I'm in Atlanta this morning getting ready for a long day of meetings with a group of people that are some of my closest friends and while the day will be long the fellowship is going to be great.
Some of you know that Marsha and I have spent almost four years as worship leaders in the Vineyard movement and while you may not have any clue what the Vineyard is or what they are about, you have probably been worshipping to Vineyard songs for years. It is estimated that about 70% of the contemporary worship tunes that Protestant Churches use in worship today were written by Vineyard worship leaders. Songs like "This is the Air I Breath" or "Light the Fire again" are Vineyard tunes. There are almost 1200 Vineyard churches in the USA today and if these guys do anything great it's community abroad.
I'm in Atlanta because I serve as a regional leader for Tennessee and Kentucky and I am responsible for helping to coordinating training events for the area as well helping meet the needs of worship leaders in my area.
The friendships and the kingdom relationships that Marsha and I have made in this community of worshippers has been unbelievable and it has allowed us to pour ourselves and our experience into a generation of worship leaders that are coming up behind us, which honestly is one of the coolest things we get to do. I love getting to spend time with a 20 year old kid and sharing with him the things I have learn in my years of leading God's people into His presence and then walking away from that experience having learned something from that 20 year old kid myself.
We are called to make disciples in this world and those of us that have been walking and serving in the way of Jesus for a while are obligated to train up those that are new to this way. Today, I get to engage in that work and I am humbled in my spirit and in my heart because my Lord has counted me worthy to be used in such a way.
Brad mentioned a few weeks ago that in "Churchianity" our focus is often times on the people that are more mature in their walk and we often forget that we are called to share the message of Jesus with those that are far from God and then take those that are young in their walk and help them grow.
I'm finding that the less I focus on me and the more I pour myself out for the purpose of raising up others for Christ, the more full I feel in my own spirit and the more real my King is to me in my daily walk. As we are spent for the Kingdom and those the Lord has put in our path the more we appreciate the everyday things in our life and the more we find the Worship of God in the seemly small or mundane things in our daily lives.
I hope you'll take some time today to let yourself be poured out for someone else and let that be an offering of worship to your King today.
See you all Sunday
Joe
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Monday, March 3, 2008
Core Conviction 1
O.K. I know that we have moved on to Core Conviction 2 BUT I still can't stop thinking about Core Conviction 1-(It's all about God).
If you we there for the teaching a couple of weeks ago then you know that the teaching was about living a life that recognizes that every moment of every day is a moment of worship and response to God.
How you handle your kids. How you treat your spouse. How you handle your money ( Yea, I went there, I know this one is tough for a lot of us but remember It's still all about God)
Life is about decisions and every decision that is in line with the revealed truth of God is a moment of worship.
The Apostle Paul spoke of presenting our everyday lives as "Living Sacrifices" and this was our reasonable act of spiritual worship. WOW! living like everyday things matter to God, what a great concept.
I challenge you this week to look at the everyday things that you do and ask yourself "What is there about the things that I do everyday in my life that are worship to God because others are blessed in the process?"
If you we there for the teaching a couple of weeks ago then you know that the teaching was about living a life that recognizes that every moment of every day is a moment of worship and response to God.
How you handle your kids. How you treat your spouse. How you handle your money ( Yea, I went there, I know this one is tough for a lot of us but remember It's still all about God)
Life is about decisions and every decision that is in line with the revealed truth of God is a moment of worship.
The Apostle Paul spoke of presenting our everyday lives as "Living Sacrifices" and this was our reasonable act of spiritual worship. WOW! living like everyday things matter to God, what a great concept.
I challenge you this week to look at the everyday things that you do and ask yourself "What is there about the things that I do everyday in my life that are worship to God because others are blessed in the process?"
Monday, February 25, 2008
Express your Worship, Share the Message
Wow!!
Yesterday was awesome!!
Brad did a great job sharing the vision of Liberty Outreach and I personally came away from the worship experience excited about my faith, my God and my church.
It's great to be a part of a movement that is re-focusing it's heart and attention to the revealed heart of Christ. I say revealed heart, because Jesus wasn't trying to hide His heart and his mission from us. He was open and up front about what he was here to do and the 12 men that followed him for three years, who took over the mission after he left this earth to return to heaven, were just as open and up front about the mission.
One of them, a man named Paul, wrote these words in a letter to a group of new followers of Christ in a city called Corith so they would understand the heart of God.
2Cr 5:18
All this newness of life is from God, who brought us back to himself through what Christ did. And God has given us the task of reconciling people to him.
2Cr 5:19
For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people's sins against them. This is the wonderful message he has given us to tell others.
2Cr 5:20
We are Christ's ambassadors, and God is using us to speak to you. We urge you, as though Christ himself were here pleading with you, "Be reconciled to God!"
2Cr 5:21
For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.
When you are romancing someone, when you love someone, you love what is important to them.
Have you ever noticed how little effort it takes to talk about what you love or the one's you love?
Worship is an expression of love and nothing expresses love more to your lover than knowing their heart. When we align our heart and passions to those of Christ we are expressing the deepest worship possible.
Worship is much more than songs and music, it's a lifestyle of sharing with those around us the newness of life.
Yesterday was awesome!!
Brad did a great job sharing the vision of Liberty Outreach and I personally came away from the worship experience excited about my faith, my God and my church.
It's great to be a part of a movement that is re-focusing it's heart and attention to the revealed heart of Christ. I say revealed heart, because Jesus wasn't trying to hide His heart and his mission from us. He was open and up front about what he was here to do and the 12 men that followed him for three years, who took over the mission after he left this earth to return to heaven, were just as open and up front about the mission.
One of them, a man named Paul, wrote these words in a letter to a group of new followers of Christ in a city called Corith so they would understand the heart of God.
2Cr 5:18
All this newness of life is from God, who brought us back to himself through what Christ did. And God has given us the task of reconciling people to him.
2Cr 5:19
For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people's sins against them. This is the wonderful message he has given us to tell others.
2Cr 5:20
We are Christ's ambassadors, and God is using us to speak to you. We urge you, as though Christ himself were here pleading with you, "Be reconciled to God!"
2Cr 5:21
For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.
When you are romancing someone, when you love someone, you love what is important to them.
Have you ever noticed how little effort it takes to talk about what you love or the one's you love?
Worship is an expression of love and nothing expresses love more to your lover than knowing their heart. When we align our heart and passions to those of Christ we are expressing the deepest worship possible.
Worship is much more than songs and music, it's a lifestyle of sharing with those around us the newness of life.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
The Big Show
This passed week Brad (our pastor) and I were talking about our desire to see every Sunday be a Super Bowl Sunday. By that I mean that every Sunday is our very best. It's about bringing your "A" game to the celebration that we call worship.
As I was pondering this thought today, I was reminded of how many times I had heard the preachers of my past chide the congregations for being less than enthusiastic during worship. They would always draw the comparison of how folks could hoop and holler and scream till their voices were gone at a football game, but then come to church and hardly make a sound during worship. Every time I heard a preacher use this analogy I just wanted to say " Well DUH!" what do you expect.
You're suppose to hoop and holler and scream to the top of your lungs at football games, that's what you go there for. You pay good money to be at a place where other like-minded folks gather to corporately cheer for a group of people that inspire them. To watch a team of professionals bring there very best to the field on Sunday and leave it all there. We admire the dedication, the raw determination and the commitment that our gridiron heroes bring to field and Yea, we make tons of noise during the game, because it OK to do that. As a matter of fact, you're expected to do that. Nobody's going to judge you for shouting at a football game. No one's going to be inspecting and critiquing your shout to determine if it was genuine or not, or question whether or not it was done in the right spirit or with enough conviction.
It's OK to shout at football games, everybody does it.
Traditionally, Church isn't that kind of atmosphere. We come into a worship service and we're not comfortable because the atmosphere isn't designed for true worship and celebration. People will worship and fully express there hearts to God in wonderful open ways if they feel comfortable, if they feel safe, if they aren't concerned about whether or not the person next to them is observing there expressions of worship and trying to discern whether or not their expressions are genuine, or if they are qualified to be making such public expressions of worship towards God.
You can't expect people to express the same kind of exuberance in church that they show at a football game unless the atmospheres are the same and most of the time they aren't.
In the midst of all this musing, I asked myself "In a hundred years what will it matter who won the Super Bowl in 2008". It was a great game and I loved seeing Eli win his first Super Bowl, but it's just a game. A great game, but still just a game. But what we do on Sundays is eternal and constant. Worship has been going on since the beginning of creation and it never stops. All of creation worships God continually, we just join in from time to time.
If worship is eternal, If we were especially designed for the purpose of reflecting God's glory and worshiping Him, then shouldn't we strive to make the atmosphere we worship in one that feels that way, open and safe? A place of connection.
There we go! That's the word I was looking for. Connection!!
That's what makes football so great. It's the connection that you feel with total strangers joined together in a stadium under the banner of there favorite team and no matter their background, there social standing, political leanings or theological beliefs; at this place on this day they are one voice, The 12th man. They may not be on the field but they are in the game none the less and the connection that is felt, the common joy that is share when the team is successful or the disappointment that is felt when they fail is equally shared among them all, because there is connection.
Connection is what we were made for. We are designed, by God for connection to God and while we may not understand that or even have the desire to be connected with God, we will seek to be connected in some way to others.
Worship is the Ultimate connection; to God AND to each other. When we worship we are responding to God and he in turn responds to us. We don't need to have a lot of deep understanding of who He is or a deep theological sense of why we worship, we just need to connect. If we can connect the understanding will come.
The old Jewish scholars believed that when the Jews gathered together in the tabernacle to worship, that the lines between heaven and earth blurred. That the realms of heaven and earth intertwined. If you have ever been in a truly powerful worship service you may have experience that very feeling. It's hard to explain, that feeling of heaven and earth merging together, but it beats the heck out of the football experience.
My deepest desire for Liberty Outreach is that we work and strive each week together as a group of worshippers to create an atmosphere where heaven and earth collide. A place where anyone could walk off the street and feel connected and regardless of their position spiritually they could still sense the merging of heaven and earth and the powerful presence of God Almighty.
So much for my musings today. I hope to connect with you Sunday.
Blessings
Joe
As I was pondering this thought today, I was reminded of how many times I had heard the preachers of my past chide the congregations for being less than enthusiastic during worship. They would always draw the comparison of how folks could hoop and holler and scream till their voices were gone at a football game, but then come to church and hardly make a sound during worship. Every time I heard a preacher use this analogy I just wanted to say " Well DUH!" what do you expect.
You're suppose to hoop and holler and scream to the top of your lungs at football games, that's what you go there for. You pay good money to be at a place where other like-minded folks gather to corporately cheer for a group of people that inspire them. To watch a team of professionals bring there very best to the field on Sunday and leave it all there. We admire the dedication, the raw determination and the commitment that our gridiron heroes bring to field and Yea, we make tons of noise during the game, because it OK to do that. As a matter of fact, you're expected to do that. Nobody's going to judge you for shouting at a football game. No one's going to be inspecting and critiquing your shout to determine if it was genuine or not, or question whether or not it was done in the right spirit or with enough conviction.
It's OK to shout at football games, everybody does it.
Traditionally, Church isn't that kind of atmosphere. We come into a worship service and we're not comfortable because the atmosphere isn't designed for true worship and celebration. People will worship and fully express there hearts to God in wonderful open ways if they feel comfortable, if they feel safe, if they aren't concerned about whether or not the person next to them is observing there expressions of worship and trying to discern whether or not their expressions are genuine, or if they are qualified to be making such public expressions of worship towards God.
You can't expect people to express the same kind of exuberance in church that they show at a football game unless the atmospheres are the same and most of the time they aren't.
In the midst of all this musing, I asked myself "In a hundred years what will it matter who won the Super Bowl in 2008". It was a great game and I loved seeing Eli win his first Super Bowl, but it's just a game. A great game, but still just a game. But what we do on Sundays is eternal and constant. Worship has been going on since the beginning of creation and it never stops. All of creation worships God continually, we just join in from time to time.
If worship is eternal, If we were especially designed for the purpose of reflecting God's glory and worshiping Him, then shouldn't we strive to make the atmosphere we worship in one that feels that way, open and safe? A place of connection.
There we go! That's the word I was looking for. Connection!!
That's what makes football so great. It's the connection that you feel with total strangers joined together in a stadium under the banner of there favorite team and no matter their background, there social standing, political leanings or theological beliefs; at this place on this day they are one voice, The 12th man. They may not be on the field but they are in the game none the less and the connection that is felt, the common joy that is share when the team is successful or the disappointment that is felt when they fail is equally shared among them all, because there is connection.
Connection is what we were made for. We are designed, by God for connection to God and while we may not understand that or even have the desire to be connected with God, we will seek to be connected in some way to others.
Worship is the Ultimate connection; to God AND to each other. When we worship we are responding to God and he in turn responds to us. We don't need to have a lot of deep understanding of who He is or a deep theological sense of why we worship, we just need to connect. If we can connect the understanding will come.
The old Jewish scholars believed that when the Jews gathered together in the tabernacle to worship, that the lines between heaven and earth blurred. That the realms of heaven and earth intertwined. If you have ever been in a truly powerful worship service you may have experience that very feeling. It's hard to explain, that feeling of heaven and earth merging together, but it beats the heck out of the football experience.
My deepest desire for Liberty Outreach is that we work and strive each week together as a group of worshippers to create an atmosphere where heaven and earth collide. A place where anyone could walk off the street and feel connected and regardless of their position spiritually they could still sense the merging of heaven and earth and the powerful presence of God Almighty.
So much for my musings today. I hope to connect with you Sunday.
Blessings
Joe
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Romancing God
This is my first post on my new blog "Romancing God".
The purpose of this blog is to share what's going on as I start my new duties as the worship pastor for Liberty Outreach church in Franklin County, TN
I wanted a way to communicate to everyone in the church as well as my worship team members, what's going through my head and the hopes I have for the future of our church and the worship enviroment that I hope we can create together.
Romancing God was a thought that came to my heart as Brad (our pastor) and I shared ideas tonight about the future and what worship was to us as a church.
Worship is a response of the soul to it's lover...God.
God is a romantic and has been romancing us all our lives. As we grow in relationship with Christ and we come to understand the depth of His love towards us we naturally want to responsed to that love. That response, no matter how it is manifested, is worship in it's purest form.
My hope is to create a culture and an atmosphere at our church that further enables us to romance God in a corporate setting and teaches and encourages those who are seeking to follow Christ to respond to Him on a day to day basis.
I look forward to sharing more soon.
The purpose of this blog is to share what's going on as I start my new duties as the worship pastor for Liberty Outreach church in Franklin County, TN
I wanted a way to communicate to everyone in the church as well as my worship team members, what's going through my head and the hopes I have for the future of our church and the worship enviroment that I hope we can create together.
Romancing God was a thought that came to my heart as Brad (our pastor) and I shared ideas tonight about the future and what worship was to us as a church.
Worship is a response of the soul to it's lover...God.
God is a romantic and has been romancing us all our lives. As we grow in relationship with Christ and we come to understand the depth of His love towards us we naturally want to responsed to that love. That response, no matter how it is manifested, is worship in it's purest form.
My hope is to create a culture and an atmosphere at our church that further enables us to romance God in a corporate setting and teaches and encourages those who are seeking to follow Christ to respond to Him on a day to day basis.
I look forward to sharing more soon.
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