Set List
Didn’t come to Lingle WY to lead worship but they asked me so I am excited. Here’s the set list.
Opener: Your Grace is Enough
Welcome/Announcements
Let God Arise
Mighty to Save
Better is One Day
Revelation Song
Your Love is Extravagant
Come join us I’m really looking forward to it.
Outsourced Worship?
This morning I ran across a case study of the very point I am trying to make regarding the church being increasingly run by the doers rather than equippers.
A Church in Hattiesburg MS. has decided to outsource it’s worship by hiring multiple worship leaders to come in on a rotating basis to lead worship. Here are the advantages he lists:
Jeff says this strategy offers several advantages:
- Many worship leaders don’t enjoy building teams, managing budgets or organizing departments. They just love to lead worship. This strategy let’s them stay in their sweet spot.
- This decision saves money for the church. He is able to pay them really well for a weekend and still save enough money in the church budget to use toward another staff position.
- They love the variety that this brings to their church. Keeping things unpredictable is a plus, says Jeff, to keeping people’s attention.
- They have learned so much from these worship leaders that they wouldn’t have learned from one person.
LeadingSmart: Outsourced Worship
What I see happening in the church is it is increasingly run by the doers not the equippers (Ephesians 4:11-12).
The very first benefit Jeff lists proves the point. They are looking for a gifted worship leader rather than an equipper to be the pastor/leader. What they need is someone who can recognize, call out, equip, and release the gifting of those entrusted to him or her.
Someone there is doing the administration the difference is they should be raising up worship leaders in their body not from unplanted gifted people who have no real relationship with the congregation.
The best doers are rarely the best equippers. Those who are gifted to lead worship are rarely the best at leading people, teams, and organizations.
We need to make the equippers the pastors and leaders so they can release the doers to do.
The church in America has missed the point a bit. What would your church look like if it were run by equippers and everyone was walking in the fullness of their calling.
Every need in the church can be met in the church. Nowhere in scripture is anything ever outsourced. In acts 6:3 they didn’t go looking for recent graduates from Bible college or Seminary they chose from among them.
Why I’m not a 501c3
Having been involved with ministries over the last several years I have seen government become more and more hostile toward church and para-church ministries who take a political stand.
Part of my calling and passion is to speak about political issues and when speaking to culture, faith, and social issues it’s nearly impossible to keep politics out of it. I believe the church should take a vocal stand for what is right from a traditional Biblical world view.
In the 50′s the church walked away from education, media, sports and politics with disastrous results. Also in 1954 a group called the Fellowship of Christian Athletes decided they would not let the enemy have athletics and have been challenging coaches and athletes to stand up for their faith. Now at the close of nearly every athletic event we see a group of athletes from both teams gathered at center court, center ice, or center field to pray together.
Recently we have seen the fruit of Christians involved in media who have the same attitude. Specifically an episode of Law and Order gave the pro life position a very honest and fair portrayal. We are also beginning to see movies and television shows that are family friendly and fair to cultural conservatives.
I believe it is critical that we not only pray (2Chronicles 7:14) but let our prayer inform our involvement. We must not embrace apathy clothed in holiness and piety.
So even though I may receive fewer financial gifts as a result I will not be voluntarily muzzled by the 501C3 rules. I hope this clarifies my choice. I would love to hear your comments.
Is there a purpose for pain?
As I sit here listening to Monday night football from my bed where I have been all day, I wonder about the purpose of pain.
I have ignored my back tooth for almost 5 years because I thought the worst case scenario was in play. My understanding was that the tooth was doomed and would need to be pulled and implants put in place. Big money that I didn’t want to spend until it was absolutely necessary.
Recently my good friend Dr. Garner looked at the xrays and believed it could be restored. So 3 weeks ago he took out the decay, filled the tooth and said lets see how we do. One week later the pain returned and he decided to go ahead and do the root canal. The root canal couldn’t be finished because of the infection in on of the roots so he sent me home with some medication to clam the infection before finishing.
I felt great for a week and today the pain is back so severely that I’m almost wishing i could die. It’s amazing how debilitating pain can be. I know one of the purposes of pain is to let you know something is wrong. Without it we wouldn’t address problems until it’s too late.
Is there any other purpose for pain? Love to hear what you think.
My Songs
