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Here’s an update on where we are in our big life transition.

1) Our last day at HOJ was Sunday Aug. 30. A few months ago we felt strongly that it was time for us to move on. It was one of those rare moments in life when things are going great and it’s just “time” to move. We will be closer to family and Lydia has a much better job.

We love HOJ and will continue to give financially for the next 2 years. We pledged to give monthly for 3 years and have made it through a little over a year. We believe in the vision and the impact that HOJ is and will be making in Valdosta.

One of the hardest parts of leaving HOJ is leaving the friends we’ve made behind. Honestly, I, personally can do without “leading worship” or designing graphics, but it’s leaving the small group family, worship team hangouts, and even bootcamp workout sessions with HOJ friends that make this move hard. But God is walking with us and we’re super excited about the next season in our life.

2) Lydia started her job in Brunswick a little over a month ago. That’s a little over 2 hours away from Valdosta. It’s been an adjustment for her but she’s knocking it out of the park.

One of the major stresses for her has been having to be away from me from Sunday night to Friday. Our lease is up next week, so I’ll be “moving” our stuff from Valdosta to Jesup, which is our interim location until we get a home bought or rented. While we’re home shopping and closing we’ll be staying with Lydia’s family.

Financially, we’re in a place we haven’t been before and we’re looking to knock down our debt quickly (student loans mostly) and buy a home.

3) I’m doing design full-time now, working with a company that publishes community oriented magazines. I love designing ads and laying out articles.

4) Music: Because my primary “job” isn’t Worship Leader/Music Director anymore, I’m finding that I have a stronger desire to write and share congregational worship that is USEFUL to churches. In the coming months I’ve committed to going on a tear and writing the fire out of some worship tunes! Would love to have you help hold me accountable and would also love it if you used my songs in your place! I’m not stingy!

I’m also looking at joining forces with my good buddy Fred McKinnon and the team at SSCC. Just want to help out a little here and there.

I can see myself traveling a little bit as well. If you’d like to have me come in and worship with your church/team/small group/etc. please contact me and we’ll set something up.

5) Blog Design: because of the transition I’m finding it hard to do a lot of extra design work now. That being said, I would LOVE to design you a custom blog header or banner. As we get settled in the next few weeks, things we’ll be going a bit more smoothly for me and I’ll knock it out of the park for you.

6) Coastal Life: We’ll be moving to the Brunswick/St. Simons Island, Georgia area which is on the Southeastern Coast of GA. I can’t wait.

7) Collaborations: Look for opportunities to collaborate with me in the future in several areas. Most obvious would be songwriting and design, but I have a few more ideas brewing that I’d really like to get going on and I think as fellow worship leaders and worshipers you’ll be excited!

Stay tuned!!

⁴⁵Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. ⁴⁶Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, ⁴⁷praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. (Acts 2.45-47)

As a Believer, one of the concepts that I’ve been wrestling with and trying to wrap my brain around is “togetherness” – the idea that as followers of Christ we should be living life, being church, and in general just being together.

The society that we live in today promotes individualism and independence, which are not necessarily bad things, but at the end of the day can leave us isolated, alone, and struggling on our own personal little islands.

I believe God has placed in our hearts a desire for togetherness. In it’s simplest form, it’s the desire to just be with others. We see it throughout most of all creation. Packs, herds, prides, flocks, schools, gaggles, covies, etc. We like to group according to our shared purposes, qualities, hobbies, traits, etc.

One thing that has blessed my heart the last few months is hearing my closest friends say that they’d love to move with us. We’re making a major life move in the next few months. The very idea that anyone would want to entertain the possibility of picking up everything finding new jobs and basically starting over because we’re friends AMAZES me! Obviously, just because they want to doesn’t mean they’ll actually do it, but like I said, just the thought is beautiful.

Do you have relationships like that?

Worship: a response to God.

We know the word. It conjures up images of cathedrals and sanctuaries; pipe organs and pianos; guitars and choirs; heavy, musty hymnals and lyrics plastered on screens or walls. In this day and age the term worship has become almost synonymous with the time of music we share on Sunday gatherings at church, or at the very least the actual Sunday gathering itself.

I believe there are 2 general categories of worship: Vertical and Horizontal.

Vertical is easy. It’s just loving God with everything we’ve got. Singing, praying, studying, living our individual lives in a manner that brings HIM honor and glory. It’s the response to who God is and what’s He’s done.

Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. (Deuteronomy 6:5)

Jesus reiterates this kind of worship when He quotes the verse in Deuteronomy, when asked what the greatest commandment was. Jesus says, in Matthew 22:37:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

When we sing a song of worship to God, we’re worshiping vertically. It’s to God and for God. It’s pretty simple. I think, in general, the church at large has this one down. We come in to our church buildings, Sunday after Sunday and sing our songs of worship to Him. I think that once a week, God is pleased with our songs, but also experiences a bit of bittersweet sorrow, because for 99% of us, it stops there.

After the last song is sung on Sunday, and we head out the doors, making a beeline for the nearest all you can eat buffet, we typically rush right back into our weekly routines and keep God (and our worship for Him) on the back burner until next week.

Stealth Worship

This is actually my favorite “form” of worship, if you could call it that. I love teaching on it. Sharing about it. And trying my hardest to live it out. I’m not perfect, but it is definitely an adventure!

Stealth Worship is worship that happens underground, behind the scenes. But at the same time, it can happen every day and in the middle of a crowd. It is worship that should be unseen, yet seen by all. Ok, ok…I’m speaking in paradox now, but it’s actually a very simple concept when you think about it…yet maybe a bit harder to implement.

Stealth Worship is also known as Horizontal Worship. An offering of worship (a response to God) that includes other people. No, I’m not just talking about standing next to someone and singing a worship song. I’m talking about SERVING.

Serving.

Service.

Servant.

These are words that convey what stealth worship is all about.

Think about it. In Mark 9:35 Jesus teaches that if we wanted to be great we should strive to be the servant of all. Jesus came to serve. His very life was an act of serving, even in His death. He put others before Himself. So should we. Our aim shouldn’t be to draw attention to ourselves, yet Jesus said so himself that we should let our lights shine before men so that they would see our good deeds and give glory to God! So, in a sense, it’s about deflecting the focus from ourselves to others, which ultimately brings honor to God.

When we serve others, when our focus on LIVING out a whole life worship includes putting others before ourselves, we’re actually worshiping God. It’s called horizontal worship because AS we’re worshiping God vertically, we are serving others horizontally, which IS indeed an offering of worship.

Stealth worship is a response to who God is (in the same way that vertical worship is) except that it is expressed by loving others, serving others.

A big component of stealth worship can be found in Matthew 5-7, when Jesus turns everything upside down and basically takes the religious elite to school. Stealth worship is what we do when no one is looking. It’s what happens the other 6 days of the week. When no one but our Father in Heaven sees us. It’s when we’re alone, pursuing God in our “prayer closets.”

If that’s the case then how can Stealth Worship also be serving others out in the open?

Because it’s not about being seen by people, though we will be if we choose to serve others. It’s all about the posture of our hearts. When I lead worship from the front of a church, my prayer every week is that I’m there to help someone express their worship with the collective group in such a way that they don’t get to during the week. My prayer is that they learn about a worship expression they might not be familiar with, but that allows them to express their worship alongside others freely. My prayer is that our time of musical worship is like a redbull for the congregation, that it gives their worship “wings.”

I don’t pray that it would be the most intense, deep, radical, earth shattering worship experience for myself. I don’t pray that I could “feel” God in a way that I’ve never felt, so that I can have an experience I’ve never felt. I don’t pray that God would come and speak to me and teach me every revelation in His Scripture, so that I can grow in leaps and bounds from one Sunday to the next (though those prayers aren’t necessarily bad things).

My focus is on OTHERS.

As a worship leader, I find that my primary act (offering) of worship on Sundays is not the actual Vertical Worship that I’m offering to God, though at times, it can be sweet. My primary offering of worship on Sunday mornings is SERVING. I’m there to serve others. I’m there to worship Horizontally. That doesn’t mean that I don’t worship individually at all. Of course, I do. But it’s my focus that matters.

The other 6 days of the week is when I, personally, dig into the things of God. During the week is when I lock myself into a quiet place (a room, the shower, etc) and sing my guts out in praise to Him. The bulk of my spiritual worship expression happens BEHIND THE SCENES.

Which is Better?

They both are. Better. Whaaa?

Yep. I think God created us to respond to him in both ways. So both of these “forms” of worship are necessary for us to live WHOLE LIFE WORSHIP. The fact that Jesus goes on to say that we should love our neighbors as ourselves (and that that commandment is the same as Loving God with everything we’ve got) proves that God wants our focus to be in 2 places (for the same purpose).

The expressions of our worship should happen in two different directions (but both ultimately ending on glorifying God).

1. Vertical: our individual direct worship to God.
2. Horizontal: serving others, which IS direct worship to God.

In a previous “Together-ness” article I shared how great an experience it can be when your worship band is, in essence, your small group. In my opinion, the worship band can be one of the most closely knit group of friends within a church group because of their shared purpose, interests, and talents.

UN-Together-ness

However, there are times when the only time we see the people in our worship band is when we are in church. What happens when rehearsal is really the only opportunity to connect with others but there’s just not enough time set aside to go any deeper than just sharing a few songs together (while serving the congregation)?

Nothing can be more disheartening than hearing about other bands or groups who have amazing connections and friendships and then looking at your own situation and not seeing those happening. I’ve been there myself.

Read the full article over at The Worship Community.

I’m ok with spaghetti. Angel hair pasta and meat sauce.
I’m ok with puppy kisses on my nose.
I’m ok with graphic design paying the bills.
I’m ok with 100% humidity.
I’m ok with watching Mary Poppins with my wife.
I’m ok with summertime golf.
I’m ok with deep email conversations.
I’m ok with major life change.
I’m ok with cookouts with friends.
I’m ok with an old acoustic guitar.
I’m ok with doing dishes.
I’m ok with buying a home on Saint Simon’s Island.