For Kate and William

Brenda had the DVR set set in order to watch the Royal Wedding later in the day. Since she woke up and couldn't go back to sleep, she decided to watch it live. I remember watching the wedding of William's mom and dad while I was on a tour across Canada in 1981. What an insight into British culture--then and now.

We want this marriage to last forever. Witnessing William's parent's marriage dissolve before our eyes was a sad disillusion. The horses and carriage, the long, traditional white gown, the church and the minister offering the vows--this all seems like a fairy tale. The world is tuning-in by the billions to watch the spectacle and we can't get enough. Sadly, money, pomp, social status, education, health, beauty and youth don't guarantee Kate and William's success in marriage. It is obvious that they have affection for one another. Still, there are a few things that I want to offer them that have worked for Brenda and I for almost 26 years. I know that I'm a commoner and don't have the up-hill struggles that a Royal has. But I want to give these simple suggestions to you both as you ride off into your "happily ever after."

1. Be nice to each other. Treat each other with courtesy. Say "hi"--a billion times a day if necessary.

2. Say I love you often. Don't hold the notion, "I told you when I married you!" William, you are the initiator (sorry , I'm old-fashioned!).

3. Stay connected throughout the day. Text messages and quick phone calls can do the trick.

4. Make your marriage "priority one" over all others--even the church (not to be confused with God Himself!), and sit down for this--the children. Your kids' lives are enriched when mom and dad are in love and deeply committed.

5. Have a weekly date. Try to honor it even if you have to scoot the calendar around to make it happen. Make it a financial priority--it doesn't have to break the bank either.

6. Give each other the grace to "rewind the tape" when something said in an argument comes out in a hurtful manner. Communication is the hardest part of marriage. To remember that you two are totally different people will help you to slow down and think about how to say things clearly and with wisdom.

7. Give each other the space to enjoy different hobbies and friendships, but always prioritize your time together.

8. Make decisions together, especially the ones that are significant. William, God gave you a wonderful partner whose opinion just might save your rear-end at times, and conversely, Kate has you. When you agree upon a direction to go, what can stop you?

9. Learn to create boundaries around your marriage, home and family life. Others will want to break in at times but you must "schedule" family time. You do not have to explain your family appointment schedule to anyone. Don't let the pursuit of money, stature or fame steal from your family (there are times when making a living will require time from you, but don't let it take over your life.)

10. I recently heard an 88-year old man say of his 67 year marriage, "It takes L.O.V.E.!" This word goes right past us sometimes. But to me that means we must cherish, sacrifice for, honor, prioritize, listen to, have grace for, nurture and pursue--like we did when we were chasing after--our bride. Before you know it, the days turn into months, years and decades and life will be full of joy.

May God bless both of you as you start this journey together!

Emmylou Harris

Emmylou Harris is the true Queen of Country Music. She not only helped revive traditional country music back in the Seventies, but she made a slew of converts (myself included) to the genre by infusing the old-school songs with distorted guitars and rock flavors. As a background singer with Gram Parsons (The Byrds, The Flying Burrito Brothers), she helped spark a revival in country music that Gram himself, in my opinion, could never have completed alone, even if he had survived. Sadly, Gram's death in 1973 sent Emmylou scrambling to find her own identity and her own way as a pioneer in this new hybrid of American music.

Along the way she became a top-notch band leader enlisting the finest guitarists and side-men available: James Burton, Ricky Skaggs, Emory Gordy, Jr., Glen Hardin, Hank DeVito, Albert Lee, Rodney Crowell and Buddy Miller, just to name a few. In 1980, she came out with a bluegrass-oriented record called "Roses In the Snow." I was intrigued with a high tenor voice that was amply used throughout the recording. Searching for the person with "that voice" through reading the liner notes, I became aware, for the first time, of the brilliant Ricky Skaggs.

I have collected almost all of her records since then. Emmylou has taken a few creative "left turns" in her career, including the making of "Wrecking Ball" with producer Daniel Lanois (U2,Peter Gabriel). She was never a prolific songwriter herself, but soon ramped-up the writing of her own compositions after "Wrecking Ball." I consider Emmylou a master song-picker. Like her friend Linda Ronstadt, she has a keen ear for great songs--many times obscure--waiting to be brought to life through her stellar arrangements and beautiful vocal interpretations. Her song-picking and songwriting have fused to create excellent results on her most recent records.

Yesterday I bought her new record, "Hard Bargain." I was impressed with the songs and her contemporary approach to them (airy, wide-open and spacious mixes complementing her beautiful, and at times heartbreaking, lyrics). Sometimes I like to go back and enjoy the early recordings of Emmylou. The songs transport me to where, in 1981, I was horseback riding in the Canadian Rockies, just outside of Banff. Her music became a veritable soundtrack of my journey across Canada that summer. As I listen to the songs from "Hard Bargain," they are a perfect accompaniment to this rainy morning as I write and look out into a soggy, brilliantly green spring morning.

Creating Great Moments In Worship, Part 9: Building A Band

I hope everyone had a great Easter. The Monday morning after is a great time to make evaluations and begin to form strategies for growth and improvement.

Thank God for volunteers--the church would not function without them! The privilege to serve God is an honor for both themselves and the church. Some volunteer positions in the church require more expertise than others, and playing in the worship band is no exception.

Every worship team is looking for Jeff Beck or Eddie Van Halen to walk in and say, "Here I am, people, put me to work!" Since that probably won't happen, we are challenged to select and train musicians out of the talent pool within our church community. Each church has the opportunity to create a strong group of worship musicians if--taking in consideration finances, leadership ability and talent--they are willing to consider some real-life, time-tested suggestions:

1. Create a list of musical and spiritual standards that are required to be a member of the team. Stress salvation, commitment, good stewardship and preparedness as fundamental requirements for membership.

2. Encourage continued musical and spiritual growth.

3. Emphasize each member must play one instrument well, not a lot of things mediocre.

4. Create an environment of excellence by first being a prepared leader and offering the players an opportunity to ready themselves for each rehearsal and performance.

5. Supply (as finances warrant) professional-quality "back-line" support for musicians by offering a good set of drums, amps, keyboards and monitors for the band. Eliminating the lugging of heavy items in and out of rehearsal can streamline setup and shorten rehearsal time. Each musician must supply their own instruments (except for the aforementioned large items) and accessories like sticks, picks, cords, etc.

6. Create a professional environment by using music charts with rhythms, melody, words and a good road map (chords over word-type charts are limiting). This process requires a learning curve but pays off handsomely as the music library grows and members learn to sight-read. Obviously, this requires someone to prepare the charts, and some small churches are limited in this ability and/or expense. Take the first step and learn to use notation software like Finale and Sibelius (Finale offers graduated notation programs for different needs and applications).

7. Depending on the church's musical style, solo instruments like a sax, violin, flute or horn can be welcomed. There should be definite direction given as to where and when they play. Encourage the soloists to also play percussion or auxiliary keyboards, for instance, to bring variety. In the case of a horn or string section, a predetermined musical arrangement is imperative.

8. Hold regular auditions. Offer a sign-up list after services. Assign someone to contact and audition applicants. Start with a phone interview--much of the elimination process can be accomplished then (Do you read music? Do you play lead guitar and/or rhythm? Are you available for rehearsals and services, etc?). It is helpful for two people to judge auditions so both can take responsibility for the the final decision. When a player shows promise but is not ready to "fly alone," let them shadow another player for a few weeks to learn the ropes.

9. Excellence, success and professionalism will encourage those with like attitude to want to be a part of your team. It takes years to build a quality team. Even still, I would rather have people on my team with a strong heart for Jesus and an average grasp of their instrument than a prima donna with an ego the size of Texas!

10. Start the training process for future players while they are in the youth group. Encourage private lessons. Create a music training co-op in your church by selecting teachers and assigning a group of students to take weekly lessons for 6-week, alternating terms (guitar, drums, bass, keys, vocals, tech, etc.). Create a couple of bands out of this process to play for the student ministry and begin to graduate capable players into the adult program as they show promise.

The Demise of the Home Phone

The DirecTV guy came Wednesday morning, surprisingly right on time! He rummaged through the rat's nest of various cableage that littered the back-side of my living room's flat screen TV. He fished out the now-defunct home phone line that sat unused since the last technician fooled with our TV hook ups. While changing out the broken DVR box, he looked at me like I was Fred Flintstone and said, "You know, Mr. Harvill, phone lines aren't necessary any more!" I didn't want to seem offended by his comment. But because I had made the decision last year to get rid of our land-line home phone, I wanted to confirm to him that I knew that already, and some of the evidence still lingered here and there.

Brenda was sweeping up the garage a few days ago and had several wireless phones wrapped up and ready to toss. My inner pack rat winced at the thought of great technology going to waste. I quickly gained control of my self and conceded that they had to go with the rest of the dust-covered garage litter.

Its sad that we are witnessing the demise of the home phone. I remember our family phone prominently place on the kitchen wall. My folks had a second one installed on my dad's desk in the den so we wouldn't have to run into the kitchen to answer a call. Phones were owned by the phone company then. I remember the first "Princess Phone" we had. It looked like something out of Disney's Tomorrowland. I can also remember visiting Disneyland and using the spacious phone booths at the exit to Circle-Vision. We all would cram into the booth, call home and marvel that we could hear and talk through some big speaker above without holding a receiver (that was very simple to do even then, but we were transfixed, nonetheless).

Phones were everywhere, and there was a phone booth on just about every corner. Brenda, upon the instruction of her father, carried a quarter in her pocketbook for years in case of an emergency (I remember when the cost of a call was a dime!). Poor phone booths...they are a boat anchor, like those wireless phones in my garage. Even homeless people manage to pull enough scratch together to carry a cell phone these days.

Cell phone rule! When they morphed into the super-duper smart phone, cell phones swept in and stole the market share for even home phones. People are still holding on to their home phones for use with alarm systems (there's even cell technology for that!). Some have a neurotic need to hold on to the past and will probably never part with their old land-line phone. It got to the point with me when I finally realized I was paying for something we never used. So we said goodbye to the old home phone number and embraced our cell phones as the sole means of phone communication. When I dialed 911 last month after having a car accident in North Carolina, I was connected to a local operator who hooked me up with the local police. My cell will work the same inside my home, too!

Goodbye, old friend. We will remember you fondly-- when we nervously picked up your receiver to ask a girl out on a first date; where we first heard that we got the job or that a loved one passed away. You will always be a part of our lives--its just that your sexy cousin, the cell phone, has stolen our hearts. Having both of you is kind of like wearing a belt and suspenders at the same time: its redundant.

Remembering Mom

Today marks the 14th anniversary of my mother's passing. She was only 67 and we never saw it coming. Every time April 19th rolls around it is bittersweet; that day changed us all.

After her death, Brenda, the kids and I moved to North Carolina to be near my Dad. That ended up being a four-year blessing. In that time we met so many life-long friends. We were able to partner with my buddy, Mike Snelgrove, to start Cornerstone Fellowship Church. I am proud to say that the church is doing extremely well. Even as we've been away for almost ten years now, our time with my Dad and the church was priceless and fruitful. Dad is doing well and prides in being the oldest member of Cornerstone Fellowship!

The bitter part of today is that Mom is not here. The sweet part is that her legacy of being a first-rate mother, grandmother and wife lives on forever in our hearts.

God is good!

Fracture Critical

I stopped to watch a show last night called Inspector America on the History Channel. It is based around the crusader, Timothy Galarnyk, an infrastructure safety inspector with over 35 years of experience. He asserts that if America doesn't pay attention to it's aging infrastructure (bridges, dams, tunnels, sewers, railways, roadways, etc.) and make necessary repairs, we are headed for trouble. Over the decades, the infrastructure that helped our country grow hasn't kept up with the times. Galarnyk wants to see some changes.

Galarnyk mentioned the term "fracture critical" in the show last night. He pointed out some startling examples of rusted steel and crumbling cement pilings on the still-used, severely degraded Stillwater Lift Bridge in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota. The basic definition of the term "fracture critical" is that if one critical area of the bridge's support system were to fail, the whole thing would certainly collapse. Just four years ago, an Interstate 35W highway bridge in downtown Minneapolis loaded with rush-hour traffic dropped more than 60 feet into the Mississippi River, sending at least 50 vehicles and passengers into the water and ultimately taking the lives of 13 people. Galarnyk wants to avoid this happening to anyone else again.

How many areas of our lives are "fracture critical?" Last year my life was shaken as I learned of a personal, two-year bout with high blood pressure that caused irreversible heart damage; I didn't even know I had it until I visited the doctor with severe headaches. I had to make some big changes. Maybe a relationship, a job, or a life-style is "fracture critical" and we don't even know it. Many times, like in the case of the Stillwater Bridge, we re-pave the road, making it look new, but under the roadway there are cracks, holes and erosion that threaten eminent danger.

Proverbs 4:20-27 (New International Version, ©2011)

20 My son, pay attention to what I say;
turn your ear to my words.
21 Do not let them out of your sight,
keep them within your heart;
22 for they are life to those who find them
and health to one’s whole body.
23 Above all else, guard your heart,
for everything you do flows from it.
24 Keep your mouth free of perversity;
keep corrupt talk far from your lips.
25 Let your eyes look straight ahead;
fix your gaze directly before you.
26 Give careful thought to the[a] paths for your feet
and be steadfast in all your ways.
27 Do not turn to the right or the left;
keep your foot from evil.

The good news is that if we learn of the areas that are failing and we take steps to repair the damage, we can start anew. The problem with our broken lives is that we cannot make the repairs alone. Maybe a doctor, therapist or a health professional can guide us back to health. But ultimately God, the Creator and Sustainer of our lives, can make the most important changes. Our hearts are the wellspring of our lives and we cannot live up to our potential without His saving grace and regeneration.

In this Easter season, it would be good to make an inspection to see if there is any threat of "fracture critical" areas in our lives. God wants to make you strong, just ask Him.

Sweet Sleep

For years I've had trouble sleeping. I would sometimes surrender to those little blue, over-the-counter sleep aids from Walmart if it was impossible to get my racing mind to stop taking laps around the days activities. Some nights I would just channel surf into the early hours of the morning, every so often looking over at Brenda as she peacefully slept. I am jealous that she can just close her eyes, hit the pillow and fall fast asleep.

Last week Betsy let us borrow a little sleep machine that they weren't using. When we got home and plugged it in, I was skeptical that the sounds on this little machine could help me over this dreaded problem I've had for so long. When we were kids we would put a portable fan in our room, not so much for the cooling factor but more for the sound it made. It helped us sleep. This little sleep machine sounds like that fan. The next morning I woke up feeling refreshed--that crazy machine actually worked. I have used it every night for a week now and it has never failed to help me fall asleep, and stay asleep for eight hours. Brenda is the real winner here!

I learned some amazing facts from the National Sleep Research Project about the importance of a good night's sleep:

-The 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill off Alaska, the Challenger space shuttle disaster and the Chernobyl nuclear accident have all been attributed to human errors in which sleep-deprivation played a role.

-Tiny luminous rays from a digital alarm clock can be enough to disrupt the sleep cycle even if you do not fully wake. The light turns off a "neural switch" in the brain, causing levels of a key sleep chemical to decline within minutes.

-Ten per cent of snorers have sleep apnea, a disorder which causes sufferers to stop breathing up to 300 times a night and significantly increases the risk of suffering a heart attack or stroke.

-Snoring occurs only in non-REM sleep.

-Teenagers need as much sleep as small children (about 10 hrs) while those over 65 need the least of all (about six hours). For the average adult aged 25-55, eight hours is considered optimal.

-Some studies suggest women need up to an hour's extra sleep a night compared to men, and not getting it may be one reason women are much more susceptible to depression than men.

-Experts say one of the most alluring sleep distractions is the 24-hour accessibility of the internet.

-The extra-hour of sleep received when clocks are put back at the start of daylight in Canada has been found to coincide with a fall in the number of road accidents.

Even though we sleep for one third of our lives, the quality of life during those other two thirds are attributed to a good night's sleep. I'm gonna keep that little machine by my be for as long as Betsy and Adam can do without it. I wanna be ready just in case someday I am asked to fly the Challenger or operate an oil tanker. It's not cool when you fall asleep on the job in those situations!

What In the World Is A Worship Leader?

My first worship-leading gig wasn't even known as such. It was back in the late 70s and I was in a Christian rock band. We would play our tunes and add a few sing-a-long worship songs to the set. We didn't even know what to call those pop-style congregational songs then. The break in tradition for me was that I was in a band. Most churches in those days had only a piano and maybe an organ facing the pulpit on either side of the stage to accompany in worship. A few years before that, I played bass for an older gentleman who sang Christian country music. I was 15 and my brother Jon, the drummer, was a mere 13-years old. I remember we played in one very conservative church that didn't even allow Jon to play because drums were considered "secular." We were too young to understand.

When I began my professional career as a minister of music, it was right at the beginning of Integrity Music and their massive influence on the way the church worships today. I still had in mind, then, that leading congregational songs stemmed mainly from the hymnal. In college, after I left the road in 1985 to finish my education at the University of Mobile in Alabama, there was no such thing as a "worship leader" course of study. All of the music courses were classical in nature and were designed to train leaders to build choirs and sing from the strict musical cannon of the hymnal. We were taught to wave our hands to the beat of the music as if people took our cues seriously. The only songs chosen from the hymnal were those that already had frayed pages. There were sometimes six or seven verses in a hymn. Traditionally, only a select number of verses were ever used, typically the first two and then the last.

I remember learning the worship songs from Integrity Music and started mixing them in with the songs for Sunday night worship--a more relaxed, casual service in the week. These songs were typically more personal in nature and were usually sung as a direct conversation to God. The hymns were mostly songs about God. People seemed to enjoy the praise songs, but made it known that Sunday morning was for the hymns.

I started writing my own Christian songs back in the 70s while in the aforementioned rock band. I would visit Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa as a teenager on Saturday nights for their youth concerts. There we would sing very personal worship songs to the Lord that originated from Maranatha! Music and were led by long-haired hippie musicians. I would feel the sweetness in the congregation as the Holy Spirit seemed to fill the sanctuary. I knew that Calvary Chapel was a special place, but only later, after I moved to the South, did I realize that the rest of the country hadn't caught up with the praise music rolling out of the Jesus Movement on the West Coast. Integrity Music, ten years later, also helped usher "praise and worship" music into the conservative church, but not without resistance.

Promise Keepers, a movement founded by college football coach Bill McCartney, and dedicated to introducing men to Jesus Christ, began holding large rallies. There was always a strong worship element in these programs. The music was led by a "worship leader," and accompanied by a band. Since the events were non-denominational, and usually held in non-church settings, many pastors--who normally were hymn-singing people--found a deepened connection with God while singing these non-traditional songs. This example helped break the grip that held churches back for years. Before long, pastors encouraged their congregations to adopt the band/worship-leader approach to their weekly services. There are other music companies and spiritual movements that influenced praise music in churches today--too many to list here.

I am honored to have worked with both Integrity Music and Maranatha! Music in my career-- helping to train churches in this "new" form of congregational worship. For years I have traveled the U.S. and the world teaching praise bands how to improve their playing, and songwriters how to write better songs. I love to compose worship songs that the church sings each week. As I write this, I feel a keen sense that God has led me along this path with purpose and destiny.

These days I can call myself a worship leader and most people know what I am talking about. For the longest time there was no place in the church for guitar-slinging songwriters like me. There are currently several colleges and universities that offer worship leading as a course of study, including my alma mater, the University of Mobile. Each week, in my home church, I have a wonderful time leading God's people to the Throne of Grace. It is in this application of my skills that I find the most personal fulfillment.

70's Music

On the way to Memphis this past weekend to visit our daughter Betsy and her husband Adam, we scanned the Sirius/XM radio in my car to find some tunes that helped ease the 3-1/2 hour road trip. We usually settle on the 70s channel.

Most of the songs that play on the 70s channel are tunes from the top 40, AM radio of the day, and not the deep album cuts from FM. In fact, the sound of the high-quality, digital stereo playing in my car is a bit foreign since most of those 70s tunes were played through a mono AM radio. Today, I hear musical parts in the songs that I never knew existed--guitar and vocal parts that never translated through those cheap car or home radio speakers we had back then.

My emotional connection to 70s music is obvious: I am a 50-year old guy; I graduated from high school in 1978, and by the time the 80s rolled around, I was huffing it on the road making music in a traveling band. Those 70s songs always keep me emotionally grounded. When I hear one of them, it can bring me back, in an instant, to how I felt, where I was, and the little house on Southgate Avenue in Fullerton, California, where I grew up. By "grounded" I mean the music helps me put into perspective that, as an adult, I can move away from those disappointments, insecurities, and failures. The memories that flood in help to remind me I am all grown up, and the perceived limits I faced back then have given way to new opportunities as an adult. Don't we all remember the longing to have someone to love and to love us back; to wonder what we would do when we graduated high school into the big world of responsibility; what our kids would look like and where we might live? These 70 songs have the unique ability to unlock all of those doors that lead into our sub-conscience and into the basement of our past life.

When I turn my car radio to the 80s station, I am not as emotionally moved. I was, as I said, rocking the US for the first half of the decade, and then soon married and started to raise kids with Brenda. When one is deep into family life and parenthood, it is the time when " trying to be cool" gives way to "how do I keep this ship afloat?"

70s music always sounds good to me. As a guitar player, all of my guitar tones are based on my heroes from the old days: Richie Blackmore (Deep Purple), Tony Iommi (Black Sabbath), Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top), Mick Jones (Foreigner), Mick Ralphs (Bad Company), all the dudes from the pre-plane crash Skynyrd, Dickie Betts (Allman Bros.), and the list goes on. I very rarely hear people say, "I want to dial in that '80s' guitar tone." The Seventies are still alive. I don't want to go back there, but when I am transported through my Sirius/XM radio, I am in heaven.

Waiting on the Mailbox Money Again

Once again, my eye is on the mailbox in my front yard; I'm waiting for that check containing the song royalties collected over the quarter (actually a quarter from several months ago). The till is getting low and the dollars from that check bring great relief. The past couple of years have been rough as consumers have shifted away from buying physical CDs and into the cyber-world of downloading mp3s. If people are still buying music, then where are the royalties?

My grandmother always thought that my music pursuits weren't legitimate until one day I showed her my royalty statement and she about fell over. Needless to say, her idea of writing songs as a "real job" changed that day.

It is a privilege to make a living as a songwriter. I found these statistics online which show that if you start writing songs to make money, you probably should do something else. These numbers are culled from the music business in my backyard--Nashville:

48,000 = number of writers and artists in Nashville trying to "make it."
1,350 = number of songs recorded in a year on major labels.
85% = percentage of songs recorded going to "insider" writers, publishers, producers, etc.
75 = number of songwriters getting 1 or more cuts per year in Nashville.

Even as I am mostly writing praise and worship songs, the percentage of writing songs to getting them recorded are very low. Why keep writing, making demos and pitching the songs, you ask? It is because I am compelled to do it. Writing songs is a joy for me. I am just very blessed to make a living doing it.

I hope the mailman comes with that check today. If he does, I have a chance to get over to the bank with enough time to get together with Gary Sadler to work on some songs that we hope will someday bless people. That is why we do it!

Creating Great Moments In Worship, Part 8: The "E" Factor

As we come upon the Easter season, many of us are well underway in the preparation process for the big day. In many churches, Easter is one of, if not, the biggest attended service of the year. Through this great privilege, we have the opportunity to reach our communities for God. These "calendar" opportunities come only a few times a year, so our attention to detail and quality in preparation and presentation will not only be an act of worship to God, it will also be a big reason that people come back to visit us again the following week. The subject of this installment of Creating Great Moments in Worship is about the "E" factor: excellence.

My pastor always encourages his staff to bring our "A" game to weekly worship responsibilities. I find it humorous each time he says it because I have no other game in me! I desire to give my all even though I may miss the mark in the process. I desire to be a person of excellence and I try to surround myself with others of like-mind. John Maxwell says,

"People of excellence love what they do. They have learned how to fuel the fire that keeps them moving. How do you spot a passionate person? 1) They work with their whole heart. 2) They work with un-distracted attention. 3) They work with maximum energy."

My desire is to do my job to the best of my ability, with the best quality I can render, and with the understanding that it is ultimately a gift to the Lord. I want to submit 10 descriptions of what excellence looks like to me. Not only is it in the resulting product, but excellence is also reflected in our planning and processes.

1) Excellence requires learning
The ancient Roman poet Horace wrote this truth, “No man ever reached to excellence in any one art or profession without having passed through the slow and painful process of study and preparation." Excellence is learned through observation and gained through applying the principles of those who have gone before us. We only know excellence after having seen it in action.

2) Excellence requires a decision
We must decide to do things well, to pay attention to detail with persistence. It is easier to take a short-cut. Doing things with excellence is most difficult when we are tired and pushed for time.

3) Excellence requires faith
When we dare to take the less traveled road of excellence, we trust that the seed we sow today, while no one is looking, will provide a robust harvest. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.”

4) Excellence requires courage
Doing things with excellence is, many times, a lonely activity. Excellence exposes mediocrity and some people don't want to change. We will face criticism.

5) Excellence requires patience
Understanding and love will help others around us to pursue excellence. Our example of doing things with excellence will be the best motivator. Our love and concern for people is what attracts them to our leadership.

6) Excellence requires time
Along with patience, it will take time to do things well. John Wooden says, "If you don't have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?" This is why we must start early in the planning process.

7) Excellence requires other people
The reality is, we cannot bring about excellence in our churches without the help of others. Volunteers are the hands and feet of the Body of Christ. We must help them find their place of service--then train, encourage and love them. We must surround ourselves with people who have skills we do not posses.

8) Excellence requires leaning from mistakes
How do we learn except by making our own mistakes and then correcting them? We can learn from another person's mistakes, but we may be faced with unique challenges that require our own dues to be paid. Sometimes it is helpful that we fail before we succeed. Abraham Lincoln failed to be elected nine times in his bid for various public offices before he became President.

9) Excellence requires leadership
Leading others into new places requires respect, trust and love from those who follow. As church leaders, we will find ourselves with the lonely responsibility of leadership. But the rewards are great when, in pursuing excellence, we find success for ourselves and others.

10) Excellence requires communication
It is vital that we as church leaders communicate our vision, philosophy and desire to pursue excellence to our teams. Excellence is not only taught, but caught!


Each person, organization, church or denomination has it's own idea of what excellence looks like. Regardless of style, taste, preference or culture, excellence, as coach Pat Riley said, is, "...the gradual result of always trying to do better." King David spared no expense in the construction of Solomon's Temple. We should pursue our ministry with all of the quality, ability and excellence we have in us. Our attention to excellence will be attractive to those who need Christ. We may not have the wealth of David at our disposal, but we can optimize the resources we've been given.

For me, excellence is a personal commitment. As Abraham Lincoln once said,

"I desire so to conduct the affairs of this administration that if at the end, when I come to lay down the reins of power, I have lost every other friend on earth, I shall at least have one friend left, and that friend shall be down inside of me."

Taking It All In: Walt Disney

A popular Seventies song by Jim Croce starts with, "If I could save time in a bottle..." It takes a very emotionally astute person to catch special moments as they are happening. Usually we hire photographers or make an audio/video recording of the special times in our lives like weddings, birthdays and anniversaries. Many of these moments are only recorded in our memories. The ability to know a great moment when it is happening is a gift. I read of one such event that happened to Walt Disney in the summer of 1955, from the book, "The Vault of Walt."

Walt and his wife, Lilly, were planning to celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary days before Disneyland opened to the public. Even though Walt was exhausted from all of the activity in putting final touches on the park, he still wanted to celebrate with Lilly and give a sneak-peak of his new playground to special friends and business acquaintances. Approximately 300 people were invited including Spencer Tracy, Cary Grant, Gary Cooper and Louis B. Mayer. He planned a boat ride on the shiny-new Mark Twain Riverboat with Dixieland musicians playing New Orleans-style jazz. Mint juleps were flowing freely. After Walt was purported to have washed down two or three, the party moved indoors to the Golden Horseshoe Saloon, a turn-of-the-century, Old West-style theater.

Diane, Walt's daughter who was 21-years old at the time, recalled that as the Can-Can stage show progressed, people were asking where Walt was. He had disappeared. Lilly, missing her other half, scanned the room from her seat on the floor to catch sight of Walt precariously hanging off the balcony, trying to get down to the stage. He was simultaneously pretending to fire an invisible six-shooter at the actor playing Pecos Bill, who had taken the stage. When people realized where Walt had ended up, some pointed and said, "There's Walt!" He somehow made it safely to the stage where he just stood and beamed. This celebration was not only for 30 years of marriage, but was also the culmination of his life's work come to pass. He was taking it all in.

As a child, Walt would fall asleep in class after spending the early mornings of each day, rain or shine, delivering newspapers. He told daughter Diane that on one cold winter morning, he slid down on a frozen front porch while delivering papers where he cried, feeling cold and alone. He never graduated from high school. He had many struggles and failed business starts, and even lost the rights to a series of films through a dubious maneuver by his distributor. He and brother Roy struggled even during Disney's golden era of animation to secure financing for several films. So by the time Disneyland became a reality in 1955, the playground that eluded him as a kid became his to share where children and grown-ups like himself could get lost in wonder for a day. Main Street was his hometown, Adventure Land came from the books he read and the stories he grew up hearing; the park was for everyone and he wanted to share his dream.

That night at the party, many people were concerned that Walt had too much to drink. Diane remembers her dad standing there on the stage looking happy and pleased, not necessarily drunk. Just to be careful, she asked her father if she could drive him home. He surrendered his keys with, "Well, sure honey!" As he climbed into the back seat of his car, he found a map of Disneyland, or something, rolled it into a paper trumpet and blew a happy melody. Before long, Diane looked behind her and saw her father in the back seat, toy trumpet folded in his arms, fast asleep.

Oh, what a gift it is to pay close attention and take in the special times of life. They come in a heartbeat and go just as quick. Walt had the night of his life; he stood there and basked in the warmth of that special moment in time.

The Amazon MP3 Cloud Player Rocks!

Hey you gadget geeks out there, a cool new service by my favorite music download site, Amazon Mp3, is now available. Not only does Amazon offer some of the best prices for downloaded music anywhere, it now hosts a way for Amazon users to upload any currently-owned music (downloaded from anywhere or ripped from your CD collection) to be accessed in a customer's virtual "Cloud Drive." It's called Amazon Cloud Player for Android and Web. 5 GB of space is given initially for free. As a promotion, Amazon is offering a deal where if you by any one of 23 preselected albums for $3.99 or under, they will automatically give you 20 GB of "cloud" space, free, for a year (at which point the regular pricing takes over).

I purchased Cheryl Crow's 100 Miles From Memphis album to download from the 23, and then a new option appeared asking if I wanted the album to automatically upload to The Cloud. Heck yes! Even though my selection sailed heavenward, I still received a link on my desktop for a download of the album to my hard drive, as usual. I went to the Android Market on my phone, downloaded the Amazon Mp3 for Android app, signed into my Amazon account there, and Cheryl Crow's record was waiting, ready to play. Cool. I then went back to my Mac, downloaded the Amazon Mp3 Uploader. The app quickly searched my computer hard drive for music, found the all the songs available on the Mac, and created a list by song, artist and album, to choose from. I went through and selected my "desert island" songs that I supposed would fit the allotted 20 GB space. There is a very handy tool at the bottom left of the up-loader which helps keep track of the allotted GB budget. It showed that I went over my limit. That's when my "desert island" picks had to be narrowed even further! It took about 12 hours to upload 2,777 songs (approximately 18 GB, all ripped or downloaded at mostly 256 kbps). When the songs made it to The Cloud, the player on my Android had no trouble getting to whichever of the 2,777 songs I searched.

The grade I give for the Amazon Cloud Player for Web and Android is a solid "A"--and that's for ease of downloading all the software, setting it all up, the nominal learning curve, ease of uploading songs and playing them on the phone and from the web. We'll see what the storage plan pricing settles into within the next year as the "Cloud Drive" concept catches on to the masses.

I think that this Cloud Drive is the wave of the future for mobile music listeners. Hard drives and local memory on mp3 players will soon be a thing of the past. The cool thing is, there are several storage capacity options--$1 per GB, per year: $50 for 50, $100 for 100, and so on. Throwing down big bucks for storage capacity on a smart phone is no longer necessary with Android phones. The Amazon uploads are to a "real" hard drive in the sky and may serve as a secondary backup for an mp3 collection. Of course, I like to have my back-ups closer to earth, on a few of my own drives (it pays to be careful!).

I can play my music library from both the web and my phone without using up a single MB, except for the small footprint of the player application! I am finding more confirmation in the wisdom of purchasing an Android phone. I am a loyal Mac user, but since the Verizon ink is still wet on the Apple contract, I will wait to see what transpires with a possible 4G iPhone in my future. The Amazon MP3 Cloud Player rocks!

Take the opportunity now to snag the 20 GB free-for-a-year offer before it, too, disappears into the clouds!