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Aug 02 2010
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Bible, Church, Creative, Tech

Fostering biblical worship

I’m at camp, camp is a full emotional worship experience, but do the kids know what they’re doing? or are they just doing what they’re told?

Morning worship services for camps and retreats are tough when students stay up all night, there is no energy. We break up the highschool and middleschool for morning worship, challenge and devotions because each group has different needs. At sugar creek the student ministry has fostered a sense that in order to engage in worship you have to bum rush the stage (not that it’s a bad thing to do!). A couple of middleschoolers were standing up front, one with hands raised in worship. They realized their friend didn’t have their hands raised and so they reached over and put them in the air for them. Because that is what they’re supposed to do right? – story via Aric Harding

How do you foster and teach authentic biblical worship?

I’m just asking questions, not giving answers.

If you’re fostering a worship environment then there has to be some kind of gauge for the temperature of authentic worship. What do you consider a gauge? Is it when all of the kids rush the stage and stand there looking at you with a deer in the headlights look? Is it when kids raise their hands but don’t know what is going on?

  • But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.
  • Let them praise his name with dancing, making melody to him with tambourine and lyre!
  • All the earth worships you and sings praises to you; they sing praises to your name. Selah

Judge worship out of scripture. Are people worshiping in spirit and in truth? What does that truly look like and is that solely in music? Is worship all about raising your hands? Scripture says the man bowed his head and worshiped, another section of scripture says Moses worshiped this way. David DANCED before the Lord. It all seems to be personal preference and comfort level to me. The other thing that bowing your head says to me is that there is a huge sense of reverence. Scripture in relation to worship shows people bowing their head or laying prostrate in presence of God. The Psalm 66:4 verse separates worship and singing praises to God. That just gives an inkling that worship isn’t just surrounded by music but is life itself. Are you worshiping God in spirit and in truth not just in music, singing, dancing, or bowing your head, but with your life?

If your goal is to foster biblical worship how are you teaching it? are you teaching it to where its a series of motions like the middleschool student who thought worship is engaging by raising your hands? Are you explaining WHO they are worshiping and how that is to look like? Are you using scripture in worship or are you just getting up and singing songs? Are you leading out with a life of worship?

Last but not least, what does your worship environment look like? Is it sterile? As a tech/creative I look at the room environment too. Because the protestants wanted to move far away from Catholicism we stripped away any iconography or visual element to a sunday ‘worship experience’. As a creative I want my senses engaged. I enjoy engaging others senses with sound but also visually, bringing in with projection what the environment lacks with images of the cross, nature, stained glass, color etc. We shouldn’t be afraid of the visual, God is the creator of the visual and beauty.

We need to embrace what God has created us to do, worshiping him in spirit and in truth.

So how do we do that?

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Jul 22 2010
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Church, Communications, Creative

How Outspoken are you?

Alright all of you Church Communication geeks! I’m sure most of you have heard of a new collaborative effort out there called Outspoken.

I’m a little pumped about this personally, because I get to be a part of this endeavor to help us all communicate the same incredible message of Christ to an ever changing culture.

The other exciting part about this book is it will be easy to read. With over 50 authors contributing you will get every style of writing and communications knowledge you can imagine in one handy dandy notebook (ok i stole that from blues clues, sue me). If one piece doesn’t resonate with you, skip on over to the next section and get something a little different.

I don’t want to keep you long because you’re out there trying to communicate. I hope you’ll go visit the facebook link above and “like” the book, tell your friends and follow it on twitter. As it comes closer to release more information will be available on the book, its authors and all of it’s awesome content.

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Jul 22 2010
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Church, Communications

Your local val-u-mart

The Importance of Value.

How many times in meeting with others have you walked away from the conversation thinking you had a good idea of what needed to be done or not be done, only to find out how incredibly wrong you were?

In ministry I think we forget that other people have a different view of what is important or valuable to them and their ministry. I’ve had numerous occasions where in a meeting, something was briefly brought up that would have fallen into my area of ministry but it was stated like a suggestion. So like many suggestions do for most of us, it gets filed. What I didn’t know is that suggestion was actually more of a mandate. I was not understanding what that person was valuing for ministry at that moment. Because I didn’t see it as valuable or important I didn’t act on it directly.

This isn’t something that is easy to do, but our focus needs to shift just a little bit in order to be a little more sensitive to, not only our valuable items but things others see important as well.

If we’re going to communicate more effectively we need to learn to listen more effectively too.

oh and if you’re waiting on more creative stuff from me I’ve got my magazines full and I’m ready to shoot I’ve just got to find time to unload it all on here! my guess is after camp you’re going to see quite a few blog posts on some recent creative endeavors.

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May 18 2010
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Bible, Church, Uncategorized

Bypass Surgery

Proverbs 29:18 (kjv) Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.

This verse popped into my head today and unfortunately it was in relation to the state of the church today. I started reading Mad Church Disease and it has really started me thinking, analyzing and inspecting my own life and the church. There is a lot of death both inside and outside of the church.

Out side of the church people are dying without the grace of God. They’re being damned to an eternal life separated from God. There is no vision, no work of God and so they are perishing. The church is supposed to be light and life in this dying world but at second glance there is as much death and decay inside as there is out. I’m not talking about eternal separation from God, that is covered, I’m talking about confusion, lack of direction, apathy, ignorance, pain and suffering. God isn’t the author of any of that, so the enemy is at work to destroy the church from the inside out.

Proverbs 29:18(msg)
If people can’t see what God is doing,
they stumble all over themselves;
But when they attend to what he reveals,
they are most blessed.

I love the way the message puts this verse. If people can’t see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves. What the heck are we doing to cause people not to see what God is doing?! God doesn’t stop working so that must mean we are impeding the vision of His people. The church should get vision from the leadership, so if you do not have a clearly defined vision, or are not explaining what work is going on locally and globally how can we expect passion and vision to spread.

Maybe the church needs an emergency bypass surgery.

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Apr 25 2010
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Bible

another blurb.

2 Thessalonians 1:11 To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power,12 so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

As I was reading this last night I was struck by the phrase ‘may make you worthy’.

A lot of times as Christians are taught, you get saved, you’re redeemed, you get your get out of hell free card, reserved for the non-smoking section, thats it, el fin, no mas. As a Christian we’re instantly seen as heaven bound by Christ so we’re already supposed to have it all together and figured out right? Apparently not, Paul knew that and he knew that the Thessalonican’s knew it too. Paul prayed that God would make them worth of Christ’s calling. That sure seems like an active word to me.

Sanctification is a process. I’m still going through it, you’re still going through it and no one has arrived that is still alive.

I go each day praying that I may be made worthy to fulfill His work, whatever it is that he has called me to do, whether immediately or long term.

What are you being sanctified from today?

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Apr 20 2010
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Bible, Church

gut check

Ephesians 4:29 Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.31 Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.

How well do I follow scripture? Well if I bounce it off of verses like these…not very well.

Time for a gut check. This scripture just came to me out of the blue and I am humbled immediately. I haven’t been doing to well with it lately.

Lord,

I grieve you at every stop whether in thought or word. Continue to show me where I need to grow. Please remove from me every form of malice. Humble me and I pray my life will bring glory to your name.

Amen.

Apr 14 2010
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Bible

Open-for interpretation-24 hours a day?

Warning…This is talking to people who have a biblical worldview. So before you get your panties in a wad just know that this isn’t a creation evolution subject, it’s a literal or allegorical debate.

I had some good conversation with my coworker @jbenjamin85 (twitter) on creation in the bible. How growing up he was taught a gap theory that some how involved dinosaurs being created before mankind and other animals, Lucifer wanting to be God resulting in Lucifer being cast out of heaven, and then God recreating heaven and earth creating our current fossil structure and interpretation of physical evidence we see today.

What we settled on is that taking one verse of scripture, that Lucifer was cast out of heaven is something that you cannot base an entire theory on that doesn’t even relate.

So the debate still goes on, was creation 6 literal days, was there a gap, or was each day millions of years. We actually can’t know the definite answer to that question because nothing totally spells it out. That’s why they’re theories, you weren’t there. Based on evidence found in scripture I can piece together a logical assumption (again this is MY logic). Scripture can be taken one of two ways, literal in which every word read means what it says, or allegorical meaning you can interpret whatever you want to out of the scripture.

What a lot of people fail to realize is that scripture lets you know when it’s an allegory or when its a literal historical account. Genesis is not an allegory, it was written by Moses as a historical account given by God as to what He did. So if Genesis is to be taken literally then what about the fossil records? Dinosaurs and mankind? Shouldn’t there be a gap somewhere? Did Genesis say in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and then he rested for an indefinite period of time to pick back up on the second day? God created the heavens and the earth, putting into motion time and in doing so giving us a reference for a week we still use today. God could have created everything in a micro-second. God could have taken 5 years to create everything you see before you. The thing is, he tells us specifically it was 6 days and on the 7th he rested. To me that doesn’t say – insert your time frame here -. To me that says I’m being specific so listen up.

That also means dino’s and man shared the land. Herbivores until the fall of man which instituted flesh eating and fleeing from the T-Rex. Genetic variance was robust, thousands of species of one animal came from one. Thousands of human variances came from one. It was so robust in fact that when God destroyed the earth with the flood, that re population could happen again with just a small collection of people and animals from each species that God saved.

I could go on and on. You get the picture. Brings a new light to the word, awesome.

The second you start being open for interpretation the second the literal meaning of the Bible flies out the window. The literal savior and literal miracles become nothing short of stories and your faith and salvation become an allegory themselves, an allegory of a people looking for redemption in a made up God.

So is your faith based on stories or facts?
There is a lot to think about.

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Feb 15 2010
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Bible, Church, Creative, Tech

I Say Post Modern, You Say, Going to Hell!

Today’s church has gotten stuck, there is a huge battle between the modern church and the post-modern church. The modern church being the answer to the reformation and introduction of the bible to the layman. It’s been there a while, it’s dug its roots in and it’s swung hard right on conservatism. In the past few years a new guy has cropped up, the post-modern church.  His answer is to abandon the modern church, stick it to him and swing as far left as possible while loosely fitting God and all his friends into their web of beliefs.

The biggest problem with the term post modern is every one has their own definition.

post⋅mod⋅ern⋅ism

–noun (sometimes initial capital letter) any of a number of trends or movements in the arts and literature developing in the 1970s in reaction to or rejection of the dogma, principles, or practices of established modernism, esp. a movement in architecture and the decorative arts running counter to the practice and influence of the International Style and encouraging the use of elements from historical vernacular styles and often playful illusion, decoration, and complexity.

Decorative arts, some people see post modernism in the church embracing media and new styles of worship experiences as post modern. Some people think this change is great some people dig their heels in and resist it as much as they can. So what should the church’s response be? Is there an answer in the bible that spells it out for us? Is one side or the other right?

I might get some hell fire and brimstone for this but I don’t think either side has it right!

The church’s goal is edification of the saints and ushering new people into HIS kingdom. It is the great commission, and the great commandment. Love God, Love others, and bring others to love God. Now where does modernity or post-modernity fit into that commission? God didn’t say go out and bring others to me but make sure they follow this one narrow path called the fundamentalist interpretation. On the flip side God didn’t tell you to go out and make sure that people should come to Christ disillusioned to the creed and call of the gospel.

Brian Holt wrote a great blog post evoking some great questions over here. Talking about McLuhan and his media theory. This is widely accepted in and outside of religious circles and there are some aspects we need to sit up and take notice of.

The modern church takes a head in the sand and feet firm on the KJV foundation approach to media and the gospel. If you try to tell them different they spout a pre-conceived canned answer at you that is full of King James prose and holier than thou speak. Music is meant for the message and the message for the music. No toe tapping here. If you talk about media and evoking emotion, the only emotion you should evoke is that of the pastor telling of how Jesus delivered the heathen on the front row from a life of rock and roll.

Those modern churches that do apply media come from the stance that the message should never change regardless of the medium that you choose to use.

The post-modern church adopts McLuhan’s full approach that your medium changes your message. This is what most staunch modernists take issue with, the hugely watered down message. Unfortunately most pastors who swing so far this way came out of the modern church and got burned BAD by it. So naturally their response is to offer an ‘experience’ that is wholly different from what they dealt with as a child.

Most post modern churches have an experiential ‘religion’ where the substance is your reaction to the experience. There is a communal approach to the teaching and Jesus goes from savior king to savior friend. I’m not saying that there is not anything wrong with this view, but I don’t think it can be your only outlook on Christ.

Andy Stanley has a message out there talking about how we put God in a box. Our preconceived notion of how God needs to act, react, be and do. I think this is how both sects of churches have responded. We’ve put God in a box and decided how he should act and react within the confines of a certain worldview.

So how should the body of Christ respond to modernity or post-modernity? That depends on if you want to stick God in a box or not. I stick him in a box every day with my own worldview. Our worldview is just the change in message that the medium has given us. (yes I think McLuhan was correct in his statements that the medium changes the message) I also think there are non-negotiable aspects to the gospel but for every non-negotiable there are 100 negotiable ones.

So who’s going to hell today?

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Feb 09 2010
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Bible, Church, Tech

If We Don’t Love

After a week off to relax and recharge I came back to more than I bargained for! God decided that I need shown how much I love people. Which isn’t much.

I was challenged by volunteers with a heart to serve but a passion that might outweigh their ability. I was challenged to love them regardless. That’s hard. They are there freely giving of their time to serve God. They’re not there working for a paycheck so sometimes things have to slide.

You also have to realize that while they are there working they’ve got things they’re dealing with and inadvertently that affects their disposition. You know there are things that happen in your life that can affect your mood or the way you respond to things. Why would anyone else be any different.

Something I am learning as I deal with volunteers on a regular basis is while they’re there to serve and worship in a capacity, you’re also their outlet and their shoulder if they need it. It may not always manifest itself in an outpouring of tears or confessions. You’ve got to be prepped for anything. You have automatically stepped into the role of counselor without know it and you have to be able to read your team.

1 Cor. 13:1

Are you a bunch of noise? Are the words coming out of your mouth not matching up with how you love? Mine aren’t. God’s forcing me to try my best though.

This isn’t just with how you handle volunteers either. It happens in dealing with other church staff. How you respond and how you love them in whatever they’re dealing with is crucial. I’ve forced myself to stop and pray for someone when I see them struggling instead of mentally cussing them out for doing something I don’t agree with  (yes I do it…don’t lie to yourself you do it too).

How’s your love?

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Jan 28 2010
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Bible

What shapes you.

http://read.ly/Rev22.13.esv

http://read.ly/Phil2.3.esv

As a Christ follower there are many things that shape who you are, what you do, how you act and react, what yor purpose is. These are two verses that have shaped my life. My thought patterns. These two are always on call in my mind. I have a tattoo of Alpha and Omega as a reminder of Revelation 22:13.

what shapes you?

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