My little brother went old school on me the other day and sent me a hand written letter. Along with all his encouragements he laid down the challenge - 'this year try and work smarter rather than working harder.' It's been a phrase I've been mulling through for a while.

Have you ever reached the moment where you feel totally stretched, overwhelmed and at full capacity? It's so often then that other exciting windows of opportunity open up. What do you do? Just limit yourself to where you've reached? No - you find other ways to make it work. Perhaps you need to let go of things you don't need to do anymore - find others to take that on. Maybe you need to priorities key responsibilities, friendships and commitments. Maybe you need to learn to do certain jobs faster. Could a one-hour meeting be done in half an hour? Could you be more decisive and efficient in responding to emails? What are the things at work that unnecessarily drain your time?

The musical phrase we use, 'less is more' is very pertinent here. So I'm trying to work out what it means for me. How do I spend my time to be most effective? What things do I need to let go of? Who am I training up to take things off me? How is the team I'm involved in functioning? All good questions to ask.

There's so much more I'd love to see happen in my life. To accomplish this I'm realising that it's not a matter of working harder, more a need to work smarter.

Thanks bro!

It's been a crazy week - one of the most full on I can remember - which culminated in an amazing night of worship at Shepherds Bush. I'm still buzzing from it all!

Sorry not to have kept the blog going each day. Just ran out of time. I'll try and recap to fill you all in on the rest of the process.

Saturday - We spent the day tightening up the arrangements and then began the process of how the songs would flow together. I'd spent a lot of time thinking about building themes, musical flow, keys etc...By the end of the day it felt like we had a plan and Nathan (keys & producer) began to put the clicks and tracks into pro-tools so we could run the songs together in one session. This really helps with the flow. Rather than having lots of stops and starts we can hear the click in our in-ear monitors. Then when the next song kicks off we hear Nathan in our ears say 1-2-3-4. It made such a difference.

Sunday - I had to head off to church whilst the rest of the guys were joined by the 4 singers. Andy Arganda, Quinton Delport, Hope Plumb and Ian Pitter. They spent the day going through the songs again and did 2 full run throughs.

Monday - I left very early in the morning to arrive at the studios in Eastbourne. I spent the first hour and a half going through the songs with the singers making sure everyone knew what they were doing. On the whole the singers sang in unison with a tenor part here and there. They mainly came in strong on choruses. This added so much to the tracks. In one sense it perhaps at times would have felt a bit dull for the singers - but for the sake of the arrangements it sounded killer. It really hit home to me the 'less is more' principle. It's all about doing the right thing for the overall sound of the song - even if it seems really simple. After that we ran through the whole set twice. By the end we definitely were feeling sick of the songs! In a good way though.

I've never rehearsed so much. It's really challenged me about how we approach church. So often it's the bare minimum to get by. It means you can never really push musical excellence. It becomes difficult to find freshness and genuine creativity. I feel challenged to really offer my best musically, but also encourage our team at HTB to do the same. I feel excited.

Anyway, carrying on the recap, I got back Monday night to hear an mp3 of the rap the 29th boys were going to do. Sounded fantastic. I also got to see a sneak preview of the dancers. Was so excited. The guys from 'Sacred' were amazing. Went for a run to clear my head and got ready for another big day.

Tuesday - woke up feeling so excited - yet also pretty nervous. Felt like there was so much to come together. In the morning I met with Hutch (DVD producer) to chat everything through. There was a lot going on with visuals, dancers, lighting, confetti canons, duets etc...We made a plan and then headed off to the venue. Shepherds Bush is such a cool venue. It feels really intimate. We got set up and sound checked and then at 4pm we had a full run through. The music felt great - but all the visuals were out of sync. To say it was stressful was an understatement! We finished up and then myself, Hutch, Nathan and Andrew Philip (ran visuals) went through all the songs making sure everything was in sync. I guess you get to a place where you have to let go and trust it will work out. But it definitely added some pressure.

When the night kicked off it was amazing. Seeing 2,000 people really worship in that venue was so inspiring. I was so delighted how everything came together. There was such a sense of God's presence. A real passion and hunger to honour and glorify His name.

As I reflect on everything God is so good. Worshipping throughout the night I found myself reflecting on God's faithfulness and extravagant kindness. He truly is amazing. I was also so struck by the importance of team. On our own we can achieve so little. But when we serve out of community the possibilities are endless. It was really special to have my mates Mike Pilavachi and Martin Smith involved, but there were so many other people who made the night work - way too many to mention. I felt so privileged to be a part of such an amazing team of people.

Thanks to all of you who were there and worshipped with us. Also to all those who have prayed and encouraged us along the way. It means so much!

Tim Hughes

I came across this in Bill Hybel's new book 'Axiom', which is challenging to us musicians in leadership!

I often struggle with running late when I'm leading worship. There are so many things to prepare, the setlist to print, the photocopier takes time to warm up, my guitar to tune. I found this piece of advice brilliantly to the point:

'Jesus said let your yes be yes and your no be no. So when I say yes to meeting with a group of my colleagues at a certain time and place, I do everything in my power to keep my word. Promptness is about character, and leaders are not beyond the rules that govern things like courtesy and character.

When a leader says to a group of direct reports, "I'll be at the restaurant at noon to meet with the four of you," all four of those people want to know whether that leader will in fact keep his word. If the leader strolls in fifteen minutes late, the team members who likely broke their backs to get there on time feel devalued.

But when a leader factors in traffic and detours and last minute incoming calls and still manages an early arrival, the team members feel affirmed.

Within leadership circles around Willow (Hybel's church), if people do encounter a complication that makes them late for a meeting, the first thing they do upon arrival is apologize. No excuses; just a sincere "I'm sorry." Anyone can give a valid reason why they're running a bit behind. But it takes grace and relational intelligence to keep that reason at bay until you've first let group members know that their feelings rank higher than your justification.

When I've had to issue an apology like that, my whole team relaxes in response. They are reminded that I really do value their time, I really do view them as equals, and I really do want my yes to be yes." (BILL HYBELS - AXIOM)

Then there's what one friend of mine does - sets their watch ten minutes early!

Al Gordon