Leading a Congregation

Our goal as a worship leader (church leader)?

The way we "lead" worship and the format of our service is shaping the congregation over time into a certain type of worshipper. I think with this in mind, our focus will gravitate towards providing an atmosphere where authentic worship can be expressed and getting our attitudes, agendas and pride out of the way so God can shape the worshipper.

"It seems to me that one of the ways that consumerism has really afflicted the church, is in the urgency and pressure that churches are under to deliver an “experience” at every single service that will keep the attendee coming back. The result is that we grossly overestimate what is possible in a 75-minute format, and we tragically underestimate what it is we’re doing in a 20-year format. It strikes me that most of Jesus’ illustrations for spiritual growth are botanical illustrations—seeds, branches, vines—and that, by implication, Jesus is stressing that our long-term spiritual health may not be so much about mountaintop experiences as about faithful practices and obedience."

Isaac Wardell

How exhausting it is to try and "deliver an experience" every week to keep the attendee coming back! I understand that the disconnect among church leaders can develop here with the word "experience" as that can be interpreted different ways. What is the "experience" we want for our congregation?

If our focus is on providing an atmosphere where the worshipper can truly connect with God, hear God and respond to Him, I think they will come back.

God help us to honor you with our preparation and help us to get out of your way when we do prepare! It's your agenda, it's your church and your ways and thoughts are higher than ours!

The One without sin actually didn't throw a stone

The way God accepts us

John 8: 1-11

Verses 1-6

Here we have the religious bringing a woman before a crowd of people and before Jesus to point out her flaws and sin and attempt to get Jesus to say something they could use against him. The motives of the religious are always impure! It’s always about stepping on someone else by seeing their wrongs or trying to reason with God why they are deserving. Religion always sees the sin and flaws in everyone else.

Can you imagine this woman? How did they catch her? I’m sure they knew where to look and I’m sure she probably had a reputation. The interesting thing about people is there are always outward behaviors that are prodded by inward feelings. There is always an outward display from some harbored feelings on the inside. Many times the outward is a weak attempt to cover what we’re really feeling. But we don’t know any better so we do our best. It started with Adam and Eve attempting to cover themselves with what they had available.

What’s really going on INSIDE of this woman?

You see we always stop after we see the outward behavior. Only God knows why. People, especially religious people, see the outward and immediately draw conclusions and judgment. That’s the beauty about God. He see’s what’s being felt on the inside and then He steps in to mend it!!!

The American Journal of Public Health published a study a few years ago reporting that kids who are “ostracized” by their peers or—get this—“picked on by their teachers” are more likely to have sex early.

Was this woman picked on? Was she ostracized? Did she know her daddy loved her? Was her dad even there? We don’t know for sure but what we do know is that she sought affirmation by giving herself away. She sought someone telling her or showing her she was good enough even it meant giving her body away.

Verses 7-8

Once again, Jesus gives the perfect answer. We see it all through the NT as the religious attempt to catch Jesus saying or doing something wrong and he cuts right through their question with an unexpected response.

Verses 9-11

One by one they start to leave, the oldest ones first. The only person left standing is Jesus. He questions her, “Does no one condemn you?” Then he, the only one who had the right to even throw a stone says, “Neither do I.”

And we like this woman seek as hard as we can to earn the affirmation and the affection of the PEOPLE who are ready to kill us! The ones who are just as jacked up as we are! The ones who will never fulfill us the way we need fulfilling and we search as hard as we can to earn their favorable opinion!? We do anything! We give our bodies, we give our money, we change the way we talk, change the way we dress and do things we never thought we’d do to earn their approval.

Meanwhile, Jesus is standing over here watching and says, “I like you just like you are.” I already accept you. Like, you don’t have to earn or prove anything.

**Thanks to Nick Wright for the rich conversation sparking this journal entry

Who's better?

Journal: Matthew 9:13 Jesus is found eating at Matthew's house after he called him to follow. The Pharisees saw that he was eating with tax collectors and sinners and questioned his disciples. Jesus' response is, "it is not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick." then he tells them, "But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.(Hosea 6:6) I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." What DOES this mean? Could it be that Jesus is placing everyone on an even playing field? The religious, who are content to view themselves as better than the 'sinners', who are at the bottom of the moral totem pole, can't understand hanging out with them. It's easy to see that way when your lifestyle is one of trust in your abilities to be good. You build a sense of pride in all that you've accomplished and therefore see yourself as further down the road or better than those who don't act like you do. When Jesus says I desire mercy (or quotes God as saying that), he immediately crumbles the tower of right living underneath the Pharisees. It's mercy that brings you near more than your acts of sacrifice. Perhaps he's saying that the sinners have just as much right to him through mercy as you do. If it was based upon your acts and living, then they would have a lot of catching up to do. But since it's based upon God's mercy, the sinners are just as deserving. After all, we were/are all sinners and, "while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."