Is my life biblical? Is our church biblical? In 50 years from now, what will people look at us and say was weird by the way we followed God? Great message clip to make you think:
We live in a very interesting time in American Christianity. In some ways, so much incredible Kingdom stuff is happening. In other ways, I feel like we can’t hear THE name because all we hear is YOUR name.
Translation: many Christian leaders and Christian ministries are focused more on building their kingdoms than they are on building God’s Kingdom.
What a great, unexpected, turn-at-every-moment day with North Side! As we were gathering for soundcheck this morning, the power went out completely out in the worship center. With flashlights going and people scrambling, it appears that all the AC units in Greenwood on non-stop decided to take out our air and electricity at 8:40 Sunday morning.
So, what is a worship pastor to do? I got the right people working on getting it back on, and I gathered the worship team in the commons area outside the worship center. I told them we would either do things acoustic in the dark or out in that open area with no AVL or we would try to setup up shop in the gym. But in the moment, we just gathered round some acoustic instruments and began to worship. I have actually planned for a more acoustic service later this month to worship like our family is over in Africa, and thought maybe God wanted it earlier. In our prayers, we didn’t pray for the power to come back on, we just wanted to be obedient in however God wanted to teach us this morning.
At about 9:20 when people were gathering to go inside the doors, our team was singing “I’m sorry, Lord, for the thing I’ve made it, when it’s all about you, all about you, Jesus,” and then the lights came on. We went into the room with people finding their seats, plugged in our instruments, got a camera feed up so we could watch our baptisms, and started the service on time.
I say this a lot, but today is one of those days I don’t think anyone truly understands how serious I am about this: our worship team is amazing. They are incredibly flexible, no one was running frantic, no one seemed frazzled, no one was rude to one another, we just each did our part and God decided that we should have power back at that time. And as everyone came prepared, the services went off great without anyone able to see anything that would have said there was no run-through that morning. I am honored to work with such great people.
Today, we worshiped to:
Last night, I shared a quote in our community group from a book I’m reading entitled Total Church: A Radical Reshaping Around Gospel and Community by Tim Chester and Steve Timmis. Interesting read about what these guys are doing with The Crowded House network of home churches in the UK.
Here’s the quote that woke me up concerning missions:
“If someone was being sent as a missionary to a hostile context overseas, our attitude would be something like this: We would expect to pray often for them. We would expect progress in building relationships and sharing the gospel to be slow. We would be excited by small steps – a gospel conversation here, an opportunity to get to know someone there. We would thrive on regular updates from the front line. But the truth is that the lives of many Christians in work, and play, are just like the life of that far-flung missionary! They are lived out in tough environments where progress is often slow and many factors make evangelism extremely difficult. The challenge is to make news from the staff canteen as valued as news from the overseas mission field.” –Total Church, p. 36
The only problem with today’s services is I could have done that a few more times. Incredible time with Jesus today. Absolutely incredible.
The above picture was taken during soundcheck today by one of our vocalists from her phone. The boys normally go to soundcheck with me. Today, amazingly enough, both of them had to go poo-poo during it and yelled it out really loud after we had finished a song during soundcheck. I love being a dad.
After everyone was out of the bathroom, it was a very special day indeed. Jeff’s message was powerful. He explained that Jesus’ example of washing the disciples’ feet was an expression of unity, acceptance, and service. What if every church, every home was full of people who applied this example? Still processing.
We had a great ensemble do a dramatic reading of the foot washing to setup the message. It was incredible. Every time that Laurie started saying, “You can’t wash my feet, I should be kissing your feet,” I couldn’t help but get weepy. Strutton did a great job of making a Last Supper table that will stay with us during these weeks of Jesus’ teaching through John 13-17. Amazing what he can do with stuff he got from Big Lots and the Dollar Tree. Love creativity on a budget!
Today, we worshiped to:
There are many needs in the world. You can’t do something about all of them, but you can do something about some of them. You can spend your life focused on confronting evil, pursuing justice, and loving mercy. Your life can potentially change the lives of others.
As you go through life, you probably resonate with certain needs more than others. We are each wired differently — that’s the beauty of the Body of Christ! It’s best for each of us to specifically get involved in a need we are passionate about.
This week’s bad church sign says: “WHOEVER STOLE OUR AC UNITES KEEP ONE IT IS HOT WHERE YOURE GOING.” Let’s just say that you were the person who stole that unit. You went to that church intentionally because you know you could easily acquire them. You either needed the money or you wanted the cool …
Maybe you are married, unmarried, remarried, once married, or want to be married. For anyone out there interested in how to love a wife, I want to give you some advice today. Not because I’m an expert, but because I’m learning. My wife has endured a man trying to learn how to truly love her …
It’s wild to think that it has been six months now since we changed our worship styles from contemporary and traditional to a united format. While there have been concerns along the way, there has been minimal, and I mean minimal drama. I can’t overstate how God has blessed this decision. Instead of splitting or losing tons of people that others predicted we might, our attendance is actually up significantly than this time last year.
Was it the right move for our church? Without a doubt. Does everyone love the music portion of services week in and week out? Not a chance. But for the most part, people are adapting and giving it a shot. We are truly worshiping together now as a church.
To illustrate where our church is, let me share a conversation I had with a church member the other week.
The church member walked into my office and the first words were, “I don’t like the music on Sundays. I just can’t help it. I do no like it.”
dI’ve been asked by a few people lately: “So what do you think about Newspring coming to Greenwood?” Normally, it’s also been followed by other phrases to express their thinking. I’ve heard: “Do you think ya’ll will lose members?” “What kind of church do you think it will hurt the most?” “I heard they take …
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