Return to blogging: Preparing for Sunday, 1-2-11!

As it happens, the holiday season was busier than most other times of the year, and one of the things to get trimmed away in the midst of the busyness was blogging. But here we go again; and it's a good time to return to the blog, it being New Year's and all.

The year has been a good one for our church, full of trials and heartache, as well as joys and triumphs over sin. And I'm sure the next year will have both in store for us as well. This coming Sunday will be a vision casting opportunity for Pastor John and Pastor Jordan, as we look ahead to the coming year of discipleship, ministry and worship as a local body of believers.

The sermon text will be Luke 13:10-21, and the title for Jordan's sermon will be "Resisting the trap of hypocrisy, traditionalism, and missing the nature of Christ's Kingdom." The morning, then, will really focus on doing things as a church with the right goals, and not missing the point of why we do what we do (in ministry, making disciples, worshiping God individually and corporately, etc).

The songs will ultimately focus in on the glorious God that we worship, and Who has graciously and lovingly called us into His family. The songs will be as follows:

1. O Worship the King

A big, full-band call for praise to our great God. He is a God of "measureless might" and also of "ineffable (so-amazing-it-can't-be-put-into-words) love."

2. Glorious and Mighty

One of my favorite "newer" church songs. This song continues the flow of thought from the first one, exalting our God as "awesome in beauty" and "greatly to be praised."

3. I Will Praise Him Still

This is a great number written by Fernando Ortega. It says that "the Lord our God, He is strong to save," even through times of dark trials and doubts. This song says some wonderfully important things for us to sing together as we look ahead to the new year!

4. Because of Your Love

We need to focus in on the Gospel at some point in all of our singing, because we can only praise God as His church because He has bought us by the blood of His Son.

The "Messiah" by George Frederic Handel!

Handel's "Messiah" is one of the most amazing pieces of music I've ever heard, and talk about worshipping God through music - I don't think I've ever heard (or will ever hear) any composition of music so full of incredible Gospel truth as the "Messiah." Listening to a work of art like this can really inspire our hearts toward an attitude of worship, and is especially rich to do during the Christmas season when we try to focus even more intently on God's redemptive plan.

So go here to listen to a full recording of the "Messiah" on NPR's website. Just click the "Listen" link, and let it rip.

Preparing for Sunday, 11-21-10

Another Sunday is almost upon us, and we have good things in store. Music rehearsal went really well last night, and I’m thoroughly excited about the set. The team will be playing 3 songs this Sunday morning, and our kids’ choir will be adding a 4th. Pastor John will be preaching on Titus 2:11-15, on the character of a Christian that God has saved in and through the Gospel. Our worship set will be as follows:

• Forever: Our call to worship for the morning. A great song of praise to God for His faithfulness in how He loves us. The verses repeat the phrase, “His love endures forever,” which echoes psalms that are repetitious in how they praise God for certain attributes.
• Mighty to Save: This is our transition song from thinking about the sovereign faithfulness of God, to thoughts of the Gospel. Our Savior is a sovereign Savior, Who is mighty to save, and will save His people. Verse 2 of the song is a plea for God to “fill our lives” with His presence and the control of His Spirit, which connects to the subject of Titus 2 (appropriate Christian conduct).
• The Power of the Cross: After offering, we’ll lead through this song, which is a close reflection on the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. The song moves systematically, partly as a narrative, through what Christ has accomplished for us. One of my favorite lines comes from verse 4, saying, “Oh to see my name written in the wounds, for through Your suffering I am free! Death is crushed to death; life is mine to live, won through Your selfless love!”

A note on The Power of the Cross: In our corporate worship week-to-week, we need to keep finding our way again and again into the Gospel. This means thinking about the Gospel, remembering what God has done in our own lives to save us, thinking about what He has saved us from, and what He has saved us to. God tells us in the book of Titus, over and over, that as Christians we need to be all about good works. But do our good works save us? Absolutely not! God has saved us completely by His grace, through Jesus (everything this song talks about), and because of that God desires us to do good works. So as we hear preaching about living correctly, having lives filled with good works, we need to understand that all of this happens only because Christ died, and lives on our behalf. Praise God!

See you Sunday!

Great Article from "Biola Magazine"

Marshall Walter gave me this article to read from "Biola Magazine," about current worship music in churches needing to have, as the subtitle of the article states, "a dose of doctrine and imagination." The article is part critique, and part encouragement for churches and church music leaders/teams, to choose thoughtful, biblical music for their corporate worship meetings. I found it very encouraging.

Here are a few quotes from the article I thought were especially good:

"If we are praying or singing things together as a congregation that are shallow or disconnected, we are not succeeding in forming Christians to be the people of God," says [Andrew] Braine, who believes worship pastors should be intentional about choosing songs and leading a service that is deep, meaningful and every bit as truth-filled as the pastor's sermon.

[W]orship music shouldn't pander to the audience or assume they can't handle complexity or depth in worship.

[W]orship should be less about making us feel good and more about fundamentally changing who we are as the people of God.

"Ultimately, we need to turn our eyes to God and away from ourselves, adds [Dan] Radmacher. There are a lot of songs about my response to God in worship, but songs that focus on Him should be our bread and butter. 2 Corinthians 3 says that if we gaze on God's glory we change; not if we focus on ourselves."

Preparing for Sunday, 11-14-10

It’s Saturday night, and I’m at home, thinking about church tomorrow morning. I’m relaxed at the moment, but I’m sure I’ll have the usual “jitters” when my alarm goes off at 5:40 AM. By jitters, I mean the mixture of excitement and anxiety that usually comes along with everything we all have to think through for a Sunday morning church service.

But it’s all good. I’m looking forward to church tomorrow, because I get to be with my family, and “charge up” for the week ahead. I’m reminded of Hebrews 10:23-25, which says,

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” (Emphasis added)

For the writer of Hebrews, meeting together as the gathered local church is serious business. I want to think like this about church, and fight to never waste a Sunday by missing out on the joy of meeting together as the family of God. Lets strive to see Sunday as a time when we get to “hold fast” to truth together, to encourage one another and “stir up one another to love and good works.” Again, the writer of Hebrews is serious about church, and tells us that the health of our souls depends on meeting together.

So tomorrow Pastor Jordan will be bringing the preaching of the Word, from Titus 2:9,10, about slaves (workers), worshiping God through their work. He’ll be focusing on the Gospel as the key element that enables such worship to take place.

We’ll be singing of the greatness and goodness of God with Indescribable and Blessed Be Your Name, and leading into the sermon with the hymn Jesus, I My Cross Have Taken, which is an amazing song about Gospel-driven Christian living.

See you tomorrow!

Reflecting on Sunday morning (yesterday), 11-7-10:

Well as it happens, the Sunday after I tell everyone on the music team about the blog, I don't get a chance to post about Sunday morning before Sunday comes. Irony eh?

Reflecting is good, however, so I'm taking this opportunity to reflect back on corporate worship yesterday morning.

• We started things off with Our God, a "call-to-worship" style of up-tempo praise song. This is a newer song we've introduced recently, and yesterday was the 3rd time we've sung it together on a Sunday morning.

• After song #1, Pastor John brought the preaching of the Word, focusing on Titus 2:6-8 and the character and ambitions of a godly young man. One of John's points that I thought was excellent, and that I need reminders of all the time, was that our "good works" that God commands and expects from His children, happen because we are children of God. We do not earn our salvation by doing good works, but do good works because God has saved us and given us His Spirit!

• After preaching we responded in song, with How Great is Our God, a joyful exultation in our great God, Who is both Lord of the universe, and our gracious Savior.

• We continued our corporate worship with a baby dedication of Phil and Christy Twitchell's little girl Madeline.

• After the baby dedication and a few announcements, we sang 2 more songs together: How Marvelous, and new song called There Will Be A Day. The purpose of these two songs was to bring our focus more closely onto the Gospel, and the connection between the two is the hope of one day being with Christ, our Savior, free from sin and death.

Overall, I think the flip-flopped order of service went well, although we may tweak a few things in the future to make said "flip-flopping" as effective as possible. Good morning of worship together though, through preaching, singing and fellowship.

There Will Be A Day is one of my favorite new songs, and I heard a lot of encouraging feedback about the clear, biblical lyrics, etc. We will play it again in a couple weeks, but for now either go here to listen to the song, or go to iTunes and download it. It's worth your .99 cents!

The power of music in "Alice Dancing Under the Gallows"

Watch this trailer for "Alice Dancing Under the Gallows."

This short film is a trailer for a documentary coming out next year. It's about Alice Herz-Sommer, the oldest Holocaust survivor in the world. What looks to add an extra intriguing element to the film, is its focus on music - Alice is an amazing pianist, and speaks quite a bit (even in the trailer) about the power of music. Needless to say, I'm looking forward to seeing this film.

Here are some things I found exceptionally compelling in the trailer, and bear with me to see the connection to church music:

1. Alice's thoughts about Beethoven. He has always been my favorite composer, and Alice expresses my own reasons why, in ways I don't think I could have. She says that Beethoven's music is so much more than melody - there's so much fullness in it that goes deeper than simple melody.

2. Alice's genuine love for people. Alice comments that she loves people: that she loves getting to know people, and loves hearing about people's lives. This was convicting for me - how much to I genuinely just love getting involved in the lives of people?

3. Alice's comment that music is god (with which I disagree). She says that music can give a person hope, can transport them away from a hopeless circumstance, can give life to a soul. However, I do agree with some of this - music is powerful, and I believe God created music to affect and stir our souls in some of these ways. Overall, what Alice says is a testament to how powerful music can be; though music is not a god in any sense of the word, God created it to powerfully stir our affections for Him. All truth is God's truth, and truth is true, even when communicated by an unbeliever; and I see some very true things being said here about music.

4. The role that music played in the lives of those in the Nazi concentration camps. One of Alice's friends (a fellow Holocaust survivor) comments that in their hopeful attitude, that music fed, they were "dancing under the gallows." Music gave joy to them in the midst of the hopelessness, which leads me to think about the singing of a church.

How many times have we attended church on Sunday, but have felt completely discouraged by things going on in life? We come and hear about the joys of knowing God and being saved from our sins, but often still feel discouraged? Sometimes it's hard to reconcile that conflict in our hearts, at least for me. We want to sing about having joy, and hear it preached about, and actually feel some of that joy!

When we sing as the redeemed body of Christ, music can help us do that. Our affections can be stirred with the hopeful truths of Scripture, and our hearts and minds can unite as we joyfully praise and worship our Savior through song. This is also why the songs we sing in church should be full of specific, Biblical lyrics.

Preparing for Sunday, 10-31-10

FUN FACT: it's Reformation Day this Sunday! On October 31, 1517 Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of All Saints' Church in Wittenberg, Germany. Luther never meant to "confront" the church necessarily, but to spark a scholarly debate over church practices (lack of teaching on repentance, the authority of the pope to forgive sins, etc). However, Luther's bold, controversial (and biblical) 95 theses began the Protestant Reformation, which would liberate Christianity from the heresies that had crept into the doctrine of the church. Is that more awesome than Halloween? Maybe.

You can read an English translation of Luther's 95 theses here!

So, fun facts aside, we have some good things coming up this Sunday morning. Pastor John will be preaching from Titus 2:3-5, focusing on the character and ambitions of a godly younger woman. Our Children's Choir will also be singing a song during service. You'll get to hear them in church a few more times throughout the holiday season!

The music team will lead the following songs:

1. Lord, Reign in Me

As John continues to preach from Titus 2, a classic passage on appropriate Christian living/conduct, it's important that we sing a few songs that connect to that theme. This song is great, in that it focuses both on the glory and greatness of God ("Over all the earth, You reign on high..."), and responds to that with a prayer for Him to cause us to live in obedience because HE is ruling in our hearts ("Lord, reign in me/Reign in Your power/Over all my dreams/In my darkest hour").

2. Glorious and Mighty

We'll continue singing after a short greeting/fellowship time, with Glorious and Mighty. This is one of our church's newer favorites, put out by Sovereign Grace Music. With this song we'll transition from our prayer in Reign in Me, to more focused attention on the character of God which should be inspiring our worship. I love how this song is a joyful exultation in who our God is.

3. Because of Your Love

Here's where we'll transition into thinking and singing about the Gospel. The connection to what we've already been singing about is clear: "Maker of the universe/Broken for the sins of the earth/All because of Your love!"

See you Sunday morning!

Page CXVI

I love old hymns of the church, and I'm a big fan of learning and writing new arrangements to old hymns (especially for our church's corporate gatherings). I really believe, as C.S. Lewis talked about, that something is not better just because it's new. Many of the classic hymns express rich, sound Biblical truth in timeless ways, and I love that there is a recent trend in returning to some of our classic church music.

Page CXVI is a project by a group of musicians to rework some of the old hymns, infusing them into more contemporary arrangements. They give the hymns new, semi indie/rock and indi/folk sounds. Check them out - they do a pretty good job. They've also offered free downloads of their EPs a few different times. Good stuff.

Visit their website here to learn about the project, purchase their records, etc .

Preparing for Sunday, 10-24-10

I really want to emphasize a new song we'll be singing this week. It's a newer arrangement to an old hymn (written in 1738 to be exact), called "And Can It Be That I Should Gain" by Charles Wesley (pictured at left). The more I research classic hymns of the church, I keep being drawn to Wesley's. His poetry, and the way some of his hymns combine poetry and melody are pretty amazing, to say the least.

Almost a year and a half ago, I learned "And Can It Be" at the Resolved conference in Palm Springs. I love the poetry of the song, and the way it narrates through different aspects of the Gospel. My favorite part of the song is the 3rd stanza, where the lyrics focus in on the moment in the salvation of a believer, when the Holy Spirit first takes possession. The language echoes 2 Corinthians 4:6, where Paul says that in the same way that God spoke light into existence, He has caused light and life to exist in our sinful hearts. Wesley writes,

Long my imprison'd spirit lay

Fast-bound in sin and nature's night;

Thine eye diffused a quick'ning ray,

I woke, the dungeon flamed with light

My chains fell off, my heart was free

I rose, went forth and followed Thee!

Amazing love, how can it be

That Thou, my God, should'st die for me!

I hope that week-to-week, as we repeatedly find our way again and again into the content of the Gospel in our corporate worship, that this hymn can be added in, and that it can help us speak these great truths of the Gospel to ourselves and to each other. You can watch Enfield, the Resolved band, play the song here.

John will be preaching this Sunday from Titus 2:1,2 - on the character and ambitions of a Godly man. We'll also be singing the following, focusing on the Gospel, and our response in holy living:

1. Your Grace is Enough

2. And Can It Be

3. Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)

4. Take My Life

Preparing for Sunday, 10-17-10

I'm looking forward to this Sunday! We'll be singing together, and taking bread & cup communion together before we hear from Pastor Jordan, who will preaching from Titus 1:10-16. His sermon will be very Gospel-centered, and so will our singing! The order of songs is below, with each one linked to the closest recorded version on YouTube. Let's prepare our hearts for Sunday, and be very thoughtful about our worship together in Sunday's corporate setting.

1. Doxology

A great call to worship, and one of our re-arranged hymns. We haven't played this in our church as long as I can remember, but it should be a familiar congregational hymn for many. It will lead out in praise to our triune God.

2. Our God

Tim introduced this song two Sundays ago. It's an exultation in the greatness of our God, centering around the bridge which is a paraphrase of Romans 8:31-35 - that if God is for us, what can possibly stand against us? We'll sing this as a declaration against our sin that we are constantly at war with, whether we realize it or not.

3. How Marvelous

We'll transition with this song, into a meditation on the Gospel, and what God has done for us, in and through Jesus Christ. This is a fairly simple hymn, rejoicing in the love of Christ, our Savior. I love the 2nd verse, which says that "He took our sins and our sorrows, and made them His very own."

4. All I Have is Christ

This song will be the "capstone" of the morning. It's a Gospel-centered song from Sovereign Grace Music, and it hits all points of the Gospel. God looked upon us in our sin and in our inability to seek after Him; He "looked upon our helpless state," and led us to the cross; now, as adopted children of God, we are free from sin to live lives of worship to God. We'll make it our prayer that He will use "our ransomed lives in any way He chooses."

Why do we sing in church?

Why do we sing in church? I plan on writing more in answer to this question, but here's a really short, insightful quote by C.J. Mahaney on the topic of singing in church. For the time being, think about the following:

"Troubled souls become hopeful souls when we sing truth about God to Him, and to ourselves."

"Why sing so many cross-centered songs?"

C.J. Mahaney and Bob Kauflin have been hugely influential in my thinking about church music over the past year. Their perspectives on church music are Biblical, and extremely helpful; their perspectives are also rooted in deep affections for the Gospel and for Christ. Go here to watch a short segment from a panel involving both of these guys, talking about why we need to be singing Gospel-centered/cross-centered songs that are clear in their theology.

It's always great to hear from others who are very well-thought through, as we go about shaping our own thinking on something, especially something involved in our thinking about the church.

I love it in this clip when C.J. talks about our constant need for Christ as our Mediator.

OUT SICK, Sunday, 10/3:

So as it happens, I ended up sick Thursday night/Friday morning. I tried hard to get well before Sunday (excessive ingestion of vitamins, lots of tea with honey, not talking, etc.), but Saturday I was feeling worse, not better. So Tim Plaster was gracious and willing to step up and cover Sunday. I can't say enough about how much I appreciate Tim - he's a great servant-leader, and has taught me a great deal about being just that. From what I hear, Sunday went well. Tim was even up for introducing the new song planned for this week, which by good providence he had already been learning on his own.

The new song we tried out this week, and that we'll play again in 2 weeks, is called Our God is Greater, by Matt Redman and Chris Tomlin. The reason it was chosen for the set was the specific way it speaks of some of God's attributes - that He is strong, awesome in power, etc. Also, the bridge is really what I see as the focal point of the song, that if God is for us, what can stand against us? We can sing this on future Sundays as a declaration of our war against sin, and fear of man; God's sovereign grace and power enable us to fight sin and take bold, risky steps of obedience to what He has called us to.

Give the song a listen, and hopefully I'll see you next Sunday!

Josh

Preparing for Sunday, 9/26.

Well tomorrow we have not one, but two opportunities to meet and worship corporately. I'm excited - it should be a great Sunday!

SUNDAY MORNING:
Pastor John is preaching out of 1 Kings 19:19-21, and our songs will be as follows:

1. Happy Day - An exultation in our salvation, that Christ has fully accomplished on the cross for us. "What a glorious day, what a glorious way that You have saved me."
2. There is a Fountain - A newer (but not too different) reworking of the hymn by William Cowper. We introduced this song early in the Summer because it is a great expression of the power of the blood of Christ, shed for us. His blood washes all our sin away, and will never lose its power to present the church sinless before God.
3. The Wonderful Cross - This song will come after announcements and the offering. The key point in this song, that we'll sing twice, will be that the saving love of God, that comes to us in and through Christ, demands our souls, and our lives. God will have it no other way for those whom He saves.
4. How Marvelous - A final song glorying in the cross. I love the last verse of this hymn, that says "When with the ransomed in glory, His face I at last shall see; twill be my joy through the ages to sing of His love for me!" The Gospel will be the theme of our worship of God, even throughout eternity.

SUNDAY EVENING - CELEBRATION OF GRACE
We'll close our time together in the evening with the following two songs.

1. O Worship the King - A reworking of an old hymn, that we starting singing at our church over the Summer. A great hymn about the glory of God, and His powerful majesty.
2. How Great is Our God - A very familiar song for us, and a great last song of response to how faithful God has been to our church over the past couple of years.

See you Sunday, hopefully morning and evening!

Reflecting on Sunday morning (yesterday, 9/5/10):

As I'm reflecting on yesterdays corporate worship at our church, I'm encouraged again, ultimately. A good friend called me last night, asking where he could find one of the songs we sang together in church. I know his love for, and commitment to good theology, and how good theology inspires his worship. That's partly what I long for with our time of singing on Sunday morning, and why I'm writing today, reflecting back on yesterday morning. I love it when the songs we sing affect individuals in the gathered church, and it would be my hope that they would go into their weeks (and individual stations in life) singing and thinking about the songs we sang together Sunday morning as the body of Christ. It would also be my hope that the theology in the songs would be fixed in all of our minds and hearts as we go from church into the week. Hopefully we can fight sin and temptation more intensely, and stand more unwaveringly in our faith because of the encouragement and equipping we find together at church on Sunday morning.

So go to iTunes or Amazon.com and buy versions you like of the songs we sing together. Or you can follow the links below to give them a listen.

All that to say, yesterday we sang the following songs. It was another good morning of preaching, singing and fellowship.

Preaching: sermon by Pastor John - Part 1 of "What is the experience of an unbeliever and believer when they die?" Text: Luke 16:19-31
1. Holy is the Lord
2. Glorious and Mighty
3. All I Have is Christ
4. My Hope is Built (We arranged this a little differently, but this was the version I found that was closest. This version has a cool bridge that we did not play. I'll try to post a video or track of our arrangement at some point.)

Sunday morning, 6/20 (Fathers' Day!)

Danny Lee is preaching this Sunday, Fathers' Day, on Luke 15 (yep, the whole chapter!), focusing partly on the point in Luke 15:10, "Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance."

Jesus Christ came to seek and save his sheep, and He knows them all by name. We rejoice in this truth, that not one of His sheep will be lost, and I can't think of a better theme for Fathers' Day Sunday than the love of God, displayed for us in sending His Son to save us.

So, we'll start off our singing with How Deep the Father's Love for Us, but played fast like we play it in college/youth group. By the way, I didn't mention that our college/youth band is playing with me in main service this week. I think the morning is going to be wicked awesome.

Second, we're doing a new song for main service, but that we've been playing for a year or so in college group. It's called Beautiful Jesus, and very appropriately (going with our theme from Luke 15) starts off with the line "Your love O God, displayed for us, as crimson covered over sinless hands."

Our last two songs will go as follows: we'll focus more closely on Christ's perfect sacrifice for our sin with Jesus Paid it All. Then, we'll sing Mighty to Save, as we remind ourselves of the confidence we can have in our Savior, that enables us to go and shine our lights in the world, and fulfill the great commission. I think this will be a joyful, energetic way to end our singing, and hopefully we will be focused on the infinite goodness of knowing our Savior.

See you Sunday morning!

Josh

For Sunday, 6/13:

Well, as I've been preparing for music this Sunday I have concurrently been reading through John Piper's Don't Waste Your Life, and thinking a great deal about boasting only in the cross of Jesus Christ. As Piper puts it in his book, "Life is wasted if we do not grasp the glory of the cross, cherish it for the treasure that it is, and cleave to it as the highest price of every pleasure and the deepest comfort in every pain." Piper is expounding upon Paul's words in Philippians 3:7,8, where he says, "But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of CHrist. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus m Lord [...]" We must see our giving glory to God, through our salvation in Jesus Christ, as the all-consuming passion of our lives. In this we find the reason for which we were created, and we find fullness of joy in living this way.

Therefore, the songs for this Sunday center around the cross of Christ, and his resurrection from the grave that brings us eternal life. We'll start the morning off with Happy Day by Tim Hughes, which we introduced for the first time two weeks ago. It's a song of celebration in what Christ has accomplished, and speaks both of Christ's death/resurrection, and our hope of His return, and being with Him in heaven.

Second, we'll sing of the joy that it is to know Jesus Christ as our Savior, and worship Him as Lord of our lives in Blessed Assurance, a good old hymn by Fanny Crosby.

Third, we'll sing Because of Your Love, as we continue to meditate on what Christ has done for us, and that He did it all out of his mercy and love.

We'll end our singing with a There is a Redeemer, that sort of encompasses all of the themes of the previous songs - joy in what Christ has accomplished for us on the cross, his glorious resurrection that has brought us eternal life, and the glorious return of Christ and hope of Heaven.

First Post!

Well, here's to kicking off a brand new blog about our corporate worship at Grace Brethren, Simi Valley. Thanks for reading! The hope for this blog is to provide a place where members of the body can visit, and read any thoughts that our pastors, or I may have that would help all of us prepare for our corporate worship gatherings. I also need to state at the outset, that the idea for this blog was inspired by my friend Paul Hoover (a fellow church music leader), who manages a similar blog for his church.

The type of post you'll see here most often will consist of a list of songs planned for the upcoming Sunday morning, with some thoughts about why each song was chosen (and possible links for you to listen to, or download that particular song), as well as possible thoughts about the upcoming sermon, etc.

The goal, again, is to cultivate a mindset of preparing, thoughtfully and purposefully, for when we gather together on Sunday morning as the redeemed body of Christ. Lets worship with our lives during the week, and be ready to joyfully and genuinely worship together on Sunday morning.

The name of the blog, "By means of grace...", is inspired by the encouragements we see from Paul in his letters (to the Galations, Ephesians, etc.). Paul always recognizes that everything praiseworthy done by any person is only by the means of God's grace, and we recognize this same truth extends to our worship gatherings. In Ephesians 1:3-12, Paul states that we have been chosen by God and predestined to adoption as sons of God, according to God's good pleasure, "to the praise of His glorious grace," and that we have redemption and forgiveness of sins, "according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence..." So all is grace, and we gather together to worship God through hearing of the preaching of the Word, through music, and through fellowship - all by means of grace.

Thanks for reading - many more posts to follow.

Josh