Mission

7 August: Liturgy + Set List

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  • PRAISE TO THE LORD THE ALMIGHTY-GOOD GOOD FATHER

    Call To Worship: Psalm 17:15

    One of the things we confess as we gather is that we are far too easily satisfied. We are satisfied with created things more than our Creator. The truth is we need God’s help to love God. We need God’s help to see God as the source of our life and joy, rather than a means to our life and our joy. So let’s pray that as we gather and sing today that God would help us to see and treasure Him together:

  • GREAT ARE YOU LORD

    God is the giver of life and salvation. One of the things that we can wrongly believe as followers of Jesus is that we only need Jesus for our salvation. But we need Jesus every moment of every day as the One who saves us, keeps us, sustains us, and grows us up into maturity. This morning we’re going to teach you a new song that gives language to the ongoing work of Christ in our lives. Let’s sing together:

  • YET NOT I BUT THROUGH CHRIST IN ME

    Sermon: Colossians 1:24-29

    If you want a deep, rich, mature life, you will not always have an easy and comfortable life. If you want a deep, rich, and mature faith - a deep walk with the Lord - you will not have an easy and comfortable faith. But as followers of Jesus we know that when we lose our lives, we find our lives. When we die to ourselves, we live to Christ. So we can treasure Christ more than ourselves. We can grow together rather than isolate and withdrawal. We can live on God’s mission rather than our own mission because we being made mature and complete in Christ. Let’s stand and celebrate what Christ has done for us as His people…

  • LIVING HOPE

    Benediction

June 14: Tuesday Refocus

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“Holiness is obedience turned inward. Mission is obedience turned outward.” - Brian Blount

Holy means “dedicated or consecrated to God or a religious purpose; sacred.” In Revelation 4, we see the four living creatures day and night never stop saying “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come! (v8)” In Isaiah 6, we see the seraphim calling to one another “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory! (v3)” God is not once holy. Not even twice holy. But three times holy.

Holy, holy, holy.

This thrice holy God declares, “You shall be holy, for I am holy (1 Peter 1:16).”

To set apart our lives (holiness), as a spiritual act of worship (obedience) is the calling for the follower of Jesus (Romans 12:1). And when our lives are set apart as a spiritual act of worship, we become those who echo the prophet, “Here I am, send me!” (Isaiah 6:8)

God, make us holy as you are holy. For Your glory and our good, amen.

Let it be,

AB

Family and Leading

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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.

Interview Questions: From A Worship Leader

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Last week I wrote for the interviewer, the kinds of questions I would ask as a worship leader if I were trying to hire a worship leader. Questions that help you assess not just the obvious and easy - musical ability, personality fit - but questions that give you a sense of a candidate’s theological understanding of worship, the gathering, and how they function in their role. This week, I want to provide worship leaders with questions that will allow them to do the same - move beyond the surface and give some clarity to what is going on at a deeper level within a church.

Tell me about the working relationship between the pastor and worship leader? Relationships can be tense - especially when you are wearing multiple hats. As a worship leader working with a pastor, this person is often your boss, employer, pastor, coworker, friend, and direct report. Trying to understand what has become ‘normal dynamics’ and ways of operating between the pastor and worship leader will give you a good sense of what is acceptable across the whole staff.

What things did you love about your previous worship leader? Getting a sense of what is valued and celebrated will help you understand in what ways you will be similar, and different than a church’s previous experience. If a pastor, leader, or team cannot name anything, or at bare minimum be able to speak well of someone - regardless of how poorly the relationship has gone - that too will communicate about their culture to you.

Can I speak with your previous worship leader? An interviewee has to provide references, why not also ask for references from the church? This can be another piece of the puzzle of understanding relationships, dynamics, things to be aware of, and things worth celebrating.

How engaged are pastors, elders, staff during the worship gathering? A church will only ever be as engaged in the corporate gathering as their leadership. A pastor’s presence, or lack thereof, communicates to the rest of the church how the worship gathering should or should not be valued. If the pastors, elders, and leaders do not see themselves as leading from the congregation, it does not matter how much they tell you they value the worship gathering, that behavior communicates otherwise.

What kind of training and discipleship have you historically provided for your worship leader, and the volunteers on the team? We invest in what we find valuable. Most churches will say that corporate worship is valuable, but are slow to invest money into quality equipment, and/or haphazard about the discipleship and development they are providing for their worship leaders, musicians, vocalists, sound and tech team. We need both.

If you are a worship leader in the interview process, I know how hard, discouraging, and exhausting that can be. I hope that these questions can open up deeper conversations, and provide more clarity in being able to assess the things you value and what you are hoping to find as you partner with a local body to serve God’s people.

Interview Questions: For A Worship Leader

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Regardless of what side of the interview table you are on, interviews are stressful. The stakes are high, the time is too short to know anyone in any depth. Much less to assess their skills, heart, experience, and if their personality will fit well in your specific context. I have been the one being interviewed, and I have had many conversations with pastors, leaders, and search committees looking to hire a worship leader, I am always surprised at the kinds of questions that are asked - some great, some not so great.

If I was looking to hire a worship leader, here are a few questions that would be at the top of my list:

How would you describe the working relationship, and dynamic between you and your previous pastor or pastors? The relationship between a pastor and a worship leader can be tense. Whether the previous relationships have been healthy or completely dysfunctional, hearing how people speak about former coworkers or employers communicates a lot about their hearts. And understanding their history will help give you a sense of the type of hurts they may be carrying into a new team.

What does your workweek look like? The smallest part of the time we as worship leaders spend in our week is the visible part - actually leading the congregation in corporate sung worship. What does preparation look like for this worship leader? How are they using their time not just to execute a weekly service, but to build into and grow the team, grow their own personal relationship with the Lord, and move this particular area of ministry ahead?

What would be the five songs you would want to introduce to any congregation where you are leading? This will help you understand not just the musical leanings of a worship leader, but their theological persuasion as well. Songs are contextual, theology is not. You are looking not just for a competent musician, but a competent theologian to build set lists and shepherd your people from the platform.

What is worship? Basic, I know. But you’re not hiring a musician primarily, you are hiring a theologian and shepherd. It is imperative that the person filling that role has at least a basic grasp on a theology of worship. And an understanding of how worship fits into the corporate gathering, and the rhythms of life.

What is the purpose of the corporate gathering? What you are trying to understand from this question is if the worship leader understands their role narrowly (only responsible for music), or as a small piece of a larger story - and how their role fits into that larger story.

These questions are not exhaustive, but hopefully, they will give you a greater ability to assess not just someone’s musical ability and character, but their personal understanding of worship, and the role of corporate worship in the life of the Church. If you are in the process of looking to hire a worship leader, let me help you ask the right questions, not just for the potential candidates, but of your church culture and organization as you begin that process. Send me an email here.

May 4: Tuesday Refocus

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‘I think that the deepest motive for mission is simply to desire to be with Jesus where He is, on the frontier between the ring of God and the usurped dominion of the devil.’ - Lesslie Newbigin

Jesus is building His Church (Matt 16:18).  How quickly we forget that the One who holds the universe together by the word of His power does not need our action to accomplish His purpose (Heb 1:3).  But what grace that He gives us gifts for the purpose of building up His body (1 Cor 14:12).

When service and mission become about doing for God, rather than presence with God, and His people, we find ourselves troubled by many things.  We have failed to choose the good portion (Luke 10:42).  We serve intentionally and invest intentionally, but we do so before the face of God, from the love of God, for the glory of God, and the good of others.

Lord, would you reorder our loves?  Forgive our foolish thoughts that you need us - our skills, gifts, and time - as if all of those things had not first been entrusted to us by You in the first place.  Would we be marked by presence with You first, foremost, and ever ongoing.  Jesus, You are God with us, may we be people with You.  In Your name, amen.

With,

Aaron

What is Worship?

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The concept of worship can be difficult to describe. Often the word worship is used as short-hand, catch-all phrase to describe a Sunday service, a style of music, or singing together as the Church.

When we try to define or find the edges of worship, we quickly realize there are no borders to worship because no aspect of our life is free of worship. Worship is the right response of our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength to God’s revelation of Himself. It does not turn on and off, nor is it more engaged during singing than any other time of life. Worship is aimed, as Harold Best brilliantly articulates in ‘Unceasing Worship.’

Worship always begins with God.

We do not choose God, He chose us.

We love because He first loved us.

Worship is a rhythm of revelation and response.

God reveals and we have no choice but to respond: ‘Therefore brothers, in view of God’s mercy, offer your bodies as living sacrifices, this is your spiritual worship.’ Romans 12:1

So if worship is more than a song, and all of life is worship, why do we gather and worship together? There are certainly a number of reasons: God is worthy of our worship, He delights in and inhabits the praises of His people, we are told not to forsake the gathering of the people of God, and as Charles Spurgeon reminds us: ‘Man’s heart is never large enough to hold either its joys or its sorrows.’ We gather to share in the joy, and sorrow of lives lived in worshipful response to God throughout the week. We gather to catch a greater glimpse of who God is and be sent out allowing ‘joy to escape.’

Corporate worship reminds us that all of life is lived before the face of God. And we are invited to behold Him and be conformed more closely to His image in all of the moments which seem less than worshipful.

With every breath, with every nation, for every generation, for all eternity - worship is our lives responding to the beauty of our God and King.

September 17: Tuesday Refocus

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‘It looks like I’m going to have to let go of what I expected and enter a mystery.’ – Eugene Peterson

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There is a desirable clarity in an expected life. 

Black and white. 

Easy to measure and manage.

But the life of faith lets go of the seemingly certain, and clings to the Rock that is higher than I (Ps 62:2).  The life of faith is entering a mystery.

In this mystery we see a God whose voice strips the forest bare, but also speaks tenderly to His people (Ps 29:9, Hosea 2:14).  We see a God who is good, and does good, and can even turn evil for His good purpose (Ps 119:68, Gen 50:20).  We experience God – not as distant, but One who dwells in the heart of all believers through faith (Eph 3:17).

Lord, let us be people who walk by faith into the mystery.  Deeper into the beauty of Your heart, and deeper into the brokenness of the world.  Thank You that you have chosen to reveal Yourself at all.  Let us cling to You, not our expectations, in Christ name, amen.

Entering the mystery,

AB