Category: Stuff (Page 55 of 65)

Just a random thing…but what are your top 5 movies?

In no particular order

* Top Gun
* Braveheart
* The Patriot
* Gladiator
* The Shawshank Redemption

There’s a quick list, I’ll revisit them and explain what I liked about them later. Heck, they may change by then.

Well, after talking about the early service some week before last, we had a meeting at our church tonight for the Worship Committee. We were to decide (actually “they” were to decide. I’m not on the committee, but was invited to attend because of my involvement) whether to continue the service into the fall instead of stopping in early August like we’d done the past few years.

The discussion began with some praises of the early (contemporary) service. People boldly spoke to the fact that they liked it, even “older” people really liked it. But then the people who had some issues with it spoke up as well. The concern, once again, was whether it was going to cause division within the church between the two services. Also, I heard the comment that the service seemed maybe a little too “non-denominational” instead of flavored with the sprinklings of our denomination in it. I wasn’t exactly sure what “items” it was missing, but anyway. Other concern was what about the more “important” services (Easter, Christmas, All Saints, Promotion, Children’s Sabath) and how it could be unwise to not have the entire community of believers there together.

After much discussion, the end result was what I thought would happen. We’ll continue the early morning service and seek to target certain dates that we’ll combine the two. I expect it to be a traditional service with a little blending of the contemporary aspects. We’ll see how it goes. It’s better than nothing at this point. But I’ve seen people who have seemed to have truly gotten excited about going to church attending the early service. Heck, getting teenagers somewhere by 9am on a Sunday morning is an accomplishment in itself!

But I still pray that God will use this service for His purposes, and not make it into religion.

Well, after being out of town and out of touch for a while, here I am…back in the saddle. This week will probably be a busy one, but not to bad. The week in Florida was great. Spiritually energizing while physically draining. I think it was the cold that slapped me around the whole drive back. But I think I’m rested up and good to go now.

Looking back on last week, we went to Panama City Beach (not the same as Panama City..just next door. It can fool you about all that when you’re traveling) for the BigStuf camps. It has been our sixth summer to go to these camps. They are professional, organized, and create environments where students (and adults) experience God’s presence in their lives. Hopefully it will carry over to the “at home” life.

Stuart Hall and Louie Giglio were the speakers for the week. The combined to do a fantastic job while the Big Stuf Band kicked some serious booty too. Stuart spoke on using our bodies for God’s glory (Created by Him, for Him, and for His glory). He spoke Monday evening, Tuesday morning/evening, and Wednesday morning. At that point, the kids were saying that Stuart was a fantastic speaker and they got a lot out of his talks and that they might like him better than Louie. But then Wednesday night Louie came to camp and blew everyone away.

He spoke on the difference between hearing a story about Jesus and saying, “Hmmmm”, or having it really impact you and saying, “Wow!”. The stories of the Bible are not “Hmmm” stories. Those things don’t happen everyday. Jesus should cause us to say “Wow!”. Then we thought he was over.

But then he went into what I thought was going to be a short explanation then a prayer time, but as he explained the Passover and then what was going during the time leading up to Jesus’ crucifixion you could tell he was getting pretty serious. Then through his telling of the Passion story, he quite effectively illuminated the story of Jesus and His journey to the cross in a stark light. He brought a “Wow-ness” to it that really affected a lot of people. I want to get the disc of that message. Louie spoke again the next morning and Stuart closed up the talks on Thursday night.

As I said, worship times were top notch (as always) and really channeled a lot of the focus for the week. As far as the beach goes, the pretty red flag was up that meant it’s best not to go into the water. Apparently there had been some deaths in the coastal waters earlier in the summer so they were quicker with the red flag than usual. It rained on us a little too, and washed out the beach volleyball/parking lot basketball tourneys. But it didn’t bother us too much.

I HIGHLY recommend taking a group to the Big Stuf camps if you ever get the opportunity.

Just rolled into town last night from a week in Florida. A great trip, but it wore me down on the way home. Got a stuffy head/runny nose yesterday morning and it gave me a heavy head and drowsy feeling all the way home. And I’m the only one able to drive the bus…lucky me!

I’ll post an update of the trip and all the greatness it was in a few hours, hopefully. I’ve got family coming to the house in a matter of minutes so I need to go.

Going to be away from the keyboard for most of the week. Going to the BigStuf camps down in Panama City Beach. Please pray for the students we’re taking. Pray that all of use will have a powerful encounter with Jesus.

I know I’ve mentioned our early worship service a few times. It’s really been going well. The students who are leading worship with the Praise Team are really enjoying the time they put into it for practice and the Sunday mornings as well. And the attendance has been growing as well. The past three Sundays we’ve had 87, 76, and 85. The 76 was on Fourth of July weekend too. And I know it’s not all about numbers, but the increase in the people coming is telling us something.

I think this is the fourth summer in a row that we’ve had an early morning worship service. It’s been for summers only though. When school starts back and everything else seems to get back in the flow, then we’ve always reverted back to just one main (traditional) service. The previous three summers we’ve probably averaged in the mid 30’s in attendance. I think that most of those coming came out of matter of convenience. The service was basically a scaled down version of the normal eleven o’clock service, still in the sanctuary with not a lot of changes. The people could come to church, then Sunday School (if they chose), and then go to the golf course, to lunch, the river/lake, or wherever else and beat the crowds.

Sure, some of the people coming to early worship this summer may be coming for those reasons, but something else has to account for the increases in attendance. We’re meeting in a different building, in a smaller room, with different music, with no traditional readings (well, the Bible is pretty traditional, and we still read it every time!), no creeds, no affirmations, no organ music, no hymnals. We have the praise team made up mostly of teens, and a less formal setting that we’re hoping is inviting to those who attend.

I sense an opposition coming when August gets here. There are going to be some people within our church who want it to go back to the way it was before. Only one service. They are missing seeing some of the people who are going to the early contemporary service. I don’t think that is a valid reason to stop the other service, but I can see part of the point there…I don’t want to see a church membership split along the lines of the two services.

But what do you do. When you’ve got that many people attending and really seeming to like it…why stop it? Even our pastor said this morning (and he’s said it before), “People seem to smile a little more in this service!” And this morning we had 109. There really wasn’t room for everyone, but we packed them in. We’re meeting in a small lounge that is about out of space. We can move into the gym, use partitions to block off some space, and have to fight the acoustics there…but I think that is our next move. You don’t want people not coming because of the cramped quarters.

Maybe it’s sad that I get excited about something as petty as that…but I am!

This story I heard about first on Jay Leno last night is, well, just plain laughable. For one, what self respecting lady would strip down to her running shoes to let men shoot at her with a paint gun, and two, what kinda lame-o men would pay $10K to shoot at them?

This morning I went to the early service again. It’s still going well. I’m not sure how many we had today, but it’s still doing better than any other time we’ve ever had early morning worship in the summers. How is it different now? Well, the most striking difference is that it’s a totally different style. We use a praise and worship team made up of teenagers instead of someone playing a piano. And we’re in the lounge of the Gym Building instead of in the sanctuary. So new style, new environment, new music, newness all around…but the same God. That’s cool. I’ll talk more about all of that later.

But this morning, I was sitting up front towards the left like I always do running the computer with MediaShout. I operate all the video and what not for the music, scripture, and anything else. I happen to enjoy it. My wife usually sits close by but by the time she got there she had to sit a little further back. But she brought my daughter today. (She’s usually in the nursery). After singing, announcements, singing, greeting, and singing I feel something at my right elbow. I turn and see it’s my daughter. “I want to sit in your lap.” Man, isn’t it great to be loved and wanted. So I grabbed her up and she sat there for a few minutes during the offering and all.

When it was done, I was to go read scripture and then offer the Morning Prayer. I got up and tried to point her back towards her mom. But she wanted to stay with me. I again tried to be a little more insistant, “Go sit with Mom” in hushed tones. I was standing now and she was reaching up for me. I picked her up and handed her to someone on the front row who was reaching for her, and could tell that wasn’t going to work at all. She was getting that look in her face that said, “Dangit, this isn’t what I want and I’m about to let everyone know that this isn’t what I want.” So that lady tried to hand her to someone else who was reaching for her, but me, being her all knowing dad, knew that the only way she was going to calm down was for me or my wife to get her.

She starts to cry a bit and reach for me, “Daaaaaaaaaaaaaadeeeeeeeeeeee……….”, and thankfully my wife made it around to get her and take her outside to calm her down. I couldn’t take her because I was about to be in front of the whole service to read from Ephesians and then pray. I can’t do that with a kid in my arms, right? Right?

I got to thinking about it during the sermon. I wish I’d have kept her in my arms, read the scripture, and then prayed. I was caught up in being formal about it (at a supposed contemporary service). “I can’t have a kid in my arms while reading/praying! That’s not…well..that’s not how it’s supposed to be done.” But why would that be wrong? Is it wrong to share scripture or offer prayers to Jesus while holding a child? Heck, even Jesus Himself said that we have to welcome the little kids when Peter and his boys were trying to keep them back. So now I almost feel guilty for upsetting her.

I know that there are church services, but I’m afraid that we sometimes focus too much on the ceremony of it instead of the meat of it. What are we all about? Why be pretentious? I remember reading in Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire that it would be very uncomfortable if I were to visit a friends house for dinner, and my friend handed me a “script” or “order of fellowship” and told me, “Blake, at 6:00 we’re going to go out by the patio for some lemonade and chat about our lawns and how we never can seem to get it looking just like we want them to. Then at 6:15 I’ll light the charcole for the grill. While the coals are getting ready, we’ll talk about how our favorite football teams will do in the fall. I’ll put the steaks on at 6:45, and then we’ll be ready to eat at 7:15. Over dinner we’ll talk about parenthood followed by how the mortgage rates are doing.” How boring would that be? Can I not talk about Survivor at any point? What about any other subject, or am I restricted by how he had it layed out?

But sometimes I feel we treat our church services like that. We invite God to be present with us, but then tell Him exactly how we want Him to act/move during the service. All scripted out, every detail with (usually) no room for the Spirit to move us. Do we need a plan, an order of worship? Yes, I think there needs to be a structure. But I think the problem comes in when we get so married/attatched to “the structure” that we forget that God is not a “stiff” God. He wants to change things up now and then. He likes variety, I believe.

Can you imagine this? I’ve heard a few times that Will Smith turned down the role of Neo for The Matrix. That would have been really weird with him in it, don’t you think? Get this, he turned down The Matrix so he could take Wild, Wild, West instead.