13 August: Tuesday Refocus

“That means an encounter with God that involved not only the affection of the heart but also the convictions of the mind. We are not called to choose between a Christian life based on truth and doctrine or a life filled with spiritual power and experience. They go together. I was not being called to leave behind my theology and launch out to look for ‘something more,’ for experience. Rather, I was meant to ask the Holy Spirit to help me experience my theology.” - Tim Keller

Our souls are embodied. Therefore true, saving faith cannot be simply an ascent to knowledge - even the demons believe (James 2:19). Faith must shape us, form us, stir us, and change us from the inside out. But faith is not an unbroken string of ‘mountain top’ experiences. True saving faith is still true in the mundane and quiet moments of our lives where following God feels more like obedience and less like delight. 

One of the ways we can consistently embody our faith and experience our theology is through gathering with the people of God. Singing to one another, hearing God’s Word preached and proclaimed, serving one another, taking the bread and the cup, praying with and for one another, forgiving as we have been forgiven, giving away our money, talent, time - and our very lives.

Spirit, would you help us experience our theology. In Christ’s name, amen.

Amen,

AB

Sunday Spiral

Some Sundays feel like heaven. Everyone shows up on time and is prepared, the set list is connected and cohesive, there are no technical issues, the congregation is present and engaged, we feel free as we lead and serve, and God seems nearer than usual. It is glorious, beautiful, soul-stirring.

Other Sundays feel like hell: the team is scattered and disjointed, you wonder if your body was possessed when you built the liturgy and set list, rehearsal is consumed with technical issues, the congregation is indifferent, you stumble over your words, can’t wait to walk off the platform, and wonder if God has somehow left the room. Commence the Sunday Spiral.

Leading worship is vulnerable, serious, and important. If we value this sacred responsibility, it can be easy for us to feel completely derailed when a morning falls apart. So how do we avoid a Monday morning resignation, and stop the Sunday spiral?

See that you are safe. Your identity, my identity is not in what we do. Therefore, even if I fail at a task, my identity, value, and worth is not in jeopardy.

Lay down what you are carrying. The good, the bad, the ugly - if you faithfully stewarded the moment, team, and people of God to the best of your Spirit-led abilities, then ask for the Spirit’s help to not internalize the shame or condemnation that the enemy wants to plant in your heart and mind.

Do some diagnostic work. Was this a one-off? Or are there consistent issues in the culture, preparation, and dynamics of a team or the morning that are beginning to emerge?

Take advantage of feedback loops. How can you help shepherd your team through that moment, and their own Sunday Spirals? Are there things that need to be worked through so that you can avoid that situation in the future?

Do not go it alone. If you are spiraling, articulate that to a trusted person - not necessarily so they can assure you that ‘I’m sure it wasn’t that bad,’ but so that you do not have to bear your burden alone. Ask them to listen, ask them to pray, and ask them to be present.

Lead again. Discipleship is the long game, and part of our discipleship and sanctification is being accomplished through our leading, serving, volunteering, and obedience to follow Jesus in our vocation and with our responsibilities as worship leaders, so lead again.

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

21 May: Tuesday Refocus

“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: November 28

“There is nothing I dread more than having my heart drawn away by earthly objects.” - George Whitefield

Our hearts are more easily tempted than we would like to admit. 

Our desires are warped and shaped by sin more than we are aware. 

Our feet run after other gods more than they keep to the narrow road.

“But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.” - James 1:14

“For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.” - 1 John 2:16

How do we combat this reality? With a new heart, a transformed mind, and renewed affections. But no amount of striving or effort is sufficient to accomplish and sustain this kind of change. No, these realities are a gift of God.

”Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” - James 1:17

Father, may you accomplish what only You can accomplish in us and through us. By the power of the Spirit, for the glory of the Son, in Christ’s name, amen.

Amen,

AB

Tuesday Refocus: July 4

“Oh Lord our God… steer the ship of our life to yourself, the quiet harbor of all storm-stressed souls. Show us the course which we are to take. Renew in us the spirit of docility. Let your Spirit curb our fickleness; guide and strengthen us to perform what is for our own good, to keep your commandments and ever to rejoice in your glorious and vivifying presence. Yours is the glory and the praise for all eternity.” - Basil the Great

We think we know the way, and we plot the course, but it is the Lord who directs our steps (Proverbs 16:9). We attempt to blaze a trail, but ‘All the paths of the LORD are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies (Psalm 25:10).’ It is only through the glorious and vivifying presence of God that we can say ‘my steps have held fast to your paths; my feet have not slipped (Psalm 17:5).”

He goes before us, follows after us, and is walking beside us. He makes known to us the path of life, in His presence there is fullness of joy; and at His right hand are pleasures forevermore (Psalm 16:11).

Father, may we walk in your paths today. Would you illuminate the way we should go? Would we be aware of your presence, in us and around us, in Christ’s name, amen.

Walking,

AB

Tuesday Refocus: April 25

“May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and the steadfastness of Christ.” - 2 Thessalonians 3:5

Our hearts do indeed need direction. Because every heart is deceitful, desperately sick, and misunderstood (Jer 17:9). We chase vanity and strive after the wind (Ecc 1:14). What could be more essential to our aimless, wandering hearts than the steadying, sobering, truest truth that God is love, and Christ is steadfast?

Like sheep that go astray, how easily we are distracted and prone to wander. We combat our wandering with being anchored in the person and work of Christ as revealed in God’s Word. We must continually, constantly, and repeated preach and press the truths of Scripture deeply into our hearts. As we read, meditate, apply, pray, rehearse, hear, and sing these truths - the Holy Spirit who inspired these words to be written - uses them to lead us in all truth, directing us to God Himself (John 16:13).

“We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.” - Hebrews 6:19-20

Lord, in this moment, may our hearts be directed toward your unchanging character more than our ever changing circumstances. In the name of Christ, amen.

Steadied,

AB

Head and Heart

When it comes to life, I tend to lean heart. When it comes to song choice, I tend to lean head. Something I learned from worship leader, Charlie Hall, is that our congregations will always be best served when we can balance head and heart in our worship songs.

Our congregation must have their minds informed, and filled with the truths of Scripture, and the weight of God’s character, but if all we do is give them knowledge, we so easily become brains on sticks. If all we do is sing rich theology, every corporate gathering will feel more like an intellectual exercise, heavy and dense, rather than an opportunity to respond to God’s revelation of Himself through those truths. Likewise, our congregations must have their affections stirred for the person and work of Christ. We must give people the opportunity, space, and language to express the full scope of their lives and response to God. Simple songs of devotion, honest prayers of confession, joyful celebration, and raw lament have to find their place within the life of our congregations.

Ideally, these two things would live to together - songs that are deep and true, while yet simple and emotive. Maybe you have a few of those songs in your rotation now. What I have often seen is that songs - like me - tend to lean one way or the other. So as you are building your master song list, taking an inventory of your songs, and building set lists that reflect the Gospel story, one of the rhythms you can incorporate is building set lists where songs that lean head, are next to songs that lean heart. And songs that lean heart, are next to songs that lean head.

Worship With Your Mind

In Luke 10:27, Jesus said, “…You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind…” As worship leaders, we know that worship is more than songs, that worship is the right response of our whole lives to God’s revelation of Himself. Over the last four weeks, I have spent time exploring what it means to worship God with our hearts, with our souls, with our strength, and today, our minds.

We are easily distracted people. With so much knowledge, information, and entertainment available, we bounce from one thing to the next without any real, or lasting ability to concentrate and give our full attention to one thing. Even while watching television we are scrolling through social media on our phones. If we are to worship God with our minds, perhaps one of the ways we are counter-formed in our worship is by learning to focus our minds and attention on and toward God.

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” - Romans 12:2

One of the critiques I have heard often of sung worship among those from my theological stream is that much corporate worship in the church is overly emotional, repetitive, and shallow. The criticism is that these kinds of songs feel more like love songs to Jesus than declarative statements about the truth of who God is, what He has done, and who He has called us to be. As you look through your master song list, we need to make sure that we are balanced in our songs that primarily help us to think, and songs that primarily help us to emote. The same is true with the way that we communicate, the way that we navigate our liturgy, and current events - are we helping people engage and form their minds through the corporate gathering, or inviting laziness?

I hope and pray as a worship leader there are many things that I do, say, and plan that help to engage the minds of the people I serve. But weekly there are at least two things. First, I think of my lyrics slides as another opportunity to shepherd the people with Scripture and definitions. Second, I include hymns in my set list because they can often include rich truths and ancient language that requires us to use our minds to think while we sing.

We give our time to that which we treasure and value. Or you could say we give our heart, soul, strength, and mind to that which we love most. How are you helping the people you serve to engage in worship with their whole heart, soul, strength, and mind?

Worship With Your Strength

In Luke 10:27, Jesus said, “…You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind…” As worship leaders, we know that worship is more than songs, that worship is the right response of our whole lives to God’s revelation of Himself. Over the next four weeks, I will spend some time exploring what it means to worship God with our hearts, souls, strength, and with our minds.

“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

- C.S. Lewis

Life is hard and exhausting. Perhaps this is why we easily set so much of our time and routine on autopilot. The same is true as we gather with the people of God - we know what time to arrive when to sit and stand, when to sing, and when to listen. We can easily go through the motions without having a posture of heart that is open, soft, and responsive to the truths we proclaim as the people of God.

If we are to worship God with our strength, there should be an intensity that we exercise in our response to God that focuses our half-hearted affections. No, our churches don’t need mosh pits for Jesus, but we do need to invite our people to see how their affections have been splintered. In the corporate gathering, we can bless and thank God for being the Giver of every good and perfect gift, while also acknowledging that we are quick to worship created things rather than the Creator (Romans 1:25).

Perhaps one of the ways we need to encourage people to worship God with their strength is to sing loudly. Sing like they believe what they are singing. Sing like they want to believe what they are saying. Sing like they are building up the faith of their brothers and sisters surrounding them in the room - because that is exactly what is happening. We are strengthened, and so is our worship as we gather and respond to the One who is called Almighty.

Worship With Your Soul

In Luke 10:27, Jesus said, “…You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind…” As worship leaders, we know that worship is more than songs, that worship is the right response of our whole lives to God’s revelation of Himself. Over the next four weeks, I will spend some time exploring what it means to worship God with our hearts, souls, strength, and with our minds.

We like to compartmentalize our lives and relationships: this is my work self, and this is my home self. This is my church self, and this is my non-church self. But as embodied souls, our lives, desires, and affections are not so easily separated and split apart. Likewise, there is not a worshiping self and a non-worshiping self. It is all worship. All of life is a response to something or someone.

Sin did not end Adam and Eve’s perfect worship in the garden, nor does it end our worship now, but perverts our worship. Sin sends our worship spinning toward things that are not worthy of our worship. So part of what we are reminding the people of God as we gather is not that worship begins and ends, but worship continues, and our worship must be redirected toward the One who is worthy of our worship, the One who commands our worship, and the One who delights in our worship.

Worshiping God with our souls is worship that involves the whole of our being. All that we are and all that we have. Not just our songs. Not just our minds. Not just our hearts. Not just our time. Not just our talents. Worship that offers our bodies as a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1).

I found this video from the Bible Project about ‘The Soul’ very helpful:

Worship With Your Heart

In Luke 10:27, Jesus said, “…You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind…” As worship leaders, we know that worship is more than songs, that worship is the right response of our whole lives to God’s revelation of Himself. Over the next four weeks, I will spend some time exploring what it means to worship God with our hearts, souls, strength, and with our minds.

The heart is the center of our beings. Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks (Luke 6:45). From the heart flow rivers of life (John 7:38). The human heart is desperately wicked, and deceitful (Jeremiah 17:9). But as followers of Christ we have been given new hearts and with it new desires (Ezekiel 36:26).

Rene Descartes’ famously stated, ‘I think, therefore I am.’ But humans are not primarily thinking beings, but beings who feel and desire. As James K.A. Smith said, ‘You are what you love.’ As worship leaders, we have a responsibility to present deep and rich truths in our songs, verbal transitions, and liturgy that inform the minds of our people. But if truth only resides in our minds, without transforming our hearts and affections, we become proud and arrogant (1 Corinthians 8:1).

Living in the shadow of the enlightenment, we must work to help people apply the truth in their minds to their hearts and lives. Depending on your culture or context, seeking to apply and respond at a heart level may easily be confused with shallow emotionalism. But if we understand worship as the right response of our whole lives to God’s revelation of Himself, we will be transformed from the inside out both in our affections, desires, and our response to God. Worship will not just live in our minds as an intellectual ascent to specific truths about God, but will emanate from the center of our beings - the heart.

If we want to lead people in worship that is from the heart, we must be led by the Holy Spirit, as He opens our eyes to behold Christ, and live lives of worshipful response in the gathering and when we are sent out on mission.

I found this video from the Bible Project about ‘The Heart’ very helpful: