...Is it ABOUT ME?

Have you been to church? Churches have all kinds of names...not to mention all kinds of denominational labels which may or may not be part of that name. Churches have all kinds of meeting places...big cathedrals to quaint little chapels, large public venues to hillside amphitheaters. To movie theaters and school cafeterias and a person's living room...

If you haven't been, I invite you to go check it out. It can be quite entertaining to see how many different ways people do this thing called "church". If you have been, but never been outside your own setting or denomination, I challenge you to go check out some of the others. It can be interesting. People really do this thing called "church" many different ways.

There are a few key elements that seem to remain the same...most have a message, offering, music. They may do these three, but the way they do them can be WAY different. Who delivers the message? A guy in a robe, or maybe a gal? Maybe someone in shorts and a T. Is it live or video feed? Do they pass a plate, a bucket or have a drop box in the back?

Then there is the dilemma of music...traditional or contemporary? Instruments...now that can get interesting. An organ with pipes? A guitar with amps? Voices only? Voices shouting or lips syncing? And how demonstrative do the participants get? Hands waving or clutching a hymnal? Toes tapping, dancing a jig, or digging into the carpet?

Moving around all over the country has forced me out of my comfort zone and into a variety of other zones. It has challenged me to consider and reconsider how I do this collective thing called "worship".

Now we all have our personal preferences. But this thing called worship...is it about my personal preferences? Am I worshipping me? Or should it be about the preferences of the One I am worshipping?

Love God, your God, with your whole heart:

love Him with all that's in you, love Him with all you've got!

Deut. 6:5

Sing praise-songs to God. He's done it all! Let the whole earth know what He's done.

Raise the roof! Sing your hearts out...

Isaiah 12:5a

God, I've heard what our ancestors say about You,

and I'm stopped in my tracks, down on my knees.

Habakkuk 3:1

"Teacher, get your disciples under control!"

But He said, "If they kept quiet, the stones would do it for them, shouting praise."

Luke 19:39-40

Then Ezra praised God, the great God,

and all the people responded, "Oh Yes! Yes!" with hands raised high.

And then they fell to their knees in worship of God, their faces to the ground.

Nehemiah 8:5b

Miriam the prophetess, Aaron's sister, took a tambourine,

and all the women followed her with tambourines, dancing.

Miriam led them in singing, Sing to God--what a victory!...

Exodus 15:20

Hannah prayed: "I'm bursting with God-news! I'm walking on air.

I'm laughing at my rivals. I'm dancing my salvation.

1 Samuel 2:1

And Mary said, I'm bursting with God-news;

I'm dancing the song of my Savior God.

Luke 1:46.

...from The Message

GPS

I didn't need one in Indiana, but I don't know what I would do without it in North Carolina. Maybe it's because I'm new to North Carolina, and I knew Indiana. My GPS in not a luxury it is a necessity here in Wilmington. I'm telling you, I love my GPS!!

As I look back over my travels and relocations, I'd have to say that while I was doing the thing, it all looked like a road map to me. Not a nice, neat, spiral bound Atlas. Not a laminated version. A crumpled up, can't-figure-out-how-to-fold-this-darn-thing paper map.

Which way do I turn? For pitty sake, which way do I even hold the thing? I'm the person that looks at a map and has to rotate the map when we make a turn to keep it straight in my head. So, I need a GPS.

I also need a GPS for life, but it seems all I have is a ratty old paper map. I try to keep twisting and turning it with each new crossroad, but somehow can't seem to fold it up all nice and neat. Where is my GPS!??!?

Yet, when I look back over my travels, it seems to all make sense to me now. In Indiana, God did some extensive training. He sent me to college to be a teacher and to Big Brothers Big Sisters to learn the importance of mentoring.

Then in Coastal Georgia, He whispered a calling to minister through one-to-one relationships. On up the road in North Georgia, He challenged me by expanding the vision to include adults as well as children.

When the northern trek continued, He took me to Iowa to start merging the knowledge with the vision. And as I returned to the South and the Coast, He allowed a returning to my roots with a school-based mentoring ministry. The scene through the rearview mirror might look clearer now, but the front windshield sure was pretty fogged up along the way.

Of course, you were probably screaming at me the whole time you were reading this, "God is your GPS, fool. Shut up and listen!!" And if you were, you are right.