When I started writing this entry on passionately following Jesus, I did not know that Denis Ignatius was going to speak so well about the subject of passion over this past week's sunday night service before I wrote down my thoughts. It was just something that I was thinking about on my own and decided to share with the people that read this blog. If you are able to, please request through the church office a copy of last sunday night's message because he spoke really well about the subject of passionately following Jesus.
He stole my thunder (heh!) but for those of you that were not there, perhaps this blog shall give you an interesting starting point to think about the whole issue of passionately following Jesus...
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Anybody that moves to Ottawa soon begins to realize that because we are a city that is supposed to embody the culture of tolerance and inclusiveness (great values that in my opinion are now being distorted), it is extremely difficult to get anybody fired up about anything.
As a pastor and facilitator of worship, I have found that it is near impossible to get people fired up and passionate about something as polarizing as Christianity because you quickly get categorized as intolerant, fanatical or fundamentalist. It is sad, but it is true that in the church - that is supposed to be a living, breathing representation of the kingdom of God on this earth - it is unbelievably difficult to get people fired up about the person that they theoretically credit for every blessing in their lives.
Some church leaders were having a discussion one day that I happened to be a part of and one of them asked me what I thought about the word "passion" and the notion that the church is supposed to lead people to Jesus and to create passionate followers of him. I think that my answer took them by surprise...
My answer was that the church has forgotten what passion looks like. In my opinion, in the 21st century passion is best displayed by the group of men that crashed planes into the world trade center and the pentagon. Obviously what they did was a horrible, HORRIBLE act, but their dedication to their cause and their passion about it is undeniable.
As Christians, Jesus does not call us to crash planes into buildings... thankfully... but his call to his disciples and all that he spoke to when he walked this earth was not a call to a wishy-washy faith, but to a radically different lifestyle and set of beliefs that the world has continually rejected since he walked this planet as a man.
Our passion for him comes out of our relationship with him. As we grow in our relationship with Jesus and see him at work in our lives, we are inspired to share what he is doing in our lives with those around us. I think that this goes hand-in-hand with what I blogged about last week.
I have a bit of an unusual response to my weekly dose of telemarketing. Instead of hanging up on the telemarketer, I usually spend some time trying to determine whether they truly believe in what they are selling or not. I'm not very successful in getting an answer most of the time, but once, there was a guy who candidly let me know that the tone of his voice was the telling factor. If he was selling something he was passionate about, he would sound more animated than his monotonous, pre-rehearsed speech. He went on to tell me that in his office, many of them were selling products that they are not eligible for, or that they do not believe will transform your life the way they claimed they will.
As facilitators of worship we have to guard against being Jesus' dispassionate marketers because the congregation or people that we try to connect with him can see through our lack of passion and belief, and believe me, it is all downhill from there.
And now for some new age-ish quotes to end this week's blog.
“The more intensely we feel about an idea or a goal, the more assuredly the idea, buried deep in our subconscious, will direct us along the path to its fulfillment.”
- Earl Nightingale
"Nothing great in the world has ever been accomplished without passion"
- Hebbel
“Above all, be true to yourself, and if you cannot put your heart in it, take yourself out of it.”
- Unknown
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
overflow of the Holy Spirit VS Abundance of experience
A friend of mine once challenged me about 2 things that at that time made for interesting spiritual and intellectual ruminating.
- He said that we should be careful that as worshippers we were engaging in ministry out of an overflow of God pouring into us and our deep relationship with him rather than from an abundance of experience.
- He also said that we should learn to tell the difference between a service that had a high because of musical excellence and a service that had a high point because of God's presence and power at work in his people.
At the time that he made these comments, we were on a worship team that somehow (please do not ask how) led worship at 3 morning services and one evening service. Because we played together a lot and because we were fairly good musicians, we were able to achieve really good sound (in our estimation) and over the 6 years that we did this, rack up sunday service experience that most people on worship teams elsewhere in the country and in the world would take years to accumulate.
I think that his challenge to us came out of an accurate observation about the fact that we had unknowingly (or even knowingly) come up with a formula for what worked at our church and with our congregation and all we had to do was hit the right buttons to see the "result" we were looking for.
The more I thought about his challenge, the more I came to realize that it was addressing an issue that christians who are involved in ministry over long periods of time have the tendency to take for granted. This is the issue/area of a growing relationship with Jesus. I know that I have spoken about various aspects of it over the previous entries, but as people that find ourselves at the frontline in spiritual matters because we choose to engage in ministry, we have to be sure that our walk with God is right and that our ministry and warfare is not resting on the shaky foundation of experience, but on the solid rock of our relationship with Jesus.
I also found that in my life I had began to treat my time in service and ministry as a substitute for the time that I should have spent in personal relationship-building time with God. This is especially true for churches like the one to which we belong that maintain a very high number of activities and demand lots of time and commitment from their volunteers.
Time spent in ministry is not a substitute for time spent in your prayer closet or in your personal bible study...
God is also more concerned about your spiritual growth and relationship with him than he is about whether you are involved in ministry or not.
As the leader of the worship ministry at woodvale, I am working hard to promote excellence as a cornerstone value. However, even for myself, I have to remember that excellence without the infusion of the work of the Holy Spirit yields no lasting result. The result may be a great-sounding worship set, but because our mandate is to CONNECT PEOPLE WITH GOD, we fall way short of our primary objective. Obviously excellence is needed in what we do because God is not honored by the lack thereof, but it is not an end in itself and so I extend the challenge to us all about this.
Do you bring your gift of worship leading before the congregation and God himself based on your experience or on your music ability... or do you allow Jesus to inspire the gifts that he has given you to connect the people that you lead in worship to a God that wants to touch and transform his people?
- He said that we should be careful that as worshippers we were engaging in ministry out of an overflow of God pouring into us and our deep relationship with him rather than from an abundance of experience.
- He also said that we should learn to tell the difference between a service that had a high because of musical excellence and a service that had a high point because of God's presence and power at work in his people.
At the time that he made these comments, we were on a worship team that somehow (please do not ask how) led worship at 3 morning services and one evening service. Because we played together a lot and because we were fairly good musicians, we were able to achieve really good sound (in our estimation) and over the 6 years that we did this, rack up sunday service experience that most people on worship teams elsewhere in the country and in the world would take years to accumulate.
I think that his challenge to us came out of an accurate observation about the fact that we had unknowingly (or even knowingly) come up with a formula for what worked at our church and with our congregation and all we had to do was hit the right buttons to see the "result" we were looking for.
The more I thought about his challenge, the more I came to realize that it was addressing an issue that christians who are involved in ministry over long periods of time have the tendency to take for granted. This is the issue/area of a growing relationship with Jesus. I know that I have spoken about various aspects of it over the previous entries, but as people that find ourselves at the frontline in spiritual matters because we choose to engage in ministry, we have to be sure that our walk with God is right and that our ministry and warfare is not resting on the shaky foundation of experience, but on the solid rock of our relationship with Jesus.
I also found that in my life I had began to treat my time in service and ministry as a substitute for the time that I should have spent in personal relationship-building time with God. This is especially true for churches like the one to which we belong that maintain a very high number of activities and demand lots of time and commitment from their volunteers.
Time spent in ministry is not a substitute for time spent in your prayer closet or in your personal bible study...
God is also more concerned about your spiritual growth and relationship with him than he is about whether you are involved in ministry or not.
As the leader of the worship ministry at woodvale, I am working hard to promote excellence as a cornerstone value. However, even for myself, I have to remember that excellence without the infusion of the work of the Holy Spirit yields no lasting result. The result may be a great-sounding worship set, but because our mandate is to CONNECT PEOPLE WITH GOD, we fall way short of our primary objective. Obviously excellence is needed in what we do because God is not honored by the lack thereof, but it is not an end in itself and so I extend the challenge to us all about this.
Do you bring your gift of worship leading before the congregation and God himself based on your experience or on your music ability... or do you allow Jesus to inspire the gifts that he has given you to connect the people that you lead in worship to a God that wants to touch and transform his people?
Monday, January 14, 2008
A matter of importance.
Far be it from me to speak from a high horse about the issue of accountability. I find that my tendency to be introverted and go about my own way causes me to be the kind of person that resists being in situations that require constant accountability. Canada is an excellent country for people like me to live in because I can live as an island for weeks on end without needing too much human contact. And yet I am reminded of Proverbs 27 verse 17 which talks about one man sharpening another just as iron sharpens iron. Accountability structures keep us on our toes and they help to keep us focused on what is important. Accountability with other people keeps us from navel gazing and shrinking our world so that all that is important is our narcissistic view of life, Christianity and ministry.
I'm so glad that I live in a country where time is valued and everybody tries to make it a point to let me know if they are not going to be able to honor the commitment of time that they made when they volunteered to join the worship ministry. Having lived and worked in a country where time and volunteer commitments were not treated with respect, I am thankful to be working in Canada and at Woodvale where everybody is so conscious of that aspect of things.
Over and above being accountable for our time, though, it is of increasing importance to me that each one of us is in a group that allows us to grow and develop relationships of spiritual accountability. At Woodvale we call these groups "Small groups" and the importance of the members of the worship ministry belonging to one cannot be overstated. A small group that works well is one where true spiritual growth happens; spiritual and physical care happens, and people take a genuine interest in one another.
Because you are all members of a rather large worship ministry group, the place to form deep authentic relationships is not at our jam-packed worship rehearsals or even at our large celebration services. The place to debate spiritual issues and to spur each other on to deeper levels of knowing Jesus is not at the 3 hours of volunteer-intensive time that we spend at the church. While the celebration service is a great place to receive encouragement and teaching (if you are not distracted by the noises all around you), the best place to receive prayer, ministry, healing, restoration, deliverance, etc... is with a group of people that you can be more open and intimate (I can hear the guys groan at the mention of the word "intimate") with.
This posting is not about some profound spiritual revelation, but more about my deep seated desire to see all of us connect to the church at a level that is more than our volunteer commitment of time and/or talent. This is not just a suggestion, but a matter of great importance both personally and to the worship ministry at Woodvale. We need to make sure that we are not trying to pour out of our ministry from a well that has long ran dry, but are continually refilling our tanks through the times that we spend in personal and group spiritual development.
Think about it... and ACT ON IT!
I'm so glad that I live in a country where time is valued and everybody tries to make it a point to let me know if they are not going to be able to honor the commitment of time that they made when they volunteered to join the worship ministry. Having lived and worked in a country where time and volunteer commitments were not treated with respect, I am thankful to be working in Canada and at Woodvale where everybody is so conscious of that aspect of things.
Over and above being accountable for our time, though, it is of increasing importance to me that each one of us is in a group that allows us to grow and develop relationships of spiritual accountability. At Woodvale we call these groups "Small groups" and the importance of the members of the worship ministry belonging to one cannot be overstated. A small group that works well is one where true spiritual growth happens; spiritual and physical care happens, and people take a genuine interest in one another.
Because you are all members of a rather large worship ministry group, the place to form deep authentic relationships is not at our jam-packed worship rehearsals or even at our large celebration services. The place to debate spiritual issues and to spur each other on to deeper levels of knowing Jesus is not at the 3 hours of volunteer-intensive time that we spend at the church. While the celebration service is a great place to receive encouragement and teaching (if you are not distracted by the noises all around you), the best place to receive prayer, ministry, healing, restoration, deliverance, etc... is with a group of people that you can be more open and intimate (I can hear the guys groan at the mention of the word "intimate") with.
This posting is not about some profound spiritual revelation, but more about my deep seated desire to see all of us connect to the church at a level that is more than our volunteer commitment of time and/or talent. This is not just a suggestion, but a matter of great importance both personally and to the worship ministry at Woodvale. We need to make sure that we are not trying to pour out of our ministry from a well that has long ran dry, but are continually refilling our tanks through the times that we spend in personal and group spiritual development.
Think about it... and ACT ON IT!
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
logical continuation...
All of the “Pauline Epistles” (fancy term for letters in the New Testament written by Paul the Apostle) bear similar resemblance in the way arguments are developed… and looking at a text that we have been examining in the letter to the Romans, you can see this pattern of writing – systematic, linear argument and thought process – show itself again.
The way he wrote allows us to examine what he said in such a way that we are always conscious of what he talked about previously, what he is saying presently, and provides a foundation for the things he shall say in future passages. And so we can naturally move from talking about 3-fold foundational principles (my unique take on Romans 12 and its application to a worship ministry) on which to build an authentic and God-centered ministry through self-sacrifice, the transformation of the Holy Spirit and humility.
From somewhere in the book of Romans:
… Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ, we who are many form one body…
People who have grown up in evangelical-leaning churches would testify to the fact that this is possibly one of the most examined, quoted and over-used passages of scripture. However, in all my years of being in the church, I have only heard it talked about within its context perhaps once or twice. These words are extracted from a thought process that Paul is building upon in the book of Romans and if you look at the “foundational principles” that we talked about, it becomes easy to see the context in which this text lies.
People that are not willing living sacrifices… people that are not allowing the work of the Holy Spirit to transform them… people that are not overcoming pride through humility have a difficult time with the principle of one body with many members – each member being equally important. Ministries that have not emphasized the above-mentioned principles first may SAY that they agree with the Paul’s passage on “the body”, but will struggle to make it a reality because it is only lip service and not an actual ministry-defining value.
Churches that are torn apart because people and ministries cannot work together as the body of Christ go through trying times because the people and the ministries are too “jacked up” on themselves to see with transformed eyes of humility, and self-sacrifice.
City-wide church movements struggle to gain traction because churches across denominations inwardly refuse to acknowledge each other as equally important members of the body of Christ even though their leadership may pay lip service to it.
It’s curious that while individuals, ministries and churches may say that they buy into the principle of one body with many parts performing different functions, the reality of the church today is that we are a broken and fragmented bunch that have little-to-no real impact in society… at least that’s what the people outside of the church think.
As worship facilitators at Woodvale, our ministry to this church is just as important as other ministries to this same church. As individuals, there is no single person that is more important than another… and if you do not believe me, go ahead and excuse yourself from the ministry for a while and watch in amazement as the gap you left is instantaneously filled.
For 10 years of my life, I was an aspiring athlete and I remember the times when I would tweak some obscure muscle in my belly, arm, or leg… all of a sudden, my body was not well because of the pain that one little and seemingly useless part of my body was hurting. People that have gone through physical health challenges can tell you countless stories about how some small part of their bodies that goes pretty much unnoticed caused them so much trouble when it started malfunctioning.
Therefore, larger than the issues surrounding self-importance, is the issue of pain and suffering. If one member of the body suffers, the WHOLE body suffers… and this has a direct impact on what we do as facilitators of worship. If we are functioning well as a ministry that operates in humility and looks out for one another, it goes without saying that the suffering of one member has the ability to affect a whole ministry and a whole church.
So what now?
I believe that there is a far more powerful positive effect that can be realized in interpersonal relationships, ministries, churches and even at the inter-church, interdenominational level if the principle of “the body” is turned on its head and used to empower the body of Christ instead of destroy it.
The fact that we are a “body” means that sickness can spread through our members and wreak untold destruction, but by the same token, it means that sickness can be reversed if the body parts perform their function…
A “whole”, healed person is useful in creating a “whole”, healed ministry and “whole”, healed ministries influence the formation of “whole”, healed churches.
You may have noticed by now that I keep talking (pretty much every blog entry) about the contrast between churches that are getting things right and those that are not quite on the ball. My reason for talking in this way is because I am convinced that my purpose here at Woodvale is to help all that I serve alongside understand that CONNECTING PEOPLE TO GOD IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING. A church that is “on the ball” is excellent at this.
A wholesome ministry that functions well, helps the church achieve this objective… a broken and fragmented one does not.
I challenge you to be a part of establishing and building a ministry and a church whose foundation is rock-solid and who understands that we are all equal members of one body set loose on this earth to advance the kingdom of God. It is certainly not an overnight process, but as we start by becoming living sacrifices, God’s fire deals with real issues in our life bringing about a transformation through the renewing of our minds and we are then strengthened to walk the road of victory over pride through humility. These individual processes help us to become better at functioning in healthy God-birthed unity with one another.
Romans 12: 4 - 8
The way he wrote allows us to examine what he said in such a way that we are always conscious of what he talked about previously, what he is saying presently, and provides a foundation for the things he shall say in future passages. And so we can naturally move from talking about 3-fold foundational principles (my unique take on Romans 12 and its application to a worship ministry) on which to build an authentic and God-centered ministry through self-sacrifice, the transformation of the Holy Spirit and humility.
From somewhere in the book of Romans:
… Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ, we who are many form one body…
People who have grown up in evangelical-leaning churches would testify to the fact that this is possibly one of the most examined, quoted and over-used passages of scripture. However, in all my years of being in the church, I have only heard it talked about within its context perhaps once or twice. These words are extracted from a thought process that Paul is building upon in the book of Romans and if you look at the “foundational principles” that we talked about, it becomes easy to see the context in which this text lies.
People that are not willing living sacrifices… people that are not allowing the work of the Holy Spirit to transform them… people that are not overcoming pride through humility have a difficult time with the principle of one body with many members – each member being equally important. Ministries that have not emphasized the above-mentioned principles first may SAY that they agree with the Paul’s passage on “the body”, but will struggle to make it a reality because it is only lip service and not an actual ministry-defining value.
Churches that are torn apart because people and ministries cannot work together as the body of Christ go through trying times because the people and the ministries are too “jacked up” on themselves to see with transformed eyes of humility, and self-sacrifice.
City-wide church movements struggle to gain traction because churches across denominations inwardly refuse to acknowledge each other as equally important members of the body of Christ even though their leadership may pay lip service to it.
It’s curious that while individuals, ministries and churches may say that they buy into the principle of one body with many parts performing different functions, the reality of the church today is that we are a broken and fragmented bunch that have little-to-no real impact in society… at least that’s what the people outside of the church think.
As worship facilitators at Woodvale, our ministry to this church is just as important as other ministries to this same church. As individuals, there is no single person that is more important than another… and if you do not believe me, go ahead and excuse yourself from the ministry for a while and watch in amazement as the gap you left is instantaneously filled.
For 10 years of my life, I was an aspiring athlete and I remember the times when I would tweak some obscure muscle in my belly, arm, or leg… all of a sudden, my body was not well because of the pain that one little and seemingly useless part of my body was hurting. People that have gone through physical health challenges can tell you countless stories about how some small part of their bodies that goes pretty much unnoticed caused them so much trouble when it started malfunctioning.
Therefore, larger than the issues surrounding self-importance, is the issue of pain and suffering. If one member of the body suffers, the WHOLE body suffers… and this has a direct impact on what we do as facilitators of worship. If we are functioning well as a ministry that operates in humility and looks out for one another, it goes without saying that the suffering of one member has the ability to affect a whole ministry and a whole church.
So what now?
I believe that there is a far more powerful positive effect that can be realized in interpersonal relationships, ministries, churches and even at the inter-church, interdenominational level if the principle of “the body” is turned on its head and used to empower the body of Christ instead of destroy it.
The fact that we are a “body” means that sickness can spread through our members and wreak untold destruction, but by the same token, it means that sickness can be reversed if the body parts perform their function…
A “whole”, healed person is useful in creating a “whole”, healed ministry and “whole”, healed ministries influence the formation of “whole”, healed churches.
You may have noticed by now that I keep talking (pretty much every blog entry) about the contrast between churches that are getting things right and those that are not quite on the ball. My reason for talking in this way is because I am convinced that my purpose here at Woodvale is to help all that I serve alongside understand that CONNECTING PEOPLE TO GOD IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING. A church that is “on the ball” is excellent at this.
A wholesome ministry that functions well, helps the church achieve this objective… a broken and fragmented one does not.
I challenge you to be a part of establishing and building a ministry and a church whose foundation is rock-solid and who understands that we are all equal members of one body set loose on this earth to advance the kingdom of God. It is certainly not an overnight process, but as we start by becoming living sacrifices, God’s fire deals with real issues in our life bringing about a transformation through the renewing of our minds and we are then strengthened to walk the road of victory over pride through humility. These individual processes help us to become better at functioning in healthy God-birthed unity with one another.
Romans 12: 4 - 8
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