Fusion 07

This past weekend I attended ‘Fusion 07’ which was held at Providence Baptist church in Raleigh. It is the fusion of Worship, Music and Technical ministries. A large part of the event are the training tracks you can select from, and there is also a good sized trade show to see and touch what’s new. It is put on by the Technical Resource Group (www.trginc.net) who also put on the annual TechXplosion conference. This Fall it will be held in Clearwater Florida. I highly recommend it.

The worship leader and keynote speaker for the event was Travis Cottrell. If you know who he is, you can skip the rest of this paragraph. For those who don’t know him, he is a singer, songwriter and worship leader. He has led worship for Josh McDowell and Annie Graham Lotz. Currently, he leads worship for the Beth Moore conferences. You’ve sung his songs without knowing it: "The Lamb Has Overcome", "In Christ Alone", and “Friend of God" are all his. He has a contemporary style that embraces his more traditional roots. His humility was evident the entire weekend – he is completely surrendered which makes him perfect as the keynote speaker for the event.

So, what is it that Travis can say to motivate us to be better servants in our minsties?

Regardless of our function we are all ‘Front Line People’. We are the people who God uses to bring His people into His presence. Everything that we do should be done so that we help people come before His throne in worship.

God is Creator, and he is still giving birth to new things today. Creation is part of His very nature, and He continues to create new songs, new technologies and new ways for His people to know Him.

When you compare one generation to another, it seems that each generation is becoming darker. The current generation is the darkest yet. That means that we need to reach out to them using methods that they relate to in every day life. The current generation expects to see a presentation that previous generation would have termed as ‘entertainment’. So video, lights, motion and high energy need to be part of the worship experience if we expect to be able to reach people. These are all things that are part of frame of reference of the current generation.

This means that we need to employ creative methods to reach people – but we must never loose sight of being authentic. People today can easily see through phony ‘shows’, so we need to keep it real.

We are servants, and we must serve one another in love. A true servant acts as a representative, an extension, of the master.

God method of leadership was servanthood.

There are a number of reasons to be servants:

1 – It is our calling (Mark 10:42-45, 1 Peter 5:5, Philippians 2:3ff)

2 – It is our joy (Matthew 8:5-13 – the Centurion joyfully cared for his servant, Matthew 18:4)

3 – We will receive favor (James 4:6, 10, Matthew 23:12)

Relationships are hard. We have to work at keeping the relationship we have with our fellow ministers positive. Our calling is to love one another. That is hard, because our flesh wants to be justified. When you are in a situation ask yourself ‘Is being right more important than being loving?’

Be sure to serve the people you serve with.

There are fruits to serving:

1 – Peace

2 – Joy in our calling

3 – Blessing of happiness

4 – Worship filled with power

- -

That was the end of the keynote address. Stay tuned for more from Fusion.