My daughter, Bailey, is an old soul. She’s infatuated with all things vintage, from jewelry to furniture, and mostly old vinyl records. For her 16th birthday, we bought her a restored vintage stereo system with an old school Pioneer record player. And let me tell ya, it shakes the house! She enjoys some CCR, jams out to Dire Straits, and absolutely loves the Beatles.

Her favorite thing to do when she’s home alone is put on a record, turn the volume up to the max, and let the music start to move her. The majority of the albums in her collection are used, and every so often, there’s a blemish on the vinyl. We all know what that means, and it always seems to happen during the best part of the song! 

The saying “like a broken record” is a cringy reality when you’re trying to listen to your favorite jam. 

I absolutely loved the direction and heart of this year’s Summit – Answering The Call. This issue, along with many others in the local church seems to be broken. In all reality, the church isn’t broken. Just like Bailey’s favorite Beatles record isn’t broken. We just have to be wise enough to move the needle. 

I get it. As a pastor, many times it looks and feels like no one cares anymore. I hear phrases like “this place would be packed if…”, and I hear small group leaders disheartened from the lack of participation. I see kids and youth leaders giving up on the idea of “Church of tomorrow.” Where is everyone at?

Here are my thoughts. The Gospel isn’t broken. I truly believe that Christ is compelling the church not to throw up our hands and toss the record. There may be skips from time to time (things that aggravate us). Don’t change the record. Just reposition the needle. We also must not ignore the skip by acting like there’s not an issue. (Ya know, doing the same thing but expecting different results?)

In Mark 6, we read that the apostles are gathered around Jesus, reporting to Him all they’ve done and taught. Jesus must have been thinking, “Man, you haven’t seen anything yet!” Fast forward a few verses and the apostles were faced with a challenge: Hungry people with not enough to eat. No, I’m not talking about fellowship dinners here. I’m talking about real hungry people, and a ton of them! They were tired, it was late, and there was no food.They just couldn’t fathom where any food could come from.

Wait, didn’t they just finish bragging about all they had done and taught? The very men that were walking with Jesus wanted to send the hungry away. To them, the problem was bigger than the problem solver. In this moment, Jesus could have gotten angry at His men for “not getting it.” He could have said, “Ya know what? On second thought, I don’t want you to follow me.” In true Jesus fashion, He didn’t throw the record away, He just moved the needle. He completely changed the conversation with this command: “You give them something to eat.” In that moment, the Gospel wasn’t broken, but Jesus brought the Gospel to life! We can learn a couple things from this. 

Number One

Many leaders look at bigger churches and say things like “If I only had that worship team, or that small group… If we were older… If we were younger…”. You get it. Jesus didn’t wish there was enough to eat, and He didn’t wish His men were more faithful. In that moment, He used what He had. Some tired men, five loaves and two fish. God can use the young, the old, the tired, the strong. He can use one piano player, or no piano player! He can use an entire worship team, or someone that can barely carry a tune. It’s time for us to stop getting down about what we don’t have, start looking at what we do, and let the Holy Spirit work in that capacity! 

Number Two

Pray for what you don’t have. Jesus, after taking the five loaves and two fish, looked up to Heaven, gave thanks, and broke the loaves. The multitude ate until they were satisfied. We can get so hard hearted on what’s not going on in our church that we forget the simplest, yet most crucial thing: prayer. When we pray for God to stir hearts and to send teachers, singers, builders, preachers… God will supply! Why? Because the people are hungry and the only food that will sustain is the Bread of Life! On the outside, this was an overwhelming “bigger than life” moment. This was a skip; a blemish on the record. This skip allowed Jesus to have a conversation in real time, showing the apostles what the value of the album was. 

I believe that the beat of the Gospel message still has the power to feed the hungry soul and give living water to the thirsty. The Gospel record still has the power to move a soul from dead to alive. So I have one question: why would you change the record when you think it’s not working? Keep the record on, just move the needle.

About the Author: Mark McDowell is the pastor at Pleasant View GBC in Risco, Missouri. He describes himself as an average, ordinary guy who serves an extraordinary God. His mission in life is simple – Love Jesus, love people.

I have attended Providence General Baptist for almost 18 years now. My sisters and I joined the praise team not long after we started going there. We came from a small country church which I still love to this day. I grew up singing about “The Old Rugged Cross”, and how “The King is Coming”. Those songs still speak to my heart. In fact, we still incorporate those songs into each service.

But now, 18 years later and co-leading the praise band with one of my sisters, we have evolved and added contemporary praise music to our Sunday morning worship sets. I am a strong believer that we can change the method of delivery in terms of music (following respectable and biblically sound reasoning), but we cannot change the message. The message we believe is still about that merciful, loving Father who died on the cross to save us from our sins and rose again and continues to extend to us far more grace than we could every deserve. So how could it ever be difficult to praise a Heavenly Father who is so deserving?

My answer to that would be busyness. 

Google defines busyness as the state or condition of having a great deal to do.

In my case, it should say: “The state or condition you accidentally get yourself in by committing to too many things, even if out of the goodness of your heart; see also self-inflicted.”

I would love to tell you that I have learned to set my eyes on Jesus every second of every day, distraction free, and have weeded out the unnecessary of life. Yet here I am, at 10:54 pm on a Friday night, finishing putting my thoughts on paper. But I justify it in that my day was filled with good and wholesome things. I worked at my job where I do outreach in school, then I coached our high-school volleyball team where my oldest daughter plays as a senior, then I co-led praise band practice at church with my sister, pastor, and friends. Those are all good things, right?

So why do I feel guilty that I allowed busyness to rob my day of blessings? Because I wasn’t intentional about finding joy in every moment of the busy. If we are not careful, we can let even the “good-busy” distract us from our true purpose. 

Leading worship at a church is no small task. Our number one focus is to please God by allowing Him to work through us as we praise His name together and help usher in his presence. I admit, I must be careful not to let pleasing people become a priority as well. It is easy to be worried about messing up or who likes the songs. I’ve found myself picking songs based off how happy the congregation looked the last time we sang it.

While we do need to take their worship into consideration, I just remember that the goal is not just to help them have an experience. A worship experience feels good, but it is temporary. They leave and the emotional high fades away. It is simply an event. The goal is to help lead others into praising that will cause them to long for a relationship where worship is ongoing.

To do this, I must remember that this is not about me. It never has been, and it never will be. Leading worship is about glorifying Him above all.  I must trust that if I am doing His will and striving to follow His lead, that He will take care of the rest. When you allow yourself to come to a place where you play or sing as if it is only you and Jesus in the room you find a much deeper level of intimacy with Jesus Christ.

This has truly changed my life and my relationship with God. I still must find time for studying God’s word. Worship is wonderful, but we still need that biblical knowledge. We must stay fed and fill our cup in order to pour into others. 

Remember, the enemy is not going to leave you alone when you are trying to serve God. He attacks us so often on Sunday mornings that sometimes I must laugh to keep from crying. From the computer glitching to the piano player coming down with a cold and having to fill-in, you name it, it happens. Those are all very small things, yes, but when you’re trying to lead a congregation into serious worship of a Holy God, those small things are big interruptions.

Please hear me- do not let distractions steal purpose. 

As a wife and mom, I strive to be very careful not to become so distracted by life that I lose sight of Him. I know I talk a lot about being intentional, but that is what I am having to focus on. Serving with a joyful heart and not becoming overwhelmed by the weight of “have to”. If you allow serving the Lord to feel like a job you have to do, you allow the enemy to suck the joy out of it.

I want my children to grow up seeing mom and dad serve joyfully, even in the hard times. I am sure I fail daily, but I strive for them to see that setting your eyes on Jesus above all else truly does bring a peace that passes any earthly understanding. My husband and I intend to show our children that parents should have a mutual love and respect where the woman loves and serves her husband to biblical standards while the husband loves the wife as God loves the church. This takes a lot of forgiveness, grace, and being intentional in all we say and do. Doing these things honors God which is what we should all be reaching for. God Bless. 

About the Author: Rachel Gooch is a wife and mother of three girls who attend Providence General Baptist Church in Providence, Kentucky. She serves as a worship leader and co-leader of the junior high youth group, along with her wonderful husband. She has a degree in Elementary Education, grades K-5 and a degree in Special Education, grades K-12. She is also a Family Resource Coordinator in two elementary schools in her local school district while she pursues her masters as a Literacy Specialist.

I really enjoy my smartphone. There are so many ways this device can be helpful throughout the day. From the basics of texting and phone calls to an app for about any need, you might have. The most recent app discovery I have made is one that turns your phone into a scale. (I don’t know the point where you go from weighing something to crushing your phone, I’m sure that is all explained in the app.)

The thing with all these smartphone apps is that they are powered by the battery of the phone. I hate it when my phone runs out of battery before I run out of the day. I am constantly checking to see how many apps I have open. I try to close them as soon as I am finished with them because I don’t want the app to drain too much power from the battery. Each evening I am dutiful to plug in my phone so it is ready for the next day.

As I was swiping apps closed this week I found myself a little jealous of my smartphone. With a swipe of the finger, my phone forgets what it was thinking about. Unlike me, it doesn’t spend time worrying about what it might forget. With the swipe of a finger, it is done with that app, and on to the next thing. Many times at night, as I am unwinding from the day, I wish I could swipe away all the projects floating around in my head. My night of sleep might go easier if I could neatly put away the things I was working on until the next day.

In the Book of Matthew, Christ tells us this:
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? 28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not
much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Perhaps the most convicting line in this scripture is at the end…”tomorrow will worry about itself”. Tonight, as I lay my head down on my pillow, I will try to put that scripture into practice.

About the Author: Brian is husband to Dottie and father of two children (Emma 21; Nick 19). Brian has served as Executive Pastor at Real Life Church in Springfield, Il for 16 years. He has maintained a private counseling practice for over 20 years and has worked as a school psychologist for over 25 years. Outside of his work life, you might find him tinkering with old motors, spending time with his family, or fishing lakes and ponds.