Flower Girl

So today was a today. I'll try to tell this story the best I can. Before our first service I shared with the worship team a prayer request for a fellow worship leader who had been missing for 12 days. During the first song of the 8:30 service I became broken. The story of a missing leader and God's love in the situation took over. The rest of the worship was filled with tears and prayers for my new friend, his family, and his church. After the music was over....well I was too. During the sermon I got a message that the worship leader was home safe with his family!!! During the next service at 10:00 I shared the story again, the church erupted in worship and by the end of that set I was emotionally and physically drained....completely. I had no idea how we would finish the morning for the final 11:30 service. I literally wanted to go home and sleep it off. But, we had a job to do, and a new group of people who had come to worship our Creator. So we started our first song, "I Give You Glory", which is loud and upbeat, right before we got into the bridge of the song I see this little girl, maybe 4 or 5, coming up the left aisle with a flower in her hand. Her mother was behind her trying to stop her but the girl run forward. She came right to the edge of the stage in front of me and held the flower out trying to give it to me. I seen the girl maybe three times, I tried my best to take it but holding the guitar prevented it. Paul, one of our leaders, who was standing beside me took the flower for me (after a short discussion with the girl that he was taking it for me. She went back to her seat and, well, that boosted me to finish the morning. I see now why Jesus would surround Himself with children at times, they encourage and boost us to finish the race!!! After a beautiful morning of ups and downs in ministry that single flower changed my entire outlook on what we do in leading worship. I pray for the boldness and kindness of that girl. Thank you little girl for changing my morning!!!

Scott

Who's In Charge?

Pastor Chris and I went to alittle bit of the Wellspring worship night at UNCW tonight and it was amazing. Let's be honest, however, that style of worship is not for everyone and would turn some people off. But during the second song (so 1 hour in) I was taking in the worship and started to pray and ponder over where Crosswinds worship is and found myself asking God how I can take our worship to this level of depth and skill. I started reshuffling Sunday set lists and changing my direction, when God corrected me. I so love when God corrects me. He started saying to me; "You're trying too hard". I'm thinking; "this is my job God, how can you say I'm trying too hard". I all of a sudden found myself in a beautiful argument with God, Habakkuk style. So I was taking that in when I looked up and listened to the words being sung, "Love be in my bones, Love break down my walls". I was floored!!! Love, aka God, needed to be more in my bones and break down my walls. "What are my walls?" God was demanding I relax because in all reality I was getting in the way of worship. Do sets need to be changed, probably, do I need to work hard and diligent on Crosswinds worship, oh yes, however I must let God be God not only in our worship but in my planning, and more importantly in my personal times of worship with the Creator. I mean, here I am in the middle of a truly amazing time in the presence of God and all I want to do is plan new set lists because of the songs I'm hearing, and not simply soak in the words being sung. I love it when God corrects me!! On a final note here is the quote of the night from Jonathan Helser, "I always wondered why we raise our hands in worship and then I had kids. I see them everyday come up to me with hands raised saying 'pick me up daddy'. That is what we are doing when we raise our hands to our Father, we are saying 'pick me up Papa." Beautiful words!!!

Scott

Sunday in review...4 days later

Last Sunday I (Scott) was really nervous about how worship was going to go. I had no voice what-so-ever, I had an e-mail saying my only other male singer MAY not be there because he was sick, and we were trying to lead a new song to the church, "Greatly to be Praised" by Steve Fee, which is high pitched to say the least. I spent the night stressing over what to do and finally had to just throw my hands up and say, "Whatever God, Whatever". We rehearsed Sunday morning and it was rough. I had no time to change everything to be female lead, neither Paul nor I could hit anything in the keys we were in, and I was nervous. So nervously I sat the group down and told them that we always preach that worship "is not about the music, or the lights, or the sound" and this is where we practice what we preach. I had a short story about my week which added to the need to allow God to be our everything, and we set out to worship Him. So at the 9:30 service we got into the second verse of the first song and SOMETHING WAS DIFFERENT, in a good way. I was watching people who had barely paid attention before in worship crying, praying, raising hands, and even alittle dancing. By the time we hit the second song on the set list the whole church was erupting in pure worship, in spite of the sound. Don't get me wrong the band did an awesome job playing but did an even better job leading worship and not leading music. Pastor Chris brought a passionate Word to cap off what God was doing in our church. The first service ran over time and something weird happened, people stayed for another service. We had many many new faces come for second service, we had our second service regulars, and some even stayed from first service to worship again. Needless to say second service was slam packed. So, we allowed God to move freely among us again and the worship exploded. People were kneeling in praise, crying, jumping, applauding Him after songs, and being moved by the Spirit of God. We watched our church change over those 3 hours and I for one think it will never be the same again. I got home that afternoon and looked at my wife and could only ask, "what just happened?". It was a rhetorical question, but one that had to be said. The answer is that we as the body worshiped God Sunday and not the songs, or the sound, or the lights, or the Pastor, or the band, or the singing, or our building. I think people forgot all of that old church nonsense and passionately encountered God. People, and the band, got lost in worship and it was beautiful. I knew going into our Monday staff meeting that we were going to ask, "how do we do that again", but we didn't. We knew that it was not us, yes God allows us to put some details together and to plan our services, but when it comes to how it works, well He takes the reigns and we gladly give them up. So if you're reading this before Sunday February 14th be prepared, God will be meeting us again, God will be moving in our church, God will be praised, and He will direct our service and change our plans. And we will allow Him to do that by trying our best to stay out of His way.

Scott