February 6: Liturgy and Set List

February 06, 2022 in Corporate Worship, Liturgy, Worship Leaders

HOW GREAT THOU ART
Call to Worship: Psalm 70:4-5
We gather not for a spiritual pick-me-up, but to delight our hearts in the salvation of our great God. The One who has enabled us through Jesus to be in right relationship with Him. Let’s delight in that truth together:
WAYMAKER
MY JESUS, I LOVE THEE
Sermon: Joshua 5:1-9
The people of Israel saw God do great and glorious things and still did not obey. Brothers and sisters, we sit on this side of the cross of Christ and still do not obey. Our obedience to God does not earn God’s love for us. God loves us, so we desire to obey. Let’s remind one another of that truth together - would you stand and sing:
HOW DEEP THE FATHERS LOVE FOR US
RAISE UP THE CROWN (ALL HAIL THE POWER)

Shifting The Culture

February 04, 2022 in Corporate Worship, Worship Leaders, Worship Teams

We are always building culture.

We shape the culture and the culture shapes us.

As leaders, specifically, those who oversee an area of ministry, we have a responsibility to intentionally form, clearly articulate, and faithfully model the culture we are seeking to cultivate.

Intentionally form. You are forming the culture of your team right now. Rather than haphazardly letting it grow wild, cultivate, till, prune toward the kind of culture you believe with honor God and serve His people - both the congregation and the team - well.

Clearly articulate. Much teaching and training is caught, but it is also important to teach, train, and articulate the kind of cultural values you are seeking to develop among the team. We cannot expect people to embrace and embody a culture if we articulate it one time, this is an ongoing, repeated conversation.

Faithfully model. Our behavior reveals our values. I can say that I value being healthy and in shape, but if I do not consistently eat well, and exercise, those are just words, not values. As leaders we always go first - we must show our team how to carry the culture. Do not give up, or lose heart. Consistency is essential in establishing and shifting anything meaningful.

Ultimately real change is only possible through the empowering and ongoing work of the Holy Spirit. But if we neglect to continually cultivate our culture, the strongest personalities and cultural forces will shape, and disciple our team. Our cultures will grow either way, so why not intentionally invest beauty, goodness, and truth into what is growing in your team?

February 1: Tuesday Refocus

February 01, 2022 in Tuesday Refocus

“Surely to be proud is to be more like the devil and fallen Adam, than like Christ.” - J.C. Ryle

No one needs to learn pride, the fall built that into our DNA. A genetic trait passed on from our first parents. A hereditary malformation of soul and spirit.

But we are invited to learn from the Son of God and Son of Man - the One who is gentle and lowly of heart (Matthew 11:29). And it is in this learning that we find rest for weary souls - those souls made busy and searching by pride.

God opposes the proud (James 4:6). But it was for the proud and rebellious that He came - though He was rich, for our sake He became poor, so that we by His poverty might become rich (2 Corinthians 8:9). Through the humility and humiliation of Christ, our prideful hearts may be made gentle and lowly like His.

Lord, make us like You. Amen.

Asking,

January 30: Liturgy + Set List

January 30, 2022 in Corporate Worship, Set List, Liturgy

ON CHRIST THE SOLID ROCK
Call To Worship: Psalm 100
You will hear no other word from this platform this morning that is more important than the Word of God. That is why we sing God’s Word, we pray God’s Word, we hear God’s Word, we preach and teach God’s Word, and we live our lives in response to God’s Word. It is in God’s Word that we learn about the Word made Flesh - Jesus. Who He is, what He has done, and how He has called us to live. Let’s sing to Him together.
PRAISE TO THE LORD, THE ALMIGHTY/GOOD GOOD FATHER
I SHALL NOT WANT
Sermon: Joshua 3-4
Elder Ordination
RAISE A HALLELUJAH

Identifying Team Culture

January 28, 2022 in Corporate Worship, Worship Leaders, Worship Teams

Last week I wrote about identifying the culture of your church. This week I want to take a look at how to identify the culture of your worship team. In many ways, identifying the culture of your team is similar - to identify the culture of your team you must be in relationship with the team members, you need to observe over time, and you need to ask questions. But as a church has a unique culture, so does a team functioning within the church community.

Are you stepping into a team that already exists?

No group of people is a blank slate. These are people who have served together, who have history, who have been formed and discipled, who have shared together. What things have historically been normative? What does the team value? What is the shared language and understanding of the mission and vision of the team?

Are you building something from scratch?

If you are church planting or beginning a new area of ministry within your church - you are the culture. Vision is important - without it, the people will perish (Proverbs 29:18). But we must also be open-handed enough to shift, change, and grow and God gives the growth (1 Corinthians 3:6).

Much of the work of identifying the culture of your team is so you can determine what needs to be celebrated and redeemed, and what needs to be rejected entirely. In what way has the team been formed? In what ways do they need to be counter-formed?

When I was living abroad a fellow American once shared with me, ‘The goal of serving here is not to make people become more American, it is to help them be more like Jesus.’ What would it look like for the people on your team to serve in this culture, with these skills, on this team as Jesus would serve? What would their life and ministry look like free from the weight of sin?

Culture-making is discipleship. And discipleship is the long-long, ongoing work of the Spirit and the community. Learn. Grow. Celebrate. Reject. Be counter-formed by the Gospel.

January 25: Tuesday Refocus

January 25, 2022 in Tuesday Refocus

“As God took Eve out of the side of Adam and formed a woman, so out of the wounded heart of Jesus, God is forming a new race, and that new race is going to be the ultimate human race.” - A.W. Tozer

We do not have a God who is unable to sympathize with us (Hebrews 4:15).

We have a God who bears eternal scars (John 20:27).

We have a God who has brought healing to our sin-sick hearts through His suffering (Isaiah 53:5).

We have a God who has brought peace to His people for enduring our punishment (Isaiah 53:5).

We have a God who for the joy set before Him endured the cross (Hebrews 12:2).

Peace, joy and life to the full are the new reality for this new humanity, thanks be to God.

“For He Himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in His flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that He might create in Himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.” Ephesians 2:14-16

God, may the peace that we have with you through Christ make us peacemakers among friends and enemies alike. May we live like the representatives of this new humanity - live as carriers of the light and life of Jesus. In His name, amen.

Grateful,

January 23: Liturgy + Set List

January 23, 2022 in Liturgy, Corporate Worship, Set List

HOLY HOLY HOLY

Call to Worship: Psalm 8

We have just sung about the holiness of God. How He is other than us, He is great, glorious, and set apart. And we have just read about how this same God is mindful of humanity - made from the dust humanity. When we face up to the glory of God, we will always find ourselves facedown as we see our own sin. Let’s remember who God is and who we are as we confess our sins to God and one another as we read this together:

Corporate Confession:

Merciful God, We confess that we have sinned against You in thought, word, and deed, By what we have done, and by what we have left undone. We have not loved You with our whole heart and mind and strength. We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. In Your mercy forgive what we have been, help us amend what we are, And direct what we shall be, So that we may delight in your will and walk in Your ways, To the glory of Your holy name. Through Christ, our Lord. Amen. (from the Book of Common Prayer)

Brothers and sisters, hear the good news from Psalm 103:

He does not deal with us according to our sins,
nor repay us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
As a father shows compassion to his children,
so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.
For he knows our frame;
he remembers that we are dust.
Psalm 103:10-14

WHO YOU SAY I AM
Sermon: Joshua 2
I SHALL NOT WANT
Communion
STAND IN YOUR LOVE
Benediction

Identifying Church Culture

January 21, 2022 in Worship Leaders, Worship Teams

People are meaning-making, story-telling, culture-builders. We can identify cultural artifacts from surface observations and interactions like: does the congregation dress formally or casually? Do services begin on time, or is time more of a suggestion? Is the congregation warm and inviting, or quiet and stoic? But to truly understand the culture of our churches, we must be in relationship with the people of our church. Because it is people who make the culture.

In relationship we begin to understand and identify the values as well as the idols of the culture. These are things spoken and unspoken. The often hide just below the surface. These values and idols are exposed in our conversations, our thought process, and the way we spend our time and money. We see our culture exposed in what we fight to defend, in what we ignore, and what we cling to for life, value, significance, worth and identity. We study culture not to pander to peoples idols, but to show people how they have sought to find life outside of relationship with Christ.

Every country has a unique culture. Within a country each state and city have a unique culture. Within a city or state every community and church have a unique culture. Observe over time. Ask questions. Build relationships. Study the history and story of a community. These are the thing that will help us point our churches to a better, truer Kingdom.

January 18: Tuesday Refocus

January 18, 2022 in Tuesday Refocus

“Christians are made, not born.” - Tertullian

We are people of the already and not yet. Every follower of Jesus is saved, is being saved, and will be saved. Sanctification is a life-long work - we do not emerge from the born again womb complete disciples (John 3:3). We are being conformed to the image of Christ by the Father slowly - sometimes painfully - over time (Rom 8:29). Our salvation and sanctification is not self-made, bootstrapped labor - no, we are not our own, we have been bought with a price (1 Cor 6:19-20).

Maybe this is a year to lay down filthy rag righteousness and rest in the righteousness of Christ that clothes every one of His followers (Is 64:6, 2 Cor 5:21).

Maybe this is the year to stop being conformed to the patterns of the world, but to be transformed by the renewal of the mind (Rom 12:2).

Maybe this is the year to lose your life, rather than preserve it (Luke 17:33).

Lord, may it be so. May we be remade again and again. Let us be conformed to your image, for your glory, and the good of the world, amen.

Made,

Cross Cultural Worship

January 14, 2022 in Corporate Worship, Worship Leaders, Worship Teams

I am obsessed with culture. Culture is invisible, powerful, and hard to articulate. And because we are swimming in its waters, we are often unaware of how powerfully those currents of culture are shaping who we are, what we do, and why we do it.

My family and I lived abroad for four years. Serving on staff as a worship leader at a church in the United Kingdom. When you are removed from the familiar, your invisible culture quickly becomes visible. The same is true when you inhabit a new culture. In returning Stateside, I assumed that navigating American culture would be easier - it was my culture after all. But armed with the experience of another culture, and with an awareness of my own, I realized that all ministry is cross-cultural.

All ministry is cross-cultural because we live in the world but as followers of Jesus we are not of this world (John 17:16). All ministry is cross-cultural because although we may be citizens of a particular country, our true citizenship is in heaven (Philippians 3:20). All ministry is cross-cultural because we are all temporary residents, passing through as exiles in a foreign land (1 Peter 2:11, Jeremiah 29:7).

We minister to those inhabiting a world and a culture that seems normal and familiar. Part of our role is to show there is a greater kingdom, one that is near, now, and not yet. We live as ambassadors of this heavenly kingdom. We must be students of the culture - the one we inhabit right now, as well as the one to come - to point people to the beauty of the better Kingdom. As we study our cultures we can see that all culture-making is an attempt to build what is only truly realized in the culture of Christ’s kingdom.

There is beauty in this world and in our cultures. There are things that can be redeemed, and things that need to be rejected. And part of the work of cross-cultural mission is helping people identify the difference between the kingdom that is fading away and the kingdom that will last forever.

January 11: Tuesday Refocus

January 11, 2022 in Tuesday Refocus

‘You called, you cried, you shattered my deafness. You sparkled, you blazed, you drove away my blindness. You shed your fragrance, and I drew in my breath, and I pant for You. I tasted and now hunger and thirst. You touched me, and now I burn with longing for Your peace.’ - St Augustine

Have you tasted and seen that the Lord is good (Ps 34:8)?

Have you experienced how He satisfies the desire of every living thing (Ps 145:16)?

Out of the season of Advent, we remember that God is a God who draws near (Jn 1:14). He is not far removed, or unknowable, but One who desires to be known, and have His people draw near. Perhaps there is no greater aim of our lives in 2022 than to draw near to the One who has first drawn near to us (James 4:8).

God, reveal yourself to me this year. Give me eyes to see, ears to hear, a heart to know, and a life of obedience that follows You. In the name of Christ, amen.