I recently read an article by Andy Stanley entitled, “Music Matters”. He wrote, “I’m convinced that there’s something inescapable about music. It transforms words into lyrics. It changes walls into bridges. It turns listening ears into listening hearts. As a performer, as a listener, as a visitor who might end up in a most unexpected place on a Sunday morning, music has a transformational power. And it moves people in ways that even the best communicator cannot. Music matters. It’s not just songs. Or musicians. Or lights and equipment. Music is much more than that. Music is a doorway to worship.”

It’s true, music IS a strategic doorway to worship, but let’s not stop there. Music is a powerful tool that helps usher us into God’s presence, but it’s just a small piece of what worship really is and it’s only 1 doorway. Read the rest of this entry »

Something that we do quite often when learning a new song for our worship repertoire is first getting a copy of the new song in audio format (mp3, CD, etc) to the instrumentalists and vocalists on the worship teams.  Then they have the chance to be prepared to play the song including specific beats/rhythms, riffs, runs, etc.

We also many times will introduce the song to the congregation in the same way that it is played on the CD including those beats, riffs, runs and such.  We try to do the song very closely to what it sounds like on recording (at least for the first time) rather than putting our own spin on it.  Then after we’ve taught it one or two times to our congregation we can start putting our own arrangements together for it.

I find that doing this helps our musicians and vocalists grow by giving them more techniques to use in their own toolbox, helps them to be in sync with the team and learn what that feels like, and helps us as a team learn how to arrange the whole (rather than them seeing only their part).

One additional thing we do with new songs is playing them two weeks in a row or twice in the same month at the least.  The first time someone hears something they are learning, by the second time you do the song- they can start worshipping with it because its starting to become familiar.

Its not rocket science, but it works. What do your teams do to introduce new songs?

Technology is a wonderful thing, isn’t it? If you’re like me you have several pieces of technology that let you make phone calls, send emails, keep up with your friends on various social networks, watch an endless array of videos of all kinds and see what hundreds of your friends are doing at any moment. Needless to say, it is easy to find ourselves addicted to being overinformed and overstimulated. I love technology and have to confess, at times, I spend way too much time with it.

Our culture dictates a fast paced life. We spend our days running from meeting to meeting, appointments, rehearsals, songwriting, scheduling people, working with pastors, and then add family responsibilities to that! We can easily find ourselves scheduled morning til night almost every day. We have been given the great privilege of leading people. As leaders, it is very important that we position ourselves, on purpose, in a place where we can hear from God. Whether it is a song list choice, or a personnell issue, we need his direction.

I have become very fond of Eugene Petersen’s Message paraphrase of the Bible. Psalm 46:10 (MSG) brings the context right where we live . . . “step out of the traffic, and take a long, loving look at Me, your High God”.

Step out of the traffic! Just the thought of it makes me both nervous and excited. There is a certain comfort zone that we create by being heavily scheduled. Sometimes we just don’t know what to do when the noise of the world goes away and we are left to contemplate. But that’s just where He wants us to be. Still. Quiet. Listening. One of my mentors in the ministry taught me a valuable concept . . .”sometimes the very best answer to a very important request is NO!” Solitude requires discipline. But it is worth it!

Social networking has a buzzword phrase on which that premise seems to be built . . . “what are you doing right now?” The important thing is to ask the Father that question; often, and then take time and wait for His answer.

Step Out Of The Traffic.

You should see my desk right now after being on vacation for three weeks – there are more stacks and piles than I know what to do with. My first step is to throw away as much as I can. But looking around I see a lot of mail, papers, magazine covers, etc. that speak of two different themes, worship and missions. Now remember that my place on the team here at RCC is creative arts and missions pastor – so in my small mind these two worlds work together. Here’s how I think that world of worship and the world of missions collide in a big way…

Worship literally means giving worth to the object, deity or person that we worship. Of course as Christians this hopefully means that we ascribe worth or glorify the one who created all things and who knows and loves us best. This should in theory outweigh giving glory to any other person or created thing in our lives. So if we are to truly ascribe worth and give the most glory to the Creator – then we cannot accomplish this on just a few hours a week. This type of worth-ship or worship has to happen with every part of our being (our decisions, desires and actions). This is what I call the life of a worshiper.

Then there is the term and the thought of missions. Missions by its definition of its function in churches is all about reaching the body, community and even the world for Jesus Christ – meeting physical, intellectual, emotional, spiritual and social needs of people. So we assume that being on mission 24/7 is something that is very possible. It is being salt and light, it is being a witness all the time, it is living the life of a Christ-follower.

I think that what happens is that people associate everything that happens in the church to be worship and everything that happens outside the church to be missions. In my opinion this is not the case. Worship happens more outside the church than it does within and missions happens inside the church as well as outside the walls.

So where is the collision? The collision is the sweet spot, it is the best place to be. It is where the sky meets the earth, the beautiful horizon which we’ll never actually stand in this lifetime but we are always walking towards it. The sweet spot is where heaven meets earth – and thus our one true mission is born. It is our mission as children of God and followers of Christ to see the glory of our Creator expressed in the physical, intellectual, emotional, spiritual and social lives of every person who inhabits this rock.

Do worship and missions go together? Like peanut butter and jelly. Like oreos and milk. Like wine and cheese. That’s why everyone should get to do what I get to do. That’s why no matter what my title or position on a team will ever be – I will always care about inspiring others to live lives of worship and mission 24/7.

“About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God and the other prisoners were listening to them” (Acts 16:25).

Paul and Silas had been falsely accused (that’s enough to send some of us into a spiritual funk right there), illegally beaten (they were Roman citizens) immorally beaten, denied medical care (how many of us can’t function if we get a hang nail?), were thrown in prison and as far as they could see there was no end in sight. Yet they prayed and sang.  Literally it means, “praying, they sang praises.” Instead of complaining their prayers escalated into songs of praise.

The people listened.

When you can sing through suffering instead of complaining people will listen to your message. They can see something different in you. The greater the trial the more they’ll listen. This week purpose to sing through trials.  And may the Holy Spirit enlarge your testimony and make you His witness.

There are a ja-billion definitions out there of what worship is.  However, my mind works best if I can streamline things, so I like to think of worship like this:  Worship is recognizing the truth about who God is and responding accordingly.  This helps me realize that worship can happen at any time.  When Jesus said in John 4 that we are to worship God “in spirit and in truth,” you can almost make the argument that it should be “in truth and in spirit.”  Once we are made aware of the truth about God, the only correct response can be to worship.  If I truly believe the certain truth that God made me and loves me, then my response should be to trust Him implicitly – that takes away a lot of anxiety.  A practical example would be if I’m doing laundry, I can stop and think how grateful I am that God gave me these clothes.  In that instance I have worshipped because I’ve recognized truth about God and responded accordingly by giving Him thanks and praise.

A few years ago when our daughter was ready to give birth to our first grandson, I remember thinking of all the wonderful things I was going to teach this child.  I’m trying to instill in him my love for the outdoors, music and life in general.  But recently he has been doing the  teaching and I’ve become the student.  In his mind every day is an adventure.  He is regularly fighting battles against the dark side and defending the world.  His mind is free to imagine and create an epic story to live.  Don’t you remember when you were like that?  I wonder what happens to us that suppresses that creative spirit that God breathes into us?  I’ve always tried to be mindful of maintaining freshness and creativity in my life and worship ministry, but my grandson is stirring me to press harder and fight to nurture the creative spirit that we were all given.  After all our God is an infinitely creative Spirit.  In the book “Orthodoxy” by G.K. Chesterton, he proposes that it may not be automatic necessity that causes the sun to rise.  It may be that God says each morning,”do it again” to the sun and each evening, “do it again” to the moon.  Perhaps it is not just nature that makes every daisy alike, but God creates each one individually and has never grown tired of doing it.  But we have allowed ourselves to grow weary and have lost much of the fierce creativity of our youth.  My grandson is mentoring me and helping me get it back.  Get yourself a 4 year old mentor.  It’s exciting. 

MAGNIFYING THE LORD WITH OUR WORSHIP

Psalm 34:3 says, “O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together.”
Worship is the act of enlarging God. Does he actually get bigger? No. But as we worship and put our focus totally on him, our perception of God changes.. The nearer we get to Him, the bigger He appears in our eyes.

When we begin to see God for who He really is, our perspective on everything else in life changes in comparison to how big He is. It’s just like the concept conveyed in the beautiful song penned many years ago, “Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.”

Charles Swindoll, a well-known American author and speaker, once said that life is made up of 10% what happens to us and 90% how we react to it. We can rarely control what happens in life, but we can control how we react to the situation – what attitude we will have, what course of action we will take. If we turn our eyes to Jesus and acknowledge that God is in control, we will see the situation through His eyes and from His perspective. If we draw close to Him & He draws close to us, ANY circumstance we face – no matter how big or seemingly insurmountable it seems to us – will pale in comparison to who our God is, how big He is and how capable He is.

Anything we get close to will APPEAR big to us. If you hold your tiniest finger (your pinky) close to your eye, your eye will perceive that it is really big. You can even block out large objects and whole human beings! This same concept holds true with the things we face in life. Whatever situation or circumstance that is close to us is going to appear really big and overwhelming to us. Unfortunately so many times we perceive God as smaller than He is because we have allowed our overwhelming circumstances and situations to close in around us, while we have failed to spend time with the Lord and press in close to Him. Imagine if we got as close to God as we possibly could, so close that He is ALL we can see. How much different would our perspective be on everything in life. The closer we get to God, the bigger He will be and the smaller everything else will appear to us. Our faith will be big, our outlook will be optimistic and any challenge will be conquerable.

What happened when Jesus asked Peter to step out of the boat and walk on the water with Him? As long as his gaze was fixed on Jesus he floated on the water like a buoy. The moment he starting worrying about the noise of the storm around him and looking at the wind and the waves he immediately began to sink. When he took his eyes off Jesus his fear grew and his faith shrunk. As soon as he locked eyes with Jesus again he popped back up onto the surface of the water like a buoy – his faith big again and his fear small.

There was a four-year-old girl who prayed this prayer at her dinner table one evening: “Dear Jesus, bless this food, bless mommy and daddy, and bless grandma and grandpa. And God, take care of yourself, too, ‘cause without You we’re all sunk! Amen.” In her innocent expression she wrapped up a profound truth – that we are nothing without God. Everything changes when He steps into the picture. Let’s determine to magnify the Lord and exalt Him with our lives. The bigger we see God, the bigger we will pray. The bigger we pray, the greater our answers will be.