Beyond Relevance

I ran across this awesome blog today through a youtube video a friend sent me, and thought you all might want to see this. I’ve read through the blogs pages, and it sounds like they are just the ticket in the area of church relevance. But, don’t let me ruin their views with my interpretation. Check them out at www.beyondrelevance.com and see for yourself what they are all about. In today’s world, people that think like Richard Reising (the founder of the blog) are very important, and many of us could stand to learn a thing or two from them.

Love As I Have Loved

I was pondering John 15:12 last night as I was reading more of “Worship Matters”, and I got this distinct sense that the North American Christian (yes, including me) has a serious deficiency here.

A common argument is that while we must love someone, we don’t have to be friends with them. If you believe that, I want to cast it away as an absolute falsehood right away. The verse says “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” We are quick to forget that last part. “…as I have loved you.” How did Jesus love us? We have to know that before we can even begin to understand how we are to love others.

I won’t go into the specifics of what Jesus did for us because of His love, because you can already generate your own examples. They key here is to remember that we can’t love God and not love our brothers and sisters at the same time. That would be lying. 1 John 4:20 tells us this. So when we consider our relationships with the people we know, we can already see how short we fall in the area of love. What about our enemies? We are to love them too, and in a very real and transparent way. So I want you to think about that for as long as it takes. Do you love the worst person on the planet enough to die for him/her? Enough to be crucified in their place? Willingly? Until we can truthfully answer ‘yes’ to that question, we have not demonstrated the love of Christ that has been commanded. That is the exact love that He showed, and we do it a disservice when we pretend that we can love while keeping an arm’s distance from those we dislike.

Take this to heart in your worship team. Do you love them enough?

An Encouraging Story

So I was talking with a friend very early this morning, and he was describing to me a situation where he felt that he should confront some friends over an issue. He prayed and said “God, if you want me to do this, show me some signs.” To keep it relatively short, my friend thought he had seen the signs he needed prior to confronting these people and he did so. The situation didn’t turn out so well, and he was being urged on more sides than one to apologize, even by God Himself. My friend is sitting there thinking “God, you showed me the signs! Why should I be apologizing? YOU told me to do this!” God’s response to him was this: “No, YOU told you to do this. The signs you saw weren’t from me. You were looking for anything that would validate confronting your friends, because you were so sure that you were right.” My friend responded “But I WAS right!” God said “It was never about being right, John. Was it right that my Son was crucified for doing nothing wrong? Was it fair that my Son got beaten, bloodied and scarred? Was any of that right to you? It has always been about relationship. You do what it takes to mend that friendship, because THAT is what I am about.”

Now, I didn’t use my buddy’s real name in this, but I think you can get the picture. In all of our daily lives, we as Christians can get incredibly focused on being correct. Now, say what you will about how God speaks to people, but I know this guy well enough to know that this, in effect, conversation with God is legitimate. The message he recieved here is absolutely pivotal for our walk. If it is about being right, then where does that put us compared to God? So for those out there who read this and are reminded through this that they don’t have it all together, God loves you in an incredible way. If you’ve been so fortunate as to abandon yourself enough to notice it, it is enough to bring you to your knees. Have this attitude with one another, and do what it takes to mend relationships.

The Words

Well, election day has come and gone, and the winner decided. It will certainly be an interesting time ahead of us, so, like I said in my last post, let us pray for our leaders and bless them as they move forward into this HUGE undertaking.

For the real message of this post, I want to impress upon you something that I have gained from the book “Worship Matters”, which I am hoping to give a full review on shortly. The basic idea was that the words in the song are the important part, if you had to pick one. The music does add another element to those words and allows you to express them with certain emotional overtones, but the words are the heart; they are the message. So, even if you don’t sing, how much do you focus on the words? This part of a song is what ministers to us, and there is a reason we don’t just play instrumentals on Sunday! Remember that God didn’t just beam down a tape player (do people even use those anymore?), from which emitted this face-melting solo, and then His people got the message. No, instead He gave us His Word. Everything written in that book was meant to be spoken, and while the importance of music in worship is stressed throughout, it isn’t the cheif component of our worship. So, do you know the words to the songs you play? Do you simply read them off of the sheet as you go? Put these words into your heart, folks. Study the songs you play, glean the turths, find the scriptures that correspond, and know their significance. That really is a major factor to intentionalizing your worship. What good is the Truth if you don’t know it? Or if you don’t speak it?

Election Today!

Well folks, here we are. It has been a long several months, but election day is here. This is a short post with nothing but a reminder.

No matter who you vote for, and no matter who wins, PRAY FOR YOUR LEADERS. I didn’t say pray about them, and I especially did not say pray against them. I said pray FOR them. Intercede on their behalf, pray that God would be alive and ever moving within them, and that the redemptive work of Christ would be in them. The winner will essentially be the most powerful person in the world, and the job is not easy. Don’t harbor anger and discord against these people, but rather love and hope. These guys are both Christians, they both wrestle with things, and they both don’t have it all together.

I think you get the idea. Love these people, folks. Love them and let it show.

Men’s Conference Update, Part 2

Well, to keep the long story of my internet story short, I had problems with it at the hotel.

Now that I got that out of the way, here is a second update to the men’s conference.

The message that I alluded to in the first post still resonated with the guys, and we got together as guys from our individual church to discuss those things and pray over them. Some men were motivated to do the things that had been nagging at them for a long time, others had finally broken the bondage of a rough early family life. All in all, our time that night was well spent, and there was lots of prayer going around the room as we ministered to one another.

The music that was chosen was pretty awesome, with some songs we all knew, a few other new ones and a little in between. Each had ample room to simply hang on a stanza of choice so that if the team felt led, they wouldn’t have to cut anything short. This time was one of personal breakthrough in worship for me, so I was glad I went even if only for that.

It is difficult to pick out exactly what to say about the conference, especially since my thoughts are still a little hazy and need processing. Guys were ministered to, struggles were fought and won, and many walked away challenged to shed the compromises that simply snaked their way into their lives and had its way with them.

Men’s Conference Update

Well, as I type I am in the 3rd session of 6 this weekend, and so far each message has varied significantly. They all attack the same issue, just from different angles, which is something to be appreciated. As I said earlier, the general theme is that men of courage act with no compromise in today’s world (which, coincidentally, chides you into a life of compromise). This is an important topic today, and for a number of reasons.

As most of you already know, men in church seem bored. There are endless books and works out there depicting this problem, so I won’t really get into it. This means that the church hasn’t captured the attention of men, and while the blame doesn’t rest on the church alone, it does present a siginificant problem; if men aren’t interested in church, what are they interested in? What do they invest their time and energies in? Unfortunately, the answer is already clear to many of you. As I always stress, none of us are perfect, so this isn’t a big “judge guys” post. However, there are some key areas that men really do struggle with, and the obvious answer is the church. Guys are stuck in a rut with their marriage, their sin, their job, and any other number of things. So the general question these pastors are asking us is this: Are you going to stand for that? You are getting the life sucked out of you, and you know it is happening, so what will you do?

This is an incredibly relevant message for men in North America today. We are rich and bored, which is obviously not a good combination.

I’ll do another update tonight to finalize the thoughts on today’s sessions and hopefully again tomorrow before we leave this place.

Oh, and as a side note, Lake Louise is beautiful, as always. The food is incredible, too. Until tonight!

Another Conference Coming Up!

Well, I’m going away to another conference this weekend in Lake Louise (!), so be ready for some updates from that. It isn’t really about music but nonetheless relevant to Christian men today. The theme is about how we are to live in a world of compromise, which is most certainly a relevant one. I am expecting to be impacted and come away changed for the better. I hope that by reading my thoughts on each session you can achieve a level of the same. I’ll keep you posted.

Handling Minor Disagreements on the Team

I guess the title really gives it away. I won’t give you any hard and fast rules to live by, namely because each situation is unique. They key ingedient to solving these small disputes (whatever they may be, political, musical, opinion-related, etc) is always grace. Each person has been bought for the highest of prices, has been saved by grace alone, has seen mercy when they deserved wrath, has experienced God’s goodness and is witness to the love of Jesus Christ. All too often we choose to argue over comparitively petty things, and they cause division among us. In 2 Timothy 2:23, Paul says “Don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels.” It goes on to say that the Lord’s servant should not quarrel, be able to teach and not be resentful and to be kind. Sometimes, this is an awfully contrasting image when we look at ourselves. So, take that to heart, and ask yourself: “In the grand scheme of salvation and Almighty God, how big is this issue I want to bring up?”

Basically, don’t be so anxious to demand repentance and make everyone see your side. Rejoice in the fact that you are all saved by the blood, and the petty arguments will fade away like they were never there.

Another Challenge

How many of you out there download music for free? Specifically, how many of you download worship music for free?

What are your convictions in this area, why do you or don’t you do this, and what are your country’s laws pertaining to it? Look into it, I think you’ll be surprised at what you find. Especially as worship musicians, this is important stuff to think about.