As we are all getting geared up for the World Cup finals today, don’t forget that we gather together for church too!  THEN go watch the game!  So for those of you that aren’t already decked out in your Netherlands or Spain gear, here is our setlist for Kingsfield Church!

Everlasting God – Lincoln Brewster – Let The Praises Ring – The Best Of Lincoln Brewster
From The Inside Out – Hillsong – Mighty To Save
Jesus Saves – Carlos Whittaker – Ragamuffin Soul
Salvation Is Here- Hillsong United – Look To You

I have another song for you this week that I am hoping to start using soon.  Tim Hughes is one of those guys that writes great songs and has the fun accent to go along with it.  And once again, Tim graces us all with another great one.  This is another one that Carlos Whittaker, Aaron Keyes, Jeffery Scott, and Jonathan and Candi Shelton led at Catalyst West.  Great stuff.  Enjoy!

How often do you look to someone else’s leadership role or ministry role and wish you had something like what they have going?  How often does it go farther than that?  You see their success or joy or whatever it may be and instead of just learning from them you try to be them.  You try to do them.  Well if you are anything like me, this has happened many times.  I can think of several different worship leaders that I basically tried to be as I was growing up in my ministry.  I thought that’s who people wanted me to be and so I gave it my best.  And that was my whole problem.

I was looking to what others were doing and who they were and trying to be them because at the same time I was trying to win the approval of people.  I was missing the point.  I was created to be me.  God didn’t put me here to be Chris Tomlin.  He didn’t put me here to be Michael W. Smith (which is really good because my voice just wouldn’t work for that many key changes).  He put me here to be Brook James.  As Carlos Whittaker put it once in a tweet, God created you to lead like you.  He didn’t create me to be anyone else or any other worship leader.  Or as an infamous rap video from Ed Young says, you be you.

Last week at Catalyst Mark Driscoll said something that made all this come back into my mind.  ”Assume that God didn’t make a mistake with you and specialize in what you are good at.”  I can’t count the number of times that I have forgotten this and tried to specialize in what others are good at.  But when I am refusing to be me, I am just telling God that He screwed up with me and should have made me differently and that is probably not a good thing.

Know that God created you to be you.  You are not perfect and should constantly be learning and leaning on Him, but He created you, specifically.  He didn’t create you to be the someone else that others are trying to make you.  He didn’t create you to be the someone else that you think you should be.  He created you without making mistakes in doing it.  Learn from other people in similar roles.  Learn from those with more experience.  But continue to be the you that God chose.  Specialize in you.

Happy Valentine’s Day!  Fortunately, I didn’t forget that.  The wives don’t tend to like that.  This year it lands on a Sunday so it makes a surprise Valentine’s morning a little more difficult.  So, we went with an early Valentine’s.  But since it is Sunday, here is our setlist at Kingsfield Church!

All Because Of Jesus – Fee – We Shine
Revelation Song – Kim Walker-Smith – Consumed
Jesus Saves – Carlos Whittaker – Carlos Whittaker EP
One Way – Hillsong – For All You’ve Done
Glory To God Forever – Fee – Hope Rising

A few days ago, the yearly reading on YouVersion was Nehemiah 10.  As you read through the chapter it starts talking about many of the sacrifices and offerings that were required to be right with God.  It wasn’t repent and ask for forgiveness.  It was find the best animal/bread you have and offer it up to God.  All through the Old Testament you can see this.  The Israelites had to do so much to keep in good standings with God.  Fortunately it didn’t end there.  We aren’t caught up in the same rules.  Jesus came to wipe all that out.  Now we have access to God through Jesus and not constant bloody sacrifices and a high priest.

As I was preparing for last Sunday this chapter stood out to me.  We constantly try so hard to earn forgiveness and love from God but we can never live up to it.  Even if we did still follow the old rules, we wouldn’t be good enough.  But no matter how hard I try or how badly I fail, the love of God is not determined by me.  It is always there.  I never deserve it, but it is always there.  And all because Jesus came for me.

One of the songs that was chosen for Sunday morning was called Jesus Saves.  I just can’t get past that.  The Israelites had to do so much before Jesus came.  Now all we have to do is turn it all over to Him.  He saves.  I don’t deserve it and never will, but He saves.  Love it.

Another week has flown by.  I swear.  These weeks just seem like they are so short.  Hmmm.  Well, anyway, with another week gone it is time to look ahead to what is coming up today!  We are starting off another week full of expectations.  I believe we should go into things expecting God to do great things.  If we follow Him and look to Him, He has a tendency to exceed anything I can come up with!  Here are just a few of the things I am expecting this week!

• Another Sunday means another chance to reach out to some new people and some that just need to hear again.  I believe God is going to use Kingsfield Church to work in several hearts today.
• We are jumping right into a new song from Carlos Whittaker today.  I can’t wait.  Jesus Saves is an awesome song!
• Today is a very busy day so I expect that my Sunday afternoon nap will be either cut short or cut out.  Bummer.
• My face is going to burn today when I sweat.  I forgot to put on aftershave last night.  Crap.
• We will be leaving on Wednesday to go to Oklahoma for Thanksgiving.  We are going to get to see so many faces that we don’t see very often from all over and get to go to LifeChurch.tv in person again!  That will be fun!  Plus they are throwing us our first baby shower ever!
• With the trip to Oklahoma, I will be taking a few days off!  Yea!  I don’t do that very often so I have to make it count!  I am gonna try to not work at all!  I will of course be blogging, but no work!  Doctor’s orders.

So there you go.  A few things that I am looking forward to this week.

Most nights as I wind down before I go to bed, I read several blogs.  I know this is a crazy thought for many of you that have known me for a long time and understand that I am not a fan of this thing called “reading”.  (And yet I became a regular blogger…weird.)  Well anyway, last night as I was reading some blogs I came across a blog I read rather regularly by Carlos Whittaker.  He wrote a post (go read it) called Somethings Broken.  I tried to comment there, but something was messed up so, sorry Los, but it got my brain thinking and I’m jacking your topic.  (Not like it would hurt your readership or something like that!)

In his post, Carlos talks about how churches try to get good Jesus loving people into church communities, but then getting them to focus on these groups too much and then pulling out of their secular communities as a result.  It is a good thing for Jesus loving people to find and be a part of a church community.  There they can learn and grow and strengthen others.  I believe we could all agree and say that anything with those results is a positive thing.  (Plus if we didn’t have them what would we do with all the graphics of paper people holding hands in a circle?)  But when we focus too much on our church communities and don’t involve ourselves in the secular communities, we are no longer doing what God has called us to do!  Look at the life of Jesus.  He had his church community (the disciples and friends) and then he was constantly creating and spending time in community with the hookers and robbers!

As a pastor, I realize that this is a tough thing to do sometimes.  How do you balance your church life with your secular life (not that they are different or separate, but you know what I mean)?  Many times the church is doing so much that it is hard to find time for a community outside of church.  For me, many times I’m too busy doing church that I can’t find time to get in a community outside of church.  But if we want to model our lives after Christ, we have to build those relationships.  We have to love those that “religion” pushes away.  We have to spend time with the prostitutes, junkies, and musicians (like that?  Sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll?).  BUT!  We also have to realize that we aren’t just hanging out with them just to hang out with them.  There was a point to what Jesus was doing.  He was there to love them.  He was there to have an impact on their lives.  He wasn’t there to be cheesy or churchy.  He loved on them and they loved Him back.

Seems like a pretty good model to me.  So how do you balance between the two?