Who's Getting the Glory?

I just had a conversation with a friend of mine who is an incredibly gifted music producer, rapper, dancer, musician, promoter, and more. Recently, he made the decision to give his life to Christ and called me to tell me that he was thinking about leaving all that he knew to totally commit himself to God. In a nutshell, he equated totally living for God with leaving the music scene. However, his struggle is that he was recently given an opportunity to do some production work for and perform with some very notable people in the secular music industry. Pretty convenient, huh?

My response to him came in the form of a question: “If there was one message that you would want to give to people right now, what would it be?” After a few moments of dialogue to bring clarity to my question he responded “That we’re being lead astray.” My next question was, “If you had a chance to relay that message via the talents you have, what do you think God would NOT want you to do in relaying that message?” His response was “…glorify myself.”

With that said, I told him to take the opportunity that he had been given to work with these secular artists and present to them the message that God has given him. If they don’t like was he presents, then oh well. He can only offer them what he has.

Now for many, I know that’s not the answer or direction you expected me to give him. Many would have said, “Leave the music industry; turn away from that life, and follow Jesus!” And that’s fine, but why throw the baby out with the bath water? James 1:17 declares “Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.” (NASB) From this verse I conclude that the gifts and talents he has are from God.

The other option many would have given him would have been to produce Gospel music. The problem here is that we’ve relegated Christ to “Christian” or “Gospel” music. Newsflash: God is not confined by the limitations we set on Him. As a matter of fact, God so transcends the comfortable limits we place on Him that provide us with a sense of superiority as it relates to our walk with Him. Furthermore, I know secular artist who have more integrity and character than most gospel artists I know!

My final instruction to him was to write down everything that God has gifted him to do. Then, next to those things write “How can God get glory out of this gift?” Next, answer that question for each. Does this mean he has to become a “Gospel” artist? No it doesn’t! Does it mean that he has to become a “Church musician?” No, it doesn’t! It just means that God has to get glory out of what he does.

All in all, the determination of whether or not God is getting glory out of what we do is not where we do it at. Besides, the people in church are not the ones that need to hear his gift anyhow! (Our band pits and praise teams are already overcrowded as it is…shoot, most churches are already out of microphones!) If he chooses to write love songs, God can get glory out of that. Lord knows we need some more great love songs. (I love Fred Hammond, but that’s not what my wife and I are trying to listen to when we’re about to “do the dawg-on thang!”)

All in all, the question is “Who’s getting the glory?” If you are a Christian minister and you’re getting more glory in your ministry than God, you have no place to judge a secular artist. If your website has more pictures of you than it does of actual ministry taking place (and I don’t mean that picture of you with your infamous deep/ugly face on; head back, hands lifted, sweating, and singing in the microphone during praise and worship) it may be a little more about you than it is about Him. Wait, I just got a Tweet from heaven: “#CanIPleaseGetMyGloryBack? I think somebody in church stole it.” -@JesusChrist

Divine Traffic

A few weeks ago I was traveling north on Interstate 75 headed towards mid-town Atlanta. Upon approaching the Interstate 285 exit, I noticed a myriad of red taillights at a standstill. Translation…TRAFFIC (sigh). As usual, I immediately began thinking of what alternate route I could take because I didn’t want to wait. Consequently, I began to reach into my glove compartment for my GPS system to plug in my destination along with the criteria “Avoid Highways.” Before I could place the mount on my windshield and turn the GPS on, this same traffic, which looked like it was at a stand-still from a distance, was moving forward. Then I thought to myself, “What if I had gotten off the interstate to take an alternate route?” The answer to that question is that it would have taken me longer to get to my destination.

The moral of this story is that we should not let the appearance of slow progression cause us to detour from our course. Have you ever considered that God may be slowing you down to prevent an accident ahead? Or maybe God is slowing you down to simply speak to you. The Bible declares in Psalm 37:23 “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and he delighteth in his way.” So not only does God direct the steps of the godly, he delights in every detail of them; including the traffic.

So chill and stay the course. Whatever the destination, God will get you there, not only in good time, but in His time.

My Dad's Garden

In addition to being the pastor of the St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church in Joliet, IL for nearly 27 years and an executive chef, my dad was also a recreational gardener. Every year he planted and harvested tomatoes, peas, green beans, collard greens and more. Though I was never much of a gardener, I was always fascinated with my dad's garden.

One thing my dad always did was stick the package that the seeds came in down in the ground next to where he had planted them. He did this so that he could remember where he planted what. Consequently, the packets enabled him to know what to expect from each row. In addition, I remember my dad showing me the seeds that he planted. He told me to pay close attention to size of the seeds in comparison to the size of the crop that was produced. It amazed me that such large crops could come from such small seeds.

There are two life lessons I learned from my dad's garden.

1) Seeds always reproduce after their own kind.
2) The harvest is always greater (in size) then the seed sown.

The question is "What kind of seeds have you sown lately?" Just remember that whether good or bad, your seeds WILL produce a harvest.

"Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." -Galatians 6:7

With Love,
WM

Indescribable

One of my favorite Contemporary Christian artists by the name of Chris Tomlin has a song entitled "Indescribable." In this song he lists a number of things God is (indescribable, all-powerful...and the list goes on). At the end of the song, Chris switches gears and says:

"You see the depts of our hearts and you love us the same."

Wow. Isn't it awesome to know that we serve a God that knows all about us, yet his love for us never changes. People often change on you when they find out about your hang-ups and habits. But God, who is all knowing, knew about our hang ups and habits from the beginning, yet His love for us never changes. He even knows about the things we didn't do that were in our hearts to do...yet He loves us the same.

Now I see why Chris ends the song "You are amazing God!"

Thank you Lord for loving us, despite what you know about us!

"Church...Simplified"

Okay...so lately I've developed an extremely low tolerance for "church" as some of us know it. This low tolerance has lead me to come to two conclusions:

1) True "church" is way more simple than we make it.

2) Many of the things we do at church have absolutely nothing to do with God.

I have personally made a pledge to keep ministry simple: "Build Faith, Strengthen Families, & Advance God's Kingdom."

Build Faith: Helping people become better believers. This may prove to be hard for "needy" church leaders because it causes people to less dependant on them and more dependant on God...but that's the point, right?

Strengthen Families: Spending more time loving on our families then we do "having church." Healthy homes produce healthy churches.

Advancing God's Kingdom: It's not deep, prophetic, or spooky. God's Kingdom is simply His way of doing things.

By the way, can somebody tell me how many "Annual Days" Jesus had? LOL.

New Year's Eve

The Story:
So it's 8:30 p.m. on New Year's Eve. My wife and I are on our "oh so comfortable" sectional knocked out! I wake up and ask her "So what do you want to do tonight?"

Now anybody that knows me knows that I am a "church baby." So not being in church at "Watch Night" service on New Year's Eve is foreign to me. As a matter of fact, last year was the first time in my entire life that I did not attend church on New Year's Eve and truth be told, I enjoyed it! How liberating to know that God is not confined to our "Watch Night" service, but that he is even at the nucleus of us spending time loving on those who he has placed in our lives.

So I sent a text to a friend of mine, Pastor Nolan McCants of Harvest Church in Plainfield, IL to see what he and his family were doing. It turns out that his church was hosting a non-traditional New Years Eve celebration at the Marriott Suites. So my wife and I got dressed and went.

We had a ball! We ate, laughed, danced, celebrated Jesus, prayed, won a door prize and then got a suite for $49!!! It was beautiful to see families there enjoying themselves and the freedom that has been given to us through Jesus Christ. Kids were playing video games; couples who hadn't been out in years were dancing to love music; it was awesome! I have nothing against traditional church, but liberation is a beautiful thing. And I can say that it has been these types of events (not church) that have brought my wife and I closer together and strengthened our marriage (the $49 suite helped too! Church Amen!!!)

The Lesson:
1. God is much bigger than our "church services" and traditions.
2. God gets more glory out of us loving on our husbands, wives, and children than he does out of us having a religious experience.

All in all, I love to have church. I love to run, jump and shout (especially on New Years as I recap on all that the Lord has brought me through). But, I shout a lot better when my wife and I are happy!

It's Been a While...

So...it's been a while since I've blogged...as a matter of fact, over a year. It's not that I haven't had anything to say, but have made a conscious decision to only "speak when spoken to." So I as prepare to write my first blog of 2009, I say as Samuel did in 1 Samuel 3, "Speak (Lord); for thy servant heareth."