We have a child you have never met. 

Yulissa lives in Honduras with her mother and siblings.  Because of our $32 per month (through Compassion International), Yulissa receives assistance that she would otherwise not have.   It may be the best $32 we spend.  Mariah and Madison write to her.  We have her art on our refrigerator.  We have her picture on our shelf.

Steph and I have sponsored a compassion child since we were 18 years old.  Our youth group sponsored a child and when they lost interest, we “adopted” the child as our own.  I guess you could say that we had a kid long before we were married.  Twenty years later and I am still proud to be part of what Compassion is doing.

Compassion is now partnering with bloggers.  The hope is to sponsor more kids through the blogsphere.  Brilliant.  Absolutely brilliant.

Give Compassion a look.  They are top notch and I totally believe in what they are doing.  I wouldn’t have supported them for two decades if I didn’t dig them.

OK, lurker.  Yea, you.  With the face.  You know who you are.  The one who stops by but never comments.  Time to join the conversation.

Finish this sentence: 

My dream church would be a church that . . .

Ken Davis is a brilliant communicator.  One hilarious guy and as solid as they come.  I attended (and graduated) from Ken’s Dynamic Communicator’s Workshop, where I personally met Ken and his wife.  Note: if you are a communicator, this workshop is a must.

The quote below is from Ken’s blog.  I thought I would try to summarize it, but the guy says it so well. 

When an artist performs and lives with genuine integrity and heart it shows.  The power of his or her music is intensified exponentially.  When the origin of the music and lyrics comes from the same genuine heartfelt kind of source, the power is multiplied again.   I can sing one note.  That’s the extent of my range.  I encourage my musically talented artist friends to write and sing from the heart.   Everything else is just business.

“Everything else is just business.”  Amen.

I am so PUMPED to be part of One Prayer.  In June, we  will join hundreds of churches all across the world as we all teach the same series.  Churches from all over have captured their Pastor preaching via video, recorded it, and submitted it as part of the One Prayer video pool. 

Each Pastor submitted a 30 min teaching video answering this question:  “Make us _______.”  Some are preaching on  “Make us wise.”  Some, “Make us one.”  Pastors then select videos that they would like shown to their churches.

What does that mean for exchange?  On June 8 we will share the video that our MCC team shot.  Let me just pause here for a second and say that I am proud of our our team and our video.  They captured the heart of my prayer.  I want to tell you all about it, but it would ruin it.  I won’t even tell you the title!  Make sure you are there on June 8.

The Sunday’s following June 8, I will introduce you to some of the Pastors who have heavily influenced my life, and we will hear their teaching. 

Did I say I was pumped??????  

Wow. I have received some great feedback on the worship leading essentials articles. For our convenience, Shawn has set them up as a  PDF here.

If you would be interested in a fully expanded audio version (available on CD or mp3), please let me know. I am considering putting this together if there is enough interest.

photo by Gaetan Lee

We are writing and shooting a video to participate in the One Prayer project sponsored by Life Church.  I don’t want to give it away, but I will say I think the end result could be that we see temptation in a whole new way.

That’s multimedia freak Scott Telle with local actor and friend Jeremy Johnson.

We will air this One Prayer video in exchange on June 8.

A few  times a year we shorten the exchange gathering and serve in the community.  Sunday night we busted 500 people into several groups and served the city.  Shawn has a great post on his experience here.

Worship inside and outside the church.  I love it!

photo by shawn (that’s right - scrubbing toilets at a local gas station :>)

My pal Chris stops by the office today and drops me a bag of salad, a bag of potatoes, twizzlers, and 15 pounds of steak.  “It’s for your birthday,” says Chris.  Dang.  What a guy.  I may grill it all and eat it in one setting.  Hmm, better wait until I complete the mini-marathon on Saturday.  Thanks Chris!!

That’s right.  Exchange is looking for a full-time associate with responsibilities in worship and programming.  Exchange continues to grow and I will be moving out of full-time worship leading to investing the bulk of my time in weekly teaching, vision casting and staff development.  Want to work with one the best ministries around?  Check out all the details here.

If you know of someone who would fit what we are looking for, please send them the information!

Burnout.  We all face it as worship leaders. Some times there comes a point where you are tired of chord charts, playlists, arrangements, themes, and people.  If the thought of putting together a worship set makes you sigh and want to run far away, you may be getting a little crispy. Here are some ideas to prevent burnout.

• Make a list of things that fill your tank.  What do you love to do?  Go crazy with the list.  Dream.  Dream some more.  Pick something selfish off the list, take an afternoon (or day, or more) off and DO IT.  Don’t feel guilty about it.  Do it.
• Stop listening to music.  Sometimes I just have to get away from music.  Maybe God will be best found in the silence.  Go find out.
• Get to another church for a Sunday and be totally anonymous.  Tell them you are Hank from Montana and just passing through on the way to your summer job on an oil rig.  Oh, and don’t critique the worship gathering.  You are not a worship leader, you are an oil rig worker (have you forgotten already?).
• Play your instrument for no other reason than just to play.
• Write a new song (unless that stresses you).  Write the song just between you and God.  Don’t write it to be the next song that your congregation sings.
• Take a real sabbatical day and just relax.  Give yourself permission to rest.
• Connect with a friend that builds into you.
• Fast from media.  That includes internet, cell phone, iPod, and crackberry.  

If your burnout runs deep, you may need to take some extended time off.  Don’t feel guilty about this.  Your congregation needs you healthy.

The difference between song leaders and worship leaders is that worship leaders lead from the overflow.  A good worship leader will make it seem like you are  eavesdropping on their deep personal worship.  You owe it to God, your family, and yourself to get some refreshment to gain some depth. 

For a look at how I combat burnout before it starts, check out this post.

What do you do to de-stress?

picture from Library of Congress Photostream