Ronnie

It’s been said that the church is full of consumers. Ronnie proves it. This short film was created after listening to hundreds of pastors tell their stories. It seems that every church has a few “Ronnie’s” attending – at least for a short while.

View “Ronnie” video

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A Different Kind of “Sacrifice”

Let’s take our place outside with Jesus, no longer pouring out the sacrificial blood of animals but pouring out sacrificial praises from our lips to God in Jesus’ name.

Make sure you don’t take things for granted and go slack in working for the common good; share what you have with others. God takes particular pleasure in acts of worship—a different kind of “sacrifice”—that take place in kitchen and workplace and on the streets.

Hebrews 13:15-16 / The Message

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Free Stock Photos

This is an invaluable resource. I use this site all the time:

sxc.hu

When I need a nice PowerPoint background, I head here. When I need some stock pics to include in a video, I head here. When I need a pic to replace some cheesy clip art, I head here.

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Philosophy of Worship, part 3

3. Worship should seek diversity and encourage it.

God is diverse in his tastes. He loves spicy Latin worship. He loves chicken fried Southern worship. He loves fancy-shmancy upper class worship. And the diversity represented in the world also represents the diversity of worship styles and forms. Biblical case for God’s love of a diversity of styles of worship:

Acts 2:1-12

The majority of participants in the Pentecost experience could have communicated in and understood Greek. But, God wanted them to hear the words in their own language. God wants to speak and communicate with us in our most native and heart-felt tongues. He wants us not only to hear and understand, but to feel and know. And I think just as God spoke through them in a variety of languages, God desires to be spoken to and worshiped through a variety of languages both verbally and musically/stylisticly.

Don’t forget though that worship is not dependent on style. We should be able to reach a place of authentic worship despite the style of music/form being used. If you say that you can’t worship without a certain style/form, then you’re really confessing to the weakest type of spirituality…one that is completely limited to our own desires.

A diversity of styles should be encouraged in worship in order to teach people to adapt in worship. What if we were all forced to worship in a culture other than our own? Would you be lost spiritually, not able to find a way to connect with God? Or would you be able to adapt?

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Louie Giglio Worship Teaching

If you’re looking for a great video curriculum on worship to use for your choir, band, or Bible study class, I highly recommend Louie Giglio’s “Worship: That Thing We Do.”

Here is the link to where you can buy it.

I created a follow-along/fill in the blank worksheet to go with this series the last time I used it. Stay tuned for a free download of these.

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Doug Fields Video Freebies

Doug Fields has lots of youth-related video freebies…check them out here.

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Offensive Lyrics?

If you sang this in church, would you consider it to be “offensive”?

There is no other name [than Jesus]
by which men can be saved.

Who does it offend? Why?

Read the rest of the post from Desiring God here.

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Playing for Change

Playing for Change – “Stand By Me”

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Philosophy of Worship, part 2

2. Worship should seek to glorify God – not us.

Worship that glorifies us sounds like this:

• The worship was ok today, but I wasn’t really into that one song.

• What was up with that guitar today, it was way too much.

• The message was good, but the pastor’s shirt wasn’t really workin for him.

• The style of the music just wasn’t what I like, I wish they did more _______ [your prefered style].

Worship that seeks to glorify God gets past all the trappings of our human nature. Instead of centering on what the worship does for us, we think about what we offer to God. When the main concern of services/gatherings of worship is “what did I get out of it?” or “what did I like about it?” we become the focus of our worship. The point of the service is to please ME.

Worship that seeks to glorify God, seeks to please Him. His pleasure is the primary focus of the worshiper. The point of the worship experience isn’t for me to get fed/hyped/filled/pleased. The point of the worship experience is for God to receive a sacrifice that pleases Him. What pleases God?

• humility – see Psalm 51:17

• love – see Luke 10:27

• justice – see Amos 5:21-24

• caring for the least of these – see Matthew 25:44-46

Some practical steps toward seeking to glorify God in your worship:

• spend time in prayer before entering any worship experience…ask God to set the eyes of your heart only on Him

• don’t sing the words to every song in corporate worship…read/reflect/pray through what you’re actually saying to/about God

• frequently worship God in styles of music/liturgy that you’re not familiar with…the less one-dimensional we are, the better

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Earth Day Video

This is a video I created for Earth Day/stewardship purposes. We used it to remind everyone that we share this planet with all God’s good creation, and that we are called to be caretakers of it

And Earth Day just happens to be my birthday!

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