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Free Song: “We Believe” by Travis Ryan

Travis PR Photo

We’re excited to offer you a free song for the next 7 days, in partnership with WeAreWorship.com!

This version of the popular song, “We Believe”, is a live recording from one of the writers of the song, Travis Ryan.

CLICK HERE to download the MP3 and the chord chart for FREE! (Oh no!  This offer has expired, but we’ll be offering another free song soon.  Subscribe to our blog if you don’t already.)

 

What to Do When You Mess Up

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I hate messing up. In fact, as a recovering perfectionist, I can honestly tell you I used to be terrified of it. But, as I’ve grown as a leader, I’ve realized that the scariest thing isn’t making a mistake, it’s NOT making one.

Because if I’m not failing, then I’m not taking enough risks. I’m not being as productive or effective as I could be as a leader. If my main goal is just to avoid any error in my ventures, conversations, and leadership decisions, then I’m playing it way too safe. Messing up actually isn’t a plague to be avoided; it’s a regular part of being a growing leader.

If you examine the biography of any great spiritual leader, there will be plenty of mistakes in it: premature commitments, short-sighted calls, and immature mindsets – yet they were still inspiring and influencing their people for God’s Kingdom.

When you look into these stories even closer you’ll find that HOW THEY RESPOND to these mistakes and mishaps is the factor that makes the difference. Winston Churchill says, “Success is jumping from failure to failure without any loss of enthusiasm.” And Rick Warren reminds us, “Failure isn’t a character quality. It’s just an event. How you respond to failure is your character.”

So, what’s your strategy for failing forward? How will you use the moments you discover you’ve let yourself down to ultimately build yourself up? Here are three tips to ensure that you make the most of your mistakes, and let them help shape you into an incredible leader.

1. Admit it 

Leaders that can admit when they’ve been wrong about something inspire a culture of honesty and true humility. Often, the people you’re leading know it anyway, so cease the opportunity to acknowledge it and show them a good example of purposefully and publicly altering your course now that you have more data about what works – and what doesn’t.

What would happen if you just came out and said it in your next team meeting? My guess is, it may feel more liberating and respectable than you may have guessed, and you’ll be providing people with a chance to show you grace, to relate, and to see you as a “flawed protagonist” as they say in screenwriting. They’re more like-able than the perfect ones.

If there’s anything you can apologize for, do it. Even saying, “I apologize for my part in this” or “my ignorance of the situation” goes a long way! It’s a mature and respectable approach.

Side-note: This blog is more about mishaps and “green” decisions in ministry than big moral failures or secret sins. If you have a continual major struggle or have failed in a big way on the moral front, some more fitting advice for your situation can be found by seeking wise Christian counsel from a trusted leader or friend and with their help, beginning a more intensive healing journey than the scope of this article covers. Whatever you do – don’t keep covering it up.

2.  Make the necessary adjustments and try again

Take serious note of what you’ve learned from this event. There is helpful data for the future in this experience! Journal it, discuss it, read up on it, and remember it. Then, apply your learning to your next attempt! You have way higher chances of succeeding now.

If you took the wrong approach in a conversation, take that information to heart and plan your improved approach for next time.

If you started a worship night with your ministry team, and no one came after the third one, dig in and figure out why! Adjust the time, frequency, location, people involved, people leading, format, duration, and anything else that could help, and then re-launch.

That’s what the best leaders do when they mess up.

3. Learn to love the process

There is much to thank God for in the aftermath of mistakes. Process and growth are beautiful things, found all over creation, and it’s time we learn as leaders to enjoy the ride.

Don’t be embarrassed that you didn’t walk in to your leadership role already knowing everything. Let the people around you in on your story – use their feedback to fuel your development as a leader and influencer.

I love this little saying in James 4: “But He gives us more grace.” We do dumb stuff sometimes, but God’s power is available to us. That’s the reason we can persevere, learn, grow, and even thrive after messing something up.

Don’t be discouraged by a silly decision, hiccup, or mishap. Be encouraged that you’re now that much closer to your goal.

Andrea Hamilton Binley
Worship Director at Inland Hills Church and Songwriter at HopefulPop.com

Free Song: “There Is A Name” by Covenant Worship

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For the next 7 days only, you can download “There Is A Name” from the new Covenant Worship live album, TAKE HEART!

“Recorded last fall at Covenant’s annual worship arts conference, TAKE HEART features worship pastors David and Nicole Binion and team members including Joshua DuFrene and Colin Edge. The four co-wrote the songs featured on TAKE HEART, as well as those on Covenant’s previous albums, Kingdom and Standing.”

(Expired on Wednesday, March 23rd)

5 Tools to Make Your Church Volunteers’ Lives Easier

If you’re like most churches, volunteers are a vital part of the various ministries that take place in the church. And, if you’re like most church leaders, you highly value your volunteers and want to make it as easy as possible for people in your church to volunteer. Here are 5 different tools that will make your church volunteers’ lives easier:

1. Worship Workshop in A Box from Paul Baloche – Here’s a great resource to help train your worship team! Paul Baloche and his band provide top-notch training for everything from music theory to singing to drumming.

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2. Canva – Most churches don’t have a graphic designer on staff, so this is a fantastic tool to help your volunteer graphic designers! They not only provide tutorials for beginners, so anyone can learn to design graphics, but they also provide a way to easily create beautiful presentations and documents. All for FREE!

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3. Proclaim – Here’s one for your media team! This church presentation software makes it very easy for your volunteer media team to collaborate on the Sunday media slides from anywhere. It all syncs in the cloud. The software also lets you record the sermon and make it available to the world right after service.

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4. Buffer – This one is a great find for your social media volunteers! It’s an app that allows you to easily schedule posts on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Google+. Your volunteers can add posts to the queue for the whole week, in one sitting.

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5. WorshipPlanning.com – And, of course, this is our favorite tool for church volunteers! (We might be a little biased.) It helps you plan your service with easy-to-use tools that build worship flows, schedule team members, fine tune details on musical selections from your personalized songs library, attach pertinent files, and maintain communication via your preferred channel. You can relax with WorshipPlanning.com because everyone is on the same page!

-Mark Logan

Free Song: Hallelujah (King of Glory) featuring Dustin Smith

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We are excited to partner with WeAreWorship.com to offer this new congregational song to you as a free download:

Hallelujah (King of Glory) by Dustin Smith

CLICK HERE to download the MP3 and chord chart for free. (Ends Tuesday, January 19th)

Preview of the lyrics:

Your eyes search through the earth
For those who know Your worth
So, God, we welcome You here now
Oh, Living Water flow
Come make Your presence known
Move through Your Church in holy power

Hallelujah, hallelujah
Lift your heads, fling wide you ancient doors
Oh, oh, oh hallelujah, hallelujah
Shout out loud, Oh King of glory come
King of glory come

Happy New Year!

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As we enter 2016, the following prayer by Rev. Billy Graham seems appropriate:

Our Father and our God, as we stand at the beginning of this new year we confess our need of Your presence and Your guidance as we face the future.

We each have our hopes and expectations for the year that is ahead of us—but You alone know what it holds for us, and only You can give us the strength and the wisdom we will need to meet its challenges. So help us to humbly put our hands into Your hand, and to trust You and to seek Your will for our lives during this coming year.

In the midst of life’s uncertainties in the days ahead, assure us of the certainty of Your unchanging love.

In the midst of life’s inevitable disappointments and heartaches, help us to turn to You for the stability and comfort we will need.

In the midst of life’s temptations and the pull of our stubborn self-will, help us not to lose our way but to have the courage to do what is right in Your sight, regardless of the cost.

And in the midst of our daily preoccupations and pursuits, open our eyes to the sorrows and injustices of our hurting world, and help us to respond with compassion and sacrifice to those who are friendless and in need. May our constant prayer be that of the ancient Psalmist: “Teach me, O Lord, to follow your decrees; then I will keep them to the end” (Psalm 119:33).

Read the entire prayer at BillyGraham.org