Preparing for Worship: March 7th, 2010

What a week! I've spent some time with some great people, had some wonderfully authentic conversations, and received some gracious and loving counsel as well! I'm really thankful for the body of Christ. Ministering to one another is one of the greatest purposes of the church but sadly is often neglected.

This Sunday we get to gather again and offer corporate confession, thanksgiving, supplication, and praise to God. We also try and cultivate relationship with one another within Crossroads, but is this really possible during the 10-15 seconds you see someone during our greeting time??

Our Sunday morning worship services are primarily about corporate worship; when the whole body gets together to do the thing we were created for: dialog with the Lord, expressing our prayers and praises to him, and seeking his word for us through His Word. The Spirit works in our hearts and minds to help discern how we can apply God's truth to our individual lives, but we seek to grow in the knowledge of God as a whole.

Our Life Stage groups is one way we try to facilitate the cultivation of relationships here at Crossroads. Age-based groups that share appropriate teaching and discussion really helps relate people one to another. From there, it's our hope and desire that you'll take those relationships outside of Crossroads and into your own homes, or softball games, or other recreational activities where you can really share the day-to-day of life with each other.

So if you haven't been to a Life Stage group yet, you should at least find out more about them. Here's the basic info:

-Foundation: Students in grades 7-12

-YAM (Yound Adult Ministry): College and "Career" age

-Young Marrieds: Couples married less than five years (generally...)

-Family Matters: Couples or individuals with kids in school (pre k - high school generally...)

-Legacy: Couples or individuals who've raised their families and want to pour themselves into establishing their legacy for future generations

For more information on any of these groups, leave me a comment, or email info@lifeatcrossroads.org.

This Sunday...

"Hallelujah (Your Love is Amazing)" is the tune that we'll sing to bring us in, and to focus us on the reason that God sent his Son: his great love for us while we were yet sinners. I think sometimes we can get into the routine of knowing God loves us. Sometimes we might even think we are just that lovable! The fact is, that when we were straight up ENEMIES of God because of our sin, he STILL loved us. Loved us so much that he desired to repair the relationship we had screwed up in the Garden of Eden. Loved us so much that he had his Son, Jesus, put on humanity, and then be rejected, despised, and tortured before he was put to a criminal's death.

All for us. While we were yet sinners. Because of HIS great love.

So then we'll pray on that, and be reminded in our minds and in the deepest part of our souls. Todd will give a quick welcome to visitors, and then we'll go on the hunt to do the same. I've always thought it'd be kind of fun to have a competition with my friends to see who could find and welcome the most visitors the fastest...just a thought...

Next we'll sing "He Lives" which is that old hymn that we've given a little bit of a blues twist to! CLICK HERE to check out a samples from our Worship Band CD ("He Lives" is about 3/4 down the page). The CDs are free, so if you don't have one, be sure to pick one up from the ministry table this Sunday. Then we're going to learn a new song that really fits with the passage from Ephesians that Pastor Todd is preaching from this week. It's called "Alive in Christ" and it's a song that was written by my good friends Ryan Foglesong and David Zimmer. I play with them at the Resolved Conference, and you can check out the video by clicking the song title. I'll teach it to us, and then we'll all sing it together and just GO FOR IT.

Then Pastor Todd will come and preach from the apostle Paul's letter to the Ephesian church. We're working our way through the book, and it's amazing to see how much rich theology we've covered up to now. The first half of the book really describes our salvation, and who we have become in Christ, and the second half is helping us figure out how to live that out in a way that honors God! It might be a good time to take 20 minutes and read from the beginning of the book up to where we are this Sunday, chapter 5:8-14 which you should ALSO read. In fact, I think that's such a good idea, that I'm NOT going to put a weblink for the sermon text! HA! Now you HAVE to actually read your own Bible! I'm so sneaky.

At the close of Todd's sermon, we'll share a time of remembering Christ's death by taking communion together. We'll sing "Jesus Paid it All" while we take the bread and the cup, and then we'll all eat together after the song. If you're not familiar with communion, or if you are not a Christian, it's totally fine to let the plates go by. The Bible says to not take communion unworthily, and it's not like it's a 5-star meal you're missing out on; it's a small wafer cracker and a tiny sip of grape juice.

Then we'll close our time together by responding to the apostle Paul's declaration and command to "live in the light" by singing of the "Marvelous Light" that God has called us into from the darkness of our spiritual death in sin.

So that's the deal for this week. I hope you're looking forward to it as much as I am! Happy Prep!