Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

I probably need to check in more often, but I've been keeping things pretty close over the last month and change so as to allow for proper channels of communication to occur. Change has been in the air and it started with me stepping down as the worship leader for Mercy. It was a difficult decision to come to, but my hope is that by stepping out of the way, Mercy will have a better chance of growing into her vision for cautiously charismatic worship.

I really did think I could grow into the role and that only makes it more frustrating to give it up. But after three years of trying to grow into it and constantly hitting a wall it was time. My confidence as a leader continued to erode to the point where I was second guessing myself almost every Sunday and was leading with no authority. I'm chalking it up to not having the right gift mix for this particular ministry in this particular season. I believe I can still be an effective worship leader, but it may be awhile before I tread into those waters again.

In the meantime, I'm hoping to devote more time and energy to songwriting and may push farther into the realm of artist ministry. I started a songwriters' group last summer and am wondering if there might be opportunities to network in other artistic circles as well. More on that to come.

Change number two is that I will be changing roles at work next month. Lee, a good friend and my former shop manager, is stepping down as the manager of the bike shop. After a bit of thought and prayer, I made the decision to pursue the position and will be heading back to manage the bike shop after three years of managing bikes, a few cold weather clothing shops and making my living as a sales person.

The down side is that I no longer will qualify for sales trips (like the Jamaica trip we took last year and the Disney trip we took last month). The up side is that I will be setting the schedule for the shop and the expectation is that I will not be there much on the weekend and will only do one or two nights a week. This means a lot more time at home which we have all been craving. It also means that I should see more of our parents. It's been a bit frustrating to only live 70-80 miles away from all of them and only occasionally see them.

It also means a lot of new challenges as I try to get a handle on the parts of the job that I wasn't engaged in when I was in the shop previously and having to reacquire some skills that I haven't had to use in about three years. We've got a pretty good crew and there's not a lot of drama or difficult personalities to deal with, so I'm hoping for a smooth transition as I make the change April 1.