40 Days Of Worship - Intro

Why are we doing this? What do I expect the outcome to be? It’s really simple – I desire to see each of us become more connected to our God in worship. I’m not just talking about our corporate worship. That actually is a byproduct of this study. Paul Baloche once said, “Worship leading is publicly modeling what we’ve been doing privately.” Well said. And that puts our goal in clear perspective – raise our private worship to new levels and allow that to overflow into our corporate time.

So here’s all you need to do in this study. Beginning August 1^st and going through September 10^th:

1. Read the passages of scripture at the beginning of each day. Some days you will have to look them up yourselves, others will have certain translations I use on purpose. No matter what, please make it a habit to look all the passages up – heaven forbid we reconnect with God’s Word!

2. Answer the questions at the end of each section.

3. Spend at least 10 minutes in prayer at the end of each section.

4. Find ways to apply what you’re learning at home, work, school, wherever you may be that day.

We’ll take time each week to see where folks are going and to allow you to tell us what you’re discovering. Of course you don’t have to wait until Tuesday or Sunday to tell me. Shoot me an email or text or comment on my blog page.

I will have hard copies at rehearsal on Tuesday. This schedule will also be posted on this blog, so you can follow along here if you’d like.

Looking forward to seeing what God does with all of us during this journey!

Almost Done...

The 40 Days of Worship study is almost finished!

I will be making it available on my blog page as well as hard copy for those who may not have access all the time during our 40 day journey.

It will go live on Monday, August 1st.

Can't wait!

Draw Me Close...

Rick Founds wrote a song a while back called "Jesus Draw Me Close". It was short and yet profound:

Jesus draw me close, closer Lord to You,
Let the world around me fade away.
Jesus draw me close, closer Lord to You,
For I desire to worship and obey.

Pray that with me today. That Jesus would draw me so close to Him that I could shut the world around me out for just a little while. So that...I could come to know Him more, so that I could worship Him more deeply, and so I could become so much more of what He desires me to be.

Simple song, simple prayer and yet powerful.

Draw me closer, Father!

Some People Just Don't Get It...

I love to help people. Sometimes to a fault - ask my wife and kids!

But there are times when I feel like I'm hitting my head against a wall and all I'm getting is a headache and really dizzy. Ever been there?

You give and give and give to help someone. Sometimes you see a glimmer of hope and you think, "Maybe this is it. Maybe this is the moment that will move them to realize what they need to do..." And then they go back to what seems to be square one.

Feelings of frustration, disappointment, failure and even anger rise up. How much longer should I keep doing this? How many more times? Can I please get relief from this situation now and let someone else take over?

Since I am targeting artists' on this blog, think about the gift of art that you've been given. Maybe its music, painting, sculpting - do you ever feel like giving up on a project because it just won't come together? You know what you want it to look like, but there's just something missing. You know what would complete it, but somehow it's just beyond your reach. But we don't give up, do we? We put it in the "file" for a while; we set it on a shelf for a little bit...and then we return to it, looking at it with a fresh new perspective. Sometimes we need other peoples outside perspectives to complete it. We call that collaboration - and it works!

Sometimes, that's how we need to deal with the people in our lives who just don't get it. We NEVER give up on them! EVER! But we do need to take a moment to step back and look at where they are right now. How much do they know about Christ and His love for them? How much of His love are they TRULY seeing from us? Is there something else, some other approach we need to explore in order to help them?

He never gave up on us...so I know that we can't give up on others. Find some people to help those who really need it. Sometimes you start things that other people are better at finishing.

Collaboration with others for the benefit of someone in need can be called a miracle - in time!

40 Days Of Worship

I'm excited to be working on this one!

In the process of putting together a 40 day devotional on worship for my team. We'll all read the same passage daily, answer one or two thought provoking questions, and then apply learned lessons to our daily walk. All in an effort to awaken a new passion for daily worship. Obviously, it is out of this experience that I pray we will see a new level of worship.

Luke 6:45, "The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks."

My prayer is that out of the overflow of our hearts in prayer, devotion, worship and ultimately sharing that our worship will reach new heights - both individually and as a body.

I would welcome any input folks may have toward this little adventure. What's your favorite passage about worship? Is there a verse or two that keep you fired up? Where do you go in scripture to draw closer to Him, to truly worship Him?

I will compile all this info and post it here once we've completed, hopefully within the next couple of weeks. The goal is to have it in place by August 1st so we wrap up our study by the 9/11 service weekend.

Can't wait to see what God does and where He takes me, the team and His church!!!

See ya in church...

Great Advice for our troubled times...

from the movie, "With Honors"

If only we could get our government to listen to the heart of Pesci's speech from this clip...what a difference it could make! Who says Hollywood can't teach us anything???

Give It Away!

If you're a worship leader, artist of any kind, or a leader in your church who has found ideas and resources that work for you and your team, do yourself and the Church a favor - GIVE YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE AWAY!

I get a little tired of Christian artists' and leaders who think they need to charge something for everything they do. If it's your livelihood I get it. But for the vast majority of us it's not!



This photo was taken at a church where we installed a sound system for another church that needed help. We had the knowledge and the 'muscle' so we went. What a blessing it was for us.

God blessed us with resources, people, connections, ideas, processes, etc. in order for us to do what we do better and more effectively. I have always said that God blesses us to be a blessing! That must include music, arts, leadership - whatever. Share it. Give it. At times I challenge you to take it, for free, to others.

Part of my ministry here has been and will always be to share whatever we have with others. Even to the point of flying/driving to other churches at our expense to help them with worship stuff.
I am blessed to have a fellow worship leader in Chad Marvin from Summit Church in Boise who shares this vision and mission with me. I am blessed - to be a blessing!

Artists' - what do have because someone took the time to show you? What do you have because someone felt like they needed to bless you?

Give It Away!

We're NOT Normal - YEAH!

I've been doing a lot of reading on churches over the last year or so, and there seems to be a trend among the dying churches. I know this isn't new and it's not rocket science to figure this out, but humor me on this...

Declining churches share similar issues - congregations are getting older, attendance and giving are down, and joy, passion and the like are mostly gone.

Let me paint you a picture of FBC currently:

• Our congregation is getting younger each week. We have seen more young families with babies as well as newly married and college age folks coming AND RETURNING than we have in many months.
  
• Attendance is climbing - even in the summer months! (We had some guests' with us Sunday that skewed the number, but when you take them out of the equation, we're still climbing.)
• Giving has begun to rebound in the last month plus. It's NOT about the money... but it's still a statistic we watch.
• Joy abounds in our services, especially in the second service! You see, those folks have had their coffee and donuts and are ready to burn some of those calories. First service folks have that same joy and passion - they just show it in a different way!
• If you've heard our Praise Team lately, you've noticed lots of different things. New faces, new instruments, new arrangements. And it just keeps getting more and more exciting.

On top of all that, new ministries are starting to begin, new folks are jumping into serving, new discipleship options are coming, and new opportunities to serve our community are beginning to pop up.

A church alive is a church poised for GREAT things for a GREAT GOD!

Have YOU found a place to connect? Have you found a group to belong to yet? Are you spending time developing your relationship with God weekly? Are you hearing God call you to serve or lead somewhere in His church? If you are - YOU'RE NOT NORMAL!

The world will tell you that you don't have time for church. The world will ridicule you for investing you time, talent and treasure in church. The world will shun you for what you believe.

But God will be honored to have you! Jump on board with us and NOT BE NORMAL!!!!!!

See ya in church...

And I'm Back....

It's been a journey, to say the least. But God is faithful and true in all He says and does!

First Baptist has been blessed with a great man of God to be our senior pastor in Mike Popovich. He brings years of experience not only in the pulpit and ministry, but also from real life experiences. He's able to connect with people on many levels and has great ministry experience that will help to guide us and grow us into the church that God has called us to be.

So what's next? What will the future look like for us here? Only God knows that. Our part, as followers of Christ, is to seek Him in prayer, walk with Him daily and find our place of serving, sharing and loving in His family. Only when we get united in the Spirit do we see the fullness of God's church BEING God's church.

We haven't always been there - unified, that is.

And I know that I've not always been the most unifying person in the building at times. I've been guilty of hanging onto what I thought we needed to hang on to, holding onto ideals that worked and wasn't willing to let go so quickly. Others have tried to justify that for me, but the bottom line is it didn't help to bring the body together. For that I am sorry.

And yes, I've confessed that to senior leadership so this isn't a surprise to them - like this is the confession hour on Karl's blog!

I say this to spur YOU on to forging ahead, who ever you may be. If there's an issue with me or someone else in our body, deal with it now, seek and offer forgiveness and then move forward.
What will kill any church is for people to hang on to past hurts and let those 'govern' the present and impede the future. Confront, confess, forgive, move forward.

FBC Poky is an unstoppable force, when we allow God to work. I'm on board. How about you?

See ya in church...