Don't rob people of the joy of worship

One of the temptations, particularly as churches grow, is to professionalize worship to a place where it is about the "excellence" of the performance on stage, perfect timing, awesome acoustics and providing an " unforgettable experience" each week. I know pastors who actually become angry or anxious at any "imperfections" in the service. Appearances and performance can start to mean everything.


What easily gets lost in all this is that worship is not about a performance but about helping people express their love, appreciation and commitment to the Lord of Lords who is holy, righteous, loving, merciful and faithful. It is both an individual and corporate expression of worship of the Almighty God. It is deeply personal and by nature must be participatory. It is not about who is on stage, but about the hearts of the congregation as they lift their voices and prayer and thoughts to their Heavenly Father. In fact, anything that happens up front that detracts from the congregation joining in personal, corporate and authentic worship is counter to the purpose of worship.


Good worship leaders both plan the service carefully and are sensitive to the Holy Spirit when He breaks in and changes the plan. Worship that never deviates from the plan is worship that is not sensitive to what the Holy Spirit might be doing in the service and among His people. After all, why should He not respond to the worship of His people? And what if He desires that the service go more than the allotted number of minutes? God cannot be boxed in and when He is, we are the ones who suffer.


And what about simplicity on occasion? A simple hymn, a quiet meditation, the scriptural and theological integrity of good liturgy where we recite Scripture and truth to God as they did in the early church, reminding ourselves of the basics of our faith. Or times when we are still and silent before God echoing the Psalmist who said "Be still and know that I am God."


My observation is that many of us have a deep hunger to worship God rather than to attend a performance about God. Our hearts are often parched from the stresses of the week and they need the living water of His truth, the encouragement of His promises and the opportunity to freely sing and pray to the One who is our ultimate Hope and greatest joy. Anything that distracts from that opportunity gets in the way of our hearts being refilled for the week ahead. Never rob people of the joy of worship. It is about God, not about us, it is about the congregation lifting God up, not about those who are in front. Their job is to make it easy for the rest to spend time in His presence. 

A prayer for the new year

Father God

You are the Author of history

and the Redeemer in my life story.

I thank You for Your great faithfulness in this past year

and ask for Your personal presence in the coming year.

Savior,

grant to me faith to follow You well,

courage to go where you call me,

the ability to love others well

and to live generously always.

Jesus,

give me a heart

 that looks increasingly like Your heart

so that others see You in me

and attract them to You.

Emmanuel,

I pray for the expansion of your Kingdom worldwide

that Your will would be done on earth

as it is in heaven.

May Your glory cover the earth

as the waters cover the sea

until all have have heard Your name
and Your reputation is lifted high.

Holy Spirit,

give me ears to hear your words

and discernment to follow Your ways.

Be my Counselor and Teacher

each day.

Father,

may I glorify You

as Jesus glorified You

and please you

in all that I do.

Amen

Certified: Pure for God!

It is a huge story in Jerusalem. 



 (Reuters) - Israeli archaeologists said on Sunday they had found a 2,000-year-old clay seal near Jerusalem's Western Wall, confirming written accounts of ritual practices in the biblical Jewish Temple.
The button-shaped object bears the Aramaic words "pure for God," suggesting it was used to certify food and animals used in sacrificial ceremonies.
The Western Wall is part of the compound revered by Jews as the Temple Mount, where Islam's al-Aqsa mosque and Dome of the Rock shrine now stand in a holy complex Muslims call the Noble Sanctuary.
"It seems that the inscribed object was used to mark products or objects that were brought to the Temple, and it was imperative they be ritually pure," the Israel Antiquities Authority said in a statement announcing the find.
The authority said it believed it was the first time such a seal had been excavated, providing direct archaeological evidence of ritual activity in the temple described in ancient texts.


The book of Leviticus is often overlooked because of its emphasis on the moral, civil and ceremonial law. For instance, in the instructions regarding sacrifices one reads this: "You must present a male without defect from the cattle, sheep or goats in order that it may be accepted on your behalf. Do not bring anything with a defect, because it will not be accepted on your behalf (Leviticus 22:19-20)."  


The moral, civil and ceremonial law covered all aspects of life: marriage, worship, personal purity, sexual purity, and relationships. They were a constant reminder to the Israelites that all of life is sacred to God, and there is no distinction between the sacred and secular! Every aspect of life is to be lived in light of God's holiness and purity. In fact, the prevailing theme through the book of Leviticus is "Keep my commands and follow them. I am the Lord. Do not profane my holy name. I must be acknowledged as holy by the Israelites. I am the Lord who makes you holy and who brought you out of Egypt to be your God. I am the Lord (Leviticus 22:31-33)."


This is why all sacrifices to the Lord had to be certified as "pure for God" as was written on the clay seal found in Jerusalem.


The constant theme in Leviticus in the moral, ceremonial and civil law is the holiness of God and the call for us to emulate that holiness. This theme is picked up often in the New Testament. Paul tells us "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship. (Romans 12:1)."


In a world that screams impurity, selfish living, offers many false gods and lifts up materialism as the ultimate goal, we need to ask ourselves if our hearts are certified as pure for God. Is this our goal and are we cooperating with the Holy Spirit to see this become a reality in our lives? 


We need this reminder every day!

His mercies are new every morning

In every situation we face in life, we have two choices: to focus on our issues and problems or to focus on God's mercy and faithfulness. Which we focus on determines our attitude, response and faith. 


We often sing the great hymn, Great is Thy Faithfulness but many do not know the origins of that hymn. The year was about 586 BC and the Babylonians had just conquered Judah, destroyed the city, torn down the wall, decimated the temple and carried most of the population into captivity. 


The prophet Jeremiah is wandering through the wreckage of what had been Jerusalem, now a burned, destroyed hulk of a city. There was nothing to be joyful about. The sin of the people had brought the judgement of God after many warnings. So distraught was Jeremiah that the short book he wrote is called Lamentations meaning sorrows.


But in the middle of that song of sorrow, Jeremiah makes this profound statement:

Yet, this I call to mind

and therefore I have hope:

Because of the Lord's great love

we are not consumed, 

for his compassions never fail.

They are new every morning;

Great is your faithfulness.

I say to myself, "The Lord is my portion,

therefore I will wait for him."

(Lamentations 3:21-24)

There is a reason the hymn, Great is Thy Faithfulness, is sung at funerals and in seasons of turmoil. Like Jeremiah this is when we most need to remember and trust in the faithfulness of God. 

Whatever our situation today. However discouraging it may be. However great our anxiety or sorrow we can say with Jeremiah, "Great is your faithfulness" and allow that to be the basis of our hope, our trust, and a better future. Not only that but "His compassions never fail and are new every morning." There is no new day we face where we do not experience the mercies and compassions of our faithful father.

What would you do differently this coming year if you knew it was your last year?

It is easy to live life on autopilot with little introspection as to the direction and the impact of our lives. As this year comes to a close think about this: God just gave us another year of grace - as every year and every day is. It is a year we will never get back and it becomes one more chapter in the record of our lives. I now have nearly 56 chapters completed. Each one is full of God's goodness and grace. How many more chapters I or you have is unknown. All the more reason to live this coming year thoughtfully and intentionally.


Those who live with serious illness or who have experienced one know the value of each new day and the gift it represents. They also know that life is not to be wasted or squandered through an unexamined life. In fact, life changing events are often the shock to our system that reminds us that we are mortal, life has limits and time is precious.


As you look toward the coming year, think of it as one of the chapters of the book that will someday represent your life. What do you want this chapter of your life to say? What will it say about your relationship with Jesus, your life priorities, your generosity, your vocation, your marriage, your time with family, your growth, or the use of your gifts for Jesus? Will there be the adventure of risks of faith taken, steps of obedience initiated, time with fellow pilgrims enjoyed?


As a writer with five books under my belt I know something about writing the chapters that make up a book. Each chapter has a number of themes that make up its content. Those themes are fleshed out before the chapter is written but their content is discovered as the words flow from my heart to the page in the writing process. We don't know what the content of our coming year will be given the vagaries of life but we can thoughtfully determine the themes that will make up this chapter. 


The thing about life chapters is that we cannot redo them. There are no corrections or editing of completed chapters so planning them thoughtfully and writing them intentionally is all the more important. The good news is that God's grace can cover the past and His presence can cover the new. Write this next chapter of your life with passion, energy and with an eye on eternity. Our volumes will be on display for all to see one day. More importantly we are writing it for Jesus.

Dysfunctional families of origin

At fifty five, I realize that I still am deeply impacted by my family of origin (what ever happened to growing up?). Our formative years are just that - formative and they stay with us forever. Some of us are more fortunate than others in our families of origin. Some bear great scars that still feel raw to this day. And, none of us grew up in a perfect family and my own children will deal with dysfunctions that I was responsible for. However,  there are three questions that I believe can help us see our lives in perspective.


One: What can I thank God for relative to my family of origin? Who we are today is in large part the result of our early years. My understanding of Scripture came from terribly early morning devotions, but those devotions informed my view of Scripture and of God. My love of people from all over the world came from the cross cultural experience I had growing up in Hong Kong and the amazing hospitality which my parents exhibited in welcoming all to our home. If I made a list (and it is a good idea) of the may blessings I experienced from my family of origin it would be long. 


Two: What do I need to forgive my parents for? No parents are perfect and their understanding of parenting is a factor of their generation, their spiritual place and their situation in life. I am the first to admit that my kids, Jon and Chip will need to forgive me for parenting mistakes, perhaps that I am not even aware of. Our own parenting skills are a mix of what we saw that we appreciated and what we experienced that was painful. At some point we need to forgive our parents for the painful just as our children will need to forgive us for the same. Ironically we are best suited to raise kids when our grand kids come along.


Forgiveness for the failing of our parents is critical to our own freedom and reflects our own humble evaluation of our own parenting. All of us are in need of God's grace and the grace of others. No parents did it all right. The sooner we forgive, the sooner we are able to deal with the scars we gained early in life.


Three: How do we see God's hand in our personal history? Our upbringing is a mixture of good and bad, happy and sad, levels of family dysfunction and for some, very deep wounds. However, it is an amazing thing to consider how God got us from there to here? How we can see His invisible hand in our personal history to mold us into who we have become and how he presently uses us. Only God has the ability to use both the good and bad of our past and redeem it for His perfect purposes in our present. Only He can change our human scars into divine scars usable by Him.


Ultimately we are not who we are primarily because of our parents but because of the faithfulness of God through our history. Think deeply how God has been present in your history, in your childhood, in all of the events of your life, bringing you to your present place and you will be encouraged. Whether we have much to be thankful for in our upbringing or the need to forgive much that was painful and hurting, the one constant is always the presence of a loving father who brings us to where we are today, redeeming the pain and using all of who we are to impact our world today. Whatever our experiences, God was there in their midst and the proof of that is where He has you today.


I am a far more humble parent than I was when my first son was born. I realize more clearly than ever my own brokenness and that realization helps me forgive the hurts from my own childhood. I hope my children do better than me but know that they deal with their own brokenness and in the end it is the grace and love of Jesus that makes the difference for all of us.

Seven practices of leader learners

The task of leading becomes ever more challenging given the forces and pace of change. In addition, our busyness as leaders gets in the way of our ability to process, think and reflect on the key issues our organizations face now and in the future. There are, however, seven practices of leader learners that can change the very nature of our leadership. I use the term leader learners deliberately. Not all leaders are learners and not all learners are leaders but leaders who are also learners have a powerful combination.

1. Read widely. Anyone looking at my library would say that it is eclectic: biographies, science, psychology, theology, fiction, classics and the new. Wide reading expands our minds to think bigger thoughts, to prompt new ideas and to give us a rich knowledge base from which to draw life, leadership and practical skills. Reading beyond our expertise area is particularly enriching.

2. Ask questions. We are surrounded by people who do interesting things. Regardless of their occupation or expertise, asking a lot of questions expands our own thinking. What is their strategy, what informs their decisions, why did they do what they did, what is the biggest dumb tax they have paid and what are they learning presently? Learn from others.

3. Think deeply. A friend tells me the story of Bill Gates at a resort in Hawaii where he just sat, rocking back and forth for most of a day - thinking. Thinking deeply is a lost art because we have far too many distractions that vie for our attention. Taking the time to think deeply over issues that matter yields insights that are had no other way.

4. Think differently. Common wisdom is very common and often not wisdom. Question everything! Why do we do what we do the way we do it? Are their "game changers" that would take us to a whole new level rather than a small tweak? Look for contrarian thinkers who give you advice that you might not even agree with but which causes you to consider. Innovators are people who are always asking the why question. They can be irritating but they are also the people who leapfrog others because they think differently.

5. Hang with innovators and creative folks. I am not the most creative guy in the world but I know a lot of people who are and the more time I spend with them the more creatively I think. I especially love time with young creative leaders who see life through a different lens than I do at 55. I need them to stay young!

6. Pray for wisdom and insight. They Holy Spirit has intelligence about what we do that we don't! Ask Him for insight and wisdom and expect that He will talk back. I am convinced that the best ideas I have had did not come from me but came from Him. Ask and you shall receive!

7. Whiteboard monthly. Take just one big rock a month, get the right people into a room and have a whiteboard session around that issue. You will be surprised what the combined intelligence will yield compared to you alone. So simple, but it takes time. I rarely tackle an issue alone. I want the multiplication factor of bright folks and their combined intelligence for the best solution.

The common denominator of these seven practices is time and intentionality. Of course that is what it takes to be a leader learner.