God Says..."Clean My House!"

O.k. so He (God) may not have actually spoken those words to anyone directly but He has given me that burden to tidy up His house (the church building) and make it more practical for ministry.
The three biggest projects I have started in the past six months to do that are coming close to being done. Our Youth Room is now only needing new carpet and it will be done. I reclaimed a storage room and moved the contents to another part of the building where it was better suited, organized the room into a youth and music ministry storage closet. Everything prior to my coming was left out in the youth room and offices. I hate it when things aren't organized and get in my way. The next big project was completed last Wednesday which was reorganizing the choir room and redo the music library number system. I added room for about 6-8 new chairs in the choir room as we are growing towards an attendance of 30 in choir! As I am writing this, I just completed cleaning out the choir music library of all its antiquated files, music, equipment, etc. that hasn't been used in 30-40 years! (no joke...some of the stuff was dated in the 60's and 70's)

Why should a church be cleaned out? Because if a church is filthy, it shows how well the spiritual life of the church body might be. Is someone going to feel that church is important if they see so much junk lying around the facility? No! For those of you Bayshore readers...join me and the others who have helped in making the church more practical for ministry!

A Movement In The Church # 2

It happened again! The Holy Spirit moved in church today. This morning's service was the Adult Choir Christmas Cantata. The choir was doing amazing and the narration was just said about the salvation message and the "tear jerker" song of the Cantata titled Bethlehem Morning was being sung while 3\4 of the way through...the power shut off completely in the church! Our sound systems, C.D. player, lights, everything went dead! We kept singing and didn't miss a beat! It was the most amazing sound my choir has ever made! We got through the song and The church was applauding loudly...it was the time in the musical for the invitation so I turned around and laughed a bit with the congregation but then gave a salvation message and prayer. Our power came back on and we were able to sing our Finale with all the lights and beautiful banners carried by some of my youth. After the end of the song I turned around to a standing ovation and tears from many in the crowd (even grown men!) The choir was on the verge of crying as well during that final piece.

This was truly the best experience I have ever had as a Music Minister!

Forgiven Again

I had the great pleaseure of meeting with Jack Price the owner of Prism Music Publishing this past tuesday morning. I with about 15 other worship leaders and choir members got to sit in and sing some of the new music being published for churches. Besides that awesome fact that the actual owner of the company cares enough to teach us the music shows how great this music is. One song we looked at is titled "Forgiven Again" here are the words (chorus in bold)

I'd left my family, the love I had known,

I couldn't believe how calloused I'd grown.

The I woke up one morning in cold freezing rain

and said I'll go back where I caused so much pain.

Just in sight of the place where the lane meets the road,

the Father was waiting to carry my load.

His big arms were open to draw me to Him;

Forgiven, Forgiven, Forgiven again!

If you've broken the trust and betrayed your best friend;

If you're lost and confused, wondering where it will end;

There's a way you can know that wherever you've been

you can make your way home and be forgiven again!

It's an awesome truth that no matter how far away we may run from God, his big arms are there open to accept us back into fellowship with him! Jesus knew while on the cross that we would sometimes doubt him, run away and deny him. Not only did he experience the physical anguish from the nails and the beatings but the emotional burden of his children rejecting him. He died so we can be forgiven, and stay forgiven!

I'm Back and Running

Hey guys...I am back from the FOCUS conference and it was awesome! I learned alot about building relationships with youth and not youth ministries. more of that to come.

I got back Saturday to find out that i will be preaching tonight in church due to the death of the pastor's mother. I have a funeral tomorrow morning for my piano lesson teacher when i was in school, I have a meeting with the high school activities director, a choir music reading conference tuesday in Lakewood Ranch , FUSION on Wednesday, and a See You @ the Pole Rally on Saturday! ...welcome home Bill!