This time I'll be different

As you can probably gather from my lack of posts, I gave up at the end of 2016.

I got tired of coordinating, getting shot down, being let down, and getting grilled. But it's a new year and this time I'll be different.

I've decided that this year, I'm going to focus on some very practical goals.

1. I will stop complaining about our lack of a musician. Like, seriously, how long do you keep wining about what is? Time to find something else to complain about.

2. We will sing every song I buy a track for. No more wasting money. I'm sitting on at least 9 cd's because we haven't had rehearsal. Which leads to #3...

3. We will have consistent rehearsals and if no one comes, I will lead praise & worship alone so that we can introduce new songs into the rotation. Now this is probably the biggest goal and I don't like the idea of singing alone to a track, but what's the alternative? Keep singing the same 10ish songs? Nah man.

As far as this blog is concerned, I'm going to be pulling back a bit. My goal is to have one insightful, honest post a month. Quality over quantity. It's so easy to get dragged down the rabbit hole of trying to post every week, but I'm trying to achieve balance in my life. One post a month feels right for me.

My main prayer for the month of January is that God reinvigorates my passion for Him. Leading a praise team is draining and I don't want to lead begrudgingly. If you're reading this blog, I know you feel the same way. I hope that you hang in there with me. It's going to be an awesome year! In Jesus's name.

Blessings

What had happened was...

It's almost the end of the year and time to answer the question of whether or not I accomplished my goals with my praise team in 2015.

My main goal was to make the praise team a priority. Did I do that? Yes and no.  I definitely stopped working with the youth department to try to focus. That helped. We had some rehearsals, but the last half of the year we really dropped the ball. I could go into all the excuses, but they don't seem change: conflicts with work schedules killed us. When rehearsals stop, that's the death of a praise team.

My main objective was to get 12 new or retired songs back into our play list. Did we do it? Not exactly. I think we successfully added ~ 3 or 4. Wamp wamp waaaamp!

Not exactly a stellar year, but there were moments of greatness and things are looking up. We finally got a musician. Somehow, my younger brother decided to get off his end and take lessons from my older brother. He's learned about 6 songs and he's really coming along. I'm confident that next year we'll be able to retire our tracks. Gloray!!! We also debuted one of the songs I wrote and then the district praise team sang it as well. Finally, last Sunday someone mentioned wanting to join the team.

Needless to say, we have long way to go. Becoming consistent with rehearsals is going to be my main focus for 2016. No more excuses.

Here's to wishing all of us a triumphant 2016 with our praise teams!

Cheers!

So excited

In continuing with our goal of adding 12 songs to our repitoire, we had rehearsal this past Sunday. It was going ok, but after about 30 minutes, my sister was about done. (Just like me, she doesn't like wasting her precious time on the weekends.)

She was done, that is, until we went over my original song. I'm so excited that someone other than me is feeling the enthusiasm for new music!

This was also the first time the pastor heard it. She didn't say it was bad so that means it was good. (You know, pastors can be tough.) And as soon as I get registered on ASCAP, maybe I'll post it. (I totally plan to share at some point, but ain't nobody gonna be running off with my good music.)

In closing, let me just say that having a concrete goal for our P&W team was the best thing I've ever done as a leader. We are all working in the same direction and so far, we're still on track.

January check-up

January is all about kicking the year off right. So how did my P&W team do?

• We successfully added 1 new song and reincorporated 1 old song back into our playlist. 
• We got matching scarves, which we'll wear again when we host P&W at the Good Friday worship service for our district. (Stay tuned for my plans on what we'll do for that.)
• We've got a tentative rehearsal date for February.
• We had good communication about people's work schedules and Sunday absences.
• My sister stepped up to lead last Sunday when my voice went out.

Overall, I'm pleased with our progress.

I think having some concrete goals gives us something to aspire to and I will definitely incorporate this each year going forward.

Blessings

Getting my life in 2015

As the year comes to an end, I like to reflect on how the year went for me. In short, 2014 was not hot!

This year I felt like an old, young church lady. (Huge oxymoron, but I know you feel me on this.) Even though I'm the head worship leader, I also serve as the lead for children's church. Besides the activities we do in our church, I also report to our district and participate in the district activities. This year, I believe we had 2 district youth fellowship days and an over night youth retreat. I attended them all. Now maybe it's just me, but I feel like my entire life centers around church and I don't mean this in a good way. Church activities cannot be my entire life. It shouldn't be my source of "entertainment" or what I do for fun. (At least it's not what I want to do for fun even if it is fun sometimes.) Does this make sense?

I've decided that I am going to find some real hobbies in 2015; hobbies that have nothing to do with church. I'm leaning toward cooking classes, tap dancing lessons (which I've done before), bowling lessons, or singing lessons. I'm interested in learning jazz. Maybe I'll even start back working out. Hence, I already informed the district youth leader that I'm out in 2015.

I've also decided that for 2015, my sole church priority will be, wait for it, being a better P&W leader. I am personally tired of my mom (aka the pastor) pestering nagging encouraging me/us to step it up. So I'm thinking we should take her request seriously and step it up. Hence, my aforementioned goal of adding 12 songs to our repertoire. I'm happy to say we're on our way.


Part of my boring life has to do with having a 2-year-old and no real babysitter. That's gonna change next year. "Momma gotta have a life too!" (In my Baby Boy voice.)

When we get to the end of 2015, I hope to be able to say that the praise team is in much better shape because I made it a priority. And I hope that I'll be leading a more balanced life by carving out time for the things I enjoy and not over-committing to church activities. I am only thirty-ish after all!

Blessings

1 down, 11 to go

Praise be to God, we finally sang a new song for P&W this Sunday!

We are now on our way to introducing 12 new/archived songs back into our Sunday song list.