Well, we at New Hope sure had to be this weekend, as an electrical problem caused us to lose the use of our sanctuary's air conditioners - and we're in Florida - so we need to know we can call on them. That meant we had to move to the fellowship hall for worship. Very different but we pulled it off. Plan B only changed the location, not the object of our worship - Jesus.
Here's the YouVersion link for this week - YouVersion
And thanks to Jonathan McGee, here's a very rare (but hopefully not so rare from now on) video of me delivering the message.
Hopefully we'll be back in the sanctuary come Sunday, but if not, we'll not lose anything in the sweet fellowship, warm worship, and the presence of the Holy Spirit with us.
We've been meeting for a band only practice for several weeks now, and found it to be very helpful in our goal to bring more worship to our Sunday gathering at New Hope. It's a time to introduce new songs and get the dynamics of the music right. But tonight just wasn't happening. We had picked out some songs that we thought would move the congregation. Yet it seemed as if we were stuck.
Tried the usual ways to work it out - leave the song you are having trouble with and go to the next one. But then that one didn't gel either. Out of three songs we tried, only one really sounded good. But when we got that done, we were able to go back after the first song again. I think tomorrow night will be fine.
Summertime is here. I know the calendar won't reflect it until the 20th, but it's definitely here. One of our New Hope folks was walking to the sanctuary and remarked "why does anyone buy a sauna when they could just walk outside." True. So thankful for the generosity of our church family who when faced with the dying of BOTH sanctuary air conditioners stepped up and gave over and above their tithes and offerings to have them replaced and paid for. I serve within the most giving group of people I have ever known.
Last week of school and a very short six week summer vacation for the kids means that lots of people will be taking vacations earlier. Our mission trip to Big Creek Missions in Kentucky leaves this weekend. So we're going to see some folks move in and out into different places of service they wouldn't normally be in. Great opportunity to see God at work.
We were anticipating a great day of worship yesterday. And God delivered big time. We debuted "Mighty To Save" to open our worship and then brought the congregation in with us later in the set to sing it again. That enabled us to see a sight (best announcer voice on) "seldom seen in nature - Baptists raising their hands in praise." The praise band worked so hard for weeks on that song and the musicians have been practicing twice each week to grow stronger musically. But I think the song grew us. It's such an awesome anthem of praise.
The worship set was: Mighty To Save, Hosanna, Holy Is The Lord, A Shield About Me, Mighty To Save, and Jesus Paid It All. Really thought it went well and the congregation really got into it. That's why we do it - to see people in worship of our awesome God.
The message yesterday was a "one-off" that really came about out of a direction coming out of prayer and reflection over how disconnected many people who follow Christ have become from the practices that Christ Himself outlined for us.
Churches have challenges. All of them do. They might be related to the facilities, the staff, the unity within the congregation, their discipleship strategy, their finances - or whatever. Many times the leadership decides that there's nothing that can be done about an issue and they either ignore it or cover it up, like wallpaper over bad paneling. But everyone who comes in from outside can spot it.
One of ours is worship.
Since our last worship leader left to accept another job closer to his home (we miss you Jim!), we've looked off and on for a leader while trying to fill that role by "committee." We have used a group of people called "a praise team" in place of a single leader. It's not working. People seem to need to focus on someone to at least begin each song. Plus we just don't have the level of musicianship (vocals and instruments) that we need to really help lead the congregation into worship.
So we called for help.
God answered in the form of Melanie Winter from Destiny Worship Center. Melanie is a pastor's kid who grew up playing piano and singing with the choirs and praise teams in the churches her father pastored. For the last few years she's been serving at Destiny Worship Center in Destin and has recently been placed in leadership of the praise team at their new Crestview campus. What she knows about how to do modern praise and worship is only overshadowed by her genuine love for and devotion to God. She is a true worshipper, and she's infectious. Our whole team seemed to catch her heart's desire for more of God.
She laid a foundation from Scripture on what worship is, what the role of the worshipper is, and then helped the team prepare for and begin to learn a new song. Then she went through our Sunday set with us and suggested several changes in our approach, our placement on stage, and our vocal and instrumental dynamics. When we all heard the difference we were amazed. The picture above was prior to the changes so what you'll see on Sundays is not what you see there. But as we were working through the new song, you could feel the Holy Spirit filling people's hearts and the voices lifted in praise...
Worship came. The Holy Spirit smiled. We were so, so, blessed.
We're on our way. Not there yet - got some more changes to make and some things to learn, but stay tuned. New Hope is going to become one of those "thin places" the ancient Irish Christians talked about - where one could easily step into the presence of Almighty God.
It was awesome just to be back at New Hope after a week of grief and sickness. Driving up into the parking lot, seeing cars of people we love so much - then getting the welcoming hugs, was great.
Then smiling as the newer office computer actually made producing a worship guide easy? Sell my clothes I'm gone to heaven!
The text came from John 3 and Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus.
Turned out the music fit well, but frankly I chose it because we could do it well, and because everyone seems to love the songs.
O Praise Him How Can I Keep From Singing Our God Saves
Amazing Grace
In "Our God Saves",there's a line where mourning turns to praise, and that's what yesterday was for me.
I used a Bluefish clip lead in about a man caught in a pit and the various ways each religion's founder would have dealt with him to begin the message. Liked it.
My hope was to use the "signs" thread through John's gospel to lead people to a point where they realized that Jesus was God's sign to them that it was time to turn to the Light. Ended quite unexpectedly sharing my conversion story.
We were blessed with one person coming forward who wanted the assurance of Jesus' love in her heart always. Praise God.
It felt a little like the sign this morning. Bunny was sick most of the week and then we got the call we'd been dreading this morning - Bunny's Mom had passed away. A thunderstorm of grief blew into our home. Bunny stayed in bed until the late afternoon. She sent me to church.
Sean and I got to church and went over the music. Lots of people were out sick - very thin praise team. When word got out about Bunny's Mom, the mood seemed more subdued. This is a group of people who love fiercely. They hurt when you hurt. I was hoping not to tell until after the service, but naturally the first person I saw this morning asked "how's Bunny's Mom?"
So I prayed that God would be glorified no matter what was happening.
We did - Your Grace Is Enough Here I Am To Worship Nothing But the Blood and Jesus Paid It All
The text this week centered on Jesus' clearing of the temple. Great text, lots of insight into just what Jesus came to do and who He proclaimed that He was.
I never felt comfortable the whole message. It was as if I was reciting a lot of facts to an audience that never connected. I was emotionally flat. It was mercifully short at least. Maybe I shouldn't have tried. But smaller church means I and my family wear many hats. So I went and gave everything I had to give. Mea Culpa
- It was cold! Cold! Cold! - But a great crowd came out to gather in worship today - The "Gotta Serve Somebody" opener really worked! Fit so well with the Scripture I just had to do it. - Rest of the music... could have been better. I personally messed up "In Christ Alone" when I couldn't remember when to come in and then played catch up. - Emily and Sean's "How Deep the Father's Love" over the Neil Young "Down By the River" was just AWESOME!
The message needed to be 10 minutes shorter.
My goal was to get people to take the wilderness experience seriously and learn from it. I had lived and breathed it for a week and a half and literally had 150 pages of notes, a dozen web sites, and more information than I could have delivered in two hours straight. I learned so much about the passage(s) in the three gospels, but more importantly about Jesus and how he wants His followers to live. It changed me. And I wanted to bring that to everyone else.
So I went overboard.
Wish I hadn't, because I felt rushed a bit leading into the offering and communion.
I'll work harder on condensing in the audio and might add some way for people who want to go deeper on their own time.
We'll add more elements next week, hopefully do some more great music and enjoy God's grace.
Awesome that the kids raised $175.60 for other kids in Haiti to have stainless steel bowls and spoons to eat out of.
Awesome that someone gave $700 to purchase a new copier/printer/scanner for the church so that we could reduce expenses $140 a month.
Awesome that Bethany gave out of her heart to play and sing Amazing Grace.
You may be an ambassador to England or France, You may like to gamble, you might like to dance, You may be the heavyweight champion of the world, You may be a socialite with a long string of pearls
But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed You're gonna have to serve somebody, Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord But you're gonna have to serve somebody.
You might be a rock 'n' roll addict prancing on the stage, You might have drugs at your command, women in a cage, You may be a business man or some high degree thief, They may call you Doctor or they may call you Chief
But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed You're gonna have to serve somebody, Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord But you're gonna have to serve somebody.
You may be a state trooper, you might be a young Turk, You may be the head of some big TV network, You may be rich or poor, you may be blind or lame, You may be living in another country under another name
But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed You're gonna have to serve somebody, Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord But you're gonna have to serve somebody.
You may be a construction worker working on a home, You may be living in a mansion or you might live in a dome, You might own guns and you might even own tanks, You might be somebody's landlord, you might even own banks
But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed You're gonna have to serve somebody, Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord But you're gonna have to serve somebody.
You may be a preacher with your spiritual pride, You may be a city councilman taking bribes on the side, You may be workin' in a barbershop, you may know how to cut hair, You may be somebody's mistress, may be somebody's heir
But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed You're gonna have to serve somebody, Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord But you're gonna have to serve somebody.
Might like to wear cotton, might like to wear silk, Might like to drink whiskey, might like to drink milk, You might like to eat caviar, you might like to eat bread, You may be sleeping on the floor, sleeping in a king-sized bed
But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed You're gonna have to serve somebody, Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord But you're gonna have to serve somebody.
You may call me Terry, you may call me Timmy, You may call me Bobby, you may call me Zimmy, You may call me R.J., you may call me Ray, You may call me anything but no matter what you say
You're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed You're gonna have to serve somebody. Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord But you're gonna have to serve somebody.
Okay,this coming week the dysfunctional relationship between all of us at New Hope and the office computer comes to an end. It's either fix it or hit it with the sledgehammer I found in the big shed. The worship guides for today were gobbled when it crashed when I hit print.
Had I not been under the influence of antihistamines, I'd have settled accounts with it right then and there.
We were ending a look at the "Crux" of Jesus' message in the Sermon on the Mount today, and looking forward to the beginning of the 40 days of preparation for Easter called Lent.
We began with Indescribable - a last minute change Then Holy Is the Lord Shout To the Lord and "I Give You My Heart"
Lia Frisbee performed Ode to Joy as an offertory and she was magnificent.
The message...
I didn't get as much into it as I wanted to. By that I mean I wanted to reach out in and among the people in the congregation and asking them personally to lay their worries and their fears at the feet of Almighty God. I will trust that the Holy Spirit will do with my efforts what He will.
We work hard at New Hope to do congregational worship music. That means that we dovery few of what usually are called "solos" or "special music." Instead we try to find and do songs that bring the whole Body into an experience of worship. Thought I'd throw out some songs I'm looking at for the next few weeks.
Did you hear the crowd singing along? Did you see the guy with his arms upraised and his eyes focused upward? Awesome!
Could we sing that to God, expectantly waiting in praise to see what He is going to do in Valparaiso?
Looking forward into Lent, as we approach the Cross??
- short week, but filled with God's grace - preached too long today - wound up reading far more Scripture than I planned - never seen that many visitors in my life - doing Revolution to set the theme was a blast - we need to do more thematic elements - Brianna Caine rocked the offertory! And I loved the cheers from her family. Awesome! - great to see Robert and Virginia Hughes there - looking forward to next week already
Music was: "Revolution", "O Worship the King", "Our God Saves", "Whole World In His Hands,", "My Jesus, I Love Thee"
Message was "Lost In Translation" - Galatians 5
Too many graphics. Too long. But I hope that God uses it to move someone closer to Him.
Bunny and I got back from Macon about 8PM and she went straight to bed - exhausted from the weekend. I had been working on the sermon all week,and even got some notes in at the nursing home. But some of the experiences we had this weekend drove the message as much as anything else.
It was "Sanctity of Life" Sunday all across the SBC yesterday, and normally that guarantees a lot of pastors preaching against abortion. Thing is, that just reinforces our image as people who live their lives standing in judgment of others rather than kneeling to serve them.
So I was determined to bring a message about the worth of life being determined by God, not by man and challenge people to not just focus on abortion but on the whole list of life related causes - including the aged.
Satan must have not liked that plan, because I had a horrible time with the power point to support the message. In fact I never got the presentation I had crafted to work and had to copy and paste from my background notes during the 45 minutes immediately preceding the worship.
I used a visual prop of an old worn out file that used to belong to my father. He left it at my house once when he came over to look at my lawnmower years ago. I can still picture him sitting on the concrete sharpening the mower blade by hand with that file. It has a wooden handle he carved himself. The usefulness of that file is gone now, but it's worth will never diminish to me, because it was crafted by my father and held in his hands.
We are made by God in His image. Though we are weak and helpless as infants, or worn out and feeble in old age, our worth to God is still such that He calls us His masterpiece. To allow any society to cheapen the worth of a human is then to rebel against God. We as followers of Jesus cannot be silent.
Babies die from lack of medicine, food,or water when we have all the money in the world. Old people are warehoused in nursing homes and want for basic human kindness and we are just too busy to care.
It has to stop. First within the church and then through our example and influence in society.
More later. But here's what we did in worship this Sunday.
O Worship the King - LOVE THAT SONG Your Grace Is Enough - Likewise
Jesus Paid It All
We only did two songs because we just didn't have a good practice Wednesday on the others so I decided to only do what we could do well. God deserves our best.
We're finally fully into the New Year and getting some of the folks who scattered for the holidays back into the flow. Continuing to examine what it means to follow Jesus.
Better Is One Day Hosanna Indescribable
Give Me Jesus - Emily and Sean
Come Just As You Are
I took a look at the parable of the treasure in the field and expanded to look farther out at just what Jesus was asking His followers to do.
Still resonating in my heart, and I hope the hearts of others.
The first Sunday of the New Year is always a challenge. Who will show up? What sort of mood will everyone be in? I knew going in that we'd be missing some of our regulars, and that it would be felt in the praise team again. So we didn't try to pull off anything we thought would be a stretch.
Lord I Lift Your Name On High - normally a real "feel good" interactive song, but the first Sunday of the New Year? Not so much.
Whole World In His Hands - fit perfectly with the message theme
Still - again, chosen to fit the theme
It Is Well With My Soul - to close
Looking into the New Year, there will be challenges. What choices will we make? How will we make them? Alone? Or Together as a Body?
Yes, I am way late in posting this. Busy, busy week.
Since we didn't have worship team practice I decided to go with some songs I thought we knew really well. But I didn't count on all the stronger voices not being here over the weekend. :)
Our God Saves All the Earth Will Sing Your Praises How Can I Keep From Singing (I cut Holy Is the Lord, which I originally had put here)
Just As I Am
The whole "Let It Be Christmas" series inspired this week's message as well "So This Is Christmas." I thought about using the Lennon song "War Is Over - So This Is Christmas", but I'm glad I didn't given what happened with songs we knew. :)
The idea was to take Simeon's experience and compare/contrast it with many our ours as we reflect on Christmas/The Incarnation.
We went 180 degress from the "Let It Be Christmas" tonight. A very simple service along the lines of the "lessons and carols" you would have found in churches a century or more ago. We walked forward through the weeks of Advent to the coming of the Christ. Then we took a journey to the cross. All by candlelight and without anything but an acoustic guitar and piano. And the Holy Spirit was active in many of our hearts.
As the pastor of a smaller church, (as I type this I'm listening to Rick Warren at one of Saddleback's 16 Christmas Eve services) I sometimes find myself realizing how the Scripture I am reading speaks to specific people. Like tonight when I read:
3 I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.” Rev 21:3-4 (NLT)
I thought about our friends who recently have experienced the loss of loved ones. Christmas is such a hard time. Memories can be wonderful, but they can also bring a resurrection of pain you thought was gone.
Tonight I looked out on the people I share my life with and saw in an instant how much some have gone through this year. It hurt to realize just how much pain they (we) have gone through - not just this year, but in years past. I almost lost it reading those verses. How I long to see the day when their hearts are free from those hurts and sorrows.
For me, having communion at the end of the service put everything in perspective. Christmas is truly glorious. No way you can top it, except in the blazing light of the cross. But even there, though our chance to become children of God was made real, our lives still reflect the stain of sin.
Oh, but one day - maybe soon... Jesus will return.
5 And the one sitting on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new!” Rev 21:5 (NLT)
I can hardly wait.
Hey, it's like being a kid again, only better!
Merry Christmas everyone and come quickly Lord Jesus.
The last Sunday before Christmas began the day before with a very successful time of sharing with the families that Sharing and Caring pointed us to. We helped them through the holiday season and that culminated with the delivery of the Christmas presents and holiday foods. Tears and laughter, and a feeling that New Hope had walked with Jesus were the order of the day. Bunny and I were still in Macon, but I could feel the Holy Spirit's work when I talked to those who were on hand.
So we came to worship with worship already underway.
"How Many Kings" by Downhere - a new song for us, and a great one
"Joy to the World"
"Angels We Have hear On High"
"The First Noel"
and then... "Revolution" by the Beatles :) - the close of our "Let It Be Christmas" emphasis this Christmas season.
followed immediately with "Our God Saves"
The idea was to use the secular to enhance the understanding of the sacred. I really think it worked well. It really helped me explain why revolutions not enabled by the Holy Spirit do not achieve anything good or lasting.
We dialed it back a bit in the musical part of worship this week, with a conscious decision to be more acoustic. The songs were chosen to fit the theme of the sermon.
O Worship the King (Tomlin) Blessed Be Your Name
--Break for the Children's Sermon--
Thank You Lord Your Grace Is Enough
--The Message--
My Jesus, I Love Thee
My goal here was to make people think through what (or really WHO) to be thankful for. To point them to God through Jesus. To challenge them to live out what they say they believe. To be there when God used the power of His Holy Spirit to move them.
Sorry for being so tardy with this, but Google Docs refused to bend to my will until I gave up and read the instructions again. Apparently 14mb is more than the 10mb limit in every situation, even mine! So I cut a couple of fill-in pictures and got the ppt uploaded.
The theme for this week as we continued in "We Hold These Truths" doctrinal series about God, was His unchanging nature.
In the music part of worship, we debuted a new song by Tim Hughes
"Whole World In His Hands"
We did it for the congregation to open worship and then had then join as we repeated it.
So the set looked like this:
"Whole World In His Hands" - break for welcome - "The Heart of Worship" "A Shield About Me" -break for children's sermon - "Be Thou My Vision" "Whole World In His Hands" -break for message- "Jesus Paid It All"
Hi guys, I wanted to go back and unpack for you what this series of messages and accompanying music by the Beatles is designed and purposed to do.
1. Lift high the name of Jesus. 2. Energize His children to tell people of His grace and invite them to worship with us. 3. Cause outsiders to consider drawing near to hear the Big Story of God's reaching out for them
I have pasted below the four week message themes and accompanying music. The idea of using secular music is not to worship using it. It's to provide a backdrop for the Light of Jesus Christ.
This will be a series of services where we will be taking on some of the questions that have been on the hearts and minds of people forever. For the last 40 years people (and really before that) have been asking themselves questions that the Beatles put to music. They are common questions, but they are important ones because they reflect the fears, worries, and helplessness so many people carry in this world. Christ can fill those needs and bring new life!
So we are going to begin a journey together looking at what God has to say about those themes that the Beatles raised in their music. And we'll show how the Incarnation - the coming of Jesus, can change everything!
So here are the messages and the music we'll use to set the tone and get people thinking.
* Week one - Nothin's Gonna Change My World (Music - Across the Universe) * Week two - All The Lonely People (Music - Eleanor Rigby) * Week three - I Believe In Yesterday (Music - Yesterday) * Week four - You Say You Want A Revolution (Music - Revolution)
and Christmas Eve's theme? - Let It Be
Now, I want you to read this next sentence several times and commit it to heart.
If we let what we use overshadow what we'll be saying about the coming of the Christ child, and what that means to everyone - whether a Christ follower or someone far from God - we'll have failed.
It has to be about Jesus.
Think of this as the musical equivalent of Jesus pointing to the flowers and saying "consider the lilies of the field..." the everyday pointing to what ONLY God can do - give us peace.
If we can bring outsiders closer to people (Us) who are seeking to worship God and love their neighbors, and testify to them with words and expressions of love - and see the Holy Spirit draw them to Him... HE WINS!!! Glory to God in the Highest!
