Archive for August, 2009

The season’s are a-changing

August 31, 2009 · Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged , , ,

So, today is the first day that I am wearing long pants, or jeans to work in a long time. I have the luxury of being able to wear whatever is appropriate to work, and during my summer, shorts do the job.

I can feel it in the air. I can tell that the sports seasons are changing. And, I can tell that we are about to turn the corner and no matter what I do… tomorrow is September.

I just finished my first full year in my new job, and so everything up to this point has been “firsts.” Now I am looking at September with memories of last September. I don’t know if it is because I know what I am getting myself into, or if there are other things going on inside of me, but I am having a hard time turning the corner.

Yesterday at church the message was one that I felt didn’t really move me or hit me significantly. I have been stewing on it, and thinking about it, and trying to take application from it. The message was on God’s wrath and justice. And the thing that I am taking away from the message is that “God is in control of his business.” Justice and wrath are God’s responsibility. And more importantly… NOT mine.

So, as I feel a little indifferent… I feel like the season’s are changing and I am just watching… I know that God is doing His thing. He is faithful to do what He says. He will take care of his responsibilities. I will take care of mine.

God is Good… through every season… and through every change….

sj

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Quick introduction to thoughts on leadership…

August 28, 2009 · Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged , , , ,

This is a concept that I have been thinking about for a while and needs a lot of development. The concept is fairly simple to understand, and based on a simple research procedure I like to call “google with quotes.” I have researched this enough to know that I am not coining a phrase, but I am stuck on this concept.

I had heard someone a few years ago refer to worship leaders as lead worshipers. The thought that to lead others in worship, you must be a true worshiper. I would say that this principle is true in leadership too. To truly lead others you must be a true follower. I have observed that the best leaders are those who follow well. So, I want it to be known that I desire to be a lead follower.

sj

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Confession, well frivolity really

August 27, 2009 · Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged , , , ,

If you know me at all, you know that I don’t have a folder entitled “things I shouldn’t share.” Therefore, I will share with you a very intimate confession from my life.

It happened on Sunday.
I was at church.
It was a great service.
They served communion.
I prayed and reflected.
I partook of the elements.

As I was sitting there thinking, I thought to myself, “I am really glad that God chose for it to be wine that we use to represent the blood.” I then chuckled as I thought, “what if it was tomato juice?” My communion experience would be much different. (I know selfish and frivolous… that’s why I warned you)

All this to say… I know that God loves me… I love communion… I mean no disrespect, but in an effort to live out loud, this was my experience.

sj

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thoughts on worship… (pt. 2)

August 26, 2009 · Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged , , , , ,

As I mentioned yesterday, I have had the privilege of leading worship over the summer. It was a great opportunity and a great challenge. It had been a while since I had lead somewhere consistently and I forgot about “opinions.”

I really enjoy all styles of music. I think that there is something about a good song that will stand the test of time. And as a song used in the context of a corporate music worship service, if it is a good song full of truth that expresses the cry of my heart, I don’t care if it was written in the 1800s or last week. I don’t care if you are playing it on the organ or the guitar. I have come to learn that I am not the center of the demographic on this discussion.

Music is powerful. People connect through different styles of music and I am guessing because of the intimate emotional attachments that they have to these experiences with the particular styles, that the bond is strong. The danger becomes when we start to defend or prefer a style or method over the content or even the purpose of the music.

I read a powerful article written on this topic and it really helped me… it can be found at Christianity Today The article’s summary is in this final quote.

“The primary key for holding the two poles of this dialectic together is education—teaching the gifts of the faith tradition to those who do not yet know and understand them, and teaching those who love the heritage some new forms in which it can be presented to others.”

Education is the key, and the responsibility lies with the worship leaders. I realized after reading this article that teaching is an important and valuable part of leading worship. (and guess what… it worked!)

sj

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thoughts on worship… (pt1)

August 25, 2009 · Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged , , , ,

So, it has been a long time since my last post promising more posts… I will not promise more posts, but it is my desire to become more disciplined and write more often. We will see where that goes…

I had the privilege to lead worship for 6 or more weeks this summer. It was a great time. I had an amazing team of young musicians that were tremendously talented and had great hearts.

I quickly realized and remembered that musical styles and tastes are varied. I would love to write this and pick on all of “those” people who don’t share my tastes, but, I realize that I am a great offender of this issue myself.

I decided to go to a different church than the one I have been attending this past weekend, and lo and behold the topic was… “worship.” It was a powerful message and what I realized as I processed the message was that he never once even talked about styles. An entire message about worship and he didn’t discuss styles or methods.

He camped out on Psalm 100:

“1 Shout with joy to the Lord, all the earth!
2 Worship the Lord with gladness.
Come before him, singing with joy.
3 Acknowledge that the Lord is God!
He made us, and we are his.
We are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving;
go into his courts with praise.
Give thanks to him and praise his name.
5 For the Lord is good.
His unfailing love continues forever,
and his faithfulness continues to each generation.”

It is about identity. Whose are you? “He made us and we are his.” I would challenge you to use personal pronouns to get the effect… “He made me and I am his.” Worship is then an expression of declaring, “Yes, I am Yours!”

It is about service. v2 can be translated instead of “worship” to “serve.” The Amplified Bible has it “Serve the Lord with gladness! Come before His presence with singing!” Which makes me think of the great theologian and recent local stray, Bob Dylan, and his hit song “You got to serve somebody.” You see we all worship something, we all are serving someone, someone sits on the throne of your life, who is it?

It is about obedience. Samuel says it best in 1 Samuel 15:22 “…Obedience is better than sacrifice…” How many songs do we sing about bringing sacrifices of praise? In John, Jesus states it fairly simply, “if you love me, you will obey me.”

The common theme in all of these statements…

Worship isn’t about you.

It is about who is on the throne, who is worthy, who is the King of kings.

The most convicting quote from this sermon was this:

“Come like you are coming into His courts, not like you are window-shopping.”

Psalm 27:8 “My heart has heard you say, “Come and talk with me.”
And my heart responds, “Lord, I am coming.”

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