Fear of Flying

So, many of you who know me know that I am 100% terrified to fly. I have been in one incident (I call it a crash, my mom disagrees but she wasn't there), I had a tooth break flying into Yugoslavia so that wasn't good (the dentist is my other fear, and the one's in Yugoslavia are nasty at best), and once flew in a twin prop. plane from St. Petersburg to Moscow that reminded me of the plane in "Indiana Jones: The Temple of Doom" that they had to jump out of. So anyway I'm scared to fly. The last time I flew was with my dad to Talladega Ala. and I literally had to be drugged...like seriously drugged. I had a panic attack seeing video's of my daughter before the flight, anyway it was a scene man. I'm telling you all this because I had to think about flying again yesterday. Pastor Chris and I both have a passion to see Crosswinds Church plant and fund a church overseas. It's a really cool trend in today's churches to do this. PC3, funds and built a church in Kenya before they even built there building, Lifepoint funds and built a church in Brazil and still meet in a school, and while we haven't nailed anything down yet the words have come out of our mouths that we want to see this happen with Crosswinds. It has been a passion of mine for awhile but something dawned on me yesterday....I would at some point have to fly there!! I was watching a Lifepoint sermon online and the Pastor and Worship Pastor were doing the service remote from Brazil and it hit me, we would have to do that. I mean you can't fund and build a church and never go to it. I prayed about it all last night, and by putting God first I actually became really excited about the idea. And now I want to fly to a little village in Africa and worship with other believers. Now this is easy to say because, heck, we haven't even really really talked about it, but still God is working in me. Can you imagine the awesome trip my kids would get to go on to see remote areas of the world and really get to see real people and not just a tourist trap in some "famous" city overseas? The thought of that and the lessons I and my family would learn from doing something like that kept me up all night in anticipation!! Now, I told Rebecca not to get too excited b/c there's no way I'm flying anywhere other than where God uses us to plant a foreign church. Guys, if you do nothing else this week put God first in all things...period. Putting God first has made my wife really happy with me this week, putting God first made me want to fly somewhere to minister His Word and play music for His people, putting God first has made my lack of sleep vanish so I could spend time with my kids, and putting God first will make Crosswinds explode in Leland and in the world...seriously THE WORLD. Back to flying, God spoke to me last night through my own words to Rebecca, "If we fly there we get to see and minister in ways we could never imagine, and if the plane crashes we get to wake up in Heaven...win, win". God first...period.
Blessings,
Scott

PS-I have a feeling that I will expound on this later and God furthers what He wants to do in this situation and idea!!

Yeah so I work at a church

A long time ago a lady who's name I do not know told me that the hardest thing about being called in to ministry was actually getting to the point where it really happens. Tonight after being called into ministry for the past 15 years or so I took my first job at Crosswinds Church!! It is so surreal taking the job that you have "wanted to be when you grew up". I'm am so ready to dive in, and yet I'm at a loss as to what that means. As a volunteer in a church you can come and go as you please, but now as staff you have to gauge when to say yes and when to say no. It means I not only just simply pick songs but I go to staff meeting, leadership meeting, and God help me finance meetings. Tonight is the night I have longed for and desired for for many years and it still has not processed. Picking songs is easy, teaching music is easy, jamming with the band is easy, but the intangibles are daunting. I have the strength of Christ on my side so it's all good, but as of two hours ago my life as I know it has changed forever. I could not be more thrilled at the church that choose me to serve with them, and it is truly an honor to be with them and worship with them. I will be making many phones calls and sending many e-mails and will soon get out what I will be looking for in the worship team, and more importantly what my thoughts about worship in general are. Pastor Chris has an awesome vision, and we have the prayers of many within and not in our particular church. I cannot what to see what God has in store over the next few months, but I know that God will do great things and I am expecting them to happen. Members of Crosswinds I ask for your prayers and open the door to myself by means of sharing your lives with me. This is going to be a great ride these next few months!!! I will have this surrealness processed soon and the real work can begin...boy o boy the things they don't teach you in seminary!! I will be in contact with you and just a heads up if you are at all musical expect some nudging to come. Thank you for this opportunity and you will have my all (baring in mind I live by God first my family second and the congregation third...as it should be).
I share in Chris' vision and buckle up, it's going to be awesome time in Leland and we all together make an impact to reclaim our small patch of the mission field for the Kingdom and the King of Kings and Lord of Lords Jesus Christ. Prepare now to beinging your personal worship to the corporate worship of Sunday mornings. Read and work on Eph. 2:18-22. Let's build this church on Kingdom goals and the cornerstone of Christ!!
Blessings,
Scott

First Sunday at Crosswinds!!

Today was our first Sunday leading worship at Crosswinds Church, so here's the skinny on how God moved at church. Our song list was Friend of God, God of this City, Open Up the Skies, and Surrender. Just being boldly honest it was a little akward due to many factors, choosing not to use microphones, only having one guitar, and just worshipping with new people. Anytime you walk into a new group of worshipers it can take time to "feel" out how they worship God. Worship can take many forms and looks, therefore a learning curve is expected when standing in front of the group. However, over looking those man-made "issues" the day was fantastic. We saw people with a real desire to stand boldly for Christ honor Him through worship music today. We spent about 2 minutes in dead silence listening to God (an idea from the book Crazy Love), and I pray that God spoke as loudly to the others in the room as He did to me. As we go forward I think that Crossinds will be a great place of worship because of the heart of the people there and the desire for seeing God do miricles in the area. Worship goes far beyond the leader and the band and even the concept of music, though all are very important. Worship is the heart of The Church ministering The Word. I look forward to working with the people at Crosswinds in any capacity we all see fit. Again, all in all I had a great day of personal worship, and thoroughly enjoyed getting to see others worship to true Creator God, the Author of Worship, and the Savior Jesus Christ. Worship Him this week by telling others of His saving grace and enjoy watching Him pull them out of the path to hell. God's love is amazing!!! Devote (Acts 2:41-47) yourselves to Kingdom Worship!!!
Blessing,
Scott

PS-I have already heard that Life had a great worship atmosphere also, praise God!!

Dinner with a Pastor

Tonight we were honored to have some good times with Pastor Chris and his family. It's a shame that the Carolina game ruined to first half of the night, but still it is exciting getting to know the family that we may be in ministry with for many years to comes. If it is God's will I will be thrilled to serve with Chris and have our families grow even closer together. Oh and Chuck Taylors rule, period. If you wear Chucks your Theology has to be good!!
Blessings,
Scott

Crazy Love

In case you haven't yet, read the book Crazy Love. I am now on chapter 6 of 10 and it is unreal. Read it and read it now. My favorite quote so far is, "Stress and worry reek of arrogance". The quote is within a great chapter but those 6 words are just ringing in my ear, especially as I get ready to lead worship for a new group of believers.
Blessings,
Scott

Marriage and God

I heard a great message the other day by a TV preacher on TBN. I don't recall his name but he was Bishop somebody or another. He made a point that I had never heard before about the fall of Adam. Pastors have taught on the fall forever and usually focus on the fall of Eve and then Adam and relate it to pride, or selfishness, or wanting to be like God, or blaming the Devil, or somesuch thing. This guy spoke about Adam's fall and thus the fall of man to putting someone, namely his wife, before God. God told Adam not to eat of the fruit and then came Eve with the fruit. Adam, not wanting to disappoint, anger, or disrespect his wife took of the fruit and ate. Adam put his wife before God in his hierarchy of respect, and fell. I heard another pastor recently relate our marriage relationship to a pyramid, with God at the top and the man and wife on the other corners. As we grow closer to God we in turn grow closer together, but no matter God is always on top. And honestly with the shape of some pyramids if only one is growing closer to God while the other is falling away you will grow apart, so work together on your personal relationships with Christ. Ask eachother about your walk with God, pray together about your seperate relationship with the Holy Spirit, and boost eachother when needed if one is stumbling. So, what did we learn from all of this put together? Put God first. Put God before your spouse, your kids, your television, and your facebook. Adam put Eve first and fell. I do not want to fall further from God, I want more of Him so that I may have more of my wife, and I want my wife to have more of Him so that she can have more of me. God first, period. I need to figure out this guys name so I can watch him more.
Blessings,
Scott

PS-The spellcheck thing is not working so sorry for all the mistakes, I'll a spellcheck junky.

What this will be about

I never thought that I would be the type to blog but here I am writting my thoughts to put on the internet...so there you have it I'm a blogger. So be it.

I wanted to start this blog as a means of sharing my thoughts about worship in general but more to the point share about worship from Sunday services at whatever church God leads me to. I want to share songs we did, why we did them in some cases, and my thoughts about how the congregation worshipped the Creator God. You may or may not ever get anything out of this blog but I hope that you will, and that God will use this to help me reach people about His love, grace, and mercy.

So here goes with my first thoughts....scary.

I'm leading some songs this week at an awesome new church called Crosswinds Church (http://www.crosswindslive.com) . I've met with the Pastor (cool guy), and we have met the people of the church (super cool people), and this Sunday I have the incredible oppertunity to lead them in worship through music, and I'm struggling. Those of you who know me know that I am OCD about planning and I usually have a song list in seconds when I am asked to lead somewhere. But in this case I'm at a loss, granted is it only Monday, but still I feel like I should have it by now. Maybe it's because there is a possible leadership role there, maybe it's because I'm nervous about really stepping out into my call, maybe it's simply because it's new people and I don't know their likes and dislikes yet, or maybe it's because I have a crazy week of work this week and barely have time to think about food much less music. Who know's? But being OCD it kinda bothers me. I totally trust that God will give me music well in time, but learning patience is not what I had planned this week (I would put a smiley here but I hate them). On the up side one of my best friends is going to sing with me, and of course I will have my lovely wife with me, and most of all I simply get the honor of worshiping God this Sunday with new friends. As soon as God blesses me with a song list I'll figure out how I want to share it through blog. Until then worship the Lord your God with everything you have, and bring that passion to your church this weekend, remember worship is NOT about the team on stage but the church as a whole if you bring your worship to church you may very well be the worship leader that your pew neighbor needed.

Blessings,
Scott

Just checking

Hey, I'm just seeing if this works, I'll get started later.
Scott