Hallelujah

Kelley Mooney’s spiritual lyrical adaptation of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah”
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Another Version: A Special Version of Hallelujah With a Christian Twist
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One Thing Remains

“One Thing Remains” by Kristian Stanfill

Your love never fails
It never gives up
It never runs out on me
(x3)
Your love
never gives up on me

And it’s higher than the mountains that I face
And it’s stronger than the power of the grave
And constant in the trial and the change
This one thing remains, yeah

And it’s higher than the mountains that I face
And it’s stronger than the power of the grave
And it’s constant in the trial and the change
This one thing remains
This one thing remains, yeah

‘Cause Your love never fails
It never gives up
It never runs out on me
(x3)
Your love

And on and on
and on and on it goes
Yes, it overwhelms and satisfies my soul
And I’ll never, ever have to be afraid
‘Cause this one thing remains
This one thing remains

Your love never fails
It never gives up
It never runs out on me
(x3)
Your love

In death, in life
I’m confident and covered by the power of Your great love
My debt is paid
There’s nothing that can separate
my heart from Your great love

‘Cause Your love never fails
It never gives up
It never runs out on me
(x3)
Your love

And on and on
and on and on it goes
Yes, it overwhelms and satisfies my soul
And I’ll never, ever have to be afraid
‘Cause this one thing remains

Your love never fails
It never gives up
It never runs out on me
(x3)
Your love

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We Believe

“We Believe” by Newsboys

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Evangelism and Church Growth Conference

Evangelism and Church Growth Conference

Go Disciple Live by 1001 NewWorshiping

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“Noah” Film Is Encouraging People to Read the Bible

“Noah” Film Is Encouraging People to Read the Bible

by Staff Writer

"Noah" Film Is Encouraging People to Read the Bible

According to three major Bible sources, the new film Noah starring Russell Crowe is making people want to research the real story. The YouVersion Bible app reported that, during the film’s opening weekend, the story of Noah in Genesis 6 was accessed nearly 390,000 times—that’s nearly 130,000 times per day (a 300 percent increase), the highest number of people exploring that passage that they’ve ever recorded.

Bible Gateway, another top online Scripture site, reported a similar increase of 223 percent. And the American Bible Society explored their Facebook followers and discovered that over 85 percent of them were reading the story of Noah because of conversations they were having with their friends and family about the film.

Benny Perez, senior pastor at the Church at South Las Vegas, commented “over and over the first thing (his church members) do after seeing the movie is pull out their Bibles and re-read the story.” And Phil Cooke, a Christian media consultant and prolific blogger, wrote on his blog that “God can indeed work with imperfect people and imperfect vehicles.”

“In spite of the non-Biblical elements taken from Jewish and other sources, (theNoah film) is still driving people to explore the real story in the pages of the Bible,” wrote Cooke. “This was my hope, and it’s certainly playing out. …If you haven’t talked to someone about Noah lately, I’m encouraging you to do it today.”

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Source: http://www.churchleaders.com/pastors/pastor-articles/173907-noah-film-is-driving-people-to-the-bible.html
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Awake My Soul

“Awake My Soul” by Chris Tomlin

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4 Characteristics of Leaders Who Last

4 Characteristics of Leaders Who Last

By 

Clock

Everything rises or falls on leadership. No organization, no ministry, no church, no family, no school, no business can go any further than the leaders who are leading it. If everything rises or falls on leadership, then the quickest way for the opposition to halt any project, any family, any business is to neutralize the leadership. When the shepherd is removed, the flock scatters.

That’s true today in our churches. When Satan wants to cripple a church, he takes on the leadership. And this is not just about the pastor and the paid staff, but the church leadership’s — the lay leadership. If you want to be a leader, some people aren’t going to like you, and they’re going to attack you. Some people are going to try to make you fail.

Here are four characteristics of leaders who last long enough to accomplish big things in spite of the challenges.

1.  Leaders who last have a compelling purpose.

This is the very first element of leadership. A cause. A vision. A dream. An objective. A goal. It doesn’t drive you, it draws you. You have to have a compelling purpose.

Until you have a compelling purpose for your life, you’re just existing. Nehemiah said, I have a great project! What are you exchanging your life for? Jesus said, “What will a man give in exchange for his soul?” When you give your time for something, you’re giving your life. That’s what life is made up of — your time. We tend to think that the most important thing we can give people is our money. But money can be replaced. But when you give people your time, that’s irreplaceable. The mark of a great leader is first of all, to have a compelling purpose — an over arching goal in life that motivates me to keep going. Paul says, “Love compels me to keep going.”

Great people are just ordinary people who have made a great commitment to a great cause. That cause draws them out of themselves and makes them more than they could be on their own. You need a compelling purpose for life.

2.  Leaders who last need a clear perspective.

If you’re going to be a leader, you’ve got to have perception, or wisdom. James 1:5 says, “If any man lacks wisdom, ask God.” When you spend time in the word of God you begin to take on the mind of Christ and you’ll be a more perceptive leader. The thing that clouds our perception is fear. A definition of FEAR — False Evidence Appearing Real.  You need to have a compelling purpose and a clear perspective.

3.  Leaders who last develop a life of continual prayer

In Luke 18:1, “Jesus told his disciples that they should always pray and not give up.”  In your life you’re always doing one or the other. You’ll either pray or you’ll give up. John R. Rice once said that “all of our failures are prayer failures.” When the heat is on, when the pressure is on, you’ll either pray or you’ll panic. You need a continual prayer life.

4.  Leaders who last need a courageous persistence.

One of the great keys to success is the ability to hang in there! Keep on keeping on! Keep on doing what God wants you to do! If you were to study all the sermons I’ve given at Saddleback I basically have two themes — one for unbelievers and one for believers. The theme I have for unbelievers is “God cares about you. You matter to God.” I say that in many different ways. I have one basic message I have for believers and that’s “Don’t give up!” We all get tired in the battle and God says “Don’t give up!” You need a courageous persistence.

How can you be fearful and courageous at the same time? Courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is moving ahead in spite of your fear. Galatians 6:9 “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”

How persistent are you in doing God’s will? Do you just do it when it’s convenient? Have you ever made the decision in your life, “I’m going to follow Jesus 100% no matter what else happens, no matter what it costs, no matter what it takes, regardless of what people say about me, sidetracks, danger. I’m going to do the right thing.”

photo credit: Βethan

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Source: http://pastors.com/4-characteristics-leaders-last/

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David Kinnaman and Jon Tyson Discuss Millennials, “Nones” and a Renewed Vision for Church

David Kinnaman and Jon Tyson Discuss Millennials, “Nones” and a Renewed Vision for Church

General church attendance has been on the decline for the past decade and nearly one-third of Millennials who grew up in the church have dropped out at some point. Yet many continue to return two days a year: Christmas and Easter.”It’s part of a religious hangover,” says Jon Tyson, founding pastor of Trinity Grace Church in Manhattan, New York, and author of the Barna FRAME, Sacred Roots. But, he points out, it’s also sign of a continuing spiritual hunger; Christmas and Easter offer people “access points to transcendence.” And so they return to church for a morning. In this conversation with Barna president, David Kinnaman, Tyson talks about the pastoral pressure of Easter Sunday, the different generational questions of Boomers and Millennials and how Christians—both pastors and lay people alike—can renew their vision for church.

David Kinnaman: We’re coming up on Easter, which means a large Sunday morning crowd. Why do you think people are still drawn to church on Christmas and Easter when they aren’t attending very regularly at other points throughout the year?

Jon Tyson: I think there’s some level of religious hangover. People grew up attending church; it’s still celebrated quite largely across our culture. It remains a reference point for people. The more secular our story gets—the more consumeristic our story gets—the more hungry we, as spiritual beings, get for moments of transcendence. People know traditionally the Christian stories of Christmas and Easter, so I think people come to both holidays because they provide access points to transcendence—to hope and meaning that society is not offering them.

DK: That’s a lot of pressure on the church—on pastors—for those two holidays. I grew up as a pastor’s kid, we work with pastors a lot in our work here at Barna, do you think that’s the right kind of pressure they should place on themselves?

JT: Pastors [recognize] they have a reduced social and cultural platform to speak the Good News into people’s lives, so they feel the pressure to maximize on those increasingly rare opportunities. So I think the heart behind it is a good heart that says, “I don’t know if I’m going to get another chance all year to really articulate what God has done for us in Jesus. I want to make sure that I get that right.” I think that’s a good pressure. I would say however, that pressure should not just be channeled into programming and excellence of events. It should be put into prayer, it should be put into fasting, it should be put into creating ways for people to continue on in exploring the Christian faith.

DK: The top reason people give us in our research for why they don’t attend church is because they find God elsewhere. It’s something you hear a lot in popular phrases like, “I’m spiritual but not religious”; “I love Jesus but not the Church.” As a pastor, when you hear that kind of reasoning—that God is available and findable outside of the church—how do you respond?

JT: It’s too simplistic. I’ll try to explain why quickly, and it will be hard. There’s three kinds of spirituality: mono-, di- and tri-spirituality. Mono-spirituality is what I would call secular spirituality. It’s basically saying: secularism isn’t working, there has to be more to me than just chemicals and brainwaves; I will look for a spiritual force or God within myself. That sort of spirituality is used as a cloaking mechanism to stop you from having to depend on some sort of God.

Then you’ve got di-spirituality, which basically says: No, I need something outside of myself. I need a relationship with a deity of some kind. And this, I think, is what is wrong with evangelicalism—which can minimize my relationship to other people as incidental or secondary—everything exists so I can have a personal relationship with God.

Tri-spirituality is myself in relationship with God and in relationship with others. This is the spirituality Jesus taught—and actually cares about. So I think people are deluding themselves to think that outside of the body of believers—and I say that carefully, not church programs or Sunday events—that outside of the Body of Jesus Christ, people can find God. You will have a limited, immature, shallow spirituality if you think you can find it on your own. We are called to practice the way of Jesus with other people.

My guess, though, is that’s not really what people are saying. What I guess people are mostly saying is that [they find] Church to be pretty mediocre—that it is about guilt, condemnation and hypocrisy, and [they] find the Christian faith in other means. And if people get together regularly with a big group of friends to live the way of Jesus, if they’re laying down their lives in sacrificial love, I’m fine with that. It’s my experience, though, that most people don’t want to do the second part of that.

Watch the full-length Sacred Roots video for free for a limited time only.

DK: You know, it’s interesting, after reading your FRAME, Sacred Roots, a friend of mine said she hoped this little book would challenge pastors to change their view of what it means to be an effective church. That the problem is not just the consumer, individual church-goer, or culture, but it’s also church leader’s own expectations of what it means to be a community of faith.

JT: I completely agree. There are two forces at work. There is what people do to form people, and then there’s people’s response. It’s not a pastor’s primary job to create events that are better than other churches so their consumers are happy. It is their job, whether people like them or not, to preach the Word, to sacrificially love, to care about the poor, to focus on relationships over events and programs. It is their job to see the church be the Body of Jesus—a tangible trinity on earth in a local place.

DK: As you said earlier, most pastors’ hearts are in the right place. It’s probably something of a slow mission drift, shaped by culture and a history of certain expectations of church. So how can they avoid falling into some of those traps—of becoming a consumer-driven church or of setting expectations too low?

JT: I think the issue is what evangelical culture focuses on as success and what evangelical culture holds up as the model of success. Every conference you attend, the speakers are, for the most part, charismatic, disproportionately gifted, un-reproducible anomalies. And they lead churches that are, for the most part, in unique contexts at unique cultural moments and cannot be scaled or multiplied easily. So we are holding up the anomaly and trying to make it the expectation. We live in an evangelical culture that robs us of our pastoral joy by repeatedly telling us to compare ourselves to people we can never be like.

Very practically, [as pastors], we must first claim a biblical definition of success and root that in our own hearts. According to the Bible, success is faithfulness (“Well done, good and faithful servant.”) So we need to have a vision of faithfulness and obedience as true, biblical success. Number two: sacrificially laying down your life for your people in love. Which means focusing on the relationships that are actually before you, and asking the question: How can I more tangibly manifest the love of Jesus in the actual relationships God has brought to me? And number three, keeping our lives focused on the need of the world rather than striving for success or notoriety in any sort of Christian or ecclesiological platform.

DK: When you think about Millennials and young people in particular, what do you think is unique about their criticisms of church—what do you think is unique about their cultural context that is different than the way a generation of Boomer skeptics approach church?

JT: I think for Boomers—this is a massive generalization—it was about making church credible intellectually, and relevant culturally. I think those were the two great challenges post-WWII. There was a lot of apologetics and trying to make the Christian faith credible in light of history. Millennials wrestle with completely different things. They are wrestling with issues of authority; a distrust of authority has basically leaked into everything. I think consumerism is a default. Millennials want access, not ownership. They tend to use things rather than own things. Marketing has been telling them their life has to be exceptional—so they’re always trying to go on that journey of trying to be exceptional. I think that’s a very, very real generational shift. I would say this: The culture of distraction we wrestle with is unprecedented in human history. And the implications of getting people to focus, to be still, to walk with God, to hear form God, to think, and read, and have convictions on any sort of deep level are just incredibly hard.

DK: And what would be your advice, then, to a Millennial pastor who is dealing with that culture of distraction? Or to a Boomer pastor who’s trying to reach Millennials?

JT: To a Boomer pastor I would say, you should offer the gifts you have from your own story, journey and experience. So another generation doesn’t have to make those same mistakes. People are craving mentors to give them not just trends, but wisdom on how to live. I think there should be a massive increase in terms of mentoring—that’s an incredible gift Boomers can give. To a Millennial pastor, I would simply say, follow the path of wisdom, not the path of trends in a worship experience. We can’t let all these intrusions continually make their way into our lives. We have to put boundaries in place. In some sense, silence, solitude and stopping are the essential disciplines a Millennial pastor has to practice.

DK: I bet most people would be surprised to find out you trained to become a butcher. In your FRAME, you tell the story of how, back in Australia, you left school at age 16 to become an apprentice to a butcher and indentured yourself to that industry for four years. It’s a great story, and I just really loved reading how the Lord’s hand has been on you, bringing you from Australia and spicing meat, to one of the world’s most influential cities.

JT: It’s also, I think, in many ways a very New York story. Which is why even though I’m from another country, I feel like I’m very well received here in New York. New York is a meritocracy. It rewards you primarily on achievements, and in God’s kindness, things have gone well for our church plant. We have some level of credibility here in the city in terms of church presence.

And it’s an immigrant’s story: to move from one culture to another with a dream of being a part of something greater. That was certainly my story. And I’ve tried to take the best parts of my story, try to make sense of it and then help other people make sense of theirs. I love it.

DK: And I think some of the things you argue for in your FRAME: calling the church and Christians to move from dabbling to devotion, from transience to permanence, from preference to proximity, from beliefs to practices, also reflect some of those elements of what you’ve learned both in Manhattan and in your own story.

JT: Yes, definitely. Let’s ask the question: How do we need to live in order for God’s dream for the Church to be realized in the world? What do we actually have to change about the way we live our lives, not just about the way we think? And not just one or two of our practices. What, in our actual lives, has to change so God’s dream for the Church and the world can be realized. You have to evaluate not just the surface levels or practices or habits, you have to examine the framework. So I think much of what’s in that FRAME is my best thinking, best real-world experience about the future. In a transitory, secular, suspicious world, how does the Church need to live, think and act in order for it to gain credibility again? I think those shifts are a step forward.

Comment on this research and follow our work:
Twitter: @davidkinnaman | @roxycomposed | @barnagroup
Facebook: Barna Group

About Barna Group
Barna Group (which includes its research division, Barna Research Group) is a private, non-partisan, for-profit organization under the umbrella of the Issachar Companies. Located in Ventura, California, Barna Group has been conducting and analyzing primary research to understand cultural trends related to values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors since 1984.

If you would like to receive free e-mail notification of the release of each update on the latest research findings from Barna Group, you may subscribe to this free service at the Barna website (www.barna.org). Additional research-based resources are also available through this website.

© Barna Group, 2014

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Source: https://www.barna.org/barna-update/faith-spirituality/662-david-kinnaman-and-jon-tyson-q-a#.UzxJdGRdV5A

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29 Ways to Increase Your Creativity

29 Ways to Increase Your Creativity 

Source: http://www.churchleaders.com/pastors/videos-for-pastors/173838-29-ways-to-increase-your-creativity.html?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=clnewsletter&utm_content=CL+Daily+20140331

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Forever Reign

Forever Reign

“Forever Reign”

You are good, You are good
When there’s nothing good in me
You are love, You are love
On display for all to see
You are light, You are light
When the darkness closes in
You are hope, You are hope
You have covered all my sin
 

You are peace, You are peace
When my fear is crippling
You are true, You are true
Even in my wandering
You are joy, You are joy
You’re the reason that I sing
You are life, You are life
In You death has lost its sting

(Oh) I’m running to Your arms
I’m running to Your arms
The riches of Your love
Will always be enough
Nothing compares
To Your embrace
Light of the world
Forever reign

You are more, You are more
Than my words will ever say
You are Lord, You are Lord
All creation will proclaim
You are here, You are here
In Your presence I’m made whole
You are God, You are God
Of all else I’m letting go

My heart will sing
No other name
Jesus, Jesus (repeat)

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