A Lack of Direction

I've been having discussions tonight with my co-choir director regarding developing a mission statement for our choir. I wish that we both had read the book "Simple Church" by Thom Rainer & Eric Geiger. I found myself trying to explain the ideas in this book in a few sentences. I thought wow maybe we could just read the book in a small group/Bible study and let everyone discuss it. The central theme of the book is found in this statement on p.67-68

a simple church is designed around a straightforward and strategic process that moves people thru the stages of spiritual growth. The leadership and the church are clear about the process (clarity) and are committed to executing it. The process flows logically (movement) and is implemented in each area of the church (alignment). The church abandons everything that is not in the process (focus).

 
 

So this is what I would like to see happen in our church. We need to develop a plan that is simple and effective. The biggest problem I see in our church is a lack of clarity and direction. We don't know where our focus is so we are all over the place. Instead of focusing on one area and doing it well, we kind of act like a church with ADHD. We go after every little thing that piques our interest but have no follow through with any of them and no narrowing of our focus so we can excel and be effective in one area or the other. I'll use the choir as an example. The choir in my opinion is there to lead the congregation in worship. To open the gates into the courts of God so that God's people can come through to the holy of holies and worship. I have repeated this to them for several years now, always using Psalm 84 as our guiding scripture. The choir has been very effective in that area up until now. We have branched out a little and we either need to redefine what our mission is or separate our groups. Right now part of the choir is consumed with putting together things for the annual pride picnic. This is a good thing to be a part of our larger community but it doesn't really fit with our plan does it? But even if it did here's my problem. We waited too late to get involved. So it will not be a positive experience for those from the church rather it will be stressful. The problem here is not the fault of the church members who wanted our church to be a part of this event but rather a lack of a clear cut plan for our church. A lack of organization from leadership. Leadership of the church has to create boundaries in which the members can work and move. We can't simply leave the church members out there on their own to decide whether or not this is a good event for the church. We must have something from which they can draw upon for guidance. Some boundaries, some clarity as to where our church is going and how we are going to get there. If we had this plan or theses boundaries then we wouldn't have church members all over the place trying to make the church be a part of this or that and not being effective when we do half-way participate. So what do we do? How do we handle such situations as the one that currently taking place in the church or rather in the smaller group of the church, the choir? The only answer I see for this situation is to follow through with what we said we would do. Then I think we can use this situation to build upon and change the way we do these things. I would like to see a clear cut pathway to those who can make these decisions and support the people involved. They didn't know where to go or who to ask for support so they came to the choir as a whole on one of our Wednesday night free for all chats. So I have ideas for restructuring the church so that leadership is available and involved with the congregation but at the moment the only platform I have is the choir so I thought I should start there. We can change how we do things. We can develop our own plan based upon a wider plan that fits our church. Maybe we should read the book together and discuss these things and see what we can come up with.

 
 

sherri

Congregation Participation

So I've been wondering what would church actually look like if we allowed the congregation to participate? I don't mean the usual standing and singing a hymn or singing along with the praise team. I mean really being a part of what is taking place. What would happen in our church if we had a 20 minute dialogue response time after the sermon? What if we actually engaged each other in conversation regarding the sermon and the service and its applications? I think people in our church are desparate for a place to express themselves and to connect with others. It seems to me that Jesus would probably not have done church the way we do. Building relationship and living out your faith in the world seemed to be his main concerns not the order of the Sunday morning worship service. We sometimes get so caught up in enforcing our order on others that we forget that church is about people and relationships and taking our faith outside our small circle that we call church. Church and worship services should be a place where we come to encounter God in an atmosphere that fosters that. Once we have learned to encounter God in that protected atmosphere then when we go into the world we will know God when he speaks to us even among the noise of every day life because we have come to know him in our worship.

Sherri

Worship That Changes Us

Worship that Changes Us

Thursday, October 02, 2008

1:24 AM

We had a very good practice tonight. The face of the choir is really changing. I have always believed that if we worship God and we come into His presence then we can't help but be changed by that encounter. How could one encounter the living God and not be changed. Paul speaks about being changed into Christ's glorious image and becoming more and more like Him. The more we encounter God the more we become like Him. So the choir is changing and I have to believe it is because we are learning to worship more and more. We used to just sing and then we started leading the congregation to sing with us. Now we lead the congregation in worship. The more we worship and the more we are changed the more the congregation will worship and the more they will change and reflect Chirst. We have a long ways to go but then the length of the way is not what is important but the journey is. Our journey is to become more and more changed by worship. Ever changing until we see him face to face and our face will reflect his face……….a true face to face.

 
 

sherri

What keeps us from Growing?

So I've been reading about growth barriers in small churches. I noticed that the small church I attend has most of these barriers.

1. The desire to preserve social intimacy
   
2. The desire to maintain control
   
3. The desire to conserve memories
   
4. The desire to protect turf
   

    
    

   The desire to preserve social intimacy
   

    
    

   I think this is a more subtle problem in our church rather than a real noticeable problem. We like knowing everyone in our little church. We all like to go out to eat together after church and we like the fact that we can all fit into one restaurant. It's tough to break out of this because we all know each other and there is a certain predictability in that intimacy. New people bring surprises and new things to deal with.
   

    
    

   The Desire to maintain control
   

    
    

   This seems to be our biggest problem. We bought a church building after renting a space for almost 10 years. The desire for control is in full swing right now. We've changed the locks on the doors at least once because we felt we were losing control of who had keys. While that might seem a prudent thing, it also speaks volumes about what our priorities are. Right now the congregation is feeling a little out of the loop you might say. Most people had certain expectations when we purchased our own building and I think one could make the case that most of those expectations have not been realized. Some of those expectations understandably were too high to be met in the first year but others I believe were very attainable. Some of those expectations were growth and to some extent that happened but after a year and a half of not tapping into that growth and building on it we have slipped back to the mostly same old crowd with a few of the new ones sticking around and as many old members leaving so mostly it stays the same.
   

   A second and a very crucial expectation was that we would finally have our own building to carry out those things that we weren't able to do while renting. This I believe is where we have utterly failed. For the most part the congregation has been literally locked out of their own church. The church is only open on the two evenings that pre-planned events are scheduled on. In fact I believe that most weeks we probably utilize the church building for less than 5 hours. So we aren't experiencing anything differently than what we had before. In fact very little has changed except the frustration level of the members. So I have wondered why is it we don't utilize our building now that we have one? I have gathered a few reasons from just listening over the past few months. The number one reason it isn't utilized is that most people don't want to jump through all the hoops in order to get permission to use the building. Now I think there should be some restrictions placed on using the church but I don't believe we should have so many restrictions that the building sits empty 95% of the time. I have also heard the very valid arguments of money. If the church is used then the electricity bill and water bill goes up and well we just don't have enough money for that. I would argue that we can't afford not to let our building be used by it's members. If the congregation does not feel vested in the building, if the members do not feel ownership of some sort then they will cease to behave as owners. By that I mean they will cease to take care of the building both physically and financially. They will defer those things to the ones that actually have possession of the building and the ones they perceive to be controlling the use of the building. I believe we have already seen this happen to some degree in our church. The church is also under utilized because no one is available to have the church open so that members may come and pray and worship at different times or just come to talk with one another. One of the things that I miss most from the church I used to attend was the ability to meet in the church during the day or evening to pray or worship or just sit with a friend and talk or pray together. I realize our church is not large enough to have the resources to have our church open on a regular basis all week long but I believe we could offer some hours of availability to our members.
   

   Those are just a few of the ways I think the control issue is out of balance. There are other issues that directly relate to control such as the secrecy that goes on in our church. When the leadership continues to keep important things from the general members of the church there is a problem. When leadership tells one thing to some members and then tells something totally different to other members then leadership is using their power to control the entire congregation. We cannot allow our good intentions of moving the church in what we think is the right direction to become a tool used to control the congregation to achieve what we think is the right thing for the church.
   

   In conclusion, I have to say that I include myself in the leadership and that I have been guilty of most of the things that I've written about. There is no one person responsible for our lack of growth. We are all responsible and we need to step up to the plate and begin to work for the changes that need to take place. We have to learn to listen to each other and learn to admit that sometimes the congregation does know what is best for the church and sometimes we as leaders don't have a clue. Sometimes we just need to get out of the way. I wonder what a study of Jesus' idea of leadership would look like compared to our model of leadership. A blog for another day.
   

    
    

   As always feel free to comment and always take what I say as only my opinion which can so often be skewed by my very myopic perspective of things.
   

Brokenness

God began stirring in my heart a new song a few weeks ago. Sometimes when there is a song in my heart I can tell you "oh this is where these words are coming from" but with this new song I really didn't have any idea. But I keep singing the words and playing the little chord progression over and over and praying over the words and waiting for God to fill in the blank spots. The words come from Psalm 51. David I believe wrote this psalm after he had committed adultery with Bathsheba but he didn't write these words until after he had been confronted by Nathan a prophet in the land. So I have been thinking about this idea of what is acceptable to God and what exactly is brokenness and what does it look like. Before now the term brokenness has meant to me something that needed fixed. If something is broken don't we call the repair person to come fix it? So I guess I thought that brokenness in this psalm referred to David having something wrong with him………..his sin with Bathsheba………and what God desired was for David to bring that brokenness, that broken part of him or his sinfulness to God so it could be fixed. I viewed brokenness as a way to restoration with God. But the more I thought about that idea of brokenness the more I realized that I was presuming that before it got broke……obviously something was right and I'm just not sure that is the way it is.

 
 

Verse 5 in this Psalm says: "Surely I was sinful at birth,

       sinful from the time my mother conceived me."

 
 

Are we not born into sin………..ok you say that cute little innocent child cannot possibly be born into sin well I think we are all born into sin. I'm not saying anything about going to hell or judgment or who is going to heaven. I don't think brokenness and sin have anything to do with judgment or the afterlife rather I think it all has to do with our relationship with God in the right here and the right now.

 
 

So if we are all born into sin, we are all "sinners" from birth then we are already broken before we ever take a breath so that means I need to rethink my idea of what brokenness means in this Psalm.

 
 

As I looked into some of the meanings of the words used in Psalm 51, I discovered that the word "broken" can actually translate into crushed, broken in pieces, torn and brought to birth. I liked the last one especially. The word contrite is often used in Psalm 51 and it can mean crushed or collapsed whether physically or mentally. So if we bring a brokenness to God then we are in a sense bringing something totally crushed or broken in pieces and when we give those broken things to God then
God can bring forth a new birth from them. So God doesn't want our brokenness so it can be fixed, God wants it so that something new can be born. One could use the analogy of garden soil to understand this form of brokenness. The soil is unbroken or solid but it can't yield anything that way other than some grass or weeds. So we take a tiller or some other machine and we break the ground so that seeds can be planted and in time the garden soil will yield fruit or vegetables. The ground, once broken, can give birth to something new, to something that could only be born out of brokenness.

 
 

So my prayer with this song is that God will take those things in me that will not yield anything positive and break them and crush them and bring about something new that could never have been without the brokenness.

 

 

Wash Me

(Psalm 51)

 
 

I lift my voice to You

I raise my hands in praise

All to You I freely give

All to You I owe

 
 

Not a sacrifice You desire

Not an offering that You seek

But my brokenness You'll take

And wash me

Wash me in Your love

 
 

Empty I come to You

Fill me with Your unfailing love

All I have is Yours alone

Only by Your grace

 
 

Mercy like a river flows

Washing me white as snow

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

Journey

Well if anyone out there really reads this blog, and I must say at the moment I don't think anyone reads it but if you do then you will realize by now that most of my posts either are about or come from experiences with our choir at church. This past week the conversation turned to "how we are a worship leading choir." The more I thought about the choir leading the congregation the more I realized that our time of praise and worship should look like a journey. If we are to lead then someone must follow. People will not follow for long if we lead them around in circles or we stop too long by the side of the road or if we keep getting them lost. I think right now we are leading the congregation in circles and I think as the leader of the choir that I must be leading the choir in circles as well. The congregation will follow the choir but the choir will follow the director. To me it has the makings of a huge collision with all of us going in circles. By circles I mean that I lead the choir the same way each week........we start out in the same way and try to get to the same place each week and then we come back the next week and start all over again. I guess that would work if we were giving tours to tourist. So over the next few weeks I hope to learn more about leading the choir and the congregation on a journey rather than in circles. So as I learn more I will post more.

Sherri

Worship In The Wilderness

It’s been a while since I last posted anything on my blog so I thought I would update it tonight. Last week I “preached” my first sermon. Well I’m not entirely sure anyone would call it a sermon but it’s as close as I could come to preaching. I’ll publish the sermon notes at the end so if anyone is interested they can take a look. We have spent the last several months in our choir group discussing at various times the gifts of the spirit that God gives each of us to help and edify the body of Christ that we are a part of here on earth. Many times we have spoken of finding what your individual gift is and using it and getting out of the way in those areas where you are not gifted. Often we find ourselves in places trying to lead others when we just aren’t gifted in that area. I think sometimes it’s one of the hardest things for us to admit but we just aren’t gifted in every area that we often wish we were. This all leads me back to my sermon. I firmly believe that preaching has never been my gift. When I lead the congregation in praise and worship songs, I feel that I am where I should be. My passion is there and for the most part my talent is there. So finding myself behind a pulpit last Sunday was very interesting. I learned a few things about myself that day.
1) I am not a preacher
2) I may adlib with music and song but I cannot adlib the scripture
3) I learned that I do not show my respect and gratitude to my pastor as often as I should
4) It’s a hard job that those who are gifted in make look easy. See number one above….I’m sure I did not make it look easy.
5) I learned that I am glad that someone else runs the service and I just get to pop in a do my part and then pop back out.
6) Standing behind that pulpit comes with some very big responsibility and it is a weight I could not stand up under very long.
7) Lastly, I also found out that a part of me, however small, actually enjoyed parts of it.
Actually to tell the truth about number 7, I would have to say that what I enjoyed was the topic for sermon. Once you know the topic I chose then you can see that what I enjoyed is talking about what my passions and what area my gift is in. See when you ask a worship leader to speak/preach what you get is a sermon on……………yeah you guessed it…….worship. So the big thing I learned was that yes God sometimes asks us to step outside of that which is comfortable to us and do things that stretches us BUT even when the format is different such as preaching rather than leading the praise choir, the passion God gave me is still what will come through……….worship whether singing about it or speaking about it. It only affirmed to me that I am where God has called me to be for this time and this place. So I’ll post the sermon now and if you are interested you can read it. Comments are always welcome.
Sherri




Worship In The Wilderness


Matthew 4:1-11
4Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards, he was famished. 3The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” 4But Jesus answered, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” 5Then the devil took Jesus to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, 6saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, ‘God will command angels concerning you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’” 7Jesus said to the tempter, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put YAHWEH to the test.’” 8Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the dominions of the world and their splendor; 9and said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” 10Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve God alone.’” 11Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.


1. This is the typical passage used during the time of lent.
2. Lent represents for us a time of preparation for the things to come
3. Holy Week----crucifixion and resurrection. But some things need to happen before we can experience resurrection. Often God leads us through a time in the wilderness spiritually. Most of us have been there………….We don’t “feel” God. WE don’t think God is listening. I often say of those times that my prayers are bouncing off the walls meaning I don’t think they are getting through to God. You wonder if while Jesus was in the desert he thought these things as well. I imagine he did but somehow he knew he had to get through this wilderness experience in order to get to the other side of resurrection.
4. We often say of these times in our life that our faith is being tested and maybe it is but I’m not sure that God puts a test out there just to see if we pass or fail. For me this passage has come to mean something different. I believe this wilderness experience is not so much about increasing our faith or making us tougher spiritually but I believe it’s about worship and our relationship with God. Three things take place in the passage:
1. Satan tells Jesus if he is truly the son of God then turn the stones into bread:
a. Jesus answers by saying no ………….I trust God and God’s word to take care of me.
b. Satan I believe was testing Jesus to see if he really believed what God was saying to him……………Is God’s word trustworthy
2. Satan tells Jesus to throw himself down from the top of the temple if he is the son of God…………….God will send angels to save him.
a. Jesus answers with no because I will not put God to the test
b. So Jesus believes what God has said without having to test it.

3. Lastly he takes Jesus to a high mountain and says if you worship me then I will give this to you.
a. Jesus answer: NO I will only worship God
b. At this point I find it interesting that Satan gives up and leaves

So all along Satan wanted Jesus to worship him rather than God and he thought he could bribe him into it by offering him things. God doesn’t bargain with us regarding our worship. He doesn’t have to. He is worthy of our praise and worship. There is no other that is, so anyone or anything other than God has to bargain with us for our worship.

The bottom line was who will you worship………….this is our relationship with God. Our relationship is based on worship…………It’s what we were created for. So Jesus’ final answer was my relationship is with God not you………………..I will only worship God. It’s easy for us to say in a general type of way “of course I worship God, I’m a Christian right?” I think worship is about all those small individual choices we make each day. Jesus had choices in the wilderness ……………………make the stone to bread………..if he had chosen to do that instead of trusting God and trusting his relationship with God………then that choice would not have been one of worship. We all make choices that don’t reflect our worship of God. Sometimes the world bargains for our worship and wins but God doesn’t leave us during those time………….Satan left Jesus as soon as he found out Jesus wasn’t going to worship him but when we make wrong choices God doesn’t leave he just keeps right on walking with us and helping us to make a better choice the next time. We can trust in our relationship with God and we can trust in God’s faithfulness to us.

Sometimes when we feel like we are in that wilderness place, it’s not faith we need but rather we need to worship. The past few weeks in choir practice, there have been a couple of different people who have said to me……………..it helps me with my faith to be here on Wednesdays because I’m having a tough time with my faith right now……………….I wondered after they told me this what it was that happened on Wednesdays that would help them with their faith…………….what is it that happens on choir practice night………………then I think I hit on it……………we worship. We have relationship with God and with each other and together we worship God. It strengthens us as individuals and as a group………it increases our faith.

So if you find yourself in a wilderness place………….cry out to God and worship and examine your choices you are making each day………….are they a reflection of your worship of God or did you allow yourself to be swayed by a bargain here and there?
You can trust God you can trust in your relationship with God.