This weekend I’m out in the land of no cell phone coverage for our annual middle school winter camp. The youth worship team and I will be leading worship for 5 different sessions over 3 days and also trying to keep up with the kids who have far too much energy for their own good. I hope you’ll pray for us and our time away.
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1. Bon Iver won a Grammy award a couple weeks ago and has been one of my favorite bands/artists recently. I love the texture of their music. The one knock I’ve always heard in relation to them is that their music is overproduced. I somewhat agreed until I watched this video of Bon Iver with no effects. It’s long but I’ve listened to the whole thing 3 or 4 times through now (minutes 3 through 8 are blissful). Incredible.
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2. This week Tim Schraeder put up a guest post I wrote on his blog titled “10 Other Things That Drive Someone Else Crazy About Working for a Church.” A couple years ago Tim wrote a post I’ve read several times since it was posted. I appreciated Tim’s angst and love for working at a church because I find myself often waffling between the two. I love working at a church but it is filled with things that drive me crazy.
Jonathan Edwards famously said, “The Church is a whore, but she is my mother.” It is both with angst and love that I come to and work for the church. The angst keeps me pushing to make the church a healthier, more Godly place, and the love keeps me continually embracing its brokenness.
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3. Jamie Barnes is a worship pastor at Sojourn Church in Kentucky and one of the great writers taking old hymns and making them new again. One of the things I struggle with as a more laid back, introverted worship leader is how to be authentic and still have a demeanor that allows others to enter into the presence of God. Jamie tackles this tough subject quite well.
If you’re naturally mellow, don’t force down ten Red Bulls on Sunday morning just to pep up your pout. You don’t have to abandon minor keys, nor do you have to play every piece of music at 180 bpm.
Remember, we are leading real people with real lives, and we serve a real God who meets us where we’re at.
The Psalmists sang, wept, cried out, and shouted for joy to give praise to our Lord. In doing so, they give us a pattern for worship that exercises a wide breadth of human emotion that we should emulate.
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Enjoy your weekend.
