Culture of Worship

Structure has its place “1:23-15:33”

• There is a process of going from closet worship to leading worship.
•  “It’s not enough to come up with a really good structure.” 
• We have to be able to be flexible and work with structure.
• Leading can be very uncomfortable.
• “Where there is no oxen the manger is clean, but much revenue comes from the strength of the ox.” Proverbs 14:4
• “There’s order in every cemetery, but there’s also no life. We are called as leaders to steward life in His people.”
• “When you’re leading people you have to commit to the people and you’re going to get the hard stuff with the fruit. Like the oxen, you’re going to get the strength but he’s also going to make a mess in the stall every day that you’re going to have to clean up.”
• God is super excited about His church and when you mess with it He takes it personally so we have to be committed to His church, imperfection, and to His people.
• “If you build a culture of worship it invites all the benefits that we desire in ministry.”
• “We pull down Heaven with our praise.” There is a verse in Psalms that says that when we praise God inhabits the praises of His people. Praise is connected with faith. “When we praise we are actually putting our money where our mouth is. And we’re saying but in everything that goes on right now I’m going to praise You.” It puts God in His rightful place over our lives. “There is something so powerful when we lay down our need for control and we praise Him and there is something about His presence comes.” 
• Smith Wigglesworth says “If His presence isn’t in a room, I’ll make it happen, I’ll pull His presence in the room.” Wigglesworth understood that God wants to come into the room, more than we do. “But it takes faith for that to happen.” Praise invites a faith-filled atmosphere.
• “Sometimes we create a structure that’s so controlling that [no irruptive things] can happen. There’s no life. There's no messes but there’s no life. You kinda can’t have one without the other.” It's like when you grow a garden and start watering the dirt weeds start to grow to. And we have to become professional weed pickers.
• “There is nothing more rewarding than leading a group of people and seeing them become who they’re supposed to be in God.” 
• It is easy to sing a song but it can be harder to live it out. 

Original Offering “15:45-20:02”

• “Our worship isn’t supposed to be balanced.” 
• The bible stories that are about what worship is each of the stories that God has highlighted He is highlighting an original offering. 
• Worship is “… a moment in our life when we realize that we’re not God, there is a God… and we surrender to that.”
• “A lot of times we get so used to what worship is that we realize that we’re not the sacrifice anymore… when we become the sacrifice we start to become who God wants us to be.” 
• When it comes to leading people and creating a culture of worship we need to keep our eyes on the result of the commitment to a group of people, a church, a team, through the rollercoasters. 
• Leadership in God can be summed up as, “Always doing whatever you can to point people to Jesus. We are to come under people and support them and point them to Jesus.
• “Worship is recognizing His [God’s] voice and listening and then the communion starts; that’s what worship is. It’s not just in a song that we sing to Him.”
• We want to create an atmosphere in our churches where communion with the Father can take place. 

Freedom “20:27-22:20”

• Usually, passionate people are connected to a free person.
• “Our passion is sometimes the fruit of someone getting free but it also can just be someone's personality.”
• “Freedom is much more than a loud expression. Freedom is someone who isn’t conflicted and is fine leaving their masks at home, and just being honest with who God has called them to be.” 
• When we grow teams and people we are not trying to create replicas of ourselves; we are trying to help them shape into who God has made them to be.