Letters to Leaders: Worship Edition

In your hands is the culmination of over thirty years of lessons learned while serving in worship leadership ministry. Although it has been a blessed journey, none of it has been easy. Twenty-five of those years were served at three churches. I was minister of music for ten years at Shekinah Glory in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Afterward, I joined Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship (OCBF) in Dallas, Texas, for ten years, where I was hired full time as associate pastor of worship. And for five years I led at New Life Fellowship in Arlington, Texas, as pastor of worship and arts. The remaining five years were mostly spent in transition either helping out other churches for shorter periods of time or taking twelve to eighteen months for recovery and sabbatical.

Ministry is not for the faint of heart. Prior to my need for an emergency sabbatical at OCBF in 2014, I had experienced major burnout. The Energizer Bunny in me got tired, weary, discouraged, disheartened, and overwhelmed. I was drowning and didn’t know it. I was still leading and singing but pretending normal and mechanically going through the motions. My battery died. My ship had sunk. My vehicle was on the side of the road. But no one really knew it. Suffering burnout in silence or oblivion is such a dangerous place to be because our defenses are low and we are most vulnerable to poor choices and decisions. And I made a number of them. Eventually, I had to be sidelined and benched due to moral failure and personal breakdown. I needed a 911 rescue.

That’s where I could have used a resource like this. I needed someone with 911 experience who could counsel, encourage, and correct me. If that’s where you are, please allow these letters to be a starting point for you to do something different. Cry out for help! We all need help. We all need change. For me, the answer was Christ through community and counseling. I call them “the 3 Cs.” Even today, after ten years of sobriety and freedom, they are just as important now as they were back then.

Here’s the truth: we all need Christ, we all need a community, and we all need some level of counseling. I know that’s a hard sell for some, but I’m convinced of it. I’m a huge advocate for crisis prevention. Let’s not wait until we have a heart attack to get serious about our health. If we make the necessary changes now, in advance, we might be able to prevent it from ever happening.

After a year and a half of intense self-work—with the blessing of my wife and my Accountability Team—Dr. Tony Evans, senior pastor of OCBF, restored me and recommissioned me back into ministry. There wasn’t a dry eye in the place. God showed up! In that little Green Room, my family experienced the ministry of reconciliation. After which, we were ready for our new life at New Life Fellowship! There we birthed The Colossians Project, where we wrote and recorded (in our little home studio) seventy-eight scripture songs to cover all ninety-five verses in Colossians—for meditation, memorization, manifestation, and ministry.

And now we offer Letters to Leaders: Worship Edition (What I Wish I Had Known). From A to Z, one hundred heartfelt letters covering today’s critical topics. In a year, that allows for two fillings per week—since most of us expend massive fuel and energy at midweek rehearsals and weekend services. We’ve even added four “Life Application Letters” at the very end, to take you through all fifty-two weeks of the year. Nevertheless, please pace yourself as needed. If it takes you more than one year to complete this devotional, please give yourself the gift of grace. Create your own schedule. This is a marathon, not a sprint. Grab a few others to join you in the race. Take your self-care seriously. You never know what crisis you are preventing or preparing for! And lastly, enjoy the journey.