July 19: Tuesday Refocus

“The intellect makes the prayer, but the feeling makes the cry.” - Martin Luther

Without love, our words are a noisy gong or clanging cymbal (1 Corinthians 13:1). We can possess prophetic powers, understanding of all mysteries and knowledge, have faith to remove mountains, we can give away our every possession, and deliver our bodies to be burned, and all of it is meaningless without love (1 Corinthians 13:2-3).

A prayer without heart is simply a monologue.

Lord may our lives be prayers be filled with truth and love. Attention and affection. Intellect and feeling. Amen and amen.

Amen,

AB 

17 July: Liturgy + Set List

• HOLY HOLY HOLY

  Call to Worship: Psalm 121

• YES AND AMEN

  Scripture tells us that God is faithful, even when we are faithless. Almost every other world religion is about earning, striving, making an ascent to God. But as followers of Jesus, we celebrate the fact that we could never earn, or ascend to God, but God in Christ moved toward us. He took on our flesh and bone, lived a perfect life, died the death we deserved for the punishment of our sin, rose again, and is seated in victory at the right hand of the Father. But Jesus life on this earth was not easy, or pretty - Scripture describes Jesus as the Suffering Servant, the One who is a Man of Sorrows, and acquainted with grief. And this morning we are going to learn a new song that helps us remember who Jesus is, what He has done, and what His life has accomplished for us. Let’s sing…

• SON OF SUFFERING

  Sermon: James 5:7-12

  Communion

• IN CHRIST ALONE

  Benediction

Master Song List

Knowing and measuring the content of the songs we lead and sing in our churches is important. But before you are able to measure each individual song, and weigh the deficiencies in your Master Song List - you have to actually have a Master Song List. At the core, a Master Song List is exactly what it sounds like - all of the songs that make up the diet of your church. But hopefully more than just titles, your Master Song List will give you a way to track, understand, and learn the rhythms of rotation for the songs you lead.

I think the first place to start is with having a tool. I use Planning Center to store my master song list, but you could just as easily use a spreadsheet.

The next step is to keep whatever tool you are using up to date. No information is helpful if it is not correct or current. This is why I ‘archive’ songs in Planning Center that are not a part of the regular rotation of songs we sing. A Master Song List should be just your current songs in rotation - not every song the church has ever sung.

Now that you have chosen the tool, and gotten your Master Song List up to date, besides song titles what should be included and accessible?

Some of the things I have found helpful are the themes that I use for the Gospel Song Liturgy (what elements of the Gospel story does this song cover? Creation, Fall, Redemption, Restoration, Glorification). Standard keys - ones where I am most comfortable, but also the keys that another worship leader may use. This would also include the keys that are most comfortable for a female vocalist to lead. Additional versions - the standard version of In Christ Alone is excellent, but recently we’ve been including King’s Kaleidoscope’s version of the song with a completely different feel. Both of them have their place, so I want access to either version.

You’ve settled on a tool to use, gotten the information current, and know how to fill out your Master Song List with useful information, now what?

Besides having a 30,000 foot view of the diet of songs your church is currently singing, I think a Master Set List helps in your rhythm of building set lists, and here is how: it gives you more skill in planning multiple set lists at the same time. When you plan a set list week-to-week it can be easy to revert to whatever is most familiar, or your personal favorites without holding those things in tension with the long-range vision and direction of your area of ministry. For me personally, the rhythm that has seemed to work best is planning set lists a month at a time. I still give myself flexibility with adapting from week to week, but I aim for the bones to remain the same. Planning multiple set lists at once helps with rhythms for introducing new songs to ensure our new songs are being played with enough frequency to become familiar, but not so often to become tiring.

A few questions to consider in closing:

What is on your Master Song List?

How are you keeping track of what songs you are using?

How do you know where a song falls on the spectrum of heavy rotation, regular rotation, or cycling out of use?

July 12: Tuesday Refocus

“I pray for courage to mourn so that I may be strengthened.” - Madeleine L’Engle

Courage is required in mourning because we must first acknowledge that the world is not as it should be, that our lives are not as they should be. Honesty from our deepest depths is deeply vulnerable. It is honesty that says ‘My Father if it be possible, let this cup pass from me…’ (Matthew 26:39). 

Our hope in our mourning is that “…the Lord, who daily bears us up…” is also One who is a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief (Psalm 68:19, Isaiah 53:3). The One declared ‘…nevertheless, not as I will but as You will (Matthew 26:39).’

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” Matthew 5:4

Lord, bear us up, comfort and strengthen us, and give us courage. Amen.

Amen,

AB

10 July: Liturgy + Set List

• GRACE ALONE

  Call to Worship: Psalm 50:1-6, 10-12

  We serve a God who has no need. Before He created everything and everyone, He was full, content, and complete in and of Himself. We gather together to sing the praises of God not to fill some kind of cosmic void in God’s ego. We gather together to sing the praise of God because He commands it, because He is worthy, and because God delights to share in His life, fullness, and joy with His people. You and I come as people with great need, to a God who has no need, so that we can be reminded of the way that God has met our need in and through Christ. Let’s sing together…

• BUILD MY LIFE

• HYMN OF HEAVEN

  Sermon: James 5:1-6

  There is a difference between condemnation and conviction. Condemnation leaves me without hope. And if you are here this morning as a follower of Jesus, Scripture tells us there is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Conviction on the other hand is a gift of grace, it is an invitation of the Holy Spirit to return to Christ, to treasure Christ above all things. Let’s let that conviction invite us to confess our sins to God and one another:

Corporate Confession [From the Worship Sourcebook]:

LEADER: 

God of grace,
we confess that we have elevated
the things of this world above you.
We have made idols of possessions and people
and used your name for causes
that are not consistent with you and your purposes.
We have permitted our schedules to come first
and have not taken the time to worship you.
We have not always honored those who guided us in life.
We have participated in systems
that take life instead of give it.
We have been unfaithful in our covenant relationships.
We have yearned for, and sometimes taken, that which is not ours, and we have misrepresented others’ intentions.

ALL:

Forgive us, O God,
for the many ways we fall short of your glory.
Help us to learn to live together according to your ways
through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. 

• COME BEHOLD THE WONDROUS MYSTERY

• WHO YOU SAY I AM

  Benediction: Matthew 6:19-21

Quotes [Part 2]

As we were finding our feet in the new year, I posted a handful of quotes I hoped would help in the process. Not just a bit over the halfway point through this year, I’m sharing some more. I hope these quotes will inspire you for the next six months and beyond.

MIKE COSPER

Worship services are… ground zero for spiritual formation.

CHARLES SPURGEON

You cannot be Christ’s servant if you are not willing to follow Him, cross and all. What do you crave? A crown? Then it must be a crown of thorns if you are to be like Him. Do you want to be lifted up? So you shall, but it will be upon a cross.

BETH MOORE

Nothing on earth will put us at greater risk of divine wonders than worship.

ISAAC WATTS

The power of singing was given to us chiefly for this, that our warmest affections might break out into melody.

JOHN CALVIN

The music must not turn the church into an audience enjoying the music but into a congregation singing the Lord's praises in His presence.

July 5: Tuesday Refocus

“Listen in silence because if your heart is full of other things you cannot hear the voice of God.” - Mother Teresa

We want God to speak, but we do not listen. We want God to reveal Himself, but we never open our Bibles. We want God to show us the way to go, but we ignore His Spirit in the smallest promptings.

We are invited to pour out our hearts to God, but we are also invited to be still (Psalm 62:8, Psalm 46:10). Pour out the words, and trust the Spirit who intercedes when there are no words (Romans 8:26). And wait in silence for God alone (Psalm 62:1).  

Lord, let our words be few… Amen.

Listening,

AB

3 July: Liturgy + Set List

• HOUSE OF THE LORD

  Call to Worship: We’re glad that you’re here worshiping with us on this family worship weekend. Boys and girls, you’ll see that what we do in this room is similar to what you do in the Clubhouse each week: we read from God’s Word, the Bible, we sing truths together from the Bible, we are taught from God’s Word, and we pray God’s Word together. So I am going to read from the Bible now, and see how God invites us to worship Him:

  Psalm 103:13-19

  Let’s sing to our King, and our faithful God together…

• PROMISES

• I LOVE YOU LORD

  Sermon: James 4:13-17

  Our lives are a mist, our world is passing away, but the steadfast love of God never ends. If we could grasp the deep love of God towards us in and through Christ, how joyfully we would submit everything we have and all that we are to the will of God. Let’s sing about God’s love toward us:

• HOW HE LOVES

• GOD SO LOVED

Addressing Chaos

Not long ago, one of our friends experiencing homelessness interrupted our worship gathering while our pastor was preaching. It brought the gathering to a stop, and he had to be escorted outside the building, where they received care, counsel, and prayer. We don’t plan for this kind of interruption, so it makes them all the more difficult to know how to address them in real-time. What can we do when chaos threatens to completely derail our corporate gathering?

Pray. Prayer communicates dependence and acknowledges our needs both to ourselves and to God. We need supernatural wisdom and discernment - always - but in a unique way in these moments about how to lead ourselves, and those we serve through these types of interruptions.

Ignore. Sometimes the best thing to do is nothing at all. If we can manage our way through without having to address distractions or interruptions head-on, we may be able to tune out some of the noise.

Engage. Our friend experiencing homelessness did just make a loud statement but was trying to engage in conversation with our pastor - while our pastor was preaching. If ignoring the interruption will not solve the issue on its own, it’s time to engage.

Enlist help. In moments of chaos, it can be hard to think clearly, it can be incredibly disorienting. Are there other people whom you can call to action to step in, and help settle a chaotic situation?

Speak to reality. People need to be shepherded, always, but especially through seasons or situations that are confusing and disorienting. How can you use words to guide people through uncertainty?

Move forward. Is it best to wrap up for the day? Or to move into a different piece of the service than planned? Don’t freeze, just move forward.

I hope that you will not experience chaotic interruptions to your corporate worship gathering that you have to determine how to manage. But the truth is because we are human, even if we do not have chaotic interruptions outwardly, inwardly, our lives are full of chaotic interruptions, even when we are leading worship. May we pray, ignore, engage, enlist help, speak to the reality, and move forward with much grace towards ourselves and others.

June 28: Tuesday Refocus

“The Church does not need brilliant personalities but faithful servants of Jesus.” - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

No crafting or filters. 

No lighting or cropping. 

No illusions or diversions.

No trickery, pretending, or hiding can fool the One who sees past outward appearances and to the heart of you and me (1 Sam 16:7).

Jesus tells his followers to “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves (Matthew 7:15)” How easy - especially in a social media age - to appear as something that we are not. But “…you will recognize them by their fruits… (Matthew 7:20)” because, “…a healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor a diseased tree bear good fruit (Matthew 7:18).” Healthy fruit is not produced in its own strength but grows through abiding (John 15:5).

The faithful servant of Jesus bears fruit in keeping with repentance (Matthew 3:8). It is the fruit of the Spirit that marks the faithful servant of Jesus - more than the brilliant personality (Galatians 5:22-23). But perhaps it is faithful servants of Jesus who possess the most brilliant (but less outward) personalities.

Lord, may our lives be found abiding in You. May we bear fruit in keeping with repentance. May we bear the fruit of the Spirit. Even if our lives do not burn bright from the perspective of social media, may they burn bright with faithfulness to You. In Your name, amen.

Amen,

AB

26 June: Liturgy + Set List

• BEFORE THE THRONE

  Call to Worship: Psalm 73:25-26, 28

  Every one of us moves through our lives seeking strength, security, and refuge. Whether that is in ourselves, or in something or someone outside of ourselves. Part of what we do when we gather with the people of God is to confess and profess that everything and everyone - including us - will fail. But God will never, can never, and has never failed. So we can join our hearts with the Psalmist saying, who do we have in heaven beside you? God, we desire to desire you more than all things. Let’s let these songs not just shape our time together this morning, but our lives lived in response to our God who cannot fail.

• GRAVES INTO GARDENS

• HIS MERCY IS MORE

  Sermon: James 4:1-12

  It is the kindness of God that He reveals our sins to us. When we cover our sin, God exposes our sin. When we uncover our sin, God covers us in Christ’s completed work on our behalf. And it is God’s kindness that He reveals Himself to us as the One who satisfies the desire of every longing heart. Maybe you need to use this time to sit and continue to reflect, remember, and repent. Maybe you need to sit quietly and allow these words to wash over you. Maybe you need to stand and celebrate the One who satisfies your soul. But let’s continue to respond together.

• I SHALL NOT WANT

• I STAND AMAZED (HOW MARVELOUS)

  Benediction

When Songs Don't Matter

I know, I know. Last week I wrote about how there are songs for the season, and this week I am saying songs don’t matter.

Let me explain.

Building a song master song list takes a lot of time, energy, and intention. It must be tailored to the congregation, conscious of the skill and ability of the worship leader and team, and be made up of songs for the season, as well as songs with staying power. Your master song list should include songs that are scripturally sound, theologically rich, artistically and musically compelling, and emotively engaging. Or more simply, as one worship leader described to me: thinking songs and feeling songs. Needless to say, this is a task that requires more thought than merely choosing your favorite song each week.

Several years ago, two interns were working with me to plan set lists for the Summer weeks that I would be away. We were reading the passage of Scripture that would be preached, and trying to list a smaller group of songs from our master song list that they could choose each weekend to lead. About halfway through this process one of the interns said, ‘We could sing any of these songs! They all fit, because we are always singing about Jesus, and always preaching the Gospel.’

If we do the hard work upfront of building, refining, adding, and trimming our master song list we lessen the pressure to make our songs fit the sermon week to week, because the reality is that they all fit! And when they all fit, we can refine even more as we look for through line concepts, same text inspiration, and repeated refrains in songs and sermons alike.

Do songs matter? Of course. But they matter less when you do the hard work upfront.