16 July: Tuesday Refocus

"Ever-loving God, who having loved us loves us still, help us to hear again your word, 'By this shall they know you are my disciples; that you love one another." Turn our hostility into hospitality and our callousness into care. Through Christ, we pray. Amen.” - A Guide to Prayer for All God’s People

Forgiveness and love go hand in hand (Luke 7:47). If enemies of God can be welcomed as friends, and called family - what a small thing it is for us to love one another (Colossians 1:21, John 15:15, 1 Peter 2:9-10)?

Father, may we as your children show how much you have loved and forgiven us by loving and forgiving one another. In Christ’s name, and the Spirit’s power, amen.

Amen,

AB

9 July: Tuesday Refocus

“Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” - Galatians 6:2

Sin is heavy - the sin from within and without. If many hands make work light in life, how much more at a soul level as we wrestle not ‘…against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:12)’? 

How deeply we need one another as the family of God. How desperately the world needs to see the family of God being known by their love for one another, and willingness to bear burdens rather than devouring one another - especially those who are caught in transgressions (John 13:35, Galatians 6:1)?

While the Pharisees tied up heavy burdens for people (without lifting a finger to help), Jesus takes on our flesh and bone, becomes our sin, so that we might become His righteousness (Matthew 23:4, John 1:1-15, 2 Corinthians 5:21). When we bear the burdens of our brothers and sisters, in a small way we become like Christ to them. May that be true today for you and me.

Father, may our relationships be deep, our burden-bearing without end, in Christ’s name and power, amen.

Amen,

AB

25 June: Tuesday Refocus

“Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.” - Colossians 3:12-14

How am I dressing my heart and life? Although as a follower of Jesus, we know that the Holy Spirit must work in us for the truths of Colossians 3 to be not just true externally but internally (Philippians 2:13), there also seems to be a sense that we can choose what we put on - how we choose to interact with brothers and sisters.

When we celebrate communion we come back to the table, back to the place where we are reminded what God in Christ has accomplished for us. We come face to face with those who have wounded us and whom we have wounded. We forgive as we have been forgiven (Ephesians 4:32). We see how God has destroyed the dividing wall of hostility between God and man. We put on the clothes of those who work to bring down the divisions between brothers and sisters (Ephesians 2:14).

Father, may these things be true of us. Amen and amen.

Amen,

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

3 April: Liturgy + Set List

• 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 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.

Family and Leading

Whether as a volunteer or as a paid staff member - ministry is not for the faint of heart. It can be easy to become discouraged. It can be easy to work for God without spending time with God. It can be easy to have our time become consumed with pursuing excellence in our preparation, to the neglect of other God-given responsibilities. And if you feel called to some kind of ministry, it can be tempting to see others as an obstacle, rather than co-laborers in serving together on mission.

Whether you are living at home with your parents, are married, or single, or have children, a calling to ministry is not an individual call as much as it is a communal, familial call. I have found Pete Scazzero’s language to this end helpful when he talks about how we lead ‘out of our marriage or singleness.’

And if it is true that we minister out of our marriage or singleness, how should that reality shape the way we lead? I am learning that this idea means we do not lead and serve apart from our family but from our family. We lead as a missional representative of the family to which we belong. What is more, if this is true for those of us charged with carrying the responsibilities for a team, it is true for each person serving on our team as well.

Here are some of the rhythms I am trying to incorporate as I consider what it looks like to lead out of my family, and encourage my team to do the same:

Thank families, not just individuals. We often think that the individual is having to sacrifice their time to serve - this is true, but it is also a sacrifice for the family. Less time with a spouse, or children with their parent. It may mean driving separately, coming early, sitting by yourself, or solo-parenting. This is not just a sacrifice of the team member, but their family unit.

Involve the kids. I like to strike the stage every week. If and when possible, my kids love to help me wrap cables, clean up trash, and carry equipment on and off the platform. This is a simple way for them to feel a part of what we do as a family. And I hope and pray this is the way they will come to see ministry in the future.

Prepare at home. This is a great way to involve our families in what we are doing, and why we are doing it. My kids love to sing and practice with me for a Sunday - they will get out all of their instruments and play along as I sing through the setlist.

Use your home. Whether for team meetings, training, or discipleship - our homes can be a great place to show hospitality, but they can also be a great way for our families to be able to participate with us - in the preparation of cleaning, cooking, and hosting, as well engaging face-to-face with those we serve alongside.

Thank your family. I want to be aware that I am able to do what I do because my wife encourages and enables it. I can do what I do because my kids are willing to give up time with their Dad - this is not my thing, it is our thing, and they deserve credit and appreciation for the sacrifices made as we serve together on mission.

Lead from your family, not apart from your family. And encourage your team to do the same.

October 31: Liturgy + Set List

• 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 Call to Worship]

• DOXOLOGY

Scripture tells us that we are to confess our sins to God and to one another. Confession is telling the truth about who we are and what we’ve done. We confess our sins to God not because God doesn’t know what we’ve done, He knows all things. We confess our sins to God to receive forgiveness. We confess our sins to one another because we need to be reminded that we are not alone in our sin. The Bible calls us to bear one another’s burdens, that is why we confess one to another. Together we are going to read a prayer of confession - telling the truth, and repentance - turning away from our sin and turning to Christ. Let’s pray together:

Merciful God,

For the wrong things that we have done,

Forgive us,

For the right things that we have failed to do,

Forgive us,

For the times we have acted without love,

Forgive us,

For the times we have reacted without thought,

Forgive us,

For the ways we have not loved You with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength,

Forgive us.

ASSURANCE OF PARDON:

Brothers and sisters in Christ, remember today, That you were once dead in your sins, And, carrying out the desires of your flesh, You were by nature a child of wrath. But God, being rich in mercy, Because of the great love He has for you, Made you alive together with Christ, And raised you up and seated you with Jesus! We are His people; saved for good works, Which God has prepared for us to walk in! 

• GREAT ARE YOU LORD

Sermon: 1 Peter 5:1-4

• I STAND AMAZED (HOW MARVELOUS)

COMMUNION

• RAISE A HALLELUJAH

BENEDICTION: Ephesians 3:20-21