*Chad Jarnagin

Random Musings of a Worship Leader

Lately I have found myself dreaming, reforming, and struggling to “keep it real”. As many of us do, I find myself chasing trends instead of God’s heart. How can I be so arrogant to say I know what God’s heart is? The Holy Spirit is how. Honestly, sometimes I lament the fact that I find myself so extremely busy. With the email, phone, texts, feeds dinging / ringing, the noise can drown out the “still small voice”. There’s NO WAY I’m complaining… The reason I do what I do is b/c I’m in love w/ the One who has called me.

In “The Shattered Lantern”, Rolheiser suggests that, “The way back to a lively faith is not a question of finding the right answers, but living in a certain way. The existence of God, like the air we breathe, need not be proven. It is a question of developing good lungs to meet it correctly.” One of my new favorite people, Ian Cron, writes in “Chasing Francis” words that are igniting my spirit in ways I know has God smiling. It’s amazing how God uses all of our lives to affect each other… if we take the time to read, listen, and stop all the hustle & hurry.

The thought of people of all ages across the planet also finding themselves constantly evolving and chasing the Way on the journey is refreshing. It really is about the process, and not just the promise of a destination.

“Reverence and relevance are not at war w/ each other”… Ed Stetzer has a great post on some of these thoughts HERE. This post helps address a topic that comes up in conversations as well as my own opinions, musings, and struggles.

As a lead worshiper, father, husband, pastor, and songwriter, I tend to contemplate often. A couple of nights ago on Twitter I posted a little thought that I had as I sat quietly watching the World Series (I don’t like the Yankees, btw)… Maybe we don’t like the silence b/c we are afraid of what we will hear.

If all we focus on and all that we hear are others opinions, comments, trends, and preferences, we’ll never be centered beings. We’ll always be trying to jump higher, run faster, and perform for the masses. Instead, there is the sometimes elusive audience of One that should be our desire, and goal. Elusive from our perspective, not His. In Him we trust.

“Jesus didn’t come to make us safe. He came to make us brave.” -Gary Haugen, International Justice Mission.

Safe by definition…
-secure from liability to harm, injury, danger, or risk: a safe place.
-free from hurt, injury, danger, or risk: to arrive safe and sound.
-involving little or no risk of mishap, error, etc.: a safe estimate.
-careful to avoid danger or controversy: a safe player; a safe play.

We believers tend to have a sense of entitlement to be heard… but don’t we need to earn that right? We can’t earn that right by continuing to make crappy art that is predictable, bland, one dimensional, & “safe”. When will we be free to cease responding and reacting to the world, grabbing hold of what has already been created and making our own “safe” version, and begin to create culture that isn’t a sub-culture?

I realize these aren’t new thoughts. If you’re tired of hearing discussions like this, feel free to stop right here. But if you want to dream with me, keep reading.

I am sitting on 2 dozen unfinished songs for fear of them being lame. For every 1 song that I write or co-write there are 6 others that I just don’t feel are even close to being ready. Maybe they’re too raw, transparent, or not sing along friendly. But, if Jesus came to make us brave as Mr Haugen stated, why am I also falling prey to the fear of taking risks in my art?

If we are truly free in Christ, one would think that freedom would translate into the pinnacle of creativity w/ no walls or lids instead of finding it recycled, predictable, and full of “insider” language. The moment we default to the safe “happy” place and judge those creating on the edge, we have become ineffective and out of touch.

God, I’m sorry for not always offering You my very best. My own insecurities sometimes pull me to my own safe happy place, but that’s not where You live. My heart belongs to You. You continue to inspire us to new heights to create outstanding works for Your worship and Your glory. NOW, may we get up and bring you our BEST art. Be it raw, risky, and uncomfortable. May it flow from us, to You as an offering.

Shalom.

If we step back from this busy life for a moment of reflection, we will start to hear a deafening silence. The ironic thing will be that it is truly the still silence that is so deafening. Everyone in my circles struggle with noisy, crazy, hectic schedules, running from meeting to meeting, coffee to coffee, and service to service.

After you read this JUST TRY to take 5 minutes and sit in silent solitude. This might be hard iPhoners… NO calls, NO texting, NO computer (AIM, Facebook, Twitter, etc), NO music, NO Xbox 360, NO talking. Nothing, but silence. If you haven’t experienced this in awhile, the sound will be loud. You’ll see what I mean.

If you have not seen the Nooma video “Noise”, go check it out. In the book Facedown (Matt Redman), Bill Hybels (WillowCreek) asked, “Is the ambient noise level of my life low enough for me to hear the whispers of the Lord?” A. W. Tozer has said “in some instances, absolute silence might well become our greatest act of worship”. The silence Tozer is talking about doesn’t happen in our worship services. Everything in our culture is screaming at a db level that is dulling our hearing the Creator’s voice, and sometimes His will. I myself continue to struggle with this.

CHURCH LEADERS: When our people come into worship on Sunday, let’s try to remember that life is fast and loud. It can be voluntary or involuntary, but our communities are fast and loud places. If we are living there as well, how can we lead them into the Holy place? When I come into church I NEED the music peeps to help lead me to a place of silencing & yielding my world in order to seek God in everything.

I think we know that God is everywhere AND in everything, but how often do we live acknowledging that? We usually let our little worlds dictate our response to the Almighty. In order to effectively lead people into worship of God, we must be clear to hear where He is leading us. We can’t always be on point with our leadership, let’s keep it real. I stink it up more times than not, but we should step up our game b/c we have a responsibility.

Application of a TRUE “quiet time” or “silent time” is the only means of execution here. He WILL be in the secret silent place. It probably looks different for everyone. I hope to find more frequent time and space to seek, sense, and listen for more of His heart in the middle of my crazy, whack, funky life.

Shalom.

by Chad Jarnagin



Everyone has probably had questions without answers, been puzzled and frustrated at something that we just can’t make sense out of.

Almost everything in society is fact /control oriented. We as humans tend to get a form of temporary satisfaction from the control, facts, information we receive. Who likes to be left hanging on the edge of something unresolved? I mostly HATE it! I am seeing a trend in the way I live that involves almost every aspect of my life. I WANT RESOLVE and CONTROL! I don’t know many people that don’t.

There was a time not so long ago that I enjoyed life’s mysteries. I would basically embrace things that I didn’t fully comprehend. The world has tried to poison me (and YOU) to believe that we will find the peace and satisfaction we need in facts, logic, and control. In doing so this takes the magic out of faith.What if we decided that we weren’t going to let society tame our childhood belief in mystery the way that Paul talks of in Timothy 3:14? The Message translation says that “this life is a great mystery, far exceeding our understanding.” The life that follows Jesus will fall prey to the comprehension game if we don’t surrender ourselves to the mysterious awe of God that is possibly being beaten out of us by life itself.

We might be able to get a form of comfort from knowledge, but there will come a longing for supernatural mystery. That’s when I want to step back and let awe for the Creator overwhelm me. If He is the beginning and the end, we should have peace knowing that HE KNOWS ALL, and that we don’t have to. That probably won’t stop us from trying to know it all though. I guess we can hope and trust that through walking out our faith in a real world, God will meet us where we are and guide us with His Spirit to mystery, reality, logic, and truth.

I wonder what would happen if we would live impassioned to follow Jesus and not men. I wonder what would happen if men didn’t live by ego, pride, and control. Yeah it’s a mystery but it’s a mystery that I want to try and live with. “Faith is the evidence of things unseen”.