In staff meeting yesterday we were discussing the Mormon church and how their under investigation as it pertains to their tax exempt status.  Normally I’d be cool with it except that we (the christian church) will probably be next.  

We then got onto the subject of the overuse of prescription medication (anti-depressants, anti-anxiety) in the state of Utah. (Burks used to work for a pharmaceutical company)  Then my mom chimed in “well of course they are stressed, can you imagine trying to live a righteous life with out the Holy spirit?”  Then someone else said “I have enough trouble WITH the help of the holy spirit.”

That is so true.  Our flesh is so strong that even with the holy spirit living inside us we still struggle.  We still sin.  Thank you God for the blood of the lamb.  Without that we would be up a creek.  That being said, how should it affect the way we worship.

Two things:

1-We ought to come to worship with such an attitude of gratitude that thanksgiving pours from our hearts as we reflect on the price Jesus paid so that we might stand before the Father, holy.

2-We ought to be on the lookout for God and how he wants to work in our lives.  Nobodies perfect we simply strive towards a more Christlike life and with open hearts listen to what work God wants to do in our hearts.  He always wants you to grow so pay attention:)

A really interesting morning.  I had an encounter with God during rehearsal.  We were practicing Made to Worship when I was struck with this feeling that I was surrounded by God almost inside, it was above, below, beside, in front of me and behind me.  Probably one of the more intense encounters I’ve had with my creator.  It wasn’t very long but powerful none the less.  As we started to go through the service (breaking a string in the process)  I started to get this sense from the holy spirit that as a church we are beginning to turn a corner.  To begin to move forward, away from some of the things that have plagued us over the last year and a half.  I am seeing the leadership of the church becoming united on one vision and direction for the church.  I am seeing our people more passionately responding to God during worship.  Our church is on the cusp of being a full fledged house of prayer.  I can’t wait to see what God wants to do next.  My prayer for our leadership is that we can catch what God wants and that we can communicate clearly with our congregation.

This video is from the WorshipGod08 conference.  Bob Kauflin is the writer of the Worship Matters blog he is also the author of a book I am reading also titled Worship Matters.  This is great stuff, especially for those who are instrumentalists.  There are also some powerful worship concepts.  It’s about 75 min long.

Band on the Run (VGA) from Sovereign Grace Ministries on Vimeo.

I found this in some of my notes I have on my computer.  Not sure who originally wrote it but I’ve benefitted from it, I think you will too.

I once heard someone say that “the size of your worship is determined by the size of your God.” In other words, if my view of God is teeny-tiny, my response in worship to Him will correspondingly be teeny-tiny. On the other hand, if my view of God is HUGE – as it should be – then my worship response will naturally be huge as well! I’ve thought about this concept a lot, and have determined that I far too often live as if I have a very small God – my life-response, not just what I sing, but how I live, often reflects that I don’t have an accurate picture of the BIGness – the absolute greatness of God. 

There are many scriptural passages that talk about the greatness of God, but I think our psalmist worship leader, David, was onto something when he wrote Psalm 8. In verses 3-4, he says “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained; What is man that You take thought of him, the son of man that You care for him?” David had a lot of time to consider the “bigness” of God. Think about it – he was a shepherd. What do shepherds do? Well…they feed sheep, lead sheep, protect sheep, move sheep, carry sheep, sheer sheep… Twenty-four/seven, David is catering to all-things-sheep. But in his off-time when the sheep are either out of trouble or sleeping, what is David doing? I picture him kicking back on a hillside outside Jerusalem at night (keep in mind, there are no big city lights to distract) looking up into the dark midnight sky “considering” the stars and the moon – but more importantly, considering the God who hung them in the sky!

I’ve found a place in the middle of nowhere – away from the lights of the city and noise of cars – where I can look up into the sky and consider God. And honestly, as I look up into the sky and think about what is out there beyond the stars that my little eyes can see, it hurts my brain to think about how big God is. I thought the earth was big, but did you know that you could fit over a million earths in our sun? And I thought the sun was big, but did you know that the sun is just an average sized star in the Milky Way galaxy which holds over a BILLION stars?!? I recently did a little reading and found out that the galaxy nearest to ours (the Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy for those astronomy buffs out there) is about 80,000 light years away. Can you imagine how far even the nearest galaxy is? Its even harder to fathom when you realize that a single light year equals about 6 TRILLION miles. That means that the nearest galaxy to the Milky Way is about 480,000,000,000,000,000 miles from earth!! Now…think about how big the universe is when scientists have estimated that there may be over 100 BILLION galaxies in the universe. Is your brain experiencing that sensation that occurs when you drink a Slurpie too fast like mine is right now?

Well, all of this astronomy trivia is great, but our point is that we’re trying to fathom the size of God, which will in turn enlarge our response to Him, which will in turn completely transform our lives. Isaiah helps us put everything into perspective with what he writes about God in chapter 40. In verse 12 he asks about God “Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, or with the breadth of His hand marked off the heavens?” Do you remember how big the universe is? (We were just trying to comprehend that, remember?) Well, this is how big God is – He is able to hold out His hand, spread His fingers, and mark off the distance from one side of the universe to the other from the tip of His pinky finger to the tip of His thumb. Of course Isaiah writes in poetic language and certainly God is much bigger than this, but do you see what I’m getting at? God is HUGE! And far more often than I’d like to admit, I act as if this incredible universe revolves around ME! 

Obviously, its impossible to quantify “the size of God” – God is limitless and infinite… but, if our response to God should correspond with how big and mighty and transcendent and awesome and loving and merciful and powerful He truly is, shouldn’t our worship be MUCH bigger than it is? My prayer is that as we open our eyes and our hearts to see more of who God is, our lives will be radically transformed to express a life-response that matches His size.

Counting on God is the newest worship project from New Life Church in Colorado Springs.  I was hesitant but pleasantly surprised.  

They released one album before that when I listened to it I felt like I was listening to a Hillsong knockoff.  They had songs with catchy riffs and neat vocal hooks but it just felt like they were trying to be Hillsong.  NOT ANY MORE!!!!

This album is fantastic from start to finish. (Thanks to Stoney for making me listen to it)  It starts off with the title track Counting on God.  The rhythm is pretty syncopated but the melody is easy to grasp.  When you get to the chorus it breaks into “bubble gum pop” kind of harmonies.  It really works well and helps the melody to be picked up easier.  All in all I think that most of the songs are very singalongable (yeah I know it’s not a word but I use it all of the time).  Ultimately there is one reason this album is so much better than their last one.  They wrote this one from the heart.  They wrote this album coming out of one of the toughest times and church could endure.  They weren’t trying to write the next great worship song.  They just wrote worship… 

Here is their story.

Well initially I had great intentions of posting something everyday.  But I have decided that a more appropriate goal is every other day.  If I have more I will share.  I had planned to begin that last week but I got really sick so it kind of ruined that opportunity.  Also I want to begin to answer questions.  Right now I’m pretty familiar with every one of my readers but I still want to answer peoples questions about worship so… there will be a permanent page on this blog where you can submit questions and I will post the answer.

Missions weekend…

Well this week as a band we were reminded that in our greatest weakness God comes through and shows us his strength.  We were only playing 6 songs and one was a prelude.  So I figured rehearsal would be quick.  WRONG!  The first five songs went really smooth.  Then we got to This is Our God.  I can’t even begin to describe the musical issues we were having with it.  We probably spent 20-30 min. on just that song.  Finally I was feeling like we were beating a dead horse.  I’m beginning to wonder if this song in particular really messes with things in the spiritual realms.  This is the first time we have done it since I introduced it.  This is what happened one of the weeks I was introducing it.  I am going to do some more digging into this song and we’ll see what I find.  I just feel that every time I’ve done this song the devil tries really hard to get in the way.  In our prayer time before the service we gave what we had brought, our talents, gifts, hands, feet, instruments voices, to God.  We can do nothing apart from God.  Every good and perfect gift comes from God. Jesus is the only one who can make our offering truly holy.  we said this is yours, especially the songs we are having trouble playing.  When we turned if over to God he took over and it was an awesome time of worship.

Worship was good, not great.  Musically we were fine, and I was definitely getting lost in worship.  However, as has been the case the last few weeks the congregation seems to be getting less and less engaged.  I know that there is a lot of uncertainty for many in our congregation.  With the economy where it is there are certainly things to be concerned about.  Like John said in his sermon, “it’s easy to be a man or woman of faith when things are going well.”  But when things start going bad is really when you find out what your faith is in.  God is in control, no matter how bad and messed up things seem, he has a plan.  One great thing that happened was Betsy Moll was back in church for the first time in months.  She really enjoyed worship.