i am an offering

I had a meeting this morning with some dear friends of mine who are also partners in ministry at Living Word.  They gave me a lot to think about - particularly some things concerning this blog.  I need to take a breather and step away from posting for a little bit - so you might not hear from me for a while.  In the meantime, let everything you do be a living sacrifice to God so that He may be glorifed in every way.

In a recent conversation I had with my pastor, who is also my spiritual mentor, he mentioned that he had been seeing some very positive fruit in me over the summer.  I asked him, “Anything specific?”  to which he replied with one word - “Discipline.”

My Discipline Journey

I have never been a very disciplined person.  I achieved my first degree black belt in Taekwondo in MIddle School, but then lost the discipline to keep going with it.  I was smart enough to have possibly achieved a 4.0 GPA in HIgh School - but wasn’t disciplined enough to actually achieve it.  In college - my lack of spiritual discipline led to some major personal struggles that eventually led to all sorts of problems.  I believe I always fell short of so many things because of a lack of displine in two areas: my physical life, and my spiritual life.

Physical Discipline

Maybe you’re like I was, and every time you went to the doctor you had to sheepishly answer “no” when the doctor asks if you’re exercising.  Maybe you kept hearing everyone talk about physical fitness and thought to yourself, “Yeah, I know I should do that, but I just don’t have time.”  As Paul is speaking to his young charge Timothy he says this:

Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.” 1 Timothy 4:7-9

I don’t think Paul was brushing off physical training in this passage - just comparing it as far less valuable than training to be godly, which we’ll get to in a minute.  “I don’t have time” doesn’t work when you’re beginning to discipline yourself.  Part of discipline is finding the time it takes to carry out what you’re trying to accomplish.  I finally realized that everyone was right when they mentioned the importance of physical fitness - and after running and walking for just four days I am already feeling astoundingly better physically.

Spiritual Discpline

As Paul says in the passage we read earlier - “godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.”  Godliness has an eternal reward.  This discipline is even more important than physical fitness because our bodies, no matter how fit we are, will decay and turn to dust.  Our souls, however, will go on for eternity.  My spiritual discipline of a devotional life was an on-again, off-again affair.  But now, after being disciplined to read and study my Bible almost every day - I feel astoundingly better spiritually and emotionally.

My Challenge to You

Are you making time to discipline yourself, both physically and spiritually?  If so, bravo!  If not, I highly encourage you to do so.  And don’t just do so with no goals in mind, or no way to track your progress.  Find a training program for your physical fitness.  I found one that even has a way to track your progress.  Here’s a look at mine:

Keep a journal for your spiritual discipline.  If you’re online constantly like I am (another reason why it’s so Important that I discipline myself physically), try using the wonderful You Version internet app.  It has a built in journal right there with any Bible version you desire to use.

Physical discipline + spiritual discpline will equal a very healthy outlook on life.

Yet again, I’m going to postpone my post on discipline and exercise until tomorrow.  I was going to post it today and ignore what everyone else is posting about - but’s too important to not talk about.

You’ve more than likely heard, but for those who haven’t, Mike Guglielmucci, who wrote “Healer” which had quickly risen as a worship-song phenomenon throughout the worship leading world, and who had claimed that the song was born out of a battle with cancer was exposed yesterday morning. Various news sources revealed that he had been faking it all along.

What do we do with something like this?  The first thing my wife said when I mentioned the news to her is, “That is absolutely disgusting.”  And she’s right - but once we get past the insanity of what Mike chose to do and really wrestle with the consequences for the rest of the world as they watch this - how do we respond?

• How do we respond when the world says that Christians are no different than the rest of the world and are actually mere hypocrites?
• How do we respond to the fact that someone families put their trust in as a youth pastor devastated that trust?
• How do we respond to someone using one of the most serious diseases that cause so many people immense amounts of grief as a disguise?

We respond the way we would respond every day.  Realize we are all sinners and filthy in God’s sight without Jesus’ work on the cross.  Learn about, embrace and daily practice integrity in everything we do.  Surround ourselves with accountability on several levels - we can’t just trust our family to hold us accountable as we are completely capable of fooling even our own families.  And then respond this way:

• When the world says we’re no different - admit that they’re right. We are all messed-up sinners who need a Savior.  We all talk one way and act another many times.  Embrace humility and compassion above all else.
• Realize even more the importance of accountability within our personal lives, our family lives, our professional lives and our lives in ministry.  We must have people that hold us accountable.  And not just an occasional question here or there.  We need to be willing to be put to the grueling test - and often.
• We pray.  We realize that what he has done does not change who God is and what Christianity is all about.  And we realize that God is still the Ultimate Healer - for everything - physically and mentally.

My heart breaks for Mike - and even more so his family.  My heart breaks for the church.  But even more so - my heart yearns to apply integrity, accountability and raw honesty with unbridled passion to everything I do.  Will you do the same?

I also want to point you to a fantastic perspective and response to this situation at The Worship Community - written by Fred McKinnon.  Please read it and think deeply about what he says.

Today’s post was going to be on the importance of being healthy as a worship leader (both physically and spiritually) but I need to put that on hold.  Look forward to those things tomorrow.

Today, however, I wanted to ask a question: How does your example (especially in ministry) affect how others worship God?

Desiring Invisibility is Much More Possible than Actually Being Invisible.

When we get up to lead worship, my hope is that our prayer and desire is to disappear so that God will be made more clear in people’s minds.  We study about who He is so we can give an accurate picture of the God we’re worshiping to the people we’re worshiping with.  We study encouragements from Scripture so we can encourage those who are worshiping with us and make them feel at home and welcome in God’s presence within the church.  But if we do all of those things and make unwise decisions or run over those we’re working with (even unintentionally) - we will not disappear.  Try as they might to get past the distraction that they see in us, the people that we’ve hurt or misled or ignored won’t be able to see anything but our mistakes.  Even if they put the best construction on things that they possibly can - in the back of their minds they’ll remember what happened.  As much as we want to disappear and make God the only thing visible through us, we’re always in the spotlight - faults and all.

A dear friend of mine in ministry and I just had an email exchange where my friend openly admitted that there was a struggle because of the way some parts of the music ministry was being handled.  My friend was very courteous and gracious (and very right, I might add) in addressing an issue that needed to be addressed.  I hope that I responded with humility and as much grace and courtesy as my friend showed me, but it got me thinking:  What we do affects how others worship God.

As much as we’d like to be invisible, it’s just impossible.  And as mature as many people within the church are to be able to forget about faults for a while and just worship God - more than likely even a small issue will nag at us when we see someone in leadership who we’re struggling with.  Even more so if it’s someone you see every Sunday or multiple Sundays (in the case of worship leaders and pastors.)

We Can’t Attain Perfection - But We Can Discipline Ourselves with Humility

We could spend our lives trying to make sure we never hurt anyone.  That would be impossible.  Even something that we feel wasn’t a big deal in the least could be a huge stumbling block to someone.  We are human, and we will fall.  But, God calls us to humility in everything we do - including our relationships.  He also calls us to think of others much more than ourselves.  Philippians 2:3-4 says this:

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

It goes on to talk about having the attitude of Jesus - God Himself coming down to earth in the must humble form possible: the Creator of the Universe becoming a human.  Not just a human, but a human that came to serve us!

We can pray for humility and pray that we can look out for others’ interests much more than our own.  In everything we do, let’s do it as Peter suggests:

Whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever.” 1 Peter 4:11 (emphasis added)

Let’s live our lives as worship leaders (especially in ministry) “so that in all things God may be glorified.”

As always, another great day at Living Word.  And a fantastic day of rest with the family.  I’ve been attempting to set aside Sundays as a complete day of rest from several things (computer, housework, yardwork).  Of course it has to start after the service, but even to have the majority of the day be restful is extremely helpful.  It’s given benefits already.

Here’s what the service looked like yesterday:

Pre-service gathering song: Let Your Kingdom Come - Sovereign Grace Music.  More on this song in a minute.

Blessed be the Name of the Lord (Strong Tower) - Love this song.  It’s such a great reminder of who God is and so good to repeat these thoughts as we worship.  And, several people started the clapping in the congregation - thank God for worship leaders who don’t even know they’re worship leaders!

Let Your Kingdom Come - we officially taught the song here.  I love this song as it talks about making our desires His desires and making His “glorious cause” our own.  In the midst of our new building project I think this song will play a pivotal role in reminding people that we are about building God’s kingdom, not just having a place to come to church.

I usually like to use a new song as a pre-service song and then do it again during the service after people have it in there heads a bit.  How I taught it was by singing a phrase and then having the congregation repeat the phrase.  We did the whole verse, and one spot in the chorus that has a note that sort of comes out of nowhere.  It seemed like the congregation grasped this song very quickly and it seems like teaching them a new song this way seems to work really well.  Does anyone else have expereince with this?  If you were at Living Word yesterday, did it work for you to learn the song this way, or was it distracting?

Closing song - In Christ Alone - Unfortunately, the words to this song were not right on the screen.  The words we had up were from Brian Litrell’s “In Christ Alone” (which is a great song - just not the one we needed!)  This is a good reminder that we always need to double and triple check things and not rely on the song title alone to enter a song.  Many people knew the first verse and we’re singing along with me as I tried to figure out what to do.  I just simply stopped the music and read the words to the fourth verse, which directly applied to the message that had just been given.  A few people told me how disappointed they were that we didn’t get to actually sing the song.  We’ll do it again soon.

The message was very convicting and encouraging at the same time.  We learned about subtle ways that we steal and how important it is not only to tell the truth about our neighbor but to “build their reputation” as well, as Luther mentioned in his explanation of this commandment.  It was a great morning.

(This post is a part of the Sunday Setlist community at Fred McKinnon’s website.)