Christ-Centered Worship

Bryan Chapell, President of Covenant Theological Seminary, just published his brand new book called, "Christ-Centered Worship: Letting the Gospel Shape Our Practice." I ordered this book and can't wait for the insight from it. It sounds as if it will be a great resource for congregations and pastors and anyone trying to align their worship with biblical principals. Take three minutes and watch the video below, to understand where the book is coming from.

Beyond the Clouds...

I recently drove home to PA for a little vacation and wedding time. On long drives I often find God in worship as Nicole is usually asleep and all I have is creation around me and music to keep me interested. As I drove across the less than interesting Ohio turnpike, the skies were nothing but blue with giant white clouds, and the sun beaming through. The picture explains the beauty of God's sky painting.

However, not being one that would usually notice this, I kept driving while listening to the new Hillsong CD, "Faith+Hope+Love," and eventually the song, "You Hold Me Now," came on. Pondering on the words as the first verse played, the congregation then belted out the chorus:

No Weeping, No hurt or pain
No suffering, You hold me now, You hold me now
No darkness, No sick or lame
No hiding, You hold me now, You hold me now

Hearing these words and thinking on the thought of heaven lying just beyond those clouds brought me to tears by the middle of the song. What a day it will be when our God holds us! When we are finally surrounded by the very Glory of God, in His marvelous light, what an incredible day that will be. The cares and worries and pains will all be over and we will rise above the clouds to meet our Savior face to face! This excites me to no end.

In the middle of the song, the lyrics declare, "For all eternity, All my heart will give, all the glory to you name." FOREVER! We will have the honor of worshiping our God at his feet without it being a challenge! And it won't stop because we will finally understand the greatness of who God is and will only want to glorify him in praise and worship and adoration!

In Christ our time on earth is only temporary, and the future is where the excitement truly becomes clear. Paul had it right when he said, "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain(Phil. 1:21)." As long as we are on this earth, lets be dedicated to the call of Christ, pressing on for the cause of Christ, knowing that it is temporary, and the real gain lies in the arms of our Father.

Check out the song!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GH-AkJDkNE

Leadership Summit 09...Bono on the Church

The final session that I attended of the 2009 Leadership Summit was an interview of Bono, by Bill Hybel’s. The title of this session read, “Bono: The Church…Three years later.” Needless to say, I was very interested to hear what Bono had to say, as well as a little amused at the whole idea of him speaking on the church. The whole interview was a continuation of his interview from three years ago, where he showed his disappointment in the church, for not stepping up in the fight for poverty and aids.

As this interview began, Hybel’s posed the question, “has the church improved and done better since our last interview?” Bono answered that the church was beginning to get it and they were beginning to step up. Throughout the interview, videos of local church testimonials were played as well, showing churches that have made a difference in the fight against aids and poverty in Africa. The churches and other organizations admitted to Bono being their conviction for fighting against poverty. One Worship Pastor in a church testimonial said, “Jesus created the church for the world. Why did it take a rock star for us to see that?” Good question!

Obviously, from the testimonies shown, Bono caused some churches to get a purpose and make a difference in poverty somewhere in the world.

Hybel’s began to ask Bono about local churches and how poverty could be a centrality to the church. In this time, Bill said it irked Him that Bono was not part of a local church. Bono said, basically, that he has no problem attending a church, and when he is in New York he will visit the big Catholic churches, and when in the south he will visit a Baptist church, and if he were near Saddleback, he would definitely go there. But his main points for not going to church or being involved in a local church was, “I am suspicious of denominationalism, and I don’t need lifeless ceremony.” In some ways, Bono suspicion of the church is accurate, sadly, but what he describes is not the church that Christ founded and called his people to (Acts 2). Certainly, many churches do get it wrong, but there are people out there that follow God's Word, and devote themselves to it's teaching, and have a joy in there salvation...etc. As Christians we are the church and are called to it. Rather than being a bit "rebellious" about the church, if Bono is a Christian, he should be united in the church, making a difference for Christ.

The picture to the right shows the theme of Bono’s interview, and love is extremely important for reaching the world, but divorced from the gospel, love for the poor really only makes people happier on their way to hell. Bono is a great activist for helping poverty, but I guess I expected more of a Christ-centered intent, since Bono is often talked up as a great Christian leader.

Hybel’s summed up the interview as “any faith,” leader, or organization needs to be reaching out in the fight against poverty. As far as I’m concerned, Christ is the only thing that can truly leave a mark. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father accept through me.” Without Christ at the forefront of fighting poverty, our efforts are really meaningless.

As Christians, we certainly are called to help the poor and the less fortunate, and Bono does a great job fighting the fight for poverty. I pray Bono is a Christian and that in his fight for poverty, he shares Christ and not just worldly comfort. It was interesting to hear him and these are just some of my concerns and perspectives on what I heard.

Love God/Love Others

I have been attending the 2009 Leadership Summit this week. The conference is put on at Willow Creek Church in Chicago, and has had some great information regarding leadership.

Session 5 was by a man named Dave Gibbons, founding Pastor of New Song Church in Irvine, California. Dave brought to the table a challenge to be "Third culture" leaders. He defines "Third Culture," as "the mindset and will to learn, love, and serve in any culture, even in the midst of pain and discomfort."

His thought is that God lays out our call pretty simply when he says, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength; and love your neighbor as yourself,"(Matt. 22:37-40). Upon these two commands we as leaders have defined them and strategized around them, but Gibbons says we often miss the point of the second command. We have a problem seeing who our neighbor truly is. There is a tendency to define our neighbors as those common to us, or those we easily connect with. "Third Culture" sees neighbors as those that persecute us, those that we can't stand to be around, those that we would never want to hang out with...and third culture leaders love those people as theirselves, even in the most persecuting times.

Dave challenges that we as leaders need to step back and change our motives of leadership. His main points were,
1. Failure is success...(people can identify with our failures rather than our success)
2. Weakness can guide us more than our strengths
3. Relationship trumps vision
4. Obedience more than passion

Jesus was all about relationships and poured far more into them than he did vision. And Jesus made relationships with those that people didn't like...tax collectors, theives, persecuter... And Jesus was certainly passionate about God, but allowed obedience to govern his life. While passionate about His father, Jesus didn't want to die, but through obedience he died, and not only for all those that loved him, but for even those that were nailing Him to the cross!

Now, we've probably all heard, "love your enemies," a hundred times, but the principle is something that we probably miss a lot. We are all drawn to a certain type of people. I would be drawn to musicians and people who like sports and people who are constantly active, and I probably miss a lot of opportuities to jump out and love someone that doesn't fall into those categories. A third-culture leader, makes it a priority to go after those that they are not drawn to, including enemies. Certainly this is hard, but Christ did it and we are called to live as Christ!

Applying this to a worship leader/worship pastor, I want to make it a priority to gravitate towards those that wouldn't likely draw me in. That is what Christ did, and he was able to make world changers, and passionate followers of God! This has challenged me and I hope it challenges you to take a good look at who your neighbors truly are, and strive to love them as you love yourself. This is fulfilling the call of worship that God has called us to.

"Fulfill the great commission, in the midst of the great commandment."