Changes

5 years ago, only Harvey and I were on staff and I tried to take care of anything that wasn’t preaching. It was messy.

When I think about where God has brought us now, I get a bit foggy eyed at the sheer amount of people pouring out their lives for something bigger, and mostly just grateful God has kept the wheels on this thing. It’s been a twisting road thus far, and certainly not a script that I am smart or brave enough to have written.

We’ve been receiving a lot of questions recently about all of the changes in the worship ministry of Living Stones. Some of those questions have come in from those curious and caring. Others have wielded them as weapons.

One thing I have gleaned from those wiser and more experienced is that effective ministry is built on an unchanging Gospel through constantly changing means. So the “why” we do ministry and the “who we do it for” is constant, while the “when”, “where”, and some of the “how” is always in a state of flux. Things like Jesus and the Scriptures stay in a closed hand while things like music style, ministry structure, and systems are in an open hand.

This past year, it became clear that in order to grow we were going to need to revamp some of the systems in the open hand. My role was shifting from leading a team every weekend at services, to overseeing six bands and developing band leaders. As the needs of the ministry grew, I knew we were going to eventually tear down what he had previously built in order to grow, progress, and serve the community.

Many have noticed that the faces on stage every weekend have changed, including my band ‘Zimmerman’. Actually, all 6 bands have been reworked and more changes are planned for the rest of the year. The “why” of ministry hasn’t changed; to worship Christ with our lives and to help the LS community articulate things of the faith in song. But as the ministry continues to grow, the needs and requirements of what I oversee have grown too.

New objectives have arisen, such as:
-providing a consistent worship experience for all of the services
-limiting new material presented to the community so they can learn and engage with current songs
-balancing out the bands in terms of maturity and talent
-setting a consistent schedule so that the community feesl more connected to their worship leaders
-providing opportunities for new musicians to prove faithfulness in using their gifts for the Kingdom

These objectives could change at any time, but for now this is a sampling of what we are striving for.

‘Zimmerman’ is changing too. Aaron is moving his family to Las Vegas and will be missed. He’s a good friend and has been a servant to the community for many years. Brennen is now singing with Ricky Turner’s band, ‘Outlet’ to help take that band to the next level and will be singing at Living Stones a lot more often really soon. What has been known as ‘Zimmerman’ in the past will look different in the future, with some musicians playing with me at Living Stones, and others playing outside events when they arise. I have been revitalized by some songwriting and recording these past few months with several different artists in the LS community.

I can honestly say that I have never been this excited or at peace about the worship ministry of LS. Things are still messy and I’m trying to learn as much as I can while applying the Gospel to how we grow and develop. I am desperately trying to make sure the right things stay unchanging, and the rest is held in a very open hand.

Character

This year has been marked by a lot of questions and conversations about the relationship between talent and character.

It presents 2 opportunities for disaster and 1 for incredible output.

The dangers of talent without character are obvious; doping baseball players, sex scandals in churches, etc... The picture is of a grapefruit on a pencil...heavy up top with very little to support it. When the pressures and responsibilities that accompany high performance come, there is no sandbar to keep the waters from washing out the whole thing.

Character without talent leads to a different juncture. This can play out a few ways, primarily having someone be passionate about something they aren't necessarily gifted in. No harm done in the realm of entertainment or hobbying, but professionally this can be disastrous.

Bring this conversation into the social sector, and particularly the church, and the stakes are raised. No one balks at the fact that character is a non-negotiable in great churches. But what if someone has great character and average talent?

Talent is subjective sure, but most people can identify when someone is functioning in their sweet-spot from a mile away.

One last thought: it seems we have more (not absolute) control over our own character than our talent. Yet everyone knows the value of working hard to develop your skills. This informs where we invest our efforts.

Both.

Set from tonight

Dust - Anchordown
Let Our Faith Be Not Alone - Robbie Seay (unreleased)
Thank You - Sinnead O'Connnor
Song of the Broken - Something Like Silas
Glory of It All - David Crowder Band

I love our community. Today was a good day (baptisms) and tonight was a good night.
DZ

Origins

Last night we started the new Genesis teaching series at Living Stones.

It got me thinking about the origin of sin and why people rebel against their Maker. The Maker that we are made in the image of.

We are made in His likeness.

We are made with similarities to Him.

The differences between us and God seems more obvious to me than the similarities. But that probably comes from a long history of false beliefs about God and man. Especially, the notion that God is an angry blob in the sky, or even a happy blob, but not a person.

So back to the topic of sin. I started to ponder how the sins of humanity are often shattered reflections of something true and good revealed in the character of God.

We get jealous, because of insecurity and infidelity. We want focus, affection, and attention to be on us.
God is a jealous God, because He is completely satisfied and secure in Himself, and desires his lovers to be faithful to Him, the only thing that can satisfy them.

We lust and get envious because we want what we do not own.
God owns everything. God never has to desire anything else because every atom rests secure in his bank account.

We get angry because we have been wronged or perceive injustice.
God gets angry because He IS justice.

We get addicted to empty and hollow things.
God is "addicted" to His own fame, which is appropriate because He is the most beautiful and powerful thing in the universe. He sees empty and hollow substitutes for exactly what they are.

We try desperately hard to do things our own way.
God lovingly calls His image-bearers to live things His way...the way of life and hope.

DZ

A Big Day

Today was a very exciting marker in Living Stones history...the first 10am LS service. I am honored to be a part of this ministry...and all that God has done to get us on mission and serving Reno.

On another note, here is the set from tonight:

Sounds Like Home - Zimmerman
How Great - Chris Tomlin
At the Cross - Zimmerman
God of this City - Bluetree (redone by Chris Tomlin)
Let Our Faith Be Not Alone - Robbie Seay

Night!
DZ

Ninja Who?

I had a dream last night that if turned into a movie, would rock the big screen. It's too complicated to detail here, but it included the following:

-a secret stairwell
-hidden tombs
-clay ninjas
-real ninjas

See what I mean?

Generational Reflection

I was reading in Genesis today and it got me thinking about ministry life cycle. How younger pastors typically behave one way and older ones another. Generalizations sure, but hard to argue.

What I find interesting is the common differences in purpose of ministry. Primarily, the difference between charging forward for the Kingdom as He allows and empowers vs. minimizing your losses and shielding your assets. Their is wisdom in some sort of balance but I am not old enough to know where. I am old enough however, to delve into this concept in the Scriptures.

When Jacob and Esau are about to reconvene, Jacob splits his livestock and people into two groups so that if Esau attacks, one group will have enough time to get away. He wanted to minimize damages.

As I read those words, I was reminded of the great business writer, Jim Collin's assessment of successful organizations; that the greatest enemy of "great" is "good". That many will never become great because good is simply "good enough". I hope that I remain faithful to whatever God calls me to for however many days He has granted me, and that I will be wary of the side-roads of comfort, ease, and security.

Song and Comfort

As I was reading in the Psalms today, it occurred to me one of the many reasons that music and singing as personal worship is really "hit or miss" for a lot of people has to do with comfort.

Not comfort like, my car has individual climate controls for driver and passenger. More like, an overall comfort in life, where we have no immediate needs.

I should preface this by saying that singing to God is commanded in scripture, and there are no qualifying statements about singing only being performed by people that love music,(like me) or people that are really talented (like others).

It seems that comfort and singing are rarely next to each other in the scriptures. Singing has often through human history been a means of comforting the soul, or at the very least expressing something that you feel. This occurs most often in times of trouble, times of sorrow, and times of elation or joy. These are not neutral places for the soul, but instead a time when a person is most aware of themselves and their Creator.

The problem for many church attenders is that they sit through a church service and feel nothing. The problem for many worship leaders and service planners is that worship is not about emotion and sometimes emotion can even lead us away from true worship.

From the pain of David in the Psalms fleeing from his enemies desperately trying to save his life, to the richness of the old Negro Spirituals, there is undoubtedly a connection between great anguish and powerful, evocative music. Joy and deep peace have been a spring of art as well, but an exciting joy (the birth of the child, a financial windfall, a new relationship) is what leads to song. Not a stripped down, middle-of-the-road joy, like the joy I feel over my favorite burrito at Qdoba.

I guess my point is this; comfort in many ways removes the human need to respond to anything. At its most basic level, the human soul will seep in apathy and a numbing stillness unless provoked. Grace seems pretty provocative to me.

I pray that we would be a provoked people.

Thoughts today...

I was thinking today about how many in our generation are apathetic and in some cases even hostile towards the local church.

It may be oversimplified in my mind. No one questions that the church is made up of people that are broken. Therefore, churches are often broken, sometimes in obvious areas and other times in more difficult to perceive ones.

This is a part of what Jesus sees in His bride regularly, and lovingly works through and despite her on a regular basis.

The rub comes in when believers see said brokenness and decide that they will have nothing to do with the local church. Rather than being the catalyst for change that the church may desperately need, they isolate themselves and turn into the church's critic rather than her champion.

I hope that the brokenness of the church at large is a means for us to never take credit for advancement in the Gospel, a humbling presence that allows us to welcome others into our community, and ultimately, something we admit openly to give glory to our Maker for.

What do Piper and Chandler have in common?

They both made cameos in my dream this morning.

Basically it went like this:

I was a seminar with Dr. John Piper attended by a full room of about 200 people. At some point he heard I was a worship leader and kindly asked if I knew that "new worship tune" about going back to the heart of worship.

I chuckled at Dr. Piper.

Without making him feel outdated (that song came out via Matt Redman circa '98), I told him I did. This pleased Dr. Piper very much. So, as I had now gained a bartering chip, I requested that I be able to tag along his next trip involving Matt Chandler. It's kind of a weird request, but that is what a said in my dream. Piper agreed, and I walked away with a worship melody in my head, and a victory in my heart.

End of story.

DZ

Teaching on Worship...

Pastor Tim interviews Bob Kauflin (3/9) from Re:Sound on Vimeo.