Leadership | I am an Offering

Archive - Leadership RSS Feed

How You Can Help the 7 out of 8 People With No Access to Clean, Safe Drinking Water

October 15, 2010 in Leadership with 0 Comments

Stop reading this and go and get a glass of water. Right now. Did you do it? Good. Now drink it. All of it. Enjoy it. If you did what I asked (which I hope you did) you are among 1/8th of the world’s population that can drink that glass of water without worrying about these things:

Having to walk miles to a water source, fill your water container, and walk back while carrying it.
Getting terminally ill from viruses in the water
Using the same water to drink that has been used to wash clothes and be used as a toilet both by humans and animals
Forsaking a career and education just so you can get water

It’s Time to Act

Today I wanted to spend some time calling us to action. I hope you’ve learned some things from this blog. I hope you’ve turned it into action and applied it in your life or ministry in the church. But today, right now, while we worry about what restaurant to chose tonight or how much gas costs, there are billions of people who don’t have any way to get clean, healthy, safe drinking water.

Today thousands of bloggers around the world are taking up the call to talk about water and I wanted to join them. However, I didn’t just want to talk about it, I wanted to do something about it.

Charity:water

Among the many charities that are helping provide clean water to the world, I’ve recently come across one that deserves our time and is worthy of our money. Watch this video from charity:water (RSS and email readers, you’ll need to click through) to get to know what they’re doing and the seriousness of the situation (video has some potentially disturbing images), and then read the following details about their organization and facts about water in our world:

Every penny that you give to charity:water goes directly to providing clean water around the world. None of it pays for overhead or administration which is provided by private sponsors and donors.
Scott Harrison, founder of charity:water has an amazing testimony and is a faithful follower of Christ that wants to truly change the world.
The average American uses 150 gallons of water per day. The average person in a developing country struggles to find 5.
90% of the 42,000 deaths that occur every week from unsafe water and unhygienic living conditions are to children under five years old.

Please Join Me in Proving our Faith isn’t Dead by Providing Water

In the book of James there is a very convicting set of verses talking about the fact that we must have works that accompany our faith:

What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, Go in peace, be warmed and filled, without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. (James 2:14-17, emphasis mine)

Will you just be saying “Go in peace. Be warm and filled” or will you join me? My initial goal is to try to raise $2000. If we can get 200 people to give $20 we can provide water for 200 people for 20 years. However, if we can increase that goal to $5000 we can build a well that will provide water to an entire village (250+ people). Head over to mycharitywater.org/iamanoffering to donate. You can donate anonymously as well.

Please spread the word. Hit that lovely little F button down there to share this on Facebook. If you’re reading in a reader or in email, hit that lovely little ‘post to Facebook’ link at the bottom of this post and let your friends know and ask them to spread the word as well.

(p.s. This blog post is a part of Blog Action Day. No, I do not stand for many of the causes that are alongside this one on the official website, but if we, as Christians, can’t prove that our faith isn’t dead by not actually doing something about issues like this then the causes that we disagree with are always going to win. Today I want to stop talking and start acting, prove that our faith isn’t just words, and do something about a serious issue.)

Lessons from a Sea Horse: The Holdfast

October 13, 2010 in Leadership with 0 Comments

Did you know that a sea horse has a specific spot to which they always return?

One of my daughter’s favorite new books is a book about the lives of sea horses. The book goes through how sea horses look and various things about how they live. One thing that particularly caught me was what is called the holdfast.

The Holdfast

The holdfast is a spot that a sea horse finds on coral in a reef that become their “go-to” spot. They always return to this anchor of safety and they never stray more than a few meters from the holdfast. It is especially important to them when strong ocean currents swell. They can hold fast (hence the name) with their tails and keep themselves from being swept away from their place of safety by the powerful current.

Our God is a Steady Place of Refuge

I couldn’t help but think of several passages from Scripture about the steadfastness of our God and the result of trusting in Him:

The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. (Psalm 18:2)
For the king trusts in the Lord, and through the steadfast love of the Most High he shall not be moved. (Psalm 21:7)
Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides forever. (Psalm 125:1)
I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. (Psalm 16:8)

The sea horse clings to the hold fast in times of turbulence and trouble. Do we do the same with our God? Is He the one “in whom (we) take refuge” or is it something else?

What is your holdfast? Are you going through times of turbulence and have latched on to something other than the faithfulness of God?

(photo by Doug Deep)

Waiting for Worship – This Coming Sunday at Living Word Free Lutheran

October 7, 2010 in For Worship Leaders, Leadership, Theology with 0 Comments

Do you long to worship on Sunday mornings? Do you prepare your heart throughout the week and look toward the weekend with joyful anticipation of what God will do? I’m beginning to ask God to grant me that desire and one way I thought I could help prepare my mind and hopefully yours as well (especially those of you who attend Living Word) is by giving you a preview of Sunday that can hopefully deepen your worship experience. I’d love to start doing this every Thursday and I hope it’s beneficial to you.

The Church’s One Foundation

We’re going to be singing this wonderful hymn after the message Sunday. As we were rehearsing it I realized that there were some words in there that I wasn’t even quite sure what they meant, so I thought we could take a look together.

First of all, the hymn is a bold declaration of unity within the church body as a whole. It was written during a time of turbulence in South Africa in 1860 when a certain bishop declared some very controversial statements about the Bible. At that time Samuel John Stone wrote a series of twelve hymns that explained the twelve sections of the apostles creed. This hymn reflects the section “I believe in the holy Christian church, the communion of saints.” You can read the rest of the hymn story here, but I wanted to take a look at a couple of the verses to help us grasp them a little better. Most of the verses are fairly straight-forward, but some might be slightly tricky to grasp.

The Church’s one foundation
Is Jesus Christ her Lord,
She is His new creation
By water and the Word. <- Our baptismal water combined with the power of God’s Word
From heaven He came and sought her
To be His holy bride;
With His own blood He bought her
And for her life He died.

Elect from every nation, <- That is, the church, all who were chosen by Jesus at the Cross and those in every nation who believe
Yet one o’er all the earth; <- Yet we are united by Jesus throughout the entire earth
Her charter of salvation,
One Lord, one faith, one birth;
One holy Name she blesses, <- The name of Jesus
Partakes one holy food, <- His body and blood in the Lord’s Supper
And to one hope she presses, <- The hope of eternal life
With every grace endued. <- Endued meaning that we are provided with every Grace from God

What a great promise of being provided with every grace! Let’s look at one more verse:

’Mid toil and tribulation,
And tumult of her war, <- Every day we are at war with our sin and face emotional struggle and agitation (tumult)
She waits the consummation <- The finish, the end, the victory
Of peace forevermore;
Till, with the vision glorious, <- Actually seeing Jesus with our own eyes
Her longing eyes are blest,
And the great Church victorious
Shall be the Church at rest. <- No longer fighting the daily struggle of our old nature vs. our new nature

Other Things to Anticipate

O for a Heart to Praise My God (same tune as O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing)
Immanuel (From the Squalor of a Borrowed Stable) – I love this modern hymn. (affiliate link)
Lord, Reign in Me (great song of both confession of faith and sin)(affiliate link)
Surrender All (.mp3 download from Sovereign Grace Music)
Pastor Wade is coming back! Don’t forget that October is Pastor Appreciation Month

What do you look forward to the most in anticipation for your weekend worship service?

(foundation illustration by Daniel Carroll)

3 Things I’m Praying For

September 28, 2010 in Leadership with 2 Comments

Lately I’ve begun to spend some time praying daily for three specific things. These things have not been completely evident in my life and the obvious solution is to ask for them. What am I asking for?

Wisdom.

Every day that passes in my life I realize that I know less and less than I thought I did the day before. I’m praying daily that God would grant me wisdom in how to lead my family, how to make decisions and have vision on the job, and how to be a wise music and worship ministry leader.

Compassion.

I’ve realized lately that there’s something that Jesus was full of that I am lacking, and that’s compassion. I’m praying first of all for great compassion for those who don’t know our great God, then compassion for those I work with both professionally and in ministry.

Empathy.

Another thing I’m seeing in my life lately is that I often jump to conclusions about things people will say without trying to understand their situation. I’m praying that God would grant me the ability to take a breather and think about what someone might be going through everytime I listen to them or seek to lead them.

What specific things are you praying for?

(Photo by Matt Gruber)

Enjoying a Rich Heritage: A Review of Christ-Centered Worship by Bryan Chapell

September 23, 2010 in For Worship Leaders, Leadership, Theology, Training with 0 Comments

If there’s one thing I’m beginning to appreciate more and more as I continue to partner in the plan and design of our worship services it’s the realization that because of the Gospel and Jesus Christ’s finish work on the cross, churches, not only throughout the world, but throughout time have been united in a common practice for centuries: the worship service.

While so many of our services of worship look very different among the various denominations, “where a church maintains the truths of the gospel, it inevitably discovers aspects of worship that are in harmony with other faithful churches.”

That sentence from page 19 in Bryan Chapell’s “Christ-Centered Worship” (affiliate) is a great summary to the importance of this fantastic book. If you lead or plan worship services in your church, this book is a must-read.

While maintaining that the Gospel story must be communicated fully in any worship service design, Bryan takes us on a fascinating trip from the early Church to the Reformation and through today in order to help us be wise in planning our services and appreciate the rich heritage of those who have gone before us.

Liturgy is Not Boring, nor Ancient

Part 1 on Bryan’s book discusses the structure of worship services throughout time. While reading, you’ll learn to appreciate that every type of church has some sort of liturgy and get a glimpse of where that liturgy has come from and how it is influenced our modern worship services today. You’ll learn that liturgy (“the public way a church honors God in its times of gathered praise, prayer, instruction, and commitment” 18) is meaningful and purposeful and that “there is a strategy to the liturgy” and that, yes, even modern churches have liturgy. Bryan gives us a detailed look at services from the Rome, Luther, Calvin, Westminter, and the modern order from Robert G. Rayburn. He breaks each order down and includes very helpful comparative charts along the way.

Each Part of the Service Explained

In part 2 we’re given a detailed breakdown of the major portions of the worship service including the Call to Worship, Affirmation of Faith, and more. The author also includes detailed examples for each section, making the book not only a historical resource, but a very practical resource for weekly service planning.

Fascinating, but not for Everyone

This book is definitely historical, and quite academic. It’s not a sit-down-and-read-quickly type of book and requires time, thought, and a curiosity for history. The book will mainly be helpful for pastors, worship pastors, worship leaders, and service planning teams, but if a congregational member wants to know more about “why we do what we do” in our churches this would also be a good read for them.

This book is a definite must-read and because of Part 2, a definite must-own as a helpful resource. You can by the book from Amazon here (affiliate). Read another great review from Bob Kauflin.

Page 5 of 25« First...«3 456 7 »10 20...Last »