Fresh
A great leader does not doubt for one moment the capacity of the people he is leading to realize what he is dreaming.
I think a lot about vision. Vision to me is my ability to see my surroundings not for what they are, but for what they will be. I love to surround myself with people who have more vision than I do. I don’t like to place limitations on what can be done with a little vision. I want to change my surroundings. I want to cultivate a culture of vision.
God is doing great things through worship music right now. I have a vision for the music ministry at my church. I can see the potential and possibility here. How do I get my team to see it? To take ownership of it? How do I get our congregation to see it? I guess I’ll have to trust God to answer that for me.
Read more here: JoshBrage.com
Well, it happened again. I spent a couple hours watching the Bleach documentary “That’s Our Life Up Until Now”. It is basically just a collection of home videos taken by the band on the road over several years to commemorate their time together playing music. It is not serious in any way as most of the movie is footage of the band hanging out with friends and making mildly-funny (and I use that term loosly) jokes.
Allow me to qualify. I love Bleach. They have always been one of my favorite bands. I’ve watched this DVD twice since I received it in the mail three or four years ago (once the day I got it, and once today). I should have remembered better my first experience with the DVD because I wouldn’t have watched it again. I not only regret watching this today, but I regret ever seeing it in the first place. I don’t regret, however, owning this DVD. No matter how crappy this “film” is, it is still Bleach memorabilia (mostly because it is autographed by the band).
Bleach, I love you guys, but this footage should have stayed in your camcorder.
(somewhat-redeeming quality: picture/video montage at the end set to “What Will Your Anthem Be”)
Continuing in our discussion of true worship; this is an introduction to the book God The Evangelist by David Wells. The introduction was written by J.I. Packer and includes a quote from A.W. Tozer. What are your thoughts?
There are today many millions of people who hold “right opinions,” probably more than ever before in the history of the Church. Yet I wonder if there was ever a time when true spiritual worship was at a lower ebb. To great sections of the Church the art of worship has been lost entirely, and in its place has come that strange and foreign thing called the “program.” This word has been borrowed from the stage and applied with sad wisdom to the type of public service which now passes for worship among us. -A.W. Tozer
This is arguably truer now than it was when Tozer wrote about it. Worship — in the sense of telling God his worth by speech and song and celebrating his worth in his presence by proclamation and meditation — has been largely replaced, at least in the West, by a form of entertainment calculated to give worshipers the equivalent of a sauna or Jacuzzi experience and send them away feeling relaxed and tuned up at the same time. Certainly true worship invigorates, but to plan invigoration is not necessarily to order worship. As all that glitters is not gold, so all that makes us feel happy and strong is not worship. The question is not whether a particular liturgical form is used, but whether a God-centered as distinct from a man-centered perspective is maintained—whether, in other words, the sense that man exists for God rather than God for man is cherished or lost. We need to discover all over again that worship is natural to the Christian heart, as it was to the godly Israelites who wrote the psalms, and that the habit of celebrating the greatness and graciousness of God yields an endless flow of thankfulness, joy, and zeal. Neither stylized charismatic exuberance nor Anglican Prayer Book correctness nor conventional music-sandwich Sunday-morning programs provide any magic formula for this rediscovery. It can occur only when the Holy Spirit is taken seriously as the One who through the written word of Scripture shows us the love and glory of the Son and the Father and draws us into personal communion with both.
J.I. Packer
Just a note to all the worship musicians out there:
Make sure you are worshiping while you are playing worship.
This hit me hard on Sunday. It’s too easy to go on autopilot and not invest yourself in the words being professed…or to concentrate so much on the each intricate part of the music that the meaning flies by unnoticed. I read an interview with Bono and he was talking about “living in the song”. It’s not as easy as it sounds. Moving from one world to the next as you play four or five different songs is difficult and taxing. The reward, however, will be great. True worship doesn’t have to be such a lofty ideal.
Don’t be just a worship artist, be a worship leader.
Okay, so I may be a little behind the times but I finally started Twittering. With the addition of the iPhone to my gadget arsenal, I figured I should. Gotta stay connected, ya know? I’ve actually had a Twitter account for a while but never used it much. So here goes nothin! You’ll find my Twitter feed on the sidebar to the right –>
My Twitter address is: http://twitter.com/themarkthomas
Real original, right? Chime in and let me know if you Twitter and I’ll follow your feed as well.
We’re at the vet today. We got here at 8:00am. It is almost 9:30am now. I don’t understand why so many people have dogs. Are you a dog person?
Whelp, I caved in and bought an iPhone. Actually, it’s an early birthday present from my wonderful bride (thank you, gorgeous). One of the many reasons Judi-Free is the best wife ever.
I went with black. Nice and sleek (when I’m gadget shopping I always try and pick the ones that are most ‘James Bond’ like). I’ve been burning brain cells sifting through the App Store all morning trying to find one that will revolutionize my life. Haven’t found it yet. But this thing is freaking cool! Oh, and I apologize in advance to all my friends who will have to deal with the annoying “Sent from my iPhone” signature at the bottom of every email. I’ll turn it off later.
I grew up in churches where it was a regular thing for the service flow to be completely interrupted by a move of the Holy Spirit. I was used to worship lasting longer than an hour because God wasn’t done with it yet. It was not surprising when the pastor said “Well, I guess I’ll preach that message some other time. God’s got something different in the agenda for tonight.” Man, that’s how people become transformed! That is church to me.
It’s a scary thought that a lot of youth today aren’t used to seeing the Spirit move in church services. They’ve been trained to get restless and jittery at the stroke of 11:30 (or whenever the average service ends). The very thought of the music or message “flowing” a bit longer than normal becomes burdensome. They become career pew-warmers at a very early age.
How do we change this mindset? Pastor Rocky used to say “The best way to do something is to start doing it.” Sounds simple, maybe even simplistic, but it makes sense to me. It means that even though it may be difficult at first, you have to press on and do the task at hand.
We have to let the youth experience the Holy Spirit in this way, even if they go kicking and screaming. Once they get a glimpse into that realm…Once they experience the undeniable transformation of a living relationship with God, there’s no way they wouldn’t want more of it. So what are we waiting for?
