Monthly Archives: April 2012

Leaving Well

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24 Days

That’s all the time I have left in my current role as Worship Arts Director at Saanich Baptist Church.

I’m young, I’ve only got 7 years of ministry experience under my belt.  In those 7 years I have seen a few comings and goings of ministry staff.  I’ve noticed things about each one.  I’ve especially admired those who have remained committed to their church until the very last day they collect a pay cheque.  I have noticed how much the people they are leading and serving have appreciated that commitment.  I have noticed that it makes it much easier for the next person who comes in to fill that gap.  I have also tragically witnessed the disarray, frustration, and fizzling out of church goers who perhaps felt abandoned by the staff member in transition.

When I told my Sr. Pastor that I was leaving I told him I would be committed to the very end.  I meant it.  I meant it because I respected and appreciated him.  I meant it because I love the people I serve.  I meant it because my congregation deserves the very best I have to give.  I meant it because I truly believe it will make me a better leader as I transition into what’s next.

24 days.

You’re probably not going to be surprised to hear this but it’s hard.  The temptation is certainly to coast.  I’m excited about vacation.  I’m excited about the new ministry opportunity that awaits me.  And that’s just it, it’s waiting.  It will wait.  It’s not going anywhere.  And for right now this is where I am, this is where I want to be, and this is the opportunity God has given me.

I have 4 Sundays left.  4 Sundays to lead the congregation I love in worship of our amazing God.  24 days of coffee conversations with volunteers.  24 days of thanking, giving, serving, loving, listening, teaching, striving, and singing my guts out.  24 days of solid ministry.  And 25 days from this moment I’ll sigh a deep sigh, and smile, and say, “that was awesome”.

We all come to times of transition.  Don’t miss the opportunity in front of you by looking past it to something that hasn’t even arrived yet.  You won’t please everyone on your way out, because you can never please everyone.  But stay committed to the end, for your sake and those who are counting on you.

Let’s do this!

This Is Worship Victoria

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Saturday, April 21st, 2012 is going to be an amazing day.  It’s the culmination and celebration of something that I never thought I would be a part of.  Over the past year I have been part of an idea called Worship Victoria.  We are about to release our first album, but it’s so much more than a worship compilation CD.  It’s the start of something that I believe will change the face of the local church in Victoria, BC forever.  

Today I want to share the story of Worship Victoria with you.

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(from the Worship Victoria website)

Worship Victoria was formed out of community, with worship leaders from different churches across our city spending time together. Over hash browns and morning coffee we would chat about our roles, challenges, lives as leaders, and our interests, passions, and discoveries as worshippers and musicians. On one of those mornings, Fraser Campbell brought to the table the idea of a city compilation album. Our churches were already singing original songs, and the prospect of compiling music from worship leaders and writers around Victoria was instantly exciting.

Thus began the long journey of creating a worship album that represented the churches and worship communities of Victoria. From early on in the process it was apparent that a theme was developing – a collection of songs was being formed that, whether through sacred liturgy or charismatic celebration, spoke of our need to see God move in our City. “Kingdom Come” would eventually become the title of the album.

The leaders of the project decided early on that all proceeds from the project should go towards a cause that aids in the advancement of God’s Kingdom. The Church of Victoria has long admired the faithful work of Rob Trepanier and has seen the positive impact of Sanctuary Youth Centre; partnering with Sanctuary was a natural fit for this project. These songs echo the heart of Sanctuary’s ministry: to see the lost found, the hurting healed and the broken restored in Christ. His kingdom come and His will be done on Earth, in our time, and in our city.

This is the prayer of Worship Victoria.

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If you’re wondering how you’ll be able to get the CD online it might be a while before we figure out how that will work.  Since this is a fundraiser for the Sanctuary Youth Centre we want to try our best to make sure all the funds go directly to them without too much administrative hassle.  But if you’d like a CD then leave a comment and we’ll try to figure something out.

 

For More on Worship Victoria check out…

 

Blank

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It’s no one’s fault really.  It was bound to happen.

My mind is drawing a blank.

I have nothing to say.  No steps to better guitar tone.  No strategies for recruiting.  I don’t have any wisdom to offer on dealing with tricky volunteers.  I have lots of stuff that I could talk about, the real behind the scenes stuff of being a worship pastor, but if I were to go into that it would probably not be very honouring to those I serve with.  I’m always aware that everything I say reflects on my church family so this will always be somewhat filtered.  It’s just the right thing to do.  So, I’m still left with a blank.

I enjoy blogging as an opportunity for me to create something.  It’s such a strange creature though.  I click that blue “publish” button, head over to Hoot Suite, write a few words that should make you want to read my post, and wait for the “hits” to roll in.  I don’t really understand why.  Recognition probably.  A desire to be seen as influential.  ”Wouldn’t it be great if my blog got noticed.”  ”I wish I had as many subscribers as __________.”

ugh…

All those thoughts have been there from the start.  I would say that honestly my intentions are right.  My goal is to have a place to write down thoughts and in doing so become a better communicator.  The blog itself serves as a bit of a ministry tools and ideas filing system.  It’s been pretty cool to see other worship leaders resonate with some of the things I write.  Sometimes we’re just looking for someone to say the thing that we’re all thinking and when that someone says it we grab on.  It’s cool that once in a while that happens here.  I lose sight of the goal sometimes.  I get distracted by my own egotistical wishes.  Don’t we all?

 

I’m not quitting.  At least not yet.

But I would like to say to all of you that I’m quitting the game.  You are not a statistic to me. You are not an ego boost.  You are not a means to get me more recognition.  All my hope does not depend on you commenting, hitting the ‘like’ button or tweeting my posts.

You are why I chose this as a career.  Your heart matters.  Your ideas matter.  Your faith journey, all the ups and all the downs, it matters.  I love to see people pursuing God together.  I love to see young worship leaders start to grow in confidence as they discover the gifts God has given them and the joy in using them to serve the local church.  I love seeing disenfranchised creatives begin to feel welcomed again into the church, with all their mess, and find a place to make something beautiful that honours God.  I love to see leaders step up into leadership roles, recognizing that they don’t have it all together, but they have a passion to do something great with their lives and it draws others around them.

You matter.  I don’t know how you got here but thanks for reading.

Not sure what else to say.

I’m drawing a blank…

 

Social Media

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today is a rapid fire collection of my thoughts on social media

ready?

go!

Facebook for me is about interacting with friends and ministry volunteers

Facebook is where I promote my blog posts

I don’t make a very good Facebook friend, not very good at replying

I try to interact with our church Facebook page to promote it more…for what that’s worth

With Facebook it’s harder to hide the real you.  We all have embarrassing pictures from our freshman year in college.  Friends sometimes (thanks very much) “tag” us in our unattractive moments.

People are surprisingly unfiltered with what goes on Facebook.  I’ve had to get my “judging-ness” in check many times.  It’s not my responsibility to change people, only God can do that.

 

Twitter makes it easy to network with people you might never meet in real life

Twitter is a great tool for leveraging that network to get advice, ideas, and info from the fields that interest you

You can be pretty much whoever you want to be on twitter

You can use it to promote your stuff and look pretty self absorbed

You can use it to publicly show support to others and look like a swell individual

Your wife would like to remind you that she is more interesting than anything on twitter

To summarize, it’s good for promoting, and it’s good for encouraging

If you’re a pastor your tweets probably sound ridiculous to unchurched people

It’s probably safe to say that you get what you give with social media, …again, for what that’s worth

Retweets, followers, ‘likes’, etc. = not worth anything at all and will never make you a better pastor

#hashtags are fun, the more creative the better, who knew you could get so many laughs with words written after the pound symbol?

 

Social Media: great tool, lots of fun to be had, just beware the self-indulgence