oasisCHURCH

The Ministry of Worship

Yesterday afternoon I met with Chad. Our purpose in getting together was to discuss his role in the ministry of Oasis by use of--and leadership in--gathered, artistic worship. It was one of several meetings we will have together.

A great portion of our time yesterday was me telling stories of how I have seen and experienced the worship of God as an incredible means of ministry in the church, and how artistic worship in particular has drastically changed my life and relationship with God. I had always had a relationship with God. My parents ensured that from the time I was born. I took ownership of it and it became personal at the age of 12 when I obeyed Him and was baptized. For the next 12 years I knew that it was important to "draw near to God, and He will draw near to you," but I really had no idea how to do that. Many attempts failed.

God Dwells in the Praises of His People
"You are holy, O You who are enthroned upon the praises of Israel." (Psalm 22:3) I had heard this before, but never really stopped to ponder its significance. If my goal in life was to draw near to God (Hebrews 10:22), then what better way to draw near to Him than to go to where He LIVES! Where does He live? "In the praises of His people." This means that if I need to hear a word from the Lord, or I need encouragement, or counsel, or just the comforting presence of a loving God... then the best way to experience all of those is to praise God.

When we sing praise to God we meet God in what I like to call "the worship place". It's the place where God dwells. This brings up my next point.

Worship is Evangelism
Another lesson I learned later in life (in my 20's...lol) was that worship and evangelism are inextricably connected. This was where two of my worlds began to collide. The "seeker-sensitive" crowd was teaching us to create a non-threatening atmosphere for people to come and see God. See Him from a distance, that is. In this arena of Christianity church leaders were almost afraid to do anything that looked too spiritual because it might confuse someone or run them off. The goal was to be culturally relevant in our evangelism.

But then I realized something that has forever changed my approach to evangelism. Here it is. Evangelism has nothing to do with me. Really, all I am is a "facilitator". And once I realize what it is I am supposed to be facilitating, then evangelism can be done by the one who promised He would do it... the Holy Spirit of God. You see, we're partners. We work together in the evangelism process. But our only task is to get people into the presence of God. He'll do the rest.

So why does gathered "worship and praise" matter at all in respect to someone who is not a believer in Jesus? It matters a great deal because it is one of the times when they get to see God at work in the lives of many Christians at once. The preacher/teacher usually gets the opportunity to preach the gospel to unbelievers in the gathering, but it is during praise and worship that the lost see the difference that the gospel makes.

Why? Because God lives in the praises of His people. And when we praise, we take people to the place where God is. From that moment on He does His work. He speaks to them. He challenges their hearts. He calls them to respond to Him.

If Christians are truly worshiping God, there is tremendous power that lives in their worship. When believers come together in worship, there is a unity that cannot be found anywhere else... in the workplace, in politics, on television, etc. There is a sense of purpose that is shown through the worshipers. Any person who is a witness to this is going to ask themselves from where this sense of purpose and unity comes. The answer is in Jesus Christ. Then the lost souls who have been looking for something to fill the emptiness in themselves are going realize that they’ve found what they've been looking for.

And we didn't say anything to them. We just facilitated a place for them to meet the One they really need.

Worship is Repentance, Confession, Healing, Strength, Comfort...
There is something else I began to see happen when I finally discovered what worship was, and how to unabashedly empty myself in praise to God. I saw that when we meet Him where He lives He ministers to us. One of the first things that happens when we come to God with transparency of heart is that the lights get turned on. In the worship place we see God for who He really is. And when we see God for who He really is, we also see ourselves for who we really are. And that doesn't always look so good. So the next logical step in worship is for me to confess my sin to God. In order to walk with Him repentance is a must. Because we simply cannot be in His presence and the presence of sin at the same time.

So when the praise begins, almost immediately we have a choice to make. If we are to continue then we must come to grips with our sin. It is then that we are able to focus on the ONE whom worship is for. We are reminded of the cross. We are reminded of His sacrifice for us. And in that we are forgiven. We are healed. We are made pure, and holy. And when we realize this, there is nothing that can or will hinder us from expressing our gratitude to God. Our response is one of highest praise. We use our voices to sing, to shout, to utter words of praise that may only be understood by God Himself. We use our hands to reach out to God, much like a small child will look up to His Daddy and with his hands say, "hold me". We drop to our knees in reverence to the One who could have killed us, but instead saved us. We use our feet to dance for the joy of our salvation.

Worship is response. We respond to God. He responds to us. It's reciprocal. That's not saying that God "worships" us. It's saying that God loves us and like a GOOD Father does, he wants to bless us, and heal us, and encourage us, etc. And although we do not worship for any of those reasons... He does it anyway.

He is GOOD.

Chad and I both believe that the Oasis Meigs fellowship is on the verge of a worship renewal. It's like we're standing on a fault-line and you can begin to feel the plates shifting. Something is happening.

Do you sense it?

There IS Crying in Baseball

If you are even the slightest bit familiar with me you probably already know that baseball is something that runs deep in my family. We all love it. We've all played it. We've all coached it. Many of our finest memories can be attributed to baseball. But sometimes the memories, and the valuable lessons we receive are not about baseball at all. That's what I love so much about the game. It has literally been used as a tool for much greater life lessons and ministry over the years.

Here's just another example. Last Sunday my brother, Jared, told me this story about one of his players that he coaches at Fairfield Union High School. It was so powerful that I asked him to type it and email it to me so I could share it with you. Here it is... in Jared's own words.

FROM JARED STEWART

Saturday, my baseball team had a double header with two different teams: Columbus West and Hamilton Township. When we got there, Hamilton was beating West 13-1 in the 2nd inning. West literally looked like the Bad News Bears. I honestly think it was the first time any of then had ever played the game. Hamilton had no mercy on them and continued to steal, bunt, run on passed balls, and basically just running the score up as high as they could get it. Hamilton ended up winning the game 25-1. As we sat and watched it, some of my players made comments that they didn’t think it was very sportsmanlike that a team would do that to another team.

Then it was our turn to play Columbus West. I had already decided that we weren’t going to steal any bases, we weren’t going to bunt, we weren’t going to be taking pitches looking for walks, and we weren’t even going to run on passed balls.  If we were going to win, we were going to do it simply by relying on our hitting.  We won the game 14-1.  West’s only run was a result of a triple (their only hit) and then a ground ball off the bat of the smallest high schooler I’ve ever seen in my life.  This little guy (I still don’t think he was in high school) had so much life and heart.  He was just happy to be out on the field.  He didn’t care what the score was.  The whole game his was the voice you could always hear cheering on his pitcher and teammates (you could mainly hear it because it was so high pitched….I don’t think he’d hit puberty yet).  The next inning as we were batting, we had about 5 consecutive hard hit balls to third base….where the little guy was playing.  He miss played all of them (in his defense, they were some pretty hard hit balls).  After each one his coach would verbally abuse the kid with remarks about how bad he was and how easy of a play that should have been.  Then the pitcher started chiming in with his own insults and said things to the kid like “that’s 4 errors in a row, how many more can you make”.  As I was coaching third base I watched this kid go from someone who loved the game and everything about it, to a kid who wanted to crawl in a hole.  By the end of the inning he was crying.  I patted him on the back and tried to encourage him but he was so devastated that I’m not sure he even wanted anyone to talk to him.  The kid was then removed from the game.  After the game as we were shaking hands, I saw the little guy coming.  He was at the end of the line with his head down.  He passed through the line and all of my players tried their best to encourage him (I was so proud of them).  We he got to me he was in a full sobbing cry.  I stopped and put my arm around this young man and told him that even if nobody else was proud of him, I was.  I told him to keep his head up and not to worry about what his teammates and coaches’ thought of him.  I reminded him that he had the only RBI for his team.  He put his head down, continued to cry and walked away.  For the first time in my life, I felt horrible after a win on the baseball field.  West then left and we never saw the boy gain as we stayed to play Hamilton (who by the way we beat 15-4).

Later that day on the bus ride back to Fairfield Union, my catcher, who is a freshman named Wyatt, came up and sat in the seat next to me and asked me if he could talk to me.  Of course I said yes, completely unaware of what he wanted to talk about.  The first thing out of his mouth was “Coach I’ve been trying all day but I just can’t get that little guy from West out of my head”.  He went on to tell me how badly he felt for this kid and the he felt like something needed to be done or said to make it right.  Then he told me a story about an experience his dad had when he played high school baseball.  He said his dad was a very good athlete but one day he had a particularly bad game.  The coach got so upset with his dad that he threw baseballs at him and just berated him to a point that his dad quit the team.  Wyatt said his dad didn’t just quit the team, he never played again.  After that experience his dad turned into a wild kid and just rebelled.  He didn’t want anything to do with sports anymore.    So when Wyatt saw what happened to the boy from Columbus West, he immediately thought about what had happened to his dad years before.  He said he didn’t want anybody to ever have to go through that.  After listening to Wyatt tell his dad’s story I asked him what he thought he should do about it?  He mentioned that maybe he could write a letter to the Columbus West School Board or maybe he could try to call their school and talk to the young man.  I then asked him if he said anything to the boy when we were shaking hands at the end of the game.  Wyatt said that he had told the boy to keep his head held high and keep working hard and that everything would be okay. He told the boy that he was a good player and that he played a great game.  I didn’t immediately respond to him and when I looked up to say something, Wyatt had big tears in his eyes.  He started weeping right there on the bus.  I grabbed him and hugged him and we cried together.  I told him that I was really proud of him for sharing his feelings and that he had nothing to be ashamed of for crying and for feeling sorry for the boy.   I told him that it takes a big man to have a heart of compassion for other people like he had, especially when it’s on the field of competition.  As he was crying Wyatt just kept saying “it’s not fair coach, why did they have to treat him that way, it’s not fair”.   After he had calmed down, I told Wyatt that he could do whatever he felt he needed to do for that boy whether it be to try to call him or to try and send a letter to the school board.  But I also told him that he should just feel at peace that he had encouraged the boy. I told him that what he said to the young man just might have had a bigger impact on him than the negative things his coach and teammates said to him.  We both just sat there thinking for a couple of minutes and I saw a huge opportunity in front of me to share Jesus with Wyatt.  So I did.  I told him that I wasn’t sure what his spiritual life was like and that I didn’t want to sound like I was preaching at him but that I believe in the power of prayer and that praying for the boy from Columbus West will do far more than any letter to his school board could do.  Wyatt told me that he was a Christian but doesn’t really go to church very much.  I told him that didn’t matter.  I suggested that he pray for the boy and his family, teammates, and coach and that he ask God to bless the boy and give him encouragement to not give up.  Wyatt looked at me with tears in his eyes and said “I think I’ll do that coach”.  Wyatt returned to his seat and that was the end of our conversation.

We had another game tonight and before the game we (the team) talked about our experiences from Saturday. Many of the kids talked about how well we played but some talked about lessons they had learned in how to treat people. They said they never wanted to be bad teammates like the teammates of the boy who played for Columbus West.   It made me so proud to hear that they are learning more than just baseball.  They are learning life lessons.  This year we are having a successful year on the field (currently 9 and 4), but even if we weren’t, I would still consider it a success because of the growth I’ve seen in these 13 young men as people not just athletes.  That is what makes all the hours, stress, and headaches (and sometimes near heart attacks...lol) of coaching all worth it.

Jesus and Kids

I love the way kids are able to comprehend Jesus, and it's so real to them, so filled with faith, so refreshing. It's proof of the simplicity of the Gospel message. That faith like a child is what is required to GET it.

On our way to pre-school I was praying with my daughter Kaylee as per our usual routine. It's a beautiful morning, so today I asked her to just look out the window, up at Jesus and tell him she loves him. She looked at me kind of strange. I realized that she was probably confused about me saying "look up in the sky". So I said, "Just look wherever you think Jesus is right now." She said in sort of a matter of fact tone of voice, "But Da-a-ad... He's right here and right there (pointing at herself and at me). If you love Jesus then he lives in your heart, silly."

What a great time of prayer with my daughter.

Puzzled Grace

http://charliewear.next-wave.org/2005/03/13#a1006

Here is a quick blurb about a topic brought up in message at a "Soularize" event by a speaker named Todd Hunter on grace. Below is the link to a short video that sums up a powerful message.

Video link:

http://desertpastor.typepad.com/paradoxology/files/
todd_hunter_on_grace.WMV

Though there isn't an entire message available for viewing or transcript, here's my take on Paul and grace.

In Wear's discussion, Conversion is this idea today (as it is often popularly defined) that we become Christian merely to escape the fires of Hell. We do it as insurance, as Charlie Wear says. Of course, people *may* learn after the fact that there is much more to being a Christian than going to "paradise" and escaping eternal damnation. Chris underlined the point that eternity starts now, and we are able to  take part in God's favor now as opposed to only after judgement day in his teaching on 1 Corinthians on Sunday.

We've all seen and chuckled or perhaps worn shirts that say "Hell is for losers," or "To get to heaven, you need the hell knocked out of you." Now, while perhaps true ultimately, this isn't speaking the language of most people today, frankly. It is a very modernistic trend that peaked in the 70s-80s and can be problematic when trying to enter dialogue with common unchurched folk today with a shirt on with an image like the one below.

Back to subject, conversion in this discussion has a tendency to be a one-stop shop fix to the "problem of hell," and often leaves non-christians and christians alike with an incomplete view of grace, and more importantly, an incomplete picture of who Jesus is and what he did, which leads to the other side of the story.

Kingdom is the idea, in Hunter's discussion, that paints a picture of Christians as followers in a larger picture of God's grace. God's grace is not just the forgiveness of sins and the saving of one's soul from hell, but a conscious and progressive journey of one's soul that actively seeks God and is active in being set apart like the church depicted in Paul's Letters and the book of Acts. Unfortunately, the former, "Conversion," reflects much of today's American Evangelical Christians. The tension between the two needn't be mutually exclusive, but actually melded together to get a more complete picture of grace.

"BE the Church" (some "balancing" thoughts as summertime approaches)

A few months ago I was pondering these issues of "living life, being involved in the world, while also being part of a church community". I posted the following thoughts on a web site called Allelon.org. Hopefully they will be helpful to you as you plan for the summer and desire to be in fellowship with Oasis.

When I was a child growing up I saw kids on my ball teams whose parents did not allow them to participate with the team on Wednesday nights because that was "church night." I always felt bad for those kids, feeling that if you make a commitment to something you should be able to do it all the way, not just "when you can" or "when you want to." But then again, hadn't they made a commitment FIRST to their church? So then, perhaps they shouldn't play sports at all........ no that doesn't seem right... does it??? I guess it depends on how we view commitment to "church". Is it church meetings? Or is it something else?

See the struggle? In house church/simple church settings, during the summertime your meetings and gatherings can get pretty sparse for lack of people. And it's not because these people are "falling away" or any of that nonsense... it's just that they are choosing to participate in the community at large. And I WANT people to coach ball teams, and have their kids play on teams, and do gymnastics, and go to band camps, and help in community events, etc. But I also do not want our house church hosts and leaders to become discouraged because it appears their fellowship is dying.

This is the dilemma I have found myself in... even personally. I coach baseball. I have always coached baseball since the day I stopped playing. It is a needed recreational activity for my personal well-being, and a great opportunity for me to interact in a number of young people's lives and fellow coaches in very positive ways. The conversations I have had in dugouts between games or on the bus have often had the feel of a house church meeting in and of themselves. However, often coaching baseball takes me away from some of those summer meetings that I usually attend on a regular basis.

These "extra-curricular" things are important parts of our lives. But as we know, fellowship and regular edification of the body is vital to our lives as well. So the practical question is… how do we make both work? I have focused this writing as a discussion on “summertime church issues” because I have found this to be more prevalent in the summertime. How do we encourage and continue to participate in the communities in which we live while also keeping the fellowship and the encouragement we get from one another, for instance, in our house church meetings (most of our house churches meet on weeknights, which is typically when we find the most conflict with community events)?

Maybe it’s by focusing more on “doing the Word” during the summer months, and perhaps our "meetings" during those months should consist more of helping/serving in a variety of ways. Or perhaps a few planned fellowship parties, and some "intentionally spontaneous" weekly cook-outs?

I believe that perhaps the best, and most biblically accurate way to view the local church is as a "family"! In my experience most nuclear families have this SAME problem over the summer. The normal routine is tossed out the window because of all the activity of summer. How does a family respond to this? One example I can think of is they are open to seize an opportunity when everyone is together. They look around and see everyone home for an afternoon at the same time and say hey “let’s get together, eat, and catch up!” I also think you have to become deliberate about getting together. So there definitely must be balance, and flexibility alike.

Staying with the family metaphor... in a family, how is "commitment" defined? Is your commitment to your family dependant upon how many dinners you sit down and have with them? Are your priorities out of place because you are not making every effort to be at those "scheduled" times together? Of course not. Those are important times, and you should make every effort to have those as often as possible, but just because your schedule may not allow you to be at the dinner table every meal with them does not show you lack commitment or giving priority to your family.

Family is defined by flexibility... not rigidity. If I tell my son that he cannot play baseball this summer because he will have games scheduled on church meeting nights (which he most likely will), what am I telling my son? Is God, our church family, and our relationship with God and our church family a priority over baseball, or gymnastics, band, etc? Of course. But what does it mean that God is a priority over these things? Does it mean that we cannot be, or should not be involved in these "extra-curricular" things if the schedules will potentially conflict with our meetings? We have to remember, church is family... not meetings. My family is defined by who we are and what we do WHEN we are together. It is NOT defined by simply getting together or the number of times we get together. Does that make sense?

Some people are going to weigh in differently on this, and so I feel that part of my role is to help us all understand there is room for differences of opinion. For instance, there will always be people in the church who get involved in a lot of "extra-curricular" activities that may cause them to be away from church meetings now and then. To say they have not made their church involvement a priority would not be fair. Their commitment to Jesus and to the church should not be measured by whether or not they attend church meetings. But on the other side of that coin... those people will need to be deliberate about creating other opportunities in their schedules for fellowship.

There is a dangerous pattern that has the potential to rear it's ugly head if we are not careful. In many church institutions there is this concept that you are not a committed member unless you come to all the events and programs. But as you have heard me say before, my desire it to stop "going" to church, and instead BE the church. In the "simple" church model I found a "structure" that lent itself to that understanding of who we are as the church. However, even with the "simple" church or "house church" we can still be in danger of falling into those same old patterns.

Likewise, there will also always be people who DO define their commitment by being at all the meetings, etc. They do feel it necessary to make it top priority to not miss a single one, and will choose to get involved or not get involved in other, extra-curricular things based upon when the meetings are. And those people must also be encouraged in their zeal and passion for the church, while at the same time reminded that others are not "less committed" than they are.

Earlier I referred to family "routines"... and how at certain times, like summertime, the normal routine is usually set aside for a while. The church also has a set of routines, but it seems that the church tends to grab a hold of those routines with a much stronger grip than nuclear families do. I guess the key is to figure out how to set aside some of the normal routines without losing or backtracking in our relationships and fellowship life.

If each one of us can find that balance, then I believe we will find what truly is ABUNDANT LIFE. God has given us everything for our enjoyment. He wants us to constantly be about HIS mission in this world... while enjoying the life he has given us. My desire is to encourage you in this. To be an example of this very thing for you. I hope you see me as one who enjoys life, who has a passion for the Gospel, and for empowering people to serve in this great commission of Jesus. I may do this through preaching, teaching, serving my church family, serving my nuclear family, or serving in the community at large.

This has been a lengthy article. I hope you are challenged, stretched, and encouraged by it. Find freedom in it! Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is FREEDOM. Liberty to LIVE and LOVE your community. If nothing else, take it as an exhortation to do just that.

You Want Something But You Don't Get It

James 4:1-3

What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

I think the hardest things for me to deal with are the things that I feel very strongly for, yet do not have or have not encountered. Some of them are tangible, such as a husband or children. Some are intangible, such as community living or unity. They are desires. Not only desires, but things that Christ has said are good. So why do I have such a hard time dealing with these things when they turn to face me? Because they are my desires that battle within me. I want these things but do not get them. I have asked God for them, but I realize that I do not have them because my motives are wrong.

I have always thought that I would need to be perfect before the Lord would allow me to marry someone. I think that I have made myself believe that I had to make myself perfect before someone would want to marry me. Better yet, I have to love myself before anyone could love me. Years after I began thinking and believing that statement, I learned something that had been staring me in the face for the better part of a quarter of a century: Christ came to this earth to die for my sin because he loved me - before I loved myself. Before I even was. Which led me to discover that the statement above is nothing more than an attempt to sell some self-help books.

I do not know what my motives are for wanting a husband. I can think of a few, but they are nothing more than wanting to spend what I get on my pleasures. So my motives are not purely innocent. However, God likens His church to a bride, so I know that marriage is part of God’s plan for us as humanity. However, I do not think that it is essential to surviving this world. Spouses and children are beautiful images of God, but unless you have the proper perspective, they simply are desires that have captured your heart and battle within.

Being twenty-nine years old and single certainly has yielded it’s precious lessons. I have been through some tough seasons in my life because I have not married yet. I understand that God is the only one that I can depend on. Even though my friends are treasured, they can not and will not put my needs first. God provides what I need. I have found that the peace of my heart can only come from the Spirit that lives in me and speaks through me. If I am not relying on God to move me, I will be moved to turbulence, not able to navigate the unexpected bumps or unpredictable air currents.

Yet in the precious knowledge that I have been entrusted with, I still have times of depression and questioning. And God loves me the same. He knows that my desires are God given and therefore understandable. He joins in my suffering in order to know what I need. He gently reminds me that He is the reason for my joy, even though I am hurting and sorrowful. He calls my name so that I know that He is still near. Gently He whispers to me that I am His Beloved. That my name was chosen for this very moment, so that I would know that I am not forgotten.

I find that there is nothing that can shake my foundation, which is Christ. Do I want to be loved by someone? Sure. But I know that Christ comes first. Therefore, I will always have peace and joy in knowing that I am fulfilled without the things of this earth. They will pass. My relationship with Christ is eternal.

You...My God

This is a new song that I was recently given, I actually just finished writing it about an hour ago.  I was calling in my heart to learn an important lesson about the growth of my spiritual relationship with God.  This song is how God responded to my prayer.  It's a very quiet, meditative kind of song.  I don't have a name for it yet so if anyone can think of something to call it please give me your ideas.  Here are the lyrics:

Verse:
You came into my life
Like a storm out on the sea
I fell apart there in Your arms
But You saw the best of me
On that day You filled my heart with life

Chorus:
Now I am breathing You my God
Now I'm in love with You my God
I long to be held by You my One, my God

Verse:
Please hold me close like Your bride
And place Your hand indside
My everything bare before You
Come replace myself with You
I know You're there
So I tell the stars tonight

Chorus:

Verse:
Come rest Your head next to mine
Jesus I need You near
I'm Yours in every way...unbound
Though I'm fallen You smile on me

Chorus:

Download untitled_song.mp3