There is this church. It is a rapidly growing church in Los Angeles. It makes Nashville Eastside Hipsters beg for mercy it’s so hipster. Everything seems normal until the band starts playing. Then the huge screen behind the band lights up to project the lyrics and the band becomes silhouettes. Not for a moment…Not for a song…For the entire set. I never knew who the worship leader was. I never saw what the guitar player looked like.

For me ]]>

There is this church.
It is a rapidly growing church in Los Angeles.
It makes Nashville Eastside Hipsters beg for mercy it’s so hipster.
Everything seems normal until the band starts playing.
Then the huge screen behind the band lights up to project the lyrics and the band becomes silhouettes.
Not for a moment…Not for a song…For the entire set.
I never knew who the worship leader was.
I never saw what the guitar player looked like.

For me it accomplished a few things.
1. It made me focus on the lyrics of the songs and not the band.
Which I think was the point.
2. It bored me because I think I’m simply programmed by society for more.
This is neither good nor bad. It just is.
3. It made me wonder why the preacher was not silhouetted.

I’d love your thoughts ragamuffins!!!
Los

It seems like posts like these are all the buzz right now. 8 Keys to this. 7 Principles to this. 5 Lessons from this. 21 Ways to Fail Proof that. And 9 times out of 10, there is usually a good nugget or two in those. So I thought I would try my hand at one. These keys have helped me tremendously in my leading worship and I read them everyday. I give you the 7 Keys To ]]>

It seems like posts like these are all the buzz right now.
8 Keys to this.
7 Principles to this.
5 Lessons from this.
21 Ways to Fail Proof that.
And 9 times out of 10, there is usually a good nugget or two in those.
So I thought I would try my hand at one.
These keys have helped me tremendously in my leading worship and I read them everyday.
I give you the 7 Keys To Becoming An Effective Leader Of Worship…

1. Stop thinking there are actual keys to this and just read your freaking Bible and meditate on it so that it pours out of You on Sundays instead of You pouring out of you.
2. Stop thinking there are actual keys to this and just read your freaking Bible and meditate on it so that it pours out of You on Sundays instead of You pouring out of you.
3. Stop thinking there are actual keys to this and just read your freaking Bible and meditate on it so that it pours out of You on Sundays instead of You pouring out of you.
4. Stop thinking there are actual keys to this and just read your freaking Bible and meditate on it so that it pours out of You on Sundays instead of You pouring out of you.
5. Stop thinking there are actual keys to this and just read your freaking Bible and meditate on it so that it pours out of You on Sundays instead of You pouring out of you.
6. Stop thinking there are actual keys to this and just read your freaking Bible and meditate on it so that it pours out of You on Sundays instead of You pouring out of you.
7. Stop thinking there are actual keys to this and just read your freaking Bible and meditate on it so that it pours out of You on Sundays instead of You pouring out of you.

There you go.
Los

1. When you look at porn you do it because you feel like you are in control. Click…type….dot com…fantasize…click…close…control. 2. When you binge and purge you do it because you feel like you are in control. Eat…eat…eat…walk…close…lock…barf…clean…control. 3. When you talk smack about your leader you do it because you feel like you are in control. Talk…disagree…walk…brew…call…”I can’t believe he”…hang up…control. 4. When you reply just one extra time on twitter/facebook to that ridiculously attractive married ]]>

1. When you look at porn you do it because you feel like you are in control.
Click…type….dot com…fantasize…click…close…control.
2. When you binge and purge you do it because you feel like you are in control.
Eat…eat…eat…walk…close…lock…barf…clean…control.
3. When you talk smack about your leader you do it because you feel like you are in control.
Talk…disagree…walk…brew…call…”I can’t believe he”…hang up…control.
4. When you reply just one extra time on twitter/facebook to that ridiculously attractive married man/woman when you know you shouldn’t, you do it because you think you are in control.
Smile…stare…heartbeat…reply…wait…they reply back…smile…heartbeat…innocent…control.
5. When you start believing the hype about who you are, instead of who God is… you “try harder” because you think you are in control.
4God…praise…4God…praise…4God/Me…praise…4Me…praise…4ME…4ME…4ME…control.

Let me let you in on a little secret.
You are not in control. At all.

After you finish masturbating, you don’t spoon with your 15″ of LCD and tell it you love it.
After you binge and purge your heart rate speeds up then slows down.
After you hang up the smack talking phone call, your confidant is not impressed with you.
After replying to whomever that is, it’s not innocent. Trust me.  It’s not.
After you start believing the hype, you forget the hype will leave, and you end up in a str8 jacket.

This is going to sound so simple. But it’s not. That’s the point. So I write this to remind us all…
Let God dominate you into submission by giving EVERYTHING to Him.

I promise you will slowly// stop trying to have sex with your computer screen, stop trying to be the skinniest, stop trying to take his job, stop trying to convince yourself that his or her reply is anything more than just that…a reply, and stop trying to convince yourself that the hype will not end…it will.

And when it ends, because it will end…
You might just have a family, health, and relationships that reek of Jesus.
Not of you.
Los

This is Lelisa Desisa. He is 23. He just won the Boston Marathon. It was his 2nd marathon EVER.

Hey you… Get off your butt and try something new today. It’s better that way… Carlos

This is number 4. It was amazing. Mike brought the thunder and we had a blast talking about second chances and such. Tomorrow night I will have my inner circle comrade Brad Lomenick. Brad is the Chief Encouraging Officer of Catalyst Conferences and a monster encourager and friend. He will be talking to us about a few things… 1. The Catalyst creative process 2. How to pursue leadership in a creative environment. 3. ]]>

This is number 4. It was amazing.
Mike brought the thunder and we had a blast talking about second chances and such.
Tomorrow night I will have my inner circle comrade Brad Lomenick.
Brad is the Chief Encouraging Officer of Catalyst Conferences and a monster encourager and friend.
He will be talking to us about a few things…
1. The Catalyst creative process
2. How to pursue leadership in a creative environment.
3. How to pursue Christ centered leadership vs self centered leadership

I think its going to be a conversation you don’t wanna miss.
IF YOU WANT TO BE PART OF THE LIVE GOOGLE CHAT let me know in the comments section.
I think we are going to invite a few of you in…
Tomorrow night. 8 Central. www.fightclubsessions.com with Brad Lomenick
Holla at me…
Los

SeedsConf 2013 – The History of Worship from Church on the Move on Vimeo.

Ive never been to Church On The Move. I’ve never been to Seeds Conference. I’m officially going now. This was epic.

What do you miss about 80′s and 90′s church? Los

To be a man of God has nothing to do with how loud you can scream. Although screaming loudly is fun and appropriate in the moment. When Joshua screamed walls literally came down. But he shouted for God. Not for himself. So when you scream, scream loud enough that walls shake. And they fall for Christ alone.

To be a man of God has nothing to do with how much you can lift. Although lifting is ]]>

To be a man of God has nothing to do with how loud you can scream.
Although screaming loudly is fun and appropriate in the moment.
When Joshua screamed walls literally came down.
But he shouted for God. Not for himself.
So when you scream, scream loud enough that walls shake.
And they fall for Christ alone.

To be a man of God has nothing to do with how much you can lift.
Although lifting is an important facet of life.
When I’m old and frail you will have to lift me out of my chair and place me in the bath.
This my son, is the sort of lifting that impresses God.

To be a man of God has nothing to do with how many women you can conquer.
Although there is something extremely biblical about the pursuit of a woman.
Chase. Chase hard. But when you catch up. Remember she is somebody’s future wife.
And as of that moment, not yours.

To be a man of God has nothing to do with how many people follow you.
Although you are growing up in a society where “followers” and “tribes” are all the rage…
If those closest to you aren’t following, then all those who don’t “know you” are actually following a facade.
God cares more about if you are following Him than who is following you.

To be a man of God son has nothing to do with how hard you can work.
Although working hard is admirable and will get you lot’s of “stuff”.
God actually cares more about how long you can lay flat on your face before Him than how long you can stand in the sight of others.
Get on your face son.
Get on your face.

And when you find yourself screaming for men, lifting for a chiseled chest, conquering women, building tribes instead of family, and working for that promotion…
Get on your face…
It will fix you.
I promise.
Love dad.

We Vine. We Instagram. We Tweet. We Pin. We Doodle. We Dream.

I know many ISPD’s (I totally made that up cause I don’t know any of those Myers Reagin or Will Ferrill or whatever those test results are cause I don’t got time for that. I’m too busy creating things to study who you are… rant over.) who think when we are doing these things, these “time wasters”, that ]]>

We Vine. We Instagram. We Tweet. We Pin. We Doodle. We Dream.

I know many ISPD’s (I totally made that up cause I don’t know any of those Myers Reagin or Will Ferrill or whatever those test results are cause I don’t got time for that. I’m too busy creating things to study who you are… rant over.) who think when we are doing these things, these “time wasters”, that we are not focusing. The truth is, we are hunting and gathering.
Needless to say we need structure, but structure that works for creatives and doesn’t smash our dreams of finding and creating the next vine with 199 likes.

Here are some ways to pull the best out of meetings with creatives.
Notice I didn’t say “Creative Meetings”.
Them different.

1. Remove the chairs.
One thing is certain. Some people LOVE meetings. WE, creatives, would rather be creating than meeting about creating. So when you remove the chairs and sofas from a meeting, you limit the amount of time spent in the meeting. When you sit you get comfortable.
Move the chairs, get things done faster…
2. Inspirational Environments not PreSchool Environments.
Look. I get it. Christmas planning meetings in the summer you want to lace garland around the room and have hot chocolate in the summer. You ain’t fooling me. You’ve got something themed on Vegas coming up so you spread cards on the table and have the sound of casinos coming through speakers somewhere. Cute. I get it.
But instead of spending resources trying to make a room more inspirational…
CHANGE ENVIRONMENTS COMPLETELY.
Go meet on the subway. Go to the deli in the grocery store on the other side of town. Head to the downtown library. Spread a blanket in the middle of a cow pasture in the middle of the day.
When you place a sofa cover on the sofa, you are still sitting on the same sofa.
Go sit on another sofa.
3. Don’t meet just because it is on the calendar.
There is nothing worse than coming to a meeting, just because there is supposed to be a meeting.
If there isn’t a good reason to meet, I promise you the creative will get more done outside of that meeting…
4. Use the creative for their skill set in the meeting.
When I get an emailed meeting notes, I don’t read them.
If they looked like this…

I’d not only read them, I’d study them.
Have the notes look more like this example and I promise you the creatives in the room will not only be more engaged in the meeting, they will remember everything mentioned in the meeting.
5. Back To The Future
So many times creatives get stuck on small details they HOPE will make something grand.
I like to have a moment of Future History in the meetings.
Have everyone imagine that the event, proposal, magazine issue, or whatever has ALREADY HAPPENED and it was AMAZING. Have the conversation start with WHY was it amazing and start working backwards instead of forwards. Make sense?

These are just some things I have learned running creative meetings for various organizations the past few years.
What are some things that work for you?
Los

Gary Coleman’s dimples gave him a great start. BlockBuster Video Stores gave them a great start. The beautiful stained glass windows in many of the 500 year old churches I see walking around England gave them a great start.

But somewhere between their sweet start and maturation something happened. There was a disconnect in what worked when they began and what would work in their adult life.

Gary Coleman’s dimples couldn’t keep him from financial ]]>

Gary Coleman’s dimples gave him a great start.
BlockBuster Video Stores gave them a great start.
The beautiful stained glass windows in many of the 500 year old churches I see walking around England gave them a great start.

But somewhere between their sweet start and maturation something happened.
There was a disconnect in what worked when they began and what would work in their adult life.

Gary Coleman’s dimples couldn’t keep him from financial despair and suicidal attempts in the late 90′s/
BlockBuster Video’s sweet isles of “New Releases” couldn’t keep 95% of their stores from closing down.
The beautiful stained glass windows in these churches couldn’t keep them from going from the IT CHURCHES in the community to £3.00 museums.

Your personal woo factor.
Your business sweet spot.
Your church’s IT factor.

ALL of this will soon, SOON, go away.
So you MUST prepare to transition or meet a certain death.

What are some fads, trends, or sweet spots that you see could be the end of certain local churches or businesses?
Los