When we plan a worship set at OneLife Church, believe it or not we think about a lot more than just the songs. We think about the journey we want to take each person on throughout the set. It’s a different approach, but here’s why it is so important to us.

So often as an attendee we enter into a worship experience on Sunday mornings hosted by incredible churches and an incredible worship band.  The singers are right on pitch and the guitarists are hitting every note, the music is incredible, the words are right on and the performance part of it is solid. But what we at OneLife think so often lacks in worship experiences is the connection between the worship leader, the words, and the people.  The worship leader may do a great job singing, but that doesn’t always lead to a great job of leading.

For example:  A little over a year ago some of the OneLife worship team went and saw a worship leader who was in town for a concert.  Obviously the music was going to be great and everything was going to be spot on. But what was different about him was that we felt that he led us through a journey.  From the time he entered the stage to the time he left before the speaker, he led us through an amazing time of worship.  He didn’t just get up there and sing and preform but he LED us in worship. This was crucial because in that moment I worshipped like I have never worshipped before, and I knew something was different.  I talked with Pastor Rodney and told him I felt like the whole time I was led through a journey and then it clicked.

From that time over a year ago Pastor Rodney and I have spent time after time discussing each week how we can improve our journey and what our journey should look like from week to week.  I take intentional time throughout the week praying and studying the songs and the lyrics of our upcoming worship sets to find verses and one or two liners that can relate the upcoming lyrics with every day life. We believe this is what takes a good singer and turns them in to a good worship leader. And honestly I believe this is what it takes to go from having ok participation to great participation in our worship experiences.

One more thing to wrap this up: this takes preparation through out the week and a constant hunger for scripture and seeking Jesus every day.

Last summer our staff took a retreat to calendar, plan, and pray for the coming year. We knew that we would be doing a marriage sermon series in February that we would want to end with a one-day marriage conference. And we even had a plan for who would come do that.

Until last month.

Harrison and I went to a week-long marriage retreat for pastors and their wives in January. While there, we met Charles and Darlene Queener who were our small group leaders when we had breakout sessions. I instantly knew this is who we needed to have come to OneLife, if at all possible, because of one attribute I saw in them – honesty! Here was an older couple who has been through it all, and they weren’t afraid to be honest about it. No frills, no fluff.

So I’m excited more than I can say that they will be bringing this no frills, no fluff approach to OneLife, and spending a day investing in the lives of OneLifers next weekend. Check out their “official” bio here to get a glimpse of what I mean:

Charles and Darlene grew up in East Tennessee, where they were high school sweethearts, and have been married almost 47 years since then with two adult children and four grandchildren.

In their ministry, Charles and Darlene claim the promise of Isaiah 58:11-12: “The Lord will guide you always, He will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.” Their ministry is committed to building, rebuilding and restoring relationships.

I’m telling ya…you don’t want to miss this day! Plus you get a free lunch, free date-night childcare, and a chance to win some pretty cool prizes. What are you waiting for? Go register! http://onelifeknox.smartevents.com/marriage

Registrations for the “What Do I Do” One-Day Marriage Conference are picking up! And one thing that has me excited is we have just as many singles signed up to go as we do married couples.

So if you are single, why should you sign up to go?! Here are some quick reasons:

1. Learn to be a Man/Woman of God FIRST! This will not be a pragmatic, 12-steps-to-a-better-marriage kind of deal. Instead, our guest speakers will lead us down a road of learning first what God wants for and from me as an individual, and then what it means to be a husband or a wife.

2. Learn from mistakes. Whether you are young and single and have never been married, or you are divorced or widowed and wondering if you’ll jump back in the game again, it doesn’t matter. We can all learn from past mistakes, both our mistakes and others’ mistakes, and let God make us more like Him in the process.

3. Heal from the past. Whether you ever get married or not, your life will has been influenced by people who are or were married. Sometimes that influence isn’t in the greatest of ways. Learning why people did the things they did in your life can help you move on from the past.

4. Get prepared! A recent study by Match.com showed that an overwhelming majority of singles ages 21-65 want to get married one day! Don’t wait until “one day” gets here to get prepared. Start preparing NOW to be the husband or wife that God would want you to be!

So, what are you waiting for?! Go get signed up! http://onelifeknox.smartevents.com/marriage

Yesterday I wrote about the first two core values that drive everything at OneLife. Today we look at the last two.

3. We Keep it Real.
Too many lives are ruined by people who never get real. Life is too painful and eternity is too serious for us to allow this in the church. For this reason, we will do everything in our power to prevent people from falling through the cracks by “playing church.” We’ll do this by:

• Understanding our culture. We’ll teach for life-change, have worship that is relevant, and environments that are contagious rather than judgmental.
• Dealing with sin. An aspect of church leadership that isn’t so fun is church discipline. The Bible is very clear that one of the main functions of the church is to hold believers accountable.
• Growing smaller as we grow larger. Truly caring for each other happens when we engage in life together in small groups; either in volunteer teams or home groups.

4. We are laser focused and fiercely intentional.
Simplicity is our mojo. This allows us to do fewer things very well, increasing our ability to connect with those who are far from God. We focus on doing a few things really well – those things that we believe can make the most impact. With this focus we can:

• Give our best to God in everything that we do.
• Adjust quickly, making changes that need to be made as we reach more and more people for Jesus.
• Care for our partners, allowing for rest rather than stress!

These four values are what filters everything we do. Nothing more and nothing less!

Yesterday I wrote about the simplification of our core values, what we call “The Gauge” at OneLife. Today I want to start unpacking those four, and talk about why they are so important to us.

1. We are sold out to God’s vision for OneLife.

This isn’t my church, and it isn’t my vision. God wants to do something so great that only HE can get the credit for it! But we will only allow God to do that when each and every one of us are completely and totally sold out to His vision for us! When that happens, we will:

• Aggressively defend our leadership and our unity. We trust those in spiritual authority while infighting has no place here.
• Sacrifice freely. A portion of our time will be given through volunteering and a portion of our resources will be given through tithes and offerings; both to help reach more and more people for Jesus!

2. We are on a mission to reproduce.

Jesus gave us a simple mission: reproduce! Just like all healthy organisms reproduce, healthy Christians reproduce baby Christians and healthy churches reproduce baby churches. If you are sold out to the vision, you will live every day of your life on mission to reproduce! As a church, we will do that through campus churches and planting churches. We must never stop growing and multiplying because:

• God loves people. “The Lord is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9
• God commands us to reach out. “Go out into the country lanes and urge anyone you find to come, so that the house will be full.” Luke 14:23
• Growth is God’s will. “Under Christ’s control the whole body is nourished and grows as God wants it to grow.” Colossians 2:19

Before we move on to numbers three and four tomorrow, you have homework! If you are a OneLifer, take some time to consider this: Are you sold out to God’s vision here? If not, please let us help you find a local church where your answer to that question will be a huge YES! And secondly, do you live everyday on a mission to reproduce and multiply? If not, you are missing out on the key command that Jesus gave. Take some time pray for boldness in sharing your story with someone, and then go share it!