Worship Pastor Series

Hey all, I understand it has been awhile since I've blogged. In fact, it's been awhile since I've had a somewhat normal, non-chaotic routine in life.  Let me explain.  In the last year, by the grace of God, I was able to accomplish these things:

• June 2010: moved from Chicago to Spring Lake MI answering God's call to plant HBC Spring Lake. 
• July 2010: Apply and commit to pursuing a masters degree in one year through the Resurgence Training Center.
• August 2010-July 2011: Travel to Seattle, WA 9 times to accomplish masters degree in Missional Leadership.
• July-November 2010: Preparation and execution of Church Planting and working with Portable Church ministries in doing a "church-in-a-box" situation
• September 2010: Found out we were pregnant.
• October 2010: became a home-owner and bought and moved into our house in Grand Haven, MI. 
• November 2010: Planted our church portably inside The Trillium. Also started in the design process of our new building. 
• December 2010: found out our baby was a girl! 
• January 2011: Came up with a thesis topic for my masters.
• February-June2011: Researching and formulating my thesis, amidst daily and weekly Church responsibilities
• May 2011: we welcomed our little daughter Annandale Lyn to the world! 
• May-June 2011: Writing process of masters thesis.
• June 2011: Presentation and submission of final thesis and Graduating from the Resurgence Training Center. 

You know what's really impressive, my brother-inlaw Calvin Wisen (also pictured) did all of the above with the exception that he had twin girls instead of just one baby girl and moved from Orlando instead of Chicago. Crazy huh! 

I literally look back into my last year and praise  God for a patient wife, a loving family, and an awesome church family.  I truly believe that the grace of God was just surrounding me every step of this last year.  Now that most of my last year culminated in my graduation from the program, I'm finding myself in a weird spot. I don't have 2000 pages due by the end of the week, and my focus is put more and more on my specific ministry calling: the worship ministry of Harvest Bible Chapel Spring Lake.  I knew that I would get to this point eventually and I wanted to do what I could to ahead of time to prepare for it.  In order to do that, I decided that the topic of my final thesis would be the duties and mindset of the "worship pastor" in cultivating a biblical culture of worship in his church.  

I also wanted my research and work to be available to the greater body of Christ to resource and equip those who have the same calling that I do, in a different context.  

So, in the next handful of posts, I'm going to present to you my thesis. What is a "worship pastor?" How can a worship pastor effectively and thoughtfully seek to cultivate a culture of worship in his church?  The worship pastor is so much more than just the "music guy," and I hope to be challenged by this and hope that it challenges those who read this and share my calling. 

So starting tomorrow, follow along as we walk through together the motivation and work of the "worship pastor."