It’s the year 20-gr18! (reads: “twenty great-teen”)
And yes, it has been for 3 months now. I guess that’s how long it takes me to write a blog these days. (Or… it takes me two years and three months, if you factor in my last post. Oops…)
Allow me to update you on what’s been going on in my life & work at Adventures!
The Job
When people ask about “what I do”, I frequently struggle to answer them in one sentence. I can tell them “I’m the worship department manager,” but that doesn’t usually tell people what my job entails. That’s probably not uncommon around here, but I think I’m one of those weird departments that it’s especially true for. So here’s an attempt to present what I do in an interesting way!
Facet 1 – Weekly Staff Worship
Every Monday, the staff gathers together to worship and grow together. This is a place where we “start our week right,” and continue to align with organization vision. Currently, we’re talking about what it looks like to “Be the Church” in our local area as well as abroad. My department is closely involved in planning and running this weekly happening.
Did you know?? You can join us for Monday Morning Worship on our livestream! For info on stream times, you can follow our stream channel on YouTube!
Facet 2 – Event Worship
Each year, we run over 20 events that utilize times of worship. Most of these events last several days, and have times of worship every night. I coordinate bands and worship details for most of these events, and often either lead or help lead in the band.
Did you know?? Every year, Adventures trains and sends out over 1000 missionaries! That’s a lot of people coming through our office, and going out to make the world a better place!
Here’s a video of me leading worship for a group of 18-22 year olds about to embark on a three month trip. This is a song one of our own (Evan Dias) wrote about standing on the goodness of God, called Dreams Awaken:
Facet 3 – On Field Discipleship
In our biggest and longest “short term” trip, The World Race, we’ve been looking for ways to help these (essentially) small mobile churches worship together regularly. One way we’re doing that is by training and empowering leaders on each squad to coordinate worship for their squad and lead discussions about worship.
I currently support and have monthly calls with 19 Worship Coordinators. Our calls are designed to help them stay on task, answer or troubleshoot any problems they’re having, and more importantly, is an opportunity to develop relationships with them to encourage them in their own walk with the Lord and their worship journey.
I’ve seen the Lord do some really great things in some of them, and it’s a privilege to be a part of their journey.
Facet 4 – Worship Training Classes
We have a program here in the office designed primarily for people that have done one of our trips and are searching out what’s next for them. One of the offerings of this program (called CGA, or Center for Global Action) is a side focus in worship leadership.
There have been multiple iterations of this class across semesters, but most recently, it’s a weekly 3 hour class designed to dive into the heart of worship, give context for worship in the church, and train students to design and facilitate or lead a worship gathering.
I am the primary leader of this class of anywhere from 4 – 10 students, and have been slowly iterating the curriculum for the last two years to provide the greatest level of impact I can.
Other Opportunities
Other than what I’ve already listed, there are a few other pieces that pop up. One of them is facilitating a space for those most involved in worship bands to learn and grow together. Once a week, we meet with about 10 of those most involved in our worship community to worship together, discuss worship, practice our musical disciplines, and build community with one another.
Also, just recently, I was asked to provide a teaching for short term missions trip leaders on “Worshiping from the Field”, and was able to teach on and give them practical tools for worshiping with a team on the field without any musical or worship leading experience.
Bonus — You can listen to this talk here. It’s about 25 minutes long.
Support Raising Update
As you may or may not know, one other part of my job is raising financial support for Adventures in Missions each year. To those of you that have been donating regularly and those that have been supporting what I’m doing with Adventures, thank you! Because of all of you, we will have (by the end of this month) effectively raised $3,190 this fiscal year!
Monthly Donations – $525 of $584 goal
Annual Status (YTD)-$3,190 of $4,083 goal
As you can see, I’m currently about $60 away from my monthly recurring goal, and about $900 behind for the fiscal year. I’m looking for one time or monthly donations, and I’d love it if you would like to help close the gap! You can either reach out to me ([email protected]) to follow up about it, or donate through this site today! (see the “donate!” button at the top of the page, or click here)
Next Month!?
From now on, I’d like to give more regular updates, and am planning on writing a blog once a month. If you’re not already, you can follow me and sign up to get emails whenever I write a new blog.
Next month, I’m planning on getting a little more personal and sharing a little bit about what’s been happening in my life outside of office hours!
That’s it for now! Thanks for reading!~
