Thanks to our astute reader Michael, we’ve realized that our feed through Feedburner hasn’t been updating. I’m looking into it, and I’d imagine it’ll be resolved soon, but in the meantime, if you HAVE to have an RSS feed, just check out worshippl.us/feed and I think that’ll take care of you.

 So you feel the need to move from having a set band to using a pool of musicians. One little problem: you need the support of the current band. Get it, and you will be golden. Don’t, and life will be miserable for a season.

In our congregation, we made this move twice (in different worship gatherings). Each time it was pretty ugly and we lost people. After a couple failed attempts, I have learned a few things. Here is what I would do to move from a band to a pool of musicians:

1. Pray. This is a spiritual deal and you need to make sure that the timing is right. You also need to make sure that you are sensitive to the people and that God is directing this decision.
2. Realize the increase workload. If all this happens, your workload will increase. When I played with the same musicians, it got to the place that we could put things together incredibly fast. With multiple musicians you will now add to your workload things like auditioning musicians, scheduling musicians each week, getting new members acclimated to the band and music, as well as taking more time at rehearsals.
3. Discuss this with appropriate church leadership.
4. Talk one-on-one with each band member and get their thoughts. “Here is what I am feeling like God might be asking us to do. What do you think?” I would ask each member to pray about it and see if they hear anything from God. It is at this point that you will find how well you have led these people spiritually. If they never pray or have a shallow relationship with Christ, they won’t offer much besides their thoughts. That’s why setting the base is crucial.
5. Wait. You will have already made up your mind. You are ready to move. You have identified potential musicians for the pool. You are ready to pull the trigger. Resist the temptation to run ahead. Wait. Your people need time to process all of this. Don’t run ahead of them just yet.
6. Pull the trigger slowly. I would suggest working in new musicians slowly. This will maintain the current sound and experience and help get the new musicians acclimated to how things work. If you are needing to make huge and fast overhaul of the way things are done, I would suggest you make a sweeping change and work with mostly new musicians. This may need to be done to reset priorities and leadership. Just realize what you are doing and go in with your eyes open.

This can be a hard process. Make sure that you are confident of the switch and do your best to maintain relationships while having a strong resolve. It is not an easy transition, but with some time and attention, it can be done well. Above all, continue to guard your quiet time as you seek out the movement of God in this and all of life.

Have you transitioned from band to pool? What has been your experience? Suggestions?

Technorati Tags: worship-leading, band, pool, musicians, transition, change, church

 1In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Grecian Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. 2So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. 3Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them 4and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.”

5This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit; also Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism. 6They presented these men to the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.

7So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.

8Now Stephen, a man full of God’s grace and power, did great wonders and miraculous signs among the people. 9Opposition arose, however, from members of the Synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called)—Jews of Cyrene and Alexandria as well as the provinces of Cilicia and Asia. These men began to argue with Stephen, 10but they could not stand up against his wisdom or the Spirit by whom he spoke. - Acts 6:1-10

Administration had become a challenge for the disciples. They needed to be teaching instead of taking time to administrate the distribution of food. They chose Stephen to head up the task of organizing the distribution. At first glance, we could argue that there is not much spiritual happening there. Not long after, Stephen started doing miracles and great wonders. What? He is just the administrative guy. Now he is pulling off signs and wonders? Here are some thoughts:

1. Every task is a spiritual task.
2. If I am not willing to do the unpopular jobs, I may not be trusted with any other. I want to tun ahead to the big stuff - the miracle and what not. God asks that I let myself be formed in the places where I am now.
3. I prove trust and faithfulness in whatever job God gives me. I can remember getting some jobs and thinking “This is crazy. I can do more than this.” No matter. I should work where God has placed me.

God, forgive my complaining of some of the tasks before me. I know that they all lead to a contribution to your cause. Help me to desire you and not the position. Help me to move your own cause and not mine.

Technorati Tags: life-journal, devotions, Acts, Bible, work, miracles

What’s an eXchange evaluation? Click here to find out.

While, overall, I think the set went well, I believe we hit some opposition, which is to be expected. I’ll explain more as we proceed here.

We opened with Crowder’s There Is No One Like You, a fun diddy to get the gathering started. For some reason, I yelled “Here we go!” at the break, and I still can’t tell you why I did. Otherwise, the song went well, and did a good job of setting the tone for the evening (QAFE; Quiet, Action, Famous, Empty, being the key teaching points. Ultimately, we need to shout like those that marched around Jericho did, then see God act, not the other way around… sometimes).

Turns out, Dan, our electric guitarist extraordinaire for the evening, had no monitor during the first song. During the teaching time the sound crew got that fixed, but that wasn’t the last problem we’d have that evening.

Read the rest of this entry »

Worship leaders deal with change all the time.  If you are not changing, you are dying.  I just happened on a great blog from Tony Morgan.  He has some great thoughts in hi post titled “10 Signs You’re not Ready for Change.”

Add this guy to your feed.  Solid.  Thanks Tony!

Technorati Tags: Tony-Morgan, change, worship

“If you buy a Hebrew servant, he is to serve you for six years. But in the seventh year, he shall go free, without paying anything. If he comes alone, he is to go free alone; but if he has a wife when he comes, she is to go with him. If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the woman and her children shall belong to her master, and only the man shall go free.

“But if the servant declares, ‘I love my master and my wife and children and do not want to go free,’ 6 then his master must take him before the judges. ^[a] He shall take him to the door or the doorpost and pierce his ear with an awl. Then he will be his servant for life. - Ex 21:2-6

Here God give instructions on how to treat servants. Imagine what it would be like to be the male servant. Somehow you come to be owned by your master. You come alone. Somewhere while you are serving, you marry and have kids, all while still a servant. After 6 years, your time is up and you are set to go free. You can walk out as a free man. One hitch: you can’t take your wife of kids. However, you can stay with them if you agree to serve your master; for the rest of your life.

Choice time. Freedom or captivity?

What would it have been like to be a man in that situation? What if your master was cruel? Could you really leave your wife and child? My guess is that if some did leave, they found that freedom was not really freedom at all. I can imagine a man telling his master “I love my wife and family. I will serve you as long as I can breathe.” The master would then take the servant to the doorpost and stick an awl through his ear. A pierced ear would be the sign of a life servant.

I wonder what the future would have been like for the servant family. Maybe there were times when they fought. Maybe huge fights. Maybe the wife would say “You don’t care for me. Where are you when I need you? You don’t love me. You never really have.”

I would imagine the man would look at his wife, maybe even his kids. I would imagine that he would slowly and silently point to his pierced ear.

Sometimes I come to God and complain. “I think you love me, but I really wonder sometimes. I need you but it seems like you are not around when I need you. Have you ever REALLY loved me.”

I imagine Christ would look at me. I imagine that he would slowly point to his pierced hands.

Technorati Tags: life-journal, devotions, Christ, servant, Exodus, love

So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron and Hur went to the top of the hill. As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up—one on one side, one on the other—so that his hands remained steady till sunset. So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword.  Exodus 17:10-13

I’ve read and heard this several times before, bit never caught the context.  I get the picture of Moses raining his arms with the help of Aaron and Hur.  I get that when his hands lowered, the Israelites lost; when they were raised he won. 

I wonder what was going through Moses mind.  What was he thinking?  How was he feeling.  My guess is that he was.  . .

1. In some pain.  You don’t hold your arms over your head for very long until you get hurting.  Even with the help of some friends.
2. Passion.  Not for the war.  Not for the win.  Passion for the people and for the cause.  Moses was not on a spiritual high.  He wasn’t thinking “these people respect me as leader and love me and I am here to protect them.”  Earlier they were grumbling against Moses and he feared they would kill him.  Here he is now fighting for their lives.  Was he tempted to drop his arms to get back at them?  I would have been.

A good leader sees the big picture.  A good leader is not clouded by the actions and immaturity of his followers. I good leader pushes through to the cause and heart of God.  His leadership does not rise and fall on his approval rating.  He chases God and leads with humble and passionate love, regardless of the return.

God, may I move like Moses.  May I love like Jesus.

Technorati Tags: devotions, life-journaling, Moses, Exodus, Bible

When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though it was shorter. For God said “If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.” So God led the people around by the desert road toward the Red Sea. - Ex 13:17-18

Moses and Israel had finally been released from Egypt. However, God chose not to lead them in the shortest way. It would be hard. They would forget God.

This is the story of so much of my life.

1. I want to go the shortest distance so I get get there the quickest. Many times the shortest route is not best. My friend Jeff would tell you that. He had a general direction in his life when he left full-time ministry to begin a new venture. He would bring the gospel to people in new and creative ways. He knew he would do that by having a college drama and music group that would tour the country. It was the shortest and quickest distance to what God had called him to. He started down that road and God redirected him to be highly involved in the exchange community. It is here that he brings the gospel in new and creative ways. He is confident that this is where God wants him. The shortest route is not always the best.
2. Hard times make me want to quit. It is my first instinct. Things get rough and I think “time to find a new gig. This is too hard.” God sometimes protects us from the stuff that it is so hard that we would forgo his mission. Sometimes it is stuff that we will never know. Sometimes we have to walk miles out of the way to steer clear of a war that would cause us to retreat.

Maybe I should stop questioning the steps of the journey and realize that God is looking out for all of this. I need to do some pondering.

Technorati Tags: hard-times, exodus, devotions, Bible, life-journal, pharaoh

 Hugh McLeod of Change This, scores with some great thoughts on creativity. McLeod is a brand consultant, copywriter and cartoonist in the UK. Be warned, some of the language is raw but I found some of his concepts to be thought provoking. Check out the How to Be Creative manifesto here.

Technorati Tags: Hugh-McLeod, Change-This, creativity

 Moses replied, “When I have gone out of the city, I will spread out my hands in prayer to the LORD. The thunder will stop and there will be no more hail, so you may know that the earth is the LORD’s. But I know that you and your officials still do not fear the LORD God.” Exodus 9:29-30

Pharaoh is playing a game with Moses. Moses asks to Pharaoh to let his people go. Pharaoh says “no,” God sends a plague Pharaoh say he will let the people go, then changes his mind. Repeat. Here Moses calls him out. The hail will stop but Pharaoh has no fear of God, just fear of the circumstances.

I wonder how much I am like that. I pray that God will fix my circumstances. I fear my circumstances more than I fear God. I figure that if I can fix my circumstances, everything will be alright.

Maybe it is time to make a choice. Will I rely on my circumstances to bring me pleasure, comfort, security, and significance or will I rely on God? My mind knows the answer. My heart still needs some convincing.

God, too many times I trust in circumstances more than I trust in you. I fear them more than you. I put more value in them than I do in you. Teach me how to live.

Technorati Tags: life-journaling, Moses, Pharaoh, exodus, Israel, devotions, Bible