Grumbling and Complaining

People can be hard.

Ministry can be hard.

And there is something about corporate sung worship that feels personal to those within a church community. Congregations have ownership of songs and singing in unique ways - more so than maybe any other area of ministry. Because of this, songs and singing can often feel precious to the people and can feel tied to people’s experience of God, His Church, and worship.

So how do we deal with grumbling and complaining from the congregation?

Or our team?

Listen. I love how Tim Keller talks about listening for a kernel of truth, even in harsh critique or criticism that seems unfair. What is really being said? Is there a thing under the thing? How can we make sure that people feel heard, rather than ignored or disregarded?

Learn. We must learn our people and context. Is there a history for which we are unaware? Have we inadvertently or carelessly stepped over a line or triggered something? We must be willing to admit that we don’t know everything and that in seeking to lead and serve the people of God our posture must be one of humility and teachability.

Communicate. Some of the best advice I was ever given was - you have thought deeply about what you’re doing and why, you have to help your team see the thought process. In a spirit of humility and gentleness, we must be able to clearly articulate the reason for our decisions. Have you thought deeply about what you are doing and why? Have you taken the time to ‘show your work,’ and lead people through a process of understanding?

Love. Let even the painful interactions be an invitation toward dependence upon the Holy Spirit for the grace necessary to love. To lean away from your own strength and toward the strength and grace of Christ. How might God be using people from your congregation or team to keep you humble and tender? How can you watch over your own heart to not respond in kind? How might you see this person the way that Christ sees them?

24 March: Matthew 20:1-16

MATTHEW 20:1-16

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’ And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’ And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’ So the last will be first, and the first last.”

READ. MEDITATE. PRAY. CONTEMPLATE.

To download the full devotional, click here.

22 March: 1 Samuel 15:22-23

1 SAMUEL 15:22-23

"And Samuel said,

“Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,
    as in obeying the voice of the Lord?
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,
    and to listen than the fat of rams.

For rebellion is as the sin of divination,
    and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the Lord,
    he has also rejected you from being king.”"

READ. MEDITATE. PRAY. CONTEMPLATE.

To download the full devotional, click here.

20 March: Liturgy + Set List

• GREAT THINGS

• Call to Worship: Psalm 77:11-15

  Maybe you are here this morning, and along with the Psalmist, are ready to recount the deeds of the Lord. Maybe you are here this morning feeling like you have been slighted by God. The reality for every follower of Jesus is that, one, God has not given us that which we rightly deserve - which is death - the punishment for our sins. And two, that God has given us Himself. Wherever you may be this morning, you and I have many reasons to be glad. Let’s sing these truths together:

• 10,000 REASONS (BLESS THE LORD)/JIREH

  Can I let you in on a worship leader secret? We don’t pick songs that we like to sing. We choose songs week to week which will hopefully help us respond to God as He teaches us through His Word. And at a higher level, we choose songs to sing that will hopefully form our minds and our hearts. Shape our knowledge and our affections of who God is, what He has done, and who He has called us to be. Over the last few weeks, you may have noticed that our songs have been slower, the teams have been smaller and we have not had drums - all of that is on purpose. This is the third week of Lent, a time where we remember, reflect, and repent as we ready our hearts for Easter Sunday. And we wanted to make space for that remembrance, reflection, and repentance through our gathered time together. One other element we are incorporating weekly is a corporate confession of sin, where we confess our sins to God and to one another. Let’s do that together now:

  Corporate Confession:

  Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy and save Your people whom You bought with Your own blood. Do not turn away from us because of our sins. Remember us according to Your steadfast love, and Your gracious work for Your people. Deliver us that we may enjoy the benefits of Your chosen ones, and share in the joy of Your people, and join Your inheritance in giving praise. Amen. (Adapted from Seed Grains of Prayer, 1914)

  Assurance of Pardon: Ephesians 1:11-14

• I SHALL NOT WANT

• Sermon: Joshua 13-14

  Communion

• I STAND AMAZED (HOW MARVELOUS)

20 March: Psalm 44:1-4

PSALM 44:1-4

"O God, we have heard with our ears,
    our fathers have told us,
what deeds you performed in their days,
    in the days of old:

you with your own hand drove out the nations,
    but them you planted;
you afflicted the peoples,
    but them you set free;

for not by their own sword did they win the land,
    nor did their own arm save them,
but your right hand and your arm,
    and the light of your face,
    for you delighted in them.

You are my King, O God;
    ordain salvation for Jacob!"

READ. MEDITATE. PRAY. CONTEMPLATE.

To download the full devotional, click here.

Discipleship Without Agenda

Making disciples - without exception, this is the work to which Jesus called every single one of His followers. Go therefore and make disciples…

In America, we love to make things as efficient and productive as possible, and as followers of Jesus, we desire to be obedient to the commands of Christ. So we can be tempted to approach our Christian calling (make disciples) through Western means (pragmatic, efficient, productive). We think if only we can create the right curriculum, and make sure everyone has a mentor and is investing in another, all we need is twelve weeks for a fully formed disciple to emerge! But humans are not machines, or math equations. We can’t simply plug in the right information and expect a neat, tidy, and timely response. Discipleship is messy work.

Discipleship is the work of a lifetime.

Another subtle way our discipleship looks like less Christ and more self-serving is when we make disciples for the purpose of meeting our own needs rather than to fulfill the Great Commission. When we make disciples for the purpose of filling holes in our team, or leadership, rather than encourage, equip, and enable people to be more closely conformed to the image of Christ we are not actually investing in people we are consuming them.


There is a difference between cultivating the people God has placed under our care and exploiting their gifts for selfish gain.

I am learning that real discipleship has no agenda other than to see Christ be more fully formed in an individual. As I can surrender my agenda, and humbly confess my needs and desires to Christ, I am freed to love and give myself away without ulterior motive. I am observing that this keeps my heart tender, my expectations lowered, and my hands open.

Our teams and churches have needs, yes.

We are called to make disciples, yes.

What would it look like if we were obedient to Christ without reservation or agenda? What if we invest our time, energy, blood, sweat, tears, and prayers into someone who takes that investment and serves another church, or another area of ministry, or walks away completely?

No agenda-free investment into people is ever wasted.

Thanks be to God.

17 March: Mark 7:1-13

MARK 7:1-13

"Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders, and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.)  And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written,

“‘This people honors me with their lips,
    but their heart is far from me;

in vain do they worship me,
    teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’

You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”

And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban”’ (that is, given to God)— then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”

READ. MEDITATE. PRAY. CONTEMPLATE.

To download the full devotional, click here.

15 March: Isaiah 45:1-7

ISAIAH 45:1-7

"Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus,

    whose right hand I have grasped,

to subdue nations before him

    and to loose the belts of kings,

to open doors before him

    that gates may not be closed:

“I will go before you

    and level the exalted places,

I will break in pieces the doors of bronze

    and cut through the bars of iron,

I will give you the treasures of darkness

    and the hoards in secret places,

that you may know that it is I, the Lord,

    the God of Israel, who call you by your name.

For the sake of my servant Jacob,

    and Israel my chosen,

I call you by your name,

    I name you, though you do not know me.

I am the Lord, and there is no other,

    besides me there is no God;

    I equip you, though you do not know me, 

that people may know, from the rising of the sun

    and from the west, that there is none besides me;

    I am the Lord, and there is no other.

I form light and create darkness;

    I make well-being and create calamity;

    I am the Lord, who does all these things."

READ. MEDITATE. PRAY. CONTEMPLATE.

To download the full devotional, click here.

13 March: Psalm 40:13-17

PSALM 40:13-17

"Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me!
    O Lord, make haste to help me!

Let those be put to shame and disappointed altogether
    who seek to snatch away my life;
let those be turned back and brought to dishonor
    who delight in my hurt!

Let those be appalled because of their shame
    who say to me, “Aha, Aha!”

But may all who seek you
    rejoice and be glad in you;
may those who love your salvation
    say continually, “Great is the Lord!”

As for me, I am poor and needy,
    but the Lord takes thought for me.
You are my help and my deliverer;
    do not delay, O my God!"

READ. MEDITATE. PRAY. CONTEMPLATE.

To download the full devotional, click here.

Worship As Pastoral Care

I once heard Bob Kauflin comment that if worship leaders were to do any kind of continued education, he would encourage them to study Biblical Counseling. Isn’t that interesting? Not necessarily theology, or music theory, not necessarily Greek, Hebrew, or composition, conducting, or sight-reading. No, Biblical Counseling. The longer I lead worship the more I am convinced that leading worship is primarily a pastoral function before it is a musical one. It is pastoral because we are dealing with real human souls. Souls in all of their brokenness and joy, souls in all of their immaturity and experience, souls in all of their comfort and distress, and we are seeking to guide, instruct, teach, and care for them through liturgy, song, Scripture, prayer, and preparation.

Worship As Pastoral Care by William H. Willimon, was one of the books that helped me continue to put language to the pastoral aspect of leading worship. Willimon says,

The history of pastoral care shows two dimensions of the care of our souls: (1) the preservation of spiritual health through preventive or protective care as well as daily guiding and sustaining care and (2) the restoration of spiritual and emotional health if and when dysfunction occurs…

Liturgy is education.  The question before us… is not whether our people will learn when they worship.  The question is, what will they learn when we lead them in worship?  We sometimes forget that we are engaged in education every time we lead the congregation in prayer or in the Lord’s Supper or in any other occasion of public worship.  Unfortunately, people often learn things when they worship that we may not have intended - but they still learn.

Public worship is always an invitation to the individual to risk communion, to move out from oneself into the larger body…

We are not simply choosing songs, we are forming people. Conviction and comfort is the work of the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit will often work through the people of God to voice that conviction or comfort. We must be attentive to the voice of the Spirit in our preparation as well as in our leading. We must choose songs that enable…

The line between work and worship, between the everyday, pedestrian details of the workaday world and the world within the liturgy should be a thin and frequently broken line.

When we see the liturgy and gathering as the people of God as more than something we do once a week, but something we inhabit - something which inhabits us - we are beginning to invite the conviction and comfort of the Holy Spirit more fully into the rhythms of our lives.

Karl Barth says: ‘It is not only in worship that the community is edified and edifies itself.  But it is here first that this continuously takes place.  And if it does not take place here, it does not take place anywhere.’ If the community does not worship, it is not a Christian community.  If worship does not upbuild and sustain the community, it is not Christian worship.

The liturgy is ‘the work of the people,’ it is the action, the yearning, the heartbreak, and the outstretched hands of those who are gathered around the Table and the action, the yearning, the heartbreak, and outstretched hands of the God who deems to meet them in the flesh.

10 March: Matthew 5:1-12

MATTHEW 5:1-12

"Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.

And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you."

READ. MEDITATE. PRAY. CONTEMPLATE.

To download the full devotional, click here.

8 March: Genesis 2:15-17, 3:20-24

GENESIS 2:15-17

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

GENESIS 3:20-24

"The man called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them. Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life."

READ. MEDITATE. PRAY. CONTEMPLATE.

To download the full devotional, click here.