Ministry

1 Week Offline (And the Return Back…)

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We had a family vacation at the end of July.  It was great.  I decided to turn my email off and really, really be on vacation (which by the way, is a great recommendation for all).  I replied to all emails Sunday night around midnight before vacation officially started.  I went on vacation on Monday.  On Friday night, I decided to turn my email back on, and it kept rising.  Below is the number of emails that I received that week:

743.  Within 5 days, I collected 743 emails.  When I started going through those emails, I was overwhelmed and excited all at the same time.  And here what was in those emails:

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Major in the Minors: Zechariah

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Had such an interesting experience at the church house today – I worshiped from the other side of the stage.  After a week of vacation, I got in the van with my family, took my boys to the nursery, and worshiped with the congregation next to my wife.  It was great!

I loved watching our wonderful workers in the nursery love my boys and teach them how to pray for others.  I loved being made to feel at home by our wonderful host team.  The tech team was so seamless with their tasks, I didn’t even notice they were there!  The Shake-n-Shine band did a wonderful job leading worship (wish I was as talented and mature as those students)!  Jeff’s message was powerful.

I might take vacation more often 😉

Today, we worshiped to:

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The Purpose of Worship: The Glory of God

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The following is an excerpt from a document North Side’s elders gave out to our church body on April 17th.  As we have prayed concerning the direction of the church and studied Scripture together, we are under conviction that we must be a church according to scriptural mandates.  Our church currently uses different styles of worship to relate to different groups of people.  Our time in the Word has changed our heads and our hearts.  The following is a brief excerpt, you can get the rest of the document here.

A passion for the glory of God is the hallmark of the redeemed. Because it is God’s passion, it must be our passion. To live passionately for the glory of God means that our greatest delight is found in delighting Him and our greatest fear is found in displeasing Him. When we fall short of living for His glory, (Romans 3:23) we fall into a life lived for the glory of self. Living life for our glory is sin. When we lose the great, high, noble calling of living life for His glory, the results are disastrous for the church. Worship is reduced to a consumer-driven personal experience, discipleship is reduced to a self-help program, and evangelism is reduced to a goal-driven sales pitch. Living as a church for the glory of God will redefine our purpose and redefine the methods we use in pursuing that purpose. Corporate worship, or worship as a church family, becomes a priority.

Psalm 133:1 reads, “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity!”

Most of us have been conditioned to think of salvation in terms of the individual. The truth is, however, that God has saved a people unto Himself.

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AVL Field Trip for Our Worship Team

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This week our worship team training time involved a field trip.  We didn’t leave the building, but I took all of our techies, musicians, and vocalists all around the building so they could experience how all the audio, video, and lighting for our services worked.

As we are teaching our worship value excellence this month, I thought it was important that the people on the stage realized that the work of the people off the stage was just as vital to our worship services.  Singers can lead a song, but without someone putting the lyrics up at the proper time, no one can worship along.

So we took a trip.

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Platform Ministry Can Never Replace Relational Ministry

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Platform ministry can never replace relational ministry.

This week’s worship training consists of the worship value: availability – leading with presence.

When people are gifted in the arts, oftentimes, they are put on stage to perform ministry.  While time on the stage may be an outlet for ministry, oftentimes, the time off the stage validates the ministry.

Someone can get up in your church and raise the rafters with their vocal pipes.  It will provide emotion, goosebumps, and a positive experience, but it cannot compare with a talented worship leader who is involved in the lives of the people in the church.

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I Am Not the Best on the Team

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I struggle with pride when I work with others.

Since my mind is constantly evaluating how to improve areas in any level of ministry in which I am even remotely involved, I often lack patience for long meetings with people deliberating over certain options.  My prideful heart wants to inform people that I have a solution that is so grand that no one should even question my ideas.

I know, I have issues.

While I do not verbalize these thoughts, I can easily become frustrated in meetings that I view as time wasters and mentally disengage myself from others.  Even if the improbable chance of my ideas always being the best were true, my attitude needs to be one of service and selflessness (Phil 2:3-5).

As of late, here’s what I am learning:

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I Could Use Some Courageous Prayers

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This week, I am hunkering down and working on the Bible study curriculum for the upcoming movie by Sherwood Pictures, Courageous.  I shared on the blog a while back about how humbling an opportunity it was to work on this project.  As the Kendrick brothers are working on the production side of the film right now for a September 2011 release, I have the task of sorting through the movie themes, taking their direction, and working on some of the Bible studies that will be a curriculum for a church to go through to accompany the movie.

I’ve met 2 of 4 deadlines, but the most difficult are on their way.  One Bible study has been submitted for editing, but now I’ve got to work on the remaining 7.  The goal of this entire project is for men to step up and be the godly fathers that He requires.  There is no telling what God could do through this entire project to impact homes, churches, and even cities if the boys started rising up and become men of God.

As I lock myself away for the next few days, I would surely appreciate some prayer partners.  If you can pray once, or if you can put my name or the word “Courageous” somewhere where you will see it this week and remember to pray each time you see it, anything would be much appreciated.  This whole project has been bathed in prayer and I want make sure that every word that goes down on paper is from God’s leading!

Here’s specifics on how you can pray:

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Pass the Microphone

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You may or may not have heard, but I’m getting my tonsils and adenoids taken out next week.   I was reminded why on Sunday.  As I woke up, my throat was so dry and painful that I could barely sing by the time I got to church.

The good thing was I didn’t have to sing that much.

As worship pastor at North Side, I really never sing “lead” on every song we do.  I’m only the lead on a few songs of our worship CDs.  Visiting ministers have asked me why, that as the worship pastor, am I not leading all, or even most, of the songs and everyone else singing backup?

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Tolerating Mediocre Talent in Church

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We’ve all been there.  Sunday morning, the soloist gets up to perform the special music.  It’s not that it’s not your style, it’s the fact that it hurts.  This person simply cannot sing.  For whatever reason, they got the chance to sing a solo, and you are wishing they were singing so low you couldn’t

Don’t Give Up – Storytellers

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Our entire band’s favorite track on “Overcome” is one that none of them played on – it’s track #11, “Don’t Give Up.” This track, is a sermon remix to a message Jeff preached on May 23rd entitled, “The Hope for the Suffering Church.” On that day, a conversation between John Kennerly and myself solidified the

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