Do you feel Adequate?

Posted on by Tanner Royalty

Have you ever listened to a Christian CD or gone to another ministry’s service and thought, “Holy cow, they are so talented. God is going to do great things through them.” Most of us probably have. I know in my own situation I love to watch “live” DVD’s of worship services produced by the major “mega” churches of our time. As a musician I am awestruck… each and every time. The sound is so clean and rehearsed, the cues and transitions are spot on, the production is incredible. It is inspiring. Often I even begin to compare myself and my ministry to the expectations set by these large-scale productions. I know in my situation it is SO easy for me to feel discouraged or inadequate in comparison to the things other ministers and ministries are doing around me. I observe the things they are doing and the things I am not. I notice the level of “professionalism” or excellence that I feel as if I can’t live up to. I hear stories of the Lord’s work within those churches, ministries, or organizations and feel absolutely inadequate. In reality, I’ve walked right into the trap the deceiver has laid out for me. Satan has a way of making kingdom work a competition… a comparison based off of worldly values, and we have a tendency to walk into the trap each and every time. Do you ever feel inadequate? Discouraged? How about competitive or envious? I do. I have. But… there is a way to fight back. Below I will give some things we can remind ourselves of when Satan is doing work on our spirit.

  • We can have a Biblical confidence in Christ.

So often in our churches we are reminded to stay humble… to keep our pride in check. Although this is absolutely necessary in the life a believer, I have found that I have the tendency to over compensate in the opposite direction and make myself feel inadequate to do the work the Lord has put in front of me. We have been “preached” at so much on the subject of pride that sometimes our first reaction to avoid it is to squash out any and all confidence we have. Don’t hear me wrong… pride is something we should fight…everyday. Any pride we have in ourselves is pride that has been misplaced. There is nothing wrong with being a confident person if our confidence is put in the right areas and focused on the right person. Either our confidence is ultimately in God or in ourselves. We consider one to be “faith” and the other to be arrogance. Let’s take a look at a misplaced confidence or pride in Daniel 4:28-37:

All this came upon King Nebuchadnezzar. At the end of twelve months he was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon, and the king answered and said, “Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?” While the words were still in the king’s mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, “O King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken: The kingdom has departed from you, and you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. And you shall be made to eat grass like an ox, and seven periods of time shall pass over you, until you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will.” Immediately the word was fulfilled against Nebuchadnezzar. He was driven from among men and ate grass like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hair grew as long as eagles’ feathers, and his nails were like birds’ claws. At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation; all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?” At the same time my reason returned to me, and for the glory of my kingdom, my majesty and splendor returned to me. My counselors and my lords sought me, and I was established in my kingdom, and still more greatness was added to me. Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, for all his works are right and his ways are just; and those who walk in pride he is able to humble.

In this passage King Nebuchadnezzar shifted his pride from God and His work and onto himself and paid the price for it, but was restored when he laid aside his pride and instead boasted in God with Godly confidence in the work of His hands. Misplaced pride is detrimental to the life of a believer. It will ruin you. That being said, a lack of Biblical confidence in and through Christ will also hinder you in your ministry. Be confident in Christ and His working through you. Phillipians 4:13 says, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”  Confidence isn’t always a feeling… it is a choice. We must choose to walk in confidence even when we are feeling inadequate. We do that by reminding ourselves that our confidence doesn’t have to depend on what we can and can’t do. Rather, our confidence is found in what God can do in us and through us. Godly confidence is an assurance not of one’s own ability but of God’s power working in and through His faithful and obedient children for His glory and not for our own. It is a boast not in man but in God, thereby giving Him all the glory. Feel inadequate? Develop a Biblical confidence.

  • Rejoice in the work of your brothers and sisters!

So often churches and ministries fall into the trap of competition. We must remember we are all on the same team and should be working together towards the same goal… not against each other. It is SO easy to succumb to the little green monster that lives inside all of us. Jealousy and envy are not helpful to the body of Christ. I constantly have to remind myself that God has placed people where He desires them to be and uses us all differently. Church isn’t a competition. We all do things differently… for a similar purpose! 1 Corinthians 12:14-27 says:

For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.

The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. Are you an eye? Be the best eye you can be. Are you an ear? Be an outstanding ear. God promises to work through His people, so we must remain faithful to Him and rejoice in the work taking pace around us to further His kingdom. Comparison is exhausting and a no-win situation! All we have to do is be the best version of ourselves as possible and trust that God will equip us to do whatever He’s asking of us. Don’t want to feel inadequate? Then don’t view God’s work through others as a direct comparison to God’s work through you. Instead, let’s stand beside our brothers and sisters in Christ and rejoice in the work God is doing through them… through us. We are all on the same team.

  • Excel and rejoice where God has placed you.

 At some point everyone is going to become discontent. Sometimes we may want to be someone else or to have another’s ministry. Satan deceives us by getting us to believe the lie that we will be happy if we just had what another has. The truth is, accomplishments and talents are not what makes us happy… true happiness is found in the Lord and the doing of His will. Ravi Zacharias writes in his book “Cries Of The Heart” that:

One of the most liberating moments in life is when we are able to accept ourselves as God has made us and are free from the shackles of trying to be someone we are not and were never meant to be. We then soar to be the unique personality God has given to each of us. (39-40)

God has created us ultimately to bring Him glory and we should be content and happy in doing that in the time and place that He has put us. Living our lives wishing we had something different means we miss out on the best God has for us. Want to feel fulfilled? Want to feel adequate? Then praise God for where He has put you and seek to Excel in the accomplishing of His will and plans for your life at this moment. God has not called us to be someone we are not, He has called us to simply be exactly who He has created us to be. Accept who you are and where you are. God has a will for your life and ministry and has provided a way. Seek it and excel.

Pray that God gives you Biblical confidence and keep your eyes on Him… He will take care of the rest.

Worship Leader or Worship Pastor: What are You?

Posted on by Tanner Royalty

Who has impacted your life the most? Your parent(s), a friend, a mentor? How did they do it? When thinking about these questions we will most likely all have something in common… the people who have and are impacting our lives the most do so on a personal level. We all have celebrity role models, whether they are movie stars, rock stars, or celebrity pastors/ authors is irrelevant, because these people can only do so much… they can instruct from a distance on an impersonal level but that is their limitation. What about the average blue collar guy who lives life beside us and speaks wisdom into our heads and hearts everyday.

What makes him special?

The thing that sets the important people around us apart from others is the personal interactions we share with them. They live life beside us… they are in the trenches beside us everyday. We know that when the going gets tough that they are the ones who will stand strong beside us through it all. They truly care. Did you catch that?

They truly care.

 Do you care? Do we as worship “pastors” care?

I found it interesting that the word pastor is derived from Latin where it literally means “shepherd” and relates to the Latin verb “pascere” which means, “to lead to pasture, set to grazing, cause to eat.” Shepherds in Biblical times lived amongst their flock. They consistently worked with them and taught them the best way to go. The sheep responded to the voice of their shepherd and trusted that he would not lead them astray. At night a shepherd would gather their flock into a pen or cave and sleep across the entrance in order to protect their sheep from predators that lurked around in the night. Shepherds cared for their sheep, and they demonstrated that caring by being there beside them and tending to their needs.

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me. -John 10:11-14

Are we being pastors? Are we being shepherds? If roles were reversed and you were in another person’s shoes would you trust YOUR “sheep” to you?

Here comes the hard question… How do you view your role in ministry?

Back in September of 2014 I had to answer that tough question myself. One day at Southern Seminary I found myself early for class and face-to-face with a wonderful professor who asked me that same question. It was tough. He said, “Tanner, you have all the right answers. You do all the right things… but, do you love your sheep?” Those simple words started a chain reaction and revolution of my thoughts towards “worship ministry.” You see, being a worship pastor isn’t just for those with exceptional musical talent. Being a worship pastor takes exactly that… being a pastor.

In my opinion a worship ministry is very limited without the presence of a pastoral figure. Hear me out! People may worship along with that ministry… individually, but without someone nurturing them, protecting them, and caring for them we truly are just giving them a song to sing. A pastor watches over his flock to see that they grow spiritually. A worship pastor wants to see his congregation and team grow as worshipers. The term “Worship Leader” seems to place the emphasis on leading a service (which we do). “Worship Pastor” takes the emphasis off of the service and places it onto the people… the sheep.

Do you lead the singing portion of the service or do you lead people?

We take our jobs seriously. We spend countless hours finding songs, reviewing songs, rehearsing songs, and leading our teams/ congregations. But… how much time do we invest in people? It’s about more than a song folks. I believe that it is time for us to focus less on the sound and more on the heart, less on our talents and abilities and more on the needs of our congregations, less on perfection and more on the motive. In the end, what we do should amount to more than 5-6 songs on a Sunday. We should be investing into the lives of those around us, shepherding them and impacting them on a personal level.

True discipleship and pastoring takes place up close… on a personal level.

Sheer musical talents and abilities won’t cut it. Let’s set out to be pastors together. We want to bring more than a song. Let us pray together for the compassion and patience it takes to shepherd God’s people. Let us pray for wisdom and the ability to carry each other’s burdens. Let us pray for sensitivity, and most importantly let us pray for change.

I will leave you with wise words from Proverbs 27:23. It says, “Know well the condition of your flocks, and give attention to your herds.”

Why is singing a “new song” essential to Christian worship?

Posted on by Tanner Royalty

Think of your favorite song…

Why is it your favorite? What kind of memories does that song bring along with it every time you hear it? Music has a way of creating and capturing moments in fewer words and simpler methods than any story teller could ever hope to do in their writing. Songs have an awesome way of conveying messages to sometimes unaware listeners that will stick with them longer than any sermon they will ever hear.

Thinking about the level of comfort that comes along with “old” and familiar songs makes me wonder why in Scripture we are commanded to sing “new” songs unto the Lord and not “old” or familiar songs. In fact, three Psalms start with the words, “sing to the Lord a new song” (Psalms 96, 98, and 149). Isaiah 42:10 says:

Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise from the end of the earth, you who go down to the sea, and all that fills it, the coastlands and their inhabitants.

Why such the emphasis on singing a “new” song… won’t any song of praise work?

Nowhere in Scripture do we find a command to sing “familiar” songs to the Lord… because we do that anyways. Human beings are creatures of comfort and we don’t need to be reminded to do things that we love. Does anyone have to tell you to drink your favorite refreshment or partake in your favorite activity? No! We enjoy that particular refreshment or activity and we naturally gravitate towards it. Singing and worship works in the same way. If we aren’t careful we can get stuck doing the same things and singing the same songs over and over again until they become bland or ritualistic. The Lord desires a “new” song and because of that desire we are reminded over and over again through Scripture.

Other than the Biblical commandment to do so, why is singing “new” songs essential to healthy corporate worship?

  • It creates a “freshness” in our worship.

Have you ever been in a rut? It’s a bad feeling that many of us know all too well. By devoting ourselves to finding, learning, and singing new songs we can help fight against ruts in our corporate worship lives. We have already established that songs capture times, moments, and memories within themselves and hopefully as we mature and advance in our walk with Christ we feel the need to create new memories and moments. New songs can capture new seasons of our church bodies lives and speak to particular situations that are around us currently. We all have those particular “go-to” songs that our congregations just love and have grasped on to, but I would like to encourage you to not go-to those songs so often. God presents new mercy and grace everyday and because of that we should offer up new praise and worship. With new songs comes a freshness in worship. I know that it is easier said than done, but a new song a month or every other week is a good way to get your congregations searching, learning, and seeking new music as well as creating new memories and moments that they will get to relive forever when they hear those particular songs.

  • It provides opportunity for an expansion of our worship vocabulary and library.

How many of us can quote more songs word-for-word than Bible passages? Unfortunately, I know that I can. Songs are memorable and contagious. We hear them, learn them, and memorize them without much effort. By continually playing the same songs we are just feeding that behavior and those words eventually begin to not carry as much weight as before. By introducing new songs we are introducing new material for our congregations to learn and think about without even meaning to! Let’s put new words, thoughts, and phrases in their minds to enable them to worship in new ways, with new words! I catch myself throughout the day humming or singing a particular section of a song without meaning to and I know that I am not alone. As worship pastors, leaders, and teams we should have a desire to place as much Biblical and Godly content into the heads of those around us as possible. What that ultimately comes down to is learning new songs. Let’s put forth an effort to finding solid songs and to teaching them to our congregations so that their worship libraries can be expanded for those times when their minds drift to musical content. Music is widely available everywhere and ultimately we want them worshipping Jesus and not Bieber… so we need to give them songs new songs to sing.

  • It causes us to put forth effort.

In the end, it is just easier to sing old and comfortable songs. It comes natural. But, we serve a God who shows us new mercy and grace everyday and provides a way for us to worship and be creative. If we are going to be good stewards of the abilities the Lord has given us then we need to put forth some effort in our worship. Our eternities in Heaven are going to be spent singing praises to our God, and I’d like to imagine that those praises aren’t going to consist of “Amazing Grace” 1,000,000,000 times… Let’s begin to live our eternities now and praise our God in new and fresh ways. It will take effort, but I promise it’ll be worth it.

Let’s take the challenge together to sing new songs!

I don’t want you leaving this blog thinking there is no place for familiarity because that is not the point at all. To be applicable I will state that I never do more than one new song a week and typically play a single new song two weeks in a row before introducing anything else. But… every church is different and you are the best judge for your particular situation. In the end, we should be singing new songs with songs that we already know and love. God has given us memories of the past for a reason, but we are also made new in His love daily and we should celebrate that with new praise unto Him!

The Importance of Christian Meditation

Posted on by Tanner Royalty

When you hear the word meditation what do you immediately think of? A fat little bald man? How about peaceful monks sitting Indian style humming and focusing their minds? Meditation is something that is commonly misunderstood in the Christian world and preconceived notions and false ideas have colored our vision into what it really is. It’s absolutely true that some types of ‘meditation’ are not helpful to the Christian. Do not confuse these ideas with true Christian meditation. The religions of the East fall into this category. Even some forms of meditation that are taught by Christian groups are not really helpful. One teaching on meditation tells you to clear your mind, sit comfortably and repeat particular phrases or patterns of sounds until you feel at some sort of inner peace. Personally, I don’t understand the benefit of it because it neither promotes the repentance and fellowship with the Spirit that God enjoys. In this blog post we will explore the idea of Christian meditation and the affect it can have on your personal spiritual health and life.

Scripture meditation is something that I have done and taken very seriously since last semester when I was blessed to be able to take a “Personal Spiritual Disciplines” course at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. I have seen obvious life change with intentional and deliberate meditation on God’s Word everyday. I believe that Scripture meditation is perhaps one of the most neglected disciplines in the Christian life these days. I believe that very few Christians have been taught how important it is to pay close attention to what they think about on an everyday basis. We have all heard the statement, “You are what you eat.” You may wonder how that ties in, but I believe we can put it this way, “You are what you think about.” What we think about is an accurate and personal portrayal of who we really are. You see, today we as believers have become really good at putting on masks or appearing one way when the truth is entirely different. In Matthew Jesus makes it very clear when talking to the Pharisees and teachers of the Law that outward appearances mean nothing when they are false representations of who we really are on the inside. Jesus had this to say in Matthew 23:25-28:

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

What a shocking statement Jesus makes here. For the longest time I even fooled myself into thinking that if I appeared to have it “all together” then I must really have everything together!

The Pharisees to us are an obvious case of hypocrisy. But do you really think that they intentionally became hypocrites or do you think that they slipped little by little? You see the Pharisees spent all of their time making sure that they obeyed the law perfectly from the time they were children. From the outside, it appeared that they were keeping God’s law perfectly and were therefore righteous men. But guess what…

In spite of all our outward work God is not impressed with what we appear to be!

But what God is really interested in is what we are like on the inside. He wishes to change us from the inside out. His goal is to make us clean on the inside so that we would naturally be clean on the outside.

I have said all of this to frame the conversation for meditation. To meditate means to engage in contemplation or reflection, or pondering, or to focus one’s thoughts on. To ponder is to weigh in the mind, to think about, and to reflect upon. Meditation is a function of both the mind and the heart. You cannot disconnect either the mind or the heart and still be meditating on Scripture. They go hand-in-hand.

Whether we realize it or not, we all spend a large portion of our time in some form of meditation. The thing is, what we meditate on may or may not be worth our time. In fact, what we habitually think about is could be unhealthy for our growth as Christians. Often it is simply unproductive or sinful. Psalm 19:14 says, “May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.” Psalm 104:34 says, “May my meditation be pleasing to him, as I rejoice in the LORD.” Paul even urges the Philippians to meditate on the things and ways of the Lord in Philippians 4:8, “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think about such things.” Lastly, in Romans 12 we are urged to “be transformed by the renewing of our minds” so that we can better do God’s will.

In the end, we all have to ask ourselves… What do I meditate on daily?

  • Money?
  • Hobbies?
  • Work/ Success?
  • Relationships?
  • Technology or the newest gadget?
  • Sinful behavior?
  • The pressures and stresses of everyday life?

The list could go on and on, but you get the idea… Those things aren’t Jesus.

Meditation is intentional and a lifestyle. It won’t happen on accident. I have learned that meditation can be done at all times of the day. It requires a bit of planning and extra effort to keep focused because it is work. It is also foreign to the natural state of our hearts, which are naturally depraved and sinful. Meditation is something that we MUST choose to do.

Do you want to hear from God? Seek Him through Scripture meditation and prayer.

Brothers and Sisters, we have briefly thought upon the importance of Christian Scripture meditation, so I will leave you with the words of Joshua 1:8,

This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.