worship

Bible / church / church relevance / ministry / social justice / worship — 16 Comments
23
Jun 10

tithing…is it relevant today?

Currently having a great conversation via twitter that started with this initial question:

@AaronBird: What do you say Christian leaders: Does supporting a missionary or ministry outside of your church count as your tithe?

How would you answer? Before you do, here are some snippets of additional dialog that you may consider as well:

  • inworship: @daveingland Gotta be honest. That question from @AaronBird sounds very religious and selfish.
  • aaronbird: @inworship …worthy ministries also require funds. Conflict of interest? Dunno. Just thinkin’.
  • daveingland: @aaronbird @inworship i think your tithe/offering should go to those in need. i’m more in line with paul’s teaching on gracious giving.
  • soverpeck: @daveingland @aaronbird @inworship modern way of doing church is a money pit. in the bible the “10% tithe” was about giving food to the poor
  • inworship: @AaronBird Biblically, we need to encourage heart giving. Any expectation to the local church/organization, opposes that teaching.
  • aaronbird: @inworship I don’t disagree. Just wonder what a church leader feels when giving is down & has 2 make cuts but ppl expct more but give less.
  • daveingland: @soverpeck @inworship @aaronbird in acts 2, they sold what they had & gave to those in need. way more than 10% & definitely money, not food
  • soverpeck: @daveingland @inworship @aaronbird absolutely. again, not to pay salaries or for cool sound systems and a mac
  • aaronbird: @soverpeck @daveingland @inworship Do we always have to defer to “the way it used to be”? Why not forge ahead & be relevant to now?
  • aaronbird: @soverpeck @daveingland @inworship Should we not pay or pastors & other church leaders because that’s how they used to do it in the NT?

So, should one tithe to the church? Is a tithe 10%? Should giving be considered a tithe? Can one–in a biblical sense–give to those in need outside of the church and consider that their tithe…thereby not giving to the church as well? Your thoughts are appreciated.

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Bible / God / worship — 4 Comments
10
May 10

What is your calling?

I’m still reflecting on my last session with Pastor Tom Morgan, my spiritual director. [For those of you haven't considered meeting with a spiritual director, or may not know what one is, please check out this overview] Tom has a great way of sitting back and hearing me out, then helping clarity rise to the surface simply by asking, “Where is God in all of this?” Having operated for so many years with a strong calling to plant a church, it is so weird–sometimes frightening–to not be driven by this calling. Through my time with Pastor Morgan, I am beginning to embrace this unknowing feeling of not sensing a clear call to action. As I release myself from the burdens of seeking finite and absolute direction from God, I believe that I am being filled with something even greater. It’s a new calling and one that I don’t have much experience with. I believe that God wants you to reflect on this calling for your life as well. No matter what you feel about your ministry and how called you are to pursue it, take a look at a far greater and superior calling found in 1 Peter 2:9-10:

9But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Your calling is to come out of the darkness and into the light. To live a life transformed through your faith in Christ, by his grace, to love God and love others. Yes, God’s calling which is superior to any calling you may operate under is to be in eternal relationship with him. God loves you and asks that you love him in return. He cares more about you than he cares about your ministry, sermon prep, long hours in prayer for your church members, etc. First and foremost you must have a strong relationship with God first.

I have always known this, yet have been so busy looking for signs and confirmations of how to move forward in ministry, that I have put ministry ahead of my relationship with God often. Now, as I have come to embrace the fact that I have excluded myself from formal ministry in favor of having some intimate time learning of how my Creator wants to know me more, so that I can in-turn know him more, I can experience the highest calling ever placed upon my life.

Your ministry, family, community, church…those are all important things to be called to. I don’t want to discount that. However, if you put those things ahead of your personal relationship with God through Christ, then you are setting yourself up for some lonely days and a lot of failures. God called  you to himself first. Honor that calling above all others and you can know with certainty that you operating under his will and that he is pleased.

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Christianity / Dave (personal) / faith / jesus / worship — 2 Comments
22
Apr 10

Love is to risk…

Saw a tweet from Exponential yesterday from my friend Jenni Clayville:

“LOVE is to risk. When we play it safe, we aren’t being like Jesus.” –Alan Hirsch

It caused me to reflect on how often we (his disciples) see Jesus in so many different ways. Some may say it’s a reflection of the various aspect of Jesus as he goes about meeting our needs or calling us closer to him, but I would disagree. I think regardless of how we feel Jesus is speaking to us, we always think of it from his perspective of loving kindness. However, in reality, Jesus was a risk taker and game changer! He challenged the authority and even the traditional rules of the holy sabbath day. Jesus was rarely in a place that would be considered safe. So, if we are truly following him, then if we find ourselves in safe and comfortable places, is Jesus really just one step ahead?

I’m reminded of the Nooma Video titled Dust. It’s titled Dust because back in Jesus’ day rabbis had followers that walked with them everywhere in the hopes that they would learn some great piece of wisdom. Rumor has it that they followed so closely that even while going to the bathroom a rabbi could expect a disciple to be at his side in fear of missing out on something if he weren’t there. They had a saying back then:

“May you be covered by the dust of your rabbi.”

Which in essence meant, may you so-closely follow in the footsteps of your rabbi that as he walks, the dust that gets kicked up from his sandals covers you. Pause for a moment and process that. Take any of the gospel accounts of Jesus that you can think of and imagine following him that closely. You’ll realize that Jesus was a very dangerous man in his day, and he has called us to follow him into those areas as he covers us in his holy, loving, empowering dust.

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worship — 4 Comments
24
Feb 09

A note to worship leaders

First of all, let me clearly state that I do not lead worship by vocation and that these are merely observations. However, do know that I have studied the worship/arts ministry extensively and am someone that believes the worship leader is almost equally as important to the church as the senior pastor.

Here are 6 things I’d like to say to worship leaders:

  1. Be responsible: Do you know why most churches lead off with a set of worship songs before a sermon is given? It’s a way for people to toss out all the junk they brought into the service and start presenting themselves before God. When people have had a chance to open up their hearts to God and forget about the cares of the world, they are more open to hearing and understanding his Word.As a worship leader, God is entrusting you with the church to help lead them into a spirit of worship. Unfortunately, I see a lot of worship leaders that are very gifted musically, yet aren’t taking the responsibility of leadership seriously.
  2. Connect with the church: I can’t tell you how many times I have been in a church service and watched the worship leader worshiping God so deeply that their eyes were closed and they were disconnected with the rest of us. For anyone in the service not singing, they were watching one person singing worship and not drawn into the experience. Open your eyes people! While you may think you can lead by example, you can’t get people to follow you unless they get cues to do so. Draw them with your eye contact and expressions. Let God use you to help bring others into a spirit of worshiping him.
  3. It’s not a competition: You are not there to compete with the preaching pastor for time in front of the audience. Going over-the-top for the sake of attention really robs God of his time of worship. As long as the music is stopped and people are listening to you speak, the longer God goes without worship. Please do engage your people and give them verbal cues for lyrics, maybe a quick scripture verse comment as you play the lead-in of a song, but please don’t try to be the center of attention by storytelling. It’s all about honoring God with our worship, not about you.
  4. Know your people: One of the things that worship leaders may do is get too repetitive in a song. If your people will follow you and give their worship to God, by all means keep doing that. However, often times I’ve seen worship broken when people are asked to repeat a chorus five, six, eight times. If you’re leading, but your people aren’t following, you’re really not leading. If you feel God moving you to repeat a chorus numerous times, watch how your people respond. If they disconnect and start watching you to see when you’re gonna get to the next song, please don’t take them to that place in the future.
  5. Cast the vision: While it may be your senior pastor that casts the vision for your church, know that you too are responsible to share that vision with the people. The songs you select can be very important to this. For example, the church plant I lead is called Revolution Church Sacramento. We have two songs that really speak to our vision. Our vision is: We seek to be a church of transformed people that God may use to help transform the lives of others in the Sacramento area. So, one of the songs that speaks to this is Revolution by Starfield, which ties into our name. The other song is God of This City by Chris Tomlin, which speaks to God moving in the hearts of people in our city and a call to the church because greater things are yet to come, greater things are still to be done in this city. Your song selections can help reinforce the vision of your church. Of course, above all else, the songs must honor and glorify God and help reveal Christ
  6. Impart your personality: You are unique and you bring that to your church. If you are a naturally bubbly person with a lot of enthusiasm, let that shine in your worship. Be expressive, compassionate, loving, passionate…whatever it is that is you, share that in your worship. It helps to make you more authentic–which actually helps to keep you from being a distraction to worship–and causes people to want to connect with you and worship God together with you. Don’t just be a figurehead on stage singing to God, let people see the real you!

What would you add to this list?

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God / Sacramento / evangelism/outreach / jesus / ministry / people / prayer / rancho cordova / worship — No Comments
5
Dec 08

God of this city

As I ponder what’s next with the call God put in my heart to share the love & grace of the gospel of Christ, I am reminded of the powerful and thought-provoking words of the song God of This City by Chris Tomlin and how I was moved to tears when I first heard this song. The chorus tells us:

    Greater things have yet to come
    And greater things are still to be done in this City
    Greater things have yet to come
    And greater things are still to be done here

Won’t you take a moment to watch the video and let this song speak to you today?

[youtube]u008Ksx3mBU[/youtube]

You’re the God of this City
You’re the King of these people
You’re the Lord of this nation
You are

You’re the Light in this darkness
You’re the Hope to the hopeless
You’re the Peace to the restless
You are

There is no one like our God
There is no one like our God

For greater things have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done in this City
Greater thing have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done in this City

There is no one like our God
There is no one like our God

For greater things have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done in this City
Greater things have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done here

There is no one like our god
There is no one like our God

[Chorus]
Greater things have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done in this City
Greater things have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done here

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