Aug 28, 2007

Is it really this bad?

This is another post about a blog I read, worshipideas.blogspot.com. Don Chapman is the blogger, and he has several websites that are really fantastic resources. You can read his latest blog at the kink above. Basically, he is bemoaning the fact that "good worship leaders are hard to find." It sounds to me like he has had a run-in with a person who leads worship and has fallen from the wagon on some issue or another. He sites some examples of folks who have been fired from their position, mostly for reasons pertaining to their personal life, and then hired by another church who knows about their checkered past.

My issue with his post has several layers.
#1--What about grace and forgiveness? Hate the sin, love the sinner; forgive 70x7 times, and all that.

#2--Are "good" worship leaders really that rare? And if so, what does that say for the worship of the people they are charged with leading?

#3--Am I one of the good ones, or the unknowing bad ones? I'm not looking for compliments or patting myself on the back here, I'm really curious. It's a soul-searching question.

#4--How can the Church raise up and encourage good worship leaders?

Unfortunately, more often that not I "hear" leaders in the church moaning about the fact that "their" worship is losing ground. Traditionalists are scared that many schools are cutting organ programs and so organists are harder and harder to find, especially good, trained ones who are sensitive to worship needs instead of a recital each week. Contemporary (what I would venture to call "boomer") worship folks like Don are scared of the same thing for worship and music leaders in their services. Choir directors continue to see numbers shrink as the average age increases.

Many folks see the worship pendulum swinging back toward traditional worship, especially with the interest in ancient-future worship and the emerging/emergent church and worship movements. No one knows where we are headed. My hope is that no matter what "style" our worship ends up looking like, I just hope that we can continue to have integrity in our worship and continue to reach out to the "least, lost, and last" in our churches and communities.

Aug 13, 2007

Praying the Psalms

One of the blogs I subscribe to is a daily devotional based on a Psalm. It starts at one and cycles through them numerically, then starts again on one. Today's reading was Psalm 42. It is one of the Psalms of lament, in which the author cries out to God, this time feeling deserted by God. As I was reading this, it really resonated with me. It speaks to my frustration in leading worship when I don't feel like worshiping myself--how in the world am I supposed to lead other people in worship when I am not in a "worship mood" yourself? Those days when there were sound issues caused by the gremlins that no one knows how it happened or why, or when I'm just plain in a bad mood? In a more broad sense, how, as a leader in any context, do you lead during the times you feel more like following someone else's lead?

For me, it's those days when I'm tempted to just shut up and sing, which is different from the days when I don't know what to say so I don't say much. It's a challenge for me, but I'm learning that it is those same days when "my soul wants to sing the blues" that I have to trust that God can still use me.

That's what I love about the Psalms--the ones singing God's praise are right next to the ones crying out to God in anger, frustration, sadness, worry, you name it. They are both healthy reactions as they balance each other out. How do you find balance in your relationship with God?

Aug 9, 2007

St. Louis pictures

Below is a slide show of pictures from our trip to see my sister, Erin, and her boyfriend, Jay, last weekend in St. Louis.



Aug 6, 2007

Re-centering

Today I did something I'm ashamed to say I haven't done for a while. I spent some time in devotion with The Upper Room Devotional Guide. Usually, I come in to work and start checking email or doing things on my to-do list. Today, however, I read a passage in Proverbs about seeking Wisdom in God, read the short devotion for today in the guide, then I spent some time praying. It was really refreshing, and I forget how centering and focusing it is. I think sometimes that I should have this fabulously strong faith and belief since I work in a church and lead worship, that I should be the example for the congregation and the world. Most of the time, it seems it is the other way around for me. I know that places a lot of guilt and expectation on me, some of which is unreasonable and self-centered. But the reality is, I can't lead or plan worship well when I am not seeking a deeper relationship with God. No matter if your belief about the Bible, whether it is literal or not, it is still full of time-tested truths that help us in our search for the Truth, and connecting with God is vital to connecting with others in worship. And that's something I want to do more and better.

Aug 2, 2007

Copyright

I belong to an email list called "Methodist Musicians." As the name suggests, it is for musicians, but is not limited to Methodists. There are always a variety of discussion threads, some of which have a habit of recurring every now and then. Today (or maybe yesterday) it was copyright law. Now, this is pretty much the bane of any musician's existence. It is so convoluted that not even publishing companies can/will give you a straight, correct answer that would not be contradicted by the same company in the future. We're talking about not letting couples record their wedding, not allowing parents to record their child's first solo, not recording the service to take to shut-ins, buying at least two copies of anything for a soloist to play, and buying one copy per notebook for the band. All of this on a limited budget in a church that currently is existing in a deficit situation, but wants new, fresh music for worship.

The thing is, I know why the copyright law exists--it is, in the best sense, to protect the composer/artists who write the songs and to provide them with fair compensation for their work. No one is arguing that this is a bad thing. But we have gotten ourselves into a whole stinking mess, and some of it has to do with new technologies. Probably before the advent of computers or copiers this was less of a problem, but I can't know that for sure. And stuff on the internet is its own mess and a half.

All I know is that if I find a song I want the band to play, for instance, and it is not in a "comfortable" singing or playing key, I can't just change the chords and move on with my life. So the bottom line is, I will try to comply and understand why it is the way it is, and still curse its existence. :-)