Never Say Die(t)

Garfield the Cat once said that "diet is die with a t". I agree. Diets stink. They stink because I don't get to chow down on the yummy things I love to my heart's (or my tummy's) content. Just a few extra pounds around my waist can make a big difference when it comes to wearing my "fat pants" or my "skinny pants". Winter is always my favorite season because I can hide my flab under bulky sweaters and coats and still look okay. My metabolism is much less forgiving than it was in my youth and it seems to require twice the effort today to work off half the desserts I enjoyed last night. Snarl.

The truth is that I often reflect in my life the excess of our culture instead of the self-control promised by the presence of the Spirit in Galatians 5. My friend, Emily Smith, said she saw a napkin once that said, "I didn't over eat, I was over-served." I've been guilty of over-serving myself plenty of times at the buffet with no one to blame but myself and my out-of-control desire to medicate myself with food.

Could it be that diets would be rendered useless if I lived a balanced, Spirit-controlled life? Could it be that the excess weight would never appear on my hips and thighs in the first place if I exercised a little more discipline on a daily basis instead of waiting for the mirror to break into hysterical laughter at the sight of my hideous jelly rolls? Undoubtedly, yes, but I'm not entirely there yet. I'm a struggling human, a mere mortal, and I have yet to ascend to the mountain of dietary perfection (though I am determined to never stop trying).

I think we use worship like we use food, hoping to medicate ourselves with it at times. For some of us, worship is an opportunity to hide in the crowd. For others it is chance to forget all about the world and our problems and to get caught up in the exuberance and excitement of the crowd, only to exit the building and fall right back into the same sewer we crawled out of. For a select few, it seems, worship is exercised in its proper perspective as one of several major spiritual disciplines and as a reflection of how we usually conduct our lives.

If we don't watch ourselves, the trend toward performance-driven "worship" in the church is going to catch up with us like too many doughnuts. We'll look in the Biblical mirror one day and realize that we've become fat on empty carbs and sugar. When we try to flex some spiritual muscle it will all have atrophied and the enemy will trample us with silly worship wars or immorality. When we choose to use worship music as a church growth tool we're inching ever closer to the dessert bar with bowls for pudding in both hands.

The root word for discipline is disciple and a disciple is one who is disciplined. I don't know about you, but I want to fit back into my "skinny pants" not to just look good but to feel good. I want to live the kind of disciplined life in and for Jesus that makes diets an unnecessary thing of the past. I want to be ready to follow Him wherever He leads and not be so gorged on fluffy Christianity and religion that I lack the stamina and outright holy health to complete the assignments He gives me. I don't want a doughnut to divert my destiny.

Be encouraged. Live. Love. Lead. And never say die(t).

Crop Dustin' for Jesus

We live in a new subdivision nestled between soybean fields and pecan groves. We're not far out in a rural area at all, but there is a lot of farm land around us. There's a horse farm across from our entrance and we get to see beautiful quarter horses every day when we drive out so we keep up with them and talk to them like we own them, noticing when they have new foles. Donna laughs at me when I say, "Oh, look at the little pony!"

Occasionally we see the most daring of pilots, those cowboys of the air, cropdusters, buzzing very near our house. I was out for a run this morning, actually, and saw one doing its daredevil tricks over a soybean field just a block or so from our house. They amaze me as they dip down low over the crops to release their fertilizers or insecticides and then pull straight up into a sideways kind of turn to come back around for another run. I think I would toss my cookies real quick if I were in the plane with them.

In 1st Corinthians 3:7-9 Paul said, "So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building." Those of us who lead worship, teach, or serve in our local churches have no room to boast when it comes to the spiritual process. God is the one who gives the growth. But that doesn't mean that we don't have a place in the process or are not important to it. God, in His sovereignty, uses us to do His work.

Sometimes I think it takes as much guts to be a worship leader, teacher, or servant in the church as it does to be a crop duster. Just as the daredevil pilot takes chances flying so low and fast over the fields (I actually knew a guy who crashed doing this very thing) we take chances trying to fertilize the field of God's people. We're not always received well. I heard just this morning of a large church embroiled in a worship war. Sometimes we're misunderstood on a musical, doctrinal, or emotional level. Sometimes we would rather take the less dangerous and easier route of never dipping too low into the lives of the people around us for fear of crashing.

I want to encourage you today to take some chances. I want to call out of you that daring spirit of leadership that isn't afraid of the rejection of others but is ready and willing to follow the Spirit of Christ into some harrowing maneuvers as He directs. We don't need to do foolish things fueled by our own neediness or desire to be recognized, but we do need to be ready to follow the flight patterns of the Spirit. Got your helmet on?

Be encouraged. Live. Love. Lead.

How to Be an Engaging Worship Leader (Take a Candle in the Closet)

I got kicked out of the high school marching band in 10th grade because I was always late for class. Band was first period and the director required everyone to be ten minutes early and to be in place and ready to go. Somehow I just couldn't get there early enough to have my trombone out and warmed up by 7:20 a.m. even though I lived right across the street from the school. They practically court marshalled me. I am scarred for life.

Sometime during that rocky period of my life I remember having one of the few heart-to-heart talks with my dad about the band and my accruing demerits. He was a music lover all of his life and he played guitar, fiddle, banjo, and mandolin quite well. He was very eclectic in his tastes and we heard everything in our house from Flatt & Scruggs bluegrass to Mahler symphonies. Being able to love all kinds of music was one of his best gifts to me. During that talk he said to me, "Well, John, if music isn't fun to you don't do it anymore."

I realize that we have to do a lot of things in life that aren't fun for us. We have to work to pay the bills. We have to take the garbage out. We have to mow the lawn. We have to go get a prostate exam or a colonoscopy. The litany of un-fun things we have to do as reasonable adults is lengthy, but leading worship and being a worship leader should never make that list. Worshiping God and leading others to know Him intimately should top the list of the most fun we can ever have in this life!

Somehow through that conversation with my dad I realized that the militaristic approach that my high school band director took chased all the fun of music away for me. Putting aside the fact that I was completely undisciplined in every area of my life, his goals in music were completely different from mine. He wanted to win awards for himself and the school by having a top notch marching band. I just wanted to play my horn and have fun.

I meet a lot of worship leaders who do not share the same goals as their senior pastors. For many leaders the fun went away a long time ago but they continue to march as best they can hoping that somehow, miraculously maybe, things will get better. Sometimes they do. Often they don't. How can we expect our congregations to enjoy worship if we don't? How can we be engaging if we aren't engaged?

The key is to remember the reason we got into this and to return to our First Love. If somewhere along the way its gotten harder to show up early and stay late, if we've lost the joy of loving God when we're home alone or in the car, if we've lost the fire in our bellies to see people light up in worship it's time to step back a little and regroup. Take a little time off or go on a silent retreat for a couple of days. Conferences can be good, but they may also be an opportunity to feel more overwhelmed as the hosts try to sell you on their products, etc.

Why not set up a worship spa in your home? I have a large closet in my office that is big enough for me to walk in and pray. When people are in the house I turn on music and go in the closet if I need to get away. I light a candle, get under my prayer shawl from Israel, read the word and pretend I'm Abraham Lincoln for a while. I ask God to return to me in love, life, hope, joy, and holiness. I ask Him to reconnect me with the calling He has placed in my life to lead worship. I ask Him to refresh my love for Him and for others. I've stayed in there for hours at a time. Once my wife thought I'd been asphyxiated by burning a candle too long in a closed closet.

Is worship fun for you? Are you flirting with burnout and need something to help you? You could go into your prayer closet. Or you could call me. I have a great conference with lots of products to sell.

Be encouraged. Live. Love. Lead.

Chiz

Finding the Perfect Song

Have you ever wished you could find THE song that would make everyone sing along? If you're like me you've actually thought that you had found it a time or two in songs like SHOUT TO THE LORD, or HOW GREAT IS OUR GOD. Then one day a well-meaning soul in your church comes up after service and asks, "Do we HAVE to sing that song again?" One person actually told me once that they would scream if they had to sing a certain song again. So is there a perfect song out there to be had? The song to end all songs? The answer is YES.

Revelation 5 gives us a glimpse into the worship of heaven. Great beasts, elders, angels, and the throne of God gather up in an apocalyptic explosion of worship! We get to see the hosts of heaven and the redeemed saints surrounded the eternal throne of Almighty God and sing a song in three stanzas - we actually KNOW the lyrics to this perfect song!

Revelation 5

6Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. He had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits^[a] of God sent out into all the earth. 7He came and took the scroll from the right hand of him who sat on the throne. 8And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. 9And they sang a new song:
   "You are worthy to take the scroll
      and to open its seals,
   because you were slain,
      and with your blood you purchased men for God
      from every tribe and language and people and nation.
 10You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God,
      and they will reign on the earth."

 11Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. 12In a loud voice they sang:
   "Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain,
   to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength
   and honor and glory and praise!"

 13Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing:
   "To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb
   be praise and honor and glory and power,
         for ever and ever!" 14The four living creatures said, "Amen," and the elders fell down and worshiped.

The melodies of heaven will be very different from our own. The music will be beyond anything we've ever experienced here on earth but I am convinced that we have tasted it many times here already even if we aren't aware of it. I think there will be something familiar in it because it will flow from the Spirit of God in, around, and through us. Ephesians 1 says that we have the seal of the Spirit now. I believe the song of heaven, that perfect song, will be more natural than breathing. We will inhale and exhale the very worship of God.

Move Your BANANAS!!

Our family often uses the self-service check out at the grocery. We always laugh when the electronic voice barks out commands after weighing our produce, especially when she says, "Move your... BANANAS!" There's always a slight pause between the move your and the bananas. We think it's funny, anyway! It's almost like she's proud of herself for figuring out what kind of produce she's just weighed. Sometimes we'll say it randomly to crack each other up.

When was the last time you cracked up? Can you remember the last belly laugh you had? God created laughter and it is part of His nature to enjoy humor. I'm sure that some people take issue with me for having so much fun in worshiping God, but I believe worship should be as fun (if not MORE fun) as anything else we do. There is a time to be serious, of course, but I can always tell when I am "flowing" in the Spirit because my humor is there and people tend to laugh and enjoy themselves.

I've had more people than I can count say after one of my workshops, "If I'd known it was going to be this much fun, I would have invited people!" We religious people tend to take ourselves much too seriously and we often miss the joy of holy laughter. The Bible tells us that "the joy of the Lord is your strength" (Nehemiah 8:10).

Want to have a little more joy and spiritual strength today? Try walking up to someone and saying randomly, "Move your... BANANAS!"

When the Music Fades

Today is my daughter's last performance as ANNIE (check out my Facebook page for some pics). She's done thirteen shows and has had an absolute blast doing them, but it all comes to an end after today's matinee. You'd have to know her to know that she was born for the part (everyone says so) and that she even came out of the womb with red hair. This was her first lead and she has done a marvelous job, says the proud Papa! It has been her dream to play this part and we've stocked up on anti-depressants now that the show is ending!

Sometimes, as church-going Christians, we can get hooked on the adrenalin of the praise music, preaching, and fellowship we experience on Sundays. The writer of the Book of Hebrews (most scholars think it was Paul) said "let us not stop meeting together" (Hebrews 10:25) so, of course, we shouldn't but I wonder sometimes if we're not looking for the wrong kind of stimulus from it. Considering how performance driven we've become in our churches these days it seems easy to me that we would all begin to be conditioned to being "pumped up" by the music and excited by the exhortations and forget the transforming work of the Holy Spirit.

We'll pray our daughter through her "post-adrenalin" let-down over the next week. She'll miss being Annie, but there will eventually be new roles for her to conquer. But what about the rest of us? Can we worship effectively at home or in the car with no music, no preaching, and no one else around?

In my workshops I help believers go deeper in their personal worship lives and to look at corporate worship as a time to contribute instead of to receive only. When the lights go down and the stage is bare, what song is playing in our hearts?

Toe Jam

I stumped my toe last night on the chair leg. It hurt. I didn't curse but I did say a few unintelligble things to express the pain.

My family was watching the Olympics and I got up from the couch to go to the kitchen for a snack. My wife had set some couch pillows on the floor between it and a chair and I stumped my next-to-the-last little toe when I stepped around them. It throbbed all through the night and I thought I might have broken it. This morning it appears that I just jammed it badly. It's bruised, but I'm going to live.

As believers we often jam our little toes and sometimes our biggest ones. In our attitudes and even in our behaviors we show that we're still bumping into issues we've struggled with our whole lives. Like Paul in Romans 7:19 we can say, "For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do-this I keep on doing."

We will all struggle with sin from time to time, no one is immune. Some sins are "worse" to us than others, but all sin was consumed by Christ on the cross and dealt with there once and for all in a spiritual sense. I was thinking about that during the night when my toe was hurting and the Spirit whispered to me a verse from 2 Corinthians 5:21 that says, "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." I hadn't thought about that verse in a long time and it hit me with a ton of joy!

Our view of sin, grace, and forgiveness is often clouded by ignorance and our brokenness. We project onto God how He must feel about us based on how we feel about ourselves. But when we stumble or crack our little toe on the chair we must run like the prodigal to the Father's arms again and see ourselves as He sees us: totally forgiven, cleansed, whole, precious, redeemed, and perfectly at home with Him because Jesus took all sin, past, present, and future to His cross for us.

Seeing ourselves as He sees us is the key to authentic praise and worship, healing, and living the kind of life that is fully connected with God.

Praise Him!

Inside Out with Your Mother-in-Law

My mother-in-law got here yesterday for two weeks. For many men, I realize, this would be bad news. For me, though, it is great news - she is a dear woman, a saint of God, and we have always gotten along famously. We love to cook together and tell jokes and play games and laugh. She is fun! My favorite memory of her will always be her tubing behind the pontoon boat on a lake at over 70 years old! (We do have it on film, too!)

My mother-in-law is a picture of graceful aging. She has maintained her humor and her good-natured view of life even though she has suffered some tragedies along the way, including the death of an infant many years ago and the death of her husband of 53 years just last year. Through the storms of life her faith has held her up despite the sorrow.

Our faith and worship should do that for us, too. In many ways, real worship is about believing what's right in spite of ill circumstances in life. Anyone can whine and complain about what is going wrong - it takes a real worshiper to stand in the face of the storm and declare that God is good no matter what life throws at us.

Be encouraged today. Live. Love. Lead.

Surviving Sundays

"Listen to my prayer, O God,

do not ignore my plea; hear me and answer me.

My thoughts trouble me and I am distraught

at the voice of the enemy,

at the stares of the wicked:

for they bring down suffering upon me

and revile me in their anger." Psalm 55: 1-3

I am convinced that King David must have written this on a Sunday morning right before church! Does it ever seem to you that Sundays are the hardest day of the week? If it isn't the kids acting up when getting ready for church its the praise team you're leading acting up with their attitudes or tardiness, the pastor in a tizzy, or someone in the congregation complaining before church even starts. Why is worship leading so hard sometimes?!?

After our church split I wound up moving equipment in and out of a convention center each Sunday, a job I didn't ask for and didn't want! By the time I sat down at the piano at 10:00 I was mad at God and everybody. If God blessed the worship it wasn't because of me. Sometimes when I was in the worst mood He would bless it the most to spite me. People would come up at the end in tears saying it was the best service we'd ever had and I didn't feel like the Holy Spirit was within ten miles of me.

In the end, I realized that God blessing the worship had a lot less to do with me than I wanted it to be. There's still something in me that wants to take just a little credit for people connecting with God. There's still a bit of fleshly pride in me that wants recognition for my voice or leadership skills. There's still too much of me in the mix. John the Baptist said, "I must decrease, He must increase." Would to God that that was my attitude all the time!

I think the best strategy for surviving Sundays might be to realize that the enemy hates Sundays and will do all he can to make them miserable. To become selfless and to surrender them to God may be another great starting place and to once again don the robes and sandals of a servant, losing the spangled costume of a performer in need of accolades and applause. It also helps to keep some candy in the car for the kids.

Facially Booked

My daughter set up a Facebook account for me the other night and didn't tell me. When I woke up and checked my AOL mailbox the next morning I had 19 friend requests! It made me happy. I like friends. When I die I want a thousand friends at my funeral to PARTY! It was one of the sweetest gifts to me to start connecting with people I haven't seen in years - friends from Nashville in my music busines days, ministry friends, former employers and employees. Now I'm addicted. That's bad. A day later I'm up to 79 friends and counting. I can't stay away from this thing and I'm neglecting everything else to see, minute-by-minute, to see who likes me. This is pitiful. Is there 12 Step for this?!?

The fact is that we're all created for community - whether we get it on FB or in a formal church.

Take some time to connect - join my friends at Facebook!

Peanut Butter Toast

I remember seeing the young kids in Youth with a Mission eating peanut butter on toast when I was in Europe a few years back. I felt sorry for them because they couldn't afford better and I couldn't imagine eating peanut butter on toast. Now I love it. Add a dash of honey and it is spectacular. Isn't it funny how our perspectives and tastes change over the years?

Our worship lives are like that, too. Things we thought were strange or even distasteful early in our faith lives become meaningful as we come to understand their Biblical roots and the reason God would even want us to worship Him that way. For example, think about raising your hands in worship. For some this is a familiar and comfortable posture and a genuine expression of their hearts to God. For others it is embarrassing and far too "charismatic" for their tastes. So, who's right? Should we raise our hands in worship, or is that just a Pentecostal thing? In the end, this isn't a discussion about who's "right or wrong" or who is an introvert or extrovert, charismatic, Pentecostal, or anything else - it boils down to understanding what raising our hands in worship means and what it does in connecting us to God in a spiritual sense.

The psalmist wrote, "Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice" (Psalm 141:2). Paul later wrote, "I desire therefore that the men pray in every place, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and disputing" (I Timothy 2:8). Obviously, there was some tradition in the Hebrew church of lifting hands in worship and prayer. Jesus would be very familiar with this and would have practiced it Himself, perhaps lifting the five loaves and two fish to God as He blessed it, broke it, and fed the five thousand with it (Mark 6:41).

One of the primary words in Hebrew for the action of lifting hands in worship is yadah, a word very close to the word used in Genesis in the phrase "Adam knew his wife, Eve" (Genesis 4). It literally means to "throw up the hands spontaneously" and connotes surrender, intimacy, and engagement with God. The problem with waiting until we feel like doing this is the same problem with waiting til you feel like being faithful to your spouse - the feelings of love come and go, but the relationship and our commitment to it are the important matters. If we are committed to deepening our love relationship with God, we should be exploring greater expressions and acts of worship (along with all the other spiritual disciplines) corporately and privately.

In my workshops I never force expressions of worship. I want to model freedom that flows out of my own relationship to God in worship. I encourage people to begin to explore raising their hands in private worship and prayer first, reminding them they're doing it for God and not for me anyway. As we go deeper in private worship expressions, our faith and our intimacy will respond and grow. Whether we ever lift our hands in public isn't the issue, but I have seen that when people experience this freedom they long to engage in it at every level.

Lifting our hands in worship and prayer is at least symbolic of surrender, but I believe doing it actually works a humility into our souls that mental acknowledgement will never accomplish. Worship is active, dynamic, and organic, involving spirit, soul, and body. When we only "think" our worship we limit the impact of the experience and miss the effect of singing, bowing, lifting our hands, or dancing in joy before the Lord. As worship leaders, we never force people into these actions of worship but model them and demonstrate their power in our own lives just like those kids in Europe didn't force me to eat what they did at breakfast. Ours is only to expose them to the possibilities and invite them into deeper expressions of their hearts to God.

I had my peanut butter toast this morning. It was delicious.

Building a Team in a Smaller Church

I recently taught two webinars for Worship Leader Magazine called Building Teams for Smaller Churches. I also taught these classes at The National Worship Leader Conference in Austin, Texas, for Worship Leader and shared with the classes that over 60% of churches in the U.S. have less than 100 people in attendance each week. We are in the majority! The small church has some distinct disadvantages like budget and personnel, but it also has some terrific advantages such as setting the tone for the future and establishing an atmosphere of excellence in worship.

I approach leadership in any sized church from the standpoint of engagement. The reason small churches grow is because they are engaging in some way: a pastor, teacher, or music person has a winsome, charismatic personality that attracts and engages people. Or perhaps a great program for children or for those in recovery offers opportunities for engagement that cause a church to grow. People look for something exciting, meaningful, surprising, and that engages them on an intellectual, spiritual, and emotional level. That's why movies are so attractive to us - we get to live into a story with the lead characters that engages us and causes us to feel something, to engage with the plot and experience it along with the characters on the screen.

To be effective as a team leader in smaller, or larger churches, you have the challenge of involving others in the story of the Gospel. To lead worship is to engage others in the high drama of connection with God using any means at your disposal. Movies do not have one kind of music or use only one camera angle, but they employ the gamut of musical styles and an amazing array of shots and angles, pans and flybys, to engage your imagination in the show. Why can't we do this in worship?

If you are a leader in a smaller church ask yourself the questions: How can I engage my people? What language do they speak and how can I take them deeper in their spirituality and in their heart for worship? The results you want flow naturally out of that kind of engagement. If you concentrate more on building your people instead of on creating the "perfect worship service" you will find that they will respond well. Everyone wants to be cared for, nurtured, and given an opportunity to contribute.

My new weekend workshops are called INSIDE OUT and will help your church grow into engaged worship. In this workshop we explore and practice the principles of engaged worship and demonstrate to your leaders and to your people what it can mean to love God effectively together. You can check them out at Doxa360.com.

In the end, building teams is about building people.

Transforming Worship Teams

Have you ever thought church would be great if it weren't for the people? It seems the longer we work with humans the more miraculous God's grace is!

It does take a lot of grace to be a worship leader in the local church. Not only do we have the preferences of the pastor and congregation to deal with, but we have the idiosyncracies of our team members to manage along with choosing songs and coordinating all that we do to prepare for Sunday services.

In my new book, The Five Keys to Engaging Worship, I share about how you can have the kind of grace for people that transforms them - and you. The church in America needs a wholesale move of God's transforming Spirit, for sure, but it can start with you and me - we have the opportunity to become transforming leaders in our local churches. This happens when we embrace a "higher vision" of going deeper into our service to others despite how we feel about it.

One of my friends is serving in a church in which he feels he doesn't have all the creative license he desires. In fact, his creativity is quite squelched and he is in a season of disappointment and unhappiness there. Despite how he feels about it, though, he submits to the pastor's direction and serves as best he can. While I don't think this is the healthiest situation for him in the long run, we cannot underestimate what God is doing in and through him there - he is an excellent leader and mentors younger people in worship. These are lasting impressions and a strong legacy, even if they come out of a period of dissatisfaction. Transformation isn't always fun.

Be encouraged today. Live. Love. Lead.

Flawless Worship?

Irenaeus (c. 180) wrote, "The glory of God is man fully alive, and the life of man is the vision of God." In my workshops I seek to reorient our worship philosophy from resting on the power of music to being secured in the power of the Word of God. I am always amazed at how quickly we fall into formulas and tricks to do what only God can do - transform lives.

It is dangerous to think that we can "perfectly" worship God. It is misleading to pursue a flawless worship service when only Jesus can be our Great High Priest (see Hebrews) and lead us in holy worship by His eternal sacrifice. The reason pastors, worship leaders, and congregations are frustrated is that we're trying to use worship music as a church growth tool instead of as the corporate celebration of God's abiding presence with us.

There is a place for "performance" in the church that blesses people presentationally. I am concerned, however, that we are denying entire churches the opportunity to lift their hearts in song with God as the central vision instead of as the convenient occasion to showcase our talents. It is only as we behold Him "high and lifted up" with the train of His glory filling the temple (Isaiah 6) that we are changed by the sight.

Irenaeus was right. God is glorified when we come fully alive to Him. It is only when we see Him in authentic, engaged worship that we are changed (2 Cor. 3:17-18). Besides, as J. Michael Walters said, "If no one in the congregation is singing, it doesn't matter how good the worship band is" (Can't Wait for Sunday, Wesleyan Publishing House, p. 134).

Praying the Psalms as Worship

When I was a young believer someone showed me that if I read five psalms a day, I would have read the entire book in a month. That became part of my spiritual discipline and has been one of the most meaningful practices for me in worship these 30 years. Somewhere along the way I moved from just reading them to praying them back to God as I read. This happened naturally for me and then I began to hear about "praying the psalms" and discovered that it is an ancient practice - why can't I be original?!?

The Psalms of David, Asaph, and the other unknown psalm writers cover the gamut of human emotion and experience and gather up for us a language to offer back to God when things are great or when things are terrible. The majority of the psalms are "complaining" psalms, or laments. We've been taught to never complain, but that's not entirely biblical - God welcomes our complaints! Paul taught that we should "give thanks in everything" (Philippians 4:4-7) but that doesn't preclude being gut-level honest with God about how we feel - He can handle it.

He created our emotions and understands when we don't feel so happy about what's going on around us. God uses our circumstances in many ways and "works all things together for our good" (Romans 8:28). But I, as a mere mortal, will not always have His perfect perspective on life and my circumstances. These are the times I cry out to Him and even vent my feelings to Him. When I do this, it seems that He brings His "peace that passes understanding" (Phillipiams 4:7).

As you study the psalms, read them and pray them back to God, I think you'll find as I have that lamenting is a legitimate form of worship that leads us, like it did the psalmists, back to a place of quiet trust in the sovereignty of God no matter how crummy we feel!

Living Inside Out

People who research religion and religious behavior have tagged two kinds of religious people - those for whom worship is INTRINSIC and those for whom worship is EXTRINSIC. It is easy to see what this means: intrinsic = inside, extrinsic = outside. Obviously, we want to be worshipers from the INSIDE OUT, though the outside isn't excluded in the equation. Jesus approached worship from BOTH angles, attacking the Pharisees extrinsic law-keeping motivation that lacked genuine connection with God and calling them into a "higher order" life of relating to God from their hearts. But He also emphasized feeding the poor, loving your neighbor, telling the truth, and doing good things outwardly as a sign of our inner love for God.

My great friend, Mark diChristina, and I were talking this week about living inside out, loving God with our whole "heart, mind, and strength". He had some great things to say about the difference between living outside-out, inside-in, inside-out, and outside-in. I think the church in America, in particular, has fallen into a lot of "inside-in" worship that privatizes our faith, making worship a "personal thing" that lacks any social justice or service to others. This thinking leads to stylisitic preferences and ultimately to the "worship wars" that destroys churches and relationships with God and other believers.

Be encouraged! God is calling you today to authentic inside-out living that brings His kingdom to the world!