Mondays Are Back...

Some of you know that I am officially finished with my worship commitment over at the Immerse Bible Study. I thought it would be good to thank the Immerse team and maybe even try to process some of my thoughts on worship the past couple of months.

• THANKS! I cannot thank Randy Prosperi and Ross Conner enough for this awesome opportunity...it was an absolute pleasure to serve on Monday nights. Both of these guys are passionate about serving college students in the Tyler area and I'm glad to have partnered with them in that! In addition, I've been encouraged by students like Scott Conaway, "Dal," AdrianA. and Danielle who are so faithful to serve each week. And I can't forget our musicians...Andrew Pulley, Paul James, Jason Scott, Dale Bradley, Aaron Laird, David Moody and Justin Romack all added their considerable talents to worship and it made a huge difference.
  
  
• I've learned a lot over the past few months. I've been challenged by the need to get to know a new crowd quickly and to work toward finding songs that "work." This is always a hard balance...finding songs that people like but also serving those people as a pastor. I've enjoyed their passion. The Immerse crowd is diverse - but one consistent element is their passion for the Father. I've been inspired by that.
  
  
• I'm glad to have my Monday nights back! I've loved doing it, but it will be nice to spend Monday nights at home again!
  
  
• I've got nothing but good things to say about this experience...some folks have asked about my "leaving." Let me assure you that all is well. This transition out was talked about long before I started, so it wasn't any huge shocker. I look forward to hearing (and hopefully seeing-in-person) more great things about Immerse on Monday nights!

Thanks to all of you who have watched the online broadcasts, asked me about Immerse, commented on blogs, etc.

Who knows what I'll take on next....

Immerse Recap

First off, thanks so much for all of those who have asked how the kick-off for Immerse went on Monday. I apologize that I couldn't blog it up Monday night, but I had a retreat Tues-Wed and I just ran out of time.

I'm trying to edit some video of the worship, but that may have to wait until I can steal some time from something else!

Immerse went great. First off, the band did a wonderful job. Romack and Paul James held down drums and bass and Andrew Pulley, an Immerse guy, did piano. Andrew is very good and I'm looking forward to playing with him more. Romack and Paul were, of course, spot-on.

Not counting band and other volunteers, we had around 40 kids there. It felt great - laid back, casual, and the students were both respectful and passionate during the song set. For our first one of 2009, we were trying a couple of things...

1. New sound system. We opted for a smaller, more portable setup. I think it allowed for the crowd to hear themselves better during worship. I brought a couple of powered monitors and they worked great.
2. New stage. As you'll see below, we're on a small stage. The building we rent for this has a bigger, theater-style stage, but once of Immerse's founders built a great stage that was about half-as-tall as the normal staging. Made the service feel a lot more normal and cool that way, in my opinion.

We'll see what next week holds. I've got to put a setlist together as soon as possible and I'm hoping that I'll get the chance to get to know some of those kids better next week. For the rest of the week, I'll be posting a few video clips of the worship set...in case you enjoy watching such things. You might have to crank volume a little to hear Paul and Andrew...they both did good, but I'll probably have to bump them in the house a bit next week.

ON COLLEGE...

Let me first thank those of you who commented on the WCMS series. I really do have some sharp readers and I appreciate the perspectives you all bring to the table.

I think the comments given were great - many of them being great lead-ins to more conversation and study about what the whole issue of "parachurch" means.

I don't have the comment threads open in front of me, but I thought I might wrap this up by responding to some of the thoughts you guys shared. First, I'll throw my thoughts out there and then a follow-up question to see what you think:

ON PRINCIPALS
Are discipleship, accountability, Bible Study and prayer important elements in a believer's life? Absolutely. Is Immerse going to meet all of those needs? I'm not sure. Maybe they'll hit just one. But how does this disqualify them? Are we really going to take the attitude of you're-not-a-church-so-you-can't-do-these-things? Or is there some magic cutoff? ("Well, there's already a BSM and a Campus Crusade Office. So we don't need you.")

It seems that most of you are saying that a parachurch college ministry isn't "enough"...it's likely that a small ministry like Immerse won't be able to do all of those things. But how does that make it dangerous?

Please hear me...I understand what most of you are saying, but what I can't seem to grasp is the Great Danger in college students meeting together during the week to worship and study God's Word. I'm not trying to speak in favor of the sub-culture here, but if I come across 45 college students who want to spend the next 20 Monday nights digging into God's Word, I don't think the Church should be scared of that. I might be off here, but from the comments I'm picking up an overall suspicion or concern about parachurch ministry.

The Question: What are the negative effects of a college parachurch ministry in your experience? What's the logical extension of your concern...what can go wrong about services like this.

ON DISOBEDIENCE
I'll say this about the idea that parachurch ministry and youth groups and Beth Moore and women's Bible Studies are somehow an act of disobedience. (Which is interesting because now we're even talking about the local church more than a college ministry!)

When we came to Bethel, Kristen got involved in a Tuesday morning Bible Study and it has been life-changing for her. She has worked her way through the Old Testament, learning things, memorizing scripture, bringing that wisdom with her into worship and it has allowed my wife, a very shy person, to connect with other women of God in an amazing way.

My son and daughter are involved in a children's program every Sunday and they are NOT in our corporate worship service...and I wouldn't change it for the world. My kids are quoting scripture to me, they are praying things from God's Word and they cannot wait to get to church on Sunday morning.

The whole idea of keeping a church body all together all the time has merit...I truly don't want to mock that. But to imply that my church (and therefore my family) is in some form of disobedience to the Father is simply not true. I'm here. I'm seeing it first hand. And it's all kinds of obedient. (Titus 2:3-5)

One other thought that arises with the whole "fault" of separated ministries is this...if this is really a matter of college kids not having their heads on straight, then why does every church I can think of have trouble reaching and keeping this crowd?

I'm not kidding. This isn't a one church problem, guys. How's the college turnout at your place? 'Cause at my church, it could be a whole lot better. We've got great young adults, but they're kinda' outnumbered.

The Question: Is it possible that college students at churches in Tyler and Lufkin and Houston and Denton and Jacksonville are ALL being punks and not committing to the church? Or is there a possibility that we could be doing things better?

THE REALITY
Here's what I know...

I've been asked to lead worship for a ministry that wants to give college students a great opportunity to study His Word. And in accepting that invitation, I take on a responsiblity...a responsibility to lead worship that is God-honoring and Biblical in a Christian culture that is filled with random spiritual cliches set to music that tickles the ears but does nothing for the mind.

Now, I may go lead at Immerse and hate it and do my three weeks and then head for the house...or God may take control of my schedule and do something totally different...those are all possibilities. But if college kids want a time and a space to worship God and to learn what He has to say, then those of us who care and who are smart and gifted of God better step up and get involved. That's my take.

As I mentioned, I totally get what you guys are saying. And in truth, I agree with about 85% of what you're saying...

AND THAT'S EXACTLY WHY I'LL BE THERE ON MONDAY NIGHTS.

Ministry is messy and some would say college ministry is even messier. God's asked me to get messy for the next three or four Mondays and I'm going to do it. And I couldn't be more excited.

Again...thanks for getting involved in conversations like these. They help more than you'll know. I covet your prayer over the next few Mondays. I want to walk in way that pleases the Father.

WHY COLLEGE MINISTRY STINKS, Part 3

As I prepare to start leading worship for "Immerse," a city-wide college Bible study, we're looking at common challenges within college ministry. I'd love to know what you think about these posts...what you've seen, learned, experienced through ministries like this.

Beware the Worship Junkie!

Challenge #3 in college ministry is all about Worship.

One common issue among city-wide college ministries is an unhealthy view of "worship." And I'm using in this context as most do...the songs, prayers, and stuff that happens in the first thirty minutes before the preaching. I don't think that's specific to college students - most folks default to the worship-as-music thing pretty easily.

In my experience, many college students don't feel like the worship at their home churches fits them. You hear phrases like I just can't connect with those songs or there's no life in our worship. I think there are a lot of reasons why college students think like this...and almost all of is pretty unhealthy...but it's still a reality. And because of that reality, ministries like Metro, Breakaway, Immerse, inject-your-trendy-service-name-here end up attracting all kinds of worship junkies.

These are kids who LOVE worship...they're passionate, they want to engage in music and creativity and they want worship to be something that's important...they want to know that their worship is "doing something." Those aren't bad things - those are good things. But what typically happens is that we've got a room filled with kids who've come to get goosebumps. And that's not healthy. For a lot of reasons.

So, how do we manage the worship junkies? What can worship leaders do to create a time that's reverent and right according to God's Word?

1. GO SMALLER
   "Going smaller" is the voluntary act of down-playing worship ad nauseam. Worship leaders can use a lot of practical tips to make this happen; in the large scheme we are trying to make it evident that our focus is on the words of God...and not ourselves. We've gathered to hear something that we know to be divinely inspired - not spending an hour singing songs that we think might be divinely inspired. Practically...
   
   Shorten your set. I know a lot of songs. That doesn't mean we need to sing seven of them...or sing three of them for 52 minutes. Shortening the set makes it evident that this form of worship is prepatory - it's leading us to something. Something holy and true and spoken by the Father.
   Change up the band. Put nine people on stage and your crowd is going to expect the All American Freedom Jam. If you think your crowd is prone to worship the worship, then use less instrumentation. Sit or stand closer to the crowd. Use less stage lighting. Make it clear that you're just a few folks who aren't rock stars who are doing this thing for the Father.
   Don't do covers. There's a great new Sanctus Real song called "Black Coal." It's awesome and I'd LOVE to play it sometime with a great band behind me. But it's not built for worship...it's a great concert song, but adding covers or show-off performances into your set is going to cause folks to think and talk and remember more about you and the band that what was actually preached from scripture.
   
   
2. USE SCRIPTURE
   Reading scripture in between songs is an obvious statement about why we gather together to worship in this way. And I'm not even talking about reading a scripture and then preaching on it for four minutes. (There's a time and place for that...but be wise about over-talking.) Hearing scripture in a set reminds folks that what we're doing is something that God tells us is important. It's important to Him and it's important for us.
   
   This isn't hard and fast...but we just need to be on the lookout for opportunities to make God's Word heard!
   
   
3. LIVE IT OUT
   The way we talk about our college ministries makes all the difference. If you lead worship one night and four people find you afterward to tell you how rockin' it was, be gracious...but also guard your heart. Praise like that can easily feed ego.
   
   If you're able, find ways to talk about the overall ministry...what's happening with the small groups or how the sermon series is working. Pray that God will give you eyes and ears to appreciate the whole ministry effort and not just your 30 minutes.

Okay...

A lot of you readers have played gigs like this one. How can we prevent "worshipping the worship?"