Category: Heart attitudes

Are You Amazed Anymore?

A few nights ago our 15 month old daughter, Megan, started walking on her own. She had taken one or two independent steps before, but finally, one evening after dinner, she decided she was quite comfortable walking around our entire living room.

We were amazed. We applauded her, swooped her up and hugged her, took pictures and video, Skyped with her grandparents in California so they could see it, and delayed her bed time by quite a bit just so we could keep watching her walk.

Several days have passed and she’s still walking – but I’m not amazed anymore.

What would have been unheard of just a week ago – Megan walking around the living room – is now normal to me. I check email and read the news while she toddles around without any applause or swooping or filming or Skyping.

It’s easy for us to lose our amazement, isn’t it?

When I first came to my church 6 1/2 years ago, they were still relatively new to the use of contemporary music in congregational worship. I was young and immature, but eager and excited, and was quickly overwhelmed by how far the congregation had to go (and, whether I realized it or not, how far I had to go too).

Over the course of time, God, by his grace, has moved us ahead. Is there still room for growth? Oh yes. Have we made any progress? You would be amazed.

But I’m not amazed anymore. And I should be.

What would have been unheard of just 6 1/2 years ago is now normal to me. I would have never been able to introduce an upbeat celebratory song. The band couldn’t have played it and the congregation would have been shocked. I certainly wouldn’t have heard any clapping or seen any physical expressiveness. Our repertoire was shallow. Our equipment was terrible. Our rehearsals were ineffective.  These are just a few examples off the top of my head. I could probably think of hundreds more.

God has faithfully helped us grow. He has answered prayer after prayer and allowed us to express our worship to him and encounter him in a level of freedom that we weren’t experiencing just a short time ago. He has done it. And I should be amazed.

The people of God have a long and sad history of forgetting his “wondrous works” (Psalm 105:5) and selfishly demanding more without remembering what he’s already done. We’re all guilty of this. But oh how much more satisfied and joyful we’d be if we opened our eyes to the miracles he’s done right in front of us.

What “wondrous works” has God done in your midst, in your congregation, in your own life and ministry, and in your worship team? More than you remember and probably more than you realize. What “unheard of” things are now normal?

There will always be room to grow. But there will always be a reason to be amazed.

I want to be a father – and a worship leader – who never ceases to be amazed by baby steps. How about you?

Don’t Believe Your Own Hype

You have a fan club, whether you realize it or not.

Maybe it’s small. A few old ladies who think you’re just adorable and ask when you’re going to make a CD.

Or maybe it’s larger. Gushing Facebook posts, lots of Twitter followers, people recognize you at the grocery store, and your church bookstore carries your very own CD.

Most worship leaders are somewhere in between. You don’t have a CD to sell or Twitter followers of any substantial number, but you do have a significant number of people at your church who see you up front regularly, have an affinity for you, and think you’re much more terrific and wonderful than you actually are.

In any case, it can be tempting to start to believe the hype that naturally surrounds anyone who stands on a stage in a position of leadership and possesses musical gifts. Before you know it you’re demanding only Evian bottled water, yellow M&Ms, and the auditorium a constant 72.4 degrees (that’s in Fahrenheit for my European friends).

Don’t believe your own hype. It’s a slippery slope to arrogance and pride and there is nothing that will hinder your effectiveness in ministry more. God isn’t exaggerating when he warns us that he “opposes the proud” (James 4:6).

Here are three practical ways you can keep the “hype” around you in check.

Be approachable
Avoid the temptation to cloister yourself away in a back room before and after the service. Rock stars do this. Worship leaders shouldn’t. Be available and approachable before and after the service. This is an easy and tangible way to demonstrate to your congregation that you love them, and to deflate the inflation of your ego.

Be humble
For anyone seeking to pursue humility, C.J. Mahaney’s book Humility: True Greatness is an absolute must-read. You can read it in one evening, but if you’re smart, you’ll take some time to read through it and allow the Holy Spirit to convict you and help you see where you need to grow.

It’s easy to say “be humble” but it’s hard to do. “Pursue humility” is a much better way to phrase it. Every morning, every day, and every night, resist the fleshly pull toward pride. Laugh at yourself. Encourage and honor those around you. Remember your sinfulness. Rejoice in Jesus’ work of redeeming you and covering you with his blood. That’s the only thing worth boasting in.

We start to believe the hype when we believe there’s something about ourselves that’s worth boasting in. Unless that “thing” is the cross of Christ, we’re off base.

Be cross-centered
Paul writes in Ephesians 2:1-3,

“…you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience – among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”

You. We all. Our. By nature.

Verse 4:

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved – and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”

But God. Two of the greatest words in all of scripture.

The hype tells us we’re wonderful and adorable and a really big deal. The cross tells us we were children of wrath but are now objects of God’s mercy.

As a worship leader, to be effective you have to be deflective. People will sinfully want to praise you. You’ll sinfully want to receive it and believe it. Don’t. Deflect the praise of man and direct your own need to make much of something great onto the One who is rich in mercy and worthy of every bit of hype we can muster.

The Danger of Trumpeting Your Political Views

Yesterday was a big election day in the United States. You may have heard that the republicans regained control of the house of representatives, gained several seats in the senate, and won several state governorships. The pundits are having a field day over all of this, and I can’t get enough of it. I love following politics and consider myself a news junkie, so elections are pretty exciting for me.

Of course, living in Washington D.C. makes it even more exciting. While I live about a mile west of the beltway, my church is firmly inside it, and you can’t escape the effects of the proximity to power and politics everywhere you turn.

Most people here, whether or not they’re as much of a news and politics junkie as I am, have pretty strong opinions about this stuff. I certainly do. And my guess is that, whether or not you live in a big city with loads of power-players, you and the people in your congregation have strong opinions too. They might not be able to name the republican candidate who lost the primary in Delaware like I can, but they probably identify with one party more than the other and have a preference and/or opinion regarding who sits in the oval office.

I enjoy talking about this stuff with my friends and family – when it seems appropriate and when I think they’re interested (maybe). It’s always a bit tricky to communicate about these things in a non-judgmental and biblically informed way, but I still enjoy it.

I do draw the line, and encourage you to draw this line too, at trumpeting political views and candidate preferences in public and in front of the congregation whom I serve. Here are two reasons why:

You don’t want your congregation to think politics when they see you
Do me a favor and bring to mind a political candidate whose politics you find appalling. It could be anyone. A candidate for president, senator, congressman, or mayor. Now imagine you’re my friend on Facebook and I consistently post status updates and links extolling the virtue of said candidate. Would it be difficult for you to ignore that when you showed up to church and I stood before you to lead worship? Probably.

If, as a worship leader, you’re unabashed in your political views, it won’t bother those who agree with you one bit. But it’s the people who don’t agree with you who you should be worried about. If you’re concerned about helping people see and exalt the greatness of God when they come on Sunday mornings, then you should be concerned about how big a distraction you are. One way to be a distraction is to symbolize a politician they find appalling. It’s not worth it.

Your congregation pays your salary
It’s good to keep in mind that it’s your congregation’s sacrificial giving that enables you to have a job and a leadership position on staff. Particularly for those in the congregation who might share different convictions and political philosophies from you, it can be difficult when church staff use that platform to push a political ideology.

It’s a very good idea to discuss these things, openly and prayerfully, with people who you know and trust. What’s not a good idea is trumpeting your views for all to hear, since it will assuredly result in members of your congregation being more aware of what’s happening now in politics than what has happened for us on the cross. Point them to that, every chance you get.

Do Not Be Anxious About… Anything

There are a lot of things worship leaders can be anxious about before and/or during a service.

Your guitar string might break at just the wrong moment. The new song you’re teaching might totally bomb. You might make some mistakes. People might be zoned out and disengaged. The worship team might not sound any better than they did at rehearsal on Thursday night. Your sound guy might forget to turn on the amps again.

We all have different things we get anxious about before we lead worship. Either on Saturday night or Sunday morning when we wake up we begin looking to the worship service with dread and fear.

And we can get anxious during the service too. Maybe things just feel “off”. Maybe it’s your first time leading worship and you can tell you’re not as smooth as the other guys. Maybe someone said something critical to you. Maybe your sister is visiting from out of town and you’re wondering what she thinks.

My guess is that every Saturday night – across the world – there are thousands of worship leaders who are really really anxious about how the next morning will go. They don’t sleep very well and when they get to church the following day they’re a ball of nerves.

You might think: anxiety is normal. It’s impossible to not feel anxious before standing up in front of people, leading a band, and leading a congregation. What about on big days like Christmas Eve or Easter?

Here’s the problem: Philippians 4:4-7:

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Jesus himself said:

Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ (Matthew 6:31)

Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. (6:34)

Is it really possible to not be anxious? Yes. Is it easy? No.

There’s a difference between feeling the weight of the responsibility with which we’ve been trusted (a good thing) and looking at Sunday mornings forgetting that Jesus is a factor (a bad thing).

If we’ve “by prayer and supplication” made our requests, our anxiety, and our needs “known to God”, then we should expect his peace and be content to not worry about the next morning until it comes. This shouldn’t sound cliché. It should sound reassuringly easy.

But if we’ve forgotten that Jesus is a factor – THE factor – and that he not only hears our prayers and intercedes on our behalf – but commanded us to not be anxious – and is Lord over all – then we shouldn’t be surprised when we experience crippling anxiety.

Pings of anxiety will always be present – some times more than others – but shouldn’t linger or fester. They’re an opportunity for humility, not hand-wringing. They’re a reminder of our need for God, an opportunity to bring our requests to him with thanksgiving that because of Jesus Christ there’s no condemnation, no reason to fear, no reason to worry about little things or big things, and every reason to relax.

This really does pass “all understanding”, and it’s something worship leaders should continually seek after: the ability to be filled with Jesus-centered and Spirit-empowered peace.

When Your Pastor Asks You to Drop a Song

Yesterday morning, about two hours before our 11:00am service, I got an email from the pastor who would be leading the service, asking me to drop one of the opening songs. Here’s what he said:

JB, Morning and a question.  We have the introduction of a Chinese delegation of pastors this morning, and several announcements and a video, and a really long reading, and JY doesn’t think he’ll be short (Melchizedek takes some ‘splaining).  In light of that I think we should drop one of the songs from the first set.  Does that work?  Can you zip me a reply on that so I know how to configure the other stuff?  Thanks, Dean.

I wrote back very simply:

Sure. No problem at all.

When your pastor asks you to drop a song, you should say “yes” every time.

Sure, I was looking forward to leading all four songs, and I thought doing all four songs helped the opening set be well-rounded and balanced. Part of me was bummed to have to cut one of them out. But, me being bummed doesn’t matter one bit. Submitting to my pastor(s), being a team player, and seeking to lead out of humility requires me to graciously do whatever I’m asked to do. Even dropping a song.

This doesn’t happen every week. It actually doesn’t happen very often. If it did happen regularly, it would probably be good to have a conversation about it during the week, and figure out exactly how much time we envision the different segments of a service taking. This would be the time and place to “push back” if it felt necessary. But a Sunday morning isn’t the time or place.

Worship leaders can quickly become territorial and protective of the time of singing as being “their time”. When that happens, requests to cut a song and/or shorten the time can be viewed as personal attacks warranting extreme defensive measures. This is a mistake and it will put you firmly on the pastor’s bad side. You don’t want to be there.

Get into the habit of reminding yourself the entire service is “worship”, and you just help lead one small part. Then it’s not so hard to say “yes” when and if it needs to be a little smaller.