Where Do We Go From Here?

Today starts the 2nd week of our vacation on Topsail Island in NC. We spent the first week recuperating from pneumonia. God's timing on this was perfect, as usual. All our doctors had told us to 'take it easy' and that's just what we did for the first week.

Both of us are feeling much better now. Still, close friends have cautioned us to be careful so we will listen to the wisdom of their experience and continue to relax in the sun!

We have been truly blessed by the number of emails we've received. We've been doubly blessed by the prayer requests. Kelly and I have prayed for each one and we continue to pray for the needs of the congregation and friends. One of the huge blessings we get from our time away together is the opportunity to talk and pray and share our hearts with each other in a way that's almost impossible when we're at home.

One of the ongoing themes of our chats has been, "Where do we go from here?" We've just finished 1 Corinthians. For Kelly and I, the entire book has been a growing experience. I think it has been the same for our church. 1 Corinthians was challenging and convicting on so many levels. I know the things I've learned from it will stay with me for the rest of my life.

So, what do we do now?

Well, for the rest of the summer, I feel strongly that we need to take a close look at worship. I don't want to do a 'nuts-and-bolts-of-how to-worship' teaching. I think we need to take a close look at what worship is and who it's for. I'm convinced that the church, the universal church, has allowed worship to become a self centered experience with our engagement dependent upon how we feel about the music, about the words and about the morning in general.

I've been reading Donald Peterson's 'Engaging With God, A Biblical Theology of Worship" in preparation. I'm also going through D.A.Carson's 'Worship, Adoration and Action', a book he edited that has contributions from a number of authors with a diverse background in worship. Both books are fascinating so far as they both assert, in their own way, that worship is a response to the presence of God (the theme of our 2nd Family Camp a few years ago). Both sources (Peterson's most eloquently) go on the add to that phrase, "by his directives". I've also been carefully reading the Book of Exodus, where God provides his first directives on corporate worship and ecclesiology.

So, our goal for this teaching will not be to get everyone to raise their hands or to assume a particular posture or engage in an activity, but to look closely at where our worship is directed....toward us and our enjoyment of the experience, or toward God and our desire to give Him adoration, honor and glory.

I pray this will be another challenge for us as a body.

As far as the fall is concerned. I'm not yet sure which direction we will go. I am sure, above and beyond all else, that we will be in another book of the Bible. It has been my desire to do a book of the Old Testament but, as we pray about it, I'm not totally sure that's where we should go. We've had a number of folks suggest we do 2 Corinthians, a suggestion I'm not opposed to. If we stay in the New Testament, I'd like to stay in the Epistles.

In any event, I want to go where God leads us. I'm open to suggestion and totally open to the leading of the Holy Spirit.

Will you pray with us? I'd love to hear from you if you have an inclination or an idea. We're both looking forward to seeing all of you next Sunday! We miss our church family!