The Man In The Mirror

I was riding in the car the other day with my wife, when a song came on the radio. Mel commented that the song playing used to be a secular song but that she had always liked it, and now it was being played on the christian station. I listened to the words and it was true! The song that was written as a secular tune, actually could be applied to the christian life. We began to talk about the other songs that we knew that could be used the same way and what would you know, an old Michael Jackson song came to mind. "Man In The Mirror" began to play in my mind then the scripture passage from Proverbs started to come to me. "As water reflects the face, so the heart reflects the man". WOW! It could be said of some that vanity is a problem but not so much for me. I hate looking into the mirror. Every time I do, I see all of the blemishes, imperfections and unpleasent things I do not like about my looks. I see my big nose, huge eyebrows, crooked teeth, receeding hairline, etc. It is scary! Still, if I want to look presentable, I have to look at the man in the mirror to see what needs to be done. Does my hair need brushing? Do I have any food in my mustache? Is it time to shave? Until I take a look at the reflection, I have no idea what needs to be done to stay groomed, or even how to do it. We have to use a mirror in order to shave correctly or else, I would shave my gotee off. I have to have the mirror to comb my hair or it might stick up in places and not in others. Do you see the connection? As much as we hate it, sometimes we need to examine the heart to see if we really are measuring up to the standards that God has asked us to live by. The heart tells the story, and allows us to get a good snap shot of where we are exactly in our walk with Christ! Some of us are the same with our heart reflection as we are with our actual mirrored image...we would rather walk away and not look, but this is not an option for the child of God! We should always be willing to make changes in our spiritual apperance so that we reflect God and not ourselves! Looking at our heart reflection can sometimes be sickening, but the more we come to terms with who we really are and who He really is, the more we will be like Him, but it all starts with the man in the mirror! Let me close with this short story. I heard of a pastor once who, led a small church that had once upon a time been an on fire, lively, soul winning, growing congregation but had lost the passion to do just about anything over the years. Attendance had slumped, guests were not very welcomed, the nursery had dropped to 2 on a good Sunday and the only thing to report in the newsletter was how nice the social was last Saturday! Missions had become something that "other people" did and the vision for the church consisted of nothing more than a plan to maintain what was already going on. Churches around them that were growing were labled as "liberal" and "worldly" and many of the members gossipped but made sure to fashion it in the form of a prayer request. After becoming tired and distressed about the situation, the pastor commented that he felt like sundays were like going to a funeral home, so he had an idea. He decided to preach an entire message in the same style as if he were preaching a funeral. He talked about the "dearly departed" and how we loved the one who had passed. He talked about good times and the memories. As the pastor continued, he talked about all the qualities that were loved about the deceased and even how much others were dependent upon them, however throughout the whole message, the preacher never gave the name. All at once, the back doors came open and a casket, shiny, black with silver handles was rolled into the sanctuary. The pastor slowly made his way to the head of the casket as he closed his bible and opened the lid. He asked the church to come around row by row for the final viewing. As each person intrigued by who this poor soul was that had met with an untimely death peered into the coffin, they were astonished to find a mirror! In place of a corpse resting in peace, it was their own reflection that glared back at them! "This is a sick joke" one man whispered. "He has lost his mind" a lady from the back said. Finally the last row had came by the coffin and peeked in, then the Pastor stepped back into the pulpit and announced, "Thank you for coming to the funeral of a dead church". The people were angry and some even left the church, but the truth was still there! The people were dead and had failed for many years to take inventory of themselves personally and as a church, until they saw a familiar reflection, one they recognized laying in the coffin...their own! It was not until we get honest, open our eyes and look that we might find a similar situation in our personal and spiritual lives, but we must face the mirror and look into our heart!

Call to Repent

My pastor published the following article on his blog just a couple of days ago. After praying for a couple weeks, I really believe that God is getting ready to shake our church for His glory and bring about a fresh revival. I am so thankful for a Pastor whos heart is honest and trusting in God to move.

A Call to Repentance
Over the past few weeks our church has been seeking God for a fresh authentic move of God in our fellowship. For three weeks on Sunday morning we have been examining the parable of the prodigal son. The bottom line of those messages was this: God calls both the religious and irreligious to repentance.

Repentance is a prerequisite for any revival. As a church we have been talking through Joel on Sunday evenings and examining the prophet's call to return to God with weeping, fasting, and with torn hearts instead of torn garments. God's word is teaching us that true revival is impossible apart from true repentance. So with that in mind, here is our church's confession as we seek revival.
We believe Christ is brokenhearted over the state of His church – specifically ours. For too long we have taken credit for being better than what He knows us to be. We have been guilty of hiding behind superficial numbers and busy church calendars as evidence that we are good at doing church. We have written of church fellowships and special offerings because confronting the uncomfortable reality of the things that truly matter is much more difficult. We brag about those who have joined our church knowing that most likely many have just left another church. In the absence of God’s saving activity among us, we tend to retreat by writing about trivial things such as trips, bean dinners, brownie sales, or other things of the like.

However, in recent months, we have found ourselves in desperate need of revival. God has blessed us indeed, but we have become distracted by those blessings. To be quite honest, we are dry and in need of the rain of revival. It’s been too long since we have experienced a mighty move of God. It has been far too long since I have introduced someone to our congregation who I have personally led to Christ … and the same is true for our church staff and deacons. While sad to say, our church has been following our example. Undoubtedly, we have unconfessed, unrepented sin on many pews. It has been far too long since genuine repentance characterized one of our services. We are attempting to be obedient to Joel’s call to return to God with weeping, fasting, and with torn hearts instead of torn garments. We are guilty of hypocrisy and playing religion while people are dying and going to hell. We have been more in love with doing church rather than being the church. Please, forgive us – and pray for revival to come to our faith family. (Trevor Barton, Pastor)

Get A New Song

So many artists, so many songs! It seems that there are millions of options when it comes to new songs to sing and learn. I am constantly looking for new material for the worship team but sometimes because I am so picky, there arent too many songs that catch my attention, not to mention my ADD prevents me from listening to a song in its entirety sometimes.(that was a joke although totally plausible) I was reading just this morning about a new song. It was a melody and chorus that only comes from living a life for Jesus and serving Him. I began to ask myself, how do you get this song, how do you keep it? Its really not that hard, simply seek the Lord! Some people say that they do seek Him but cant find Him, but isnt that contrary to His word? He told us that if we would seek, we would find. When I found Christ, I found my song, and it is so beautiful! Every believer has a song, the question is, are you singing it? Maybe you have asked the same questions I have about finding your song or keeping it, if so here are some things God gave me during my quiet time.
Psalm 40 gives us a great road map to follow... First, you have to actually seek God! Thats right, there is some action required to this christian life. For some reason we think its ok to sit idle and expect God to come to us, but thats not what Psalms tells us, it calls us to action and tells us SEEK! Isaiah 55 confirms this with its admonishon to "Seek the Lord while He may be found". We find that which we seek after most. No wonder so many times life gets messed up. We are seeking to gain wealth, prosperity, recognition, large homes,position, power, everything but God! Most times when I find myself in trouble its because I stopped seeking God and went after selfish ambition. The second step is to allow God to do His work! The Psalmist tells us that God drew him out of the pit, and thank God that He still does that today. People I have encountered are usually in distress and want to stay there. They are happy with people always worried about them, comfortable with drama and ok with mediocre. They know nothing else but the pit so they are comfortable and dont allow God to move them. The best advice I was ever given concerning Gods move was, sit still and let Him. That is harder than it sounds, but its part of learning to "Wait on the Lord". If God is offering a hand, dont just smile, jump in His arms and let Him work in and through you. The next step is very difficult, especially if you dont allow God to be in total control, and that is "Trust the plan". When a platoon of soldiers go into battle, the first have a plan, and no matter what happens, you stick to the plan. You dont question, you cant disagree, you simply follow the stratagy and trust your life to your leaders judgement. That is what God is asking of us and assures us in verse 2 that our steps are secure! You might not always have a clue about the next step but you can be sure that its safe, as long as you are in Gods arms. Life has alot of blind curves, road blocks, obstacles and pit falls. The only way to survive is to let God give you the plan and simply follow it. The last point is easy but only comes after steps 1-3. You can get out of sync and you cant skip a step. When you seek, allow and trust thats when you learn that through the process of heartache, pain, somtimes joy and peace, there was a song being written. Before God places a song in your heart, He has to write the music of your life. If you are still holding on to the pen, dont expect the melody to be so sweet. But if you let go and trust thats when you will begin to sing! Sing your song loud! Sing your song to anyone who will listen and glorify God in the fact that your light is shining and the waiting, hoping and hurting is over, and now you can sing your new song. It might be a song of hope. It could be a song of praise. Maybe a song of deliverannce or grattitude. No matter what it will be a song of Love, to the only one who could have written it in a way only He knows how, and when God speaks a new song, it doesnt come from an earthly artist, but a heavenly author, and it will be a best seller!

New Year, New Worship

It is a brand new year, and I am sure that there are many of you who have made resolutions to be a better you. Some have resolved to lose weight, some have resolved to read books, some have even decided to be nicer to people. I have resolved several things myself but one that I want to be most intense is to be a better worshipper. I want to be more passionate and more intentional to read His word and be more like him. To be more focused in the corporate worship service and be a better example of an expressive worshipper. After all God created us as emotional beings and worship should be part emotion and an outward expression of the great inward change and touch of God! What about you? Are you satisfied with your worship? If not, its a great time to make a change and resolve to give God more of yourself! After all, that's what He is after anyway!!!!

More COW-BELL

There was a popular skit on the TV Show Saturday Night Live, that depicted a band having problems with a Rogue member who played the cowbell. The problem was every time he tried to actually play the cowbell, he would distract the other musicians and cause chaos, meaning the band had to stop the song and start over. Finally the producer of the band came out and demanded more cowbell, and announced that he had a "fever" and the only cure was MORE cowbell! The acting was great and the skit hilarious, however inside the church world, this parody is very true to an extent. So many people are crying out for MORE cowbell. They want to be heard, over everyone elses voice, or they want others to pay attention to them and their needs instead of their neighbor. When choir members are more concerned about hearing themselves more on the platform than the heart they bring to worship, its too much. When Pastors rule the church staff as a dictator instead of leading like a shepherd, its too much. When committee members that should be serving a function in the church, ignore Gods Word in order to please their conscious, its too much. When the regular church attender can pick out problems in everybody else's life but cant see any fallacies in their own, there is a problem. What is the problem? What does too much mean? Simply put, the needs and wants of our own flesh have become the proverbial cowbell in the church. We speak up, and loudly, only when it will benefit self. We make a scene and cause division, at the cost of God blessed unity and love. We play our personal cow bell so loudly, that the rest of the band is overshadowed and if anybody may try to help us town it down to blend, we purposely play louder or right in the ear of the one trying to help. What is the cowbell in your life? Who in your ministry plays the cowbell too loud? God gives us a challenge to work together to be unified and allow our lives to play Jesus a song of praise for who He is and what He has done. God is not looking for more cowbell, he is looking for more unity and obedience. More love and faithfulness. More praise and more worship. Put the cow bell down and serve without reservation. Give yourself and let Him help you become not just a cowbell player but a true worshipper of Him!

Others

God has placed so many people all around us. Some are friends, others are merely acquaintances while some may be people that we look to for wisdom and advice. Many times we want to live life our way, do ministry how we think it should be done and play the game by our own rules, but this thinking can sink our ship so much faster than we imagined. If we do things only the way we think they should be done without input from others, then we will never realize the best way things could be done. Adrian Rogers used to say, "Do everything with excellence and all things to the glory of God", but if we really want to be excellent, we should consider how others function and execute their ministry and life. There are two groups of people, those who show us how to do something better, and those who show us what NOT to do, both are needed! As a worship pastor, and artist I sometimes have a very critical ear and eye, but when used in perspective, it can be a good thing. When I visit other churches, I am always interested in how they do everything, from where they find the music they play to how much they practice. As I sit and observe I find myself sometimes thinking, "WOW, that's an interesting way to do that, we should try it!" But sometimes after listening I think "OK, that doesn't work at all, do not try this at home". In both instances, I learned something that will help me in the long run with my own ministry at the creek and on the road. Things I would never have picked up on if I had not looked to OTHER ministries or leaders for advice. I am thankful for a church and a Pastor that encourages me to check out other leaders and ministries to learn, grow and stretch. In my 10 years of ministry I have never had a pastor that was actually interested in what I could learn from other pastors and staff members, and that in and of itself gives me alot of what I need to lead others with confidence! It would be pure pride to think that God only gives me and my team the best ideas, but when I realize that we are in this together as a family to please and praise our father in heaven then I will be intentional to ask questions, observe and even help other worship pastors, pastors, and staff members from other churches. If you serve in ministry, let me encourage you to find other people in your field of ministry and visit them, take them to lunch and find out the what and how of their ministry. Ask them what God is doing in their church, and how they got to where they are. Use friendships and networking to allow God to speak to your heart and mold you into the best leader you can be. During the past 12 months I made a commitment to visit some other ministries that God had given favor and just sit at those staff members feet to learn. As I close this article, I would like to give you 5 things that I found these successful ministries had in common.

1. People are always more important than the music or talent.
2. There is never any room for pride...Jesus never takes second place
3. Commitment to developing people as Christians make a world of difference
4. The Senior Pastor must have a heart for worship, to make a successful worship ministry
5. The Worship Pastor does NOT have to be in the front
6. If you expect others to worship, then don't tell the congregation how to worship, show them how to worship.
7. Its not the style of worship (choir, praise team, band, organ, contemp or traditional) it's the position of the heart!
8. You don't work up an atmosphere of worship, you worship anyway and depend on the spirit
9. Be flexible, bendable and teachable.
10. ASK FOR INPUT FROM OTHERS!

The Servant Worshipper

When we think of worship leaders or even teams, some people automatically think of performers or "stars" of the service. There are some places where the platform people are even treated as such. I remember leading worship in one church when I used to travel and a lady and her husband picked me up from the airport in a limo. They carried my bags for me, tipped the driver and then upon arriving at the hotel ordered room service for me to eat. By the end of the week I was spoiled, and felt like royalty. This couple would sit with me each night, carrying my folder and bible in for me, provided fresh water for me during practices and run through and then re fresh my bottle of water before I walked out on the platform to lead. The last day there I asked this sweet couple, who had been in charge of my care, exactly why they were so sweet to me. The reply was simple. We wanted to serve the servants of God! I began to think about that and realized that each of us are called to be servants of God, so why cant I serve the same way they did? In serving me, they were serving the Lord. When we serve others around us, God is not only pleased but glorified. Even Jesus himself said that He came to serve not be served. If you are a pastor, worship leader, deacon or any other kind of leader, ask God to make you are servant and teach you how to serve others in worship. You might say that this couple went too far, and maybe so because I am definitely not a star or a performer, however when God told us to love people like we love ourselves, I'm pretty sure that means loving and serving others to the extreme! Who are you serving today? Are you placing anybody in front of your own desires or wants?