This is my latest article written for "The Answer Newspaper." ENJOY!
Love Has Everything to Do with It
by Pastor Rekesha Pittman
February is one of the months that entrepreneurs plan on making profits from the ways that we choose to express ourselves to those we are most intimate with. Do we expect people who are not in a committed relationship with us to load us with flowers, candy, cards, meals and other personal expressions with no further investment or exchange? Yet, this is what we encourage people to do every time that we come together and call it praise and worship!
Have we missed what gets people to the place of connection with our Lord and endlessly berate those who wonder why we profess our love so profusely on every microphone, stage, and platform available to us? If we commit to live like a ministry more than we promote it… When we choose to love people, even at the point when they feel most undesirable and abandoned… When we love each other without fail, we manifest the love of God more than a melody, praise dance, or musical masterpiece can! Our true commitment makes the worship that we bring even more extravagant.
How many of us have deterred unbelievers, new converts, or disenfranchised sons and daughters from a closer encounter with God because of our lack of love shown toward them? How can we say that we love God and hate our brother (1 John 4:20)? It is easy for those passionate about the worship arts to become enamored with our own images, projects, appearances, social media interactions and ministry networking, that we forget the basic meaning of ministry: to serve!
I don’t know about you, but I have been heartbroken, or at the very least disappointed, when prominent ministry musicians, singers, preachers, and teachers fall from grace. We realize that there is no perfect person walking this earth, but we inwardly cheer for these popular personalities from the sidelines, hoping that someone is really walking out this thing in which we faithfully invest our money, rehearsals, and emotional milestones by adopting their music, messages, and movements into our hearts. Maybe I am the only one who ever wondered: How can they do “that” and still be anointed? This is a perfect example of the love of God and His grace.
He gives us lavish gifts and deposits talents into us that He does not take away; however, I am a firm believer that our failure to walk in integrity may grant us the ability to still sing, play, write and dance, but will restrict our overall ability to win more souls or influence others for Christ. Did He call us to preach, sing, prophesy, or worship through movement only for us to mismanage that which He so freely gave us? Let’s love God enough to keep His commandments, the greatest of which is: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” – Matthew 22:37-39 (KJV)
Pastor Rekesha Pittman serves as the Artistic Director for Reign Dance Company and is a highly-requested conference speaker. As a Worship Arts Consultant, she has provided direction to churches and ministries that have resulted in growth and continued development of artistic staff and volunteers. www.divineturnaround.com
