Ministry

Knowing His Work

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It was great to worship today in the middle of the great Greenwood blizzard.  We did experience some snow last night which meant the first snow for Greenwood on Christmas since 1963!  The roads were safe enough to come to services, so we posted on the City our plans and we had a powerful time as the church today!

We concluded the Jesus Loves Me series (the first part of Ephesians) with this big idea:

Knowing His Work (Eph. 2:8-10) – We know that Jesus loves us based upon the work of salvation.  Our salvation is all his work, and none of our good deeds influenced it, but once we are saved, our lives should be characterized by good works that emerge from a grateful heart.

Great message!  Such wonderful grace!  For those who had too much ice or snow on the roads to join us, the message will be here online this afternoon.

I was also thankful he made it through it.  He told me that a stomach bug had been going through his house and at 8:30, he was feeling a little funny on his tummy.  So, he told me to be on guard.  A couple of pauses of his caused me to start leaning up in my chair, but he made it through and brought it!

Today, we worshiped to:

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Stop Church Hopping

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There is a growing epidemic in the United States concerning church hopping. More churches’ membership numbers fluctuate not due to new converts but due to revolving membership doors. When someone becomes upset with music styles, church programs, carpet color, differences with another member, frustration with a staff member, or any other reason, people move their church memberships like they would …

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Knowing His Mercy

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Knowing His Mercy (Eph. 2:1-7) – We know that Jesus loves us based upon his rich mercy.  By not giving us what we deserved, we have a chance at new life due to his deep love.  The fact that Jesus loves us changes everything.

What a great Sunday as we continued through Ephesians.  Jeff’s message was such a clear picture of the gospel.

Today, we worshiped to:

We had some really special moments in worship today.  Having the band start out with a presentation on hope, mission, and the gospel to the tune of a Trans-Siberian Orchestra number was pretty fun.  It was more than a neat musical piece, with the media presentation put together by Jessica and Jamie, the experience was pretty intense.  I have never been more proud of our hard working band (you can see it on Facebook here).

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Dust of the Ground Video Shoot – Preferences

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Wednesday, we got to work with the talented group, Dust of the Ground.  Jeremy and Austin are the duo that make up this talented media company.  Since I’m friends with Jeremy (Jeff Lethco’s son), I’ve seen some of the fantastic projects they have finished.  When I saw how talented they were, I knew they might be the answer to an idea I had.

I’ve had all these worship instructional video ideas in my head for a while now.  3 minute clips that could be used in churches to drive home a concept concerning worship during a service or at the beginning of a message.  By taking a biblical principle concerning worship (true worship, lifting of hands, why we sing, etc.), and giving a mini-message through the power of film, I thought we might could go further faster on some of these areas which churches struggle.

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The City is Coming to North Side

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North Side is growing.  Praise the Lord.  While we are excited about numerical growth, we also are burdened to always grow closer as we grow larger.  As we continually get busier and busier, how in the world can we truly connect people to each other in the church?

As we prayed, we believed that God led us to an answer.

The City…It’s a new communication tool at North Side Baptist Church. The City has been implemented to allow the members of North Side to connect with each other. This tool provides a unique way for members to keep up to date with each other…as well as events, happenings, prayer requests and needs of the North Side family.

It really focuses on 3 key things:

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Knowing His Thoughts

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We had practice on Wednesday for Sunday, and everything went great except for the feeling I needed to change things up.  So Friday, I sent an updated list for this morning.  I wanted to scale things back and really let our voices fill up the room with praise for our King.  I’m so thankful for a team that doesn’t complain when I send them an email and say we need to go in a different direction.  Each team member jumped in there this morning prepared and knocked it out of the park!  Great job!

Today, we worshiped to:

In addition to a great worship time, Ken also gave us a word of testimony concerning how the City has already impacted him.  This is an online tool that our church is starting to use to communicate with one another.  If you want to join the early group getting connected on the City before our January 9th launch, go here.

OG (the David Denton) also gave a word of testimony for our church.  After losing his father this year, he went through shock and pain.  But OG chose to believe in the hope we have in Christ.  He cited that he was able to overcome due to the church surrounding him and caring for him.  Such a great word from such a sharp dressed guy in his shiny white shoes!

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Vocal Warmups for Worship Groups

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Last night for our worship team development time as we focused on capability – leading with excellence, I decided to bring in a vocal expert: my wife.  Amanda has her Master’s in music education and focused on vocal pedagogy.  So, she got us moving and thinking about some ways that we can use our vocals more effectively at the beginning of practice.  We had all our musicians and techies go through the exercises, because it will help everyone out.  Don’t worry, our vocalists are going to be working on the soundboard soon.

Here are some of her great notes that she gave us last night:

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Worship Wars

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Many churches are involved in what church growth experts have labeled “worship wars.” Not wanting to lose a particular style of music, many churches find themselves in a battle to maintain their preferential style.  It’s more than contemporary vs. traditional.  It has to do with instrumentation, volume, genre, layout, lighting, etc.  Unfortunately, many churches split over such things. Question: how …

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Knowing His Gifts

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What a fun Sunday as we kicked off our December series, “Jesus Loves Me (This I Know)” as we started trekking through the 1st section of Ephesians.

Knowing His Gifts (Eph. 1:1-14) – We know that Jesus loves us based upon the gifts he has given us.  Through his work, he has reconciled all creation to himself and has united the church.  His immeasurable gifts are more than what we ever deserved.

Today, we worshiped to:

We are doing a really fun opener each week, and this week was the ladies’ week to get after a great gospel number.  They tore it up!  Next week, the guys are up.  All I’m saying is don’t be late…

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My Problem with David Platt’s Radical

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Like many people in the last year, I have read David Platt’s soul-searching book, Radical. Make no mistake, I was a David Platt fan before being a David Platt fan was cool.  I got the privilege to hear him preach years before his name got real big.  Back in the day, he loved Jesus and was committed to his mission.

Here’s a video preview of his book:

Pretty intense stuff.  The book is even more intense.  He unashamedly calls the American church to wake up from their pursuit of the American Dream and live out the gospel in their daily lives.  Russell Moore’s endorsement is right on: “Sometimes people will commend a book by saying, ‘You won’t want to put it down.’  I can’t say that about this book.  You’ll want to put it down, many times.  If you’re like me, as you read David Platt’s Radical, you’ll find yourself uncomfortably targeted by the Holy Spirit.  You’ll see just how acclimated you are to the American dream…”

My problem with the book is this: David Platt is living this out in the context of an existing Southern Baptist church.

And people are forgetting that.

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“That Was ‘Good’ Worship”

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I’ve been so humbled by so many comments from Sunday’s worship services.  People have gone out of their way to say how impacting the time was, how we should have just kept singing for a few more hours, how tears of joy were flooding their eyes as we sang to our King.  Most of people commented, “that was ‘good’ worship.”

I’m not gonna lie.  I thought we were about to sing the roof off that place all 3 times Sunday morning.  I personally almost sang myself back into tonsillectomy rehab cause I just couldn’t hold it back.  But was it really “good” worship?

Sure, I loved the song selections.  The band was smoking and played the dynamics just right.  The singers nailed their parts.  The choir sounded like an angelic force to be reckoned with.  The congregation was outsinging all the microphones on stage.  It was loud.  It was engaging.  It was powerful.

But was it really “good” worship?

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One Worship Team’s Task

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“And he [Jesus] had to pass through Samaria.” -John 4:4

It was the shortest of ways for Jesus to travel. Traveling through Samaria would be shortest distance geographically, but most Jews would bypass that city because of their disdain for the Samaritans. Racial stereotypes kept most religious Jewish leaders out of that city.

But Jesus had to go through that way. He had work there.

In that city, he didn’t feed the masses or heal numbers of people, he spent time with a loose woman by a well. She had been married numerous times and was living with a man who was not her husband at the time. As Jesus was sitting by the well, she came his way, and she would never be the same again.

In this amazing passage, John chronicles Jesus’ uncanny knack for reaching people far away from God. As he draws her in, she begins to realize she is not dealing with your average passerby. When she realizes this fact, she begins to discuss one of Scripture’s worship wars. These feuds about how worship should be done didn’t start when drums were brought into a sanctuary; they’ve been around a while.

“Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.”

“Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do now know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:20-24).

Did you catch it? She was more focused on when and where and how worship should take place. Worship happens when it’s in this location in a certain type of way and it doesn’t happen when it’s different than what is expected. Jesus reveals that worship cannot be confined to preferences. It is not manmade. It is not manufactured. It is a lifestyle. It is on God’s preferences and not our own.

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One Worship

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Today, we worshiped to: The Longer I Serve Him The Heart of Worship – Matt Redman Sing to the King – Billy Foote Amazing Grace – North Side Worship How Great is Our God – Bethany Dillon How Great Thou Art – Paul Baloche 3 services, 2 buildings, 1 flowsheet.  One worship. Today was incredible.  After Michael George gave us …

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One Family

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Over the years, we have been blessed to see numerical and spiritual growth in our congregation.  We are at a place where we are not experiencing disharmony, but we are experiencing detachment.  So how can we turn this many people into one functional family? It was a great day all around as we focused on One Family during our One …

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Worship Vocal Workshop

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Due to me being unable to lead worship practice this week, we had a guest lecturer, Paul Baloche, to teach on worship vocals.  As we are focusing on worship value #3: capability – leading with excellence, Paul provides some great tips on leading worship as a vocal team.  Hope you enjoy!

A Church’s Barriers to Growth

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I was told it was a bad idea.

Honestly, I was told it would never work. Young men in the ministry normally don’t find success going back and working at the church at which they were raised. Regardless of those people telling me it was a bad idea, I couldn’t shake that I felt God’s Spirit leading me back to North Side to serve as a minister when I graduated college in 2003.

As a young minister, I was eternally grateful to this church for what they had done to help me grow in Christ over the years. I wanted to give back as much as I could. At the same time, I began my seminary training through extension work.

In one of my classes, the required reading was a book called The Everychurch Guide to Growth by Elmer Towns, C. Peter Wagner, and Thom Rainer. With a large reading load that semester, I intended to rush through this reading but it didn’t happen that way. As I read the pages, I felt like someone had been watching my beloved North Side during the years that I had grown up here and chronicled some of the challenges we had experienced and had overcome.

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One Doctrine

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[This picture was taken before soundcheck on my phone.  The light hit perfectly catching my two youngins eating breakfast and getting ready to jam out with Daddy and Mommy.] Wow.  What a huge day to celebrate Jesus and focus on North Side striving together for one doctrine. In an increasingly biblically illiterate society, we must commit ourselves now more than …

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Bad Church Sign: Come Hear Our Preacher

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It’s been a while since I commented on a church sign, and many people have complained concerning that fact, so it’s that time again: this is my bad church sign of the week! This week’s sign reads: “DO YOU KNOW WHAT HELL IS?  COME HEAR OUR PREACHER” Now what they probably meant was that their preacher was going to give …

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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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Christian Sightseeing is Not Missions

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I’ve still been processing Sunday’s message and praying for the next step concerning our church’s involvement in the Great Commission.  Since we are studying missions this week, I have something that God has really been teaching me over the last year: Christian sightseeing is not missions!

Let me explain.  I think over the years, we have watered down missions so much that we classify doing anything that is overseas or with people of a different race as missions.  If you look at many job descriptions of mission trips these days, you will unfortunately see watered down weeks that ask Christians to do simple tasks in order that there is minimal exposure to the gospel.  Rarely do I see job descriptions that say, “Come and bring your church’s best evangelists to share the gospel.”  It is pass out this, pray for that, play with this, love on that – but we seem it extreme simply to share the gospel.

I think sometimes we get caught up in traveling the world in the name of Jesus rather than the Great Commission.

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One Mission

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I firmly believe that today was the start of a whole new era of North Side as we began the One Initiative.  Today, we focused on what it would mean to have truly One Mission? Our church has always been faithful at engaging in the Great Commission.  But what could happen if we all focused in one direction to reach …

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Tis the Season to Be Involved

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Since Christmas decorations started going up in stores 3 months ago, I guess it’s time to start thinking Christmas time around the ol’ church house as well.  Our worship team has been doing some praying and planning as of late, and what we have realized is if we are going to pull off what we have in mind for the …

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Some Day Soon – Storytellers

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“Some Day Soon” is the last track on the Overcome album.  It is kind of a funny story how it came about.  One day, the power at the office went out.  We had no electricity, internet, or phone service for the day.  This was around the time we were trying to finish up tracking for Overcome.  I cleared the whiteboard and tried to finalize track listing.  As I came close to finishing, I realized there wasn’t a blatant song about the hope with Christ’s return and our trip home.  Elements were throughout the album, but it wasn’t explicit anywhere.

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The Pure: Joseph

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What a great day at North Side!  The picture above is of my two aspiring musicians during soundcheck this morning.  Obie walked in with his toy guitar today and said, “Play the guitar in the church house like Daddy?!”  Love my life.

Today, we worshiped to:

So humbling to hear and watch you sing out today.  It was great to see how a CD can lead in worship in that so many of you were singing out to songs we haven’t done on a Sunday yet but were recorded on the Overcome CD.  Love worshiping with you and pray that album is a blessing to you!

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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 hear them (sorry, I couldn’t …

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Present Help – Storytellers

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This edition of storytellers from the Overcome album focuses on a song called “Present Help.”  This is the 3rd recording project this song has been used on.  I actually wrote this song in college.  I started working on it in the piano lab around 1999 or 2000 (whoa, I’m getting old).

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The Pretender: Judah

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Another wonderful Sunday at North Side as we continued in our “Ancestors” series through key figures in Genesis.  I had planned a service based on Jeff preaching from Genesis 37 with Joseph and Potipher’s wife.  Instead, he felt led to go in a different direction:

For the sake of comfort, most people pass over Genesis 38, but Judah’s story is too similiar to situations today.  Many people are living for the moment without a thought concerning responsibility.  No matter how hard we try, our sin will find us out just like it did Judah.

I’ll be honest, when I saw what direction he was going, I just started praying that it would connect and not keep people’s mind in the gutters when he went to that passage.

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Worship You – Storytellers

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  “Worship is a way to live rather than something to do.  Walking with the Lord makes us overflow with His praises!” -Angela McCall As lead vocalist on this track, Angela has really taken this song to another level.  She has brought so much passion and direction for the song. The song was written as a desire to write a …

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The Persistent: Jacob

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Another great day at North Side as we were in week 3 of “Ancestors” as we focused on Jacob. Jacob was born persistent.  While that persistence got him into trouble, it also paid off from him at times.  His wrestlings with God reveal a man who struggled in life but who never gave up on being blessed by God. Great …

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Immanuel – Storytellers

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Today’s storytellers is the song “Immanuel.” I wrote this song back in 2006 and recorded it in house, but rerecorded it on my “Coming Home” solo project released earlier this year.  The song fit too well with the “Overcome” theme not to include it.  So we remixed it and took away my background vocals and let Jodie Shirley add her …

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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 “Overcome” focus for the album. …

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Never Seen the Righteous Forsaken – Storytellers

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While the “Overcome” CD is officially released, I wanted to continue to share some of the stories behind the songs. “Never Seen the Righteous Forsaken” was literally a last minute song to add to the project.  During the mix, we decided to remove one song from the lineup which provided a musical vacuum towards the end of the project.  Written …

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Overcome Recap

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Words can’t even begin to express my joy from Overcome last night.  God showed up big, and I was just humbled at how worshipful the event was last night.  Where do I begin to say thanks? Jesus – You are the true Overcomer.  You bring hope to the hopeless, and You were the guest of honor last night. We were …

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Overcome

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I am blown away by what God did tonight. I am humbled that I serve along such quality people. I love being a part of His church. We will overcome.

Overcome

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As our team prayed and collaborated on what songs should be on this album, God began to unite these songs under a single theme: in this world we will have trouble, but we will overcome. In the months of this recording process, we have seen over and over why God gave us these songs in order to minister to those …

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The Prototype: Issac

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What a great day at North Side as we were in week 2 of Ancestors. Only one chapter, Genesis 26, in the bible is totally dedicated to Issac.  Issac is a man that spent most of his life either in the shadow of his father Abraham or his son Jacob.  But no man has ever stood taller than he did …

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Nothing is Impossible – Storytellers

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“Nothing is Impossible” was written during our adoption process.  As we looked at the huge obstacles concerning timing, situation, circumstances, finances, etc., the process seemed impossible…for us. But with God, there was nothing to it. “For nothing is impossible with God.” -Luke 1:37 Amanda, Obadiah, and myself would often play this melody on the home piano and remind ourselves of …

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11:59 – Storytellers

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11:59 started as a joke. I make up songs for the boys all the time. As we were praying for all the details to get ironed out concerning Eli’s homecoming, Obie and I wrote this song. Some details concerning the adoption were huge obstacles to overcome plus I had been praying about other big circumstances in some people’s lives. As …

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Wait for the Lord – Storytellers

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Guest Blogger: John Kennerly “Wait for the Lord” was one of those songs that seemed to write itself. At the time, I had no idea that I would be throwing it into the hat for inclusion in what would become North Side’s Overcome recording project and how well it would fit into the overarching theme of the project. It truly …

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Unite Us Together – Storytellers

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When North Side started the “5 Things That Will Kill This Church” series, I wanted a worship song for a church to sing together.  Most worship songs are written to sing together, but I really wanted it to be something you sang acknowledging those singing around you. To write it, I went to the descriptions of the early church in …

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