i am an offering

When I first started blogging, I used to have a post every Monday called “Sunday Recap.” I miss doing these types of posts as it causes me to reflect on the great things that God did and allowed me to take part in during worship on Sunday morning (and Sunday evening, now). A few blogs I’m reading have been calling them “worship confessionals.” I’m not sure what they mean by that, so I’m going to keep mine titled “Sunday Recap” for now. Here’s the recap from yesterday:

Worship set:

• Pre-service song: Marvelous Light by Charlie Hall
• Strong Tower - Peter Furler/Steven Taylor
• The Solid Rock - Bradbury
• Before the Throne of God Above - Steve and Vicki Cook
• Speak, O Lord - Getty/Townend

Every once in a while, the music and the message just click. That happened during worship yesterday. Pastor Wade talked about the fall of man from Genesis and then closed the message by talking about guilt and what to do with it when Satan throws it at us in various forms. We sang the second and third verses of “Before the Throne” as a reprise and the first words of the second verse are “When Satan tempts me to despair, and tells me of my guilt within, upward I look and see Him there who put an end to all my sin.” That’s powerful stuff.

Sunday evening was Truth Project at small group and I was able to lead worship in a small group setting for the first time. Nerves made me move through the teaching portion too quickly, but I think there was a good spirit in the place (well, obviously there was, since the Holy Spirit was present :-). Like we talked about in the study, though, our minds were engaged and in tune with God’s presence, so I know He was glorified!

On Wednesday I shared that I have the great privilege of being able to lead worship in a small group this coming Sunday for the first time. I’ve never done it before, and am a bit nervous to do it (which is good, that helps me rely on God and not myself!), so I asked a few questions asking for others’ experience. Josh shared some great thoughts:

• (on picking songs for small group setting) pick songs that are still comfortable in a small group setting. The big-venue, large audience songs don’t fare so well (think big Hillsong songs, some Charlie Hall, etc). Songs that encourage more personal worship are better suited as well.
• (on breaking the ice for people who aren’t use to worshiping in small groups) This one’s a hard one, and I don’t have an answer, but I’d say the more you sing, the more open the group gets. I’d also say the more free you yourself are to worship, the more your group will be encouraged to follow suit. As for the second question, yes! People that are comfortable singing in a small group (or alone) will sing more freely in large groups.

Thanks for your thoughts, Josh. The more I think about this, the more I realize that I’m not really ready to answer these questions yet, as I’ve had no experience. We’ll revisit this topic in a couple of months and see how things are going.

In the meantime, if you’re interested in leading worship for small groups, you might want to check out this book. My copy’s on the way and I’m excited to read it!

As I mentioned yesterday, I was privileged to be able to join a small group at our church. I’ve been thinking for a long time now that small groups would be a great time to do a little more intimate worshipping together, do a little more informal teaching on worship, and possibly be a place to raise up new worship leaders. The only problem is…I’ve never done it before!

I’m much more used to leading worship in a larger group setting but I’m really excited about doing it in a small group. So, do any of you have experience with this? Could you answer any of these questions? I’ll post my answers and reasoning behind them tomorrow.

• What is your criteria for picking songs for a small group? Do you use some of the same songs you use during corporate worship or completely different stuff?
• If you have a group that’s never sung in a small group setting before and aren’t particularly used to losing themselves in worship, how do you break the ice? (I won’t be able to answer this one until this Sunday or next, when I do this for the first time!) Have you seen people start to become more intimate in worship during small group and then be more free during a corporate worship service?
• If you are planning to use time in small group to equip and raise up a worship leader, how do you go about the process? What’s worked for you? What hasn’t?

We started going through Focus on the Family’s “The Truth Project” on Sunday night with a small group from our church and boy was it amazing. Just from the first lesson on “What is Truth” I know that this will be a highly intellectual and thought-provoking study. I was also able to meet some new people and am looking forward to getting to know them better.

I find it more than a little sad that so many Christians will defend their faith with, “Well, I believe it because the Bible says so, so that’s that.” While this is completely true and I agree that the Bible is the absolute sole authority on anything and everything, how does a defense like that stand with someone who doesn’t believe that any of the Bible is true? It doesn’t work. We need to be able to think and think well. We need to understand philosophy, history, ethics, anthropology, science and more. We don’t need to be experts in all of these things, but we need to at least have a grasp on them so that we can make clearer cases for our faith to people who trust in all these fields but have no trust in the Bible. I think “The Truth Project” will be doing just that.

In light of today being Darwin Day (ack - how in the world did we ever come to this??), it’s really good for us to know exactly what we believe and how to defend it intelligently. In light of worship ministry, we need to know why in the world we worship God as well. Yes, the Bible tells us to worship Him, but we need to understand why in order to have more intimate times of worship with Him.

Do you really believe that what you believe is really real?

One of the mission pastors in the Lifechurch.tv network has a post on Swerve today which I think is really important to remember.

If a group is struggling I always ask the leader what fueled their desire to lead in the beginning.  In nearly every case, the leader discovered that the group had strayed from its original purpose for beginning, which was the leader’s source of passion. As leaders we have to stay connected to our passion point.  Drift from it and the people you lead will shrivel up and eventually leave.  But, if you stay connected to it and lead with passion, you will draw people who will follow you with the same level of intensity.  In the immortal words of John Wesley, “When you set yourself on fire, people love to come and see you burn.”

Our passion is the first thing we cannot compromise.  But here is the problem: what is it that we are truly passionate about?  I believe there are two kinds of passion, and one of them is not good.  And, unfortunately, even people who are leaders in the church can get caught up in this passion and it will destroy them.

It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God;” 1 Thess. 4:3-5

This, certainly is a kind of passion that many people are involved in.  Lust will destroy you, and uncontrolled, unconfessed lust will destroy your ministry.  If you are a church leader dealing with this, get help!  Many other places throughout the New Testament, Paul talks about getting rid of worldly desires and passions.

Now, the second kind of passion is the kind Jesus had.  It was a burning desire to see people come to know Him and to live for Him.  It was with power and authority that He taught to the people.  Even after His resurrection, He was passionate:

After his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.” Acts 1:3 (emphasis added)

So, Jesus’ passion is what we need, and it is a passion that should not be compromised.  But now, here’s where I would love some feedback.  What happens when you burn out?  What happens when you pour so much passion into a ministry that you just can’t take it anymore?  How do you keep this from happening?  I have some thoughts…but I’d love to hear yours.