Being a beginning "cell band mentor"

Most of you know that I completed School of Worship at YWAM Denver this past June and that it was a great experience that included lots of praise team practices, songwriting, recording, and blood, sweat, & tears.

(Mostly tears.)

But this past week, I had the opportunity to give back what I learned as a School of Worship student by working at a one-week Worship Camp for middle and high school students!

That's right! Last week, I worked all day every day at Joysong Worship Camp, co-mentoring my OWN cell band of worship leaders.

Someone decided to put me in charge! Ah!

 (This is not to say that I owned them, but rather to say that they were in my charge every afternoon from 12:30-1:30.)

[Btw - To this day, I still do not know why School of Worship bands are called "Cell Bands." The name makes me think of "Cell Block Tango" from Chicago.]

Aren't they cute? So precocious and full of wonderment! #TalladegaNights

While it was a bit of an intimidating experience, having the responsibility of helping a group of 7 youths cultivate a passion for worship and also develop musical skills, it was also an incredibly fun journey.

I could look back over the notes I took during lecture times to give you one of the amazing, deep revelations presented to the campers, but really I feel I learned more from the actual experience than from the presentations.

One of the biggest realizations I came to was that God legitimately trusts me to impart what I have learned to others.

Because being a band mentor is something I had never tried before, I had a difficult time believing I could do it. I remember asking God to equip me for the task ahead, and He kept telling me that I already know what I am doing.

Often times, I feel like we decide not to try new things or take risks because we don't truly believe in our own abilities. But when we choose to jump into something we don't feel fully prepared for, there is an opportunity to learn something new about ourselves.

A friend of mine recently put it this way,

"We think trust means standing on the high dive, saying,
'God, fill the pool, and I will jump.'
But God says trust means jumping,
knowing He will fill the pool."

I'm sure you've heard the cliche, "God trusts us more than we trust ourselves," but, honestly, He does.

While there are some things I definitely could have done differently and some musical things that maybe could have been communicated more clearly, over all, I think everything went fine. And all in all, I know that everybody learned more about how to worship God in a way they didn't know before. So really, I think it was a success.

And I think I would love to do something like it again. Because it's not always about doing something perfectly. Sometimes, it's simply about trying to do something.

1 Chronicles 16:23-31 -

Sing to the LORD, all the earth; proclaim his salvation day after day.  Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples.  For great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; he is to be feared above all gods.  For all the gods of the nations are idols, but the LORD made the heavens.  Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and joy in his dwelling place.  Ascribe to the LORD, O families of nations, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength,  ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name. Bring an offering and come before him; worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness.  Tremble before him, all the earth! The world is firmly established; it cannot be moved.  Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let them say among the nations, "The LORD reigns!"

Confluence Street Festival

Hi guys!

Short post this week, as I am working at a local Worship Camp and have limited free time to update blogs.

The camp started this past Monday and continues until Friday evening. Local middle and high school students are attending, and I am co-leading a praise team! We have been working on developing 2 worship songs for a worship concert on Friday night. I can't wait to see everybody come together then!

Also, this past weekend, I volunteered with a Young Adults group from Faith Bible Chapel at a street festival, organized by Confluence Ministries in downtown Denver. We were in charge of preparing and serving food for the community.

The street festival had lots of booths for attendees to learn about local businesses, ministries, etc. There were also booths for free services, like haircuts, and fun activities for kids.

Once we started serving food, we were preoccupied for several hours, but I managed to snap a few pics before then. Here they are:

These guys worked crazy hard to grill tons of hamburgers & hot dogs

And this crew worked on wrapping up the food to be handed out

We helped out with the snow cones, too!

My main task was to keep re-filling the chips for optimum selection :)

That's basically what I have been up do lately here in Denver. Hope you enjoyed the pics, and I will post more interesting thoughts & happenings next week!

Burnout in Ministry

I haven't really been working in ministry that long. Truthfully, I avoided being involved in ministry for a number of years because I did not want the responsibility of leadership.

But since accepting my fate [call] in spring 2012, I can honestly say that I have never been involved in something so rewarding. I acknowledge that I have grown in many ways since exploring various forms of ministry and that I find an inexplicable, deep peace throughout these endeavors.

However, I also find that it can be quite easy to start to feel tired and even burnt out. Working in ministry takes a lot of time, effort, and often funding without much tangible return.

Things that are tiring in ministry

• No matter what you do, people will always expect more from you than you can physically, psychologically, emotionally, and spiritually handle.
• Being a leader means subjecting oneself to public scrutiny and criticism.
• And when you are truly servant-hearted, you long to meet every single one of these expectations. Being driven by a want to help others is the very reason you chose to accept a ministry position in the first place.

Ministry and discipleship are geared toward long-term shaping and are therefore often subject to an incredibly looong processing time. Sometimes, you tell a person about one concept for years before seeing actual change taking place in their lives.

Sometimes you'll harp on one small issue and hit a bureaucratic wall for years as you attempt to change a simple, insignificant church policy.

Other times, you will simply fight your own struggles with apathy and feelings of ineffectiveness.

When these moments, days, and possibly even years of upward struggle come, how do we handle it? How do we continue pursuing what we believe God called us to when it seems like we're completely on our own?

Redefining your ministry assignment

Like I said before, I haven't really been at this for that long; I am learning as I go. But I would like to try my best to share a few things I've learned so far about coping with feelings of burnout. Because there really are reasons to keep going, even when we feel like quitting.

One main thing I have learned is to redefine what I am looking to in terms of perspective.

For example, it can be easy to look to the approval of others or statistical data and get hung up on the deficiencies of a church/ministry/organization.

It can be easy to look at the timeline of how long you've been striving for something lined up against a lack of progress.

But when we shift our perspective, we shift everything else. So it's best to look to God for direction on how to think about the assignment ahead of you.

A long-term missionary might look at his or her lack of influence on the people s/he has been serving for 10 years and feel like it is a waste of time. But what if s/he changed the definition of what s/he is looking for and why s/he has chosen to be on this mission in the first place?

Instead of looking at "missions" as a "soul-winning venture," why not look at "missions" as "falling in love with Jesus so much that you can't help telling someone about it?"

See, from this new perspective, it becomes less about how the other person reacts, and more about lifting the Lord's Name higher.

For someone working in a church setting, tired of constantly going and feeling like they will never please people, a redefinition of what ministry looks like can help.

Instead of looking to meet every single person's needs, look to see what opportunities the Lord is opening for you to meet specific needs. For those that you simply cannot meet, trust that the Lord will take care of them in the ways you cannot.

What ministry is really about

Ultimately, being a minister is less about our own agendas and more about allowing God to use us as His channels for ministry. It's about laying down our own ambitions and goals and asking Him to accomplish His own.

This is a difficult thing to pursue because it can be almost impossible to really gauge how we are doing.

But the beauty of that is that it also takes the pressure off, remembering that it is not about what we are doing. It is about what God is doing.

Are you trusting in the Lord to use you for His glory? Or do you find yourself constantly striving to meet goals and expectations?

Are you pursuing people more than you are pursuing God? Are you pursuing the appearance of a title or role more than you are pursuing service for the sake of God's kingdom?

Being in ministry means constantly keeping ourselves in check and reminding ourselves of Whose plans are really important.

He longs to fill us so that we can be used to fill others. Where are you looking to get your fill?