Earlier this year, I was riding in the car with a friend who is a native of South Africa, and I got curious if he knew any of the songs from the movie Invictus, so I turned on the soundtrack. He knew and responded to a few of them, but there was one that really got him emotional—he tried to sing along and started to choke up. I figured that it must be a really profound or sad song, so I asked what it was about, and he said, “It’s just about when they brought trains to the African plains.” I chuckled a little at the fact that a simple folk song would touch him so deeply, but later, I realized why that happened: because for him, it was one of the songs of home.

I love it when I see Christians experience the same thing as we sing about Heaven — our home with the God whom we love. Our hymns about Heaven are not all of equal writing quality or depth of thought, but  even the simple ones often still get to us. And I think that the reason is because they are our songs of home. We, like my South African friend who now lives in Arkansas, are citizens of two places at the same time; people who can feel at home in two places, but only fully at home in one of those places. And the songs of home draw our hearts toward where they belong.

So, “sing to me of heaven,” brothers and sisters, and may those songs draw us closer and closer to our Father’s heart. And if we all get a little emotional when we hear those songs, I’d say we’re all the better for it.

- Dan Lankford, minister

Relevance. A handful of years ago, that was all that evangelicals seemed to talk about when it came to what they were looking for in a church. One side of the aisle were focused on “making church relevant,” by which they meant making it feel like something fun and exhilarating and definitively not church-y. On the other side were those who rebelled against that idea by refusing to preach and teach in ways that had emotional impact or met daily-life needs, because they saw the other side’s efforts toward “relevance” as frivolous and phony and therefore unspiritual.

While one of those impulses leans in a slightly more biblical direction, the reality is that neither is wholly correct. Both are reactionary—a rebellion against someone else’s problems by going in the extreme opposite direction, only to create a new problem. When we react to people like that, the pendulum just swings back and forth between opposing problems. So what’s the solution? It’s that we stop reacting to people’s problems and instead respond to God’s wisdom.

And this is where we find a solution to the challenges with “relevance” in church. God said that his word “is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hb. 4:12). It doesn’t need to be made relevant. It already is. If we preach and teach it rightly, then we will easily see its impact on our lives. And the impact of true, sincere worship will be felt among any group that offers that (cf. 1 Cr. 14:24-25). Put those together, and we’ll find that we automatically have a church where the impact is truly relevant in every generation.

On the other side of the coin, it’s not wise for us to only give discourses on the Bible’s literary design, it’s ancient cultural significance, and its philosophical value while neglecting to teach how it impacts our lives, our thoughts, our speech, and our relationships. There must be a proper balance, guided by the Spirit in the fullness of the spoken word, by which we lead one another into “all the truth” (Jn. 16:13).

So we need not make the things of God relevant since they already are, and we dare not make them irrelevant and stand in the way of God’s life-giving power. In everything we do, we ought to speak “the oracles of God” in their fullness, both for information and transformation. The ways of God are eternally righteous and wise, giving guidance to us in this era as they do in every era.

- Dan Lankford, minister

“Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching.” (1 Tm. 4:13)

Have you ever noticed how it seems like people are always reading aloud to kids, but that it happens a lot less for grown-ups? As we grow, we become less accustomed to hearing stories, poems, and speeches read to us. We hear lines in plays and shows and movies, we hear song lyrics, and we hear people make presentations or speeches… but it’s much rarer that we hear someone read to us. I find that this is also true of the Bible. Whereas historical church gatherings were characterized by lengthy, thoughtful, well-practiced readings of holy scripture, modern church assemblies typically feature few readings, and usually only short ones. We typically give much more time and attention to someone’s commentary on a passage than on the text itself. The reason for this has typically been chalked up to people’s short attention spans, but surely when it comes to God’s own words, we can do at least a little bit better.

So how can we improve our general attentiveness to God’s words? I believe that it starts with better public readings. So, here are some tips for the men—both young and old—who read in our assemblies:

• Read the text beforehand so that nothing about it catches you off-guard. Especially if it has difficult words or difficult names, think ahead and be ready for those so that you don’t fumble them.
• Know what the main events are in the narrative or what the main points are in a discourse. Make a mental note if the passage is building one point upon another, contrasting two ideas, or has a growing intensity as it builds to its final point. In a narrative, notice what the most significant events are, when the story takes a surprise turn, or when the speed of the story accelerates and decelerates.
• Let your voice reflect the feeling that accompanies each of those things. If a text is sweet and inviting, speak it with the gentleness that reflects that. If it’s a reprimand, let your voice reflect the sternness. If it’s a joyful concept, let the joy be felt in your tone. If it’s angry, let the anger be felt. Don’t be overly theatrical or dramatic, as it tends to cause the hearers to tune out. But a little emotional awareness goes a long way.
• Do your best to read a text in such a way that its most basic meaning will not need to be explained when you’re done. I’ve often laughed when listening to my old sermons where I read a story from the Bible, then immediately felt the need to tell the story again. I’ve since realized that if I read the story well enough, my audience will catch its meaning. When all is read and done, your audience should also understand what God says on the first pass.

In our assembly on March 31, four whole chapters of the Gospel of John were read aloud, and they were meaningful all on their own, with little to no extra commentary. That can be the case with passages from all over the Bible as long as we take the time to prepare ourselves and we put in the effort to read God’s words well. Let’s take Paul’s advice to Timothy as a guide for ourselves, and ‘devote ourselves to the public reading of Scripture.’

- Dan Lankford, minister

Have you ever considered what would happen if a celebrity came to a church service here? Obviously, “celebrity” status is a relative idea nowadays because of different generations’ different levels of attachment to certain public figures. But how would we all react if whoever you think of as a famous personality attended one of these assemblies with us some Sunday? Would we be nervous about what they would think of our “unusual” ways in worship? Would we try to do all of worship activities just a little better than usual so they would see the best version of it? Would we go out of our way to dote upon them in some special way that we don’t do for the regulars?

Or would we simply welcome them into this place and let them see how things are among people who authentically worship God? Would we be comfortable doing what we typically do, knowing that when it is sincerely focused on God, it is perpetually the right thing to do?

Don't get me wrong: I’m not saying that there’s no room for specialness in what we do. On the contrary, I’m saying that we shouldn’t feel the need of any unique behaviors that focus on a guest because we understand the specialness that is always part of our assemblies as we focus on God.

Every time we come together, we bless the high and holy God who created the world and everything in it, who measures the universe with the span of his hand, and who gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him might have eternal life. If there would be a need for increased specialness because of a human visitor, then let’s go ahead and enact that today! Because God is here with us, and the people around us are his people. We are already in the company of persons with far greater gravity than any human celebrity could dream of having.

Let’s give the very best fruit of our lips as a sacrifice of praise (Heb. 13:15) to God for his indescribable greatness and splendor.

- Dan Lankford, minister

Checklists help pilots safely run takeoffs and landings, they help wedding planners see to every detail of their events, and they help tax pros cross every t and dot every i on our returns so that we don’t have to pay any more than is absolutely necessary. They just help us to make sure that we are completely engaged with what we’re doing; ideally preventing us from missing an important component of an important activity.

So, here’s a checklist to help us with Sundays. Here are a few reminders that can help us make the most of this important part of life.

Before church time:

• Pray. Pray for God to help us truly worship and truly learn.
• Read. Open your mind and your Bible to hear God speak. Look ahead at Bible class materials and be ready to participate in classes (and make sure your kids do so too).
• Give. Purpose ahead of time how much you will give to the work, remembering what it’s for: Helping needy saints and supporting the eternally important work of preaching.

At a service:

• Introduce yourself to a new member or a guest.
• Encourage someone who led part of the worship service.
• Talk to a kid or a senior saint who might otherwise be overlooked.
• Encourage an elder and/or a deacon.
• Invite someone to share a meal with you — either at your house or out at a restaurant.
• Look at the lobby board and find a way that you can volunteer or help.

Imagine if we all did these things every Sunday. How would our relationships with each other and our love for God be better?

Let’s find out :)

- Dan Lankford, minister. Special thanks to my wife, Kaitlin, for providing the main idea of this post.

Our prayers reveal what's truly in our hearts, whether they’re said publicly or privately. And I’m afraid that sometimes, the small prayers that we offer show that our faith in God is smaller than it should be. Maybe we need to pray bigger.

I was once in a service when the only prayer offered before Bible class was, "Father, help [our brother] to present the things that he wants to present this evening.” Can you see an issue there? That's different than praying for a teacher to have a ready recollection of the things that he's prepared, and it's very different than praying, "Father, help our brother present the things that you would want him to say." Both of those are things that we should want: We should want a brother to speak for God (that's what teaching a Bible class is, after all) and to have the things of God so fixed in his mind that he can recall them and speak them skillfully. We ought to be asking God for his will to be done and his words to be spoken—not simply what we want to present.

When that’s the prayer that we offer, it can sound like we're mostly interested in the speaker making a successful presentation. But 1) God can use unsuccessful presenters to speak his words (see Ex. 4:10, 2 Cor. 10:10), and 2) a class or sermon shouldn't be about what the speaker wants to say anyway. If we want to hear from God, let's pray to hear from God. Because if all that we pray for is for the speaker to speak his own ideas well, that's probably all that we'll end up with — a good presentation of the speaker's ideas, but not the words of God.

Consider two pieces of advice for how we think about our assemblies and about prayer:

1. Remember that Bible classes and sermons are more than presentations—they are occasions for God's people to hear God speak. Ezra read from the words of God and gave the sense, and Paul told Timothy & Titus to speak to people as though they were speaking God's oracles. None of them prayed for opportunities to say what they wanted to say — they spoke for God. The Bible classes and sermons given in a congregation are categorically NOT tests of a man's presentation skills—they’re all about God.
2. Choose your words when you pray. Think about the nature of our gathering in God's presence, and pray accordingly. I feel confident that David would not have prayed merely for correct notes and good voices for the worship leaders at the temple—he wanted them to be skilled in leading the hearts of the people toward God himself. We ought to want the same thing when we read and expound God's word. So let's pray for what we really [should] want to happen at our gatherings: that God would be glorified by a group of people whose hearts hunger to know him and his words.

- Dan Lankford, minister

"The Power of And." It's the simple reminder that while life often seems to present us with two opposing choices, we often have the ability to pursue both if we will give the requisite thought to doing it well. In manufacturing, companies think that they must choose whether to produce a quality product or to produce it quickly. In fitness, we are sometimes told that we have to choose whether to develop endurance or strength. In life and family, we think we have to choose whether to excel at work or excel as parents & spouses. But in all of those cases, there is a way to embrace both good things, as long as we use godly wisdom in trying to do them both well. It's the power of and; not the tyranny of or.

This simple principle should be applied to how we think about church. I find that many elders and preachers are more naturally inclined to thinking about the church in terms of its group behavior or in terms of the individual members who make it up. And while there's nothing wrong with those natural inclinations, we need to be aware of them so that we can deliberately open our eyes both aspects of church life. Because every congregation is individuals and a group.

This means that our group activities matter, and so they should be overseen by the leaders and engaged by the members. Worship assemblies, Bible classes, home devos, VBS and other special events, singing, worship leader training, and preaching... Church leaders should be eminently aware of how these things are going and how we are using them 1) to best glorify God, and 2) to maximize the spiritual benefit to the congregation.

AND...

It means that the individuals in a church matter. There is simply not enough religious activity to make up for a deficit of visiting orphans and widows. The extroverts need church fellowship, and the extroverts need church fellowship. Senior saints need to be visited and encouraged, and young folks need to be mentored and encouraged. Parents need someone to check on their parenting and their marriages. New Christians need well-guided Bible study. Engaged couples need Christian marital counseling. People with doubts need someone to shine the light on Scripture to answer those doubts. The socially awkward people in a congregation need friends, and the cool people in the congregation need friends. The rich and the poor both need reminders that Christ is our true treasure. And church leaders should be eminently aware of how all of those people's spiritual needs are being met.

Whether you are a leader in one of God's churches by position or simply by influence, don't pigeonhole your thinking into an emphasis on one or the other of these ideas. We should pay attention to the individuals in our church and to our group efforts. We serve God with both, and so we should serve him well with both.

- Dan Lankford, minister

"As soon as Solomon finished his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple. And the priests could not enter the house of the LORD, because the glory of the LORD filled the LORD'S house. When all the people of Israel saw the fire come down and the glory of the LORD on the temple, they bowed down with their faces to the ground on the pavement and worshiped and gave thanks to the LORD, saying, 'For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.'" (2 Chronicles 7:1-3, ESV)

I love that passage. It brings Israel an assurance that God's presence was among them and with them. In a way that noone living on that day could have ever witnessed before, God's presence physically appeared before them like he had done during the time of the Exodus. They saw and understood the glory of God, and they responded just like they should have: with worship.

Worship is all too easy to undervalue or to distort from its authentic purpose. It's too easy to lose sight of Who it's for and what its purpose is. It's easy to think that if we were present at a spectacle like the one from 2 Chronicles, then we would worhsip with minds and hearts lifted to a higher plane of spirituality.

But where is our faith when we think that way? Do we believe that God is with us when our churches assemble? Do we trust, even if we can't see it, that his people are his temple and that his temple is filled with his glory? Do we properly consider that he has chosen us from among all the nations and made us a people of his own special possession? Do we worship him authentically, even when there's no spectacle or when it feels like "there's nothing special going on"?

The people's words of worship in 2 Chronicles 7 are interesting. Because it's not that they respond to the fire and glory of YHWH by saying, "He is powerful and we are amazed at this incredible experience!" They understood that it isn't a spectacle that makes God great and worthy of worship; it's that "he is good, and his steadfast love endures forever." If that was why they worshiped him, then how much more should we proclaim his glory with passion and truth when we have seen his glory and goodness through the gift of his son?

- Dan Lankford, minister