Heart Soul and Might

Every Friday is Fenelon Friday, where we’ll drink from the very deep well of my favorite 17th century French Bishop in the Catholic Church. (Everyone should have a little Fenelon with their coffee in the morning…) Francois de Salignac de La Mothe-Fenelon (born 1651) was a mentor to a number of younger men on the court of Louis XIV. In fact, he was given the responsibility of raising the young man who would proceed Louis XIV to the throne of France (the King’s grandson). Many of Fenelon’s writings are actually letters he wrote to some of these young leaders as they sought to walk the life of faith in the face of opposition and adversity. Fenelon’s teachings were met with resistance within the Catholic Church because they aligned more with Reformation teachings than with Catholic dogma at times, and his hope was that once his student became the King of France, he would be instrumental in the reformation of the Catholic Church and bring a real witness of Jesus Christ to France. Those hopes were dashed in 1712 with the premature death of the King’s grandson. Fenelon died not long after that in 1715 at the age of 63, but his teachings live on and continue to influence 300 years after he died. He has radically transformed my life.

The True Source of Peace is the Surrender of the Will

Live in continued peace. But understand that peace does not depend upon the fervor of your devotion. The only thing you need to be concerned about is the direction of your will.

Give that up to God without reservation. The important question is not how religious you are, or how devoted, but rather is your will in harmony with God’s? Humbly confess your faults. Learn to be detached from the world and completely abandoned to God. Love Him more than yourself and His glory more than your life. The least you can do is to desire and ask for such a love. God will then pour out upon you that special love which only His children know, and He will give you His peace.

Francois de Salignac de La Mothe Fenelon, Let Go, p. 11.

Our Worship and Arts staff team had our picture taken today for a ministry prayer guide that is coming out soon, and I thought I’d share this stellar group of humans with y’all. I’m really humbled to be able to work alongside this incredible team.
From left to right in the back: Kara Langer (Administrative Asst.); Karyn Kipley (Director, School of Dance); Scott Moore (Director of Video Production); Rob Howard (Worship Director); John Farkas (Pastor of Creative Arts); Laina Stanford (Administrative Asst.); Dave Williamson (Director, Celebration Choir)

From left to right in front: Joe Blair (Director of Programming and Production); yours truly (Pastor of Worship and Arts); David Mills (Technical Director)

Not shown are: Ronnie Freeman (Artist in Residence) and Robin Kropff (School of Dance Administrator).

Also, check out our webpage at http://www.fellowshipnashville.org/content/ministries/worship.aspx

Matthew Henry once wrote regarding family worship, “Here the Reformation must begin.” If we are to experience the fullness of God’s blessings and are to be as faithful to Him as we can be, we must begin with the family, the very building block of God’s kingdom. This is something that was understood by the first and second generation Dutch-Canadian Christians among whom I grew up. Every meal was begun with prayer and every meal ended in a time of family worship. I do not recall any exceptions. This was the expectation of all families, and I am quite sure that nothing short of natural disaster would interfere with this family worship. It impacted myself and my family deeply.

Outside of those Dutch circles it seems that family worship is far less common. I find it strange that at a time when there is such a great deal of discussion about the priority and nature of worship, so little attention has been given to family worship. Don Whitney seeks to remedy that in his new booklet entitled Family Worship: In the Bible, in History & in Your Home.

This book is merely an introduction to family worship, and at only 32 pages, it can be no more than that. Dr. Whitney takes a logical approach to the topic. He begins with proving from Scripture that family worship is an expectation God has for all believers and then shows how believers through the centuries have understood the importance of this discipline. One chapter is dedicated to the elements of family worship, which he identifies as reading Scripture, prayer and singing. After answering several “what if” situations, a final chapter encourages familes to begin worshipping together today. A small discussion guide wraps up the book.

As in all of his books, Dr. Whitney depends primarily on Scripture and secondarily on the consensus of great Christians of the past to support his arguments. And as with his previous books, what he writes is both convincing and convicting. I was convicted that I need to increase the priority of family worship and to seek to make it not something that we do most of the time, but something we do all the time. In this small way I can show my children just how important it is that we give priority to the time we spend hearing from and crying out to God.

In truth, I had but two small complaints about this book. The first was that it was too short. That cannot be helped, for it is intended to be only a booklet, but I would love to read more on this topic (and especially from the pen of Dr. Whitney). The second, related to the first, was that Dr. Whitney did not include a “recommended resources” section at the close of the book. Still, by referring to the footnotes I found a few other resources that looked promising.

Family Worship is a great introduction to a topic of great importance. I recommend it for any and all Christian families. It is available for order through BiblicalSpirituality.com and costs only a few dollars. Volume discounts are available, so why not buy several? There is not a family that cannot benefit from this book.

HT: Challies Dot Com

In a short video clip touching on some of the content of the upcoming Desiring God National Conference in Minneapolis, Mark Driscoll (Mars Hill Church in Seattle) speaks to open-handed liberalism and close-fisted fundamentalism as two extremes in today’s Church. Click here to check it out.

I finished this book by Samuel Chadwick yesterday on my day of spiritual refreshment and was really challenged in the area of disciplined prayer and intercession. I’m very passionate about prayer and dependence, but have never considered myself an intercessor. I don’t feel like I’m “wired” like most intercessors I know… and I’m honestly not very disciplined in interceding for others’ needs on a regular basis. I’m like a streaky baseball player who hits .450 for a week and then goes 0 for 30 the next week.

However, one of the things that struck me in finishing Chadwick’s book was that Jesus was an intercessor… He did the hard work of going off to a desolate place alone and interceding before the Father for many things. And, in my desire to be Christ-like - to be like Jesus - I too need to do the hard work of an intercessor. We ALL do. What I AM finding out as I continue this journey toward dependence is that prayer and intercession will never be easy for me. There will always be challenges. There will always be something else I could be doing. In fact, there will always be “good” things I could be doing with my time rather than praying. But, I need to pray, because that is how God moves.

A verse that has always struck me (and Chadwick refers to) is Ezekiel 22:30. God says:

“And I sought for a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the breach before me for the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found none.”

God was looking for an intercessor. One man to go before the Lord on behalf of the nation of Israel to dissuade Him from destroying the nation… But there wasn’t one. Why? Because it’s hard work and it goes against our human nature to be still and make petitions before God. But the Bible clearly shows us the importance of intercession. Chadwick says this:

“The praying people of the Bible are intercessors. Abraham pleaded for Sodom and Gomorrah. Moses made intercession for apostate Israel. Samuel prayed all night for Saul and continually for the nation. David entreated God for His people. Daniel prayed for the deliverance of the Lord’s people from Babylon. Christ prayed for His disciples, and made special intercession for Peter… The one thing that is said to have surprised God is that the voice of intercession had ceased. ‘And He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor,’ (Isaiah 59:16). His delivering mercy depends upon intercessors - people who will put their shoulders under the burdens of others… The normal function of prayer is to make intercession with God for others.”

Samuel Chadwick, The Path of Prayer, p. 109.

Intercession is a mystery. Chadwick says that praying for others “is the deepest mystery and the crowning glory of prayer.” But, in interceding, we are being LIKE JESUS. For “He always lives to make intercession for them.” (Hebrews 7:25)

I’ll be blogging the rest of the chapters of this book in the coming days. This is a challenging and convicting book, but one that is also inspiring as we realize the high privilege and calling it is to live a dependent life of prayer before our God.

For the breakout sessions I would attend, I chose to focus on the larger sessions that end up being less “hands-on” practical and more content-driven and big picture oriented. There are many other breakout sessions that focus more on ministry specifics, nuts-n-bolts, etc… Also, I know that generally speaking, whatever Nancy Beach talks about will be profound and have serious take-aways for me personally as well as our Arts Ministry. This session was no exception:

Seasons of the Soul

The stated “session goal” for Nancy’s talk was this: To understand how to navigate each season of life with a greater measure of understanding and grace. Everyone goes through seasons… and ministry life is no exception. Nancy looked at the four seasons we find in nature and found correlations in life and ministry that enable us to both better understand the seasons we find ourselves in, and give grace to others based on what seasons they find themselves in.

Fall: A season of TRANSITION

This is a season that might involve loss of some sort. It’s a time of transition where things can feel out of control or up in the air or altogether painful. When you find yourself at the end of something, you’re probably in the season of fall and you have to be able to do two things:

1) admit something is ending, and

2) be able to let go of it

Admitting something is ending involves coming to grips with the fact that things aren’t going to be the way they have been. It’s a death of sorts. And it really can feel like dying - so this can tend to be a very emotional season. It’s the letting go that is often the most difficult… because in letting go, you’re are releasing this transition knowing something is ending and something else is beginning.

Ask yourself these questions:

1) What is it time for me to let go of?

2) What is over now? - soberly assess what is ending and be willing to make changes

3) What am I LEARNING?

Sometimes our identity is too attached to what we do. Is this the case? We need to take some time to find out our “fundamental identity” and walk into it. During this season of fall, always look for things you can learn.

4) Who am I trusting?

We have a choice to make: trust God… don’t trust God… Remember Jesus’ words in John 14:1 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.”

Winter: A season of LOSS

Sadness. Despair.

And, we need to remember that on any given Sunday, there is a certain % of people experiencing WINTER. During this season, we need to:

1. MOURN the loss.

• The tendency is to deny it or paint it brighter than it is. There isn’t always a 3-step process to healing. Don’t deny it. Walk into it in the strength of the Lord and let Jesus carry the pain.

• The temptation - and this is especially true of artists - is to hide. It’s easy to fade off and hide behind the pain. The remedy for this is to move toward community.

Nancy talked about her philosophy of “Just Show Up.” That when someone is hurting, or experiences loss or death of any sort… just be there. Just show up. It might mean extra effort and be an inconvenience, but it will show love in a way that almost nothing else can. When in doubt… just show up.

2. Move Toward Community

• Build the safe relationships when you’re not in this season, so they are established when you ARE in this season.
• Invest now - then they will be there for you. They WILL show up for you.

3. TRUST that SPRING will come

Remember the truth of Psalm 34:18 “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”

Spring: A Season of NEW BEGINNINGS

Second chance.

Starting something new.

1. It can be a challenge to truly EMBRACE the new.

• Coming out of a season of fall or winter requires us to let go of the comfortable or familiar in exchange for something new. Something unknown, often. This requires a change in perspective and a belief that it will be for our good. Embrace it. God has something in it for you. Keep your eyes open and be looking for what He has in store.

2. Don’t allow Satan to quency your enthusiasm

• He wants to create insecurities and fears that will stop the growth and joy in exchange for anxiety, worry, pity or shame. Claim victory over these fears in Jesus. Satan has no power over you.

Summer: A Season of ABUNDANCE

It is the only season of the soul we can easily MISS. And if we miss it, we become joyless. Don’t miss it!

3 Keys to “Seizing Summer”:

1. RECREATION
   

• To restore
• To refresh
• To create anew

We need to disconnect. “Leave it at the office.”

Questions:

1. What activity makes you really feel alive?
2. How long has it been since you engaged in that activity?

2. CELEBRATION

• Intentional focus on the goodness and greatness of God.
• JOY is God’s basic character!
• This is God’s plan for keeping us from taking ourselves too seriously.
• God delights to see us play and loves to see us have a playful spirit!
• How is your playful spirit?

3. GRATITUDE

• Grateful people point us to God.
• We should be grateful in every season.

If you lose your joy - if your eyes don’t shine anymore - something is wrong!

“Those of us who know God should be the most fun, free, spontaneous people on the planet!

Book & Resource Recommendations:

• Transitions: Making Sense of Life’s Changes, Williams Bridges
• Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change, Williams Bridges
• When the Heart Waits: Spiritual Direction for Life’s Sacred Questions, Sue Monk Kidd

Thanks to Harry at DogBark.com - all links and pages are now functional. We’re good to go. Thanks for your patience!

Bob Kauflin has an interesting post on this subject at Worship Matters. The post addresses the question: Is my worship primarily about content (concrete truths about God) or context (the environment in which we worship God)? Here is an excerpt from his post:

“If our worship of God isn’t primarily about content, then who or what decides who we worship, how we worship, and what we do when we worship? Does worship have to do mostly with what I’m feeling? Certainly the Gospel is about a relationship, but that relationship is defined by truths that are concrete, unchanging, and eternal, truths that God in his mercy has revealed to us in his Word.”

For those concerned about a theology and/or philosophy of worship, this post is very much worth the read. It’s SO important to know what we believe on subjects like these. Read the whole post here.

HT: Worship Matters

I’m sorry for the difficulties you might be experiencing navigating through my blog right now. I assure you, this is only temporary! My blog hosting expert is out of town and I tried to do something on my own I had no business doing… I’m technical enough to be dangerous, and it caught up with me…

I’m working on it…

I think, for now, clicking on links is not possible. You can only scroll up and down to find recent posts. I will get this fixed ASAP. Thanks for understanding!

Thursday morning (June 15) kicked off Act 2 of the conference, dedicated primarily to breakout seminars. The first session, however, was a plenary session taught by Willow’s founding Senior Pastor, Bill Hybels - generally regarded as one of the world’s most influential Christian leaders. He gave an impassioned message called “An Artist’s Holy Discontent” in which he really valued the gifts of an artist and encouraged artists to walk into those times where they aren’t satisfied because that’s where the richest art comes from. Here are my notes:

An Artist’s Holy Discontent

Hybels’ opening comment: “My soul wouldn’t be in the condition it is without artists.”

He went on to talk about the value of the artistic influence in his own life, though not an artist himself, but how great and inspiring art has helped shape his soul to this point. I was really encouraged by this because he is most definitely a “type-A” driven and influential personality, and yet has a strong appreciation for the Arts. Often that is not the case with leaders cut out of his cloth. He asked:

Why does a painter paint?

Why does a builder build?

Why does a preacher preach?

What power is at work that moves people?

Moses
He went on to read the story of Exodus 2:11-13 where Moses witnesses an Egyptian beating a Hebrew. He is filled with compassion, passion and rage and comes to the defense of the Hebrew, killing the Egyptian. Something was sparked in his heart and compelled him to act. He was moved mightily and had to respond.

Then during the burning bush encounter in Exodus 3, Moses talks with God and God assures him that what he has seen, God has seen also. Hybels used this wording in paraphrasing what God is saying to Moses: “Moses, what you get wrecked about on earth, I get wrecked about in Heaven.”

God has put in each one of us a passion for certain things that “wreck” us - things we’re concerned about, not satisfied with, discontent in… There are feelings you feel that “wreck” you and most of us try to get rid of them. That’s NOT what God wants! This might be exactly what “wrecks” God in Heaven and He might want o use it through you to make some sort of significant change in the world.

Popeye Moments
Hybels referred to Popeye the Sailor Man and his most famous saying: “That’s all I can stand, I can’t stands no more.” And when Popeye would utter those words, he would pop open a famous can of spinach, get pumped up, and take care of business.

What is it that you can’t stand? This is what Hybels refers to as “holy discontent.” What is your Popeye Moment? It is worse to live with a “holy discontent” that it is to take action and do something about it.

What we need to understand is: if you are walking with the Lord, what is wrecking you is likely wrecking God’s heart as well. This means we need to walk into it, no matter how hard it is, and follow God’s lead. If we are open to His voice and His leading through our discontent, He will do wondrous things for His kingdom and His glory by aligning our passions with His plan and using us as His agents to carry it out. So, follow your heart!

Hybels gave us four practical points to consider:

1. Just because something is going wrong, it doesn’t mean it’s your “holy discontent.”

• You need to ask yourself: What’s that ONE cause, that ONE purpose, that ONE thing that won’t let you go? What is it that drives you… and truly drives you crazy? Narrow your passionate focus down to that one thing.
• What keeps you up at night?

2. If you’ve reached this stage in life and don’t have a clue, don’t give up too soon.

• expand your world
• expose your heart to some of the needs of our world.

There’s always time to make a difference, but you need to start. You need to move. You need to act.

3. When you find your “holy discontent”, FEED IT. (this is very counter-intuitive)

Don’t run away from it. Don’t avoid it. Give it MORE attention. Give it energy. Pay attention to what your heart is saying and ask for the Spirit’s wisdom as you walk into it.

4. Because it has a “wrecking” quality to it, you can’t let this holy discontent depress you.

• The last thing you want to be is normal. Let it bother you, but don’t let it rule you.
• Let something burn with you… and be encouraged that it may be from God… and He will strengthen you to carry it out in His power and authority.

Hybels used the example of Bono, the lead singer of U2 - as someone with a raging holy discontent.

• He hates people’s apathy in a world as broken as ours
• He hates half-hearted performances
• They fuel him in his Art.

Let us look to Bono as someone who, though not perfect, allows his Holy Discontent to be used to change the world. Because he is:

1. Prophetic
2. Fearless
3. Fiery

It will fire up everyone your art touches. Be passionate. Be bold. Be open. Be real.