I'm not giving you the Finger:
A word of advice to fellow latent guitar players...
Well I did a 2 hour Intercession set at the Abington IHOP yesterday afternoon. It was great. For the record there is no IHOP in Philly or the suburbs that I am aware of at this time, my location happened to be the very spot where Abington vs. USA was determined over 40 years ago, Abington High School. This ruling effectively gave not just school-sponsored prayer the boot, but theoretically made ANY prayer illegal.

So I risked arrest by doing a prayer slot at the high school. Not really I suppose. I would like to think that my set was so anointed that the cops would have picked me up but apparently not.

Anyhow, what you are seeing is what happens when you do a 2 hour set on your guitar after not playing it at all for a month, and not playing it regularly for about 4 months. This massive blister appeared upon my middle finger minutes after the end of my set. Don't try this at home!

Suggested Good Practices for a Worship Team
I've been in places that have the following positive characteristics and it is a wonderful situation. I've also been in other places too, so have you!

Variety - Having accessible, meaningful songs that aren't repeated too much

ESP - Sensing what God is doing as you lead worship & giving him space to break out. I am referring to Extra Sensory Perception as a literal (but not new-age) term here!

Critical listening - if you do this, other people won't as much! Be aware as you play of your

-Intonation (vocal and instrumental, as well as the others)
-Noise level and contrasts
-Texture (avoid droning on with the same sound/noise at all costs)
-Even if you are playing an "anointed" song or riff, consider ending it while it is still fresh rather than risking it turning stale! The people will still be hungry and you can transition into something else and likely retain that high level.

A great way to start is to incorporate some of these ideas in your private worship times. If you lead a band, it can be more challenging to communicate these ideas depending on the skill level and teachability of your players.

Note: If you lead a Seeker Sensitive type service, you can probably disregard a lot of this, particularly the one about not repeating the same songs each week. If you are in this situation, you should probably not learn more than about 20 songs annually, or else people could complain about "too much new music" and that wouldn't go over well! Don't take any of this blog's advice if you are in a SS church!

Got Lingo?

One thing that excites me about churches that have a unique identity is that often there is a mysterious, weird, and fascinating set of foreign terms, names, acronyms, anecdotes, and inside jokes.

Seems to me that in the newer renewal-type movements of the past decade or so, each has had their own language. I didn't know what a "fire-tunnel" was several years back, but witnessed something like a spiritual conga-line in which people emerged noticably happier on the outward end. Indeed, the very announcement of the formation of such a tunnel instantly raised the mood of the room from an already positive one into one tangibly charged with expectation and happiness.

Broken-ness: the missing ingredient

When was the last time you went to a church that wasn't trying to impress you with their:

Building
Vision
Size
Worship
Preaching
Personalities
Culture
Hype

Perhaps the one thing that goads us slightly about the seeker-sensitive thing is that brokenness is not usually in the equation. Think about it... brokenness is probably the most offensive thing about the Kingdom since it is the thing that makes us most uncomfortable about ourselves and we avoid it at all costs. Why would you bring something like this in public! Are you kidding? Are you crazy!

Hence the westernized church situation. No brokenness. A whole bunch of southern hospitality, mixed in with a healthy patriotic ritual, benevolence funds, even a few hospital visits. Brokenness is a forced intrusion, but we can usually limit its appearance to bad health diagoses, natural disasters, an accident, divorce, or something equally unpleasant - intrusions we cannot control.

Brokenness is water to the Kingdom. Want to get power? Get broken. Want to stay in power? Stay broken, even as your life picks up and starts to look better, way better, on the outside. How broken were you to begin with? The test is that you stay broken even when you prosper, regain your health, begin to succeed at things, etc...

Voluntary brokenness is a weapon to allow us to stay in that state. Fasting. Praying all night. Being sensitive. Touching the poor. Giving money, time, and energy in radical ways.

Nothing against the seeker sensitive thing at all, but if brokenness is left out of any ministry, formula, or strategy, any "success" is deceptive and suspect. I don't want to follow a flawed model.

If it's broke, don't "fix" it.