God...Help Wanted

I don't know about you, but I often catch myself doing things on my own. Recently, after a particularly frustrating Sunday morning (low attendance, low energy, sound problems, set-up problems, bad cell phone reception, and no milk for my cereal) I found myself asking, "What am I doing wrong?"

And it hit me, "That is what I'm doing wrong. I'm doing it all myself."

It's pretty sad when you're a pastor and you find yourself not relying on God. We can only lead people where we ourselves have gone. After some time of confession and stepping back to catch my breath, I talked to my wife. We realized we both had been struggling with our spiritual energy.

I'm reminded of God's promise to us in 2 Corinthians 12:9 " “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” When I'm weak, I'm tempted to fix myself. In reality, God is already at work.

Here's a couple of books my wife and I have found helpful in keeping our spiritual momentum maintained:
-The Power of a Praying Husband
-The Power of a Praying Wife

The Gift of Worship

In this month's issue of Collide Magazine (www.collidemagazine.com) Gary Molander of Floodgate Productions writes, "In our day, 'great worship' has become something that moves my heart, not something that moves his."

It's a concept as old as "Church" itself, and yet we still face this on a daily basis (or weekly basis, in terms of Sunday worship): Why do we go to worship?

The opening question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism asks this:
Q: "What is the chief end of man?"
A: "Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever."
This should inform our Heart of Worship as well.

My favorite portion of the article was Molander's comparison of corporate worship to being the guest at a birthday party:
"In corporate worship...competing desires show up with power and passion-- the simultaneous desires to outwardly give something, and to inwardly receieve. We bring gifts to give the celebrated birthday Boy (worship), and we end up wanting to keep these gifts for ourselves.

Your Heart of Worship

Here at LWC, David (our Lead Pastor) and I meet every Tuesday to plan our Sunday worship time. If everything is running smoothly, we plan 2 weeks in advance.

One thing that is important to us (though hard sometimes) is going over the good, bad, and ugly of the previous worship time. Sometimes, we have problems out of our control; other times we have problems because we had too much control.

My main contribution to Sunday morning comes down to music and media. David and I work to create a good atmosphere so folks can encounter God's presence.

I've been looking for some kind of evaluation tool that we could use to "rate" how well our music, media, etc. has gone. These so called "Worship Evaluations" aren't too hard to find. Rick Warren at Saddleback has a good one (http://www.pastors.com/RWMT/article.asp?ArtID=7193). Calvin College has one, too (http://www.calvin.edu/worship/planning/insights/12.php).

This one stood out from the pack, though. It was in the Sept/Oct issue of "Rev!" magazine (yes, even Reverends have their own mag). I found it again online at the Corinth UMC blog. (http://www.corinthmethodist.com/PastorsPage.dsp) It's an evaluation not of "worship," but the "worshipper." It got me wondering how I would measure up on an average Sunday:

Rank “1” as low and “5” as high. IMAGINE THIS IS GOD SPEAKING TO YOU!
___You prepared yourself for worship long before you arrived at church.
___You arrived on time for your appointment with me.
___You expressed your adoration of me with enthusiastic singing.
___You confessed your sin to me with complete honesty.
___You gave joyfully and sacrificially to the work of advancing my kingdom.
___You heard the announcements as invitations for your growth and my service.
___You humbled yourself in reverence at the reading of my Word.
___You recognized the unique Word that I prepared for you in today’s sermon.
___You gave thanks for the ways you saw me at work during the past week.
___You shared your needs in faith that I hear and can handle them.
___You opened your heart to my closing benediction.
(Adapted from Rev! Magazine Sept./Oct. 2007

Halo 3 and our Church

I recently read the September 15th issue of WIRED magazine. The cover story on "Halo 3" caught my eye. In it, we learn of the science behind the art of creating the latest installment in this popular franchise.

I was struck with one particular aspect of the article:
"Pagulayan makes a note... It is his job to find flaws in Halo 3 that its creators, who know what players SHOULD do, might not be able to see. He assesses whether the aliens have gotten too lethal, whether the revamped Needler guns are powerful enough, and — most important — if and when players are getting bored or (as is more often the case) frustrated..."

The article goes on to say how the developers have spent a great time studying problem areas in the game...where players are getting stuck, lost or killed again and again. They then correct these problem areas to bring gameplay back into balance. Note that the game designers don't say "too bad," or "this game rocks and you're just not good enough."

Now, what does this have to do with our church? I catch myself (and I know many others are tempted as well) creating a ministry opportunity that I think is great, perfect, progressive, deep, etc... and then folks don't like it. They don't show up, they burn out, or they miss the point. My knee-jerk reaction is to get mad or frustrated and think everyone else is wrong. They're the ones with the problem, right?

Not so, according to Halo 3. Leading a ministry where it needs to go requires a delicate balancing act between doing the will of God and remaining open to the feedback or criticism of participants. It means being willing to go back and re-plan or re-group. It means forgetting what (in gamer speak) "players SHOULD do," and realizing what they ARE doing, making small corrections to take the gamer through to the next level.

http://www.wired.com/gaming/virtualworlds/magazine/15-09/ff_halo