What Are You Doing With Your Sundays?

What Are You Doing With Your Sundays?

by | Apr 7, 2014 | Christian Living, Featured Articles

For the past number of weeks, I have been suggesting practical steps you can take to deepen your discipleship in Christ, primarily through engaging in closer relationships with others. I have emphasized you and one or two others getting together to challenge, encourage, pray, and study. In talking about small group or more personal means of discipleship, one might think that discipleship is best accomplished by these means. While such personal means of discipleship are necessary, they must come in tandum with your participation in what we could call corporate discipleship. In fact, I do not think you can define discipleship apart from your participation in the life of a local church. What is involved in what I am referring to as corporate discipleship? While there is much I could say, consider the following elements: Commit yourself to giving Sundays to God’s people. Consider clearing your calendar of any other significant events other than gathering and engaging with God’s people. Why not? Make it your aim to have the gathering of the church be the most important, time-consuming, focus of your day. Plan on having lunch with someone from church. Plan to engage with someone from church on Sunday evening, or attending the evening service. Do not limit your thinking, expectations, or schedule to a small portion of the day. The more significantly you engage the church on each Lord’s Day, the more significantly your relationships with others will grow. Singing with Understanding and Zeal With the Congregation. Our staff seeks, in advance, to inform the church each week about what songs we will sing. We provide links to...
Preparing for Sunday: How Joyful is Our Noise?

Preparing for Sunday: How Joyful is Our Noise?

by | Mar 24, 2011 | Featured Articles, Pastoral Ministry, Worship

Carefully Think Read through Psalms 95-100; 145-150 and make a list of ways the psalmist outwardly expressed what he was inwardly delighted with. Why is music such a controversial element of church life? Read Ephesians 5:19 and list what you learn about the role of music in the life of the church. What role did music play in Exodus 15:1-18; 1 Samuel 16:14-23; 1 Chronicles 15:22; 16:4-6; 23:3-5; 25:1-7; 2 Chronicles 20; Nehemiah 12:42 Prayerfully Meditate How are you living out the expressions of praise you found in the psalms mentioned above? What keeps you from expressing your praise in the biblical ways you see in the Scriptures? How could Ephesians 5:19 affect your approach to singing this week? Actively Respond Pray for those who will be leading the church in our corporate gathering on Sunday.  Pray that they will have a focused attention in leading the entire church in a biblical manner. Pray for all those who will be involved in the worship service, from instrumentalists to sound technicians to ushers. Pray that all we do will be done decently and orderly and to God”™s glory, and that we will be free from unnecessary distraction. Meditate often on Ephesians 5:19 and how it should instruct us regarding singing. Meditate on the lyrics to the songs we will be singing this Sunday.  If you would like to hear a sample or actually purchase the song, click on the links below.  We hope to regularly provide you with audio links to the songs we will sing so you can begin to build a personal library of music we use corporately....