I have found my oasis in an event that unfolds this week.

I know this is oasis because we spent much of today laughing and creating and working alongside good friends that we love dearly and don’t get to see often. I know this is oasis because we walked into a cozy venue tonight, welcomed by friends with whom we share passion for ministry and art. I know this is oasis because we met a new table full of people, and immediately were connected in conversations about faith and ministry and family. We did not know everyone in the room, and we won’t by the end of the week. But we are drawn together through a common love for God, for the church, for art, and for music. A true blessing.

I know this is oasis because my soul was quieted and inspired as we listened to stories and songs by a woman who has been one of my favorite musician artists since I was ten years old. As the words of Ephesians 6 were sung over us in a holy moment at the close of the evening,  I found myself saying over and over in a noiseless whisper, “thank you… thank you… thank you…”

Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. ….. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

There will be more noiseless whispers during holy moments throughout the week, and there will be an uncommon amount of thankfulness expressed by me. Because this oasis helps me stay humble and makes me thankful.

Whatever you oasis is, make sure you get there from time to time. You will not regret it. Purpose, thankfulness, and blessing. A drenching of the soul.

Oasis.

Randy Elrod (re:create founder), “The Curse of the Blessings of God” For the first time in the 9 years of this event, Randy was the speaker for a session.  Out of his own long history in ministry, he shared incredible insights with honesty and wisdom.  This session left me feeling hopeful…. which I realized is not a place I live very often. My twitter comment after this session was something like: “It’s as though Randy Elrod just pointed us to a skylight in a previously darkened room and said “Hey! Look up!  Sky!” memorable points…

• we think technology means “reality & freedom”, when it really means “artificial & monopolizing”
• be where you are
• we need relationships with real people who are physically present in our lives
• “Satan’s primary job may not be keeping good men from the truth, but keeping good men with the truth from each other” (can’t remember whose quote this is)
• without intentional safeguards in place, being a successful leader & influencer will lead to a place of loneliness
• in the end we have a choice:  burnout & cynicism vs. being true to what God has called you to, regardless of what change that brings to your current situation.

The Eucharist, with Ian Morgan Cron We learned a bit about Ian Cron during our first session with him (listed here) and sitting with him at a few meals. We learned he is a theologian, a teacher, a Christ-follower, an Anglican priest, a man with a fierce sense of humor, and a visionary.  He taught us about the liturgy of the Eucharist (most often called ‘communion’ or ‘Lord’s Supper’ in our church), which was something I had never heard explained.  He then led us through a Eucharist service that he and a colleague had written for his church. We each had a chance to come forward and receive the bread from Ian and the cup from Randy.  We prayed, confessed, sang, cried, proclaimed…. all in an atmosphere of beautiful reverence that I have never quite experienced before.  I love being in an atmosphere of quiet & beauty.  Some things bubbled to the surface for me that I’ll spend a while thinking about and praying through.

Anne Jackson Anne has recently released a book called Mad Church Disease.  I have just begun to read it.  The book is about the epidemic of burnout among those who work in church ministry.  Anne spoke about her own experiences, made some clear observations, and asked us to consider two questions:

•  is serving in the church interfering with your communion with Christ?
• are you living in the integrity of your conscience?

She invited us to spend time praying with each other over these questions.  It was a sweet time.

Music Josh Wilson.  Amazing musical artist.  Don’t think I had heard of him before, but after seeing/hearing him perform about 4 songs live with just his guitar & keyboard, I downloaded his entire CD.  You should too. Fee Band closed out the conference our last evening.  I first heard Steve Fee on a Passion CD several years ago. After experiencing his band lead worship, these are some thoughts that went through my head…. He has been mentored by some incredible people.  He is incredibly intense, but equally engaging. Songs are amazing.  Band is incredibly tight and strong. They brought the thunder. Period.  I know Steve didn’t go from college-student-with-guitar to award-winning-band overnight, and that adds to the unmistakable impression that he has learned and experienced and led and followed enough to be in front of a crowd and lead in worship with integrity, energy, sincerity, and an incredibly mix of humility and confidence. Yes. I am a fan. Also heard from Tenth Avenue North, Sara Reeves, Carl Cartee, Travis Cottrell, and Chris Sligh. I have non-stop mixes of everyone’s songs running in my head.  Quite the musical feast.

Conversation While I won’t recap the contents, I do have to say that one of the most valuable things about this conference is the chance to talk to others who live in similar ministry situations as we do.  Sharing about past journeys, present questions, future prayers…. everything from big-picture-questions to specific issues that come up in ministry. I came here having met a few people last year and having learned to know a few others through blogs and twitter. Neil came here never having met anyone, but having connected a bit through blogs.  We leave feeling as though we have a new, solid circle of friends in our lives. We are awed and grateful.

Randy Elrod (re:create founder), “The Curse of the Blessings of God”
For the first time in the 9 years of this event, Randy was the speaker for a session.  Out of his own long history in ministry, he shared incredible insights with honesty and wisdom.  This session left me feeling hopeful…. which I realized is not a place I live very often. My twitter comment after this session was something like: “It’s as thought Randy Elrod just pointed us to a skylight in a previously darkened room and said “Hey! Look up!  Sky!”

memorable points…

• we think technology means “reality & freedom”, when it really means “artificial & monopolizing”
• be where you are
• we need relationships with real people who are physically present in our lives
• “Satan’s primary job may not be keeping good men from the truth, but keeping good men with the truth from each other” (can’t remember whose quote this is)
• without intentional safeguards in place, being a successful leader & influencer will lead to a place of loneliness
• in the end we have a choice:  burnout & cynicism vs. being true to what God has called you to, regardless of what change that brings to your current situation.

The Eucharist, with Ian Morgan Cron
We learned a bit about Ian Cron during our first session with him (listed here) and sitting with him at a few meals. We learned he is a theologian, a teacher, a Christ-follower, an Anglican priest, a man with a fierce sense of humor, and a visionary.  He taught us about the liturgy of the Eucharist (most often called ‘communion’ or ‘Lord’s Supper’ in our church), which was something I had never heard explained.  He then led us through a Eucharist service that he and a colleague had written for his church.

We each had a chance to come forward and receive the bread from Ian and the cup from Randy.  We prayed, confessed, sang, cried, proclaimed…. all in an atmosphere of beautiful reverence that I have never quite experienced before.  I love being in an atmosphere of quiet & beauty.  Some things bubbled to the surface for me that I’ll spend a while thinking about and praying through.

Anne Jackson
Anne has recently released a book called Mad Church Disease.  I have just begun to read it.  The book is about the epidemic of burnout among those who work in church ministry.  Anne spoke about her own experiences, made some clear observations, and asked us to consider two questions:

•  is serving in the church interfering with your communion with Christ?
• are you living in the integrity of your conscience?

She invited us to spend time praying with each other over these questions.  It was a sweet time.

Music
Josh Wilson.  Amazing musical artist.  Don’t think I had heard of him before, but after seeing/hearing him perform about 4 songs live with just his guitar & keyboard, I downloaded his entire CD.  You should too.

Fee Band closed out the conference our last evening.  I first heard Steve Fee on a Passion CD several years ago. After experiencing his band lead worship, these are some thoughts that went through my head…. He has been mentored by some incredible people.  He is incredibly intense, but equally engaging. Songs are amazing.  Band is incredibly tight and strong. They brought the thunder. Period.  I know Steve didn’t go from college-student-with-guitar to award-winning-band overnight, and that adds to the unmistakable impression that he has learned and experienced and led and followed enough to be in front of a crowd and lead in worship with integrity, energy, sincerity, and an incredibly mix of humility and confidence.  Yes.  I am a fan. 

Also heard from Tenth Avenue North, Sara Reeves, Carl Cartee, Travis Cottrell, and Chris Sligh.

I have non-stop mixes of everyone’s songs running in my head.  Quite the musical feast.

Conversation
While I won’t recap the contents, I do have to say that one of the most valuable things about this conference is the chance to talk to others who live in similar ministry situations as we do.  Sharing about past journeys, present questions, future prayers…. everything from big-picture-questions to specific issues that come up in ministry.  I came here having met a few people last year and having learned to know a few others through blogs and twitter. Neil came here never having met anyone, but having connected a bit through blogs.  We leave feeling as though we have a new, solid circle of friends in our lives.

We are awed and grateful.

• reconnected with Cynthia, who was a fellow woman-attending-alone last year.  
• Like me, Cynthia brought her husband this year, so we’ve enjoyed learning to know Todd.
• reconnected with Chris, Mark, Rich, Marina, Bryan, Mark,  Carlos, J-Vo, and Tahni, all of whom I met last year.
• Met Brent & Tam (finally and with great joy), Joel, Fred, Jan, and Alastair, all of whom I learned to know through blogging over the past year.  
• am bowled over by what Randy and Chris are able to put together for this gathering
• Listened to some amazing jazz by the Adam Nitti Band.  AMAZING.  Watch Adam Nitti play bass and be inspired to become better at whatever you do.
• Worshipped with Carl Cartee, who taught us a few new songs.  Which we will be learning at our church.
• Considered the tension between senses/experience/emotion/beauty  and  reason/thought/ideas/truth, a topic skillfully unpacked by Dr. Steven Guthrie
• Was surprised by a peek into the history of contemporary Christian music via Billy Ray Hearn and Matthew Ward (formerly of 2nd Chapter of Acts).  Was equally surprised by how this conversation was emotional for me. Watch a clip of Matthew at Joel’s site. 
• Was bowled over by Ian Morgan Cron‘s ideas about connecting deeply with God through contemplative disciplines. Seriously will not get over this one for a while.
• Heard new songs by Meredith Andrews, Matt Boswell, and Michael Farren. 
• aaaand had a sweet time of worship led by Michael W. Smith… just he and a keyboard and about 100 people in the room.  Watch a short clip at Cynthia’s site. 

Now gearing up for day 3.  Will spend the day listening, thinking, talking, discovering, laughing, crying, and worshiping.  It is good.

• reconnected with Cynthia, who was a fellow woman-attending-alone last year.  
• Like me, Cynthia brought her husband this year, so we’ve enjoyed learning to know Todd.
• reconnected with Chris, Mark, Rich, Marina, Bryan, Mark,  Carlos, J-Vo, and Tahni, all of whom I met last year.
• Met Brent & Tam (finally and with great joy), Joel, Fred, Jan, and Alastair, all of whom I learned to know through blogging over the past year.  
• am bowled over by what Randy and Chris are able to put together for this gathering
• Listened to some amazing jazz by the Adam Nitti Band.  AMAZING.  Watch Adam Nitti play bass and be inspired to become better at whatever you do.
• Worshipped with Carl Cartee, who taught us a few new songs.  Which we will be learning at our church.
• Considered the tension between senses/experience/emotion/beauty  and  reason/thought/ideas/truth, a topic skillfully unpacked by Dr. Steven Guthrie
• Was surprised by a peek into the history of contemporary Christian music via Billy Ray Hearn and Matthew Ward (formerly of 2nd Chapter of Acts).  Was equally surprised by how this conversation was emotional for me. Watch a clip of Matthew at Joel’s site. 
• Was bowled over by Ian Morgan Cron‘s ideas about connecting deeply with God through contemplative disciplines. Seriously will not get over this one for a while.
• Heard new songs by Meredith Andrews, Matt Boswell, and Michael Farren. 
• aaaand had a sweet time of worship led by Michael W. Smith… just he and a keyboard and about 100 people in the room.  Watch a short clip at Cynthia’s site. 

Now gearing up for day 3.  Will spend the day listening, thinking, talking, discovering, laughing, crying, and worshiping. 

It is good.

I knew I had to go back this year, and I knew Neil had to go with me. So we’re spending the week in Nashville with a group of 150 or so other worship arts leaders.  It made the most sense for us to drive, so we’ve made our way across several states over the past couple of days.  We missed the Super Bowl to do this.  I know. There were zero little smokies for us. I briefly considered a small crockpot in the back seat.

As Neil said, there are about 12 layers of goodness around this week.   He’s on vacation from work for a week.  He and I get to spend the week together.  We get to spend the week learning to know some great people.  In a great city.  Eating great food.  And all of that is in addition to the actual content of the conference, some of which we know about, and some of which is a surprise.  It’s part of the magic of re:create. It’s part think-tank, part rest, part resourcing, part inspiration, all creative.  Hopefully I will be able to write about it a bit throughout the week.  Many others will be writing as well.  If you follow me on twitter or facebook, you’ll see a flurry of updates I’m sure.

I’m thankful for a church leadership that values these kinds of experiences for staff. I’m grateful for Neil’s week of vacation.  And I’m in awe of the fact that my mom is living in our house this week to take care of our kids.   Oh, and I’m grateful you all got to eat your little smokies.  Really.

It was a great experience; it was the best thing I’ve attended during my 9 years of in worship ministry.  Read about that experience here.  I knew I had to go back this year, and I knew Neil had to go with me.

So we’re spending the week in Nashville with a group of 150 or so other worship arts leaders.  It made the most sense for us to drive, so we’ve made our way across several states over the past couple of days.  We missed the Super Bowl to do this.  

I know. There were zero little smokies for us.

I briefly considered a small crockpot in the back seat.

As Neil said, there are about 12 layers of goodness around this week.   He’s on vacation from work for a week.  He and I get to spend the week together.  We get to spend the week learning to know some great people.  In a great city.  Eating great food.  And all of that is in addition to the actual content of the conference, some of which we know about, and some of which is a surprise.  It’s part of the magic of re:create.  It’s part think-tank, part rest, part resourcing, part inspiration, all creative. 

Hopefully I will be able to write about it a bit throughout the week.  Many others will be writing as well.  If you follow me on twitter or facebook, you’ll see a flurry of updates I’m sure.  

I’m thankful for a church leadership that values these kinds of experiences for staff. I’m grateful for Neil’s week of vacation.  And I’m in awe of the fact that my mom is living in our house this week to take care of our kids.  

Oh, and I’m grateful you all got to eat your little smokies.  Really.

This sentence became a center around which many conversations were built that week. And I totally got it.

Back at home, I shared this idea with a few people and I was met with blank stares and mumbled forms of ‘what does THAT mean?’ Hmmmm….. I could recreate Tyson’s supporting ideas, but I couldn’t tell you what it really would look like to ‘create culture’. Carlos posted this quote on his blog, and a lively comment conversation has ensued. Go there if you’re up for some heady ‘purpose’ discussion.

After thinking it over, here’s where I’ve landed:
‘changing the world‘ looks, to me, like going out into our communities and saying ‘no’. No… don’t live like that….don’t think that way….. don’t vote/dance/eat/sing/parent/spend money that way…. you’re wrong, wrong, wrong (and sometimes we’ll throw things like tantrums and grenades to try to get our way).
‘creating culture’ looks like saying ‘yes’. Yes… I’m going to try living like this…. try thinking about life this way… do you want to join me in using money like this? what if art means something like this?

What do you think?

The final full day of the re:create conference included a profound communion experience led by Mike Lewis, aka the jesus painter, and worship leader Mark Roach, who participated in the conference alongside us. Beautiful. Some of the things about this week that moved me were not surprising. Some were. The sound of 100 worship leaders singing together continually wrecked me. There were not egos in the way…. there was nothing flashy, ever. There were, instead, open conversations about struggling with self-worth…. struggling with giving quality time to our families…. struggling in our relationships with God. This allowed for immediate, heartfelt responses when we sang songs that exalted God while acknowledging the paradoxical nature of our willing brokenness.

We heard from Ken Davis, a hilarious communicator who very humbly advised us to pay attention three huge things in our journeys in ministry. Three things, by the way, that cleared up some of the main questions I had written for myself while traveling to the conference:
- the opportunity to be the best [mom, dad, husband, wife] God calls us to be (a window of opportunity, by the way, that is only open for a while)
- the opportunity to really see the ministry/career God has put right in front of you (as opposed to always striving for the next…. the bigger… the better)
- the opportunity to cultivate the relationship God wants to have with you (honesty, openness, and dependence)

So. Where are you in those three opportunities?
More later….

Need more? Perspective posted a really great description of the events of the day.

I’ll submit part 2 tomorrow….