In Spirit and in Truth?

"God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." - John 4:24

Recently I have noticed a few folks bragging about how God was "really blessing them" in their church services and how "awesome" and "kicking" and "rocking" it was etc., etc., etc... Don't get me wrong, I love it when God blesses me during worship. Just this past Sunday as Sis. Carol was singing the song, Thank You Lord, I felt the overwhelming Spirit of God working inside of me and I had to raise my hand toward Heaven and shout and say "AMEN" and cry a bucket of tears and let it out but....

"God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all [them that are] about him." -Psalm 89:7

I'm afraid that folks are really misguided on what worship means. If you are attending church with the main purpose of being "blessed" or to get some kind of "feel good feeling," then you are attending for the wrong reason! Worship is not about YOU or ME, it's about HIM. Our whole purpose is to go and offer up our praises and adoration to the Lord and hopefully bless HIM, not the other way around. It sickens me to read accounts of people's worship experience where they say things such as, "we had a rockin' service," or "we had such a good service that we didn't even have preaching." Oh wow, you didn't have preaching and you call that a "good service"??? Or how about this: "we just went around shouting and hugging each other and having a great time." STOP!!!! You have left the Lord out of the service! You may get a great feeling from worship but you better be more concerned with whether or not you are blessing the LORD instead of Him blessing you!

"Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: For our God is a consuming fire." - Hebrews 12:28,29

It is disgraceful to see and hear of the way some churches have allowed the world to influence their worship styles by allowing ungodly "Christian" rock into their music programs; loud mind numbing drums and electric guitars. Such world-like worship must sicken our Lord as he sees His church drag the world into His Sanctuary. I also hear people say foolish things such as "when I see Jesus I'm going to dance in front of him," or "I'm going to walk up and put my arm around his neck and give him a big hug." Are you kidding me?

"O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker." - Psalm 95:6

We aren't going to be dancing for Jesus, we are going to be falling down prostate at his feet! Just like Jairus, the ruler of the synagogue when he approached Jesus looking for a miracle to save his daughter, he fell down on the ground at Jesus' feet. In the book of Revelation chapter 1 verse 17, when the Apostle John found himself in front of the Lord he says "And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead." My friend, John wasn't dancing for Jesus or giving him "noogies," he was hitting the ground because he knew that he was not worthy to even stand in His presence. People seem to forget that He is a Holy God. If you need a refresher in what that means, I urge you to listen to the below sermon:

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I'm really excited!

I am continually amazed at how God works. It seems like when everything is just going against me and all is hopeless, He steps in and takes over. It is like that old McKamey's song, "God On the Mountain."

Lately I've just been so burdened down with things. I was depressed because I had just been accepted into Crown Seminary, to obtain my Masters of Ministry degree, and all of a sudden there was no money available for me to start my classes. I was at the point of giving up. Then, God lays it on someone's heart to help me out. I was able to pay my first semester fees, marticulatione fee, and get all of my required books yesterday. Just like I wrote in THIS post, I am intimidated, overwhelmed, and excited!

As if that wasn't enough, I received an email 2-days ago from David Hoskins (manager for Cross 4 Crowns) asking if I would be interested in hosting the quartet at Highland Baptist! He said they had a couple of available dates in May and he thought about our church. If you know me very well at all, then you know that 4-part quartet style music is my very favorite music of all. I've written many times about my early love for the Kingsmen and how those old quartet albums inspired me to sing. Well, Cross 4 Crowns just happens to be one of my very favorite groups of all. They are a throw back to those quartets that I grew up listening to. Perfect harmony, skillful musicians, great stage presence, gifted, and spiritual. Put all of those together and you are knocking on the gates of Heaven! My family and I attended a Cross 4 Crowns concert at Corryton Baptist last year and we were so blessed by them. You can read about that on THIS post.

The month of May is a tough month. There is Mother's Day, Memorial Day weekend, and it is leading into Vacation Bible School. Also, I already have another Southern Gospel group booked for the last Sunday in May. I wasn't about to let any of that stand in the way of perhaps one of the greatest blessings for our church. I chose Mother's Day evening worship service to have Cross 4 Crowns come out to worship with us. I realize it is a little risky crowd wise. Some people will no doubt have plans to lay out of church to do things with their mother. But, I figured, with enough prayer and preparation, God will take care of the details.

So, this coming Mother's Day, May 10th, at 6:00 PM, Highland Baptist church will be hosting Cross 4 Crowns in concert! It will be a special Mother's day event. I can't think of a better way to show your mother how much you love her than spending an evening in church with her, and treating her to the finest Southern gospel music this side of Heaven. We will also be having refreshments in the fellowship building immediately following the service. I truly think it will be one of the "Crowning" (pun intended) moments of the year for Highland Baptist. So, spread the word and let's come together as one body in Christ for a fantastic evening of music and worship!

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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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Not gonna let Satan steal my song!

"Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." Philippians 3:13-14

You've heard that song, Everybody's Working For the Weekend? That's me. I know on the weekends that I will be able to enjoy my family and work at my second job and my first love, church work. As soon as I step through the front doors of the church, I am at home. The feel, the smell, the sounds, they are all beautiful to me. I always love being the first person in the church. I like to stand behind the pulpit thumbing through my hymn book while folks slowly filter in. I love hearing the scattered conversations and laughter filling the air. Just before start time I like to slip into the choir room and have a personal conversation with God. I beg him to pour His Spirit on our church and our choir. I ask Him to keep me from doing or saying anything that is not in His will. Then when start time arrives, I stand behind the pulpit and greet everyone and ask them to stand as we sing praises to God. I feel a close and personal connection to God and the church as I stand there waving my hands, keeping time with the beat. I listen for certain voices either in the congregation or in the choir behind me. It's better than any drug or alcohol induced feeling.

When it's time for our choir special, I wait with eager anticipation for the first notes to be played. I look at the beautiful people filling up the choir loft. Every now and then I'll purposely look someone straight in the eye and smile real big. I always love seeing them shoot me a smile back. I'll hold my right hand up in the air signaling time to begin and I'll hear great gasps of air being taken in. Then, as if angels in Heaven were singing, the sounds will start flowing. I close my eyes and picture Jesus standing there listening. I hope it is pleasing to His ears. Sometimes I'll think of my dearly departed sister Pam, or my sweet granny Spencer, and I wonder if they can hear us singing. I'm sure they can't but I still can't help but wonder. As I stand there directing and singing, with my eyes closed shut, I'll be in my own world. A world where no one else can intrude, no problems can break through, and Satan can't steal my song. Sometimes God's Spirit overwhelms me and feel like I am going to burst. My eyes spill over with tears, my feet want to jump and I wonder if I'll be able to contain myself. It's during those moments that I know I am in the center of God's will and exactly where I belong. It's a feeling that I never want to go away. I wish everyone could experience it.

I wish I could do church work full-time. My main job, working for a large electronic manufacturer, is thankless. I'm expected to know every technical question known to man or beast. I'm expected to smile and agree with customers when they treat me with disrespect. I'm supposed to lie to customers concerning issues with our products and pretend that I don't have a clue of any problems. When I don't have a clear answer or understanding of something, I have been directed by my boss to "bobb and weave." I'm not a bobber or a weaver. I'm a tell it like it is guy. I believe in being honest. I believe in telling the truth to folks even if it's not what they want to hear. I expect people to do the same with me also. I do not profess to know EVERYTHING and I don't believe it honest to pretend that I do. I despise my job. It is so different than my church job.

I suppose a lot of it is my own fault. If I had listened to my parents when I was younger, I would have went to college straight out of high school and studied something that I liked. Instead I waited until I had already been out for several years and already married with kids before I decided to go to college. My options were limited at that point. I needed to get a decent degree as quickly as possible so that I could accept employment at a company that paid more than minimum wage. So my career path turned out to be technical (computer related). I have a BS in Technical Management and an AS in Electronics. Big whoop. Sure, it has allowed me to obtain employment at some well respected large electronic companies but it has also caused me to wake up dreading every day.

Things have really gotten worse in the past few months since I began preaching again. The devil is working overtime on me. He loves to see me miserable and he hates to see me happy. In fact, tonight he was delighted that I had to miss church because of a problem at work. I haven't had to miss in a very long time and it really hurt. Instead of being in God's house with people that love and respect me, I was stuck in an office getting mistreated, verbally abused, and lied about from a customer that could care less if I was alive or dead. Other people in my own company treated me like dirt and threw me under the bus to cover up their own mistakes and try and make themselves look good. The only thing I did was try to do a good, decent, honest days work and this is how I get treated. All of this just to put food on the table for my family and provide shelter.

I am praying that it is God's will for me to find employment doing something that I love. If it means that I have to go back to college and earn a different degree then that's fine. I've already been looking into different Seminary courses. I'm only 42-years old. By God's grace, I've still got 25-years to work before normal retirement age. I sure would like to spend those years doing something that I love and enjoy. Something that makes a difference in people's lives. Something that helps promote and spread the Gospel message. That's all I want. I'm not gonna let Satan steal my song!

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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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Just rear back and sing!

I love to hear good choir singing. Everything from the 360-member Mormon Tabernacle Choir, to my little group of 15-20 folks at Highland Baptist. While it would be my dream to be able to lead a huge choir of 50 or more, I wouldn't be happy unless those folks were determined to put 100% into it. One thing that I have always stressed to my choir is to just rear back and sing. I'll take a handful of choir members that pour their heart and soul into the music over a professionally trained singer any day of the week.

We are blessed at Highland to have a bunch of spiritual people. On any given Sunday you will see hands raised, tears flowing, shouts of praise, and amens all over the house. When our choir is singing, many times I keep my eyes closed just soaking in the sounds flowing toward me. It's then that I start feeling those Glory bumps running down my arms and legs. I start having problems keeping my feet planted still. My eyes start pouring over with tears and it is all I can do to keep from screaming out or jumping over the pulpit. I'm not alone. Every now and then I'm able to open my eyes and look at the choir and I can see different people feeling the same way as I am. The Lord moves upon us in a wide assortment of ways. Not everyone has the desire to shout or raise their hands. Some people are like me and can't keep from crying like a baby when the Spirit hits them. However the Lord moves you, you should definitely MOVE! I hope the floor beneath our choir loft is reinforced because one of these days we're liable to stomp the place down!

I guess I got off of the subject a little but anyways, what I'm trying to convey is that people need to just tilt their heads back, open their mouths up wide, get a big breath and let those songs rip! Who cares if you don't exactly hit the right pitch or if you accidentally sing over a rest, or come in at the wrong time? There's no reason to feel apprehensive when you are singing about the Lord. We are lifting up the most powerful, mightiest, holiest, and awesome name in the universe! He is worthy of our full effort and our whole heart. Don't cheat our Savior out of a blessing. Just rear back and sing!

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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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