Ha! You & I both know you don’t need another Top 11 post of anything right now.

Happy new year!

For being a good sport, here’s a video of Canadian icon Don Cherry playing his piano desk –

I’m hacking away at the pre-vacation list and wanted to let you know about two blog things happening next week.

1. Rob Rash asked me to be part of a series of posts called “The Hour Before” talking about what happens in the hour before our service begins. I was happy to write this up and that post will go live on Monday morning.

Check twitter for #thehourbefore hashtag to see a full list of who else is posting entries that day.

2. The summer blog mixtape series idea got a HUGE response and I’ve asked 10 worship leaders to write guests posts talking about a song that God is using in their own church in a significant way. The first post in that series will go live on Monday and continue with one post each weekday for 10 days.

I can’t wait for you to hear some of these stories and get a sense of what God is doing with these songs.

I’ll be back on the blog in a couple of weeks!

We began a new series at OBC on Sunday and we’re trying something new. One of our passions as a staff is to create more avenues for people to engage with the Bible. Yes our services are very Word-focused but we want to be encouraging people to keep Scripture “front and centre” seven days of the week. That’s why home groups are so important to us as well as this new idea we’re trying as part of this series – a joint blog written by our staff as we work through the book of Mark between now and Easter Sunday.

Each day we are posting a short devotional based on the next passage in the book of Mark. When we gather on Sunday, our pastor is preaching from the next passage in sequence so over the course of six weeks we’ll be walking through the entire gospel, together as a church.

It’s taken some pre-planning behind the scenes but here’s some of the process we’ve developed -

• Built the blog on Standard Theme simply because of how easy it was to configure and the sharing options which were included – we wanted to give people the opportunity to share the content with their own networks
• Every post (not the content, just the post title and publish time/date) from now until April 24 has already been created in the WordPress database. I used a plugin that imported posts through a CSV file which made it much easier once I had a standard format.
• We decided to include a link of each day’s reading on BibleGateway.com rather than include the reading in the post simply because of the length of some of the passages could be too long to put it on the blog
• The content for the posts of the upcoming week is being sent to me by email no later than noon on Friday the week before. Since all of the posts are already set it isn’t much work to copy/paste the content in to each post and do a little formatting to get it looking right. This has removed the burden of each author (we have different people writing each day of the week) learning WordPress login and posting processes.
• We’ve pushed the option to subscribe by email rather than expecting people from our church to visit the blog every day. In our first day we’ve had about 10% of our attenders subscribe to the content – I’m sure that will go up as people begin to share the posts from each day.

For those of you who are curious about these sorts of things, here’s a list of the plugins that I used on the site -

• Add Link to Facebook – takes some configuration but this will automatically post a link and an excerpt to our church’s facebook page when the post goes live each day at 5:00 AM
• CSV Importer – allowed me to setup each individual post very quickly
• Feedburner Email Widget – again, a little bit of work to set it up but this will be the main vehicle to deliver the content directly to inboxes every morning
• Smart YouTube – one of my favourite plugins, used to pre-configure the size and appearance of YouTube videos in posts and in the sidebar
• WordPress.com Stats – it’s good to know how many are visiting each day and where they may be coming from
• WordPress Editorial Calendar – another way to see how our content is lined up to go live each day
• WordTwit – this plugin will post to our twitter account when each post goes live
• WPaudio – Each Sunday’s post is simply the audio recording of our pastor’s message

So there you go. A little behind-the-scenes info of some of what went in to making this happen. I love seeing how tools and technology can be leveraged pretty easily to accomplish something like helping people read the Bible more.

If you are thinking of starting a blog this year, WordPress and the Standard Theme are the first places you should start.

Every now and then I’ll have a worship leader friend ask me about blogging, different platforms and themes. Lots of people are interested in blogging but once you start looking at all of the different options available it quickly becomes overwhelming and most people give up. I started this blog in 2007 with two simple things in mind – to help discipline my thoughts around Sunday morning and to give me a tool to connect with others who are doing the same.

Those are definitely not the only reasons to start blogging but having some kind of purpose when you start out will help you get past that typical “I’ve posted five times and I’m out of stuff to say!” syndrome that hits lots of new bloggers.

So why WordPress? Lots of reasons but the big ones for me are the stability of the platform, the size of the user community and the ability for major customization.

So why Standard Theme? I’m working on a re-design of my blog and I’m mostly impressed by the ability to focus on content and the incredible simplicity of the interface that makes me want to use it. It really is the best mix of simplicity and flexibility that I’ve seen in a theme.

Are you a new blogger? Leave a comment on this post and I’ll check it out. I’m happy to share your new blog with readers here!

Perry Noble is the senior pastor of NewSpring Church in South Carolina. He posted this on his blog last week and I loved it –

#1 – The Church Is Not “Their Gig,” – it’s THEIR CHURCH! They love NewSpring Church…they pray for it, work on it, support it financially and do not want to use it to boost their CD sales. They don’t run to it when they can’t find a “better opportunity,” they are here serving each and every week. They love the people in this church and have a heart to reach the community in which they are in!

#2 – They Have A Servants Heart – Our worship leaders do WAY more than sing on Sunday’s. In fact, they would be willing to do ANYTHING to advance the ball down the field. I am not kidding when I tell you that I could call any of them right now and tell them we are scrubbing toilets this afternoon and they would do it.
If a worship leaders thinks “their job” is to just sing then you don’t have a worship leader…you have an arrogant performer who wants people to worship them rather than leading them to worship Jesus. Worship is WAY more than singing…it’s serving Jesus by doing whatever it takes to make His Name known!

#3 – They KNOW the Scriptures – Our worship leaders know God’s Word…they read it, memorize it…CRAVE IT…and it shows as it FLOWS out of them in natural conversation and in their leadership on Sundays.

#4 – They Are Always Striving To Improve – I love that none of them are ever satisfied with the way things are…they are always striving to improve as vocalists and musicians…none of them believe they have “arrived” vocally/musically!

#5 – They Are Not Afraid To Try Something Different – I have gone to them a few times and asked them to attempt a song that isn’t quite their style…and they always says “yes!” They are not afraid of hard work…and if something isn’t familiar to them they will bust their rear ends to make sure that they absolutely kill it when it comes time to make it happen.

#6 – They Call Each Other Out – They love each other enough to tell each other when a vocal or musical part just isn’t right. AND…they also challenge and call each other out OFF of the stage. (Which is essential for a great worship team…if they are only concerned about one another ON stage and not OFF the stage then their obsession is the performance…not the person.)

#7 – They Write Awesome Music – Yes, we do other people’s music…I think it is both arrogant and stupid to not do a song that has a great message; however, our worship leaders also write their own stuff…which is SO pleasing to me because hearing their lyrics gives me a front row seat to what Jesus is doing in their hearts.

Now, listen. Don’t read this post and think “MY senior pastor never says nice stuff like that about me!” Instead, read these seven things and ask if those are things that could be said about you as a worship leader and about the rest of your worship team.

This is a regular feature on Tuesdays. I highlight a blog that I’ve been reading for a while and one that I’ve found recently. Hopefully it will give them some new readers and maybe you’ll find their blogs helpful as well.

Something old:
Because People Matter
Mark Waltz is the Pastor of Connections at Granger Community Church and I’ve been following his blog for a couple of years and have learned tons about connections and first impressions from him. Although my main “portfolio” is worship, part of that includes overseeing our first impressions (greeters, ushers, hospitality, etc). Mark’s book “First Impressions” has been fairly influential in helping our volunteer leaders in this area.

Something new:
Resonant Worship
I met Seth at re:create this year and I’m glad to see that he’s hopped on board the blogging train. Head over to his site and check out what he’s got to read. Jump in on some of the discussions and put his blog in your RSS cause I have a feeling that he’s going to be coming out with lots more awesome stuff.

Previous SO/SN posts:
Rich Kirkpatrick & RUWT?blog
Ethos & Ben Arment
Tea With McNair & Carey Nieuwhof
Jordon Cooper & Jim Drake
Billy Chia & The Ballad of Mr. Fun
The Warning Knock & Seminary Survival Guide

This is a regular feature on Tuesdays. I highlight a blog that I’ve been reading for a while and one that I’ve found recently. Hopefully it will give them some new readers and maybe you’ll find their blogs helpful as well.

Something old:
The Warning Knock
Mark Warnock is the worship pastor at First Baptist Church in Columbia, IL and we met back in 2007 at re:create in Nashville. We had some great conversations and it was the beginning of a great friendship. We’ve stayed in touch by email, phone and visits over the past year and a bit and I’ve learned lots from Mark. Back in February I had the privilege of leading a retreat with the worship ministry volunteers from his church and also got to lead their Sunday morning services. Mark’s blog covers lots of topics but he does a great job of bringing his thoughts back to his worship pastor perspective and the things he posts are really helpful.

Something new:
Seminary Survival Guide
Okay, full disclosure time. This blog isn’t in my reader BUT I figured that if I was featuring Mark’s personal blog then I’d also highlight his “hobby” blog – although he still puts tons of time and effort into this hobby! Mark started this blog a few months ago and the response has been awesome. The content is directed towards current and future seminary students and is hopefully helpful for them as they tread those waters.
“I got the idea for this lying in bed praying one morning. Our church has several seminary students, and seeing them take the first steps in following their call to ministry reminded me of when I was doing the same thing. I especially remembered how much I thought I knew…. and how little I actually knew about what was really important.”

Previous SO/SN posts:
Rich Kirkpatrick & RUWT?blog
Ethos & Ben Arment
Tea With McNair & Carey Nieuwhof
Jordon Cooper & Jim Drake
Billy Chia & The Ballad of Mr. Fun

This is a regular feature on Tuesdays. I highlight a blog that I’ve been reading for a while and one that I’ve found recently. Hopefully it will give them some new readers and maybe you’ll find their blogs helpful as well.

Something old:
Billy Chia
Soon after I started to blog here regularly Billy was one of the first guys I connected with. At the time he was living in Indiana with his wife and daughters and serving as a volunteer in his local church. He was also being very honest with his conviction that God was calling him to full time ministry and he was doing everything he could to make that happen – it was a pretty awesome journey to watch and we all celebrated when Billy was given the opportunity to move to Huntsville, Alabama and take a worship pastor position at a church there. Billy’s worship confessionals are always really helpful and if you’re not reading his blog yet, you should be!

Something new:
The Ballad of Mr. Fun
Reid Greven is one of the music guys at North Point, his blog is awesome, his posts are funny, he’s got tons of ideas, blah blah blah. The real reason I’m linking Reid’s blog is that he’s Canadian!!
But seriously, read his blog. It is awesome – tons of insight into how the big boys do things and the occasional joke at how Americans are paralyzed with fear when they see a few snowflakes.

Previous SO/SN posts:
Rich Kirkpatrick & RUWT?blog
Ethos & Ben Arment
Tea With McNair & Carey Nieuwhof
Jordon Cooper & Jim Drake

This is a regular feature on Tuesdays. I highlight a blog that I’ve been reading for a while and one that I’ve found recently. Hopefully it will give them some new readers and maybe you’ll find their blogs helpful as well.

Something old:
Jordon Cooper
Jordon’s blog was the first one I ever read – before I even knew what a blog was! Jordon lives in Saskatchewan and really knows how to tell a story. He posts about faith, religion, the church, politics, social justice issues, parenting stuff and a million other things. He is often talked about in Canadian blog circles and is regularly nominated for blog awards.

Something new:
Jim Drake’s blog
I met Jim at re:create and was really impressed with his contributions to our group sessions. He’s a worship pastor out in Texas and always posts some good thoughts on how things are going there.

Previous SO/SN posts:
Rich Kirkpatrick & RUWT?blog
Ethos & Ben Arment
Tea With McNair & Carey Nieuwhof

This is a regular feature on Tuesdays. I hilight a blog that I’ve been reading for a while and one that I’ve found recently. Hopefully it will give them some new readers and maybe you’ll find their blogs helpful as well.

Something old:
Rich Kirkpatrick
Rich is a worship pastor in California and I’ve linked to him a bunch of times since I started this blog. We met at re:create last year and have enjoyed some good conversations over IM since then. His wisdom and practical experience as a worship leader means that he’s got lots of really good posts over at his blog. Plus he thinks hockey is a sport worth watching, so that gets him some points!

Something new:
RUWT?blog
This has nothing to do with church, worship or ministry but if you’re a sports fan like I am and you just NEED to know when there’s an incredible game happening on TV, then RUWT is for you. I have been using this since October and love the simplicity of it. The blog is great for keeping me updated with new features – like the ability to chat with the site’s ruwtbot through IM. Awesome.