I am not excited that another weekend is coming to a close. I am definitely not ready to face Monday morning. I feel that my weekend is just beginning, but in actuality it is ending. The Sunday night blues are setting in, so I decided to sit down and reflect on the day and enjoy what God is doing at The Crossroads.
We had another great day at The Crossroads. The morning started off a little rough. Shawn is sick with a cold, and that is tough for a guy that has to rely on his voice to share God's message. The cold meds he's taking make his clarity a little questionable as well. For example, we got to Anna missing several items we needed for services. Fortunately, a friend was able to run by the house and get the things that we had forgotten.
Set up was a little crazier than usual, with several new items that had to be hooked up and tested. We made it on time, with just a few minutes to spare.
Shawn's sermon was the first in a series, "God on Your IPOD, Classic Rock." We set up the Playstation and had audience members play the song of the week, "Living on a Prayer." It was fun to have the audience involved. Shawn used the song as the starting point to discuss the importance of prayer in our lives. It was a great sermon, and he was able to keep his thoughts focused to share clearly with the audience.
I enjoyed the music today, although I was a little scattered during the main set. I have a hard time on crazy mornings gathering myself back together again to focus on worship. Unfortunately, time constraints keep us limited to about 3 songs (10-15 minutes) on Sunday morning. I have discovered through my own personal worship time that I am generally not deeply connected with God until at least 20-30 minutes of worship....whether that is music or meditative scripture reading or just time focused on thinking about God and His love. So if that internal clock starts at 10:35, then I am simply a musician on a stage playing a piano. Performing. I tell my friends that I am a crock pot, not a microwave when it comes to worship. It has taken me years to realize that there is no shame in that, it is simply how God created me.
Normally I try hard to spend some time in prayer and listening to worship music before I get to church so that I am ready to deeply connect with God while I am on stage. But today with all the hectic craziness of my morning, I was not ready to worship until the closing song, "Grace Like Rain." Some weeks are just like that for me. I try hard not to feel guilty about not connecting intimately with God in every church service. I know that there will be opportunities this week as I run to spend some time in worship. If Shawn had not been too sick to leave alone with the kids, I might have been tempted to head down to Fellowship Church, or somewhere else in the Metroplex to just sit in the audience, slow down, and worship. Heading into Monday morning without having deeply and intimately connected with God leaves me a little dissatisfied.
This afternoon the children's workers got together to talk about the "what's next" of children's ministry. I was excited about the vision for children's ministry. I love that God is talking to our Children's Director about precisely the same vision that Shawn and I have had from the beginning. Our greatest need, of course, is more workers for the small groups. We will have to find ways to communicate that working with children is a privilege - a special way to see God's heart, rather than a burden or an inconvenience.
I confess that I have done more than my fair share of whining about working with children. I work with children all week as a teacher, and my heart is in music ministry, and I don't especially want to be with kids again on the weekend. However, the more I look through the New Testament, the more I see that Jesus had a heart for children. Being a part of the children's ministry validates their importance. If I am willing to occasionally give up my favorite part of church (music) to minister to the kids, then it affirms to them that they are indeed very valuable to God. It is in valuing our kids that we are able to lead them to following Christ. And that is certainly worth me sacrificing sitting in big church a few Sundays a year.
One last thing on my mind tonight. I was looking across the new faces in our services today and remembering the lives that The Crossroads has connected with in the last 18 months. Many of our first members have moved away with jobs and family. We are soon losing another family to a new and better job in another part of the state. It reminds me that I need to enjoy each relationship while it is available, because circumstances change quickly. I am grateful that God has allowed me to have the opportunity to meet so many incredible people and be a part of their lives, whatever that time frame may be. I was once again reminded to be thankful for where God has placed me in ministry. It has been, and continues to be a beautiful adventure to be a part of The Crossroads.
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