My Worship Revolution

Dear Micah,

Today, you turn a month old.  I wanted to write you a short letter to read someday.  Why?  Well, I guess just to officially welcome you to the family, and let you know how awesome it is to have you.

You’ve been blessed already to have 3 people who love you to death (not including all those grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc).  Your big brother, Caleb, has loved having you around the house, which is a big relief to mom and dad!  He still goes out of his way to get some extra attention every now and then when you’re stealing the spotlight, but he loves to hold you, kiss you, and tickle you.  We often have to tell him not to tickle your face and head.

You were born on a Monday night.  02.09.09.  Pretty cool date, actually.  8 pounds, 3 ounces.  Your mom pushed for 3 hours to get Caleb out.  Only 3 pushes for you.  So you already have a leg up on him there.  We really appreciated the speedy exit.

We chose to give you the name of Micah Robert Marchessault.  (After all, the poll was pretty clearly lopsided.  If you would have preferred the others, blame all those people that read our blogs.)  Here’s the real reasons why though:

That all for now.  We’re so excited to have you as an addition to our growing family.  And at times you may feel like you get the short end of the stick, being numer 2 and all, but mom is rocking you right now and just said how much more she loves holding and cuddling with you than she did with Caleb.  I think it’s cause she’s a bit less stressed out this time, like she knows what she’s doing.  If you read this Caleb, sorry bout that.  But hey, Micah has to get something! 

Looking forward to helping you grow into the man God has created you to be.
Love ya son.

Pops.

Hey all.
Yeah, a couple of you have commented that it has slowed down around here.
Guess I’ve just been pretty busy with life off the page.  Family.  Ministry.  Triathlons.

I’ve read several posts recently that have commented on the number of high profile bloggers who have quieted their bogs for good or for a time.  There are a couple that I read that have done this.  Perhaps it’s time for a season of blog sabbath on the web.
So after thinking about that, and since I know you all think of me when you hear the phrase “hgh profile blogger” (sarcasm noted), I thought I should let you all know, I am not taking a break.  (Collective sigh of relief?)  It’s been more unintentional here.  I’ve just been lazy.  But the posts will be coming and I’d be happy to take some of their traffic during the hiatises.  ;)  (I don’t think that’s a word.)

I realize I haven’t even properly introduced you all to the new addition to the family, and it’s been over 3 weeks.  So I’ll work on gettin the posts rollin some more for y’all.

In the meantime, here’s a little cartoon from Naked Pastor to provide some food for thought.  Feel free to share those thoughts with us.  See ya…tomorrow?

Inconsistent as they may be, and a bit late in the game (midweek and all), I present to you all another worship confessional:

Set was:

Only thing I forgot to mention in the video: for the past month or so I've been consistent at memorizing the music and not using a stand.  As you see in the video, didn't happen this last week.  And when I watched it, it really kinda bugged me.  For one, if it's there, even if I know the song I tend to look at it.  And when it's not, it both frees me up to really lead and gets rid of this bug thing in between myself and other worshippers.  I think I'll work on getting back to that this week.

This post is also part of Sunday Setlists over at Fred's blog.  Go check it out to see what else is going on in the worship leader worlds.

Back in Triathlon training again.
Time to get back on the wagon.
I’ll have some more posts coming about some big upcoming “races”.
And it involves you in a BIG way.  But more on that later.

But I was running (or trudging) last week and decided mid-run that it was time to lose the mop again.
Will it really make me faster?  Probably not.  (Especially since I was wearing a hat when running.)
But it makes me feel faster.  Sleeker.  Neater.
So maybe it will have some positive psychological effect.

Don’t worry…I haven’t resorted to shaving my legs…yet.
(I did, however, shave them once for swimming in college, and I confess, it felt kinda nice.)

This is it.  After this, they’ve all been answered.  It’s actually kinda anti-climactic.
Left a few of the easiest for the end.
So, with no further ado…

Ed wants to know: Where was Jesus between his death and resurrection?

In a tomb?

Steve asked: What do you think of the thought the chargers might be moving to LA?

Won’t happen.  If it does, shorter drive to go to a game.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much.
Questions have been answered.
Let me know if I missed anything.
And thanks for playing!

Bret said this: I'd be interested in getting the
entire rundown on the events leading up to and culminating in your
decision to leave Revolution.

Entire rundown?  I don't think you really wanna read that much.  Maybe we can have coffee sometime Bret.  ;)  (Except I guess you've de-friended me because I don't like soccer.)

Now I could use the over arching answer that God was moving me on, which is true, but we'll let that be assumed.  Prayer and confirmation were definitely a huge part of the process.  I'd say that ultimately there were 2 major things that served as a catalyst in my decision.

1. Worship.  I recognize that there is a very good possibility that I will not lead worship forever.  In fact, I recognize that CLC could very easily be the last place I lead worship as a primary function.  But at the time that I left Revolution, I was feeling pretty strong that playing music and leading worship is where God was pulling my heart.  While that alone wouldn't be enough to move on, I think it played a big role.
2. Caleb.  When we had Caleb, it really caused me to do some prioritizing and some soul searching.  The truth was, I knew I needed to do a much better job at putting my family above ministry.  That wasn't something that I didn't know how to do in the system and expectations that I had created for myself at Revolution.  And that was probably the single greatest decision maker.  I knew I had to get out of that context to learn how to take care of myself and my family.

Of course there are lots of other factors and events that led up to what was a very difficult decision in my life and my family's.  I love the community at Revolution.  I love the people.  I love the church.  And both the ministry and the people there have had a huge impact in my development as a person, as a pastor, and as a leader. 

It's now been almost 2 years, and I haven't written about this much here, but I still think about and miss Revolution daily.  I pray for that community regularly and it will always be a huge part of us wherever our journey takes us.  I guess that's part of the nature of immersing yourself in a faith community in occupational ministry and allowing it to shape your heart and your soul, with the recognition that it may very well not be forever.  It will always be difficult to leave a ministry that you have poured your life into.

On a side note, Craig Groeschel had a great series over at his blog last week on the topic of how to know when God is calling you away from a ministry.  Well worth the read to get some more thoughts on the overall topic.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

Well, most of you have heard, especially if you followed my Twitter feed through the whole process, we are now a family of four!  Woohoo!

Man…lots of different thoughts and emotions with numero dos.  I may or may not get to sharing some of those here.  I imagine I will.

But in the meantime, I thought you would all enjoy this quick video of Caleb meeting Micah for the first time.  We wanted to be sure to not be holding Micah and really pay attention to Caleb for a while.  But he was just interested in seeing "Baby Micah."  Here he is holding the baby with mommy:

Yesterday I shared this quote from Ian Morgan Cron at Recreate:

Lately I've been camping out quite a bit in Ephesians in prep for our next series, Sit, Walk, Stand.  It's based on a book about Ephesians by Watchman Nee.  A pretty common passage from Ephesians chapter 2:

Verse 10 – We are God's workmanship.  Greek.

Or as my study Bible says, can also be translated "work of art."

So in other words, we are God's work of art, created in Christ Jesus.
This Greek word is used one other place in the New Testament.

The point?  Expanding on Cron's thought, we are God's work of art, and through his work of art people will see clearly what they feel vaguely.  Holy moly!!  Sorry.  That just speaks my language and resonates big time.
According to Genesis, mankind was created in the Trinitarian image of God.  We as a whole, as a community, are a walking breathing reflection of the Creator.

While lots of people aren't sure they like Jesus, many are on a spiritual journey.  They know vaguely that there is something bigger, and they are created to worship.  It is the role of Christ followers to ultimately help people clearly recognize what that longing is.

How are you as God's work of art pointing back to Him in the way you live?  When people look at your life, do they see Jesus clearly?

I'm encouraged.
Inspired.
Challenged.

OK.  Remember when I told you to ask me anything you wanted and I’d answer?
It’s been way to long since I was asked these.
I started answering them here, here, here, and here.
This week, we’re finishing em all up.  So here we go…

A good follow up to the last Caleb singing video post.
Proverbs says to train a child up in the way he should go and he will not depart from it.
He totally started singing this in the living room today:

Looks like the kid has good taste in worship music so far!
Hopefully if we keep this up, I won't ever catch him singing As The Deer.
Maybe he can go on the road leading this song with his friend, Peyton.

And just in case you haven't caught wind of this song, here's Steve Fee sharing it.
Highly recommend adding it to your set if your leading worship.  It's pretty hot.