I was very humbled today that Pastor Pete shared with our congregation at RLC a message that I had sent to our worship team this week in preparation for our ministry. It was something that I typically do—just a quick note to the team to help get us focused on the up coming week.
But even more so, I’ve had a couple people really bless me by coming up and talking to me about what I wrote and what he shared of that note and how it helped them worship this morning.
I want to share that note with you all here, in hopes that maybe it’ll help you give a great gift of worship this week on your own. Maybe it’ll give you a fun little insight into what we do in preparation for coming in to lead you all in worship, too.
Christmas blessings!
Jim
PS—I did the math. After 12 days, your true love would have given you 184 birds. :)
Good morning, and happy Tuesday all!!!
We've a bit of a different week this week leading up to our worship on Sunday. Because of a number of various schedule conflicts, rehearsal this week will be at 10am on Saturday. I've scheduled the rehearsal to go until 1pm to give ourselves enough time since this really is our only crack at the songs.
I've been meditating on scripture this week, and have been specifically keeping the theme for Sunday's service in mind, "What to Give God for Christmas?" Obviously, with the holiday season, so much of our time is focused on what we're doing for the holidays, gifts that we're buying, parties and family gatherings...it's really easy to let a sort of apathy slip in and take hold
I really want to challenge us this week to press in and work hard at being prepared to give God a gift of worship, both spiritually and musically. For rehearsal, please spend enough time on your own listening to the songs and preparing for Sunday. As God's given talents and abilities, our gift of worship includes giving him our time and our efforts, putting our best gift out there for him. It's not about pleasing the ears of the congregation at church, to be sure.
Spiritually speaking, I want to spend the majority of our time preparing there. I'd like to ask you guys to take a couple moments, and meditate on the gifts that God has given you. In the midst of life's circumstances, that can be hard, and even uncomfortable. Think of the blessings, the miracles, even the little things that he's done for you. And, in all honesty, don't ignore the trials and struggles that you're facing--they're part of the story that God is weaving all around you.
Now that you have those things in mind, I'd like you to meditate on these verses, from Romans 8:
“38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
How does your worship change, how will it be different this week? Put it another way, what kind of gift will you give God this week, knowing the depth of his love for you, the gift of love that he gave you? Is it a gift that you bought at Super America on the way to church? A white elephant gift, maybe, something from the dollar store? Something just laying around the house? Or a regift even?
What if you took the time to plan your gift of worship out? What if you were so excited about your gift of worship, you gave it all week long? What if instead of just buying a gift, you threw your whole self into the gift, and gave something from your heart? What if you took the time to craft something that expressed your love back to God? There's so many analogies that we could use to talk about giving God a gift of worship? Think about the "Twelve Days of Christmas" and how each gift got bigger and more expansive, and compounded each and every day!
What if your worship looked like that this week? What would happen to our lives, to our attitudes, and to our church if we led worship from that place? The song's we're singing are all about Christ--plain and simple. With Christ at the center of our worship, we'll sing these songs of praise and have the angels and all of heaven singing along with us.
I attached a song to this e-mail--I hope that it comes through for each of you. I'd ask you to listen to the song as you prepare for worship--let it speak to your heart, and use it as a response to the un-separable love of God.
With a longing heart,
P. Jim