How do we promote Christianity in our sphere of influence?

Welcome to Passion for Him.
Was that marketing tool powerful or what?

Read once that "Uniquability is something we do naturally without even knowing we are doing it. How many times as someone in your life, a friend an workmate said " I just love the way you do this, I don't know anyone who does it like you!" And you said ...really! I did nor even noticed that I did. That is Uniquability . The same article said that if most of us would operate under this "Uniquability", we could change the world in a snap.

That is why I look forward to hearing from many of you who will take a moment of their busy agenda and reflect on how /or what they actually did to promote Christianity in their sphere of influence.

Let's face it, sitting at Church from 10:00AM to 11:30AM on a Sunday does not promote enough what God is all about,.

Be passionate about Him,

Pierre

On Becoming (an imposter’s leadership journey)

Carmen is a songwriter, artist and worship leader from Grace Community Church in Indianapolis, Indiana. www.carmendarcy.com

On Becoming (an imposter’s leadership journey)

Posted 1/22/2009

A while back, my husband Bill and I got bumped up to first class seats on an airplane. I can’t remember why anymore, but somehow “they” thought that’s where we belonged. We happily plopped down in the comparatively big comfy seats and then took turns intermittently raising our eyebrows at each other and laughing. We couldn’t help wondering if all the other 1st class riders realized that we weren’t 1st class ‘regulars’. We didn’t know the drill. We didn’t know the lingo. We didn’t have a favorite menu item. We hadn’t forked out extra money for the seats. In short, we were merely imposters just trying to blend in and not draw attention to the fact that we didn’t really belong there.

Have you ever felt like that in regular life - like an imposter hoping desperately that no one figures out that you really have no idea what you’re doing? I have many times. The first one that comes to mind was the day the hospital let us pack up our first baby, strap him facing backwards in a brand new car seat and drive him home. Bill and I were pretty sure that if they realized how much we had no idea what we’re doing, in a million years, they would never let us take our little guy home.

Occasionally those same feelings of inadequacy rise to the surface in my leadership role on our worship staff. Not because my walk with Christ isn’t authentic. It is. It’s real. But it’s not perfect. Not because I don’t know a thing or two about music. I do. I’ve studied it, applied it and worked in it for years. Yet I’m fully aware that there are a great many musicians out there who have forgotten far more than I’ll ever know when it comes to theory, composition, arranging, etc. And when I focus on those inadequacies, well, sometimes it just plain stops me cold and prevents me from fully running toward where God has called me. Do you ever feel like that?

I am many things. For starters, I am a Christ follower, a wife, a mother, a songwriter, a worship leader and a choir director. These things I know. But as I seek to balance those roles, sometimes I feel a little like an imposter, just hoping someone doesn’t blow the whistle on me while I’m still trying to learn the drill, keep up with the lingo and figure out what God is trying to teach me. Some days I can’t write a song to save my life much less someone else’s. I don’t always feel like I have profound or brilliant morsels just poised and waiting at the tip of my tongue or pen to disperse to the masses on cue. I rarely have the perfect scripture in my hip pocket ready to be served up and applied at just the right time. And in the marriage and family department, let’s just say that even on my best days, I still have lots to learn about being a great partner, team-mate, cheerleader and domestic organizer.

And yet, for some reason, God has called me to all of these roles and to serve him by being part of a thriving, dynamic team of artists and worshipers here at Grace Community Church in north suburban Indianapolis (Noblesville/Carmel). Our team is learning together about what it means to come fully and authentically before God in worship and then be ready to live out that worship when we leave the walls of Grace. It’s not an either – or. It’s a both – and. It’s putting John 4:23, “God the Father is out looking for those who are simply and honestly themselves before him in their worship”, (The Message) right up next to 1st John 3:18 “Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and with truth” (NIV). But do we, as a team, do it perfectly and without fail every day? Do we have it figured out? I wish. But we don’t. We’re trying though. We’re willing and we’re learning in community. And that’s part of the becoming.

But the whole ‘becoming’ thing is hard. Frankly, I don’t want ‘to become’. I want to ‘have arrived’. But what I’m learning is that God repeatedly seems to use me best when I’m humbly before Him admitting that I’m completely inadequate for whatever task He’s calling me to at the moment. In fact over and over again, in week-end worship services, choir gatherings, band rehearsals, etc…it seems that it’s in my willingness to be authentic and ok with imperfection that God shows up and fills in the gaps in ways far more powerful than I could have ever imagined.

I think it’s all part of our own journey that doesn’t ever really end until we get to sit at the feet of the One who made us, meet him face to face and become known as we are fully known. No more feeling like an imposter! Ah…but until then….

My great hope is that some of the music that I’m writing out of these learnings and for our church body to sing together, will somehow speak to your soul and allow you to worship wherever you happen to be right now. Will you join me on this journey? And hey, it’s ok if sometimes you feel like you don’t know the lingo or the drill. Me neither. But maybe we can join each other in the becoming and let God work through us in the process.

© 2008, Carmen D’Arcy

WOW

What a wonderfully refreshing article to read. I almost wonder if she had been in my head. :) I know for sure that God could find someone more qualified than me easily. But He didn't, he asked me. And as insane as it seems sometimes, I said and still say yes.

And I simply said ....Yes

Who would have thought that on a Sunday morning linger lunch in a small church in a small town that the question " So your wife tells us you play and sing.... would you like to join the worship team for practice?" That God was already ahead of me by miles.
Two and half years after God Has me following Him with a passion that can only describe as "My God.... What powerful Love you have for us."

So today I choose to simply say Yes and follow His lead

I welcome you in this journey and look forward in your comments