Worship Lessons

by Jessica Martin-Weber

I have said before that my daughters are my heroes but have I mentioned that they are also some of the best teachers I’ve ever had the honor of learning from? Every day I am astonished by the lessons they teach me, I am so blessed.

The case is closed. Nearly a year later the boy that had been sexually abusing our two oldest daughters pled guilty and began serving his sentence last week. This week is the year anniversary of when we learned of the abuse. The emotional and psychological damage became apparent in Ophelia, our eldest as she started kindergarten last fall. She struggled socially and emotionally such that we didn’t recognize our daughter. I will always remember the first week I led worship after rwe learned of the abuse and the months following. My heart was breaking; I was angry, hurt, and desperate. My daughter needed help that I knew I could only partially give. Therapy was a part of that and certainly a step in the right direction for all of us but we knew Ophelia and Lavinia would need more. And I wasn’t sure I could worship with all my heart. But God assured me over time that He would take my broken heart and while I worshiped from my desperate state He would bring healing not only to my heart but to the girls’ as well. A few days ago we got glimpse of how our worship is not meant to be dependent on our emotional state. We had shared with the girls what the boy’s sentence was and what was being done to keep the girls safe from him. This brought up some of the fears and pain from a year ago but as we watched our girls handle this all over again we saw something breathtaking. In a small worship gathering we were leading in a conservative congregation, I looked up towards the girls to check on how they were behaving without a parental presence right next to them and was surprised by a simple beauty. Ophelia in a simple, unassuming posture of worship with her eyes closed, head bowed, and the only one with her hands upraised as she sang “here I am to worship.” My six year old daughter has taught me the importance of worshipping in the face of pain.

For the next few posts I want to talk about worship in the face of pain. If you have a related story, I’d like to hear it. Jeremy and I are praying about this area and how we can use Scripture and our experience in understanding the relationship of pain and worship and your experiences may help us in this process. I'm looking forward to hearing from you.

The Neverending Story

by Jessica Martin-Weber

The Neverending Story, a classic. Not exactly on the same level as, say, the Wizard of Oz, which we also watched this week, but still wonderful and a personal favorite. We've had a blast this summer sharing some of our favorite movies from when we were growing up with the girls: Herbie, The Karate Kid, The Neverending Story, and The Wizard of Oz and we're not done yet. But The Neverending Story is one of my favorites, bad effects and all (hey for an 80's kids movie they were really pretty good). It's just a great movie!

A little bit of light reading.

Over the past few days Jeremy and I've enjoyed exploring various church websites and reading about what God is doing across the country and world. It's always interesting to discover what God is doing, what churches think of themselves, and how they present themselves on their sites. I'm starting to notice a trend among church websites: most of them stink. Well, not stink but they aren't very atractive or user friendly, just too difficult to use and for the most part they aren't really intended for anyone that, well, doesn't already go to that church. Aside from all of that though, we've had a blast. It's just great to see all the fantastic missions, activities and ministries going on around the world today and we learn a lot. Today we came across a very powerful document on Integral Mission by Keith Zafren the lead pastor of The River Community Church in collaboration with the Leadership Team, advisory council and the staff of The River Community Church that had a most interesting quote by Tom Sine that led me to an article Tom Sine wrote in 1996. Here's just a sample:

"What is our life direction before we become believers? Upward mobility. What is it afterwards? Exactly the same. The only thing that has changed is that we are told in too many of our churches that God is there to help us to get up the mountain a little quicker - instead of us being part of what God is doing to bring righteousness, justice and peace to the earth.
Those of us in evangelical/charismatic and Pentecostal churches throughout the Western world are responsible for selling our young people the wrong dream. For all the talk about the Lordship of Jesus, we have sold them the Western dream with a little Jesus overlay. And it is a dream that is no longer accessible to them."

There were some very interesting ideas presented on these web pages, I'd love you hear your thoughts.

jmw