simplechristfollower

Anticipation Vs. Worry

inspiringworship — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 18:49:42 +0000

“We can never know about the days to come, But we think about them anyway” These are the opening lyrics to Carly Simon’s 1971 release ”Anticipation”.

How often do we really consider the days to come? We are often so consumed with the here and now and all its challenges that tomorrow is simply what comes next. In Matthew’s gospel, we read Jesus’ words to his disciples “So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own troubles. Today’s trouble is enough for today.” (Matt 6:34) Jesus was simply telling them and us to not worry about tomorrow. However, he didn’t say don’t think about what the future holds, just don’t worry about it.

James reminds us put tomorrow’s opportunities in perspective: “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.” (Js. 4:15) It is good to anticipate the future and all the possibilities, just don’t fret and worry! Anticipating a new job or a new opportunity is healthy; it gives us something to get excited about. Worrying about tomorrow’s trouble only brings grief, stress and makes us hard to be with!

Are there situations in your life that you need to stop worrying about? Try anticipating the opportunities and let go of tomorrow’s trouble!

2011 in review

inspiringworship — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 23:38:27 +0000

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 2,100 times in 2011. If it were a cable car, it would take about 35 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Advent Worship Confessional

inspiringworship — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 14:16:58 +0000

I can’t believe it’s been months since I posted on Sunday Setlists at The Worship Community! Shameful!! I’m back!!

What a fantastic weekend at NMBC! Like most churches we have just finished our 3rd Sunday of Advent and it seems the season is flying by very quickly! We decided this year to use Gospel For Asia’s Forgotten Christmas theme to challenge our people to remember the true meaning of Christmas; to get past the commercialism and secularization of what should be a deeply meaningful experience with Jesus. Pastor Bob started off the series asking us to consider the Forgotten Circumstances of that first Christmas. The second week we focused on the Forgotten People in the story, and this week was all about a Forgotten Gift.

Here are the songs we chose for this past Sunday:

Joy to the World – Third Day arr.

Immanuel – Stuart Townend

Infant Holy, Infant Lowly – High Street Hymns arr.

Everything Changed – Eddie Kirkland

Hark the Herald Angels Sing – traditional carol arr.

What songs have you used this year that have impacted your faith community?

The String Friends

In the evening we hosted our first, possibly annual, Christmas Cafe Under the Stars! We were blown away by the turnout. We set up for 110 and to our surprises we had over 200 attend. Along with hot cider, hot chocolate and exceptional treats, we were also treated to some great music and story from a variety of people ranging from seniors to 8 yr olds!

We are truly thankful to God for what He is doing in our congregation! What events have you planned for this Advent season?

What Constitutes a Powerful Worship Service?

inspiringworship — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 12:53:08 +0000

As I was browsing my twitter feed this morning I came across this article and it occurred to me that we, the people of the Most High God, often either misunderstand what constitutes a “good” worship service or we simply lose the primary focus of worship in the church. The following excerpt from Worship Pastor David Santistevan of Allison Park Church, offers practical insight
into what makes for a powerful worship service.

You don’t have to be a worship leader or pastor to apply these 3 essentials; to quote the author “Come to worship services prepared to encounter God. It’s your responsibility, not Joe Worship Leader.”
Please let David know your thoughts by following the link to the complete article.

3 Essential Keys To A Powerful Worship Service

“Have you ever thought about what makes a worship service powerful?

Is there a certain form to guarantee a great service every time we lead?

On the one hand, I don’t think that’s a very productive question. We don’t want to pursue “feelings-based” worship.

Just because worship “felt” good doesn’t mean it was.

We’ve been talking about the highest compliment we can receive as worship leaders and how to not miss the main point of worship. It only makes sense to tackle this question of what makes our worship services powerful?

No matter what type of leadership role you fulfill in your local church, whether worship leader, pastor, or small group leader, it’s important that you know these 3 keys to a powerful worship experience.

3 Keys to A Powerful Worship Service

1. WORD

The most powerful worship is in response to God’s Word connecting with the hearts of God’s people.

Truth inspires worship in the hearts of worshipers.

We sing a powerful lyric, hear a powerful word, listen as God’s Word is declared, and respond with heartfelt adoration.

Worship divorced from God’s word is mere emotion.

To be honest, it’s rather easy to manufacture feelings based worship – get the right lighting scheme, the most airy keyboard pad, massive cymbal swells, and you’re on your way.

But true worshipers worship the Father in Spirit and TRUTH. It’s a response to objective truth, NOT subjective feeling.

Worship leader, get to know God’s Word.

What’s the takeaway?

Fill your worship services with the declared Word of God
Sing songs about who God is, not just about how passionate we are
Respond to the Word in spontaneous worship

…continue reading…here

I’d love to hear your thoughts as well!

Worship setlist July 3, 2011

inspiringworship — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 13:22:42 +0000

I haven’t posted on Sunday Setlists for quite some time and I’m sure I could come up with a few reasons why I have neglected to join in the conversation; but excuses are all I have to offer! Well, I’m back and here is what went down this past Sunday at NMBC. Besides leading worship, I also had the privilege of kicking-off our new series “Live the 10″; a 10 week series on the 10 commandments. Our lead pastor, Dr. Robert Knowles, usually introduces our series, but he’s on a well deserved vacation.

Our setlist looked like this:

Love the Lord (Lincoln Brewster)

Hallelujah (Your Love is Amazing) (Brenton Brown & Brian Doerksen BTW: check out his new project)

How great is Our God (Chris Tomlin)

Counting on Your Name (Tim Hughes) from his new CD “Lights shines Through

Gina Potvin, an exceptional gospel pianist from our church, played during communion and all I can say is “why have we not asked her before?”

Fairest Lord Jesus (arr. Paul Baloche)

Check out all the Sunday Setlists posts at The Worship Community and join in the conversation!

Slavery Is Real. Make A Difference.

inspiringworship — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 18:35:07 +0000

via lukedowler.com

Right or Wrong Postures for Worship?

inspiringworship — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 17:19:36 +0000

I have been in the Church all my life and I have experienced various “styles” of worship, including “how” people worship. Growing up in the Baptist tradition in Atlantic Canada I witnessed very few demonstrative postures for worship, and I can assure you those that were demonstrative were not acceptable or at least not encouraged. For instance, raising your hands was frowned upon, as was clapping. To be honest, other than having our heads bowed in prayer, I don’t recall any other postures being encouraged.

During my teenage years I visited other traditions, and discovered that people not only raised and clapped their hands, but they also jumped, shouted, knelt down, danced, and on occasion laid prostrate on the floor. I can remember feeling a bit out of place at first, but then realizing that nothing bad happened, I joined in with clapping my hands (of course only on beats 1 & 3) and I even raised my hands in praise to God. The funny thing is, never once did I hear a preacher say why it was right or wrong. I heard plenty of well meaning people say that it was all just emotionalism, but they never backed it up with Scripture.

Although this is not as much an issue today as it was when I was growing up, I thought it might be a good idea to offer a few verses to remind us that it’s biblical to worship God with our body as well as our heart, soul, strength and mind (I’ll leave it up to you to actually look up the verses). YouVersion is an excellent online bible resource for reading scripture.

Bowing down/Kneeling: Psalm 95:6; Romans 14:11; Philipians 2:9-11; Luke 5:8

Lay Prostrate: Deuteronomy 9:18; Ezekiel 9:8; 1 Chronicles 29:20

Clapping: Psalm 47:1

Lifting Hands: Psalm 28:2; Psalm 63:3-4; Psalm 134:1-3; Lamentations 3:41

Dancing: Jeremiah 31:4, 13; Psalm 30:11-12; Psalm 149:3; Psalm 150:4

Shouting: Psalm 32:11; Psalm 71:23; Psalm 81:1; Isaiah 12:6

Of course this list is not exhaustive, however, it does give us biblical examples of worship that involve more than singing and silence.

Please chime in and add to this conversation! I’m eager to hear your thoughts!

Why Do You Attend Church?

inspiringworship — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 14:42:23 +0000

I don’t often sit in coffee shops by myself and intentionally over hear others conversations. I usually have my earbuds in listening to music, but I just couldn’t help but listen to two women talking today about why they attend or not attend church.
One teaches Sunday School because she loves the new young couple who lead the children’s ministry, likes her priest and meeting her friends, while the other one replied that she didn’t like the priest so she only attends once or twice a year.
Although I don’t pretend to completely understand the reasons people decide to attend a certain church over another or choose not to attend any church, I did hear these women both say how they just couldn’t attend a church that did things the “old way”, like having a service in Latin (they both identify with Catholicism).
So why do you attend or not attend church? Inquiring minds need to know!

Fly Worship Demo with Brenton Brown

inspiringworship — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 16:55:25 +0000

via youtube.com

If you’re struggling to find musicians in your church, consider FlyWorship http://www.flyworship.com/
This is a reasonably inexpensive solution for worship leaders looking to musically fill out their Sunday worship or small group worship times.

Distractions?

inspiringworship — Tue, 17 May 2011 18:13:25 +0000

Too many distractions? This is a question that keeps coming to my mind. It doesn’t seem to matter what I’m doing, I keep coming back to this idea that perhaps I’m spinning my wheels; doing the least important while neglecting the most important; settling for the good instead of the best. Even writing this post I have to ask the question “does this really make a difference or is this a just time filler”? In my mind the answer to that is yes! because it’s cathartic to write down my thoughts.

Regardless, I’d like to think that what I do everyday is important, not only to my job as a pastor, but also to others. I’m not questioning my ministry calling, however, I really want to know that what I do is not a waste of a life. There are times when it appears I’m distracted by technology. As a matter of fact my mentor has questioned me on my time spent with “machinery over people” and, at first, I resented the comment; chalking it up to him not understanding my job. But as I examine his observation, I have to admit that I do spend considerable time researching new music/video resources on the net, or checking email/social media status updates and not enough time in flesh and blood relationships or communing with God. None of these things are wrong or harmful in and of themselves, but have I gone overboard?

I’m not likely the best person to answer this question, although if I asked 5 people to evaluate my time they would likely come up with at least 5 different observations, of which I could perhaps agree with. So to wrap up this thought I would say that I could definitely be more proactive at eliminating distractions, after all, I only get one chance to live this life and I want it to count for God! I’m reminded often of this verse from Ephesians 2:10 “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” NLT

As I ponder this verse, let me ask you …
What distracts you from doing the good things that God has planned for you?