Faith

12 November: Tuesday Refocus

in

"God patiently waits until we are ready to trust and surrender, In other cases, we genuinely have the desire, but need more time to grow. Even though God's grace moves swiftly, all authentic human growth happens slowly. Little by little, his grace stretches us through holy desires, careful not to break us.” - Fr. Derek Sakowski

In sorrow and suffering we can be tempted to believe that God is distant. But perhaps, these realities for the children of God are not evidence of God’s distance, but of His nearness (Psalm 77). And the good news for the people of God is that God’s nearness is always our good (Psalm 73:28). He is holding our days and our longings in the same hands where are names are engraved (Psalm 31:15, Psalm 38:9, Isaiah 49:16).

Father, thank you that our lives and longings are safe in Your hands. Amen.

Amen,

AB

21 May: Tuesday Refocus

in

“I’m inclined to believe that God delights in healing our wounded hearts so as to increase our capacity for love. To receive it and give it away requires a freedom that trauma rejects but glory to God that His Spirit is stronger than our pain.” - Jackie Hill Perry

When you have been saved into a family - into a people - nothing that you possess is only for you (1 Peter 2:10). Your gifts and talents, experiences, and the healing of your wounded heart are tools of your own sanctification as well as the building up of the body to which you belong (Romans 12:3-8, 13).

“The Christian leader of the future is called to be completely irrelevant and to stand in this world with nothing to offer but his or her own vulnerable self. God loves us, not because of what we do or accomplish, but because God has created and redeemed us in love.” - Henri Nouwen

Father, may you continue to heal and make whole hearts that have been broken by sin - our sin and the sin of others. So that you may be glorified and our neighbors, families, and enemies alike might be served. In Christ’s name, amen.

Amen,

AB

Tuesday Refocus: May 9

in

“Yours is the day, yours also the night; you have established the heavenly lights and the sun. You have fixed all the boundaries of the earth; you have made summer and winter.” - Psalm 74:16-17

Sometimes like the disciples in a storm-tossed boat I wonder aloud, ’Teacher, don’t you care that we are perishing?’ (Mark 4:39). He is the One who spoke creation into existence, and upholds it by the word of His power (Gen 1:3, Heb 1:3). He is the One who will never leave me or forsake me, the One who never slumbers or sleeps, and yet sometimes my circumstances lead me to question His presence, and His power (Heb 13:5, Ps 121:1).

But the Spirit still hovers over the chaos - including the chaos of my own heart, soul, and spirit (Gen 1:2). He is still the one who has ‘measured the waters the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with a span, enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure and weighted the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance…’ (Is 40:12).

It is not just the day that He controls, but the night also. When I ‘…walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.’ (Ps 23:4). In all seasons, at all times, there is nothing outside of His control. Nothing can thwart his purpose and His plan. With confidence we can lie down and sleep in peace, and awake to new mercies, because the boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places (Ps 4:8, Lam 3:22-23, Ps 16:6).

Lord, where can we go from your presence? May we know your nearness as our good today and every day, amen.

Resting,

AB 

10 July: Liturgy + Set List

in ,

  • 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

3 April: Liturgy + Set List

in , , ,

  • YES AND AMEN

Welcome to this fifth Sunday of Lent. Let’s hear God call us to worship through His Word:

Call to Worship: Psalm 50

My hope and prayer in this season of Lent are that we are awakened afresh and anew to the deep darkness of our own sin and brokenness, and awakened afresh and anew to the glory of God and His grace and kindness toward us in and through the work of Jesus. Because of what Christ has done for you, you are adopted into the family of God, with God as your Father. If you are here this morning as a follower of Christ, God is not apathetic or indifferent toward you, He is not distant or an acquaintance, you are an adopted and redeemed child of God. Not only has God reconciled Himself to us through Christ, but he has also reconciled us one to another. We were once enemies of God, we were once enemies of one another, now we are a part of the new family of God. Let’s celebrate those truths as brothers and sisters this morning.

  • IS HE WORTHY

  • MY JESUS I LOVE THEE

Sermon: Joshua 22

If we truly grasped the depth to which Christ descended to redeem us from our sin, how quick we would be to confess our sin to God, and to one another. How quick we would be to pursue one another in our wandering and sin, and walk together toward repentance and faith. All sin is first and foremost against God, but we also sin against one another. Your spiritual stuff is my spiritual stuff, my spiritual stuff is your spiritual stuff because we belong together as the family of God. So let’s practice our repentance and faith together, would you stand as we confess our sin to God and to one another.

Corporate Confession:

Almighty God, we confess how hard it is to be Your people. You have called us to be the church, to continue the mission of Jesus Christ to our lonely and confused world. Yet we acknowledge we are more apathetic than active, isolated than involved, callous than compassionate, obstinate than obedient, legalistic than loving.

Gracious Lord, have mercy upon us and forgive our sins. Remove the obstacles preventing us from being Your representatives to a broken world. Awaken our hearts to the promised gift of your indwelling Spirit. This we pray in Jesus’ powerful name. Amen.

[From the Worship Sourcebook]

Brothers and sisters, family of God, hear the good news: there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Let your brothers and sisters in Christ be living markers of God’s faithfulness and redemptive work to you as His people.

  • COME THOU FOUNT

  • LION AND THE LAMB

Benediction: Romans 15:13

Learning To Lead During COVID-19 (Two Years On)

in , ,

In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, I wrote about learning to lead worship during COVID-19. Two years on I am still learning. Maybe you are too. I hope these brief reflections can at least make you feel less alone, and hopefully encourage you to keep going…

I believe that hard things do not change us as much as they expose us. And our hearts and lives have been exposed by COVID-19 in ways that many of us have previously been able to avoid or ignore.

What do we value?

Whose lives matter?

Are masks a sign of fear, and going maskless a sign of faith?

Are vaccines helpful and useful, or reckless and untested?

Are there only ever two sides and two options?

Is everything black or white?

What is selfish and self-serving, what is foolish and careless?

Can I be friends with people who think and believe differently than me, or must we now become enemies?

Are we going to be discipled by culture and politics or by the Gospel?

The ugliness of my heart has been exposed in the pandemic: my tendency to judge other people, other followers of Jesus against myself and my own decisions. To look for specs through a log.

When I am attentive to the conviction of the Holy Spirit within rather than an outward condemnation of the pharisee within, I can see these places of friction as opportunities for repentance and prayer.

If we are willing these are opportunities for iron to sharpen iron. For the Church to truly be what we already are - one people, one body, made up of every tribe, tongue, nation, and language. This is an opportunity for us to image to the world our unity not through ideology, politics, or socioeconomic brackets, but by the unifying blood of Jesus.

This truly could be an opportunity to display the beauty of the Gospel.

To make obvious our adoption as sons and daughters of God.

My prayer as I look out on the faces of the congregation,

as I run into people as they stumble over why they have not been serving or attending,

as I field questions about why we are doing this, and why we are not doing that,

as we wrestle with what it looks like to love and honor God and care well for His people,

as we stumble forward,

and as I become more aware of my own sin, is:

God give me Your eyes to see these people. Let me grieve over my sin more than over the differences of my brothers and sisters. Keep me close to You, and tender toward especially those who are loud, vocal, and combative in the opposite direction from my own convictions. Give me the compassion of Christ, who ‘When He saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.’ (Matthew 9:36).

May our divisions be an opportunity for repentance. May our divisions turn us to Christ, the One who has torn down the dividing wall of hostility between God and man, who has reconciled us to become people of reconciliation, who has comforted us to be people of comfort. Amen and amen.

February 8: Tuesday Refocus

in

‘Faith is ever occupied with God.  That is the character of it; that is what differentiates it from intellectual theology.  Faith endures ‘as seeing him who is invisible’ (Heb 11:27): endures the disappointments, the hardships, and the heartaches of life by recognizing that all comes from the hand of Him who is too wise to err and too loving to be unkind.’ - A.W. Pink

There are many careless words spoken in the language of faith.  

You didn’t have enough faith.  

Have more faith. 

In Matthew 8, a storm is tossing the sea-worn disciples as Jesus is asleep in the boat.  They cry out for Him to rescue them, and Jesus says ‘Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?’  But it is the storm, not the disciples who receive a rebuke: ‘Then He rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.’ (Matthew 8:26).

Make no mistake, the disciples are witness to Jesus’ strong words against faithlessness at other times: “And Jesus answered, “O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you?…” Matthew 17:17

But like God calling out to Adam and Eve in the garden - ‘Where are you?’ (Genesis 3:9) - the questioning of faith as an invitation to draw toward God not away from Him.  Because of Christ, the invitation from God for the follower of Jesus is always to come, always to draw near (Heb 10:19, Matt 11:28, Rev 22:17).

Keep drawing near.

‘…for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.’ James 1:3-4

Lord, thank You that You do not stand far off, but You have drawn near to us. And now we can draw near to you with full assurance of faith, with hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.  Help us to hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for You who promised is faithful… (Hebrews 10:22-23)

Drawing near,

AB

September 28: Tuesday Refocus

in

“Jesus today has many who love His heavenly kingdom, but few who carry His cross; many who yearn for comfort, few who long for distress. Plenty of people He finds to share His banquet, few to share His fast…  There are many that follow Jesus as far as the breaking of bread, few as far as drinking the cup of suffering; many that revere His miracles, few that follow Him in the indignity of His cross.” - Thomas A Kempis

Life with God is both and.  

It cannot be only glory.  

It will not be only suffering.

‘…and if children, then heirs - heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him.’ - Romans 8:17

Life with God is both and.

It cannot be only life.

It will not be only death.

“Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him.” - Romans 6:8

Life with God is both and.

It cannot be only reigning.

It will not be only endurance.

“…if we endure, we will also reign with Him; if we deny Him, He will also deny us…” - 2 Timothy 2:12

Jesus, forgive us for desiring glory, life, and reigning with You, when we are unwilling to suffer, die, and endure with You.  Enable us to live the both and life, for Your glory and our good.  Amen.

Both and,

AB

September 12: Liturgy + Set List

in , ,

  • ALL CREATURES OF OUR GOD AND KING

Call To Worship: To all who are weary and need rest, to all who mourn and long for comfort, to all who feel worthless and wonder if God cares, To all who fail and desire strength, To all who sin and need a Savior, This church opens wide her doors with a welcome from Jesus Christ, the Ally of His enemies, the Defender of the guilty, the Justifier of the inexcusable, the Friend of sinners, welcome. [10th Presbyterian Church]

The human heart is one prone to forget. So we mark days that have marked us to remember. One of the reasons the Church globally gathers on Sunday is to remember the day that Jesus rose from the grave. Every Sunday is a mini Resurrection Sunday, a mini Easter celebration remembering that Jesus was dead but now is alive. Yesterday we remembered it has been 20 years since September 11, 2001. A day that has marked us as a people, a nation, and the world in subtle and significant ways. It is good to remember. When we walk through these doors we remember that we live in a broken world and we ourselves are broken. We do not take a break from reality for an hour or so, we carry these remembrances with us and remember a deeper truth, a deeper reality - and that is that Jesus is alive, ruling, and reigning. Seated at the right hand of the Father. The One who created the universe sustains it by the word of His power, there is nothing that has ever happen that has surprised Him, nothing has threatened to topple His rule as King, and there is nothing so broken that He cannot redeem and restore, that He cannot turn for His purpose and plan, for His glory and our good. So we remember that Jesus is alive. We remember September 11th. We remember the brokenness of the world and the brokenness of our sin, and we remember that Jesus is alive, sovereignly ruling, and reigning. Let these songs be songs of remembrance, remembering the heart and character of our Savior and King.

  • IS HE WORTHY

  • GOODNESS OF GOD

Message: Ephesians 5:25-27

Christ cares and cared enough for His Church to lay down His life for Her - She may be bruised, but She has never been and will never be a lost cause. We are going to sing ‘Jesus Paid It All’ - and I want you to sing this as someone who has sinned, and someone who has been sinned against. And I want you to remember the blood of Jesus is enough to cover the sin you have committed, and it is enough to cover the sin against you. We sing not hoarding forgiveness, because the blood of Christ is not just for me, not just for you, but for His Bride. We sing as the sinner, the sinned against. We sing as the forgiven Bride of Christ.

  • JESUS PAID IT ALL

  • IN CHRIST ALONE

Leading Through Transition

in

Change is a part of life. Change can be messy, overwhelming, painful, and exciting, all at once. Whether it is leading worship in the midst of a global pandemic, adding additional services, changes in leadership and staff, reworking the format, or just the natural growing pains of sinners in relationship being conformed to the image of the Son, in significant and subtle ways our teams and churches are changing constantly.

Although change is inevitable, I do not believe that it has to send us spiraling into dread, hand-wringing, and attempts at control. Change and transition can lead us to open our hands, soften our hearts, and be reminded that we, not just leaders, but the led. We are stewards of God’s people, Church, ministry, and resources. I believe there are at least four key elements to navigating change effectively:

NAMING

“We get into trouble whenever we do not name things properly,’ says Ronald Rolheiser. Life and ministry move in seasons, leaders have a responsibility to help name and shepherd through seasons. Pete Scazzero and Emotionally Healthy Discipleship have excellent resources at learning to identify and name seasons.

PRAY

The first response of many to something new is often control, to strategize, or deny, and some become paralyzed. What if our first instinct, our first response was to pray? Pray for wisdom to the ‘…God, who gives generously to all without reproach…’ (James 1:5). Pray continually, pray with people, pray alone, pray as you move, and make decisions. Linger in prayer, don’t just fill up the silence, but create interior silence for God to speak to you as well.

BE STEADY

When the world feels unstable and unsettling, be steady. If there is an outward transition (e.g.: changes in leadership, adding services, changing locations, global pandemics, etc) this is most likely not the time to add - but a time to pair back. Keep things simple, accessible, familiar - in song choice, liturgy, format, and team members.

REST

I mean this in both the physical and spiritual sense. Physically, transitions take so much more effort mentally and emotionally, you will be tired - rest your body. God is trustworthy. Change and transitions give us the opportunity to lean on the truths we sing week-in and week-out. Do we actually believe that God is good? Kind? Faithful? Trustworthy? Loving? In control? We can rest in the reality of the character of God - even in the midst of chaos - trusting along with the Psalmist: ‘You are good and do good.’ (Psalm 119:68).

As leaders, we are not immune to the discomfort of change and transition. We have a responsibility not just to lead our people through these seasons, but ourselves as well. We too must properly name our own season, pray continually, find places of stability, and rest our bodies and spirits.

There is a continual challenge for every leader - regardless of the season - to lead truthfully, and authentically, while also not using our people as the lightning rods or receptacles of our own internal frustrations and fears. This is not a call to stoicism, but to discerning what will build trust and community among those you lead, and what will unduly burden them with additional turmoil.

We all need safe spaces and people with which to bring our full selves - fears, insecurity, and all. Cultivate the posture of heart before God which offers your full self before your world feels like it is falling apart. Find a good counselor, therapist, spiritual director, or wise friend who will listen and walk with you. Change and transition are hard, but they do not have to be terrifying.