Michael's Notes - Thoughts On Worship, Leadership & Fitness

What is life about?

The question, at one time or another, is in everyone's thoughts:

What is life about?

John Piper answers the question this way:

"God created me - and you - to live with a simple all-embracing, all-transforming passion -- namely, a passion to glorify God by enjoying and displaying His supreme excellence in all the spheres of life."

Crazy Things I Have Heard in 27 Years of Ministry

For 27 years I have been serving in a full-time leadership position in a local church. My journey has included stops in Okalahoma, Michigan, Kentucky and Tennessee. Throughout the years I have been blessed to work with and serve with some amazing people. These relationships have enriched my life.  Also through these years I have heard some really strange comments. Here are just a few.  

• People who can read music should not be playing instruments in church. It takes away from the Spirit leading them. Too much planning gets in the way of what God wants to do in the worship services.

 

• We don’t need to print an order of worship or outline. Only a few people need to know what is going to happen in the service.

 

• For the next four weeks I want you to use the same songs in worship.

 

• No we are not going to plan our budget we don’t want the church to have control over the staff.

 

• I feel since I decided to stop playing the organ in church that God is taking my talent away. (How do you know that?) I can feel the talent leaving my fingers, oozing out my fingers and they are getting stiff.

 

• No one should sit next to your piano player. No one is worthy to be that close to him, he is one of God’s sons. One day it will be revealed he is really Jesus.

 

• God has given me the gift of playing the tambourine.  I brought my instrument today to church…would it be okay if I sat in the congregation and played along with all the songs.

Can you add to the list?

The Invisible Choir

Back in the day we preached to our choirs of the importance of being worship leaders from the time they walked onto the stage until the sermon was complete. It seemed the hardest part for most of those choirs to understand was the importance of being a worship leader during the sermon…following along…paying attention and not going to sleep.  It seemed that the choir thought that once the sermon started they were invisible to the audience, when exactly the opposite was true.  Every minute of the service someone from the audience was looking directly at them.

 

For many of us today the role of the worship choir has changed somewhat. Gone are the days when the choir stays on stage for the whole service. Yet their role as worship leaders is just as important. People are watching them from the very moment they walk onto the stage. Some things do stay the same…

 

In these days of fun theatrical lights and front-line singers, the worship choir still has the tendency to think they are invisible. “There’s so much going on that no-one will see me.” As much as is taking place on our stages, everyone is still visible to the congregation and they are looking to all who are on stage for the ‘cues’ to engage in worship.

 

So how do we get the ‘worship choir’ to understand their role as ‘visible’ worship leaders?

• Continue to believe in the importance of a worship choir
• Consistently remind the worship choir of its role.
• Encourage the worship choir to be worshippers
• Remind the worship choir that people are watching
  

Related Posts:

Who Sings in the Choir

Worship Choirs Past and Future

Four Questions the people you lead are asking

Just recently I was able to listen to my boss, Mark Marshall, give a presentation on "Motivating Volunteers You Lead." In that talk he listed four questions that every volunteer you lead is asking. The questions are:

• What am I supposed to do?
• Will you let me do it?
• Will you help me when I need it?
• Will you let me know how I am doing?

Not only are the volunteers within the organization asking these questions but also anyone you lead.

From the very beginning of trying to fill a position and throughout a lead/follower relationship, paid or volunteer, any leader would be wise to keep these questions near and refer to them often.  The questions can help us who lead to:

• Communicate the expectations of the task.
• Empower those assigned the task.
• Support  the volunteer or staff when help is needed.
• Stay out of the way when we are not needed. 
• Evaluate honestly the performance.

Are there other questions that should be added to the list?

Related Posts:

Reasons Your Followers and Team Leaders are Quitting

Called to Serve = Called to Prepare

Raising Up Worship Leaders

If no one had seen some potential in me or taken a chance and given me the opportunity to serve I would not be a worship leader today.  The older I get the more I am thankful that God put people in my life that did give me a chance. I am thankful I attended a church that took a chance, putting me on stage to lead a portion of the service.

 

It is the responsibility of the church and its leaders to mentor others in the specific tasks of leading others.

 

Today at the church I serve, ClearView, we are trying to be intentional about raising up worship leaders. We are investing in the musical training of children and we are giving our youth an opportunity to use the talents they are learning to lead their peers. A year ago we made a more intentional commitment to invest in the lives of middle school and high school students, to work with them and mentor them to help them become worship leaders. In just 11 months I have been able to witness youth go from being followers of an adult worship team to leaders of their own team. They have risen to the challenge and expectations presented to them. It took a commitment from the church and the passion of a leader, Alexis Cruz, who was willing to see potential and invest time.

 

Long before I arrived at ClearView they saw the need for mentoring youth and giving them a place to serve. Their investment is making an impact on our worship services and others. This Sunday we will start the services with the song “There Is None Like You" (Sovereign Lord)  co-written by Chad Cates who grew up at ClearView. This song is making an impact in many congregations. Chad has written many songs that are being sung by congregations around the country including “Father, Spirit, Jesus” which was recorded by Casting Crowns. I am glad ClearView invested.

 

The legacy of the church and the effectiveness of the church in the future will be influenced by how well we mentor our youth and young adults. I am thrilled that our youth want to be involved in ministry and I can’t wait to see how they will impact the church and worship of the future.

 

My prayer is: “God give us wisdom on how to mentor our students and young adults to be leaders today and tomorrow.”

It's Okay To Take Care of Yourself

“If you don’t care for yourself you can’t do anything else.” Michael Hyatt

 

That statement was made by Michael Hyatt at a luncheon sponsored by Backstage Leadership during Catalyst 09. The question posed that received the above as a response was: “Michael do you have a set of personal core values that are the foundation for how you live your life and then in turn help you set goals for your business life?”

 

Michael began to explain that he had posted some of this information in a previous post on his blog but the basics were:  Put God first, yourself second, then spouse and family, and finally everything else. 

 

It might seem odd to think of putting yourself above your spouse or your family; however, I totally understand and agree with his philosophy. I believe that God expects us to take care of ourselves, to become the best vessel for Him. I often hear persons in my line of work say: ‘if I take care of the spiritual and mental side of my life, God will take care of the rest.’ There is something terribly wrong with that statement. Our body, our total being, is a gift from God; therefore, we are responsible for the stewardship of this gift.

 

To be an effective leader we must first be healthy: spiritually, mentally and physically. To be effective at anything we must be healthy…totally healthy.

 

Do you take of yourself?

 

Related Posts:

Followers of Christ for as Long as We Can

Setting a Fitness Plan for the Week

Fitness An Act of Worship

Preparing for Worship: God sings so should we?

“For the LORD your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior.
He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.” NLT

• God is living among us…that is something to celebrate.
• God is our Mighty savior…that is something to celebrate.
• God delights in us…that is something to celebrate.
• God’s love will calm our fears…that is something to celebrate.
• God rejoices over us with song…that is something to celebrate.

It is hard for me to understand how people go to church on Sunday and just stand there and not participate, not engage in the conversation of worship. God has made it possible for us to gather in groups to celebrate who He is and what He has done for us.  That is something to celebrate.

It is rare that we witness celebrations where people just stand. If it is a true celebration there is usually buy-in with those involved. It should be the same each week in corporate worship.

Because of doctor’s orders I went through a time this year when I was not allowed to sing. When I attended worship events during that time it was tremendously difficult to be engaged. I have a new appreciation for singing and other acts of worship that demand participation. That is why I just don’t get how people come to worship and stand.

A.W. Tozer wrote concerning this subject in a number of his books and sermons. The following paragraph is taken from chapter 10 of his book The Attributes of God Volume 2. He is making reference to Zephaniah 3:17.

That’s why I want our congregations to sing. I don’t require that they sing on pitch – just that they sing with joy and enthusiasm. I don’t mind if the piano is out of tune, or if one fellow is singing a little step behind the next fellow – that doesn’t bother me. But the lack of warmth and enthusiasm makes me question the experiential life of Christians. The Christian Church has God in it and wherever God is, God will joy over His people with singing. The singing Church reflects the great God singing among His people.

Thousands of congregations will gather tomorrow for worship, will it be a celebration with buy-in from those who attend. If we have a relationship with God how can we just stand there and not sing; God is singing over us.

Worship Services, what is the real purpose?

For the last few weeks in our worship leadership planning times we have been discussing the meaning of ‘worship.’ Some of the phrases that were presented were:

         Reflect the glory of God

         Ascribe to God honor and glory

         Engage in a conversation with God that includes times of listening and talking

        

If we were to ask the question ‘what is the purpose of a corporate worship celebration?’ many of our answers would be similar and be something like this: Our worship services exist to make God’s glory known and by our actions ascribe worth to him. Or… ‘the public declaration of God and our response to that declaration, done in a gathering of mostly believers and some non-believers in which the believers gain support for their faith and the non-believers witness an outward expression of conversation between the church and its savior.’

 

In February 2007, Starbuck Chairman Howard Schultz sent a memo to his CEO, that somehow found its way onto the Internet. In the memo, Schultz expresses concern that his company has veered from its original charter. He cited a series of internal decisions that eventually led to a dilution of what customers had come to expect from a visit to Starbucks.

 

Have we lost sight of that goal of our corporate worship experiences when we add ‘things’ of culture to make our services ‘relevant’?  W.A. Tozer wrote: The Christian church was never intended to function as a current events forum.

 

There are many things we have added to our corporate gatherings that by themselves have tremendous value, but often take away from the conversation of worship.

 

Do we really need

announcements for up-coming events to take time from the conversation?

 

a movie clip that we think is cute?

 

a special occasion song just because it brings warm memories to our minds?

 

a skit that might have some small link to the theme of the day?

 

recognitions of birthdays or anniversaries?

 

None of the items in this list are bad, but I believe we need to evaluate what we allow to take up time in our services that are not really worship.  What we do need to reserve time for are:

 

         Prayer

         Ascribing to God Worth

         Praise

         God’s spoken Word

         God’s word explained

         Opportunities for response

         Time for reflection

Become A Leader By Saying Yes

 

As we become older we often fall into the trap of staying in our comfort zone. Doing things that we have always done in the same way we have always done them.

 

In two recent situations I have been reminded by youth how important it is to step out of our comfort zones and say yes to new opportunities.

Whether that step is to help the team I lead or just to give myself a new perspective. 

 

The first reminder came as I heard that my son had volunteered to step into a new role in a worship band that he participates in.  Normally he is one of the acoustic guitar players, but one night he knew they would be without a bass guitarist. Without hesitation he said he would fill-in. Now this is something he has never done, but he was willing to do so for the team.

 

The second was when I witnessed a group of high school students recognize a deteriorating situation and took it upon themselves to approach the adult leader about making some changes.

 

In each of these instances if it had not been for the willingness of youth to say yes to something new there would have been a team lacking a member and a team churning in status quo.

 

Witnessing these events has reminded me that I must ask myself these questions?

 

Am I willing to seek out new things?

Am I too satisfied with my routine?

Am I willing to say yes when opportunity rises?