June / July E-letter
Over the
weekend of May 17th Alan Foster, Aaron
Zink, John Wirtz, and I visited
Covenant Church of Pittsburgh (www.ccop.org).
That trip to meet with Bishop Joseph Garlington was
just one of the many steps I’m taking in response to what I sense is a leading
from God. For nearly a year now I’ve had
this unquenchable desire to pursue God through worship. Anyone who knows me
knows I can’t sing. I can’t play any instrument. I can’t even clap on beat. And
I certainly can’t dance. I’m not even much of a music guy, but I cannot I deny
or ignore what I believe is God’s initiative.
King David
put it like this in Psalm 27:8. “When You said, ‘Seek My face,’ my heart said to You, ‘Your
face, O LORD, I shall seek.’" Honestly,
I didn’t know where to go with this kind of prompting, let alone what it meant,
much less where it would take me or us. Yet as the months unfolded I felt more
and more certain that worship, especially cooperate worship was where I was to
focus.
Shortly
after I settled on this direction came the first of many confirmations and a
fairly significant one at that! A couple from the church approached me about
their desire to give some funds to whatever I sensed was a worthy cause or
need. Gifts like those are always especially weighty because I feel an
additional responsibility to ensure that my “choice” is God directed. After a
couple of weeks of prayer I told them about my sense about pursuing this idea
of worship. With such a generous beginning, now I needed to map out a path.
My first
step was to gather a select group from our church to learn and process together
this topic and our future. We meet once a month discussing different books and
the authors’ perspectives and insights. In addition to this monthly roundtable
we planned a road trip to Pittsburgh
to meet with Bishop Garlington. For a lot of men
Joseph Garlington is a familiar name because of his
extensive involvement with Promise Keepers. The Bishop is an accomplished man
of many talents. The way we were welcomed was evidence of his gracious and
humble spirit.
I can’t
begin to do justice in this brief letter to all that took place on that road
trip. My jar of dirt is but a small reminder. Maybe what I want to pass along
most, besides the additional confirmation we received, is this: the kind of
worshipper God desires is one who will worship Him in Spirit and in Truth (John
4:23) Neither of which are natural to us nor are they the factors we tend to
focus on - style and preference are more to our liking. This pursuit will
stretch us. It is stretching me already. But this is what the Father seeks,
what God wants.
Another
step included a weeklong intensive course at the Robert E. Webber Institute for
Worship Studies in Jacksonville
Florida. Aaron
Zink and I audited a class on foundations for biblical
worship. The material as well as the community that shaped our week shaped us
and made what I know will be a formative and lasting impression. While we were
in Jacksonville we drove three hours to Lakeland where a healing
revival is taking place. For nearly three months in a makeshift airplane hanger
Todd Bentley (Fresh Fire Ministries)
and his team are praying for every form of sickness and disease. When we were
there, Geraldo at Large was broadcasting part of the revival live and
interviewing Todd.
My reason
for being there is similar to that of going to Pittsburgh, taking this class, and forming
our roundtable. I want to step in directions and spaces I’m not all that
familiar or comfortable with if that is where God might be. My journey, which I
believe is to become our journey, is going to involve learning, stepping, and
experiencing more of the presence of God in our midst.
Friday
night August 1st will be our annual Summer Summit. We’re calling it Come
to the Mountain, because we
believe God is summoning this assembly to gather before Him and embrace His
want, His wish for us to be true worshippers. That can sound exciting but if
you think about it can also sound scary. When we pursue God we might just get
Him. Remember the words of Mr. Tumnus from the movie The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe,
“He’s good, but He’s not tame”.
If you will
permit me, I would appreciate mentioning a few supportive steps that I would
love to see us be able to take over this next year. Even though none of them
are in the budget I believe they would be extremely beneficial.
- upgrade our sacred space - We would love to change the
lighting, wall color, and even stage flooring in the “big room”.
- expand our weekend
offering -
Recording and producing CDs could allow our weekend worship to continue
throughout the week.
- broaden our musical
sound - Having
the use of a baby grand piano would certainly bring new flavor and
freshness to our sound.
There’s
certainly a whole lot more I could talk about and over the next ministry year I
hope to do just that. But more than anything else I want to say how overwhelmed
I am once again by a God who continues to lead.
He’s led us to His heart for the un-reached, embracing spiritual gifts,
understanding Kingdom diversity, valuing church traditions, and to the joy of
releasing those we love for the One who loves the world.
My prayer
is that we keep stepping together, this time toward the Mountain of God!
Jim
