by Stan Self

Matt Redman is one of contemporary Christian music’s most well-known worship leaders and song writers. He has written songs such as 10,000 Reasons, Better Is One Day, Blessed Be Your Name, and the list goes on. If you engage in contemporary worship, you probably sing his songs frequently.

In 1993, Mike Pilavachi launched Soul Survivor Ministries that was on the leading edge of modern, contemporary music with its use of worship arts and multimedia. Matt Redman was Soul Survivor’s worship leader.

Over time, something interesting and unexpected happened. The members of the congregation pivoted from active worship participation to silent, passive observers of worship. Worship was happening but, at its core, something wasn’t quite right. In Mike Pilavachi ‘s words, “We seemed to be going through the motions. Our hearts were far from Him. We needed to take drastic action.”

So, as the pastor of Soul Survivor Church, he did something radical. He removed everything from the worship services, including the microphones, drums, guitars, and the entire sound system. He even got rid of their worship leader, Matt Redman and his worship team. Now, all the pieces of what is associated with contemporary worship was no longer part of the service.

The church that once pulsated on Sundays with the beat of guitar strings, keyboards, and drums accompanied by flashing lights and graphic images was now mostly silent and bland. At first, they, as a church, weren’t sure what to do. Over time the congregation rediscovered their voices, the silence vanished, and the period of passivity passed. Little by little the equipment was returned. But no longer was the equipment more important than the congregation’s voices.

As for Matt Redman, he didn’t go away upset or angry. Instead, he used this liminal period to reflect. He reexamined his role as a worship leader, as a person, and as a follower of Jesus. And out of that reflective time, during these very quiet services at Soul Survivor Church, he wrote one of his best songs, Heart of Worship. It opens like this:

When the music fades
And all is stripped away
And I simply come
Longing just to bring
Something that’s of worth
That will bless Your heart
I’ll bring You more than a song
For a song in itself
Is not what You have required
You search much deeper within
Through the way things appear
You’re looking into my heart
I’m coming back to the heart of worship
And it’s all about You
It’s all about You, Jesus
I’m sorry, Lord, for the thing I’ve made it
When it’s all about You

As you and I gather for corporate worship this Sunday, and all subsequent Sundays, we would do well to remember what Matt Redman learned about worship. It’s all about you, Jesus. Selah.

* To see Michael W. Smith joined by Matt Redman sing Heart of Worship, click HERE.

by Cindy Robbins

I remember at the women’s retreat several years ago Angel Davis spoke on the concept that “God’s simple is profound.” I believe that will forever stick with me because in my spiritual gifting of discernment, I notice people tend to over-complicate God. 

Please don’t hear me trying to act like God is “simple” – far from the truth. The point instead is this – if you have focused too much on the details, ask yourself why Christ called us to have “child-like faith.” 

As a parent, I’m learning all too well the importance of consistent and understandable discipline. We need that as adults too. Yet I also realize that people do better to know the “why” behind the rules. Faith isn’t obedience based on fear of getting the rules wrong, it’s believing in the “why” and that its path leads to goodness of greater purpose. 

So what is God’s simple yet profound “why?” I think it is combating hopelessness. To put it even more simply – having purpose. 

If we stop the focus on ourselves and our fears for even 30 minutes to listen with open hearts to the fears of others, you’ll notice the theme in anger, anxiety, selfishness, etc. is fear-based, otherwise known as a lack of hope. Fixating on what we disbelieve in rather than focusing on what OUR purpose is, which is given by God alone. 

This breaks my heart and I believe it’s what Jesus came to individualize to each person. That’s His “telling me everything I’ve ever done” (see the woman at the well) and yet she, as quite the sinner in her day, went away with PRAISE. Why? Because the message wasn’t about her mistakes, it was a message of HOPE! She was told that Christ was here and He was changing things from the former ways that brought her to hopelessness. Her choices of sin were her own, yet Christ knew her. He knew her story and that it was hopelessness (and shame) that drove those choices. His response? Turn to Me instead of your own fears. 

Guess what- He is saying the same to us today for anything and everything we face. Stop complicating things, especially His ways, and simply turn to Him for profound HOPE that never runs dry.

This article was written for TMS Global’s Activate Post and was published there on March 20, 2019.

If you subscribe to cable or satellite television, I am sure you have come across the television series “Hoarders.” This show depicts the real-life struggles and treatment of people who suffer from a compulsive disorder that drives them to secure and hold on to material things, even though they may never use them.

I know someone who suffers from a compulsive hoarding disorder. Her house is so full of things she has bought or collected over the years that it is difficult to find a place to sit. Entire rooms of her home cannot be utilized because they are so full of possessions. Her response to the dilemma has been to pay monthly rental on storage units to hold her ever-growing collections.

While this is tragic, there is potentially a greater problem of hoarding that exists in far more people than those affected by compulsive hoarding disorder. A recent report by the Barna Group (January 2019) indicated that 51 percent of US churchgoers have not heard of the Great Commission. An additional 25 percent said they had heard of the term but could not recall its meaning.

That means 76 percent of churchgoers have little grasp of the Great Commission. Given that the expression “Great Commission” is so ingrained in the vocabulary of Christian mission, one can only wonder the degree to which the 76 percent engage in any way in reaching the nations with the gospel.

The irony is that all of these churchgoers are recipients of a Great Commission culture. The gospel came to them by those who were moved in response to the Great Commission as described in verses found in Matthew 28, Mark 16, Luke 24, John 20, and Acts 1.

The Good News of the gospel was never meant to flow into the life of a believer and remain there for personal security and blessing alone. The thrust of the Great Commission is that we are to pass on what we have received. Thus, we are not to hoard what has been given to us. For, “Freely you have received; freely give.” (Matthew 10:8)

If you feel your church could use some guidance in understanding and engaging in the Great Commission, the TMS Global church culture team offers training and coaching that will move your church to greater mission involvement. Find out more by contacting our church culture department at activate@tms-global.org.

Stan Self is a training consultant for TMS Global.

This post first appeared on the TMS Global website as the November Activate Post. It may be seen in its original context here. 

I was coaching a church missions committee in the northern part of Florida. We were engaged in a discussion of how short-term missions should be conducted for maximum benefit to all involved. One of the attendees interrupted by saying, “How do we discontinue support for some people and groups without hurting feelings and causing havoc?”

Fast forward a few months, and I am meeting with a church mission team in eastern Pennsylvania. To get a feel for where they were and what they were doing, I opened by asking them to tell me about the various ministries they support. One man began to tell me of a missionary couple they supported. He was stopped short by another team member saying that the couple was no longer on the mission field. As another one told me of a ministry, they too were informed that the ministry was now defunct. Before the first hour was up, I heard of five ministries that were no longer viable, yet they were still listed as being supported. In fact, the church was sending financial support, though it was obviously not going where they thought or intended.

A couple of months later, I am meeting once again with a mission committee in North Georgia. The same question came up. How do we stop support of missionaries and mission groups we no longer feel led to support?

This was only the beginning. In varying ways, this issue came up again and again in the ensuing years. So much so that I came to the belief that stopping support must be the hardest task a local church mission team faces. Consequently, far too many choose not to face it at all and just live with the dilemma.

The problem begins rather innocently. Someone in the church knows someone going into missions and it would “be nice” if the church could help them out. A missionary comes in to speak and an emotional decision is made to support them based on a one-time encounter. A ministry seems to be doing “good work and needs our support.” The list goes on.

It doesn’t have to be this way. There is a way to ensure the support list is current and reflects what God desires. And it can be done in a way that is simple, relatively painless, honors God and the ministry, and eliminates this issue for all subsequent missions committees/teams.

The church culture team at TMS Global can begin immediately helping your church deal with this task. Contact us at activate@tms-global.org for more information.

In 2010, I wrote an article titled, “We are a Friendly Chuch.”  That was the oft-repeated response from churches in which I was speaking when I asked what was their identifying mark as a church.  The gist of that article was that a church may be a friendly church if one visits them, but they may not be so friendly to those that do not seek them out. I took them at their word that they were indeed a friendly church. Events over the past 18 months indicate I may have been a little too trusting in their perception of themselves. Continue reading In Search of a Church →