I have literally taken almost a year's leave of absence from this blog. What a slacker!
I've expressed with you, in the past, how I despise inconsistency. I could have conceivably written on this blog on and off at different times since my last post, but if I don't do something consistently, then I refuse to do it.
It's like working out. I know I'm supposed to work out, and not just hit the weights hard once, but I'm supposed to go back, and hit them again in a day or two or the results aren't as solid. That always just leaves me with, in my mind, excellent excuses to not work out.
Another reason I've abandoned my blogging ambitions was because if I couldn't do it the way Jon Acuff suggested, then I must not be doing it write (is that a bad play on words right there?) Jon suggests hustle. If you want to live out your dream, then wake up early, before the birds, and the sun, and the world, at 5am and spend time on your dream. My main issue was I had a job that required me to be at work at 5, so if I was to get up before I needed that meant 3 something. Despite the countless efforts to actually do that (yeah, call me crazy but my alarm went off a couple times at 3:30, my wife wasn't too pleased about that one) I failed miserably when sleep kept calling me back into bed.
Needless to say, I am trying to start this back up, mostly for fun, but also to keep you in the loop about what's going on in my life and student ministry.
On Saturday, my good buddy, Brandon, drove all the way here from Illinois to spend time with a bunch of my students and I.
This wasn't just any sort of "hanging out." He came across two time zones, three states, and 5 plus hours in the car, to help lead a band of students in a night of worship.
This night of worship was to help raise awareness (awareness not money because we weren't allowed to take a love offering, I didn't get it approved at the last business meeting in time, yeah I was bummed, and felt like a terrible youth pastor) for our summer missions trips.
I didn't want to invite the entire church (which we did) to a poorly produced event (which it wasn't!) To combat that, Brandon, and I set out, at 10 am that morning with all our students in the band, 6 to be exact, to spend a day working on this night of worship.
It was long. It was exhausting. It was tiring.
But it was AWESOME!
The day turned out to be incredible, and not only did we work on, and perfect these songs, but we almost did like a worship "workshop."
We taught the students about how worship is more than singing, it's more than sitting in pews on a Sunday morning, it's more than we typically attribute to the word worship.
We also expressed to them the importance of knowing the song very well, so that when you are upfront leading a congregation you can focus on worship, not on remembering the nuances of the song.
The event went off without a hitch, media worked, music was loud (very loud, good thing it was a student event) and people genuinely worshipped!
To top it off we raised an awesome amount of money for our missions trip by selling cookies (Who knew you could sell a cookie for $100?! I need to get the recipe for the benefit of my own bank account!)
Saturday was a great day!
What experiences have you had with student led worship events?
Camps and Mission Trips provide very high mountain top experiences. Students embark on a week long journey where they are thrust into new situations, high energy environments, lots of new friends, and experiences where they can encounter God often.
