Engagement: Why it Matters

I've recently challenged myself to start blogging again, and regularly.

In light of this new challenge, I am kicking off my blogging with a series on Engagement.  Now, I don't mean engagement in the "fixin'-to-get-married" sense, but in the "connectedness" sense.  Although this post is being written specifically with worship pastors in mind, I think this series will be helpful for anyone in a leadership position, especially in ministry-related affairs.

Growing Pains

I started reading an article from Brain Pickings that talked about a book called Answers for Aristotle: How Science and Philosophy Can Lead Us to a More Meaningful Life (which, I realize is an incredibly long title) and I was really intrigued by what I read.  The author of the book, Massimo Pigliucci, is a philosophy professor at the City University of New York (CUNY).

I found this article and another on this app called "Flipboard", which is a really cool way to read about a lot of really cool things on your iPhone/Android (I don't know if there's another mobile OS that supports the app...but check it out!).  Just a shameless plug for the app. It's really fantastic.

The article about the Aristotle book focused on the subject of "intuition", which the book spends about a chapter on.  Intuition is that "magical" quality that some people seem to possess more of than others. It's that ability which allows one to "just know" something about someone or some situation.  And in worship, this quality is invaluable in knowing where your congregation is and how to minister to that.  Pigliucci writes,

...these days cognitive scientists think of intuition as a set of nonconscious cognitive and affective processes; the outcome of these processes is often difficult to articulate and is not based on deliberate thinking, but it's real and (sometimes) effective nonetheless....Cognitive scientists treat [intuitions] as quick first assessments of a given situation

and it is important to note the last words of the quote: quick first assessment.  Pigliucci also writes that intuition can only happen in specific domains, meaning although we may be really great at intuiting when our mothers are angry at us, we can be just as clueless as the next guy when trying to figure out if that girl is flirting with us or if she's just being friendly (and if she is flirting with us, does that mean she actually likes us or she's just flirty?).  Finally, he writes that intuitions get better with practice because intuition is all about the brain's ability to pick up on recurring patterns.

So how does this apply to worship and being a worship leader?

The Power of Love

Though this isn't a post on Praise and/or Music, it is still an important part of how we worship Christ.

Today in Chapel our speaker was an ex-gay guy giving his testimony.  It was powerful.  He spoke of how we, as Christians, do the gay community a disservice by trying to treat homosexuality like a simple issue, when it is, in actuality, the symptom of a much larger, more complex issue.  He didn't specify what the issue was, and that was the power of his message: you have to know someone, love them, and know their story before you can begin to minister to someone.