Well I saw the ENT yesterday and the good news is that I have no nodules on my vocal cords.  The bad news is I have to go through Vocal Rehab (for lack of a better term).  I also have to stop drinking soda, I have to drink at least 4 liters of water a day and I have to stop clearing my throat.  Apparently, clearing your throat is one of the worst things to do to your vocal cords. 

Here is the raw video of the scope they did on my throat.  The vocal cords are supposed to be white, mine are dark pink.  (nose hairs in video are smaller then they appear.)

I learned quite early in my ministry to stop trying to please people.

The first church I was at thought their style was contemporary…until I showed up.  There were many who loved the new music I was introducing, and there were many who loved the hymns.  I would get complaints fairly consistently that there were either too many hymns or not enough.  I spent so much of my time trying to ride the fence.  Yet no matter how hard I tried to make people happy there was always someone who was not happy.  Then one day as I was planning a service and it dawned on me (thanks Holy Spirit) I don’t work for these people, what we do on sunday mornings isn’t even for them it’s for God.  From that moment on my main goal was to orchestrate a service that would please God.  Once I made that decision I began to see fewer and fewer complaints.  Partially because people found out that their complaints weren’t affecting my decisions, but mostly because our worship to God became great in his eyes because the focus was on pleasing Him.

1You know, brothers, that our visit to you was not a failure. 2We had previously suffered and been insulted in Philippi, as you know, but with the help of our God we dared to tell you his gospel in spite of strong opposition. 3For the appeal we make does not spring from error or impure motives, nor are we trying to trick you. 4On the contrary, we speak as men approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We are not trying to please men but God, who tests our hearts. 5You know we never used flattery, nor did we put on a mask to cover up greed—God is our witness. 6We were not looking for praise from men, not from you or anyone else.

I Thessalonians 2

Please God not man.  You can never please all men, but you can please God.

We had rehearsal for Freedom tonight and I feel better, as a whole, about this one than any other.  I really feel like God is going to do something amazing.  So here are some of my thoughts on some of the team members.

Janelle- Spot on pitch.  She is basically my melody girl, never sings harmony and I don’t think I have ever heard her sing flat or sharp.  She also loves to worship and that shows in her face and body language. 

Robin- Harmony singer who sings with a passion that all can see.  There is a picture I have of her that is a model of how a lead worshipper should sing.  You can see in her face that she really feels what she is singing.

Jon- Lighting guru.  So normally we have motion backgrounds and he bases the lights off that.  This time we have black background with white text and we are letting Jon run with it.  I explained it as a blank canvas and he is using the lights to paint.  We got a little taste tonight but I think we are all in for a treat this Sunday.

Eliot- This is his last Freedom with us.  He is moving to Chicago to attend Moody bible college.  I am really excited for him but it is bitter sweet.  He is one of my favorite musicians to play and worship with.  He understands what we are trying to do when we gather to worship.  He always knows just how much bass to add.

More to follow.

Today message and service was on God’s providence.  

The activity of God which brings His purposes to pass

So many times our finite minds can’t even begin to grasp the infinite mind and infinite vision of God.  I don’t know why my voice is messed up and I don’t know why my shoulder started bothering me (my shoulder is doing better).  Sometimes I want to say to God “why are you taking this gift away from me.”  I really feel God has called me to be a Worship Pastor.  To train, equip and encourage the local church in worship and worship leaders, pastors and musicians across the country.  I think how could I do any of this with my voice the way it is.  But I know that God is trying to get my attention, however I have no idea yet what work he is wanting to do in my life.  It may be he wants me to rely on him and not on my vocal gifts.  It may be that he wants me to be still and quiet.  I’m just not sure.  

I have a appointment with an ENT this wednesday at 10am and that should begin to give me a better idea of the degree of damage on my voice.  Please pray, I am fairly concerned about how extensive the damage is and what the recovery time is going to be.

But God is in control.

This post is in no way a reaction from Sunday it’s just something I think about when the Holy Spirit changes our plans.

We have two services at my church and they are very different from each other.  The age make-up of the congregation, the expressiveness of the groups as a whole, and also in their responsiveness.  With that in mind, when the Holy Spirit moves me or someone else to speak or change something in the first service should we automatically make that change for the second service?  Sometimes yes but keep in mind that the Holy Spirit may have something entirely different for the second service.

One situation that I can remember was my “official” audition for the worship leader job.  In the first service during the first two songs a couple of people “whooed.”  A weak shout so I tried to encourage them to shout…that fell completely flat.  So while John was preaching I felt God saying to me, “they didn’t shout because no one has taught them how.”

During the songs after the sermon we were getting to the end of a slow song and for whatever reason that week I planned poorly and didn’t have a good transition to the next song, a faster song.  So I started asking God what to say or pray.  That’s when he said “Teach them how to shout to me.”  And in my head I said “Are you nuts?  I’m trying to get a job here.”  After a little more arguing I said fine but told him if this went bad it was His fault.  (I know, real intelligent thing to say to God)  Well I proceeded to share that I had asked them earlier to shout and apologized for not teaching them how.  What followed was some of the craziest worship I have ever been a part of.  The sound from the congregation was so loud I couldn’t hear my in-ear monitor.  I turned around to the band and all of their eyes were about the size of dinner plates.  This was a completely new experience for our church.  My keyboardist at the time was just going on and on about how awesome it was.

So along comes second service.  I probably shouldn’t have done the same thing but I did, thinking the result would be the same.  It was good but nothing like the first service.  God was specifically doing something in the first service and if I hadn’t been caught up in the excitement I might have seen what God wanted to do differently in the second service.

Anytime God moves you should always pray to see if this was just for that one service or for both.

Any other thought on the Holy Spirit changing our plans?

Worship was really great yesterday.  Both services were really engaged.  During the first service we were playing Trading My Sorrows when in the middle of it our lighting director came up to interrupt me.  (This is not a bad thing) (actually reminds me a lot of Prayer Quake)  Following the holy spirits leading he shared that when the youth group was stuck at the border they were singing that song on the steps of the customs building.  When they got to the chorus they shouted YES LORD

We say yes Lord, YES LORD yes yes Lord

Yes lord, YES LORD, yes yes Lord

Yes Lord, YES LORD, yes yes Lord Amen

I have some interesting thoughts about the Holy Spirit and two services that I’ll share tomorrow.

Freedom is less than two weeks away!!!

Well today brought me more knowledge about this band that wrote God of this City.  Here is a video that will enlighten us on everything we ever wanted to know about Bluetree, including where there name comes from.

The Video

I am liking these guys the more I read about them.  Here is their own synopsis of themselves from facebook.

Worship. Rock. Techno(logy).Three words that don’t seem to fit very easily into the same sentence.Its just as well we aren’t confined to sentences. The music of Bluetree is an experience. This experience may well be loud, bold and energetic.It may also be soft and so quiet you can hear the heart beat of the person beside you . You may be blown away by the powerful thud of the kick drum or the hypnotic wail of the electric guitars. However, if this is all you experience then your time with us may very well have been wasted. Through all the noises and beats, all the melodies and harmonies, what we want you to experience is the overwhelming presence of God. We want you to forget the lights, the stage and the hundreds of people around you. Forget the sound system that is assaulting your body with so much bass you feel like your being punched in the chest. We invite you to lose yourself in worship. Worship of the Almighty.

I also like their interests: God, Shooting stuff, beating people up, Programming (it lets me know they are real and are probably nerds) (nerd is not a bad thing)

Editorial retraction: They are specifically from Belfast, Northern Ireland.  Some might see UK and think England.  So technically I was right but I am now being more specific.

Apparently this site is Number 1 on google search.  (When searching for “i worship football”)

Here is the post that garnered all the attention.

So as I have been listening to Chris Tomlin’s new CD titled Hello Love, there was something that was bugging me about it.  Not in a horrible way but I didn’t feel like there was any song that was just screaming “you must introduce me.”  While talking to my sister and brother-in-law about the CD, on the way to Yuma, I realized what’s been bugging me.  The lyrics are great, they are scripturally based and written quite poetically.  The music is good, interesting chord changes and very moving, melodically.  The problem comes when combining the two.  It doesn’t really feel like the words that are being sung really fit the music.  There is a moment where he sings about Christ being the bread and the wine yet the music behind it has a peppy feeling.  Stuff like that. 

Now don’t get me wrong I love Chris Tomlin’s work, he has written many songs that inspire the church to worship.  I just feel like the CD is trying to be a great “product.”  A consumer friendly CD, not necessarily a congregational/worship friendly CD.  I’ll keep listening and I’ll write more about it later.  I do like God of This City.

God of This City

You’re God of this city, you’re the King of these people, you’re the Lord of this nation, you are…
You’re the Light in this darkness, you’re the Hope to the hopeless, you’re the Peace to the restless, you are…
For there is no one like our God, there is no one like You, God!
Greater things have yet to come, and greater things are still to be done in this city!
Greater things have yet to come, and greater things are still to be done here.
You’re the Lord of creation, The creator of all things you’re the King above all kings, you are…
You’re the Strength in the weakness, You are Love to the broken, You’re the Joy in the sadness, you are…

For there is no one like our God, there is no one like you, God!
Greater things have yet to come, and greater things are still to be done in this city!
Where glory shines from hearts alive with praise for You and love for You in this city.

Okay I must confess, I started writing this post at 11pm it is now 12am and I just found out that Chris Tomlin did not write God of this City…it is a band from the UK called Bluetree.  Check out their myspace to hear their recording of God of This City.  I’ll have to do some more research on this band, the second song on their myspace just started playing, I like it a lot.  Here is a line from the chorus.

“You will always receive the praise you’re do, cause even the rock cry out to you”

 

Worship was great this morning.  We did an acoustic set meaning we had two acoustics, keys, cello and voices.  It was a neat morning.  John preached the last sermon of the series Unchristian and it was about being judgmental.  Scripturally we based it off the passage in John that talks about taking the plank out of your own eyes before you try to take the speck out of your brothers.  He also touched on the fact that we will be judged according to how we have judged.  It’s not wrong to pass judgment however we must be very careful that we are honest about our own sin.  

We sang Love the Lord by Lincoln Brewster this morning.  I have been hesitant to introduce this song to our congregation for a couple of reasons.  One it is a very repetitive song, not that repetitive is bad (cause it’s not) it’s just a little more extreme in this case.  The other is that I have kind of become accustom to the songs that our church really latches onto.  I tried to preface the song with the scripture that the idea comes from…

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.  Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.  These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.  Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.  Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

Deuteronomy 6:4-9

Basically it says that we should talk about, discuss, burn into our minds the commandment that we should Love the Lord with all our Hearts, souls, mind, and strength.  Every part of us should love our Lord.

On a personal note.  I have been having a lot of problems with my voice and it seems to be getting weaker every week.  I couldn’t even make it through practice on Thursday night.  I am going to try to see and Ear Nose and Throat (ENT) Specialist this week.  Please pray that it is not too bad and that I have not done any permanent damage.