Good times all around. I sang. I toasted. I Best-Manned.

Sitting at the rehearsal, chatting with the officiating pastor (who also happens to be my pastor/boss and the father of the bride) we got to discussing the many weddings and rehearsals we’d both done in the past. We were joking about the tendency for there to be too many cooks in the kitchen when it comes to wedding rehearsals. I remarked that I made it my own rule not to acquiesce to anyone’s requests or demands unless they’re the lady wearing the white dress on the big day. You may have plenty of fantastic ideas about what I should sing, how I should stand, what I should wear, when I should stand or sit and more, but if you’re not the bride you’re likely not going to get much of a response from me, Aunt Liz.

It’s the bride’s day. It should be all about her. Sure there are lots of things everyone else would prefer or enjoy or rather see, but this ain’t your rodeo. Wait your turn. (Or perhaps you already had your turn.)

As we discussed it, I realized there were some parallels there. I thought about how easy I found it to keep that kind of focus and endure the occasional snide remarks and indignant glares in a wedding context, but found it a different animal altogether at the ol’ church gig.

Sometimes in worship workshops or what not I’ll use an analogy for worship involving a birthday party. I like to pick out somebody and ask them about their favorite music, food, sports teams, their best friends, favorite colors etc. Then I ask folks what kind of birthday party would it be if I were to throw one for this person incorporating the opposite of the favorites she just told me about? If I were to have country music playing when she loves jazz; if the decorations were all pink when she hated pink and loved blue; if she was a huge Yankees fan and I bought Red Sox napkins (unforgivable). It’s an obvious image and an easy conclusion. Worship is about God and not us. It’s not a stretch from there to connect the birthday analogy further in the sense that the best way to get the party elements right is to know the person very well. You get it.

The other arm of that image that I’ve been thinking about since the previously mentioned wedding conversation is the folks who try to make the birthday party about them instead of the guest of honor. How do we as party planners handle that? Or what about those parties we’ve all been to where it’s obvious the person doing the planning threw a party they would love rather than one the birthday boy or gal would love?

Leading worship in a local church is tough. Mostly because it’s full of humans. Humans make things tough sometimes. Heck, it’s tough being one sometimes. The problem is, we all have this strange innate drive to make everything about us and what we like/want. Many of us have learned to curb and temper it to varying degrees, others not so much. It’s like my father used to say about the insurance agencies he owned and ran for 25 years: “If it wasn’t for customers or employees, I’d have the greatest job in the world.”

The truth is we’re all going to have our preferences in worship. For some, preference may not be a strong enough word. There’s a temptation to start the juggling act of trying to make and keep everybody happy. Anybody who’s ever tried the juggle has probably realized quickly it usually ends with you dropping the ball.

Yes we need grace. Yes we’re servants and need to be aware of ways we can make the worship accessible for a variety of folks on a variety of spots along the spiritual journey. That said, be careful about how your birthday party is turning out.

It’s helpful to return to that image for me from time to time. As I make decisions, song choices, etc, to just ask myself who’s party I’m throwing. That can be a helpful phrasing to use in conversations with others as well. When I’ve encountered questions about the worship ministry, I like to try and start with a reminder, hopefully getting both myself and the person with the question on the same ground as to what worship is about. From there, if their question is a theological concern, a leadership question, or a constructive technical criticism we can certainly chat it through. However, if it starts with “I don’t like it when” or “I would rather that you”, then it’s typically a short chat. Might seem harsh, but part of our role is to curate the focus of worship in our churches and an occasional “goal line stand” goes a long way for clarity as to what our worship is going to be about.

I wish the birthday party analogy could end there.

Everyone else is the problem, you rock, keep it up.

Sadly, there’s that second half. The party planner who makes it all about them. Ever happen to you? Didn’t think so. Me neither. Well, maybe once.

The truth is I’m a human too, despite recent reports. Along with that comes some insecurities and some selfishness. That means I occasionally know that a musician friend is going to be in the crowd this Sunday and I’m tempted to load the band and the set list to impress them. Sometimes I play “bouncer” instead of “doorkeeper” as we talked about in an earlier post. Point is, for every one time I need to remind any of the folks I lead about who the focus needs to be in our worship, I better remind myself 3 times.

What about you? What are your struggles in the keeping the party planning on track?

Chris Tomlin never writes without an open Bible in the room.

Tim Hughes often labors on a song for 6 months to a year before he lets it out.

Paul Baloche likes to “sing the Psalms” to get himself started.

I like to….(how would you fill in the blank?)

These are all comments on songwriting I’ve heard (heard in some cases, read in others) from these guys, each of whom probably has at least a leg to stand on when it comes to commenting on songwriting for the church. I was on a conference call today centered around songwriting and was reminded of just how different and hard-to-nail-down people’s processes are. There are all kinds of ways to do it, you might even suggest there’s no right or wrong (although there are probably some wrongs, if we’re honest).

The bottom line, I think, comes down to inspiration and craft (and the relationship between the 2). How we achieve each of them varies as much as our personalities, but I think they both need to be present in the process. For Redman, the inspiration is the “door closed” and the craft is the “door open”. Hughes’ craft involves a lot of time spent. Just like so many other things about our relationship with God, there’s the part we can do and the part only He can do. I believe when we’re writing for the church we need a revelation from God of Himself (by His word, in nature, general, specific, etc) to inspire and direct, and I also believe we need to be disciplined in refining that initial inspiration (re-writing, editing, theological scrutiny, etc). For me, inspiration is the fun part, crafting is the work part.

How does that shake down for you?

What’s your process?

Is this “Labor of Love” typically more labor or more love for you?

Love to hear about how you write songs.

- J

“A traffic jam when you’re already late. No, that’s not ironic, that’s just a pain in the butt. There’s nothing ironic about being stuck in a traffic jam when you’re late…unless you’re a town planner, and you’re late for a seminar of town planners at which you were giving a talk on how you solved the problem of traffic congestion in your area and couldn’t get to it ‘cuz you were stuck in a traffic jam.”

So, that being said, I guess I found it coincidental – not ironic – that a concept and a passage from 1 Chronicles and Psalm 84 has been popping up in my noggin a lot in the last day or two. I had been thinking about writing a blog about “gatekeeper worship” for a little while now, and I’ll explain that a bit further down. Then this weekend I was reminded of that because our weekend service was focused on a theme called “pictures of eternity” and the song “Better is One Day” made an appearance. I remembered a devotional I’d done with our team a while back talking about the Sons of Korah, the gatekeepers at the temple, to whom this Psalm is attributed. I filed the thoughts away again, now mashed together with this whole gatekeeper idea I had rolling around.

Then I stumble into the office this morning. It’s Monday, so of course I’m looking for any excuse to do something I can call quasi-work-related but is completely non-taxing. I saw a tweeted link (Twitter qualified I guess) to a talk Louie Giglio had done at the National Worship Leaders Conference so that seemed like a good fit. I’ll watch a talk from a worship conference and call it “adding to my tool box” or something. Perfect.

So once again, here it comes. The payoff of his talk is about being “doorkeepers” in worship. As you can well imagine I figured it was time to at least take a crack at getting some of my thoughts down.

First thing, watch Louie’s talk. I love this dude and he’s usually out of the park for me. He has this great connection he makes when talking about being doorkeepers in worship (toward the end of the talk) that is something we could all stand to remind ourselves of each time we step up to lead.

You watched it? Good. Welcome back. I love this idea that we are doorkeepers when we lead worship, like Obed Edom and the Ark or John the Baptist. That our job is to stand outside and invite people into the presence of God – to safeguard the focus and keep it on Jesus. And I love the picture the guys who do this job paint in Psalm 84 that says “there’s no other job, big or small, that I’d rather do than “hold the door” for Almighty God”. There’s plenty of wisdom in that for us and certainly an attitude and posture of the heart we should all strive for.

But, I think there’s another side to this doorkeeper thing which is the thought that got me started on this idea in the first place. I’m grateful that I was taken to Louie’s talk and inspired and reminded about the positive and humbling side of being a doorkeeper in worship. That said, I do think there’s another side to that picture that sometimes we (and usually when I say “we” I mean “I”) can fall into.

So, I just want to ask us a few questions to get us to think about our role as doorkeepers.

What song is it? We’ve all got one. It’s that song that’s super-popular and everybody seems to love to sing it and it constantly gets requested…but you hate it. It drives you nuts. Maybe you’ve played it too many times, or maybe you think it’s cheesy or it’s just not your style, but you can’t stand it. No? It’s just me? Huh. Well I’ll continue anyway.

It’s not just about that song, but that’s the feeling or idea that I’m driving at here. That’s the “dark side” of this doorkeeper idea. We’ve got a responsibility as worship leaders to draw the focus to Jesus and serve people by helping usher them into His presence and respond in worship. The question I’m asking today is what things are you keeping out of your church’s worship experience because of your own personality or preferences? Are there any areas that you’re playing bouncer more than doorman?

A few years ago our Easter theme happened to line up perfectly with this particular worship song. It would’ve been an excellent response to the messages, a great fit as a theme song, etc. Problem was, I couldn’t stand the song. (I’m not going to name it, lest I contribute to the problem I’m trying to address here, as it were). I struggled with it, but finally I just decided to put it in against all the parts of me that worry about being cool, hip or liked by people who are cool and hip. Well, the place lit up. My church, who’s worship journey has been a storied one, let go in ways I’d prayed for for many years before. We used the song a few times over the course of that season and each time, for whatever reason, it just connected with the majority of our group and became somewhat of an anthem of worship for us during that brief time.

I don’t want to get off track and focus on the song or song choice here. What I’m trying to highlight is the lesson I learned that day (and promptly forgot and have had to relearn over and over). Leading worship for a “multi” group (generation, gender, culture, spiritual maturity, personality) often means a concerted effort to get ourselves out of the way.

It’s ok to say no to songs. There are all kinds of good reasons not to use a given song. It’s ok that your church has a personality or style, and that it’s likely a reflection of who you are as a leader. It’s ok to have favorite songs, dramas and videos and it’s ok to have ones you just can’t stand. What’s not ok as a leader is to turn your doorkeeper role into that of a bouncer, thereby putting the focus onto yourself and your preferences rather than where it should be – Jesus.

This is not meant to be a “eat your vegetables even though you don’t like them so you can get big and strong” or a “sometimes in marriage you have to do things you don’t like” kind of talk. I’m not talking about putting things in your worship arsenal that you don’t like just to build character or appease some vocal minority in your church. What I am trying to remind us to do is keep our personality and preferences where they belong in our leadership – behind Jesus. Let’s come to the table in our service planning and worship design with an attitude that says, “How can we paint the biggest picture of Jesus today? How can we build the best platform for our people to stand on to see and respond to Jesus today regardless of what my personality and tendencies would prefer?”

Have there been times when you’ve been a bouncer in your leadership?

Do you have a clear understanding of what your own preferences and tendencies are?

May God grant us the grace to lead His people to a place of being captivated only by the person and the presence of Jesus.

Regardless, that whole phenomenon is part of the reason I wanted to point out a cool new project/movement going on here in the True North Strong and Free. It’s called “Worship Rises”. The idea came about when some worship folks in Ontario were discussing the need for more homegrown Canadian corporate worship offerings – some songs for the Canadian church born out of the Canadian church and her worship leaders. A group of worship folks got together for a “writing day” to see what would happen if they just got in a room and wrote together as a starting point. Fast forward about a year, and we arrive at the release of the first “Worship Rises EP” – 4 songs birthed out of that initial and subsequent writing days. It has taken on a broader scope across the country as things have grown (which was always the plan) and this EP truly is a uniquely Canadian collaboration.

Great idea and big plans aside, what about the songs? At the end of the day, that’s what we’re talking about here, right? Well, I’ve heard it and had a chance to sit with it for a little while now, and I can honestly say (in my humble opinion) it’s good stuff. I think the cross-section of folks involved in the writing has made for 4 individual and unique songs, but also contributed to a universal accessibility that will make this EP an easy adoption for many Canadian churches. Musically they’re both interesting and familiar. The recording was done in both Nashville and the GTA, sung by Canadian worship leaders and writers, and there’s no danger of production values getting in the way of the songs – they sound great. More importantly, they’re theologically solid worship offerings. The title track, “Worship Rises”, is catching on across North America and has already been taught and sung in a pile of churches. It’s a consecrative effort and invites the singer to offer their song as a representation of a life of worship. I myself am partial to a tune called “Everlasting Light”. It’s a great groove and a powerfully declarative anthem, proclaiming God’s glory and imploring His revelation. The EP is rounded out by the testimonial “Make of My Heart” and the purely vertical “Holy Are You God”.

I’m excited about the potential for this project. This is a great starting point and first effort, and from what I can see, truly just the beginning. Praise Charts has gotten on board in a distribution capacity and will be providing some accompanying resources for the project. Plans are in motion to expand the model more formally across the country (including some Maritime representation!) as well.

All that to say, I’d encourage you to snag the EP. Lucky for you, it comes out TODAY! (I know, what are the odds). You can find it at any of your favorite digital music peddlers (iTunes, Amazon, etc) and for less than 4 bucks it’s a steal. I’m doing my best to free myself of the cynical eye I tend to cast on local stuff, and part of that journey has led me to discover Worship Rises. If you’re a worship leader, check it out and consider introducing your church to some of these songs.

If you’d like to know more about Worship Rises and follow the journey, then let me introduce you to one of it’s founders, Mr. Chris Vacher. Chris is a worship pastor in Orangeville, ON and one of the co-writers of the title track from this EP. You can check out his blog here or follow Worship Rises on Twitter here.

I hope you’ll check it out and even share some thoughts about the songs and the idea as well. It’d be interesting and encouraging to hear about these songs as they’re sung in churches across our country and continent so share the stories too. God bless!

Worship Rises (Live In Chicago) from Joshua Seller on Vimeo.

*Disclaimer – I didn’t write any of these tunes nor do I get any kind of personal benefit from slogging the project here. I hope to be part of the journey in the future (as should you) but I just wanted to make sure you were aware, dear reader, that I’m an impartial endorsement – I just dig it and think you will too.

It’s entertaining to take a self-deprecating look back at some of the stylistic choices we’ve made in the worship leading milieu – especially in the context of the stuff that doesn’t really matter, like music style and hair product. But what about the things that do matter, as referenced in the closing paragraph of the aforementioned post? How have you evolved as a worship leader over time? How have you grown? Take some time to look back at the journey God’s taken you on as you’ve endeavored to be used by Him to lead His people in worship. Feel free to share with the rest of the class!

Scenario 2: You pick a song, the best fit key-wise is Eb. But you want to play it in the D formation (capo 1) so you print yourself a copy in D. Maybe another guitar player wants to go capo 5 so you print him one in C. Pretty soon you’ve killed 7 trees and confused everyone when you try and point out the punch on the “D” after the first line…”is that D…or Eb….or C…?”

I could continue with scenarios in perpetuity, probably, but you get the point. I’m sure many of us could insert ourselves easily into a similar situation we’ve experienced. Having a handle on chord changes and keys and transposition – all that fun stuff – becomes a pretty important skill when you’re leading a band whose players are different every week and you’re playing different material each week.

Here’s a suggestion that I’m sure many of you are already aware of and maybe are using. If not, it might be worth a look for you. It’s called the “Nashville Number System”. Basically the general idea is assigning a number to each note position in the major scale (or common chord in that scale). So if you were to take the C scale, C D E F G A B, the corresponding numbers would be C-1, D-2, E-3, F-4, G-5, A-6, B-7. So that means, for example, if you are playing a song and the chorus chords are C F G, that means in NNS they are 1 4 5. One of the things this allows you to do is transpose effortlessly. If we decide to take that chorus from C to G, all I need to remember is the 1 4 5 and apply it to the key of G (G A B C D E F#) and it becomes G C D.

(That’s a pretty simple and rudimentary explanation of the NNS, but I just wanted to at least introduce the idea to get us started. It’d be worth your while to check out some YouTube instructional stuff like this one, or buy the book “The Nashville Number System” to learn more.)

Some of the advantages of this system in a worship context are in things like transposition. If you and your band are familiar with the system and you arrive at a place where you need to alter a key and quickly, knowing the numbers makes it a snap. That way if you decide to run 2 songs together on the fly you can maintain the key of the previous song without throwing everyone off the rails (theoretically). Or as mentioned earlier, adjusting keys to suit vocal ranges in rehearsal or to accommodate a sore throat on Sunday morning is no big deal either. Capos become a less scary thing to bass players and piano players!

Another useful advantage is that the number system makes it easy to signal your band on the fly. If something happens in your service that requires you to extend an outro or maybe even employ a song you hadn’t rehearsed, you can simply flash number signs to your band to get everyone on the same musical page. It beats mouthing letters or bending your headstock around to try and show everyone what chords you’re playing.

It’s not for everyone, and it’s not that useful unless everyone in the band buys into it and learns it, but it may be of help to some folks out there. I’d say it’s at least worth exploring. I don’t use it regularly with our worship team, per se, but knowing a bit about the system definitely helps me as I prepare and create charts and transpose songs, etc.

Do you and/or your team use the NNS at all? What are some of the advantages and/or drawbacks that you’ve encountered?

At this point a scene usually kicks on in my mind that portrays me darting across the stage, tackling the dude and shaking him mercilessly. I have anger issues, apparently. Qualified therapists, feel free to email me.

So, why does this bug me so much? Is it that I don’t believe the spirit can lead us in a different direction on Sunday, or that we shouldn’t leave room to adjust ourselves based on what God is doing at that moment as we lead? Yes, that’s it.

Just kidding. (I trust that was obvious.)

The truth is I try to be as dependent on the spirit’s leading in worship as I possibly can. What’s frustrating to me is the suggestion that He somehow how has to wait until the moment arrives to let us in on the big secret. Like the Holy Spirit is a college student who needs the pressure of an impending deadline to crank out that paper. I’m audacious enough to believe that the spirit can lead us in our preparation even days in advance that will take us in the direction He wants to go when the time arrives. Call me crazy.

That being said, does that mean I plan out our worship times to the letter and the second and we never deviate a hair? Absolutely not. I do however believe there’s a subtle difference between planning and preparation…and as my team often hears me say, I think we can “prepare for spontaneity”. Let me try to explain.

My buddy and colleague, Pastor Brent, is a smart dude. He wears a lot of camouflage and likes to hang out in the woods by himself a lot, but don’t let that fool ya. I’m not sure if he eats locusts and honey, but I wouldn’t be surprised. The hunter-gatherer himself is preaching a series at our church this summer on the will of God, and we’ve been discussing his messages at our worship planning meetings of late. I’m going to incorporate some of his teaching into this discussion because I believe it’s a good fit. (When the time comes, I’ll post a link to the audio of his message here.)

When it comes to the will of God, there seem to be basically 3 categories: The Providential Will of God, The Moral Will of God and the Personal Will of God. The Providential will of God is the stuff He’s going to do anyway. “I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it”, kind of stuff. These are the basics that God has shared with us that He’s going to be about and whether I get in the way or not, they’re going to be accomplished.

The Moral will of God consists of the stuff like The Big 10 (commandments). This is the stuff we don’t need to pray about because He’s made it pretty clear in scripture. “God, I love my wife, but my neighbor is hot – should I have an affair?”, “God, my boss is very annoying and has bad breath…should I push him into traffic?” Perhaps I’m over-simplifying, but you catch my drift. The Moral will of God is the way He wants our lives to be lived as outlined in His word. Make sense?

Then there’s the Personal will of God. The aforementioned Wild Man of The Woods, Pastor Brent, has been the youth pastor at my church for the last 8 years. Recently, he’s felt God’s call in a different direction and he’s leaving us to return to more schooling. We’re sad to see him go, but also affirm God’s call on his life. This stuff is the Personal will of God. You’re not going to find a verse in scripture that says, “and at the appointed time, Pastor Brent shall gather his family and belongings and make the trek to the desert of Saskatchewan to sit among the teachers of the law.” Keep looking, it’s not there. I checked.

Those of us who follow Christ know that there are times when God speaks to us and calls us to a specific thing in our lives. There are Biblical examples and I’m sure most of us can recall our own experiences with God’s personal will for our lives.

The thing is, as Pastor B would say, the more familiar we are with the Providential will of God and the more conformed we are to the Moral will of God, the easier it is to discern the Personal will of God. As we become more and more familiar with what God values, who is is and how he acts and as we align our lives with His guidelines and directives for us, His Personal will for us becomes an easier discovery. When we know Him, recognize His voice and walk in step with Him, we create a greater opportunity and clearer channel for His Personal directives for us to become apparent. Brent will do a better job at unpacking all that, I’m sure.

So, still with me? What does all that have to do with planning and preparing for worship?

Well, before tackling the practicalities, I really think this stuff is the foundation for our preparation. If we’re constantly familiarizing ourselves with who God is, spending time in His word and endeavoring to reconcile our lives with Him, then we place ourselves in a posture that is more conducive to receiving His specific directives – and that includes putting a worship time together. Just like He’s told us in Psalm 119, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.” (Vs 105). I really believe with familiarity, prayer and time in the word God can guide us to where He’s going far in advance…even if we don’t completely understand it at the time. Have you ever been inexplicably led to choose a certain song or portion of scripture only to find it was a perfect fit when the time arrived, beyond what you could ever have foreseen? I hope you have…

Ok, pee break. Go stretch, answer nature’s call, make a sandwich…I’ll wait here.

Back? All set? Alright, let’s continue.

So, there’s this idea of putting ourselves in a position to be led by God in our planning…but what about the stuff I said about being open and available to adjust on the fly as well? How does that reconcile with this? Therein lies the difference between planning and preparation, for me.

When we’re planning a service, we try and align ourselves with what God wants to do on that particular day. In the case of my church, this is the stuff we do weeks and even months in advance (my worship planning team is meeting tonight (June) to hash out a series for September, for example). However, we also obviously rehearse as a team before the given Sunday (Thursdays for us). That’s where the preparation comes in.

Our Thursday rehearsals are the times for us to prepare ourselves to be used by God to accomplish the things He laid out in advance for us to do. We plan for a high-level outcome that we foresee and intend to accomplish (by the grace of God) – we prepare for the different possibilities that lie within that plan.

Practically speaking that means familiarizing ourselves enough with the material that we’re not shackled by it. As a leader, I want to have a strong enough handle on what we’re doing that I can watch for the spirit and not watch my fingers or lyric sheets.

Preparing as a band means laying the proverbial train track well in a couple different directions so that all we need to do is “throw the switch” on Sunday to take whichever direction is required. What we often do is rehearse our “turnarounds” and work on a fluid signaling system (with me it’s normally a raised foot) to tip us all off that we’re taking track B instead of A. So no, we don’t plan a song to the point that we’re going to go Verse, Chorus, Verse, Chorus, Bridge, Chorus, Chorus and that’s that no matter what. What we do try to do is get familiar with each of the parts, the links between them and be clear on the signals that tell us which direction we’re going. That’s what I mean by “preparing for spontaneity”.

This is where the 2 collide. When Sunday arrives, I should be familiar enough with the material that I’m not handcuffed by it and am able to hopefully sense what’s going on in the room and what the best choices would be. If a song has sparked a particular sense of reflection I can bring the band down with a subtle open hand behind my back, or have our piano player take us through the chorus again just by giving her a little point. I can extend a song by a chorus or end it early just by raising my foot (we call it “the flamingo”). This is where I believe the real work in rehearsal and preparation is found and needs to be spent. If we are PREPARED in this way, we as a team are able to paint whatever picture God has for us on Sunday with the material He PLANNED in advance for us to use. One further point about this – there’s no substitute for time and familiarity for this to work well. Clarity and decisiveness on the part of the leader goes a long way, but ultimately these things become easier when a leader and his/her team become more familiar with each other and their patterns, cues and tendencies. Try it out in practice. Often we’ll run a song a few times and change the pattern every time, just to make sure everyone is on their toes and has a handle on the signals and possible changes.

What’s hopefully granted here is that I don’t always do any of this stuff as well as I’d like, as I’m sure anyone who’s ever led with me would attest, but these are the goals I’ve set and intend to implement each time I plan, prepare and run a rehearsal. So, my challenge to us as leaders is to plan well and prepare well. To plan by spending time familiarizing ourselves with God and aligning our lives with Him in an effort to posture ourselves toward His will. To prepare by readying ourselves for anything.

I plan (pun intended) to tag a “Part 2″ on to this entry down the road to talk about the nitty-gritty practicalities of putting a set list or worship event together and discuss some of the tools and truths that can help in this process. I would love to hear your thoughts on planning and preparation and how you go about accomplishing these things. God bless us as we plan and prepare!

(If you’re interested in more of discussion on this idea, here’s a link to a discussion forum I stumbled across.)

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…

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

From Jamie:

I recently bought some fencing for my backyard through a connection at my work. My company supplies industrial parts for a local fencing company and I asked if he might be able to get me a deal on a 25 foot length and a gate. He said to me, “Of course. I’ll see what we have lying around and put something together for you.” Maybe I’m just naive, but by his tone of voice and the “wink-and-gun” he gave me, I thought that meant “free fence”. The next day I got a quote. Now, I did get a good deal and still have the laborious task of putting it together, but it was not free. It cost me money. The old adage “nothing in this life is free” certainly applies here and for most aspects of our lives. This includes our worship which I’ve come to discover by reading 2 Samuel 24:18-26 (NIV).

David disobeyed God’s orders 2 Samuel 24:1-9. To atone for that disobedience, God gives David three choices of punishments. Behind door number one, three years of famine. Door number two, three months of “fleeing from your enemies”. Door number three, three days of plague on the local Israelites (24:13). David panicked at the choices and God chose to be swift and sent a pestilence across the land for three days. 70,000 people died. Basically, my whole hometown of Moncton disappeared over under the wave of an angel’s hand. Gone.

God ordered the calamity to be stopped just as the Angel was reaching Jerusalem, at the threshing grounds of Aranuah the Jebusite. A threshing floor was an open area outside a city where the edible part of a grain (or other crop) was loosened from the stalk or chaff that surrounds it. When David was asked to make a sacrifice on behalf of the people to stop the pestilence on the land, Aranuah’s threshing grounds became the site of the burnt offering.

Aranuah, both surprised and excited to see the king coming to his workplace, bowed and greeted the David with astonishment:
“Why have you come here of all places?”
“To buy your stuff so I can make an appropriate sacrifice for the people.”
“Pffft. You don’t need to buy it. Just take my threshing floor, my tools, the oxen for the burnt offering, and wooden yokes for making a fire. They’re yours! Free of charge.”
Then David said something that has really stuck with me lately:
“No, I insist on paying you for it. I will not offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God that cost me nothing. So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen and paid fifty shekels of silver for them” (v24).

I will not offer anything to God if it costs me nothing.

David could have easily accepted Aranuah’s gift of items for the offering. Instead, David knew that God required more than just free stuff to ward off the plague that decimating the people. There wouldn’t have been any honor, price, or sacrifice in burning somebody else’s precious commodities. Instead, he declined the gift and gave 50 shekels of silver for the pieces necessary for proper sacrifice. King David likely had everything he’s ever needed. He was given all prestige and respect by his people. Yet he was humble enough to know his own King, God, deserved more; a true offering of value that costs something.

Not only have I been trying to live that out in my life, but I’ve been really trying to live that out as a worship leader. Whether you’re leading a congregation in worship or you’re a part of the band, what does it cost you to worship your God? I’m not talking about the cost of that cool guitar pedal or preamp you just bought. Ask yourself…
What is my sacrifice as I lead today?
What am I leaving behind as I lead others?
What am I leaving out as I lead others?
What is it that I’ve been wanting to add to the worship experience that I’ve been scared to do before?
What do I really want to say or do as I worship?
How do I honestly feel about my God this morning?
How can I challenge myself or the congregation?

It’s so easy for leaders and musicians to strap on their instruments each week and just play. I’ve done it for many years. Last Sunday, I decided that I wasn’t going to let my self-consciousness or my pride hinder what I do as a leader. I wasn’t going to follow the service order. I wasn’t going to be distracted by what people thought of my vocals. I was not going to let how others were (or were not) worshipping affect that way I worshipped. I was going to play guitar like it is the gift that was given to me. Because I did that, something cool happened. I felt the Spirit work through me. The Holy Ghosts became a tangible presence to me. My worship felt true and accepted. That felt awesome and it didn’t cost me a cent; just some possible embarrassment and my pride. As a Mastercard PR might say, my experience was “priceless”.

What sacrifices are you making when you lead? What does your worship cost you?