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Terry

Today’s gathering was the fourth in our series, “Five Ways of Being the People of God” and our focus was on the command to “be forgiving.” Katherine Sikma, our Director of Young Adult and Campus Ministry, shared an excellent message based upon Colossians 3 and Ephesians 4.

This past week I have been listening to the latest Defining Moments podcast from the Willow Creek Association and this month’s topic was “Spiritual Direction in Worship Services.” This is a extremely helpful conversation between Bill Hybels, Nancy Beach, and two of Willow Creek’s primary worship leaders, Aaron Niequist and Matt Lundgren and I would encourage you to give it a listen. The big question that this podcast caused me to wrestle was “how do we help non-singers connect with God in worship?” We place a great deal of emphasis on worship through music in our community of faith and as a musician and singer, it is easy for me to forget that not everyone’s pathway to God is through music.

This morning we took a fairly extended time of Scripture, reflection, silence and prayer wrapped around the themes of confession and forgiveness. Using the words from David found in Psalm 139, Psalm 51 and Psalm 103 we created some non-musical space for our worshiping community to invite God to examine their lives, bring their sin before God and receive words of assurance that remind us of God’s great love and forgiveness:

“For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us ” (Psalm 103:11-12).

What do you do to help non-singers connect with God in your worship gatherings? I would love to hear your ideas on this topic.

We also had some fun this morning as we used the Mumford and Sons song, “Sigh No More” as a lead-in to the message. This song was a bit outside our normal musical genre, so it provided an opportunity to stretch for our team.

Here’s the rest of our worship set included:

• Nothing But the Blood (Brett Younker arrangement)
• All Things New (Brett Younker)
• Because of Your Love (Paul Baloche)
• I Will Follow (Chris Tomlin)
• Sigh No More (Mumford and Sons)

You can learn what other communities of faith experienced his weekend at The Worship Community.

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Today’s gathering was our third installment in our series “Five Ways of Being the People of God.” This series is foundational to our life as a community of faith and is built around five New Testament allelons, (the Greek word for one another).  As a church committed to nurturing healthy relationships, we are focusing on these five biblical attitudes:  be accepting, be hospitable, be encouraging, be forgiving, and be loving.

Our focus this morning was “be encouraging” and our central text came from  2 Corinthians 13:

Finally, brothers and sisters, rejoice! Strive for full restoration, encourage one another, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you. (2 Corinthians 13:11-12)

In summary – the essence of encouragement is giving courage to another person. Life is difficult, the journey is risky and at times we all face the temptation to give up, throw in the towel and bail.  Encouragement gives heart to the disheartened and helps people keep going.

As an introduction to the message this morning, we did a cover of John Mayer’s “Say” (the theme song from the movie, “The Bucket List”). While I’m always looking for a way to get some John Mayer music into our worship gathering, this song provides a familiar and strong reminder that each of us plays an important role of speaking encouraging into the life of others.

The rest of our worship set included:

• Everlasting God (Brenton Brown)
• As It Is in Heaven (Matt Maher)
• I Will Follow (Chris Tomlin)
• All Things New (Brett Younker)

You can learn what other communities of faith experienced in worship this weekend at The Worship Community.

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Soulprint: Discovering Your Divine Destiny

Batterson is an excellent writer/story-teller and having had the opportunity to hear him speak in person, I actually feel he is a better writer than speaker. He knows how to craft interesting (and sound-byte like) sentences and fills the page with compelling stories lifted from art, music, sports, psychology, yesterday’s headlines and his experience as a local church pastor. One of the things I appreciate about Mark is that he writes his books first and after they are published he preaches them to his congregation. This is a different approach from many pastors/authors who preach first and then transcribe later.

Batterson describes Soulprint as a self-discovery book and takes his readers through an exploration of the life of David. His goal is to help readers discover their unique God-given identity and destiny. The book is filled with a significant amount of Scripture and contains plenty of truth and inspiration. That said, I have one major problem with the book – I disagree with Batterson’s basic premise For example:

• “So the key to fulfilling your future destiny is hidden in your past memories”(6).
• “David saw the person God had destined him to become: a giant killer. That was his true identity. That was his true destiny” (8).
• “The only thing between you and your destiny is awkwardness” (113).

I don’t believe that these are true statements nor do they hold up against solid biblical thought, study and reflection. If you are looking for a solid biblical exploration of the life of David, let me recommend two classic works: Eugene Peterson’s, Leap Over a Wall” or Chuck Swindoll’s,”David.”

I have to confess that books with the word, “destiny” in the title make me feel uneasy.  While Soulprint is a well-written and interesting book to read, regrettably, because it is based upon some faulty theology, it ultimately falls short and misses the mark in my estimation.

(I received a complimentary copy of this book from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review).

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This weekend, one of our team members, Sue, led our music team. I have to admit she had a challenging assignment as it is fairly difficult to identify a setlist of “be hospitable” worship songs. Sue did an excellent job in not only putting a setlist together but also leading worship through music this morning. I have known Sue for quite a while and it has been a gift to see her grow and mature as a person, follower of Christ and worship leader. She stepped up to a whole new level this morning as she worked diligently on flow and song transitions.  And the result was a rich environment where people could truly connect with God. As well, she faced the challenge of having both our regular sound guy and a percussionist and strong background vocalist call in sick this morning. That’s enough to make even the most seasoned worship leader quake. She took in all in stride. Well done, Sue!

Here was our setlist for the morning

• Freedom is Here (Hillsong United)
• Bless Your Name (Eddie Kirkland)
• How He Loves (John Mark McMillan)
• Made to Worship (Chris Tomlin)
• I Will Follow (Chris Tomlin)

You can learn what other communities of faith experienced in worship this weekend at The Worship Community.

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We took time in worship to focus on the feast of Epiphany. The more I think about this feast, the more surprised I am at the lack of attention it receives in most churches. Ruth Haley Barton of the Transforming Center writes this about Epiphany:

“Today is the feast of the Epiphany—the day when the Church commemorates the journey of the wise men to seek the Christ child.  On this day we celebrate their arrival at the manger with longing in their hearts and gifts appropriate for the One who would be our king, our priest, and our Savior. Epiphany is the culminating event of the Christmas season in which we celebrate the “showing forth” of God’s presence to unlikely people in unlikely places.  In yet another strange twist to the Christmas story, it was pagan astrologers who were among the first and most venerated visitors to the manger. Although theirs was an occupation that was expressly forbidden in Jewish law (it was the modern-day equivalent of those who read and interpret horoscopes), they were welcomed and their gifts were received!”

Epiphany recognizes that the light of Christ has come to Jew and Gentile alike. And the last I looked, most of us in the Church today are Gentiles. Epiphany is our day!

To press deeper into this truth, we created an Epiphany Litany that consisted of the congregation singing “Star of Wonder” (the chorus of “We Three Kings”) intermingled with readings from Matthew 2 and Isaiah 60 and concluding with this prayer:

Lord Jesus Christ, who came as our light and the redeemer of our world, reveal yourself to all those who still live in darkness.  May they see your power at work in their lives and be filled with the hope of your presence.  May they come to follow you, our God, who is with us and will remain with us this day and forever.

We had planned to sing Matt Redman’s “Light of the World” as a follow-up to this litany, but we had a time issue and unfortunately it had to be cut at the last moment. It is a tremendous Epiphany song!

The rest of our worship set included:

• Song of Hope (Robbie Seay Band)
• Your Grace Is Enough (Matt Maher)
• Joyful (Brenton Brown)
• Amazing Grace/My Chains Are Gone (Chris Tomlin)

Learn what other communities of faith experienced this weekend in worship at The Worship Community.

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We continued our celebration of the season of Christmas during worship this morning. On the ninth day of Christmas, we took a scaled back approach musically with two guitars, bass and cajon and our worship set included:

• Angels We Have Heard on High (Chris Tomlin version)
• God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman (December Audio version)
• Christmas Time (Phil Wickham)
• Jesus Messiah (Chris Tomlin)
• Light of the World (Matt Redman)

After singing Jesus Messiah, we prayed together an ancient Christmas prayer attributed to Augustine.

Let the just rejoice,
for their justifier is born.
Let the sick and infirm rejoice,
For their savior is born.
Let the captives rejoice,
For their Redeemer is born.
Let slaves rejoice,
for their Master is born.
Let free people rejoice,
For their Liberator is born.
Let All Christians rejoice,
For Jesus Christ is born. Amen

Rejoice for Jesus Christ is born!

You can learn what other communities of faith experienced in worship this weekend at The Worship Community.

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“The purpose and cause of the Incarnation was that He might illuminate the world by His wisdom and excite it to the love of Himself.”

How has Jesus illuminated your world with His wisdom? And during this season as you celebrate Christ’s coming, how has your love for Him been inflamed? I would love to hear your response to these questions.

Yesterday in worship we took a very laid back approach. We began with the reading of the Christmas story from Luke 2 interspersed with “O Come All Ye Faithful” and “Angels We Have Heard on High” (both were the Tomlin versions). We followed those carols up with a new Christmas song from Phil Wickham called “Christmas Time.” This is a very singable congregational song with a nice hook. If you are not familiar with it, go find it and make sure you remember to use it next Christmas (or this coming Sunday – remember Christmas is a day but a season).

Let me mention two other unique pieces to our worship gathering. A mother/daughter duo sang three lesser known Christmas carols: “Infant Holy, Infant Lowly,” “Once in David’s Royal City,” and O Sing a Song of Bethlehem.” Accompanied with a single acoustic guitar, Merritt and Ellie’s voices blended together beautifully and their offering was a true gift to our community of faith.

The other interesting piece in our worship gathering grew out of my fear that Christmas caroling is becoming a lost art in our culture. And so we featured an old fashioned a cappella carol sing. I actually got the idea after listening to Sara Groves, “O Holy Night” project last week. In the middle of the concert, Sara talked about a “planned power outage” and led the audience in a medley of Christmas carols. I asked our people to get out of their seats and form one big mass choir in the center of our gym and together we sang: “Hark the Herald Angels Sing,” “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear,” and “O Little Town of Bethlehem.” Our singing without any musical accompaniment would have greatly pleased our reformed Presbyterian brothers and sisters.

I have enjoyed posting these worship confessionals each Sunday and look forward to continuing the practice in 2011. You can learn what other faith communities experienced this weekend in worship at The Worship Community.

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• Welcome
• Scripture Reading: Luke 2:1-7
• Video: He is Here (Worship House)
• Scripture Reading: Luke 2:8-15
• Angels from the Realms of Glory (Steven Curtis Chapman)
• Angels We Have Heard on High (Chris Tomlin)
• Scripture Reading: Isaiah 9:2-7
• Christmas Time (Phil Wickham)
• Scripture Reading Matthew 1:18-25
• Perfect Gift (BJ York)
• Scripture Reading: Luke 2:16-20
• You’re Here (Francesca Battestelli)
• Christmas Eve Message
• Silent Night (Matt Maher)
• Closing Prayer
• O Come All Ye Faithful (Chris Tomlin)
• Joy to the World (Chris Tomlin)

Merry Christmas!

My fear is that I have become too causal, too nonchalant about this reality. And in my message today I raised this question: if it is true that Jesus is Emmanuel, the God who is with us:

• Should we laugh or cry?
• Should we cheer or lament?
• Should we shout it from the rooftops or run and hide?

The truth of God’s advent among us demands all the above.

As you prepare for the celebration of Christ’s birth, I leave with you this two questions to consider as Emmanuel implications:

•    What are the signs of God’s presence in our world?
•    What does God’s presence with us require of us?

Musically speaking – one of the guitarists from our music team, Greg, stepped up and led worship through music this morning. Greg is a gifted musician, a trained trumpet player and high school band director and one of Greg best qualities is his servant heart. He truly This is the second time Greg has served our community by leading worship and he shared with us that the first time he was actually quite nervous. Today he wasn’t as nervous but acknowledged a different challenge point: sickness. Like a lot of people right now, Greg is battling a nasty cold. And despite not having his full voice, Greg faithfully led us to God through music.

One of the songs that Greg shared with us was a original piece called “Anticipating.” It had a hymn-like quality to it with four verses each addressing a different aspect of our anticipating Christ’s advent.  And Greg added a nice tag to it with the “Come, Lord Jesus come…” from Brenton Brown’s song, “All Who Are Thirsty.”

The rest of our worship set included:

O Come, O Come Emmanuel (traditional)
Salvation is Here (Hillsong)
My Soul Magnifies the Lord (Tomlin and Carson)
Jesus Messiah (Tomlin)
Anticipating (Greg Steele)

Learn what other communities of faith experienced this weekend in worship at The Worship Community.

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