Who's leading this thing, anyway?

All right. This will be my first really introspective blog, so get ready. Are you ready? You don't look ready.

Leading worship is an interesting thing. Being a worship leader with a performing artist's personality is even more interesting...recently, the band in Summerville did a special appreciation dinner/concert for all the volunteers at our campus. We did different stuff, like a Tom Petty song, "Ain't No Sunshine," "I Will Survive"--the whole works. At the end we did a few really fast, peppy praise songs ("No One Like You," "Not To Us," "My Glorious") that we don't normally do and the people went CRAZY. I mean, they were jumping up and down, cheering, genuinely getting excited about praising God...and I gotta admit, the band had more energy than probably should be allowed. ;)

Now, doesn't that sound like something we should be doing ALL THE TIME? And yet, on Sunday mornings, we are all much more reserved. We're careful to do a seeker-oriented service, but sometimes we tend to hold back the necessary amount of energy we need to: A) engage the people, and B) engage ourselves!!

The people are still talking about this event. Why is that? Why did they respond like that?

It's because that night, they saw life. They saw a band who was having a blast and enjoying what they were doing. Not to say that our congregation doesn't see life every weekend, but a lot of times, we get bogged down with the fact that this is work--and it is! It is not an easy job. The point is, that night our folks saw a different kind of energy that they don't usually witness in us every Sunday. And my challenge to myself (as I think I am the only campus worship leader on this thing currently) and my band is to translate that energy to the weekend. That no-holes-barred, we're-going-for-it energy that people love.

We get scared by the unresponsive faces in the crowd: the coffee-drinkers, the late attenders, the people with crossed arms and blank looks. We think that we have to monitor our energy by the moods that certain members of our congregation are in. But listen up here---WE are the leaders!!! We can only take people where we've already been and where we're currently going. Meaning, we can't get up there on the stage, half-heartedly and intimidated, and expect the people to be excited about following us. We have to say, "We are going full-blast into the presence of God, and we are excited to worship Him! You can either come with us or you can stay there, but we're going."

People respond to life. They respond to energy and excitment. We are the leaders here, and they're ready to follow. Let's take them somewhere!

Meet Aidan

This is my nephew Aidan. He is wearing a cow suit. Aidan is very excited to be wearing a cow suit. He is strutting around the house in his cow suit.
How cute is he? I mean, really. He will be two years old in a few weeks...Bet you didn't know I even had a nephew, did you? He is learning to talk now...if I could figure out how to put video on here, I'd show everyone with great pride as Aidan responds to my sister's question of "Where's Grandma?" with "I NO NO!" ("I don't know.") If somebody thinks they know a cuter 2-year-old, I'll be glad to fight with you.

I have no idea what I'm doing

Well hi everyone! This is my very first blog, obviously, and I really don't know what I'm doing. So, let's do this as if it were me checking the microphone before a service...testing, one two. check. check. sivilance. sivilance.
Have you ever had to sound check a microphone? You can be the most talkative person in the world, and suddenly, all you can think to say is "check. check." and then you make sure you remember how to count, so you go "one. two. three. four. uh......one."
Brilliant! How'd I do on my first blog? Let me know. :)