Preparing for Worship: January 2nd, 2011

Happy New Year! Don't miss our very first Crossroads service of 2011; the body needs you!

Pastor Todd will be preaching on New Years Resolutions as we look at the life of Jonathan Edwards. We'll be singing songs of resolution all morning, so come and join us as we set our course for 2011!

Our song setlist includes:
Here I Am To Worship
All I Have Is Christ
At The Cross
The Power Of The Cross
I Give You My Heart

Practice the tunes with your family and come ready to sing along!

Preparing For Worship: December 19th, 2010

Merry Christmas! This Sunday we focus on celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ! The Savior foretold through Old Testament prophecies who would bear the sins of all mankind in his own body as he was crushed by God on a cross. The Savior who would rise again three days later, permanently defeating sin and death, and solidifying our hope of forgiveness and eternal life with God!

Won't you join us this Sunday to celebrate?? Wear a funky Christmas sweater, a colorful scarf, or even a Santa hat (we don't think Santa is an anagram for Satan!); something to add to the cheer and excitement of the morning!

Remember, we have THREE SERVICES this week, at 8:00am, 9:30am, and 11:00am. And also remember that the 8:00am service will ONLY have childcare for infant - Kindergarten (the 9:30 and 11:00 will have full Kids' Ministry through 6th grade). Whichever service you come to, get there early, as seats are going to fill up fast!!

Get started on practicing your Christmas Carols, 'cause we're singing them this Sunday! Here's the official set list with video links so you know which ones to rehearse in your shower or car:

-O Come All Ye Faithful (I just HAD to embed this video here 'cause it's THAT cool!)


-Joy To The World

-Carol Medley - just the first verses of: Good Christian Men Rejoice; Infant Holy, Infant Lowly; O Little Town Of Bethlehem; It Came Upon A Midnight Clear; Silent Night; and Away In A Manger.

-O Holy Night

-Go Tell It On The Mountain

Pastor Todd will be preaching a Christmas message from the book of Isaiah talking about the prophetic names ascribed to Jesus hundreds of years before his birth! It will really give us some amazing perspective on that sweet, little baby.

So don't miss this week! Let's celebrate together! See you Sunday!

Preparing For Worship: December 12th, 2010

What a great time we shared last weekend at our Christmas Party! Thanks to all who came out, and to those who weren't able to be there: "what were you thinking???" :)

This Sunday is the final runner-up to Christmas Sunday here at Crossroads, so let's continue celebrating the culmination of history when Jesus Christ came to earth to fulfill the Father's plan of redemption!

Our setlist for this Sunday includes:
Holy, Holy, Holy
Angels We Have Heard On High
Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus (link redirects to free Christmas songs from Crossroads!
What Child Is This?
The Stand

See you Sunday!

Preparing For Worship: December 5th, 2010

This Sunday is the Christmas Kickoff at Crossroads! We will be breaking out some Christmas carols to sing together during our corporate worship gathering, and then partying it up at the Valencia Ice Station for our Christmas Party! If you didn't sign up, you can still do so this Sunday morning at Crossroads; don't forget!!

Our set this week includes:
-Angels From The Realms Of Glory
(available as part of a free Holiday Hymns download from www.noisetrade.com/crossroads, where all "tip" proceeds will go towards our January Haiti trip)
-Hark The Herald Angels Sing
-Offering (with the Christmas verse!)
-Confession Song
-O Come, O Come Emmanuel
(also on the Holiday Hymns download from www.noisetrade.com/crossroads)

Remember to read John chapter 2 in preparation for Pastor Todd's message this week! See you then!

Preparing For Worship: November 28th, 2010

Happy Thanksgiving!!



This Sunday's worship set includes:
-Come Thou Fount
-Glorious And Mighty
-It Is Well With My Soul
-Healer
-Jesus, Thank You

Preparing For Worship: November 21st, 2010

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Looking forward to getting together with you to celebrate God's faithfulness and goodness; something we're careful to be thankful for year 'round. As the world around us gives thanks to no one in particular, believers can confidently rejoice in God's sovereignty, and experience not only profound thanks, but profound trust for the future!

Pastor Todd and Pastor Ed will team up for a 2-part mini-series on God's sovereignty for the Thanksgiving week so DON'T MISS the next two weeks!

Singing-wise, here's our corporate worship set list:

Indescribable
Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee

Perfect Savior
We Will Remember

We Trust Your Will

See you Sunday!

Preparing for Worship: November 14th, 2010

How is it that YouTube seems to pick the absolute WORST frame of the video to use as the title picture???


Our set this week includes:
"How Great Is Our God"
"All I Have Is Christ"
"This God He Is Our God"
"Glorious Day (Living He Loved Me)"
"Our God"

Preparing for Worship: October 31st, 2010

Video Blog: 10.28.10


This passage in John is where we are fully introduced to the person, and purpose of Jesus Christ. John declares that Jesus didn't come just set some kind of moral example, or to simply teach us how to love better; he came to lay down his life for guilty, unrighteous sinners! A pure and spotless Lamb that would be sacrificed on the cross, and have his perfect blood shed as payment for all of our sin. What a sobering truth! Jesus did not die for some ideological reason; he was not a martyr. His death was always God's plan for our redemption, so we'll praise him for his wisdom and great sacrifice, and we'll praise Jesus for his great love and sacrifice for us!

Here's the songs we're singing this Sunday:
1) Alive in Christ
2) In Christ Alone
3) Jesus Paid it All
4) Jesus Messiah
5) The Stand

Warm up those vocal cords; we'll see you Sunday!

Preparing for Worship: October 24th, 2010

This Sunday we're singing
1 - "For You Are The Lord"
2 - "Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee"
3 - "This God He Is Our God"
4 - "Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)"
5 - "Glorious Day"

Hope to see you there!

Video Blog & New Song: 10.17.2010

Check out the new song we'll sing this weekend!


The rest of our worship songs:
1) Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing
2) Our God
3) Glorious Day (see above!)
4) The Father's Love

You also won't want to miss our awesome video of pictures from our India Trip earlier this Summer! We'll be having Baby/Parent dedications during 1st service too, so consider coming to the 9:00am service to be a part.

Preparing for Worship: October 3rd, 2010

Happy Birthday to my mom this Sunday!

Join us for worship this week, and catch our "big" surprise...yep, "big."

Also, we're going to share communion together this week; remembering Christ's sacrifice and the promise of new life through his blood and promise. Don't miss this special time with the church family.

Here's the set list: start practicing in your shower and your car. Watch the YouTube clips if you're not sure how a tune goes! Be ready to sing on Sunday!

1) This God He Is Our God
2) How Great Is Your Faithfulness
3) We Trust Your Will
4) How Deep The Father's Love For Us
5) Exalted (Yahweh)

Preparing for Worship: September 26th, 2010

Hey guys, looking forward to this Sunday! Excited to wrap up our series "There's An App For That" with the "Go" part of our mission statement. We'll be unveiling a brand new iServe card that you can use to get more info about specific ministries where you might serve at Crossroads!

Here's the set list for Sunday, including a new song we're learning this week by Tommy Walker!

1) I Have a Hope (also by Tommy Walker!)
2) This God He is Our God (new!)
3) Crown Him with Many Crowns (traditional hymn, contemporary style)
4) Confession Song (by Paul)
5) Let Your Kingdom Come (Sovereign Grace)

That's what's happening this week; see you Sunday!

Preparing For Worship: September 19th, 2010

Worship Songs:
1) Holy is the Lord
2) Eternal Praise
3) All Creatures of Our God and King
4) Jesus Thank You
5) Surrender

Preparing for Worship: September 12th, 2010

Happy Anniversary Crossroads! Wow, four years of amazing blessing and faithfulness from God! I've been here for the last three, and it's really amazing to see what God can do through ordinary people who just pursue faithfulness in what God's commanded for his church. I think that faithfulness can be summed up in the tag line of our church: "Know, Grow, and Go" from Colossians 1:28. We preach the word, we offer biblical corporate worship, we care for each other and meet each other's needs, and we reach out to the lost around us in our community and around the world!

I hope you're looking forward to joining us this weekend as we celebrate. Who can resist free In-N-Out made hot and fresh right here in our parking lot?? Burgers will be flying after both services so plan to join us, and here's what you can expect:

Worship Songs:
1) Better is One Day
2) Because of This
I chose these songs because Better is One Day is such a great paradigm shifter to help us rightly orient ourselves to our purpose for gathering together. Sometimes we come seeking our own entertainment and "warm, gushy" feelings; but we are gathering, in a sense, for God's entertainment! We're coming collectively into his presence to declare his greatness, and we need to remember that his heavenly realm is a far greater place to be, and we count ourselves privileged to be there. That's why we'll sing "Because of This" next; it reminds us of the reason we can come joyfully into God's presence: the cross!

3) How Great is Your Faithfulness
4) Completely Done
We're going to sing "How Great is Your Faithfulness" after we see a cool slide show of pictures from our last four years; a fitting response to seeing how our church has grown and been shaped by God. Then we'll sing Completely Done as a declaration of confidence for the Christian life, having seen God's great faithfulness in the past, and ultimately at the cross.

5) God of This City
This song will be the closer as Pastor Todd starts a three week series called "There's an App for That" this week, focusing on each of our core goals: Know, Grow, and Go. He'll be in Mark 2:13-17 this Sunday, so I'd recommend CLICKING HERE to read this passage beforehand.

That's what's going on! See you Sunday!

Preparing for Worship: September 5th, 2010

Happy holiday weekend everyone! I'm curious as to how many of you are heading out of town this weekend, since we've been a packed house the last couple of Sundays. I think I'm learning that many Crossroaders are avid vacationers, so I'm guessing many will take advantage of the extra day off. If you're one of them, bring me back something nice!

I wanted to also say thank you to those of you who encouraged me last weekend, either in person, or through some other communication. I really felt loved and cared for, and prayers that were offered on my behalf were appreciated. I woke up Monday morning feeling a lot better. I had not wrestled with some of the hard things about death in quite some time. The last time I lost a loved one was when my grandma passed away; I was just about to start high school. I wasn't even very close to Jess' grandpa, but the realities of death, and the death of an unbeliever (we're pretty sure he was not a Christ-follower), had a very unexpected effect on me, so again, thank you so much! My wife has handled it very well, and her grandma is doing well also. I picked up Jess' dad from the airport yesterday, so we're glad he's here as well.

Here's the set list for Sunday, be sure to click on any of the song titles that you aren't familiar with so you can get an idea of how they go so you can be prepared to sing along!

1) Blessed Be Your Name
2) O Church Arise
3) Psalm 19 (May the words)
4) By This We Know Love
5) From the Inside Out

See you Sunday!

Preparing for Worship: August 29th, 2010

Looking forward to worshiping with y'all this weekend! It's kind of amazing all the people that have walked through our doors the past couple Sundays! We're fast running out of room, so get to church early this week, and better yet, come to first service!!

I'm finding it easier not to be redundant and type out the same sentiment that I talk about in the video blog, so I'll just continue to post the set list with links so you can be sure you know the tunes. I'll also post the sermon text and link it to an online Bible so you can read the passage before Sunday so you can get the most out of Pastor Todd's sermon (it's like going back to college!)

Sunday's Worship Set:
1) "Let Your Kingdom Come"
2) "Jesus Messiah"
This set is for us to "refocus" the worship that we offer towards other things during the week like our jobs, our families, or ourselves (all good things, but sometimes they can take away from the Lord!)

3) "O Church Arise" (NEW SONG!! Check out the previous blog post!)
4) "Our God"
This set is a call to the church to engage in the spiritual warfare that rages around us as souls hang in the balance. The second song reminds us that the outcome of that battle is already certain because of the God we serve!

5) The Stand
We'll close with this tune as a response to the work that the Spirit will hopefully do in our hearts as Pastor Todd teaches and preaches God's word to us. He's preaching from Nehemiah 11 & 12 which you can read by clicking HERE. And he's talking about how to put ourselves in a position to receive true joy that is not dependent on circumstance or "happiness." Like the last part of "The Stand" says, we know true joy when we stand in awe of Christ and fully surrender our will and soul to him!

That's the plan, see you Sunday! COME EARLY or COME TO FIRST SERVICE!!

New Song: O Church Arise

Hey Crossroaders!

We're going to be learning a great new song this week by Keith and Kristyn Getty called "O Church Arise!" This song comes right out of Ephesians 6 where the apostle Paul is talking about the armor of God. This song is an epic call to spiritual warfare where the souls of the lost hang in the balance!

Check out this video and the lyrics below:

O church arise, and put your armor on
Hear the call of Christ our captain
For now the weak can say that they are strong
In the strength that God has given
With shield of faith and belt of truth
We'll stand against the Devil's lies
An army bold, whose battle-cry is "Love!"
Reaching out to those in darkness

Our call to war, to love the captive soul
But to rage against the Captor
And with the sword that makes the wounded whole
We will fight with faith and valour
When faced with trials on every side
We know the outcome is secure
And Christ will have the prize for which he died
An inheritance of nations

So Spirit come put strength in every stride
Give grace for every hurdle
That we may run with faith to win the prize
Of a servant good and faithful
As saints of old still line the way
Retelling triumphs of His grace
We hear their calls and hunger for the day
When with Christ we stand in glory!

Preparing for Worship: August 22nd, 2010

Hey guys, I'm going to leave you in the care of the video blog and the set list this week as I'm trying to finish up today's work and head down to the rehearsal dinner for my brother's wedding tomorrow! Pray that his wedding is God-honoring, and that it's a BLAST! See you Sunday!

Sunday's Set:
"Because of This" - Paul Hoover (from "Resurrection Songs" available for free by clicking HERE)
"At The Cross" - Hillsong
"How Great is Your Faithfulness" - Matt Redman
"Confession Song" - Paul Hoover (available for free download HERE)
"Give Us Clean Hands - Chris Tomlin

Preparing for Worship: August 15th, 2010

Pastor Todd's sermon this week is ominously entitled "The Day of Confession." I think when most of us think of confession, we think of confessing our sin to the Lord, knowing that he is faithful to forgive us when we do. This is a vital connotation of confession, to be sure, but in addition to this sort, the Israelites also practice another sort of confession in Nehemiah 9. This other kind of confession is also immensely important, and it has to do with declaring who God is, and what he has done. It's a unified, public declaration of their belief in God, and the confidence that they have in him because of his great and mighty acts throughout their history.

I wanted us to mimic this confession of God's character and acts closely this week through the songs we're singing, so I've chosen songs this week that are heavily focused on reciting specific character traits of God, and allow those truths to fuel our spiritual and emotional response to him.

We're starting the service with the old hymn "How Great Thou Art" which consists of four meaty verses reciting God's greatness as expressed in his creation, the cross, and the second coming of Jesus. The chorus (or refrain as they used to be called) ties the verses together by crying out, not just from the lips, but from the very soul: how great Thou art!!

Then we're going to learn a new song called "How Great is Your Faithfulness" which sounds like a magical combination of "How Great Thou Art" and "Great is Thy Faithfulness" and aside from having different music and different lyrics, it sort of is! It's a tune from Matt Redman, and has a super singable chorus...well, why don't you check out the video below and you can see what I mean...


I think it's a great song, and it fits in well with the idea of confessing God's greatness in specific ways.

Then we'll take a few minutes to highlight some really exciting things coming up at Crossroads, including our 4th Anniversary Celebration happening on September 12th! As is becoming our anniversary tradition, we'll have the In-N-Out truck parked in the parking lot ready to serve up burgers all morning long, so if you've been in and out of Crossroads all summer, plan to be back for the 12th!!

Then we'll jump into another set that follows a similar format to the first one. Leading off with "How Great is Our God" which again, recites attributes of God found directly in Scripture. It's like singing God's own perfect word back to him so we can be confident in what we're singing! Sometimes singers/songwriters can write songs in an abstract or overly personal way that becomes ambiguous and unclear when sung by a gathered body of believers, but when we sing Scripture, we know that God will be rightly honored because in a sense, he authored the song himself! We'll follow that tune up with "We Will Remember" as we recount God's faithfulness in sustaining our life, comforting us in trial, and giving us new spiritual life through Christ.

I hope you'll be struck by how incredibly faithful God is after we sing these things; I know I was!

Pastor Todd will then come and teach us from Nehemiah 9 and we'll see how the Israelites confessed in response to revival workings that sprung forth from the power of the declared Word of God in their presence.

We'll respond to the teaching of the Word with "Glorious and Mighty."

So that's what's-a-happening this weekend at Crossroads. Really looking forward to seeing you there, and offering our corporate praise to the Lord through song, study of the Word, giving, prayer, and community!

Happy prep!

Preparing for Worship: August 8th, 2010

Hello friends!

This is going to be a great weekend; I can feel it! This Summer has been full of vacations, and I think that many are finally back in Valencia, anxiously awaiting the start of school.

I hope to see all of you this weekend as we come together to obediently offer corporate worship to our God! I think it's great that there are so many ways that we're able to do this faithfully: singing together; studying God's Word together; giving of our money, skills and time; and seeking to encourage one another as the day of Christ's return approaches!

This Sunday has some exciting things in store, and around the Crossroads office, we've starting calling it "Announcement Sunday, with a few minutes left over for Worship and Teaching." Seriously, there is so much cool stuff coming up in the next few weeks that you need to know about. Ministry launches, exciting events and service opportunities all over the place, so I don't want to hear anything about you "not knowing how to get involved!"

I think we're going to have a good time worshiping through song this week, as some of our worship song arrangements actually tie into Pastor Todd's sermon this week. Pastor Todd will be preaching out of Nehemiah 7-8, where the Israelites gather to celebrate the completion of the wall by...listening to a scribe read out of the Law for several hours. (??????)

Seems like a funny way to say "hooray, we're finished building the wall!" This passage is really making a strong statement about the way that the Lord builds up his people. There is a strong emphasis on declaring his Word to the people, so that they understand his commands, and that they know him. God's Word must be the highest priority of his gathered people; not worship music, not lights or videos, not a really cool building. While all of those things are helpful and can God-honoring in their own rights, God desires us to KNOW HIM, and he has revealed everything he wants us to know about him in his Word.

Pastor Todd will be talking about this as he teaches from this passage, so we're changing up the music on some of the tunes we're doing, just to practically remind us that how we dress the words to the songs is of little lasting value; it's the content that matters more than the sound or style.

We'll start the morning with classic rock version of "The Solid Rock," the old hymn that helps give us a foundation for the morning, and really for our lives; that everything we are and do, is founded on what Christ has done for us. Then we'll sing the new tune we learned last week, "Our God," which is a country-crossover declaration of the awesome power and greatness of God that is meant to remind us that if our God is for us, who can be against us?

Then we'll have a couple of minutes to highlight some really important announcements for our Legacy class, Student Ministries, and Children's Ministry.

After a time for greeting, we'll sing a bit more with "All I Have is Christ" which we're going to do in a bluegrass style! Followed by a mellow blues rendition of "Before the Throne of God Above."

Then Pastor Todd will come and teach us, and we pray that God's Holy Spirit would be working mightily to illuminate our hearts to the power of the truth of Scripture, and teaching us to apply it in our lives that we might live in the light.

We'll finish with the song "Breathe," which we're doing in an ethereal, post-rock style, that reminds us that God's Word is to us as the very air we breathe in its importance.

Gotta cut this post a little short, time to run and get ready to setup for tonight's Kidz Kamp-In!

Preparing for Worship: August 1st, 2010

Hey guys! Welcome back to the Worship Blog! I didn't post a "Preparing for Worship" the week I was in Kansas City and I bet you felt so under prepared, for which I apologize.

As I mentioned during the service last week, the time I spent at the National Worship Leader Conference was refreshing, encouraging, educating, and challenging. It was a great time for me to take off my leader "hat" for a few days, and to be led for a change. I'm thankful for the tireless ministry of worship leaders like Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman, Phil Wickham, Israel Houghton, and others that ministered to me while I was there. I have to battle the temptation to give in to my "music-snob" side that craves musical innovation and creativity above a sincere and humble heart, and sometimes I need to have a personal experience with some of those guys' songs in order for me to really understand the heart behind the tune, and how it could be a great expression of worship to God, even if it's not the most stimulating chord progression or instrumentation to my ear.

This Sunday we're excited to have our India team back safely home with us! We're anxious to hear about their trip and what they have to share with us about what God is doing in India through the ministry of our missionaries: Peter and Heather Malakar. We will have a short update on their trip, but we'll look forward to a full recap from the team at an upcoming Missions Night on August 22nd. Mark your calendars now, but more details will come your way soon.

Sunday's worship songs include "Praise to the Lord, the Almighty" at the beginning of the service. I've noticed myself creating a little tradition of starting our services with an upbeat, rousing tune to help us wake up and create some energy in the service, and so I want to change things up just to help keep things fresh, so I thought this hymn would be a good starter because it's still totally God focused and helps us shift our minds from all the things that fill it during the week.

Then we'll have a quick update from our India team, and then we're going to officially commission our new youth pastor, Ed Boness! Ed and his wife, Valerie are all moved in to their house, and ready to campaign a new vision for our youth ministry throughout the month of August. If you have student age kids, from grades 7-12, expect a call from Ed in the next month as he connects with the kids and families of Crossroads. He'll explain a bit about that after we pray for him.

Then we're going to learn this new song called "Our God" and it's one of those songs I mentioned earlier, that wasn't as musically stimulating to me at first, but as I heard the heart of Chris Tomlin in writing it, and understanding it a little better, it really affected my heart and I have grown to really like this tune!
Here's a video of how it goes:


Then we'll sing another song we know really well that also talks about God's might, but how he is "Mighty to Save" us from our sin even more incredibly than being mighty in physical strength!

Then Pastor Todd will preach from Nehemiah 6. It'll be good to have him back at the pulpit teaching us God's word, and helping us know how to apply it to our lives for God's glory. May we be Hearers AND Doers of the Word!

Then we'll celebrate communion together and sing "There is a Fountain" which we learned a few weeks ago; an old hymn that celebrates the symbol of Christ's blood that signifies his atoning death on the cross for our sins.

We'll close with "Eternal Praise" which looks forward to the day we'll worship God together, before his very throne!

That's what's going on, I gotta head out to a baseball game with the men of Crossroads! See you Sunday!

Preparing for Worship: July 18th

Hey guys! So the boss is out of the country this week, and we have been totally partying it up at the church office while he's gone! You should definitely stop by the office during the week sometime and see how crazy it is! Or at least you could stop in and enjoy our A/C for a few minutes. Summer has finally decided to drop in, and with a vengeance!

This Sunday we're welcoming guest speaker Andy Bales to Crossroads, and it'll be great to hear from him and be encouraged and challenged from God's Word, and from real life examples from the Union Rescue Mission.

We're going to start the service with the songs "For You Are the Lord" and "Let Your Kingdom Come" as we seek to realign ourselves with God, and understand that He is the reason we gather, his will is what we seek when we gather, and he is also the means by which we gather, since Christ has given us access to the Father through his death and resurrection.

Since Pastor Todd's away, our elder, and worship band bass player, Steve Stark, will lead our corporate time of prayer, and extend an "official" welcome to our new visitors. He's going to give us an important and exciting update on our new Youth Pastor, and some cool things coming up in Children's Ministry. Then he'll dismiss to a quick greeting so you can run over to your friend and give 'em a bear hug before we dive into a "new" song that's really an old hymn called "There is a Fountain" which is an artistic ode to the symbol of Christ's substitutionary death on the cross for sin: his blood. While the lyrics might seem macabre at first, they really communicate a joyful and glorious truth: that because Christ shed his blood on our behalf, we can be forgiven of our sins! We'll follow that song with "Completely Done" as we triumphantly declare that Christ's offering of blood is a sacrifice that needs no repeating, EVER!

Then we'll welcome our guest, Andy Bales, to the stage to teach us. I've not had the pleasure of hearing Andy speak before (aside from short tidbits we've seen in Union Rescue Mission videos), so I'm excited to hear what God has put on his heart to communicate to us!

We'll close the service with the song "Exalted (Yahweh)" and then our other elder, and worship band guitar player, Wayne Dell, will close off the service with a few announcements and pray for our weekly offering.

So that's what's happening this week; can't wait to worship with you this Sunday! Happy prep!

Preparing for Worship: July 11th, 2010

As you can see, we have a really cool weekend coming up at Crossroads! Sunday night is our annual church barbecue! Come by Northbridge Park in Valencia from 6-8pm and hang out with us!

Sunday morning we're going to be having a congregational vote to affirm the calling of Ed Boness to be our Student Ministries Pastor. If you've taken our membership class, we need you to be there to vote! If you're not a member, we still would love for you to participate in affirming Ed for this ministry, so be sure you're here this week!

The rest of the morning is going to be great, and I pray God will be honored by everything we do, say, and think during the service. We'll start off with a super upbeat set to help wake us up! "Better is One Day" is a helpful song of refocusing and refreshing as we realize that we are coming to worship the Lord together and be refreshed by being in his presence. Encountering the presence of God should always lead to an honest look into our own souls and an awareness of our sin; it's the light of God's holiness and righteousness illuminating the dark and sinful parts of our hearts, and it's a good thing! "Because of This" is an outright celebration of the fact that though we were born into slavery to sin and death, we've been made free and alive because Christ died and rose again!

Then Pastor Todd will lead us in prayer, and do the official welcome thing, and give a few instructions to visitors. Then we'll all participate in the vote to call Ed Boness as our student ministries pastor; have I mentioned that we need YOU there??

Then after a greeting time, we'll continue the singing! The old hymn "Jesus Paid it All" continues to examine the idea that our sins no longer count against us because Jesus paid the price in full for them on the cross. This is the theological idea of "justification." That God did not just say "oh well, I guess I'll forgive your sins" because his holiness demands that payment be made for those sins. He did not take that payment from us, because we could not make that payment sufficiently enough to satisfy his righteous standard, it would have required our utter and complete death and demise; we had no hope of heaven. But now, because of Christ's death in our place, we can trust that God is perfectly just in forgiving our sins because perfect payment has been made on our behalf! Our God is both a perfectly loving and perfectly just God.

It's this idea, coupled with Pastor Todd's sermon text, that helps us understand God's heart for justice in our world. Though injustice will inevitably exist because of the curse of sin, as God's children and ambassadors to a lost world, we are called to pursue justice and righteousness in all things. Nehemiah finds out about some injustices that are going on within his people, and he responds well to the situation (you'll have to come to hear how he does it!). How do we respond to the injustice around us? How do we respond when we hear about people suffering in other countries, or even in other cities? What do we do? We come to church and sing and pray to God that our lives would honor him, but in Micah 6:8 God lists his requirements for worship:

1) to do justly
2) to love mercy
3) to walk humbly with Him

Simple, and extremely difficult at the same time. That's why we're learning "You Have Shown Us" together this week. That we might be more aware of this in our own lives, and that we might learn how to carry this out in everything we do. If you guys have any thoughts to add to this, I'd love to hear them; click the comment button at the end of the post of you'd like to share...

Then Pastor Todd will come and teach us from Nehemiah 5, and you'd do well to CLICK HERE and prepare your hearts for the authoritative preaching of God's Word.

Then we'll close the service with "Glorious and Mighty" to remember that though injustice will always plague us in this life, that "over all the plans of the nations, Your judgments reign!"

That's what's going on this week at Crossroads, so hopefully we'll see you there, and you'll be ready to jump right in!

See you Sunday; happy prep!

New Song: You Have Shown Us

Hey Crossroaders, I wanted to share this song with you that we'll be learning this week. It's called "You Have Shown Us" and it's a song that was born from the CompassionArt project.

It ties in really well with Pastor Todd's passage of Nehemiah 5, and the theme of social justice and living rightly because of the fear of the Lord. CLICK HERE to read the Scripture text and get a head start on preparing for Sunday's worship service.

Check out the simple but powerful lyrics that come from Micah 6:8

You have shown us O God what is good
You have shown us O Lord what You require
You have heard all our songs of how we long to worship You
Yet You've told us the offering You desire:

To do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with our God
You said to do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with You God

You have shown us the riches of Your love
You have shown us Your heart for those in need
Lord You're opening our ears to the cries of the poor
You have called us to be Your hands and feet

To the oppressed and the broken
To the widow and the orphan
Let the river of Your justice flow through us

Check out one of the writers, Martin Smith, singing the tune in this video:

Preparing For Worship: July 4th, 2010

I am so glad to be back with you this weekend at Crossroads! I was away serving at the Resolved Conference in Palm Springs last weekend, and although it was a wonderful weekend of stellar preaching and gospel-saturated, moving worship singing, it was not my church family!

I'm blessed to have Dan lead you when I'm gone, and I'm thankful for the great job I hear he did.

This Sunday is the fourth of July! In case you missed the memo, we're only having ONE service this Sunday at 10:00am.

We're starting off with "Before the Throne of God Above" to help wake us up the the reality of the gospel, and what it means to have true freedom, not just from governments or nations, but from sin and death; as the song says "my soul is purchased by his blood, my life is hid with Christ on high..."

Then Pastor Todd will come and lead us in corporate prayer and welcome any Independence Day visitors we might have. Then we'll show a quick video recap of the two VBS programs we held last week at the URM and over in Newhall. I was able to be at the URM for two of the days, and what a wonderful, and exhausting time of ministry!

Next we'll sing a couple songs that remind us of the free gift of salvation that we have been given through Christ; a timely reminder in the wake of the VBS programs where several children gave their lives to Christ. "Alive in Christ" and the new song that Dan taught last week: "By This We Know Love."

These songs both touch on the sin that held us in bondage, and had indeed rendered us spiritually dead. Pastor Todd is preaching from Nehemiah 3-4 this week where the Jews encounter significant opposition to their efforts to rebuild the city. They continue to trust God, and pursue his will for them, despite the despair and hopelessness that they suffer. This is such an important truth about the Christian life, one where we daily fall short of God's holiness and struggle with sin, but are called to walk as children of the light, and be holy as God is holy. We encounter discouragement when we fall to sin and fail to eradicate it in our lives, but when we faithfully confess that sin, we are confident that God is faithful to forgive it because the cost has been paid by Christ's death on the cross! Our sin causes us to cling to the gospel more tightly!

Pastor Todd will come and preach God's word to us at this point. Something I've been realizing lately, is that no matter how many people hear God's word preached on a given Sunday, or how deeply they understand and interact with it, God is still honored and pleased when his truth is expounded, and that is reason enough to do it, and Pastor Todd is so faithful to do just that. I'm thankful for his commitment to the Scriptures. CLICK HERE to read Nehemiah 3-4 as you prepare.

Then we'll celebrate communion together and I'll share a song I shared a few months ago, and have been burdened to have us sing together since then. It's called "Confession Song" and really deals intimately with the struggle of feeling like sanctification isn't taking place quickly enough, and our sinful nature still rages within us. You can download the song from the Crossroads website by CLICKING HERE.

Then after communion, we'll revel in the fact that though "a thousand times I've failed, still Your mercy remains. And should I stumble again, I'm caught in Your grace!!!!!" with the song "From the Inside Out." I hope that in my own life, these songs and God's word will affect the way I live after participating in them with you all!

That's what's going on, happy preparation! See you Sunday for ONE Service at 10:00am.

New Song: "By This We Know Love"

My keyboard player and friend, Dan Kush, is leading worship this week for me as I'm away at the Resolved Conference in Palm Springs. He'll be teaching this song so check out this great video and get acquainted with the words and the melody so you can belt it out right away when the body sings it together on Sunday!

"By This We Know Love" 
by Judah Groveman
Copyright 2009 Sovereign Grace Praise


God of all creation, Lord of heaven's light
Descended into evil's darkest night
Infinitely holy; Your perfections know no end
Selflessly You died my rightful death


By this we know love: that He laid down His life
God's very own Son came from heaven to die
Suspended He hung as He shed His own blood
What grace in His pardon; by this we know love


Forsaken Man of Sorrows, hated by all men
You willingly surrendered for my sin
Scornfully derided, yet in silence stumbling on
Bearing wrath for all that I've done wrong!

Preparing for Worship: June 20th, 2010

Happy Father's Day! It's another great "secular" holiday that has so much more meaning for Christ-followers. We are certainly thankful for the dads in our lives, and it's wonderful to show them the appreciation they deserve, but what a great reminder that our dads here are meant to help us understand the heavenly Father, who is God over all.

Some have dads that epitomize love, consistency, patience, and strength in our minds; while some have dads that seem to epitomize the very opposites of those things. What a stronghold of truth to know and trust that our heavenly Father is PERFECT in all things, and that he cares PERFECTLY for his children, and LOVES to pour out good and PERFECT gifts on those that seek after him. Sometimes our idea of "good and perfect" doesn't always match up with the Lord's, but we know that nothing exists outside of God's sovereignty, and we rest in that.

This week Pastor Todd and his family left for vacation in Maui! They'll be enjoying Father's Day on the beach drinking fruit punch from a pineapple. At least the weather in Valencia has been really nice too; we won't feel too cheated!

That means we have a guest speaker this week. His name is Bob King, and he's one of the pastors of the Sojourners ministry at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley. Sojourners is an all-ages ministry group with a specific focus in Old Testament Studies. Bob will be bringing us a special Father's Day message entitled "Like Father, Like Son...Really?" which you don't want to miss!

Musically, we have our flautist, Jim Morris, joining us this Sunday which is always fun, and we're breaking in a new electric guitarist, Brian Baker. We're going to sing "Come Thou Fount" as an opener and an invitation to the Spirit to help us bring glory to God. Then we'll focus on our Father's Day theme and sing "The Father's Love."

Then one of our elders, Darren Utley, will lead in a time of welcome and greeting, and he'll also be giving us an exciting announcement/update for our Youth Ministries. Basically we have a strong candidate for the position who will be coming to Crossroads on the 27th, and will be teaching in our Youth Group meeting during 2nd service that day. Then Darren will have us all say a quick hello to our fellow Crossroaders, and then we'll be back to singing about our heavenly Father with "How Deep the Father's Love for Us" and "I Give You My Heart" which will be a fitting response as we commit our hearts and lives to honor and glorify the Father who adopted us into his heavenly household from the slums of death!

Then Darren will introduce our guest speaker and Bob King who will come and proclaim God's Word to us. I'm honestly not sure of which scriptures he'll be using in his message, so I can't link to any specific passage, but I found a great video clip of CJ Mahaney talking about God as Father which I recommend you check out by CLICKING HERE.

We'll close with the simple tune "You Alone" as we remind ourselves and each other that only God is truly Father over all, and good above everything!

That's what's happening this Sunday, so BE THERE or I will sprinkle jelly beans on your lawn!

Preparing for Worship: June 6th, 2010

Alright, this is going to be short and sweet. I spent all night at Disneyland last night with my wife's high school as a chaperon for "Grad Night." I have that "stayed up all night" gross feeling so I need to go and take a shower and a nap!

This Sunday is Promotion Sunday for our Children's Ministries classes, ages Kindergarten through 6th grade will all be promoted to their new grade level and classroom. You can find out where their new room is at the check-in desk in the front lobby. We're going to be rocking the bounce house all morning long too!

We're going to be commissioning some folks from Crossroads as they go out on Summer missions trips to: India, Haiti, Thailand, and Uganda! We'll pray for them that God would do a mighty work in each of their lives and that he'd use them and their teams to bring glory to his name all around the globe.

Here's what the morning is gonna look like: We'll start with "Indescribable" and then Todd will come lead in prayer and welcome new visitors and what not. Then we'll learn "Because of This" which is one of the songs I wrote for Resurrection Sunday this year and is available as part of a free (donate if you want) downloadable EP called "Resurrection Songs" that you can find by CLICKING HERE. Check it out!

Then we'll go right into "Offering" which is a great tune reminding us of how we come before God, and the awe and reverence that needs to characterize us as we do so.

Then Pastor Todd kicks off our new study in Nehemiah by setting up the historical context of the book and giving us a general introduction as we dive in to chapter 1. CLICK HERE to check out chapter 1 of this book as we embark on a new part of our journey through the Scriptures.

Then we'll celebrate communion together and sing through "Jesus Thank You" as we remember the death of Christ on our behalf.

We'll finish up with a song of new life and victory through Christ aptly titled "Alive in Christ."

That's what's happening; don't miss it! Happy prepping.

New Song: Because of This

I'm excited for us to learn one of the songs I wrote to celebrate the Resurrection at Easter this year! It's called "Because of This" and it focuses on the resurrection of Christ as the reason we can be free from sin and death.

If you have not downloaded the free "Resurrection Songs" EP from the Crossroads website, please CLICK HERE. It's the second song, and the download comes with a digital lyric booklet that you can access right on your computer once it's downloaded!

Hope that's easy enough, and that you have a chance to listen to the tune and get a handle on it so you can sing it easily and confidently on Sunday!

Leave me a comment if you have any trouble. Thanks!

Preparing for Worship: May 30, 2010

Pastor Todd and I posted our fourth "This Sunday @ Crossroads" video blog this week, and I don't think we really expected it to be so hard to come up with ideas for our videos, so we just decided to be honest about it and ask for help. If you haven't watched it yet, please CLICK HERE.  It's a good thing we don't have to come up with new ideas each and every week for our worship services! We'd be in trouble really quick.

This Sunday is still notable however, because we are going to finish our expositional study through the book of Ephesians. Pastor Todd has been so faithful to study and prepare sermons each week that help us understand the heart of this letter from a loving pastor to a faithful church. Through this time each week, the Spirit has helped us understand the nature of the new life we've been given when we surrender to the Lordship of Christ. He's helped us to pursue love and unity within the body of Christ; the church for which Jesus laid down his life. He's taught us that day in and day out we're in a spiritual battle, and the importance of dressing ourselves spiritually.

So we're sad to end this valuable study, but we're excited to move ahead to our next study in the book of Nehemiah called "Arise and Build." So come hear the apostle Paul's final thoughts to his beloved church at Ephesus!

As for the rest of the morning, it's gonna be familiar to ya, so prepare yourself to come and contribute. Ask the Spirit to guide you as you engage in conversation, as you sing, pray, study, and give, that through your participation others might be built up in love, and God might be honored!

We're going to start with the song "Here I am to Worship" which might seem like we're stating the obvious to God: "Hey God, we've come to church this morning to worship." I've found that sometimes you need to remind yourself of the purpose of whatever you're doing in order to really do it well and with the right motivation. Why do we worship God?? Because he's "altogether lovely" and "altogether worthy" are good reasons to start. It's an older tune these days, but the truth is still just as real. AND you should know it by heart by now! ;-)

We'll roll right into the hymn "Praise to the Lord, the Almighty" which is one of my all-time favorite hymns because it is just chock-full-to-the-brim-and-even-overflowing-a-little with rich doctrine and truth about God. Truth that, when it cuts to your heart and soul, is enough to weather any storm and persevere any trial. "SURELY his goodness and mercy here DAILY attend thee!!!"

Todd comes up to do his usual prayer and welcome shtick and I thought it'd be fun to have all you blog readers mess with him a little during this time (I'll do it too). Wouldn't it be funny if we were all like a little too excited for his "routine" welcome and instructions to visitors? Like if we all got up on the edges of our seats and opened our eyes real big like we had no idea what he was going to say, and that any moment he might choose one of us to receive $10,000? It has to be subtle, but if enough of us do it, I think it could freak him out a little. Leave me a comment at the end of the blog if you're IN. And if you don't want to, then FINE!

After a quick greeting, we'll sing some more as we learn the new song I posted yesterday "Exalted (Yahweh)" from Chris Tomlin. This is a cool tune that is right outta Scripture, and the way it builds up in intensity as it goes into the bridge is truly a superb musical moment; thank God for the marriage of words of truth and music! Then we'll take a scene out of Revelation where all the ruling elders of the world throw their crowns down at the feet of Jesus and cry holy, holy, holy with "We Fall Down."

Then Pastor Todd will come and share the "series finale" of Ephesians. As I expressed in the video blog, I closed the door on a significant chapter of my life this week as I watched the final episode of LOST. I think the writers of that show were tremendous storytellers, and though there were mysteries left unsolved, the finale was very satisfying to me. I hope Todd's sermon measures up! CLICK HERE to read Paul's final words to his friends in Ephesus.

We'll respond with one closing song, which is actually just going to be the same song we learned and sung earlier: "Exalted (Yahweh)" so you'll really have a chance to learn this one and belt it out with everyone!

That's what's happening this weekend at Crossroads so I hope you're not going away for the holiday weekend; we need ya! Happy prep!

New Song: Exalted (Yahweh)

Hey guys, we're going to learn a really great song from Chris Tomlin this Sunday, so I wanted to post a video of the song with the words so that you know how it goes and can come prepared to sing it loud and strong on Sunday!

Check it out:

Preparing for Worship: May 23, 2010

How to prepare for this Sunday:

1) Wake up early Sunday morning and stretch

2) Eat a small warm-up food like a banana or an apple

3) Wear your pants with the elastic waistband

4) Bring your coffee travel mug to reduce trash and refill trips

5) Bring a bib

This Sunday is one of our favorites of the year. We call it "P3: Preaching, Praise, and Pancakes," and we're excited to share it with you! We'll be serving hot, fresh, fluffy pancakes all morning long (starting around 8:30) so come ready to partake.

I can't think of a better way to either start or finish a morning of corporate worship, so don't forget to prepare for the rest of the morning:

Starting with a two-song, refocus-our-worship-gone-astray-throughout-the-week set with the tunes "Nothing but the Blood" and "That's Why We Praise Him." An old hymn focused on the sacrificial death of Christ symbolized by his blood, followed by a contemporary response to Christ's life, death, and resurrection!

Then Pastor Todd will come lead us in prayer for the morning, and he'll give the usual welcome to visitors and give us a few seconds to run around a greet people with a hug and a handshake.

We'll pick the music back up as we sing from the Psalms about the love of God enduring "Forever," then focusing in on that love displayed through the death of Christ to make us his sons and daughters with "The Father's Love," and right into the infinite power of that love to break the powers of sin and death with "Stronger."

Pastor Todd's gonna bring us God's Word from Ephesians 6:13-18 which you can read by CLICKING HERE. It's the passage about the armor of God, and if you've already watched our "This Sunday @ Crossroads" video blog, you heard Pastor Todd and I talk about the importance of taking the time to dress ourselves spiritually for the battle that rages all around us! You also heard me say that the worship songs we lift to God in praise are actually helping to fortify that armor as it reinforces the truth of scripture in bite-size melodies and choruses that can come back to us quickly in times of need. If you haven't watched the video blog yet, just CLICK HERE.

We'll bookend the sermon with the song "Friend of God" as we realize that God has provided this armor to us because we are no longer at enmity with him! We put on the armor to combat the spiritual enemies that surround us (pride, lust, the world, Satan, etc.), but what a glorious truth that we no longer are enemies of the all-powerful and victorious God! We are not his enemies, but his friends! He has brought us into his household as adopted sons and daughters even!

So that's what's happening this Sunday. It's a BIG week, so don't miss it! Prepare to come eat, praise, and study God's Word with us together, and you'll be blessed! Happy prep!

Preparing for Worship: May 16th, 2010

Another Sunday gathering is almost upon us! Sometimes the week feels long enough between Sunday services that I wish we had another service in the middle of the week, and other weeks it seems like I barely put my guitar away and then I have to take it back out for rehearsal the next week!

This has been one of those whirlwind weeks filled with meetings, video projects, recording, and "Etc." It was especially busy for our Ministry Assistant, Rachel, whose grandmother passed away the previous week; and she was taking care of a number of things for the memorial service this past Thursday, which she said went very well.

It's been a week of trial and triumphs, of pain and of praise, and I love the way that the body of Christ comes together to share in all of the above with each other. I often remember a cutesy saying from a magnet my mom had on our fridge that said: "friendship doubles our happiness and divides our sorrow." What an important biblical concept! The body of Christ is called to rejoice in each other's joys and cry with those who are hurting; may Crossroads be a place of that kind of community!!

We'll lead off with two really great tunes that loudly proclaim our new life in Christ because of his atoning death on the cross: "Alive in Christ" and "Jesus Paid it All." The new life we have in Christ is the whole reason we are able to gather and offer a pleasing sacrifice of worship to God at all. Without Christ's blood we are DEAD in our sins, and to quote Pirates of the Caribbean: "Dead men tell no tales." Nor do they offer due praise to almighty God! So take this chance to live out that new life you've been given and come sing and worship with us!

We'll take a few moments to do our usual housekeeping stuff: welcoming everyone, especially visitors (we LOVE visitors!); committing our time to God for his glory and our edification; and saying a quick greeting to one another.

Then we'll sing a couple of tunes that help prepare us for the topic of the sermon text for the morning. "Let God Arise" is a song that comes from the book of Psalms and focuses on the invincible might of God; that when he arises, his enemies are scattered and he reigns forever! Then we take that thought and apply it to the day and age we live by understanding that God rules over nations, and states, and cities. That Valencia is God's city, and he has a perfect plan for this city that will glorify his great name. "God of This City" sings confidently that greater things are still to be done in our city to lift high the name of our Lord!

Then Pastor Todd will come and teach us from God's Word; from the apostle Paul's letter to the Ephesian church. He's talking about the battle that rages all around us; the nature of that battle and how we can prepare ourselves to stand firm in the strength of the Lord.  CLICK HERE to read the text we'll be studying this week and allowing the Spirit to apply to our lives in ways that honor and please him.

Then we'll land the plane with a song of victory from Psalm 62 entitled appropriately..."Psalm 62" that we can take with us and remind ourselves that God is our everlasting, never-failing fortress in time of spiritual warfare.

So that's what's going on this week; hope to see you there! Happy preparation!

Preparing for Worship: May 9, 2010

I love celebrating holidays on Sundays because I think holidays mean so much more in the context of God's sovereignty. I mean even the word "holiday" is a derivative of the phrase "holy day" which dates back to the 10 commandments telling us to remember the Sabbath and keep it holy. Crazy huh?

So Mother's day is always the second Sunday in May, and celebrating and appreciating moms as a wonderful gift from God is so appropriate. Families and mothers alike get the chance to reflect on God's goodness displayed in the person of "Mom."

For some, Mother's Day is a sad reminder of moms who've passed away, or a would-be mom who's had difficulty conceiving. We certainly don't mean to stir up painful emotions or memories, but again, we understand the gift of mothers and motherhood in the context of the sovereignty of God. We understand and give thanks for God's perfect plan at work in each of us and our families and we grieve with those who grieve at this time of the year!

I thought we'd change up our worship band a little for the special occasion, and so I've put together a "boys only" group for Mother's day to serve all the gals and mothers of Crossroads. We're strapping on a bunch of acoustic guitars and changing up the sound of some of our well-known songs and we hope it's a blessing to you, and most importantly, to the heart of God.

Pastor Todd and I have started something new that we hope you'll find helpful: a "This Sunday @ Crossroads" video blog that you can find on the Crossroads home page. CLICK HERE to watch the video and find out what to expect this Sunday.

Okay, welcome back. So here's a snapshot of the morning:

We'll begin with a couple of songs to jump start our worship time together: "The Father's Love" and "Eternal Praise," which are both great songs to get us focused on the Lord and on the hope of eternity with him that we've been given through Christ.

Then Pastor Todd will come pray and welcome everyone, and then we'll have a quick plug for an upcoming Women's Fellowship event that I believe is called "Tasty Treats and Testimonies." That definitely sounds like a name for a women's event. I would love to listen to an announcement for a Women's activity that's called something like "Cage Fight" or "Armageddon Ball." I suppose we'd have to even it out with a Men's event along the lines of "Candles of Care" or "Flowers and Feelings." Hmmm, those are some pretty good titles; I think I should email them to Beth Moore for her next DVD series... ;)


After a quick greeting, we'll continue our time of worship-through-song with a couple of songs that really teach us about the personal and intimate relationship we're intended to have with Christ. "Perfect Savior" is about how Christ was the perfect fit for every need we had as lost, hopeless sinners, and how he died the death we deserved. "Draw Me Close" reminds us that our relationship with Christ, as any relationship does, involves experiencing and feeling his presence in our lives through the Spirit. It's a song that teaches us to trust that his strong and loving presence surrounds us always.

Then Pastor Todd will preach a special Mother's Day message from Luke 10 (CLICK HERE to read the passage) that will speak to mothers (and anyone!) who feel like they're invisible sometimes to the people they love. We need to remember that our work and efforts are seen and appreciated by the one who sees everything: God. That our work is not for those around us, but for him.

We'll close up our time with the tune "Glorious and Mighty" securing the knowledge of God's omnipresence and his careful eye into our minds with a soaring melody of God's greatness.

That's what's going on; prepare well! See you Sunday!

Video Blog: May 9, 2010 - Mother's Day!

Preparing For Worship: May 2, 2010

"Worship is the gift of participating by the power of the Spirit in the incarnate Son's communion with the Father." ~ James Torrance

This quote is a great summation of understanding the role that each member of the Trinity plays in our redemption and our worship. How amazing that Christ's redemptive work for us on the cross is done, but that even now he sits at the right hand of the Father forever proclaiming us as justified! "My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin, but if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous." 1 Jn 2:1

The Spirit is alive in the hearts of the redeemed and on a daily basis directs us in righteousness, convicts us of sin, illumines the truth of Scripture, and helps us know how to apply it to our lives. In the corporate worship setting, he molds our hearts together in biblical unity, and gifts us to encourage each other in the Lord. It is a privilege to be a part of the supernatural sculpting and crafting of the body of Christ by the Spirit, and I hope it's a privilege for you as well.

It's with this view of the Spirit's power and work that we'll invite his active presence and submit ourselves to his leading and purpose by singing "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" which asks the Spirit to:
-tune our hearts to sing of God's grace
-teach us the melodious sonnets of the angels
-lead us safely to our heavenly home
-bind our wandering hearts to God
-seal our hearts for the courts of heaven above!

That's a pretty hefty list! I think of the lists that my wife will leave for me, and in comparison I have it EASY. As you practice this tune in preparation for Sunday, consider what the Spirit may want to do in your heart and ask him to go to town!

Then Pastor Todd will come and echo that song's sentiment as we pray for our morning that God would be honored by our time and that he'd teach us and mold us a little more into the image of his Son.

Next we'll sing the new song I posted earlier this week called "Eternal Praise" and go right into "How Great is Our God." Check out the video for Eternal Praise so you can practice it and be able to sing it with us Sunday; plus I made the video myself!

Then Pastor Todd will continue to teach from his mini-series "The Haustafel" as we steadily plow through the remainder of Ephesians. He's on part four this week and it's the section that addresses slaves and their masters. Since slavery is illegal in our day and age, many have found it helpful to apply the principles taught here to the employee/employer relationship. CLICK HERE to read the passage this week and ask Pastor Todd why the Bible never condemns slavery...

After the sermon we'll share the Lord's Supper together, remembering the sacrifice of Christ on the cross; how he offered us a new covenant in his blood! This is sort of a solemn and meditative portion of the service, but it's also very meaningful as we consider that he was put to death for the sins of each of us. During communion we'll sing "Once Again" to help us connect heart and mind as we thank Christ for the cross.

We'll close with "The Stand" recalling our new life and freedom because of the cross, and we'll commit to stand, arms high and heart abandoned, in awe of the one who gave it all for us. Announcements and a prayer of blessing as we give our tithes and offerings and we'll call it a day! That's what's going on, so happy prep!

New Song: "Eternal Praise" by Enfield

I'm excited to teach this tune to you this week from the band Enfield with whom I have had the privilege of playing at the Resolved Conference for the past two years. The song was written by my friends Ryan Foglesong and David Zimmer specifically for the album "O For That Day" which is an entire album of songs devoted to the theme of heaven. The album has been a blessing to me and many others as it has helped cultivate in us a desire for the sinless perfection and joy that we'll experience when we either go to be with the Lord through death or he comes again in glory.

Here are the lyrics:

What joyful thoughts doth heaven bring;
where righteous ones will worship Thee?
No sadness, fear, or suffering;
but joyful cries to the King of Kings!
What sacrifice the Father made:
to crush the Son who bore our shame,
Yet raised him up that glorious day
to give us hope and a holy name!

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

"O praise the name of Jesus"
our song forever shall be.
Let the anthem of salvation
be the song that we shall sing.

What deepened wounds have saved our souls;
what blood that washed our sins of old!
What precious hands have ransomed men
and brought us to Himself again!
What hope is in our heavenly home,
where we will bow at our Father's throne,
And walk with Him on streets of gold
and kiss the Christ we long to hold!

Behold the city of the King: hallelujah!
His glory is the air we breath: hallelujah!

Since there were only partial clips of us playing this tune at Resolved, I recorded a simple video to help you learn the tune. Check it out!

Preparing for Worship: April 25, 2010

Another Sunday is around the corner and it's another opportunity to bring our offering of worship to the Lord with the community at Crossroads. As we do so, it's also an opportunity to reap wonderful benefits: being refreshed by the fellowship of believers, being reminded of Christ and the gospel through the songs we sing and the scriptures we study, encountering the Holy Spirit in a unique way as he works in both the heart of the individual and the heart of the congregation as a whole.

We shared a spectacular time together last weekend as we hosted The Children of the World. My wife and I chose a child to sponsor after their concert last Sunday night, and each time I walk by the fridge and see her picture I am reminded of the command of Jesus to look after widows and orphans, and how so much of the world lives in extreme poverty. I appreciate the message of World Help (the sponsoring agency of the Children of the World): Just start with one. The problem of poverty and not enough clean water is a daunting mountain, but it can only be climbed one step at a time.

I hope that events like that and our times together each weekend are causing growth in each of our lives. We must beware of complacency that would relegate the corporate gathering of the body of Christ to "just another activity." I'm praying hard today that the Spirit would stretch us and grow us because we are faithful to meet for prayer, praise, and preaching (also: pancakes next month on the 23rd...). Let's strive together to make each time we're together a profitable one through prayer and preparation...

so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
-Ephesians 4:14-16

This week we're going to start with "Enough" and "For You Are The Lord" (sorry I don't have a link for that song!) that are great tunes to help us shake off the distractions and the sleepiness and put the Lord in focus. I've mentioned before that this opening portion of the service is usually referred to as the "Call to Worship" but I like to think of it more as a "Refocus" of our worship which tends to slip away from Christ and onto ourselves or other things in life. We are always worshiping something, so the ever-present task is to keep that worship directed towards the one who is worthy of all praise!

We'll take a few moments to corporately ask God's blessing on our time as we offer it for his glory. I know that sometimes this part can feel programmatic and "liturgical" (same thing, same way, same time, every time), but I really think it's the most appropriate time to do it since we've taken some time to really settle our minds in to worship. We need God's Spirit to be active within each of us during this time otherwise we're just putting on a show. It's the Spirit that does the real work through the various aspects we participate in together. This part of the service is a fundamental exercise in submitting to God's authority and the Spirit's power, so pray hard!

Then we'll get to greet each other and welcome visitors (DON'T skimp on that second part!!), but again, in the Spirit we're greeting with purpose: affirming each others' faithfulness in being there, encouraging participation and unity, and offering a loving smile or hug.

Next we'll jump into a few more songs: "In Christ Alone" and "God of This City" that will help prepare us for a time of individual and corporate prayer for the folks we wrote down on our "Strive for Five" cards. If you've still got that card somewhere at home, try and bring it with you for this time. If you don't know what "Strive for Five" is, it's a church wide exercise in prayer and witness to unbelieving family and friends. You can pick up a card where you fill in the names of five people in your life that you will commit to pray for and share Christ's love with. We'll take a minute for silent personal prayer, and then a couple more minutes to pray together as a few of our folks lead us from the front. We'll lead right into the tune "Let Your Kingdom Come" as an appropriate closer to this time.

Then Pastor Todd will come and preach God's Word through the apostle Paul's letter to the Ephesians, and specifically to the "children" of the household in Ephesians 6:1-4. CLICK HERE to read this passage as you prepare for worship. Todd's sermon is the third part of a mini-series called "The Haustafel" which is the German word for "House Table" as the apostle Paul takes a proverbial look around the table at each household member and instructs them in their God honoring roles. CLICK HERE to listen to part 1, and CLICK HERE to listen to part 2.

We'll respond in song with the tune "You Alone" as we remember that we walk in roles not simply for effective household management, but as an offering of worship to God who ALONE is father, and good, and Savior!

SO that's what's happening on Sunday morning; looking forward to a super morning together, and allowing the Spirit to grow us so we're not just a social club, but a living, growing body that grows more and more into the fullness of Christ!

Happy prepping!