I’ve responed by writing a hip hop song about sanitizing your hands.

It’s about as goofy as it sounds and I believe there’s some decent humor in it. The whole process has been very energizing for me. I love the creative and even more I love getting people on board. My favorite part has been involving my co-workers in the project – seeing them laugh when the hear the song and seeing the song increase in quality due to the collective creativty. Each person has added a lit bit.

Yesterday I tried to start shooting the video and failed miserably at it.

Several coworkers had agreed to be a part of the video. I set a date to get together at lunch and shoot the first scenes, but not everyone showed up. We had three guys, and it just wasn’t enough of a critical mass to achieve the effect I was going for. One or two more guys would’ve made it work, but as a result of lack of participation I had to pack everything up without any footage. It was disappointing not only to myself, but also to the folks that did show. It was at that moment as I defeatedly folded up my tripod that God started doing a beautiful thing. Immediately I thought, “this is what Church planting is like. ” (or really, any kind of high-stakes leadership.)

You try to inspire others to join it, people commit and then leave you hanging. It’s not really because they don’t care, everyone who didn’t show had a pretty good reason to not be there, but this is simply he nature of leading. You work hard and stress and push and try to make things happen. And they don’t.

But I am so happy they didn’t.

Defeat and failure are God’s sanctifying agents in our lives. This one event is making me a better leader than the many successes I’ve achieved. The primary bonus here is that God is preparing my heart to be let down, over and over again. He’s allowing me to learn how to push through, rely on Him and creatively shift plans.

Ultimately there were several other immediate bonuses to this short-fall:

More involvement:

Because of this set back we’ll actually have a better video in the end. Initially I simply invited a few folks from my own department, but seeing the need to “over invite” (as no doubt people with have legitimate reasons not to be at the rescheduled shooting) I went all around the building getting more people on board. I invited the 1st Sergeant and he invited the Commander. I would’ve never done this had my original plan gone my way. Several other folks will possibly come on board and the final product will be that much better.

Encouragement:

One thing I’m convinced of is that younger men need encouragement from older men. Every chance I get I try to speak into the lives of younger guys. There’s a man at work that I have a great deal of respect for. When he saw my debacle he took the opportunity to speak some encouraging words. It was like fresh wind blown into the sails of a ship that’s been stagnantly afloat for too long. Without failure we miss out on these types of opportunities.

A Chance to Show Grace:

Not everyone is an attention addict like myself. Some folks are just camera-shy and aren’t totally psyched about the idea on being on screen. Rather than getting angry this was an oppertunity to allow people a gracious out if they wanted to take it. I’m pleased to say that most folks commited to the re-shoot.

My hope for you is that you experience a suffering defeat today. Such things are wonderful fodder for the Holy Spirit.

Here’s my notes:

On Monday I start another cert class and it’s feels like I haven’t had much of a chance to breathe. I’ve been so immersed  in the world of TCP packets and routable protocols that I almost forgot.

I forgot why.

Why am I doing this?

At times it seems we all get so busy running down the path we lose track of the reasons we chose that path in the first place.  My new buddy Chris helped me remember. He asked me a great question,

How does your passion for the lost manifest itself in your everyday life?

And that’s the real deal. The reason I’m on this track of technology certification isn’t because I love computer networking (although I do.) It’s not to advance my career, to make more money, or be more valuable at work – although these are benefits of the work I’ve put in. It’s really all for God’s Glory.

There are people who are lost and Jesus is the deepest need they have. But no one is bringing Jesus to them. My technical knowledge and career path will (and already has) put me in touch with people who need Jesus and that opportunity is why I’m working so hard.

We just got back from court and Eve-Marie is now legally my daughter! We’ve always been a family from the day Sarah and I got married, but now it’s official. It’s been a long and crazy journey to get here – none of which I’ve blogged about, but now that we’re finally here it’s amazing.

We thoroughly prepped Evie for court to ensure she’d show politeness to the Judge. Our lawyer told us what the questions would be -

Judge: Would you like me to make this man here your daddy?

Eve-Maire: Yes sir!

But he didn’t ask that!!

Instead he asked, “What do you think of this man here?”

We hadn’t prepped her for that.

Evie, thought for a moment, and then went on and on about how happy I make her and how she feels when I’m around. Sarah started to cry. Then the Judge almost started to cry!

It was awesome.

Afterward we ate some skittles, and we’re out to Chic-fil-a tonight to celebrate!

You can read Sarah’s post about today here.

Today we sang

• Pharoah Pharoah – old skewl bible camp version
• Your Name – Paul Blaloche

At Summit they do Big Idea style ministry (which makes me absolutely love the children’s ministry!) Right now the adults are going through Exodus, so the kids are too. It’s pretty rocking to read the Bible together at home as a family and have it tie into what’s going on in corporate worship on Sunday in ALL the evironments.

More worship setlists from today here.

• The Lovliest Sound – Starfield
• Glorious – Tomlin
• Take my Life – Tomlin
• Surrender - Jeremy Camp
• Let it Rise – Holland Davis

Man it was nice being back on stage to help lead worship again. Today was probably the most laid back experience I’ve ever had playing on any worship team I’ve ever been on. They just have their stuff together at Summit. There’s lots of folks on the team who have been doing it for a long time and everyone was so professional. (The Drummer today actually played Djembe in the Elder’s living room at the very first service 5 years ago when the church was planted.)

I LOVE playing guitar 2. Today we had acoustic and lead electric along with my rhythm electric. This is such a fun position to play because you get to add a lot of nuanced parts. The main structure of the song isn’t relying on your part, but it just gives the mix that little something extra. It’s like being the special sauce.

Let it Rise really torn it up today. They rock pretty hard most Sundays at Summit but this song just took it to the next level. At rehearsal Patrick, our worship pastor, said to the lead gutiar, “You have the GREEN LIGHT – I wanna hear Def Leapord going on during this song!” It was tons of fun and the people were just lovin’ it.

Of course we all know God smiles when he hears guitar solos in church

Check out more setlist mainia at Fred McKinnon.com