Crushing this seemingly innocent, but actually super evil attitude in my life. Join me.

When I first started working at Moon Valley Bible Church, my boss was this guy named David. He was a really bright church leader, who taught me a really important lesson. When it came to preparing for Sunday morning, he would say, "We're going to prepare as if 20,000 people are coming this Sunday." Then he led by example. And each week he would work his tail off to make everything about Sunday morning excellent. 

Photo courtesy of Morgan at Flickr.com

After a while, I picked up on David's attitude. I started working harder to plan ahead, and I began paying closer attention to details. Before long, preparation became part of my routine. And it felt great. 

A slippery slope

But fast forward a few years, and things have changed. Allison and I have another child, my role at the church has increased significantly and... I'm older and slightly worse for the wear. But most notably, that sense of hard work to make things great isn't as strong as it was. It slipped away so slowly I didn't even notice it. 

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Loving what you do is not enough. Here's the shot of adrenaline your passions need

They say if you do what you love, you'll never go to work a day in your life. But I'm not so quick to buy that. It seems like a wise proverb, but does it really hold true? Is love really all you need to keep what you do fresh and interesting? I have a hard time agreeing.

Photo courtesy of Lotus Carroll at Flickr.com

I do what I love. I'm a full time musician and church leader. I play music at my church and I get to create environments where people can connect with God and each other . And they pay me to do this. I do what I love, but sometimes it really feels like work. And not in a good way. 

Some days are more challenging than others. Some seasons are more tiring. And sometimes it even seems a little bit stale. And I believe this happens, not because I don't love my job, but because love is not enough. There's another element to keeping the job you love... well lovable. 

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Chuck E Cheese On Worship And Church Planning [Video]

When you take your kids to a place like Chuck E Cheese, you hope they'll have a fun experience. But my kid's experience was anything but fun when the man sized mouse came out, and acted like he just didn't want to be there.

If you're having trouble seeing the video, click here to see it.

 Chuck E Cheese was a great example of how NOT to create a great experience for people. And as I seek to build a memorable experience at Moon Valley Bible, here are three things that are working really well.

1. Simplicity Reigns. Your church family just doesn’t have the capacity to pay attention to everything that goes on during your services. And the more that you do, the less they’ll catch. So let simplicity lead your planning. If you’re planning a big holiday service, try just doing one special thing, but do it really well. That will help make it something they won’t forget.

At my church we’ve recently began to pursue simplicity by just announcing one thing each week during our services. It means many of our church’s ministries have to find other ways to promote their events. But it helps us put a spotlight on our biggest events.

2. Powerful personalities over plastic props. When I took my family to Chuck E Cheese, if a guy had come out with whiskers painted on his face who was excited to be there, it would have been more captivating than the guy in the full get up but who didn’t care. It’s certainly worth your time to make your church’s stage look good. But if the people preaching, greeting and leading worship don’t look like they care, then your church won’t either. 

3. Keep it moving. Have you ever watched aTV show where they begin playing the next episode while the credits from the previous episode are still playing? They do that because they understand that people disengage when there’s dead space.

As you prepare for your church services, it’s worth everyone's time to ensure that the transitions between your music, videos and preaching are seamless. The more connected your elements are, the more of your church's attention you’ll keep.


Question: Based on what you saw in the Chuck E Cheese video, do you think I should call the manager and tell him about the poor performance?

Please leave your response in the comment section below.

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Your church has the same problem as my blog. What a coincidence!

For the last two weeks, I put away my guitar to preach at my church. I get to do it a few times a year, and I always love it. I like coming up with a captivating intro, and then working to make a Bible story come to life for the people at my church.

Photo courtesy of Kah-Wai Lin at Flickr.com

And over the last couple of weeks, I've realized that creating a sermon is, in a lot of ways, just like writing a blog post. And a church family is, in a lot of ways, just like a community of readers for a blog. 

I could go on about the similarities between a church and a blog. But most over the last couple of weeks, I've noticed again and again how my blog has a lot of the same problems as many of the churches I've worked at. And the problem is this:

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The truth about men and singing that sent a chill up my spine [Video]

"How many of you believe that singing in church is for pansies?" That's the question I asked at the last men's breakfast at my church. To their credit, about half of them were honest enough to raise their hands. But it highlights a problem among Christian men in the West. By and large, we believe singing is for women.

Photo courtesy of Christian Ostrosky at Flickr.com

Pastors and worship leaders, like myself, try to explain to men why they are supposed to sing. We quote verses that say things like, "Serve the Lord with gladness, come into his presence with singing!" (Psalm 100:2) Sometimes we even try to connect them with a song by telling a touching story that's designed to tug on their heart strings. But They're not biting. And at the end of the day, most worship leaders have the same problem - it's difficult to get most men to sing during worship services.

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What do you say to team members when their lives fall apart?

Ministry is messy. There's no way around it. Given enough time, the people you shepherd will go through some of the most unimaginable kinds of pain. Hot button issues like adultery, divorce, rape, abortion, etc. are a daily reality for lots of church leaders.

Photo courtesy of MarLeah Cole at Flickr.com

And you don't even have to be a pastor to get close to people's disasters. Most of the church leaders who sit through the roughest times, with devastated church members, are part time or even volunteer lay leaders. Many times these people are on the front lines and end up doing triage in the church.

Handling life's catastrophes is tough enough, especially if you're a volunteer with no counseling background. And it begs the question What do you say to church members when their lives fall apart?

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2 Fool Proof Ways To Stellar Creativity For Creativity-Challenged Leaders

Easter is over, and now it's time to take a quick breath before you begin planning for Christmas; which is fine because all you have to do is come up with something super memorable, or relevant, or whatever it is your church values. But one way or another, it's your responsibility to make it awesome.

Photo courtesy of Ramnath Bhat at Flickr.com

 Easy right? maybe not. If you're anything like me, the pressure of having to make everything awesome can make feel crushing. From time to time, I find myself sitting at my desk, staring at a blank page, with a dumb gaping stare. I feel filled with fear and doubt about whether or not I'll be able to come up with anything worth while. But here's the problem with that. My fear and doubt don't show very much trust in God.

When I give into insecurity about my creative abilities, I'm also doubting that God has done a good job at guiding my life. It's like I'm indirectly saying God, you screwed up. You could have selected a better profession for me, or given me a different set of spiritual gifts. But that's a bad way of looking at my life, obviously. It keeps me from seeing the blessings of who He made me to be.

The truth is, God didn't give me a highly advanced sense of creativity. And it's also true that my job, like yours, requires a high level of creativity. But my job description never says anything about me needing to be the creative person on my team. And I'm guessing yours doesn't either.

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It's Not Too Late To Do The Most Important Thing Post Easter

Like most church leaders, I invested a considerable amount of time in pumping my team up for our Easter services. I worked hard to encourage them and  regularly cast the vision.

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Some Red Flags To Watch Out For With Your Church's Vision

Vision can be the factor that makes or breaks your church. Obviously, it's actually the Holy Spirit that makes or breaks your church. But He likes to work through people, and it's your church's vision that is going to motivate them to take action, or do nothing. And if your church is struggling to grow and impact your community, there's a really good chance that the issue lays with your vision.

Photo courtesy of Fedewild at Flickr.com

I recently read a Andy Stanley's book, Deep & Wide. In it, he makes a profound statement about church vision. He says that, in order for your church to be united, you need a, "God honoring, mouth watering, crystal clear vision." So therein lays the question. 

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The Relationship On Your Worship Team With The Most Untapped Potential

On our honeymoon, Allison and I read Sacred Marriage. It's an outstanding book that every married couple should read. In it, Gary Thomas poses this brilliant question: What if marriage was designed to make us holy more than to make us happy? 

More than happy?

I had never considered that questions before, which kinda helped me make sense of the dozens of failed relationships I had before meeting my wife. And as my wife and I read this book, we got a huge head start on pursuing a strong, lasting marriage. Even today, Thomas' question challenges me to see obstacles in my marriage as opportunities rather than inconveniences. 

But here's the brilliance of Gary Thomas' question, and how it applies to you and your team: 

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The 7 Trendiest New Kinds Of Parking Spaces For Your Church's Parking Lot

The parking lot at your church is a really important part your guest's experience on Sunday morning. It's where people first get a sense of what's really important to the people at your church.

Photo courtesy of Lucien Looser at Flickr.com

In recent years, lots of churches have been more intentional about creating parking that caters to the church's most valued persons. Most churches have included a number of guest parking spots near the entrance to their buildings, which is a great way to say Hey, we value our guests! And even more recently, churches are including special parking for expectant mothers. A friend of mine told me about a church here in Phoenix that even has spots designated for family parking.

The other day I was sitting in a staff meeting, talking about this very issue, and it got me thinking - If our parking spaces help us communicate our values with our guests, why don't we have special parking for the other important people groups within the church? Here are 7 types of parking spaces that you should consider adding to your church parking lot.

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Don't pass out in this church or they're gonna make out with you.

This is a picture I took in a church I visited the other week. I'm not sure whether it was the soiled, frayed edges or the retro style red and black font that caught my attention. But it certainly stood out.

It's hard to see in the photo, but the copyright date is written in the lower right-hand corner. As you might have guessed, its from the early 70's. I probably don't have to tell you this, but CPR practices have changed slightly over the last 40 years. 

According to the American Heart Association website (which did not exist when the above poster was made), there are only two steps to performing CPR. And only one of those two steps appears on this poster. They are as follows. 

1. Call 911.

2. Use your palms to push hard and fast on the center of the chest. 

Maybe it's unfortunate that they've taken out all the steps where you make out with an unconscious and likely complete stranger. But nevertheless, that's what they decided to do. 

Since you and I both know churches are notorious for these kind of  instructional posters, I thought I'd share this with you and encourage you to check your church walls for out dated medical advice. 

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Workshop Schedule for The Take Part Worship Conference

With the Take Part Worship Conference only a week and a half away, I can hardly sleep from the excitement. I've had so many conversations with worship leaders who are bringing their teams. I just can't wait to see what God is going to do through this one day conference.

Some people have been asking about the workshop schedule, so I wanted to send it to you. If you've been thinking about attending, but have been unsure, I want to encourage you to check out the line up of workshops, and give the conference another thought. This could be the event that takes your team to the next level this year.

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Four Questions To Clarify Your Church's Vision

A church without vision is a lot like a car without a steering wheel. It can look, sound and even smell good, but you'd never invest in it.

If you want to go anywhere, you've got to have a good vision. And if you want to accomplish anything, you need one that comes directly from the imaginative mind of God. But what do you do if your vision isn't clear?

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Church Leader Fumble! What You Should Know About Communication & Your Church.

The worship leader prayed just as the church service began, "Lord, thank you for today. Your grace carries us. We're so grateful for your presence. Today we ask that you'd send your spirit to guide us and minister to our... uh, um, uh to our spirits." Not his most eloquent conversation with God. It was a little redundant and careless.

Photo Credit to telemudcat via Compfight cc

Afterwards, he would have been lying to say he wasn't embarrassed. But what was worse was that his fumbling near the end distracted the whole church. Suddenly, everyone was thinking about the uncertainty of his prayer, rather than the content of the service.  

Whether you preach, teach or lead music in a church, the quality of your communication from the stage is crucial. You can't afford to wing it. When people come to your church, they’re trusting you with their time, which is incredibly valuable. It doesn't matter whether you're praying, introducing a new song, asking people to fill out connection cards, or telling them about next month's pot-luck. They deserve your most well thought out words.

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3 Powerful Changes Your Church Should Consider Making

When I was a kid, my parents would take my sister and I to Zip’s Video, our neighborhood video store, to get a movie to watch together. Zip’s wasn’t a chain, it was a mom & pop store. It was the type of place that had boatloads of old movies. There was almost nothing you couldn’t find there.

I remember being devastated when an up and coming corporation called Blockbuster came in and put Zip’s out of business. I still remember the first time I drove past with my family and saw the brand new Blockbuster sign hanging on my neighborhood video store. It felt like I lost a part of myself. That was about 20 years ago. It's amazing how far we've come since then

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3 Spiritual Barometers Your Visitors Are Using This Christmas

I once met a young lady who told me she didn’t like God or church. When she was younger she attended the youth group at her parent’s church. Like a lot of teenages, she struggled to feel like she fit in. One evening, after a youth service, she go into it with another girl. In response to the conflict, the other girl spit in her face. That was the last time she attended church. After that night, she painted church, faith and God with the same brush.

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007 Offers A Lesson In Evangelism

Tim H. Swanson

What's your favorite James Bond movie? Are you into the classics like Dr. No or Goldfinger? Or do you prefer the more recent ones like Casino Royal and Skyfall?

Maybe you're not partial to one film,  maybe it's one of the Bonds you love. Is it Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Connery, or one of the other guys. Right now I'm all about the current Bond, Daniel Craig. That guy is hardcore.

The other night I was watching the newest 007 flick, Skyfall, and I realized that Bond movies offer a really valuable piece of insight into evangelism for the church. 

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How To Access Your Best Creativity

I'm taking this week off to finish my new ebook, 'Good Fight'. You can reserve a copy by clicking here. Below is a guest post from Rachel Whitmer. She's modest in this post, quoting me as saying she is, "someone who is very creative" which is actually an understatement. I believe that she is possibly the most creative person I know. In this article, she gives some great tips on capturing your own creativity. 

Rachel Whitmer

Tim approached me a while back and asked if I would write about creativity in church leadership. I imagine the look I gave him was something of a wrinkled nose and twisted mouth, followed by an exclamation of, “WHAT? Why me?”   

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The Take Part Worship Conference Is Coming: Tickets Are Now Available!

For the last few months, my team has been working with Worship!Arizona to interview worship leaders. We've discovered that worship leaders and their teams almost never get to focus on just leading worship during church services. Nearly every person we talked to wears multiple hats at their church, and nobody was exempt from battling everyday life challenges. We designed The Take Part Worship Conference to give you tools that will help you manage your various hats and other distractions to get you back to what you love about leading worship - participating in your relationship with God.

• Do worship services produce more stress than release for you? 

• Does service planning take so much time that you hardly have any left for personal worship?

• Do extra responsibilities make it hard for you to focus while you're leading worship?

If any of these made you say 'yes', this conference is for you. The Take Part Conference is a day of worship and hands-on workshops designed to help you navigate extra responsibilities (Stage Design, Audio, Visuals, Rehearsals, Service Programming, etc.) that can turn into a distraction for you, and in turn your team and your church during services.

If you register before January 15th, you'll get pre-registration pricing on tickets for you and your team. 

Who Should Attend?

The Take Part Conference attracts worship leaders and their teams who want to take their congregation to a place of intimate worship, but battle with distraction. 

We're expecting a sold out conference with worship leaders and their team members including:

• Worship Leaders
• Instrumentalists
• Vocalists
• Audio Technicians
• Video Technicians
• Visual Technicians
• Set Design/Construction Team Members
• Service Programming Team Members
• Songwriters
• Other Fine Arts Team Members

Who Will Be Speaking?

This heart focusing worship conference features some of the brightest and most experienced minds in our worship community. These are worship and ministry leaders who, like you, work week after week to create church services that connect the hearts of their church family with God. But most importantly, during the conference they'll share their experience and successes with you. These are just a few of the speakers we have lined up.

• Jeff Merry - Worship Pastor of more than 25 years. He is the founder of Worship!Arizona and WorshipNet.org. He has mentored and coached countless worship leaders, pastors and other church volunteers.

• Tracy Williams - The Director of Worship Bands, Jazz Band and Guitar Studies at Arizona Christian University. Tracy has traveled the world playing guitar for Ray Charles, Jay Leno, Al Green, Bob Hope, and many others. 

• John Peterson - Worship Pastor and various other pastoral roles for more than 20 years. He has spent his career leading worship for churches all over the country. 

• The Arizona Christian University Public Relations Worship Team - It's not a fancy name, but this praise team is made up of students who dedicate their lives and educations to worshipping God. They'll be leading worship for the conference.

And of course I'll be speaking too. I'll be giving a keynote during one of the main sessions and working to make your experience outstanding. 

Where Will It Be Held?

A huge stressor for many worship leaders is the limitations of our facilities. Some of us have to set up and tear down every week, others have ancient buildings that are falling apart. Nearly all of us struggle, in one way or another, with the limitations of space.

For that reason we're holding the Take Part Conference at my home church, Moon Valley Bible Church. I want the opportunity to show you the innovative ways that my team members work to overcome the issues posed by working along side other ministries and organizations that use our sanctuary, and the frustrations that come with having old buildings that seemingly work against us. 

Moon Valley Bible Church (Click here for a map)

16207 N. 3rd Ave

Phoenix, AZ 85023

Why Should You Attend?
All the session will be focused on how to create the worship experience that removes distractions so you, your team, and your church can connect with God. You'll walk away from the day with new relationships with other worship leaders, practical advice for improving your worship environment, and a list of ideas for how to remove distractions and take worship at your church to the next level. 

Question: What is the number one struggle you face on a weekly basis as you plan for worship?

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