Because my mom reads this...

I love you mom!! Thank you for taking me to church 29 or so years ago and teaching me what a good Christian parent should do for their kids. Thank you helping me through 27 or so years of school and teaching me that education is important. Thank you for caring for my kids, no matter the hour. Thank you for staying with me in whatever church I am at. Thank you for allowing me to follow God even if that meant at times I neglected you. You will always be my mom and one of my closest friends, even if in my haste I let that relationship slip. You and dad are my rocks!! I love you.
Blessings,
Scott

The Church seen through God's eyes

Ephesians 2:19-22; "That's plain enough, isn't it? You're no longer wandering exiles. This kingdom of faith is now your home country. You're no longer strangers or outsiders. You belong here, with as much right to the name Christian as anyone. God is building a home. He's using us all—irrespective of how we got here—in what he is building. He used the apostles and prophets for the foundation. Now he's using you, fitting you in brick by brick, stone by stone, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone that holds all the parts together. We see it taking shape day after day—a holy temple built by God, all of us built into it, a temple in which God is quite at home." (Message)

The Church as descibed in the Word is not a building, or sprinklers, or ceiling tiles, or bathrooms, or painted walls, or even the stage; it is the people, Christian people. If we ever have to have "church" in a WWII bunker than so be it. If "church" is in a muddy empty lot than so be it. If "church" is in a cramped old dance studio too small for 150 people than so be it. Because the Church is built in the heart of Christ follows, Christ believers, and Christ imitators. WE are the Church where ever we are. This weekend let's be the Church!! It's not an option it's a command from the Word.
Blessings,
Scott

Yesterday

"God would not allow any evil to exist unless out of it he could draw a greater good. This is part of the wisdom and goodness of God." St. Augustine.

Paul say in Romans 5, " Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us."

Now don't get me wrong I did not suffer great pains yesterday, but during any time of hardship from your own prospective it is a suffering. Though I totally understand levels of real and painful suffering. But, I want to tell you about my day. People often say that when you take part in what God wants from you the Devil is more apt to attack, and I believe that. For many months I have been talking to coworkers about starting a once a week Bible study and prayer before work, and yesterday was our first day. I found some great Scripture about green grass (I work for a lawn care company) that had some great context about not worrying and relying on God, we had a great time of prayer that even our boss got involved in, and we were able to share with each other prayer concerns that we can remember throughout the week. In short it was awesome!! So do you get where I'm going? After that the bottom fell out. The first thing I was aware of was a big time frustration with a chemical delivery man who seemed to think that I could lift 2,800 lbs of liquid Nitrogen...I know I'm buff and all but come on. Then he went and out right lied to his boss about me who then spread that lie to my boss. In short it was a mess and really upset me. Then I got a call from my pastor that my Facebook page had some really sickening things on it. I start work at 5:30 in the morning and yesterday I got to playing with cheesy quizzes on Facebook. I blogged about it below but the long and short is that some nasty stuff got on my page that I was 1) unaware was even there and 2) I didn't read fully at the time of the quiz. I looked at the answers and not the nasty explanations. So as a paid worship leader it was not good, and literally made me sick to my stomach. Then I went to church to work and we found out that we may not even get to have church in our new building due to many factors well out of our hands. So it was a decently bad day, wait it wasn;t bad it was interresting. BUT I WAS BLESSED. Later in the day I was reminded that we started our prayer group that day and I smiled ear to ear because in a sick way the Devil reminded me though his attacks that praying and reading the Word are more than the perfect way to start a day, and that ministering to coworkers is always what God wants. While I'm not going to sit here and ask for more attacks, I was blessed through them at the end of the day yesterday. I pray for safety for my family and myself and want and desire God's mercy on my day but, Devil you made me smile and I say thank you for the irritating reminder that God's will is perfect for my life! Praise God! Next time you have a "bad day" remember why, and seek Him more and more, and be blessed in your attacks.
Blessings,
Scott

Watching yourself even when you don't know you should

At 5:30 this morning I played with the quiz things on Facebook that everyone seems to be doing and got bit. I did the one about Superheros, Disney, 80's movies and so on, but then I saw one asking the question "are you insane"? I thought that's odd so I did the 5 weirdo questions. Not being very technical I didn't know that all of the quizzes get posted on my profile and the "insane" one was very nasty, and not at all appropriate for anyone, not just those employed by a great church. To anyone who saw it I am so utterly sorry that something like that was on my page all day, and please know that I was unaware until my great friend and Pastor brought it to my attention. I have been sick over it for the last hour since I saw it and I hope that talking about it will be calming. Please forgive me if it offended you (and it should have), and please understand it was a mistake of ignorance about Facebook protocol. Forgive me!!

Ok, other than that we started our first weekly prayer meeting before work and it was awesome. I found lots of great scripture about green grass for my fellow Christians in the lawn care line of work!!
Blessings,
Scott

Perfection

John 8:2-11 (New International Version)
2At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4and said to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?" 6They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.
But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." 8Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
9At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"
11"No one, sir," she said. "Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin."

I've been thinking about this passage a lot over the last few days, and how it relates to my ministry through worship music. This has been preached on so many times that I am not going to attempt to do so other than to tell how I feel about it, you can make the call how you think it relates to worship music ministry. The fact is Jesus doesn't condemn her BUT also tells her to stop her sinful actions. It is the ultimate loving way to speak to a new Christian on how a Christian should live. He is telling her that she is not condemned by her actions anymore but He also does not approve of them. Does that make since? I love this passage and will take it to heart when dealing with a new Christian, a non-Christian, or matter-of-fact a "mature" Christian. I will not condemn them for their actions, but they should expect that they will be asked to step out of whatever sin they are in. It's not legalism or loftiness, it's truth. OK, enough about that.
Blessings,
Scott

The Mundane and The Zoo

Rebecca and I took the kids to the South Carolina Zoo this weekend and God used it to spur me on. First I must say that the Zoo had great facilities and you could tell that the animals were well taken care of...so don't call PETA!! However, they are still wild animals and you could tell that they were bored in their cages. I say cages but they were in huge habitats that mimicked the natural area where they live. No matter how big and nice the areas were, though, they are not the open wild and caused these animals to show signs of boredom. All the animals had tracks worn where they paced back and forth over and over. We watched a Lion walk in and out of his cave for 10 minutes, and watched a monkey just stare at the back door of his cage and not move. God spoke to me in this!! I thought about this new job at Crosswinds Church, and I thought about our Pastor Chris, and I don't want us to get bored "doing church". As a staff member you can get so wrapped up in the work of church that you can miss out on the Holy Spirit's activity in the same church. I've seen men get lost and go through the motions on Sunday mornings and it's sad, and more importantly it leads to an apathetic congregation unmotivated to save the lost. They are trapped in the mundane like the animals in the zoo. I say this to anyone who reads this to ask for your help!! If you ever since that Chris or myself are simply going through the motions during any church event call us on it! Hebrews 10:24 says, "And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deed". The Bible asks us to irritate each other in Christ! If you ever see me singing a song just to get it done, or look bored during worship...spur me on. It will happen, let's not fool anyone, so spur me on. If I ever look like a caged wild animal in church, spur me on. If I don't act like an animal in the wild, spur me on. Bottom line, spur me on, and I will spur you!!
Blessings,
Scott

"I Hate Organized Religion"

I heard this recently from a tattoo artist that I was inviting to church. He didn't hate God, he hated church. He was not mean or antagonistic, but he wanted no part of "organized religion". As I sat through a staff meeting at church last night this came to mind as we talked about organization. Now please don't get me wrong I love organization (OCD), but where does this "I hate organized religion" thing come from? I started looking and found a couple of things. Number one; if he is referring to the organized effort by many "Christians" to cast stones at sinners, then I agree. If he is talking about churches so organized that they exclude "outsiders", then I agree. Even if he is talking about what happens at many church leadership meetings, then I agree. Number two; in the book of Acts we read about the real beginning of The Church. Jesus said He would build His church on Peter and that didn't start until after His death, just to clear up my theological stance about when and where. They had some prayer meetings which lead to thousands coming to the saving knowledge of Christ. But, as I read I noticed that it wasn't until chapter 6 that they really began to get organized, and what prompted this? The needy!! The church first organized around an effort to help the needy. Let's all remember that as we plan our church, first and foremost we should plan to help those who need help the most. If my tattoo artist was referring to that, then I disagree. In that case I love organized religion. Next time you hear that from a nonbeliever, agree with him/her and make the case that we should start organization with helping the helpless.
Blessing,
Scott

Best weekend in my brief worship ministry career

Often in church life you get discouraged or even mad, today was the opposite for once. I have been in two miserable church adventures in my life but over the last year things have changed. Rebecca and I got hooked up in Life Community Church and it has refreshed our faith and our confidence in church...and today we officially left that church. We have been at Life for the last year and through Life I got connected with my new church home and job of Crosswinds Church. Skipping many details I lead worship every other Sunday at Life but felt God tugging me into another direction, though I didn't know where, until I met Chris Vernon and The Crosswinds Church team. Two weeks ago I took a job at Crosswinds which meant I had to leave Life, and the word of the week has been bittersweet. Long story short (maybe I'll blog about the whole story one day), today Chris' family and my family went to Life for prayer and jetted over to our church for service. It was a rush getting up early for prayer and the excitement of what is happening through Crosswinds in Leland. The prayer was amazing and they were generous enough to help us out financially, and our service was AWESOME. I say awesome not due to what Chris or I did, but what God did through the people. Today I saw the people of Crosswinds have one of those "break though" moments in worship and it sent chills up my arms and legs. We played "Forever", "Mighty to Save", and "The Stand". We didn't have words on the screen for most of "Forever" but God moved. "Mighty to Save" was new to me, as far as leading it is concerned, but God moved. And "The Stand"...wow what to say but God moved and moved hard. Raising hands is not a necessity for true worship but it is an indicator to the worship team that people are worshipping and being moved by God. Chris' message was on point and has caused me to seriously consider how I am spending my time, I thank him for challenging me! We replayed "The Stand" at the end of service and we could hear the church sing in one voice, "All I am is Yours", giving themselves to Kingdom goals. I for one am a leader who loves to hear the congregation sing, and though it may seem redundant for me to keep saying, "just our voices" I will continue to do so every Sunday because of my love to hear God's people sing from the "pews". More along the business aspect of church we, for a small church, are going to be blessed by the worship team that God is forming. To date we have: two drummers, a bass player, two guitarist, two keyboardists, five singers, myself, and two of the singers are willing to lead songs here and there. All this from a church that right now averages 30-40 adults. My friends God is moving. I decided that I want the band members to always remind each other of this phrase on Sunday mornings "get over yourself". I took this from the book Crazy Love, and I hope it sticks. Those three little words wrap up my philosophy of worship ministry, get over yourself and let God move. He uses us, we do not use Him in corporate worship. We need to be moved out of the way and allow God to intervene in our hearts, minds, and souls as we lead others to the Throne Room. Anyway, great, awesome, amazing, uplifting, overflowing, powerful, and refreshing to my faith Sunday. I love Sundays, worship everyday as if it were Sunday.
Blessings,
Scott

Meeting of the minds??

I had a thought a long time ago about starting a small group once a month for anyone in the area who is in the same line of work as me (Lawn Care, Green Industry), but it has not materialized yet. Shame on me for that! But, I was thinking and planning, and talking to people about it recently and thought about my new job as Worship Leader and wondered if there was anything like that for all of us? I've never heard of it but what a great idea (if I can be so bold) of having all the area Worship leaders/Pastors to meet once a month for a Bible study, hang out, networking session, anything but music (check your egos at the door) time for all of us. Does that sound to anyone else like a good idea? I urge you, in spite of my non-action, to consider starting a monthly Bible study for everyone in your profession. I am going to work on starting one for all lawn care workers, and for Worship leaders. I think it would be awesome for Christians in similar jobs to come together to pray for our businesses or churchs not as competitors but as brothers and sisters in Christ. Pray for me that I and others who get involved can make something like this happen. This post is to allow you info to keep me accountable for...so next time you see me ask me how the Bible studies for Lawn Care Workers and Worship Leaders are going. Any ideas about names for the groups would be much appreciated also...like Green Pasteur's (that looks spelled wrong but spell check said it was right....hmmm) for the Lawn Care one and "Get over yourself" for the Worship leader one.
Blessings,
Scott

Weekend in Review

So, this was my first Sunday as an official staff worship leader (I'm not using the term Pastor until I get ordained out of respect to those who are), and it was awesome!! Working with Chris and the whole Crosswinds team has been a great experiance that I hope and pray will grow into a lifelong partnership in ministry. Today we had a great crowd!! When you have to set up more chairs and it is raining an cold...God is moving in Leland, period. I've been in church work for a long time and it's sad to say that most rainy Sunday's are down Sunday's, but not today. The message God gave Chris was amazing and inspiring. I'm ready to live dangerously for Christ!!

We had a new singer...well new to me, Paul who did a great job, and can expect to be leaned on for all future Sunday's. We played Hosanna, Blessed Be Your Name, Better is One Day, and God of This City. Set-wise it was a standard set for one guitar and singers. The passion for praising God was evendent in the people if the church. We have a ton of work to do in the next few weeks as we continue to prepare for Launch Sunday, but the people who have already shown interrest in playing on the team are fantastic. Though we have so many talented people if I use them all who will be in the seats? What a great problem to have. We already have a full band and 6 plus singers, which is the perfect band in my eyes. I'm looking forward to living in a dangerous way with you all....prepare now for the explotion that God is going to bring into our little corner of Leland, and prepare to take that to the World...that's right the World!!
Blessings,
Scott