Chase the Setting Sun...

I have been thinking a lot lately about Contemporary Christian Music (CCM). Of course I think about it a lot since I lead two adult worship teams as well as a student worship team. Lately, my thought process has shifted from just leading the teams to really focussing on the content of the music and lyrics itself. I have to say, the more I focus on the content of the lyrics in many of these songs, the more I become bored.

The short list of you that read my blog know that I 'dabble' in student ministry, contemporary worship, and young adult ministry. Inevitably within these three areas of ministry I will get requests to try new things and branch out into new directions. Sometimes I'm the one pushing to do new things.

I am constantly asking myself what makes something worth trying or continuing. I recently read through the book of Galatians. In Galatians Paul questions the relation between faith rooted in Christ and faith rooted in culture or tradition. Specifically he talks about circumcision. The Jewish Christians were expected to be circumcised as a cultural sign that they were indeed a practicing Jew and Christian. Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles (non Jews), did not believe that circumcision was necessary and that it had little value if the person's heart was not rooted in Christ.

Often in a church setting we are faced with decisions on whether to start a new ministry, continue existing ministries, or adapt the culture of our local church in order to continue to be relevant to the times and our community.

So what should be our criteria for determining what ministries should continue, be started, or be adapted. Often we want to look at things like money, numbers, new attendees vs old members and on and on.

After I finished reading Galatians I decided to listen through a sermon series from Mark Driscoll, pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle Washington, on the book of Galatians. In the third sermon of the series Driscoll covers chapter two of Galatians and gets into the argument of culture, tradition, and what makes a ministry worth having. He suggests two things that I think fit what Paul is saying in Galatians.

1. Does it help the Gospel?
How does it advance the Gospel by getting the message to new people and deepening the Gospel in the hearts of those that already believe?

2. Are People Worshiping Jesus?
Does this ministry succeed in helping people to worship Jesus in a real way?

The more I think about it, and pray about it, the more I feel that if these two things are being done, God will take care of the rest. Of course, churches still have to pay staff, mortgages, utility bills etc. So money and numbers are unavoidable things to consider. Unfortunately, church is also a business that has to have a certain amount of money to keep the doors open.

Maybe if we focus on Christ and the advancement of the Gospel even more than we already are, God will take care of the rest. Maybe I'm too idealistic and don't have enough church ministry experience to decide what is worth continuing/starting/adapting.

What do you think? What criteria do you and your church use to decide what ministries, worship services or styles, are worth starting/continuing etc?

Last night at our '20 Somethings' discussion group we discussed 1 Timothy chapter 2. In this chapter Paul gives Timothy his thoughts and instructions on worship. Paul discusses the importance of prayer for all people, kings and all those in authority in the first half of the chapter. The second half Paul deals with women in worship and teaching positions. Here's what he says,

I also want women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God.

A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. But women will be saved through childbearing--if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety.

~1 Timothy 2:9-15

Obviously there is a lot in this passage that could easily anger a lot of people in our society and culture, both women and men. Here are a few thoughts that I have gathered in preparation to lead our discussion last night. I'll break this up into a few parts because there is a lot of information here.

1. Culture

That was a different culture that Paul was speaking to in this passage. At that time men were the heads of the household, government, and churches. Women, in Jewish culture, were uneducated and not allowed to be educated. Therefore, it wouldn't make sense for an uneducated woman to be teaching anyone, let alone educated men.

Being that a man was the head of the household it would have limited his ability to lead his home if he was led by a woman in a ministry setting. Paul says in chapter three of 1 Timothy that a man must be able to lead his home first to be able to lead well in the Church. The two were interconnected. If a man couldn't lead one well, he wouldn't be able to lead the other well.

Also, if a man had been led by a woman at the church he would have been ineffective in his ability to be a role model to other non-Christian men outside the church and therefore not been able to lead them to Christ effectively.

Many women in Ephesus were likely very wealthy. They would have had money to buy fancy clothing and jewelry. They would attract attention to themselves (just like today) by wearing attractive clothing and jewelry that would draw attention to their bodies and sex appeal. Paul obviously thought this was out of place for the Church. A Christian woman's focus should be on Christ not on her own looks and body. This isn't to say Paul thought that a Christian woman should let herself go, but rather not dress in a way that distracts others and themselves from worship of the Lord.

2. Effective Ministry

As you read Paul's letters you easily can see that he felt an undeniable urgency for the Gospel. He knew that the clock was ticking and he needed to get the Gospel out to everyone he could while he still could. So, in line with that, the effectiveness of ministry would have been very important to him. If his ministry wasn't effective he would have been wasting valuable time.

At that time, because of a woman's place in society it would not have been the most effective way to present the Gospel if a woman was teaching it. Most would not have respected a woman's opinion on such matters and likely rejected her teaching. Also, if women were being a distraction in worship either by their dress, or speaking out of turn, that also would create an ineffective ministry.

Paul taught that women should learn in quietness and full submission. This did not mean they should shut up at all times and follow blindly. Paul consistently taught that all should be conscious of what is being taught to be sure that no one is adhering to false doctrines. The fact that Paul called them to learn at all showed a shift in thought from traditional Jewish culture. Women would just be a distraction if they had spoken up in worship due to the culture of that time.

3. Paul Had Great Respect for Women

While Paul was clear that woman should not be an elder, overseer, or deacon, he did believe that women had an important role in ministry and life. Here is a few examples...

I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also. ~2 Timothy 1:5

Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much whine, but to teach what is good. Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God. ~Titus 2:3-5

Wives, in the same way be submissive to your husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, when they see the purity and reverence of your lives. ~1 Peter 3:1-2

Obviously Paul had great respect for women and their role in teaching those around them. He gave great respect to the women that raised Timothy. He gave great responsibility to older women in the Church to teach the younger women. Along with that he showed women that the way they live could be transformational for their husbands and the men around them.

While women weren't allowed to teach, they had great responsibility in the advancement of the Gospel in their families and communities.

4. Final Thought

Obviously this is not an exhaustive scriptural study of women in ministry. This is just some thoughts and information I encountered in preparing for our short discussion last night. However, I think it does show that Paul not only respected women, he saw a great need for them in the advancement of the Gospel.

At the same time he had very certain thoughts on women in teaching and leadership roles within the Church. We can debate all day long whether we think these thoughts apply to our culture today or not. I would encourage you (as well as myself) to continue studying scripture, no matter what you believe. You may be right, you may be wrong.

We all have strong beliefs about certain things in our lives. What we need to do is be sure our beliefs are rooted firmly in scripture, not just in our own biases. Just because our culture has led us to believe something doesn't mean that it is Biblical.

I would also be curious to hear, as we're on the subject of women in ministry. What women in your life have had a positive effect on you and/or led a great ministry from a pastoral or teaching role? Leave a comment

I'm sure there will be many posts to come covering my adventures in music and ministry.

It has been a crazy spring season so far. It seems that life has hit light speed and shows no signs of stopping. As difficult and crazy as that makes it, I have to say I am loving it.


Some background...


In January of this year I took over the reigns for Castleton United Methodist's contemporary/blended service on Sunday mornings at 11:00am (in addition to my fulltime job at Garrison Law Firm). My charge was to turn it from a "blended" service into a full blown "contemporary" service in terms of music. At the beginning of March my wife (@courtgarr) and I closed on our first house. We began looking for a home in early January and found a great house in Fishers. Soon after that our church began a capital campaign to retire the debt associated with building our current sanctuary. On the same day that was started, Matt Lipan (@mattlipan) and I were given the green light to start a brand new Saturday Night Contemporary service on our Castleton campus. Immediately we went to work on advertising for musicians, interviewing worship leaders and developing the service. All the while participating in hours of meetings regarding the capital campaign and all of the tasks involved in making that a successful venture for our church.


On May 14th Court and I took possession (finally) of our house. Immediately began the work of packing to move along with preparing our new home for our arrival. We spent the following week painting, cleaning, replacing things, adding new things until the house was ready for us to move in this last weekend.


On top of all that we started a new discussion group on Tuesday night at George's Neighborhood Grill for the '20 somethings' group in our area.


With all the craziness that has gone along with all of the things I've been involved in and doing lately I have to say that I haven't had this much fun in a long time. It has been a blast searching for, buying, and moving into a new home with my wife. Starting this new service (even though it technically hasn't started) has been a great experience and a lot of fun as I've put together a completely new band with new faces and talents. Even the capital campaign, as boring as that may sound, has had it's moments.


I am completely looking forward to the following months and years as I continue to lead some great bands and services and get to finally live in our new home and experience life as a home owner.


Although at times I may complain...It has been a great few months and promises to only get better.

As you have probably noticed thus far; I have been going over what makes a worship service good, in particular, the worship music. This seems to be one of those things that, depending on how you look at it, is either really simple or really difficult. Much of the time it's insanely difficult for me, I think, because I am always over analyzing it based on my knowledge of music.

Take today for example. We played some older songs during our worship set. Not to us by Chris Tomlin, We Fall Down, How Great is our God, and Mighty to Save by Laura Story. Pretty basic worship songs. The beginning of our opening set my amp malfunctioned and Matt, our pastor for today, had to vamp for a few minutes while I figured out what was going on.

We finally got everything together and played through the first song ok. The second song the slides were wrong and we lost our place and ended the song incredibly awkwardly all at different times. The next two songs towards the end went fine.

Being who I am (a music nazi) I was ripping myself apart the rest of the day because the beginning of the service went bad. Talking to people after the service though, and my wife later, apparently no one really noticed the apparent train wreck I felt was occurring and thought we did a great job. So either I'm completely nuts or everyone was lying to me.

Now I'm sure it wasn't quite as bad as I imagine, I always am ridiculously hard on myself about these things. I know that God can break through our crap and still show Himself through technical difficulties and missed song endings. I shouldn't worry about that. The problem is, and maybe it's not really a problem, I take my job so seriously that every little mistake I take upon myself for not rehearsing the band well enough or not preparing well enough myself. I mean, I'm the leader, if something goes wrong it's my fault, even if someone else is the one that forgets something or makes a mistake. It has to be my fault for not rehearsing them well enough.

Anyway, from what I was told after, the music went fairly well. So does it really matter all that much in a worship service if the music is stellar or we play the coolest, hippest, new worship songs? I guess not. All that matters is that we are true to the reason we are there, to worship God. If we hang on to that God will break through our mistakes and show Himself to those worshiping with us.

Maybe someday I'll get over it and stop killing myself for minor mistakes and details...ok probably not, but at least after letting off some steam I can realize that God is a Bizillion times bigger than me and nothing I do can get in His way.

A lot has happened recently that has caused me to question where I am in my life and my relationship with Christ. Here's a little background

This is a blog post I wrote for Ramblings of a Rebellion about a year ago. I thought it still would apply to most that might read this blog.

Today is Easter Sunday. With that comes so many great things, most of all the hope of salvation in knowing that Christ died for our sins and is risen today. One thing I was not expecting is how much I enjoyed and was moved by the music today.

I am a contemporary worship director at Castleton United Methodist Church in Indianapolis. I prefer contemporary worship, it typically moves me to a greater extent and I am able to worship more through it I believe than traditional worship. Today however, was a different story. Today our Music Director brought in an orchestra complete with brass and strings as well as some percussion. It was amazing in combination with our usual choir. They did "Christ the Lord is Risen today" and "Hallelujah" from Handel's Messiah and it was amazing. The way it was all put together with the orchestra and choir just gave it this holiness or "weight" to it. I have to say I much preferred what we had today to what we would have had in the contemporary worship service...which is saying a lot since I run the contemporary music at Castleton.

Nice work Dr. Wright and choir/musicians. Well done!

What is leading worship about? What makes a good worship leader? As our church begins to search for a worship leader/vocalist I have been thinking about what it takes to be a good worship leader.

- First off, a worship leader needs to be a talented vocalist. Singing should come naturally to this person. If a worship leader has to spend too much energy and thought thinking about how they are singing, they are not focusing on worshiping.

- A worship leader should have an overwhelming passion for worshiping God. Worship should overflow out of a worship leader's heart. When a congregation sees the leader actively and passionately worshiping Christ they can't help but worship God themselves.

- A Worship leader should be able to connect and lead musicians and vocalists of all ages and levels of talent. You wont always have the best musicians in your group. The job of the worship leader is to be able to work with the lesser musicians and help them raise their game. A musician doesn't have to be the most technically talented player in the world to be solid and sound good. The worship leader needs to be able to take what skills the musician possesses and make the most of them to help that person blend with the rest of the band.

- A worship leader is NOT an entertainer. He/She is not there to entertain the congregation and keep them happy. It is not always about playing the catchiest songs, or getting the congregation to sway and clap. It is about inviting the congregation into authentic worship. It is about rising above ourselves and connecting with God and each other through the act of worship.

A lot of times we see worship leaders that are crowd pleasers. They are there only to entertain and please those listening to them. A true worship leader is there with an audience of one. He/She can forget about themselves and the desire to be noticed and focus on Christ and connecting with Him. If the connection between worship leader and Christ is made and is real, the congregation will feel more comfortable about making that authentic connection with the One they are worshiping and come out of their shell and worship as well.

This is an ongoing thought process. These are just some thoughts I have had lately on what I expect from whomever we hire down the road.