WHERE I AM

Some of you have experience with this, but for me, it's brand-new.

I love Bethel - I'm learning a lot, working a lot, and hopefully I'll soon be making a difference in the life of the church.

But transitioning is hard.

In this case, I'm not necessarily talking about missing old friends (although, I do!) I'm speaking more of the journey of meeting, learning and serving a new congregation. It's a slow process. And worship leaders don't like anything slow, do we?

So, from time-to-time, I'll be posting 'WHERE I AM,' articles where I get real specific as to my time and experience at Bethel. It's my hope that those of you who frequent this site might either find or offer some encouragement in these posts! Since I'm also overseeing a host of creative/communication projects, I'll probably venture from the music front from time-to-time to chronicle the whole journey of this new place.

Here a couple of things that are key for me right now in my ministry at Bethel...

1. COMMUNICATION
We're working really hard at utilizing technology to push more folks toward information. Last week, we revived a Bethel blog (www.bethelbible.typepad.com) and gave the church a Facebook page. The church as a website that is being revamped, so in the next few weeks, we'll be focusing our energies on making a new site a reality. I'm also going to setup a church Twitter account in the future, too. (But not yet...I'll explain in just a bit.)

There are those who would ask, "Why do you need a website, a blog, a Facebook, a YouTube page, a Vimeo page and a Twitter account? That's just a giant waste of time!"

While it's certainly true that each of those items can be time-wasters, we could say the same thing about Fantasy Football or the new season of 24 or lawn-care. Anything can waste time. It's how you do it, how you approach it and how you value that "thing" that determines whether it's healthy or not.

At Bethel, we'd like to use each of these formats to POINT at something. For example, last week we pointed to our Baptism service. And some of you got connected to that and enjoyed it and hopefully were encouraged by it. In coming weeks and months, we'd like to do that with upcoming events...things that we want our people know about and be a part of. There are still some kinks: How do we choose which events to spotlight? How far out do we promote? How much time/space do we devote to each event? Who chooses how to actually "promote" the information?

It's not gonna' be easy...and we're gonna' drop the ball sometimes, but we're not going to to not try just because we might not win everytime.

Right now, my big communication priorities are video, Facebook and the Bethel blog. I'd like to be throwing out videos every other week - either in service or strictly online. Facebook is a great way to do that - since SO many people are on it, there's not much chance of missing a new video post. As to the Bethel blog, this week we'll kick off staff posts. Each staff member will pick a day and post something, anything...the key is consistency. Hopefully, folks will make the blog a place to stop and check each day. Not only will they get more in-depth info on ministries, but I think they'll also get to know the staff a little better.

Once our blog output is consistent, we'll fire up the Twitter feed. I know Twitter is easy and probably would kick off quicker, but I'd like to focus the blog feel first and leave Twitter for the more random output.

2. MUSIC
Obviously, music is high on the list. (Always will be...)

Certainly, I'm going to be learning what the congregation likes and dislikes over the next few months. That's fine - that's a process and that's totally natural.

What's more important to me is making sure I'm putting in the time in prayer and study to equip myself to actually pastor this congregation. I'd like to do more teaching/exhortation about worship. I'd like to do a better job of wrapping my head around why we worship and how it makes a difference. I've committed to making time each week strictly for study regarding the worship service. (Apart from any personal Bible study stuff...) I need that time to pray and meditate on our text. Sometimes, that's gonna' prompt me to bring some encouragement from the stage. Other times, it's simply going to prepare my heart as I prepare songlists.

That's a few of the things I'm working on. In the next few weeks, I'll be giving you some updates on how that's going. For what it's worth, I'd love it if you'd add Bethel Bible as a Facebook friend and subscribe to the Bethel blog. I'm excited about what this church is doing and I'd love for you to see what's up, too!