Step Away from the Steinway

Back in the day, websites had 'counters' prominently displayed on their home page (along with various flashing and moving web icons that were 'cool' for their time). These counters chronicled each visitor that mysteriously showed up to your site.  In fact, if you were the '1000th' visitor, it was a pretty happening website.

You are visitor number . 

Thank you for visiting our site.

In comparison, my daughter Holly's Family Feud video (search YouTube for Family Feud Buzzer) has well over 600,000 views. Times change!

Websites today (like this Blog for instance) still keep track of visitors, it's just usually hidden in the back end for the owner of the site to be aware of. I don't normally pay much attention to website traffic but it is interesting to me that 'page views' on this Blog spiked near the end of December. I know it's not because suddenly people had a lot of spare time on their hands around Christmas (does that ever happen?). It's not because I posted it on Facebook (although when I do, it does cause a 'spike') . It's darn sure not because I 'tweeted' it (I darn sure didn't). I know that it's because on December 19th, I unceremoniously resigned from my position as 'worship leader'. Some of the traffic may have been from my friends who were legitimately concerned; although honestly most of them contacted me directly. I suspect that much of the traffic was from folks that had never been that interested in what I had to say, but suddenly hoped to read (or were afraid they might read) some gossip or tell-all post from me about why I was leaving. Sorry to disappoint.

The whole landscape of how a church finds, selects and hires staff (especially new staff from outside of the church) is challenging. Certainly, the process that involves a search committee sneaking into another church to scope out their target before attempting to lure them away (in view of a call) is flawed at best. It's almost like an arranged marriage (without the 'bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh'). It's no wonder that the 'arrangements' aren't effective and don't last long as long as they should.

I could fill this Blog with reasons or explanations, but the 'honest to God' truth is that it was 'time' to leave. And no amount of story-telling or finger-pointing would've changed that. When someone feels the need to over explain or hyper defend their actions, you have to be somewhat skeptical. Actions do speak louder than words (in my humble opinion). And I want anyone and everyone to look at five years of service for what it was...a season* of service to the Lord. Wow, I enjoyed so much of that journey.

As you've probably discovered, I'm not a big poster to Facebook. I see a lot of positives and negatives from there. It's a hodgepodge of the evils of Reality Television mixed in with the positive attributes of community taught in the Bible (and espoused by the 'it takes a village to raise a child' advocates). If you don't check in with the Facebook god daily, you find out about someones death a day after their funeral. But if you maintain a constant vigil, you're exposed to a menagerie of mundane moments and malcontent musings from the masses (man, I love alliteration). It's a mix of TMI from some and TLI from others. 'Friending' someone on Facebook sounds so intimate. 'Denying' a 'Friend Request' sounds so hateful. Certainly that's the strategy and marketing savvy behind it. But I don't want to be 'intimate' with that many people...and I don't want to be 'hateful' to anyone.

It's like when we were on Family Feud. We signed up for a chance to win money and prizes (and we did). But we weren't on our own Whittern Family Reality Show where we signed over the rights to our lives. So when one of our shows air, and my two beautiful daughters are suddenly inundated with Friend Requests on Facebook from all over the country, it's perfectly alright to IGNORE them.

It reminds me of when the girls were in junior high school. Instant Messaging was the latest thing. Kids their age no longer talked on the phone. Texting hadn't begun yet. So groups of kids would have conversations on the computer.  'IM' me and I'll 'IM' you back. At one point, I felt like the junior high boys were becoming a lot braver and less cautious with how they approached my daughters. They were saying and talking about things through Instant Messaging that they wouldn't have broached through normal means of communication. So I yanked it. I turned off my daughters' accounts and stopped them from being part of the 'IM' crowd. They thought they were going to die. I was just trying to help them 'live' through those difficult yet formative years. They got through it. I'm extremely proud of what they've become (a decade later). And if you know them at all, you understand why. If you saw them on the Feud, you know why the junior high boys and the Facebook Stalkers were trying to get to them. A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.

I'm not saying that it's 'time' to leave FB; I'm not saying that it's 'time' for me to retire from leading worship. Reassessment is in order. I am just saying that after five years, three months and six Christmas musicals, it was 'time' for me to step away from the Steinway. I hope you'll understand. Selah.

Ecclesiastes 3

Everything Has Its Time

¹ To everything there is a *season,
A time for every purpose under heaven...
⁵ A time to cast away stones,
And a time to gather stones;
A time to embrace,
And a time to refrain from embracing;
⁶ A time to gain,
And a time to lose;
A time to keep,
And a time to throw away;
⁷ A time to tear apart,
And a time to sew together;
A time to keep silent,
And a time to speak...