HURRY!! FREE copy of The Hole in Our Gospel

It was no surprise to me when it was announced that The Hole in Our Gospel has won the 2010 Christian Book of the Year award by the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association. You cannot read this book and not be changed.

As I read this book, every moment that I was alone with my thoughts(driving, rocking my daughter to sleep, praying etc...) all I could think of is how much I have and how little other people have- and how Jesus feels about that! I will read this book once a year for the rest of my life. If you have not read it yet, you can get it HERE for FREE through the month of May as an audio book at christianaudio.com.  If you prefer to have an actual copy of the book, you can get at a great price at amazon.com by clicking on the link or get it at your local bookstore. However you get it, please get it soon and make it a priority to read!

**I am re-posting this because the month is almost over and I don't want you to miss your chance for the FREE download!!

Worship Mass Index(WMI)

What is your Worship Mass Index? What percentage of your week is our God, the Creator and Savior, worshipped. The answer to this question in your WMI.

To figure this out, we need to define worship. Simple right? Not Quite. Do a google search for the definition of worship and you will see many definitions of worship, including this from an online dictionary:

a. The reverent love and devotion accorded a deity, an idol, or a sacred object.

b. The ceremonies, prayers, or other religious forms by which this love is expressed.

Whether they would admit it or not, a large percentage of church goers define worship as the time they spend in prayer, reading the Bible and singing/listening to someone preach. If that is your definition of worship than your WMI looks something like this:

For the sake of easy math we will assume you sleep eight hours a night. That means you have 16 "awake" hours each day. By the definition above, if you have a 1 hour quiet time each day and spend 1 hour in church you spend 8 hours of your week worshipping:
        16x7= 112 "awake" hours each week
               8/112= 7.1% of your life is spent worshipping the Almighty, All Powerful God.

Omit the daily quiet time and only worship at church...that number becomes 1/112= 0.8%

Obviously the definition we are interested in for the sake of this blog is found in the Bible. The answer found all throughout scripture is simple; obedience. In John Chapter 4 Jesus tells the Samaritan woman that true worshipers will worship in "spirit and in truth", rather than in a specific place(read The Message translation of this verse, excellent). In Romans 12:1 Paul says "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God— this is your spiritual act of worship." Everything we do, every word we say, every thought we think is either an act of worship or it isn't. We are either living in obedience to Him or we are not.

In his book "Called to Worship", Vernon Whaley puts it this way:

"...showing the Lord our sincere love by obeying Him and mimicking Him on our planet: loving as He loved, serving as He served, and reaching out to a dying world as He reached out to those made in His likeness. That, friends, is worship" 

I believe that is as good a definition as any. Love as He loved. So, with that in mind-


What is your WMI? It should be 100%...

It Is Better To Obey Than To Sacrifice

"Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams." 1 Samuel 15:22

Worship is the heart of the Church. God desires and commands the adoration and praises of His people. We all know that "Worship is more than singing" and "we Worship with our lifestyle." There is no doubt that the staff and people that serve in the church believe that, but how deep into the body does that go? How many members of the church live and give as though sacrifice and offering will cover for a life lived in disobedience?

Saul did, more than once.
1. In 1 Samuel 13, he waited for Samuel to give the burnt offering as the Lord commanded, but Saul grew impatient when he didn't show at the appointed time and performed the offerings himself. He wanted to go into battle with the Lord's blessing so he acted. Saul was not an ordained priest (the only person allowed to make such a sacrifice) so in trying to seek God's approval, he totally disregarded His sacrificial laws.

2. Remember when Samuel anointed Saul and told him that God was going to use him to punish the Amalekites for what they had done to Isreal? (1 Samuel 15) God's direction was to kill everyone and everything. Saul killed almost everyone(he spared the king) and almost everything(he spared the finest sheep and cattle to sacrifice to God) and in doing so proved that almost obeying is not even close to the Lord's standards. God is more than angry, he is "grieved that I have made Saul king... because he did not carry out my instructions" (15:11) OUCH... Ever felt like you let someone down? Not even close to what Saul was feeling that day!

So how does this translate into our worship today?  Here is an excerpt from the book that inspired this post. The book is "Called to Worship" by Vernon M. Whaley. He writes:

"Yet people try constantly, 'Oh, I'm a Christian,' they say. Every weekend, they're in God's house, singing enthusiastically along with the worship leader, perhaps even raising their hands, or shouting hallelujah. Like Saul, they are making a show of worship. But then these same "worshippers" go home and worship at the feet of Internet pornography or sex-filled romance novels. Their TV viewing is uncensored; the movies they watch, abhorrent. Their speech is laced with profanity-and gossip. Alcohol hides in their cupboards; lust and envy lurk in their hearts. They are worshippers all right, but of whom? Themselves. They're certainly not worshipping God, because they are endeavoring to worship above the law, and that's idolatry."

At the end of this chapter I wrote some notes as I processed this verse- "It is better to obey than to sacrifice." Here are a few:

• Sometimes we worship with good intentions but it is outside of God's will because of the way we live our lives.
• People may be giving their money, time and God given talents, but if they are not obeying God's commands in their lifestyle God is not honored in their worship.

As Worship Pastors we must make it abundantly clear that obedience to God's word in every aspect of life is the first act of worship. Romans 12:1 says to "offer our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God- this is our spiritual act of worship." (emphasis added) Without it the singing, the serving and the giving are a show.

So I end with a Question that is not a rhetorical one. I think it would be great to hear how other Worship Pastors are shepherding the flock beyond the songs. What are you doing to help create a culture of obedience to God before sacrifice and offering to Him in worship?