The Spirit & Salvation

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What a passionate and eclectic day of worship today.  We went everywhere from gospel to a capella and about everything in between.  Last week, we had nothing but an acoustic set from the floor, this week, we had about everything else!

We were very blessed to have One Heart help lead us in worship this Sunday.  Peggy is a part of our normal worship team, but she also sings with an a cappella group called One Heart.  Becky and Beth were gracious enough to join us for our worship this Sunday.  As we focused on the Holy Spirit, I asked them to do a medley of Spirit songs.  I don’t think they had ever sang that arrangement until this morning, and it was so fantastic.  What a way to welcome the Spirit’s presence.

Got to see some sights from last week’s Shake-n-Shine camp and hear stories from Jeff.  Such an incredible mission-focused summer (Africa girls get back tomorrow).  Jeff’s message on the Spirit was so refreshing.  Baptists need to “remember” the Holy Spirit.  Unfortunately, he is the often neglected member of the Trinity.  This message was a powerful reminder of the Spirit’s work in salvation.

Today, we worshiped to:

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Never Been More Helpless

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While we were in Africa, we were busy sharing the gospel.  Even if we were meeting needs, we didn’t do it without sharing the gospel.  Why?  Because that’s what Jesus did.  Yes, Jesus met physical needs, but he always addressed the greater spiritual need.  He never gave people a handout that would last for a day, he offered them words that could change their lives.

On one day, we held a gospel/medical clinic.  We would let people enter the courtyard in groups of 15 that later would turn into groups of about 100 at a time.  We would share the gospel with them, we would pray over them, and then we would try to address medical concerns.

In that day, I have never helped more people in my life and felt more helpless all at the same time.

As I rushed from person to person, some conditions could be treated with a simple Tylenol, Tums, or Neosporin.  Some of the other conditions were too great for the country to handle.  From 8-6 that day, I served as a medical assistant to some of the following conditions:

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“However Whenever Wherever” – Storytellers

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“Till You come, we will go, to the world, till all may know.”

I wanted to share another story behind the song from one of the tracks off of our “Enter His Gates” album (You can get your copy of the album at the church or on iTunes).  Track #10 is entitled “However Whenever Wherever” and is a missional commitment song.

I wrote this song as we prepared to go to Ethiopia to adopt Eli.  While the activities may be different, God calls each of us to follow him in unexpected ways.  This song was a commitment of mine to follow Christ wherever he called.  I didn’t want anything to sway me from obedience.

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“No One Else is Willing to Come Out Here”

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I’m still processing all God did among us in West Africa.  In some ways, this was the hardest mission trip I have ever been on in the fact of the conditions and what it takes to get there.  In other ways, it was the easiest in that it was very simple in theory.  Our primary objective was to share the gospel.

When speaking to our partnering missionary, I told him how difficult it was to get to him.  I had to fly across the world.  Then drive across the country.  Then walk across the desert.  Then, I was where he wanted me.  He said, “This is frontline missions.  There’s a reason your church was the last one to visit me months ago.  No one else is willing to come out here.  It’s too far.  Too hard.”

It was interesting to find out that out of the 18 summer volunteers serving with them this summer, 6 of them are from North Side, 3 are from Brook Hills (David Platt’s church), and the rest are from different locations.  Out of all the Southern Baptist churches, only 2 “radical” churches (sorry for the pun) are willing to encourage their students to go there.  And that is the reason why we must continue to go.

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The Hatred of the World

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Today was such a special day at North Side after 2 weeks away.  I was overwhelmed at our church on mission.  The whole day was intertwined with God’s activity with our people as they reach others for Christ.

We started with celebrating Suzanna Edwards, a rising freshman at North Greenville, who displays a heart for missions.  We then got to hear and see our collegiate missionaries speak to us in 2 different languages – so proud of them!  Ben and I then led worship from the floor with nothing but what we had last week as we led worship in West Africa for a bunch of missionaries.  The acoustic, djembe, and congregation were so wonderful as we celebrated Jesus and connected with His Church around the world.  As we commissioned our Shake-n-Shine missionaries, we had Aubin Payne, a former Shake-n-Shine camper pray over our counselors and the impact they will have on children this week.

And we were just getting started!

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Pray in Secret

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Jesus instructed his followers that when they pray, they are to pray in secret. Read Matthew 6:6 and see how he tells his followers to pray specifically.

But when you pray, go into your private room, shut your door, and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. 

In what manner does Jesus want us to pray?  He wants us to pray in secret.

If we follow this instruction, what did Jesus promise?  He will actually reward us?!  What do you think that could mean?

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Back from Africa

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I got back last night with these 3 fine gentlemen from a 10-day excursion to Africa. There is so much to say. Where do I even begin? Here’s the short of it:

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“Psalm 117” & “Selah #2” – Storytellers

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“Praise the Lord, all the nations, exalt Him all peoples.  For His lovingkindess is great towards us, and the truth of the Lord is everlasting.  Praise the Lord.”  -Psalm 117

I wanted to share another story behind the song from one of the tracks off of our “Enter His Gates” album (You can get your copy of the album at the church or on iTunes).  Tracks 8-9 are the “Psalm 117” suite.  My torn up guitar got a beating on this track as we had a great time arranging and recording this song.

It’s titled “Psalm 117” because it is completely taken from Scripture.  All songs I write are based on Scripture, when it works, I like to just sing Scripture without any extra (how could I say it any better?!).

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Greater is He

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In following Christ, you will encounter a certain type of opposition with people whose approval you might seek as you go forward. In addition to that conflict, you will also experience forces that are adamantly against you and your progress.

Every person who ever tried to fight a noble cause experienced great opposition.

Jesus stated that the enemy comes to “steal, kill, and destroy” (John 10:10). He wants to destroy every aspect of you and your fight.

If you are trying to unite your family, he will try to steal your joy by resistance in family members. If you are trying to mobilize the men in your church to lead, he will attempt to kill your drive to go forward. If you are trying to seek justice for people in unfortunate situations, he will set his efforts towards destroying any progress that you made. He will come with all the fury of Hell, make no mistake about it.

But he doesn’t have to win.

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Friends of God

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We planned today’s worship service all around the idea of being a friend of God and all that entails.  In addition to some great worship songs that share that truth, we were thrilled to have Jeff’s son-in-law, Scott Hill, in town to preach for us.  They are in the prep stage of serving as IMB missionaries.

Today’s worship list:

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Sermon Clip: “Jesus Wants the Rose”

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I always want to expose you to some great teaching.  Matt Chandler, is the Pastor of the Village Church, author, speaker, and survivor from a recent brain tumor.  Enjoy this clip from Matt Chandler from a Desiring God Conference and his powerful declaration that “Jesus Wants the Rose.”

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Strategic Parenting

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My children are different.  I love them equally, but I father them differently.  Mario is definitely different from Luigi.  They are both very different from Princess Toadstool (sorry, don’t have that costume just yet). I discipline differently.  While certain techniques I use might be the same, each one has to be corrected differently to get their attention.  They each are …

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“King of Kings” – Storytellers

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“King of kings and Lord of lords, You reign, every creature in heaven and earth will proclaim the greatness of our God.”

I wanted to share another story behind the song from one of the tracks off of our “Enter His Gates” album (You can get your copy of the album at the church or on iTunes).  Track #7 is “King of Kings” and my lovely bride sang the lead on this song.

The reason why the image for this post is the back of Amanda’s head with Baby Gloria draped over her shoulder is because this is how she recorded the majority of her vocal.

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Forgiving Your Father’s Killer

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When Steve Saint was 5 years old, his father, Nate, was speared to death by Waodani tribesmen in Ecuador. Nate was the pilot of a five member team who reached these deadly warriors. After a friendly first encounter, the tribesmen turned on these missionaries and killed them.

In the absence of his father, Steve was loved by an older man who served to be a father figure. Throughout the majority of Steve’s adult life, he has traveled with this man, served in ministry with this man, and even lived beside this man. Both families spend so much time together that it seems as if they are all one big happy family.

Steve’s father figure is a man named Mincaye — the man who killed his father.

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The Vine

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As we planned for today’s worship, we studied the passage of John 15 concerning our need to stay connected to Christ to accomplish anything.  So what we planned to highlight is to see the fruit of those who are accomplishing great things here in our church.

We highlighted some children’s and student ministry leaders.  We wanted to hear them talk about their commitment and the reward of service.

We then wanted to be led in some of the “fruit” of their work.  We had our student band lead worship for part of the service, and we also had some of our children lead us in worship.  They sang one of the songs from this year’s VBS.  When I heard them do it at VBS, I knew we had to use them.  Such a beautiful expression of worship.

Today’s worship list:

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Why Ministers Love Yard Work

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It’s been a little hot lately.  Greenwood has been cooking.  With these early summer temperatures sky-rocketing for the area, most people are letting their yards go.  Deal with the yard when it cools down.  After all, it can’t grow that much in this type of heat!

That’s the way some people feel.

Not me.  I love it.  I love yard work.  I love to get out there and work and sweat and get cut up and bleed.  I look forward to it.

And, for a very interesting reason, I know many other ministers who love yard work as well.  Even among the scorching heat, the hard work accomplished, and for all the things that still need to be done, many ministers love to get out and do yard work and here’s why:

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For Liberty and Justice for All

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Today, the United States celebrates Independence Day.  To remember our freedom, we will keep our neighbors up all night by the shooting of fireworks and eating plenty of BBQ.  For liberty and justice for all.

While I am thankful for the liberty and justice that the US provides, there is a higher justice for which all believers should strive.

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“Make Me Holy” – Storytellers

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“Make me holy through and through, less of me and more of You, help me live pleasing to You.”

I wanted to share another story behind the song from one of the tracks off of our “Enter His Gates” album (You can get your copy of the album at the church or on iTunes).  Track #6 is a song called “Make Me Holy” which we originally recorded on “The Time is Now” project.

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The Holy Spirit

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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:

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Happy Birthday Amanda!

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Love.  Peace.  Joy.  Acceptance.  These are just a few of the things that I get to experience everyday with my wife Amanda.

Wishing her a happy birthday is a funny thing.

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“All Things New” & “Selah #1” – Storytellers

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I wanted to share another story behind the song from one of the tracks off of our “Enter His Gates” album (You can get your copy of the album at the church or on iTunes).  This storyteller edition covers the remix of “All Things New” and the next track that is an instrumental reprise of that track.

We originally recorded this song on “The Time is Now” project.  I never really imagined that for a upbeat song, many people told me how the words impacted their lives as it focuses on the grace of Jesus.  As a way to re-introduce the song, our band reworked it one night.

Here’s what we changed:

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Bad Church Sign: “Our New Minister…”

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I had to share a bad church sign with you that reads:

“OUR NEW MINISTER ASKED ME TO CHANGE THIS SIGN – SO I DID”

Hmmm…I wonder if the chairman of the marquee committee likes his new pastor or not?  While this makes me laugh at first glance, it also reveals a tragic mindset at second glance.  People are losing more and more respect for their pastors.

And you know why people are losing respect for their pastors?

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“Glorified” – Storytellers

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I wanted to share another story behind the song from one of the tracks off of our “Enter His Gates” album (You can get your copy of the album at the church or on iTunes).  “Glorified” is track #3 on the album and also part of the 1st nonstop musical sequence on the album (a majority of the tracks run into each other).

I wrote this song back in 2010.  As a worship leader, my heart has grown to be much more concerned with what happens in the lives of our worshipers Monday-Saturday than what happens in a brief few moments together on Sunday.  If all I do is provide people with a religious, emotional, or musical experience, I have failed them as a pastor.

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Act Like Men

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I have the job of raising my boys to become men.  They are supposed to think like and act like men when I am done with them.  The only problem is – many “men” don’t know what that means!

1 Corinthians 13 is often called “The Love Chapter.”  It’s a great reminder for us all, but it especially reminds us as men that we are called to love our families. Each man is expected by God to be patient, kind, and humble.  Paul takes it even further.

Take a moment to read this verse 1 Corinthians 16:13-14:

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Greater Works

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What a wonderful day to be a part of North Side!  We still have the Last Supper table setup on stage.  Strutton did a great job recreating this scene for our stage.  For weeks, Jeff will be preaching from the teaching that Jesus gave all from the Last Supper table.  It’s surreal for me listening to this powerful Scripture and realizing that Jesus dropped all of it while he was eating a meal.  And his dinner conversation could be the content for weeks and weeks of sermons!

Today, we worshiped to:

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“Enter His Gates” – Storytellers

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I wanted to share another story behind the song from one of the tracks off of our “Enter His Gates” album (You can get your copy of the album at the church or on iTunes).  The title song, “Enter His Gates,” was a song I wanted to write for a while.  Psalm 100 is such a rich portion of Scripture and such an enduring call to worship.

We have used this Scripture as teaching for much of what we do at North Side.  We are not called to enter into God’s presence and then start the thanksgiving and praise.  We are called to enter in already in the process!  Worship is a lifestyle, and so when we gather together with God’s people, which is a very special thing, we should continue to give thanks.

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The Father Who Prays

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Rick Via is an evangelist who has shared the gospel in over 40 foreign countries. Through his work in the United States and all over the world, he has seen many converts and equipped many saints for the work of ministry. While his ministry has been very active and busy for years, his greatest contribution to the Kingdom comes in a different arena.

Rick and his wife, Janet, have 5 grown children who are all “involved in ministry in one form or fashion.” They are also blessed to have an ever growing number of grandchildren through biological and adoptive means. While he has invested into countless lives around the world, he never stopped investing into his children.

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“Psalm 150” – Storytellers

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We are so excited to share that you can now get your copy of “Enter His Gates” on iTunes today!  This project developed into a focus on psalms and other scripture passages of worship.  It contains 16 tracks, 3 of them are instrumental selahs, 2 of them recorded live at our church, some of them new arrangements of old tunes, and the intro track was begging to be something special.

I had this idea months ago about a way to introduce the entire album, but I put it on the backburner to see if we could get everything else done.  With a day left before deadline, I couldn’t get away from the thought and so we went with it, and we had to go for it very quickly (so quickly that unfortunately, Jamie Strutton isn’t given trumpet credits on the album notes, because it wasn’t recorded before the artwork was done).

So, let me explain to you the story behind “Psalm 150.”

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Enter-ed His Gates

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What an incredible, busy, jam-packed, God-connected, worshipful, missional week last week was!  We had the privilege for our worship band to play out in the community.  Back in January, we prayed for opportunities to play outside the church walls, and God so happened to drop two in our laps at the time we were planning on releasing our 2nd album of the year.

Here’s a rundown of the week:

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I Go to Prepare a Place

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What a special day day of worship!  With a full week of events associated with our “Enter His Gates” release, it was great to be able to celebrate it one more time with our church family.  In addition to the new 16-track CD, we also had some new t-shirts and such.  I have already received from very special encouragement concerning the new tunes.  We are very grateful.

Today, we worshiped with songs from the new CD:

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Enter His Gates

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Enter His Gates is an in-house recording where we worked on a few different types of songs: 1) Psalms – Many of the songs are taken directly from the Psalms or other passages of Scripture, 2) Instrumentals – We have 3 instrumental tracks which are proving to be some of the people’s favorites as we took the psalmic idea of the instrumental selah pauses in …

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Godly Grief vs. Worldly Grief

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I have been in counseling situations lately that reminded me that I only had one seminary course in counseling.  I don’t believe I gave any bad advice, it was biblical for sure.  But I was maybe a bit bolder than what the average counselor has been instructed to be. As people have sat weeping in my office over their lives …

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8th Anniversary

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It’s with much joy and disbelief that I wake up this morning to the fact that I have been married for 8 years!  Had I had the privilege to be married to Amanda for 8 days, it would have been more than what I deserved, but the fact that God brought us together and given us 8 years is truly humbling.  I mean this quite literally – it calls me to worship when I think of how good God has been to me with the gift of my wife.

The other day, as the anniversary neared, Amanda marveled at the fact that we have been married 8 years.  I told her, “Just think, 8 years ago, you graduated college, you had a job on the way, and then you married me, and look at this you got!”

As I did my best Vanna White impersonation to display what was behind me, she laughed out loud.

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Updates from the Frontline

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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

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Betraying One Another

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What a powerful day!  Love, love what is happening in our church right now!

Loved having Lee commission our students to Charleston missions this week.  The message on Judas’ predicted betrayal was unbelievable.  I loved Jeff’s honesty and faithfulness to the biblical text.  As believers, we are called to be faithful to one another, and yes, betrayal among God’s people happens and it is painful.  What an incredible call!

Today, we worshiped to:

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The Centrality of the Home (Unbelievable Message)

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On February 7, 2006, a group of more than 1,000 pastors and church leaders gathered for the Southern Baptists of Texas State Evangelism Conference in the Dallas Metroplex. During the second night of the conference Voddie Baucham, who had preached at the previous year’s conference, was called upon to stand in for Dr. Tim LaHaye who had become ill a …

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Authority Issues

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In addition to training your children to submit to your authority, you are also responsible to teach them to submit and to honor all of the authorities in their lives. The Resolution, a great read, provides some questions to ask what type of example you are setting with your own life:

Answer the following questions honestly:

  • When you’re at home, how do you talk about your leaders at work and church?
  • What do your children hear you saying about the government or elected representatives? Even if you disagree with them, is your attitude respectful?
  • Do they see you praying for your authorities (1 Timothy 2:1-4)?
  • How do they see you respond to speed limits and state troopers?
  • Does this match your talk about how God places authorities in our lives for our benefit?

Take a minute to read Romans 13:1-7 and discover how God expects us to behave towards our authority.

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“Enter His Gates” Track Listing

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We are thrilled to finally be able to let you worship alongside something our team has been working ever so diligently on – our latest worship album, “Enter His Gates.”  This project consists of 16 original worship music from our North Side Worship family.

A few neat features about this recording: 1) Pslams – Many of the songs are taken directly from the Psalms or other passages of Scripture, 2) Instrumentals – We have 3 instrumental tracks which are proving to be some of the people’s favorites as we took the psalmic idea of the instrumental selah pauses in worship and put them to practice here, 3) Remixes –  Some of these songs are remixes or complete re-workings of an old worship song from a previous North Side or solo recording, 4) Live Tracks – The last two tracks feature none other than our North Side congregation singing along at some services months ago – hearing the worshipers has been breathtaking to me, and 5) New Songs – Some of these brand new songs have been some of the most quickly accepted and sung at our church that we have ever done.  So exciting!

Here’s the “Enter His Gates” track listing:

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Ministerial Exhaustion

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Years ago, our pastoral staff took a retreat.  I can remember we really didn’t talk a bunch on the van ride up.  We were all very tired, and honestly, we were very drained with our jobs.

I remember spending a long time on our face before God.  These weren’t bold prayers concerning the health of our church.  These were pastors who were exhausted and tired and pleading to God for help.

What we talked about those few days was how we were overwhelmed with the pace of ministry.  The programs and events of the church were booming, yet we were exhausted and unsure if our efforts were actually assisting any real life change.  From that week, a lot of things at the church changed for the better.  Our entire staff got fired and rehired.  We changed jobs and really started focusing on people over programs.

Two weeks ago, our pastoral staff took another retreat.  We were all very tired yet again, yet this time we were overwhelmed for another reason.

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Foot Washing

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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:

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