Ministry

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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“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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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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“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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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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“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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“Enter His Gates” Release Details

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As you can see, Eli has been hard at work recording and mixing the newest North Side Worship album.  You will be impressed with his legit skills.  We are just weeks away from “Enter His Gates” being released and we couldn’t be more excited about how it came together!

When we set out to record 4 albums this year, I intentionally made each project get a little bit more difficult.  The sermon remix mainly needed keyboard instruments then we added some more. Enter His Gates added more live instrumentation and live vocals.  The Jesus album and Bluegrass Christmas is gonna be full scale in many ways.

With that being said, we have learned a lot on this project.  A lot.

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The Message of Jesus

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The Peak band did a wonderful job leading worship at North Side today.  When our high school students lead, it’s not a novel gesture, they are really great worship leaders and we are honored to be led by them.  Amanda and I were talking after services about how genuine, musical, and thoughtful they were with their leadership.  So proud of each one of you!

Today, we worshiped to:

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The Trouble With Following Christ

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What a very special day of worship at North Side!  In addition to recognizing our graduates, we also commissioned six college students who will be spending their summer in West Africa as North Side missionaries.  God orchestrated a very appropriate and powerful service to send them off.

Jeff’s message from John 12 was specifically directed towards ministers.  For all those who minister the Word of God to others, there are times when our souls become troubled.  Jesus showed us how to speak the Word with grace and truth.  For this message to fall in this week with these ladies being commissioned was a powerfully God-ordained moment.

Today, we worshiped to:

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Watering Down Missions

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Over the years, I’ve had the privilege of going on many mission trips and leading many mission teams.  Whenever I have prepared a team for a mission trip, I have constantly reminded them of an important fact: Christian sightseeing is not missions! Let me explain.  I think over the years, we have watered down missions so much that we classify doing …

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What Need Grabs Your Heart the Most?

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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.

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Men: Step Up in Your Church

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Hopefully, you are connected with a local church. None of us should be left alone in this Christian walk by ourselves.  Your church is a wonderful expression of God’s grace, and while it is not perfect, it is God’s vehicle to make disciples.

You need your church, and your church needs you! Read Romans 12:3-8 to see your role concerning your church.

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Grain of Wheat

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Special day at North Side!  We had some info on promotion Sunday (June 3rd), family dedication with 9 families, great time of worship, great interview video on “who was Jesus,” and a wonderful message!  Jeff’s teaching on John 12 was so good.  So much to take in considering how we are to lay our lives down just as Christ was anticipating his sacrifice for us.

Today, we worshiped to:

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The Anointing of Jesus

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What a great morning.  The boys normally go to soundcheck with me, but birthday boy Obadiah was extra rowdy on the drums this morning.

It was such a powerful time of worship today at North Side.  I can’t begin to tell you how much the Holy Spirit united the service today.  There are times when we plan elements together and it’s great to watch them fall, and then, today, I listened to Jeff preach his sermon and use words that were verbatim of the last song we were going to do after his message on Mary anointing the feet of Jesus.

I figured he had looked at the flowsheet and studied the lyrics, but something also told me that maybe this was a God orchestrated thing.  Turns out he didn’t know what the lyrics of the last song were, but as he preached in his message about “focusing on the gift instead of the Giver…Giver of every perfect gift…being satisfied in only Jesus…”  It was wild.

Today, we worshiped to:

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Substitutionary Atonement

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John 11:49 But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all. 50 Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.” 51 He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, 52 and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.

What a wonderful text that led our worship time today!  We focused on Jesus’ selfless sacrifice today and that is always time well-spent!  Jeff’s message was plain ridiculous.  The thought that we could possess a faith not to “offend Rome” really challenged some introspective time in my own life.  Powerful!

Today, we worshiped to:

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Bad Church Sign: Stolen AC

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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 relief in your home.  You …

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2 Deaths, 2 Different Legacies

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I lost 2 of my heroes in the recent week.  It’s rare that 2 leading evangelicals over significant ministries would pass in one week, but it’s true.  One of those leaders was Chuck Colson.  The headlines have read “Nixon’s Hatchet Man Dies” or “Watergate’s Culprit Passes Away.”  Chuck Colson was deep in the scandal of President Nixon’s scandal years ago.  Before being sentenced to prison, Colson claimed he was converted to Christianity.

While many saw this as an attempt to lower his sentence, his time in jail, and his time after jail displayed remarkable fruit and he never backed down from his Christian commitment.  He started an international prison ministry that has impacted countless men and women for Christ.  He has written some amazing books filled with great intellect concerning a Christian worldview and a humble disposition concerning his previous way of life.  While he started very poorly, he finished strong.

The other man won’t make as many headlines, but he was still a strong ambassador in the Kingdom, but his death is more tragic.

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The Resurrection of Lazarus

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Powerful.  I’ve been looking forward to this Sunday for a while now.  For one, I haven’t led worship at North Side in 2 weeks, and I’ve missed it!  Two, we had some really powerful moments in today’s services.

In addition to an incredible message from Jeff concerning the resurrection of Lazarus, we were also blessed to have a good buddy of mine, Cole, a Lander student, do a monologue sketch from Lazarus’ perspective.  As he was concluding this unbelievable scene (with grand awesomeness), we went into “I will rise when He calls my name, no more sorrow, no more pain.”  Pretty neat.

Today, we worshiped to:

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The Death of Lazarus

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It was great to be back at North Side this week!  We had a wonderful day focusing upon the first part of John 11 on the death of Lazarus.  Jeff’s message was so good!  He talked about how Jesus loved Lazarus and his family and yet he still waited to come.  He could have come and healed his body, but he wanted them to experience the glory of God even more!

We were blessed to have the Erskine College Gospel Choir lead us in worship today!  Their director, Tobe Frierson, is also an admission counselor at the school and has been leading this choir for a few years now.  Many of those students worship with us at North Side and some of them are a part of my Wednesday night group.  They did incredible!  Love their sound and their passion for Jesus!  If you are interested in hearing them again, their concert will be held at Erskine on Sunday, May 6th.

Today, we worshiped to:

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I Am the Good Shepherd

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Once again, with the arrival of my daughter over the weekend, I was unable to lead worship physically on Easter Sunday, but I really loved planning the service.  I heard amazing stuff from the services.  I especially heard great words concerning the stone “rolling away” during the new song “Risen.”  Hope you have liked the 2nd song now from the Jesus album.

Today, we worshiped to:

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Good Friday 2012 Recap

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I was unable to lead worship on Good Friday, since my daughter was morning, but I heard they didn’t miss me at all.  I heard it was an incredible service of worship, prayer, communion, Scripture, and remembering the cross.

Good Friday worship set:

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I Am the Door

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Well, I planned today’s service with the good possibility of me not being there due to the baby’s arrival.  While our band never needs me there, they really didn’t need me there today, so it was good just to come in and sing and play along with them.

They are so good, I’m honored they let me play and sing with them!  And that is the truth.

Wonderful day with North Side today!  Continuing on through John, we arrived at John 10 today focusing upon Jesus’ statement: “I am the door.”  I have really loved this “Knowing Jesus” study.

Speaking of doors, Ms. Rosalie Cromer is normally seen opening doors on Sunday mornings for our worshipers, but today she was opening another kind of door.  I asked her to read one of her poems that she has written during our worship today.  Her poem, “The Greatest Desire of My Heart,” went perfectly into John’s song, “May Your Life Be.”  It was almost as if the 2 of them wrote those pieces together!

She read from her book of poems entitled “If.”  We have copies in the bookstore or you can get them online here.

Today, we worshiped to:

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How to Be a (Self) Published Author

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The boys were learning the word “author” the other day at the library.  Mommy told them that Daddy is an author.  It’s about the cutest thing to hear my sons say “author.”  The word is just funny from their mouths.

It’s true – I’m a published author.  A self-published author.  I’ve been asked before how to get a book published, and my response is – do it yourself.

I recently had an email from a friend wanting to know how to get started.  Thought I would share that info with you if you ever wanted to write something yourself.

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The Jesus Album

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If you were at North Side yesterday, you got a snippet of the big project we are working on this year: The Jesus Album (working title).  I was humbled by the response I’ve been receiving since yesterday when we led the new song, “It is Finished.”  This was one of the first songs we wrote for this project, and the first one we have done live.

So, let me explain the big picture: 1) Our worship ministry desires to help disciple people, 2) Music has a way to make theology portable, 3) We are attempting 4 recording projects this year to do this, 4) We are currently studying through the Gospel of John on Sunday mornings and it’s been unbelievable, and 5) This project, #3, needs to reflect all of that somehow.

In a way to bring all that together, I felt led to challenge our worship team: What if we wrote an album that looked at the life of Jesus chronologically and worshiped him at every step along the way?

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Now I Can See

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Crazy good day with North Side.  We finished up John 9 in “Knowing Jesus” with the man who once was blind but now can see.  For a bluegrass section at the end of the service, I was even able to talk Jeff into playing banjo with us at the end.  So, so good.  In addition to preaching a fantastic sermon today, he also played some mean banjo.

Today, we worshiped to:

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What’s Better Than 1 North Side Worship Album This Year?

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Exciting stuff in the works with North Side Worship this year.  As a worship ministry, we are really focusing our efforts this year to help disciple our church through worship.  I have shared some of what that means, but I thought I would clue you in a little bit more today.

Today, you can pick up THE MANIFOLD WISDOM OF GOD: SERMON REMIX 2011 on iTunes or you can get a hardcopy at North Side.  That is just the 1st step of projects that we are working on as a worship ministry this year.  Months ago, I gathered the band together and asked them, “What would be better than 1 worship album this year?”  Someone got bug eyes, and replied, “2?”  The answer was correct as I shared what would be album #2 for us.  But then it went to 3.  And then even to 4.

Yep, we are planning on releasing 4 worship albums this year through North Side.

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When God Does the Most With the Least Expected

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In my life, I’ve learned that God often does the most with the least expected.

We often think we’ve got it all figured out.  In our estimation, we have enough knowledge to map out God’s plan for our lives.

But that rarely happens.  Oftentimes, God uses things in our lives that we never ever saw coming.

I said “yes” to the ministry when I was a teenager.  I really didn’t know what area I wanted to serve, I liked doing so many different things.

And yet, if you look at what God is using me the most in right now, I never would have seen this coming.

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