Being Real

I could use your prayers.
NO, I'm not going anywhere...I'm not having marital problems or kid problems...I'm not in trouble with the law...

And NO, I'm not writing this to get pats on the back or be told how I'm doing...so please don't!

I just feel like I'm hitting my head against a wall in the church and in my ministry. There has been this sense that something is just about to break - it's coming - it's almost here...and still we're waiting. I feel like some of us are expecting God to do the next big thing, and there are many others standing/sitting on the sidelines just watching to see what happens. There's a BIG difference.
When you expect something, you look for it. When you watch to see what happens, you're usually waiting for the crash! (Anyone ever watch NASCAR?)

We sing a song at times in worship titled "Come Expecting Jesus" by Don Moen.

I come expecting Jesus to meet me in this place.
I come expecting to receive His mercy and His grace.
When I eat the bread and drink the wine, it will be a holy moment in time.
I come expecting Jesus to meet me in this place.

Folks, that's my prayer EVERY Sunday as we get ready for worship. I want us all to encounter this Great, Awesome God of ours and let Him change our lives miraculously! I say it and I mean it with all I am that I don't want us to leave the same as we came in. I WANT GOD TO WRECK OUR LIVES IN A GOOD WAY!

But I'm not so sure many of us - in FBC Pocatello and beyond - are really expecting anything. Is it a faith issue? Is it a communication issue? Is it a leadership issue? Is it a heart issue?

It gets very frustrating at times when we hear God telling us to do something and there's this buzz, this excitement at first of people saying YES! But when it comes to crunch time, people let us down. Actually, I believe that people let God down.

So, I'm asking for your prayers - wisdom as I direct my leaders; clear communication from all of the staff and leaders about what's coming; a rising up of people who will say, "I will go, serve and be Christ to this community/school/office/home."
Pray also that I would stand strong against discouragement. That is a tool that Satan likes to use to tell me how much of a failure I am or how much of a disappointment I've been to the church.
I know it's a lie...I just need to be reminded at times.

By the way, I'll be here in Post Falls with some of the staff at the annual Pastor's Retreat and will be posting some key points from the sessions. Should be great and the timing couldn't be better.

Hmmmm...wonder who set that up?

Worship Wars Rage On!

I hope that, at some point in my lifetime, I'll get to see the end of what has become known as the "Worship Wars". This is that battle that has raged on and on and on and on and on...you get the point. Churches fighting over, you guessed it - music.
"It has to be traditional, with an organ...It has to be contemporary, with drums...It has to be ancient...It has to be blended...It has to be (something)" It drives me absolutely NUTS!

Truth be told, it really breaks my heart. Too many churches have split, and will continue to split, over something that should be an awesome, incredible event in our lives. At the root of it all - every time without exception - is selfishness. Every conversation is laden with "I want" comments.
Very seldom does anyone stop to consider what it is that God, the audience to whom our worship is supposed to be for, would want or expect out of our worship.

And the whole time we fight, Satan is having a field day watching the church act just like the world. He wins - God loses. How is that even right? We are supposed to be the change agent for the world, not the other way around. Yes, I am saying that way too many times the world has the influence on the church in a very negative way.
And I'd even say that many of you who are fighting in this battle have allowed the idea of what worship should be for you to become the idol of your worship. You've lost sight of what it's all about and whom! You have a worship style idol! Burn it...cut it up...get rid of it now or it will consume you and it will cost you greatly.

In about a month, I'll be doing a workshop to help churches with their worship transitions, going from one style to a different one and do so effectively for the body as well as their community. You have an opinion on this that I would love to hear. So what do you think our worship should be? What do you think would honor God?

Shoot me a comment here or at my email karl@fbcpoky.com...

Take God Seriously!

I get the privilege of teaching for chapel at one of our Christian schools here in town tomorrow to a group of junior highers. Pray for me!

Seriously, it will be fun to share with them about worship and what it means from God's perspective. They have a theme verse that I think will just help move the conversation in the right direction in Micah 6:8 - "He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."

In short, live your life as a daily, committed act of worship to your Creator. God's Word is not a secret on what to do, how to live and where to go for advice. It's as simple as black and white.

Lately, I'm getting more and more disgusted with churches that are fighting over music, historical traditions, preferences and the like because these people think it's all about them and what they want. Sorry. Wrong answer. It's all about what God wants and what God desires. When we, the church, get caught up in all that crap, tell me how that helps us to act justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God. Don't see it.

Whenever we, the church, let stuff get in the way of what He desires for us, we fall short. We put us ahead of Him and that is the same as sinning. Micah said it nicely, but one way to take the last part of verse 8 is this - stop taking yourself so seriously and TAKE GOD SERIOUSLY! He's already made it clear as day how to live, so go do it! Live for the King - make a difference for the Kingdom!

See ya in church...

So, What's Your Idol?

As I was reading in Acts today, I got slammed with something that Stephen called the church on.

In Acts 8:39-42 he references the struggle the Israelites had in Exodus 32 about idols. They had gotten tired of waiting for Moses who had gone up on the mountain to hear from God. In their impatience they wanted idols that they could see so they could worship them. So, they made golden images and worshiped them instead of the living God. We remember how that worked out for them. (Moses came down and 3000 people literally lost their lives.)

The whole point of Stephens message in Acts is to call the 'church' of his day on the carpet. They had forgotten - like their ancestors - how incredibly blessed their lives have been because of God in their lives. They had gotten sloppy (my word) in the way of living as Christ followers. And I believe he was calling out the people in his day who had done the same thing. Just look at their reaction to his challenge - it cost him his life.

It hit me hard - we are in the same boat today! We don't call them idols, but that's exactly what they are and they have taken the place of God in our day to day lives.

Idol - (Websters) an image that is worshiped; something that is blindly adored.

Today's idols are much more subtle. MY toys, MY success, MY money, MY career, MY family (yes, some do worship their families above God). While we may say we don't worship 'it', when God takes the back seat to something, then that something has become what you worship, period.

And I know that people say they can't find God in 'church'. As much as that statement may hurt, it is very true. If people can't see God in the people who claim to worship Him, then why should they waste their time? (I'm not saying that FBC Pocatello sends the wrong message so don't start writing letters just yet.) The BODY OF CHRIST - the people who claim to be Christ followers - we have made that statement utter-able simply because we aren't living like followers beyond Sunday.

Stephen's call to the church in his time applies to the church in our time today even more. What have we allowed to take God's place in our lives? What gets more attention, more devotion, more worship, more love than God? When you name it, that's what you worship. So, what's your idol and can you lay it down at the feet of Jesus and live for Him?

I'll be praying...