Pastor Wade will be on vacation for the next couple of weekends, so I get the privilege to preach on August 5th at Living Word. I want to teach about what leads to death (from James 1) and then what leads to life (confession, repentance, obedience).
We have a pretty good grasp on leading ourselves to death, often without even realizing what we’re doing. I want to help people avoid those steps. Sadly, though, we don’t have a good grasp on what really leads to life. Hopefully the hope of the Gospel and the hope of God’s call to obedience will help people struggling with spritual death come back to life!
Well, today has been full of interesting comments and laughter because of the fact that there is a mouse apparently living under the Ministry Director’s mini-fridge in his office! It’s amazing how something so small can create such a different atmosphere.
It’s good to think about as we think about ministry. Small things can affect an entire church, even though we might think about it.
Negative effects:
- Small sin - Which in truth doesn’t exist. No sin is small. When there is unconfessed, unrepentent sin in leadership ugly things happen.
- Small vision - We cannot even begin to comprehend the vastness of God. Why do we limit the vastness of what He could be doing through the local church?
- Small attitudes - Even a tiny bit of negativity towards each other can influence people much more than we realize.
- Small planning - Ministry is hard work and needs to be prayerfully planned. While we definitely want to be open to the Holy Spirit’s promptings, we can’t blame our lack of planning on “waiting on the Holy Spirit.”
Positive effects:
- Small pride - “He who neglects discipline despises himself. But he who listens to reproof acquires understanding. The fear of the LORD is the instruction for wisdom, and before honor comes humility.” Proverbs 15:32-33 Humility is so important in ministry.
- Small view of ourselves compared to God - Without Him, we can do absolutely nothing.
- Small details - Quality is very important to have in a church. Pay attention to the detail of small things that could influence others to respect the church more and eventually come to a love of God (bulletin design, worship team training, publication design, Scripture readers that read with passion, many more)
Has anyone heard any new and favorite worship songs lately that you’ve been doing in your churches, will be doing in your churches or want to be doing in your churches? We’ve been singing Everlasting God, by Brenton Brown (made popular by Lincoln Brewster), and I really like it. It’s so great to sing and repeat the words of the prophet Isaiah from chapter 40 of his Old Testament book. Anyone have any they’d like to share?
I’m feeling excited today as I continue to be involved in initial stages of continuing and enlarging a men’s ministry at Living Word. I’ve been reading a great book that stresses the point that every thing you do that involves men in the church is men’s ministry. So, if you feel like you don’t have a men’s ministry yet at your church, you do! As long as you do things that involve men (which I hope and pray every church does!), you have a men’s ministry. So, worship leaders, your involvement with the men on your worship team is part of your church’s men’s ministry. Now it’s just time to continue to minister to them, build some momentum, and enlarge the ministry.
Sadly, men in our culture either don’t come to church, or come to church to perform the same way they do in the world. We need to get men to come to church in order to love and follow Jesus. Period. I’m excited to be a part of fostering an enviroment of men loving Jesus and know that it will grealy benefit me as well.
Remember to always pray. Pray that God would provide, and pray that you would have the wisdom to rest in Him when He might not.
I don’t think I’ve ever heard of an occasion of a church with no piano player, but I’m sure it has happened. Here are some ideas:
- Find great songs that work accapella. Sometimes there is nothing more glorious than listening to God’s people sing without anything else accompanying them. A great many hymns work extremely well for this. There are also several newer songs that work well.
- If you have a guitarist, teach them to play melodically. Most guitarists are rhythm guitarists, not lead guitarists, so we (myself included) have a hard time playing melodically. Teach them to finger pick, teach them to be able to play a solo line as an intro or outro.
- Help the bass player be confident. The piano covers all the octaves, so when there is no piano and perhaps you have a guitar and bass, if the bass isn’t confident on the low end it will stand out and be distracting. Even if it’s being able to play whole notes with confidence, teach them to play confidently.
- Help your singers be able to hear. The singers will have to tune themselves to the guitar, since there is no piano, so help them get used to that. Spend time in practice without the bass and drums. Make sure that the bass and drums are not overpowering the guitar, so the singers can hear it.
- Enjoy your organ! Perhaps you don’t have a piano because the church isn’t ready for that transition yet. Pray that God would give you patience and that He would give you great joy in worshiping in a traditional style. If we rely on style to be able to worship God, our foundations of what worship is have not been laid properly, and will crack and crumble when styles change.