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Leadership Blog
What I Learned About Worship: College
After high school I attended college at Grand Valley State University. Aware that my faith would be challenged in this secular school I began attending InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. The group was committed to sharing the story of Jesus with the campus, to studying God’s Word, and to practicing multi-cultural worship.
Present Grace Reminds Us of God’s Process
This is the third and last installment in my series about Paul David Tripp’s and Timoth S. Lane’s perspective on the importance of recognizing God’s present grace to us – as outlined in their book “How People Change.”
The authors highlight three kinds of spiritual blindnesses that occur when we neglect to acknowledge the importance of God’s grace: a blindness to our true identiy, a blindness to God’s provision and a blindness to God’s process.
Blind Spot
On one of my first times driving on the road during Driver’s Training, the instructor told me to change lanes. I did all of the right things -the head check, the mirror check, the turn signal - and then started to change lanes. In the process, I cut off another car, the other driver blasted the horn, and I was surprised and shocked, that I had almost caused an accident. My Driver’s Training instructor, of course, saw it all happening, saved the day, and proceeded to lecture me about my blind spot.
“But I did look!”, I cried.
What I Learned About Worship: Summer Camps
In my last post I wrote about what I learned about worship in childhood. Part of the learning process came through my experiences at week-long summer camps I attended in middle and high school. These camps introduced me to a whole new model of worship. I went from singing in pews to standing and raising my hands in an emotionally charged atmosphere.
Motivated by Grace. Then what’s stopping me?
Since grace is the desire and ability to do the right thing (see my previous posts), why is it that I still sometimes feel unmotivated? What is stopping me, or rather, what is stopping God’s grace from enabling me to “work with all of his energy” - which so powerfully worked in Paul? (Col 1:29).
In a word, pride.
What I Learned about Worship: Childhood
Over the next few weeks I’ll be sharing stories from my life which mark turning points in my understanding of the meaning of worship in the life of the believer and the church. This week: Childhood.
I grew up in a small Southern Baptist church in Northern Michigan. My dad was an elder and my mom played the organ. The pastor’s wife was the pianist. We sang a lot of hymns. My friend and I used to see who could open the hymnal to the exact right page on the first try. We were successful more often than you might imagine. We sang a lot of hymns. In many respects our church had the epitome of the “traditional” worship service.
Present Grace is Provision
As I mentioned last week, I am reading How People Change by Timothy S. Lane and Paul David Tripp. The book focuses on what difference Jesus really makes in our everyday life. How does the grace we receive in the present form the way we think and act?
Last week I outlined what the book said about how denying present grace blinds us to our true identity. Today, I would like to reflect on the spiritual blindness to God’s provision.
Resting and working - at the same time! Part 2
The question I raised last week was: “How is it that Paul - the apostle of grace, is also so incredibly motivated to work?”
Many people work hard at “religion” - sometimes very hard. They do so because they’re convinced that working hard - doing “good works” - is the way to earn God’s blessing and acceptance. But, Paul’s writings (and the Bible as a whole) make it clear that salvation (pleasing God) is based not on our “works”, but rather on grace - God’s grace - and we respond and participate in that grace through our trusting his Word (faith). “Grace” is the gift of God - it something that comes from him, and that he gives us without us deserving it or earning it on our own.
Glory to God Forever
Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. 29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. 30 And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
Matthew 10:28-30
Five Ways to Connect at WPBF
At Wyoming Park we love to get together and have fun! We don’t just do it for our own enjoyment. We do it because we believe that in coming together we’re taking the first steps towards following Jesus’ command to “love one another.” Here are five ways to join in the fun.