Psalms

The 2nd Greatest Story You Will Ever Tell Your Children

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One of your children’s most beloved books in your home might soon be your high school yearbook.  Your children know you as a responsible (or somewhat responsible) adult fully equipped with bills, a job, and a minivan, yet before they ever knew you, a lot of your life had already been lived.  Seeing your extracurricular activities, fashion statements, and funny hairdos in your yearbook open up an entire new world to them concerning your life.

For many of you reading this article, you also became a Christian before your children were around.  Even if you became a Christian later in life, your personal testimony is not information that they inherently receive.  The greatest story you will ever tell your children will be God’s story of how he brought redemption to mankind.  The 2nd greatest story will be how your story intersected with God’s story – the story of your salvation.

As your children grow, they will have different levels of doubt concerning the Christian faith.  You might even experience a child arguing with you concerning your personal beliefs.

While they may resort to arguments, they can’t argue with results.  One of the greatest ways to teach your children concerning salvation and walking with Christ is by sharing your personal testimony with them.

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Be Fruitful and Multiply (And Boy, Did We Ever!)

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I want to show you two pictures.  The first was taken in the Summer of 2007 when four couples went on a beach trip together.  At that time, there was one baby in the group.

The next picture was taken in December 2010.  Same four couples, nine more children than the photo taken 3 and a half years earlier.

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John Piper’s #1 Leadership Tip

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The only problem with Passion 2011 was that there was way too much to process and apply.  I’m still going through lessons and trying to implement them into my life.

One of they keynote speakers at Passion was John Piper who recently took a 7-month sabbatical and came back into the public scene the week of Passion.   His message, “Getting to the Bottom of Your Joy” was huge.  Massive implications, but that wasn’t the best part of his involvment.

The next morning, he spoke to the leaders’ group.  He had planned one talk, but then decided at 6:30 that morning to change directions.

That morning, he shared with us his #1 leadership principle he has learned.

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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

What If My Worship Team Won’t Practice?

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I get the privilege to talk with worship pastors concerning their worship teams a bunch lately.  It is a huge blessing.  One of the common questions I hear is: “what if my worship team won’t practice?” This is a temptation for any musician or any vocalist in the system for a while.  We tend to get used to the opportunity

Do We Really Need Homegrown Worship Songs?

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I’ve been a songwriter since I started playing guitar.  I love it, but when I became worship pastor, a dilemma arose.  If I have the choice to lead with a song that I have written or Chris Tomlin has written, if I defer to quality, we would always play Mr. Tomlin.  I love his songs, and our people love singing

Worship Leading Excellence: Honoring or Distracting?

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Last night, in our worship team training, I asked the question: when does excellence in leading worship become a distraction? As we are spending this month focusing on worship value #3: capability – leading with excellence, a tension arose in my mind.  Psalm 33:3 says: “Sing to Him a new song, play skillfully with a shout of joy.”  As musicians,

Going Through the Worship Motions

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This month’s core worship value: Humility – leading with perspective This week’s worship training one-liner: The cure for lethargic worship is a good memory. In Psalm 30, David expresses praise to God based upon his faithfulness in the past.  What’s interesting about this psalm is that the title infers that this was written for the dedication of the temple.  Only

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