Nice day...

It was beautiful out here today. Temps in the 60's and just gorgeous weather. I sat on the deck a bit, but I've had to be treating this back muscle injury all day, so stayed in much of it. It's very difficult and painful to stand up. I need God's help on this one, to be able to minister all those services tomorrow. Send up a prayer for me if you would. UUGH!

Friday Update...

Fridays are usually a great day. Today...not so much:) I spent several hours of mine today at the chiropractor being treated for a pulled back muscle (My fault, I knew my back was out of alignment and I ignored it.) Man, you wanna talk about debilitating pain...OUCH! It happened to me yesterday afternoon, but I had to be a part of a meeting announcing a new worship leader coming to our church, and I also had to lead the practices for the Sunday services, so I just had to bite the bullet and try and act normal and just ignore the pain for ministry sake. We had a great meeting and a great practice that was finished early. The new guy seems like he will fit right in. Very experienced, and he will probably teach me a thing or two about leading worship ya never know. One thing I've learned while being at this community church...It's a different world than where I come from the past 17 years in ministry, and I have learned a whole different greatly effective way of doing church. It don't matter how old we are, or how experienced, we can always learn something if we are willing to drop our pride, humble ourselves, and be open to new experiences in the Christian life. I got in my car after practice and was just so glad to be able to sit down and relieve some pain! God totally helped me through it, and I don't think anybody had a clue what I was dealing with :)

Well, today I paid for going and doing that practice with an injury, and woke up unable to get out of bed for a while I was in so much pain. The chiropractor helped me so much just to get some relief, but it ended up being a torn muscle (again/the opposite side of last time) so I guess we'll just have to deal with it. As they say...Been there, done that. Enough of pain talk...On to cooler things!

For Heart of a Worshipper Int., we have just learned of a whole bunch of needs in several places including Africa, more needs in the Dominican Republic where we have helped in the past, and in other countries. It's ramping up people. These are verified needs. What that means is, we know trustworthy missionaries who are heading to these places soon, and are willing to bring the gear with them; and the ministries have been verified and are truly gonna use the stuff as we intend. I so desperately want to help these people. From the tips of my toes to the the highest hair sticking up on my head! I think of it this way - 300 people donating $10.00 per month generates enough money to really outfit 2-3 ministries per month, and to help some individuals too! If you've seen our newsletter, you know that sometimes we end up doing a lot more that that, but right now we need to meet the needs at hand. I don't use this blog as a fund raising place (check the posts), but I just wanted to throw it out there this time to let the need be known. The link to the ministry website is to your right.

Well, I gotta rest the back some more. It's so annoying right? I was supposed to be working real estate tomorrow, but that ain't gonna happen unless the back miraculously gets healed. Luckily my wife and I are in this together :) Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and in the 60's here. I think I'll sit on the deck and soak it up. Oh yeah...that flu type thing I was dealing with is over. Been a rough week as far as health goes. The new week will be much better. Thank you Lord for your protection and health!

Life Is a Highway...

Life has been so different for us since we moved here. Before we moved here, Money really was never a huge issue, except for trying to make more of it so we could keep up our lifestyle. We really grew tired of that whole thing. You know...real estate taxes going up about every year, cost of living moving up at such a rate that unless you get huge bonuses or raises you just can't keep up. Traffic out the Wazoo! Always wanting to move up to that next "level" financially. Education expenses rising every year for the the kid's schools. Man...that all just seems like a lifetime ago, yet it was just a year ago.

Where we are here in South Carolina is just a way cheaper place to live than the Chicago area suburbs for many things including real estate, taxes, and the kid's education. For example: Real estate taxes here are over 5 times less than they were for us in Illinois. WOW!

We also like the more laid back lifestyle and lower cost of living, but really don't like the huge difference in wages here. It's quite amazing the difference that employer's are willing to pay in different areas of the country for the same type of work. It's one of the things that moved us to become Realtors, because as Realtors, there is no "cap" on what we can make, and it leaves us as a family with more time to work on HOWI and to volunteer at church.

It has been a struggle for sure, but we have seen that God brings us joy in the journey. It's a highway worth taking. We see that HE is the true provider. We just have to be willing to do what he wants us to do to make that provision a reality. YUP...that means work people. Many people just want some miraculous provision from God. Money to drop out of the sky etc. Ya know what? Many times God's provision shows up in the form of some sort of work! Yes..we have had several times this year where checks just came in the mail, and they helped us out more than I can explain here. Those checks were sent by true friends who heard God, and helped us in our time of need. We will never forget that. Never. But along with that...

This past year I personally have learned a huge life lesson about who is and who isn't the real provider for my family; and about how much is really needed for our family to live comfortably. In Illinois, I got so caught up in the whole making money thing, that I started to rely on myself to provide for our family. I started a bunch of Internet businesses that did great at first, and I ended up working for "the man" and "the ministry" so much that I was putting in 70-80 hour weeks with no days off. In the long run the businesses ended up costing us money. We didn't make a dime, and the Lord used all that to drastically teach me His lesson.

It's funny...Now I have some of those same opportunities online to make money, but I can pass them up easily, because I know it wouldn't be God...it would just be me. It's so much less stressful! Now I can choose wisely and hear God's direction, instead of being driven to make a buck to provide for my family...Wish I coulda learned that lesson sooner :)

Tuesday...Unexpected Protection

Well today I just tried to get moving back into some sorta normality. Still not feeling all that great, but I hate laying around waiting to get better, so I ran down to the church to help out with printing some praise sets and burning CD's. After that (which was just a few hours) I ended up running back home to meet my son at the bus stop because the older son was doing a "bring your kid to work" day with his mom. Then I went back home to work on some real estate and HOWI stuff.

Funny thing. I was sitting in the house working. Hear the school bus pull up out on the street in front of our house as usual. Sit and rumble for a while. Then I hear the bus take off. I look out the window, and my son never got off the bus! The driver didn't let him off because there was nobody out there to get him and he wasn't with his brother, so I had to run to the school and pick him up. Nice to know they are at least trying to protect our kids in that way. I appreciate that. That bus driver refused to leave my son in any sort of dangerous or unprotected situation. When I picked him up, he was with a teacher who was watching him until I got there.

It got me thinking...Christian life is like that too. We have God as our protector. He looks out for us, and it''s a good thing, because our enemy roams around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Our enemy wants to steal and kill and destroy. I think it's important to call on God for His protection, and to recognize that His protection is there and available, even when we don't know it, or when we take it for granted like with me and the school bus. Have you ever been in a season in your life where you felt like you weren't protected by the Lord? Man I have, and let me tell you it ain't no fun at all. It's scary and not a place you wanna stay for long. What an awesome thing it is, that we have a loving God and Father who will hide us under the shadow of His wing, so that when that roaring lion walks by, he doesn't even see us :) Awesome!

Rampin' Up...

It's Monday and today was a day for me to start getting out of the whole sickness rut and try to accomplish some things for our ministry away from the church. Our focus this year is turning even more toward helping people through Heart of a Worshipper International, and getting that ramped up again to help a record number of people and ministries during 2007. That's gonna mean some more travel for me. When we are really working hard on that, it is a full time job by itself. If you wanna see what it's like, go to our website at http://www.heartofaworshipper.com and check out a sample of our newsletter.

Our website needed some updating and refreshing, so we have been doing that lately, but we are also designing a completely new website. Completely new from the ground up, and much more professional looking with more detail. It's a tough call whether to use Flash or not, which gives you the ability to make it a lot more...well...flashy :) The drawback to that though, is that we have people from all over the world looking at the website, and many are from undeveloped countries which have no high speed internet access. No high speed means it would take them many minutes to load a full Flash driven website, and that's not acceptable. I have checked from our control panel and seen that we have visits from many countries, so we have to find a balance. In the end it may be just partial Flash, or we may have to give up on the whole Flash idea.

Also worked on a special set of praise music for our groundbreaking on our new building at church, which is this Sunday afternoon. It's gonna be fun! Hopefully my voice will come back into play enough to sing at least most of the songs!

10 Things I Hate About Being Sick on a Sunday...

So here I am sitting at the house and bumming about missing out on the church services today. They did fine without me, and I just heard a message on the machine that everything went great. A church of over 1200 people generally has a lot of musicians and multiple people who can lead worship. Still I wish I coulda been there. 10 things I missed...
1. Worshiping my awesome Lord and Savior Jesus Christ with a guitar.
2. Leading a big bunch of worshipers in worship and worshiping with such talented people
3. Praying with everybody on the team in between services
4. Goofing around with the team at practice and in between services
5. Hearing our wonderful Pastor teach on the subject of faithfulness
6. Talking to people I don't know in the Lobby before church and after church
7. Seeing so many people who I consider to be friends
8. That one donut I eat every week
9. That 3 cups of coffee I drink every week
10. That other donut I eat every week :)

I guess when you are so involved, it really does make you miss not being there. It's nice to take Sundays off every once in a while, but at our church absence really does make the heart grow fonder for me anyway.

A Quick Note...

Well...I am down with some sorta bug that has gotten me all stuffy and coughing and stuff. Too bad, cuz I ended up having to bow out of leading worship this week at church, and it was a great set that I totally wanted to do. Fortunately there are others at church who can lead, and they probably won't even miss me being up there. One thing I've learned, there is always somebody who can fill your position in ministry. If you can't do it, somebody else can and will. That's just how it has to work in a large church, so that the services can go on and work out well. More on that later.

I've been in bed most of the past 3 days, and am pretty much staying there til I get better. My body has been fighting this thing off for a few weeks. I knew my voice was taking a beating from singing so much at church a coupla weeks ago when we did 20 songs over the course of the day, and then I lost the voice partially for a coupla days afterward. Guess I gotta rest it now. Send up a prayer for recovery if you would. Thanks...

So Much Music/So Little Time

WOW, there is just so much great new worship music coming out these days. I have been watching Hillsong on GodTV on our satellite and am very impressed by some of their stuff such and especially what is on the "Mighty To Save" Cd. Check it our here at: http://www.hillsong.com/music/section.php?xSec=254

Ross Parsely/Desperation Band have just come out with a new worship album as of late December 2006 and it's a great album Check it out at:
http://store.integritymusic.com/integrity/itempg.icl?ctry=1&str=&sku=9941142 or check on itunes for some samples.

Of course check out iTunes for new stuff from David Crowder and from Chris Tomlin. You can't go wrong there! Tomlin's new album "See The Morning" is growing on me. At first I didn't like it much because I thought it sounded so similar to his other stuff and I was bored by it. But after listening to it about 7 or 8 times now I like it all. I just taught the church the song "Awesome is the Lord Most High" from the album. The church caught on very fast, and once again I saw the genius of the song writing style and what annointed and gifted writers that whole bunch are!

How Many Got Saved?

I'm sure many of you know this, but I'll throw it out there anyway. There is a great software/website for checking out some of the newest music in the Christian genre. It's a great place to listen to short clips of the latest praise and worship songs and even the latest Contemporary Christian stuff. The address of the website is http://www.apple.com/itunes/download
You've first gotta download the free software, but after you install it and setup your free account you are in business. There is some free stuff on there each week, plus full tracks are only .99 per download which works great when you don't necessarily want a whole album. We find just about anything we need for our Worship Arts department at church on itunes. It's truly impressive. You can also find just about any genre of music on there, not just Christian. Check it out.

Back to the grind today. Our church is in a bit of a transition period and I have been filling in as sort of an interim worship leader for a while and working on real estate and our other ministry less until the church didn't me so much any more, or else hired me full time. As I wrote last time, that is all about to change. It has been fun to lead all the services, but difficult to balance all my other work away from the church. I have been so grateful for the opportunity to impact so many people for Christ, since we have an average of probably around 1000 adults and teenagers in the main services. So many people from the church have shared with me how they have been blessed and touched by my leading and singing over the last few months, that it has been a great encouragement after such a difficult time earlier in 2006. It's not about me, it's about lifting up Jesus Christ, but sometimes when you work hard in ministry and give it your all, it's just nice to hear a kind word!

We learned from our Pastor in his sermon this week that in 2006, 198 people got saved, and another over 200 made re-dedications at the church. That is the awesome wonder-working life-changing power of God. I tell you, many churches never see that many people saved in their whole existence even over 30 years or more! Tell me that community churches are all fluff and ineffective, and I'll point you to Foothills for an example of how God is using one to truly be effective for His kingdom. People's lives are being impacted for God! People not only get saved, but they can then grow by being a part of the church.

I have been a bit spoiled in that area of my life in ministry, because when I used to travel with Dave Roever Evangelistic Association, we would sometimes see over 200 people saved in just one night at our services. We would just sing songs sometimes and people would spontaneously come to the alter. It was amazing. Over that time thousands of souls were saved. I have seen similar things in our ministry overseas. But these are ministries focused on evangelism, not a local church. There is a difference, and it's a tough task for any Pastor to balance the weight of feeding his older Christian flock, evangelizing the lost, and helping keep the newly saved on fire as they begin their walk with the Lord. The fact that God is using any church to get large numbers of people truly saved is awesome!

Ask yourself, when was the last time God used you to lead someone to him? It's such an honor and a privilege when the Lord allows you to be a vessel to help direct someone toward Him. You have probably been used by God to impact people for Christ and you don't even know it. But I think we all should be able to point to times when we know we have been a witness. One thing I know is that people watch us as Christians. They watch us when we are serving at church and we don't even know it. They watch us when we talk to others and when we talk to them. They watch how we act in public, when they see us at the bank or at the restaurant. Remember that...We are being watched as Christians, and what a lost person sees may impact them positively or negatively for God's kingdom. It's all planting seeds. I hope and pray that we are used to plant the kind of seed that God will use for His good ;)

To Serve or Not To Serve...That is the Question!

I had a few difficulties today leading the services at church. I broke a string in the second service. Also ended up having to transpose one of the songs "Father, Spirit, Jesus" after the second service because it ended up being just a tinge high for myself and one of our vocalists Lisa. Otherwise the services went great. It was a pleasure to sing with Lisa and Pamela and play with Ryan, Caleb, Derrick, and Mark. My voice is quite thrashed though.

As with last week, our two main services were packed with just a minimal amount of seating leftover. It brought back memories of our services at New Life Church in Illinois when there was literally standing room only and people were lined up across the back of the room. Hopefully Foothills will continue to grow this year as New Life did. We absolutely love this church!

I have been struggling to keep up with the pace of trying to work at the church on staff part time and our ministry Heart of a Worshipper International along with working in real estate. It's not working out for us financially, because the the church work is part time pay for nearly full time work, and it just takes away from being able to be gone on Sundays working other ministry opportunities. It also has made it impossible to keep the website updated on a regular basis. My wife and I know that we must continue the awesome work that God has been doing through Heart of a Worshipper for the past several years, so we will once again be speaking and singing other places to help promote the work of that ministry. That means that we will try and divide our time up between local church/evangelistic ministry/working a secular job. But we are going to cut our working hours back down to make our lives more simple. Doing 60-70 hour work weeks for months on end takes much of the fun out of life, and is the total opposite of why we relocated in the first place. It's not God's will for us, so we will make changes to find the right balance. I know without a doubt that God will continue to use us at Foothills, but He will do so in a capacity that works for us all long term.

Let me give anyone is the same position some advice...Find the right balance for you in ministry. Figure out what works for you, your family, and God, and go with it. It's so easy to want to help out at your local church all the time, especially ones that have multiple services and things going on constantly throughout the week. As we talked about before...You've gotta get in the game...It' s certainly very important. Everyone should be active in their local church. Find that place where God can use you. Get in the small groups and meet people. Volunteer or get on staff if it works out and get going.

The other side of the coin though, is that I have known so many people over the years who have sacrificed their families and finances to a place where their marriages and careers are in ruin because of the wrong approach to ministry. Saying "Yes" to everything that is asked of them, when they really should have been working their regular job or spending time with their families. You can get in the same bad place even when you are on staff full time in a ministry. Man it is a tough call. And it is hard to say "No" when that Pastor is calling you asking you to fill in because someone got sick or couldn't make their commited time to volunteer. I'm one of those that almost always says "Yes." I have learned though, that there are times when I should not, and I should just stay home a be with my family or just be in the services to worship and to learn. As I get older, it's getting easier and easier for me to see when those times are :)

I think everyone would agree that there is a time and place for helping out at your local church, and that it should not be at the detriment of other things that are just as important, or more important in your life. All ministers won't agree with me on this one, but a person with an argument is never at the mercy of a person with an experience :)

A Fun Night...

Today was a day to focus on the work at the church and get ready for worship team practice which is on Thursday nights from 6:00-10:00. Actually there is a small group study which is from 6:00-7:00pm and it's a great time to just bond with other team members and "do" life together. Sometimes it's a Bible study, and sometimes it's worship, and sometimes it's just praying and talking about our week. Tonight it was just people sharing their week, but worth every second of being there.

Practice went great because the people that came were ready and wanted to be there. I absolutely love playing in singing with some of these people. We had a great time goofing around, but also got the work done that we needed to do, and got out early. The church is so blessed with many worship team members who are great at singing and playing, but also have wonderful positive attitudes. I bet the services Sunday will be excellent.

That brings up a point. Every once in a while someone will come into rehearsal with some baggage from their week away from the church. They usually rush in late and you can tell they have other things on their mind than going over the worship sets for this week. I can TOTALLY relate. A few weeks ago I had to come and lead the rehearsals after being in real estate continuing education training for 8 1/2 hours and rushing to get to the church. I was beat before I ever came in, so I made a concious effort to check my attitude at the door and get my focus on God and worship before I went into that sanctuary. It's was and is hard to do, but necessary.

Attitude plays a serious role in how effective we can be as Christians and as ministers. Nobody is perfect. We all have those times where we need to "check" our attitudes at the door. I think that plays over into everyday life. People that have a negative attitude seem to have a cloud around them and you can sort of sense it. That effects our witness. It's better to try and look at life from a positive viewpoint, and approach things that come up in life that way. Believe you me, we have had plenty of times within the past year and over the past 12 years in our marriage where that philosphy was tested. I can name a few - Hurricanes on our Honeymoon, Stolen Van on Our Vacation, Flooded House and Losing Practically Everything We Owned, Physical and Financial Problems - Tell you what, I've had a few times where I seriously got over into that negative arena (seriously), and it just made me more miserable. I guess that's it...Negative attitudes are just that...Negative and miserable! Put it to the test...Try to stay positive, and see how that effects you and others around you.

Here we go again...

Mondays are a day when I wish that I could rest from the work that Sundays in a 4 service church requires, but it just doesn't always happen right now. Right now, life away from the church calls for us to have to do other things to make a living and pay the bills, and that always starts again on Mondays. It's a 7 day work week for me right now with no days off!

I remember the days and years when all I did to make a living was work for a local church. Now I look at those as the "Salad Days." It was hard work trying to be a Youth Pastor and a Worship Leader. A full time job no doubt. But the past 3 or 4 months I have gotten to experience that thing I was doing in Illinois for 5 years, where I was working a job outside of the church and trying to put in the required time to also do the job needed for the ministry. Usually 25-30 hours per week. I'm finding that it wears me out, and it's hard to focus on any one thing fully. Honestly, I don't know how anyone can work a full time job and do the work of the ministry effectively for any long period of time. I did do that in Illinois for years, but it burnt me out terribly.

We moved here for a better and less hectic life. Clean mountain air and cheap livin'. A lifestyle that isn't trying to keep up with the Joneses. Living that is more basic. It started off a bit rocky as you've probably seen from earlier posts, but we are settled in after 10 months and trying not to fall into that same trap. I bet a lot of you out there can relate. That whole thing of every year having to make more money just to keep up with the taxes and bills, and then moving to a larger and nicer house every once in a while as your income increases. It's hard to get ahead that way, and it's hard to be truly happy that way. That sort of life causes people to become so materialistic and forget where their provision really comes from. This past year has taught me some life lessons on that subject...More on that in the another post :)

Sunday, What a Fun Day!

Man, what a busy day it has been! I am beat. My voice is ready for a rest! Church was packed today in the two morning Overdrive services which are the contemporary services. There is also one at night at 6:00p.m and an early service. I did end up leading all 4 services with the worship team, but also had to do the feature song each service which believe it or not was the John Fogerty song "Centerfield." It went over very well :) The theme was a baseball theme with the main idea being "Get in the Game." Basically the point being that we should not just sit in the bleachers in this Christian life, we should get involved in our church and serve and help out as much as possible. Get involved in the small groups and the other things that the church has to offer.

I tell you what, Christian life is so much sweeter when you get involved in more than just an attending church and leaving sort of way. One of the ways it is sweeter, is that you get to meet people and make friends that you would not have if you just attended church and left each week. It's just about impossible not to make friends when you are a part of a small group study, or volunteering in some capacity at your local church. Seriously. No matter who we are or what we do for work, it would benefit just about everyone to help out at their local church sometimes.

But getting in the game isn't just about church...It's also about life away from church. Letting people know that we are Christians by our love and the way we live outside of the four walls of our local church. Our work ethic. Our passion for Jesus. Our heart to help people. Our witness. It's a lot to think about, but I think if we are truly walking in a relationship with God, then His Holy Spirit will spur us on toward being active in the Christian life. The bottom line is this - Other people will be impacted because God has impacted us!

What a day. Well...I guess it all starts over again tomorrow.

A New Year in a New State

Well, the year has begun, and we are back home and in the groove of things once again. After we moved here last year, we immediately started attending a church that we loved from the minute we walked in the door. A wonderful Pastor named Brian was such an encouragement to us, and it was partly because of his encouragement and love that we held on and didn't move back to where we had come from. He truly prayed for us and really cared in our time of need. Awesome.

After a hand and back injury healed, I tried out for and joined the worship team as anyone who knows me would expect. This church is large, and is about the same size (around 1250) as New Life Church was in Illinois, which is the last worship team that I played with. The two churches are actually very similar right down to even using some of the same materials and ministry philosphies. I was actually shocked at how we could move 800 miles away and find such a similar church to the one we loved.The church is called Foothills Community Church and you can see a link to their website over in the column section here. Check it out!

You guys know, I am a worship leader at heart, and it did not take long for me to start leading songs at Foothills. It seems that even when I feel I'm not yet ready, the Lord opens those doors and has me back out front leading in short time at least in some capacity. So...they hired me as a part-time worship leader for their "Classic" service which is their early service. That means a mixture of old hymns and choruses, with a few new songs thrown in sometimes. I know...I know... I can hear you already..."Bill is doing hymns? No way!" Well it isn't really my preference, but that's what the church needed, so I stepped up. We also mix in some newer songs too :) It's been a few months now, and I can see that I'm still a contemporary worship lover at heart. We'll see if it works out. I'd probably be happier just playing and singing some in the other contemporary services and letting someone else handle the hymns. Like I said, we'll see. I really am happy to not be out front and just play and sing backup sometimes.

So we are back. Mom is recovering well, and now I am preparing a worship set for this Sunday, in which I will be leading all 4 services. yes...you read it right...4 services! For the last part of 2006 and this first part of 2007, I have been basically leading all the services. Not sure if that will continue or for how long. We are open to whatever the Lord wants.

See ya...Wouldn't Wanna Repeat!

2006 was a tough year for us. We dealt with a re-location to that didn't go as planned, and the year had it's share of depression, financial, and physical problems. For the last part of 2006, I sat in the hospital with my mother throughout Christmas dealing with an open heart surgery. A few weeks ago we had no idea she even had a heart problem. Life can change so quickly!

I can't say that I am sorry to see 2006 leave, but I am a better man for the things that I and my family endured. You see I can now relate to that person who just can't seem to snap out of that depression and financial bondage. As a Pastor, I used to sit on the other side of the counseling table as I would counsel people dealing with all sorts of life issues, and at times I would get frustrated and wonder why couldn't they just get over the issue they were dealing with. I grew tired of counseling with people who week after week, year after year, struggled with the same things in their lives. What I understand so deeply now is that without God truly and miraculously intervening and delivering us, many would just stay in the same pit their entire lives no matter how much "spiritual" counsel they sit through. Sometimes you just need deliverance and you can't always deliver yourself in this life!

It's easy to judge when you haven't experienced the deathgrip and pain of the enemy in a way where it overtakes your whole thought process. But just as the enemy can steal, kill, and destroy in many areas of people's lives, the Lord of all creation has more power to replace in abundance, give life, and total restoration to those in the battle. He still does that you know?

In 2006 our family endured some of these life struggles and attacks. The thing that is so awesome, is that people were praying for us and God miraculously came through in so many ways. When we were powerless to help ourselves out of our situation, loved ones stood in the gap. Never forget the power of prayer. Not yours, but the ones who love you!