The Good Fit

sometimes i really wrestle with being a worship pastor. i just feel like i don’t fit. and being at this conference, i struggle to identify with a group of people that i feel like i should have much in common with. even here, i feel like i don’t fit.

and yet.

i love leading worship. that’s all i want to do. pick the songs and lead them. that’s it. preferably with a rock band. that is when i feel at home. that is when i fit. i want the good fit.

Finally, A Band I Like

the evening session tonight was the best. no speaker. just music.

it started off with matt maher, who is the guy who wrote “your grace is enough.” he was very comfortable leading a large group of people, and let it breathe where it needed to. it was a very worshipful experience, and the first time i’ve been uninhibited this week. it was a breath of fresh air for my soul, and a great trampoline for my worship of God tonight.

then, oh yes it gets better, leeland took the stage and rocked out. (as much as you can with the subs turned off) the kid can sing. and high too. he’s higher than any tenor i know. i tried to sing along, but some notes were just way too high, leaving colby and i smiling in bewilderment at one another. it was great.

Chris, Jonas and Colby

Matt Maher

Leeland

Character

here are my notes from general session with Marcos Witt:

if you have character, you will be a leader. to be a leader, you must have character.

I Sam. 16:18
One of the servants answered, “I have seen a son of Jesse of Bethlehem who knows how to play the harp. He is a brave man and a warrior. He speaks well and is a fine-looking man. And the LORD is with him.”

What did people say behind David’s back? (what is said about me?):

1. He was a skilled musician.
if you are going to play, play skillfully. give God your best. we need to practice more, better. we need to run rehearsals better. excellence is only doing the best that you can with what you’ve got.

3 worship band tips:
1. practice together.
2. pray together.
3. play together. (have fun)

2. He is a brave man. valiant.
he was brave on God’s behalf, not his own. he was vigorous.

3. He was a warrior.
worship is warfare.

4. He speaks well.
he is prudent in matters. he had good judgement. if God gives you a microphone, you better have a brain to go with it. God will do what you can’t do, but He won’t do what you can do.

5. He was good looking.
beauty is from the inside out. is it easy for people to see you? do people say “i see Jesus in your eyes”?

6. The Lord was with him.
that’s why he was a skilled musician, brave, warrior, spoke well, good looking.

Rush of Fools

Rush of Fools singer guy

Marcos Witt

Skill and Devotion

these are my notes from a breakout session with Paul Baloche:

worship leading is a combination of skill and devotion.
we have to develop a worship vocabulary.
it’s good to be transparent, but we don’t need to dump all our junk every time.
some days God just needs us to show up.
we don’t need to rate our worship based on our emotions.
God needs pastors and shepherds more than guitar players.
conversation – how do we build a bridge of trust? how would you talk to someone in your living room?
community.
go through the psalms and note all the exhortations and translate them into normal speak.
“Lord, at the risk of being boring, help me to just be myself.”
ask yourself, what is my primary gifting? don’t try to do it all yourself.

take 30-60 minutes and turn on the sound system in the sanctuary and just worship and confess and pray. just take some songs in the same key and worship.
as you pray, pray lines from songs. Col. 3:16.
if we want our people to deepen their worship, then we have to as well.

Worshiping When You Don’t Feel Like It

these are my notes from a breakout session with Laura Story.  she is from Perimeter Church in north atlanta.

2 truths: we are called to worship.  life is hard.

when your life gets turned upside down, there comes a point when you realize that getting derailed is now the new path.

Gen. 22 tells the story of Abraham nearly sacrificing his son, Isaac.  what is your Isaac?  what is God
calling you to surrender?

Worshiping in the midst of trials:

1. Our response.  how do we respond in the midst of trials?  we come as we are.  sometimes worship is like exercise.  painful but good for us.  it is good to tell God how you feel, and then Psalm 13 end with what we know to be true.  as a worship leader, i can sing the truth whether i feel it or not.  we need to sing what we know to be true and trust that our heart will follow.  music is the best way to mourn.  it provides repetition, and there is a community aspect to worship.  it is a great reminder of future glory.

2. Count it all joy.  James 1.  we all want to be mature and complete, but don’t necessarily want to go through what it takes to get there.  even in the darkest trials, there is something to be thankful for.  to know the power of the resurrection AND the fellowship of His (Jesus’) sufferings.

3. We comfort others with the comfort we have received from God.  II Cor. 1:3-5.
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.

What trials might God bring into your life to better equip you for His work?  we need to worship through trials.  if we can’t, then we don’t really have faith.  we worship before a watching world.  Psalm 27:13.
I am still confident of this:
I will see the goodness of the LORD
in the land of the living.

faith and worry cannot exist in the same space.  Romans 8:26-27.
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.

God is very economical in the way that He never wastes any of our experiences.

Metaphor is Metamorphosis

so unfortunately the audio and visual problems continue today.  very unfortunate.

but i am less jaded today and have had some valuable time.

the opening general session today began with Fernando Ortega leading worship.  i’m not a big fan, and he did mostly hymns, which i’m also not a fan of, and yet, it was really good.  there was a great cello player and a good choir, and it was a very rich time.  my beef with most hymns is a lack of good theology in the lyrics (along with outdated music), but the hymns that we sang today were very powerful and spot on.  let it be known that i, adam nevins, sang hymns and got into it.  i must be really mature now.  heck, this conference has really paid off…

and then Leonard Sweet came up to speak.  he announced that he changed his talk on the plane ride, so he had his laptop open with notes from the plane.  and i must say it was a pretty good talk.  Len is a pioneer of postmodern Jesus followers, which sometimes makes him an icon and a bit kitsch.  but the fella is a great communicator, and thinks outside of the box for sure.  most pastors probably knew and understood the Psalm 22 thing, but it was new and insightful to me.  as was the orange and apple.  but i’ll let him explain through interpretation of his talk in my notes now transcribed here:

when did Jesus sing in the Bible
1. after the last supper, they sang a hymn, then wen to the mount of olives
2. when Jesus was on the cross.  “My God, My God…”

Jesus is quoting the first verse of Psalm 22, which isn’t liturgy that Jews recited; it was a song that they knew.  He most likely sang the line, or at least uttered it invoking the entire song.  in the NIV it goes a little something like this:  (maestro, if you please!)

Psalm 22
For the director of music. To the tune of “The Doe of the Morning.” A psalm of David.

1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me,
so far from the words of my groaning?

2 O my God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,
by night, and am not silent.

3 Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One;
you are the praise of Israel.

4 In you our fathers put their trust;
they trusted and you delivered them.

5 They cried to you and were saved;
in you they trusted and were not disappointed.

6 But I am a worm and not a man,
scorned by men and despised by the people.

7 All who see me mock me;
they hurl insults, shaking their heads:

8 “He trusts in the LORD;
let the LORD rescue him.
Let him deliver him,
since he delights in him.”

9 Yet you brought me out of the womb;
you made me trust in you
even at my mother’s breast.

10 From birth I was cast upon you;
from my mother’s womb you have been my God.

11 Do not be far from me,
for trouble is near
and there is no one to help.

12 Many bulls surround me;
strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.

13 Roaring lions tearing their prey
open their mouths wide against me.

14 I am poured out like water,
and all my bones are out of joint.
My heart has turned to wax;
it has melted away within me.

15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd,
and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth;
you lay me in the dust of death.

16 Dogs have surrounded me;
a band of evil men has encircled me,
they have pierced my hands and my feet.

17 I can count all my bones;
people stare and gloat over me.

18 They divide my garments among them
and cast lots for my clothing.

19 But you, O LORD, be not far off;
O my Strength, come quickly to help me.

20 Deliver my life from the sword,
my precious life from the power of the dogs.

21 Rescue me from the mouth of the lions;
save me from the horns of the wild oxen.

22 I will declare your name to my brothers;
in the congregation I will praise you.

23 You who fear the LORD, praise him!
All you descendants of Jacob, honor him!
Revere him, all you descendants of Israel!

24 For he has not despised or disdained
the suffering of the afflicted one;
he has not hidden his face from him
but has listened to his cry for help.

25 From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly;
before those who fear you will I fulfill my vows.

26 The poor will eat and be satisfied;
they who seek the LORD will praise him—
may your hearts live forever!

27 All the ends of the earth
will remember and turn to the LORD,
and all the families of the nations
will bow down before him,

28 for dominion belongs to the LORD
and he rules over the nations.

29 All the rich of the earth will feast and worship;
all who go down to the dust will kneel before him—
those who cannot keep themselves alive.

30 Posterity will serve him;
future generations will be told about the Lord.

31 They will proclaim his righteousness
to a people yet unborn—
for he has done it.

Jesus, in the midst of the worst, sang the best of praises.

metaphor is metamorphosis. it is how you change lives. we (worship leaders) are in the metaphor business.  we are to put metaphors (images) to sound, not words to music.  for us, image is everything because Jesus is the image of God.  words come after image/metaphor.  metaphors make the familiar strange.  “you have heard it said…, but i say…”  we are on a campaign against cliche.

7 Metaphores to change the future:

1. Design.  style is now substance.

2. Transformation.  oyster and pearl.

3. Pilgrim.  pilgrims are followers.  and we have had 30 years of “leadership,” which is a word that isn’t even in Scripture.  our job isn’t to lead but to follow Christ, the only leader.  and if we follow, we follow from behind.

4. The Web.  Leaven.  Connection.

5. Organic. the apple.  the modern world was an orange.  peeled, sliced, segmented.  the future is apple.  how do we see the Scriptures as a whole?  we have verse-itus.  we know verses, not stories, and yet the Bible was written in story.  our jobs are not to make the Scriptures come alive (because they already are, der…), but to help people come alive to the Scriptures.

6. Wind.  spirit.  we have been taught that the trees move the wind.  that the greatest forces are material.  but the greatest forces are really invisible.  spiritual.  we have made our ministries more about trees than wind.  we are tree huggers and not wind surfers.  someone who is born of the spirit is unpredictable.
matter is now defined as vibrating threads of energy.  churches are built from the sound up.  our job is to tune people’s heart to Christ.  when resonance is reached (as with a vocalist and a wine glass), something has to give, and it won’t be Jesus.

7. Harmony.

Fernando Ortega

Leonard Sweet

Is This Thing On?

so i’m at a national conference, on a megachurch campus, in a massive auditorium, with a huge sound system, surrounded by thousands of people, and the host walks onto the stage and says…nothing. the mic wasn’t on. after a sentence or two, it finally got turned up and we could all hear him. good to know that kind of thing doesn’t just happen at home, right? but it didn’t end there. technical problems dominated the evening. vocals for the bands were either way too quiet or way too loud. the bands were mixed so quietly you couldn’t hear many of the instruments. the slides were either early or late. and didn’t have the proper copyright information (even though that is a breakout session tomorrow). i don’t think the subs were ever turned on. finally, towards the end of the night the electric guitar got turned up for a solo, and it was ever so satisfying.

the prostitution of worship has put a stench in the air. there is a merch tent full of over 50 vendors all selling their wares to “help” you lead worship at your home church. truth be told they are there to make a buck. and the only booth that was slightly interesting was the Taylor Guitars booth. and what do you know, there was nothing “religious” about it…

and there is this musical group that has discovered some old, old worship songs and re-written music for them. the text is from the first century church, which is very cool, but the music they wrote for it just stinks.  (it’s called the Odes Project).  and they did FIVE songs tonight. none of us knew the songs, so we couldn’t sing along. so we just sat there while they painfully promoted their new CD of beautiful ancient text put to painfully mediocre music. ouch.

okay, so i’m a bit jaded…

the good news is that is was not a total wreck. Matt Redman took the stage and we all perked up. and some guy, (Skip Heitzig), shared for a bit about worship, big picture. his definition of worship was that “Worship is a proper response to God that comes from the heart by which we put God above everyone and everything else.” i’m good with that. he also discussed four of the “means” to worship: mind, physical, musical, and heart.

personally, i put much stock in Romans 12:1-2 and believe that worship isn’t a song you sing, it is a life that you live. and yet it was good to be reminded by this gentleman that songs are worship too, and no small part at that. he shared a great quote from Martin Luther, “Music is the art of the prophets.”

so i am looking forward to what will unfold this week. we were encouraged to receive “manna” from God this week. many of us give on a regular basis, and this week is a time to receive. not more than we need, not anything to take home, but exactly what we need. for today. i am going to try to approach things with that in mind…

Matt Redman

Paul Baloche

Austin

so i’m in austin, texas with 3 buddies attending a worship conference. but not just any worship conference. the national worship leader conference. national baby…

i’m not sure what to expect; i’ve never attended a worship conference before. i hope to be encouraged, have some challenges validated, and some questions answered.

i think my biggest question would be this: in order to be the church and have an impact on your neighborhood and city, fellowship in a community of Jesus followers (church) is a must. sunday is beneficial and encouraging, but not necessary. community is essential; sunday is optional. as a worship leader, our responsibility (and for some, job) is focused on sunday, not the communal life of the fellowship. so how are we as leaders to best live into that tension?

what do you think?