Sing Unto The Lord
Our choir’s anthem this Sunday went very well and was very well received, so I thought I would post it as a way of recognizing what a talented group of singers we have. Enjoy!
They Returned With Great Joy
Sunday Morning Sermon for April 27, 2008 – delivered by Rev. Dr. Charles Howell
They Returned With Great Joy (Luke 24:36-50)
Feel free to right-click and select Save Target As… to download to your computer, or simply hit the small button to the left of the title to play!
How To Be In The Band
I’m in a trial this week, so very busy, and we didn’t have any blank CDs Sunday to record Pastor Charles’ sermon to post, so I’ll quickly post the following video… Enjoy!
Glenwood Neighborhood Association Benefit Dinner
Glenwood Presbyterian Church would like to invite members of GGNA to a special dinner:
*GGNA BENEFIT DINNER*
Sunday, April 20th, 2008 at 6:30pm
Glenwood Presbyterian Church, 1205 Glenwood Ave. (corner of Glenwood & Oak) in the Fellowship Hall Building
The dinner starts at 6:30 and is casual. Then at 7:00 the band Christian Endeavor will play in the Sanctuary followed by a short presentation by GGNA leaders and a Bible Study by Rev. Dr. Charles Howell, who was raised in Glenwood and is now the interim pastor at Glenwood Presbyterian. The members of Glenwood Pres. are all looking forward to learning more about GGNA and recognizing GGNA’s service to the community.
This Week’s Articles
Since my wife complained that I had too many articles in my last collection post, I figured I would post them more frequently. These are articles that I read that stick out to me, so I favorite them and post them when I get around to it…
- Potential Bad News For Our Band, Christian Endeavor:
A Michigan church filed a federal lawsuit after police officers, led by a local prosecutor, entered the sanctuary at least twice without a warrant alleging the church’s music was too loud and, in one instance, threatened to arrest church musicians for disorderly conduct.
- Sometimes The Simplest Outreach Ideas Are The Best
Every Sunday morning, Bradley J. Hales stands in front of Reformation Lutheran Church , Culpeper, Va., and waves to passing cars on Main Street—outreach with interesting results.
- American Idol Shouts To The Lord, But Changes Lyrics: This one wins for most unexpected evangelism event of the year…
- The Barna Group Looks At Tithing Ignore the paragraph that starts, “Strangely, tithing is a Jewish practice, not a Christian principle espoused in the New Testament.” Otherwise, some pretty interesting statistics.
- Sometimes The Simplest Outreach Ideas Are The Best – Part Two: I plan to use this one at Glenwood sometime this year. Thanks for sharing, Chuck!
The Unquenchable Worshipper – Chapter Six
The Unquenchable Worshipper is written by Matt Redman, author of the song “The Heart Of Worship.” By posting about it, I’m not only sharing it with you but it gives me an opportunity to really digest it and think about it.
Chapter Six – “The Unstoppable Worshipper”
In this chapter, Matt Redman gives some great examples of “unstoppable worshippers.” Here’s a sampling:
- Charles Wesley: In 1744, while holding a prayer meeting in an upstairs room, the floor gave way and 100 people crashed to the room below. Wesley’s response – he starts singing the Doxology, “Praise God from whom all blessings flow.”
- David: When he defeated Goliath and when his family hated him for God’s sake.
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Hanged for taking a stand against Hitler and the Nazi party, he left his cell saying, “This is the end – but for me, the beginning of life.”
- Paul: In prison for the sake of Christ, he prayed for more boldness in evangelism.
- Rachel Scott: Asked by the Columbine High School Shooters if she believed in God, her response was, “You know I do.” She was shot through the head.
- Stephen: who continued to preach as he was being stoned.
- And of course Jesus: Redman points out the likelihood that He and the disciples probably sang Psalm 136 after the last supper just prior to Jesus’ arrest. The Psalm repeats the phrase “His love endures forever” 26 times.
The real point of this chapter, however, is to contrast these amazing stories of boldness with our lack of boldness generally in worship. Redman tells a story from his youth, and I could tell several of my own. We are so worried about being labeled Jesus Freaks that our worship is stopped or stunted. According to Redman:
”Unstoppable worshippers are adventurous hearts, taking every opportunity to demonstrate the good news of God to this world.”
Feed My Sheep (April 13, 2008)
Sunday Morning Sermon for April 13, 2008 – delivered by Rev. Dr. Charles Howell
Feed My Sheep (John 21:1-17)
Feel free to right-click and select Save Target As… to download to your computer, or simply hit the small button to the left of the title to play!
The Unquenchable Worshipper – Chapter Five
The Unquenchable Worshipper is written by Matt Redman, author of the song “The Heart Of Worship.” By posting about it, I’m not only sharing it with you but it gives me an opportunity to really digest it and think about it.
Chapter Five – “The Unveiled Worshipper”
In Exodus, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai after a close encounter with God, his faced glowed such that the people could not look at him, so Moses would wear a veil. However, when it came time to talk with God again, the veil would come off.
Redman points out that this shows the deep revelation of God and how it changes those who experience it. “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” (2 Corinthians 3:18)
The main thrust of this chapter is in discussing the two “sides” of God – the awesome power and glory and majesty of God and the intimacy he calls us to and sent his Son to die on the cross to allow. “Far from competing with each other,” Redman says,
“intimacy and reverence actually go hand in hand. The Bible tells us that ‘the friendship of the LORD is for those who fear him.’ (Psalm 25:14) When the fear of the Lord meets the friendship, that’s when this mystery really kicks in. How can it be that the eternal God would beckon someone like me into His everlasting arms?”
Redman suggests some things about our worship that should change with this new perspective. Our eyes should be fixed firmly on Jesus instead of on how we are doing and what we have gained. We should prepare our hearts for the encounter with Almighty God as one would take the time to dress for a formal occasion, and finally, we should remember that there are times to reflect on who He is and bow down in worship or stand in awe of God.
Good quote at the end to sum it up:
“In an age of informality and irreverence, true unveiled worshippers recognize the ‘otherness’ of God and treasure the call to intimacy with Him. Transfixed by His glory and transformed in His presence, we become ever more like Him.”
The Unquenchable Worshipper – Chapter Four
The Unquenchable Worshipper is written by Matt Redman, author of the song “The Heart Of Worship.” By posting about it, I’m not only sharing it with you but it gives me an opportunity to really digest it and think about it.
Chapter Four – “The Unpredictable Worshipper”
Drawing from the story in Mark 14 of the woman who anointed Jesus with an alabaster jar of expensive perfume at Simon’s house, Redman indicates that the woman was an unpredictable, untamed heart on a quest to see Jesus glorified. He makes the point that there should always be something fresh and surprising in our worship. Sharing a story of his own experience leading worship on one occasion, Redman says nothing seemed to be clicking when suddenly a secular song with a positive message popped into his head and he decided to play it. It turned out that this particular song spoke specifically to the circumstances of one particular person that night.
Redman is careful to point out that there has to be a balance between unpredictability and the desire to make sure that worshippers can keep up with what is going on. One helpful phrase he uses is to replace the idea of “worship leader” with “lead worshippers.” In the sense that the Holy Spirit is ultimately the worship leader (see Philippians 3:3), the human worship leader then “becomes more of a lead worshipper who tries to follow the leadings of the Holy Spirit and throw himself or herself wholeheartedly into worship as an example for others to follow.”
I think the main point I take from this chapter as a worship leader is to make sure that our worship service doesn’t fall into the rut of doing the same things in the same order each week. In planning a service, I should always be open to doing things slightly differently or adding new things once in a while to keep the service fresh. In addition, I should be flexible enough to go with the flow of what I am feeling at the time – I’ve certainly seen things happen in worship that were not planned and were obviously the work of the Holy Spirit.
Here’s my favorite quote from the chapter:
“A relationship with the living God shouldn’t just fade away or wear out like an old pair of shoes. It’s meant to be new every morning, just like the mercy it responds to.”
The Unquenchable Worshipper – Chapter Three
The Unquenchable Worshipper is written by Matt Redman, author of the song “The Heart Of Worship.” By posting about it, I’m not only sharing it with you but it gives me an opportunity to really digest it and think about it.
Chapter Three – “The Undignified Worshipper”
The inspiration for this chapter stems from David’s life where the Ark of the Lord was being brought back to Jerusalem and David says, “I will celebrate before the Lord. I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes.” (2 Samuel 6:21, 22)
Here’s a quote from the beginning of the chapter:
“Here was a man of great stature (David) . . . Yet he led the way, ‘losing’ himself so publicly in his worship of God and so on fire with praise that it burned right through any inhibitions or pride. True worship always forgets itself.”
At the end of the chapter, Redman gives the warning that our undignified worship can not be about putting on a show. It must instead be an overflow of the abundance of love in our heart for God. This is important for me to remember as a worship leader, and the hardest to continue to do – point people to God without taking any of the attention for myself.
This is a chapter that is most foreign to my church upbringing. Worship for me was always done in a set order with little or no show of emotion (good or bad) even during the singing of hymns. Worship was …. serious. And this may not be an altogether bad thing. Worship can certainly go too far the other way and become a show meant for entertainment rather than an encounter with God. But I have always wondered why I can get so excited or emotional over a ballgame, but suppressed those emotions when they were in response to something much more important. And I must say, I have been very undignified during a ballgame many, many times. A little less there, a little more at church – I’m working on it.
One illustration Redman uses is the hymn “O For A Thousand Tongues To Sing” by Charles Wesley. Here’s his quote from the book:
“When I first heard this hymn, I thought to myself,
a thousand people singing to God isn’t that impressive. After all, we’ve probably been in meetings bigger than that. But then I discovered what Wesley was really imagining. He was picturing himself having a thousand tongues! He was saying, “I wish I had a thousand tongues, because if I did, I’d praise God with every single one of them.” In one sense utter foolishness, yet a beautiful picture of extreme worship.”
Subscribe to SHINE Blog
Subscribe to Comments Also
- Final Destination — Heaven
- Overcoming the Mountain of Death
- Overcoming the unseen mountain: Satan
- Overcoming the mountain of anger
- Overcoming the cycle of pain in the family circle
- Overcoming: Take Two Giant Steps Forward
- Guests of God
- New Year: Not Just Another Day
- Meditations by the Manger
- God’s Catalog
- Meaning of Christmas
- Christmas in the Heart of God
- SHINE!
- Glenwood Presbyterian Church
- Chosen Fast
- Glenwood Comm. Ministries
- GUPY
- Marshall
- Life in the G
- Into The Hood
- Christian Endeavor
- Small Church Pastor
- Daring To Hope
- Attorney Notes
- Mayberry Church
- Gsboro Hive
- Grace Church
- All My Fountains
Recent
Links
Site Admin
- February 2010 (4)
- January 2010 (4)
- December 2009 (3)
- November 2009 (5)
- October 2009 (4)
- September 2009 (4)
- August 2009 (5)
- July 2009 (4)
- June 2009 (4)
- May 2009 (26)
- April 2009 (32)
- March 2009 (36)
- Christian Endeavor
- church articles
- College Ministry
- Contemporary Worship Service
- DP Series
- Glenwood Choir
- Glenwood Neighborhood
- Glenwood Presbyterian Church
- Homecoming
- Pastor Search
- Pastor Vernon McDaniel
- Personal Prattle
- Religious Ramblings
- Rev. Charles Howell
- SHINE
- SHINE Blog contest
- SHINE Blog Tips
- SPARK
- Sunday Sermons
- The Courtroom
- The Evolution of Shine
- Uncategorized
- What I'm Reading
- Worship
- Young People