Often songs either arrive from a great story. Other times God uses the words of a song as a catalyst for a story to emerge. True worship is always transformational. When you hear a great story tell it catalyzed by worship, tell it. We shot this video and then played it right before we did the song Mike refers to, How He Loves. It was an incredibly powerful moment. It was only the second time we had done the song in service.

Forgiveness from Northwood Church on Vimeo.

Crazy thing about the week Mike first heard that song in worship. I had a massively busy week and was leading. We needed a song that reflected God’s deep love as a response to the Word that was going to be preached. There was another song we already had a chart for, band knew, etc. But I felt led to introduce How He Loves though we didn’t have a lead female vocal, arrangement etc. One of my guys said, “Just do Your Love Never Fails” in an attempt to lighten my load (that must have seen my stress that week) and protect me from myself (ha!). I almost pulled it but I felt strongly that we should do it and spent the extra time to make a chart and work with Casey to learn it. It landed marvelously. When I shared with Mike how that song almost wasn’t in the service after he told me the story you saw in the video, he teared up at the realization of God’s providence for him that week.

For the record, Microsoft is using one of the goofiest ideas ever to try to build buzz about their Windows 7  launch. You host a launch party in your house and become a Windows 7 evangelist. As I watched this, it had the strange undertones of some church evangelism strategies I have seen….creepy. Consider the parallels.

Chris said to invite him and he’ll bring his mac over…ha. [video via --Bobby Vaughn's facebook]

Recently began going through Ephesians with my men’s accountatiblity group. Some people ask me how I study for a message and/or read God’s Word for my personal worship times. Several elements are the same. The foundational piece is a breakout of the chapter (especially in non-narrative passages). This allows me to see the main points and reinforcing points. You don’t need to know Greek or Hebrew (though it can help), just outline a more literal translation (ESV or NASB). Use the tab key to push over modifying statements where they start under the phrase they modify.

Using this method:

1. Forces you to slow down and reflect on each phrase of a passage and wrestle with where it sits in relation to other phrases.

2. Shows you the main points of a passage.

3. Allows you to mark purpose/end result statements (arrow). Often these are “so that…” or “in order that.”

The rest of the week I tend to alternate between reading this document and making notes on the page about what God is saying and the regular paragraph layout in my ESV Bible. It is amazing what new things I am able to to see using this method.

Perfect illustration of Hebrews 11….Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen(such as a coming second marshmallow). Defer temporal shallow satisfaction for deeper eternal joys.

If you have read worshiptrench for any length of time, you know I love time audits. We even have complete systems for how we use them. Now there are some free online tools that you can use to more easily complete your time audits. Check them out at unclutterer.com and grab them for free.

Great article which with I agree. You cannot do church entirely via internet and it meet the incarnational criteria of the New Testament. Great thought. Here.

I see churches all the time that are small yet they try to play big ball (huge marketing campaigns, etc) when their strengths are relational community and viral word of mouth. It is okay to be who you are (even though we get caught in the ridiculous pastor’s trap of “how many are you running?” to fill our need for status). A great article on why you can play small ball and win here.

Example: Stop doing arena anthem arrangements or programming like you have 3,000 people and start doing some acoustic, intimate type stuff and be who you are.

Session One: Gaining the Father’s Heart from Northwood Church on Vimeo.

Session Two: Hearing Their Story from Northwood Church on Vimeo.

Session Three: Telling Your Story from Northwood Church on Vimeo.

Session Four: Sharing His Story from Northwood Church on Vimeo.

Grab the accompanying book here3stories-booklet

We are hearing amazing reports of people using this simple curriculum on evangelism in their small groups. Just wanted to share it for free here for a limited time. Offers a relational paradigm to share your faith.