I just finished reading a pre-release copy of a new book that is releasing to the public today. Written by one of my blogger heros, Chris Guillebeau, the title is The Happiness of Pursuit. In the book, Chris chronicles, and gleans lessons from, a number of people pursuing (or having finished) quests, including Chris’ pursuit of visiting every country in the world before the age of 35.

The book is filled with stories, in part because, as Chris discovers, explaining a quest, or how it feels to finish one, is very difficult. But the lesson here (and it is a valuable life lesson…one that I’ve found myself adopting gradually over the past decade or so as I try to explain to people just exactly what it is that I do) is that a quest changes you, and provides you with stories to tell.

One unfortunate byproduct of our increasingly plugged-in lives is that we consume stories rather than live them. And for the purposes of leadership, we are so consumed with creating our own stories, that we fail to recognize the wisdom that is imported both by the telling of, and the learning from each others’ stories.

In essence that is what we do here at Creator 5 times each week: someone with experience shares insight into the music, ministry, worship, and/or leadership tasks we face as church musicians and worship leaders. Our subscribers tell me that what we do is incredibly important, but since 1978, our quest has been to help people do ministry better.

Now it is your turn… Everyone has a story, and we can all learn from yours, especially if it involves a quest. Send me your story by clicking here, and let us learn from you. Speaking of learning…

Today’s Article

Today’s article is from William Belan, who follows up last month’s article with Hierarchy of the Conducting Gesture, Part 2. Here’s an excerpt:

There is not enough that can be said about the importance of metacrusis. It is in this small space of time that quietness in music making lives. It is in this dissipation of energy that time has its repose, where “audiation” resides. It is in metacrusis that the principal difference between ictus and rebound best distinguish themselves. The ictus is a point of arrival (mainly rhythmic information), while rebound carries the information of gathering energy, weight of tone, speed of subdivision, and general coordination of physical ensemble skills.