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Earlier this year I was preparing for a sermon series and, as often happens, found I needed to ask God some questions about myself in order to have any integrity when finally communicating the messages. Being a simple musician at heart, God stooped to my level and planted some music themed ideas in my head.

Since I delivered the series a few people have found this imagery of the church and their place in it helpful, so here it is:

God is the worlds Music Director. He wants music to be played that inspires people to relate to Him. He gave musical gifts to everybody, including an instrument to play and a genre that suited them. He then appointed orchestra conductors around the globe; often many in one city, town or village. Each orchestra conductor had a different genre or musical flavour and it was their job to form an orchestra and shape it in such a way that it enjoyed the music it played and its genre was attractive and accessible to the public.

The music made is a collaboration of God-gifted musicians, God chosen conductors and God-inspired genres.

Here are some points to chew over:

• The Orchestra Conductor (pastor) has no say in the giftedness of the musicians (followers) – God reserves this for Himself.
• The Orchestra Conductor will enjoy a different genre from other conductors in the same city, it’s just God’s love of variety and His wisdom in ensuring there’s something for everyone.
• The musicians in any one orchestra (church) should be drawn to the clear genre (flavour) of the conductor.
• The musicians who want to play in the public performances need to be committed to practising at home (devotions) and orchestra rehearsals (discipleship).

I guess lots more can be drawn from this and to be fait it’s probably not half as good as the image of the body given by the Apostle Paul in scripture, but hey, it worked for me.

God bless.

the revster.

As I was leaving the venue after leading my final youth meeting as Youth Pastor, I was chased down by a young man who wanted to pray for me. Jamie layed his hands on me and prayed a passionate and powerful prayer. Jamie had Downs Syndrome but if anything, his condition allowed him to switch into the Holy Spirit’s wavelengths and speak very prophetically in very simple terms. One such example is when, during a ministry time he took the platform and said to the worshippers, “If you don’t have a dream, you can never have a dream come true”. Not original, but it was timely and poignant.

I like to think that since that time, around seven years ago, I and many of the church family around me have become more accomplished at dreaming big dreams and nurturing expansive visions. These kinds of words are now a natural part of our vocabulary and some people have witnessed their Godly dreams come to pass. Yet, many good and faithful people haven’t and have even given up on their dreams.

I was fascinated to read a newspaper article by the film director Ken Russell in which he quoted a fellow New York based director Marshall Mason. “Most people in the world have a dream”, Mason says, “But New Yorkers have the guts, drive and pizzazz to make that dream come true.” The quote of course is greatly exaggerated, but does highlight correctly the positivity and ambition of many New Yorkers as well as their tireless energy in the pursuit of their goals.

“New Yorkers have the guts, drive and pizzazz to make that dream come true.”

Now “guts”, “drive” and “pizzazz” are not the most spiritual of words but there is something about them which sits very comfortably with the encouragment of the bible for followers of Jesus to advance His kingdom. For “guts” substitute, “God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self‑discipline (2 Tim 1:7)”. For “drive” try “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me (Phil 3:12).” Finally for “pizzazz”, how about, “So I pray that God, who gives you hope, will keep you happy and full of peace as you believe in him. May you overflow with hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. (Rom 15:13)”

The Bible never discourages believers having “ambition”, rather warns us only against “selfish ambition”. So if you have a godly dream then be ambitious about it and add some New York flavour to your pursuit of it with a bit of guts, drive and the Holy Spirit’s pizzazz.

therevster