I know, I know…I skipped  yesterday. I feel really bad about it, too. But I took a TOTAL day off and didn’t really even look at my laptop. I’ve been so engulfed in other things that I took a super step away from everything. Which was pretty good actually. Especially looking at how today has gone up until now. Anyway, this thought came to my head yesterday. It is mostly a result of Sunday’s service. Which means that it would have been a great thing to write about on Monday but…

The choir at the CKBC sang Sunday morning for the first time. It turned out pretty good even though Sunday morning’s rehearsal did not. I actually had a lady in the choir come up to me after they sang to say that she didn’t know what to expect after that rehearsal, but they pulled it together. Then Sunday night went okay. At the end of the night as I looked back at the day, I was feeling quite disappointed in myself. I felt as if I should have made a better presentation musically throughout the course of the day. I felt really sub par. The only things that kept running through my brain were all the things that didn’t go right. There were quite a few things that went well, but I was focusing on all the things that didn’t work correctly. I spent some time praying and was convicted in my own thought process. It was quite selfish of me to take that whole thing on myself and then not be able to accept the praise that was being given. All I could focus on was what didn’t happen. My heart was dealing with the what ELSE as opposed to the what IS.

What’s the difference? When I’m focused on the what else, I’m saying that who I am and what I have to give is not enough for God, even though He has already said that it is. I’m trying to add something to make myself more presentable. The reality of the matter is that I wasn’t good enough in the first place and He was the one that made me good enough. There’s nothing that I can do to make myself more presentable. Obviously, when I try I just turn out to be uglier. And believe me, I don’t have much room to be making myself uglier. But even now I still have trouble giving the whole thing to the only One who can handle it all. I still have trouble believing that He wants anything to do with me. I think I’ll right a song about it. In the meantime I’ll share some words from another song.

I wondered how to come to You I did not dare believe it true

That You regard the orphaned ones beloved daughters, worthy sons

The broken and the barren too, I heard could find a rest in You

What kind of love in injury’s place would leave instead the stain of grace

So I come in sorrow and I come in shame I come to the cross with my pain

Just as I am without one plea, but that Thy blood was shed for me

And that Thou bidst me come to thee O Lamb of God I come…

The pardon that I found from sin spilled out from where the nails went in

My heart will evermore proclaim I haven’t lived until that day

I know there is a crown for me beyond where mortal eyes can see

And I don’t nod to any man, but to offer me just as I am

I come rejoicing with hands held high I come singing words of new life…

Hello to you all! Today is a pretty big day in the Set List world. Why, you ask? Well, not only is this a pretty decent set list (at least I think so), but it’s the first Sunday that the CKBC choir will sing. We have been working hard and I hope that the work will show this morning. We have been working on a song called Draw Me Nearer. It is a very neat arrangement of the Fannie Crosby hymn. We will have to see how things go. They will be singing during the communion time. Or right BEFORE the communion time. We will have to see how communion plays out this month. Or shall I say Lord’s Supper? Anyway, there are two sets again as we have introduced our Sunday night service called Engage. It starts at 5. If you are free you should join us tonight for some good worship (I know the worship leader personally), and a good message. We are currently working through the book of Galatians. Should be good. I’m done talking, here’s the music:

Sunday Morning

And Can It Be

Jesus Messiah

Take My Life (Here Am I)

Draw Me Nearer (Choir Special)

Lead Me to the Cross (Lord’s Supper Special)

Sunday Evening

Indescribable

You Are God Alone (not a god)

Take My Life

Carried to the Table

Hope you all have a blessed Sunday!

We all get into situations where we have to engage our major thought process. Not just the one that deals with whether to eat Jack in the Box or McDonald’s, but the one that deals with the big issues. Issues like what college to go to. If this job is the right one. Will she say yes if I ask her to marry me. Am I really ready to take this next step in my life. I am an avid watching of the television show Psych. It is one of my favorite shows and I own seasons on DVD. The whole show is about making some really huge decisions and filtering through thoughts to come to a solution. Of course, it’s done in a completely ridiculous way and is way fun to watch. Sometimes we have to dig deep into our thought processes to make big decisions in our lives. Decisions that will determine major steps in our lives. In some cases, steps that will affect more than just ourselves.

Today I want to ask for prayer from you, my friends. I am trying to make some decisions in my own life right now and these decisions will definitely affect those around me. They will affect my wife, my 2 girls, the one that’s on the way. I am want take heed to all the things that I have written about earlier this week and make sure that I’m so focused on the cross that I know for sure that God is guiding me and my thoughts. There’s nothing right now worth sharing, so that’s not the point right now. But pray that I would be led by the Father and not by my own will. Sometimes my will can be ridiculous. I just want to make God famous and not myself. I know that I’m rambling now, so I will stop. Thanks to all of you for your support. I appreciate it.

That sounds SOOOOO horrible, doesn’t? Especially when you think about what a mutt is. You may even have one in your home. A mixed breed. They automatically get looked down on. People see one running around the neighborhood and automatically think, “Oh that’s just a mutt. No one wants him.” Or at least it used to be that way. Now it seems that people are purposefully mix breeding dogs looking for combinations of dogs that will be the strongest or the prettiest. Now it’s not so bad to be a mixed breed evidently. Except for dog shows…they still want pure or nothing at all.

I feel like sometimes worship gets looked at the same way. Everyone has their opinions about how worship music is supposed to look or sound or feel. You either have to move forward and be progressive as the music is progressing. Or you can only be musically pure in the church if you stick with the standards and the traditional. That’s when music was at it’s best. I’m not saying that I’ve heard ANY of these things said before (hehehe), well maybe I am… but the truth of that matter is, people are rarely going for the mix. The question is why?

The mix is hard. The mix walks a fine, fine line that I believe worship/song leaders of the day don’t really want to walk. By the way, I am writing this as more of a discussion starter because I constantly deal with this myself. The whole concept of blended worship is one that continues to change, making it hard to get a grasp on. By everyday terms in the church, blended worship basically says “We don’t want to make anyone mad, and we want to keep everyone here happy so let’s do our best to make each week and safe, even mixture of music for everyone. We know we can’t continue to do hymns forever because we are losing our kids by the second. But we don’t want to make the elder people mad because they have helped build and sustain this church. And their name is on that pew…” So at best, we’re asking our worship leaders to be diplomats on a weekly basis. It’s not easy to feel led by the Spirit and be a diplomat. Let me tell you that from experience. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not bashing the idea of a blended worship gathering. But a lot of times, my present situation included, a blended service is only a means to and end. Over a short period of time, people eventually move toward multiple services where those who want traditional hymns and things of that nature get to wake up earlier and come here the sleepy sounding, not as cool, energy-less “old people music. Then the later service is the hip, ultra cool, contemporary, “the only way the music could be this cool is if you wake up later and can drink coffee in the sanctuary” music. There is NO division in those two families of thought, right?

How do we treat the concept of a blended (or later named converged) worship experience from becoming ‘mutt worship’? I know from experience that doing this on a weekly basis can be terribly hard to maintain. I’m not saying that it is really easy to do either of the extremes. However, it seems to take an extra bit of planning because you have to keep everyone’s musical taste in your thoughts each week. You have to remember that Ms. Whatsherface thinks that new fancy song you played last week had too much of a beat and she felt like she was at a club. You also have to remember the group of young college kids that told you how lame that second song was and that if they have to hear that one one more time they may just lose it (with a couple OMG’s thrown in cause they sent this to you via text message). Then you think, “shouldn’t worship be about the one we’re worshiping anyway?” Hmmmm…

Why do we do what we do? Why am I a Christian today? Why do I live this life and try to share it with others who don’t? Is it because it’s the cool thing to do? Is it because it’s my job and I support my family in this way? All of those things have popped into my head at some point. As I deal with these things, I notice that none of them have anything to do with Christ himself. They all have to do with me. I tend to struggle mightily when I take my focus away from where it should be. My heart gets hardened towards ministry and the work of Christ when I turn things inward and look with my own eyes. It’s not until I step back and refocus that I get another glimpse of the cross and Christ hanging there for me and my sins as well as those that we try to reach.

I did something yesterday that I haven’t done in a really long time. I woke up, got myself ready and went and did some work in some other place than my office or my home. I went to Hartford Coffee Company in South St. Louis City. If you’ve never been there, find yourself there soon. Great people and the coffee is pretty amazing. The atmosphere is really cool. One of my favorite places in the city. Anyway, I was there because I thought that I’d have a better chance to meet some people that might not know Christ if I wasn’t in my home or in the dungeon that is my office. What was the result? I met a couple that sat next to me at a table and I was able to talk to them for just a little bit. I also met an area columnist who comes there frequently to write and get coffee. None of these ended up being real long conversations, but they were conversations I would have never had working in my home. The other plus, I got a whole heck of a lot more done in the 3 hours I was there than I have in a really long time. But the focus changed for me from getting things done to being in a place where work is really secondary to presenting the cross to someone I may come in contact with. I feel that if I’m going to be able to lead people to the cross, I have to go where they are. For me, that also means that I need to be continually led to the cross myself. A lot of times I know that the cross is there and that’s where I leave it. I don’t go up to it, I simply look from afar just to keep an eye on it. I still have to allow myself to be led. Allow myself to let the power and severity of Christ’s death penetrate my hard, crusty heart. This became very clear to me as I was getting ready for this upcoming Sunday’s service. The pastor asked me if I could sing ‘Lead Me to the Cross‘ by Hillsong. I had already planned to do another song, but I listened to this one anyway and immediately decided that the Lord was putting this song here for me. I need to be led. Am I the only one? Am I the only one that needs to take a step back and refocus on Christ and what He’s done? I would venture to say that I’m not. I leave you with the words to the aforementioned song.

Savior I come
Quiet my soul remember
Redemption’s hill
Where Your blood was spilled
For my ransom
Everything I once held dear
I count it all as lost

Lead me to the cross
Where Your love poured out
Bring me to my knees
Lord I lay me down
Rid me of myself
I belong to You
Lead me, lead me to the cross

You were as I
Tempted and trialed
You are
Te word became flesh
Bore my sin and death
Now you’re risen

To your heart
To your heart
Lead me to your heart
Lead me to your heart

This morning I was reading through the morning’s tweets of the people that I follow and ran across a link to a blog post about burnout. I went ahead and read it to see what it was all about. I ended up loving it and instead of coming up with something clever today, I’ve decided to post the link to that one for today. Not because I’m being lazy, but because it fits so well with yesterday’s post. If you haven’t read that one, scroll down and then read this one.

Read Burnout by Josh Dix of The Journey here.

I went through many different titles for this post. I settled on this one because I thought it wouldn’t turn any of you away. This idea actually falls under 2 of the 3 points with the worship180 mission. I’m all about versatile blogging. Anyway…

I wrote this past weekend about a breakfast I shared with my friend. We have been spending this time for a while now and it has been helpful to the both of us. One of the reasons that we get together and talk regularly is because our brains are SO much alike that it’s scary. And because of that, we see things in a very similar way as well as attempt to deal with things in a very similar way. I think we both get refined by being able to share with each other. This also got me to thinking about the times that people come to me and ask for my thoughts and advice on things. I do my best to share Godly counsel and help them talk through the things that are on their hearts. One of the greatest things to hear is that they are relieved to have been able to share what was weighing them down. I may not have completely answered all their problems, but I helped them get rid of that stress.

On a much lighter note, the whole reason I came up with this idea was because of my bedroom window. The sill in our window has lately become a neighborhood hangout for the birds. We will hear them land and chill for a bit. Sometimes they chirp. Inevitably, they do what birds do with they stop in. They poop on the stoop (I was going to call this blog the poop stoop. I decided against it). Then they fly away. Sometimes I feel like that stoop. People come and talk to me about all their various and sundry life issues and then they walk away. And I’m left there with all this stuff that they dropped on me. It’s those times when I don’t like being that person. However, I have come to realize that it’s not the people that come to me that have the problem during those times. It’s me. There are times when I love being that person and I am ready to help whomever. The stories and problems don’t change then. It’s my heart for the situation.

It’s really easy to be annoyed by people when they seem to constantly have issues that they are bringing to you. But I am challenged to find the joy in knowing that God could have led them to talk to anyone, but they came to me. So many people, Christians and non-Christians alike seek comfort and advice in some crazy places. Then they walk away with some jacked up theology and become severely misled. So I have to be doubly thankful because not only does God send them to me, but He has equipped me and is equipping me with solid words of encouragement that leave people relieved and equipped with God’s Word and not something that I made up in my head that could totally lead someone astray.

So if God has said so, you should embrace your inner ‘poop stoop’. You have no idea what it might mean to someone to be able to come and ‘share’ with you and how ‘relieved’ they’ll be after you have encouraged, enriched, and empowered them to move forward.