Wrapping up the semester...looking to the new year

So it's official...my brain never really stops. I just wrapped up my latest semester at Missouri Baptist University and I am SO glad to be done right now. It's been a long year and I'm glad to see it coming to a close. However, now that I have the time to not think about school, I am now thinking about the other things that I have going in my life. For instance, worship180.org is about to blow my head up because I haven't had the time to get all this stuff out. I'm excited about it all, though. First things first, I'm getting ready to start working on a Spring/Summer Concert Series. I realized that one of the ways to get myself out there is to get myself out there. What does that mean? It means that I can get any exposure by sitting in my office trying to make everything perfect. I have to go for it and let God handle the rest. That's the first thing that I'm working on right now. In the nearer future, I am working on a project with my friend, Brittany Howard. We want to create a forum for writers to be able to come together and share their stories through music. We came up with the idea pretty much right before school ended. We are wanting to jump on things and get it moving, though.

In other news, I am continuing to try and understand what it is that God is wanting me to do. I have always wanted to be more than just an artist, and I am starting to see some things open up for me to be more than just an artist. I want to build relationships with Christians and non-Christians alike. I am praying that God will help me to develop this thought and give me the boldness to take this step. Being a bridge between the church and the world can be beneficial, but I'm sure it can be tough and maybe dangerous.

In Revelation, John was getting ready to worship this angel because of all the stuff that he had just seen. The angel stopped him and said "Worship God." That has stuck with me ever since I read it. I want to be able to worship God with my music, my relationships, my everything. So as I start to move forward with all of this stuff, I want it to be worship to God. When I go out in the world, I want them to be able to see that I'm doing something different than they are. I want my life to be a testimony of God's love. That means to me that worship has to be my lifestyle. That means I have to let God redefine me...

Worship180 Update

So, I've decided that I want to make sure that I keep people updated on what's going on. As I've been thinking and praying about how this thing will unfold, I've really seen God work in my heart and mind. So here's what I have so far...
I sat down with my wife the other night and she helped me think. She thought that I needed a tag line that would be easy to communicate. After much thesaurus searching and an extensive trip through the dictionary, we came up with this idea.

Worship180- Encountering the Savior, Enriching the Community, Engaging the World. I think it works and we're going to use it. Let me know what you think about it. I will expound on it all when I have more time, but hey, I've got finals coming up!

New Song

So, I've been working on a song for the new CD project. Since I've changed the name of the ministry to worship180 and purchased the domain name worship180.org, I've been working hard on trying to define what God wants this ministry to be. I've also been thinking of ways to express my feelings through song. So I've decided that the worship CD project is going to be called Redefine. I have been working on a title song as well as other things and things are starting to come together.

I'm excited to say that the ball is rolling on the new title song for the project. I thought I would share what we have so far. All I really have is the chorus/hook part, but it is going to be good. Oh, did I mention that I'm co-writing this song with Kaleb Krueger? I'm pumped about it. Here's what we have so far...

The canvas of my heart, Lord
Lies open here before You
Rearrange, redeem, renew my spirit

Time has drawn so many
Lines of limitations
Come shape my life to Your design
Redefine...

This thing is really starting to come together and I can't wait to see what is going to happen from here on out. Keep checking in because it can only get better...

Emotional Packrat

Okay, so I just spent the morning with my good friend, Danielle. What started out as a simple trip to the store, ended up being an amazing conversation about God's will for life. She is trying to figure things out, and we were talking at the McDonald's on Clarkson. As we sat there and were trying to help her figure out how to be more effective to the kingdom, she came up with an amazing concept. She told me that she was an emotional pack rat. That whole thought process just completely blew my mind. It's such an interesting thought and there is so much truth and transparency in that comment. We ended up talking about that for awhile. I told her that she gave me new fuel for a song.

So my thought/question for the day is this...are you holding on to things that you know you need to let go? Even better, are you holding on to things that are keeping you from getting closer to Christ? When we continue to fill up our lives and minds with things other than the work of the Father, we are making ourselves emotional and mental pack rats. When you put too much in between you and Christ, He doesn't have the space he needs to do his work. Are you in consideration for this type of thought process?

Keep an eye out for this song soon. God has really pierced my heart with this concept...

Worship...Because You Don't Have a Choice!

WOW! 2 posts in one day. How crazy is this???

Anyway, before you start getting all mad at me because I say you have no choice but to worship, let's look at it first and then you can get mad at God if you think you can handle the consequences of that...

Think about this statement; Becoming a worship is stepping fully into who God has designed us to be. That word designed has quite a bit of weight. When I see that, I think that I have a job to do. Have you ever heard people say, or you may have been in this situation yourself, where job position has been made for them? That means that you should be able to do a job well because it was designed for you. It fits who you are and your skill set. We all were created to worship. It fits our mindset and the core of our hearts.

Are you fully stepping into who God has designed you to be? What does that even mean? I believe it means that we should focus ourselves on worshiping God with everything that we have. If we aren't worshiping God, what or who are we worshiping instead? It's safe to say that we are worshiping something else if God isn't getting all of our worship. As you continue to read any of my blogs or hear me talk, you'll hear this question continuously. We have to keep asking ourselves what it is blocking us from fully stepping to the role or worshiping God like we are designed to do. That's where the daily 'redefinition' comes from. Everyday there is going to be something or someone that will be trying to get in the way of you giving yourself in worship to God. We have to be able to push all other things aside and give God all of us. When we can start to commit to this, we can start experiencing worship180's in our own lives.

Getting to the he(art) of worship

Worship comes in many forms. Unfortunately for us, people get hung up in the HOW of worship and the WHO gets overlooked. God knew exactly what he was doing when he made each and every one of us. I can't even begin to tell you who glad I am about that fact. In creating us, he gave us different talents and gifts. I may be able to play the piano, but someone else may be an amazing artist. Someone else may be a prolific writer. Someone else could be a great illustrator. All of these things are gifts given from God.

Why do I bring this up? I am a firm believer that worship can be a multi-sensory experience. I've known people who have felt like they are being overlooked in the church setting because the things that they do aren't necessarily good for what happens on Sunday. For so long, we have wrongly handled the gifts and even more the hearts of these worshipers. Not everyone is given the ability to lift up God with their voices. Not everyone is gifted at discerning the word in a way that others can understand it and have it impact their lives. God has created some amazing artists and writers and dancers. I believe they have their place in a worship gathering.

I am not saying that we should all go out and start including a full out dance number in the service each week. There has to be some educating of the people before you start doing new stuff in your Sunday gathering time. Besides, I think this is supposed to be a deeper message. The message is this: we are to be dealing with the hearts of the people we come in contact with. That's where relationships start and that's where lives are changed. Who cares about how we get to that point? It should matter that we are connecting at a heart level. If we can learn to reach the heart of the people, then the art won't matter as much. We might even be able to better accept what it is they do a little better. Just a thought...

Looking Through the Window...

So as God continues to work, I've decided that I'm going to actively watch Him. Man, is He good! I am constantly surprised at what God has been doing throughout this whole idea. It would be very easy for me to get ahead of myself and move faster than I'm supposed to with this thing. I have to be able to be still and listen to God and let Him lead me.

I have no idea what it is that God is doing right now. The more that God does, the more I realize I don't know what He's doing. I do know that there is a plan and this is what I have up until now...

So I was hanging out with a friend (I'll leave him anonymous until the linear notes of the CD) last night and we were talking about this idea. As we talked and shared and let God work, we came up with the idea of worship180 being the overarching theme of this ministry. We then started to put some things together graphically and it started to come together a little more. The scripture that stuck out after awhile was 1 Corinthians 13:12. "For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. I won't go into all the nerdy details that we came up with as far as how we will make that look in the future, you'll have to wait for the website for that. However, it's fitting that the passage comes from the "Love Chapter". When we are dealing with worship, we are expressing our love for the Master. We want to show Him how much we love Him, but we don't know truly how to love Him. We don't know how to love Him fully because we don't know Him fully. The desire of the ministry is to help us look at the gospel, which will help us to see Him a little more clearly.
From a ministry front, we don't totally know what God is doing yet, we see through this mirror very dimly right now. The hope is that as we continue to look to Him for guidance and direction He will continue to clear the glass out a little. Stick close, this is getting good...

Redefine...what does it mean?

So, I've finally gotten to the point where I can start to put some of this stuff down. As some of you know, I've been dealing with this idea for a little while, and God won't let me put it down. So now I'm working through the details of what it all means. I want to share with you my thoughts about this concept, and then use this space to share other ideas, praises, prayers and anything that God is sharing with me.

So what is redefine, anyway? Well, it started in my mind as a way to lead people to the cross. I'm a worship leader, so by design my goal is always to find a way to lead people in worshiping Christ. But as I thought about it, worship leaders should be leading that charge all the time. We always say things like "Worship is a Lifestyle" and "Worship should be in our hearts all the time.", but how can we lead in that? We have to start working on people's hearts and minds to help them realize that worship is more than just what happens during that hour or so on Sunday morning. Worship is something that happens all the time, whether we realize it or not. We were created to worship, and no matter who we are, we all worship something. So the question is, what are we worshiping when we are not at church?

The concept of redefine is a two-fold concept. The first 'fold' deals with those of us already involved in the church. Like I said before, worship has to be more than just something that happens on Sunday morning. Well, how do we do that? And more importantly, how do we get others to realize that? The gospel. The gospel is the only thing that never changes, and it continues to show us our inadequacies. At the same time, it continues to show us that our Savior is there to fill in the void. In order to see that, we have to have a daily 'redefinition' of the severity of the gospel in our lives. That will lead us to a deeper, more intimate worship with Him everyday.

The second 'fold' deals with those outside the church. If I've learned nothing in my life, I know that there are 2 things that bond people like no other; sports and music. We want to use music to engage those outside of our walls, and then help us to create relationships with them that are real. Our goal is for everyone to come to a saving knowledge of Christ, but we aren't seeking that to the detriment of the relationship that could be built. So we do things that help them see that Christians aren't all about just saving them to pad stats and numbers. We want to know people and touch hearts. And you can learn a lot about a person by knowing what they listen to and why...

The purpose for this is to be a ministry to ministers. As I worship leader, I know how hard it is to make this concept make sense within the church. However, this is more than just a 'consultant' job. I want to help spark real conversation about worship that is real, relevant and God-glorifying. I can also sing a little and I can help in reaching out to your community with music.

This is all still coming together and I would love some ideas and thoughts about how to hone this idea in and make it more laser beamy. I know I just made that up, but oh well...this is my blog! I don't plan for the others to be THIS long, but thanks for reading.