Thanks for visitng, I have re-established a single blog presence at my website www.cliffcline.com. You can link to it from the home page or directly by this link...http://cliffcline.blogspot.com/.

All of this histrorical entries from this site are there.

It has been a good year on the production side, but 3 songs in 4 months was not the goal, a song every month was. I know I will be able to release an extra song somewhere along the line here, because I have a very sparse production song planned for this year, but I need to pick my moment. This month will be another worship tune. I really like the song and now that I have started producing it, I am very excited about the direction is is taking - different again. I am learning a lot too. I have a couple of industry people out there who are critiquing the production and the songs as they come along, so I feel like I am definitely growing.

That being said I am very pleased with how things have come out so far (all links to iTunes for a listen):

January: Beautiful For You a song about the opportunity we have as the church to serve God by serving those without parents.
February: I Want To Tell You - hey it was February, I had to record a love song!!
March/April: I Will Bless The Lord - The first worship song of this year's singles, but certainly not the last. Remember lead sheets can be had for free here.

I will admit, the production of a song a month has proved somewhat grueling, but I do feel like it is taking me down a path towards the goal of creating better more impactful music.

I attended the Ontario GMA Canada seminar last Friday. I was excited to re-connect with an old acquaintance Chris Vacher of Worship Rises fame. Chris founded Worship Rises to encourage the Canadian church to write songs that speak to what God is doing in our churches and our lives. He sees as a worship leader, and I agree, that there really is no significant voice in Canada right now. I think that speaks to two things: 1. a lack of Biblical passion for what song writers and creatives should be doing to encourage the church, and 2. the ominous and probable possibility that we are not letting God do enough in our lives, hence no powerful songs to sing. There is actually one other thought, we need a mechanism, like an industry but not, that allows us to freely share good quality worship songs with each other. I don't have an answer for this today, but certainly Chris is trying to help with this.

One of the things that Chris does is set-up song writing clinics for worship leaders across Canada to get things moving. They already have an EP released with the fruit of that labour. I went through a crash course and co-wrote a song with an artist named Derrick Drover. He apparently sang the song in a showcase last Friday night. I have co-written songs before with my old band mate Fraser McCulloch of Heart Mind and Soul fame, but sitting in a room with someone and pounding out something from scratch is quite another thing. I am actually looking forward to finding a way to do this again soon, in the end it wasn't that scary, but I am sure that speaks in part to Derrick's patience!!

Our family has had an interesting ride over the years in terms of living arrangements. In terms of expectation we have never hit mine. I really wanted to live in a larger home than we live in, have space for, well anything I deemed necessary. Our first townhouse was almost as big as our current detached home. Of course there is the small difference of 4 more family members in the form of amazing children. It is also smaller than our last semi. So what Cliff, what's your point?

I suppose the thing that has been remarkable to me is how much we have purged, how little is coming into our home, and how 3 plus years after moving into a smaller space I still feel like I have too much stuff. Even though we have purged I still feel myself holding onto things. Trophies from when I was a kid, school projects, old music recordings and videos of live performances and TV appearances.

Lately, I have been in purge mode again. This stuff has been weighing me down. I want a simpler "cleaner" life. I need to right size my stuff to fit my space. Although not of the epic proportions of some reality TV shows, I am a hoarder, and it is time to purge once and for all. David Allen of getting things done fame talks about how important it is to take the weight of your mind to reduce stress and actually allow you to get things done.

A sidebar, I have very recently started using TeuxDeux on my desktop and iPhone to help get things out of my mind and on to a task list. Having the sync ability and the portability of the iPhone is helping immensely. I will let you know how sustainable I find this latest foray into organization and control in digital list form.

I am not exactly promoting this book or even Jon, I have never met him or seen anything else of what he has done, although now I plan on exploring. I happened upon him via the twitter world, he actually followed me first, which is saying something, because I have very few followers. Anyway, I love the vibe and message of the video, which is what his book is about I guess. A little change up for the blog today. I think it is kind of inspirational.

I was just reading a post by Sara Groves on information overload. She was commenting on how there is a fatigue that comes from the constant connection we have to technology and information etc. One of her points was that it drains energy to the point that creativity is stifled. One of the biggest challenges to most creative endeavours is having the space to fashion your art. In the end you have to make room in your life to have space.

As a part-time artist with a young family and a full-time job I get it. Technology can often be a friend, helping reduce costs and distribute the music in ways that could never be done before. But the universal access to many broadcast platforms causes a reverberation of white noise that one is always trying to break through to be heard.

I am not sure what the balance is, but I know I need to spend more time in the "quiet" of my writing space, unplugged, free to clear my mind of the dull roar of the social network sphere to write and produce. I am sure you have your music equivalent. Are you struggling with creating room for space? How do you try and create those art fashioning times?

There is a massive difference between getting your Sunday morning service done, and getting it done well. As a pastor friend of mine noted, Sunday morning comes relentlessly every week ready or not. So how do you infuse energy and excitement into something that has become a routine? How to you cast vision for greatness for a service that is already, well good. How do you tell people that good, is not good enough?

As a fellow leader I will tell you, it is all on you. If you are not pushing yourself to grow spiritually, as a speaker or as a worship leader you won't and neither will your church. We must also be careful not to mistake doing something a little different (re-naming sermon series and creating a new graphic/video) for growth.

For the sake of argument let's assume you are committed to excellence, but, maybe as a team you are not there yet. Pragmatically, what are you doing to push yourself and your team to actually become better, better than good. If you cannot define that clearly and measure KPIs (key performance indicators) that are helping your people move forward don't kid yourself, nothing is happening.

Spiritually, what is God doing in your life and the life of your team and leadership. What are the KSIs (key spiritual indicators) that are visually showing growth in your church. This point is more important than the one above, because if the relationships in your church are not deep enough to allow you to know what is happening the lives of each other than that is not good enough according to the Bible, and let's be honest, if you can't verbalize what God is doing in your life right now, there is a very good chance it is because you are not letting Him do anything.

Sunday morning matters because it is the rallying point, the celebration for believers. A time to share, inspire, and encourage each other to worship God and grow in Him. A time to repent yet again, accept forgiveness and move forward together. A time to disciple, by living out this process in front of the young in faith and our very own children. Sunday morning matters because it holds the power of gathering in it. Where we as humans are influenced by each other of our own free will. We come to hear, to be taught, to investigate, to find love and acceptance, to meet God!! Sunday morning matters because it is the beachhead for the hard work of being the church every other day. Sunday morning is not the church, oh no, I know that very well, but it really matters.

I could have also called this lemons to lemonade. The hardest part of accomplishing something is accomplishing it. Huh?

Traveling down a path to your goals can often be defined by a set of steps, planned and executed, that lead to the finish line. My experience is that, often, things get derailed and you have to problem solve. The worse case can be that an opportunity is missed, and it evaporates. It is like commercials in the advertising business, if you didn't sell that commercial spot for last night, it's too late.

So what do you do when something just doesn't work out? I think you make banana muffins (from over ripe bananas). Sometimes the best thing to do is completely change course and make yourself useful, perhaps in an unrelated way. Meeting plans get canceled, go home and spend that time with your family. Hit the gym and burn off some frustration. Make lost opportunity found time. You tried, it isn't procrastination to re-boot your mind and soul so you can pick up the plan tomorrow. When we keep on moving we get those other days, those days where we can't believe everything went so right!!

I am leading worship less these days, mostly because I am not traveling or helping other churches as much right now. The interesting thing about it is this: when you lead once a month or so it feels bigger, and the lack of routine actually makes some tasks harder. So how do you get better when you are not doing something regularly. Here are some things I am doing.

1. I am recording a lot, so I am playing a fair amount. As I try different techniques or sounds or voicings, I am trying to find ways to apply some elements to my next worship set. So just practicing your instrument and trying to push yourself to learn new things to bring to the table.
   
2. From a leadership perspective, I am trying to come into rehearsal with a couple of arrangement ideas from which to launch some songs. Whether it be a feel or a custom intro. Although I try to be flexible and let the team have some input, I also try to come in with a plan in case ideas are not easily forthcoming or not quite jiving on the fly. A big part of adding value to the team is always being able to give direction and keep things moving forward.
3. It might sound tremendously obvious, but pick winning songs. I try to avoid more than one new song, and I try to have the rest flow well, but also be really well liked. As leaders we are there to engage the congregation and lead them in worship, not prove out own artistic genius or make an artistic statement. Doing both those things might have their place in the music business, but not in worship. (PS if you are really that good, hopefully you do the former and the latter just comes out, and you don't even know it)
4. Prepare for rehearsal logistically. Depending on the support your church gives or the culture of the volunteers, prepare packages for your team. Make sure you are all playing off the same charts, and that people are not using "their" version. Being on the same page means being on the same page....
5. Know what is going on in the service spiritually and talk about it in rehearsal, at least a little. If the songs are given some sort of spiritual context, it will help then band in their worship journey in the service, which helps you lead as a team.

There are many more things one can do, but perhaps this will help you in the near term if you are looking for some inspiration.

Grassroots implies a birth of something. An opportunity to do it right, to change something for the better, to create something amazing. Moreover, it implies freedom, flexibility, passion, and that's the allure. It is small, and with strong leadership it is actually easier to stay on vision in the early going. There is a focus, and what can hinder it? Money, don't need it. Legal issues, there is no legal entity. Political interference, internal or external, you can walk away.

So how do you harness that passion when the thing takes off and becomes something real, when the product or the cause turns into something which needs to be or can be monetized? I think the best thing to do is highly process and safeguard anything that has ethical or legal implications, and then run the rest of the place like it is grassroots. Keep it creative and playful, passionate and fun, keep the focus on what got you there in the first place. Legal and financial controls keep you on the track, but great grassroots style leadership tries to make that train go as fast as it can!!