🙌It's the Friday Call to Worship!🙌

I once heard a pastor talk about hiring a media consultant. His church was one of the fastest growing churches in America at the time, and social media wasn't yet as popular as news or TV interviews. I can't recall the details of the event that led to the pastor seeking professional advice, but I remember his church breaking the mold in a lot of ways at the time. A public outreach had unexpectedly made national news, and the young pastor was being chased by the media. He was facing a very different audience and knew many interviewers weren't looking to build the Church.

The advice from the media consultant has stuck with me for more than a decade. "Don't worry about answering their questions. No matter what they ask, you answer with the mission and vision of your church." To practice, the media consultant fired pointed questions at the pastor until he became proficient in just doing his job, rather than worrying about theirs. Every response began, "The mission and and vision of ___ Church is..."

The tables turned in that moment, A local church gained an international platform for declaring the gospel. No matter what tactics a public outlet might have used to defame the church, the pastor understood he wasn't responsible for answering to the world's problems with him. He could keep the focus on God and speak about the light of the world.

An enemy in the garden asked questions to confuse and corrupt humanity by shifting the attention away from God to flesh. What if Eve would have spoken of God's provision and perfect love instead of trying to respond to the serpent's exaggerated, twisted question?

What would life look like, sound like, and feel like if we doused every fiery dart with Living Water? What if we answered every lust, lie, lack, and longing with the everlasting Truth that we never have to hunger or thirst again?

Let's start with our worship. Listen to Seph Schlueter's "Words We'll Sing Forever".