Worshiping God (not just on Sundays…) – Pride

Ryan Egan —  June 11, 2008 — 10 Comments

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.

In How to be an Offering
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Creating a Culture for Your Worship Team

Ryan Egan —  June 10, 2008 — Leave a comment

I have one chapter left in Worship Matters. I will be posting an extended review on Thursday of this week. In the meantime, I thought I’d share some highlights from a chapter in a section on “Right Relationships” dealing with the relationship with “Your Team.”

Creating Culture that Has Lasting, Positive Impact

Bob Kauflin shares “five ways to think about your team that will help you ask the right questions and pursue the right solutions.” They are:

  • Establishing your team – creating a culture.
  • Encouraging your team – creating a culture of gratefulness.
  • Equipping your team – creating a culture of growth.
  • Evaluating your team – creating a culture of humility.
  • Enjoying your team – creating a culture of joy.

What can be Done?

For those of you on our team (I use the word loosely, as we haven’t officially established one yet, but you are all team-members, nonetheless!) at Living Word, how can I improve in any of these areas? I know I don’t encourage you nearly enough, and there are definitely untapped opportunities for us to just enjoy each other more often, but how else can I help in these areas?

For those of you with your own teams, what have you done in these areas that has made a difference?

In For Worship Leaders, Leadership
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Sunday Recap – A Musically Enjoyable Sunday

Ryan Egan —  June 9, 2008 — 4 Comments

This Sunday at Living Word was fantastic.  I think even more so than usual for me.  It wasn’t because we had a Sunday almost full of music at the church, but more because God ordained everything to work out perfectly.

I was a bit concerned about the crammed schedule of having a group from our sister church sing three songs, plus having The Ambassadors, a  Summer Team from our Bible School being here as well, plus having our own worship team leading worship.  So we decided (I should say we were prompted by the Holy Spirit) to let the Summer Team lead worship and make the service a little more of a “concert” style service.  Boy, what a great decision the Spirit led us to!

Not only was it nice for our musicians to have a bit of break, it was so good to just listen to God’s Word being sung in music.  We also learned a great new worship song by Aaron Shust that we will be singing in days to come.  And, I was helping teach some of our youth how to run EasyWorship and get this, both of these youth actually sang during the service!  It was so cool to sit between two young people who were lifting their praises to God.  Here was the song list:

  • The Name of Jesus (Aaron Shust)
  • Praise to the Lord, the Almighty (updated arrangement)
  • Be the Centre (Michael Frye)
  • Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior (Hymn by Fanny Crosby)

And, oh yeah, the message was awesome.

And we celebrated our final night of The Truth Project by having pizza and worshiping together before watching the last session.

A great day.

In Uncategorized
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Sufficiency in Christ – Part 2: Depending on the Holy Spirit

Ryan Egan —  June 5, 2008 — 8 Comments

Where do you find your confidence?

God has blessed me with natural talent. Learning a new song and memorizing songs come very easily for me. Remembering chord progressions and talking while I play are two things that I don’t have too much trouble with. But I’m saying this not to boast, but to tell you that it’s probably my biggest downfall when it comes to trusting Christ.

I often think that I can do things on my own, without God’s power. I often think that because things come easily to me, I don’t have to prepare or practice or rely on the Holy Spirit. That couldn’t be further from the truth.

What do you depend on?

Bob Kauflin, in his new book Worship Matters has a very encouraging and convicting chapter on the power of the Holy Spirit. As I’ve read his book so far, this chapter has been one that stands out at me the most. In it he writes:

So here’s the question: How much do you pray? Do you pray for his guidance before you start planning for Sunday? What do you place more trust in-God’s power or your performance? Do you toss up generic prayers like, “God, please bless our time today?” Or do you pray specifically, asking the Spirit to reveal Christ to everyone gathered, to help the congregation sing with understanding, and to bring forth fruit in people’s lives? (pg. 83)

Granted, Bob is talking about a worship leader praying for various aspects of a worship service, but how often do we do the same thing in our lives? How often do we not pray before we start our day? How often do we place more trust in our performance then God’s power? How often do we pray generic prayers of “God, please bless me today, or bless so-and-so today,” without getting very specific. God cares about the details.

Bob goes on to say these very convicting statements:

Confessing our utter dependence on the Holy Spirit should produce a deep sense of gratitude, humility, and peace in our hearts. It should free us from anxious thoughts about how smoothly the service will flow, whether or not the sound system will feed back, and how people will respond to us. (pg. 83)

Again, if we apply this to our own everyday lives, utter dependence on the Holy Spirit should free us from anxious thoughts about anything and everything.

So how about you? Are you finding your adequacy in God? Or are you finding yourself self-sufficient without an utter dependence on Him? Let us become God-sufficient, knowing that He is so much more than enough for all we could ever ask or imagine.

In Uncategorized
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Too Good to Pass Up – Fantastic Giveaway at Rocksinmydryer

Ryan Egan —  June 5, 2008 — 4 Comments

This is just way too good to pass up, plus it helps me make you aware of a great new blog (or two). Rocksinmydryer is giving away a box set of all the artists on the WOW Hits 1 CD. Craziness! Thanks Missy for the heads up.

More on satisfaction, sufficiency and confidence in Christ later today.

In Uncategorized
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