Worship- Soapbox rant

From Consumer to Consumed from Dan Stevers on Vimeo.

I get so frustrated sometimes with people's concept of worship (with myself mostly.) We live in a time where "Worship" is exploding, its everywhere- Heck, even Skillet and Kutless gave up Metal for an album or two to get in on the action . ( It may even have its own award at the Dove awards.) It is generally defined by what kind of music we like and what personality moves our emotions the most. In leading a worship gathering I cant tell you how many times I have heard people say that they hate it when we break up "worship" to have people greet each other. If you think about the logic on that it's pretty goofy- basically, the concept is- this time of music is when I connect with God and when you have me connect with other people if ruins my worship mojo. I know that this is a pretty broad stroke but it does show the consumer mentality that is running rampant within the body of Christ. I love what Matt Redman's church did when they realized that people were worshiping the "worship" and the leader's style- they cleared the stage and got into the word until they felt that they could use music as ONE of the forms of worship, and could worship with a genuine heart in all area's of life- not only when the music was just right.

I believe that the worship God enjoys the most is not when our emotions are being cajoled and our senses are being tickled, but when in the difficult and mundane times of life we call "You are God, and I will worship you" (without a guy in skinny jeans and a scarf with a guitar is crooning in front of us.)

OK so this may be a little harsh, (hope you catch the sarcasm and satire,) but I want to challenge myself, and anyone else who is willing, to begin to look for awkward moments (ADD moment- visualizing the most interesting man in the world, having an awkward moment, just to see what it feels like) to worship God. Can you imagine how someone would react if they just finishing cussing you out and you fell on your knees and started shouting praises to God, or the people who observed it. Or when you are enjoying a great burger at In & Out you start sharing with your friends how great God is. God's heart would be extremely full and proud of his most prized possession- you!

I think we all would agree that Worship is not about us, but the question is- do we just say that because we are supposed to, or do we live it?

(Can I possibly use any more parentheses? even got a few two finger quotations in.)

After God's Heart

This is a Video I put together last week for Elevate. I had a privilege of going to the naotional outreach conference in San Diego. I interviewed a bunch of pastors about what they thought about David. The Bible says that David was a man after God's own heart. We are going through a series in Elevate about the heart of David and what it means to pursue the heart of God. Tonight we are going to lok at the psalms of David and see how his honesty, his faith and his doubt built the type of character in him. David was definitely not perfect, but he had a deep passion for God. Hopefully by looking at the life of David we can experience the Grace and Love that David had, and we can begin to discover that type of passion in our own walk and journey with an amazing God.

Relationships- How is your love life?

Relationships are tough. Some of them are great, some of them are decent, and some of them just down right stink. In the Bible we find that God created relationships just like the rest of his creation- to be good. If we look at God's word he says a lot of things on how we can have higher quality relationships in our life. Many times the relationships in life don't go the way we had hoped because they take work, and if we are truthful, many times we don't want to work on relationships we just want them to benefit us. In the days to come, I am going to be sharing some things I have learned about relationships, and most importantly- what God has to say about them.

Have a great week, don't miss the new series on Relationships starting this Tuesday night 7pm at 210.

Life happens fast, sometimes when you stop and take a breath and look back its hard to believe how quickly time has elapsed. It seems like just Yesterday we were having our first baby, all of a sudden I have a 7 year old and an almost 2 year old. Years go by so fast, but even faster go the days. The sad thing is that many of us just allow life to happen, we miss out on living intentionally and making the most out of everyday. Survival and making it through to the next day take over and living each day with meaning and purpose go by the wayside.
Looking back at life it is amazing to see evidences of God's presence making themselves evident at many different intersections of life.
In the new series "I AM" at Elevate we are going to study how God makes himself known to people throughout history through His name. Nowadays, names something we use to get someones attention or attach somebody to a story we are telling. God's name however is something that goes deeper, it describes his character, who he is, what he has done, and what he has promised to do. Over time names have lost their significance, people used to be called something to signify what was happening in the family's life at the time or something great they were called to do. My name translated means "declarer of God" I hope that is something I can actually do in life and live up to. In looking at God's name in the days and weeks to come, I want to really grasp who God is, so that I can not only see evidences of him, but take advantage of the promises he makes to those He loves- Us!

His Wisdom is Perfect

I am very hard on myself, sometimes I deserve it and sometimes I don't, but I tend to beat myself up over stupid mistakes and when I feel like I don't meet standards I have set for myself. Last night at Elevate was a perfect example, to be honest I felt very scatter-brained and all over the place (even more than my usual ADD self.) After finishing I truly had this thought: I just wasted 25 minutes of these peoples life, thank God that John and the band lead people in an amazing worship set to clean up my mess. So after feeling bad about myself and drowning my sorrows in a bowl of dibs (ice cream you can eat with your fingers- how awesome is that?) I checked my email, and to my surprise I got several emails from people who said that God had spoken to their heart through the message and they were very encouraged- it was exactly what they needed to hear. Talk about being humbled!
After going through this battle, I wish I could force my heart to understand something, I have no power on my own to make a difference in people's lives. It is only through God's strength that anyone can leave a mark for His Glory in this life on anyone. I still have a responsibility to study and grow and seek to give the people God has put in my life the best I can, but that can only come through his power, not my own.
That takes a lot of pressure of the outcome off my shoulders when it comes to results, my Job is to get as close to God as I possibly can and simply listen and allow him to to touch others.
We truly serve an amazing God who uses broken people to be a part of what He is doing!

Health- Don't know what you got til its gone.

As the great 80's rockers Cinderella put it "don't know what you got until its gone." For several days I was miserable and just laid in bed and felt like I was hit by a truck. But Sunday morning I woke up feeling different, i felt... great. It was strange that normal felt so good, i could breath through my nose, my head didn't feel like it was full of rocks and I could actually think without my head pounding. For some reason normal felt extremely good. There all all kinds of trite phrases I could stick in here about not noticing your health until it is missing, but it really felt great to feel good.
I think if we would stop long enough to take a look at the things that we have in our life and all the blessings that we have it would be a whole lot more enjoyable to live right where we are. So many times I think about the things that are wrong, to beat myself up for mistakes, to wish that I had invested in Yahoo ten years, etc... Our lives are so full of blessings, and I probably sound like a dazed and confused 70's child but I am going to focus on what I have this week, and enjoy them, and instead of moaning about my problems I am going to take the tough times in stride. I think that is the life that Jesus was talking about in Matthew chapter 5, he was talking about the great blessing that we have, and the truest blessing in life have been given to us by God and we often ignore them in lieu of things that we don't have and things we want.
So this week I am going to go through matthew 5 and remember how I am blessed.

Here is the dictionary definition for blessing:

bless·ing /ˈblɛsɪŋ/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[bles-ing]

1.	the act or words of a person who blesses.

2.	a special favor, mercy, or benefit: the blessings of liberty.

3.	a favor or gift bestowed by God, thereby bringing happiness.

4.	the invoking of God's favor upon a person:

5.	praise; devotion; worship, esp. grace said before a meal:

6.	approval or good wishes:

Have a great week I hope you are having a great week.

I am getting really excited about our launch in the new 210 building coming up this march. We have been blessed to partner with 1st pres., Crossroads and a few other churches to truly be a part of a kingdom project.
I really enjoy working together with people who have a heart to share the love of Jesus with this community with people regardless of who gets the credit.
I know it is not the building that makes a ministry successful in God's eyes, but rather a heart of obedience and sacrifice. But it is neat to partner with a facility that is focused on sharing the love of Jesus with todays generation...
Its gonna be fun...

For more info Check out enter210.org or ellev8.com