Trust...the result of Love?

So I'm always reading books on working with people and leadership trying to improve those portions of my self that I feel weak in. Recently I read through Patrick Lencioni's books "The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team" and am now wrestling with the implications it carrys into my job as a church leader. See Patrick's first and most important function or dysfunction is for a team to trust one another. I won't get into all of the things I'm thinking right now but I'll just throw this out there...can Christians have trust without love?

I find often that my thoughts don't translate into things people can see. There is a disconnect between my speech and my thought life. In my mind I am always considering how much I love the people I get to work and serve with...my actions betray me in conveying that to them. Most of the decisions I make are made with others in mind...at least they are in my mind. Then I fail to communicate that and end up hurting people. This kind of stuff just tears me up.

I want us to be a team that trusts. I want us to be a team of people who knows that they are loved and so when we give feedback or suggestions on how to improve their craft they understand we love them first and so they receive what we say because they know it's with their best interests at heart.

All of this comes back to my ability to translate my thoughts of love to tangible, noticable actions of love. And it's in the hands of each of us to do the same.

Personal Worship

So keeping along with answering the questions posed by the Pages @ www.wonderfulpages.com here is what my personal worship looks like (or at least what I hope it looks like)

wake up 6:30am

things to do: love God in everything I do.

sleep 10:30pm

Honestly I can't think of how to describe personal worship better than that. It's my firm belief that everything I do is an act of worship to something or another. My hope is that it's all for God. In reality it's not. However, every day that God gives me I am trying to do whatever he's called me to do on that day in such a way as to draw attention to the difference God has made in my life and in so doing ascribe worth and value to Him...to bring Him glory through my life. I pray hoestly and earnestly that God will help me do this more and more each day. I need Him to do the work...I'm not able to on my own.

What's Love Got to do with it?

Now don't get me wrong...Tina Turner was a musical icon but that doesn't mean she get's everything right (and I guess she rarely gets things right...I mean who marries Ike? But she did do that killer duet with Bryan Adams...). When she sang that song she obviously didn't have the kind of wisdom that God has given to His children because we know that love has EVERYTHING to do with it. I'm loving 1 John 4:9,10, and 19 right now because it so plainly states that God loves us and they can only love because he loves us. I think worshipers of God ought to understand this as fully as possible...we ought to be meditating on it constantly because it's only through and by God's great love for us that we can truly worship Him.

We are called by the power of His love which has been for us since the dawning of time. The more deeply we love God the more we are able to worship Him rightly and accurately. A deep love for God springs from a deep knowledge of God and a deep relationship with Him. It's kind of like human love in one way (imago Dei anyone?). You know when you meet someone and you fall head over heals for them? Doesn't that feel amazing? But at some point you run out of reasons why you love that person...most of it is superficial and as great as it feels it's not very deep. But those of us who are married know that as time goes on our love deepens and the reasons we love are better and deeper and we know how to express that love and recieve it in ways that benefit both people in the relationship. It's so awesome!

Our ability to worship God springs from this kind of relationship with Him. The more we spend time with Him and invest in that loving relationship the more things we have to praise Him for and the more He envelops our very thoughts and actions.

Personal vs. Corporate

So the second question at WonderfulWorship was "In light of your response to the first question, how do you view personal and corporate worship" or something like that :) In my mind, there isn't a huge separation of the two in principal although realistically there is in practice. Both still involve being wholeheartedly engaged in both attidtude and action. Corporate worship is just another phase of this continuous worship that we're all doing all the time. True, I normally don't get a band together and sing at the top of my lungs on a weekday but the spirit behind my interactions with people at Starbucks ought to be no different than the attitude with which I sing to God on Sunday morning. The goal of each should be to bring glory to God and to point people towards the cross of Christ. And more to the point, personal worship ought to get a whole lot more of my attention since I spend a whole lot more time worshiping alone :)

When you Strip everything away what is worship?

My friend Barb recently sent me a link to this http://www.wonderfulpages.com/wonderfulworship/ blog where they are participating in a discussion on worship. I found it very interesting and so decided to join the discussion and share my thoughts.

The best way I can think of to answer this question is to share my definition of worship. Recently I've done some fantastic reading which has helped me to come to grips with what I think worship is. So, in Heerebout's Dictionary, Worship is "The act and attitude of wholeheartedly and continuously giving yourself to something - body, soul, mind and spirit".

The first thing you may ask is something? Yes...everyone worships but not everyone worships God. Everyone has something that envelops the greater majority of their attention but for most of the world that thing is not God. Sometimes it's our career, or a favorite celebrity or our hobby. For Christians, I hope, it's God but by biblical standards someone who is not a Christian and not worship God.

Also of note is this idea of continuously...we are always worshiping something. Again, often it's not God and even in the life of the believer it's sometimes not God...when we choose to disobey God we've shifted our focus of worship, if only for a moment, towards something else. We've given ourselves to that thing instead of to God.

When I say act and attitude it's to point out that worship is not complete without both. When God asks for worship in the bible he ALWAYS asks for action to be involved. I believe that when we understand something to the point that we are truly worshiping it not only to we think or say we worship that thing but our actions come along side our speech to prove we are worshiping.

And linked to this is the wholehearted and body, soul, mind and strenght. I know when I get interested in something it can often envelope my whole being. I want a new amp or guitar and I surf the 'net endlessly until I find it. When we are truly gripped and worshiping God this is what it's like...our whole attention is gladly and fully given to God. Truly, when I am worshiping, everything else is stripped down and only God's love for me and my love for Him remains.

texts: Romans 12:1, Mark 12:30, The Adventure of Worship by Gerrit Gustafson, and Unceasing Worship by Harold M. Best.

Sacrificing human lives?

Romans 12:1 says: Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.

The word “sacrifice” might illicit any number of thoughts for you. Maybe you think about the Old Testament system of sacrifice, or maybe you’re like a member of our worship team and think immediately of Isaac. Perhaps you’re like me and have recently seen Apocolypto and so have a very vivid image of sacrifice in your mind. Whatever we think of when we hear the word “sacrifice” it’s probably not this – a unit of worship. Think about it. When God is calling for sacrifice he’s calling for worship. The Law set out the kinds of sacrifices that God wanted to see from His people in order to come into right relationship with Him and although we are not under that same Law, acceptable worship still involves sacrifice. In fact it involves 2 sacrifices now. The first being the blood of Jesus making it possible for us to commune with God. However, it also involves sacrifice on our part. We need to pour ourselves out to God as sacrifices on an ongoing basis, living in such a way that we give up those things we desire for the things God is giving us. This is worship. This is how we worship God. It’s not just the songs we sing on Sunday’s but a life style – a sacrifice of our whole being to the purposes and plans of God so that we might make His greatness known in every sector of our lives. So to be a worship leader (as all of us are) is to live this way – to be an example to those around us of the true and acceptable worship God is calling us to. It’s a scary and exciting challenge that I hope each of you is willing to embark on with me.

A place to connect

So I'll try this again. I've started a few blogs over time and have been thinking about this one for quite some time so here I go! I'm going to be posting some of the things I feel God is teaching me about worship as well as some other random things I think people might be interested in :) I invite your comments and open, authentic discussion as we try to figure out how to better serve our God in worship and the arts.