Sometimes I run around like a scatter-brained fool.  Okay, not sometimes.  Most times.  But if we’re honest that’s really become a societal norm.  We run around day after day carting ourselves from point A to point B to C and then back to A and then find at the end of that day there are only a few hours before we have to do it again.

And then all of a sudden it’s Sunday.  We pull ourselves out of bed, into the shower, raid the cupboards for the last Nutri-grain bar before shuffling the family in the car and arriving 4 and a half minutes late for church.  Even though we’ve all got issues we realize that they won’t get “fixed” in an hour and 15 minute service, so we hang on until it’s time to take a much-needed Sunday afternoon nap.  We’ve been so busy worrying about getting from A to B that our brain has gone on autopilot and our sense of living life to the fullest has been lulled into a numb stupor.

Recently, I’ve been asking myself “what is the spirit of worship at my church?”  Is it Christian karaoke?  Are we really here to celebrate all that God has done and will do through the people of this church?

If you find yourself wondering what has happened to the spirit of worship in our church, I have one recommendation: holy anticipation.   I love what Richard Foster describes in his book Celebration of Discipline when describing the discipline of worship:

A striking feature of worship in the Bible is that people gathered in what we could only call a “holy expectancy.”  They believed they would actually hear the Kol Yahweh, the voice of God…it was not surprising to [the early church] that the building in which they met shook with the power of God.  It had happened before…they were coming into the awful, glorious, gracious Presence of the living God.  They gathered with anticipation, knowing that Christ was present among them and would teach them and touch them with His living power… When more than one or two come into public worship with a holy expectancy it can change the atmosphere of a room.

I believe that true worship starts with aligning oneself with the same power that raised Jesus from the dead not only on Sundays but every day of the week.  I write this not because I am a prayer guru or that you should pay homage to my greatness.  I am a pastor but I am just like you.  I write this because you and I are both human and need to become desperately teachable.  I write this as an encouragement not only for you but for myself–so that each one of us can be carefully listening for God’s voice throughout everyday.  (I’m told it gets easier the more you do it.)

But there’s a catch.  It starts with you.  And me.  Each of us listening closely to God’s voice.  Our times in worship can be filled with the power of God, lives can be touched, hearts can be healed–but only if we join as one to seek God’s face–together.  Are you in?

During the run-through this last Sunday we had one of those “I-can’t-believe- this-is-actually-happening” moments.   The monitors sounded blah, the band was missing cues, I couldn’t make up my mind about a song transition and I totally blanked in the middle of a verse of a song…all before 1st service.  After the run-through we all kind of slinked off stage and then regrouped 10 minutes later.  What happened next was an “a-ha” moment.  We prayed as a group and out of that time we basically heard God telling us “You have no reason to be nervous.  I don’t need you or your monitors or fancy arrangements to move.”

Ouch.  That’s a cut to the pride.  At the same time, it was so reassuring to know that the success of a service doesn’t rest solely on the confidence (or lack there of) of the worship team.    Woosh!   We felt this collective release of nervous energy and got up, had fun and worshiped the God who isn’t bogged down a bad monitor mix, random radio frequencies coming through the PA or missed cues.  God is way bigger than the box we want to put Him in on a Sunday morning.  I know I needed that reminder.

Our set list included:

Pre-Service Groove (Instrumental with an A and B section over 5 min countdown as people walk in)

You’re Worthy of My Praise (Gathering Song)

Famous One

Praise To The Lord The Almighty (Christy Nockels version)

Jesus Messiah

Shout To The Lord (Lincoln Brewster Version)

Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus (Offering Song)

The 1st trick in this set was to go from Famous One to Praise To The Lord (faster 6/8 to slower 6/8 and 9/8 feel).  I transitioned by keeping them both in the key of E having the band let the last chord of Famous One ring out as I sang the first line of Praise To The Lord, thus setting a new, slower tempo.  It felt smooth getting into but the band tended to want to rush as we got to the chorus section.

The second trick was with Jesus Messiah and Shout To The Lord.  I wanted my drummer to play slightly ahead of the beat so that we could match tempos with Jesus Messiah and Shout To The Lord.  That way the energy level of both songs remains fairly consistent.  Jesus Messiah wanted to drag and Shout To The Lord wanted to drag.  This rests solely on the drummer.  Luckily, my drummer “Duffy” is a very musical drummer and really understands the dynamics of both songs.  We did Jesus Messiah in the key of E and Shout To The Lord in the key of A.  Being that the end of Jesus Messiah tags the last line of the chorus and ends with an A chord we were able to play 2 bars of the A chord at the end of Jesus Messiah and plow right into Shout To The Lord without any hesitation.  1st service, this transition didn’t go so smoothly.  1 person in the band was about a half measure off from the rest of the band.  In the 2nd service we nailed it.

What does all this have to with actually leading people in worship you ask?  Truth is not much in the grand scheme of things.  But its in the details that great worship leaders rise and fall.  A great worship leader is often a great arranger.  Your people will have a sense of completeness when a song is done well.  Sometimes it’ll be an instrumental section that really makes room for them to hear from God.  Without some careful planning, we leave those important details up to chance.  On the flip side, sometimes God says, “Scrap the details!  Focus on me!”   And that’s good too.  Just make sure there’s a good balance between the artistry and the purpose of worship.

That’s all for now.  What say you?

The past 48 hours have been surreal.  I’ve spent most of those hours sitting with my wife and new born son in a hospital room but it hardly feels like its been 5 minutes.   Weighing in at 7 lbs and 5 ounces, stretching to 20.5 inches, Judah James came into the world at 8:12 am yesterday (Sept 18, 2009).

I think those surreal moments come in life when the future is uncertain.  When you graduate, get married, attend a funeral of someone you loved dearly you experience this blur of activity as if you aren’t totally present.  The time that it takes to pause, reflect and can’t always be within minutes, but sometimes its days, weeks or much longer.

Without surreal moments we live in a safe cocoon.  Without surreal moments we move through life in a static state of blah.  I don’t want blah.  I want to feel the excitement.  I want gratitude.  The anxiety.  Curiosity.  In surreal moments, no matter how bright or bleak the present moment seems, we are forced to take in the moment.  It’s like when your leg falls asleep.  Your mind bounces from one thought to another and then you have to face reality.  Your leg is asleep.  And soon you get that tingling feeling.  It’s not pain.  And it not pleasure.  It’s feeling.  Straight up feeling.  As the feeling returns to your leg, all you can think about is the intensity of that moment.  It focuses your attention.  It makes you remember what’s really important.  (Not your leg.  All the other important stuff.)  Trying to remember to pause.

I now have a son.  There’s a certain amount of anticipation.  I want him to learn from my mistakes.  To not be held back by the fears I held on to.  There is a sense that his life will be a continuation of mine, and my fathers and my father’s father.  Like he has a destiny.  Maybe it’s a father’s optimistic outlook.  I know he’ll make mistakes.  But hopefully it’ll just be enough to keep him humble.

I’m never quite sure what to do with myself on my days off.  I have seasons where I am very active in things like disc golf, going to live concerts, racquetball, song writing, ultimate frisbee, meeting friends for coffee.  But now a days I find my self letting my mind become obsessed with work-related projects.  It doesn’t help that I have virtual 24 access to email, planning center online and can take home set lists to craft along with a whole slew of ministry related books.

Part of it, I believe, is my tunnel-vision.  My wife will tell you when I’m in the middle of a project, it doesn’t matter if a nuclear bomb went off outside, I will bring that project to completion before I can think of resting.

And at the same time, I’m easily distracted.  I’m one of those scatter-brained people who has a running list of things in my head.  When I think of that new task to complete, I immediately forget about the thing that I’m doing and start working towards that new goal.  For some funny insight into people like me, check out Peter Mayer’s song “Scatterbrain”: http://www.petermayer.net/music/play.m3u?t=53

I guess I just need to find something outside of work that fuels my creative spark.  Any suggestions?  Anyone?

It feels good to be sleeping in my old bedroom at my parents house tonight. My baby sister is graduating in a couple days and it all feels like life is moving too fast. Its been a very full day. Our staff treked up to Eagle Brook Church for the Relevance Conference with special guest, Bill Hybels.

Here are the take aways:
- Great time to hang as a staff.
- Hybel’s was awesome…oh so wise…and biblical.
- Got to hear Rick’s heart to reach people for Christ.
- Clarified mission over lunch as a staff.

Off to a late night cousin extravaganza with ice cream cake! Holla!

At my church we recently unveiled our new church mission and process for making disciples.  At Pleasant Valley Church we encourage everyone to: Connect with God.  Grow with Others.  Serve the World.

As a staff, we’ve been emailing back and forth, discussing at length and refining what it looks like for someone to integrate this process of disciple-making into their own life.  Well today I had an opportunity to do some seriously awesome Connecting with God.

I escaped to a secluded area in an undisclosed MN State Park with a great view overlooking the Mississippi River.   I was a little paranoid of being attacked by snakes or what not but nonetheless I was there to really make a go of making a connection.  I have made it my goal set aside time in my calendar to get away by myself, without distractions to pray, read my bible, roam around in nature, and see what God would say to me.

I decided to read through the book of Philippians.  I had my journal open so that any passages that seemed to pop off the page I could jot down and later commit to memory.  After slowly digesting the book of Philippians I found a whopping 17 passages that I wanted to memorize.  Some I had memorized in the past but needed a refresher.  Others passages that I wanted to meditate on to gain insight.  Here are a few of those passages:

Phil. 1:6  “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

Phil 1:21 “For to me, to live is Christ to die is gain.”

Phil 1:27 “Whatever happens conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.”

Phil 2:3 “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit but in humility consider others better than yourselves.”

Phil 2:5-11 “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus, who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped.  But made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.  And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death–even death on a cross.  Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Needless to say, having just memorized those 5 passages my mind is pulsing with God’s word, thus increasing my connection with Him and what he says about how I live my life. 

Can I encourage you as He did me?  Hide God’s Word in your heart.  Don’t count on Sunday morning worship celebrations to be your only spiritual food throughout the week.  It’s meant to be a springboard into a deeper, abundant life in Christ.  Let God’s word dwell in you and He’ll blow open the door to Greater Things.

A few weeks ago we had our 20 week check up for baby #2.  With our last pregnancy we could only think of girl names so we were relieved when we found out that Alethia is a girl.  Otherwise we might have a very confused “boy named Sue” situation on our hands.  Well this time around we can only think of boy names.  For some odd reason all those girl names fell out of our heads and all that we can think of are boy names.  So we had a hunch going in for the ultra sound a few weeks ago that we were about to find out we’re having a boy.  I imagined what it’d be like to have a boy as I sat next to Kristi.  Looking at the ultrasound monitor, daydreaming as I often do (about nothing really) I found myself get jolted back into reality as I wondered…”what if it’s a boy??”  I imagined myself leaping to my feet at the news running up and down the halls of the hospital yelling “ITS A BOY” with the front of my t-shirt pulled over my head as if I just scored a goal to win the World Cup (soccer).

<Back to reality>

While Kristi laid on the bed and I held her hand, we saw (very clearly) that we’re having a baby boy!  I let out a glottal grunt/yelp for joy.  I don’t know how but instinctually I knew it was going to be a boy.  I guess I had a 50/50 shot. 

When Alethia was in the womb we nicknamed her Shaniqua Trixiefaye Lee.  Within minutes of leaving the hospital we nicknamed our boy Thor Bartholomew Cosmopolis Lee.   And thus he shall be called hence forth until he is born and we announce his real name.  : D

I’m not sure what the early disciples felt when they went to the upper room but I have a feeling they had a heightened awareness of their surroundings. Anticipation for God to move. Momentum propelling them forward. Inspiration in the face of despair and courage in the face of fear. What was it like to know that God had greater things in store? That the things God wanted you to do were nearly impossible.

I love the song God of this City. We started singing it in January. Every time we sing it we have an opportunity to see God’s heart to transform our city. We sang it again yesterday after we watched an awesome video testimony. Everyone seemed to feel this momentum and urgency to share Christ and invite people to begin a relationship with God by coming to church on Easter.

I think this is a fresh wind that God is sending our way. And we’re gaining momentum! The anticipation is building! God has greater things in store at Pleasant Valley.

“Without vision the people perish.” (Prov 29:18)

Lines are blurred when the Presidential candidate you originally thought stood for integrity turns out to be slightly less than presidential in his delivery and demeanor.  It’s difficult to see it while we’re in the middle of a dense forest of nationally debated issues from energy, to the economy, to abortion.  But in our pluralistic society we have a tendancy to base moral judgements on how they affect us personally more than how they affect the majority.  For example, presidential and vice-presidential candidates are continually using hypothetical people like “Joe Sixpack” and “Joe the Plumber” to sympathize with the plight of the middle class.  And there’s a place for that.  But I don’t want a president whose main concern is asking me to focus on my needs when I cast my vote.  I want a president who will set a trajectory for the future of our nation, refuse to play mind games with the opposing candidate, deliver his message in a clear, compelling way, all with the integrity and humility that such a position requires.  Often, both parties’ campaigns have been bent on meeting the needs of the individual rather than the needs and priorities of the nation.  

In tonight’s third Presidential debate I saw a candidate present himself as presidential.  Rather than picking apart his opponents statements, he set before every listening American a vision.  There may be parts that any number of us disagree with.  That’s fine.  Democracy welcomes healthy conflict.  But nonetheless it is a vision with clearly drawn objectives and strategies to give our nation a fresh start.  

I’m surprised to hear myself say this, but I probably won’t vote on ideology.  I’ll vote based on character and leadership ability.

On a lighter note, I’ve enjoyed SNL’s sketches of the debates.  This third one will be hard to mock in light of the quality of the presentation and the status of the market, but SNL will find a way, God bless ‘em.

When you think of simple, what comes to mind?  I think of the Google homepage.  I think of the Dollar Menu at McDonald’s.  I think of velcro shoes.  Wii.  iPod.  Converse Allstars.  No Name steaks.  Why am I attracted to all of these things?  Each of these products drastically narrow my options down to a few very basic things.  Ultimately, each of these things have competitors that copy them after they see that simple works.  Why does simple work?  We live in a complex world that is traveling at breakneck speed around the clock.  Our world has a Wal-mart and/or Super Target around every corner.  Reducing the need to travel to shopping malls.  Am I the only person in the world that becomes a little overly aggressive after prolonged exposure to the white noise found in shopping malls?  Think about it.  The white noise in malls is an audible representation of the subtle chaos that passes as sane in our society.  

Put yourself back in the mall.  You see customers bustling past shop windows, up and down escalators, constantly roaming, consuming material goods to satisfy their weary soul.  At once, the white noise stops.  Time comes to a screeching halt.  Customers’ expressions are frozen.  No movement.  No sound.  The only thing you’re certain of is the  silence.  Now isn’t that nice for a change?  You can actually have a coherent thought!

Churches have taken the shopping mall approach to church: offer as much variety, advertise to your target market, get them in the door any way you can.  Once you get them in the door, it doesn’t matter where they spend their money as long as it’s somewhere.  Sometimes I experience that same white noise effect when I look at various church’s home page / calendar / mission / vision / purpose statement / flannelgraph.  Just kidding about flannelgraph.  I just wanted to say it.  Does any one even know what flannelgraph is?  It’s what the early church used before HD bigscreens were introduced to Sunday Schools in the late 1900’s.  After a while Jesus’ beard and hair became a fuzzy mess.  Ah, flannelgraph.  Those were the days.  I digress.  Isn’t that true of churches? (I’m talking about the malls again.)  We tend to solicit whoever comes in the door to attend some event or ministry.  And as long as they’re a warm body occupying a seat or filling a role, we consider it a success.    

What if instead of offering every possible ministry/event/seminar/concert/workshop known to man, we have a clear, compelling focus?  What if we stopped a hundred things that we did half-well to do a handful of things with all the tenacity and vigor that God can supply!?  That would take tremendous focus.  Unparalleled resolve.  And a miracle.

In Part 1 of this blog, hopefully you started thinking: Wow, there’s alot of needless activity in my life.  I should simplify.  If not, great.  But you may be Amish.  In Part 2 I’ll discuss what simple looks like for churches across the country and why simple is so paramount to the success of the Church (universal) in the 21st century.   

P.S.  I enjoy simple pleasures like sitting in a comfy chair with a book and/or journal, watching my daughter take her first steps (click this link to watch her take her first steps on video: http://tofkristi.blogspot.com/2008/10/new-milestones.html), eating basmati rice with out soy sauce.  Okay basmati rice with out soy sauce is not a simple pleasure, but it’s definately simple and more of a method of survival when I was a college student.

P.P.S. If I was the CEO of Culver’s, I’d say bring the menu down to three things: butterburgers, fries, and shakes.  All good things come in threes.

P.P.P.S.  Some of these thoughts are not original.  Most are somewhere in the pages of “Simple Church” by Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger.  Incredible book supported by lots of data, prayer and flannelgraph.