Bob Kauflin of Covenant Life Church discovered his 2-year-old grandson had leukemia prior to Sunday services.

Here’s some of what he says from the experience:

I guess I could have struggled with the apparent dichotomy between my circumstances and the songs we were singing. Or ignored what my family was going through altogether and pretended that nothing was wrong. Or complained  about how hard life is sometimes.

By God’s grace, I actually drew great comfort from God through the truths we sang. So after the first song, which is based on Psalm 150, I shared a few thoughts not only for the church, but for my own soul.

The conclusion:

We don’t lead others out of a vacuum or a sanitized form of Christianity that bears no resemblance to normal life. It’s important that we take time to grieve, acknowledge pain, and confess our struggles. But when, not if,  you find yourself leading out of weakness, challenges, and trials, don’t minimize what’s going on or succumb in despair to your burdens. Lift your eyes, even as you lift the eyes of others, to the Father whose compassions never fail and to the Savior whose mercies are new every morning.

Whether God changes our trials, or more importantly, changes usthrough our trials, we praise him now in joyful anticipation of the day he will wipe away every tear from our eyes (Rev. 21:4).

The whole post here.

…is all you need, according to Kevin Kelley:

A True Fan is defined as someone who will purchase anything and everything you produce.

They will drive 200 miles to see you sing. They will buy the super deluxe re-issued hi-res box set of your stuff even though they have the low-res version. They have a Google Alert set for your name. They bookmark the eBay page where your out-of-print editions show up. They come to your openings. They have you sign their copies. They buy the t-shirt, and the mug, and the hat. They can’t wait till you issue your next work. They are true fans.

The hard part:

The key challenge is that you have to maintain direct contact with your 1,000 True Fans. They are giving you their support directly. Maybe they come to your house concerts, or they are buying your DVDs from your website, or they order your prints from Pictopia. As much as possible you retain the full amount of their support. You also benefit from the direct feedback and love.

Author/marketer Seth Godwin calls 1000 fans “a breakthrough opportunity” for artists and songwriters.

Consider:

1. What would it take for you to acquire 1000 ‘true fans’?
2. What are you doing now to make that happen?

Via Tim Chester:

The church is not a building you enter. Nor is it a meeting your attend. It is not what you do on a Sunday. To be a Christian is to be part of God’s people and to express that in your life through belonging to a local Christian community.

Michael Card’s “The Basin and Towel” comes to mind (posted below or via YouTube here).

“Day after day, we must take up the basin and towel.”

A humorous post by Jimi Williams at the WorshipTogether blog says that your worship team structure probably falls into one of five catagories:

1. The Crowder
2. The Tomlin
3. The United
4. The Walker
5. The Kitchen Sink

Which is yours?

Any to add?

To only think of Jesus as a long-haired, gentle man in a robe and wearing sandals has devastating effects on the church.  This perception has permeated the attitudes of many who perceive Jesus as a weak character but a good teacher.

The world seems blind to the Bible’s description of the resurrected Jesus, full of power and authority.  This description is highly offensive to the world.  But to worship Jesus as the artists have portrayed him instead of as the Son of Man in all his glory, is nothing short of idolatry.

• Adrian Warnock, Raised With Christ (Crossway, page 68).

Read the book on-line here.

Regardless of what you may think of New Years resolutions, this list by colonial pastor and theologian Jonathan Edwards is worth contemplating if not emulating:

RESOLUTIONS (by Jonathan Edwards, age 19)

“Being sensible that I am unable to do any thing without God’s help, I do humbly entreat him, by his grace, to enable me to keep these Resolutions, so far as they are agreeable to his will, for Christ’s sake.

Remember to read over these Resolutions once a week.

1. Resolved, That I will do whatsoever I think to be most to the glory of God, and my own good, profit, and pleasure, in the whole of my duration; without any consideration of the time, whether now, or never so many myriads of ages hence. Resolved, to do whatever I think to be my duty, and most for the good and advantage of mankind in general. Resolved, so to do, whatever difficulties I meet with, how many soever, and how great soever.

2. Resolved, To be continually endeavouring to find out some new contrivance and invention to promote the forementioned things.

3. Resolved, If ever I shall fall and grow dull, so as to neglect to keep any part of these Resolutions, to repent of all I can remember, when I come to myself again.

4. Resolved, Never to do any manner of thing, whether in soul or body, less or more, but what tends to the glory of God, nor be, nor suffer it, if I can possibly avoid it.

5. Resolved, Never to lose one moment of time, but to improve it in the most profitable way I possibly can.

6. Resolved, To live with all my might, while I do live.

7. Resolved, Never to do any thing, which I should be afraid to do if it were the last hour of my life.

8. Resolved, To act, in all respects, both speaking and doing, as if nobody had been so vile as I, and as if I had committed the same sins, or had the same infirmities or failings, as others; and that I will let the knowledge of their failings promote nothing but shame in myself, and prove only an occasion of my confessing my own sins and misery to God. Vid. July 30.

9. Resolved, To think much, on all occasions, of my dying, and of the common circumstances which attend death.

10. Resolved, when I feel pain, to think of the pains of martyrdom, and of hell.

11. Resolved, When I think of any theorem in divinity to be solved, immediately to do what I can towards solving it, if circumstances do not hinder. xxi

12. Resolved, If I take delight in it as a gratification of pride, or vanity, or on any such account, immediately to throw it by.

13. Resolved, To be endeavouring to find out fit objects of liberality and charity.

14. Resolved, Never to do any thing out of revenge.

15. Resolved, Never to suffer the least motions of anger towards irrational beings.

16. Resolved, Never to speak evil of any one, so that it shall tend to his dishonour, more or less, upon no account except for some real good.

17. Resolved, That I will live so, as I shall wish I had done when I come to die.

18. Resolved, To live so, at all times, as I think is best in my most devout frames, and when I have the clearest notions of the things of the gospel, and another world.

19. Resolved, Never to do any thing, which I should be afraid to do, if I expected it would not be above an hour before I should hear the last trump.

20. Resolved, To maintain the strictest temperance in eating and drinking.

21. Resolved, Never to do any thing, which if I should see in another, I should count a just occasion to despise him for, or to think any way the more meanly of him.

22. Resolved, To endeavour to obtain for myself as much happiness in the other world as I possibly can, with all the power, might, vigour, and vehemence, yea violence, I am capable of, or can bring myself to exert, in any way that can be thought of.

23. Resolved, Frequently to take some deliberate action, which seems most unlikely to be done, for the glory of God, and trace it back to the original intention, designs, and ends of it; and if I find it not to be for God’s glory, to repute it as a breach of the fourth Resolution.

24. Resolved, Whenever I do any conspicuously evil action, to trace it back, till I come to the original cause; and then, both carefully endeavour to do so no more, and to fight and pray with all my might against the original of it.

25. Resolved, To examine carefully and constantly, what that one thing in me is, which causes me in the least to doubt of the love of God; and so direct all my forces against it.

26. Resolved, To cast away such things as I find do abate my assurance.

27. Resolved, Never wilfully to omit any thing, except the omission be for the glory of God; and frequently to examine my omissions.

28. Resolved, To study the Scriptures so steadily, constantly, and frequently, as that I may find, and plainly perceive, myself to grow in the knowledge of the same.

29. Resolved, Never to count that a prayer, nor to let that pass as a prayer, nor that as a petition of a prayer, which is so made, that I cannot hope that God will answer it; nor that as a confession which I cannot hope God will accept.

30. Resolved, To strive every week to be brought higher in religion, and to a higher exercise of grace, than I was the week before.

31. Resolved, Never to say any thing at all against any body, but when it is perfectly agreeable to the highest degree of christian honour, and of love to mankind, agreeable to the lowest humility, and sense of my own faults and failings, and agreeable to the golden rule; often, when I have said any thing against any one, to bring it to, and try it strictly by, the test of this Resolution.

32. Resolved, To be strictly and firmly faithful to my trust, that that, in Prov. xx. 6. ‘A faithful man, who can find?’ may not be partly fulfilled in me.

33. Resolved, To do always what I can towards making, maintaining, and preserving peace, when it can be done without an overbalancing detriment in other respects. Dec. 26, 1722.

34. Resolved, In narrations, never to speak any thing but the pure and simple verity.

35. Resolved, Whenever I so much question whether I have done my duty, as that my quiet and calm is thereby disturbed, to set it down, and also how the question was resolved. Dec. 18, 1722.

36. Resolved, Never to speak evil of any, except I have some particular good call to it. Dec. 19, 1722.

To read all 70 (!), click here.

HT:  Desiring God

This is a great quote from this discussion between Bob Kauflin and David Powlinson.

Also:  A worship leader should never say:

• “Sing it like you mean it” (you should always mean it)
• “Let’s sing this great old hymn” (the great and the old are not important)

The connection between worship and counseling is intrinsic and remarkable.

View on YouTube below or click here.

HT: Justin Taylor @ TheGospelCoalition.org

It is imperative in planning the worship services that church leaders give careful attention to every element and make sure that the worship retains both integrity and purpose.

People come to church generally “beaten down” by the world of deceit, distraction, and demand.  There is an extraction of emotional and spiritual energy that brings them on “empty” into the community.

The church’s task is to so prepare during the week that it is collectively the instrument of replenishment and fresh energy of soul.  Even being in the presence of fellow believers in worship is a restorer of spiritual hope.

We so underestimate the power of a people in one mind and with one commitment.  Even a prayer can so touch a hungry heart that it can rescue a sliding foot in a treacherous time.

- Ravi Zacharias, A Mighty Evangel, RZIM

Read Ravi’s story on how God moved powerfully through prayer in a meeting with atheists, agnostics, and Marxists here.

HT:  Josh @ blog.worship.com

Christianity Today has posted a good piece on social awareness and activism among evangelical Christian musicians.

It briefly chronicles the movement and also draws an important distinction:

…something more than endorsement is happening in contemporary Christian music.

Artists are directly immersing themselves and their audiences in missions to hurting people, whether they are six blocks or 6,000 miles away.

They are stepping to the forefront to address poverty, human trafficking, HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other fatal diseases, taking personal responsibility to invest in grassroots work.

The piece talks about the Bono factor, how most are avoiding “the minefield of short-term missions,” and how the upheaval in the music industry aids musicians invested in missions.

Definitely worth your read.  Also see:

• Jars of Clay: Clean Water, Clean Blood
• Sara Groves: Less Charity, More Justice
• Steven Curtis Chapman: Beauty Will Rise
• Derek Webb: A Different Kind of Neighbor
• Third Day: Diversification Is the Key

To get your church involved in what God is doing to awaken mercy missions through music, click here.

We invest in our volunteers because Jesus did.

He didn’t just meet with His disciples once a week but lived among them.

Like any relationship worth having, this takes time. But I believe that the closer the community, the sweeter our musical offering will be to God.

To Him be the glory!

- Laura Story, Perimeter Church, Atlanta & songwriter

Full SongDiscovery post here.

HT & photo cred:  SongDiscovery