Worship Retreat

I just returned from an awesome weekend, where God really had His way. My college and young adults group here in Springfield has held a worship retreat for several years, with great results. We take a weekend and head to a facility about an hour or two away. The weekend is designed specifically for, us as a body, to gather and just spend time with God. It's chief purpose is to unite the body in corporate and private worship. I attended last year, and received great blessings from what God did in my life. This year, I was a part of the worship team that led the services. It was a completely different time than I had previously enjoyed. Instead of being in the crowd, I had the priviledge of being on stage and leading. Looking out over 150 or so young people, giving God glory for who He is and what He is doing brings me to tears. I am in awe of what God does.

The weekend gave me some perspective on several issues, that I will write about over the next few days. First, God has an interesting way of speaking. I've often felt the presence of God move over me, in ways that I find it hard to put words to. He just has a way of striking chords in my heart, that no other person or thing can. I specifically remember sitting on the side of the stage after our wonderful speaker, Jason Patterson, had given us some perspective on Abraham and his journey. Mary was on the piano, as I was gathering my thoughts and composure so I could get on stage and play. She started singing a song written by Throne Room Worship. Lyrics follow:

The more I seek You
The more I find You
The more I find You
The more I love you

I want to sit at Your feet, Drink from the cup in Your hand
Lay back against You and breathe, Feel Your heartbeat
The love is so deep, It's more than I can stand
I melt in Your peace
Its overwhelming

Simple song, with powerful lyrics. I literally found myself weaping in God's presence! How true those words ring. The more I seek God, the more I find Him. The more I find Him, the more I truly love Him. It's an awe inspiring moment, realizing that God is as close to you as the person next to you. The concept of sitting at God's feet, drinking from His hand, leaning against Him, feeling the closeness of His heartbeat... it just conjures emotions that God has placed deep inside. I've never thought of my relationship with God in this way. Sitting with Him, not needing to say a word, but really enjoying what His is giving. Man, I wonder how it feels to be in heaven! If that night is any taste of what it's like, then I am there!

I honestly, don't remember the timing, whether it was the same night or the next, but a few people got up and spoke some encouragement. Will Kitchen got up with a powerful word. He said as much as we talk about believing in God, God truly believes in us. The more we seek Him, the more He seeks us. The more He finds us, the more He loves us. The thought that God is seeking us, trying to find us more and more brings out more humbleness than ever before! I remember thinking of God fighting through the sin, the anguish, pain, and clutter in our lives, looking for that sliver of the true us, that we have hidden deep inside the clutter. He is searching through all that we have put in front of us and trying to break down the walls. Almost like a huge house with countless rooms. Rooms that we have filled with the things in our lives and God is searching each room, anticipating what He will find. With each door comes the anticipation of finding us, until He bursts through the door which holds our heart.

I know this may be a weak analogy for some, but for me, it brings me to tears. I've always thought of my relationship with God as me trying to reach high enough and far enough to grasp the outstretched arm of God. This new thought, the thought that God is running after me, looking for me, hoping that when He opens the next door that He finds me is inspiring. God truly seeks us. He wants us at His feet, waiting for what He has to feed us. He wants us to yearn for time with Him, where we just sit heart to heart.

I say all this to really highlight how God wants us. We lift our hands toward heaven and sing songs of how great God is, which is wonderful and theologically true. I just wonder if we reach so high that we sometimes miss God standing right in front of us, holding His arms out. We are so focused on reaching heaven, that when heaven is before us, we never even see it. God has done it all for us, the only thing we have to do is to reach forward and embrace Him. He has found us, where we are. Now can't we just step forward and embrace Him?

Plan or no plan?

I love reading blogs and reading the perspective of others. Recently, I have been reading the AG Think Tank blog. The topic of planning came up.

I am a planner. I like having a game plan for things. It is the only way that I can get all the things that I want to accomplish done. This is no where else more important than when I plan a worship set. I first start with song selection. I look through my list of songs and I start studying the chord charts and transitions. I make sure that they key are relative, or that I can at least transition from song to song. Then I look at the themes of the songs. Do they relate? Are they compatible? Am I going from a song where I say that God has made me who I am, to a song where I talk about how terrible I am compared to God (there are songs that at least give that assumption)? Then I look at the time restraints I am dealing with. Finally, I look at the difficulty of the songs. Are the songs easy to play so that my team can worship along with those who are singing?

I find it important to plan out things. I want to know what everyone else thinks? How important is planning in a worship set?