I actually started writing about this the other day, but stopped because I wanted to think about it some more. And so I did. My thoughts are pretty simple, and I don’t claim to be anything special, but God has given me something and I choose to share it with others. Here’s what I’m thinking…

I’m asking this question because I know that I’m guilty of having done this before.  We try so hard to make sure we say the right things or put up the right faces and fronts, that we overlook what it’s all about. I learned all the good stuff to say when I was younger, and now I’m realizing that this life is really only about one thing. Jesus Christ and what he did for us. As I continue to grow in Christ and this walk, I am seeing that people want to know what’s real. And at the end of the day, the one thing that I know is real is Jesus Christ.

I’m starting to realize that Paul was right (which has been the case for awhile). In his writing to the Corinthians, that was his prayer. I want that to be my prayer. I want to be able to say to everyone around me that I want to know nothing but Christ. That’s where everything starts, that’s where everything ends. Oh yeah, Happy birthday, Brittany Howard!

Community Life…It’s sort of a buzzword in the church. We like to use it as a catchy name for our small groups. It invokes thoughts of people being together doing life together. What does that really mean? I believe we are called to be in each others lives intimately. Knowing each other and being together in peace is what God wants for us. One of the things we overlook or input on our own is community ‘part of’ life. In the church our groups are part of our busy lives. Now I know that these are generalizations, but hear me out…

I’m a sports fan. Whenever you watch sports news or interviews, people are always talking about chemistry. It’s not only what happens on the field, but it’s the relationships and ‘life’ that happens off the field. The most successful teams always talk about how much they were like a family. Yeah, things got tough and I’m sure they fight, but they were family. The things you don’t see highly affect what you see on television or in the stadiums. What’s in the heart comes out on the field.

How does all of this apply to corporate worship? I’ve read and talked to people who have said they feel like something is missing on Sunday mornings. When you ask them about it, they feel disconnected to the people around them. Church becomes more like a concert or a conference. It is easy to get lost in the crowd and then you begin to pick and choose the things that you like and don’t like about a specific church. Then it becomes more and more about you. It makes it easy for you to choose one place over the other and jump from church to church.

We can begin to experience deeper, more intimate worship when we know the people around us that we are worshiping with. What relationships do you have with the people around you on Sunday morning? Do you really know them? Do you have any community within your church body? If there’s one thing that I’ve learned, it’s that people need community. Churches need people in community. Worship needs people that are in community. Think about what the worship in your church could look like if the people worshiping together actually KNEW each other? I don’t think I’m quite done with this thought, so there may be a part 2 to this one in the near future…

So as God continues to work, I’ve decided that I’m going to actively watch Him. Man, is He good! I am constantly surprised at what God has been doing throughout this whole idea. It would be very easy for me to get ahead of myself and move faster than I’m supposed to with this thing. I have to be able to be still and listen to God and let Him lead me.

I have no idea what it is that God is doing right now. The more that God does, the more I realize I don’t know what He’s doing. I do know that there is a plan and this is what I have up until now…

So I was hanging out with a friend (I’ll leave him anonymous until the linear notes of the CD) last night and we were talking about this idea. As we talked and shared and let God work, we came up with the idea of worship180 being the overarching theme of this ministry. We then started to put some things together graphically and it started to come together a little more. The scripture that stuck out after awhile was 1 Corinthians 13:12. “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. I won’t go into all the nerdy details that we came up with as far as how we will make that look in the future, you’ll have to wait for the website for that. However, it’s fitting that the passage comes from the “Love Chapter”. When we are dealing with worship, we are expressing our love for the Master. We want to show Him how much we love Him, but we don’t know truly how to love Him. We don’t know how to love Him fully because we don’t know Him fully. The desire of the ministry is to help us look at the gospel, which will help us to see Him a little more clearly.
From a ministry front, we don’t totally know what God is doing yet, we see through this mirror very dimly right now. The hope is that as we continue to look to Him for guidance and direction He will continue to clear the glass out a little. Stick close, this is getting good…