Tough Decisions

I attended Catalyst Oneday at North Point Community Church this past Thursday and learned a HUGE lesson. I learned that as leaders we are faced with the undaunting task of making hard and tough decisions all the time. To quote George H.W. Bush "The buck stops here!" What this means is that responsiblity ultimately comes back to those in charge. It doesn't mean that the leaders turn into "dictators" or "czars" by any means. It just means that when something goes wrong it usually points back to the person in charge. When things go right it also points back to those in charge. This may seem like a very "duh, I can't believe you didn't know that already" lesson but I think it applies hugely to a worship aspect too. While Andy Stanley was speaking about this I kept thinking to myself that not only am I responsible for leading myself to a place of worship but also I play a big part in those that are on stage leading worship with me and leading them to a place of worship that day also. Talk about PRESSURE!!!!!!!! But then I realized that it's not me but it's just like playing in front of people. We as leaders don't lead people to a place of worship but rather God leads thru us and leads people to a place of worship. To put it plainly, the next time you are feeling pressure about not getting your congregation to a place of worship, I challenge you to take a step back and pray that you would just get out of the way and let God work thru you.

Keep on keepin' on...

One thing I find is that the one thing I love sometimes gets tiresome and starts to seem routine. This is something that I've been wanting to blog about but have been trying to put the words together. Worship is something that has always been there. It has always and will always be the connection that we have between ourselves and God. It is defined as "a two way conversation between us and our heavenly Father." All of this excites me, however, there are times where I just don't feel like doing it. Now I know what you're thinking. You're probobly thinking "Brien, if it is something that you desire you should be excited all of the time right?" This is a very true thought. Worship cannot be explained or should I say the level and depth of what I feel when I sing my heart to God cannot be explained. There is nothing better in this life than singing with everything I am created with and directing all of it towards my Father in heaven. The second part of this means that I am human subject to human emotions and the human nature of being "worn slap out." When we do something over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again it loses it's freshness. This is why we see not only worship leaders but some of our church leaders lose their tenacity or their "edge." I heard a co-worker the other day use the title of this blog. We were talking about our job duties and how we feel sometimes that in order to keep from becoming a "wimp" we do things that keep us on our toes so that we stay sharp. The same goes for us a Christians. We need to find ways to stay on our toes and do things that are out of our "comfort zones" so that we don't lose the fire that is inside of us. We all will get stuck in ruts but we must allow ourselves to allow God to pull us out of them. There are days we won't feel like worshipping but if we look for opportunities and take advantage of new ways to find Jesus we can rest assured that He will pull us out of those ruts. I hope each of you has an incredible week. Praying hard for you!