Sep 05 2011

The Mystery of Worship Posted 255 days ago ago by Bob Burroughs     5 Comments

Quote

“The mystery of Christian worship involves our presence and participation in the risen Lord. This mystery is hidden to outsiders, but is revealed to the saints in the Church through God's Word and the Holy Spirit, and it has to do with the presence of the living God with us, and our participation in His glory.” John Koenig

Scripture

“The whole assembly bowed in worship, while the musicians played and the trumpets sounded.”  2 Chronicles 29:27

Prayer

Father of all things, God of the second chance, Redeemer Kinsman, I pray today for those in ministry who are facing indecision or may be questioning their High calling. All of us go through this at some point in our ministries, and Satan hammers us well that we are not worth, that we can't keep up, we are not qualified or we missed it somewhere along the way. Wrong! You, Great God who called us into ministry, will never leave us nor forsake us in either good times and bad. You allow all of us to begin anew. I pray that today for Your people, who serve You faithfully. In the strong name of the One who never questioned His calling, Jesus. Amen, and Amen.

What Think Ye?

The Mystery of Worship

There's no doubt. Those of us in music ministry leadership know how to "do" and prepare corporate worship. We are familiar with the processes, planning, products, details, people and potential that exists in our own local congregations. In short, we've become masters of the management of worship, and rightfully so. There's a degree of legitimate need there. Someone has to take care of the details and we are them!

The incident recorded in II Chronicles 5:11-14, provides an example. Read it now, if you will. As you read the record, it's obvious they didn't just decide, "Hey! Let's meet in 15 minutes and have a worship service!" It says in the Scripture that the people were dressed in fine linen, playing cymbals, harps and lyres, and 120 priests were playing trumpets. Must have been quite a sound. They raised their voices "as with one voice." That all took some doing--or managing, if you will.

Something extraordinary happened that day! God showed up, as only He can do. There is something conspicuous in His presence, yet something of mystery as well. We observe both elements in the story--mystery and management. However, without the element of the mysterious, it might have just been an exercise of management.

What about worship at your place?

Does it only display the marks of masters of the management in the worship experience, or does it bear the greater badge of the Master of Mystery?

What think ye

Leadership

Do Less—Accomplish More

Inexperienced leaders try very hard to prove themselves worthy of their job—by attempting to do everything themselves! This is a natural thing because leaders want to set the pace and prove to the people they can do the job entrusted to them. Below is the first of several mantras that are to come in the next months. MME hopes you will be inspired by these words.

The two best-kept secrets of leadership are

• The less you do, the more you accomplish


• The less you do, the more you enable others to accomplish

All leaders have what is called "core competence," which are those areas in which leaders are very good and qualified. Some leaders are good communicators--but poor managers. They may be good vision casters--but poor on follow-up. The leader wastes valuable time trying to be a better manager--when he should stay with his communication skills! The key words might be summed up as: Only do what you can do - and do it well

Of the certain things that define success for you, which of those are in line with your giftedness? These are the areas where you must focus your attention and energies! These are the areas in which you will excel. Best of all, you will enjoy what you are doing in your job assignment! The moment a leader steps away from his core competencies, his effectiveness as a leader diminishes. And, the effectiveness of every other leader in the organization also suffers. Over a period of time, a leader who is not leading from his best zones will create an unfavorable environment for other leaders in the organization.

Leaders attract other leaders whose skills come close to matching but rarely surpassing their own skills! Indeed, it is a thrill to work with someone whose leadership skills are superior to yours! You learn so much being under such a leader. There are five primary obstacles to a leader who adopts this way of thinking:

The Quest for Balance – One of the great leadership myths is that a leader must be well balanced and well rounded as a leader. This looks great on paper and sounds good in conversation, but in reality, is doesn’t work! Great leaders of the past and present are not well-rounded leaders. They were men and women of FOCUS! Spending valuable time striving for balance forces a leader to put time and energy in the aspects of leadership where he/she will never excel! Don’t strive to be a balanced and well-rounded leader, but discover your “zone” and stay there. Then, delegate everything else!

Failure to Distinguish Between Authority and Competence – A leader must be able to distinguish between these two words! Every leader has authority over arenas in which he has little or no competence. This is the best way to derail projects and discourage those who have skills that we lack.

Inability to Distinguish Between Competencies and Non-Competencies - A leader may be confidence in one or two arenas and, because of these competencies, assume they now have competencies in all other arenas! Success is an intoxicant and intoxicated people seldom have a firm grasp on reality! As leaders, we always assume we can do more than we are capable of doing! Worse, the more successful a leader is, the less likely it is that anyone will bring this fact to his attention! It is not a pleasant thing to do. So a leader who is good in one area assumes he is competent in other areas as well! It is a sign of mature leadership when a leader can admit a weakness. It is a sign of strength.

Guilt – Some leaders feel guilty because they don’t only play to their own strengths and are not willing--because of guilt—to delegate to others their weak areas. But—everyone in the organization or leadership chain benefits from the leader delegating responsibilities that fall out his comfort zone!  Thoughtful delegation will allow someone in the organization to shine – and your weakness becomes someone else’s opportunity.

Unwillingness to Develop Other Leaders -  “If you want it done right, do it yourself.” This is NOT always true! Yes, sometimes it is easier to do it yourself rather than training someone else to do the task. But—leadership is NOT always about getting things done “right.” It is about getting things done through other people! We miss the opportunity to play to our strengths because we haven’t figured out that great leaders work through other leaders, who work through others. Leadership is about multiplying our efforts, which automatically multiplies our results.

(Article is based on the out-of-print book, THE NEXT GENERATION LEADER, by Andy Stanley. If you can find a copy, get it!)

This Idea Will Work

 

You Can't and Shouldn't Do It All !

One of the major battles the minister of music has to fight all the time is--time! Out of this great respect for time might come the desire to do far more than is expected! The wise minister of music should never attempt to conduct every rehearsal, every performance, sing every solo, direct every choir and do everything by him/herself. I know of a minister of music who personally directs or is responsible for 16 groups and that is far too many.

Part of the responsibility of being a faithful minister of music is building good and effective leadership.

Caution: if the music ministry comes to a dead stop or dead end when a minister of music resigns and moves on, then this music minister has failed the church! When he departs the scene, the program should be able to continue for a while because of the leadership he has put into place during his time. Train leaders. Train helpers. Train! Train! Train! Provide encouragement and funds to keep the leadership up-to-date. You can't do it all yourself, so don't even try. Train your people! Just do it!

Taken from the book: This Idea Will Work! 136 Ways to Revitalize Your Music Ministry Lorenz #30/1794L / $12.50

Humor

Church-Lite

Has the 'heaviness' of your old fashioned church got you 'weighted down?' Try us!

We are the New and Improved Lite Church of the Valley. Studies have shown:
• We have 24% fewer commitments. 
• We trim off guilt as we are Low-Cal--low Calvin, that is.
• We feature a 7.5% tithe.
• We have a 35 minute worship service with 7 minute sermons. 

 Next Sunday's sermon is on the Feeding of 500.

To read more of this week's MME, including new music reviews, please look to the right.

 © 2011 Creator Magazine All Rights Reserved

• SuperUser Account 253 days ago
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  John's Answer is the solution. Look to the top right hand edge of the website page (follow the RH red line) and look for a tab hanging out to the right. The tab allows you to change the font size and the screen size of what you are looking at.
  
  Reply
  • Bob Burroughs 253 days ago
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    Yea! Wow. I got it right the first time. I'm impressed!!! Thank you.
    
    Reply
• Bob Burroughs 253 days ago
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  I have the same problem - the right side is only 3/4 there. There is NO "wide screen" black tab at the right top of my screen!! Anyone have an idea here?
  
  Reply
• John Borengasser 253 days ago
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  Mark, Click the black tab for "wide screen" at the right, top of the page. That should allow you to see the right column.
  
  Reply
• Mark Bowers 254 days ago
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  Hey guys, I can't navigate to the right to see more of this week's MME. Don't know why you can't stream it down the page as before, but I have no means of scrolling over to the right. The frame cuts the right-hand column in half. I can't see the right side of that right-hand column.
  
  Reply

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