The first time I attended Gateway Church I didn’t like the worship. They seemed overly excited to sing. So I stood there–in the back, with a clenched jaw, and hands buried deep in my pockets.

My resistance to take part was odd to me, because I thought I was a worshipper. But there I was, not worshipping.

Reflecting on that season of my life, I think I’ve narrowed down three reasons for my response.

• I Was Jealous – I consider myself a “creative.” I like to come up with new ideas and start them–whether that involves music, teaching or woodworking. I enjoy making new things. Creatives tend to judge their success against other creatives in the room. That first day at Gateway I was looking at a group of musicians and worshippers who were far better than me, and I became jealous.

• I Was Experiencing a New Flavor – The kind of worship at Gateway was different from anything I had experienced before. When I encounter new flavors of anything I become reluctant–food or otherwise. New flavors take getting used to. A new husband may find the flavor of his new wife’s spaghetti different from what mom used to make. But wisdom tells him to embrace the new flavor without disparaging the old. Both are good. Both are right. Love ya mom. Time taught my spiritual palate to enjoy the new flavor.

• I Didn’t Get It – Gateway wasn’t over-singing or inauthentic. They were the opposite: real, pure, beautiful. I eventually caught it; and like many others, I moved from the back to the front, lifted my hands from pockets to the air, and found a clenched jaw shifting into an open mouth full of praise.

These days I get to lead with these wonderful worshippers. Most are still better than me, but I don’t care. I love them, and I learn as much as I can. God used Gateway Worship to challenge more than my craft or my worship. He was challenging my core; and I’m grateful. I don’t want to be the guy in the back with pockets full of hands anymore.

Over the next few weeks I’m going to share some of my heart about worship. I’ll use this blog post as the summary page that links to them all.

In the meantime, my good friend and fellow pastor, Zach Neese, wrote a book about worship. He uses this writing to unload his soul and connect people to the life and presence of God through worship. This is one of the best books ever written on the subject of worship.

I’m giving away one copy of the book. So to shamelessly mimic the great Michael Hyatt, you may qualify for the drawing by (1) leaving a comment below describing why you want the book–leaving a comment on Facebook doesn’t count–AND (2) post a tweet to this blog on Twitter.

I will use my own purely subjective judgement to select the recipient on Friday, February 24 and connect with you for delivery.

Why would you like to receive a free copy of Zach Neese’s book, “How to Worship a King?” Only comments left on the blog qualify for the book contest, so leave a comment below!

This is Tommy Jordan. He created a YouTube video last week describing a Facebook status from his daughter. I won’t link to the video because the language is harsh. It was shared quite openly on Facebook. If you haven’t seen it, search on YouTube.

Here’s the gist: Mr. Jordan’s daughter posted on Facebook a letter bathed in obscenities and disrespect. She tried to hide it from her parents by “unfriending” them, but dad found her prose. He responded by filming an 8-minute video in which he read the letter, offered feedback to his daughter, fired six bullets into the offending computer with a .45, and posted the whole thing on YouTube.

At the writing of this blog, he had over 23 million hits on the video. He’s gone viral and was, admittedly, surprised by the number of comments.

As a father of four–two of them teenagers–I have thoughts about Mr. Jordan’s parenting techniques. Since he posted those techniques in public view, I feel invited to share my thoughts.

• His daughter needs discipline. She acted out of line. She used words and attitude that can’t stand. He had to do something.

• He was hurt. If I put myself in his shoes, a letter like that doesn’t just make me angry; I become angry because of the pain. I’m sure he works hard at fatherhood; I’m also confident he’s made mistakes along the way. I know I have. Despite the mistakes, most dads like to think they’re not all that bad. When you combine the language, attitude and emotion from his daughter’s letter, the natural response from Mr. Jordan is a heavy and hurting heart.

• Fifteen-year-olds tend to overreact. The letter from his daughter is clearly an overreaction to her circumstances. She’s interpreting her life through a set of lenses that aren’t fully developed yet. She senses injustice and figures a strongly worded Facebook post is the cure. 15-year-olds, though, aren’t known for their balanced approach to life.

• Fathers shouldn’t overreact. Mr. Jordan should balance his emotions better.  I thought age and experience helped parents handle stress better than their children. We’re not supposed to fire back with the same kind of emotional tantrum used by children.  His emotionalism causes him to use weak arguments, hurtful words, and a shock ending that’s impossible to undo.

I think the thing that bothers me more than anything is the overwhelming support he’s received from other parents. They’re living vicariously through his actions.  He’s become the poster-boy for parents with emotional students. His daughter needs discipline. I can relate with his frustration. But what lesson is taught here? More importantly what lesson is learned? It looks to me like those are two totally different lessons.

The bar for good parenting has just been lowered, and I have no doubt we’re going to see more such responses on YouTube in the future.

Ephesians 6:4 and Colossians 3:21 talk about the dangers of exasperating and creating bitterness in your children. Devotion and reverence need to balance discipline and the rod. Yes, we must discipline our children when they misbehave, but this is best done in a loving and careful way. This dad neglected to protect his daughter or create a safe environment for failure and growth.

When I make mistakes, I’m really grateful my Heavenly Father doesn’t post his disappointment on a social network.

Do you agree or disagree with the way Tommy Jordan handled his crisis? Be sure to leave a comment below or you can click here.

Last year I taught a class in Gateway Equip that went in-depth about my heart failure.  I told my story, related my fear throughout the situation, and described leadership lessons I learned after the experience.

Today I want to begin giving part of that class away.  That’s right, it’s free.  While it was originally two hours in length, I’ve shortened the teaching down to the best 30 minutes and I’m making it available for free.

To access the mp3 download, simply fill out the form below.

Why am I giving this mp3 away for free?

• I love telling my story. I dealt with a lot of fear through my trial.  Experience has taught me that many others struggle with the same kind of fears.  I want my story to be a source of encouragement for you.

• I love leadership. As a growing leader, I want good stories I can share.  As a help to leaders, here’s a really good story to include in your leadership toolbox.

• I love the Bible. When the mp3 downloads, you’ll not only hear my story but solid Bible teaching about how we can fight against our spiritual enemy. This is one of my favorite parts of the story.  We don’t fight alone or in isolation against trial and difficulty. God has given tools for victory.

In addition to the free mp3, you’ll receive one email each time I post a blog update.  Currently I post about once or twice a week, so my emails won’t swamp you.

The services I use are awesome at protecting your email address.  It will NEVER be sold or used for spam.

If you already receive my email updates, send a message to robb@robertbrewer.org and I’ll send you a link to the mp3 downloads area.

I hope you enjoy my story, and the lessons I’ve learned through the experience.

Again, fill out the form below or click here to reach the free mp3.

What stories of victory have you heard recently?

When my dad died 10 years ago, we gave mom a nice picture of the sun playing hide-and-seek over an ocean horizon. I took the picture myself and it wasn’t a bad shot, thank you very much. On the bottom of the frame we attached a scripture to give her comfort during seasons of loneliness and fear.

The picture still hangs in her house.

This isn't what I gave mom, but it is the verse we used

I was looking around my home recently and noticed I, too, have a lot of scriptures hanging around.

When I visit other Christian’s homes, I see the same thing.

We like to hang scripture on our walls.

This isn’t a bad thing, but I think we also hang scripture on the walls of our heart.

These passages are usually the length of a tweet, proving that God invented Twitter. They’re short and easily digestible.  But we don’t really memorize them. We just kind of have a general idea of what they mean.

I’m concerned we’re living our lives on the handful of pithy words hung on the caverns of our heart without realizing that the Word has become flesh and dwells among us. He wants to have relationship with us. The Word will speak through the word.  He reveals–like a bride on her wedding night having reserved her glory for the one she loves.  God doesn’t just want us to feel good when we read his word, he wants to give us life.

Here’s the scary thing.  I think Satan will gladly let you hang scripture verses on your heart as long as you don’t get to know the Author. It’s not the words that save you, it’s The Word.

So what do we do about this?

• Ingest It. Water is good for laundering. It washes away dirt and offers a thorough cleansing. But a parched wanderer is never satisfied with a bath. Survival demands ingested water. So too with the Bible.  Reading showers the mind, but ingesting it heals the blistered soul.

• Learn It.Part of the ingesting process is learning scripture.  Learn about the various authors, the audiences they were writing to, the situations they were writing from, and their purposes for writing.  You’ll discover that the original hearers were no different from you and me; and you’ll hear God’s voice speak just like the Ephesians.  Yes, some take this to an extreme and focus on the endless details instead of what God wants to speak, but such a problem we should all overcome.Sometimes you might want help in learning. Gateway Equip can help with this. Yes, I know you’re busy.  Yes, I know you may not live nearby. Yes, I know you want online classes.  I’m working on it. Equip classes provide in-depth relevant teaching on applying scriptural principles to daily life, helping you to hear God’s voice. Sign up for a class.  You know you want to.

• Discuss It. Talk to other people about the things you’re seeing in scripture.  Don’t worry about being wrong.  I imagine all of us are wrong about something in the Bible. When you discuss the word, the Word shows up and contributes His own voice to the conversation. Everyone walks away with a deeper sense of relationship with each other and with God.

How do you make the Bible come alive in your life? Leave a comment below or you can click here.

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Fasting.  I don’t do it well.  I usually get frustrated and quit early on.

This year I decided to give the first fruits of my year to God, so I fasted New Year’s day.  Surprisingly, it was an amazing time. Here are a few tips that have helped me successfully fast.

• Start Small. If you don’t practice this discipline often, avoid the multi-day fast. Sure, you should eventually work up to a longer fast, but sometimes it helps to first have success with something shorter. My New Year’s day fast was only one day–24 hours.

• Strategically Time Your Fast.  I started my New Year’s fast at 8 pm on New Year’s Eve (right after dinner) and continued until 8pm on New Year’s Day. This enabled me to manage my appetite.  When I was getting hungry on New Year’s Day I would remember that I could break the fast in a few hours rather than the next day.  This was a psychological victory.

• Fast an Item that Tends to Drive You.  Food is something I enjoy. Some days it’s all I can think about. To be honest, sometimes during worship my mind wanders to what I’ll eat later.  Stop judging.  Sometimes you think about Facebook during worship.  For others sweets are consuming; others it’s TV.  The truth is that we all have something that drives us. For me, sacrificing food requires focus and concentration. This was an emotional victory.

• Focus and Concentrate on Being with God. A fast is not a diet or a way to lose weight.  It’s not time to escape social media and clear your mind.  These may be benefits of a fast, but the point is to spend time with God. On my 24 hour fast I determined to turn my attention to God each hour for 18 of the 24 hours.  I set my iPhone alarm to go off on each hour. I then would stop whatever I was doing and have a quiet time.  Sometimes I would spend a half-hour, sometimes only five minutes.  It was not the length but the consistency that was important. Those minutes proved very fruitful in hearing God’s voice. This was a spiritual victory.

• Love Others. Many years ago, I ran across a Scripture that transformed how I view fasting.  Isaiah 58:6-7 says “Is this not the kind of fasting I have chosen: Is it not to share your food with the hungry?” Sometimes when I fast, I’ll still buy my lunch, but give it away to a homeless person rather than eat it. I don’t do this every time, but every time I do I’m changed.  There are other ways you can live this out. Instead is an app that allows you to give to a non-profit instead of consuming as normal. During your fast, give away the money you would have used for food. If you don’t fast food, identify other creative ways to love people. In so doing you focus on God, AND those around you. This was victory over selfishness.

Fasting can be a great way to recalibrate your spiritual life and experience victory on several levels. I hope you’ll make an effort to practice this in 2012.

If you enjoyed this post, be sure to share it on Facebook or Twitter.

What kinds of things do you to successfully fast? Leave a comment below or you can click here.

I’m in the process of changing services I use for email update subscriptions. The new service is more flexible and enables me more creative options.

If you currently receive email updates to my blog, there’s nothing you need to do. You’ll automatically be transferred to the new service.  The only difference you’ll notice is a better look in your inbox.  Other than that, the transfer should be seamless.  Your email is still safe and secure.  If you’ve changed your mind about receiving email updates, you can still opt out by unsubscribing when my next post arrives.

If you’re not a current subscriber, today’s a good day to start! Just enter your email in the form below, or you can click here to subscribe.

Today is my Life Day.  On this day 4 years ago, doctors told me my heart was dying from the attack of an unknown virus.

It was a scary time, and I nearly died; but the Lord completely healed me with no lasting impact from the disease.  The story’s intense.

I write more about it here. On this, my Life Day, I don’t just celebrate my healing.  I remember what happened. I remember the pain.

I spent many days during my recovery trying to forget.  Memories haunt in the dark–they visit in the form of nightmares and sleeplessness. During those days I didn’t want to talk about the events, my feelings, or the future.  I wanted to forget.

I’ve talked with many victims of trauma who spend their lives trying to forget pain.  I understand their efforts.

If you have pain from the past, rather than forget I encourage you to remember.

Here’s three reasons why:

• Forgetting is Only a Mask. Pain has to be dealt with.  When we claim to “move on” by forgetting a trauma, we don’t deal with pain.  We bury it and pretend–and buried pain has a tendency to inconveniently resurrect. Masks are good for costume parties and football.  In life, masks are burdens. Remembering enables us to live mask-free, meeting God face-to-face, saturated in health and hope.

• Forgetting Clouds my Future. Life is full of painful events.  Even though I nearly died four years ago, all my pain tokens weren’t used up. I’ve had more painful moments since then.  Some days yet to come will be baked by pain. Remembering pain from the past reminds me that God is still my savior. He saved me before, and He’s not afraid of the troubled waters ahead.

• God Restores Broken Things.  The earth and our lives are broken.  We see it everyday: injustice, selfishness, greed. The Bible is God’s story of making all things right. But we don’t realize our need for Jesus until God speaks to us about our brokenness. Pain makes our lives feel even more broken.  Trying to forget pain doesn’t set our lives right, it separates us from the only One who really restores.

Deuteronomy 5:15 says “Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the LORD your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. (NIV)”

Whatever your “Egypt” is, may your heart turn towards a place of remembering, and through the memory may God grant you peace!

If you have a thought, be sure to leave a comment below: How do you deal with painful life situations?

My Blog has been silent for a while.  It’s not that I didn’t have anything to say.  I just kept putting it off.  Welcome to the wonderful world of procrastination.

Procrastination is the habit of avoiding things that need to be done so you can do something else that’s more enjoyable or comfortable.

I like to be a writer, I just don’t always like the process of writing.  Thus comes procrastination.

Here are some reasons I tend to procrastinate:

• Emotionally drained– If I feel empty inside, I avoid things I find uncomfortable.  I’ll quickly seek out activities that fill my emotional bucket. Rarely do those activities satisfy because, deep inside, I know I ‘m leaving something undone.
• Fear — If I’m afraid of failing at something, I’ll avoid it.  Sometimes I’m afraid of succeeding at something, unsure that I can handle the requirements of new success.
• Boredom — We all have common things that need our attention.  Commonness can be boring and tedious.  If it’s going to be monotonous, I’m likely to find something else to do.
• Perfectionism — As I age, I find myself leaning towards perfectionism. Kind of surprising for me.  I thought I’d go the other way. So I find I’m likely to procrastinate on something if I know it won’t be perfect.

Here are some ways I’m working to overcome procrastination.

• Just Do It — Nike landed on gold. There’s something to be said for “cowboy-ing” up and doing what you don’t want to do.  I had lots of ideas for this blog post, but I kept putting it off.  It wasn’t until I sat down and just did it that change began to happen. Sometimes when I just do it, the task turns out to be less difficult than I imagined.
• Breaks — An increasing amount of research suggests that those who build breaks into their days are more likely to be efficient.  Breaks need to be surprisingly frequent.  Some say taking a break every 20 minutes will give your brain enough rest to push through the tedium of a task. Breaks aren’t a sign of weakness, they are very often the catalyst launching you to completion.
• Variety — Adding new things into my life helps me overcome procrastination.  Sometimes it’s as simple as a change of scenery–accomplishing the task in a different location. Variety renews my passion for life and keeps me interested in accomplishing things I find boring.

Proverbs 13:4 says “Indolence wants it all and gets nothing; the energetic have something to show for their lives (MSG).” A wake of impact awaits those who live lives of energy.

One area I intend to improve in 2012 is pushing through procrastination.  My goal is to post at least once a week throughout the year. I hope this year sees procrastination die for you too.

I feel better already!

What do you do to overcome procrastination?

A recent newspaper article said the American government is considering leaving a large number of troops in Iraq despite promises made for a complete pullout by the end of 2011.

I understand the war in Iraq is wearisome. We’ve been there a long time and have lost over 4500 service personnel. I want them to come home, too. I wasn’t bothered by the promise of leaving Iraq, and I’m not overly troubled that troops will remain.

What bothers me is that our leaders are not leading. They are “tickling our ears” telling us what we want to hear. We all want our troops to come home. But we also want a stabilized planet to call home. Our continent is not isolated. Areas that are destabilized far from home will eventually affect my front yard.

It is poor leadership when I’m told what I want to hear in order to get my support, only to be explained away later when the promise must be adjusted.

The problem is that this is a much easier style of leadership. It’s easier to tickle the ears than convince me from the beginning that what I want right now doesn’t produce what I want later for my grandchildren.

The Bible warns us against this kind of leadership in 2 Timothy 4:3 — “Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear (NIV).”

We need great leaders who understand how to inspire and mobilize rather than scratch and sniff.

I want to be the kind of leader that inspires the soul before scratching the ear–the one who calls out the greatness in others instead of simply calling them great.

Idealistic? Perhaps. But ideas are the bedrock on which tangible reality rests.

Happy Fourth!

I was recently reading a story from World War II. After Hitler had conquered France, most believed Britain would seek a peace treaty. They did not.

The great leader, Winston Churchill inspired his nation by saying, “Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, ‘This was their finest hour.’”

I know not which is more difficult: the establishment of a nation or protecting it’s preservation.

Behind me in history lie the caissons of thousands–those who established this great nation, and those who died in the effort of preservation.

Upon my shoulders rests the responsibility of preserving this fine land. The tools at my disposal are political but profound. And often the conversations that come from such dialogue leave me frustrated and discouraged. But the preservation of a nation comes with a cost.

The political discourse seems vitriolic and bitter, but let us persevere. Before us awaits a great multitude who will one day read our responses and study our stories. They will recognize that our effort was intended to preserve and protect that which has been passed along to us.

Maybe the fog of political war is too thick right now, but perhaps one day it will even be said said of us, “This was their finest hour.”