Rob World Worship

MINISTRY TO THE LORD

via www.worshipcentral.org

I really like JD Walt's insights on worship leading and planning, and worshipcentral.org has some great resources. I recommend reading his article and the Watchman Nee excerpt. There's a difference between ministering to "the House of the Lord" and ministry just "to the Lord". Worship leaders have to minister from the inside out, so I'm looking forward to applying this idea:

"Getting practical about it. 1. Eat this Word, Hebrews 10:19-22. So much is going on here that must be absorbed in the power of the Spirit. 2. Create a new place—a specific place—that is hidden and set apart, not generally accessible; a hiding place of sorts. 3. Go there each day this coming week and simply and literally stand before the Lord. (try 5 to 15 minutes) Say nothing. Ask for nothing. Renounce every distraction. Gather up all your attention and simply behold your God. Wait upon him. Renounce the idea that doing this is for your own transformation or so that you might be more effective in ministry. This is for the Lord alone. Call on all of your faculties to simply and quietly behold the Lord in Love. Ministry to the Lord, though quite simple, may be the greatest challenge of our time. That will be enough for now."

Try this and share your experience.

Live Video from Belmont Songwriters Guild Writers Night Oct 29, 09

I'm learning how to use youtube, this is my first upload ... Sent Together To Heal (lyrics below)

Sent Together To Heal

A broken heart and a contrite spirit

Is all I have to give you Lord

I’m wounded and I need your healing

So I’m humbly asking Lord

Have mercy now Jesus

Oh Son of God Son of David

Have pity Lord and touch me now

Cause I know You were sent here to heal

 

I’m giving up, I’m not trying any harder

There’s nothing more that I can do

I leave it all in your hands Lord Jesus

I commit my spirit to you

So change me now Jesus

Oh Son of God, Son of David

Transform me Lord into your image

Cause I know – I’ve been sent here to be healed

And all of us groan

Crying for freedom

To be touched by the Healer

Redeemed by the Redeemer

Oh ………..

 

Heal us now Jesus

Oh Son of God Son of David

And send us out (as) wounded healers

By your grace – we are sent together to heal

  © Feb 13 2009 Rob Still, RobStillMusic (ASCAP)

Advice for Worship Leaders

I ran across a really insightful article for worship leaders on the Internet Monk blog. (Thanks for the link from JD Walt's Farmstrong blog) Here's some worthy excerpts I'd like to pass on to the tribe:

"The key to worship leadership is to lead as a servant of Jesus and of God’s people. Not to entertain, self-promote, distract or dominate, but to lead; to be a means by which worship’s direction is made clearer and the content of worship is communicated effectively so that a congregation can respond. ....

A worship leader should be deeply committed to the participation of everyone, of every age and ability. This should be reflected at every level of worship leadership, especially in directing the use of music......

A worship leader should be the first one aware of his own weaknesses and be ready to adopt changes or seek help to change.

A worship leader should not be a cheerleader, a brutalizer of sheep or a dealer in guilt and manipulation.

A worship leader should not be insensitive to the presence of guests and non-Christians, but he should lead the congregation and the people of God first, with clarity, simplicity and explanation to outsiders an important, but secondary concern......

A worship leader should know how to lead a simple, brief, direct, non-meandering, non-”uh…just” filled public prayer.

A worship leader should be an adherent of  [their particular] tradition and a person with the ability to be creative and flexible. Neither should dominate at the expense of the other.

A worship leader’s own preferences should not dictate everything about worship."

You can check out the whole article at this link : http://www.internetmonk.com/archive/the-evangelical-liturgy-3-the-leaders#more-4163

Level 1 2009Class Picture

What a great group of young worship leaders! They endured my teaching for a week of Practical Theology of Worship in the mornings, then music practicums, then my Songwriting /Worship Leading seminar in the afternoons.

 

Sunday Worship - a wedding!

Holy matrimony is one of the sacraments (along with communion, baptism, anointing with oil, & ordination). This Sunday Aug 9 09 at Casa Inchinarii (House of Worship) the Sunday service was a wedding, with worship music by the team and special music from yours truly.     I sang "A Reason To Believe" and "Unity" (which actually is a wedding song).  The whole thing was about 4 hours long which was quite short by Romanian standards.  A lovely couple, blessings on Joji and Ingrid!

Day 2 of 21 days

Three reflections from today's reading in Mark 2

v.5 Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, “My child, your sins are forgiven.”
Lord , give me the kind of faith that takes bold action.

v.14 “Follow me and be my disciple,” Jesus said to him. So Levi got up and followed him.
I was reminded when I made the decision to pursue ministry instead of business I felt the Lord say "Follow me and I  will make you a fisher of men"

v.22 "New wine calls for new wineskins.”
This is so true for today. Every generation and culture of believers must evolve progressively to share the gospel. We have to make way for the new.

John Wesley's God Encounters

While I'm woking on another project, here's an excerpt from my IWS paper "The Great Awakening and the Development of Experiential Worship." I'll be back to blogging soon...

    John Wesley was a very devout but somewhat spiritually insecure Anglican minister when he experienced a transforming encounter with God at a Moravian prayer meeting in Aldersgate Street, London, May 24, 1738. “There as someone was reading Martin Luther’s preface to Romans, which describes ‘the change that God works in the heart through faith in Christ,’ Wesley felt his own heart ‘strangely warmed.’”  This experiential dimension of feeling and sensing God’s love filled the emptiness of dutifully fulfilling the hollow religious requirements of “correct doctrine” and “proper discipline.”  This very personal encounter with God changed Wesley forever and “proved to be the turning point of the Evangelical Revival  ‘What happened in that little room was of more importance to England than all the victories of Pitt by land or sea’.”

    Wesley recorded in his Journal another remarkable encounter on New Years Day, 1739.  At a “love feast” prayer meeting “the power of God came mightily upon us insomuch that many cried out for exceeding joy and many fell to the ground. As soon as [we] were recovered a little from that awe and amazement at the presence of His majesty, we broke out with one voice ‘We praise Thee, O God, we acknowledge Thee to be the Lord’.” 

    Wesley defended the notion of personal religious experience from being discredited as “subjectivism” (that is religious experience that is individual, private and non-verifiable) by asserting that experiencing the reality of God is “not the product of the subjective imagination but of the divine Spirit,” based on Romans 8:16, “the Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.”  He developed the “cord of three strands”  theology of faith which balanced the three essential elements of “right belief” (doctrine), “right conduct” (devotional discipline) and “right passion” (zeal for God) , also referred to as orthodoxy,  orthopraxy, and orthopathy.   The experiential/ emotional component was new and controversial, but absolutely crucial to his theology.

    The power of God accompanied Wesley as he preached tirelessly to huge crowds through out England and America during the revival era of 1736-1768 and until his death in 1790.  There were heights of passionate praises to God mixed with bizarre, hysterical behavior. Wesley and the revival were criticized for these charismatic, intensely emotional displays.  But “since Wesley regarded revival as the unpredictable work of God’s Holy Spirit which could work in quite powerful and bizarre ways he tolerated the emotional excesses which often attended Wesleyan revivals.”   His brother Charles however, was known to remove people causing too much commotion.

Sources are cited in the paper. There's a  download link is on my previous blog entry.

Healing Testimony

The Story So Far
Thursday night Feb 24 I was part of the team leading worship for the Randy Clark School of Healing at Belmont Church. After worship, there was a time for healing through words of knowledge. This was led by an intern. Participants in the school would come forward and share what the Lord was telling them (I.E. “someone here has ______ ailment and the Lord wants to heal you of that tonight”)

Although I believe in God’s ability to work supernaturally though words of knowledge in healing, I must confess I am extremely cautious about the credibility and frequency of these things, especially in high-profile public settings. My thinking has been these things are more exceptions to the rule than regular occurrences. Nevertheless, God is God and I know He still heals. I’ve seen Him do it before.

The second word (of many) was from Randy Clark about pain in the wrist area. He described very specifically the area of the pain. Now I’ve had a bum wrist for several months,  but I didn’t think he was talking about me.

I fell and broke my right wrist in July of 2004. Even after rehabilitation and physical therapy I’ve had stiffness, joint pain and some tendonitis in the wrist area. It’s never been 100% right. I couldn’t put weight on it – like doing push-ups or heavy lifting. It frequently just aches. Also, there were some things on the guitar I could no longer do.  So maybe it’s about 75% of what it used to be.

The area Randy described was not exactly where I’ve had pain, and when he gave the word my wrist wasn’t bothering me too much. So I didn’t stand up right away (this is what they asked people to do if the word applied to them). However, as they entered into a time of prayer for everyone standing, I decided to go ahead and stand, thinking maybe Randy was close enough and I didn’t want to miss an opportunity for healing.

As they prayed, I checked out the wrist, moving it around and putting pressure on it. No healing. It still hurt, no improvement. I sat down cause I was tired. Oh well – maybe tonight wasn’t going to be my night. Maybe the wrist problem was going to be my “thorn in the flesh” like the apostle Paul’s.

Then they asked everyone who came to be healed, but there had been no word of knowledge for their ailment, to stand. My wife Ivalene stood. She is currently undergoing radiation treatment for breast cancer (she’s already had chemotherapy and a mastectomy).  She put her hand close to the area being treated.

I put my right hand on top of hers.

Then our pastor Steve Fry walked across the room and prayed with us, putting his hand right on top of my bad wrist. I know he was praying for her, but I felt an unction to silently “go for” healing for my wrist. I had an increase in faith, but felt nothing physically.

After we prayed, my wrist seemed to have improved, even though that’s not what Steve was praying about. Maybe it was the “trickle down” anointing. So I checked it out, moving it around leaning on the chairs. No pain.  Then I went to the back of the room and did 3 or 4 push-ups. That was amazing, because I had not been able to put that much pressure on the wrist since before it was broken. I had not done a push up since June of 2004.

This was/is exciting!

So when they asked “who knows they’ve been healed’?  I was the guy waving both arms and jumping up & down, shouting “Gloria Dios!”

I did push-ups at different times throughout the meeting to see if it was holding. Every time was better. No joint pain. As the night ended, I would say the wrist was 85-90% better. That was significant. This morning, I feel the wrist is continuing to improve – maybe 95-98% better. Impressive.

The only problem is - I wonder how much better it would have been if Steve had been praying specifically for my wrist? :)

Gloria Dios and Glory to God!

Election Intercession

A reminder for us all to intercede for the purposes of God through our elections Tuesday.

The USA has been the most blessed nation on earth because the hand of God has protected and prospered us. But He cannot ignore our rebellion against from Him, and judgment is inevitable.

However “If my people will humble themselves and pray ….” Many leaders have been calling God's people to prayer. Monday night I’ll be one of those leading worship as part of a “election eve” prayer watch at the Encounters Network offices (Jim Goll) 6pm – 5 am. You can join us in spirit wherever you are.