Years ago on a ski trip I accidently took the wrong trail and found myself at the top of a triple diamond run.  Standing at the top of what seemed like the peek of death I wondered how in the heck I was going to make it downs such a steep run.  As I was standing there contemplating my death a young boy probably 8 years old said “you’ve just got to do it!”  Needless to say that wasn’t what I wanted...

A few years ago I went to a concert at the Dodge theater in downtown Phoenix. Went with a friend of mine. Great concert. Loud like you wouldn’t believe, but enjoyed the time. The concert was packed. People everywhere. There were songs we were all up on our feet and others when we just sat and listened. In the middle of one of the quieter songs I looked down the row we were sitting in and saw a woman standing...

Ever play the game telephone? You know the one where you have a big group of people and someone tells the first person a secret and it is whispered person to person until it gets to the end?  Did it ever end up being the same phrase you started with? What starts out “the sky is blue” ends up “i like the zoo”. Worship teams are great at playing this game in real life.  Some people call...

I often wonder how worship leaders draw the line between what is worship and what is a performance. It can be a difficult distinction to make. Because worship is based on a personal response it is almost impossible for people to remain purely objective when evaluating the difference.  Over the years I have come up with a list that I use to keep myself in check. every time I stand on a stage and people do not...

If you’ve been involved in ministry for any length of time then you’ve probably been hurt by someone.  For some people it might have been something that was easy to get over and move on to the next thing.  For others, the hurts were deeper and left scars which limit your ability to trust. For me, the hurts in ministry were overwhelming.  The results created division in the church, in my family...

I was going through some old files the other day and came across a bunch of notes from some worship conferences I attended a few years ago.  As I leafed through all my chicken scratch and half legible note taking, I started to laugh.  Nothing I had written down had to do with my growth as a worship pastor.  It was all about what worked and what failed in various churches that were participating in the conference....

I tend to think differently about most things.  If something has been done one way for 100 years, I think to myself “how boring doing this over and over and over the same way”.  My first instinct is to want to make changes. In a traditional environment, this kind of thinking can get me into trouble.  But in this setting, I think I’m safe… All that being said… I’ve been thinking...