Not a Camouflaged Soul

Category: Faith

  • Apologizing for the Holy Spirit

    I am sitting in the sound booth at church, furiously babysitting the CD burner. I’m making rehearsal CDs for the choir of our Christmas musical.

    I’m thinking about outreach. We had a good turnout last night for GROW (God Rewards Our Work, for the uninitiated).

    As we always do, we prayed before we went out. I led the prayer last night, asking God to bless us and for the Holy Spirit to work ahead of us, preparing us for the visits we were about to make and for the hearts of the people we were visiting to be open.

    And off we went.

    The family my partner and I went to see were not home. Same thing happened to another team.

    Then I got to thinking.

    When that happens, I have made it my practice in the past to apologize to folks for them having to come out without finding people at home.

    Did I mean what I prayed?

    Didn’t I pray for the Holy Spirit to guide us in our visits? Was I sincere in my desire for Him to work ahead of us as we ventured out? For what was I apologizing?

    I often forget (read, ignore) the fact that God knows best. For whatever reason, we weren’t supposed to see those people last night. If we were, they would have been home.

    So, GROWers… if I apologize to you in the future like that… don’t accept it.

  • Star Mic

    I had a meeting the other day with a company that could potentially be doing some work on our sound system at church. I love that kind of stuff. Mixing boards, amplifiers, line arrays, wiring. I enjoy discussing the particulars that make live sound happen.

    But I heard a term that I had never heard before.

    The rep from the company was showing me the layout of a digital mixer that has color-coded LCDs above each fader to indicate what kind of channel that fader was controlling. As he continued, he mentioned that the board operator might choose to make the “star mic” red so that it could be identified quickly.

    “Star mic?”

    He explained that “star mic” is soundguy speak for the microphone that is featured most prominently in the mix. The one mic that is heard above everything else.

    Then it hit me. MY mic is the “star mic” at our church.

    Whoa.

    When I use that mic, I had better be making Jesus Christ the star.

    If you are reading this as a pastor, music pastor, someone who sings specials or on a praise team, or gets up in front of anyone at all (even without a mic), you and I need to focus the attentions of those with whom we communicate on the One that alone deserves all glory, honor, and praise. Anything less is prideful.

    I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I can do NOTHING without the power of the Holy Spirit within me. The instant that I believe I can manage without Him is the instant I doubt His power to work within me. Further, it is the moment that my natural propensity to rely on my own abilities renders me ineffective.

    There is only ONE real star. And He needs no amplification.

  • Botched Prayer

    Have you ever really botched a public prayer? I did this past Sunday.

    A few minutes before Morning Worship starts, I get the choir together in the choir room to warm-up on the song for the day. Then I pray and we walk out to the platform.

    This particular prayer did NOT come out the way I intended. I started out OK, but by the end I had to correct myself. Somehow, I ended up asking God to save people “if it be Your will.” OOPS! Obviously, it IS God’s will for people to be saved, otherwise the entirety of the Gospel was a COLOSSAL misstep. I corrected myself, and, not knowing what else to say, I said, “AMEN!”

    All my choir members indicated that they understood, but it was still kinda funny.

    Have you ever had a Public Prayer Incident? How did you recover?