I’ve felt this keenly in my life lately. I want to be more focused in how I spend my time and how I develop so I can be more effective in ministry and life. I want to become a better writer, musician, husband and person because I feel like that’s what God’s calling me to. But I also want to be someone of influence because I would enjoy it. My pride so easily encourages me towards some of the same goals because they would bring me more notoriety, and who doesn’t like an ego booster? There’s a fine line I’m trying to learn to walk and I’m sure I will struggle with my entire life – one between living a better life for God’s glory and living a better life for my own.

Social media often makes me question people’s motives… and by people, I mean chiefly my own. Why do I/we post things on twitter, facebook or a blog except to get noticed by others? Sure, I’ve had people encourage me to continue writing because it does help people see things from a different angle and grow in their own walks, but as I mentioned earlier, it’s easy to have mixed motives. I want to connect with and help people – yes; but I ultimately have to keep my heart in check and make sure I’m not writing, singing or living my life for anyone’s glory except God’s. I think this is my – and may others – struggle with the current Christian music and literature industries. It is so easy to get caught up in the media and self promotion game and convince oneself that it’s all for the glory of God. This whole Rob Bell Love Wins saga has reminded me of this again. The controversy surrounding that book has been such a powerful tool for getting the word out there, but was it really necessary? Clear communication and marketing is something I firmly believe is useful and can be good, but it can be a dangerous road if heart checks aren’t done along the way.

As I continue to grow and develop skills and gifts that I hope will serve those around me, I hope those around me will continue to challenge me to walk through the doors that God opens, but not force doors open along the way. I believe I’m being called to do something significant in God’s kingdom, as we all are – but maybe greatness isn’t what I need. As I hope these words aren’t stroking my ego, I’ll conclude by borrowing the words of a man much wiser than I, the Apostle Paul:

Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God.  Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love.  Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace.  For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future.  There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism,  and one God and Father, who is over all and in all and living through all. - Ephesians 4:1-6, NLT

I have no doubt that some of the things I wrote down will happen. I’m curious to see the things I can’t now see coming, or to see how God’s going to open and close doors – meaning that I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the things I wrote don’t happen. Regardless, it was a great challenge and accomplishment to just sit down and do it. I’m not going to share it publicly, but it’s got me thinking about how the plans and goals I have define how I work and largely who I am. There’s a fine line between over-planning - where I’ve seen people struggle with God’s call on their life if it didn’t fit into the plan that they already came up with – and under-planning – where people just wait around and make decisions completely on the fly with no real ends in mind.

I want to be more conscious of and intentional with my plans – not only long term ones, but things as simple as what my day’s work looks like or how I’m planning a worship service. And in 10 years, I’ll probably look back and be amazed at where I am and what I got right and wrong in my plans.

I’d like to play more songs.

Seems simple enough. I just want to spend more time at home playing and singing great songs. I want to play some of them in front of my computer and throw them up on youtube. Why not?

All that being said, I’d love some ideas for songs people would like to hear me play or think I should learn. I’ve got a small list of songs that I want to go after – old and new favourites – but I need an infusion of stuff I don’t yet know. So… what should I be covering? Seriously… I want some ideas. If you’re reading this, hook me up with some of your favourite tunes or things you want to hear a Dave Siverns acoustic mix of.

A happy new years to all! Here’s to a great year of learning and becoming more of who we were meant to be! (and maybe blogging a bit more than I did this last year…)

Almighty Father, the Author of every good and perfect gift, whose care for thy children faileth not, neither groweth weary: we gather in thy house to lift up to thee the voice of our thanksgiving and praise.
We praise thee for our physical life, for the glow of health and the feeling of strength it may bring; for food and clothing and shelter, and all the innocent pleasures of sense.
We praise thee for our intellectual life, for the power to observe and think, plan and meditate, and to influence others by the energy of our minds; and for all wise and good books and teachers whose words quicken, enlarge and enrich our thought.
We praise thee for our moral life, that, notwithstanding our transgression and sin, sonscience still speaks to us, and that we have still the power to choose the right and reject the wrong.
We praise thee for our social life, for all its beneficent fellowship and ministries, for hom and friends, and all the things which give us strength and peace amid the disquietude and strife of our passing days.
We praise the for our spiritual life, for our knowledge of thee and our communion with thee, and for the peace passing all understanding, which the prayer of trust and submission ever brings into our hearts and minds.
We praise thee for the hope of that life which is immortal, for the persuasion that the souls of the departed are in thy hand, and that only in the sight of the unwise do they seem to die.
Amen
- John Hunter

- the joys and learning that is being a new father. It’s awesome, and Clara is growing and smiling lots these days!

- More songs and their stories. Yeah… I just need to write them.

- Thoughts on leading worship in Canada. I’ve been thinking lots about repertoire and what is unique about Canada as well as lots of stuff on the other aspects of a worship service, mainly visuals and lighting and the role they play.

- More random gear posts. I need to do one on buying your first guitar and buying a decent acoustic as I seem to get an email asking me questions about that every few months.

This should be fun, my life feels like it’s starting to settle into a bit of a routine which is good. Life gets interesting when you have a baby and buy a house!

I set myself a goal of writing something congregational for our “serve the world focus” at Efree and this is what came out. I’m actually really proud of this one – I feel like I hit a good balance of singable and yet sill musically interesting enough not to be boring, which I often find is one of the greatest challenges in doing congregational stuff. The song is essentially a reminder of who God is and what he has done and then recognition that those realities lead us to respond.

Here are the lyrics:

You turn dark to light within us

Concurring death with life

You shape hearts with grace and mercy

And call us to fields of white

Help us care for the broken

As we look to the sky

Reaching out for the wounded

Let us shine Your light

You are God of the nations

And our hope in the night

Bringing justice and healing

Let us shine Your light

Let Your kingdom come

Let Your will be done

Let Your kingdom come

On earth, O Lord

For those who are wondering about the technicalities of the recording: I tracked the acoustic (Duncan Africa mugavu OM), Electric (Anderson Atom through a Reason Bambino using the recording out jack), bass (Mike’s Warwick). Vocals were done on a M-audio Sputnik. Nothing was done in more than 2 takes… so nothing’s perfect. Thanks to Ken for the pads (hiding somewhere back there) and mixing and such. At some point I hope to do a full band recording of this one with drums and other fun stuff. I’d love to know what you think!

God’s doing some really cool stuff here in Lethbridge and we’re excited to be a part of it. It feels like the church is growing in some really unique ways and taking more seriously what it means to be the light of Christ in this community and what that uniquely looks like in this time with these people. I’m so glad to be a part of that and part of an amazing staff team.

One of the things I’ve been challenged with lately is how I can keep doing more and more of what I was created to do, and less of everything else. Okay, so it’s not really that easy to draw the line, but it’s certainly inspired lots of thought, especially as I prepare for this exciting and terrifying thing called fatherhood. I feel like my life (priorities and passions mostly if I think about it) are being pruned and shaped – at least I hope they are. I keep saying I’m going to get things in line after *insert next big event here*. Currently it’s easter, but I’m realizing more and more that I need to reshape the way I think about work and life and just do the things that need to be done with no excuse or feeling sorry for myself because I’m busy. That’s a challenge.

Some of the thing I’ve been thinking about and figuring out:

- I want to spend lots of time on my bike. I know, it’s not really spiritual or broadly applicable to others, but I feel like I want to get in shape and spend time out on the trails so I can better think through the rest of my life. It helps me, and it’s a great way to appreciate God’s beautiful creation.

- Songwriting needs to become more a part of my routine. It’s something that I know I can do, but I want to continue to refine my skills and generally increase the volume of songs that I write. Instead of writing a song for something I want to be able to pick the best of a number of songs. I can get better. (in other song news, I’ve got one that we’ve done a few times in chruch over the past few weeks called Shine Your Light which I’ll have to do a blog about sometime later this week when I throw it up on my myspace.)

- If I’m serious about doing young adults ministry at the church, I need to spend time on the university campus.

One of the highlights of the past few weeks has been a study on Simply Christian by N.T. Wright which I’ve been doing at the pub on campus every Monday at 4:30. It’s great to connect with people where they’re at and get out of the church building. I’m hoping to do something next year that looks something like a once semesterly big gathering on the campus to worship and pray together. More details to follow as I figure them out…

There are a few other things, but those are a few highlights. That’s been my life mostly… lots of things to overwhelm me, and lots of random confirmations that God is good and he’ll take care of me while at the same time challenging me to face this next chapter with added zeal and determination to do things better. Cool, it’s going to be fun.

I care deeply for the details of a service. Lighting, transitions, what goes on the screen, making sure people can be heard – all of those things contribute to effectively communicating, which I think is at the apex of any kind of large gathering. We’re trying to communicate with each other and with God. I don’t think God really cares about those things, but I think that we as people either can be distracted by them or engaged by them, and when we’re engaged I think communication is much easier. So I try to make those things work – plan meaningful experiences during a service where people can hear and see the truths of God and respond appropriately.

What happens when something goes wrong? A projector doesn’t work, the lighting cue is off, a mic isn’t turned on… the list is endless. I’m trying to learn a few things and have them resound in me more and more as I deal with the good and bad of service details and problems:

1. It’s not the end of the world. Getting frustrated doesn’t help at the moment – deal with the problem the best way you can and move on. Have faith in God that He will speak in spite of us and our programs. One of the dangers of understanding the details so deeply is that I often thing that the service depends on them. It doesn’t. Sure, they can help things when they go right, but if you’ve prepared well and things still go wrong, God will still work.

2. Evaluate the problem after everything is over. Before evaluating, be thankful for the good that happened. After rejoicing in the good (which there is always more of than the bad), sit down with the right people and see how you can avoid the problems for next time. Prepare better, get someone to help out in an area instead of doing it all yourself and laugh about your mistakes.

I had an experience like this last week. I felt like everything was going wrong in the service, and I let it get to me. I broke two strings, my guitar was horribly out of tune (as was the one that someone graciously handed me after breaking my first string), Mediashout (which we use to project words on the screen) crashed completely once and did some other funny things a few other times, I forgot to set up audio and a VGA at the front of the room for the guest speaker and the service went longer than it should have. Truth is, it was a great service. People saw God and were challenged to respond. We had lots of people, people sang well. Do the details like that matter? Yep – we probably would have had a “better” service if I hadn’t broken strings or had set up things earlier. Did most people know all the things that went wrong? No – there were probably 3 or 4 of us who panicked and everyone else was somewhat clueless. That is what I have to keep in perspective – just because there are problems and I need to deal with them doesn’t mean that everything is going down – I need to remain positive and cheerful in everything that I do! (and always bring a backup guitar… always)

This is something I need to continue to work on. I’d encourage other worship leaders or service producers (or those of us who do both) to continue to value the small details and improve them – but to remember that God is still in charge and can speak through any amount of problems. Remember why we do what we do and keep the big picture as the big picture.

Okay, I’m off to redo my order of services so I can better keep track of these details…

It’s no surprise that some people disagree with that, and prominent theologian John Piper was one to respond quickly. His article is here. Give this a read next.

I find both to be fairly well written articles from a writing standpoint. It is obvious that both are articles and don’t include a full argument and explanation, but they’re meant to help people start thinking about the issues.

After some thought, I tend to agree theologically with Piper more than Instone-Brewer. Here’s where my problem lies – I really have a hard time swallowing the attitude that comes across in Piper’s writings. This isn’t the first time I’ve come across this problem with Piper (or “Piperettes” – those who strongly follow Piper). Truth be told, I think Piper is probably more theologically astute and more widely respected. I worry about broadening the grounds for divorce too much as Piper does, but I would be slow to make such harsh assumptions and criticisms about Instone-Brewer’s position. Maybe Piper’s right in everything he writes, but the tone just doesn’t come across in a very gracious manner.

I’ve always struggled with writing where the attitude of the writer come through too strongly. Maybe I’m off base – I know Paul came across strongly and at times arrogantly to his audience. I do struggle with it at times though – I don’t think that making fast conclusions about someone’s beliefs and then tearing them down because of those conclusions is helpful to the body of Christ as a whole. Maybe I’m crazy – does anyone else get a bad vibe from Piper’s tone?

Putting aside tone and perceived attitude, at the heart of this issue seems to be hermeneutic approach. If you’ve never thought about it, give some thought to how you interpret the bible and how the teachers and leaders around you can influence how you read your bible.

What do you think? What does God really think about divorce, and how do we understand him through a book that was written to a different group of people in a different culture in a different language – but was also written to speak through time?