The local church baggage claim

I thought I would share with my family some of what is the local church,

On Aug 25, 2009, at 8:47 AM, *** wrote:

Hi to Him-Who-Is-Not-My-Enemy,

I still feel like I can’t handle the stress of hearing your story about the worship team, but maybe sometime soon. Anyway, I just wanted to say hi. ***

Hi ***,

It was nice to see you up front worshipping on Sunday. I had hoped to tell you personally before we left but I needed to leave before I got to you. I was planning on emailing you to tell you so, so I am glad you beat me to it as a reminder.

As far as "stress" and the worship team. It's not so much or should I say specifically the worship team @ **** Church that stresses me out. To be more clear I would say that it is how the church with a capital "C" approaches worship that stresses me out. In general worship has become a task, a "less than it should be" kind of routine that borders on apathy. It appears to me, that even the churches that have a more "contemporary" "professional" worship style seem to be increasingly caught up in entertaining themselves more so than glorifying God. The "Style" has been a result of human comfort levels rather than intent on glorifying God. So a simple guitar or 10 piece professional praise band is not the point to be made. It is the approach we take in incorporating it into our Sunday services/other services and our lives.

It was my hope that bringing in my brothers and sisters from outside of **** Church would in some way ignite the congregation to simply push from normal comfort zones, away from "routine" and towards being more intentional in our worship together and in our worship ministry efforts.

To be honest with you my sister, you are one of the few that I have seen modeling worship more passionately. I have heard some say that being "animated" is not generally the Presbyterian "the frozen chosen" way...to which I say "Don't be ridiculous!" LOL. As you may have recognized already my passion and emotions are easy to see. Sometimes for the good but other times often misinterpreted when it is outside of specifically leading worship. I have also come to recognize that because my emotions run deep they are not easy to hide no matter how I am feeling. I humbly venture to say the same might ring true for you. More often than not words can't explain what we feel. But we frustratingly try anyway which leads to further frustrations both in us and others. And at least for me in an attempt to be transparent leaves most feeling suspicion rather than making them more understanding. I have simply come to accept this reality; that part of the cross that I carry is that I tend to push people out of their comfort zones, which in turn evokes a defensive,suspicious reaction from most. My goal is never to simply cause trouble but rather to have the gospel proclaimed louder and to have more embrace our Savior with their very lives.

I am fairly new to **** Church. You have heard some of what is on my heart and also had an opportunity to see me worship and serve. To be honest, the church animal, no matter where I go is a bit of a struggle for me because I do indeed feel that, "the day is near". I have little patience for the slow way that has become the normal approach of church ministry. To me, there are too many lost sheep, too many wayward sheep, and too many goats amongst the sheep in the church congregation.

So how do we as a body of believers push forward and at the same time protect the body? How do we discern each others spiritual gifts? How do we empower each other and build one another up? These are just a few of the questions to be answered. Most of the time my general response to these type of questions is: "We must prepare and equip ourselves to 'GO!'...BE BOLD..we must go into enemy territory (specifically for me this means our schools) and fight to take it back! We must stop being weak sheep, stop hunkering down behind our church doors, afraid of what lies outside our church doors. We must TALK, PLAN AND ACT...i repeat AND ACT!

Perhaps sister, you are saying, "What the heck did I say that hoisted Mykel onto the soapbox?" Well....I just wanted to make clear that "my story about the worship team" is not specific to **** Church and my efforts are not meant to cause stress but to encourage action rather than complacency. And yes ***, I am indeed "Him-Who-Is-NOT-your-Enemy"

With the love of Christ,
Mykel