'How long will it be before we discover we cannot dazzle God with our accomplishments? When will we acknowledge that we need not and cannot buy God's favour?' Brennan Manning Paul's sermon this past Sunday reminded me of this quote. We are those that have first received - nothing to earn, nothing to prove, it is all grace, all a gift of God (1 Cor 4:7). We have received...

'Oh God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more.' AW Tozer There is something very special about our gathered time as God's people in His presence to pour out His praises (Psalm 22:3, Matthew 18:20). But as we know, worship is not just what happens on Sunday morning. Worship is who we are and how we live every moment of ever...

'The word minister is not a title of power but a designation of servanthood.' - Francis Schaeffer On this team, we are all ministers serving in the area of music. Minister literally meaning, 'one who attends to the needs of others.' And what is the greatest need of the people we serve? To be made right with God. A need we cannot remedy only Christ can reconcile relation...

'...O LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that You are God in Israel, and that I am Your servant, and that I have done all these things at Your word.' 1 Kings 18:36 This is the heart cry of a servant leader. Let it be known When God reveals Himself, the servant leader responds in emboldened declaration of that reality to the world (Jn 1:29)...

'Once a man has experienced the mercy of God in his life he will henceforth aspire to serve. The proud throne of the judge no longer lures him; he wants to be down below with the lowly and the needy, because that is where God found him.' Dietrich Bonhoeffer Romans 2:4 tells us that it is 'the kindness of God that leads to repentance.' We did not choose God, He chose us w...

'Jesus transforms our hearts by service, not by power.' Tim Keller Jesus came to serve (Matthew 20:28). He could have arrived in setting with a reception befitting His identity, but He did not. Because He came to serve. And it is in His serving His obedience to the will of the Father that we are transformed (Philippians 2:8). As we have been served in Christ, we carry...

'Remember Whose you are, and Whom you serve.' Oswald Chambers Easier said than done, right? The truth in that statement is key to understanding our identity and enabling our calling as servant leaders. Your Identity you belong to God (1 Corinthians 6:20, 1 John 4:4). Your identity is in Christ (Colossians 3:3). You did not earn it, you cannot lose it, and it can never b...

'When the pressure of work for Christ is allowed to be the excuse for our not finding time to seek and secure His own presence and power in it, as our chief need, it surely proves that there is no right sense of our absolute dependence upon God; no deep apprehension of the Divine and supernatural work of God in which we are only His instruments, no true entrance into heave...

'I can only point with wonder, amazement, and awestruck admiration and say 'Behold God.' After that, it is you and God.' Tozer What does your serving say to our people? If it says anything other or anything more than 'Behold God,' it's time to adjust. The world has no shortage of wonders just a shortage of attention span and an ability to be captured by what is truly ...

'He who communes with God is always at home' Spurgeon Home is a haven of safety, rest, understanding, reprieve, security and belonging. Too often I find myself seeking those things seeking home in relationships and locations apart from God. But for the believer as a 'stranger' and 'alien', our home is a heavenly one, dwelling in right relationship and union with God (1...

'The only good we do is what He does in us.' John Calvin If servant leadership needed a mantra, I submit the above. Even our righteous deeds [good works] are like polluted garments, filthy, worthless rags in God's sight (Is 64:6). Jesus reminds us that 'none are good but God alone' (Lk 18:19) so truly the only good that we can offer is what His Holy Spirit is working...

'The long painful history of the church is the history of people ever and again tempted to choose power over love, control over the cross, and being a leader over being led.' Henri J.M. Nouwen As we're reminded from Joshua 24 the choice is daily before us who will we serve (v15). And most people involved in ministry from full-time paid vocational positions to those servi...

Part 2 - read Part 1 here. 'Our serving doesn't automatically bring glory to God. We can serve with bad attitudes, with impatient hearts, out of expediency, or to impress others. But true worshipers are first of all receivers who know that their serving originates not in themselves, but in God's good gifts. Considering how God enables us to serve transforms our service in...

True worship is to love God so much that an offering is the only possible action, even though a world full of such actions can never suffice. - Harold Best One of the passages we read during the responsive reading at the Praise and Worship night was Acts 17:24-25: 'The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples m...

Part 1 - read Part 2 here. 'Our serving doesn't automatically bring glory to God. We can serve with bad attitudes, with impatient hearts, out of expediency, or to impress others. But true worshipers are first of all receivers who know that their serving originates not in themselves, but in God's good gifts. Considering how God enables us to serve transforms our service in...

'For God is not unjust as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for His name in serving the saints, as you still do.' Hebrews 6:10 Both of our churches are celebrating large transitions for Liverpool, the movement to three Sunday services, for the Wirral the development, growth and assembly of a team to lead corporate sung worship. There is a learning c...

'Let love keep the door of your lips' John Wesley From the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks (Lk 6:45). So what comes out of our mouth is the fruit of what we have planted, and allowed to grow in the depth of our hearts. There is not a word that slips out that has not first grown up from the soil of the place known only to you and God. In the way that we conduct o...

'Hesed loves regardless of the response. It does not demand recognition or equality. It is uneven.' Paul E Miller We cannot serve if we do not first love. We serve as an act of worship (Rom 12:1) in response to the love of God (1 Jn 4:19) towards the people of God 'do you love Me?' then 'feed My sheep' (Jn 21:17). God's love for us is 'hesed' love covenant-keeping, loy...

'If serving someone is beneath you, then leading is above you.' Kevin Monahan Below the surface, whether just below or buried deep down, we all long to be in a position where we are served, to be the leaders not the servants. Because what is true of leaders? Their role is prominent, influential, respected, noticed and admired by peers and beyond. Leaders are served Or ...

'Excellence is the process of becoming better than I once was. I am not to become better than someone else is or even like someone else.' Harold Best God deserves our best, I'm sure there would be no disagreement among us about that. But saying it is so much easier than offering our best. It can be easy for us to fall into the trap of essentially believing that showing u...

'Success is focusing on what God is passionate about and using your gifts and passions to join Him in what He is already doing.' Louie Giglio We can have all of the hopes, dreams, plans and vision for the future that our hearts and minds can hold but if 'success' looks like anything other than using our whole lives to make much of Jesus, then what a small, pithy waste. ...

'If love is true, there must always be a certain extravagance in it. It does not nicely calculate the less or more. It is not concerned to see how little it can decently give. If it gave all it had, the gift would still be too little. There is a recklessness in love which refuses to count the cost.' William Barclay We serve a God who loves extravagantly. Nowhere do we se...