Empty Shelf September Edition

   This Idea of posting what I've been reading would be much better if I was diligent about updating. I have added 4 more titles to the shelf since the last time I posted anything. This brings my total to 10 for the year.
   My younger self is scoffing at this pitiful number thus far this year, but my married with three kids self is feeling at least somewhat accomplished.
   Here is a short synopsis of the newest reads...

AHA by Kyle Idleman.  I have been a fan of Idleman since I read his first book (Not a Fan). (I do see the irony there)  He is a pastor that writes with a pastors heart. He knows how many of us read books and he works to make his writing accessible. Case in point...He asks you to read a list of questions and seriously consider you response to those questions.  Then a few pages later he encourages you to go back and actually consider your response to the questions (knowing that many of us skim the list and keep reading).  This book talks about the journey each of us has to go through when we run from God and try to do things on our own. It might not have been mind-blowing, but the writing and the theology are solid and enjoyable.

Jesus Is_____. by Judah Smith.  This was an interesting read. Mr. Smith looks at six ways to fill in the blank. "Jesus is Your Friend, Jesus is Grace, Jesus is the Point, Jesus is Happy, Jesus is Here, Jesus is Alive."  Each of these statements is fleshed out with Scripture and stories.  Then Smith discusses how we can be each of these things as well. I enjoyed this book, but I found myself wanting Smith to go deeper with each chapter. What he said was good, but it wasn't as complete as I wanted it to be.

Worship, Community, and the Triune God of Grace by James B. Torrance.  This might have been the most challenging thing I've read in a few years.  This book is based off of a set of lectures that Mr. Torrance gave to doctorate religion students. At it's most basic, this book is a call to be more Triune in our thinking about worship and the life of the church. Torrance believes that we need to look more closely at the work of the Holy Spirit in our life and worship, and that we need to remember to continuing work of Jesus in our life and worship. He feels that there is too much focus on "me and God" to the exclusion of the three-in-one God. I appreciated many of the points brought up in this book, but I did not find it immediately applicable in my life, other than to make me think more about how all three parts of the trinity are working in my life.

God's Not Dead by Rice Broocks. This is the book that many of the evidences used in the Movie were taken from. This is a solid primer on Christian Apologetics. As a person who believes in God, I found the evidences presented in the book to be engaging and insightful. I don't know that an Atheist picking up this book would be convinced, but Mr. Broocks does an admirable job of presenting several scientific arguments for the existence of God. For anyone interested in a starting point for Apologetics without diving into the deep end of super science, this was a good read.

   So now I am caught up again. Time to start the next book and see if I can't knock out a couple more before the Christmas Holidays get here. God Bless and keep reading!

What If I Believe...

Writing every six weeks is keeping current on a blog right...?

     So, for the month of August, we have been singing a song in church called "Christ in Me" by Tim Timmons.  If you've never heard it, check out the embedded video at the bottom of this post.
     This is one of those songs that I have a hard time classifying...It's not a vertical song singing to God. It isn't even really a horizontal song about God or His glory and power meant to be sung to each other in the congregation. It's more of a personal song.  Simply put, it asks a question of the singer "What if I believe, Christ in me?"  Honestly it is a bit of a challenging song in its content.  What would you do differently if you truly believed that the power of God was available to you through the Holy Spirit because of Christ's blood shed for your sins?  How would you live?  These are great questions!  Do I allow the Holy Spirit to actually change my behavior, or do I simply spout good christianese and live the way I would without Jesus in my life? The true result of believing is a changed life.  The chorus of the song sums it up well...

     I would lay my worries down
     see these hills as level ground
     What if I believed, Christ in me?
     I would praise Him with my life
     Let my story lift Him high
    What if I believed, Christ in me?

     While this didn't seem at first like the best congregational song I've ever found, it has been well received. It is easy to sing yet challenging in content. It couples well with testimonial hymns/songs as well as making a great invitational piece that challenges us to truly think about what we just heard from the word of God.
I hope you enjoy the song. God bless.

   

Three More Books on the Shelf

Since I last posted about what I am reading (finished reading), I have added three more titles to my empty shelf.

Worship Words by Debra and Ron Rienstra was a long read.  I started this book last fall and have put it down/picked up several times since.  It discusses the language we use in our worship services and what our language says about God.  It was a good read with some very thought provoking concepts.  We must be careful to use words that represent God truthfully.

Weird by Craig Groeschel was very good. Craig challenges Christians to get beyond normal.  None of us really wants to be weird, but according to this book, being normal might just be what is keeping your walk with God from growing.  Basically, this book is a call to live lives that are sold out to Jesus; lives that are biblically based and God honoring regardless of how weird it makes us look to the watching world.

Worship: The Ultimate Priority by John  MacArthur might be the best book on worship I've read since Bob Kauflin's Worship Matters.  Full of scriptural references to make his points, MacArthur posits that worship is our right response of all we are, to all that God is.  MacArthur gives examples of what Biblical worship looks like and how it affects Christians who practice it. Great read.

Now onto the next book on the stack. God Bless and keep reading.

Oceans (Where Feet May Fail)

We recently introduced a new song at church. It's a song that I almost passed over without much thought. The song Oceans (Where Feet May Fail) by Hillsong United is being introduced in churches around the country. Just because a song is being used by other churches doesn't automatically mean that we should sing it. However, in this case, I am glad that I gave the song a second chance. It is a beautiful expression of longing to be challenged by God to a deeper faith. It uses a visual picture that alludes to Jesus and Peter walking on water. Because of this, I have been studying this passage of scripture in Matthew 14:22-33. Here are a few things I noticed...

1. The disciples were where Jesus asked them to be. Because the disciples obeyed, they saw Jesus walk on water, and Peter even experienced walking on water himself.
2. Peter asked Jesus for proof that it was really Jesus. In asking for the proof, Peter already showed his faith in Jesus. He asked Jesus to call him out on the water...somewhere Peter could not go on his own. Then Peter proved his faith in Jesus by obeying in this miraculous thing. It's one thing to ask God to grow our faith, it's another thing to actually step out when He calls.
3. Peter did the miraculous as long as he kept his eyes on Jesus. When he looked at the wind and waves he began to sink. He put his faith in his fears at that moment and has to call out to Jesus for help. Jesus saves and challenges Peter to put his faith in the right place.
4. Once Peter and Jesus are in the boat, Peter is all but forgotten about. There are no "high fives" and "congratulations Peter for walking on water." No the only response the disciples have to witnessing what they saw was to bow down and worship Jesus.

So often as Christians, we see the "wind and waves" that will be against us if we step out in faith, and we never get out of the boat. In fact, many of us never get in the boat in the first place. We are still on the shore arguing with Jesus about making this voyage. We use our expertise to say "Jesus it looks like a storm is brewing, we should just wait until tomorrow." Or we say "Jesus can't we just sit here and enjoy the amazing miracle you just performed and snack on this bread and fish?" (Jesus had just fed the 5,000) We get so comfortable, that the idea of asking God to grow our faith by calling us to do something that we cannot do on our own power sounds crazy.

Oceans is a song that asks God to grow us. I plan to keep singing it. I hope you will too (or at least pray and ask God to stretch you and grow you.

A Picture and 160 Characters

Are you ever inspired by something you see on social media?  Many times facebook and twitter are time wasters as often as they are informative/challenging/inspiring.  However, I was recently challenged by a friend's post. He posts a new picture each time he finishes a book and adds it to his formerly empty bookshelf.

This challenged me because I used to be an avid reader. I devoured books regularly.  The longer the better (as I knew the story would have time to progress).  In the last couple of years I find myself reading less and less.  Not intentionally (in fact my collection of unread books keeps growing).  I have grand plans to read stuff for work, to read for pleasure, and to read for personal betterment.  Somewhere between a spouse, 3 kids, and a full time ministry job, I find myself with less reading time than I used to have.  Add to that the time suckers of social media and hulu plus and my time with the written word has all but disappeared.

Thanks Kyle for sharing what you are reading.  I have decided to follow the example of my friend.  It's time to get back into books. Starting with  Authentic by James McDonald and Revolve by Nelson Searcy and Jason Hatley.  Revolve is a small primer on worship for your average person.  The gist is that often we come to church and get nothing out of the worship service because our views of worship are incorrect.  This little book challenges some commonly held misconceptions and replaces them with a more Biblical understanding.  A bit basic but fairly solid theologically.

Authentic is a challenging book focusing on Spiritual Disciplines.  McDonald walks us through 6 spiritual disciplines that we see Jesus practicing in scripture and helps the reader understand why these disciplines are important.  Very scriptural based information that pulls no punches.  These are activities commanded of the Christ follower.  I especially liked the fact that James spent more time explaining why to practice the disciplines rather than just writing another book about how to have a quiet time.

So there's the start of the shelf...Here's the stack of books at work that I will be working through this year.  Time to go pick up a book...

Songs About the Word

   So...it's been a few months since I've written anything. Honestly it's been a few months since I've felt like I had breathing space to write anything. In fact I probably don't have as much breathing room right now as I think but writing is cathartic and helpful.
   I thought I'd share another look into song choice and how much thought goes into a service some weeks. The theme of this weeks message is "Maniacally Get More Milk" from 2 peter 3-10. I don't know what all Pastor Jack is going to talk about, but obviously we are going to be focusing on the importance of the Word of God. With that in mind, here is my setlist for this Sunday...

• Marvelous Light (Charlie Hall song from a few years ago)
• Jesus, Firm Foundation (the new arrangement of "How Firm a Foundation")
• Standing on the Promises (Baptist Hymnal #335)
• Ancient Words (Lynn Deshazo song made popular by Michael W. Smith)
• Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus (Baptist Hymnal #320)

   I'll come back to Marvelous Light in a moment. The Hymn "How Firm a Foundation" takes a scriptural promise in each of it's 7 verses (only 4 in the hymnal today). It begins with the premise that there is no greater foundation than the Word of God and Jesus Christ as revealed therein.  Because of this, I felt like this was a great way to highlight the importance of God's word even as we sing.  Moving from there to "Standing on the Promises" seemed like a great transition. We finish a song that highlights promises from the Word and then declare that we stand on those promises for life.

   Ancient Words is a great song (in my opinion) that reminds us that the words we read in the Bible are not new.  They are not a passing fad.  They have withstood the test of time because they are God's truth as breathed to life by God himself.  

   As I tried to find a song to end the service with, I struggled. There are several more songs that speak about God's word (obviously) but I felt like we needed more of a vertically charged song.  Something to remind us that God is in the room with us. I felt like "Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus" while not a fully vertical song (one sang directly to God) was a song that helps make the connection between the word of God on paper (or phones, tablets, etc) and the Word became flesh that dwelt among us. The Time of Commitment song will be "Open the Eyes of My Heart" which finishes the focusing by being a truly vertical song asking God to help us receive His truth.

   Back to Marvelous Light...this is our new song for the month of September (I know it isn't really new, but it is to our congregation).  I had this song in mind for the month, but kept setting it aside as being too youth campy.  So I started looking at other songs and had even chosen one. It had a nice feel to it and I thought it would work nicely. However, after looking at it a bit more closely, I began to feel that it wasn't theologically 100% sound. It's not a bad song, but the theology is a tad bit off. So as I came back to square one, Marvelous Light kept coming to mind. I read through the lyrics, prayed about, and realized that the truths contained therein were ideal for this time of year. As we go back to school, work, schedules, what better reminder than the thought that we have been called out of the darkness and into God's marvelous light. 

   I'm excited to get to lead these songs in our congregation this Sunday. I pray that wherever you worship this week, that the Word of God would speak to you in fresh ways and that you open yourself to receive that truth. 

Hymns...for or against...

   Hymns can be a divisive topic in church life.  To sing songs from the hymnal or not is a question many churches wrestle with.  As a worship leader with a rich tradition of worship, I find it quite natural to lead with a mix of newer as well as older songs of the faith.  Occasionally I find that lyrics within these old songs express my heart as well or better than the modern songs.  Sometimes, I find that songs written within that last year help me praise God in a way that an older song does not.  When it comes down to whether we should sing this song or that song, I think much more emphasis should be put upon what the song is expressing than on how old the song is or the style of music that relays the song's message.

   Each member of a congregation is going to have their own culture of worship that they grew up with and most appreciate.  Some prefer the old songs they have sung for years.  Some prefer to learn the new songs and join a new generation in expressing their love and devotion to God.  I think the trick is to find a cultural balance.  In a way I like the picture of each church having their own hymn book. The songs that resonant most with the majority of the congregation are added to the book and those songs (old or new) that don't help a congregation praise God get set to the side.

   So, do I like hymns?  I love them!  Do I enjoy new songs?  Indeed!  Do I have a preference? Of course I do.  My personal culture of worship probably leans more towards newer song styles.  That being said, when we sing a song written in the 1800's we are joining our voices with the great cloud of witnesses whose voices  have sing those words before us.  When we sing psalms from the scriptures, we are joining our voices to even more generations of worshipers.  When we sing a brand new song that expresses our heart's love for God, we are joining with future generations of worshipers who will sing these songs after us.

   Think about it...every old song was once new.  Not every song that Charles Wesley, Fannie Crosby, William Cowper, and B.B. McKinney wrote are still being sung.  Not every song that Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman, David Crowder, and Rend Collective Experiment are writing will stand the test of time. We sing the songs that speak what we desire to say to God.  There is a place for old, new, traditional, and different music in the worship of our Lord and Savior.

   Sing a song of praise to the Lord...