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This is absolutely sick! A must watch…

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIhGxEdez98?rel=0&w=560&h=349]

ok…Leona is looking over my shoulder while I write this and just saw the title and said,

“That isn’t your FINAL last words…”

She’s right

Again.

So I guess I’ll just post something that I’m borrowing from my facebook page and let that speak for itself.

I will do more than belong – I will participate.
I will do more than care – I will help.
I will do more than believe – I will practice.
I will do more than be fair – I will be kind.
I will do more than forgive – I will forget.
I will do more than dream – I will work.
I will do more than teach – I will inspire.
I will do more than give – I will serve.
I will do more than live – I will grow.
I will do more than suffer – I will triumph.
-William Arthur Ward

Dear 30’s…here I come! =)

I ran across a person’s website who I never really got to know, but from what I know is a passionate follower of Christ.  Gray and I went to church together for a time and is a very intelligent man who is asking some really great questions on his blog.

On this blog post I left a comment about tithing

I know tithing is a sensitive subject, but I thought I’d open up the conversation to see if we can learn from one another.  I’d love to hear about your perspectives that you came to out of your personal study of God’s word.

So what say you?

(* Note: I usually don’t monitor my comments, but because of the nature of this post I will.  So play nice!)

I’d be lying if I didn’t admit I’m really excited about what turning 30 in a few weeks means to me.

I’d would also be lying if I didn’t admit that it scares me like crazy.  There’s no logic to why, but it still makes sense to me.  I feel like my life is both culminating into something great while at the same time it feels like I am starting off into a new chapter of my life that’s waiting for me to lead it into insignificance. I look at my life and sometimes am excited at where I am and where God has brought me, but also simultaneously wondering with hopeful expectation that God is not done with me.  I know he’s not, but those are my insecurities none the less.

Sometimes I miss…

ok…here’s the truth.  I just spent the last 30 minutes writing, then deleting, then re-writing, then deleting some things that I feel are on my heart.  Then I realized some things.

1. I need to go to bed…it’s getting late!
2. If I continue to talk about the things I miss I’ll be one of “those people” who are defined by the things that were, instead of living in contentment of what is and having a hopeful expectation for what will be.
3. I am taking this “turning 30” this too seriously!

SO…with that said, good night!

There is a beauty and tension (in my opinion) when it comes to the use of music in worship within the congregational setting.  For every instance of music being an integral part of a revival setting, it has also been part of some of the most heated debates in the church.  Let me explain.

Have you heard this phrase about a worship song?

That song is unfit for church services because of its lack of musical taste and “total absence of the spirit of religion.”

So did believers in the 1800’s.  This was said about the beloved “O Holy Night”, not a song written by a modern worship song writer from 2011.

What worship song writer was accused sounding too much like secular music?

That’s right…you guessed it!  Fanny Crosby, writer of hymns such as “Blessed assurance” or “To God be the Glory”. One biography of Fanny Crosby (ISBN 1-55748-731-6) adds this tidbit:

“By the early 1870s, she was well on her way to becoming the queen of hymn writers. Fanny often matched her poems to familiar tunes. An example is “We Thank Thee, Our Father,” written to the melody of the famous “Adeste Fidelis.” She set poems to Scottish and Welsh airs and used tunes by Stephen Foster.”

In the biography, “William and Catherine Booth: Founders of the Salvation Army,” by Helen K. Hosier, it states the following:

“Satan would have to be battled within his own strongholds, and any means was justifiable, William decided, if it would attract sinners to listen to the message of salvation … Thus it was that as the work grew, the music and street parades attracted increasing crowds of people who scorned the regular churches. ‘Why should the devil have all the best tunes?’ William replied when chided for appropriating music of popular tunes for his hymns … “

And so the history of music in the church as one that not only been a tool that God has used to inspire and encourage worship in the church but has also been at the center of many of it’s discords.

• From the battles of Gregorian chant to polyphonic congregational songs of worship….

• From the divide between metrical psalms and hymns which caused so much controversy in the Anglican church in the 18th and 19th Centuries…

• From the vernacular hymns to the Weslyan hymns which both John and Charles insisted that hymns (both words and music) should be written to stir the congregation, re-inforce its religious emotions and play on the “feel good” factor. (In fact, many were attracted away from the established church into Methodism because the connection they felt to this new form of worship.)…

• And even dating back to the Council of Trent in the 1500’s the use of music in church was debated! Even today, as I came out of worship services I found that 2 people of similar demographic in age and maturity in their faith had totally different opinions about how they perceived the use of music in church.

So what am I writing all this for?  A few nights ago I listened to a podcast message about the difference between “problems to solve” and “tensions to embrace” as it relates to church ministry.  What I am finding is that worship always will seem like a tension to embrace and never a problem that can be solved.  We are all so different. There are so many different styles and paradigms by which someone comes to God in worship. It almost seems that the beauty of worship music within the congregational setting is the tension of it.

For the longest time it would bother me when I couldn’t make everyone happy.  That’s because I thought that it was a problem to resolve.  I’m starting to believe that the subject of music in worship will never really be resolved.  In fact, if I am in a place where it is “resolved” I’m probably at a place that has placed “uniformity” as it’s creed instead of unity.  That is a place I never hope to be.

What say you?

How do you handle the diversity of our preferences when it comes to worship?

Or do you really believe there is only one way, or one style, or a certain set of songs only worthy of worship to God?

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvQU62P7DUc]

Leading worship is a performance. Dispel the taboo

This was a retweet by my friend Mark Zubert that I saw on my TweetDeck that caught my eye immediately.  I followed the link and came upon this article found on Worship Leader Magazine’s website.

If you have any opinion about worship and the role worship leaders play you need to check this article out.  For instance, the author of this article writes,

In fact, the tendencies of our flesh are at times used as the basis of objection to an ethic/theology of musical excellence in our worship. Often, in our desire for a pure worship experience devoid of anything unspiritual, one blatantly obvious reality is obscured: a performance of some kind must take place. In order for anything musical to occur at all in a worship service a hand must be lifted, a mind engaged, and we then proceed to ply the craft we have taken years to perfect. We are, in fact, performing regardless of our motives, understanding of anointing or our philosophical objections.

What say you?

Then at the end of the article the author compiles a list of the The top five myths and taboos of the worship service.

Go check it out then come back and tell me what you think.

Thirty.

This month I turn thirty.

Wow.

Being one of the youngest among my peers, I have watched how each of them has handled this chapter of their life over the past couple of years.  And now it is my turn.  In less than 27 days I too will join the ranks of the “thirty-somethings.”

Having somewhat successfully navigated through the potential for a quarter-life crisis that I saw many people of my generation go through, I look back at the past 30 years of my life and I am amazed.  I am amazed at the vast experiences I’ve been through and can only wonder what life for me in these next years will look like.

I will admit that there are some things about turning 30 that are a little depressing.  Just a short search on google about the special “age of thirty” can suck the life out of you! For instance, did you know that at age 30, you’re older than 42 percent of Americans.  Crazy!  But then again, it has seemed that all my life I have been looking forward to the day I could say that “I’m thirty.”  I don’t know why?  Maybe because of what the age “30” has represented to me in different ways.

• David became king at the age of 30.
• Jesus began his earthly ministry at around 30.
• Bill Gates made $234 million at age 30.

Random info – I know – but info that has been stuck in my head as I approached turning 30.  I guess if I was being completely honest, the thing that scares me the most is not that I am getting older.  It’s more of the fact that I am now living in the beginning of some of the most important years of my life.  This is about more than my career and calling as a pastor.

It’s about a relationship with my wife that has moved out of the era of what some call “the honeymoon stage” and how I continue to nurture and care for that relationship. It’s about the two new lives I brought into this world in my 20’s and am now partnering with my wife to lead and guide.  Turning 30, to me, represents so much opportunity.  It’s taking all the lessons I learned in my 20’s and putting them into use, and I am so excited to get “there.”

For those of you who have navigated your 30’s, what advice would you have for me?

And so it continues…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Q749hogCN8]