MINISTRY STORIES: Saved In Sunday School

My years of being on staff at the Cornerstone Church in Akron, Ohio, were some of the most fruitful and exciting days of my life!  Under the influence of Pastor Brenda Young – and her dynamic teaching and leading - this church had become a fast-growing, Spirit-filled, dynamic center for conversion and spiritual growth!

As hard as it is to believe, the foyer would pack with people before the three services that we offered. When the doors were opened, they would run to get the best seats and save them for their family or friends.  The anticipation and expectation were unbelievably high!  

The excitement was palpable as everyone waited for the worship team to begin playing.  The church had gathered and was ready to worship! The make-up of this congregation was 75% ‘first-time believers’!  I’ve never known a church like it! 

During each of the three worship services there were Sunday School options for all ages.  Many would attend Sunday School either before or after worship.  As Lead Associate Pastor, I had the privilege and responsibility for overseeing our adult, youth and children’s ministry leaders. Recruiting and training leaders was an on-going challenge!

As part of my role, I visited every class during each service.  During the first-of-three services I would do so quickly and then participate in worship.  During the other two services I could take more time and observe the classes before moving on.  This also gave me time to welcome and mingle with people arriving for the next service which became a productive time of relationship building.

One of our adult classes met in a small, odd-shaped room adjacent to the worship center. While the worship team was playing, it was often amusingly difficult for the teacher to be heard.  This class was led by one of our younger lay leaders. His name was Ron and he was a charming and engaging leader who also contributed – during periods – on the worship team as a remarkable drummer.

This class was largely made up of newer young and middle-aged couples who had begun attending Cornerstone.  One of the men was known to us all as ‘Skeeter’. He was a highly knowledgeable mechanic and had been attending with his wife for a couple of years.  One Sunday, at the end of the class as Ron was beginning to wrap things up, Skeeter asked Ron a question.

“Ron, I’ve been attending here for a long time now and I hear all this talk about ‘getting saved’.  Just what does it mean to ‘get saved’?”

Ron turned his attention to Skeeter while the rest of us remained silent and prayed.  He carefully and briefly explained the gospel to Skeeter and then asked him if he’d like to be saved right there.  Skeeter indicated that he would, so Ron led him in a prayer of confession and acceptance!  I hope you know how thrilled this class was!  It was SO EXCITING! 

Pastor Brenda always gave a benediction/send-off at the end of each service by raising her hands over the congregation and speaking words of challenge and encouragement. Skeeter immediately began responding to this by raising his own hands to ‘receive’ the good words that she was speaking. 

When questioned about it, he simply said that it was his way of receiving the blessing that the pastor was speaking over him.  It began to catch on until nearly every person in every service also started raising their hands to receive the blessing from Pastor Brenda. 

I haven’t been to Cornerstone in many years, but I often wonder if that’s still being practiced there today?  Maybe someone reading will let us know…

WHEN GOD DRAWS NEAR

I grew up in a church where worship was vibrant and meaningful.  Sunday mornings were a little more formal, but Sunday evenings were more relaxed and casual with a good bit more singing.  Testimonies were common in the evening service where people would give a report of how God had helped or blessed them recently. 

These testimonies were often expressed with great creativity and passion.  Significant joy would be expressed over the way God had intervened in their life to solve a problem, meet a need or answer a prayer.  Some had a unique ability to tell a story with great suspense – even cultivating humor. Occasionally the congregation’s response would be with applause and a chorus of ‘Amens’! 

The congregation clearly had favorite hymns or gospel songs.  Even as a child, I observed that certain songs were highly likely to create a deeply spiritual response.  These times were frequently described as moments when the Spirit fell on the people.  The congregation would sing with passion and enthusiasm!  Full attention was brought to the worship of God!  Even when I was very young, I was sensitive to these times and knew that something supernatural was going on.  Some songs that had great potential to evoke this response were:

·         “It Is Well With My Soul”

·         “And Can It Be”

·         “The Wonderful Grace of Jesus”

·         “Marvelous Grace of Our Loving Lord”

As the years passed, I went to college, married, attended seminary and then entered the ministry.  Being a twenty-three year old pastor was a challenge.  But gradually, I gained experience and soon started to see kingdom growth in the churches that I served. 

Eventually, I learned new language for what I had experienced so often in my childhood.  It was largely initiated by a book I read titled EXPERIENCING GOD, by Henry Blackaby.

What I had experienced as a child/youth growing up in my home church were simply incidents of experiencing the presence of God!  He drew near to His people – often initiated by the creativity, sensitivity and passion of His people! 

I learned that my role as pastor was to plan and prepare in such a way that we would hopefully be enabled to experience His presence frequently in our worship.  This in no way implies that we could or would manipulate God!  Rather, It meant trying to create an environment of sincerity, deep meaning and worship that would somehow open a divine portal that would allow us to sense the presence of the Divine One! 

This became central to my planning for worship, preaching and involvement of others in the leadership of our worship! 

While leading the Free Methodist Community Church in New Middletown, Ohio, we received an odd request from an organization that was conducting a survey of growing churches across America.  After deliberating on their request to have our people fill out a 10-minute survey DURING WORSHIP, we agreed to participate.  Part of our motivation was that we would receive a complete report of our people’s responses along with an analysis of these responses.

In spite of the awkwardness, our people cooperated on the designated Sunday and the forms were packaged up and mailed the next day.  Weeks later, our Ministry Council received the results and poured over them with great interest!

We gained so much insight from this report and reviewed it repeatedly over the next year. 

The one thing that pleased me most was the fact that a large majority of our people reported that they EXPERIENCED THE PRESENCE OF GOD IN WORSHIP either regularly or frequently!

This became nearly our sole purpose for times when our people met for worship.  How could we plan and prepare in ways that would de-emphasize any one person or group of people – but, instead, keep the focus on God and His consummate goodness!

OBVIOUSLY, at times we were more effective at this than others times.  But our goal remained the same! 

For six years, I served as the Lead Associate pastor of the Cornerstone Church in Akron, Ohio, under the leadership of Pastor Brenda Young.  The church had doubled in size by the time I arrived on the scene, and would double again in the next six years! 

There is no way that I can describe this church adequately in a brief form!  It involved:

·         New converts EVERY WEEK!

·         Three packed out services every Sunday!

·         Powerful, educational, need-meeting preaching!

·         Dynamic prayer ministry!

·         Focused discipleship opportunities – with dynamic, dedicated leaders!

·         Massive, highly organized lay leadership!

You get the picture – right?

Brenda and I had frequent new attenders approach us and report that they couldn’t stop crying throughout the service.  Repeatedly we had the privilege of explaining to them that what they were experiencing was the PRESENCE OF GOD!

I am currently reading through Leviticus in the Old Testament.  It’s a dry, hard read that involves lots of rules about how the sacrificial system worked.

After four verses giving detailed instructions for how the priests should sacrifice a bull and a goat, I ran across these words in chapter 9:

[Moses speaking to Aaron – the high priest – and his sons]

Offer all these things to the LORD, because the LORD will appear to you today.

THAT CAUGHT MY INTEREST!

Then it immediately became boring again as the people were instructed to bring their sacrifices, prepare them properly and – with the help of the priests – offer them to the Lord!  This consumes seventeen verses!!!!!!!!

But then “Aaron lifted up his hands toward the people and blessed them.” [v.22].

Then Moses and Aaron went into the Meeting Tent!!!!!

Then they came out and blessed the people, and the LORD”S glory came to all the people.

Fire came out from the LORD and burned up the burnt offering and fat on the altar.

When the people saw this, they shouted with joy and bowed facedown on the ground.

[vs. 23-24]

____________________________

WOW! WOW!  I’m thinking that nobody ever forgot THAT day!  What a memorable experience of the presence of God!

____________________________

I wish I could end this differently, but I have to admit that I don’t experience the presence of God very often anymore. 

One of the most disappointing things for me when I attend worship is when we are asked to sing songs that we don’t know!  Singing is one of the most engaging ways for me to enter into the vibrant worship of my God!  I’ve noticed that more hands are raised – in praise to God - while singing, than at any other time during worship.  What does that tell us? 

When I can’t sing [because I don’t know the song], I am deprived of the opportunity to worship!  Needless to say, this frustrates me!

In New Middletown, we introduced new music through offertories, special songs, and pre-service recordings for weeks before we ever asked the people to sing it in worship!  And we never introduced more than one new song at a time!  This allowed the congregation opportunity to be familiar with the song before being asked to sing it.

With music being so crucial to the effectiveness of worship, there is no room for ‘performers’ to ‘show off’ their skill and ability!  Worship teams can be very effective in facilitating meaningful worship, IF THEY MAINTAIN A HUMBLE SPIRIT AND SERVANT ATTITUDE! 

Worship is about PARTICIPATION not PERFORMANCE! 

_______________________________

There’s SO MUCH MORE THAT I COULD SAY HERE, but I must limit myelf to keep this from becoming a book!

Another important factor to helping people to experience the presence of God is by allowing them an opportunity to respond!

My ‘growing-up-church’ encouraged altar prayer!  Everyone knew that you could go to pray at the altar at any time during worship.  If you did go to the altar to pray, there was a high likelihood that someone would come and offer to pray with you.

ALSO – after the message, there was almost always an opportunity given to respond to what we just heard!  Typically, this response was signaled by a raised hand [with all eyes closed and no one looking around], or by coming forward to kneel [or stand] at the altar [where someone – perhaps even the pastor would come and pray with you]. 

It’s easy to notice that many churches are being built today with NO ALTAR!  What does that scream?

Why bother preaching if there’s no call to change?  In so many churches that I’ve attended, the sermon is delivered and then the offering is taken.  WHAT IN THE WORLD DOES THAT COMMUNICATE?  Common sense seems to have gone out the window! 

I hope you realize that there are so many other things we could discuss regarding experiencing GOD in worship:

·         The order for worship: three songs, announcements, prayer, the message, another song and the benediction!  Where is the creativity that is so marvelously illustrated in creation by our AWESOME GOD?

·         Lay participation: In some churches the pastor does just about everything – except for the music.  What about the gifts, passions and ability of our people?  Don’t they have something to offer to the leadership of worship? 

·         Efficient technology: How many times have you been unable to sing in worship because the words aren’t on the screen when you need them?  Make no mistake about it – anger and frustration are the response to this problem!

·         A message that is well-prepared and engaging: This is NOT a Bible study time.  It is a planned, prayed-over, carefully and creatively constructed message designed to educate and challenge people to follow Jesus more faithfully!  Being boring is unacceptable!

This is obviously a topic that I am passionate about. There is so much more that could be said. 

BOTTOM LINE:

People need to experience the presence of God regularly!  Churches and pastors need to prepare with great focus and effort to make the worship experience something that meets people at their points of greatest need! 

Bring your hurts
needs
questions
problems
anxieties
brokenness
frustrations
anger
disappointments
sorrow
grief
pain…

This place is not about a dynamic pastor
an amazing facility
a talented worship leader
an awesome worship team
a gifted speaker

This place is for meeting and experiencing a loving God!  He cares about YOU and wants to walk with you through this life and into the next!

EXPERIENCING GOD'S PRESENCE

I had the responsibility and privilege of leading churches for nearly forty-three years.  I eventually came to realize that the most important thing was to work hard to try to create an environment where people could regularly experience the presence of God! 

We all need to know that God is real and that God is concerned about our lives. 

No one can manufacture that!  It's up to God's Holy Spirit to intervene. 

He often shows up as a result of singing!  I've noticed over the years that certain songs seem to lend themselves more than others to the showing up of God's Holy Spirit.  I've lost count of how many times the Spirit fell on a congregation while singing "It Is Well With My Soul" or "Shout to the Lord".  There's something about certain songs that seem to open us to the reality of God's love for us and His engagement in our lives.

Liturgy can also bring God into focus!  I come from a free style of worship, but am currently worshipping in a more liturgical church.  For two years, I attended worship regularly on the campus of a charismatic, Catholic university!  One day, at the noon mass, when the priest lifted the elements of the eucharist, the entire, packed congregation hit their feet and began praying out loud, singing in the Spirit or praying in tongues!  It had never happened before!  I never saw it happen again.  That day, for some reason unknown, the Spirit of God fell on that entire congregation of several hundred students and faculty as they stood to praise Him for several unbroken, holy moments!  I was blessed out!

The public reading of God's Word can call forth the presence of God!  It doesn't happen all the time and we rarely know when it's going to happen.  But there have been times when I could barely read the scripture lesson.  My voice would break and tears flooded my eyes.  The impact on the people was very similar!  My sister-in-law, Laurie, recently reflected on a Sunday at New Middletown when her daughter-in-law, Abby, read the scripture lesson.  The power of God radiated through Abby as she read and we were ALL inspired and blessed!

Prayer is another time when God can make His presence known!  Sometimes prayer in worship can be boring [forgive me!].  When Troy was little, he leaned over to his Mom while I was praying one Sunday and said, "Mom, how does Dad think of so many things to pray about?"  😂  But, prayer can also be a time when God's Spirit breaks in and blesses His people.  During our years at Cornerstone Church the prayer time on Sundays was magnificent!  When Pastor Brenda opened the altar for prayer people responded in droves.  Then more people came to pray with their friends and family!   By the time the prayer-song ended, people would be kneeling in hoards around the altar with weeping, praying out loud, and tears.  Newcomers were captivated by this sight!  And we all experienced God's presence! 

The preaching of the Word can also introduce moments of God's presence!  Like prayer, sometimes preaching can be dry and boring.  But there are moments when God chooses to breathe life into a message and His Spirit falls! 

While at New Middletown, our leaders decided to participate in a national survey.  It was awkward to ask people to take five minutes in worship to fill out this form.  But when it came back, I had a really great moment when I read that the people from our congregation reported "experiencing the presence of God" regularly in our worship!  Woo Hoo!  I could have danced at that report!  It was an affirmation that we had attained our goal! 

Yesterday, at Bethel Church, I experienced the presence of God as people reported on the love they have enjoyed as a result of being a part of Bethel Church over the years!  One fellow, Mike, went on-and-on about the love his family has known since becoming part of the congregation!  I had to pull my hanky out and wipe my eyes as the tears flowed.  Mind you, it wasn't Mike or the others who shared;  they were just reporters.  God was simply giving His Church a big 'atta-boy!'  I love it when that happens!

I don't know about you, but I live for those moments!  In biblical days they built altars to help them remember those places and times.  I build those altars in my memory and in my blog articles  😉.

Lord,

More than ever, we need these sacred times of sensing Your Holy presence!  During a time when some of our churches can't even meet together, send Your Spirit to anoint and bless us so that we share a common vision and hope!  

Help us to live faithfully in accord with Your will, plan and desires for us so that we can increase the probability of experiencing Your presence!  

For the Kingdom's sake, Amen.  

RANDOM REFLECTIONS ON WORSHIP

[This is not a researched offering.  Rather it is a description of personal reflections about worship.  Please excuse any aspects of the worship movement that I may fail to comment on.]

My earliest experiences of worship took place in my 'growing-up' church:  the New Brighton Free Methodist Church.  I've gone to church since before I was born.  I suppose my first experiences of genuine worship took place during the singing of hymns.  New Brighton was a singing church with an amazing set of leaders.  Morrison Baker was the consummate song leader.  He was usually accompanied at the piano by his daughter, Martha Smeltzer, and at the organ by Helen Douglas.  Later, Anna Zahn and Larry Zahn (her son) also assisted at the piano and organ.  The congregation was fairly large for that time and so the singing was triumphant.

Music seems to have always been a large component of worship.  The Psalms give ample illustration of the part that music played in the worship of the Old Testament.  Exhortations to sing bleed over into the New Testament as well.  Singing and making music seems to be a natural way of expressing our love and appreciation to God.

Certain songs seemed to have an almost guaranteed ability to allow us to transcend the natural world and gain an increased sense of the supernatural world.  Some that seemed to fall in this category were:

• "And Can It Be?"
• "Great Is Thy Faithfulness"
• "It Is Well With My Soul"
• "Wonderful Grace of Jesus"
• "Grace, Greater Than All Our Sin"

In that early season of my life, manifestations of the presence of God included seeing people weep, shout, walk the aisles, go to the altar, stand with arms lifted or walk back-and-forth at the front of the church holding a Bible high in one hand.  At the annual Camp Meeting, these manifestations would be even more dramatic and pronounced.  Although I occasionally doubted the authenticity of some of these responses, most of the time I felt they were genuine expressions of devotion to God!  They impacted me deeply and made me want to love and serve God more devotedly.

As I matured and became a leader in the church, worship experiences changed.  The more dramatic expressions seemed to occur less frequently.  Our worship (from my purview) seemed to become more dignified and perhaps less potent.  However, there were still times when we collectively knew that something beyond ourselves was happening.  When a holy Presence falls on a congregation, everyone seems to sense it - even children!  The best clarification I can give for these rare times is that you didn't want them to end!  

Two of the churches that I served stand out to me as being sprinkled with abundant times of impactful worship.

The first was the Oakland FMC (East Liverpool, Ohio) where I served from 1982 - 1995.  When I first arrived the worship was led by a song leader with Martha Anderson at the organ and David Kelly at the grand piano.  

This time period encompassed a time of major transition across the church in worship music.  It is often referred to as the 'Praise and Worship Movement'.  Short worship choruses became prolific during the 1980's.  Many churches had photo-copied sheets in the pew for singing these praise choruses.  The guitar was commonly reintroduced to worship leadership as well.  These choruses were easy to learn and often repetitive.  Effective leaders (and musicians) could weave them together in seamless worship offerings to a most worthy God 

During my years of service at Oakland, we transitioned the worship experience significantly in line with the P&W Movement.  Gradually, we developed a worship team approach.  The congregation largely grew in their love and devotion to God!  Sunday morning and evening services were characterized by vibrant and meaningful worship!  Key people - like Ron and Marilyn Kelly - made major contributions to the transitions.  David Kelly's Spirit-sensitivity became a frequent door used by God to bless and minister to our people!  

It seemed that people's worship experience was assisted by the simplicity and directness of these choruses.  The MASTER CHORUS BOOK was published (words only) to accommodate this phenomenon;  many churches added it to their pew racks.  Two music producing companies also rose up to be part of this movement:  MARANATHA MUSIC and INTEGRITY MUSIC.  Cassette tapes (and eventually compact discs) were produced to propagate a whole new movement of worship music.  Along with this came the introduction of the worship team concept of leading worship.  Many instruments began to replace the piano and organ that had held sway for a long season.  

The evolution of the worship team has gradually and increasingly led us to a more "performance oriented" style of worship.  Platforms became stages.  A single microphone was replaced with a sound system.  The song leader became the worship leader.  Words are now projected on a screen, so hymnbooks or chorus books were no longer necessary.  The congregation didn't need lights to read a hymnal, so the lights were projected onto the worship leader and team instead.  The end result of all these changes is significant, but one can question the effectiveness of these changes as related to one's experience of God in worship!  

As the 1990's came to a close, I became part of the leadership team at the Cornerstone FMC (Akron, Ohio), working under Pastor Brenda Young's leadership!  In time, I became the Lead Associate Pastor of this growing congregation, and when our worship leader left suddenly, I became the worship leader for the next several years.  

The Cornerstone Church was unique.  Pastor Charles Young had led the church to significant growth over a long period of ministry with the capable assistance of his wife, Brenda.  When Charlie was elected as the Ohio Conference Superintendent, Brenda became the Lead Pastor!  The church immediately erupted to a new level of growth.  I arrived a year-or-two into that new growth.  The next five years saw the congregation go from 400 to 700 worshippers.  

Brenda openly encouraged people to listen to the local Christian radio station.  She then instructed the worship team to use songs from the radio's playlist and to do them exactly as they were done on-air.  It worked!  

The Promise-Keepers movement was in full swing during this time!  Many Christian bands were creating music that was being adopted by the church for worship.  The Cornerstone Church was clearly targeted toward lost and hurting people.  It's mission was openly announced by Pastor Brenda every Sunday:  "Cornerstone Church exists to help people find the Father, a Family and a Fulfilling Future!"  Remarkably, nearly seventy-five percent of the congregation were first-generation believers!  It's the only church of its kind that I have ever known!  

The ministry (during the time I was there) focused on people experiencing the pain of divorce, the pain of addiction, and the pain of hopelessness!  People could receive counseling.  Classes for growth and better biblical understanding were regularly available!  Tracks for leadership were always welcoming new people!  Worship times were passionate and marked by nearly raucous responses from the people!  Baptisms were punctuated by hoots, hollers and wild applause!  Some gradually slipped away, but MANY were caught in ever-deepening cycles of love for God and service to Him!  

Although I'm now retired and no longer am leading the church, I still care deeply about its viability in the present age.  I think leaders need to continually examine the vehicles being used to minister to its people!  There are clearly perils associated with a consumer-oriented ministry and a performance-based worship style.  Leaders need to systematically ask the necessary questions:

• Are our people genuinely worshiping God?
• Do our systems lead them or do they entertain them?
• Are we investing prayerfully in our planning?
• How do we touch the individual needs of our people?
• What do we need to be doing to help our people connect with God?
• Are we just producing the same thing every week, or are we waiting before God for His agenda?
• Are we willing to hold our structures loosely with an open eye to the Spirit's movement?

During my years at Oakland, God gave me a crystal clear sign that His Spirit was moving!  When I would come to the end of my message and time to end worship, I would sometimes notice that three women in the church would be wiping tears from their eyes.  Gradually, God showed me that this was my sign of His supernatural presence!  As a result, when I would see those three women weeping, I would silently pray for God's direction.  Almost always, people would come to pray at the altar as a result!  

If we ask Him - He will lead us!  Thanks be to God!  May His Spirit continue to bless His Church!