Today I had lunch with Michael Armstrong. For those of you who haven’t kept up with things, Michael is a good friend and probably the most influential person in the my formation as a worship pastor. He’s also the worship pastor at Providence Church, the church Katy and I are interested in joining.

I asked Michael to lunch for several reasons: Firstly, I wanted to get a better idea of what the “nuts and bolts” of Providence were (why they started, how they started, vision, ideas, etc.)…you can only tell so much by observing church services. Second, I wanted to know more about joining. They have a pretty intense membership proccess and I wanted to more about that kind of stuff. Lastly, I wanted to give Michael a better picture of who I am now. Our friendship is largely rooted in the years past and I wanted to let him know my story of the past couple of years. He mainly knows me as a worship leader and I wanted to tell him about our pilgrimage at Crosspoint, Abilene, and finally here in Plano.

It was a great conversation. We covered a ton of ground in about 50 minutes. We covered my biography of the past 3-4 years, he gave me his of the past two or so, and then we talked about church. We, of course, took some time to vent about what’s wrong in churches these days and ways we think we can improve things. We talked about Providence, what the big idea is, what the goals are, what the future looks like, etc. Now, those of you who know me know that I could’ve spent all day talking about that stuff, but we were pressed for time, so I had to make my pitch.

What pitch? Well, I already knew we wanted to join this church, but I needed to know that I could have some ownership at Providence. I knew I would quickly be frustrated at any church if I was not deeply involved. You may think this is a good thing, but sometimes I think I’m just being selfish. See, I was a big part of Crosspoint. I kind of feel like it was my baby. I helped start it, I pastored it, and I got to help give it direction and definition (with the assistance of a certain Deity). I think a big fear of mine is that I won’t find that kind of ownership again. That is, unless I start a church of my own. But the simple fact is that I don’t feel called to start a church right now. I feel called to this church. Not just because I like it a whole lot though. I feel led there because I feel like I can make a difference there. I feel like they could use a guy like me. Do they need a worship pastor? No. They need someone who is passionate about the missional church and who wants to offer their gifts and skills in service to building up the kingdom through the local church.

So somehow I wanted to pitch this calling of mine to Michael without sounding arrogant. It sounds pretty lousy to say, “Hey, I can do a bunch of stuff and you need a guy like me, so give me a bunch of important stuff to do”. But honestly, those sorts of feelings do pass through my mind. I think it’s because I’m so excited about this church. I’m so greatful that God has led us to Providence, so I want to soak myself in service so I can feel that kind of ownership I had at Crosspoint.

So I did my best to honestly convey what God has laid on my heart and it went suprisingly well. I just told him that we wanted to join and get involved and that I don’t have a job, so I’ve got some time on my hands to do whatever needs doing. I made a short list of what sorts of things I enjoy doing and told him that if there is anything in those areas that need doing, then to feel free to ask me to help.

Thankfully, his response was not only positive, but specific. A lot of guys could’ve just said “okay, let me get back to you on that” and never call, but Mike pointed out some very specific things that I mentioned that intersected with some needs he has. The most prominent of these was the church website. He’s in charge of the website’s maintainence and everything else related to that site, and he has absolutely no time or desire to keep up with it, so he needs someone who will take that stuff over. We chatted about the details a bit and decided it could be something I could handle. I started getting pretty excited until we talked about computers and I remembered that my laptop was in the shop and it’s future is unknown. Argh.

So he basically said that I could get going on that stuff as soon as I had a computer. In other words, if my computer were functioning normally I would be on my way to Michael’s house right now to pick up the software and go home to start working on it. What a bummer. Why is it that when I finally have an opportunity to make myself useful, I don’t have the money or resources to make it happen? Frustrating.

And as I type this, I just got a call from FastSigns to schedule an interview on Friday, so I guess we’ll see how that turns out. In other news, the library is beginning to feel like an office of sorts since I’m spending a couple hours a day here. Maybe I should start wearing a shirt and tie to make it feel more professional.