I believe our job as worship leaders is to create spaces where people can meet God.

We just made chocolate chip cookies from scratch. But get this! Part of the process was to grind our flour by hand.

I just returned from an overstuffed, extended weekend in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. It was my first time back in the US since moving to Costa Rica about 20 months ago.

Some churches don’t seem to mind breaks in between songs. You know, the team finishes. There are five seconds of (awkward) silence.

Stop me when this sounds familiar. I got a text from a worship director. It said, “I wanted to tell you that my wife felt ill and tested positive for COVID, so tomorrow I can’t be with you.”

Worship ministry is personal. It’s a beautiful weaving of the human and the Divine. It’s logical and unexplainable. It’s predictable and mysterious. But…

I was pushing a wheelbarrow across the discipleship training school base next door on my way to pick up some dirt for our garden.

I sat in a meeting surrounded by 18 other worship team members from our church.

Headlines are designed to DO something in us: excite, sober, inform, activate, celebrate, persuade. Persuade? That’s a fascinating thought.

I spoke with yet another pastor who is looking for a worship leader. This one was lost to burnout.

God is not seeking worship. God is seeking worshipers. (see John 4:23)

We made it! 2020 is 99% in the rearview mirror. Phew!

I want to invite you into hope. Into a world with less anxiety. Into a less distracted, more purposeful, wildly optimistic living.

This year has been both a punch to the gut and a kick in the pants. How are you responding?

Losing our normal, hurts. We had rhythms. We had reasonably certain expectations. How should we, as worshiping Christians, grieve our loss of normalcy?

Long trials require exceptional resilience, a healthy perspective, and an ability to stick with it. But we never thought we were in a sprint, did we?

I love worshiping with blind trust.

Imagine your worship team on a retreat. On a missional retreat in Costa Rica.

What am I taking to heart?

What has been getting me out of bed on these cold, dark winter mornings?