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.
Are Worship Pastors Becoming Extinct?
The Key word here is “Pastors”. We have tons of technicians, musicians, etc. etc. but a shortage of pastors.
Glenn again nails it here. So I will re-post in total
Thanks Glenn:
Over the past seven years, I have served as the Director of the New Life School of Worship, a 9-month program designed to train worship leaders for local churches. We believe that to effectively prepare our students for local church worship ministry they need to be trained in more than music. They need to be grounded in theology, familiar with church history, and responsible with their handling of the Scriptures. Moreover, they need to learn what it means to be a pastor: to shepherd the people under their care.
But it seems that some churches aren’t looking for that. They would prefer a musician who can lead the “singing”, oversee the tech team, and produce recordings of their original songs. None of these are bad expectations, of course. But are we looking for these trade skills at the expense of other, more essential pastoral qualities? Are worship leaders simply highly skilled technicians who have a “steady gig” at a church?
Today’s worship leader may spend more time with his Macbook than with a real book. She may be more familiar with GarageBand than the people in her band. He may be better versed with directing the choir than providing spiritual direction.
Of course, the trade side of being a worship leader and the pastoral side are not mutually exclusive. A person can be good at Pro Tools and at pastoring the people on his team. The trouble is we’ve lost the sacredness of the pastoral vocation. Any person who says their core role is to pray, study, and provide spiritual direction is not as “useful” to the corporation we call church. What else can you do? we ask. Then we proceed to fill so much of their time time with scheduling bands, arranging music, and working with the latest recording software that they are no longer doing any pastoral work. Musicians and singers become cogs in a wheel, things we use to fill slots. True, the administration needs to be done. And yes, musical excellence is valuable. But at what price?
Ross Parsley, the long-time worship pastor here at New Life, is fond of saying that music ministry is not about music; it’s about people. Worship ministry is first a sort of a “helps” ministry that serves the Body of Christ. But more to the point, it is an excuse for us to connect with one another. Music is the table we gather around, the place where we see each other face to face, and then learn how to walk alongside one another in this life of faith.
Perhaps the question every church who hires a worship pastor– and every aspiring worship pastor– should answer is this: What will Jesus ask us about: the music we produced, the services we programmed? Or the people we pastored, the sheep we fed?
Take time today and think about the people on your team. Pray for them. Pick up the phone and call them. Break bread with them. Talk to them about more than the setlist. Remember your calling as a worship pastor, not a music program manager. Clear some of the clutter from your week. Maybe it’s time to appoint others to do the tasks that are keeping you from your role as a shepherd. You have never met a mere mortal. Our music will not last forever; these people will.
Silence
When was the last time you sat in total silence?
The greatest struggle in my life is finding a quiet place to sit in total silence waiting for the still small voice of my Father.
I love our house the back of it faces the front range of the Rocky Mountains and often in the morning I will sit at my kitchen table gazing at the beauty of God’s creation. Katharine Lee Bates was on Pikes Peak when she wrote the lyrics to ”America the Beautiful” and I am blessed to have Pikes Peak framed in my sliding glass doors . But we are also only 200 yards from I-25 and the noise that comes with it. I have learned to ignore it somewhat but it is a significant enemy to silence.
When Kim and I were first married we talked about having a house full of activity. A place where people would find refuge. A place where all our childrens friends would want to come. God has answered that prayer. Our home is full of activity with people coming and going. We love it but it presents a unique challenge when searching for a quiet place.
In Chuck Swindols book “Intimacy with the Almighty” he lists four disciplines essential for intimacy two of them are silence and solitude. Which to me are almost the same thing. In A.W. Tozer’s “The Purpose of Man” he lists seven keys to intimacy and the very first is quiet. Tozer says “I put quietness first bcause unless we can find a place without distraction, the rest is undermined.
Once we have made a practice of dwelling in a quiet place we are more easily able to dwell in the secret place. Brother Lawrence in “The Practice of the Presence of God” says ”what offering is more acceptable to God than thus throughout the day to quit the things of outward sense, and to withdraw to worshp Him within the secret places of the soul?”. Unless we have practiced being in a quiet place it is very difficult to dwell in the secret places of the soul throughout the day. Cultivating intimacy and recognizing the voice of God only comes through time and proximity.
I know I’m not alone in my struggle to find a quiet place. We must fight for it, make it a high priority, or we will slowly drift away from that most precious dwelling place where we are changed from Glory to Glory, where we become “like Him”, where we find rest, where He is my strong tower.
David understood the importance of dwelling in the secret place. I believe it was this practice that made him a man after God’s own heart. It was a recurring theme throughout his life and his writing. Among others he wrote:
He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High, shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty (Psalm 91:1), One thing I have desired of the Lord, That will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple (Psalm 27:4).
My prayer for you, and for me, today is that we would get a fresh revelation of His love and passion for close intimate fellowship with us. Make it a priority to find a quiet place this weekend and then go there often.
Blessings as you walk in Him.
The most important 48 minutes of your life?
When is the last time you heard a message like this?
It’s 48 minutes long and might be the most important 48 minutes of your life.
Please take the time to watch it. It put me on my face before God.
To Find Him Where He Can Be Found.
God speaks to me sometimes by sending the same message in different ways over a period of time and then I have what I call a coalescing moment where it all comes together.
I just had one of those when I received a my daily email from the Copelands and from a friend on Facebook from Zimbabwe. We have never met and I don’t know why he found me and asked me to be his friend. He has 6 friends and I am the only one not from Zumbabwe.
Since launching into ministry in January I have had an interesting ride. I am living the dream but have been plagued with fear and doubt shortly after making the decision. Building the kingdom has been in my heart for over 10 years. At a workshop for worship with Job Vijil I knew this is what I was born to do. God has always been faithful so why the worry?
I say He is my strength and my shield, my ever present help in time of need. I’m standing on the Word but I haven’t spoken in in weeks. Instead I have been speaking death. A couple weeks ago my amazing wife scolded me strongly for the way I’m talking and she is exactly right. She is such a blessing to me. The Word of God is the final word but I must put it to work by speaking it out.
I am reminded of a short prayer by Hans Ur von Balthasar I apologize if I’ve posted this before:
Harassed by life, exhausted, we look about us for somewhere to be quiet, to be genuine, a place of refreshment. We yearn to restore our spirits in God, to simply let go in him and gain new strength to go on living.
But we fail to look for him where he is waiting for us, where he is to be found; in his Son, who is his Word. Or else seek for God because there are a thousand things we want to ask him, and imagine that we cannot go on living unless they are answered. We inundate him with problems, with demands for information, for clues, for an easier path, forgetting that in his Word he has given us the solution to every problem and all the details we are capable of grasping in this life.
We fail to listen where God speaks; where God’s Word rang out in the world once for all, sufficient for all ages, inexhaustible. Or else we think that God’s Word has been heard on earth for so long that by now it is almost used up. That it is about time for some new word, as if we had the right to demand one. We fail to see that it is we ourselves who are used up and alienated, whereas the Word resounds with the same vitality and freshness as ever; it is just as near to us as it always was.
Hans Ur von Balthasar, Prayer. Trans. Graham Harrison (San Fancisco: Ignatius Press, 1986)
Today I committ to being in His Word and daily seeking Him in the secret place for His direction. I encourage you to do the same.
Blessings as you walk with Him.
Another asking the question “Excellence or putting on a show”.
Phil is one of, if not the, best guitarists of all time. Watch how he keeps passing the lead off.
Classy.
H.T. Josh Brage
Abundantly Blessed
I truly love living in Colorado Springs.
The winters are usually mild and the summers are perfect. Not much for water sports but a small price to pay. The first day of spring was 15 days ago, last week was spring break, and we have had one storm after another. It is currently 30 degrees outside with sleet and a stiff wind. I hope my trees make it through.
As I sit here this morning looking out the windows drinking coffee. I am considering how blessed I am. God has allowed me to pursue what I love while partnering with the two best pastors I could have hoped for. My beautiful wife is flourishing in her job and I couldn’t be more proud of my two boys. They are smart, talented, and well mannered. It’s been such a blessing to have them play for worship with me.
Ephesians Chapters 1 & 2 talk of God’s great love for us and how He had planned from the very beginning to adopt us as sons,
Side Note:
Sons is not a statement of gender. First born sons are the inheritors and that is why the Bible calls us all sons.
give us an inheritance and in the age to come can point to us as an example of His grace and goodness. Just stop and consider this for a minute.
There are some things you just have to settle. The most important one is “God is a good God”. When you read something you don’t understand start with the premise “God is a good God”. When something happens either to you or someone else start with the premise “God is a good God”. When someone is taken from you understand God did not need someone else in His choir. He is good and has good things for us to do. Ephesians 2:10 and Jeremiah 29:11.
Enjoy your Saturday and spend the day remembering how much you are blessed, loved, and set apart for a great purpose.
Blessings,
Gary
An open letter to Tim Challies
A response to A Readers Review of THE SHACK
Mr. Challies,
Thank you for your thoughtful review of THE SHACK. I sincerely appreciate the time and thought you have invested. I believe you are truly trying to help people come to the truth. I appreciate your tone, your principled stand, and your use of scripture to support your points however, I must take exception with some of your conclusions.
My purpose is not to defend THE SHACK rather to address some of the arguments to which I believe THE SHACK is a response. I read the book before I discovered all the controversy and though I have problems with some of the theology it caused me to remember why I chose to be a follower of Christ. I chose to enter into relationship with Him not to be a student of the Bible, be in ministry, to evangelize, or to serve my church. I am engaged in all of those things but I entered into relationship with Him because He loved me, (Galatians 2:20) rescued me from Hell, (Romans 6:23) and promised to be with me always. (Matthew 28:20, Psalm 27:13, Psalm 23)
My biggest issue in your review is you seem to deify the Bible at the expense of relationship with a personal God. Also your assertion we can no longer walk with God in the cool of the day and we are bound by a mediated communication is flatly untrue. God’s heart has always been to reveal Himself to His people (Exodus 19:4) and to talk with them face to face. (Exodus 19:4, 29:46, 19:11) The idea of having a mediator was not God’s idea. It was God’s response to the children of Israel who rejected Him at Mount Sinai. (Exodus 20:19, Deuteronomy 5:28-29) Consider Enoch who never tasted death but walked with God and was no more, (Gen 5:24) because he pleased God. (Hebrews 11:5) Noah walked with God. (Genesis 6:9) Abraham and God spoke personally about Sodom and Gomorrah. (Genesis 18) All through the Old Testament are examples of God reaching out to His people. The people didn’t have to wonder “how can we approach God directly?” God was very clear about it. Over and over He said if you will keep my commandments I will be your God and you will be my people.
Simeon knew by the Holy Spirit he would see the Lord before his death. (Luke 2:25) God spoke to Ananias regarding Saul. (Acts 9:10) John the Apostle communed with God after Jesus’ death. (Revelation 1:10) God has always yearned to reveal Himself in the context of relationship and community. It is the very nature of the Trinity. Knowing God is not simply an intellectual exercise.
It is true the Bible is the complete revelation of God and the standard by which everything must be evaluated. When we think we have “heard from God” either by His specific revelation (the Bible) or His general revelation (His creation) there is a process to help us confirm our suspicion. It begins with measuring what we perceive we heard or saw with the inerrant word of God. Then we confirm our conclusion by asking the question. “Does my conclusion reflect the character and nature of God?” or “what part of God’s nature does my conclusion reflect?”
It is true our sin separates us from God but when we appropriate, by faith, Jesus final sacrifice (Romans 6:10) we are able to come boldly to the throne of grace (Hebrews 4:16). Jesus became sin so that you and I may be the righteousness of God. (II Corinthians 5:21) You are correct, the new covenant mediator is Jesus however, you misrepresent Jesus role as mediator. He is the Word of God (John 1:1) and He (the Bible) does not separate us from relationship with the father rather he reconciles us to the Father (II Corinthians 5:18). We don’t approach “despite” our sin but because Jesus mediated the new covenant on our behalf.
I have no quarrel with your statements regarding the wrath of God. Just be careful not to give an incomplete gospel. There is more to God than His wrath. Before His wrath is meted out He pursues us passionately (James 3:5, Jeremiah 7:13, 25) and will go to extreme measures to draw us to Himself. (Matt 18:12, Numbers 22)
My final comment relates to suffering. As much as John Piper is correct, it is an incomplete answer and does not reflect the character and nature of God. John Piper seems to say God causes, or allows, suffering to glorify Himself which is utterly absurd. Suffering is part of the curse. (Deuteronomy 28) Though God can be glorified in it, suffering exists because the world is still in a fallen state and Satan is still loose deceiving men. It is the presence of sin that causes suffering. Until believers stop playing church (Isaiah 29:13) and take the stewardship of the kingdom of heaven on earth seriously suffering will increase. It is not because God wants to glorify Himself or because He is not engaged. He accomplished everything on the cross and restored the kingdom on earth. There is nothing left for Him to do (2 Peter 1:3) it is now in our hands (the church). We have been given responsibility (Psalm 115:16) and authority. (Matthew 28:18-20) The assertion that institutional Christianity, with notable exceptions, has been a stumbling block to intimate fellowship with God and hindered our effectiveness in the world is entirely accurate. Until we embrace Him and walk in obedience to His word (John 14:15) and His voice (John 15:14) we will not establish the kingdom before He returns. When I consider how the church places stumbling blocks in the way of relationship with God, my heart breaks.
Though I have concerns those not grounded in truth will read THE SHACK and not hear the whole truth. I applaud the authors for starting a discussion that believers can capitalize on. We must not judge the authors motives. (Romans 2:16, I Corinthians 4:3-5) I have read their answers to most of the concerns raised and I believe them to be men of good faith. We must engage in principled spirited discussion but we must not attack them. Believers must use this momentum to talk with those who are searching and allow the Spirit of Truth to guide them into all truth (John 16:13).
Thank you for your consideration,
Gary Trobee
Also see:
A Gentle Balance to the “Shack Attack”
Why I can’t recommend “The Shack”
My Songs
