Travis Agnew 
I think about my funeral from time to time. I wonder how people will remember me. Will I leave a legacy or will I have just taken up space? Will the world be any different from the time I spend here? I want to hear from you. Give me a one word response to this post: “When I die, …
As the Worship Academy has been progressing through the summer, we have studied many different roles of the worship leader.
One of those roles is that of a biblical songwriter. I made a lot of mistakes when I first started writing songs. I’m still learning so much with each attempt, but I’ve found some things to watch out for when you write a worship song.
Here’s a list of biblical songwriting tips that I shared with the group a couple of weeks ago:
I first read this writing when I was in college, and it had a profound impact on me. Stories are disputed upon who is the original author. I have heard that a pastor in a hostile country wrote it on the walls of his house before radical militants came in and killed him. I have heard other people say the
We had another great week in our study, “Major in the Minors” as we got to the prophet Micah. Micah prophesied to a people who believed to have a covenant but did not have the conduct to prove it. In his book, he shows what mature spiritual living really looks like.
Today, we worshiped to:
Since we had a big choir concert this evening at church, we had the stage set for an orchestra, and I couldn’t let those wonderful instruments go to waste! So, we had a mini-orchestral feel for this morning’s worship. It was wonderful hearing our people sing out to our God.
In addition to a wonderful message, our church also worshiped through a church vote.
One of my highlights last year was North Side Worship’s Overcome project. More than a simple album recording, our worship team really worked over and beyond to encourage those who were going through. As we put together a 16-song album (15 originals) full of hopeful themes, we prayed that it would be encouraging to many people.
Just recently, I got a note from a church member who has had a difficult year. That’s an understatement, it’s been downright awful. She sent me a letter and told me that she had listened to that CD every day of the last year and how it had reminded her over and over that she would overcome.
Mission accomplished! That’s what our prayer was for the project. In fact, the album artwork was more than a simple design. We had spent a Sunday morning filling out prayer cards by completing this sentence, “God, if you would only…” As we lined the stage with those cards, our staff prayed over them that entire week. The hurt in our congregation was staggering. As we prayed, I decided to use our prayer cards for another purpose. Check out the video below to see what we did with them (if you can’t see the video, go here):
Someone sent me this church sign this week. Theologically, I understand what they are trying to convey, but I am curious in your thoughts. Was this a wise phrase to put up on their church sign?
I had a wonderful Father’s Day yesterday. I am so honored to have such wonderful boys. As part of my Father’s Day gift yesterday, the boys made me a card.
Amanda gave them a simple instruction: “Tell me about Daddy.”
Now, they are 3 years old, so who knows what might come out when you ask them for that. She sought, they delivered.
Here’s what they had to say (look for the “E” and “O” to see which ones came from Eli and which ones came from Obadiah):
What a wonderful day at North Side! So much happened today that we can celebrate our God for! Focusing on Jonah, we talked about accepting God’s call throughout the service. We were so blessed to hear from Hope Brown, student missionary, who just returned with a bunch of other students who served at M-Fuge Charleston.
Today, we worshiped to:
I always love worship with a missional focus! It was great to hear our congregation say, “Where You send us, God, we will go!” In addition to those missional worship songs, I also included a new song I wrote for my boys called “Like Father Like Son.” I wanted to make our Father’s Day focus impacting and not something Hallmark. The words of this song have caused me to think lately and I pray it was a challenge for all the fathers today.
The Southern Baptist Convention met this week in Phoenix for their annual meeting. I was unable to go, but I tried to stay informed through Twitter and such to see what was going on. It was the lowest attended meeting in years (possibly because Phoenix is a far way away from the Bible Belt and the economy). SBC has had the lowest number of baptisms last year that they have had in 50 years. Not a good sign. Many are wondering if the SBC will make it.
I will say this. I have never seen such a rejection of status quo in our Convention as I see right now. When theologians who are normally stereotyped for the lack of evangelistic fervor are leading the call for a resurggence on the Great Commission, we are heading in a good place. When young pastors are heavily involved rather than choosing to steer clear of the Convention, that is a good sign. When a Convention fights for the nations, ethnic diversity, and a desire to trim the financial fat that has been accumulated, we are heading in a good direction.
I know there are controversies where all this is going. Many reading may think that some things could be handled differently. Maybe it could be led better or in a different direction, but I am at least excited about that it is going somewhere!
Highlights:
A lot of great things took place, and one of them being David Platt’s message Wednesday morning (his message starts at about the 8th minute). You can view that here:
This picture was taken a few weeks ago. Eli was having some minor surgery, but as many of you know, surgery for a 3-year-old is never minor. When your child is taken from you, knocked out, cut on, comes back loopy with tons of chords sticking out of him, it’s never a fun encounter.
I prize myself on being a tough father. I’m that “it will be alright” kinda dad who can grasp that bumps and bruises are learning tools. I was not expecting the kind of emotional turmoil that I went through that day. I don’t know if it was the first time that my son was out of our protective care or what it was, but it was hard. It was hard holding my son down for strangers to do things to him that hurt.
When he began to wake up, he laid on Mom a good long while and seemed content. Later, they needed to check on him and begin to remove connected wires and such, so he was handed to Dad (thanks, a lot!). Eli looked up at me and said, “Daddy, I want to go home. Take me home, please.”
“I will in just a minute baby, but you have to let these people make you feel better.”
When they started to work on him and I had to hold him down, the look in his eyes was something I had never seen before.
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