Why serve?

Why participate in Ministry?

I recently made a decision to leave a church that I was happy with to be a part of a church where I would have a part-time gig as the worship leader. And before I get into why I would want to leave a church and do ministry somewhere else I thought I would ask “why participate in ministry at all?”.

And my answer to that is simple: pure selfishness.

But hopefully it's a good kind of selfishness. I don't mean selfish in “HAHA now I'm in charge and can run things the way I WANT TO!” I've been friends with too many pastors to know that is not the way it works. I mean selfishness as in ministry is fun, it helps me become the person that God wants me to be, and that it gives me a social outlet that I don't know that I would have otherwise.

The “fun” part of ministry should be self explanatory. If you are not having some fun & enjoying Christ in your ministry then why would anyone else want to? Not that things will ever be fun all the time but ministry should be fun sometimes, right? It least I think it's fun.

Almost all the growing I do in Christ and as a person comes from me participating in some form of ministry. For the last few years I have been helping out mostly in youth & music ministries. And the stuff I have learned and the ways God has changed me through those ministries has helped me become more confident, more humble, more empathetic, more disciplined, more skillful, and a better communicator. And that helps all aspects of my life and not just the ones that coincide with church.

Church gives me a social outlet that I would not have otherwise. I recently had a youth at youth group say that he was scared that he would wind up like his parents and have no friends when he got older. As I get older it is hard to look at people I grew up with and see that they have almost no friends. As people get more and more lonely Church, and particularly helping in a ministry, can be a great way to stay connected. Of course, church can also be full of mean people who want to hurt you. But that's another post for another time.

My TOP TEN worship songs

Highly subject to change but this is what I got right now

10 “Lord of the Dance” Of all the silly jump around

songs that they do at Chrysalis, this one is my favorite. The youth really go nuts and it is great to see that enthusiasm.

9 “Glory to God” Just awesome. I love that the chorus and verses are down and that the energy doesn’t really go up until the bridge.

8 “Open our eyes Lord” I love simplicity. This is one of those songs I find myself singing to myself over and over. It is less than 30 seconds long but it really drives its point home.

7 “Heart of Worship” This is actually on a lot of people’s least favorite list. Yes the melody is simple… but that’s the point.

6 “My Savior My God” Mostly because of this line “You count it strange so once did I… before I knew my savior”.

5 “Mighty to Save” Running out of things to say here. Like Glory to God the bridge is where all the power of this song comes from.

4 “I am Free” I remember back when I first started

going to Eastpoint this was the big rock song and people just went through the roof when they started that opening riff.

3 “Amazing Grace (My chains are gone)” Just haunting >and beautiful. And who doesn’t love Amazing Grace?

2 “Everyone” By far my favorite song we do at church The dynamics are so great it is something I would never try to do w just me and an acoustic guitar. It takes a team to pull this one off.

1 “Hear My Cry” I wonder if there is anyone out there

that even remembers this song. It’s an old Chrysalis and camp song but nobody

ever sings it anymore and I don’t make people sing it at chrysalis because I

don’t want to be a hypocrite for telling people to stop playing the old songs

so much. I learned it my first year of playing and became fascinated with “A to

A2” and “D to D2” chord switches. Ah the wonders of how a chord can sound sodifferent just by picking up one finger. “And when my heart is overwhelmed please lead me to the rock… that is higher than I”.

Hello...

I'm recently became a “Praise & Worship” leader for a church plant and thought I would write a blog about it. If you are wondering what “Praise & Worship” music is I’ll let you know when I figure it out but it basically means the kind of music played in church.

I started playing guitar during my first year of collage mostly just because I needed a musical outlet since I left band and choir behind in high school. I learned guitar the same way a lot of you will: by myself with a book full of confusing chord charts and cheesy songs. I think “Michael Rowed the Boat Ashore” was the first song I learned. At the time I was excited that I could play any song no matter how old and cheesy it was.

I played in ecumenical groups such as Chrysalis and Intervarsity Christian Fellowship. I started playing bass in a local church. From there I got lessons and started playing lead guitar stuff and now I am leading worship for a church plant. I've been in a support role for so long it will be different being the guy who has to make everything happen. It will be interesting.