Steve’s Sunday Blog
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Sorry I have been away from the blogosphere for a couple of weeks. Two Sundays ago, I was at the First Baptist Church of Madison Indiana as they celebrated their 200th anniversary. It was fun.
Last Sunday, I left town immediately after church and was not around a computer until Tuesday, The busyness of the week grabbed ahold of me and I didn’t get my blog written. Sorry.
Worship went really well today. We were missing Mike as he adds so much leadership to the service. Doug did a great job in his stead- his playing was wonderful.
I went into worship today with the plan of timing all of the elements in the service. We have had some services recently that seemed to be a little long and I want to get a handle on why. I have no problem with a looooong service if it is because the Spirit is at work. Sometimes, however, rather than the Spirit working, services run long because we didn’t plan well or something went whacky. How long should the typical worship service last in our church? What do you think? Personally, I don’t see a reason why a service should last longer than 70 minutes unless the Spirit leads in an unexpected way. I was always amazed at Promise Keepers events when the meeting seemed to take some spontaneous, spirit led detour but still ended exactly when they intended it to end. Planned spontaneity? Without being negative, how would you assess the flow of our service? What would like to see us do that we aren’t doing now?
Communion was sweet today. I perceive the communion service as beginning with the call to worship and ending with the song immediately following the Supper. Mike does a great job of putting the opening elements of the service together to enhance our communion time. I have never been a fan of recited prayers, but I really like how we do a recited, yet personal, prayer, and then have that silent time to commune with God followed by a scripture reading that ties into the theme of the prayer. It works really well, I think.
Choir- great job. Your song led us naturally into our time around the table.
Doug did a great job introducing the offering. Way to go guy!
I like the way Ruth Ann tied the children’s sermon (starting next week, we are calling it “lessons from the basket”) to the celebration of communion.
Praise and worship was sweet. I love the song “Shout to the North.” You may not have noticed that Gordon and Adam now have wireless monitors. If you see ear buds in their ears, it is not because they are listening to the NFL pre-game shows. Through those tiny ear pieces, they hear the rest of the instruments and the singers.
The sermon is part two of a three part message on finding our natural spiritual pathways. The premise is that we all approach God a little differently and that it is important to know what pathways lead us into fellowship with him. Last week, we did an assessment to help us discover our natural spiritual pathways. How did you do? What did your assessment indicate about your spiritual pathways? Do you agree?
Today and next week, we are looking at those spiritual pathways in the sermon time. The seven spiritual pathways we are examining are:
Relational
Intellectual
Worship
Service
Activist
Contemplative
Creation.
The point of the study is to help us approach God naturally. Sometimes we watch others and are amazed at their ability to understand scripture or their intensity in worship or their desire to serve. We can feel guilty that we aren’t like them. The reason we may not be like them is that God made us differently and our natural connection with Him comes a different way. The goal of the messages is that we find freedom to connect with God the way He has intended us to connect with him.
I am looking forward to hearing your feedback.
Grace, Steve
Steve,
I was going through blog withdraw for a bit.
I am going to answer your question on the spiritual pathways first before I answer the rest of the questions in your blog. For me the top two were the Worship and Activist pathways. I think I agree with those two. Whether it is correct to or not, I equate praise and worship music more closely with a Worship service than any other part of the service. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good, impactful sermon, but I feel close to God whenever I am singing a worship song. Along that same line, I feel much more moved by the Spirit when the song we are singing is a contemporary praise song. Perhaps this is because I am listening to Christian radio stations like WBGL all of the time, or perhaps I listen to WBGL because God created me to love that style of music and He knows it draws me closer to Him. Sometimes I feel restricted at FBC when it comes to Worship. When I am at home or driving in the car I feel free to raise my hands, clap, close my eyes(not while driving)… whatever I feel God leading me to do at the time. Maybe I have some Pentecostal blood in me. At church I don’t feel that freedom. I feel that it would be frowned on.
As far as my Activist pathway goes, I feel like I am connecting with God when I am doing things for Him. Take the Trunk or Treat for example. I personally wouldn’t have enjoyed it as much as I did if I wasn’t running around with my head cut off making sure that everyone was having a good time and things were running smoothly. I like to be active and doing things. I am not sure if that is good or bad, but I am sure I will find that out soon.
One of my weakest pathways was Relational. I like to be alone and I am not good at making new friends or approaching people I don’t know. Once I know someone I am fine, but I am more a person that likes to keep to himself so I can understand how this can be my weakest.
In regards to your question regarding the worship service I have a few opinions and ideas. You probably knew that I would since worship is my strongest spiritual pathway. I like the overall flow of our service. You and Mike do a wonderful job of arranging it. I agree that a service shouldn’t need to last any longer than 60 to 75 minutes. Although I hate it when a Pastor is worried about the time and cuts the sermon short because it is running too long. I love contemporary praise music in a worship service. The more contemporary the better. To me contemporary would be songs written after I was born or even after my daughter Amanda was born. Like I said earlier, I guess that this is based on the fact that I listen to this type of music so much. One of the most moving services I have been involved is the Easter Sonrise Service that they Pulse did this year. There was no sermon, and no Steve that is not why I liked it so much, and it lasted close to 45 minutes I think. It was very visual and meditative. It started off with a lighted wooden cross in the corner of the sanctuary. The sanctuary lights were off as everyone came into the sanctuary. They found their seats as low worshipful music was played. When the service began one of the youth read a verse of scripture then Kelsey or I asked for everyone to listen to a song and meditate on the meaning of the song and we gave them a specific word to think of such as love or sacrifice. The Scripture and then the specific word were projected onto the screen while they were being read. Then a song was played from the Media Computer. The song was a contemporary worship song and it was played softly to allow meditation. We repeated this for several songs and then played the Moen song Arise. Once that song was done a clip from the Passion of the Christ was shown. The clip was the final scene where the stone was rolled away and the camera panned around to show the Jesus stand up and walk out. As soon as the clip was over the youth in costume ran into the sanctuary shouting “He is risen”… the lights came on as they walked/ran through the sanctuary. Once the youth were up front they read scripture and we started into the more upbeat and energetic praise songs. Everyone in the congregation stood and we were clapping and praising God for His son We ended th eservice with the song Arise again. It was an amazing experience. I know that his was a special service, but breaking the routine and trying something different created a genuinely worshipful experience for everyone involved. I don’t want to change everything about our service, but I think it would be cool to mix things up from time to time. You know, things like tying the entire service to a Christian music video or a human video or having praise time from 8:30 to 9:00 then leading into service. That is just me though and my Worship pathway shining through.
great comments danny.
i am sorry i missed the sunrise service last year.
you mentioned feeling awkward raising hands, clapping, etc in worship becoz you are afraid it will be frowned upon. several years ago, i had an eye opening experience. i had never been a hand raiser in church because, like you, i was afraid as to how it would be viewed by the congregation. i attended the pk pastors’ conference in atlanta and in the midst of worship there, learned the joy of abandonment when i raised my hands in worship. i could have cared less who saw me or what they thought of me- raising hands was a spiritual act of worship and the freedom i felt in that moment was awesome. as i returned home to my conservative congregation, i struggled with a decision. will i now deny a new found freedom and way to express worship or will i be who God has called me to be in Christ. that Sunday, the hands went up- perhaps to some shocked looks but i didn’t care then and i don’t care now. when i am singing, i love to close my eyes and lift my hands and embrace the loving grace of my Father.
all that to say- be who God made you to be in him.
I was gone earlier in the week, just got back on Thurs. Personally, I love the mix of music we have. I love many of the old hymns – many of them have amazing lyrics. They also remind me of our senior members now – who were not so long ago the lifeblood of our church. I also enjoy singing the new music. I think we need to make sure we are open to all types of worship….new songs, old songs, raising our hands, clapping…I see people raising their hands every Sunday – and don’t notice any frowns around them…the more we do it, the more comfortable we will be with all styles of worship – and more able to welcome any believer into our congregation. Actually, I think the service could be a little longer sometimes. I love a good sermon and am willing to sit a little longer to allow the entire message to be shared. Don’t worry so much about the clock. Let the message flow through the music, mission moment, children’s sermon and the sermon. Whatever time it takes will be just right!
I am really enjoying learning about the pathways. As we learn about them it will help us understand each other. I too am low in relational. Now I have a better understanding why some people really get into small groups – I could never really “get” that before and now I understand why. Thanks for an ah-ha moment!