While in Kenya, we visited 2 other Kids Alive homes. One is an all-boys center and the other, in Karundas, was another childern's home. It was truly amazing to see what God is doing through Kids Alive and to see the impact they are making for the Kingdom. While at the boys' home, we attended an event called "Family Day." All of the people in the surrounding community who had been impacted by Kids Alive came to celebrate and to say thank you. I was struck so profoundly when a grandmother got up in front of the 150+ people and began to pour out her thanks to Kids Alive for making such an impact in their community. My wife and I had a translator during her speech and I will never forget her final statement as long as I live. She looked at Al Lackey (the president of Kids Alive) and the other staff and said, "You are the gospel we have seen." This, to me, sums it all up. Kids Alive is not only spreading the gospel but also making it come alive through their actions and deeds. This is the power of the gospel at work. It is all encompassing and changes everything. These people not only hear the gospel, but they also see what the power of the gospel and the love of Jesus Christ does. It changes hearts and transforms communities. It breaks down barriers and gives hope! This was a very profound moment for me halfway into our time in Kenya.
One of our other goals while in Kenya was to connect with the lead pastor of Nairobi Chapel, Oscar Muriu, and some of his staff to continue to further the partnership between Calvary Church in Valparaiso and the Nairobi Chapel, in Kenya. We are joining them in their quest to plant churches all over the African continent. Our first effort with them will be in Monrovia, Liberia. It was a blessing to hear their heart to spread the gospel all over the world. And to be a part of that is truly amazing. I was also able to connect with some people on behalf of Sevenglory in order to begin the groundwork for the band to travel to Kenya and Liberia to play, hopefully in 2013.
There is so much that could be shared about our time in Kenya. So many things that we saw and experienced that have changed my life forever. I could share about the staff of Kids Alive in Kenya, who work tirelessly to show the love of Christ. Their dedication is astounding! There were things that were extremely hard to see: slums filled with families being destroyed by AIDS, extreme poverty and lack, hopelessness and just the sheer size of the need. But there are ways to chip away at the need. And hope can be restored to children and communities through child sponsorships and church partnerships with organizations like Kids Alive. Not just a band-aid, but true hope through the power and love of Christ. It became so obvious to me while in Kenya that the proclamation of the gospel cannot be separated from living out of the gospel. If we claim to know Christ and to follow Him, then we will show His love to a world in need and will feed His sheep.
To be in Kenya holding orphans, bringing food into the slums and discussing plans to plant churches in Africa made me feel, in a lot of ways, closer to God's heart. Jesus came for the sick and the needy, and as His church, we bear a responsibility to both speak the truth and live it out. Jesus said that we will be known as His followers when we love each other. Who in your neighborhood is in need? Who in your circles needs to be shown the love of Christ? The truth is that we don't need to travel to Africa to live out the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Least of These are all around us. Who sees Christ's love through you?
]]>
My hope for our congregation-and for anyone that seriously considers what the bible says about worship-is that, as we digest and unpack some of the things that we were taught from Scripture, we would evaluate our own lives as the Holy Spirit challenges us to change. Are we giving our all to God, our best to Him? Are we worshipping with the entirety of our lives and reflecting His glory? My prayer is that we will all begin to become more alive in Christ as we turn our affections to the One we were made to praise above all else.
I also wanted to speak to a few of the specifics about Calvary's worship time. There is an intentionality to everything we do in our services. Things like lighting, song choices, arrangement of music, placement of announcements, the taking of the offering, the greeting time, placement of sermon, and sound quality are thought out in great detail and done with purpose. It is our desire to not only do things excellently but also to do things meaningfully. As Pastor Lionel has said repeatedly, “If we only want to draw a crowd, let’s just bring in the circus!” In the next few paragraphs, I'll be writing about a few of the things we consider. I have focused soley on the portion of the services where the Calvary congregation worships through song.
Every song we sing is carefully scrutinized to make sure that what is declared corporately lines up with Scripture and is 100% truth. We not only want to worship from our hearts, but we also want to be doing it in truth. (John 4:24) As a worship team we are very careful what we play and do not play. Nobody on the team is free to play any way they feel. We play pre-determined arrangements that are designed to feature the song we are singing and not a particular band member. On the worship team, we strive for excellence so that we are not creating a distraction for people. We are trying to lead them in God’s praises, not ours.
We have chosen a lighting design that is not only modest but also sets an “atmosphere” or “mood” for worship. We use a mild amount of “haze” (produced by a fog machine) in the air so that the effect from our lighting is enhanced. Do we need lighting or haze to worship God? No, we absolutely do not! What we DO want to do, is to create a place where people are invited to get intimate with God. We want the worship center to be a place where people feel like what they do has weight and significance. We light the room differently for worship to help people to embrace a time of closeness with God.
We also run the sound at a specific volume, which is monitored closely. We want people to be able to sing out freely without worry, but we do not want to offend their ears with abrasive sounds. We are setting an atmosphere where we can sing joyfully to God, with all our might, regardless of our singing skill level. We have hand picked the font size on the screens and limit the number of words on each slide during a song. We don't want to overwhelm worshipers with lyrics but also do not want the context to get lost. These are just a few examples of the thought that goes in to one service.
You see, we believe the church is the vehicle that God has chosen to use to bring His glory to the world and this includes our Sunday services. We want everything we do to push people to worship and focus on Him. Its all about HIM, and there is nothing we do on a Sunday morning that is not discussed and thought through. We are in the business of pointing people to God and His glory. We are not about cool or trendy or the latest technology. We are all about using technology, trends, and skill as a means to point people to the greatness of our God. It’s all about Him and everything we do in our service will be done with that as the prime focus.
]]>
This summer has been a very busy one for myself. As the summer season started at Calvary, we said goodbye for a short while to Pastor Lionel as he left for a three month sabbatical to Cambridge, England. We have had the privilege to welcome guest speakers from around the country this summer in his absence and it has been a great experience! It has been great to be able to work with these men every week to be able to bring a worship experience that is meaningful and excellent to our congregation. Also, this summer at Calvary, we began work on what will be the first worship album the church has ever produced. We recorded the band over several weeks and are in the process now of mixing all the tracks and finalizing the artwork. The CD will be titled Mighty Fortress and is set to be out this fall. I have heard some of the tracks and I know you will be blessed by it!
I have also been very active with Sevenglory this summer. In June we played at Big Ticket Festival with the likes of Newsboys, Chris Tomlin, Mercy Me and Brandon Heath. At the end of the month, we travelled to Miracle Camp in Lawton ,MI for a week of Sr. High camp. That week, we were extremely privileged to be a part of God's working in the lives of teens. We were truly blessed!
July saw us return to Miracle Camp for a second week to do a Jr. High camp. Once again, God showed up and kids lives were changed! Both weeks at the camp were filled with very sweet times of worship and it was amazing to see students really passionate and hungry for God. Directly after Miracle camp we drove to a Youth For Christ Camp, in the town of North East, Maryland where we stayed for 8 days. It was another encouraging time for the band because although YFC is not your typical church camp, we were able to partner with them in their model and reach kids that have never heard the gospel before. We were delighted to hear later that some 160 kids re-dedicated their lives to Christ and 50 kids gave their lives to Him for the first time! I have a great deal of respect for YFC and the way that they reach teens. July was a great month but a busy one! We not only got to see God working in the hearts of teens but got to be at home worshiping with our church family almost every weekend.
This month, Sevenglory is gearing up to open for Chris Tomlin this weekend at Fandana Festival. Then we have a bit of a reprieve until September where we will be going to Spring Hill, Indiana for a weekend retreat, playing a concert in our home town, and then traveling to Kansas for a concert.
I guess this is why the summer seems to have flown by! As I had this last week to take a breath and be in my office, I feel so blessed to have had some great moments this summer with my family, my church and my band. God is good and I feel very privileged to have had a front row seat to see Him working in hearts this summer. My prayer is that as your summer comes to a close that you will be able to thank God for His blessings and glorify Him in all that you do. He is always at work from season to season and as one ends, another begins with new hope and promise!
Kurt
As a musician, when you get to the stage you tend to breath a sigh of relief because the pressure to write and be inspired is lifted momentarily. This feeling, however, is a very fleeting moment because it hits you that in a few short months, you need new songs to record and new ideas to feed those songs. This can present an idea problem. I myself can feel drained of ideas, after having just written for an album.
Back to my experiment...I have been feeling the need to get inspired so I am trying something new. I have been waking up just after 5am every morning and reading a Psalm. After I have read it, I immediately try to put it in my own words and set it to song. Some mornings it is harder to do but I write no matter what. So far I have been writing a song a day. Most of these will never make it to an album, but I am getting inspired like never before. Some of the ideas and melodies that have come are taking shape very nicely.
It is very true that if you want to be good at something, you just have to do it. So, although writing a song a day doesn't get you all great songs, it does get you to a place where inspiration begins to flow easily. And some of those ideas and songs have great potential.
The Psalms are filled with all sorts of human emotion that, when applied to our lives, ring true. I have found them an amazing source of inspiration lately when I feel drained of ideas. I'm also finding that to be inspired, I need only to look to the Author of inspiration Himself.
]]>
It is one thing to sit down and write a song, but another thing to take that song through the process of recording. Recording music can be a grueling and frustrating process at times. Every song you work on goes under a microscope and gets dissected. Every note, string, drum hit, and breath comes under scrutiny and while in this process, you can forget about how you felt when you first wrote the idea down. The excitement of the song writing process gets lost in the mechanics of recording at times. As I sit here tonight, I am being reminded of the big picture. What a privilege to be able to do this!
Sevenglory is blessed to be a part of a church that supports what we do in tangible ways. It is such an amazing thing to have a recording studio right in the building! I can literally write a song in my office and then walk down the hallway into the studio and make it come alive! Calvary Church recognizes the importance of music and the arts and longs to be a place where Christian artists feel welcomed and encouraged to write, record, and foster their talents for the glory of God. How many churches take this approach? Unfortunately, not many. As the Director of Worship and the Arts at Calvary, the church encourages me to write, record, and to travel with Sevenglory. They not only want to be blessed by music but they want to see the larger church blessed as well. We are so fortunate to be able to call Calvary home. These are a few of the things running through my mind tonight.
Tonight I am thanking God for coffee, leather couches, hardwood floors, and instruments on every wall. I am thankful for talented friends, recording equipment and music. I am thankful for Calvary Church, where ideas are being fulfilled tonight!
]]>
Right at the beginning of the book when he was chosen to be in the king's court with other young men we see him long to remain pure in his eating habits. God had given the Hebrew people specifics on how he wanted them to live and this included the types of food He wanted them to eat. Even though he was in a foreign land, Daniel longed to remain pure before his God. He had the best food and drink available to him; yet through wisdom and God's help, he was able to keep the respect of the Babylonians while remaining pure. God was with Daniel and his three friends, who we know as Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. So much so that they were recognized as being ten times more useful than all of the king's wise men! (Dan 1:20)
I am so challenged when I read about Daniel. I long to be a man of integrity and faithfulness like him! When we look around us today, these virtues are hard to find and that is such a shame. Now, more than ever, we as Christian men and women need to be filled with the Spirit of God and live lives beyond reproach before the audience of One. We should be the best fathers, the best mothers, the best employees, the most diligent students, the most honest people, and the most trustworthy friends. In other words, we should be living our lives with passion. Every waking moment should be lived out as worship unto God. To do that we need the help of His Spirit as Daniel did. So here is my prayer, "God, please make me be a modern day Daniel!"
]]>
"God will speak to the hearts of those who prepare themselves to hear."
~A.W. Tozer-The Root of the Righteous
Sometimes we act or think or act as though we are doing God a favor by gracing Him with our presence on Sundays. There are many things we could be doing or places we could be going but no, WE have come to church! We give God His hour so we can carry on with our busy schedules guilt free. With this outlook it is no wonder that every week we come, we sing, we give and we listen, but we never seem to encounter God in a real and tangible way. It feels like we are going through the motions. The question I want to ask is, - do we come worthy to receive from God?
As flawed people we can never be worthy apart from the work of Christ. I understand this. What I am asking here is something altogether different and is something A.W. Tozer briefly touches on in "The Root of the Righteous". He states that as Christians, we have a responsibility to do something more than just show up on Sunday and consume. I believe this to be true.
The parable of the sower in Matthew 13 clearly indicates that just because the Word goes out, it does not mean that all who hear will be changed. In Acts 28:26 Paul quotes Isaiah when he tells the Jews that they "hear without hearing and see without seeing". Unless God allows our ears to hear and eyes to see, we are lost. However, we need to be worthy to receive God's word and to worship Him, which means singing, giving and hearing on His terms! Tozer states in his book that "Before there can be an inward understanding of divine truth there must be a moral preparation." The question now becomes - how can I be worthy?
Here are a few things I think qualify as moral preparations to receive from God.
1. Ask
-We should ask God every day to attune our senses to Him. Ask Him by His Spirit to open your eyes to see His beauty and to open your ears to hear His voice each day. Ask Him to awaken your spirit to His.
2. Be in His Word.
- Can we really expect God to carry out His will in our life during one hour on Sundays? We have a responsibility to cultivate a knowledge of and a hunger for God's Word so that we can grow spiritually every day.
3. Walk in obedience.
- Living in sin is a sure way to stifle the work of God in our lives and a sure way to stop all spiritual growth. Ask God by His Spirit to reveal areas in your life where you need to change and live out repentance.
If we commit to do these things - living every day as worship to God - then I think we will find that when we gather on Sundays we will be able to sing, give and listen with joy. If we are faithful to follow His ways and seek the power of His Spirit, He is faithful to speak to our hearts and transform us from the inside out. May we be worthy to hear and receive what He says. Not just on Sundays but every day.
]]>
What has been consuming my thoughts these past few weeks is the role of the Holy Spirit in our worship and, more importantly, in our lives. What place DOES He take and what place SHOULD He take in our worship?
The more I thought about peoples' worship on Sunday, the more I was led to think about peoples' everyday lives. If we are not people who follow Christ by walking in the power of His Spirit every day, then can we expect anything but lackluster worship when we gather on Sundays? Churches all over North America hold "worship services" but true worship does not always happen. Could it be that apathetic worship is a result of our failure to let the Spirit of God take His proper place in our lives, in our worship?
Why is it that we are content to think of the Holy Spirit as "a force in the background"? What is it that holds us back and prevents us from giving Him his proper place? Are we scared to yield control to Him? Will God make us uncomfortable? Are we nervous because of the abuses we have seen in the name of the Holy Spirit? We all have seen or know of people that "major" in the Spirit but whose lives are full of sin and unchanged from day to day. Should'nt a Spirit-filled christian be showing fruits?
The truth is that we cannot possibly truly worship God unless it is by the Spirit. (Phil. 3:3) No matter how beautiful our songs are on Sundays or how eloquent the sermon is, these cannot replace the power of the Holy Spirit in people's hearts. Our worship requires so much more than just our heads. True worship must happen at a spiritual level.
I believe that as we look at Scripture, which should always be our starting point, we find that Christians are called to a live in the power of God's Holy Spirit. God has called us to a task that we cannot do alone! (Zech 4:6) Jesus Himself was filled and led by the Holy Spirit, and when he ascended, He gave us this same gift! (Acts 2:33) If we want to see genuine worship then we need to see people living and operating in the power of God's Spirit. If we commit to following Christ and walk in the power of His Spirit, then genuine worship will naturally flow out on Sunday.
I can think of many examples of Godly men and women I know who live in the power of the Spirit of God. It is evident in their daily lives and in their worship. It is a joy for them to follow Christ and their lives bear much fruit. Without exception these people are obediently laying down their selfish ambitions every day and constantly seeking to become more like Christ by the power of the Spirit. What separates these Christ followers from so many others is that they have learned to rely on God's strength and not their own. People that are visibly walking in the Spirit have learned that apart from the Spirit of God there can be no lasting, positive change in their lives. They have learned submission to the One who is above all. Are we willing to simply obey and let go of our own agendas?
What would happen if we constantly began to pray for God to lead us by the Holy Spirit? What if we ask Him to help us to worship by the Spirit before we go to church? What if we ask His Spirit to guide us into truth as we read the Scriptures? What if we let go of our selfish ambitions and allow the Spirit of God to renew our minds and change us into people who worship from the inside out? What if we ask Him daily to fill our lives? If Jesus Himself has given us the Spirit of God, then why not acknowledge the need for His presence in our midst on Sundays and in our lives everyday?
]]>
What do we do when there seems like there is no fresh water to draw from the well? When the tank of ideas seems to be on empty and when nothing comes. Inspiration can be a fickle thing. Some days it seems as though there is not enough ink in the world to support my ideas. Other days for the life of me, I can't bring anything useful or interesting to mind. I would like to be able to write a great song or blog everyday, but it just doesn't work like that. No matter how hard I try, I cannot force an idea. In fact as I sit to write this post I still am wondering what to say.
I am learning the key is to keep fueling myself with material and ideas, even when I can't take them from my head onto the page. I have no great revelation to share today. All I've got is an idea to talk about my lack of an idea! As a Christian artist, I could never be short on inspiration or things to sing about. Especially when it comes to God. The part that I struggle with is HOW to get it down at times. Ideas are just ideas until the moment you communicate them in a fresh, unique way. Therein lies the problem. Sometimes, only time and God's divine inspiration can bring a thought to fruition.
As an example, I recently wrote a song called "Always Hope" that was taken from Psalm 71:14. My wife gave me the verse a month before, and I loved it from the moment I read it. I heard such a resolve in the author's words. The phrase, "I will always hope," captured my thoughts. He was going to hope no matter what because God was worthy of his hope! As much as I loved the verse and the ideas that filled my head, I carried that verse on a small piece of paper in my backpack for weeks. Everywhere I went. I would pull it out from time to time, look at it, and still nothing would come. Then tragedy struck.
As my last post mentioned, a very well loved leader in our church was killed. All of the sudden, this verse that had consumed my thoughts, began to take on new meaning inside and inspired thoughts. I was prompted to write my last blog on the subject. About a week later, I pulled out that tiny scrap of paper with the verse scrawled on it and sat down with my friend and bandmate Gabe. I told him of the idea and we began to write. We had a new reason to write about hope. Hope that is in God and God alone. We have no answers and life is short, but we will always have HOPE. By the next morning the song was done. I can't wait to record it.
This is just an example of how one verse led to one idea that led to one song. They are all different. Some ideas simmer for years and others come together in thirty minutes. What I am finding is that I need to be fueling myself with inspiration and God's Word, even if I don't feel inspired. When the time comes and life happens, I want to be ready! So, let's stop to look around at the beauty and tragedy in this life. Let's be inspired to see God's hand in all things. Let's write, talk and sing about Him. He is our inspiration!
]]>