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This blog has moved to http://crosscurrentworship.wordpress.com/ as of 10.20.09.

The Gospel Behind Scheduling

I've been deeply convicted in this area in my own life, and, as I seek to live and operate in light of this conviction, I feel it would be wise to pass this along. By "scheduling" I am referring to my scheduling of musicians and bands via http://www.planningcenteronline.com .  I have come to notice two things about my culture (and generation) in Virginia Beach: we tend to be both transient and non-committal. Interpretation--I highly value my independence. Thus, when an evite or something of that nature comes my way, I tend to approach it as something I will plan around the rest of my life, which is really only a nice way of saying that I will wait to see if anything else comes up, then "commit" if nothing does. Scripture teaches that God is Lord of all nations, all kingdoms, and all aspects of our lives. He is our Creator and our Savior. He has borne the wrath of God for our sins and set us free from the law of sin and death! The entirety of my life and being belong to Jesus. My job, my wife, my weekends--they are all His. Because of this great truth we can see that not only do all aspects of our lives belong to Jesus, but that He is worthy of all of these.
In our context of music and art at Crosscurrent Church, we cannot pursue creativity, excellence, and mission for the glory of Jesus unless we first grow in our understanding of the gospel. As we do, we realize that we cannot “offer” our gifts at our convenience. The knowledge of the great work of Jesus on the cross and of His continued grace and mercy in our lives produces a subtle yet profound paradigm shift in which we prioritize our service to King Jesus and plan our lives around Him and His church. We plan our evenings and weekends around when we can serve His church, rather than planning His service around our lives. This is truly an act of worship to Jesus, of our expressing His worth.

Much to Ponder

The last 10 days have been pretty crazy as they have involved traveling to Charlottesville (where U2 and Muse rocked my face off), Pennsylvania (for a wedding) and Raleigh (for an Acts 29 luncheon). They were all great, but I'm glad to be standing still for a while.

The A29 luncheon was fantastic. Tim Smith, Worship Pastor at Mars Hill Seattle and author of the article we read entitled Missional Worship, led the first two sessions and unpacked in much greater detail the material he covered in his article. He also spoke on practical issues in a lecture entitled "Marks of Missional Worship". It was really encouraging and affirming to hear how God has been leading and guiding this ministry along much of the same paths that Tim spoke of.

I also had a great opportunity to grab breakfast with Tim the morning after the luncheon. During this time God really used his words to convict me of a burden that's been growing for the past few weeks. I've been focusing so much of my attention on our vision and mission (and necessarily so), but lately God has been burdening me for His gathered body at Crosscurrent, specifically in our response during worship. In the past I've been content to conclude that we just have a cerebral body of believers at Crosscurrent, that our response is simply more meditative and contemplative. However, the truth is that there are things in my life that move me to outward expressions of worship, or "worth-ship". Arena rock concerts like Springsteen and U2 move me; football moves me; the Yankees losing moves me (to great rejoicing). Should the knowledge of the truth of what Jesus Christ has done for me at least not do the same? Tim challenged us with this question: "How much of what we do (or don't do) is dictated by what we've seen abused or misused?" Am I uncomfortable raising my hands in corporate worship because I've seen outward response abused and contrived? Am I right to be immediately suspicious? Often I will say something along the lines of, "Know that you have the freedom to respond this morning...". But am I simply paying lip service?

I'm in a place of carefully and prayerfully revisiting this and asking first and foremost for Jesus to reveal Himself to me, to move me. Please don't misunderstand me, the last thing we want is contrived expressions or to make an idol of outward response! Rather, we want the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ to engage our minds and therefore direct our hearts and emotions to rejoice and respond to the work of the Holy Spirit. I'm excited to see where and how God leads.