I recently blogged about a upcoming confrontation I was going to have. Well many of you have e-mailed me wanting to know how the meeting went. You are a nosey bunch. So I thought I would let you know that it happened yesterday and it was intense. It was one of the hardest things I have ever done yet, it was a good thing. I looked at the points I left you last time and I asked myself today if I followed them. With the exception of #2 (leave emotion out of it), I felt I did well. I should have left the emotion out of it, but that is not my strong suit. I love RSC and I found out yesterday when it comes to her, I can’t keep emotion out of it. But…those of you who know me, knew I wouldn’t. Thanks for the prayers, I truly felt them.

I find myself very “soul tired” the last few weeks. Planning and launching a church the last 18 months has caught up with me the last few weeks. God is blessing but I’m tired. So I can’t think enough to post but here has been the music that has kept me going lately.
Enjoy it, it is typical passion but, it is great.

“I’m not getting fed,” is a line that many church planters and pastors who are trying to reach unchurched people often get from our “mature” believers. This has always been something that just fired me up because it goes back to the our typical problem in the church: We think it is about us. Scott Hodge has some good insight today on this. It at least brought a smile to my face because I can relate to where he is coming from. To read the his thought, click here.

I got to hang out with Tony McCollum and Roger Blackmore today. Tony is the pastor of Mill Creek Community Church and is a mentor and a friend. Tony has invested in my life since before I even knew where Ridge Stone would be planted. He is one of those guys I can call at anytime and he’ll listen. Everyone needs that type of person in their life. Roger pastors Grace Church in Long Island, N.Y. and though is the oldest church planter I know; he is one of the coolest. He flew down just to hang out and every time I am around him, I feel as if I have learned something. This has been a strange week as far as hanging out with other pastors. That is something I find I rarely have time for since we launched but this week God saw fit to allow me to hang with church planters on two different occasions. I needed it. I have been very tired lately to the point where my body is actually hurting. I have been going non-stop for the last 20 months and I can feel it. My passion for RSC is at a high-time high yet, I need a break from it. I have entered into vacationitis. We leave in 3 weeks for our vacation in several years and I am literally counting the days. I love what I do and there is no other place in the world I would rather be then in Canton, Georgia but, I’m going to enjoy getting away for a week.

About every couple of months I type my name into Google and see how many pages it takes for me to show up. There is a piano player named Gary Lamb and he literally takes up the first five pages in every search engine. So I have always been able to hide in cyber space but I checked tonight and my blog is listed on the first page of Google when you type in my name. Very cool.

I had lunch today at the Buckhead Brewery in Alpharetta, Ga. The food was good and I give the place two thumbs up. More important then the food was I got to hang out with two great church planters Jim Perdue who pastors North Cross Baptist Church in Cumming, Ga and Brandton Woods who pastors Skyline Church in Dawsonville, Ga. It was funny as we set there I couldn’t help but think how different we all three are. Jim planted about 6 months before us, Brandton hasn’t even launched yet. Even style wise, we are all planting different style churches. Yet, I had a GREAT time just hanging out and seeing how God is working through Church planting. I often say that my worse day planting a church is better then my best day pastoring an established one. I love church planters and it is good to have friends to hang out with and share stories with. I think all church planters need time away from the church to just hang out with those who are doing and going through the same thing we are.
Thank God for good food and good friends.

Our worship pastor was on a much needed vacation this past Sunday. It is funny how things work out in God’s planning. When I first hired Tim, he had turned us down for the job and after a change of heart, he wanted the job. I then turned him down. After him looking at several different churches and us looking at several different worship pastors, we came to the conclusion that God wanted us partnered together. It has been a growing and learning process.
The relationship between a lead pastor and worship pastor is very important for our style of church to operate. It is almost as if we are married. Our children’s pastor can be doing something that doesn’t totally jive with what we in the worship center are doing and it really doesn’t effect us. The same is true with our youth pastor. However, when it comes to a worship pastor, it is of utmost importance that we are on the same page. We basically play in the same sandbox and what we do better jive.
The worship leader who filled in today was very good and he is very talented. Matter of fact I would go as far as to say he could LEAD worship in many of the churches I have visited. He has a strong voice, he led the crowd well, and he connected with our people. To someone who has been attending RSC for a short time, they probably noticed very little change. Matter of fact, they might have even noticed a slight improvement in the vocal area. I on the other hand noticed several things that made me appreciate the job that Tim does here even more.
I am convinced a church plant will never be what it could be until it has the right worship leader. Matter of fact, I would say this should be the first hire for a church planter maybe in before you bring yourself on full time. In today’s culture, music is that important. When Tim leads worship for us, I am at peace and I am comfortable. That makes my job of teaching much easier. It seems like everyone I know is looking for a worship leader and they are hard to find. When you find one, you better do whatever it takes to keep them.
I thought today I would just give you some things I learned in the process of looking for a worship pastor:

1.) Make sure their style fits your style. We went six weeks without a worship pastor. During those six weeks we rotated some very gifted worship pastors in on Sunday mornings. All of these guys could lead in a lot of churches but not at RSC. Our worship pastor is a good fit for us because he compliments my style of teaching very well. He is energetic, he has a good time on stage, and he keeps the crowd up beat. That goes very well with my style of teaching. I cut up a lot on stage, I tell a lot of stories and it is important that the crowd is alive when I come up to teach. This week for instance, the worship was good. But, it was much more “worshipful” then normal. The music was a little slower and it did have the edge that we are use too. Though it was good, I found it very hard to get up and teach after worship because our crowd today was much more mellow then normal.
2.) A Worship leader doesn’t have to have the best voice – I was not looking for a singer, though Tim sings very well. I was looking for someone who understood what corporate worship was about and could lead our people in worshipping God on Sunday morning. I was looking for someone who could gauge how to lead by how the crowd was responding.
3.) Make sure their philosophy fits your philosophy – We are very stubborn in the way we do church on Sunday morning. We understand there will be a lot of seekers there and we keep that in mind. I don’t want a worship pastor who wants to free flow or worship in song the whole service. I needed someone who understood our philosophy and had no problems with that. Think about your philosophy and make sure your worship pastor has the same one.
4.) Be VERY specific in letting them know the style of worship you want – Everyone is doing “contemporary” church today. No one even knows what that means anymore. Buy some CD’s of current guys whose style you like, buy secular CD’s of guys you like and let your worship leader know the style you feel God would have the church to be.
5.) Define their role – Everyone has a fancy title for the worship person: Worship pastor, Worship leader, Creative Arts Pastor, Creative Worship Pastor, etc. I could care less what you call it but, define the responsibilities. For example, our worship pastor not only has the worship band under his leadership, but all the media ministries as well. This includes, sound, CD table, audio visual elements, etc. Because we are portable he is also responsible to see to it that those elements get set up on Sunday mornings. It doesn’t matter how much or how little you place under them, just make sure the role is defined.
6.) Make sure they want to lead worship and not be a rock star – I find so many pastors who settle on a guy because he has led a band and they think he can lead worship. I know several worship pastors who really don’t want to lead worship but that is what puts food on the table. What they really want to do is travel and be in a band. Nothing wrong with that but not a good fit long term for a worship pastor.
7.) Make sure they can lead a band – There are a lot of guys who can lead when it is just them and a guitar. Playing with a band is a totally different story. In our type of church, a band is a must. So therefore he must be able to play with a band.
8.) Make sure they are open minded – They last thing I want in a worship pastor is someone who isn’t willing to change because they are so stuck in their “art.” If I hear another worship pastor who is not willing to do what is necessary to reach the lost because of their “art” I am going to scream. I want someone who could care less about style, I want someone who is willing to do what is necessary to connect with their target.
9.) Make sure their heart is in the right place – Do they want to lead worship because it is “cool” or do they want to serve the people of their church? This is a question that must be answered.

Finding the right worship leader is a make or break for a new church. They are hard to find and I want to encourage you not to settle because you get desperate.

You might not find these things helpful. I am a note taker. I write stuff down as it enters my mind. As I was looking back over my journals, these were thoughts I had jotted down at different times, so I thought I would combine them here. I am sure you could all add to this list and I encourage you to do so in the comment section.

In the very new future I will have a meeting with someone I use to be very close with. This will not be a good meeting where we talk about old times and laugh at old stories but, rather it will be a very confrontational meeting. I literally hate that it is going to happen. Those who know me probably think I enjoy those types of things but the fact is they are very hard and very ugly.

I am not afraid of a fight, matter of fact I accept that there will be times you have to stand up for what you believe in. I will always fight for my family, my friends, and the church God called me to start.

I put everything on the line when we started RSC. I put our credit, our future, our savings, my name, etc. on the line because I knew this is what God called me to do. Compared to what Christ did for us, it was not a hard choice. Therefore, I will fight for it.

As a pastor, I believe if we aren’t willing to fight for our church, then we are at the wrong place.

I will enter this meeting with a lot of emotion and some anger. My natural instinct is to tear this person to shreds, however that is not the purpose of the meeting. The purpose is to help this person see the errors of their way and that they have some problems that need to be corrected. I know that is the purpose going in, but my flesh will fight me on that being the purpose.

So today I thought about some things I need to do before I go into the meeting.

1.) Be Prayed Up – No need to expound on that. It is common sense
2.) Keep emotion out of it – I feel I have several reasons to going in there emotionally charged but that will do no good and will only work against me.
3.) Stick to the facts – I have analyzed this situation over and over and I have several theories as to this individual’s problems but when confronting, I feel I will be better served sticking to the facts.
4.) Realize I will be attacked – I need to remember going in that he is going to attack me to save face. The worse he makes me look, the better he makes himself look.
5.) Analyze their attacks – No matter how hard the criticism and no matter the source, always analyze it to see if there was any truth in it. If there is, improve in those areas.
6.) Remember the purpose of the meeting – This will be hard. The purpose is to help this person see the error of their ways and hopefully restore them back so they can be an asset to the cause of Christ. Matthew 18 is to restore not destroy.
7.) Take the high road – It will be easy to sink to his level and take the low road but I must remember I am a pastor and handle myself in that way
8.) Let it end there – This problem has gone on too long and has taken too much time away from what God called me to do. No matter the outcome, this needs to be the end of it.

Every church planter is going to have to deal confrontation and deal with it quickly in their ministry. Church plants draw people who are looking to create a church that fits what they think church ought to be. Bad staff people will cause problems that will not end quickly. Key leaders will buck the vision and take others with them. You will have to confront these people to keep the church on track. Maybe when you have to do that, these things will help you. Maybe not.

My Worship Pastor, Tim May, turned me on to this cat and I have been listening to him all week. Jack Johnson has a cool pop/folk sound to him. If you are looking for something besides the same old stuff, this is a CD worth checking out.

Monday Morning Insights linked to my blog today and posted me entry on hiring tips.
I’m not real sure how they found the article and I didn’t even know they were going to post it but, it was cool to see it. Every one I know, knew about it before me. I found that odd. I got a kick out of some of the comments and it made for a fun day. I have greatly enjoyed blogging and some of you have even thanked me for doing. That is cool. I do it because I dig getting my thoughts down, so if you get something out of it, that is jus icing on the cake. Thanks for reading my mad babble!