BST's Blog

Well, both kids are still sickly and completely cranky. Lord, please heal them and give Sheryl reprieve today!

Tonight's the big night. Our annual family picnic will start at 6pm. We have been organizing food for 1000 people, grillers, games, football toss, several huge bouncy things for the kids, tables, chairs, condiments, you name it. It should be fun. It is also about 500 degrees here. I am thinking of adding a daisy sprinkler to the fun.

Forgot to mention that we saw Vince and Amy (Grant/ Chapman/ Gill/ don't get me started) at the movie the other night. In Nashville sometimes it's weird to see famous people out and about. I used to see Martina McBride at the movie all the time. One thing living here has taught me is that we're all human--even celebrities. Amy and Gary's kids went to Otter Creek pre-school and kindergarten (as did Alan Jackson's, Billy Dean's and others). It would be weird to walk down the hall to the kids' Thanksgiving program and see them standing there with video cameras in hand just like everyone else.

Pat Ward, our kindergarten director, is a wonderful woman. She ministers to this community maybe more than any of us. She was really a confidant for Amy through the rough times with Gary and all they faced, not to mention being there for the Jackson's through their ordeal and eventual miraculous healing of their marriage. It's unfortunate that when you are in the spotlight to any degree, it can feel very alienating.

I remember one funny story a few years back. I was driving around to the front of the parking lot at church and saw Pat and some teachers talking. There was a woman standing with her back to my car and I thought it was my friend, Cindy. I snuck the car up behind her and laid on the horn. Yeah--uh, Amy Grant. Nice job, BST. Nice job.

I remember when I worked at Reunion Records here in Nashville back in 1990 (intern while at ACU). I was doing tour promotions for Rich Mullins, working with Radio promo, and learning Nashville. It was an interesting time--I ate lots of creamed corn. It was all I could afford. I was living with a couple of other ACU ex's--Kent Roberts and Michael McCoy. Both of them were trying to make it in the biz. Those were different times. The Christian Music industry wasn't as big back then. I remember Wes King being a nobody coming in the Reunion offices and playing guitar for us. I remember going out to Susan Ashton's house on Thursday nights for a thing called "Guitars and Cigars". But the thing I loved most was going out to Gary and Amy's for "The Loft". Remember the record called "Songs From the Loft"? It came from those very special, Spirit-filled nights of worship in their barn. It was an exciting time. It was before the popular wave of worship music hit the CCM market. But in places like the Loft and at Belmont Church where Michael W. Smith would lead worship, it was like a birthing of something amazing. I remember that summer hearing a worship CD--I mean TAPE-- called "The Lord Reigns" for the first time. I picked it up the other day and was blown away at how dated it is now. It had the song "Victory Chant" on it. I remember going back to ACU that fall and teaching that song. Now, that dates me.

Those were exciting times. There was a brewing of the Spirit. It made people nervous. I remember getting called into a meeting with some important ACU faculty members who were concerned about some things they were hearing around campus. Ty Lovell was there with me. It was as if we were getting in trouble for our excitement about the move of the Spirit. Interesting--every single one of the men in that meeting would testify today that the Spirit is alive and well. We've laughed about it since.

Today, you turn on the radio and every Christian Music artist is doing praise and worship covers. WoW Worship is selling like hotcakes. Worship, worship, worship. I sit through meetings where catch phrases regarding worship music are thrown around. It's a business. It sells records. It's great and also depressing.

As the peak of the worship wave has come and possibly gone, people are asking, "what's next"? My feeling is this, I think we've been on the right track. Lyrics to songs like "Heart of Worship" by Matt Redman as well as other worship lyrics have opened our eyes to see a need for God. It has given our generation a voice in our own language to express our love for the King. It has energized churches and individuals. But what's next? Maybe the next step is to take realization full circle to implementation. We've done a lot of talking. A lot of singing. Maybe now this emergent culture with all its good and bad points can help us break through the lyrics to transformed living. Not to say there hasn't been transformation going on, but there seems to be a new hunger these days for that next level.

As I prepare for St. Louis, I keep thinking about how important it is to take the true message of worship with us as we travel. It would be so much easier to talk logistics, maybe even somewhat helpful on some level. Hold auditions, get a praise team up there, incorporate power point, use these songs, do this drama and whammo--revival. But, that just doesn't do it. The reality is, churches can incorporate all those things and still be the white washed tombs Jesus talked about. There has to be transformation. I am more and more convinced that the kind of transformation we should be after happens sometimes in spite of the order of worship or the praise team or any of those things. For some, it happens as O Sacred Head is sung a different way for the first time. For others it happens in a moment of silence before the service even begins. The key ingredient seems to be an open heart and a hunger for everything the Lord has to offer us. If those are in place, liturgy or no liturgy, the world will be a changed place.

Father, I am convicted today to pant for you, to seek you, to hunger for you more than anything else. You know my weaknesses. You are fully aware of my failings. You know how what I want doesn't always compute into how I live. You hold time in your hands...those same hands where my name is engraved. You will not grow tired or weary. Give us strength for these days and a message that is fresh and Kingdom building. If it's not about You and what You want, shut our mouths.