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.