Does God Hate Vegetables? A post for Worship Leaders.

Have you ever wondered why in Genesis, God rejected Cain's offering?

Genesis 4 says this:

Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. 3 In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD. 4 And Abel also brought an offering—fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, 5 but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.

Seems to me like an honest attempt. What's wrong with offering the fruit of your labor to God? Does God hate vegetables as much as I do? Maybe God just really prefers the smell of a good steak to grilled veggies which makes sense. Have you ever accidentally burned an onion? Disgusting.

No doubt Cain and his brother Abel had grown up hearing the story of how their parents had been evicted from the garden in Eden. Adam and Eve sinned and tried to cover themselves with fig leaves. God said "Let me cover you with garments of skin." They tried to do it on their own and God said "let me do it for you."

That is a picture of the grace of God; God doing for us what we could never do, even when it's our fault.

So back to Cain. Knowing full well that he was required to offer a blood sacrifice, he offered vegetation. He came to God with an offering that he knew was an insult to His grace, and God rejected it. Cain in essence was declaring that he would do things his own way and in his own power, outside of the plan and the requirement God had put in place; that he could atone for his sins by the sweat of his brow and the fruit of his fields. Cain was spitting on the grace of God so God rejected his offering.

As worship leaders, it can be tempting to bring our offering to God with the attitude that we have done all the work in practice and in preparation. We put in the hours learning chords and scales, we picked out the songs, we spent the time figuring out smooth transitions. We can fall into the trap of thinking that outside of the grace of God, we can do anything. God's grace is that He has given us the gifts and the talents and the anointing to bring worship to Him. When we think that we can do it on our own, we spit on that grace.

So how do we avoid that? By acknowledging His grace to us and not trying to do things in our own power. Instead of making our offering the focus of our worship, make God the focus of our offering. He has graced us with everything we need to bring an acceptable offering to Him.

A Marathon but with Words

I just finished reading Worship Matters by Bob Kauflin. It is by far the best book for worship leaders I have ever come across. I would highly recommend it as it also has a chapter for Lead Pastors on how to relate to/support worship leaders.

I am currently in the middle of a 4 book marathon. The other books are:

Worship By The Book by D.A. Carson
I Am Not But I Know I AM by Louie Giglio
Engaging With God by David Peterson

I really want to challenge my paradigm of worship and what it means to be a worshiper and never get stuck thinking that I know everything there is to know about worship and music.

Worship Fast

I started a "Worship Fast" a couple days ago. For the month of August I have decided to cut out any music that isn't what you would traditionally call "worship" music.

I understand that this can be a touchy subject and sound real religious and I can hear your mind beginning to get all worked up already so relax, and let me explain:

I am not saying that all secular music is bad.
I am not saying that some secular music can't be worship.
I am not saying that Christian music is bad.
I am not saying that Christians should never listen to secular music.

What I am saying is that I am taking a month to feed my spirit only music that is focused on bringing honor and glory to God. If you are what you eat, then as a worship leader, I want to be full of worship. In Matthew 12:34 Jesus says that "...out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks." (NIV) I want my heart to overflow with worship so that when I stand in front of New Life Church, I am not drawing from a dry well.

We are beginning a series on worship on August 16th and I would invite you to join me on this fast during those 2 weeks and finish the fast with the first Simply Worship of the fall on September 2.

Winter Camp '09

This past weekend was our youth ministry's Winter Camp. We had a great time on the ridiculous tubing hill and the drive over the pass provided enough memories and inside jokes to last for a long time. The best part however, was seeing the kids engaging God in worship and praying for each other. The last night, after service we were packing up and getting ready to head back over the mountain and I started to feel a tickle in my throat. So now I am fighting a pretty bad cold. I am thankful that it waited until we were done with camp to come on.
The speaker for the camp was Roosevelt Hunter who really connected with the kids. On Sunday morning, he spoke at New Life in the Main Services and absolutely KILLED it! I think the funniest thing he said was in regard to Jesus not being white or black but in the middle: "He was white enough to get into the dignified places but dark enough to eat chicken with the brothas on the weekend."
Roosevelt is dealing with cancer and if you read this, say a prayer for him and his family as they go through it.
Here are some inside jokes from the weekend, you probably won't get any of them but I put them on here for posterity.
Fly Away
Busting Grumpys
"No, I have coffee."
T-Shirt
"Uh, they have good coffee there."
"Ees on dee paper, ees close enough"
"I don't know anything about trailers...I don't know anything about guys either."

The Discipline of Worship

In Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster, there are some good insights into worship, among other things. Here is some of what he says:

Worship is our response to the overtures of love from the heart of the Father. Its central reality is found "in spirit and truth." It is kindled within us only when the Spirit of God touches our human spirit. Forms and rituals do not produce worship, nor does the disuse of forms and rituals. We can use all the right techniques and methods, we can have the best possible liturgy (I would add music as well), but we have not worshiped the Lord until Spirit touches spirit."

As a worshiper, how do you (or I) cultivate the atmosphere where "Spirit touches spirit" in our own lives? If you are a worship leader, how do you cultivate that atmosphere in a corporate setting? I would love to hear any thoughts/insights you might have on this.

What are you doing tomorrow?

Sunday was a great day all around! There was a great atmosphere in all three services as we worshiped together as a church. Pastor Troy spoke about sin and we showed our final Interview With Satan video, which killed by the way.
I went to lunch with an old friend who was the youth pastor in Bend, OR while we were there and he is now the District Youth Director for the state of Oregon.
Sunday night at Axis Church, Jeremy Johnson spoke and as always, tore it up. That dude is funny. During the response time we sang Mighty To Save and we hit another gear as the students pressed in to God like I've never seen them press.
Just a great day all around and the kind of day that makes you say "I could do this again tomorrow!"

Culture of Worship.

I have been chasing mentors lately and asking questions about how to be the most effective worship leader I can be and how to create a culture of worship in which people naturally engage with God. From what I have gleaned from these mentors, it essentially boils down to 3 things:

Pray: Do not underestimate the power of a solid prayer life.
Be yourself: Honesty and genuine-ness put people at ease.
Lead by example: If you want people to be worshipers, then be a worshiper, not just a worship leader.

I am starting to believe that I was over-thinking the entire thing! I was looking for some more difficult hoops to jump through. I feel pretty good about where we are as a church and more specifically, as a worship ministry at New Life Church. We are gaining momentum and quality at the same time!

Lead Without Leaving

I attended The Crossing gathering last night and had a great time worshiping. As someone who leads worship about 5 times a week, it is awesome to be at a worship service without having to think about all the technical aspects involved in creating a quality worship experience. Over the years, I have learned how to balance technical and spiritual aspects of worship whilst leading. What I mean is that it isn't all "head worship"; I can still connect with God when I am thinking through transitions and key changes and the like. In fact, the technical aspect has been the bigger challenge for me. My background was more heart than head which doesn't always lend itself to quality. Learning to be a great worship leader involves learning to balance both and also to be able to "lead without leaving". I have to lead people and not leave them behind, but bring them along on the journey.
That being said, when I get to forget about all the other stuff and focus my heart and all of my attention on connecting with God, it is incredibly refreshing.
I count myself blessed because I get to lead worship as a career and it still doesn't feel like a job.

Worship Leader Ad-Lib

I have been leading worship for about 12 years now. I have lead 5 people in a living room to leading 3000 at outdoor events and everything in-between. When I started it was "Lord I lift your name on...(pause while changing chords)...high." Worship music has come a long way since then but one thing that remains the same is what I call the "Worship Leader Ad-Lib". It sounds like this, "Lord I lift Your name on high, yes I do Lord, Lord I love to sing Your praises." See what I did there? I threw in a little extra in-between the lines, just to let everyone know that I'm serious. Here is another example: "Jesus You've become my everything, oh yeah, I will stand for You in the face of the trial." That one is a little more subtle. Darrell Evans took this art form to a level that was previously believed to be non-existent with his "Freedom" album throwing in the unforgettable gem "Come and take a spin with the Lord".

My all-time favorite however is the "Sing it out". Usually when the song has come to it's natural end but the worship leader decides to sing the chorus "one more time" he or she will give direction in the form of "sing it out" indicating that he/she expects a greater volume level from the congregation. Also "sing it out" can be used in the event that the WL forgets the words.

Here are some others:

Let's put our hands together.
Come on.
Yes You are Lord.
Oh we worship You.

*I don't know how I forgot "Lift it up"

You Can't Do That On Telelvision

I just got finished with worship practice and got home. It's exciting to see the progress we have made and are making with the worship team. We are really getting things dialed in as far as our sound and excellence of our musicians. I was thinking today how blessed I am to be able to make a career out of the gifts, abilities and passion that God has given me and the fact that I don't have to break my back to put food on the table. I get to do what I love full time. So blessed.

My wife is watching the women's gymnastics right now on CBC. That's right; the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. If you have never watched CBC it's kind of weird. It's almost like American TV except everyone has a slight accent and the sports they show are different. For some reason there is a maple leaf on EVERY logo. Even the Golden arches have a maple leaf on them. Have a headache? Take some Tylenol with a maple leaf on the bottle.

Now they are showing highlights of men's field hockey. Canada lost.

Sunday Morning Service

We just finished up Sunday morning services and what an awesome day! We had our new freind Gabe lead a song in all three services. He did a great job. We had a full stage today as we had two electric guitar players along with two acoustic players (Gabe and me). Pastor Troy spoke on James chapter 1 about sin and temptation. You can watch the sermon on-line here on the church website.

There was a really good atmosphere in all the services today. In the lobby as well. Not that there is ever a bad atmosphere, it just seemed more joyful today.

Chains as tambourines

I named this blog after a line in a song that I wrote that says "I'll use these chains as tambourines". It was inspired by Acts 16:25 when Paul and Silas were in the prison and praising God at midnight. I imagine that they were in such a state of mind that they would have used anything they had to praise God, including their chains. As people that have been set free, we should use our old chains as instruments of praise to God and testimonies of His life-changing power. Our past mistakes and bondages serve as reminders of His goodness. They are messages of hope to those who need to hear.

I will try to begin this blog by adding an entry once a week.
Thanks for reading,
Sam