True worshipers

Sorry I haven't posted over the past week. Things have been a little crazier than normal. The Lord clearly told me about ten days ago to ". . . let your words be few." (Ecclesiastes 5:2) That's hard to do but I have tried --- even on the blog.

The past month at Capstone has been really, really great. God is at work within the church. The Spirit of openness, brokenness and worship within the body has been very real. There are many people truly seeking a life-changing relationship with Jesus - not just going to church. Not just playing church. Not just doing church. We've never been the church "just to attend" because it's Sunday. God has consistently called us to follow His example of selflessness and servanthood. It's challenging and takes a lot of sacrifice. But according to His Word, that's what we are called to do.

Everyone doesn't agree. We live in a consumer-driven culture and people bring that attitude into church. "The church should meet my needs" is the attitude of so many. People walk into churches every Sunday, sit on a pew or in a chair, and wait on "the church" to satisfy some spiritual need they have. And if "the church" does not consistently meet their felt needs, then they will leave and search for one that does.

I don't recall Jesus ever saying, "Go into my church and get your needs met." He never said it was about us in the first place! The work of "the church" (Christ-followers) is to love and serve those around us and in order to do that we will have to put ourselves aside for someone else. I love coming together for "worship with the family" on Sundays but that is just a small part of what the church is.

Yesterday, we could not get the audio to work for the videos we were using during the service. And for about 15 minutes, that frustrated me. Our worship leader Bekky was frustrated. Our sound folks were frustrated. And after my critical thoughts of "why can't we get this right?", the Lord reminded me that our purpose there had nothing to do with a video. We were there to worship Him and that was possible without videos, cables, sound boards, etc. All we needed to have were humble hearts before Him and we would be able to worship. And we did and it was an amazing time together!

We can be so easily distracted by "our needs" that we totally lose sight of what we're supposed to be doing in the first place. John 4:23 says, "Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks."

That's who I am supposed to be - a true worshiper. That's what you are supposed to be. And that's God's greatest desire for Capstone --- that we be true worshipers who worship the Father in spirit and truth.

There's nothing in that verse about me. That's the way God wants it to be.