Can I ask you a question?

What is keeping you from having a Facebook?

That is what I ask people that I meet that don’t have a Facebook page. I ask that because I am a Facebook convert. I absolutely love it. It has been an awesome place of community for me. I get to speak with old high school alumni to guys I haven’t spoken to since my days in the United States Marine Corps.

My next goal is to get my family hooked up with a Facebook page so we can still see each other in the form of story and social networking.

So why aren’t you “Facebooking”? I don’t think that is a word, but you get what I mean.

Doing devotions this morning and I came across an interesting passage…

1st Samuel 7: 1-4
“So the men of Kiriath-jearim came to get the Ark of the Lord. They took it to the hillside home of Abinadab and ordained Eleazar, his son, to be in charge of it. The Ark remained in Kiriath-jearim for a long time—twenty years in all.”

“During that time all Israel mourned because it seemed the Lord had abandoned them. Then Samuel said to all the people of Israel, “If you are really serious about wanting to return to the Lord, get rid of your foreign gods and your images of Ashtoreth. Determine to obey only the Lord; then he will rescue you from the Philistines.” So the Israelites got rid of their images of Baal and Ashtoreth and worshiped only the Lord.”

Here is what struck me…Had God abandoned them? Israel thought so. What is funny to me is that for Israel abandonment meant that the Lord just didn’t do what they wanted Him to do. They wanted Him to be where they were and if He wasn’t at their location then He was as good as gone. Never mind the fact that they all knew where the Ark was…never mind the fact that they weren’t living right. Israel let twenty years go by before they decided to seek Him. Twenty years! All because what they wanted was God to come to them instead of them. God never moved for twenty years. He didn't run off. He didn't forget about them. There He stayed guarded twenty-four hours a day.

(On a side note: If you love to worship God...can you imagine being Eleazar? He was around the Ark of God for twenty years. I have had times in my life where I dream about such a day. I can feel a deeper look into that whole situation being a future blog post.)

Can I ask you a question?

How much time will you let pass before you seek the Lord?

The economy is tough. I don’t think anyone can argue that. It’s extremely hard on everyone right now. There are millions of people unemployed everywhere. This didn’t happen overnight, no, this has been happening for the past year and a half or so. That’s why to say it is tough is no surprise.

Does it sound like I am beating a dead horse? Does it sound like I am just stating the obvious? I hope so, because I am. However, I am doing it to get to this…

I follow a few people on Twitter, and I am not going to say who because the “who” doesn’t matter. I didn’t want to write about a “who” today. I wanted to write about an ethical question. So let me set the scene up first…

Let’s just say you were the pastor or an associate pastor of a fairly large church. Let’s say that there are a lot of others on staff as well. Let’s say that because of the economy your church has had to let go other staff members because it can’t afford to keep them on the payroll. Times are tough right? Don’t get me wrong, the church has done everything right in the way of cutting where they could. They have frozen salaries, cut programs, etc. If you still worked at that church would you be using social media (i.e. Twitter, Facebook, etc.) to showcase how great your house turned out after renovation? Would you still discuss how you can’t wait to go home and watch your DVR’d cable shows? Would you discuss openly what type of new TV you are going to buy?

That is a scenario I see being played out by a well known minister that I absolutely love. Here is the thing, while I believe that this minister isn’t doing anything intentional, I wonder how he is missing the big picture. If your church had to let go of staff, freeze salaries, cut programs, and deal with the hundreds of unemployed attendee’s…than it would reason to me that I would not talk so much about how much stuff of luxury I am enjoying. Make no mistake…having your home remodeled, owning a DVR, and buying a new TV are luxuries, not necessities.

So what would you do?

If you church was experiencing difficulties financially would you see it as a business as usual?
Just thinking random…Why not be like the Dallas Cowboys were in the 90’s? Troy Aikman, Emmit Smith, and a few more gave up a small piece of their salaries to help bring others in that were hard to afford. Why wouldn’t a church want to take up that kind of attitude? It makes sense to me that if everyone sacrificed something like Cable TV, DVR’s, remodeling their homes, and new TV’s there might be some extra money freed up in the budget. That’s just my 2 cents, though…

What do you think?

There is literally a lot to do right now at First Marble Falls. I mean a ton of stuff…and I have to admit that I am not the greatest at multi-tasking. So I am trying to lay out a schedule, using Google Calendar, so I can better time manage. That seems to be the niche…time management. If you can’t manage your time, your time will manage you. It’s just that simple. Nevertheless, so far so good.

Already this week I have gotten quite a bit done.

I have the website design down and completion should be tomorrow. Yea! If I’m being honest, I am not a web designer. I am more of a great copy artist…and not even really all that great at that either. My history with web design is more 8 years ago than what today’s standards are. You web designers might even mock at that…but hey…don’t be a hater!

Anyway…got some equipment purchases out of the way today…

Bought a few items for the worship team…

• Black Microphone Stands
• Black Guitar Stands
• Black .25” Cables
• Black XLR Cables

You get the idea…kind of going with the whole black theme.

I want everything uniformed.I also purchased a 3-pack of the Sennheiser e835 series microphones as well as 2 wireless Sennheiser e835 microphones.

I am excited about using these microphones. In the past I have been a die-hard Shure fan. I have just used Shure for years and have loved the quality of sound it produces. So we’ll see how they fair. It should be great. I have seen the Sennheiser microphones perform in other churches and was just floored at how great they sound.

One word...

Awesome!

That is what describes best my first worship team meeting at my new church. It's just the beginning, I know, but it's hopeful. I was able to lock in commitments and express my views on Christian excellence and accountability. I also took the time to discuss punctuality being an integrity issue.

I also pumped into them vision and the concept of being missional. I discussed that in everything we do, every song, the look of the stage, how we dress, everything is directed at these two purposes. I spoke to them about uniting as a family, about doing life together, and about sharing in the wonderful privilege of ministry together.

It was good and I am so thankful to God for the commitments made and the challenge that they are having to endure by having a completely different worship leader. I have been where they are and totally understand the pressure of conforming to a new worship and musician playing style.

I will be praying for them daily. Each one of them individually. I want to see them stretched and matured into everything God wants them to become...and I thankful to the Lord for allowing me to experience that process with Him and them.

It's 15 minutes till my first worship team meeting as a Worship Pastor. Been praying about it and every person on the team all week. I'm already starting to feel the passion bubble up in me over their lives. I want them to achieve all that God has for them. I want them to live in the "greater than" category in life.

I spent the last hour preparing and going over notes. Going to be hitting on two things; accountability and excellence. Just want to keep it real...and keep it simple at the same time.

On a side note, I broke down and bought "Creating Community: Five Keys to Building a Small Group Culture" by Andy Stanley. We are about to start small groups soon. I actually haven't done small groups before, but I have been studying them for the past 3 or 4 years now. It's a good time as any to put knowledge into action.

My first week at my new church is coming to a close. It's been a great week and definately a learning experience. I've got a lot to learn in the way of being tactful and diligent in how I respond to certain situations, but I am giving it my all. I have to admit I am loving worship more these days...more so then before. I am still learning my niche...what makes me, me as a worship leader. I am just thankful I serve a patient people.

Allow me to give an example...

Last night I struggled to find the right vocal pitch during one of the songs. I mean it was really bad. I tried twice to get it before having to move on to the chorus and give it a last ditch effort. Thank the Lord...better yet, I believe it most definately was the Lord that allowed me to nail the chorus and drive me right on track with the rest of the song. Ah...life lessons...

You know what? I reaffirmed a core belief of mine last night...God is going to use me, despite me.

It's a fact. I mess up. I get the lyrics wrong. I get the chords wrong. I don't preach well. I don't teach well. I so desperately need God it's ridiculous...and I think that is exactly where He wants me.

"Time to get a few things finished"...That is what I'm hearing from God these days. It's time to finish my books...time to finish out other things that I have started but haven't finished.

Pray for me...pray that I be a finisher.