Merry Christmas everyone! It was great to gather with the Body of Christ and worship together on Christmas morning. It was a great service and a fun, relaxed one. We told everyone that kids, and those that still feel like kids, could wear their PJs to church. It was fun to see people do that. It was also a bittersweet service too. This was my wife and I's last Sunday at Bethel. Over the last few months, we have been sensing God bringing our time and ministry at Bethel to a close and today was our last day. You can see a previous post about this here. It's gonna be a journey of really trusting God, but my wife and I are excited to see what God does. Hoping everyone else had some great Christmas services!
This is a special Christmas Eve episode of Sunday Setlists, even though it was a Saturday night. Here is our setlist for Christmas Eve, December 24th.
- Joy to the World by Chris Tomlin - The First Noel by David Crowder - Welcome & Prayer - The Gift of Jesus Christ (choir song) - Advent Reading - O Come All Ye Faithful - Away in a Manger - O Holy Night - Scripture Reading: Luke 1.26-38 and Matthew 1.18-25 - The Lightlings by R.C. Sproul (video) - Message - Prayer - Lighting of Candles - Silent Night by Matt Maher - Hark the Herald Angels Sing
What a wonderful Christmas Eve service at Bethel! It was a blessing to gather together and worship Christ, the newborn King! Below you can find a preview of The Lightlings story by R.C. Sproul.
This is one blog post that I've been trying to write for a while, but just haven't found the words to say. I figured the best way to hopefully have it come out is to just start writing. I was looking at the title for my blog, Journey of a Worshipper, and this definitely falls in that category. Four and a half years ago in July of 2007 after having just gotten married, my wife and I started a journey in ministry at Bethel Baptist Church. After having talked with the Senior Pastor during my last semester of college, we got plugged into the church and I began leading worship. In October of 2007 I was brought on staff part-time as the Director of Worship Ministries. It was a joy to get a job doing what I believe God has called me to do. Throughout my time at Bethel, God has done some great things in the life of the church, the people there, and personally in my life. I believe I have grown as a folllower of Christ, husband to my lovely wife, as a worshipper and as a worship leader. I'm forever grateful for my pastor and elder board for taking a chance on a young guy, fresh out of college, entering into his first ministry position and the journey has been one I will never forget. This journey brings us to the end of 2011 and my last week on staff at Bethel. A few months ago my wife and I have sensed that God was bringing our time and ministry at Bethel to a close. Throughout months of prayer and conversation we believe that is indeed what He was doing. It wasn't an easy decision to make, but one we believe we needed to follow. About a month and a half ago I brought this to the attention of my pastor and elder board and now we near my last day on Christmas Day.
This decision has obviously raised a lot of questions; Are you moving? Where are you going to go to church? What will you be doing now? etc. At this point in time we're staying in Northern California. My wife has a steady full-time job and I have another part-time job. We don't know where we will be going to church yet. I don't know what else I will be doing yet. Over the years I have been searching for God's direction in a full-time worship position, but to this point in time He hasn't provided that for me. I will continue that search and just wait for His provision. In this journey that has probably been the hardest part for me, and in the mean time, I didn't think I would be leaving Bethel before He had provided that. But now my wife and I take a step out in faith, trusting that God will provide in His timing.
Week #178 of Sunday Setlists. Here is our setlist for Sunday, December 18th.
- Born is the King by Hillsong - Go Tell It On the Mountain - O Come, O Come, Emmanuel by David Crowder - How Should a King Come? (choir song) - The Gift of Jesus Christ (choir song)
We had a great service at Bethel! The Sunday before Christmas we always have a special Christmas service with a brunch afterwards. The last couple years we have also formed a choir and we did the same this year. The choir did a great job. The worship team did a great job as well. The team loved the new Hillsong tune. It's a lot of fun. I also love David Crowder's version of O Come, O Come, Emmanuel. Looking forward to next weekend as we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Week #177 of Sunday Setlists. Here is our setlist for Sunday, December 11th.
- Glorified by Jared Anderson - Shout to the Lord by Darlene Zschech - Angels We Have Heard On High - Joy to the World by Chris Tomlin (without the chorus & key change)
It was a good morning at Bethel. This morning we had a praise service. It was nice to have more music than usual in a service. We also had a time of sharing with the congregation. Great to hear what God is doing in the lives of the people of Bethel. It was also the second Sunday of Advent and we celebrated communion. The worship team did great with all the music and it's my prayer that God was glorified in everything that happened this morning.
Great morning of worship on this Sunday after Thanksgiving. It was also the start of Advent and this year I found a great resource from Mark D. Roberts; Advent Devotional Guide: Preparing for the Coming of Christ. There are lots of reading out there based on a lot of different meanings for the candles, but this one really spoke to me this year. I'm looking forward to seeing what God does in the season of the church.
Good morning of worship. Bethel really seems to be grabbing a hold of Our God. It's such a great song with great lyrics. Really grateful for one of my other worship leaders introducing it last week. I have a feeling it's going to be one of those songs that will be around a while.
I am incredibly blessed to work with such a great team that has others that are willing to use their gifts and lead our congregation in worship. We're a relatively small church and there is a great team of people a part of the music/worship ministry. Praying that ours and others services were a blessing to those that walked through the doors.
Really enjoyed using one of John Mark McMillan's new songs from his new album Economy this morning. I think it's a fantastic song and I pray that people heard the message and that God was glorified through it. It's a song that shares the Gospel and the reason that we're to glorify God, because through His Son's death that we are called sons and daughters of God. The reason we celebrate communion is to remember what God did for us and I hope that through that song we remember exactly that.
I have had the privilege of getting to listen to this new album from John Mark McMillan for about the past month and it is absolutely fantastic! If you're at all familiar with his last album, The Medicine(you can check out my review of that album here), then you will not be disappointed at all with this brand new release, Economy. This project keeps the familiar voice and rich, creative lyrics of John Mark. As I said about his last album, you can't help but be drawn into what he is creating. As you hear how John Mark talks about the album you get the sense of how personal it is to him and the realness comes out in the music. He's not making an album just to make an album; it's an album that serves a greater purpose. John Mark says this,
"There's a lot of hope and a lot of looking forward on this album. It's more than just thinking you can live, but you can thrive. You can survive and we can do it together. The first time someone hears this album, they could walk away with the feeling that they experienced something real, that they feel the heart of a real person."
As a worship leader I love that this album lends itself to corporate worship more that The Medicine. A couple weeks ago I had the chance to attend the San Francisco show of David Crowder Band's 7 Tour and John Mark played some of these new tunes and it felt more like a time of worship than just a show. As you listen to these songs you really feel the hope of a Savior that can overcome anything we find ourselves up against.
Sheet of Night: The CD begins with the familiar John Mark sound. Right away you get the feeling for the album though and the contrast between darkness and the hope we find in the light. "The devil's dealing dirty. The living isn't easy. But like diamonds we shine up against the sheet of night, the jet-black sheet of night. Whoa, we've got a blood, we've got a love that that'll brave the flood."
Murdered Son: It's with this track where I really started to feel the ability to be used in corporate worship. This is a song that shares the hope that we have through the Gospel; the Son of God dying for us so that we can be raised as sons and daughters of God. "Glory to One, God’s murdered son. Who paid for my resurrection. Once from the dust, once from the grave, daughters and sons from the ashes you’ve raised. And hidden our faults even from your own face. And scattered our debt upon the waves. Glory to the one who overcame in death. Glory to the one who paid for my offenses." Download the chart here.
Sins Are Stones: On this track, you will notice the familiar melody from the hymn O Come All Ye Faithful. This is another track that I believe will work well in corporate worship. The familiar melody, even though with different lyrics, will make it easy to catch on to. This is a song, that for those of us that have been changed by Christ, we can truly sing out from our hearts in praise! "By the blood of a son, I have overcome the grave. Recompense is made for the guilty and the shamed. For eternity is gained in the arms of the slain. Oh my soul praise him." Download the chart here.
Special thanks to Integrity Music for providing this complimentary pre-release album to listen to and review. You can download the album here on iTunes or amazon.com.
It was a good morning of worship at Bethel. The team did great and I felt that the songs really linked up well with the message this morning. It's my prayer that what we're doing is really drawing people in to worship. So often it looks like people are participating and I know people show it in different ways, but I really hope that somehow they're connecting with God through our time of singing. I pray that for myself as well.
Struggling to write things here this week. I pray that it was a great service, but personally I just wasn't with it on Sunday. We had a great three days before Sunday with other Bethel couples for a retreat, but then late Saturday I had other things that went late into the evening and then Sunday I woke up with a headache. Was tired and not really with it. I don't like mornings like that, but I guess everyone probably has them. Praying that everyone else had a great morning of worship.
Even though Rumors of God: Experience the Kind of Faith You've Only Heard About by Darren Whitehead and Jon Tyson is an easy book to read, it certainly is a book worth reading by everyone. Whitehead and Tyson explore the notion that says the churches best days are behind them and argue that that is not the case. They explore "rumors" about God and the Christian life that we truly need to take to heart. In the beginning of the book they quote C.S. Lewis; "The world is a great sculptor's shop. We are the statues and there is a rumor going round the shop that some of us are some day going to come to life." God calls us to come to life in Him, and we can do that by continuing to unpack these "rumors" that Whitehead and Tyson go through. As we search the scriptures, our hearts, and ultimately God's heart, we begin to realize that these "rumors" are not rumors at all, and we turn to the TRUTHS of God! I love how the authors reiterate this truth at the end of each chapter.
- "These are the stories of statues coming to life. The rumors are true." - "And most of all may you discover that these rumors of God are true as you pursue his fame and deeds in our time." - "May Christ be our gain and may we take hold of the life that is truly life." - "May we all experience not just the rumors of passion, but its overflowing reality as we remain in his love." - "He is waiting to confirm that the rumors of grace are true." - "The rumors of freedom and forgiveness are true." - "May these rumors of commitment become a defining reality in our day." - "I believe people would find out that the rumors are true-that we are, in fact, handiwork." - "May we be the hands and feet of Jesus and transform these rumors of justice into reality in our world." - "The rumors of God are true. Jesus rose from the dead, and so did the hopes of all those who are looking for a revolution. The statues are coming to life."
Special thanks to Thomas Nelson and BookSneeze for providing this complimentary book to read and review. You can purchase the book here on amazon.com.
It was a good service this morning. We've been having a missions emphasis these last two Sundays. Our speaker was Jeff Gilman who is the director of the Redwood Gospel Mission here in Santa Rosa. We also had their Men's Choir with us (which is why we only had two songs). He brought a great message. I also took a step out and lead without chord charts this morning. This is something I've really wanted to do, and luckily with only two songs and them being songs we do quite often, I decided to give it a shot. It went great. It was really nice to not have that little distraction of music on a stand in front of me. I felt like I was able to connect with the congregation more. Definitely gonna work harder at this in the future. I would love to be able to not use music at all on Sunday mornings.
This week I was on vacation back in Ohio. My wife and I took a week to visit my family as well as attend homecoming at our alma mater Cedarville University. It was a great trip! Always enjoy getting to spend time with my family, but it was also a blast to get back to CU and see a lot of great friends and profs. I'm so thankful for my time at CU and it was great to be back. It was also my classes 5 year reunion. Hard to believe it's been that long already (though technically only 4 years for me as I extended my college time to 5 years). Our trip ended by being able to worship with our old church there, Southeastern Baptist Church. It was great to see everyone there. During our time back at CU, I was also blessed to have the opportunity to lead worship in chapel. It was so great to lead the student body in worship. I got together a great group of friends and everything went incredibly well. So I will add one more setlist to this post.
Cedarville University Chapel Edition: - God Is Able by Hillsong - Stronger by Hillsong
Trying to get caught up from going on vacation. It's been over a week since the 25th, so this is going to be a pretty short post; basically just our songs from the morning.
It was a good morning. The team did great. The songs fit really well, especially the closing song. Our pastor brought us a message on healing from Acts 9.32-42. It was a tough message for some and I know the closing song was tough as well, but I feel that is was the perfect song to end the service with. I pray that people were blessed and ultimately that God was honored this morning.
Week #164 of Sunday Setlists. Here is our setlist for Sunday, September 11th.
- 'Tis So Sweet to Trust In Jesus - Leaning on the Everlasting Arms - You Are God Alone by Billy Foote - Stronger by Hillsong
It was a great morning of worship. One of my volunteers did a great job of selecting songs that fit well together and with the message. It's been great having some of my volunteers step up and take the lead on some Sundays. Today I got to just be a part of the team and play bass. Been a while since I've gotten to do that and it was a nice change.
We also remember this day 10 years ago, September 11, 2001. As I'm sure like most of you the knowledge of this day brings back many mixed emotions. A lot of you remember exactly where you were and what you were doing when you found out about what had happened in New York City, then in Washington D.C. and in Pennsylvania; I know I do. For one, it is my mom's birthday. It was my senior year in high school, and I was in our music wing in a practice room preparing for college music auditions. At one point in practicing a piece, I had a question for my band director. I walked out of the practice room and down to his office only to find the office empty. His office is connected to our band room so I figured he was in there. When I walked through the door I saw him, other music teachers and fellow students crowded around the two TVs in the room with their gazes fixed on the images of the towers engulfed in flames and smoke. I don't know if I ever got my question answered, I don't even remember what it was now. The rest of that day was filled with our regular schedule of classes, but no lessons were taught. It was a school day where no one could take their eyes off the TVs. It was a day I saw a high school, faculty and students, come together and comfort one another. It was a day none of us will ever forget. We remember and honor all those that lost their lives that day, their families that were left behind, all the first responders that on that day, and every day, put their lives on the line for us, and ultimately for the men and women in the armed services that have fought and died and those that continue to fight for our freedoms in this country. THANK YOU!
It was a great morning of worship. The team did great with the songs and everything fit well with the message and our time of communion towards the end of the service.
This past week, my wife and I also had the chance to take a short trip to Colorado. While we were there we had the church to attend New Life Church's Friday night service for college and 20-somethings, theMILL. It was a great service. It was really nice to attend a service and be led in worship. Actually, it made me want to get back to my church and lead worship that much more. It was a fantastic service to attend as it was their pastors last service before he leaves to plant a new church. What was so great is that we witnessed a church love on their pastor who had served faithfully for 11 years. It truly was a blessing to be a part of that night.
Good morning of worship. John did a great job choosing the songs and leading worship this morning. I believe the songs fit the message perfectly. The congregation really seems to be connecting with Song of Moses. It's been a fantastic song to introduce to our congregation and I'm glad they're connecting with it.
Mirror Ball: Living Boldly and Shining Brightly For the Glory of God is the brand new book by worship leader, songwriter, and author Matt Redman. Many of you may be familiar of Matt Redman because you've sang his songs in church, but he is also a fantastic author. As a worship leader myself, I'm always interested in resources by other worship leaders. I have never been disappointed by any of Matt Redman's music or other books and this book continues that trend. This book is a very quick read, but don't doubt it's impact because of that. I also love how some the ideas and themes he presents in this book follow along with his latest worship project, 10,000 Reasons. I found myself being led in worship by reading the words on the pages. He also includes discussion guides in the back half of the book. Throughout this book Redman calls us to live a life of worship. As much as this is a call for us personally, it's also a call to the entire Church. Our God is big and no matter how inadequate we feel, because of God's redemptive work in our hearts we can shine forth the light of God. I love the story Redman shares in the beginning of the book regarding Louie Giglio's idea to have a mirror ball come down from the ceiling during a part of the Passion Conference. They're in a massive arena and when Matt Redman sees the small size of the mirror ball he's worried that it is not going to make any kind of impact and is going to turn out to be the worst idea ever. However is the service when the time came, the ball dropped and bright beams of light hit the ball and the light radiated to all corners of the arena. It may have been small and seemed in adequate, but the result was anything but. Because of the love of God and Him living in us, we need to radiate His light through us by the lives that we live. We become the mirror ball for His light that shines upon us.
"When God shines upon His church, we become a dazzling testimony to His awesome radiance. You may feel ineffective. You might have lost confidence in your ability to shine. You may think you are too small or inconsequential to ever be of any value in the kingdom of God. But no matter at all-for, in the end, it is all a matter of light. His light. The life of worship never begins with you. It starts and ends with Jesus."
Greg Laurie has written a great book; Let God Change Your Life: How to Know and Follow Jesus. This is definitely not a book for just non-believers or new believers. This is a book that every believer should read. Laurie challenges us to take a long, hard look at the Christian life we're living. "What often is perceived as the Christian life is, in many ways, not what the Bible teaches. Are you really living the Christian life as Jesus meant for you to live it? If your Christian experience feels dull and unfulfilling, then it's time to seriously examine Jesus' teaching regarding discipleship. Radical Christian living is really normal Christian living." There is so much more to this life that we're living than the way we're living it. It causes me to seriously look into my own life and reexamine how I'm living my own life in light of how God truly called me to live it. Laurie takes on three aspects of our relationship with and following Christ;
• How to Know God
• Discipleship
• Making Him Known
Laurie takes us on a logical progression of how we should be living our lives. He begins right where it's needed the most; the heart. What we find throughout the pages of this book is how to live the Christian life based in the Bible. Laurie's book is a challenge and one that shouldn't be taken lightly. "'Are you a laborer in the harvest?' Laurie asks. 'The complainers are many. The observers are many. The spectators are many. The critics are many. But the laborers are few. We need laborers in the harvest. Will you become one?' Let God Change Your Life is a bold challenge to Christians everywhere to rethink their lives in terms of dynamic New Testament living."
A good morning. We also introduced a new song; Song of Moses by Aaron Keyes. Everyone seemed to grab a hold of it. I played/sang the chorus for them and then had them sing it along with me, and this was probably one of the few times I could really hear everyone singing. Here is a blog post from Aaron Keyes' blog about the song. I love the lyrics of it and how it's grounded in scripture. We rearranged the order of the song and repeated some of the sections, so I took the opportunity to break up the song with adding some scripture and it fit perfectly. After the scripture, we went back into the bridge of the song; "The Lord shall reign forever and ever." Here is the passage I used.
Psalm 97
1 The Lord reigns, let the earth be glad;
let the distant shores rejoice.
2 Clouds and thick darkness surround him;
righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.
3 Fire goes before him
and consumes his foes on every side.
4 His lightning lights up the world;
the earth sees and trembles.
5 The mountains melt like wax before the Lord,
before the Lord of all the earth.
6 The heavens proclaim his righteousness,
and all peoples see his glory.
9 For you, Lord, are the Most High over all the earth;
you are exalted far above all gods.
10 Let those who love the Lord hate evil,
for he guards the lives of his faithful ones
and delivers them from the hand of the wicked.
11 Light shinest on the righteous
and joy on the upright in heart.
12 Rejoice in the Lord, you who are righteous,
and praise his holy name.
Frank Viola has come out with his new book, Revise Us Again: Living from a Renewed Christian Script. Not a difficult book to read, but it has a great feel to it. It really feels as if your sitting down with someone and chatting over a cup of coffee. It's a nice change to some of the deep theological books where you have to constantly be thinking of the content and questions. That's not to say that this book doesn't make you think. Viola calls us to revisit and revise the script that we've been living our lives by. With all the advances in technology, all kinds of churches, all kinds of teachings, all kinds of books, cultural influences, etc., the way we're told to live our lives can become distorted. It's easy to go along with the next great idea, but it may not be the way that God calls us to live. Viola calls for us to return to the only script worth living by; the Word of God. This books makes you look into your heart and your relationship with the Lord, then revise those things that don't match up with the teachings of Jesus. The way we are to live our lives is found in the pages of the Word of God and how Jesus lived. I love Viola's transparency, as he writes this about the book, "I'm simply sharing some of the discoveries I've made in my own personal struggles and challenges as a follower of Jesus Christ." He doesn't say that it's going to be easy, but it's something that needs to be done. I believe there is something in this book for every believer. It's a call to come back to the Gospel of Jesus Christ; we're called to be Christ-like and live like Jesus did. These are the areas that Viola tackles in this book; Revising the Lord's Voice, Revising Christianeze, Revising Christian Code Language, Revising Our Semantics, Revising Our Message, Revising Our Awareness of the Diving, Revising Our Attitudes, Revising Our Spiritual Expectations, Revising the Holy Spirit's Ministry, and Revising Our Chief Pursuit.
Pastor Robert Morris just released his new book, The God I Never Knew: How Real Friendship with the Holy Spirit Can Change Your Life. This is a book I was really excited to read. Morris writes this on the back cover; "To many people the Holy Spirit is mysterious, confounding, and ever controversial. Why is the third person in the Godhead-the one whom Jesus said would be the believer's ultimate source of truth and unending comfort-the source of so much confusion?" I have often wondered myself what the Holy Spirit's role is in my spiritual journey. Through the process of reading this book though, I became less and less excited to continue reading. I feel that this book was broken into two sections. The first section regarding the truth of the Holy Spirit and what He promises to do in your life; dwell with you, be your helper, guide you into all truth, comfort you, pray for you, show you things to come, and never leave you. Morris helps us understand that view of the Holy Spirit should be about a relationship. However, moving into the second part of the book I feel as if it's more about defending a view then showing us the Holy Spirit. It feels as if I'm being forced to believe a certain view than discover what this relationship is all about. Instead of finishing the book feeling like I now know someone I didn't know very well before, I'm left with a lot of questions and not sure what I believe.
Another good morning of worship. It's been nice to have these could Sunday's a month where others from my worship team take the lead. Nice to sit back and see them do it and just play. We also got back into our Acts series this morning.
It was a great morning of worship. Also, the sound system was much better this Sunday than the past couple. It was also a very different Sunday as we didn't have much of a message, but instead spent some time praying as a church at a lot of different prayer stations that each had a different focus. For those that find this that are worship leaders, I want to take this moment to share with you all a resource that I recently came across. My friend Adam Hundley shared with me a fantastic app for the iPad called OnSong. It's a great app for managing all your chord charts and using the iPad to display them on a Sunday morning. I was previously having to shorten and convert all my charts to PDF and pull them in with Stanza. There's a decent amount of time involved changing the charts to the right format, but once that's done it's a great app. This was the first time that I used it, but I plan on using it for a while.
Wow, what a morning... our sound check/run-through couldn't have gone worse. It had nothing to do with the music but all with our in-ear monitors. Nothing was working right. By the time the service started things still weren't perfect but we made it through. Definitely gonna have some work to do in the sanctuary to get things worked out. One thing that was fun this morning was that since one of my worship team members was leading, I got the chance to just play bass this morning. I don't get to do it a lot any more, so it was nice just to just play and not have to worry about anything else. Definitely needed that after running around like a chicken with head cut off all morning.
What an interesting morning. We were having all kinds of sound issues. Most likely most of them were because we had to pull apart our system for the outdoor service last weekend and just need to get things dialed back in correctly. Then some time during the announcement time between the first and second songs, the battery in my guitar went out. Of course I didn't know until I went to start the second song. Luckily I am thankful to have a great team, and even though they didn't hear my guitar they everyone kept going. It ended up going just fine for the next two songs. Then during the message I was able to get the battery changed and we were back to normal for the last song. Hopefully we can get the sound stuff dialed in for next Sunday and we'll be good to go.
This past Sunday was our 4th Annual Outdoor Service. We wanted to do something different and it's also become an outreach event as well. It's a lot of fun doing the service outdoors. It sure is a ton of work though with making sure the tents get set up, getting staging, and then getting all the sound gear set up. And that's just before the service, then we have tear everything down again and get everything re-connected in the sanctuary. By the time I left on Sunday, I had been at the church 11 hours. I'm just glad we don't do it more than once a year. We start the service a little later and then we do a big BBQ afterwards. This year we also had a rib cook-off contest. I had the privilege of being a judge! Then we had some water slides, a jump house, kiddie pools, and a slip-n-slide for some fun after the BBQ. The worship team sounded great. Being outdoors we don't have to worry as much about volume so we can really let loose a little bit. I also picked mostly up-tempo songs to help with that. All in all it was a really great time and I'm glad that we do it.
Another good morning of worship! The team did great and the congregation seemed to connect with the songs this morning. It's been great to add Chosen Generation to the rotation of songs; such a great song!
Not a Fan: Becoming a Completely Committed Follower of Jesus Christ by Kyle Idleman is a book that will cause you to heavily evaluate your own life and truly figure out where you stand in your relationship with Jesus Christ. Are you truly a follower or are you a fan (an enthusiastic admirer)? He begins with a passage of scripture from Matthew 7 where Jesus talks about a day when everyone will stand before God and some that were confident in their standing with Him will hear, “I never knew you. Away from me.” A sobering thought and not one that I want to hear on that day. Throughout the rest of the book, Idleman works on helping us diagnose whether we are a fan or a follower. He breaks up the book into three sections; Part 1: Fan or Follower? An Honest Diagnosis, Part 2: An Invitation to Follow, and Part 3: Following Jesus. Wherever. Whenever. Whatever. Part 1 is all about us defining where our relationship with God is. Idleman takes us to the Gospels and uses the examples of the people that Jesus came in contact with as case studies for us to study. Then at that point we have to ask ourselves whether we are a fan or a follower. Part 2 is causing us to look at where we are in light of the Gospel. The chapter that got to me the most is on totally surrendering yourself to God. So often we try to keep a hold of things, but the only way to truly becoming a completely committed follower of Jesus is to completely surrender ourselves to Him. This is something that I struggle with, but having read this book and especially that chapter, it’s something that I now understand and am working towards. As we get into Part 3, we realize the demand it takes to be a follower. There is no break. To be a follower, it’s a decision to follow wherever, whenever, and whatever He decides. This isn’t something to be taken lightly, but our eternity is at stake. Don’t forget about those in Matthew chapter 7 that heard words from God they thought they would never hear because they were “certain” that they were followers.
Special thanks to Zondervan for providing this complimentary book to read and review. You can purchase the book here on amazon.com.
We had such a great service this past Sunday. Our pastor was on vacation so the elders planned the service and it was made into a patriotic and communion service. The way the two were blended was perfect. We spent time praising God and thanking Him for the freedoms we have in this country and then went into sharing about the freedoms that we have in Christ Jesus because of what He did on the cross. It was the perfect way to blend the holiday weekend with the sacrament of communion. We had a lot of music which was a nice change and the team did great with all of it.
I'm very glad that I had the pleasure of reading Stephen Altrogge's new book The Greener Grass Conspiracy: Finding Contentment on Your Side of the Fence. The content of this book is absolutely fantastic and I believe very relevant to our time. I also found it very relevant to my life. Altrogge begins the book with this statement, "I've never believed in conspiracies." He then goes on to say, "Then I discovered that I was part of a conspiracy...it's a conspiracy between the world, my heart, and Satan to steal my happiness. These three are plotting and scheming together to make me perpetually discontent." There is so much vying for our attention that we continually play the "if only" game. He says at the very beginning that he’s not writing it as someone that is content but as someone that is still battling in this area. He wants us to fight with him, and I for one want to join in that fight. As I continued to read page after page, I saw so much of me and what I struggle with. This book has made me stop and think about where I need to go to find the contentment that I long for. Altrogge continues to point us to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This is where we need to go. He writes this,
“The Gospel of Christ is the fountainhead of contentment. In the gospel we have access to infinite blessings. But if we don’t drink often we will always be thirsty.”
If we lose sight of the fact that contentment comes only from God we’re always going to be searching for it in something or someone else, and that will never quench that thirst. Until Jesus Christ comes again and takes us home to heaven, we’re always going to struggle with this. We can continue to find contentment in Christ, but there is always going to be a struggle and a pull for us to be discontent and search for contentment in all the wrong places. Altrogge leaves us with hope though. We have hope in the Gospel of Christ now, but we also have the hope of heaven for when Christ comes back or we go to heaven to be with Him forever. He concludes his book by pointing us to heaven, “When we’re in heaven, the battle will be over. Contentment will not be a struggle. Peace, pleasure, and joy will take the day. This is my hope. I haven’t yet learned to be content in all circumstances, but I’m fighting. I’m fighting because I know this isn’t my home. I was made for Jesus, and I was made for heaven. And so were you. But until that day we need to fight.”
Special thanks to Crossway for providing this complimentary book to read and review. You can purchase the book here on amazon.com.
All in all it was a great morning of worship. Had one of those awkward moments though. For Come Thou Fount, Come Thou King I decided to try something different I've never done before, put my guitar in Drop D tuning. With so much of that song landing on a D or having a D constantly in the bass, I thought it would be a nice to touch to add it from my guitar and it was. I had no problem getting the E string tuned down to D, however it ended up proving harder to get it back up to the E for the next song. Sure enough, the next song was in the key of G and I hit that first strum, and the bottom string was definitely not tuned right. So had to stop and quickly tune it up. I was trying to do it by ear as I don't have a pedal tuner or one of the ones that clips on the headstock. I had some of the other worship team members read scripture to allow me time to tune it, but with the other sounds going on, I just couldn't quite hear it well enough to get it tuned right. Guess I might need to invest in a new tuner.
A very Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there, especially my dad and father-in-law. It was a great morning of worship. Because of our church's new 5-year vision, we've made a few changes in our worship ministry. We want to be able to allow our people to use the gifts they were given to minister. So my pastor and elders came to me with an idea to allow a couple of my worship team members who have experience leading worship, to take the lead once a month each. This is the second Sunday that that has taken place now. So this Sunday I was able to just be up there and play guitar. It was a nice change of pace. I'm looking forward to seeing how the worship ministry grows and expands because of this new setup. I'm very thankful to serve with such capable people. You can check out the video we used for Father's Day here. Everyone seemed to love it.
