Just in case you forgot, I don’t always get it right. Actually, more times than not I get it horribly wrong. But then there are sometimes that things couldn’t go any worse even if you wrote the script for the new Meet the GrandFockers movie for Ben Stiller (that’s not a real upcoming movie. I made that up). It is times like these that make you wonder why it is you do what you do everyday. Am I the only one that has had moments like these? I have put together worship sets, scheduled a band and rehearsals, laid everything out for all the team players, given advance notice to everyone that requested it, only to have 2 vocalists get sick, someone forget rehearsal, 3 people changed their emails and didn’t tell me so they never got the memo about the TPS reports (I’m all movie references today), and then Sunday morning half of the board doesn’t work.

Looking at that situation as it stands, it would be easy to just chalk up a week like this one as a loss. I’ve wanted to do that many times. But it’s times like these that God steps in and does what He was always planning to do. There’s no way to know just how He is going to work, but His work is ALWAYS evident. Something that hit me earlier today. I was writing out some plans on my big board and realized that when God is in the plans. It isn’t like that I didn’t know that already, but people frequently talk about how when I stepped out of the way then God stepped in. Well, my words of wisdom for today is that we (myself included) should be including God earlier in the process. Whenever I spend the time to ask God what He wants me to do before I even start planning, I find that even the planning process goes much better. Then when I get to the end and look back, I can see His hand through the whole thing. Sometimes I may want this huge band, and God wants to break things down to where we are forced to let Him fill in the voids created by silence. Sometimes, He wants to use that still, small voice to firmly guide us toward the cross.

We always look to the famous passage about God’s plans for us (Jeremiah 29:11) because it talks about our prospering and having a hope and future and all that fun stuff. But the plans won’t just pop into your lap as you’re walking down the street. The verses that follow give verse 11 something to stand on. When I go and pray to Him, He will come to me. If I go and seek Him with my whole heart, He will come and find me (my paraphrase of verses 12-13). When I’m planning out my services, I have to seek God out in THAT stage, then even those plans will be revealed as I work. When you are in the beginning stages of a plan or idea, add God then. See how much of the back end crazy gets avoided when you do that…

I will admit before I even get started. Someone will probably get mad at this. Granted, there aren’t hundreds of people reading what I write, but I’m convinced that out of the few of you that read this someone will get mad at me. That. Is. Totally. Cool. With that being said…

I’ve been thinking a lot about faith impacts culture and vice versa. As I continue to look at it, it seems like both have been generally bad influences on each other. It reminds me of when I was a little boy. I am an only child, but with my mom being eighth of 9 and my dad being the oldest of 6, I’ve got a TON of cousins. We used to do so many crazy things and we would get the other in trouble all the time. I guess that’s just part of life as a kid. One of us would dare the other to jump off the bed. Trouble. In retaliation, one dares the other to grab an extra cookie. Trouble.  We are good at influencing each other to push the envelope, and we usually pushed it too far.

So how have faith a culture been mutually bad influences on each other? Well, as I sit here in my office and have been thinking about the upcoming weeks in our church from a worship standpoint, one of the things that continues to be at the forefront of my thinking is the relevancy of our worship experience. Don’t get me wrong, I believe that we have to be relevancy is tremendously important to the church. So I don’t see that as a negative thing. I think the line gets blurry when we are striving to look so much like the world in the things that we do that “they can’t tell the difference”. I don’t think it is my job as a worship leader to confuse the people that walk in the door. I don’t want to put them in such a trance that when the service is over they say, “I didn’t even know I was in church! How did I get here???” Especially since I’m called to be different. As a Christian, it’s an honor for me to BE different. Look at 1 Peter 2:9. Being different is part of the job description. But I’ve been to churches where the people are trying to be relevant, or cool and trendy and they pull some things off. But inevitably, there’s one thing that starts to waver when we try to look like the rest of the culture we live in. That’s the gospel. I feel that in the different times I’ve gone to places that are trying SO hard to be attractive to the rest of the world, they end up diluting the one beautiful difference between the two.

This is the hinge between both faith and culture. As I said yesterday, when we turn both of these fast moving cars toward each other, there is only one place for them to crash. What was done at the cross changes both sides dramatically. I believe the reason that the church has influenced the rest of culture negatively is because of the way they look at culture. Just as you have some churches who try too hard to be cool, you have just as many trying too hard to make sure you know that they AREN’T anything like the rest of the world. Granted, we are called to not be lovers of the world or the things of the world (1 John 2:15-16). That doesn’t mean that we should shun the people that are in the world. As a matter of fact, they are the reason we are still here. Some of us have run so far away from the line that we are simply screaming at the cruel, vile world far from the other side. The rest of the world and the culture we live in has never asked us to change ourselves and then maybe they would be a part of the church. We are to look different and they will hate us for it. Bible says so. BUT, there is a lot more room closer to the cross for us in the faith as well. When we run so far the other way, no one can hear you except for when you scream about how bad the other side is. No one wants to hear that. Come a little bit closer. A lot of things change at the foot of the cross. The other side even looks a lot different than you think.

As someone who spends his days sculpting a service that is designed to bring glory to the Father, I have to keep in mind that in my church there are some people who will have never had this experience before. Do I want to alienate them so much that they feel uncomfortable and never want to come back? Heck no. But do I want to present the gospel in a way that it challenges everything they have ever thought about life and Christ and the people around them? Heck yes. But here’s the secret: I’m doing that for you Christians as well. Think about it. Then meet me as I push toward the foot of the cross.

11 And he said, “Go out and stand on the mount before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.12 And after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper.

This passage is taken from 1 Kings. It’s the story of the well known prophet Elijah. He had just finished making the prophets of Baal look stupid and everyone was trying to kill him. Jezebel had even sent word that she was looking for him. I won’t go into the WHOLE story, but the passage up above comes when the Lord speaks to Elijah while he is in a cave. I was looking through this passage when something hit me. This still, small voice packed a punch.

When I was younger, this passage was used for many sermon wrap ups. As the preacher was winding down and “bringing it to a close” they would always mention how God doesn’t always come in the fire and God doesn’t always come in the earthquake, but in a “stiiiiiiiiillll…..small voice…” Then the church would go crazy and the music would start. The inference was always that we were looking for God to do that miracle so we would know He was there, but sometimes it was when we were quiet that He was speak to us and would bless us that way. And that made sense, especially since we were all looking for our blessing. Or something like that. It wasn’t until I was much older that I realized that this whole passage is wrapped in controversy. And that this still, small voice just told Elijah to handle some folks. I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t sound like a whole lot of fun is coming his way. So I got to thinking…am I the only one who was led to believe that the still, small voice was there for my blessings only? So I ask that question to you readers. This is an interesting situation to me. The older I get and the more I study and listen to people, I realize that we leave things out sometimes, or we will ‘adjust’ a scripture to make it fit a subject. Sometimes during that process we end up changing what was originally said which, in case you were wondering, is in fact wrong. This one is a little bit different in the fact that they didn’t change anything, they left things out. That silly omission. I challenge you to read the whole story because you will in fact see that the still, small voice brought a punch.

God has no problem getting our attention. He can definitely use fires and earthquakes and tornadoes. But sometimes, He needs us to really listen. There are times when I have to sit my kids down and give them instruction. When I get to something that I really want them to grasp, I get as close to them as I can and do my best to clear all distractions. I want to make sure that we are on the same page. When God speaks softly for the same reason. He wants us to be free of distractions. That doesn’t mean that everything He says is sweet and lovely and warm fuzzy. It just means, “Listen close. Don’t jack this up!” What comes after that is something you better pay close attention to. Write it down.

What is God trying to tell you? Are you not getting it because you’re expecting the small voice to contain sweet messages of happiness and chocolate? Make sure to give Him your full attention. Listen closely. You do NOT want to miss that message.

I’ll start off by saying congratulations to the Alabama Crimson Tide for winning the BCS National Championship. That was one of the most dominant performances I think I’ve ever seen, especially in a bowl game of that magnitude. Not that any of you REALLY care, but I did not have a dog in this fight, as I am an Oklahoma Sooner fan first and an Arkansas Razorback fan second. But I love college football and it was the last game of the year. I won’t get into how jacked up the BCS is or the fact that these two shouldn’t have been playing again in the first place. Email me if you wanna go there. But if you did happen to watch this game last night, you’ll notice that is was a shut out. That doesn’t happen much at the college level, and definitely not between two teams of this skill level. But Alabama had such a strong defense that LSU couldn’t cross the 50 yard line until there were only 4 minutes or so left in the GAME! Even then they only got a few yards in and got turned away. As a fan of seeing lots of scoring and offense, you thought this game was horrible! We saw pretty much this same game from them back in November and didn’t want to see it again. If you like defensive strategies and seeing a team respond to the only loss the took on this season, then you loved what you saw. I was amazed at how strong, dominant and impenetrable that front 7 was for ‘Bama.

Okay, I’ll tie it all in now. There has been a trend for a few years now where it seems that the average Christian is losing the ability to defend their faith. We got stuck in the Sunday school portion of our learning and some of us didn’t go much past that so it seems. That’s why we can have the joke that when we were younger you could pretty much always answer ‘Jesus’ to a question and be right. 20 years ago people didn’t question Christianity and the Bible as openly as they do now. The thought across the board was that Jesus was enough so people didn’t really feel the need to go deeper than that. Now we get to an age where people are questioning if Jesus is really enough and what’s wrong with Buddha and Mormonism or even just believing what I feel. They aren’t running into much opposition because we as a people didn’t have much. It was as if we stood up Jesus cutouts and the rest of the world finally realized that was all that was standing in front of them. It was as if we had the strongest defense in the nation and they just never moved.

In the end, Jesus really is the answer to all the questions about other religions. He is the best defense that we have. I think Paul describes my thought process best in this passage in 1 Corinthians 2:

1 And I, when I came to you, brothers,t did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom.2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.3 And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling,4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,5 that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

The base of our defense is just that: Jesus and him crucified. I think where in the past the defense has looked shaky has been in the execution. The key comes from verse 5 of that passage. Our faith should not rest in our own wisdom, but in the power of God that is shown throughout His Word. If the kids down in Tuscaloosa are going to pull off what they pulled off last night, they have to know their playbook inside and out. The coaches make them sleep with them, carry them everywhere, and then they test them to make sure they are reading and studying them. It is one thing to say they have a plan to stop the run. It’s totally different when you show us how you do it. That comes from immersing yourself in the plan and having someone who coaches you through the strategy. In the same way, we can say that Jesus is our defense against all the things that stand before us. “He just is” is not quite strong enough to make people see and understand.

We have a powerful playbook that most of us have not read through. Our strategy is well chronicled if you we would take the time to look at it and pour through it. The power of God is a very intricate and complex defensive scheme that was carefully woven to not let anyone else through. Today people think that maybe Christ isn’t all that He’s cracked up to be. I would step out and say that He’s more than that. But we have been placed out of position and that creates holes in the defense.

When we as a people start to dig into the plan and really get an understanding of this playbook we have called the Bible, we will see that the answers that we have always needed were already there. We just had to look for them. Once we put that book deep in our hearts and minds we will realize that we have a reason to worship. It’s not about we could have done on our own. But in the spotless lamb who came to take away the sin of the world. That defense is airtight. I promise. And when you get to a point to where you can share that with confidence, there’s nothing anyone can do about it.

So, this turned into a sermon. But I had to set up what I believe will become a recurring theme throughout this year. If we can properly deal with what Christ did for us and the importance of that in today’s world, it will truly transform the way we worship Him.

For the past couple months I’ve been reading through the Bible with a group of friends using the Inductive Study Method. If you’ve never heard of it, in short, it is a way to read through the Bible, catching key words and phrases that help you gain understanding of a passage. What we have found up to this point is that the story is being beautifully woven as we are being led to the cross. With that being said, this past week we made it to what is probably the most interesting story in the Bible. Period. If you don’t believe me, just go read it for yourself. There are some flat out crazy things that happen in the book of Numbers, but none crazier than this in chapter 22. Here enters our boy Balaam. Why do I call him our boy? Well, he’s the star of this show and by the end you’ll probably be able to input your name in his place. I know I was. Anyway, as the story goes, there’s a king that is trying to knock off the Israelites and wants Balaam to help him by asking God to go before him. Balaam asks the Lord and of course he says no. Balaam goes back and says that God said no. Balak said, here’s my kingdom and everything in it if you can get God to say yes. Balaam goes back and God says “are you an idiot?” Go if you want to and see what happens. Now we get to the good part.

Balaam being stupid (and obviously not married) goes with fervor thinking that God really said this was okay. He jumps on his donkey and starts on the trip. Three different times the donkey does things that impede him from making this trip, at one point crushing his foot. After repeated beatings, the donkey finally just says (yes, SAYS), “Why do you keep beating me? Have I done anything before that would cause you to think that I want to do you wrong? Why would I start now? I mean SERIOUSLY!!!” (MAJOR paraphrasing done by me Numbers 22:28-30) This actually invokes a conversation between the two. It isn’t until this conversation that Balaam realizes that he is an idiot and there was an angel blocking his path the whole time.

How many times do we completely ignore what is being said to us because of something that will bring us gain? I mean, simply put, Balaam was willing to go against the will of the Lord for money. Granted, it was a WHOLE lot of money, but still, it was money. We live in a world where people are getting killed over $200. Can you look back at the times when you knew God was telling you to do something and you kept trying to blow through the signs? What was the moment when your donkey started talking to you? I was gonna name this blog post “Talking Out Your Ass”, but I have a wife who thinks for me and decided that wasn’t a good idea. But so many times we have this moment after we get beat up that we realize that maybe, just maybe we shouldn’t be pursuing whatever it is we are blindly following.

One of the greatest parts of the study method we are using is the application part. After reading this story, I had to figure out what the application was in my own life. Well, I immediately thought about all the people that consider me their worship pastor. I am called upon to lead this people toward Christ in the things I say and do and sing. I was quickly floored by the amazing grace that was given us when Christ died on the cross for us. We cannot take that lightly. It is my job to make sure that we don’t forget that it is Jesus who stands in our place, repeatedly taking the beating that He didn’t deserve so I don’t have to suffer God’s wrath. There were a lot of Israelites that died because of their inability to have faith that God was taking care of them and ended up doing their own things. But, there would have been even more deaths had Moses not stepped in MANY times. We have a reason to worship Jesus. Let that be your fuel and passion for worship. If you are in the midst of a trial right now, take a second, sit down and listen to your donkey. She may be trying to keep you alive.

This is going to sound weird and horrible, but bear with me. I realized on Sunday that I haven’t written much, if not at all about one of the most important things I can do as a Christ follower. You can scour through the w180 archives and you probably won’t find much about prayer. Why? I don’t know. I do talk about praying for people and things (see Sunday’s post), but I haven’t done much talking in depth about it and how it pertains to worship. So guess what I’m going to do today (in my Phineas voice)? If you haven’t guessed it yet, well…we are going to talk about prayer.

I can say that I have come a long way from “Now I lay me down to sleep…”, but when I think about that prayer that my parents taught me at a young age I think about how I was taught then to petition the Lord for my needs. The simplicity of that prayer was a foundation builder for my approach to prayer even today. I didn’t know it then, but I was creating my relationship with Christ during that few seconds each night that I prayed for restful sleep. From there I learned to pray for other people, upcoming tests, and even frivolously to not get into TOO much trouble when I broke the rules. It was much later that I learned that about the effectiveness of prayer in the lives of Christians and how it’s a critical part of this lifestyle. The Bible talks a whole lot about prayer because of the extreme importance. Just click on this link and go through all the different passages about prayer and see the different situations in which prayer is mentioned.

Prayer and worship go hand in hand. When I was growing up we used to have an altar call every Sunday right in the middle of the service. I actually used to loathe this time when I was younger because it took FOREVER! But as I look back at those times, I remember how people used to walk to the front and the petitions would be laid at the altar. I can still hear “Pray for me, pray for me. O-ooooOOO my brother, pray for me…” I think in all of my years I went up there like twice. Of course at that time I saw it as taking away from the songs that I would hear. Now that I recognize how effective a time that was for us as a people, it’s hard to find anywhere that places that emphasis and time DURING the worship service. Quick side note, I may be working that time back into the fabric of our worship experience. I’m being moved to do so even as I write this.

Psalm 141:1-2 gives us a unfiltered moment between David and the Lord where in verse 1 David cries out to God to hear his prayer. Then in verse 2 he asks that his lifted hands (worship) be “as the evening sacrifice”. I think it was on purpose that David was in prayer and worship at the same time. We cannot overlook the importance of prayer in our worship times. They go hand in hand. I know that for me sometimes prayer seems like something that gets in way of the busyness that is my life. But what would happen if we just slowed down and really talked to the Lord and let Him talk to us? During worship? What a concept…

Here’s a challenge, take some time this week and slow it down long enough to listen to God. Let me know how that goes. I’ll be sure to share my experience as well.

I know that I’ve said this before, as a matter of fact, I said it last night to some people in a meeting. We were brainstorming about where we are in the church and what might be our next step. We had a few different ideas come out of that meeting, but the one thing that stuck out the most to me was ways for us to use our Sunday morning time to change the culture of our people to refocus them on the gospel. It struck a chord with me because I have been feeling like that’s where I need to be. I know for certain that I can get so focused on the task of being a pastor that I overlook the joy of being a pastor. The joy comes in being able to share the gospel with people through song, and even more directly, through daily life. The gospel has to take center stage at all times.

There is a lot of responsibility that we accepted as Christians when we took this job and that was to continue to spread the gospel to others, giving them a chance to hear something that they may have never heard before. Something that is so life changing that you gave yourself over to it. Everyone needs that chance.

In this world of knowledge and people searching for answers, I continue to hold on to a verse I learned when I was like 12 years old. Paul says this to the church at Corinth.

1 And I, when I came to you, brothers,t did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom.2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.3 And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling,4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,5 that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

1 Corinthians 2:1-5

The whole passage is really cool in context, but the verse I remembered was 2. I strive to nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified. There is a lot of stuff to know here in this world. But there is so much wrapped up in knowing Jesus Christ that you could spend a lifetime getting to know him and never know everything. So my goal is to get back to what I need to know. It was written that “I spend my life to know, that I’m far from close to all you are, the greatness of our God”. That’s what I’m going for. Who is with me? You? How about you over there?

Lastly, this is November. I know it’s crazy to be thinking that, especially since yesterday was 74 and today is going to be close to the same. Nevertheless, we are here and this is the time to be thankful. So I have 2 goals this month. 1, to try and blog every day this month. 2, I want to share something that I’m thankful for on each of those days. Since I didn’t write yesterday, here’s 2 for the day. I am thankful for my wife. She has been amazing woman to me for 9 plus years. She continues to stand by me as we go through this life and I lead us down some crazy, winding roads with no side rails. She’s right there 100%.

The second thing is a 3 in 1 type deal. They come in the forms of Kahmylia Isabelle, Brisa Noelle and Harry Ernest Walls, V. My kids are so amazing and I can’t believe that they are mine. I’m always harder on them than anyone else, but that’s because I want so bad for them to be God honoring, respectful and responsible children. I have 3 little blessings and I am continuously amazed at the rate in which they grow. Who knows how long it will be before they actually read this, if they EVER do, but know that I am thankful for them. What are you thankful for today?

What happens in your mind when you hear or read this phrase? Well, you would probably say nothing happens unless I know what I’m getting ready for. I would agree with you. But this phrase can provoke so many different emotions based on what comes after it. If you’re getting ready for a date, there’s the excitement of what is planned for the evening. You are finding the right outfit and taking care of the hair and/or makeup. If you are getting ready for a surgical procedure there’s nervousness. There’s also medicine that will knock you out completely so you don’t feel any incisions. If you’re getting ready for a job interview, you are making sure that you can answer questions appropriately. You are making sure that you have left yourself enough time to where you need to be. All of these different emotions are tagged to the phrase ‘getting ready’.

The Bible uses the word prepare. And it gets used quite a bit from front cover to back. There is a lot of preparation that takes place in the Bible. In the early going the preparation centers quite a bit around sacrifices and preparing the animals for all the different sacrifices that took place in the early Bible times. In the beginning of the New Testament there was a lot of preparation for Jesus to be born and for him to die. After that there’s is talk of preparation as we wait for His return. After you read this, go to a Bible website (I would offer youversion.com) and type the word ‘prepare’ in the search bar. You’ll get quite the list.

So I’ve mentioned all of this to say that there is quite an emphasis in our world on being prepared. Yet, so many times we find ourselves unprepared for the things in our lives. How does that work? I spent some time as a Boy Scout when I was little and the main phrase of the Boy Scouts is ‘Be Prepared’. They then proceed to tell you how being prepared is the key to being a good boy scout and in turn, a good citizen. It seems like there’s great value in this concept of preparation. And again, I don’t think it’s just a worldly concept because it’s all throughout the Bible.

There is such great, almost painstaking detail taken in Scripture to talk about preparation for spending time with the Lord. In the Old Testament, only certain people could make sacrifices and only at certain times. Things had to be done in particular ways otherwise the sacrifices wouldn’t count. Then when Jesus was speaking about His impending fate then return to the Father (John 14) he said that he would go and prepare a place for us in Heaven. He went back to get things ready for the party that will occur when we get to be with Him.

How serious do you take preparation? Do you throw things together when you have the time? Or do you take the time to get yourself ready for whatever is coming up in your life? If you are a leader, do you take the time to prepare yourself to lead the people that are following you? I have rehearsals tonight with my vocalists and my band for church on Sunday. If I am not prepared to lead them, then that rehearsal won’t be very effective or efficient. But when I take the time to go through music and know what I want to hear, I have a better chance of relaying that message to them when the time comes. On Sunday morning a lot of time we pray that the Lord would prepare the hearts of the people for worship. We want people to come in and be ready for what’s going to happen when they walk in the door. That’s why we have things like prayers to help us clear our minds and get focused on the task at hand.

I don’t know what you do to get ready for things that happen in your life, but I realized that I might not be taking enough time to prepare my heart and mind for the things that I encounter. I will have to look into this some more and see what God has to say to me. This topic may get revisited before the week is out. Here’s the question: How do you prepare for the things you encounter in your daily life? And part B: How do you prepare for the things that are coming up? Answer at will.

I’ve been thinking about this for a little while, but I couldn’t figure out the approach I wanted to take. This is an interesting topic in my own mind. And I also wonder what others think about this. I know that in the end this may be a matter of semantics, but maybe it will be more than that.

So here’s the question to ponder. How many worship pastors feel like they are truly shepherding people? How many church goers feel that they are being shepherded by the worship guy? I would hope that there is spiritual truth being presented in the songs that are being sung in your churches. That is definitely a huge part of people led. But do you know how much or how little that worship pastor is putting into that music? Do you think they are just picking songs? Or do you believe that they are praying over and through worship sets to make sure that what they sing on Sundays brings truth about our Savior? How accessible is the worship leader/pastor at your church? Now I know that some of us attend some pretty big churches and it’s hard to get to some of them. So I guess then this question really is for you as well. Are you being shepherded by them? Or are they just leading the music? Do you attend a church where the worship pastor teaches a class or leads a study? Do you know what books he or she is reading? Do you even care?

So that turned out to be a lot of questions. These are all questions I have as a worship leader. When I was in school I went through all of these classes that talked about where the role of worship leader is today and where it is going from here. It was very insightful for me to see that I should be well versed and read and know my Bible. The question I always come back to is “Does anyone else care about this but us?” That wasn’t to say that we were going through stuff in vain. I just wonder how much people who aren’t worship leaders care about what we know? I guess these are the questions I pose today. Answer at will.

“As he walk the streets with lepers, prostitutes and lonely beggars…”

This song (written by a friend) has been popping up in my head as I’ve been doing some work lately. This may feel like a long way to make a point, but it works. We have a ministry in our church called connectors. This ministry is designed make sure that everyone that walks in the doors of our church receive a welcome and that it’s more than just a hello and thanks for coming. I believe that the people doing this are doing a good job because every week we have tons of stories about first time people. Why? It’s because we take things a step further and try to take time to really get to know the people that walk in the doors of our church. At the point you have set foot into our building, we don’t really care why you are there. The point is that you ARE there and we want to make sure that while you are there you engulfed in Christ’s love. It is one of the things that makes me proud on Sunday mornings.

One of the things that makes me the most proud about this is that it has similarities to what Christ did. During the week our people are talking to whomever they see. So when new people come to the church and I get a chance to meet them and ask them how they found our church a lot of times they are telling me how they met someone during the week and got invited to join our family. We are spending time where people are. We’ve gone past standing at the door screaming at people as they walk past hoping that they come in.

As I write this, I realize that this has not been everyone’s experience with the church. Not everyone has received a welcoming embrace. Some of us have received judgmental words and eyes. Some have experienced gossip and controversy. Some of us have even experienced the abusive misappropriation of scripture. All of these things are in strict contrast to a love that is lived out in scripture. Or at least I think so. Should there be discipline? Definitely. Should we be trying to point people toward truth? Without a doubt. Does every meeting with someone who doesn’t know Christ have to be a deliberate attempt to save them before they unexpectedly die from that thing that’s right around the corner waiting to take them? I don’t think so. If we are truly living lives that bring glory to God, then God, who is ALWAYS at work around us, will do the work that needs to be done in the hearts of those that don’t know him. When we look at the stories in the Bible, Jesus didn’t go into the tax collector’s home and start preaching to everyone (Mark 2:13-17). He went to eat with people who most people didn’t like. When he spared the girl’s life by challenging those with no sin to throw first, he was showing grace and to someone that no one else would give a second chance to (John 8:1-11). Those were examples of us connecting people to people. Once we do that, then we can talk about connecting people to God. Come back tomorrow and we will talk about that. As for today, tell me what you think about this.