Saturday, September 27, 2014

What if Revival Really Comes?




In 3 days, our church embarks on an 8 day “Summit” with Life Action Ministries. In old-school language, this is a week-long revival. Our pastoral team sensed God leading us in this direction well over a year ago. With increasing frequency and intensity we’ve been preparing ever since.











But over the last few days I have started to prepare deeply. I’ve prayed for hundreds of church members by name. I’ve prayed for my family. I’ve prayed for myself. I’ve prayed for my pastor. I’ve prayed for our community. I’ve prayed extra for my worship leaders—vocalists, instrumentalists, technical artists. I was part of our church’s prayer vigil—168 hours of back to back prayers—by taking the 2am slot on Tuesday.

My heart feels soft, like fertile ground ready for God’s word to be placed deeply into my soul.

And, like my pastor has expressed so well, I share his two fears:
     1) What if revival doesn’t come? What if we spend thousands of hours, thousands of dollars, and untold emotional energy preparing, and 3 months from now we’re all the same? I’m a little bit afraid of that. But my greater fear may come in this…
     2) What if revival does come? Will this require me to change some parts of my soul, heart, mind, and actions that I may not be too excited about changing? That probably isn’t troubling for you, but it is for me. And then as a church leader I have another list of fears. They may be a reflection of the extent to which I am a “quality control freak” or—more frighteningly—a poor leader. So I started listing questions and I thought they might serve you too. Are these fears you have—as a part of Woodburn Baptist Church, or as a servant leader in your own church?


1) What if I no longer feel like I’m guiding the ebb and flow of the worship gathering?

2) What if decisions are made differently… and what if I don’t get to be part of making them?
3) What if people that I'm comfortable being uncomfortable with seek reconciliation with me?
4) What if God calls me to do something unexpected? And I don't like it?
5) What if Jesus asks me to die to something I really, really love?
6) What if I feel called to serve the poor, or those very different from me? How will I respond?
7) Perhaps most frighteningly, what if people find out what I'm really like in the deep places of my heart? Will they accept me? Love me? Follow me?

Your list of questions may be very different. But I'd like to encourage you to put together a list. 

In fact, maybe the questions could be more helpful if framed like this:
1) What if I am swept up in the ebb and flow of Spirit-led worship?
2) What if decisions are made differently...and what if every decision feels Christ-centered?
3) What if God does a work of reconciliation? How beautiful might the outcome of that be?
4) What if God calls me to something unexpected and it feels like what I was meant to do all along?
5) What if Jesus raises up a part of me that had been dead and I begin to experience a more abundant life?
6) What if in serving those different from me I discover a part of my life that I'd missed out on?
7) What if, when people find out about the deep places in my soul, they accept me, love me and follow me even more?

Come, Lord Jesus. Bring revival to our church. Then to our town. Then to our region. And finally to our world. May it start with me!

What if your church isn't entering a season of programmed revival? Well, that's okay. I suspect God wants to do these things in our weekly worship gatherings just as much as He does in our revival week.

What do you think?

Friday, September 12, 2014

Untapped Power?

The older I get, and the more I look at Jesus and the men and women of the Bible, the more I find myself searching for real life, walking-around-people who can model mature faith for me. The book of 1 Corinthians calls them “spiritual fathers.”

One of the great blessings of serving at Woodburn Baptist Church is that I’ve found several. Many are more like big brothers than fathers, but I want to tell you about one of the things that has really impacted me from Don, a man who is old enough to be my father.

You see, every once in a while Don will be listening to our pastor (Tim) preach, and when Tim is struggling to say something that’s difficult—because it is deeply emotional for him, or because it will be hard for some to hear, or… well, any reason you can imagine, Don will quietly say “bless him, Lord.” 

That’s it.

“Bless him, Lord.”

And then God does. Tim says beautifully whatever he was struggling to say. And it connects with the deep places in the souls of we who listen.

But it goes deeper.

Don has been doing this for Tim for years. Many years. And God has been blessing Tim as a preacher for those years. There seems to me to be a cumulative effect—the more Don blesses Tim as he preaches, the more blessed Tim’s preaching becomes. It is so beautiful I’m nearly in tears just thinking about it.

But it goes deeper still.

You see, Don is Tim’s dad. Like, literally his dad. Don has been praying God’s blessing over Tim for every one of Tim’s 49 years. It didn’t start with Tim’s preaching or Don’s listening, it started with Tim’s breathing. Probably even before Tim was breathing.

And so I wonder… how much power could we wield speaking God’s blessing over those we love, or know, or don’t even know. And then I wonder… what if we started blessing one another routinely. I don’t mean praying for people who have a special need—that’s essential, of course. I mean when we hear of someone who is struggling to do the right thing, what if we just said “Bless him, Lord” or “Bless her, Lord.” 

What could change in that person’s world?

In our world?

In the world?

Remember Abraham, and how much God used him to bless the nations of the earth?

Remember Jacob and Esau, and how much they yearned for the blessing of Isaac?

Perhaps most importantly, remember the instruction of Paul: “Bless those who persecute you. Don’t curse them; pray that God will bless them.” (Romans 12:14)

I’m curious… how do you experience this in your Christian journey?

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

How Can I Create Holy Expectancy?

I was honored to spend some time with a couple of churches recently as a Worship Coach. One of the questions a pastor asked stroked me as profound. I thought my answers might serve you as well.

His question? "How can I help my congregation come to the worship gathering with a sense of expectancy?"

Don't you love that question? I do!

My first answer was actually a question, and I think it is essential. I'll ask you the same question: "Do you come with a sense of expectation that God is gonna do something?" 

Leaders, if we don't come expecting God to do something God-sized, I don't see how we can expect those we're leading to do so. Shouldn't that anticipation penetrate the way we prepare sermons, choose songs, rehearse musicians, and pray for those who will come?

Now that we've covered that, here are some other things we talked about:
  • Before the next time you gather to worship, ask God to create a sense of holy expectancy. When you gather with others to pray, ask God together. When you gather as a church to pray, ask God corporately--as a faith community.
  • At the beginning of a service, call people to worship. I don't just mean to read the first few verses of Psalm 100 or Psalm 150, though I'm all for using passages like those and do so myself. More than that, let's call people to engage in worship. Perhaps you could use your own words to say something like, "Let's connect our hearts with the heart of God and discover together just how much He loves us." You can find a hundred ways of your own to do the same.
  • At the end of the worship gathering, announce what you're excited about next week--a new series, a new sermon, a specific audience the Word will serve powerfully, etc.
  • Use Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube etc. to herald the things that are exciting to you about the service. (I will sometimes share a great YouTube video of a song we'll sing in worship.)
  • Encourage everyone you can, in small groups or one-on-one conversations, to engage in personal, private, daily worship. The more people worship on their own, the more dynamic when those people gather together. Said another way, personal worship explodes public worship.
  • As lives are changed--especially as that happens IN the worship gathering--a very natural, organic sense of expectation will develop. Find ways to share the stories of life change when you learn about them. Use videos or live testimonies. Publish stories in the church newsletter and on the website. Celebrate life change and people will come to expect life change. I can't imagine a better way to create holy expectancy!
  • Finally, success breeds success. The more people start to experience worship as dynamic, powerful, engaging, transforming, etc. the more they will begin to expect it.
I hope this serves you and those with whom you worship.

Are there other ways you do this in your congregation and community?