Sunday, November 10, 2013

But the heart of the heart of the matter is that it matters what place our heart is in.


In moments now I will participate as a leader in the first worship service since my break began back in late September.

It's good to be home, and to call this place my home even though I am in a strange land. Strange because it's not my birth home nor my growing up home. Strange because apart from the work that I do here, I'd never have thought to live here, or even have had the opportunity to live here.

Still I, we, are examples of the fact that you can make your home just about anywhere, and that it can be home at very deep levels. So it's good to be home.


Gathering to worship this God we know can break down into a very mundane weekly experience. It can shift our thinking into a consumer thought process. What is going on here, what's going on there in other churches, should I go here or there...

For the leaders it can be an incredibly stressful experience with a million details to attend to and things to try and not get wrong. Challenges to our plans and sudden changes needed. Judgements about the worship experience. Being a leader of worship can be a challenging thing.

But for both groups, it can be a transcendent thing too. It can be an appointment that lifts us to another place. A place where we can do together what we can't do apart.

If we come for what we get, we miss the point completely.
If we try to offer something for everyone, we too miss the point completely.

This is a gathering for a target group of three, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Yes we will be changed in His presence.
Yes we will grow because we are in His presence.
Yes help and support will come because we are in His presence.

But the heart of the heart of the matter is that it matters what place our heart is in.

So posture your heart to receive, and you will.
Prepare your heart to cry out to God and you will be heard.
Place your heart in Gods hands, and he will care for you.


Welcome to church, the people, not the meeting.


3 comments:

  1. A good comment about making home where home would not be. While there are times I would still like to run away (and I guess that can often be a part of leadership) it feels as though Heyford Park is another place of family these days, rather than being a place where we were imposing: unwanted and in the way.

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  2. As far as the leaders go, or for those closest to them, such as their spouses, those unrealistic expectations can be crushing and can destroy what desire there is to even be in ministry at all.

    It's happened to me. All I've got left is my Sunday 'game-face'. Always on. Always 'fine' or 'ok' when asked'. Always smiling.

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  3. I know. There are people I care for who have been crushed and wounded almost beyond recognition.

    There are few things I am afraid of, but I suppose that is one of those things. I don't want to end up burned out and empty. I don't want to hate the church, or worse, turn my hate Godward because He called me to this. I want to finish well. I am afraid sometimes of failing at that.

    The crushing is real when it crushes us, or those we love.
    Are there people you can talk to about these things? People who'll listen and walk with you?
    It doesn't seem like really living when it comes down to that.


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