Creative Worship

The Thunder of the Jets

I live near an airport, and when we first moved into our house my oldest son was enamored by the jets constantly flying over the house.  Military jets, commercial jets, cargo jets, and the list goes on and on.  He'd go out and lie on the trampoline in the backyard for hours on end and just watch them as they flew by.  But over time, something happened.  The rumble of the jets, the sight of the jets coming up over the horizon- it all became just routine and familiar to him.  The wow factor- gone.  The hours spent in amazement on the trampoline- gone.  That is- until I took him to an air show.

We stood out on the tarmac together, and the first time one of the jets fired up and roared overhead, I look over and my son has absolutely lost it!  He had both hands clenched and held high in the air, he was jumping up and down like a chihuahua on crack and yelling at the top of his lungs, "THIS IS INCREDIBLE!!"  I kid you not, I could hear this little guy over the thunder of the jet's engine.  Everyone around us turned their attention from the jet to the little guy- just going for it.

What was all of that about?  Proximity.  To my son, the jets became familiar because he began to just see them as "far off."  But when he saw a jet up close, when he felt the thunder of the engine shake him- it changed everything. 

Our challenge in the ministry and especially if  you lead in the area of speaking or in worship is to not grow too "familiar" with God.  In so much of what we do, there is a danger in thinking we have this thing figured out, when the truth is even the most intimate things we know of God don't even scratch the surface of His greatness.  So it's all about Proximity. 

When was the last time you got close enough to the heart of God that His glory thundered in your soul?  When was the last time you stood alone, in view of the greatness of God, and responded to Him with both hands in the air, declaring His greatness? 

We need to keep ourselves close enough where the Glory of God thunders in us at the level of our souls.  We need to pray as Moses prayed, "Now show me Your glory" (Exodus 33:18).  And the great thing is we are set up to experience Him that way.  We have "Christ in us," our hope and glory. 

"The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful word."  Hebrews 1:3

Let His Glory THUNDER!

 

One Toe In...

I am sticking my toe into the blog world! Welcome to my blog, a place where I hope to enforce the truth that the Church is the hope of the world. I have been a little hesitant to step in because the pace of ministry keeps me so focused and going non-stop (can anyone feel me?) that I worried I wouldn't be able to keep this deal up. But I think I am ready to at least go toe deep.

I serve as the Worship Pastor at Fellowship Church and through this blog I plan to begin some dialogue as to what is shaping the Worship Culture at FC. I say, "what's shaping", because we recognize that we haven't arrived.

We recently had our C3 Conference and had the great privilege of hosting leaders from 48 states, 6 continents, and over 540 churches. I was blown away to hear all that God is doing in the Church throughout the world. During the conference we led a breakout on what is shaping the Worship Culture at FC. We talked about 3 major themes that I plan creating as categories for in this blog.

CREATIVITY- We believe creativity is best done collaboratively. In this category I will post about our creative process, elements we develop each week, clips of video segments we produce, and interviews and discussions with our Worship Leaders, Post Production Team, Audio/Media Team, and Staging Team, as well as some guests.

AUTHORITY- We believe there is power under authority. Our Pastor, Ed Young, did a series a few years ago that revolutionized my life and my leadership. It was called "AUTHORITY ISSUES." The most strategic thing any Worship Pastor/Leader or for that matter any staff member can do to see God's power and anointing unleashed in their ministry is to get under and stay under the authority of your Pastor.

PROXIMITY- We believe that our proximity to God's heart and our effectiveness to lead go hand-in-hand. The most critical element to leading in the ministry is making sure our own relationship with Jesus is growing. In this category I will post conversations I have with other leaders as well as things I am learning in in my own life that help me keep this priority one.

CREATIVITY- AUTHORITY- PROXIMITY - three areas that continue to shape our Worship Culture, and what I'll be blogging about.

The toe is in.... it feels pretty good.