Franciscan Prayer

I know this isn't part of my current blog series but this is just too good to pass up. This came across our devotions this morning - it is a Franciscan prayer and it sums up what I want my prayer to be. Recently LifeChurch.tv put together a campaign of hundreds of churches worldwide called "One Prayer". The essence of the campaign is if you had one prayer what would it be. Well this is a good one for me. Enjoy and be lifted up!

May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half truths, and superficial relationships, so that you may live deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that you may work for justice, freedom and peace.

May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, and war, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and to turn their pain in to joy.

And may God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world, so that you can do what others claim cannot be done. Click Here to Read more!

Questions for a Worship Leader - #2

Q)How would you best summarize your relationship to God?

A)I would say that my relationship with God is authentic, open and real. It has taken me quite some time to unlearn religiosity and learn how to be completely real and authentic not only with God but also in my portrayal of God to others. Obviously I consider myself a work in progress and the more that I learn about God the more I realize how much I don’t know about Him. I view God as personable and fully interested in my daily activities, decisions, relationships, hopes and dreams; yet I also see God as quite mysterious.

It is in that mystery that I find adventure, risk, fulfillment, delight and sometimes even sorrow. Duty has been replaced by friendship, yet the mystery keeps me in proper perspective to continue to “fear God” as the Scriptures command.

Questions for a Worship Leader - BLOG Series

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Questions for a Worship Leader - #1

Q) When did you first realize your desire to lead others in Worship?

A) Worship has always been the lifeblood of my relationship with my Creator. Some of my fondest memories of worshiping have been the times when I would sing praise and worship songs in my bedroom as a teenager and get on my knees before God and just sit in His presence. It was inspiring, it was life-altering, and it was the most effective way that I connected with God as a new follower of Jesus.

It was after this foundation was laid that I began to take this worship that God had put in my heart out from behind closed doors. I started by leading worship with a youth group that I was a part of; from there I began leading worship in our main church services before going to college to begin my worship leading career. Helping others find the place where God can really do some inspiring and life-altering work was and still remains the motivating force behind my taking this gift outside of my small sanctuary of a bedroom into what I hope one day will be the nations.

Questions for a Worship Leader BLOG Series

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New BLOG Series - Questions for a Worship Leader

I am going to begin my first BLOG series titled "Questions for a Worship Leader". In this series I will answer these five questions:

1. When did you first realize your desire to lead others in Worship?

2. How would you best describe your relationship with God?

3. Describe your understanding of “team” or collaboration” when it comes to worship teams.

4. Describe a healthy relationship between senior pastor and worship leader.

5. What things do you love most about church ministry?

Hope to hear from you!

Links -
1. When did you first realize your desire to lead others in Worship?

2. How would you best summarize your relationship to God?

3. Describe your understanding of “team” or collaboration” when it comes to worship teams.

4. Describe a healthy relationship between senior pastor and worship leader.

5. What things do you love most about church ministry?

Click Here to Read more!

New Song - "The Perfect Place"

Please take some time to check out my new song "The Perfect Place" available on my music player at www.davelongstrethmusic.com, facebook and my BLOG. Also, if you aren't a 'fan' of my music yet - please help me spread it around the world and sign up to be a fan. It's free, it's easy and it won't inconvenience you one bit. Thanks so much!

To check out the lyrics to my new song (taken from Psalm 25, please read on...

A Song of Psalm 25

Lord, I give my life to you
I will trust in you, my God
Show me every step on the road for me to follow
Lead me by your truth and love

You are God who gave me hope
So every day I'll hope in you
You have shown unfailing love
So lead me to the perfect place

Lord you're good, you do what's right
You've been merciful to me
Every time I've gone astray you have led me back
Teach me how to walk with you

You are God who gave me hope
So every day I'll hope in you
You have shown unfailing love
So lead me to the perfect place

For the honor of your name
Please forgive all that I've done
And when I've fallen down fix my eyes on yours
Pick me up and lead me on

You are God who gave me hope
So every day I'll hope in you
You have shown unfailing love
So lead me to the perfect place

You are God who gave me hope
So every day I'll hope in you
You have shown unfailing love
So lead me to the perfect place
So lead me to the perfect place Click Here to Read more!

Worship and Missions - Philosophical

You should see my desk right now after being on vacation for three weeks - there are more stacks and piles than I know what to do with. My first step is to throw away as much as I can. But looking around I see a lot of mail, papers, magazine covers, etc. that speak of two different themes, worship and missions. Now remember that my place on the team here at RCC is creative arts and missions pastor - so in my small mind these two worlds work together. Here's how I think that world of worship and the world of missions collide in a big way...

Worship literally means giving worth to the object, deity or person that we worship. Of course as Christians this hopefully means that we ascribe worth or glorify the one who created all things and who knows and loves us best. This should in theory outweigh giving glory to any other person or created thing in our lives. So if we are to truly ascribe worth and give the most glory to the Creator - then we cannot accomplish this on just a few hours a week. This type of worth-ship or worship has to happen with every part of our being (our decisions, desires and actions). This is what I call the life of a worshiper.

Then there is the term and the thought of missions. Missions by its definition of its function in churches is all about reaching the body, community and even the world for Jesus Christ - meeting physical, intellectual, emotional, spiritual and social needs of people. So we assume that being on mission 24/7 is something that is very possible. It is being salt and light, it is being a witness all the time, it is living the life of a Christ-follower.

I think that what happens is that people associate everything that happens in the church to be worship and everything that happens outside the church to be missions. In my opinion this is not the case. Worship happens more outside the church than it does within and missions happens inside the church as well as outside the walls.

So where is the collision? The collision is the sweet spot, it is the best place to be. It is where the sky meets the earth, the beautiful horizon which we'll never actually stand in this lifetime but we are always walking towards it. The sweet spot is where heaven meets earth - and thus our one true mission is born. It is our mission as children of God and followers of Christ to see the glory of our Creator expressed in the physical, intellectual, emotional, spiritual and social lives of every person who inhabits this rock.

Do worship and missions go together? Like peanut butter and jelly. Like oreos and milk. Like wine and cheese. That's why everyone should get to do what I get to do. That's why no matter what my title or position on a team will ever be - I will always care about inspiring others to live lives of worship and mission 24/7. Click Here to Read more!

New Baby Boy!

This week is a very special week. I am happy to announce the birth of my son, Braden Connor Longstreth, weighing in at 9 lbs and 6 oz. He's a big boy and we love him! My 3-year old daughter Kylie just loves him, she's a great big sister! Click Here to Read more!

Strategy Launch

In May we launched the new missions strategy for RCC (really the only one we've ever formally had) which is P.E.A.C.E. You can listen to this strategy in my message (about 35 mins) podcast click here to listen. After I get back from a couple of weeks vacation since our baby boy is about to be born, I will start posting more information on how you can get involved in this strategy and ways that we are making a difference as a local body here in Pgh. Click Here to Read more!