Big News!

Some may notice that my blog has been a little neglected lately.  I apologize for that and for the fact that it will continue to be neglected for the next several weeks.  It's getting to be a bit crazy around here.

Three-and-a-half years ago I left Nashville, TN and came to Greenville College to be the Assistant Men's and Women's Cross Country and Track and Field Coach (possibly the longest job title ever).  It was really cool to see how GOD opened doors through that process and to look back at how my previous experiences had prepared me for a job and a place that I never had any intentions of taking on.

It seems, now, that GOD is moving in much the same way.  Just as my arrival at Greenville College was set of circumstances that could only have been orchestrated by GOD, so is my departure.

I announced this past week that I am resigning from my post at Greenville College.

I have been on a spiritual journey over the past year or two where GOD has really been molding me and placing a burden for the local body of Christ on my heart.  It had been very unclear to me what that ultimately meant and how I was to proceed.  I had struggled for a while with why GOD had allowed a number of things in my life to turn in particular directions.  However, GOD is faithful and I never doubted that.

Through another round of GOD-ordained circumstances I have been offered a part-time position as the Director of Worship (worship leader) at Community Gospel Church in Bremen, IN (just outside of South Bend).  The part-time status will allow me to begin taking seminary classes where I will pursue my MDiv. with an emphasis in Biblical Counseling.

I have loved my time Greenville and am extremely excited to begin this new chapter in my life.  I am sure you will be hearing a great deal more about this change in the coming months.

11/25/11

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!


(Now let's eat some pumpkin pie)

Sunday Setlist / 11.21.10

Here's what the 9:00am service at Highland Community Church looked like on November 21, 2010:

Alive and Running (G)
     Welcome and Announcements
Glory to Your Name (D)
Holy, Holy, Holy (D-E)
We Fall Down (E)
     Scripture Reading
     Message
     Offering
Doxology (A)
     Dismiss


THE BAND:
Jonathan David Eckberg - guitar/vocals


NOTES:
I was traveling this week for the NCAA DIII Cross country National Championship Meet out in Iowa.  Since one of the girls on my team qualified it meant that I was on the road from early Thursday morning until late on Saturday evening.  With trying to fit a weeks worth of work into the first three days of the week there was no way to squeeze a practice in, so I gave our guys the week off.  Pastor Wise was on vacation this week so Jeff Graw, one of our Elders, spoke.  I wasn't sure exactly what he was preaching on so I decided to keep the theme of the morning on GOD's holiness.

THE SONGS:
Alive and Running - We've been teaching this Kristian Stanfill song for several weeks in a row now.  I think this was the last week we'll do it for a while.  It has a very different feel on the acoustic than it does with the full band (duh!).  However it works very well.  Some of the more uptempo songs are hard to put together without sounding like you're leaving too much space, but this one works.

Glory to Your Name - This is another Dave Hunt tune.  Everytime I write about him on here I recommend you check him out.  This week is no different.  This is a phenomenal worship song.  Seriously, look up Dave Hunt.  You'll be sure to find several new worship tunes that work great for all kinds of church services.

Holy, Holy, Holy - VERY traditional arrangement.  We did all four verses. (all? - I really don't know how many verses are in the original writing).  We came out of "Glory to Your Name" straight into "Holy, Holy, Holy" and made a key change between v.3 and v.4, which set us up to roll seamlessly into "We Fall Down" in the key of E.

We Fall Down - I love the chorus to this song.  There is nothing more powerful and beautiful than to hear GOD's people sing "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lamb".  It an incredible, and yet miniscule, taste of what we will be a part of in Heaven (all throughout the book of Revelation).

Doxology - We closed with the Doxology.  We typically follow the David Crowder version of the song and today was no different.   It's a very simple arrangement, but I like it.  It's easy to follow and stays interesting.

To see what other congregations around the country are singing check out the Sunday Setlist at http://www.theworshipcommunity.com/

Make a Choice

In I Kings 18 the prophet Elijah stands before all the people of Israel and asks them "How long will you waver between two options?  If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him." (v.21)

The people respond with silence.

They do not reject the GOD of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  They don't turn their backs on the faith of their fathers.  They don't disregard GOD's hand in bringing His people out of Egypt.  They don't deny how He parted the sea so that Israel could cross on dry land.  They don't ignore the victory He secured through Joshua at Jericho.  They don't belittle the leadership of David or the wisdom of Solomon.  At least not directly.

The problem is not that the people stand opposed to GOD.  The problem comes in the fact that the people simply don't care enough to stand with GOD.  The people still believe all they were taught about the GOD of Israel.  They follow most of the law and they worship GOD.  However, they've allowed their faith to be corrupted by the followers of Baal.  There has been a time of justification that has pulled the people from the worship of GOD and opened them to compromises that allow for these other religious practices to slip in and take control.  They do not knock GOD from his place as Lord, they simply force him to share it.

We see this earlier in scripture with the Israelites at Mt. Sinai.  Moses has gone up the mountain to speak with GOD.  The people become concerned that Moses could be dead and GOD may have forgotten them so they ask Aaron to melt their gold into a calf for them to worship.  The people are not denying GOD's place, but they simply do not worship him properly.  They feel that by worshipping a single aspect of GOD they may please him.  They elevate something other than the entirety of who He is to the place of worship.  This never pleases GOD.

So again, we come back to Elijah on Mt. Carmel, the people have begun to worship something other the entirety of GOD and who He is.  I think they really don't see anything wrong with this.  I see nothing here to show that the people are embarrassed that Elijah has called them out.  We don't see an immediate repentance.  We simply see a people stand, dumbfounded, in silence.

The problem here is, as is the root with all our sin, idolatry.  On the surface it is very easy to see.  The people worship Baal as a god.  I think the root of this idolatry though is much deeper.  It is not that the people say "Baal is our only god".  The root of the issue is that the people say, "GOD is not god enough for us.  We need Baal too."

Now we start to feel  a little of what these people are going through.  It's easy to say, I would never worship something in place of GOD.  It becomes much more difficult to look at ourselves in the mirror when we start examining what we feel we need IN ADDITION to GOD in order to be happy, satisfied, fulfilled, content, etc.

If the LORD spoke to me and said, "Jonathan if you love me you will give up music.  Get rid of your equipment, delete your iTunes account, and never sing another song ever again."  I think I might greet Him with stunned silence.   I love the LORD and my desire is to be the man He has called me to be and to glorify Him through all I do, but to be perfectly honest, I would struggle with giving up music.  That is one of the idols I struggle with in my life.  I don't think of my love of music taking the place of GOD, but if I cannot be satisfied in Christ alone, if it takes the addition of music, than I am in the same place as the Israelites at Mt. Sinai or Mt. Carmel.

I think one of the most profound things I've ever heard came from J.D. Greear, so if you follow my blog you'll hear me come back to it often.  Greear said to overcome idolatry, "We must be captured by a vision of the beauty of the ONE TRUE GOD."  The point is that until we realize who GOD is and what He has done in our lives we will never give him the full glory that is due His Name.  We will never be satisfied in a GOD who we do not truly worship.

So the choice now sets before each of us today:  Is GOD all He tells us He is?  Is GOD enough for me today?  Will I give Him the full glory that is due His Name?  Will I follow GOD or will I follow Baal?

I choose GOD.  How about you?

Sunday Setlist / 11.14.10

***So I wrote this out on Sunday afternoon, but then I forgot to post it and just saw it this morning.  Oops. 


Here's how we ran the 9:00 am service at Highland Community Church in Highland, IL:

THE SERVICE:

Alive and Running (G)

            Welcome & Announcements

            Offering

Happy Day (A)

Overcome (A)

            Scripture Reading – Isaiah 42:5-12

Before the Throne of God Above  (D)

            Message
Overcome (A) - chorus only
            Dismiss

Alive and Running (G)       

THE BAND:

Jonathan David Eckberg - guitar/vocals

Tim McDaniel - drums

Joe Szoke - bass

Aaron McDaniel - guitar

NOTES:
We had a guest speaker in today - Vince Dachioli.  He was fantastic.  We loved having him be a part of our Sunday morning.  The difficult part of having a guest speaker is that sometimes you have no idea what the message is about.  This was one of those Sundays.  Normally, I try to get in touch with our guests early in the week to discuss what they will teach on and see if there is anything I can do to help support the message (any particular songs or anything in the order of service that can move us to be prepared to hear from the LORD that morning).  However, I didn't have a chance to speak with Vince this week.  I chose, then, to have a very generic theme to what we were singing.  It turned out that everything flowed perfectly.  Vince spoke our response to personal suffering and how it comes back to our faith in a sovereign GOD who provides for us in times of trouble and how that gives us new opportunities to minister to people.  Total GOD's doing that everything flowed together today.  At the end of the service I made the decision to sing just the chorus of "Overcome" as the response.  We didn't really have anything planned for a response because we had no idea where the message would lead us or how long it would be.  As Vince approached the conclusion of the sermon I felt like "Overcome" was perfect, so we rolled into it.

THE SONGS:

Alive and Running - We debuted this song last week and got a great response from it.  I think the congregation took to it really well.  We played this week as part of the actual set to kick us off and end up with.  Because this is new we will probably play it again next week just to make sure people know it and then it will move into a slot on the normal rotation.

Happy Day - We hadn't played this song in a while, but it's such a good tune.  We keyed it down a little this week.  We have always played it in "C" and I just feel like I strain a little to sing it there.  So if I'm straining to sing it I know that a whole lot of the congregation are straining too.  So we dropped it to "A" and I think it really helped get people involved.  I think one of the easiest mistakes to make as a worship leader is to key things to our own voices and not the congregation.  You want everything to sound great, so you put things in your own range, but we have to constantly keep the congregation in focus when choosing the keys in addition to choosing the songs.

Overcome - I absolutely love this song by the Desperation Band.  The bridge is so stinking powerful.  It is take straight from Revelation and it say, "And we will overcome/By the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony/everyone, overcome" - I could sing that bridge over and over and over again.  Just a sweet sound.  We play pretty close to the Desperation Band's arrangement of the song.

Before the Throne of GOD Above - our scripture for the day was Isaiah 42:5-12.  This hymn was a great fit and an excellent bridge from the scripture to the message.  We always do a very traditional sound to this hymn.  I love the part of the song that says, "Because a sinless Savior died/My sinful soul is counted free/For God the just is satisfied/To look on sin and pardon me/To look on sin and pardon me".  Such a great song.


To see what others around the country were singing today, visit the Sunday Setlist at http://www.theworshipcommunity.com/.

Sunday Setlist / 11.7.10

Here's what went down at the 9:00am service at Highland Community Church:

Call to Worship:  Alive and Running (G) [Stanfill/Giglio/Younker]

            Welcome & Announcements

            Offering

GOD of Wonders (G) [Byrd/Hindalong]

            Scripture Reading – Psalm 23

You Never Let Go (A) [Redman]
            Reflection
How Deep the Fathers Love for Us (E) [Townend]

            Communion

            Message – the Good Shepherd – John 10:11-18

All the Way My Savior Leads Me (F) [Crosby - adapted by: Tomlin/Redman]

            Dismiss

Alive and Running (G) 

The Band:

Jonathan David Eckberg - guitar/vocals

Tim McDaniel - drums

Aaron McDaniel - electric guitar

Joe Szoke - bass         

Notes:

Such a great morning at HCC.  Some of it may be attributed to everybody getting that extra hour of sleep, but sometimes you just have to stop and look around and realize that GOD is pretty cool.  Today was just one of those days where everyone was engaged in worship and you could feel the synergy of the voices of GOD's people rising up in adoration and thanks.  Love it!

We ran our worship set a little different this week.  Normally I try to put as much of the music together as possible and that is our way of "tuning in" to what GOD has to speak through the message that day.  This week, however, we were more of the glue to the service.  Each song tied us from one thing to the next.  We opened with a new song, then came from the offering into the next, the third song tied the scripture in to the message, then we had the next song take us into communion and followed the message with the response.  Again, a little different than what we are used to, but it flowed really well this morning.

The Songs:

Alive and Running - I love this song.  Such a great message of hope in Christ Jesus and a call to take that hope out into our world.  This is a new one for the congregation (and most of the band).  So to "break it in" we used this as a call to worship for the morning and the played it again as a dismissal.  We play the arrangement straight off of Kristian Stanfill's "Attention" album.  The only thing we change is that we play it in the key of G instead of B (where Stanfill plays it).  I end up keying down most everything we play.  It just seems that most of the "popular worship", or whatever you'd like to call it, is always WAY too high for the average person to sing.  So, again, I end up keying most things down a bit (some of Tomlin's stuff I key down two or two-and-a-half steps!!!).

GOD of Wonders - We had a good bit of discussion as a band about this song at rehearsal.  The way the other guys have always played this song was much bigger than the standard arrangement, it had a heavier rock feel to it.  They like it that way, unfortunately I felt it needed the softer, smoother sound of standard version for service this week.  It was a case of me having to step and say, "this is what we're doing".  The guys have a great deal of say in what we do on any given song.  For the most part I don't dictate what parts are played, or what sounds the guys should bring to the table, unless I feel strongly that a song needs something in particular.  There is a fine line to walk as a worship leader.  To get the best our of the other musicians you have to give them as much creative freedom as possible.  At the same time, there are instances in which you have to step up as a leader and take charge.  This will not always be a favorable decision to the other musicians, but you have to lead, so lead.

You Never Let Go - The scripture reading for the morning was Psalm 23.  So we didn't really have a choice of any song other than this one (at least not in my head).  This is a song we do on a regular basis. We always build it pretty big by the time it hits the bridge.  Very theatrical and borderline over-the-top, but it works.

How Deep the Father's Love for Us - After "You Never Let Go", we gave people a few quite moments of reflection and preparation for our time of communion, no talking, no music, just silence.  You can tell that this always makes some people really uncomfortable, but it's a such a wonderful tool that we don't know how to use anymore.  We are constantly filling our days with noise - some good, some bad, but noise none the less.  There is something beautiful about sitting silently before GOD and letting Him speak.  After the reflection time I played "How Deep...".  This is one of my all-time favorite worship songs.  When I am sitting alone at home and having a time of personal worship this is one of the songs that gets played EVERY time.  I don't know how you can sing the second verse and not be brought to the brink of tears - "Behold the man upon the cross/My guilt upon his shoulders/Ashamed I hear my mocking voice/Call out among the scoffers // It was my sin that held him there/Until it was accomplished/His dying breath has brought me life/I know that it is finished"  Because I love this one so much, I always prefer to play this song with just the acoustic guitar and vocals.  It brings a sharper focus to the words that are being sung.  And when the words are as poignant as the ones here I don't see how you could desire anything more.

All the Way My Savior Leads Me - We sang this as a response to the message, which was about Jesus as the good shepherd.  Pastor Wise was discussing our need to follow the shepherd and how he cares for us, protects us, and leads us.  Our arrangement was pretty simple.  But it was very spacious.  I played the primary guitar part on the electric with a ton of delay and a touch of overdrive from an Ibanez Tube Screamer.  It just beefed up the sound a ton.  I ran a slow arpeggio, but with the delay it filled up the sound.  The rest of the band added some really sweet touches, especially Aaron on the lead guitar.  He was playing these great harmonic-swells that had almost a pedal-steel quality to them.  It was beautiful.

So that how we rolled at HCC.  To see what our brothers and sisters around the country are singing you can check out the Sunday Setlist at theworshipcommunity.com.

Fill 'er Up

I am not a Biblical scholar.  I can't read Greek or Hebrew.  I don't understand every detail of what the Bible teaches. At times in my study of the Word I am left with questions.  But I have seen the truth of the Word of GOD shine through time and time again.  Even though I don't completely understand every aspect of the scriptures, I understand enough to convince me that it is wholly consistent and that there is no other grouping of writings that makes sense, in terms of the spiritual life, when placed next to the Bible.  This is part of what keeps me coming back to my Bible day after day.

Now it does not surprise me that many people reject the Bible and its teachings.  The Bible is tough on us sometimes.  What we learn in scripture is that we are evil, wretched, fallen beings in need of a savior, and that that savior was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, was crucified for our mistakes (called "sins"), then conquered death as he rose from the grave after three days.  It also then teaches us that we gain eternal life when we believe in Jesus Christ, this proves that we are not the center of our worlds and that we must be willing to let go of our selfish desires and grab ahold of the will of GOD.   Now this runs contrary to our sinful, selfish nature.  So why, if given no other information than this, would I agree to that?

It all sounds a little ridiculous.

However, it is through a study of the scripture and of ourselves (that is, ourselves in relation to said scripture) that we cannot avoid the truth of the Bible. It speaks very clearly to who we are and how we exist.  Still you will see a great number of people who are fooled by teachings other than the Bible.  There is a constant barrage of half-truths and misdirections that are thrown at us from all sides, be they television advertising, false religion, or just appeals to our most basic, selfish, and foolish instincts.  The answer to such attacks is simple.  KNOW THE WORD OF GOD.

Proverbs 27:7 says, "He who is full loathes honey, but to the hungry even what is bitter tastes sweet."

You see we are all hungry.  We were created to have a relationship with GOD our Father and since the fall we are born and raised outside of that relationship.  Because of this separation we find ourselves always searching to fill that gap, that need, that is now in place.  Everyone tries to fill that gap with something.  For many it is a spiritual quest, of sorts.  They try other religions, sects, and cults, but they're never satisfied.  Others try to fill the void with stuff, money, success, relationships, sex, food or drugs, but they never satisfy either.  It is only in Jesus Christ that we find the gratification of that deep seeded need.

It is this need that creates the deep-seeded hunger to be filled.  This is why it is important to know the Word of GOD.  When we understand the Bible we are filled, we receive the bread of life.  In John 6:35, Jesus says, "I am the bread of life.  He who comes to me will never go hungry..."  On the other hand, when we lack Biblical knowledge, we will use something else, anything else, to fill our lives up.  This is where so many people are lead astray.  They are taken in by lies and half-truths that are enticing on the surface, though, in the end, they lead to destruction.

When I lived in Nashville, TN I had no money.  There were a few months that I paid my bills and rent and was left with less than $100 to my name (I can vividly remember one month where I had $47 in my checking account and a $10 bill in my wallet).  I became great at bargin shopping.  The discount grocery store, Aldi's, was my best friend.  One of the things I made sure to do was to only go shopping after I had eaten a meal.  Why?  Because when you're hungry everything looks good, but if you're full you are able to discern what you NEED and what simply looks good.  Do you need to spend a couple dollars on cookies and ice cream, or is that money better used on meat and foods that can actually sustain you?  It's astounding how much junk food you will buy when you're hungry.

Our spiritual hunger works the same.  When we are overcome with desire we will reach for whatever is in front of us and offers to fill us up whether that idea will sustain us or not.  When we take on the junk that the world offers us we find that what looks appealing will eventually cause us even greater pain.  In our hunger we fail to recognize the bitterness.  When we are are full with the Word of GOD, on the other hand, we are given the wisdom of the Spirit and we can see the truth for what it is.  We are given strength to put off the things that Satan tempts us with, the sin that is sweet upon our lips but sours when it hits our stomachs.

So, today, fill up on the Word of GOD.  Take time to let GOD's truth cover over you.  Satiate the hunger of the will of the LORD.

Sunday Setlist / 10.31.10

Here's what went down this morning at Highland Community Church in Highland, IL:

I'll Fly Away (F) [Brumley]
     Welcome & Announcements
     Offering
     Choir - Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho
Better is One Day (E) [Redman]
     Scripture Reading - Psalm 121:1-8
Holy is the Lord (G) [Tomlin]
Everything Glorious (C) [Crowder]
Nothing But the Blood (C) [Lowry]
     Special Music - Tom Barker
     Message
     Dismiss
I'll Fly Away (F)


BAND: (the usual)
Jonathan David Eckberg - acoustic guitar/vocals
Tim McDaniel - drums
Aaron McDaniel - electric guitar
Joe Szoke - bass/vocals - special "Congrats" are in order for Joe and his wife, Steph, as Steph gave birth to their first child last Sunday!  We are all excited for the Szokes and the addition of their son, Eli, to the HCC family.  We're looking forward to putting him into the worship rotation soon!

NOTES:
In any month that has 5 Sundays we take the fifth Sunday and combine our first and second services for the morning.  While this is a TREMENDOUS (and I cannot emphasize that enough) time of worship with the body of Christ, it can cause a few issues with the team that is leading worship.  In the past we have usually tried to combine worship teams for this and it has worked out ok.  The problem is that we generally practice on two different nights, so to try to coordinate 8-10 people to get together on a separate night than is generally set aside can be frustrating.  We've tried at times just to practice early on Sunday morning, but that always feels cramped on time.  So, for this particular 5th Sunday we just had the first service band lead worship.  The other issue that generally arises with the two services combining is that, since we use different "song books" we are a bit limited on songs that everyone knows or mostly knows.  I've never been opposed to stretching people with a song that they are a little unfamiliar with, but you can only do so much.  This week I tried to use some "standard" modern worship songs along with a few hymns.  I think it bridged the gap well.  Also for this week, I didn't know where Pastor Wise was taking the message.  I didn't have any guidelines to go off of, so we set up the songs as a general time of praise.  This is much more difficult for me.  I always feel that the more information I have and the more focused that I need to be on a topic or theme the easier it is for me to select music.  Whew!  That's a lot of notes, so let's get back to the music.

SONGS:
I'll Fly Away - Nothing fancy with this song.  It's a good old fashioned "hillbilly hymn" and I think we did our bluegrass/country roots proud.  During rehearsal Aaron looked and me and said, "Now all we need is a jug player!" It honestly was a lot of fun to play.  It's a great song to kick the morning off with by bringing some high-energy to the congregation.

Better is One Day - After the offering and the choir we kicked into "Better is One Day".  Pretty standard arrangement, but we did it just a bit faster than when I've done this in the past, but it gave it a nice, subtle rock flavor to the tune.

Holy is the LORD - Again another standard arrangement.  The scripture reading for the morning was Psalm 121 which begins, "I lift up my eyes to the hills-where does my help come from?  My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth."  It goes on to speak of the providence and protection that come from our GOD.  "Holy is the LORD" then seemed appropriate to follow.  The speaks to the goodness and holiness of GOD filling the earth and being evident to all.  When we understand that the war that waging in our souls right now is already won, despite what our individual battles may tell us, and that GOD's provision and protection is always upon us there should be no way that we can contain the joy of His Name.

Everything Glorious - We hadn't done this song in a while.  At one point it was in fairly heavy rotation as one of our drummers, Cory Done, was a wiz with looping and we had a really cool loop that added a ton of depth to the song.  However, when Cory took a job in Missouri we lost his services and so "Everything Glorious" was somewhat swept aside.  We revived it, slowed it down a touch and gave it slight bluesy feel.  It worked, maybe not the way I like it best, but it was good and it meshed well with "Holy is the LORD".  Sometimes you try things musically and you hit a homerun, sometimes you strike out.  This (small) experiment was a solid base hit.

Nothing But the Blood - We flowed straight from "Everything Glorious" into "Nothing But the Blood". This is another of my favorite hymns.  So every time we play this one we keep it really simple and try to let the message of the lyrics fly well over the top of everything.  It's a whole lot of eight note acoustic guitar strumming and vocals with the rest of the band just adding touches of flavor here and there.

That's about it.  We reprised "I'll Fly Away" as the dismissal song.

To see what other congregations are singing throughout the weekend please visit the Sunday Setlist at theworshipcommunity.com.

Misusing the Name

I was recently listening through a sermon series by J.D. Greear (Senior Pastor at Summit Church Raleigh-Durham, NC).  The series was called "This is what the heart looks like," and it walked through the 10 Commandments.

The thing that I've been wrestling with the past several weeks, the one things that's been bouncing around in my head, concerns his teaching on Exodus 20:7, "You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your GOD, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses His name."

It seems like a pretty straight-forward command but, as with all of the Ten Commandments, this commandment itself merely scratches the surface of what is required of us.  The core issue always comes back to the state of our hearts.

To misuse the name of the lord is often referred to as, "Taking the LORD's name in vain".  So what does that mean?  Most would say it is using the name of GOD or Jesus as a swear word, or an expression that is out of proper context.  This is part of what the commandment is talking about, but it goes well beyond this.  To misuse the name of the LORD encompasses our entire lives.  It is a reference to the very way we live.  In short, to misuse the name of the LORD is to misrepresent who GOD is and what He is all about.

Names in the Bible are a fascinating study.  They carry much more weight to the Jewish people and the early Christians than they carry for us today.  Our names are often determined by simple preference, but Biblical names were meaningful.  Sometimes they were prophetic (as in Jacob's case - Genesis 25:24-26), other times the were marks of the past (Samuel means "heard of GOD", as his mother, Hannah, cried out to the LORD to allow her to have a child - I Samuel 1:1-20), Abraham's name was changed by GOD as a mark of the covenant between the two (Genesis 17:1-8), and in the Colossians we meet Paul's companion Jesus who goes by the name Justus out of reverence for the name of Jesus Christ.  For the Jews, the Name of GOD was so revered that they wouldn't even speak it.

This is because a name is not simply what someone is called, but it represents who they are.  All of a persons identity is tied to their name.  In Proverbs 22:1 we are told, "A good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed is better than silver or gold."  A good name is to be esteemed, to be known for righteousness.  In Song of Songs 1:3 the beloved praises the Lover saying "your name is like perfume poured out.  No wonder the maidens love you!"  It is his NAME that she adores, not what he is called, but who he is.  This is the significance of a name.

Now, I don't think that our view of names today is troublesome in anyway, however I do think that it sometimes leads us into confusion of the significance of verses like Exodus 20:7 which pertain to the Name of GOD.

When we come to understand the importance placed on the very Name of GOD we then understand how this relates to the very essence of the creator of the universe throughout scripture (Psalm 113:2, Isaiah 24:15, Ezekiel 39:7, Acts 2:21, Matthew 6:9, among others).  We are called time and time again to lift up His Name, to make known His Name, to revere His Name.

As we have now seen, a name is a representation of character, so the "Name" of the LORD is entirely wrapped up in who he is.  It speaks to His characteristics, His nature, His power, His presence, and His glory.  It is impossible to separate who GOD is from his very name.  That can create problems for those of us who take on the moniker of "Christian".  For as Jesus Christ was, himself, GOD and Christian, meaning "little Christ", describes an imitation of the person of Christ, we are then proclaiming our allegiance to and our representation of who GOD is when we call ourselves "Christians".

This is where we all fall guilty of "misusing the name of the LORD".  We call ourselves by the name of Christ and then fall short of upholding His character.  In doing so, no matter how great or how small our misstep is, we present the world with a false advertisement of the nature of GOD.  When we seek our own fame and glory we deny the greatness of His name.  When we swear an oath on GOD that we do not keep, we take His name in vain.  When we attach GOD's name to anything it should be involved in we profain His majesty.  We we present to people a picture of GOD that is anything less than perfect, holy, powerful, loving and full of grace, we defame His character and misuse His name.

So am I capable of accomplishing this?  Can I live the rest of my life without misusing the name of the LORD?  NO!

The beauty here is that Jesus traded names with me.  He took on my detestable and utterly incurable name and gave me His guiltless name of redemption.  He accomplished through his blood the punishment that was promised to you and me in Exodus 20:7 - "...the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses His name."  Because I could never live up to the law Jesus Christ paid for my offense.

It's such an elementary truth and teaching, but one that we can never be reminded of too often.  And in light of this truth why would we present our GOD as anything less than who he truly is?  Why would we withhold the grace, mercy, truth, and love that is GOD our Father?

Speak the name of the LORD in truth today.

Patient Man vs. the Warrior

I have several different aspects to my personal devotion time each day.  Not all days are the same, as I like to mix it up a little bit.  Every day includes reading scripture, most days include listening to a sermon, somedays include journaling.

I think the journaling is one of the most helpful to me.  I probably only do this once, at most twice, during the week because it is difficult for me.  It's usually pretty rough as I haven't taken time to REALLY think through what I've just read.  For those who know me, they will tell you that I am a very slow processor.  I will think on something for a week before I feel like I'm ready to share my thoughts on the topic.  So that makes journaling difficult for me.  However, there is something to be said for spilling your initial thoughts onto paper.  It is interesting then to go back after some time and read these thoughts.  It often gives me a much clearer picture on what what GOD was doing in my life at that moment and how what he taught me during that phase led me to the place where I am right now.

So, I thought I would give you a look inside my personal journal.  I will preface this by telling you that I'm not entirely comfortable with letting you into my less-than-polished thoughts like this, but that is  part of why I'm doing it.  This entry came from a this past weekend (October 16th).  Given that it is a recent entry, I have no idea where GOD is leading me through this thought process, other than the fact that I have always struggle severely with the issue of patience.  In any case, here is the entry.

________________________


PROVERBS 16:32 - "Better a patient man than a warrior, a man who controls his temper than one who takes a city."

There is great strength and power in the warrior, the man who proves himself in battle, the man of superior physical skill and control.  The warrior is capable of imposing his will on men and determines the outcome of a great number of human lives (win the battle, win the war, rule over nations, change the course of history).  This is a BIG deal.  This is a position of honor and personal glory.

And yet, it is better to be  patient and self-controlled.  GOD honors those who are humble (Matt. 5:5) and submissive (I Samuel 15:22).  Man honors power and physical strength, but the LORD looks beyond this (I Samuel 16:7) and tells us that such power is of little value to him (Psalm 146:3-4, Psalm 147:10-11).

This is always difficult for us to grasp.  It is much easier to develop our physical strength than our spiritual lives.  It hurts more to be patient than it does to train our bodies.  Why?  Because spiritual change requires that we die to ourselves.  It requires us to recognize that WE are not the central focus of life.  Patience is the epitomy of selflessness.  It is placing the importance of others' time, value, and priorities above our own. Until we can do this, to see others as Jesus sees them, we have not taken full grasp of the gospel.  Until we take such an understanding of the gospel we will never fully engage in the mission of GOD for toward others.  Until we engage in the mission of GOD we will never completely praise, worship, or delight the LORD.

Start today with patience.  Train yourself in loving others.  Worship GOD.  Live the Truth.  Let your spirit, by His word, take the city.

____________________________


I think this type of record of our own thoughts, struggles, fears, and victories is important.  Personally, I feel like it gives me some benchmarks in how GOD is growing me and developing my faith through perseverance and faithfulness to His call.  When we seek to do our Father's will, we will grow.  Sometimes that growth is slight and is hard for us to see in the moment, but if you have such markers to look back on you are able to constantly and consistently see the ways in which GOD has led you to where you are.

Sunday Setlist / 10.17.10

So, here's the rundown of the 9:00 am service at Highland Community Church in Highland, IL.

THE SETLIST:

Let Your Glory Shine (D) [Lincoln Brewster]

     Welcome and Announcements

     Offering

     Baptism: Jeniba Johnson
I Stand Amazed in the Presence (F) [Charles H. Gabriel]

Breathe (F) [Marie Barnett]

Hungry (D) [Kathryn Scott]
      Scripture Reading

      Message

You Are All That I Need (A)

      Dismiss

Let Your Glory Shine (D)

THE BAND:
Jonathan David Eckberg - guitar/vocals
Tim McDaniel - drums
Aaron McDaniel - electric guitar
Joe Szoke - bass


NOTES:
We had a bit of a rocky start this morning.  I showed up to the church and we had no power.  No PA, no lights, no nothing.  I scrambled for a few minutes and threw together a back up set of music that I could cover with just the acoustic if necessary.  With no projection I wanted to make sure we had songs that people would know without seeing the words (and that I would know without a chord chart and lyric sheet - I don't carry my songbook with me).  I planned on replacing our first couple songs with "Holy is the LORD" and "GOD of Wonders".  Fortunately, at about 8:40 we got power back.  We went over the set list VERY briefly as a band and proceeded to kick off the service.  Our sound engineer made a great observation.  He said something to the effect of "this kind of stuff makes you give up control, even though control is an illusion, we never have it".  I think the morning went great after that because we were all forced to realize that we are not the ones in control.  We are not the ones who are making the morning go.  GOD simply offered us an opportunity to lead our brothers and sisters into the worship of his name throughout the course of the morning and none of what happens matters apart from his  Spirit.

THE SONGS:

Let Your Glory Shine - We're trying to add this song into a more regular rotation as an intro song.  It's a really good "call to worship" tune.  Lots of energy, fantastic message, and our congregation has seemed to latch onto it.  The bonus is that it is a BLAST to play.  It's actually a pretty simple song, so it's easy to rock out to it and find a good groove to roll with.

I Stand Amazed in the Presence - We went with a very traditional version of this old hymn.  We did pick up the tempo on it a little, but we didn't get carried away.  It was a nice mid-tempo song.  I've been walking around singing this song all week.  I think there's is something phenomenal about that constant reminder of the marvelous and wonderful nature of GOD's love for us.  I was talking with a friend of mine this week and I confessed to him that I often don't focus on the weight of GOD's love.  I understand it in my head, but there are a lot of time when I fight to keep that head knowledge from penetrating my heart.  I think one of the best defenses against this is to sing a song like "I Stand Amazed" (one of my other favorites for this pupose is "How Deep the Father's Love for Us").

Breath - be made a smooth transition from "I Stand Amazed" into  "Breathe".  The message for the week focuses on Jesus statement of "I am the bread of life" and Pastor Wise was discussing the importance of Jesus to our daily lives, the power, strength, and comfort we recieve, and how we must desire to submit 100% to His calling to receive His gifts.  So coming out of a song that marvels at His love, we roll into Breathe" which speaks of our desire to have Christ and have Him fully.  A song that touches on our inability to survive and function properly without His love and His guidance not on a daily basis, but on a moment-to-moment basis.

Hungry - We then worked our way into "Hungry".  This is a similar song to Breathe, they carry a common message, but it's a shift from GOD as the one thing that is necessary for us to truly live, to a more focused expression of our desire to come before Him and to submit our lives in service to him.  So it's really taking us from our need (Breathe) to our holy desire (Hungry).  

Message - Pastor is beginning a series right now that looks at Jesus' "I am..." statements in the book of John.  This week kicked it off with "I am the bread of life."

You Are All That I Need - This was our response song for the morning.  I have no idea who wrote it (if you know and can help me out, please leave a comment and tell me).  It's an amazing song I picked up from Dave Hunt in my time at Rolling Hill Community Church in Nashville, TN.  The chorus is simply "You are all that I need / You are all that I need / When I am weak I will trust in thee / You are all that I need."  It's beautifully written piece of music that has always been one of my favorites to play in my personal times of worship.


To see what other congregations are singing check out the Sunday Setlist at theworshipcommunity.com.

Sunday Setlist / 10.10.10

Here's what went down at Highland Community Church at the 9 o'clock hour:

Counting on GOD (A) [Jared Anderson]
     Welcome and Announcements
     Offering
Our Love is Loud (E) [David Crowder]
I Could Sing of Your Love Forever (E) [Martin Smith]
     Scripture Reading
             Handbell Choir
     Dismiss


Band:
Jonathan David Eckberg - Guitar/Vocals
Tim McDaniel - Drums
Joe Szoke - Bass/Vocals


Notes:
The Handbell Choir from Shepherds Ministries in Wisconsin was in the service yesterday, so music was short and to the point.  We focused on the providence and love of GOD our Father.  We were also a little short-handed as our other guitar player was in Chicago for the weekend.  So, to fill the space I ran my 60's reissue Strat through a signal splitter with one channel running to a Boss Acoustic Simulator into my Behringer DI to the board.  The other channel ran through my effects board into my brand new Randall RM-22 Head.  One of the coolest features of the RM-22 is that is has a built in direct box (they call it a "mic simulator") so you can run an XLR cable direct to the board - great tone with no stage volume, absolutely perfect for a small church worship setting.  The purpose of the signal split was to offer an electric and acoustic tone at certain points in the songs to help beef up the three-piece sound.  Anyway, enough of the guitar-geek stuff.


Songs:
Counting on GOD - This is a fun song to play.  We hit this one pretty hard to open up the morning and rocked it out properly!

Our Love is Loud - I always enjoy playing this song, whether it's solo-acoustic or full-band, I think it's a great congregational song.  We gave it a little more of a bluesy feel today.  Tim and Joe, had a nice little groove going which moved the song along well.

I Could Sing of Your Love Forever - I highly recommend the "additional chorus" to this song.  I have no idea where you would find the melody on line, because I've never heard it recorded (I'm sure it's out there, but I've never heard it).  I picked it up from Dave Hunt several years ago.  It adds a little flavor to the redundancy of singing the chorus over and over at the end.  The lyrics are "Everywhere I go I'm singing, Everybreath of air I'm breathing, Everywhere I go I'll sing of when Your love came down."

I know I'm short and late this week, but I've been running non-stop since the beginning of service yesterday.  My apologies.  I'll try to do better next week.

To see what songs others are praising GOD with, you can check out the sunday setlist at theworshipcommunity.com.

The Purpose of Worship Through Song

I've been posed this question a few times before, but I was just thinking about it again on my drive home from leading worship for a retreat this past weekend.  The question pertains to the role of singing songs in the corporate setting of the Church.


First off, we are called to encourage each other through "psalms, hymns and spiritual songs"(Eph. 5:19) and James 5 tells us "Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise".  There are also countless verses throughout the Bible that talk of singing songs of praise to GOD and significant moments that are accompanied by song (Exodus 15, Judges 5, 2 Samuel 22, Luke 1:46-55, 67-79, Psalm 96:1, Psalm 100:2, Isaiah 55:12, Rev 5:9, among many others).  However, none of these speak specifically to the use/purpose of songs within the context of the corporate gathering of the saints.


So, where does that leave us?


I think the role that music plays in the corporate setting (for our purposes we will consider this the "Sunday morning service") varies with different groups people.


For the regenerated believers, those who have confessed with their mouths and believe in their hearts that Jesus Christ is Lord, our entire lives should be an act of worship.  This, then, carries over into our time spent with our brothers and sisters in Christ.  In the corporate gathering, singing songs and worshipping through music is a time to lift the name of GOD in unity, praising him for the victories of the week, thanking him for the blessings in our lives, and drawing near to feel His comfort through the unified voices of His people.  This worship in unity is found when our voices rise together.  We don't really feel that connection during the sermon, as we worship with our financial offerings, or even in the act of communion - these are very individual acts.  They are done together, but are personal acts between us and Christ.  In the singing of songs we offer ONE voice to our Father in Heaven.  It is the collective praise of GOD's people.


I think there is also an element to preparation in the songs of the redeemed.  Now, I don't believe that singing, in and of itself, can prepare us to enter the presence of GOD and to open our hearts to what He has brought us there to hear from Him - this is an ongoing process.  I believe this preparation starts on Monday morning and must be cultivated throughout the week.  However, there is something to be said for having a specific time where your focus is on the worship of GOD.  This can be an excellent time to breathe and leave all the distractions of the morning behind while you remember who GOD is, what He has done, and what He is preparing you for in a life lived for His glory.


I think for those in an intermediate stage of faith, those who understanding or are starting to understand who GOD is, but have not yet become regenerated through belief and confession of who He is, it may be the only time in the week when they truly present themselves before GOD.  When they let down all their defenses and praise Him for being the almighty GOD of Heaven and Earth.  This is now a preparatory stage for GOD to truly speak into their lives through the preaching and teaching of the Word (be that from the Pastor or from the people that GOD has placed in that person’s life).


For the person who is still far from GOD, music creates an emotional tie that brings them near the family of GOD.  It is an opportunity to speak GOD’s truth into their lives in a theologically sound and biblically relevant manner that they may not even be aware of.  For these people it is often through the way that the congregation, the family, responds in song that shows the depth of love that GOD has been poured out on His people.  In any scenario, regardless of style of music, I believe this is an important aspect of the corporate gathering.

Part two of this discussion generally comes around to how I, as a worship leader, make this happen.

I don’t make it happen.  Only the Holy Spirit makes any of this happen.  I find when I put all my effort into making this work it never occurs.  However, I do try to come prepared to serve when the Spirit opens people’s hearts.  The first step is for me to come prepared to worship.  No matter how tough a morning, week, month, or year it’s been for me I have to be in a place, spiritually, where I can say, “GOD you are awesome and I love you and I NEED to praise you today”.  That’s sometimes very difficult, but if the worship leader is not leading in worship, he is never effective.  I also believe that I have to be willing to get out of the way.  It is important to discern where the Spirit is leading you have to be able to bend to His will.  Sometimes the Spirit may move you to say something, sometimes he may just tell you to sit down and let the people reflect on what GOD’s telling them.  You have to be able to adjust either way.  I think another means of being effective is to be excellent in a musical sense.  This includes performance, ambiance, set list, order of service.  The key is to present a service that guides people into GOD’s presence without distraction.  This rarely goes off as planned (let's be honest, I don't think it ever goes off as planned), but if everything is well prepared, the flow is right, and you are open to the leading of the Spirit then the minor distractions that Satan will undoubtedly throw at you can be overcome.


For me this is a constantly evolving idea.  As I progress in my Christian walk and as I continue to gain more and more experience as a worship leader I remain open to the knowledge and insight that GOD allows me to receive.


What do you think?

"HEIRS" RELEASED TODAY!

New album from UNTIL WE'RE KINGS released today!

"HEIRS" is out now!  

Digital version available at digstation.com

iTunes version will be on sale in the coming weeks.


Become a fan on facebook.

Sunday Setlist / 10.3.10

This past weekend I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to travel to the Rainbow Christian Camp in Converse, Indiana where I led worship for a high school retreat with youth groups from Wabash and Bremen, IN.  It's always a blast to be involved with high school groups.  These kids cracked me up.  We got in on Friday night and worked our way through to Sunday morning.  It was incredibly exhausting, but worth every minute.  The bonus for me was that I got to work with my buddy, Jordan Muck, who is now the Associate & Youth Pastor at Community Gospel Church in Bremen, IN.  Jordan is a great friend who I have been through a whole lot with and he's been there for me to strengthen me in my faith, to encourage me when I'm struggling, and to constantly push me forward in following GOD's will.  I miss having him (and his family) around so I jumped at the chance to drive 4.5 hours to lead worship for the weekend.

Here's what Sunday morning looked like:

I Have Decided [C]
Heirs [G]
Let Your Kingdom Reign [G]
     Message - Jordan Muck - Acts 2:42 - PRAYER

Jonathan David Eckberg - Guitar/Vocals

NOTES:  I led all weekend with just the acoustic.  It's always interesting to walk into groups like this where you don't really know anyone.  I knew the leaders of both groups, but I had no idea what songs the kids would or wouldn't know.  This creates some anxiety on my part.  On one hand, you want to do mostly songs that they know or at least have heard.  On the other hand, you don't want to do a strict diet of songs from 1980.  It's also often surprising what songs kids do and don't know.  I've had a lot of times where I've put a song into a retreat thinking it's one that EVERYBODY knows, only to have kids look blankly at the screen or fumble through it.  Other times I'll have a song in that compliments the message really well and I figure it's on that maybe one or two people will sing along with and then the kids are all over it.  You just never can tell.  So, after putting a lot of time in to trying to create a balance and get some songs that the kids could grab ahold of this weekend I (with quite a bit of help from Jordan) finalized the list.

I Have Decided - We sang the version off of the "Heirs" album (shameless self-promotion: the 6-song worship album from Until We're Kings is released this Tuesday and should be available on iTunes in the coming weeks - you KNOW I'll keep you updated).  It's such a simple arrangement that the kids picked up on it really quickly and I think they had some fun with it.

Heirs - Another song from the, Until We're Kings album.  This was the "theme song" for the week.  I taught it to the kids on Friday night and we included it in every session on the weekend.  It was cool to see the group catch on and really sing it out on Sunday morning.

Let Your Kingdom Reign - This is a chorus I use from Elevation Worship off of their last album, "GOD with Us."  I LOVE this chorus.  It's so perfectly beautiful.  I knew that none of the kids would know it, but I put it in because it is so simple and singable.  We repeated it several times and I heard a few kids singing it as we all sat down for the message and even after the session, so I think it went over pretty well.

To see what's happening in worship around the country check out out the Sunday Setlist at theworshipcommunity.com.

Listening Room

I have a few friends who are always asking me what I'm listening to.  I like to think it's because I have impeccable taste when it comes to music (don't we all?).  Honestly, most of it comes down to the fact that they know I like music that requires a little bit from the listener and they share that sentiment.  As a musician I have an innate distain for music that simply caters to the lowest-common-denominator, which is why I rarely listen to the radio.  In any case, here's a list of some of the albums (yes, I still call them albums even though 90% of the stuff I have now isn't even on cd anymore - all digital like everyone else).  Some are new, some are old, some are just new to me.

City and Colour - Bring Me Your Love - Dallas Green's 2008 sophomore release is amazing.  A friend turned me on to it about a year ago, but it was just a few months back that I really dug into it and since then I can't get enough.  Green takes a lo-fi, old-school approach to recording.  He uses fat-sounding, mellow acoustic guitars while layering bright, heavily reverb-laden, vocals that are flawless.  Not to mention his songwriting.  He combines the vividness of Lyle Lovett and the story-telling of Leonard Cohen even, at times, echoing with hints of Townes Van Zant.  A beautifully simple album.  For fans of/also check out: Bon Iver, My Morning Jacket, Ray Lamontagne

Avett Brothers - I and Love and You - I listened to this album for about 4 months straight when it came out last September and it just went back into heavy rotation after I saw them on "Live at Austin City Limits" this past weekend.  I first heard of these guys when I lived down in Nashville.  And with this disc they've finally garnered some popularity to go along with the critical acclaim they been storing up for a few years.  For fans of/also check out: Ryan Adams, Nickel Creek, Jeffrey Foucault

Elevation Worship - Kingdom Come - The worship team at Elevation Church in Charlotte, NC is easily my favorite group of worship leaders/writers out there.  They are superb.  Excellent musicianship, great, singable songs, a healthy dose of straight up rock with a balance on the quite reflective tunes.  They pump out great songs on every album they do.  While I have to admit that I actually enjoyed their last album ("GOD With Us") a little better, "Kingdom Come" is still growing on me.  For fans of/also check out: Steve Fee, Kristian Stanfill, Switchfoot

Maroon 5 - Hands All Over - The new album is exactly what you would expect from Maroon 5.  These guys are all phenomenal musicians and who are good enough to keep you interested, but they don't over-do it, so their songs are easily digestible and crazily infectious.  I've always thought they make the records that Michael Jackson would have made if he hadn't completely lost his mind.  For fans of/also check out: Micheal Jackson (seriously, "Thriller" is still phenomenal), Fundamental Elements, Ben Rector

Antje Duvekot - The Near Demise of the Highwire Dancer - Pronounced Aunt-yu Doo-va-kot, this singer/songwriter is insanely smart and poignant.  She reminds me, at times, of Patty Griffin or Shawn Colvin.  A very subtle and understated musical style with lyrics that are pure genius.  If you like music that is soothing and is perfect to put on while you read, check this album out.  For fans of/also check out: David Wilcox, Patti Griffin, Emiliana Torrini

Jed Whedon and the Willing - History of Forgotten Things - Jed (who is a fairly prominent hollywood screenwriter, as well as being a fantastic musician) somehow has figured out how to bounce seamlessly between 80's synth-pop to contemporary folk to digital-rock.  The first time I heard the album I wasn't entirely sure what to think, but I love it more and more every time it fills the house.  For fans of/also check out: Paper Route, David Mead, Death Cab for Cutie

Storyhill - Shade of the Trees - This folk duo has been putting out albums for 15 years and this new record is, in my opinion, their best.  Produced by another phenomenal singer-songwriter, Dan Wilson (of Trip Shakespear and Semi-sonic fame), is absolutely beautiful.  Two voices, one or two acoustic guitars, and a few spots of harmonica - and nothing else.  You can tell these guys have been making music together for a long time because they are so stinking tight on their harmonies.  For fans of/also check out: Bob Dylan, Simon and Garfunkel, the Weepies

ANTICIPATED RELEASES:

Bebo Norman - Oceans - Bebo's second album, 1999's "Ten Thousand Days", is still one of my top 5 favorite albums of all time (and in reality it is probably #1 on the list).  So the fact that some of the subsequent albums were disappointing to me actually says little of the quality of those discs, and more about just how good that second album was.  I was very encouraged by his last effort and that has me excited to see what he has in store for his 8th full length studio recording.

Avett Brothers - Live, Vol. 3 - CD/DVD combo due out in a couple weeks.  Can't wait.

Rush - Clockwork Angels - I think this is Rush's 738th studio album.  Ok, slight exaggeration, but these guys have been making the BEST rock music around for almost 40 years!  And they just keep getting better.  Unreal.

Jimmy Eat World - Invented - Another band that I have always loved.  Nothing flashy about their music, just solid guitar work and catchy melodies.

Until We're Kings - Heirs - Released next week.  Everyone should buy at LEAST one copy.


What are you listening to?

Sunday Setlist / 9.26.10

Here's the setlist from the 9:00am service at Highland Community Church:


Heirs [G] (Muck/Eckberg)
       Welcome & Announcements
       Special Presentation - the Shoe Man
       Offering
Hallelujah to My King [E] (Baloche)
       Scripture Reading - Job 1:6-22
It Is Well With My Soul [A] (Spafford)
Song of the Redeemed [A] (Hall)
        Message - Habakkuk 3:16-18
You Never Let Go [A] (Redman)
        Dismiss


THE BAND:
Jonathan David Eckberg - guitar/vocals


NOTES:
After being out of town for work last week and spending Sunday morning at my dad's church in Erie, Illinois, it was great to be back with my church family!  Due to  schedules of the band I led solo this week.  Things were a little rough getting going this morning, it was cold and wet outside and it seemed like we all were dragging.  But once we got the morning rolling the congregation came around and it turned out to be a great day of worship and hearing GOD's word.  It never ceases to amaze me how on the days when I don't see how GOD's going to get anything done, He works in incredible ways.  Cool stuff.


THE SONGS:
Heirs - This is a song from the forthcoming Until We're Kings EP, "Heirs".  It's a fun tune that is taken from Romans.  I love using it as an opening song as a reminder that we don't come into the presence of GOD as a people defeated by the world and run ragged from the busyness of life, but we come before Him as co-heirs with Christ.  We stand before GOD as his children who will one day share in the riches of His kingdom and see His glory in full. 


Hallelujah to My King - After a presentation from the Shoe Man - he sells old shoes overseas by the pound and uses the money to dig wells in Kenya - I was glad that we were doing this song after hearing one of the ways that GOD is at work in the world both in our own neighborhood and around the world.  This Paul Baloche song is one of my favorite worship tunes at the moment.  It's so good theologically.  To sing of the greatness, sweetness, goodness and peace of Jesus Christ through our trials with the promise of seeing His face as the saints sing "Hallelujah, what a Savior / I owe everything to Him - Hallelujah, what a Savior / Hallelujah to my King!"  If you don't do this song I would encourage you to work it into your list, it's fantastic.


It is Well with My Soul - We did four verses of a straight forward version of this song.  Coming from hearing the Word in Job and knowing that we were moving into a message of "unprosperity" (the idea that GOD never promises us worldly comfort and riches - but only peace and blessing in Him), it worked well.


Song of the Redeemed - We used the ending tag from this song as a reminder that although live can be difficult we are taken care of by the GOD of the universe (from "It is Well with My Soul").  We are His and His alone.  All else in the world is worthless, so we have no concern if we lose all our worldly possessions.  The tag in the song simply says "We are Yours" over and over again.  It gave me chills to pull back from the mic and hear our people singing together - "We are Yours, We are Yours, We are Yours" - absolutely beautiful.


You Never Let Go - This seems to be one of our "go-to" songs.  It's another tune that is just so theologically sound and speaks volumes of the peace and blessings of Christ apart from health, wealth, and prosperity on this earth.  


To see what other congregations are singing visit theworshipcommunity.org and this weeks Sunday Setlists.

Embracing Difficulty

I was speaking with a veteran pastor recently.  This guy has led churches for 20+ years during his ministry (that is impressive in and of itself).  This is in addition to having a traveling ministry for a number of years and a stint working with a national youth organization for a couple years.  He is a pastor, youth pastor, worship leader, Sunday school teacher, small group leader, strategic planning organizer, traveling speaker, etc.  He has taught and led in virtually imaginable facet of Christian ministry.

The interesting part of our conversation was in discussing the people who fight against ministry.  He said that in his illustrious career he has dealt with plenty of difficult people, those who opposed a change in church policy, wanted to see the congregation move in a different direction than he was leading, or simply disagreed with a decision he had made, however he said there were only had five people who he felt were "against him" in ministry.  Of these people, none were able to displace his leadership or accomplish the take-over they desired.  Although this did not come without plenty of effort to do so.

None of this came as a shock to me.  What did surprise me was his approach to those people.  He said he would not confront them on their "issue".  WHAT!?!

I was initially taken aback.  When someone is trying to undermine your leadership, to defame your character, to drag you through the mud because you are following GOD's will and direction for the benefit of others, I feel like you have to stand up to that person.  My reaction to such conflict is defensive.

He went on to tell me that you cannot accomplish anything by pressing someone on their inability to be led.  The problem that they are having is rarely related to the circumstance they are presenting to you.  Whatever the issue, it's merely the tip of the iceberg.  The real rub is an issue of their heart.  They, at some point, have become hardened to what GOD has to teach them and, therefore, have become unable to hear the voice of GOD through any means.  That includes you, your teaching, and your leadership.  Their response, then, is understandable - they want to lead.  In the land of the blind the one-eyed man is king, right?  Only, here the blind man cannot recognize his blindness and so he projects it onto others.

This pastor went on to tell me that his passive approach was driven into him many years ago.  As a young Christian he had come to a place where he was unsatisfied with his churches leadership.  He had said things about the pastor he shouldn't have and, finally, he said the wrong thing to the wrong person.  Word got back to the pastor of his comments and he got a call from the pastor asking him to come by and see him.  So the young man, with his head hung low, walked into the back door of the house.  All these years later he says that he still remembers walking in the house only to see the pastor and his wife greet him not with anger, hostility, and righteous, defensive frustration, but with tears and heart-felt embraces as they told him how much they loved him.

People with hard hearts need to be molded and shaped like the rest of us, but first they need to be melted.  This runs contrary to our natural inclinations.  Our reaction to friction is usually one of two things: we butt heads or we butt-out.  We fight or we turn away.  Rarely is our first thought (I can't say it's EVER been my first) to embrace that heart of tension.

This idea of embracing tension turns our forms of leadership on its head.  It is difficult to be irreconcilably upset with someone, to become embittered by them, to want to turn away from them when we embrace who that person is.  If you are able to see past the actions of a person (and their direct effect on you) and see the pain, the disappointment, the longing for fulfillment in their lives you can't help but feel an overwhelming desire to see them healed.

One of the things I've been working to overcome is my inability to disassociate actions from people.  It is easy to hate actions, it's even biblical - GOD hates actions (i.e. sin).  But it's hard to hate a person.  Think about the people you have conflict with, how many of them do you know REALLY well, how many of them do you love?  Most of the people I struggle in dealing with are people who I only know casually.  I know some better than others, but I don't know how those people tick.  I don't know about their past, I don't know the details of their family history, I don't know what their hopes are, I don't know them well.  On the other hand, I KNOW my friends.  I know what their fears are, I know the pain they are dealing with and why it hurts them so much.  That is not to say that my friends don't do things I don't like like or they don't hurt me at times, but I know the person, the heart, behind the actions.  Since I know that heart and what drives that action and since I love that friend, so I can see past the action.  The act is not the person, it's simply what the person has done.

In Luke 19 we see Jesus interact with Zacchaeus.  Zacchaeus was a wretched person.  He stole from his brothers and countrymen and was responsible, in part, for keeping the Jewish people under the thumb of the Roman empire.  He was despised by EVERYONE.  And yet, Jesus calls Zacchaeus down from a tree and shares the intimacy of a meal with him and brings salvation to the house of a "sinner" (Luke 19:9).  Zacchaeus then undergoes a radical transformation.  It is important to note that Jesus brings his unconditional love and salvation to Zacchaeus BEFORE Zacchaeus' actions are changed.  It's not about the actions of people that matter, it's the person.  GOD's love flows to our hearts beyond what we do.  He first loves us and then our lives our changed.

If we are to follow GOD's pattern we must start with loving people.  We are to love them and let the Gospel do the work of changing their lives.  Only by the love of GOD will hard hearts be melted bringing about the radical change that He desires.  We will still be hurt and disappointed at times, but we will see lives changed, not because we love them, but because Christ first loved us and that love will shine through us in a way the the rest of the world cannot show and will not understand.

Love people.  Embrace difficulty.

Faith, Hope and Yoga

Last year I got into doing yoga.  I picked it up as a supplement to my marathon training, I thought it would add some flexibility and help me avoid injury (I had the first serious injury of my 18 year running career last fall).  So now I do yoga twice a week.  It's a great workout and, for me, yoga is purely physical.  Then a couple of weeks ago I saw a documentary from a few years back on the business of yoga.  To be honest, it wasn't very good and was pretty much a waste of an hour of my life.  But the one thing that struck me as I watched was the emphasis that the yoga purists put on the spiritual aspect of the practice.

Classic yoga comes from the Buddhist traditions with a heavy emphasis on meditation as a means to "ecstasy" or totally self-awareness.  The idea is that through yoga you are able to focus simply on your breathing through a structured series of physical poses.  That singular focus then helps you separate yourself from the world around you.  Once you have separated from the world you are able to shift your focus to your spirit/soul/god and when you can focus on that one thing you will achieve human perfection in a state of enlightenment (that's a little simplified, but the explanation will do for the novice - that's me).

Many will carry this idea of the search for spiritual enlightenment to great extremes.  At the end of the documentary one of the "experts" was heading to India for a three-year "internship" where she would be completely silent and, by the end of the three-years, she would be able to meditate for 24-hours straight.  She claims that this is the ultimate goal in life.

I found myself feeling very sad for all these people as I watched the film.  There is an intense spiritual need that is going unmet in their lives.  They have failed to meet this need so they took up a religious practice that seems to offer them some hope.  Unfortunately, their hope is the fact that if they continue to work out this journey that they can eventually reach whatever it is they were created for.  That is, if they do more and more and more then the universe will somehow reward them based on their efforts.  So these people pour their hearts and their souls into this ancient practice without knowing if it will actually work, but they are confident in their efforts to reach their god.  When I think of the intense disappointment (I really don't think the word "disappointment" begins to cover it) they will face when they die, I'm dumbfounded.

Hope that rests in ourselves is hopeless self-deception.

The truth is, there is only one person in the history of the earth who is worth hoping in - Jesus Christ.  I often admit to others that I have a tendency to slip into a false, works-based salvation theology when it comes to my own life.  I guess this is part of why I feel so bad for these people seeking "ecstasy" and hope in some arbitrary means of breathing and focus.  I get it.  I understand why they try so hard, I understand why they try to clean themselves up.  I do the same thing.  The problem, is that this never works.  We cannot do enough or clean ourselves up enough to enter the presence of the living GOD.

Again, I come back to my hope.  Not a hope that I can somehow be good enough, smart enough, progressive enough, to make my way to the GOD of the universe.  Just the opposite.  My hope is in the GOD of the universe who has made His way to me, whose love draws me to Himself.  My hope is in the GOD who accepts a man who is wicked, foolish, and often backsliding.  All I can do is repent and rest in the love and forgiveness that He offers in exchange for a simple act of belief.

While I will attempt to continually grow and progress in my Christian walk, I will always return to a hope in nothing of what I deserve (that would be the worst reward I could think of), but a hope (a certainty) that, as a co-heir with Christ, my reward will one day be an eternity in His presence.

So, where's your hope?