What job do you do?

Christians seem to spend a lot of time thinking about what job they should do. What's God's plan for my life ? Where does He want me to be ?

To try to answer these questions, we pray (fine) we talk to other, trusted people (also fine) we read our bible (yes, still fine) and then we make our best guess.

Yet we seem slow to grasp that we are already commissioned; we already have a job to do.

Matt 28:19-20

¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.

So, what we do to earn money, even the vocational stuff, is really just a second job. We must be able to do the first while doing the second.

Guess which job God will bless the most?*

What ever work you do, however hard you work, the main thing is to keep the main thing, the main thing.

*To be fair I don't know, but I am sure that God will honour us living out the Great Commission.

Unfathomable God?

Is God really unfathomable? or How fathomable is God? How much of God can you unravel?

I don't know. But I do know that you cannot unravel Him completely.

What you can do is ask God to unravel you by revealing Himself.

It's dangerous though. Change will come.

If you want to break the mould, you have to....

...find the cracks first.

There are lots of situations when you realise that it's time to change things. If you want to know where to start you have to look and see where the first signs of readiness are. If you do that, you'll find it much easier to explode the mould and reduce it to dust OR open it cleanly on the break line. Breaking moulds always seems wasteful, and, if it involves peoples lives then that kind of change can be too violent.

To switch analogies, Kurt Lewin likened the process of change to the process of freezing water:

You start as ice, thaw to water and reshape and then re-freeze to hold the new shape.

I love this picture of change and how to go about it. To take it one step further, think of all the conversations you've ever had where people are just not quite satisfied with the status quo; those are the first droplets of water forming on the surface of the ice.

Remember, the first people to see that a change may be necessary are NOT usually the ones in the middle of it.

I can think of times when situations were 'un-freezing' all around me; absolute chaos!

Then there are dreams and 'Holy Discontent', great forces for change.

If you find those cracks, or droplets and harness their power, you will find that change starts to shape itself. You'll soon find that early adopters will be able to buy-in to what your doing and you should also see that shared sense of ownership, that makes change stick.

You can be who you choose to be

This morning at Gateway Vineyard, Alex brought a message about the offer God makes; we can give up our lives in exchange for external life.

As often happens with me, this triggered a song in my head.

I've had Stacy Orico's album for ages now, but I often go back to it. When you listen beyond the very cool music and hear what she's actually singing about, there are some very clear lyrics there.

In 'I Won't Look Back' she sums up a problem I have faced and which if we all paid more attention to, we could make more of a difference to our world:

You can be who you choose to be
But whether you do, or whether you don't
Depends on your priorities
Lord help me to choose them wisely

The decisions we make are based on a complex set of 'rules'. These rules are made up of things like our values, moral code, life experience, things we've seen on TV...the problem with this is often there are 'rules' in action that we aren't aware of.

The more of these we identify, the more we can offer up to God to be 'refined in the fire'.

Imagine a time when your reactions and snap-backs were actually based on God refined 'rules'. Would they help build up people? or knock them down?

What do you think? Worth spending some time thinking about priorities, I would say.

The New Home

I'm just back from church. Lunch is in the oven, the kids are in the garden (which is in full summer mode, even the BBQ is up and running!) and I'm feeling reflective.

We've been going to Gateway Vineyard for a little while now and the Switch has led to the start of what we were looking for.

Lots of getting to know people, catching names learning about what's going on etc. I'm really looking forward to getting some more roots down via a small group and am resisting the temptation to get involved in music stuff straightaway.

But this morning summed up the change for me; sitting down, full of breakfast, cuddling Elle during the musical worship time, it struck me that this is what family should look like in church. I'm not sure I can translate it in to words, but the aspects of being together in a place where we can all share in the same things and music and God all came together. I'm looking forward to building on that.

If you use the Jesus Analysis, then I'd have to answer with a resounding YES!

No Longer Bi-vocational

I guess I need to wrap up my sabbatical, seeing as it's now finished.

The idea of the sabbatical, as you may remember, was to make church work better for us as a family. That just didn't happen.

So I asked the band leadership to release me from my return date. Based on an understanding of sabbaticals that I did not know, we agreed that what I wanted was more like stepping down from the band, so that's what I did.

I'd be really interested to know what you all think of sabbaticals and how you'd define them. I don't usually ask for comments, but I'd really appreciate you taking the time to let me know what you think on this one.

The main difference in what I was looking for and what I found, is that I have now come to a place of completely letting go of both my leadership role, my playing roles and my promise to return. Now, I have nothing.

Having been in this band for about 7 years, this is not a little scary! It is, however, exactly where I think I should be. I now understand that to lead a ministry which costs too much (IE family time or relational pressures) is to lead it badly. It is to model a type of leadership which is systematically dangerous, when taken to the nTh degree. It's very tempting to do this though; it's like getting too carried away on just one area. We do the same thing when we condemn homosexuals whilst forgetting what the bible says about loving people, but I digress...

In the meantime, God is showing me rather a lot through John Burke's book 'No Perfect People Allowed". More to come on that one. Work is busy but also a great place to be challenged and to grow. God is there too.

Most importantly, I am starting to see a shift in Sundays. We're getting better at how we do the practicalities, which impacts how prepared for the services we are. How the morning goes then affects the rest of the day. This Sunday was really good for us as a family.

I look forward to seeing what God does in this season.

Don't forget to post up below please!

Assaulted by Church?

Have you ever felt assaulted by church? Like you'd been mugged?

I think that's what I feel right now. Not that it's malicious, but it's worth remembering, for those of us leading services, that not everyone is running at the same speed as you and that if they're not then they can find it hard to get back on board with where you're going.

I don't just mean those who miss a week, but those who come in and out of the service (chirldrens workers etc)

Ever felt like this?

Post up in the comments please, I'd be really interested to know.

God's Heart

This is taken from Winterfest, Knoxville, TN in 2006. It's a picture of life and God. Watch it.



It's very simple but very clear. I actually cried (which is very rare for me, though becoming less so.)

"The more you know about someone, the easier it is to become friends with them" - Mama Mirabelle

"You cannot worship what you do not know" - Andrew Wilson

Thank God that we have creative people to help us learn what God is like.

Worship Confessional: 13/07/08

My sabbatical is coming. This was my last Sunday behind the drums. Boy, was it an odd one!

It was a well spirited setup with only one coffee.... We had a good sound check and it felt like a goods time to be playing together.

When it got to the service itself, the feeling was like the sea. The spirit seemed to come in waves where the peaks were passionate but the troughs were like 'swimming in treacle'.

I ended up playing some pretty strong patterns and dramatic fills. It will be interesting to listen back to.

We launched our new series on the letter of 1&2 Peter. We had a good background setting, looking at Peter's journey in the Gospels and the persecution he was writing in to.
Ian included a question that is one I love to dwell on; As Jesus changed Peter's name (from Simon) do we live with the right name?

With all of the issues I've been thinking about, I did have an almost heart breaking moment looking out across the church; so few of the men were engaged and singing. So few men were even there. (It is of note that the ones who were there and singing are serious men of God. Some firm foundations to build on?)

Set List:

(Warm up )
Celebrate - Ben Cantalon
Hallelujah - Brown/Doerkson
I Stand Amazed - Trad (SS version)

Light of the World - Tim Hughes

Be Thou My Vision

Just got my last Sunday leading Worship to go. I think I may have something in mind for that.....

Why Men Hate Going to Church - David Murrow

This is unlikely to be my last post on this book; Why Men Hate Going to Church - David Murrow.

There's a good link to some of it's key points here. Some good background reading on the issues raised is at church for men.

I have not yet finished reading the book but it already has provoked quite a reaction in me. Mostly that it's very frustrating and I'd like to throw it away or shred it! I'm struggling to read it partly because I don't like how it's written, partly because the pace of the book is slow and therefore frustrating and partly because I cannot decide what I think about it.

It's either a genius piece of research and commissioning or it's awful rubbish interspersed with a few genuinely useful points. At least David Murrow doesn't present it as a 'complete' work.

I don't wish to be rude about it, but because it focuses so heavily on men, and I believe in family and the usefulness of the unique skills of both of the sexes, it's hard to keep pushing on. I just hope it delivers on it promises.

I'm reminded of a phrase I used to find helpful (I may have coined it, or not)

Feminism stole my masculinity and I want it back!

Anyone else read it?

Lakeland Revival

No, not the useful plastic gadget shop, Lakeland Florida.

I've heard rumours of what's going on over there. First at church (probably promted by God TV coverage, Brian Heasley commented on it here with some further links and now there's a report from Jill Gower on Network Norwich. Link here.

A couple of quotes from the article that I find encouraging:

"We felt too, that for people just watching the evening meetings on God TV, however good these are, it is still only part of the picture."

"It is not flaky in any way, nor is this move a kind of “bless me” one either – the whole point is to take it out onto the streets, back to where you come from and release the Kingdom of God."

It's worth a read and it leaves me thinking that the sorts of things that I would be looking for are present.

If that's so, then go God go!

Dear Worship Dude

Just linking back to a post on Ragamuffin Soul about the relevance of leading Worship - Dear Worship Dude

The gist is that it's no good to be passionate in worship yourself if you don't teach others how to do it; that's the difference between Leading Worship and Leading the band.

It's taken me an age to figure that out.

Yet I remain convinced that when we meet together, any non-christian or 'seeker' should be slightly uncomfortable; or at least require an amount of learning. Otherwise we assume that they understand about God whereas neither we, nor they, really do.

Hence the need to teach...

Worship vs. Serving

I think I have finally got to grips with my objection to the teaching 'Worship is a lifestyle'.

As I have been trying to work out here, here and here, I know it misses something.

Steve Chalk reminded me that Jesus never asked us to Worship Him.

Why not? and why do we try to then?

Well, Jesus never asked us to worship Him because He came to serve and sent us to serve after him. He served because He was God and knew that to be equal to God, to have the Father's power, was not something to be misused (grasped) so to best reflect the Father, Jesus emptied Himself to become human.

(Why then do we not associate God the Father with serving???)

I have been listening to some teaching from Menlo Park Presbyterian Church recently and yesterday I had a 'penny drop' moment. Here goes:


Worship is not a life style, or at least a valid one, because it is not how Jesus lived. Jesus loved, served, led, taught, befriended, mourned, prayed, laughed (I hope!) wept (we know) and so much more. Maybe Worshipping is just more comfortable than serving and that's why we chose to spend more time talking about it and build/focus so much theology around it.

Worship is a gift to God. A chance to give back to God the thanks and praise he deserves. The use of song and other creative arts is therefore quite an obvious response. There is also no need to restrict this to a Sunday morning service.

Romans 12:1 is often quoted when people talk about Worship. It talks of giving our bodies as living sacrifices. This really means serving, giving up our plans and ambitions and following His. The bible calls this our 'spiritual act of Worship'. You can see where the line starts to get a bit blurry, but only if you place too high an emphasis on that one verse and ignore or bypass the rest of Jesus' teachings. After all, when Jesus was asked to boil down all of God's commandments, what did he say? Worship God? or Love God and other?

SO, service is a life style. It is the lifestyle, because it was His lifestyle.

(and why do we serve? because that's what Love does.)

Worship Confessional: 13/04/08

This was a bit of a risky one for me. We were looking at the spiritual gift of Tongues (and by definition, Interpretation.) The service leader and I wanted to leave the service open to whatever God was up to, so we did. We were looking at Tongue's purpose: to proclaim God's character and to express the inexpressible.

I was keen to make sure the band really caught as much of the church as possible so we could learn together, so I planned something a little different (risk #1.) Inspired by a friend, I wrote a little TAG for us to sing. Using the words from Emma "God is good, all the time, and all the time, God is good" added a simple riff and used it to knit three other songs together. I really wanted to get people moving. We have so much to be thankful for as a church, I really want to make it possible for the whole church to really shout it out.

After the preach, I had several 'mini-sets' ready depending on where the service went. It meant the band had to really watch out for what God was up to. There was no 'Plan B' (risk #2) and they really did a great job.

We tried out 'I Am Chosen - Tim Hughes/Martin Smith'. I've had to shift the key somewhat (!) )risk #3) to make it singable, but it seemed to go well. Tim Hughes always writes songs I can't sing, but Martin Smith should know better...

It was a bit of a risk, but I have to say God showed up and made it worth it!

Time: A test

I believe that you can see where a person puts their worth, by where they put their money and where they put their time.

We're being challenged as a church about how we plan and lead our Sunday services. Not so much what they're for but more about how we get there.

Currently a teaching series is decided upon by the LT. A Service Leader then brings together the required elements for the service and works with the Worship Leader to arrange their slots.

What we'd like to work on is how we take what we do for specials, like Christmas and Easter, where we work all of the elements together to a focused goal for each service, in to our weekly meetings.

One of the areas of challenge is that we think like Brits not Americans. It seems to me that in the US, Worship Pastors are not uncommon; UK churches as not very likely to have one on staff. Across most denominations the Priest/Vicar/Pastor controls what goes on. Another observational difference, especially noticeable in the larger US churches, is that Sunday services are a ministry in their own right, again, in the UK this is not very likely at all.

I guess this is why there is so much well thought out, creative and biblical material for services being produced in the US (and shipped around the world).

I'm really looking forward making this cultural shift but getting the amount of time invested right is going to be hard. Life is more like what Paul is talking about in Romans "I do want I don't want to and I don't do what I want to!"

A Christian example of this is prayer; we say our priority is to pray but we spend more time watching TV. It's an important point to note that what we often think of as our priorities, or want them to be, are often not (or is it just me?) That tension is only really relieved when God steps in and changes our Hearts and Minds.

I'm reminded of a scene from 'The Devil Wears Prada'. At the crux of a conversation on the crumbling state of their relationship, Andy's phone rings (the 'Devil' calling). What decision should Andy make? Does she keep fighting for her Job or her boyfriend? Those of you who know the film know she answers the phone may also remember the next line from Nate: "you're in a relationship with the person who's calls you take!" (paraphrase, I don't know it well enough to quote it!)


Back to that service planning.....I am very aware that what we do on a Sunday morning is just one part of what OG does. What the people in the church do. So I want to make sure that we don't spend a disproportionate amount of time working on it but enough to give it worth!

Worship Confessional: 06/04/08

So technically I'm going to break my own rules here; I didn't play or lead today.

I guess I just want to commend having a different worship team leading in your church every now and again.

Be challenged to let go. Be challenged to rest. Be challenged to receive.

On the end of a weeks work of sessions, TASTE led our whole service. It was a family service, but not aimed at any age really. It included their band (very cool) a short preach, two baptisms and a board game!

Stirring the Soul

The Easter story should stir your soul.

If it doesn't then there is something wrong; Christian or not.

In the midst of Eva's dedication, business stuff, computer problems, daffodils, chocolate, my new bike, quality time with Hol, socks, work, prophesy, changing fundamental church principals and the hundreds of other things in my brain at the moment, I pray that God would refresh me with the greatest sacrifice and the greatest victory in History and that that would stir my soul!

How about you?

Prophesy

Prophesy is scary, prophesy is challenging, prophesy can be misused, it is often mis-trusted and avoided. It is biblical and a gift from God.

I've just spent a bit of time with some of the other ministry leaders at OG and Keith Hazel, a prophet from Calgary, Alberta Canada.

It's amazing how we single out prophesy and intersession as 'scary gifts' but seem happy with hospitality and helps (comfort zone anyone?) We simply rate these things wrong and we miss out when we do.

Keith talked about being accountable to the bible and how prophesy must be in line with what the Word says. Good stuff. He also referred to Jacob in Genesis as a good example of biblical prophesy. In Gen 49, Jacob blesses his sons. The same sons that became the twelve tribes of Israel. A brief look at Benjamin shows how prophesy can, and should be tracked.

Gen 49:27

27 "Benjamin is a ravenous wolf; in the morning he devours the prey, in the evening he divides the plunder."

When you think of the famous Benjamites the name Saul has to be the one; both King Saul and apparently Saul of Tarsus (Paul.) Prophesy and response/result. Prophesy has most power on the back of a successful prophesy. So we need to be regularly practicing this gift if it is to have the most effect.

Tonight this modern day prophet prophesied. The detail and the accuracy means he is either genuine or an exceptional trickster (and I know what I think.)

He gave about seven prophesies and though we will have to wait to see the impact of them, I believe they will have an effect.

As one of them was about me, I'm looking forward to seeing it for myself!

Vocal Training with Geraldine Latty

I spent Saturday at a vocal training day with Geraldine Latty (who my Mother-in-law loves.)

Over the course of the day, we looked at vocal warmup with and without scales, control and support, singing in parts, arranging back-up vocals, vocal care and fun. We became a gospel choir for the day; all 90 of us! We had great company too.

The sort of stuff I guess you'd hope for from such a training day.

However, what I really learnt was rather different.

I sing once of twice a month when I lead at church and I'm not really that good. I can do what I do simply by applied confidence, supported by technology.

So to spend a day just singing without my attention being split between, reading words and chords, playing guitar, listening to the band and watching the church whilst trying to hear from God (no wonder I'm exhausted after church most Sundays!) was a real pleasure. I learnt how to enjoy singing on it's own. I actually like it more than I thought, especially singing in parts. I'm now more interested in investing in my voice; exploring the tones of it, exercing it and warming it up properly (I have now learnt through experience that if I warm up properly, I can sing all day and still speak, whereas if I don't I can barely make it through a single service!) I also noticed that I sing louder when I am singing to a mic than if I sing on my own....bizarre?! I should remember that the mic is there to work for me, not the other way around.

I encourage those of you who sing in a group/choir to spend time just singing. Really enjoy singing on it's own. I'm finally looking at taking my voice seriously because I want to, not because I have to.

If you get the chance to work with or learn from Geraldine...take it. She is a genius, not a little mad and a very soulful person (just get her talking about Gospel music and you'll see what I mean.) A true teacher.

Who are you praying for?

A simple question?

One of the things God has been doing in me is helping me to listen to my heart about those people around me who do know God; neighbours, colleagues and friends. The question that then follows is, who am I praying for?

You see, I am the product of being prayed for. I know who prayed for me before God broke through. I believe the conviction that my friend showed was somehow part of the process. I believe he saw an opportunity, possibly prompted by the spirit, and went for it.

How cool is that?!

In amongst the theological re-arrange that I am in, I will be deliberate in praying for those specific people around me who do not yet know God and I will look for opportunities to connect those people to the good news.

This is a step towards the vow that Mother Theresa; to only say Yes to Jesus.