The Fellowship of Worship

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

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?"