This summer, our team headed to Ecclesia Church to run a powerful time of refreshment and equipping at Heart of Worship! Joining our team in Kyiv was our new friend Marcus Janzen from Flame of Fire, based in Sacramento, CA, to speak at sessions geared toward leading people into an encounter with the Father's heart. The goal of this school is to equip attendees to lead others into God’s presence from the place of his fullness. So, for three days, we gathered together to quiet ourselves in his presence and receive a fresh touch from the Holy Spirit.
The pastoral team was fully hands-on to make this event happen. The whole worship and stage production team was given time off to attend this as a team retreat. Each session underlined our identity in Christ, with an added emphasis on developing a hidden lifestyle of continually growing devotion to God. Throughout each session and each day that followed, Jesus showed up. He powerfully and tenderly transformed our hearts.
The following session topics included:
- Entering the Holiest place
- Foundations of Worship
- Creating a culture of worship
- Purity in worship
- Having freedom to worship/ destroying idols
- Jesus and the people of God: a community in worship
- Hosting the presence of God
Why do we do this?
If what the Scripture says is true, then there must be more than we have experienced. Jesus promised that his followers would do greater works than those he did. He even promised that what we ask for in his name, we will receive. But even more importantly, he said we can really know him (Luke 10:22). With these words, Jesus beckons us to himself to taste of his reality. Even with such a vast promise before us, one can lose its fullness if we miss the elementary basis for what salvation offers: We were saved by God, for God. Once we are with him, we can join him in doing his works alongside.
There is so much more to have in the life we have in Christ, yet the very reason why these "greater things" he calls us to are so great is because they emulate him (John 14:12).
“'Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.'"
I will take it a step further. Heaven is such a great place because God is there. All that is extraordinary and awesome is so because it reflects in varying degrees the nature and attributes of God. So efficacious is creation's (i.e., heaven and earth) message that the Apostle Paul points out that no person holds a worthy excuse for having shut their ears to what nature tells of the divine. It whispers to inquirers of the deeper world of the meaning of truth. God's handiwork is a stentorian proclamation calling us to decipher, to look and perceive, to believe and understand, that everything has come by virtue of his Logos. Heaven will simply be the climactic and eternal flower, untainted by the virus of the Fall. But the essence of this life, it is here with us now. Jesus Christ truly is altogether present, the spiritually tangible "hope of glory" (Col 1:27).
Our sessions included times of teaching, practical workshops, spontaneous singing, and evening worship burns
These realities are inadequately known by words that can be told. Much more can be experienced than is cognitively comprehended and articulated. In fact, it is someone's experience of revelation that inspires them to pursue understanding. Anselm of Canterbury famously described this as "faith seeking understanding." This is the underpinning of all theological endeavor that would aspire to describe itself as a form of worship (to love God with "all of your heart, soul, and mind"). What this means is that even when we have not yet acquired all there is to know about God, when we have piles of questions, and when we wish we knew "why," we can still be certain that we have come to "know God."
This is why, in our missional pursuit to raise up a generation of devoted lovers of Jesus, we pursue the discovery of worship's true meaning. If worship becomes an art form and does not reach beyond the veil, we have lost everything. Unfortunately, with the heavy demands for recognition, metrics, and, yes, sadly, even competition with other local churches, the stage setup has been left looking stunning while the heart begs for another. When worship becomes a swamp of production-quality measures, the heart of man drifts cold in the dimming of the lights.
So, what needs to happen to bring real, substantial change to in this present age of the church? The answer lies in the hidden space beyond the doors of a person's interior life. Even if musical talent is underdeveloped, when God's Spirit enters the room, little attention is given to the group on stage. This is what the worship experience is meant to be– God wants to meet us.
This ache for more grew into pangs that ultimately birthed "Heart of Worship." The goal of this conference is to lead people into a transforming encounter with the Father’s love. Our format for running the school usually (with exceptions) entails a more private, personal setting, so that the majority of attendees are from the same church or are close friends of the hosting church. In that way, when we go deep, we can catalyze something real that lasts beyond the event itself to be fostered onward within an existing community. We are after the fruit that remains.
This is in the making
We are getting ready for this Fall to head to Praise Church in Odessa to run Heart of Worship. We have seen the fruit that has already come from other churches, and we are expecting his power and grace to show up again, bringing transformation and a greater level of love and ministry unto the Lord.
Please pray for us as we gear up for a full next couple of months, with growing ministries, schools, and trips! God is doing an amazing thing here, and we are blessed by God to have such a supportive community like you in the Lord. Together we will see the Lamb receive the reward of his sufferings the the nations of the world.
May the light of Jesus's face shine upon you always ❤️🔥
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