A time....not a place.

When I see rhubarb I am immediately transported to my 8th year here upon the earth. 1992 to be exact. My lil' sis and I would pick rhubarb from our neighbors garden and "fry" it on the base of an old coffee pot we had found and plugged in by an extension cord from the garage. Don't laugh. It was delicious to our kiddie tastebuds.
We had the coolest old house then, too. There was a cupboard in the hallway just big enough to be my "office". I would fill empty milk jugs with hot water to keep me warm and decorate the walls with the awesome pictures featured in my Clubhouse and Highlights magazines. Much to my parents' delight, I even pried away the baseboard in the kitchen to make a hole for my extension chord. A girl needs electricity to keep up with her 30-book-per-library-visit habit.

My sweet momma always supported the business woman in me, too. I would ask her to take me to Big Lots to buy starch, cleaning supplies and canned goods. I would then resell the items to her, at very inflated prices. Such a lil' genius was I! (Too bad I can't get her to do that now!)


I digress.

Wonderful feelings flood me when I think about certain times in my life.
Have you ever visited a childhood haunt or your elementary school....feeling nostalgic, but unable to regain that "feeling" you thought you would find?
I have been let down on more than one occasion, feeling that a "place" could bring back a "time". It simply can't. That is why the writer of Ecclesiastes so eloquently wrote of times and seasons.


Ecclesiastes 3
To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth?

I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it.

He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.



Jesus, Let my joy be complete in You and help me to be happy during every season of life... Including this one.

Music Department 101...By Request!

I have had multiple requests for info regarding music ministry and our Music Department.
I would say that the most effective thing you can do in music ministry-- bar none-- is PRAY. There is an element that God's annointing brings to a service that mere vocalist's and musician's are unable to conjure up. I am continually talking to our Music Department about being prayerful throughout the week, so we are spiritually prepared to LEAD in worship.
Music is simply the vehicle... and God could move without us! Music plays a vital role in worship, but without the flow and ebb of the Holy Ghost we are simply "performers". You may worship very effectvely and never sing or play a single note! Secondly, I daily ask God to let my life (and our music department) represent true humility. Beware of the feeling of false importance. As Bebo Norman sings.. "I am nothing without You!"

Some things I do:

1. www.planningcenteronline.com

2. Ministers Of Music Association

3. CCLI (This is the law, plus they have great stuff!)

4. Monthly Leadership Training Night

5. Brett Manning's Singing Success

6. YouTube(for listening to songs, watching piano tutorials, etc. )

7. iTunes( burn every musician/vocalist a New Repertoire CD quarterly)

8. Heart of Worship playlists

9. IBC Music Fest, CLC Heart of Worship Conference

10. Quarterly Choir Clinics--for your choir members AND praise team.

11. Group Piano/Voice Lessons for Beginners.

12. One "Drama Sunday" per quarter spices things up a bit. Ask your youth and kids to get involved, too! Sign language, sticks.... or whatever flies at your church.

13. WorshipTools

14. Music Staff Appreciation Dinners. People love food. And it's a great way to let em' know I appreciate them!

15. Listen to things outside YOUR favorite genre. Mix it up! Different people like different things!

16. Keep (and give out) an updated quarterly Music Department Calendar. People feel better when they know you aren't wasting their time and are organized/precise.

More to come.... Off to bed for now.

Kisses in the Rain

Kisses in the Rain,
A chance that we might meet for Kisses in the Rain,
Trying to find the heat that left long ago,
And left us with so much pain,
Kisses in the Rain,
Nothing more or less, just Kisses in the Rain,
Two hearts that won't confess to knowing what's true,
No skies of blue remain,

We're now a time remembered,
Love's just a passing glance,
It's all a cold September and all along last dance,

Hiding in the lane,
We try so hard and yet there's nothing to regain,
Two hearts that never met, still holding on in vain,
To Kisses in the Rain.