Ooh Child, Things Are Gonna Get Easier

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):

READ MORE

Praying With Your Eyes Wide Open

When we were little, adults taught us to pray with our eyes closed.  I suppose it had something to do with eliminating distractions or focusing on the One that we can’t see physically.

My son, Eli, has a different approach.

And I don’t plan on stopping him.

READ MORE

Help for Japan

My heart has truly burdened by the images across my TV screen concerning the Japanese.  Serving on 2 different trips to this spiritually dark place makes the magnitude of this disaster even harder for me.  But we serve a God who can bring salvation from such disaster! Here’s how you can help!

A Prayer for Downtrodden Fathers

As I have been working on the Courageous material, I have really developed a burden for fathers who have messed up or are messing up.  I want them to finish strong so badly.  For whatever reason, I woke up with fathers on my heart.  You reading this might be the reason I penned this prayer …

READ MORE

I Am Not the Best on the Team

I struggle with pride when I work with others.

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

I know, I have issues.

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

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

READ MORE

Overcome CD Cover

On Tuesday, we had planned to work on artwork for the upcoming “Overcome” CD release.  Cory and I started going through some design ideas that were going to look pretty good, but nothing was changing our world yet. I was talking with Jamie about how we could use this CD’s release as an impact to …

READ MORE

Sunday’s Prayer Card That Floored Me

Sunday, we had a time when people could come down to the front in our services and fill out a card that said, “God, if only You could…” and they were to fill in the prayer request. This morning, our staff started going through the huge stack of prayer requests.  When I got the stack …

READ MORE

Dear God, Make Us One

This second week in the “Dear God” series we heard Jeff’s 2nd prayer for our church: “Dear God, make us one.”  In a church, truth, convictions, and preferences are always present.  Unfortunately, we normally focus on our preferences or convictions more than we do the truth.  If our church is truly to become one, we …

READ MORE

Dear God, I Want to Please You

  As our church focuses on prayer in the “Dear God” series, our pastor has four prayers for our church that he wants answered.  The first prayer is: “Dear God, I want to please you.” Too often, we come to God just to fix our problems.  God wants to fix you, not your problem.  In …

READ MORE

Pray for Church Members (Part 2)

As our worship team strives to be available by leading with presence, this month we have focused on praying for different sections of your church.  This week, I want you to continue to pray for church members, but I want you to do something unusual: I want you to pray for the ones you don’t …

READ MORE