An update on this weekend and this week...

Jeff and I had planned to travel to St. Louis on Friday to spend some time celebrating birthdays with my sister, her boyfriend, my mom, and my step-dad.  (Mine was the 3rd, Erin's is the 8th, and Jeff's is the 14th.)  After a long decision-making process, we decided not to go because of the weather.  We were in the midst of a winter storm, as was most of Illinois.  Jeff and I ended up hanging out around home for most of the day Friday, then we went to dinner at Casa del Rio (our favorite Mexican restaurant here) and to see the movie "27 Dresses."  So we had our celebration for my birthday before the weekend because...

Sunday was Youth Sunday, so the members of the youth group led all three worship services.  They were greeters, ushers, readers, and preachers among other things.  It was fun to work with them, and they did an excellent job!  Our band, Tsunami, led music at all three worship services, as well.  That meant Michael, Michelle, and Christopher had to be at the church an hour before their normal Sunday morning time, and stay for an extra hour.  Also, they had to shlep some of their equipment back and forth between the sanctuary and fellowship hall.  They sounded great, and were good sports about the extra time and effort.  Thanks guys!

Also, Sunday evening was the youth group Super Bowl party.  A couple from the church were wonderful hosts for the party.  They opened up their basement for us to watch the game and eat our food.  I was cheering for the Patriots, but mostly because I wanted to be cheering against certain people who were also at the party.  I did think it would be neat for them to go undefeated for the season, but I have to admit it's pretty cool for the Manning family for Eli to have won.  Jeff made a lemon cake complete with candles to share with the youth at the party for my birthday.

Today I went to have a thyroid ultrasound.  I had some routine blood work done last week that showed some abnormality in my thyroid and also anemia.  The thing about the ultrasound is that I have issues with people touching my throat.  Maybe it's a singer thing, but I really dislike anyone even having their hands remotely close to the front of my throat.  I don't even let Jeff.  And this ultrasound was icky gel and a device operated by someone I don't know, all on my throat.  Really it was worse in the build-up than in the actual scan.  I also gave a blood sample to figure out the anemia.  I don't get the results for either until sometime next week, so if you're the praying type, that would be appreciated.

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.