Reflections: It has been quite a while since we’ve had baptisms incorporated into our worship services.  For several years, we’ve held baptism celebrations lakeside during the summer, which is always a great time.  A new approach to moving people toward greater engagement with ministry and the church led to a group of people being ready for baptism this winter, so today was the day.  Our baptistry is positioned in the upper front corner of our multi-purpose auditorium… meaning, the people in the baptistry are about 17 feet off the ground.  So a live video feed is necessary for everyone to see. The theological heritage of our church encourages baptism to be reserved until a person is at least in high school.  During our 9:45 service, six high school guys who are in a small group together were baptized.  I love that.  I love for my kids to see that. Philippians 2:1-11 is a tremendously powerful scripture focus.  While I wish we had had more time to ruminate on the themes during our worship time, it was great to pair this with baptism celebrations.
 

Thoughts on the songs:

• Sing to the King is a powerful favorite for our church, and was a great proclamation to follow the baptisms. 
• Your Name is also a favorite, and flowed with the theme well.
• We introduced You Gave Your Life Away two weeks ago during communion.  It definitely added a reflective depth to the overall flow. We probably could have left it in the 9:45 service, but we are tied to a 60 minute worship service, and we weren’t sure how long the baptisms would take.  
• It’s been a while since we’ve used To Know Your Name. I love this song, but it’s been hard for us to consistently pull off well.  Today things were quite loose the first time around.  With our musicians, it can be assumed that this kind of looseness has to do with what they’re hearing or not hearing.  So my first question to them when we left the platform during the 9:45 had to do with monitors; turns out the guitarists weren’t hearing the drums. Problem solved.

This post is a part of Sunday Setlists at Fred McKinnon’s blog where worship leaders share their experiences.  Check it out!

A few months after our pastor came on staff he told us about a tradition he wanted to bring to our church from his former ministry: an all-church reception held each January.  The event was to be planned, executed, paid for, and hosted by the staff of the church.  The purpose of the event: to thank the church for being a great church.  The first time I heard this idea, there was a part of me that crumbled in tears.  What a great way to show our church family that we see them, we hear them, and we are healing along with them.  What a beautiful leadership idea… something that is completely and truly motivated out of a desire to express gratitude and love for our congregation.

“Do they know that you love them?” 

The part of me that didn’t crumble in tears was distracted by the details of the proposed plan. This reception was to feature a specific homemade food item that we, the staff, would prepare together beginning at noon on a Sunday, with the reception beginning at 5pm that evening.  So this was to be a whole-day affair, involving all staff families helping in the kitchen and setting up the auditorium for the reception.  Excellent. The food item?  New Year’s Cookies.  Wha????

New Years Cookies are not cookies. They are like donuts, but without holes.  They are like fritters, but round instead of flat.  They are…  extreeemely good, and extreeemely a once-a-year indulgence. Unlike many others in our church, this food item was never a part of my family’s tradition.  My only experience with New Years Cookies has been this event, when we make close to 2000 of them to share with our church family.  This day goes something like this:

The first time we did this, people came and people came and people came.  I remember the gratitude they expressed as we mingled throughout the room trying to express our gratitude to them.  I remember people being almost humbled by the fact we would do something like this.  

This was now our fourth year of the New Year Cookie event.  We have more staff families now, which adds to the fun.  We estimate 450 people came, which is about half our weekend worship attendance.  We don’t have very many ‘all-church’ events throughout the year, and this is a very easy, relaxed evening…  no programming… just come, eat, drink coffee… hang out.  It seems like all ages of people love eating these things. Most adults set a limit of the number of cookies they’ll eat, but many will cave when we start bringing trays to their tables, offering more.  I believe the consumption record is held by a high school guy who ate 22 last year.  I don’t even want to know what his next day looked like.

Every year I will love the chance to pour coffee for my church family and tell them ‘thank you’ just for being a great church. Every year I will enjoy the afternoon spent with staff families, frying, glazing, setting up tables… despite the fact that it usually turns into a 12 hour day.  And every year I, with a few others on staff, will probably continue to roll my eyes when it comes time to put ‘grease ball day’ on the calendar. Sort of like how older kids roll their eyes when their mom gets all emotional about everyone being together.  We know it’s a good, valuable thing, but we can’t help giving our pastor a hard time about it. After all, it’s a day spent making dough balls cooked in grease.   But it is one way we show our church family that we love them.  And it is good.

“Do they know that you love them?” 

Do they–the people of this church–know that you–the leaders of this church–love and care for them? My immediate inner response? “Are they supposed to?” Which was quickly followed by a careening set of “ohmygosh I’m so messed up of course they should know that because it should be true and we should be showing them and there should be no question.”

This little 14-thought-pile-up happened inside a person who had walked through several years of church conflict, some of which was personal and some of which was not.  In an environment where survival seemed to be the only goal, ministry was motivated by a tangle of obligation and passion and intention and accidental discovery.  I was aware of two realities at work: the reality that God was still sustaining and caring for His church, and the reality that my inner conversation was peppered with cynicism and hopelessness.  

“Do they know that you love them?”

I was surprised at how foreign this thought was for me. I don’t think it had occurred to me to intentionally make an effort to express to the people I lead that I actually love them.  What did occur to me was just how much of a messy leader I had become. Had I taken on bad leadership practices? Had I failed to take on good ones? Why in the world was God keeping me around in such a state?

I still can’t figure out that last question, but I know that as a result of being ‘kept around’,  I am being taught by great leaders. Books and blogs about leadership are helpful, but my perspective has been permanently changed for the better by experienced leaders looking me in the eye while displaying and teaching godly leadership in a million different situations.

“Do they know that you love them?”

I’m going to write a bit this week about how I see great leaders expressing their love and appreciation to those they lead.  Stick around. It doesn’t always look like what you’d expect!

Theme Philippians 1:19-30, landing on the idea of ‘joy’ in all circumstances.   

More detail
Everybody Praise the Lord:  short, instrumental version
Welcome/Announcements
Ministry Highlight: Family Ministries 
Everybody Praise the Lord: full version with vocals. Fun, ‘bouncy’ song, catchy chorus.
Unashamed Love: Truly, I love this song.  A favorite of our congregation.
Mighty to Save: Despite the fact that it is a favorite for many churches and beautifully written, it seems like our congregation struggles to really connect through this song. But it’s got so much truth in it, I want to keep trying!
Hallelujah: an ‘add-on’ song that repeats 4 lines over and over. Can be shaped however you want.
Message
Everybody Praise the Lord: (during offering) reprise of the full version with vocals.

Thoughts I invited a friend of ours to play electric guitar with the band this week.  He used to be heavily involved in another area church, but just returned from touring so has not yet jumped back in with any particular church.  He’s a phenomenal player, so it was fun having him with us.  Also discovered that our male vocalist had sung ‘Everybody Praise’ quite a bit at his former gig as a worship leader, so we had strong, fun vocals going there. The detail noted above was for our 11:00 service.  We followed the original plan for the 9:45 service, and it just didn’t seem to work well for the congregation.  That plan began with the full vocal version of ‘Everybody Praise’, followed by announcements & ministry highlight, then went into ‘Unashamed Love’.  ’Everybody Praise’ has the potential of setting up a strong momentum, really engaging people in participating and singing.  It seemed like we established that momentum early in the 9:45, but never regained it after the ministry highlight.  So we chose to move the full vocal version of ‘Everybody Praise’ to follow the verbal announcement section.  This seemed to work well, except for setting up a potentially awkward transition into the completely different mood of  ’Unashamed Love’.  By keeping ‘Everybody Praise’ light… making comments to the congregation here and there through the song, it then seemed natural to invite them to turn and greet someone around them at the end of the song, which provided a chance to change the mood a bit. 

Many questions pop up…. do there have to be verbal ministry highlights? is there really such a thing as ‘worship momentum’? how can you really tell if people are engaged?  The first question leads to a larger conversation about a communication strategy.  The second and third lead to a conversation that is largely subjective.  I don’t know how to effectively answer except to say that when leading congregational worship, one does get a sense that people are engaged or not… that they are willing to move with you or not.   Our congregation is not highly demonstrative; that’s just who we are.  But even within a relatively small continuum of response, it is possible to discern when most of the people are focusing their attention on worshiping God, and when they are not.  It is not our job, as leaders, to make that happen.  But it IS our role to create opportunities that are conducive. Things are never dull in worship experience design land.  :)  What are your thoughts?

This post is a part of Sunday Setlists at Fred McKinnon’s blog. Go there to see what lots of other churches experienced this Sunday.   

Topic: This is the second week of our ‘Letter to the Philippians’ series, focusing on part of Philippians 1.  We also observed the Lord’s Supper today. 

More detail:
Welcome/announcements
Cry Out Your Name:  a ‘old favorite’, good opener, always plays well.
A Thousand Hallelujahs:  this was our second week to use this song.  It’s a great opening-set-song for us… fun to sing, great lyrics, energetic.  Mark Roach is a worship leader & songwriter in St. Louis whom I’ve met. You should definitely check out more of his music; he’s a quality leader and artist.
Lord’s Supper intro & set-up:  the usual flow of communion for us involves a verbal set-up & prayer, then trays of bread are passed out to the congregation.  After everyone has received bread, the pastor invites everyone to eat together.  Prayer again, then trays of little communion cups are passed out to the congregation… after everyone receives the cup, all drink it together.  This means we usually need two sections of music.  Sometimes we use purely instrumental music, sometimes vocal, sometimes the congregation is invited to sing along.
You Gave Your Life Away:  new for us. Used this song today during the Lord’s Supper as a reflection piece.  Greg, a great vocalist for us, did a beautful job singing lead, along with two female vocals on harmony here and there.  Instrumentation was sparse piano, bass, and B3.  Adding in long instrumental interludes, we stretched it across both communion elements.   LOVE this song.
Prayer
How Great is Our God (offering):  this flowed out of  ‘You Gave Your Life..’ after prayer.  This is very well-known and provided a way for the congregation to respond wholeheartedly following communion.  Chose to go into the chorus of  ‘How Great Thou Art’ as the ending.
Message

Overall, a simple worship service, with the communion time as a worshipful centerpiece, if you will.  Both new songs will hopefully find a home on our ‘regular’ list.  I’m SO very grateful for great worship writers.

This post is a part of Sunday Setlists where you can see what other churches are doing during their worship experiences.  Check it out!

Meet Sparky.

Meet Sparky’s new best friend, Happy.

And his other new best friend, Sleepy.

In a dazzling display of parental enthusiasm never seen around these parts, Sparky came to live with our family today.  
He is our first family dog.

He is very friendly, very loving, well-behaved, and very smart.  
Except for when he became obsessed by the ‘other dog’ in the fireplace.

And there was this moment.

That would be a favorite stuffed animal that happens to have a rattle inside.  
Sparky thought he was the luckiest guy in the world.  Jonathan was not so thrilled.

They tell us that Sparky is an Australian Shepherd mix.

But most pictures I find of Australian Shepherds look like this.

So I’m thinking we’ll be emphasizing the ‘MIX’ part of Sparky’s description.

Turns out daddy is quite happy about bringing Sparky into the family, despite all his attempts to portray the skeptic.  Today was a great day for daddy, because in addition to being the Best Dad Ever Because We Got a Dog, he had the chance to use this camera, which belongs to our friend Justin.

I’m hoping to post a bit of video later, taken from the above camera as well as from our totally inferior family Finepix point-and-shoot.

(what? Christmas decorations? what?)

I’m finding that I need to give some things very close to me some real attention.  So I’m backing off any preoccupation I might have with maintaining an online presence.   

Thanks for reading.  I’ll be back.

   Candles.  Cookies.  Presents.  Story of Jesus.  Story of redemption.  Laughter.  Rest.  Games.  Travel.  Conversation.  Silence.  Together.  Apart.  Celebration.  Anticipation.  Surprise.  Joy.

 Like you, our celebration of Christmas has included all these things.

 Emmanuel.  God with us. Every day.

 May you know this to be true as you walk through whatever your celebrations bring!