Where sin abounds...

For many years I always thought that the verse that said, "Where sin abounds, grace doth much more abound," was pretty obvious in its meaning. I always just thought that of course you need more grace when you have a lot of sin. It takes a bigger covering to cover bigger sin.

I have come to appreciate this verse on a deeper level though. It's not that I didn't understand what abounding sin was all about. I just didn't understand fully what abounding grace was all about. For a long time I viewed "grace" as simply being a covering for sin. What I didn't realize is that grace is God's gift to us and that gift is more than a covering for our sin, it is an empowerment for abundant living. For many of us, we think that the abundance of sin has disqualified us for abundance of life, but God makes up for every deficiency from sin through His empowerment and qualifies us for life more abundantly. Willingly receive not only God's covering for your past, but His power for your future.

From a Puppy's Perspective

Back when I was single, a day came when I thought it might be a good time to get a dog. I was living alone and thought the company would be nice. A friend of mine had just gotten a springer spaniel puppy and told me that some friends of hers who had bought her puppy's sibling had changed their mind and wanted to give away their puppy. So I jumped on the idea of a springer puppy. Once you have seen and held a springer puppy you are totally smitten by them. They are so cute and playful. I decided to name her Maggie.

When Maggie and I got home, I took her out in my back yard to let her get used to her new home. It was hilarious to sit back and watch her simply explore all of her new surroundings. The people that had lived in the house before me also had dogs. Their dogs evidently loved to dig holes. I know because I would always twist my ankle stepping in them when I mowed. Grass had grown over these holes and so you couldn't really see them unless you were looking right down at them. Maggie, being so little, would be walking along and all of a sudden disappear into one of these holes. She would pull herself together, crawl out and keep right on going. I would try to tell her, "Maggie, watch out for that hole", but being that our communication was not that good, she would march right on and fall into the very hole I had tried to warn her about. This happened several times. I found myself saying, "I warned you Maggie, that's what you get when you don't listen."

All of a sudden God spoke very quietly to me and said, "That's how I feel sometimes, I see the potholes in your life coming and try to warn you, but you keep plowing on not acknowledging the fact that I have a better vantage point than you do and can guide you around those holes if you would only let me." I stopped in my tracks, reviewed the situation and then realized I am just like that puppy. I think I know it all. But there is a Master whose ways are higher than my ways and whose thoughts are higher than my thoughts and He can help me navigate through the backyard of life safely if I will only learn to listen.

Today be willing to stop and listen and let the Holy Spirit speak to you. Let His Word be a lamp unto your feet and a light unto your path. God is a loving God who wants to protect and care for you. Trust Him and let Him lead.

It's Kind of Like Golf...

I have been playing golf for about 20 years now. If you added all the times I played up, it might equal the same as someone that has only played for 3 years though. I just don't have the time or the money to play as often as I would like. I love the game. There is nothing better than being out on a beautiful course on a beautiful day surrounded by nature and hopefully some friends or family. It is a great game. There are so many sermons from golf, but I will try to limit my remarks today to a few that I have been thinking about since my game last week.

One of the things that is so frustrating about golf (and there are many) is that no matter how good your swing is or how well you hit the ball, there are so many other variables at play that will impact the success of your shot. You have the wind blowing and effecting your shot. You have the slope of the fairway. You may even have a sprinkler head laying out there that you could not have seen from 250 yards away. But each of these things can play a major role in the success of your shot. I have seen guys hit the most beautiful shot off the tee and then when the ball lands it hits a rock in the fairway and bounces off to the left. On the other hand, I have also seen my Dad hit an ugly shot off of the tee on a par three, but it landed on the cart path, rolled all the way down the hill towards the green, hit a rock or something, kicked over toward the green and landed several feet from the hole. In that case, all of the uncontrollable variables worked to his advantage. There is a golf saying "It's not how you drive, it's how you arrive."

Why am I saying all of this? Life is like golf in some ways. For some of us, we try to hit straight and true and if it wasn't for the little sprinkler heads in the fairways of life, we would always be successful. Then there are some of us that seem to duff the ball off of the tee and then all of the cart paths and rocks in life seem to place our ball in great position. What is so funny is that when the sprinkler head causes our ball to hop up on the green in putting position, we celebrate the sprinkler head and might even thank God for it. But when that same sprinkler head knocks our ball out of bounds, we curse the sprinkler head and complain that they should never be put there.

How many times in life do we praise God for the variables that go our way and then doubt God's love when the same variables do not seem to work in our "favor."? I want to encourage you today to not be double minded but rather single minded in your belief that all things work together for good when we love God and believe in His purpose for our life.

There is another saying in golf that goes something like this, "All that matters is the score card in the clubhouse." In other words, no matter what good looking shots or bad looking shots got you there, all that matters is the final score. That's where God's grace comes in. You see no matter how badly I may feel like my game is going, ultimately I know that in the clubhouse of life I win because Jesus has already shot the perfect game and I get to turn in His scorecard. I have traded my unrighteousness for His righteousness. What a thought! So don't let your game get all bent out of shape because of the variables that are out of your control. Swing strong and confident knowing that in the end...you win!!!

One of the Pitfalls of Recruitment

There are many pitfalls that you can find when trying to recruit new members in your orchestra or choir. One of the pieces of advice that I give most Pastors is to never be so desperate to recruit that you sacrifice commitment for quick fixes. I have told many Pastors that it is better to have an empty position than to have it filled with the wrong person.

I try to always stay away from making this one mistake...never beg, bribe, or bargain anyone into your worship ministry. If you have to beg, bribe, or bargain to get them into your program, you will have to beg, bribe, and bargain to keep them committed to your program. I would rather not have a position filled than to have it filled with someone who really doesn't want to be there in the first place. I believe that God adds to the church and to the department as He sees fit. Let God bring passionate and competent people to your side before filling the position with someone that will cost you dearly to have to remove later on.

Musicians attract musicians. Develop a passionate group of musicians who are committed to the ministry and other like minded musicians will follow.

What's Love Got to Do With It....

On this Valentine's Day morning, I can hear Tina Turner in the back of my head singing, "What's love got to do, got to do with it? What's love but a second hand emotion?" I can't help but think that maybe that is what the world today has reduced "love" to, a second hand emotion. But when I look at the Scriptures I see a totally different emphasis and value placed on love. The Bible teaches that love should become the motivating force in everything that we do.

The Apostle Paul wrote to the Romans to owe no man anything except for the constant outstanding debt of love that we owe every man and woman. What an incredible thought that we are constantly indebted to love one another. There is no point in our relationships with others where we can say "I have met my quota of love for you." Selah (think about it)

Paul writes to the church at Corinth that if I do good deeds, if I speak in the languages of angels, if I give my body to be burned and don't have love as the motivating force, then all of those "accomplishments" are in vain. There are many reasons to do nice things for others. Some do it to return kindness shown to them. Some do it to get attention or praise from others. Some do it because they feel obligated to do it. Some may even do it because they think it is their religious duty. But if love is not the driving force, Paul says that compared to the beautiful symphony of love, your actions sound like a clanging symbol.

So what's love got to do with it....I would say it has everything to do with it.

Please let me know if you like our postings by emailing us at www.inspireworship.com. Thanks and Happy Valentines Day!

Rambling from a Funeral

Yesterday I sang at a funeral. It was your typical funeral for someone who was not elderly by any means, though up in years. The death was not really expected, so that added to the difficulty in saying goodbye. I have done hundreds of funerals through the years, and as far as funerals go this one was no different than most. 

I got to thinking during the funeral though about how the people that attend a funeral often tell a lot about how that person lived. If a person was really family oriented, there tends to be a large family delegation. If they were really involved in their church, you see a lot of church folks. If they were really involved in some hobby or club like bikers or something, you typically can see it at the funeral. If they were a loner type, you might not even fill up a row. 

Have you ever thought about who is going to show up at your funeral? Have you ever wondered what the snapshot of your life will look like based on who shows up? I did yesterday. You know, sometimes we spend a lot of time trying to live life for people or groups that ultimately will not even notice your departure. I hope the people that show up at my funeral will be a testimony to the fact that I loved my family, my church, and tried to make a difference in the lives of people. I hope that when I die people will say that I made an impact on them not just an impression. I spend way too much energy and worry trying to make an impression and missing opportunities to make an impact. Hopefully, not anymore...

What are you doing to make an impact versus an impression? Just a few ramblings from a funeral...

Who's getting Who's Attention?

Whenever you are leading people in worship, there is an important question that we must ask ourselves. Am I coming to get God's attention, or am I letting Him get mine? How you answer this question will totally impact how you lead worship.

For instance, if you feel that you have to get God's attention, your worship will be all about trying to impress Him (as if we were capable of that). We would say things like, "Come on people, if you bless the Lord He will come and answer our prayers" or you will clap and shout and dance (kind of like the prophets of Baal) until you have worked yourself up into a tizzy. That approach borders on mysticism. It says that if I say the right thing and do the right thing, God will not be angry or dispassionate towards my situation and will come and intervene on my behalf.

But if you come in with the approach to worship that God is trying to get your attention, then your worship may look a little different. The old chorus says, "Turn your eyes upon Jesus.... and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace." Is it possible that spiritual things happen in worship because we get spiritual. In other words, is it possible that James was correct (which he was) when he wrote that "if we draw near to God, God draws near to us." So when you lead worship, you are not trying to impress God. Instead you are taking a group of people and hopefully leading them from their carnal approach to things and letting them see God for who He really is. God is never dispassionate towards us. He wants to be involved in every part of our life. But worship that the Father is looking for is in "spirit" and in "truth." Both of these things are eternal things, not temporal. So I think God is looking for people that will get their mind off of the temporal and earthly things, and worship in His arena - spirit.

So when you are leading worship, take serious your responsibility not to get God to come down to your level, but rather help your people get up to His.

Tackling the Hard Issues

Whenever I began Inspire Worship Ministries, I thought that we would be tackling the big issues like developing choirs, orchestras, and illustrated sermons. I was soon awaken to the fact that most issues that face music ministries of churches that average less than 200 are really just all of the “small foxes” that are “spoiling the vine”. Issues like hymns vs. choruses, the sounds too loud, the band doesn’t know how to modulate smoothly. I was awaken to the fact early on in the development of IWM that what is needed most in our medium to smaller size church (which make up 90% of the A/G fellowship by the way) is basic training for a volunteer staffed worship ministry. Let’s face it, the volunteers in these churches are being asked to “perform” in the same manner as the larger churches with paid staff, only without the education, experience, or exposure to be able to pull it off. That is why IWM has taken on the mission of providing basic Biblical and practical training within the local Body. It is our desire to give that volunteer staff the basics they need to succeed. Pray for us as we continue to tackle the hard issues.

The Love of Broadway

Whew!! What an evening we had last night. Three Strands Ministries at CFA hosted a Valentines Banquet and the entertainment was provided by 4 couples singing love songs from 7 different Broadway shows. We of course also had our faithful band playing along. I am definitely not the stage acting kind and really was stretching myself last night. Brandy and I sang “They Say It’s Wonderful” from Annie Get Your Gun and “When I First Saw You” from Dreamgirls.

Someone asked what was the purpose of the show, because there was no Gospel presentation given. It got me to thinking about how the church must be true to our calling to win the lost. But I think that the church also can be a place to offer an alternative to the world for good, clean entertainment. Brandy had some co-workers that visited last night because of the show. One of them left in tears because of how much they enjoyed it. We now have an opportunity to invite that person to other events as a result of our “secular” show. Don’t miss an opportunity to reclaim the arts and music as a tool to introduce the lost to the people of God.

What does IWM do?

Inspire Worship Ministries is designed to be flexible enough to benefit churches of all shapes and sizes. Most people wonder how it is we help churches. So I will give you a hypothetical scenario that shows how our ministry works.

Pastor John Doe calls me and says that he has heard of our ministry and would like some advice on how to expand his worship ministry. I then set up a lunch or dinner appointment and sit down with Pastor Doe and find out as much about his current structure as possible. I then ask the pastor to describe in as much detail as possible what he wants his worship ministry to look like one year and five years from now. Based on this information, I make recommendations on how he might go about putting things in place that will start the church on the path towards his vision.

Sometimes the pastor may have us come in and do a weekend of workshops where we communicate the visions through Biblical and practical instruction. Sometimes we establish a short term mentoring relationship in which case we will be coming alongside them and helping them walk through their transition for up to 13 weeks. I have been told that one of our greatest strengths is that we have lots of ideas. Our consulting is probably our greatest tool for pastors. I do not have all the answers, but I try to help you find them.

As far as cost to the church, our base price is that it not cost us. In other words, we ask for mileage, food, and shelter. Above that, our fee is on an honorarium basis. This ministry is meant to be a service to churches, not a burden.

New Blogging Tools

I think that I have made it into 2008. It seems the world is communicating at a faster and more efficient rate than ever before. I just can't seem to catch up. In the designing of my new website, I decided that it would be easier to use a blogging service that would allow me to update at remote locations, thus the creation of this account. We will see how it works. I hope that you will take advantage of this information and please request certain topics for discussion. One of the purposes in founding IWM is to provide an affordable and accessible resource for churches of all sizes.