Principle #2 -- Mean what you sing and sing what you meanThe biggest hindrance to visitors is not that they encounter something they don't immediately understand; it's encountering something that is not genuine. Mahatma Ghandi, after several years of studying in London, said he would have become a Christian if he had ever met one. Whatever version of Christianity he saw, he didn't see the real thing.
One study concluded that 55% of all communication is nonverbal. The visitor is not just listening to what you say. Consciously or unconsciously, he is intuitively observing how connected you and your group really are with what you espouse. He's looking for emotional and intellectual honesty, depth of conviction, and heartfelt compassion. How we worship reflects these things more than we know.
The discipline for worship leaders and worshipers to learn is to mean what you sing and sing what you mean. This will affect not only what you sing, but how you sing it. Worship leaders, choose songs that are appropriate to your group's experience -- there's no place for meaningless expression. And learn the songs so well that they are literally part of you. Then when you lead, the songs will effortlessly spring out of your hearts.
Also, work on making natural transitions between songs and between the segments of your meetings. It's like taking a tour through various rooms in a house. Brief explanations along the way will help the visitor know that you want him to be part of the tour.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Thursday, April 24, 2008
April 15 remembered
On april 15 I asked, "What I am asking you to do is to dream big. Ask God to show you how He is at work in big ways all around us. " I am thankful for the prayers and the answers we received on Sunday. God is at work in all our lives. Some are just attuned to Him. I am praying for you who have needed to come even closer in your walk with Christ. I was reatly encouraged by the testimonies shared that even when ALL is lost God will provide. You may be thinking that there is no way that would happen to you but you are afraid to let go and let God.
Our work is not to save souls, but to disciple them
Last night during the "All In" Ephesians Opener Robbie made a statement about how his life view had changed from winning them to winning and disciplining. Here it is today in Oswald along with a few free nuggets to help me stray on track. Thanks
April 24, 2008
The Warning Against Desiring Spiritual Success
Do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you . . . —Luke 10:20
Worldliness is not the trap that most endangers us as Christian workers; nor is it sin. The trap we fall into is extravagantly desiring spiritual success; that is, success measured by, and patterned after, the form set by this religious age in which we now live. Never seek after anything other than the approval of God, and always be willing to go "outside the camp, bearing His reproach" (Hebrews 13:13 ). In Luke 10:20 , Jesus told the disciples not to rejoice in successful service, and yet this seems to be the one thing in which most of us do rejoice. We have a commercialized view— we count how many souls have been saved and sanctified, we thank God, and then we think everything is all right. Yet our work only begins where God’s grace has laid the foundation. Our work is not to save souls, but to disciple them. Salvation and sanctification are the work of God’s sovereign grace, and our work as His disciples is to disciple others’ lives until they are totally yielded to God. One life totally devoted to God is of more value to Him than one hundred lives which have been simply awakened by His Spirit. As workers for God, we must reproduce our own kind spiritually, and those lives will be God’s testimony to us as His workers. God brings us up to a standard of life through His grace, and we are responsible for reproducing that same standard in others.
Unless the worker lives a life that "is hidden with Christ in God" ( Colossians 3:3 ), he is apt to become an irritating dictator to others, instead of an active, living disciple. Many of us are dictators, dictating our desires to individuals and to groups. But Jesus never dictates to us in that way. Whenever our Lord talked about discipleship, He always prefaced His words with an "if," never with the forceful or dogmatic statement— "You must." Discipleship carries with it an option.
April 24, 2008
The Warning Against Desiring Spiritual Success
Do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you . . . —Luke 10:20
Worldliness is not the trap that most endangers us as Christian workers; nor is it sin. The trap we fall into is extravagantly desiring spiritual success; that is, success measured by, and patterned after, the form set by this religious age in which we now live. Never seek after anything other than the approval of God, and always be willing to go "outside the camp, bearing His reproach" (Hebrews 13:13 ). In Luke 10:20 , Jesus told the disciples not to rejoice in successful service, and yet this seems to be the one thing in which most of us do rejoice. We have a commercialized view— we count how many souls have been saved and sanctified, we thank God, and then we think everything is all right. Yet our work only begins where God’s grace has laid the foundation. Our work is not to save souls, but to disciple them. Salvation and sanctification are the work of God’s sovereign grace, and our work as His disciples is to disciple others’ lives until they are totally yielded to God. One life totally devoted to God is of more value to Him than one hundred lives which have been simply awakened by His Spirit. As workers for God, we must reproduce our own kind spiritually, and those lives will be God’s testimony to us as His workers. God brings us up to a standard of life through His grace, and we are responsible for reproducing that same standard in others.
Unless the worker lives a life that "is hidden with Christ in God" ( Colossians 3:3 ), he is apt to become an irritating dictator to others, instead of an active, living disciple. Many of us are dictators, dictating our desires to individuals and to groups. But Jesus never dictates to us in that way. Whenever our Lord talked about discipleship, He always prefaced His words with an "if," never with the forceful or dogmatic statement— "You must." Discipleship carries with it an option.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Saturday Peachy Clean Day
Ya'll come!
We are gonnna have a great time Saturday ministering to the City of Baldwin. They have several areas they are going to clean followed by a great lunch and door prizes. You'll get a FreeT-Shirt with Aaron Crump's first publiushed art work. We will start at 8:30 at Fellowship Church.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Bigger than we can imagine
Cornelia's Big Red Apple, located at the old train depot in downtown, pays homage to the apple and apple growers of the county. Built of steel and concrete in 1925 the statue, according to Habersham County, The Big Red Apple weighs 5,200 pounds and is 7 feet high (it sits on a pedestal, so it is significantly taller than 7 feet).Think about how crazy it must have seemed to build this monument back in 1925 or even in 2008. Couldn't there be a better use of time and money?
The apple has become a symbol and land mark that brings people into North Georgia to see this Big apple. Why even in the 70's the Gainesville Times ran a picture on the cover depicting it eaten, this appeared on April 1 of course. Still it brought out the curious to see if the Jolly Green Giant has came to make a snack out the apple.
Think about how crazy it seems that God designed the entire universe with you in mind. His holy word reminds that He even know the number of hairs on our heads, my is getting easier for Him to count.
What I am asking you to do is to dream big. Ask God to show you how He is at work in big ways all around us. Just this week a thousand dollars was given for the Big Give, an offer of shingles to cover the entire roof, We together aided many needy with 42 bath towels and 161 pairs of socks, provided a place of worship for 238 people Sunday, provided a hub for Peachy Clean Day April 26 and many unseen acts of ministery.
We are only just beginning to touch our community with the love of Christ
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Proverbs 12:26
Proverbs 12:26
26 The righteous should choose his friends carefully,
For the way of the wicked leads them astray
New King James Version (NKJV) Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.
Sometimes we need to be careful who we spend too much time with. Its easier to sink than soar.
26 The righteous should choose his friends carefully,
For the way of the wicked leads them astray
New King James Version (NKJV) Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.
Sometimes we need to be careful who we spend too much time with. Its easier to sink than soar.
Co-Crucifixion.
Oswald Today
April 10, 2008
Complete and Effective Decision About Sin
. . . our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin —Romans 6:6
Co-Crucifixion. Have you made the following decision about sin— that it must be completely killed in you? It takes a long time to come to the point of making this complete and effective decision about sin. It is, however, the greatest moment in your life once you decide that sin must die in you-not simply be restrained, suppressed, or counteracted, but crucified— just as Jesus Christ died for the sin of the world. No one can bring anyone else to this decision. We may be mentally and spiritually convinced, but what we need to do is actually make the decision that Paul urged us to do in this passage.
Pull yourself up, take some time alone with God, and make this important decision, saying, "Lord, identify me with Your death until I know that sin is dead in me." Make the moral decision that sin in you must be put to death.
This was not some divine future expectation on the part of Paul, but was a very radical and definite experience in his life. Are you prepared to let the Spirit of God search you until you know what the level and nature of sin is in your life— to see the very things that struggle against God’s Spirit in you? If so, will you then agree with God’s verdict on the nature of sin— that it should be identified with the death of Jesus? You cannot "reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin" ( Romans 6:11 ) unless you have radically dealt with the issue of your will before God.
Have you entered into the glorious privilege of being crucified with Christ, until all that remains in your flesh and blood is His life? "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me . . ." ( Galatians 2:20 ).
April 10, 2008
Complete and Effective Decision About Sin
. . . our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin —Romans 6:6
Co-Crucifixion. Have you made the following decision about sin— that it must be completely killed in you? It takes a long time to come to the point of making this complete and effective decision about sin. It is, however, the greatest moment in your life once you decide that sin must die in you-not simply be restrained, suppressed, or counteracted, but crucified— just as Jesus Christ died for the sin of the world. No one can bring anyone else to this decision. We may be mentally and spiritually convinced, but what we need to do is actually make the decision that Paul urged us to do in this passage.
Pull yourself up, take some time alone with God, and make this important decision, saying, "Lord, identify me with Your death until I know that sin is dead in me." Make the moral decision that sin in you must be put to death.
This was not some divine future expectation on the part of Paul, but was a very radical and definite experience in his life. Are you prepared to let the Spirit of God search you until you know what the level and nature of sin is in your life— to see the very things that struggle against God’s Spirit in you? If so, will you then agree with God’s verdict on the nature of sin— that it should be identified with the death of Jesus? You cannot "reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin" ( Romans 6:11 ) unless you have radically dealt with the issue of your will before God.
Have you entered into the glorious privilege of being crucified with Christ, until all that remains in your flesh and blood is His life? "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me . . ." ( Galatians 2:20 ).
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