What does it mean to worship God in spirit?  I'm thinking it means that when we worship God, we worship Him from the heart.  That is looking at our motivations and attitudes when we worship Him, not just our behaviors.

I would liken this to when you were a kid and you had to say sorry to your sibling.

You could say "sorry" and not be heartfelt or sincere and your parents would make you say it again.

Or you could say "sorry" and be heartfelt and you parents would probely be okay with it.

The problem is that we've gotten sneakier as we've gotten older.  We can sound sincere and not mean it.  We sometimes apply this to worshipping God.  It looks and sounds good, but it isn't sincere or heartfelt.  And while we may fool the people standing next to us, we can't fool God who see right through our external facade and examines our heart (motivations, attitudes, sincerity). 

What does it mean to worship God in spirit?  I'm thinking it means that when we worship God, we worship Him from the heart.  That is looking at our motivations and attitudes when we worship Him, not just our behaviors.

I would liken this to when you were a kid and you had to say sorry to your sibling.

You could say "sorry" and not be heartfelt or sincere and your parents would make you say it again.

Or you could say "sorry" and be heartfelt and you parents would probely be okay with it.

The problem is that we've gotten sneakier as we've gotten older.  We can sound sincere and not mean it.  We sometimes apply this to worshipping God.  It looks and sounds good, but it isn't sincere or heartfelt.  And while we may fool the people standing next to us, we can't fool God who see right through our external facade and examines our heart (motivations, attitudes, sincerity). 

A quote a friend sent me that really points out that we need to be people that love others not only with words but also in deeds and actions.

Passing affections easily produce words; and words are cheap; and godliness is more easily feigned in words than in actions. Christian practice is a costly, laborious thing. The self-denial that is required of Christians, and the narrowness of the way that leads to life, does not consist in words, but in practice. Hypocrites may much more easily be brought to talk like saints, than to act like saints.

Work's been interesting...been trying to figure out what's been so frustrating lately.  I think that I've finally figured it out...or at least gotten closer to figuring it out.  I was feeling like I running doing a lot, but I wasn't feeling like I was getting anywhere. 

So I started asking myself a bunch of questions:

Do I stop caring certain things so I stop doing them? (unlikely)

Would my feelings change if I changed my mentality toward what I could or couldn't do? (unlikely) 

Would my feelings change if I had a different title or role? (unlikely) 

Would my feelings change if there was a vision to buy into? (unlikely, b/c we have a vision that I can accept)

Would my feelings change if there was a sense of organizing to accomplish the vision?  (Bingo) 

I guess I started looking at two assumptions I had about people (myself included)

1.  We all desire to have a sense of purpose in this life

2.  Everyone desires to know how they fit in, can help out, be apart of something bigger than themselves.

As I was writing, a thought flashed across my mind, I think I'm talking about Organizational Leadership (probably someone already thought of this).  I defined it as: taking the initiative to organize others to achieve a desired outcome.  Includes the ability to clearly state what the outcome is and outline a clear process in achieve that out come (a master plan if you will).  Also need to help people see how they fit into that process (their roles) and delinate the process well enough so that others know and understand the importance of the work they are involved in (purpose).  Finally, if the process has multiple elements, need to be able to show how the different elements impact and interact with each other (flow diagram).

Yes, not rocket science and I know I've read about this in leadership books before, but still pretty neat when you mind goes from a big fog to bright sunny day (okay, with a little bit of haze mixed in there).

Hmm.... seems that I'm not very good at writing my thoughts down.  I guess that I like to use paper and pen more.

What's going on in the Christian church right now?  Seems that this generation of people are being turned off by the "church".  The irony is that they love Jesus Christ, people are all about Jesus, but the church holds no appeal to them.  In fact, they are very much repulsed by the church.  (side note:  I wonder who rejected who first, this new generation or the church)

Personally, I think the church has become too concerned about running programs rather than help people to cultivate a personal relationship with God.  Don't get me wrong, there is a need for organization because without it you won't get anywhere.  However, too much organization make for institutionalism (read red tape) and it can kill what ever energy/drive/purpose made organizing necessary in the first place.

So what next?  The church needs to correctly evaluate where it is right now and rethink what it means to be a follower/disiciple of Jesus Christ.  While this will be difficult, but a very necessary step for the Christian faith.