i am an offering

I have to make a confession today.  What I’d like to confess is that I want this blog only to be used for the glory of Jesus Christ and to lift Him up.  What I’d like to confess is that I don’t want to use this blog to spread my name.  But, what I’m confessing is actually the exact opposite.  My human nature is fighting, fighting with the fact that I know I need to give up my thoughts of spreading the word about what I write.  My human nature is fighting the fact that when I look at my stats and see them rising I know that it shouldn’t matter.  My human nature is fighting pride.

God’s Name or Our Name?

Especially as bloggers - we tend to do what we can to build our followers, promote our blogs, trade links, whatever - but why? Are we truly doing it so that God’s glory can be known and exalted through our blogs - or are we doing it so that our name can be known?  I don’t know about you, but I am fearful that there will be a constant struggle for me as I write and continue to make new acquaintances that I will want more and more to promote myself.

I pray that God is always rightly exalted through me and that I would continue to decrease while He continues to increase.

I guess I just wanted to confess this to the world today, ask for prayer - and encourage us all to keep things in perspective.  Is it wrong to want to promote ourselves?  If it’s under the guise of “oh - I’m doing this so that Jesus will be lifted up” but really, deep down we just want ourselves promoted - yes, I think it’s wrong.  If we truly have the desire to lift Jesus up more than anything, maybe not.

What About You?

So, those of you who are bloggers out there - what do you do to remain humble?  Are you justifying self-promotion because “it’s all about Jesus” but it’s really all about you?  For me, thankfully, God used a couple of different circumstances to say, “Hey, Ryan, slow down - this is about me, not you.”  And it was right when I needed it.  God’s Word says,

Young men, in the same way be submissive to those who are older. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” (1 Peter 5:5) as well as

“When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.” (Proverbs 11:2)

My prayer, for all of us, is that we would have humility and wisdom before everything else.

Yesterday at Living Word was a bit different than usual.  Our pastor is on a much needed vacation, so I filled in with the teaching yesterday while the other two deacons helped to lead the service.  Will, Kelli and Robin did a fantastic job of leading worship, bringing back a few of my favorite hymns that I hadn’t sung for a while.  Songs for the morning:

• Praise to the Lord the Almighty (hymn)
• Blessed Assurance (hymn)
• Softly and Tenderly (hymn)
• Jesus, Thank You (Sovereign Grace)

One of the best parts of the day for me was a testimony from Hans, one of our youth who had just been to what’s called FLY BootCamp (Free Lutheran Youth Boot Camp), an intense time of training and encouragement for youth from the Free Lutheran Church around the country.  This year they focused on evangelism with some hands on training.  I must admit, when it comes to evangelism - especially on the street, everyday, talk to whoever you meet evangelism, I fall way short.  Hans challenged all of the adults in the congregation to be examples for the youth, because that’s where the youth get their inspiration and encouragement to keep going.  I was sure convicted!  What a great challenge for adults for every area of life as well.  People are watching, folks.

By the way, Fred McKinnon just started something pretty cool to get people seeing what other churches around the country are singing week to week.  This post is part of his ‘Sunday Setlists’ post. Check it out, especially if you’re interested in some new song ideas.

Tomorrow, I want to dive into a hard topic, one that I’ve been wrestling with this past weekend as some interesting things have happened with this blog - pride.  I’m going to be honest and raw and hope that some of our thinking might shift a little.  See you tomorrow.

Do you have an accurate picture of who you are and your abilities? Do you think you are the absolute best at something and no one can do it better? This is something that we will struggle with as Christians. We are naturally bent towards pride. Thankfully, though, when we trust and obey the Holy Spirit, we now have the ability to join in His nature and join in the fight against pride. It’s not an easy task, but we fight every day.

Worshiping God by Having a Correct Understanding of our Gifts

Part of learning to worship God is learning that God has stamped His nature on us through the Holy Spirit and beginning to realize when we do things that are contrary to His nature. How do we join in God’s nature, being able to fight our natural tendency for pride? Paul shares this in Romans 12:

For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.” Romans 12:3-5

My Struggle

It’s interesting that I have been enjoying and living by verses one and two of this chapter but never really thought about these verses until recently. I’ve come to examine my heart and really think about the fact that yes, I might be a little prideful at times. It has required a shift in my thinking, constant dependence on God, and prayer for forgiveness and grace every time I realize that I’m being prideful.

How about you? Are you cultivating a heart of humility, thinking of yourself “with sober judgment” and putting others first? Let’s take the journey together.

Today’s worship leader faces several challenges.  Often we are responsible for so many things, including but not limited to:

• Arranging and producing music every week.
• Spiritually leading our volunteers.
• Scheduling volunteers.
• Planning services.
• Cultivating relationships.
• Practicing our voice or instrument.
• Preparing for services.
• Leading worship in services.
• Finding new music.
• The list goes on.

We often get caught in the trap of thinking that we have to do all these things ourself.  While that could be a noble task, I don’t think it’s a wise one.  What happens is that you end up putting your strengths on the back burner and not developing them, while doing tasks that are your weaknesses that you don’t really do all that well.  I am probably the worst at being a disciplined scheduler.  But, instead of working on becoming that, I should find another volunteer who takes joy in making a schedule and let them run with it.  Perhaps you have a desire to write songs, but you’re realizing that it isn’t your strength.  Someone in your congregation comes along who is a great songwriter.  Let your pride go and let them cultivate that gift, while you better cultivate yours.

Let’s always remember to maximize on others’ gifts, while still maximizing on our own.

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)