Your Presence over our Production

There’s a motto that is really defining the way Rob and I are living our lives right now, a prayer that we’re claiming in so many areas of life (and at this point I must give him credit for its invention.)

The prayer is this- Your presence over our production.

Every Sunday before worship, Rob gathers the band and prays that we will be more about the presence of the Spirit of God than we will be about the quality of our production. This is really something to pray when so often worship is classified as an ‘experience,’ rather than a humble, whole-hearted offering.  This shift in focus is usually unintentional. I know so many worship leaders who are truly pursuing God and His presence, but sometimes this worship atmosphere that we create can just give off such holy vibes that we miss out on the still small voice that is trying to speak to our hearts. After all, it was after the wind and the earthquake and the fire, that God spoke. Quietly.  

(Or- in keeping with the metaphor- it was after the song with the epic drum build, the perfectly timed lights, and the passionate altar call, that the Spirit spoke in the car on the drive home.)

Your presence over our production.

We’re taking this mindset into our home as well. We want the Spirit’s presence first. My friend, Jude, says that the presence of the Spirit is “like waaaarm butter.” I think that’s absolutely right. We want the folks in our home to feel the warm butter of the Spirit before they notice anything else.

We may just be straight up ON our entertaining game one night- dishes done, food cooked perfectly, floors vacuumed- or we may literally be airing our dirty laundry. The production isn't what makes the difference.

 My parents, for instance, are two of the most hospitable people I know. More lives have been changed in their house than have been changed in several churches, combined. Their home is very well decorated and nice-smelling, but that’s not why people come. It’s because you walk under a waterfall of warm butter the second you cross the threshold. And then you smell like butter for days and the world is like, “what is that smell? I need to smell like butter like that guy!”

So then the buttery people bring them back to my parent’s house and they get the Holy Spirit butter too!

Does that…make…sense?

This isn't just worship leaders and homemakers, y'all. It’s a human thing. Sometimes we’re so concerned with making sure that what we are offering is our best, so concerned with the quality of our production, that we forget that our truest offering is our heart.

 "For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it. You will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise." 
Psalm 51:16-17