Send A Great Revival

"I. Definition of Revival/Spiritual Awakening (borrowed from the handout, Theology of Revival, from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary)
A. Various Definitions

"God's quickening visitation of his people, touching their hearts and deepening his work of grace in their lives." J. I. Packer

"extraordinary season of religious interest." Robert Baird

"the sovereign act of God, in which He restores His own backsliding people to repentance, faith and obedience." Stephen Olford

"times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord." (Acts 3:19) J. Edwin Orr

"the awakening or quickening of God's people to their true nature and purpose." Robert Coleman

"the return of the Church from her backslidings, and the conversion of sinners." Charles Finney

"an extraordinary movement of the Holy Spirit producing extraordinary results." Richard Owen Roberts

"a community saturated with God" Duncan Campbell

"the work of the Holy Spirit in restoring the people of God to a more vital spiritual life, witness, and work by prayer and the Word after repentance in crisis for their spiritual decline." Earle Cairns"

Our Revival services start this coming Monday, on August 31st and run through Friday, September 4th. (click here or on picture for flyer in .pdf form) This means for the next 6 days I will have to select songs for each service. Including Sunday, that is 7 different services which, if I stick with my usual number of songs per service (6), will total 42 songs! I'll guarantee there will be more than that too. I've been praying and thinking about revival songs for the past 2 or 3 weeks. Of course I have some nailed down as definites, but only a handful. You better believe we'll be singing my all-time favorite Revival song, "Send A Great Revival."  I know that God will deliver for me but I still worry that I will have everything prepared.

I will have to go straight to church after work every day of the revival because I don't get off until 6:00 and services start at 7:00. The office I work at is on the other side of town and there is very heavy traffic the entire drive. So, this means I will need to wear dress clothes to work every day or take them along and change. I don't mind doing all of this, it just compounds to an already stressful time.

Sometimes I wish it was like it was when I was a kid. All I had to worry about was how long I could play until mom came and got me and made me take a bath to get ready to go to church. I remember back when I was around 13-years old, going to revival at House Mountain Baptist church. The church was always packed and you would be lucky to find a seat. Lots of singing, preaching, shouting, it was wonderful. I always enjoyed revival services because, well, I actually got revived! Nowadays I fear that I have to focus on the music and worship leading that I don't experience revival the same. It sure would be nice to just slip into a pew, sit back, and absorb it all in. Maybe next year I'll try to get a guest Music Minister to come out and fill my duties for the revival. If you would like to hear a good sermon about revival, go listen to this one by Pastor Greg Locke, "The Revival We Need."

I hope you remember our church in your prayers, especially during our revival time. If you have a free night or two this coming week, why not come out and join us? You might even get revived! For more information or directions to the church, just visit our website at http://www.hbcknox.org/

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The juggler

When we accept Christ as our Savior, He bestows spiritual gifts upon us. These gifts are to be used to fulfill the Great Commission and to bring honor and glory to the Lord Jesus Christ. Some folks use their gifts for the good, some for the bad, and some not at all. I think the hardest part is discovering exactly what gifts you have and how the best way to use them is. At least that's been the hardest for me. Sometimes the gift that you are given is not what you wanted at all. For instance, I never in a million years wanted to be in front of people teaching or preaching, and I never ever desired to be a leader or director. My plans were to be a bass singer in a big-time Southern Gospel quartet. Of course I had the opportunity for that and was too young and stupid to reach out and grab it.

This morning I stumbled across a website that asks questions about our spiritual strengths and weaknesses, calculates them and then scores you on what your gifts are. Unfortunately, I scored 90 to 100% in all 20 categories except for hospitality, which I scored a very low 40%, which I could have told you before filling out the questions. The hospitality score was based on 2 questions, one was "I enjoy welcoming guests and helping them to feel at ease," which I put occasionally, and the other was "I am often asked to open my home for small group gatherings or social occasions," in which I put rarely true.

So, you see, for me it is very difficult to discern exactly which gift I should focus on. In the past, I have had people come up to me and say, "Byron, God has really given you a gift for music, and you should be a choir director." Others have said, "Byron, God has really given you a gift for teaching, you should be a Sunday school teacher." Others have said, "Byron, God has really given you a gift for preaching, you should pastor a church." One thing I have never heard from anybody is, "Byron, God has really given you a gift for sitting on the church pew and doing nothing." Sometimes I wish I would hear that one! ;)

The problem in all of this is that trying to do too much leads to burnout. I've done it before and I feel that I am heading for it again. I'm trying to do too much. I am staying depressed about the church and my ministries, it is wearing me down. My list of jobs, whether appointed or self-appointed, right now are:

1. Minister of Music - I was asked to do this by the members of the church. I didn't want to do this but I wanted to make sure the music stayed in the right direction so I accepted. I do enjoy it at times but I feel like there is someone else that could do a much better job than me. I am a bass singer, not a lead and everything has to be lowered. I also get very discouraged when I get so wrapped up in the music and feeling such Spirit and look out across the congregation and see people talking, laughing, cutting up, walking around, not paying attention, or looking like they would rather be dead than in church. It's like a dagger in my heart. Not to mention there are only about 7 people that are faithful enough to attend choir practice. I am very grateful for those members but I get very disappointed in the others.

2. Sunday school teacher - I was asked to do this by the Sunday school director. I enjoy teaching from the Bible. I know that most of the folks in class never crack open a Bible until they are sitting in Sunday school class and they have no idea what they are reading. It is thrilling to see someone hear the Truth and see the look of enlightenment on their face. I've been told many times that I am good at teaching. What I'm not good at is allowing students to sit around and eat candy, talk about non-Christ related stuff, or goof off. I know that I only have 30-45 minutes to cram in a lesson in hopes that it will change someone's life, so I stick to the Bible. That has caused some students to not want to attend my class because they simply aren't interested in learning.

3. Webmaster - I volunteered to do this. I love working with websites and am very experienced with it and wanted our church to have an online presence so we could spread the Word globally. Our church website gets thousands of visitors a month from all over the world. People in places as far away as China are downloading and listening to our sermons and music. This is probably as close to being a missionary as I'll ever be.

4. Church Bulletin - I volunteered to do this as well. The person that was doing it before me didn't really want to do it but was kind of forced into it. I am in front of a computer a lot so it wasn't that big of a deal for me. Plus, I wanted to have the order of service and the song selections in the bulletin every Sunday and I knew if I was in charge of the bulletin I could do that. The problem is, I have to run off the copies and fold them and have them ready before church starts. So, I have to do it either on Saturday night or Sunday morning before church. It's time consuming and always causes me to have to rush around to get things done. I wish someone would either volunteer to take it over or at least let me email them the bulletin and they could print it out and run it off and make sure it was ready on Sunday morning.

5. VBS director - I have a passion for VBS because I was saved during VBS when I was a kid. I think it is one of the greatest evangelistic tools that we have. I don't really want to be the director of VBS but the gentleman that was doing it before me had done it for many years and I know he needed a break. I don't know of anyone else in the church that would be willing to step up and take this ministry over. It's like pulling teeth just to get people to show any kind of excitement about it at all. It is an extremely difficult job and very time consuming.

6. Preaching - God gave me the call to preach back in 1997. I was already a Sunday school teacher and choir director. I certainly did not want to preach. It made me sick just thinking about it. I've always been very backward and shy and to me it was the ultimate kick in the rear-end to be placed in front of a congregation of people relying on me to expound the Word of God. I wanted to spread the Message but I wanted to do it in my own way. God had other plans. You don't say no to God. I feel that out of everything I do, preaching is the most terrifying, satisfying, and beneficial thing that I do. It's funny, it's the thing I do the least.

I do all of the above plus work a full-time job outside of the church and raise a family of 5 on one income. The brakes need to come on and soon.

Now that I've bored you to death let me get around to the whole reason I'm writing this post. First of all it is just to get it off of my chest. Writing is my way of relieving stress. That's why I have over a dozen websites and blogs. (I must have a lot of stress to relieve!) Second of all is for me to try and analyze and prioritize my ministry. I'm going to have to make some decisions and let some things go. Third, it is to ask for advice from others. I'm not generally one to take advice unless it comes from someone with some experience or knowledge on the subject. So, unless you can relate to my situation, please don't bother offering advice. Not trying to sound mean, just frank. Encouragement is welcome though!

Be praying for me this coming Easter Sunday. I have been asked to preach the 6:30 AM Sunrise Service. I will also be teaching my Sunday school class that day and leading the music and Easter Cantata. It's going to be a very stressful day. I just hope that it will make a difference in someone's life. I have a burden for some folks that I know are in need of Salvation. I pray that they will make that decision before it's too late.

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The Invitation

As I've mentioned several times already, lots of time, prayer, and consideration goes into making song selections for our worship services. I always ask the Lord to let me know when He wants something changed during the service. I want to make certain that I am following His will at all times. This brings us to the invitation song...

Of all of the songs that are sang in the church service, the invitational is the single most important one. Trying to conduct an invitation without a song would be extremely difficult. I normally have one selected, however, this usually changes by the time the pastor has finished with his sermon. In the last few minutes of the sermon I am usually torn between songs as to what to sing. There has been times that I have walked up to the podium to deliver the song and will have to make a decision in a split second. It is both nerve wracking and exciting! The exciting part is knowing that God will always come through and let me know which one to sing. The wrong selection could throw water on the Spirit and ruin the hopes of someone coming forward to the altar.

Of course the perfect invitation song is probably, Just As I Am. That was the song being sung on the evening I accepted Christ and I remember feeling like my heart was going to pound out of my chest as each word was sang. Even Billy Graham always used Just As I Am for the invitation at all of his crusades. It usually fits any occasion. My personal favorite's are, Lord I'm Coming Home, and I Surrender All. I try not to over use them because if it were up to me I would sing one or the other every single time. Other times, when the folks attending are our faithful few that have already accepted Christ, it becomes more difficult. I usually try to find something that conveys our love of Christ or our longing for Heaven, What A Day That Will Be, for example.

Lately I have been trying to implement invitation songs that seem to have been forgotten. Some old classics that you used to hear but for some reason folks have quit singing them. Last week I did, Near The Cross. Wow, what a beautiful song! (watch and listen to a beautiful rendition of it by the Parish Family on YouTube.) I heard a few folks singing along at church, so it wasn't completely forgotten. Our pastor did a nice job harmonizing on it with me.

I am planning on gathering several more old classic invitation songs together and practicing them with the choir so we can expand our repertoire. Be listening for them in the near future!

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Saturday Spiritual Song Selections

I am spending this Saturday evening the same way I spend all of my Saturday evenings, praying and pouring through hymn books and choir notebooks for songs that I will use in our worship services. Like I've mentioned before, any music minister/worship leader worth his/her salt will spend countless hours through the week focused on the next service. God has never let me down in selecting the perfect songs. I'm not one to be unprepared. I like to know the order of the service and not be put on the spot with dead silence while standing in front of the congregation hastily searching for a song. I believe that the music is just as important as the sermon and should be treated that way.

We have been singing Christmas hymns for the past 3 weeks for our congregational numbers. I am anxious to move on to other music. A couple of months ago I made a plea to several Baptist churches in the area that might be upgrading their hymnals and needing a place to dispose of their used ones, to let me know. The great folks over at Sunnyside Baptist Church in Kingsport, TN, came through for us. They donated 230 of the 1991 edition Baptist Hymnals. They are in excellent shape. I am excited about introducing my choir to these hymn books and many of the wonderful songs that are in them. I hope the choir will be as excited...

I was blessed with an MP3 player for Christmas this year and I've already loaded it to the max with music. Most of it is choir music that my sister Jennifer sent me; New Manna Youth Choir, Middle Tennessee Baptist, Shenandoah Haven, and many others. I find that listening to this type of music while seeking God's voice, greatly aides in the song selection process. I always know when it's the right song. I get chill bumps running down my arms and a wonderful filling inside. I thank God every time He pours His Spirit on me like that.

So far tonight I have settled on "Saved to the Uttermost" for the morning choir special, and "I Am Redeemed" for the evening special. I'll probably stay in the Inspiration Hymnal tomorrow morning for congregational numbers. There are a lot of those '70's Southern Gospel songs in that hymn book, that just have so much meaning. I can just sit here and visualize the Spirit of God flowing through the congregation as we sing, "Thank God I Am Free," or some other such song.

Well, I better get off of this computer and get with it!

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Being Bivocational

Definition of a Bivocational Minister:
"Bivocation minister's are those who derive a portion of their income from a vocation other than their ministry. Bivocational ministry is not limited to the pastoral role but includes any paid staff member of the ministry team who derive a portion of their income from another vocation."

While the above statement is mostly true, it doesn't really define the typical church worship leader, choir director, song leader, or minister of music in most smaller churches. Many, like myself, work a full-time paying job outside of the church, yet also work full-time non-paying job inside the church, fulfilling the duties of above said positions.

In the past I have been blessed with being a paid bivocational music minister, however, at my current church I am non-paid. Does it make a difference in the time and effort that I put into it? Absolutely NOT! While I may not receive monetary payment, I do receive plenty of Spiritual compensation. After all, that's what it's all about. God blessed me with a few talents, one of them is being able to lead people in Worship. I did not ask for this gift but I did accept it from Him. I'm not bragging here. I do not feel worthy to even stand in front of people most of the time. I feel honored that He sees fit to work through me.

I know that there are "song leaders" out there that simply pull out a hymn book, flip through it and just sing whatever page they happen to land on. I can't even fathom the idea of doing that. There is nothing Spiritual in that type of worship. It is my opinion (and practice) that the person that is leading the congregation in song, should earnestly pray over which songs should be sung. They should spend time reflecting on the hymns that they are to sing and mull over in their mind how each one should play out in the service. Nothing makes me cringe more than to visit a church and their song/worship leader does not have songs prepared. What a disservice to God and the congregation! I feel that anyone that can't take time out of their schedule to properly pick out and prepare songs, should resign from their position immediately. They are doing more harm than good. I realize there are times of improvisations and a quick selection must be made, but those are rare occasions that normally just require a standard hymn.

If you are a bivocational music leader I urge you to put forth 100% effort in your ministry. Sure, it would be great to be compensated for your time, but a greater reward is awaiting!

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