Sorry for the lack of updates. We had a busy week getting ready for the “Consumed Worship Concert 2006.” What a great weekend!! Not only did we feel God’s presence with us all weekend, but the music teams were phenomenal and so many people came to worship with us! I really think this is becoming a crowd favorite at Meadow Heights (no offense to our lead Pastor!).

You might be interested to know a little bit more about this event, so I’ll start with our gatherings. We have four identical gatherings each weekend (5:30pm Saturday, 8-9:30-11:15am on Sunday) with the exception of the music at our 8am gathering. At 8am we focus more on southern gospel music and hymns, and as you might expect, our average age in attendance is much higher than our other gatherings.

With that in mind, we asked everyone to vote on their Top 10 songs that were performed in the past year. We did provide a list of songs to help guide everyone, and to eliminate the sometimes crazy requests that we receive. Below is a listing of the Top 10 from both our “contemporary” and “celebration” gatherings:

CONTEMPORARY
10 You’re Worthy of My Praise (Big Daddy/Barlow Girl version)
9 Much of You
8 Come Thou Fount
7 Your Love Is Deep
6 Who Am I
5 All Things Are Possible
4 Everybody Praise the Lord
3 Indescribable
2 Majesty
1 How Great Is Our God

We also opened with “Praise You With the Dance” and closed with an arrangement of “God Bless the USA” complete with all vocalists, musicians, horns, and video.

CELEBRATION
10 He’d Still Been God
9 Feelin’ Fine
8 Just Over in the Glory Land
7 Power In the Blood
6 Because He Lives
5 God Is Good All the Time
4 Saved By Grace
3 Amazing Grace
2 How Great Is Our God
1 Hosanna (What the Lord Has Done In Me)

We opened this gathering with “Great Is the Lord’ and closed out with the same arrangement of “God Bless the USA.” It was interesting to note that the number 2 and 1 songs are more on the so called “contemporary” side of things, which may lead to the conclusion that people from all generations like music that really speaks to them regardless of the style. If the words communicate a good message and the music becomes the vehicle for that message, then I think most people have no problem with a style that might be a bit out of their “comfort zone.”

I was really blessed this past weekend. It was great to see a team of over 30 folks come together and focus on one goal – worshiping God. He was our audience this weekend – we just happened to have over 500 people come along for the ride as well.

It’s been a crazy week already. Everyone is out of the office for vacation or student life camp, so the office has been quiet on the staff front, but quite busy with day to day operations. I am enjoying the change of pace. We also had our Life Group BBQ on Sunday, I played golf (for only the second time this year!) on Monday, went to the Cardinal game on Monday night (they were hammered by the Indians), had a birthday on Tuesday, went to dinner Tuesday evening, and of course today, I was back at it bright and early. I have eaten out more in the past few days then I have all month.

Life is anything but a routine. I was challenged by Mark Batterson and his take on life as a routine. Have you been doing something so long that it becomes a routine for you? If we’re not careful our jobs becomes routine, our kids become routine, our marriages become routine. We keep living in the past instead of creating and dreaming our future. This has huge implications for our walk with God as well.

Here’s what Mark Batterson, Lead Pastor of National Community Church, suggests when God becomes a routine:

• Try fasting something you’ve never fasted before.
• Try reading another version of the Bible like The Message or The New Living Translation.
• Try meditating on a passage of Scripture for a week.
• Keep a prayer journal.
• Take a personal retreat.
• Try worshiping God in a new way or a new place.
• Try a prayer experiment where you pray for someone or something for a month.

At Meadow Heights we believe that worship is a lifestyle – an opportunity to discover God on a daily basis. Throughout the “Consumed” series God has reminded so many of us that He longs for our hearts. All we have to do is worship Him.

We are geting ready for the Consumed Concert this weekend, and I challenged our music teams to worship God with abandon. I’ll throw out the same challenge here. Even if you have memorized the words to your favorite song, recall them with a fresh perspective and sing out your praises to a living God who loves to hear your voice every single time.

“It’s who you are and the way you live that count before God. Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth. That’s the kind of people the Father is out looking for: those who are simply and honestly themselves before him in their worship. God is sheer being itself—Spirit. Those who worship him must do it out of their very being, their spirits, their true selves, in adoration.” John 4:23-24 (msg)

Mark Batterson, lead pastor of National Community Church, has some great insights on his blog. I am constantly intrigued about his perspectives on life, church, religion, Jesus, and so much more.

In one of his latest posts, he shares his top 10 reasons why he blogs. I thought I would share those here:

#10 Blogging is a form of digital discipleship. Neo-scrolls.
#9 Blogging is the way I share what is happening in my head and my heart.
#8 Blogging is cathartic. It helps me process what I’m thinking and feeling.
#7 Blogging is the way I leave a trail. My kids and grandkids can read it someday.
#6 Blogging is a sermon supplement. Actually, sermons might be a blogging supplment.
#5 Blogging is a way to carry on a conversation with lots of people at the same time.
#4 Blogging is a form of auto-biography.
#3 Blogging is one way of capturing the things God is revealing to me.
#2 Blogging helps me remember what God doesn’t want me to forget.
#1 Blogging is a stewardship issue. It’s one way I share what God is teaching me.

For those of you who blog, how many apply to you? Of course many of these are slanted towards a “church” perspective, but you get the idea. I love his final thoughts:

I don’t think blogging is for everybody. It has to fit your personality and the rhythm of your life. But I think it is one way of redeeming technology and using it to serve God’s purpsoes. It is the printing press of the 21st century.

You can read more about this post and many others here.

We were in the middle of staff meeting yesterday, and one of my colleagues made a great comment about how our teams worked so well together. He was giving them praise for operating on the “we” principle rather than focused on themselves. He went on about how it was “we” this, “we that,” etc.

All of this got me thinking about how well we work together at Meadow Heights Church. It really is a team effort. I think we have applied what I’ll call the “Piggy Principle.” The Piggy Principle is founded on the belief that it is “we, we, we” all the way. We’re bringing the team concept home.

5 Things I’ve Noticed About the Piggy Principle:

(1) While it is a team effort, the leader sets the pace for team. This might be from our Lead Pastor to the staff, or from a ministry leader to their team, but the leader always sets the pace.
(2) Teams will never rise any further than the leader is willing to lead. I’ve seen many teams that were held back by a weak leader. Ministry rises and falls on the backs of the leader.
(3) Leaders are learners. When we stop breathing in the Bible, stop listening to others wiser than ourselves, and stop reading, we fail to learn. When you stop learning, you’ll stop leading effectively.
(4) Leadership is about building relationships. The reason our teams work so well together is that ultimately they have trust for the leaders. This respect has been built on a foundation of relationship. You have to build into your teams and spend time relationally with them.
(5) When change is needed or conflict occurs, the leader has to make a decision. That means the team has to realize that we’re all in this together. There are no victims on a healthy team.

None of this operates without the guiding principles of Jesus Himself. All of what we try to do and accomplish at Meadow Heights is based upon God’s Word. And of course none of this would be possible without the ultimate leadership of God.

I don’t know about you, but I do some of my best brainstorming when I’m in the shower. I know that sounds plain weird, but some time alone away from the family in a relaxed environment does something to increase my creative flow.

I was reading an article on “50 Ways to Become a Better Designer” and it mentioned taking a shower to increase the output of your ideas. And I thought I was the only weird one! From what I can understand, your brain normally operates in “Beta” mode while you’re awake and working, but when you engage in automated activities such as a shower, your brain drops two levels into the “Theta” stage, or what experts describe as this:

“A state where tasks become so automatic that you can mentally disengage from them. The ideation that can take place during the theta state is often free flow and occurs without censorship or guilt. It is typically a very positive mental state.”

So the next time you find yourself in a meeting that is stagnating creatively, you might suggest that it’s time to “hit the showers.”