We went from 12 or 15 people and a less-than-fantastic band on our first evening to averaging close to 300 at our peek coming together monthly to stand alongside their peers and enthusiastically and passionately lift up the name of Jesus. Some cool.
Fast forward a decade, and the landscape is a bit different around here. Most (or at least many) of our churches are on some sort of journey toward a deep and relevant worship experience. The so-called “modern worship movement” has brought some not-so-good things with it, but it has also prodded some churches to examine the ‘what’ and the ‘why’ in their own worship areas. I myself have been blessed to be part of one of those churches on that journey for some time now.
One of the values The Spot held from day one was that we were not a church. We wanted to build up the local church by hopefully sending the folks that attended back to their local churches with a bit of fire and passion for worship. We called it our “John the Baptist” role. So as I noticed numbers dwindling in recent months and a bit of a change in temperature at The Spot, I began to reflect on all these things I’ve just talked about. After rolling it around for a while and some good chats with trusted friends, it became apparent that perhaps The Spot’s time had come to an end. It seemed like the reasons or needs that prompted the event to be created in the first place were not the same today.
So, in a few days we’ll hold our final event (May 30) and that will be that. I’ll be sad to see it go – it’s been a part of my life monthly for a decade now – but I’m comfortable with the decision. I’m comfortable with it because to be passionate about a need in starting an event and then turn around and ignore the changing needs to hold on to it would be foolish. I’m excited to be in a city who’s churches are journeying and growing in their worship – but that means it’s time to “leave the party”.
I think sometimes we have trouble with this in our churches, don’t we? We have programs that have run for a hundred years “because we’ve always done it”. But if we were to ask ourselves, “What’s the purpose? What need does it meet?”, we may have trouble coming up with strong answers.
What things exist in your ministry that have become a bit sacred and perhaps outstayed their welcome? A program? A service order? A song? How do you hold yourself accountable and evaluate these things? Do you clearly define purposes and goals for the elements of your ministry and regularly evaluate them against those standards? How often to you stop and ask God to speak into what you’re doing? Do you make plans and then ask the Spirit to bless them, or stop and look for what God is blessing and align yourself with those?
I’d love to hear your thoughts on these questions, however I’ll be honest – the “you” in them was me…
FROM JAMIE: When I went to youth retreats or conferences when I was a youth, I wasn’t very interested in worship. Actually, let me rephrase that. I was interested in music as worship, but not worshiping. In fact, I was always far more interested in what gear the guitar players were using and watching contently on how they were using their instruments. After a service, I would often find myself at the front of the stage to get a closer look at a guitar players’ pedal board to see what they were using. Now, about 10 years later, I find myself on the other end of the spectrum. People often ask me what is on my pedal board, how I get my tone, or what I recommend using for certain sounds or effects. Some of those questions inspired me to share via this blog. Hope it helps in some way. 
