Check Your Worship Time

In his book Making a Good Church Great (Regal), Steve Sjogren warns about letting worship music run too long: "We were, at one time, a 'high worship' church. That is, we would sing worship choruses for up to 45 minutes. However, the long worship time made our church 'seeker hostile.' Our attitude was, 'If those new people can't handle the presence of God in large doses, well, that's their problem!' The long worship worked fine for us, but for those who hadn't developed a taste for worship, it was far too long.

Illustration: Christ

At the heart of the old city of Quebec is a church called Our Lady of the Victories. It was first named The Church of the Christ Child. Then the French won a significant military victory, and the name was changed to Our Lady of the Victory.

Illustration: Redemption

In a recent Parade Magazine article, Mitch Albom told the fascinating story of William Kamkwamba, a young man from Malawi. When William was 14, he had a vision. He wanted to make a windmill that would pump water and make electricity for his village.

Preaching Points: Redundancy and Precision

Redundancy is a tricky fellow. An antonym is precision. Most all pastors are guilty of redundancy and short on precision from time to time. All of us have a desire to get it out of our sermons; but before we can eliminate it, we must be able to hear it, which requires trained and dedicated ears. There are two very large dangers with redundancy. The first is the boredom that results from all things twice or thrice said. As has been well said, there is no such thing as a bad short sermon or a long good one.

The Power of a Well-Timed Word

If you haven't already, you'll soon discover the fantastic power of words. Words can be used as bombs or bouquets. Which would you rather receive at your doorstep? A few words can be forged together and lobbed into the life of another to cause more havoc than a 2-year-old at a tea party. Conversely, words can be handed out like candy to a discouraged teammate. A timely "Thank you" or "I appreciate you" can do more good than a paycheck bonus.

Illustration: Value, Self-Worth

In a recent post on his blog, Mike Glenn wrote: "The Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard told a story of thieves who broke into a jewelry store and didn't steal anything; they simply rearranged the price tags. The next morning, the expensive jewelry was sold as junk, and the junk jewelry was sold as expensive. His point is obvious. We live in a world where someone has rearranged the price tags."