For a Good Laugh...

Check out the Veritcal Creativity blog and DeAnn's post on "corporate" worship:

http://verticalcreativity.blogspot.com/2008/09/corporate-worship-music.html

Great stuff!

Recap of Yesterday's Worship Pow-Wow

Since some of us were not able to attend the worship team meeting yesterday (we missed ya!) I wanted to give you a quick recap of what we covered…

The focus was on Doing Life & Ministry Together…and how that involves the heart and art of us as lead worshippers. Gordon shared about Beyond Sundays and how that will be starting this Weds, Sept. 17. He also shared about how his role as Pastoral Worship Leader has really opened the door for the worship team to see him and this ministry area as safe outlets to share, confide and ask for prayer and help. We want you to continue to know how much we value being on this journey of LIFE with you – not just what you offer musically but you as a person made whole. He also covered the team covenants and suggested we keep them in a visible place as a reminder of what we are mutually striving towards and desiring together. Finally, he shared how being a servant leader is at the heart of what it means to be a worshipper. Jesus is the ultimate model for us (Philippians 2).

I shared more on the ART side of the equation…I began by thanking all of you for your love and fellowship as I continue to become a part of the “family”. It has been a joy to lead and serve all of you. Then I hit on a bunch of different ways we can serve each other:

• By bringing the best of our gifts & talents to the table each time we serve – never “mailing” it in!
• By continuing to maximize the gifts & talents God has given us (see 1 Chron. 25:7 for inspiration)
• By “releasing” our gifts to be used in whatever way best serves the needs of the team and congregation – this is a HUGE point and one I think we’ll need to keep revisiting. Nancy Beach refers to this as "holding our gifts loosely" in An Hour on Sunday
• By looking to encourage one another each time we are on the team
• By being willing to receive constructive feedback (Bonnie brought this up!) – in other words, recognizing we are all working towards the same goal (pointing each other towards our great God) and that we inspire each other to be the best we can
• By NOT wishing we were playing with different people…
• By making an effort to know who is running sound and PowerPoint and respecting their tasks
• By coming to rehearsal on time and prepared…again, respecting your teammates and their time
• FINALLY…by listening to each other. This is probably THE #1 thing every worship team I’ve ever worked with has to keep working on. I showed a clip from a Paul Baloche training DVD we are going to use in a workshop.

We ended with prayer. Here are some things to keep in mind:

• Beyond Sundays starts this Weds. Please pray!
• Sat., Nov. 1, 9 to noon – All-Team Workshop & New Song Jam (more details forthcoming)

Have a great week…

Catch the Regulators with Ken Smith

Ken Smith, who plays bass on our worship team, is in band called the Regulators. His band will be playing at the Roosevelt Tavern (click here for map) on Friday, October 17 and Friday, November 14 - both are from 8-11pm. I've heard a little bit of some of the band's music and it's got a great jazz groove - go out with the spouse or friends and support our brother Ken!

Today's Dose of Oswald Chambers

Some of you are no doubt familiar with Oswald Chambers and his daily devotional classic My Utmost for His Highest. Actually the daily entries are adapted from various lectures and talks that Chambers gave in the early 20th century.

Every time I read one of the entries in My Utmost for His Highest I come across a line that provokes and inspires me...and today was no different:

"If you have not been worshipping as occasion serves, when you get into work you will not only be useless yourself, but a tremendous hindrance to those who are associated with you."

The way I interpreted this was that if we are not worshipping God in our unseen lives we will have nothing to offer as we minister on Sunday mornings. Not only will we be unfit to genuinely lead people in worship but we will actually be a hindrance to our fellow team members.

The good news is that God is always there to forgive us and will draw near to us as we draw near to Him (James 4:8). It is a question of acknowledging our need for Him and being intentional about cultivating a lifestyle of worship. But none of should be fooled into thinking that there is an on/off switch as a worshipper. We can't just manufacture sincerity on Sunday mornings; it is the overflow of hearts that have worshipped in the small moments - the "offstage" moments.

May we all strive to be "unseen" worshippers as much as we are "seen" on Sundays.

"Kicking Off" another season of ministry

September is upon us which means schools are back in session, the days are getting shorter, the air a little crisper and the wait is over for pro football (America's game...sorry baseball fans, but it's true). My wife and I were just commenting today on how much we are looking forward to autumn since we haven't had a real autumn for the past 8 years (living in Arizona). Although we loved many things about living in Arizona we always missed the progression of the seasons...and particularly the leaves changing in the fall. But enough about us...

Just as football is kicking off its season so we - in many ways - are kicking off a new season of ministry in the Worship Arts World. The first thing we'll be doing is getting together THIS SUNDAY, Sept. 14, after the services for a Worship Team Meeting. It will begin at 12:30 in Rooms A103 G&H (adjacent to the coffee bar). We'll provide a healthy & delicious pizza lunch along with drinks. Gordon and I will be sharing some thoughts about this next season of ministry and specifically the idea of doing LIFE TOGETHER. As you know by now we have a new mid-sized community group called Beyond Sundays that is launching Weds., Sept. 17. But we will also be giving everyone a taste of a workshop we'd like to do in early November on playing as a TEAM.

So you won't want to miss this Sunday's meeting...

I realize we haven't been updating this blog a lot during the summer but I think a flurry of activity will begin as we kick off things here in September. We are excited to be on this journey with all of you as together we look to grow in our love & faithfulness towards God and one another.

Isaiah 6 and Surrender

At last night's rehearsal we looked at Isaiah 6, where the prophet Isaiah has a vision of God seated on His heavenly throne. As I was thinking about the issue of yielding to the Lordship of Christ - the theme of this week's Urban Legends message - I considered the connection between seeing the greatness of God and surrending to His control. There is a progression at work in Isaiah 6, a sequence that has vast implications for how we understand our role as lead worshippers.

First, Isaiah looks UPWARD - he is ushered into the very presence of Almighty God - and sees the unfathomable greatness and inescapable holiness of Yahweh. Angels are tirelessly worshipping before the throne of God. Imagine for a moment what Isaiah must have been thinking...is this really happening? Am I still alive? It would be an understatement to say that at that moment Isaiah was in awe of God.

Isaiah then immediately looks INWARD and realizes that in the presence of a Holy God he is utterly un-holy. He says "woe is me!" for he knows that no one sees God and lives to tell about it. He is at point of great despair and absolute terror. He is in need of forgiveness, but where will it come from? In a beautifully symbolic picture and prefiguring of Christ's atonement an angelic being brings a hot coal from the heavenly altar and touches Isaiah's uncleap lips. The angel pronounces Isaiah forgiven: "your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for" (v.7). God has made a way for Isaiah to stand before His throne without Isaiah being completely annihilated.

The last and almost surprising part of the story is the OUTWARD focus - Isaiah responds to God's question of "who will go for us?" with a resounding "Here am I! Send me" (v.8). Having witnessed the greatness of God and received forgiveness he is at point where he is ready to be commissioned as God's ambassador. His willingness to go is in stark contrast to his previous fear! What has made the difference? Isaiah has received forgiveness and understands that God's grace forgives and empowers.

The UPWARD-INWARD-OUTWARD focus is a biblical template for planning worship services. But it also should be our daily experience - that we catch a fresh vision of God's greatness, love, power; that we confess our sins and trust His provision for them through Christ's death; and that we surrender ourselves once again to God's purposes.

We don't arrive at surrender from the get go - it is the response to God's mercy and the overflow of a heart that has been transformed by it.