My Worship Revolution

Bret said this: I'd be interested in getting the
entire rundown on the events leading up to and culminating in your
decision to leave Revolution.

Entire rundown?  I don't think you really wanna read that much.  Maybe we can have coffee sometime Bret.  ;)  (Except I guess you've de-friended me because I don't like soccer.)

Now I could use the over arching answer that God was moving me on, which is true, but we'll let that be assumed.  Prayer and confirmation were definitely a huge part of the process.  I'd say that ultimately there were 2 major things that served as a catalyst in my decision.

1. Worship.  I recognize that there is a very good possibility that I will not lead worship forever.  In fact, I recognize that CLC could very easily be the last place I lead worship as a primary function.  But at the time that I left Revolution, I was feeling pretty strong that playing music and leading worship is where God was pulling my heart.  While that alone wouldn't be enough to move on, I think it played a big role.
2. Caleb.  When we had Caleb, it really caused me to do some prioritizing and some soul searching.  The truth was, I knew I needed to do a much better job at putting my family above ministry.  That wasn't something that I didn't know how to do in the system and expectations that I had created for myself at Revolution.  And that was probably the single greatest decision maker.  I knew I had to get out of that context to learn how to take care of myself and my family.

Of course there are lots of other factors and events that led up to what was a very difficult decision in my life and my family's.  I love the community at Revolution.  I love the people.  I love the church.  And both the ministry and the people there have had a huge impact in my development as a person, as a pastor, and as a leader. 

It's now been almost 2 years, and I haven't written about this much here, but I still think about and miss Revolution daily.  I pray for that community regularly and it will always be a huge part of us wherever our journey takes us.  I guess that's part of the nature of immersing yourself in a faith community in occupational ministry and allowing it to shape your heart and your soul, with the recognition that it may very well not be forever.  It will always be difficult to leave a ministry that you have poured your life into.

On a side note, Craig Groeschel had a great series over at his blog last week on the topic of how to know when God is calling you away from a ministry.  Well worth the read to get some more thoughts on the overall topic.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4