Sunday was a bit of an odd day at Living Word for me, as my wife and I had the pleasure of being involved in the nursery! As a result of this, we weren’t able to hear the message during the worship time, but I was able to listen to it online this morning. It was a great privilege to work in the nursery (a little crazy, but a great privilege!)
Sunday songs:
- Almighty (Watson)
- Blessed Be Your Name (Redman)
- Blessed be the Lord, God, Almighty (Fitts)
- All Creatures of our God and King (traditional hymn)
The worship team did a great job this past Sunday. It was nice to just be in the congregation with no responsibilities. The one thing I would love to see us all work on is transitions between songs. Helpful things to do are to wait until after the first song to encourage the congregation through spoken word (instead of talking before the first song and having silence in between the first and second), or picking songs that are in the same key that can flow seamlessly into one another. But other than these minor things, my mind was led to focus on Jesus and I was able to sing to Him with minimal distraction, so thanks worship team!
I always have to laugh when I sing “All Creatures,” however, because I always picture the skit of Mr. Bean in church trying to sing along and not knowing where to end the “alleluia’s!” Alleluia! Alleluia! Allelu—ya..ya…y..y…ya! 
Pastor Wade shared a fantastic sermon on ‘profitable pain.’ God will use anything to bring glory to Him, and in order to grow in our faith, often the process will be painful. We can’t short-circuit this process of growth by trying to avoid pain. And God is with us through all of it. Good stuff and one that I will be listening to at least one or two more times this week.
Because our Truth Project hosts were out of town and we had a ministry event Sunday night, as was able to share a relaxing evening with family, which was so needed.
A great day.
Yesterday was another great day at Living Word. As I mentioned before, Pastor Wade and I have had a heart to get people to have more of a heart and attitude of worship during worship services, so we’ve started meeting weekly to plan and evaluate services and to change the format of the service slightly. Yesterday was the first major change. I thought it was very, very good. Wade took us through Psalm 2 as a call to worship and boy, that really focused my heart. My hope and prayer was that others’ hearts were focused as well. After the call to worship we then worshiped through song, Scripture reading, offerings and hearing the teaching of God’s Word. It was a good morning.
Songs:
- Everlasting God (Brown - used as a “gathering” type song)
- All Hail the Pow’r of Jesus Name (from hymncharts.com - great resource if you’ve never used it before)
- Your Name (Baloche/Brown)
- Enough (Tomlin/Giglio)
- Speak, O Lord (Getty/Townend - used to prepare our hearts to hear the teaching from God’s Word)
A personal sidenote - does anyone else’s kids have a really hard time on Sundays? :-) Our daughter made it through church really well, but without her usual nap she was not a happy camper after church! We had to leave lunch early to get her home! She’s worth rushing out the door, though! 
Yesterday was a great day at Living Word yet again! For the first time in I don’t know how many years, I had Easter Sunday off. That was a very strange experience, yet refreshing at the same time. We sang many great Easter hymns:
- He Lives
- Rejoice, the Lord Is King
- Oh For a Thousand Tongues (this threw me off guard a bit, because it wasn’t the traditional hymn we are familiar with, it was a song from around 1980. I didn’t know it, but it was a good song nonetheless.)
- Because He Lives
We had a small, eclectic ensemble of instruments that accompanied two of the hymns and it really sounded quite good. It was great to get some young people involved as well!
Pastor Wade’s teaching was great once again. He asked three questions that really made you think:
- Did the Resurrection really happen?
- Why did (does) the Resurrection matter?
- Is the Resurrection yours?
He also asked the question, “If the Resurrection hadn’t happened, would your life look any different?” When you really stop and think about it, that’s a challenging and convicting question. Would it?
We had a fantastic time with family as well yesterday and Layla (our daughter) was in a great, happy mood most of the day. That was wonderful as we were a little concerned how she’d do away from home all day and with all sorts of people. She did great!
I hope you had a joy-filled Easter full of worship of our Risen Savior and precious time with family.
It’s been a long time since I’ve posted on “How to Be an Offering” and, since that is the theme of this blog, I thought I’d catch up a bit! While the past ones have been all focused on Scripture passages (which I will continue to do) I wanted to just share some thoughts on simple ways that you can be an offering with your time.
I’ve been thinking about my roles in life a lot lately. Follower of Jesus, Husband, Father, Graphic Designer, Worship Leader. While our lives are ultimately to be offered to God in worship daily, we are also to serve others and offer our lives in each role we are in. How could fifteen minutes a day serve others that come in contact with your given role? I’ll list mine:
- Follower of Jesus - fifteen minutes a day of mediating on God’s Word (I would suggest much more than that, which I’m still working on, but fifteen minutes is a good starting point)
- Husband - fifteen minutes a day of small housework items. Christine has just gone back to work after maternity leave and is exhausted. If I spend fifteen minutes a day doing easy work, her stress load lightens exponentially. She can spend time with our daughter at night instead of seeing messes around the house.
- Father - fifteen minutes a day praying for my daughter. (Again, this could and should be way more, but I’d rather pray for her fifteen minutes out of my day than no minutes at all!)
- Graphic Designer - fifteen minutes a day going through a tutorial and learning new techniques. I always want to learn how to better my skills.
- Worship Leader - My fifteen minutes in God’s Word already impacted this one, as a worship leader should be first and foremost a student of God’s Word, then a musician. Fifteen minutes a day practicing my instrument(s). Now, granted, some of you who read this play several instruments so this could turn into 45 minutes a day. But think of the impact it will have on your confidence and skill level!
I just planned one hour and forty-five minutes of my day (I’m including fifteen minutes for three instruments). That short time will impact my roles, those who come in contact with me in those roles and my impact on God’s kingdom significantly more than an hour and forty-five minutes of many other things. How much TV does the average American watch??? I don’t even watch that much TV at all, but I know I could be spending my time doing much more beneficial things.
Well, today my wife and I are scheduled to go to the hospital and be induced to have our first baby. Please pray for safe delivery and strength for my wife especially, as it will be an overnight labor. We are so excited to have a new member of our family, but know if will change our lives forever.
I more than likely will be taking a bit of a break from blogging for a while. So look for me to come back after a time of rest and getting to enjoy the new adventures of fatherhood.
