My Worship Revolution

I’m wiped.  Did a few sessions this afternoon and then a concert tonight with Saddleback youth band, Jonathon Butler, and Tommy Walker.  I’ll just share a few quick highs and lows from the second half the day before I crash:

Highs

• Session with Tommy Walker and his pastor.  Great ministry relationship goin on there.
• A good quote from Tommy’s pastor: "You can hire the best musicians and the best bands and it won’t matter.  If you don’t have a pastor that is a reckless worshiper, it won’t work."
• Talking about our cultures tendency to "byte size entertainment" (2 minute You Tube videos etc.) and how it transfers over into our worship services.
• Jonathon Butler’s band and his sining.  Good stuff.
• The youth band had some energetic and quality worship.
• Tommy Walker – good worship leader.  Choir was kinda cool too.
• Seeing multiple friends and acquaintances.

Lows

• Architectural Design for Intimacy in Worship session.  Not what I expected.  I left to join Randy’s much better session.
• Being led in Blessed Be Your Name (a song I love…or used to) 3 times in one day.
• Tommy Walker – not so much my style.  A bit "Happy Clappy" is the term I think we labeled him.  Great for a large portion of the audience though.
• The night concert running like an hour or more late.  We left early, so not sure exactly how long over it went.

I posted on the conference blog to see who else is here and blogging about it.  If you got here via that, welcome!  And for those of you that aren’t here and want to hear what’s going on, here are some people I’ve found who are bloggin it:

• Rich Kirkpatrick
• Immersion Worship
• David Gafford
• Henry Williams
• Derrick Logan

Anyone else?  If you are leave a comment so I can add your link.  Let’s share the love friends!

We made it.  Conference started this morning.  We walked in a tad bit late, and to be honest, I wasn’t really diggin the worship vibe when I got there.  Great musicianship, just a bit "contemporary" for me.  I like a little edge, but after some time I started enjoying it more.  It was nice having a few peeps come in and lead one of their songs, Brenton Brown, Matt Maher.

Then Rick Warren started with the opening session, talking about the Character of a Worship Leader.  I haven’t had a lot of experience with Warren outside of Purpose Driven books.  After listening to him speak, I really gained some more respect for the guy.  Not that I didn’t respect him before, just more after hearing his heart.  here’s a few key things he shared:

The Character of a Worship Leader

BIG IDEA: If you want God’s anointing on your life, you must build your life on integrity, humility, and generosity.  They are the antidotes to the most common traps that leaders fall into.

The three biggest temptations of leadership:

• Lust of the flesh – need to feel good
• Lust of the eyes – need to have more
• Pride of life – need to be (position, status)

Integrity, humility, and generosity are the polar opposites of these temptations.

Integrity:  You will be tempted to use your ministry to make yourself feel good physically, emotionally, and spiritually.  You need to be whole in Christ.
Generosity:  The only antidote to the problem of get, get, get is to give things (and yourself) away.
Humility:  Humility is NOT denying your strengths.  It is being honest about your weaknesses.  False humility  = pride.

Great Quotes:

• "You’re not trying to get people to sing on too, you’re trying to get people to love God more."
• "Being a worship leader is the most important task in life.  If God has called you to be a worship leader don’t step down and be the Pres. Of the US…or any other tempting job offer.  You’re doing the most important thing there is."
• "If you aren’t taking a day off every week, you’re breaking the 10 commandments."
• "I don’t care if you love to preach.  Do you love the people you preach to?"
• "Humility doesn’t mean you thin less of yourself, it means you think less of yourself.  You do this by thinking about other people as much as possible."

Tim Hughes
After a break, we had an awesome time of worship with Tim Hughes.  I have to admit, I was enjoying it at first, but not really "into it."  Then he came to Awesome God.  He really lost me there.  That song is so old and bleh to me.

But then I was reminded how much of an effect media can have in worship in making something fresh.  In the middle of the song, an excerpt of the E.V. Hill "That’s My King" sermon was played.  That pulled me in and the song was fresh.  And from there, I just went deeper into worship as Tim led.  Great morning!

Now I’m sitting in a room listening to Tommy Walker and his pastor share about their relationship in ministry.  Lovin it.

I’ll keep updating as the week goes.  It’s helpful to me to sharing the things I’m learning, so hopefully you enjoy it too.  Check out what Rich has to say, too.  I’ve been here with him and a few guys from his church.  Also feel free to check out the conference blog.

In a few minutes here I’ll head to San Jose and meet up with my friend and fellow Worship Leader/Blogger Rich to make the trek down south to Saddleback’s Worship Conference and Festival.  Four of us guys will be crashing in a friend’s Fifth Wheel in Anaheim to save some denero (Thanks Rick!!).

Never been able to make this worship conference in the past, so I’m pretty stoked to get to check it out this year!  I think I’ll be headin away from the church for all my lunches and dinners, so if anyone wants to meet my in Lake Forest, let’s do lunch!  And if you’re gonna be at the conference, let me know!  Let’s hang.

A few days late.

Sorry, it’s been crazy.  And I finally resigned myself to the fact that a video isn’t gonna happen this week, so I went ahead and weighed myself this morning, and you’ll just have to take my word for it.

THE UPDATE:

current pledges = $25.01 per pound

weigh in:      173.2 lbs
week1:        168.2 lbs    total loss:  5lbs         =    $125.05
week2:        166.6 lbs    total loss:  6.6 lbs     =    $165.07
week3:        163.6 lbs    total loss:  9.6 lbs     =    $240.10
week4:        165.8 lbs    total loss:  7.4 lbs     =    $185.07
week5:        164.4 lbs    total loss:  8.8 lbs     =    $220.09

                          make a pledge – make a difference

Well, I didn’t get back down as far as I would have liked, but I’m actually pleasantly surprised after eating camp food all week.  Next week: Saddleback conference food.  This is a rough couple weekd to focus on the diet!  No bike riding either!

Right now I’m typing this from my BlackBerry. Why?

After worship preperation with the band tonight, I walked into my office and my laptop is gone. The front door seems to have been left open after bible study tonight and my office door wasn’t locked. Now I just have to call the police tomorrow with the serial # and hope either the church insurance or my renters insurance doesn’t have much of a deductible.

Now I think thieves suck even more.

Did I mention I’m really, really pissed?

Two words to describe God this morning.

Above is a picture of the view from the spot where I took some time with Jesus during some down time at Royal Family today.  There’s something about being in the middle of God’s beautiful creation that makes it a bit easier for me to spend some time reading and praying.  It was a great backdrop as I read this passage from Isaiah:

Lift your eyes and look to the heavens:
Who created all these?
He who brings out the starry host one by one,
and calls them each by name.
Because of his great power and mighty strength,
not one of them is missing. (40:26 – NIV)

Then I read this:

For trouble, if it merely turns us to God and hence renews our strength, ceases to be evil and becomes good; it becomes the best thing that could possibly come to us, next to God himself.  For our growth in power and happiness depends upon the number of seconds out of each 24 hours that we are resting in God.
-From The Soul’s Sincere Desire by Glenn Clark

The beauty of God’s creation is an amazing reminder of how powerful God is, and how powerful we really aren’t.  Our power comes when we rest in God.  Kinda counter intuitive, and a good reminder for me today.  A lot of the kids at this camp have been through a lot of evil stuff, but if it can ultimately draw them to Jesus, it can be redeemed for good.

I too need to rely on God’s strength continually.  That same passage in Isaiah goes on to say,

…those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint. (v. 31 – NIV)

How about you?  What troubles are you going through right now?  Or more importantly, where do you need to start relying more on God’s strength, and way less on your own?

Just some thoughts from my morning.

This first week of school year summer is a crazy one here at CLC.  We have two major "camps" happening simultaneously.  We partner with a church down the road where we hold our VBA – Vacation Bible Adventure (cause who wants to go to school during the summer anyway?).  This years theme is King of the Jungle, and my wife is in charge of all of the music for that.  She’s still feeling pretty nervous about it, even after a great first day, but I’m sure she’s doing awesome!  They have child care available for Caleb which makes it possible for her to help out.  But definitely makes it a busy week with Caleb totally off his schedule.

At the same time our church is sponsoring Royal Family Kids Camp in Felton at Camp Maymac.  Some of my friends at Revolution participate with this down south.  It is a week long camp for foster kids, and these are some kids who have had it rough.  I’m tag teaming with our youth pastor, Kyle, as the camp pastor for this one.  I spent most of the day there today, and it was  blast!  It reminded me how much I love working with kids and has kinda made Rachel and I both miss the good ole days at Laurel Pines, where we met.

So each morning I will be there doing object lessons and bible stories.  In the afternoons I’ll be trying to get some work done, getting ready for Sunday, which means midweek rehearsal, and continuing with training alongside our preparing Life Group leaders.  I’ll try to keep up, but please forgive me if posting is slim this week.  And we’ll see if that weigh loss update actually gets up.

Tonight Rachel joined me at Royal Family for dinner and the staff talent show.  Anyone who’s been around me at any of the recent camps or missions trips or any extended events with kids around is familiar with the infamous "Banana Song."  Well tonight, the kids learned it as part of the talent show.  But it went o the next level.  A costume!  Yeah baby!  Yellow pants, yellow shirt, and a banana peel hat made from yellow paper.  Unfortunately, I didn’t get a picture, but I do have a shot of Kyle and I as a pirate and Batman as we helped announce the rules:

What can I say?  Sometimes it’s a lot of fun to make a complete fool of yourself, especially in the name of Jesus.  This will be a somewhat stressful couple weeks comin up, but it sure will be fun too!

How was your Father’s Day?

I know, another introspective post after yesterdays sharing.  But that’s the thing.  Yesterday only tells part of the big picture.  And no, this has nothing to do with the dad mentioned in the prior post.

All the time you hear about people who’s fathers are horrible representations of God.  This often creates a barrier to people seeing God as the loving and caring "Father" that He is.  Perhaps if I got stuck focusing on my biological pops that would be true for me as well.  But I was ridiculously blessed to have a different story.

My stepdad.  I never called him dad.  He was always Vic.  I think I was 6 or so when he and my mother were married.  I even vaguely remember the wedding.  But he was always my father.  He took me on camping trips.  He was at every one of my shows, events, etc.  He was a big dude, and most of my friends were slightly afraid of him when they first met him.  Until they discovered the size of his heart and the gentle spirit that came along with it.

He pumped me with encouragement.  I’ll never forget the time we were sitting at a show or something and there was this amazing pianist playing.  I think I commented about his mad skills, and he told me that he and mom hoped knew I could do that one day.  And he meant it.  It hadn’t ever really crossed my mind till then that I could strive to be the best at something.

He passed away when I was 16 years old.  He truly was my father.  He poured himself into us.  And it wasn’t always easy.  I never spoke with him much about faith.  In fact, it was after his death that I found comfort, healing,and community in Jesus for the first time.  I don’t know what he believed exactly.  But I can’t think of a better example of God’s love and acceptance.

Someday I hope that Rachel and I will have the opportunity to adopt.  I want to do so because I think in a way, it will give me a small glimpse of God’s heart for me, a Gentile, grafted into His plan and adopted into His family.  But I also feel the confidence to do this because I had an amazing example.  And it’s helped me to understand God’s adoption of me into His Kingdom.

It’s been over 11 years since I last hugged him in a parking lot in El Cajon.  But if he were here, I’d want him to know how thankful I am for the example he was to me.  An example of fatherhood. An example of God’s love.  Thanks Vic.

And to all you Dads out there who are doing the same, Happy Father’s Day.  I hope it rocked.