Church music on Sunday mornings is not performance but participation. God, in his mercy, designed worship so that every praise directed toward him would lift our spirits in the process. 

Our welcomes, our calls to worship, deserve the same level of intentionality as our song selections and sermon preparation. It is our first declaration of Jesus and invitation to Jesus, and all that follows in a worship service backs it up and builds on it.

I’d preached what seemed like dozens of applications on being the church, but nothing sizable happened until I preached with love, and members seized the opportunity to then walk in love.