Well, I think it’s safe to say that I haven’t been doing a very good job of blogging this year so far. But in my defense, I’ve been quite busy. In fact, I just returned yesterday from Michigan, where I did a high school winter camp for a youth minister friend of mine. In case you’re wondering, the photo above is one I took from the retreat encampment we were at. It is right on the shores of Lake Michigan. It was pretty cold up there; temperatures ranged from the teens to below zero. But the saying is true that you really can’t tell after a certain degree.
All in all, it was a great retreat. We had a great group of 100+ kids and there were really serious about meeting with God. More than that, I came away with a few lessons God taught me as well. Basically, I realized that I haven’t been challenging myself lately. I haven’t done a youth event for quite some time, plus I had to play with a band I had never met before (a punk band at that). These were some good challenges me. The thing about youth events is that you constantly have to work on engaging them in worship and you have to work hard at making worship exciting for them at times and intimate at other times. There is quite a dynamic that has to be covered when you are working with them, and I have spent the last couple of years leading a congregation that I know, that knows me and knows how to worship. I also have gotten too used to playing with people who are worship leaders and know how to follow me as I lead. The band I played with in Michigan (Hyperbole) was a punk band, and actually a very talented band. They picked up the worship music very fast and were great musicians, but they weren’t worship leaders, so that made it a challenge for me to lead with them.
Now I know that this is kind of boring, but it’s important that I define what I mean by “challenging myself”. Those difficulties I faced made for great experience in flexing my leadership abilities. I haven’t gotten to do that very much here in Abilene. So basically, God showed me that if I am really serious about serving Him in this capacity, I really need to start developing my skills and gifts more. When I think about it, it’s kind of sad that I decided to stop developing as a worship leader at the mere age of 24. There is so much more for me to learn, to work on, to experience. Truthfully, I think I have lost a lot of ground, but the good news is, I have realized it this weekend and can begin to make up for it.
Of course this doesn’t just involve my musical and leadership skills, but also my spiritual walk and my vision for what I want to be in the future. On the flight back from Michigan, I took a couple of pages to outline what I want to be, what I want to do, and how I’m going to do it. It was a great exercise and now I am more excited than ever about the future (at the same time, more frustrated about the present). So I have alot of ground to cover and not much time to cover it. Such is life.

Let the wise listen and add to their learning,
and let the discerining get guidance.
Proverbs 1:5