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.

Interview part 3

Here is another installment of our interviews with Satan. This one is rated PG. maybe PG-13. The interview begins at 2:o5.

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"

I'm 15 today!

Today marks the 15 year anniversary of my walk with Christ. What a long journey it has been! Growing, learning, changing, falling, climbing, running, walking; all with a purpose. The means to an end; becoming like Him. I can't say that I have achieved all that I wanted to, but I can say that I am a different person. Someone once said "I may not be where I want to be but thank God I'm not where I used to be."

15 years ago today I walked into a production of Heaven's Gates; Hell's Flames at a small Assembly of God church in Arlington, WA. It was not the greatest drama I had ever seen and I remember thinking that it was kind of corny, but at the end, when some guy got up and gave an invitation to accept Christ, I knew deep down that it was what I needed to do. So I did. I walked down from the balcony and surrendered my life. I don't remember the words I prayed, but I remember the feeling of being clean and lighter than air. I remember talking to a counselor but I have no idea what he said. I remember thinking that it would not be easy to live this life and I was right but for the first time in my life I had something worth living for.

Thanks to all those who worked on that production 15 Octobers ago. It made a difference to me.

Fun on the Snoqualmie

I got a call yesterday from John Fiskum who is an elder at New Life Church and also a fellow fly-fishing enthusiast, asking me if I would be interested in taking a float trip. "Hecks yes!" I said. So I met him at Starbucks in Carnation, which if you don't know where Carnation is, you are well within the majority. 6:15 is early but worth it when there are cutthroat to be had. It was raining when we arrived at the launch and that means good cutt fishing. We floated for about 5 hours and caught a bunch of 7-8 inch sea-run cutts punctuated by a few 9-10 inchers and actually landed a couple 12 inch resident rainbows. The fish are brilliantly colored and full of spunk. The best part of the float came after I switched from a bright pattern to a drab olive fly. Feeling the pull of a fish that is larger than average really gets the heart going, When it came to hand, or net, it was 16+ inches; big for a sea-run cutt. It was a great trip and a fun day!

Camp Food

I got back yesterday from leading worship at the Northwest Ministry Network PK retreat in Easton, WA. It was a pretty good time. I had never been to this particular retreat so I didn't know quite what to expect. You know the stories about PKs. They were a cool group though and we had a good time leading them in worship. Easton is only about an hour from where I live so it wasn't a long drive but it still felt like a road trip and as we all know, the best thing about road trips is coming away with inside jokes*.
We got back to the church about 3pm and then had rehearsal for Simply Worship at 5. We had dinner at 6 and then Simply Worship at 7. It has been a busy couple days for me. 5 worship services in 3 days, all with a cold. I am excited about having the next 2 days off with my family.


*Vacuums
*Loading Dock
*T-Shirts
*Release the Creeper!
*Montana, Montana, Montana
*Is that a Gibson?

I Hate Paper

Check out the Facebook group "I Hate Paper". It will change your life forever. We are strong, we will prevail, we are the revolution!