Preparing For Worship: June 29th

Well our second week in our new church is upon us, and I'm looking forward to a great time worshiping with all of you!

Here's what's going on this Sunday, so you can begin preparing to come edify, and participate with, our local body.

We're starting the service with a song that reflects on Pastor Todd's message from last week: "No Other Name." We remember that God has exalted his name and his Word above all, and so it's fitting that as we gather together, we acknowledge his sovereignty and recognize that from him alone comes our salvation.

We'll have a few important items to stay informed on through announcements, including:
-Community Night #2, July 13th at Bridgeport Park
-Women of Faith Conference in September
-Our 2nd, and final, giving Sunday (special offering towards the cost of renovating our new building)

We'll continue in corporate song, and glorify the name and character of God by singing "Everlasting God" which comes from the Old Testament book of Isaiah, chapter 40, then we'll see how God's name is exalted again through the exaltation of his Son in Phillipians 2 with the new song "Ancient of Days." We'll respond to those truths with heart and mind in one accord as we acknowledge that even if all other things fail us, God is the only one we need, for he alone is good, as we sing "You Alone."

Next we'll view a short video that will give us some information about the trip that Crossroads will be taking to Israel next year (followed by a short meeting after the service). I've been to Israel once, and can't wait to go again next year! I felt like seeing all those places that we read about in Scripture really took my faith to a new place! ["Blessed are those who have NOT seen, and yet still believe" right? ;-)]

Pastor Todd will then come and bring us part two of this mini-series within Ecclesiastes: "Significant Lives." Solomon continues to deliver timely and practical advice for living life under the sun in light of who God is.

We'll respond corporately by singing songs that remind us of Solomon's advice to fear God, as we humbly bow "At The Cross" on which our Savior redeemed us and claimed us from the bondage of sin. We'll rejoice and exhort every tongue to confess that Jesus is Lord by ending our service with "For You Are The Lord."

Happy preparation!

New Song: Ancient Of Days

Those of you who've grown up in the church may remember this song from Gary Sadler. It was Ron Kenoly who "put it on the map" so to speak. I love the way this song uses end time prophecy from the book of Revelation, as it anticipates the coming of the Lord, and how all creation will bow to his sovereignty.

Here are the lyrics, practice up!

Ancient of Days

Blessing and honor
Glory and power
Be unto the Ancient of Days
From ev'ry nation
All of creation
Bow before the Ancient of Days

Ev'ry tongue in heaven and earth
Shall declare Your glory
Ev'ry knee shall bow at Your throne
In worship!
You will be exalted O God
And Your kingdom shall not pass away!
O Ancient of Days!

Your kingdom shall reign over all the earth
Sing unto the Ancient of Days!
For none can compare to Your matchless worth
Sing unto the Ancient of Days!



I love the mullets and other 90's era memorabilia in this video! :-)

How Does Music "Work" in Worship

Here's Bob Kauflin and Mars Hill music Pastor Tim Smith talking about music in worship:

Thinking Globally: Christianity's Rapid Rise In China

Here's an article from the Chicago Tribune on the growth of Christianity in the officially atheist, Communist nation.

Here's an encouraging excerpt from the testimony of the pastor of one of the churches there:

For them, Christianity offered an alternative to China's political orthodoxy. To those in search of something new in which to believe, the church promised salvation, moral absolutes and a sense of being part of an enterprise larger than China.

"We [had been] taught not to learn from God, that God is a fake," said Wang Qingying, a 37-year-old member of Jin's church who grew up the daughter of a Communist Party member. "After I started to believe, I realized that everything that happens is a part of God's design."

It's amazing to see how God is moving throughout the world, and that though religion has all but disappeared from Western Europe, and is on the decline in the U.S., there will always be the faithful remnant who keep on proclaiming God's truth to the people.

Worship Matters: What Kind Of Music? (Part 2)

So we're talking about ways that music helps us in worship, and gleaning some wisdom from Bob Kauflin's book "Worship Matters: Leading Others To Encounter The Greatness Of God."

CLICK HERE for the first post to get caught up.

2) Music helps us reflect the glory and activity of the triune God.
God sings! "He will rejoice over us with singing"(Zeph. 3:17), "Jesus sang a hymn with his disciples on the night before he died" (Matt. 26:30), "be filled with the Holy Spirit [who enables you to address] each other with Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs..." (Eph. 5:18-19).

We see each member of the trinity involved in the act of singing, and are reminded that music was given to us to "deepen and develop our relationship with him. The Father sings, the Son sings, and the Spirit sings. How can we keep from singing?"

3) Music helps us remember truth about God
God initiated this method of memorization with his people in the Old Testament. The Israelites were about to enter the Promised Land, when God told Moses to teach them a song so that "when many evils and troubles have come upon them, this song shall confront them as a witness (for it will live unforgotten in the mouths of their offspring)" (Deut. 31:21)

This goes back to singing in spirit and in truth. Singing with an actively engaged spirit often produces worshipful emotions, but when the experience and the emotions fade, the living and active Word of God will continue "working in our hearts, renewing our minds, and strengthening our faith."

4) Music helps us express our unity in the gospel
Most references to singing in the Bible are talking about the corporate gathering. The people are singing together. Passages that specifically refer to singing include "addressing one another" and "teaching one another" (Eph. 5:19, Col. 3:16). When we sing of the gospel, it glorifies God as the collective voices of the redeemed magnify his name. This unity can sometimes be overlooked when churches offer different "style-based" services (you know, the "traditional" and "contemporary" ones...), as this tends to lean more towards the "church consumer mindset."

As a worship leader, I try to incorporate many different styles of songs, including "traditional" and "contemporary" songs, but maintaining a certain balance of "preference" based songs isn't my primary concern. My primary concern is leading God's people in songs that glorify GOD, and aren't primarily intended to make us feel good, although that often is a welcomed by-product!

There is sure to be a song or two, or ten, that aren't going to be every person's favorites, as far as "style" goes. This is the beauty of diversity of our tastes, and of the span of different songs and styles that glorify God, and try to reflect his own creativity and complexity back to him. We minister to each other in showing deference for the tastes of others, and seeking to appreciate all the different styles as a palette of colors with which to paint our portrait of praise to God!

Purpose In Pain

I wrote about this on my other blog, and thought it would be appropriate to share here...

I was listening to the only radio station I get out here in Valencia, 89.9 KCRW, the other day. They did a segment on a symphony from German composer Robert Schumann, in which they had a guest musicologist in to talk about the piece, it's origin, it's movements, and different musical themes that paralleled what was going on in the life of the composer.

She mentioned that Robert Schumann endured several bouts with extremely severe depression throughout his life, and that eventually, he would attempt suicide and end up in an asylum towards the end of his life.

It was interesting to hear her, and the radio host, both talking about how the music clearly narrates a time in Schumann's life when he had just recently overcome a depressed period, and how shifts in the music represent his depressed state being conquered, and the joy that followed.

They both considered the question: Would it have been possible for Schumann's symphony to exhibit the same depth of character, the same passion of overcoming extreme hardship, without his horrific battle with depression?

So many people are critical of a God who "lets bad things happen to good people," and while it's easy spout out the "well none of us is really 'good' according to God..." answer, it is fascinating that even in a completely secular context, people can choose to see the "good" in pain, and a purpose in suffering.

It's generally agreed upon that the quality of endurance is a positive characteristic. What's interesting is that endurance is ONLY EVER produced through trial of some kind. When I think of endurance, I think of a long distance runner, or cyclist. What kind of pain do they put their bodies through to develop the physical endurance to run a race? Immense.

Romans 5 says that we have peace with God because we've been justified by faith, and that we have obtained access to his grace, and the hope of the glory of God...

But MORE THAT THAT, we rejoice in our SUFFERINGS, knowing that suffering produces ENDURANCE, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Sometimes evil and suffering in the world bring confusion, and the temptation to doubt God, but in the same way that we saw purpose in the suffering of Robert Schumann, without which he could never have composed the depth of music he did, we can know God has a purpose with a more beautiful and perfect result than any symphony: his glory.

Reflections On Our First Sunday In The New Building

Wow.

Does anyone share that sentiment?

Sharing our first service together in our new building was definitely a morning to remember. We shared in some wonderful music and singing together, Pastor Todd reminded us of the steadfast love and faithfulness of God, and we prayed that God would glorify his name in whatever takes place in our new home.

We had a ton of visitors who came to show their support, and celebrate with us, which was tremendous; thanks to those who visited!

I just want to echo Todd's thanks to John (our contractor), Keith (basically put in ALL things media; a humongous job!), and Ken (pretty much EVERYTHING ELSE). These guys sacrificed a LOT of hours to help us get in by our go date. Praise the Lord for their gifts and their servants' hearts!!!

I want us also to remember that without each and every one of us who comes into that building on a Sunday morning, the building would remain just that: a building. It's the gathering of we who profess Christ as Lord, to the glory of God the Father, that makes it a church. So thank you, all of you for helping to turn that little building on Avenue Stanford into the body of Christ; into Crossroads Community Church.

Good Christian Music: Enfield

Enfield is the name of the city in Massachusetts where Jonathan Edwards first delivered his sermon: "Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God." It is also the new moniker for the band that plays at the Edwards-inspired Resolved Conference, with whom I was fortunate enough to play with over Father's Day weekend in Palm Springs.

Enfield's debut album: "O For That Day" is a strong 12-song effort that echoes the theme of the 2008 conference: Heaven and Hell. As Christians, we are often guilty of imagining heaven as a boring place where we float around as disembodied spirits from cloud to cloud, singing all day, or strumming harps 'round the clock. We are quick to say that we look forward to the hope of heaven, but when it comes down to it, we lack any true joy and anticipation about what awaits us there.

If you want a great book to help you think more about this, I highly recommend Randy Alcorn's "Heaven."

"O For That Day" helps to draw our hope towards the promise of joy and sinless perfection of heaven, and the dwelling of God with his people on the resurrected earth.

My friends Ryan Foglesong and David Zimmer penned the majority of these songs, and they did so with amazing artistry and creativity. These songs combine poetic language and meter reminiscent of great hymns, with the sonic fullness and musical urgency of today's powerful indie rock styles.

Here are a few of my favorite lyrics from the album:

"Your steadfast love will lead us through the tempest; grace and strength are ours!
Your faithfulness will see us through the storm, and give us hope to carry on!"

"O for that day when our journey has ended; all of our hope found in heaven's reward!
When we will have the Messiah forever, and we will dwell in the house of the Lord!"

"O praise the Lamb for sinners slain, who wrote with blood our eternal praise,
Let the nations of the earth proclaim: Hallelujah!"

"We are pilgrims on earth, and we long to be home
we were exiled in birth, and wandered alone
until Jesus, the Lamb who was slain in our place,
redeemed us, claimed us, his own!"

Check out the album at www.resolved.org, or search for it on iTunes.

Preparing For Worship: June 22nd

Well we've prayed, waited, hoped, given, worked, and watched as God again proved his faithfulness in providing our new church building!

This Sunday is a celebration of God's blessing and faithfulness to Crossroads, and we are incredibly excited to hold our first service in the new building. From here on out, I'm going to just start calling it "church." No more "West Ranch Cafeteria," no more "The New Building," it's our home now.

So now that the church "building" is ready, the only thing left to do is to bring in the real church, the body of Christ. I look forward to gathering with you in just a few days to worship our faithful God together.

The morning will have a few extra elements in it, but we're definitely going to hear God's Word preached, and we're definitely going to sing forth our praises and thanks to God for his goodness.

We'll start the morning with a song that draws our attention the great things God has done; "To God Be The Glory" and go right into "See What A Morning" which reminds us of the resurrection of our Savior, and the hope we have of spending eternity with him.

Pastor Todd will lead us in a time of thanking some of the people who played crucial roles in getting our church set up and in working order; their labor is truly for our benefit! He'll have our elders, Darren and Steve join him as we corporately ask God's blessing on our new home, that it might be a place where his name is praised, his glory proclaimed through his Word, and where his people might worship together in unity, Spirit, and truth.

We'll sing some more songs that reflect on God's goodness and faithfulness to us. We remember that he gave us his very Son, and gave us the faith to trust and cling to his atoning death on the cross. We'll sing "Marvelous Light" which reminds us of our state before salvation, and the miracle of our spiritual resurrection from death to our sin. We remember that this was accomplished through "The Power Of The Cross" and that our salvation is 'cause for rejoice and exclamation as we sing "How Great Is Our God."

Pastor Todd will then preach to us from the Psalms where David reminds us to give thanks for God's love and faithfulness, and to give honor and glory to his name and his Word, which he has put above all other things.

We'll sing one song of response and commitment after the sermon: "From The Inside Out," and that will conclude our first worship service in our new building; our church.

We'll continue the celebration Sunday night as we have community night at the Abramson's house in Stevenson Ranch (details and directions in your bulletin on Sunday).

See you at church!

Preparing For Worship: June 15th

Happy Father's Day!

I'm writing from the Resolved Conference here in Palm Springs, and I know if any of you see this it will most likely be AFTER church on the 15th, so...

A BIG thanks to Bret Martin for filling in for me leading the worship team this week! It was gonna be difficult to squeeze everything in, and his willingness to step in and help out was such a huge blessing!

I'm having a great time playing electric guitar with the Resolved Band, which they've dubbed "Enfield" after the name of the city where Jonathan Edwards delivered his famous "Sinners in the hands of an angry God" sermon. My friends Ryan Foglesong and David Zimmer teamed up to write some fabulous songs for this conference that I will be sure to share with you when I get back. The conference theme is: Heaven and Hell, and so they wrote a bunch of new songs about heaven, which fills a surprising need in our repertoire of worship music.

Anyway, I hope you were still able to participate in the service without my post, and I'm sorry if you felt ill-prepared! :-)

I look forward to our first Sunday in our new building next week! So until then...

Worship Matters: What Kind Of Music? (Part 1)

I'm soaking up the wisdom from Bob Kaflin's book "Worship Matters: Leading others to encounter the greatness of God" and the chapter I'm currently studying is talking about what kind of music we use as a part of our worship. His book is so practical and accessible, and I would heartily recommend it to you whether you're a worship leader or not, because we're all worshipers, and need think through what that means...

He opens the chapter with this short anecdote that points us to the importance of this issue:

I once heard of a Christian woman who spent time serving God in South Africa. While visiting a health clinic, she was deeply moved by the sound of the local Zulu women singing. Their harmonies were hauntingly beautiful. With tears in her eyes, she asked a friend if she knew the translation of the words.

'Sure' her friend replied. 'If you boil the water, you won't get dysentery.'
Now if that doesn't make you want to worship, what does?

Being emotionally affected by music and actually worshiping God aren't the same thing, and no one should know this better than worship leaders. All by itself, music-even instrumental music-can make us cry, motivate us to cheer for our team, provoke us to protest, or fill us with joy.
It's part of the way God designed music to work in his creation. Now if we could only figure out how it works in worship.

He goes on to discuss a brief sad history of the use of music in worship, and the tool for divisiveness it has often become. For example: ever heard of the hymn writer Isaac Watts? One hundred years after his death, people "would still walk out of a meeting if someone started singing something other than a Psalm set to music." They had been arguing about using hymns of "human composure."
This enforces Bob's point in emphasizing the importance of understanding God's purpose for music in worship because without it, we can misuse music, and even rob God of the glory we want to give him!

Here are some of the ways that music helps us in worship:

1) Music stirs up and expresses God-glorifying emotion
Here it is important to understand the difference between emotions and emotionalism (which is the pursuit of feelings as an end in themselves). Emotions brought forth by music are a response to who God is and what he's done. Vibrant singing enables us to combine truth about God seamlessly with passion for God. Doctrine and devotion. Mind and heart.

I'll talk about some of the other ways in future posts, but I want to give us time to think through the issue...

(to be continued)

Scientists Find "Hints Of Time Before The Big Bang"

This was great, to see scientists analyzing the possibility that "new universes could be created spontaneously from apparently empty space."

I think I've heard that before...something about "In the beginning, God created the heavens and earth."

This was my favorite quote, and such a moment of worship, to see science realizing its own limits:

Much work remains to be done on the theory: the researchers' first priority will be to calculate the odds of a new universe appearing from a previous one...Meanwhile, Professor Carroll urged cosmologists to broaden their horizons: "We're trained to say there was no time before the Big Bang, when we should say that we don't know whether there was anything - or if there was, what it was."

Read the whole article HERE.

Preparing For Worship: June 8th, 2008

Well I am mostly moved into my new office here at our new church building, and the sounds of construction, painting, tiling, are all ringing in my ears, and it sounds great! Just a few more weeks, and we get to have our first service a hundred feet from where I'm sitting now!

So in the meantime, we look back and thank God for his faithfulness and provision even as we finish out our last few weeks at West Ranch High School's cafeteria! It has proven a faithful temple.

This Sunday, Pastor Todd delves into the first part of Ecclesiastes 7 as we explore what it means to live with wisdom in this life. Solomon gives us interesting perspectives in this chapter, and only when we understand the context of living life under the sun can we see the beauty in the truth he presents.

We'll start our service with the song "How Good And Pleasant" that reminds us of David's words in Psalm 133: "Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity" and praise the Lord together!

John Book will keep us informed on what's happening within our church family as we worship God through participating in various ministry opportunities.

We'll keep singing, hearkening back to Easter with "See What A Morning," rejoicing in God's "Grace Unmeasured" and bowing before his throne with "Lord Jehovah."

We'll spend time in the Word, and seek the help of the Holy Spirit to enlighten our minds and quicken our hearts to the truth of the scriptures, asking for his conviction of sin, and of righteousness in our lives.

We'll respond in corporate song and proclamation by singing "You Alone" and closing our time in unified supplication that we might be pleasing to God in our words, and thoughts and deeds as we sing "Psalm 19 (May The Words)."

We'll worship through the giving of tithes and offerings as we go, and we'll check one more Sunday off of our countdown to June 22nd when we'll celebrate in our new church home!

Looking forward to worshiping in all of these ways with you this Sunday, and as usual, the videos I link to are for learning/refreshing your memory, and may not indicate exactly how we'll do the song on Sunday. ;-)

Thinking Globally: "Algerian Christian Converts Fined"

It's very easy for me to get caught up in Western Christianity. God has allowed us to enjoy numerous freedoms here in the West, and particularly the United States; some of which involve our freedom to practice our religion.

As I think about different things that are going on in the U.S. as far as our society and culture relates to Christianity, some good, some bad, it's important for me to take the proverbial "step back" and try to see what God is doing throughout the world. Regardless of your view on Dispensationalism or Covenant theology, most would agree that the U.S. is not God's "chosen nation" in the same way Israel was. He has been gracious to our country, and we should be thankful for that, but we worship a God that works throughout the entire world, and we need to worship him by better understanding the scope and majesty of what he's doing everywhere!

I wanted to start this new theme of posts called "Thinking Globally" to help us do just that. Even as this past Sunday we prayed for some of our people going out on summer missions trips, I was convicted of my lack of interest in God's glory outside of my little sphere of comfort.

I read this article on the BBC News website about some Algerian Christian converts who were arrested and fined for allegedly holding an "illegal religious ceremony" and also perhaps "attempting to convert other Algerians to Christianity," and it really captured my attention.

This quote from the article shows how serious the government is about keeping a tight reign on Christianity:

A 2006 law forbids non-Muslims from trying to convert Muslims and limits religious worship to specific buildings approved by the state - a clause that has been used to close more than a dozen churches in the past six months.

Several Mosques have also been closed under the same provision.

I don't think I can even imagine the police charging into our service on Sunday morning and arresting us for holding an illegal religious ceremony! We need to be so thankful for the freedom we are blessed with, and we need to pray for Christianity as it spreads in other parts of the world, despite efforts to stop it and kill it.

The way our country is going, with the new aggressive forms of Atheism, and the increasing "non-religious" population, would it be that surprising if we faced similar persecution in the future?