So excited for this coming weekend as Bayside Worship releases it's first 3 song EP. This has always been in my heart, and in the heart of the ministry to do a project like this, and I can't believe it's finally here.

This past weekend we had the opportunity to play one of the singles off the album, and I was so excited on how the church just took to the song and praised God through it. WOW.

This weekend Sept. 25th & 26th they will be available in the resource center of the church. The cost is $5.

Now here's even some more cool news. You may be thinking, why only 3 songs? Well you can just think of it more as a pre-release for a full length album that we are planning to do. On Nov. 3rd & 4th we are going to be doing a 2 night live recording at Bayside that we want everyone to be a part of. So here is all the info that will be in the upcoming bulletin:

Bayside Worship Live Recording Event
November 4 & 5

On November 3 and 4, please join us for a special 2 day live recording event for a full length
Bayside Worship CD coming out in the future. This event is free to attend. To secure a seat,
please pick up tickets at the Information Center starting Oct 16th. Seats are limited. Childcare
will be provided for 5th Grade & younger.

DON'T MISS IT!


Remember to pick up your copy of the EP today!

Louie Giglio says it like this:

"Worship is our response, both personal and corporate, to God for who He is and what He has done, expressed in and by the things we say, and the way we live."

I love this definition of Worship. Let me break this down even further with 4 things to think about when thinking of worship:

1.) "Worship is our Response"
What's so amazing to me with this opening statement is that Worship is a response. Meaning God has already taken the first
step. WOW! With like everything we strive for to be more like God, he first had to do it to show us, and teach us. I heard it said
before that we can only Love, because God first Loved us. We can only Forgive because God first Forgave us, and to know the
Worship is no different with God. He loves hanging with us so much that he will always take the first step.

2.) "Both Personal & Corporate"
Worship is not just on Saturday night or Sunday morning services, it's all the time. God does amazing things on the weekend
don't get me wrong but when we make worship part of our daily life we experience God on a HNL (hol 'notha level). Do
something this week. Make time just to spend worship to God, just you and Him, and see what amazing things will come of it.
Bottom line we are worshipping all the time, so why not make your worship to the only one, the only thing that truly deserves
it, Jesus. *Read - The Air I Breathe by Louie Giglio

3.) "To God for who He is, and What He has done"
Something that has been hitting me hard lately is the thought, "Am I in love with the hand of God (what he can do for me) or
am I in love with the heart of God (simply who He is)?" I don't want to be a greedy child always saying gimme, gimme, gimme,
but I want to be a thankful child, to live in the house of God, under His protection, with His arms wrapped around me, just
loving my father. How about you? What side of God are you in love with?

4.) "The things we say, and the way we live"
Gandhi said, "I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ." How are you
representing God in your life and in your speech? Can people tell that you are madly in Love with Christ, a Christ follower, a
Worshipper of God? If we truly worship God in the heart, with the first 3 points in mind, then I believe we can resemble God in
the light that he truly deserves. We can then take on the job of being his hands and feet effectively and show Gandhi whats up.
haha

Food for thought.

I read this amazing thing on worship this morning and i had to share it. Worshippers and worship leaders out there grab a hold of this if not for your ministry for yourself.

Years ago, I read a definition of worship that to this day rings with clear and magnificent terms.(1) The definition comes from the famed archbishop William Temple: "Worship is the submission of all of our nature to God. It is the quickening of the conscience by his holiness; the nourishment of mind with his truth; the purifying of imagination by his beauty; the opening of the heart to his love; the surrender of will to his purpose—all this gathered up in adoration, the most selfless emotion of which our nature is capable."

The more I have thought of that definition, the more I am convinced that if worship is practiced with integrity in the community of God's people, potentially, worship may be the most powerful evangel for this postmodern culture of ours. It is imperative in planning the worship services that church leaders give careful attention to every element and make sure that the worship retains both integrity and purpose. People come to church generally "beaten down" by the world of deceit, distraction, and demand. There is an extraction of emotional and spiritual energy that brings them on "empty" into the community. The church's task is to so prepare during the week that it is collectively the instrument of replenishment and fresh energy of soul. Even being in the presence of fellow believers in worship is a restorer of spiritual hope. We so underestimate the power of a people in one mind and with one commitment. Even a prayer can so touch a hungry heart that it can rescue a sliding foot in a treacherous time.

A few years ago, two or three of my colleagues and I were in a country dominated for decades by Marxism. Before we began our meetings, we were invited to a dinner hosted by some common friends, all of whom were skeptics and, for all practical purposes, atheists. The evening was full of questions, posed principally by a notable theoretical physicist in the country. There were also others who represented different elements of power within that society. As the night wore on, we got the feeling that the questions had gone on long enough and that we were possibly going in circles.

At that point, I asked if we could have a word of prayer with them, for them, and for the country before we bade them good-bye. There was a silence of consternation, an obvious hesitancy, and then one said, "Of course." We did just that—we prayed. In this large dining room of historic import to them, with all the memories of secular power plastered within those walls, the prayer brought a sobering silence that we were all in the presence of someone greater than us. When we finished, every eye was moist and nothing was said. They hugged us and thanked us, with emotion written all over their faces. The next day when we met them, one of them said to me, "We did not go back to our rooms last night till it was early morning. In fact, I stayed in my hotel lobby most of the night talking further. Then I went back to my room and gave my life to Jesus Christ."

I firmly believe that it was the prayer that gave them a hint of the taste of what worship is all about. Their hearts had never experienced it.

Over the years I have discovered that praying with people can sometimes do more for them than preaching to them. Prayer draws the heart away from one's own dependence to leaning on the sovereign God. The burden is often lifted instantly. Prayer is only one aspect of worship, but one that is greatly neglected in the face of people who would be shocked to hear what prayer sounds like when the one praying knows how to touch the heart of God. To a person in need, pat answers don't change the mind; prayer does.

- Ravi Zacharias

Flip Flop - a view from another shoe series
10/17-18/09

Run
Take it All
'Til I See You
Endlessly

Commitment Song:
Center



Guest Speaker: Joe Champion
10/24-25/09

Let God Arise
Your Name High
Hosanna
Sing Sing Sing

Commitment Song:
In Your Freedom

Church Music - David Crowder B...

Break Free
Adonai
I Stand Amazed

Commitment Song:
Lead me to the Cross
Here I am to Worship

Salvation Is Here
My Future Decided
This is our God

Commitment Song:
How Great is Our God/How Great Thou Art

God of this City

Faith+Hope+Love - Hillsong

Buy the Album from itunes

a_CROSS // the_EARTH: Tear Down The Walls by Hillsong United

a_CROSS // the_EARTH: Tear Dow...

If you like it, you can purchase it and download it immediately from Amazon.
Or click here to purchase from itunes.

And, while you’re here, let me know what you think of the new album. I’d love to hear your reaction.

This week I received a letter from someone in our church who heard my message on being "Created to Worship." She is originally from Guatemala, and in this she describes the understanding that her church there had of Praising and Worshipping God. I don't know but to me it sounds a lot like heaven. Read this letter I received from her, and maybe it will encourage you like it has encouraged me to worship God uninhibitedly.


Dear Jordan,

I have being trying to write you since the Sunday you preached, but I couldn’t get your email until last service and then lack of time. First of all forgive my English and spelling because I speak Spanish so I will try to make it clear. ;o)

I just wanted to tell you how blessed I was when I heard you preaching about praising and worshiping God.

I would like to share a little with you about me. I have been in Sarasota for almost 7 years.
It was hard for me to find here a church where you can let the Spirit of God move during the praise & worship.

Back home where I am (Guatemala) there is a big movement from the Spirit and a lot of churches, or must of them give enough time to God to move and touch people hearts, so it’s being hard for me to find a church, to prepare peoples harts for enter in to His presence and many come with burdens and they need to be set free.

I used to be in a praise & worship ministry, and we used to go to minister to different places and churches in all the country, it was the best experience I ever had, there were times when we didn’t need to preach, because God was moving so powerful that there was no need for that, he was healing hearts and bodies through worship! As you know when we enter in His presence you don’t want to get out of there, you just feel like dancing, jumping, praising, bow before Him. And I really ask the Lord that He can do the same thing in our church a great revival.

A lot of times we had to teach people how to do it, because they came from the out side, (the world) and they didn’t have any idea of what was going on, we had to taught them scripture that God tells us to do it, and how king David even though he was a king he was dancing and doing crazy things for the Lord, why we can’t do to it? Are we better than him? If we can go to a stadium to cheer our favorite team, why we can’t do it for our Savior, for our King the one who gave His life for us? So I think it’s up to us to teach them how to come to His presence, specially when we are in charge of the worship, it’s our responsibility to bring them into His presence, we have to teach them to clap their hands, to raise their voices ,to lift their hands, to dance, to shout, what ever it is!

We also started in my old church to teach them that God wanted us to have a party for Him, and dance and everything else (because they were not getting the message), so we decided to not put all the chairs in the church for service, we put some on the sides so if some one got tired they could sat. We started to have every Friday night a party for Him, and that started to bring freedom to people, let me tell you we had some parties!!!!!!!!! It changed a lot of the way of people thinking about the worship, some of them they don’t think that it is important, is like every other Sunday, sing, listen the word and goodbye! But God wants more for us. Don’t you think so? I could go on and tell you more but that’s not what I want.

But what I want to tell you it’s that I am so happy to see you leading the worship the way you do, I believe God it’s going to do something greater in our church. Keep doing the great job! Keep teaching the people how to praise Him even though we come to the service with burdens in our hearts, God will do the rest.
I think I miss a lot being in the worship ministry, I don’t have a great voice, I can sing but I don’t have a voice that you would say, wow, ha! But I have a heart to worship Him, that’s my only dream to praise Him forever! So I will be praying for you, that God will use you more and more everyday, and that you can be His instrument to teach people how to praise Him.

Thanks for making some time to read this letter.
God bless you always!


Share your thoughts on this and worship in general. I look forward to hearing what you grabbed from this letter.

Here is my message from Bayside's Grace on Earth Series:

Grace on Earth Series - Made to Worship Message