Thank You from Pastor Dennis

Sue and I thank you so much for your generous pastor’s appreciation gift and cards of encouragement. You are so good to us. We are extremely thankful to serve in such a loving church. We have been overwhelmed by your thoughtfulness and generosity with both the incredible baby shower you threw for us and the pastor’s appreciation gift and cards you gave us. We look forward with anticipation and excitement to what God is going to do in the years to come at LifePoint. It is an honor to be your worship pastor. We pray you have a great Thanksgiving and Christmas. We love you!

—Pastor Dennis

For the Men

I had the great privilege of eating lunch with my dad last week. I don’t use the term “privilege” loosely. I consider my father the greatest man in my life. He has influenced me in ways I will not fully grasp this side of heaven. So in this blog I honor a great man and hopeful give insight into being Godly men who lead our homes as Christ has called us to do.

1. Man of God
My father places God above all else in his life. I grew up seeing my dad in prayer. He prayed with us and for us. He prays about the smallest details in life and the greatest decisions to come. I’ve seen him pray for the lost, skip meals to pray, and thank God for blessings during some of the most difficult times. I’ve heard him say “in Your will” more times than I can count. He studies God’s Word openly in front of his family. He speaks often about God and his love for Christ. Most importantly He lives out his relationship with Christ everyday. The Gospel of Christ made alive in his life is clear for all to see. He has always shared that Gospel with those he comes into contact.

2. Man of his marriage
I’ve never questioned the love my dad has for my mom. They have been visibly in love with each other for more than 50 years. He shows a love that is far more deep than mere emotion. It is a passion based on knowledge of my mom’s most intimate needs. He understands a Godly commitment to her for life. He understands sacrifice and selflessness in marriage.

3. Man of his children
As a pastor my father has always lived under the incredible burden of leading a church. I never felt that I was less important than his ministry, as many of my PK friends felt. Being a pastor requires a huge amount of time and emotion, but my dad kept his priorities straight – God, marriage, children, and then all the rest. Even through the most hurtful circumstances, he carried the burdens without placing it on the family. He showed me that no matter how noble or Godly the job, it means nothing if your relationship with God and family suffers.

4. Man of strength, boldness and humility
In my father I see strength and boldness to stand for what is right. I’ve witnessed this over and over in my life. He is a man of integrity wrapped in humility. He is a humble servant, but by no means a push-over. He tells it like it is not out of pride, but from a deep resolve and confidence in what is good and right.

5. Man of kindness and wisdom
My father is a truly kind and gentle man, a man of great wisdom and discernment. People enjoy being around him. He treats people with respect and gives them time and attention. He cares about their lives. His wisdom is based on the ways of God and not selfish motivation or vain conceit.

6. Man of forgiveness
My dad both gives forgiveness and seeks forgiveness. From all the things listed above you might think my view of my father is one of perfection. He is a great man not a perfect man. One of his greatest attributes is to seek forgiveness when he has been wrong. I’ve seen tears in his eyes when he has asked me to forgive him for a misstep in parenting. I’ve seen him ask forgiveness from my mom. I’ve heard him pray for forgiveness from Christ. I’ve been taken by his hand and led to ask forgiveness from someone I’ve wronged. I’ve also seen him forgive others. People who have hurt him deeply, like the drunk driver who killed his only brother or close friends who betrayed him. He didn’t allow us to harbor angry feelings toward others. I’ve learned more from watching him forgive than probably anything else.

Thanks for allowing me to honor my father with this blog. These are just a few of the ways I’ve been shaped by his life. As I look forward to my own son’s birth next month, I realize the awesome responsibility of influence as a father. As men we have been given the task of leading and molding our home. We are not just positively influencing our child. We are answering a command to lead generations to come “in the training and instruction of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4). Thanks, Daddy!

—Pastor Dennis

Living Sacrifice

Last week I talked specifically about how we view music in the context of corporate worship. This week I will examine worship in broader terms. We must expand our concept of worship beyond the finite domain of a particular place, time or method. Biblical worship is so much more.

Romans 12:1 says, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.” It’s not a limited lease agreement or a rent-to-own contract. It’s a whole-sale sell out to our Creator. We hear this scripture used a lot on its own, but I think it becomes even more powerful when we read it in context with the scripture surrounding it. Directly preceding it is a powerful doxology:

Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!
Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?

Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?
For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.

In light of this incredible statement about the amazing power and character of God, Paul then says “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.” It’s as if Paul is saying “Look at our God! He is worthy to be given our entire life. How can we hold anything back from him?” He urges us to give everything to God. Is there anything you’re holding on to? God is so much more than the trinkets we grasp in our hands. After this statement in Romans 12:1, Paul writes beautifully about how to live a life that is a sacrifice pleasing to God. I can’t begin to fully expound such rich text in this limited space, but I urge you to open up Romans and pour over chapters 12-15. Ask the Holy Spirit to mold your life into a living sacrifice that is pleasing to God.

Worship is not something that we walk in and out of at will. It is our life lived for something of high priority. We must constantly pray that the Holy Spirit will reveal anything that has taken the place of God. Worship is not a moment in our life. It is every moment in our life. May every moment we live be for Christ.

—Pastor Dennis

Music: Our Golden Calf?

Lately, I’ve been burdened by my need as a worship pastor to have an extremely deep understanding of gospel-centered theology. Early in my ministry my mind was focused on the practical aspects of being a worship minister. As long as I had a decent knowledge of the Bible, my lead pastor would take care of the hard questions and concepts. After all, my job was all about music, right? Sadly, in our current culture there is very little in church life that is messed up more than our concept of biblical worship. It is not acceptable for worship pastors to blindly lead their congregations into the abyss of idolatry and emotional relativism.

In many churches, worship leaders inadvertently train the church to believe that music ushers in the presence of God or that the presence of God is measured by the depth of emotional response brought on by the music. Because of our passion for the arts, we have raised the level of music to such high stature that it’s revered and enjoyed more than our God to whom it is being offered. This is a serious matter. This is idolatry. I love music. It is a beautiful gift from God, but when the creation not the Creator becomes the focus, we are in sin. Think about what happened in Exodus 32. God’s people took the beautiful gold that God created and turned it into a golden calf that they gave a higher place to than the Creator. It became their idol. Music has no magical or spiritual power by itself. Remember it is only a tool. Music is a tool used to direct our hearts and minds to the character of God, not a force which directs the power of God into our presence. As Christ-followers we must always remember that it is not because of anything except the power of the blood of Jesus Christ that we live in his presence. We all must pray that the Holy Spirit will direct our worship toward God and not his creation. Enjoy music. Offer it up to God in with reckless abandon in worship, but understand it for what it is. Test yourself within corporate worship. Is the music your focus or is God?

A couple of weeks ago Jon Goings and I had the opportunity to attend the Resurgence Continuous Worship Conference at Mars Hill Church in Seattle. This was an amazing conference. I’m still trying to get my brain around everything I learned during the two short days. It was the first worship conference that I’ve gone to which dealt specifically with the theology of worship instead of the “how to” of worship programming. The lack of emphasis on theological training within the worship leading training circuit is sad. I think it is representative of what is happening regarding worship within church culture.

My frustration is that I haven’t begun to cover all I would like in this short format. I’ve only briefly talked about idolatry in corporate worship. For a much more in depth discussion of true worship, I strongly recommend that you read the book Unceasing Worship by Harold Best. This book is a must read for any Christ-follower searching for a deeper relationship with Christ.

—Pastor Dennis

Stale Fish Saran Wrap

A couple of years ago Sue gave me tickets to a motocross freestyle event in Dallas. I’ve never felt more loved. She looked deeply into my soul and found a birthday gift only a wife who is tuned into the passions of her man’s heart could find. We headed down to Dallas for the spectacle that is freestyle motocross. My expectations were high. As the live metal band kicked into its ear shattering set the energy of the stadium was crazy. Then the two hour onslaught of Nac Nacs, Lazyboys, Stale Fish Saran Wraps, Cordovas, McMetzes, and No Footed Back Flips began. It was electric. It was way beyond my expectations.

God has really been dealing in my heart about how flippantly we spend time in His presence. How can we come into His presence, whether in our daily relationship with Him or when we come to church, completely void of any awe or reverence of God’s power and holiness? I know this seems like a big leap from motofreestyle, but hang with me. I was reading accounts of different people in the Bible who came into the presence of God. Isaiah immediately was overwhelmed by his filth and unholiness before a holy, powerful God. Moses was filled with fear and hid his face when God spoke to him in a burning bush. The man whose name would be changed to Paul was blinded by God’s presence. John fell as if dead. Why is it that I can watch a guy on a motorcycle do a “Kiss of Death” across a 90 foot gap and feel like I can die a completed man, but when I open up the living breathing Word of God I give it the same respect as the sports section of the newspaper. How can I scream like a lunatic in a stadium packed with rednecks and stand in the presence of God with my church family and act like I’m in high school detention?

I believe many of our issues stem from extremely low expectations. I want to challenge us all to think honestly about how we approach God. What do you expect when you open up the Bible? Are you looking for God to speak to you from His living, breathing Word? Are you searching for the answers to your life? Do you expect to be challenged – to be changed? 2 Timothy 3:16 says, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” When you pray do you really think of it as speaking to Holy God and Creator of the universe? Do you believe it makes any difference if you pray or not? James 5:16 says, “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” When you go to church what do you expect - to be entertained, see friends or do you wonder why you are even there? Read I Kings 8. How did Solomon feel about church?

We are allowed to get a glimpse of the glory of God. Think about what that means. How crazy is it that we have a relationship with immortal, omniscient, omnipresent, all powerful, all loving God and we cavalierly prance through the ritual because that’s what we do to be religious. How we approach God says so much about our relationship with Him. Empty ritual may help us feel better about ourselves because we are able to check it off the Christian “to-do” list, but it is an empty sacrifice to God – a stench in His nostrils. I’m convinced that if God would give us a small look at how we could live, we would be appalled by our current existence. Enough of empty rituals, it’s time to seek God and actually believe we will find him.

--Pastor Dennis

Fall Worship

It’s hard to think about summer being almost over when your shoes melt to the pavement as soon as you step out of the door, but we’ll be sucking down s’mores and jumping in leaves before you know. I love this time of the year. As a pastor August and September are the most exhilarating months of the church calendar. Everyone begins making their pilgrimage back to church after much needed vacation, and you can see the wild resolve of a caged animal in the eyes of leadership. Aside from when LifePoint launched, I have never been more excited about a fall in my ministry life. I can’t wait to see what God has for LifePoint Church this year!

That being said, I want to share some of the things coming in the worship ministry. First, in October we will have auditions for anyone interested in playing or singing in the band. We are constantly looking for humble followers of Christ who want to use their talents to lead LifePoint Worship Experiences. If you or someone you know fits this description, don’t miss this audition. My goal is to add one more fully functioning band this year. We are close, but we need your help. In a couple of weeks, I will have more information available.

Next, I’m overwhelmed by the spiritual growth many leading in the worship ministry are experiencing. God is doing an amazing work among us. Several on the team have talked to me about what Christ is laying on their hearts. I believe in this next year we will see an all new level of leadership, creativity and collaboration. I look forward to the original creative expression coming from our people.

Third, we will be shaking the format of the services up a bit. We won’t lock ourselves into the present order of service. I look forward to exploring some Biblical themes in worship that are many times ignored in church settings. We will also move Lord’s Supper and baptism from Celebrate LifePoint to our Sunday morning Worship Experience.

Finally, we are going to ramp up our training for every Christ follower at LifePoint to be a worshipper, servant, disciple and missioner. What does that mean for the worship ministry at LPC? We are going to take a very active, planned approach to teaching what true worship is. This is huge. Everything from Worship Experience and Community Group to children, youth and adult ministries will be affected.

I want to challenge you as a Christ follower to join what God is doing at LifePoint Church. Don’t hold anything back. Make serving and attending a priority. Don’t come on Sundays to observe. Engage! Jump in and get some dirt under your nails by serving. Ask God to show you how He wants to use you. Build relationships with friends and neighbors. Cry out to God to lay a burden for the lost on your heart. Don’t be satisfied with mediocrity in your relationship with Christ. I fully believe that God is going to use LifePoint Church to a degree we never dreamed possible. Come join us!

--Pastor Dennis

Tension and Release

In music we talk a lot about tension and release. What makes harmonic consonance so sweet – dissonance. What makes rhythmic order energizing – tempo rubato. Why does the tonic chord in a progression feel right – the dominant chord preceding it. Without tension and release power ballads would never have risen to greatness in 80’s hair bands. Listen to the prelude to Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, Duke Ellington’s Mood Indigo or Pink Floyd’s Hey You. The masters know how to push tension to the perfect place. Too far and you drive away the listener. Not far enough and you rob the listener of the pay off.

Life is tension and release. We most appreciate the things for which we have worked the hardest. We celebrate joy more deeply because we have felt pain. Many times our deepest growth in relationship with Christ comes from crying out to God when we’ve been humbled. God’s sovereignty ultimately controls the tension and release in our lives. The Master knows our breaking point. He is profoundly attuned to what the release will bring to our life. Trusting God’s sovereignty is not always easy, but whether we like it or not God is in control. Ecclesiastes 7:13-14 says, “Consider the work of God: who can make straight what he has made crooked? In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may not find out anything that will be after him” I want to know and control what’s coming next so I can stop any unwanted occurrences. In music predictability can kill the release. God in His wisdom hides the future, freeing us to live by faith. When we are in the center of pain, our faith in Christ strengthens us. Don’t confuse faith with emotion. Satan uses emotion to convince us that God has abandoned us or doesn’t love us, but in the midst of these lies, faith screams out, “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you." (Deuteronomy 31:6) Faith does not release us when we are through the tension. God holds on to us and walks us into the sweetest part of the song. He takes the excruciating circumstances that Satan wants wasted and instead uses them to help you minister to others in pain. In Galatians 5:5-6 it says, “But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” It is in expressing love for others that a Christ-follower turns heartache into happiness; grief into purpose.

The wisdom of God never ceases to amaze me. He could have made salvation erase all pain, heartache and struggles on this earth. Instead He uses the tensions in our life to focus our relationship with Him releasing us into the joy that comes from loving others. We serve a masterful Composer.

--Pastor Dennis

Warning--Exposure to the Son May Prevent Burning

Church sign messages – we’ve all driven by these thought provoking nuggets of literary genius. They cut deeply into our very souls with the sharp instruments of puns and word play. I’m sure you’ve seen the cars pulled off the road and people repenting of their sinful ways at the base of these beacons of theology. My sarcasm may be lost on this written page. There are not many things that irritate me more than church sign messages. You can ask my wife, Sue. She knows if we pass one, the next 15 minutes of drive time will be filled with my rants. She now despises these signs because they cut into our quality “together” time.

I realize this is a personal issue that I need to work through in therapy and alone time, but it brings to mind a question, “How do you present God to those around you?” God has given us the opportunity to be a part of His master plan. He uses us to spread His Gospel and show His love to others. This is not something to be taken lightly. The Gospel of Christ is the most powerful, life altering message on this planet. The message is not the issue. The problem lies in the method. We live in a culture overrun by information. In the Ozarks we are saturated with “religion”. One of the things I fear is that in spending so much time with other Christ-followers that we begin to operate with a “church sign” mentality – speaking in religious clichés and living completely out of touch with the real world. People can smell the ‘limburger’ a mile away. Don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying give up Godly relationships and begin living in sin so we fit in with the world. I’m saying peel away the layers of false religious perfection and be real. It’s easy to assume that the only way we can help someone who needs Christ is for them to see us as having it all together. What they need to see is what Christ can do with a messed up life. I’ll be honest, I constantly struggle with this. I’m a minister. Shouldn’t people see me as a perfect example of godliness? Don’t people expect me to speak in King James English and advanced churchese? People shouldn’t know about my struggles. I can’t be seen hanging out in ‘those’ places with ‘those’ people. I work in an unusual microcosm of amazing people who love Christ. My coworkers are all Christians. I spend most of my time with Christians. I’m certainly not complaining. I’m extremely blessed, but I am more and more convicted about getting myself out among those who need Christ. I must make a conscious effort to make relationships with people outside of the church circle. They need to see me as a normal guy who has a supernatural God, not a supernatural guy with a normal god.

Church signs irritate me so much for this simple reason - they are put out under the guise of impacting the lost for Christ when, in reality, they are used for the amusement of other Christians. Take some time this week to examine how you live in this culture. Are you more concerned about keeping up appearances for Christians or leading a lost world to Christ? Listen to these powerful words from a church sign near you, “God loves everyone, but prefers fruits of the spirit over religious nuts!”

--Pastor Dennis

Ice Road Truckers

I’m strangely drawn to reality shows in which people’s lives are put into extreme jeopardy. I’m not sure what that says about me. I guess I feel if you are going to receive fame and fortune for having a camera follow you around, you should at least have to risk your own life. So until Paris Hilton jumps over train on a 4 wheeler while performing a perfect back flip, The Simple Life will not be on my DVR recording schedule. However, Ice Road Truckers is a “do not miss”. These guys are nuts. I feel like I’m more of a man just having sat down with my bag of Doritos and Diet Coke and watched these guys do something nobody else is crazy enough to do – haul enormous loads, hundreds of miles across a frozen lake at the arctic circle in negative 60 degree weather. They don’t use chains. The ice road cracks and moves under the weight of these fully loaded semis. The drivers go days without sleep. If they hit a weak patch their life is over. In seconds the ice freezes back over the hole in which they just descended, sealing them in a frozen sarcophagus. Why would anyone take that kind of risk? I believe they have an innate desire to push themselves beyond their breaking point. They feel the only way to know where the end of their rope is, is to go beyond it. What others see as risking life they see as living it.

When was the last time you really lived your life in Christ. I mean living beyond your own abilities, being uncomfortable. Think about this. If you weren’t a Christ follower would your life look any different than it does now? Look honestly. Go beyond moral decisions, past the things you avoid because as a Christ-follower you’re not “allowed” to do them. I’m talking about living your life in Christ instead of living it in you. The world is full of Christians doing just enough to get by. Where in the New Testament does God call us to mediocrity? Many are looking for what they can get from God not what they can give. We live in the day of the “self-help” TV evangelist. Their books line the shelves of Christian book stores everywhere. They sing the siren call of “be a better you”. Quite frankly I don’t want the world to see a better me, I want the world to see Christ lived out in me. There is a big difference. Why are we looking for improvement when what we need is transformation? Spend some time in the Word studying how Christ lived on this earth. How did the Apostles live? This is how we are to live. Forget about the miserable cold. We aren’t called to comfort. Throw out the fear of a massive ice break. Live by faith. Work through the sleep deprivation. Our time on this earth is short. Driving a fully loaded truck across a frozen lake at negative 60 is a choice. It requires action. Put down the Doritos and Diet Coke. At the end of our rope is God’s hand pulling us to something much greater!

--Pastor Dennis