The first of seven topics is “Preparing for the Spiritual Life.”  This section focuses on discipleship vs. no discipleship.   C.S. Lewis starts off this section by analyzing the Christian walk.  Christ says, (1) “I want you.  I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it.”  Natural self has nothing good to offer God.  John of the Cross later goes on to detail more of the spiritual growth process with, (2) “God will draw a person from the beginning stage to a more advanced stage.  At this stage the person will begin to engage in religious exercises and grow deeper in the spiritual life.”

The second area is “The Prayer-Filled life” and gives attention to loving God.  Thomas Merton says, (3) “the works of the spiritual director consists of not so much in teaching us a secret and infallible method for attaining to esoteric experiences, but in showing us how to recognize God’s grace & His will, how to be humble & patient, how to develop insight into our own difficulties, and how to remove main obstacles keeping us from becoming people of prayer.”  John Baillie compliments that thought of becoming a people of prayer by dedicating his first morning thoughts to God by praying (4) “Eternal Father of my soul, let my first thought today be of You, let my first impulse be to worship You, let my first speech be Your name, let my first action be to kneel before You in prayer.”

“The Virtuous Life” comes next and gives great detail to striving to live a holy life.  It also gives focus on love being the motivation for holiness.  Richard Rolle helps break down this topic by defining the struggle between spirit and flesh.  (5) “Before we can experience even a little of God’s love. We must be really turned to Him, and, in mind at least, be wholly turned from every earthly thing.”  Thomas Kempis explains as (6) “When a person of good will is troubled or tempted or vexed by evil thoughts, then he better understands his need for God, without whom he can do nothing good at all.”

“The Spirit-Empowered Life” is the fourth section of this book, which focuses on the Holy Spirit’s work in us.  It also speaks of surrendering to the Spirit leading, teaching, and guide us in our efforts.  Thomas Kelly opens this topic by exploring “the inner sanctuary”, “the secret places, of the heart”, and “mental habits of inward orientation.”  Thomas Kelly goes on to say that (7) “The basic response of the soul to the Light is internal adoration and joy, thanksgiving and worship, self-surrender and listening.”  After this response has occurred, Catherine of Genoa says that (8) “God and sin cannot live peaceably side by side…When God gives light to the soul, it no longer desires to live with the part of it that continues to block the Light.”

“The Compassionate Life” is a call to stand strong and be transformed.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer touches on the Christian community and how Jesus is the center.  William Temple attacks this section first by addressing the churches impact upon society and Christian principles, but brings it center court by addressing (9) “All Christian thinking must begin not with man, but with God.”  Elizabeth O’Connor even touches on the topic of money from handling to stabilizing our standard of living.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer near the end of the section talks on the community in Christ and our life together.  Bonhoeffer’s main point throughout his writing is (10) “Christian community means community in and through Jesus Christ.”

“The Word-Centered Life” focuses on scripture being the center of our lives and it stresses the high calling of evangelism.  Jones gives great importance on making scripture a lifestyle and encourages getting into habits of reading the Bible.  E. Stanley Jones spurs people on to (11) “Cultivate the new life by daily disciplines.”  Jones teaches on a broad field from receptivity & response, simple habits, and God interpreting Himself.  He also expounds on keeping the fire burning, and habits that cannot be Christianized.  One of Jones’s major points that stood out was (12) “pray for those who have wronged you.”

The last section these writers cover is “The Sacramental Life”.  This details the materialistic life from the spiritual life, and Anthanasius talks about God taking on a physical form.  Annie Dillard sets up the scene on how it is important to see what is happening around us.  She later states (13) “seeing is of course very much a matter of verbalization. Unless I call my attention to what passes before my eyes, I simply won’t see it.”  Brother Lawrence compliments that thought of seeing, and takes it a little deeper by writing on in the area of “Faith Alone Was Enough”.  Bother Lawrence encourages to (14) “Give God thanks with me for his great goodness towards me, which I can never sufficiently admire, and for the many favors He has done for so miserable sinner as I am.”

Devotional Classics covered such a huge field of ideas, that I am quite sure the reader would continue to learn things over and over again.  Paul asks for writing of men when he was in prison, so I believe that we can learn things from other Godly men and women of Christ.

[1] Richard J. Foster and James Bryan Smith, eds., Devotional Classics (New York: HarperOne; 2005), 8.

[2] Richard J. Foster and James Bryan Smith, eds., Devotional Classics (New York: HarperOne; 2005), 33.

[3] Richard J. Foster and James Bryan Smith, eds., Devotional Classics (New York: HarperOne; 2005), 67.

[4] Richard J. Foster and James Bryan Smith, eds., Devotional Classics (New York: HarperOne; 2005), 108.

[5] Richard J. Foster and James Bryan Smith, eds., Devotional Classics (New York: HarperOne; 2005), 131.

[6] Richard J. Foster and James Bryan Smith, eds., Devotional Classics (New York: HarperOne; 2005), 154.

[7] Richard J. Foster and James Bryan Smith, eds., Devotional Classics (New York: HarperOne; 2005), 174.

[8] Richard J. Foster and James Bryan Smith, eds., Devotional Classics (New York: HarperOne; 2005), 181.

[9] Richard J. Foster and James Bryan Smith, eds., Devotional Classics (New York: HarperOne; 2005), 225.

[10] Richard J. Foster and James Bryan Smith, eds., Devotional Classics (New York: HarperOne; 2005), 273.

[11] Richard J. Foster and James Bryan Smith, eds., Devotional Classics (New York: HarperOne; 2005), 284.

[12] Richard J. Foster and James Bryan Smith, eds., Devotional Classics (New York: HarperOne; 2005), 284.

[13] Richard J. Foster and James Bryan Smith, eds., Devotional Classics (New York: HarperOne; 2005), 345.

[14] Richard J. Foster and James Bryan Smith, eds., Devotional Classics (New York: HarperOne; 2005), 371.

Dan reminds us to be grounded in earth.  He encourages us to stand on solid things such as scripture.  This stage of the elemental life has come very naturally to me at a very young age.  God has been very gracious to me by placing strong resources in front of me to keep me grounded in my journey.

Dan continues on by refreshing us in the wind stage.  Wind keeps fuel in your tanks, air in your sails, and inspiration to rejuvenate you.  Wind could be anything from listening to music, going to concerts, writing, reading, mentors, art, or bird watching.  The elemental life cannot sustain without a steady dose of inspiration.  We need these things daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly.  If we do not have these inspirations in our lives regularly, we will burn out.

Dan reminds us to not only stay and soak up inspiration, but to be empowered by the Holy Spirit.  Fire is the empowered step in this elemental life.  Fire represents “a life that is burning so hot, everything around us starts on fire.”  Dan explains in Fire: The Empowered Life video that Jesus during His temptation was drawing from the Father.  Dan also gives great insight to worship leaders by saying “you don’t see your leadership strength until you are being tested.”  “When you are tested, it will draw out the fire inside of you.”

Lastly, Dan concludes with the importance of water.  Water is the communal life.  Water represents who is around you.  Who speaks into your life, and whose life you speak to?  This stage represents your relationships with the people that surround you.  This could be your worship team, pastor, associate pastors, friends, and family.  How are these relationships affecting you and how are you affecting these people.  This step also includes having a close knit circle of friends and mentors to speak into your life.

The elemental life makes perfect sense when put into perspective.  This elemental life needs to be put in front of you regularly to remind you what needs to be done.

Dan opens this topic of fire and explains how the powerful work of one can be empowered by the Spirit.  He also goes on to explaining how our fire can affect and encourage others, but without controlling this fire it can take away from others.  Dan also talks of how Jesus draws for the Father’s power during His tempting.  He later says that “One doesn’t see their leadership strength until they are being tested.”  We are all going to be tested in one way or another.  Dan says that when we are tested “it is going to draw that fire out of you, and there is an empowering that occurs.”

The eBook asks the question, “What is it that puts fire in your bones, and gives you something worth dying for?”  I can solemnly say that it is worship for me.  I have invested five years of my life to our worship ministry, and I don’t know what I would do if I could not do it anymore.  My worship ministry has brought me to great heights and depths all at the same time.  Dan goes on later in the eBook with the statement “I’ve interacted with many of my friends around that world who, like me, have endured life-threatening battles with severe depression.”  I have to admit, out of all of this information that little bit of transparency was quite encouraging for me.  People like me don’t seem to have problems setting people on fire, encouraging others, and allowing the Holy Spirit to consume their lives.  On the other hand, at the end of the day I sometimes find myself in great valleys.  I find myself questioning what I am doing.  Am I wasting my life for something that other people take for granted?  Is all of this worth the small sum of money that I get in my paycheck?  How am I going to provide for my family?

Although I find myself in great depression sometimes, I always seem to have enough strength to continue on.  I know that I will not be content working in a factory or being a History teacher.  The Holy Spirit constantly fuels the fire He has set in me to continue the work that He will finish.  I will not, nor could I carry on without the fire that God provides.  I must admit it is hard sometimes being the only person with fire.  I dream someday that I meet someone else with the same or even more fire than I have.  Glory to God!!

Sometimes I feel like I’m not even on the same planet as other people.  We (my wife and I) have made a choice to live intentionally for God.  We try to walk in such a way that God will be glorified in everything we do.  We have turned down chances to make more money, because they will derail us from the work that God has called us to do.  It is not easy and quite frankly I struggle often with some of the decisions we have made in the past. It is exhilarating to hear Dan teach on this field, because I seldom hear about this type of topic.

Dan opens the topic with an eye opening statement.  He says that “spiritual formation usually refers to being a servant.”  How true is that!!!  It is very rare that you ever hear preaching or teaching on chasing your dreams.  This is where I get passionate about encouraging other people to figure out what they love to do, and cross that with God’s will.  God has given us individual talents and passions, and I believe we should use those to the best of our abilities to serve Him. There is nothing wrong with going into a field that is out of the ordinary if it’s where God is leading you.  There is nothing wrong with wanting to love your job.  You have to work the rest of your life, so you better like what you are doing.

Dan goes on explaining that “we need to find out what inspires us.”  He also talks about “understanding the wind, in any given time”, and “encourages us to practice harnessing the wind.”  He pokes even deeper by provoking you to ask question about yourself, such as “what gives you the energy to do what you do?”   Dan also gives great insight on what will happen if you do not keep a steady diet of inspiration in your life.  He says that “your ministry life will be corrupted, if you are not inspired regularly.”  I have found this to be true in my own life lately.  I have found myself going long periods of time without a fresh dose of inspiration, and feel myself getting slightly off.  It’s a weird feeling.    Dan also strongly encourages us to not only keep inspiration in our own lives, but to figure out what your wife and kids love as well.

Now let me explain what I mean by living fully for God.  This doesn’t mean that I live foolishly and expect that God will supply my every need.  This doesn’t mean that I sit on the couch and watch 2 hours of TV faithfully every night.  This doesn’t mean that I sit on my hands with no motion or spiritual fruit and pray that God will open up miraculous doors.  However, God can do whatever He wants whenever He wants.  I’m simply stating that I practice living an intentional life in Christ.  By intentional, I am simply stating that my family avoids things that will distract from God’s work in our lives.  For example, I was talking with one of our teens about video games and TV, (I love video games and TV) and he suggests that I get an Xbox.  I explained to him that we don’t have cable or an Xbox, because it would be a huge distraction in our worship ministry.  I believe that if we did have those things, we wouldn’t be where we are at today.

My brain may be analyzing this slightly different from other people, but to me, my intentional walk with Christ lines up with Dan’s “living an elemental life.”  Dan explains the elemental life as four different categories.  The first category that Dan talks of is earth.  Earth is broken down into the grounded life or characteristics of you.  This goes into detail on things that move us, and us not moving them.  We stand on these things.  The second category is wind.  Dan classifies this as the inspired life.  The inspired life goes into the area of “what happens when we throw our sail out.”  Fire is the third category in the elemental life, and it is described as the empowered life.  Living the empowered life would mean that we draw on a power not of ourselves.  Finally, the last category would be water.  Water would entail a communal life of nurturing authentic friendships and the need for voices around you to speak into your life.

In the video “A Grounded Life”, Dan takes time to break down the Earth category even more, but for me it was really good to look at each four steps and individually plug them into my life right now.  It helps see where we are going, what we are doing right, what we are doing wrong, and provides clarity on this unusual lifestyle of the worship ministry.

In the first chapter Andy starts off by boldly stating that (1) “becoming a worship leader isn’t about the pursuit of a ministry or career; it’s about the pursuit of a person.”  The career factor is always an idea floating around in a worship leader’s head, especially when talking about writing songs.  I appreciate that boldness right from the start.  He moves on to lay ground work on the pursuit of the person, and ties it in with his personal experience with worship from a young age.  He goes into some depth of his high school to college life.  While in college his attention was turned to a Vineyard church, and that is where he experienced a worship setting like no other.  After this experience, he was called into worship and progressed as worship leader.  Andy gives great insight on not only his growth, but his temptations as well.  He goes on to describe how his pride gave him trouble over the years, and he constantly needed to ask for forgiveness.  Andy quotes John Wimber’s statement (2) “the big question is “What are you going to do when everything goes right?”

Andy moves on to describing what intimacy has to do with worship.  He describes the thief on the cross and proposing a very interesting question with (3) “was it fair for Jesus to forgive this man just because of his last minute confession?”  Andy moves on from there to talking about repentance of a normal life, and daring to draw near to Jesus.  He talks about Moses’s’ ministry and the Promise Land, and briefly warns about material wealth being a stumbling block.

Chapter five starts touching on the different roles of the worship leader, and also describes the biblical perspective on worship leaders.  Park states that (4) “nowhere in the New Testament is the emphasis on any particular person filling the role of the worship leader.”  This section of the book also talks how the priests carried the Ark of the Covenant in to the Jordan River and Nebuchadnezzar’s anger against Shadreach, Meshack, and Abednego.  He describes their stand as (5) “they were making a stand – they belonged to God and would be true to Him and would submit to no other power regardless of what happened to them.  There worship was expressed through making a choice for God.”

Moving forward, Andy stirs the thoughts of priest, prophesy, and healing in worship.  He brings up the topic of physical healing, to which I have mixed feelings on, and shares some stories of people that have received healing in his own life.  Next, park addresses the mysterious power of music with (6) “King David, we see music employed as a healing balm for the human soul.  As David played his harp, evil spirits were driven away from Saul.  This wasn’t music alone – it was the anointing of the Holy Spirit.”  He also quotes Martin Luther statement (7) “Winsome art of music – one of the fairest and most glorious gifts of God, to which Satan is hostile, since it drives away temptations and evil thoughts…music is one of the finest of the arts; the notes enliven the text, and it drives away the spirit of sadness.”

After hitting on evangelism and teaching, Andy moves into “The Worship Team” section.  I found this section to be the most helpful for me in this season of my ministry.  Andy hits on all of the levels with choosing worship team members.  He goes through musical level, classical training vs. playing by ear, Godly character in team members, Godly parents and spouses, all the way to impartiality.  I found it very interesting that he thinks (8) “the best solution to classical training is to learn to play by ear, not just from written score.  Another problem in being limited to playing written music is that often there are no written parts available for keyboards or symphonic instruments for contemporary songs.”

Andy moves through a vast array of topics including spiritual warfare, maintaining purity in male-female relationship, and being a serving arm of the church.  In this particular section Andy explains the serving arm of the church as (9) “playing on a worship team involves far more than musical experience.  It’s a small network of relationships that’s connected to the larger network of the church.”

Chapter eleven jumps into actually preparing the worship set.  Andy starts this section by boldly stating (10) “Worship leading is a spiritual art.”  He continues on in the section by addressing several key topics such as song selection, preparing your set, building your set, and the curve of a worship set.  The twelfth chapter deals with delivering the worship set, and thirteen hashes out the ins and outs of rehearsal and presentation.  This is where Andy encourages listening to CDs, experimenting in rehearsals and professional attitude.

Lastly Andy Park gives us his insight on the craft of songwriting.  He basically states that he never started out to be a songwriter, but somehow God had a plan.  Andy gives great back story to how he stopped trying to get into Christian music, and this was when God used him.  Once he started to get more recognition, Andy found himself surrendering over and over again.  Andy Park – “Keeping a pure heart is a battle.”

1) Andy Park, To Know You More (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2002), 15

2) Andy Park, To Know You More (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2002), 23

3) Andy Park, To Know You More (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2002), 33

4) Andy Park, To Know You More (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2002), 64

5) Andy Park, To Know You More (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2002), 70

6) Andy Park, To Know You More (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2002), 78

7) Andy Park, To Know You More (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2002), 78

Andy Park, To Know You More (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2002), 98

9) Andy Park, To Know You More (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2002), 110

10) Andy Park, To Know You More (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2002), 158

I really love the idea of mentoring, but like I said I haven’t had much mentoring experience.  I am always looking for opportunities to study and learn from other worship leaders that are more seasoned than I am.  Dan talks about the stairs analogy as a good foundation of mentoring.  In this idea, it pictures us on stairs with one hand reaching upward to another as well as keeping the other hand back to help another keep climbing.  He also touches on having and nurturing face to face relationships.  This face to face time, is way outside of my natural comfortable boundaries, but I have learned that if there is anything between us it is always best to deal with it face to face.  Dan moves on to a detail process of nurturing suitable candidate’s.  He encourages us to co-lead with them first before giving them the lead.  I really like and completely agree with investing and working with people individually, and Dan states that this may take an extended period of time.  Over time you can evaluate and give more or less slack as needed.

Moving on, Dan takes mentoring to a deeper personal level in spending time with people.  Spending time may include watching movies, or planning activities that are outside of the normal music business, but this in turn provides a personal relationship off the stage.  This particular field is one thing that I could improve on.  I have several music relationships based solely on music and music alone, but what I lack with these relationships is deep intimate connections “when the music fades.”

I couldn’t help but reflect as Dan stated “It is easier to appoint people, than to disappoint people.”  How true it is.  It is easy to see potential, but without investing you sometime get into situations that turn out to be awkward.  I especially find it difficult when musician’s volunteer to play and they seem to be what you need, but if you do not invest time into them you may be getting yourself into trouble.  I found this to be true with a drummer, that I thought was really good.  He had a great imagination for awesome drum lines, but I threw him into the mix way too early.  This led to disappointment on my end and a heavy load on his end.

Dan also encourages us to share input with them, give them room to experience, and give them hope.  I have learned that sharing input has been one of the most helpful things that I can do with my team.  I have also carved out time to intentionally work with team members outside of normal rehearsal time.  This gives them a laid back environment to experiment with different ideas they have.  When it’s all said and done, I always give them hope.  I encourage and try my best to cultivate a love for Christ as well as a love for the worship that they play.

Matt Redman touches on spontaneous worship in the video “Band & Heart.”  I believe there is a time and a place for spontaneous worship, and Matt Redman encourages us to practice spontaneous worship.  This is where I have found the problem, and I believe Mike Pilavachi connects spontaneous worship and common sense.  Allow me to clarify.  Spontaneous worship is only conducive to certain church cultures.  For instance, Mike Pilavachi encourages worship leaders to use common sense in evaluating there congregational gatherings.  He later goes on to challenge three questions.  The first question is “think about who you are leading.”  Secondly, “worship leader, know when to stop.” The last question is “worship leader, know when to finish.”.

I’m all about spontaneous worship, but it sounds like it goes hand and hand with common sense. My church does not do well with a lot of repition and spontaneous worship, but I would be open to spontaneous worship in a more contemporary demographic.

Let’s return back to the worship concert that my wife and I attended. Like I said, we walked to our seat and waited patiently for the worship to start. Well, we knew the first song and never heard of the other two. I thought the band was amazing, but they would not stop singing this one part of the song.  ”One thing remains” we sang for at least 15min.   Well, by the time the worship leader stopped singing, I was hypnotized enough to do anything they asked me. I’m just joking, but Pastor Mike really helped me to realize that sometimes we just don’t use common sense.  After the song my wife leaned over and asked “can you tell me what one thing remains?”

In conclusion, I don’t see spontaneous worship being affective unless there is some good theological meat present.

The deeper issues to me seem like the intentions of the heart.  Let me shed some light on what I’m thinking.  We have a title….Worship Leader.  We have a job to do….lead worship, but there is more to what meets the eye.  Worship leaders have many different types of roles that should and need to be fulfilled.  Why do I want to carry all of these roles out?  It’s not merely because it’s my job, but that my heart wants to obey, trust, and worship God with everything that I am.

I never dreamed that a worship leader had so many roles.  It’s interesting how ministry is so much different than an ordinary job.  For example, I started welding when I was 17 years old in tech center at Mayville High School.  I held several good paying welding jobs, and the last welding job I held was your routine job.  I usually knew actually what I needed to do every day I came in.  There was a routine of what I needed to make, tell them this, a do that before I leave at 3:30.

I hired on full time at my church about a year ago.  It’s unbelievable how many different roles need to be filled.  I sort of knew the roles, but watching “The Roles Of The Worship Leader” by Dan Wilt really help me get a better handle on what exactly was there.  He explains that the worship leader is blending pastoral and musical roles.  Dan also goes on to explain seven roles of the worship leaders as being priestly, teachers, story tellers, evangelist, pastoral, prophetic, and intersececor.  The manual labor as a worship leader vs. a welder is way easier but the emotional weight is ten times more.  I can get overwhelmed some days thinking about all of these areas I could improve on, but it just takes time.  God is faithful.  I do well at some of the roles but the one that I need to improve on the most is intercessor.

Matt Redman in “Personal Time With God” said that “it’s hard to make time with God….In society, there’s no simplicity.”  He also says that “we need to discipline ourselves, because we are hungry.”  I need to work on being an intercessor because of my hunger for Christ.  I really enjoyed studying about all of the different roles because it helped me in self-evaluation.  Praise God.

As a young worship leader, I often struggle with what Andy Park touches on as the “Ecstasy Factor” in “The Most Important Thing”.  Andy hit me personally with two things that I could improve on, teach on, and pray about.  “The Ecstasy Factor” is so amazing and fun.  What more can there possibly be?  We are standing in the presence of Almighty God, and people are responding.  Indeed this is an amazing place to be, but we need to learn that, whether one person raises their hand or zero, we are going to serve the Lord.  This also brings us to the second pressure point, “I’m loving people with all of my heart, I’m trying to serve people the best I can – And that is the most important kind of worship – (Andy Park).”

I’m having a hard time interpreting this next point of conversation.  David Ruis states in “A Word to Worship Leaders”, that “If we really care about God hearing our worship, and receiving our worship – It’s got to be anchored to care for the poor.” We are so disconnected from third world poverty and America’s definition of poor is poisoned, and corrupted.  I realize that I am young, and to be honest I want to grow in this area.  I am especially weak in this because I work full time at a church and I experience firsthand people asking for help with their mortgages, heating bills, and gas for their cars while they are smoking a cigarette and texting on their cell phones.  I do realize that there is a great need for helping the poor, but I’m not sure that I can completely jump on board with the previous statement.

Nothing has described worship as good as Brian Doerksens when he states that “Leading worship is the most sacred, delightful responsibility in the church.”  That statement has been the most simple but accurate way of defining worship to me.  He also goes on to say that worship leading is an “interweaving of being a servant, but yet brings life to you.”  Servant sometimes feels like an understatement.  How about kicking post or work horse?  I’m just joking, but in reality it is hard work.  Everything from setting the stage up, processing chord charts, transposing, spiritual teaching, prayer, and planning gets exhausting, but somehow God continually gives us enough life and desire to press on.

Lastly, I would like to touch slightly on Dan Wilts six great worship leader traits.  This video is where the rubber meets the road for me.  All too often, we get tons of general information that every worship leader should know, but that information isn’t always helpful.  Dan’s careful preparation into each step helped me draw out what I was lacking in and what I was thriving in.