3 | eden | 3 | eden | 3
so my little girl turned 3! she's growing so quickly...she can run so quick now...she's so beautiful
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
you are my hope - your promise never fails me
our friend elizabeth passed away last night...her husband said it was right that she would pass away on the first day of spring - he reminded us that she was ushered into glory...
i'm reminded even more today that God wants me to follow him, he's asking me to set my net out...i need to trust him, and not focus on the cost...
when we picked the worship songs for this week's set @ HBC we didn't know that Elizabeth would pass the same week - but after practicing Monday night, the first thoughts that came to my mind after hearing of her death Wednesday morning were the lyrics from Good to Me - they came right to my mind...we'll start the set by singing "Trading my Sorrows" - it'll be great to sing that we can trade our sickness and that God is good...and then sing "Good to Me" and How Great is Our God" - and then close things by singing "The Heart of Worship" - this set is so appropriate in light of Elizabeth's death...her two year old and six month old boy's can't sing these praises yet - but I hope some day they truly can...
You Are my Hope! Your promise never fails me! And my desire is to follow you forever...for you are good, for you are good, for your are good to me - yes you are good...
Ctrl-Alt-Del
it's amazing how something seemingly insignificant can take on so much meaning - the whole idea of Ctrl-Alt-Del is strange - it becomes this solution of sorts to deal with a locked up computer...the button's themselves are pretty meaningless, seldomly used - but they join together to have this strange meaning...
Monday, March 19, 2007
courage & fear - take a risk tk
courage to take a risk - set aside your fears bro
what vision has God given me? i need the courage to take a risk...
what needs to be done? what needs to change? what needs to move forward?
then....how do i initiate? how do i launch into the unknown?
is God calling HBC to be a multi-campus environment? let's create an environment to capture those that are being missed.
God - what mission are you calling me to? I can sense in the depths of who I am that you are calling me out to lay things down...I'm struggling to know what that could or might or should look like...give me the courage to figure it out. I don't want to back down on this, because it's getting easier and easier to back down, the further I get into this...
sometimes I struggle with inadequacy - can God really use me?
sometimes I struggle with apathy - do I really love people? (besides my little circle)
sometimes I struggle with confusion/purpose - where is God really calling me? and to who?
sometimes I struggle with the practicality of this whole thing - what about money/benefits and my family?
sometimes I struggle about what other people will think - this goes way back to H.S....
sometimes I struggle with the value of what i'm being called to do - Am I taking the easy way out?
sometimes I fear that God will leave me where I am - Am I just looking for an easy way out?
sometimes I fear that God isn't really calling me to something great - Does he really want to use me?
sometimes I fear that I missed my chance - Did I not take a risk I already should have? Is it too late for me?
sometimes I fear that I won't figure it out - How will I really know what God is calling me to do?
sometimes I fear about my kids and my wife - what will happen to them in all this?
God - give me the courage to set aside my fears - to trust you - to be patient - to not make a dumb decision to go after something I shouldn't - to see you - to know you - to follow you - and to lead others to you...I trust you God
Friday, March 16, 2007
Alvarez MD90-C
This is my new Alvarez MD90-C - solid Englemann Spruce top will solid Indian Rosewood back and sides. I'm enjoying it so far.
| Body Style | Cutaway Dreadnought |
| Back/Sides | Solid Indian Rosewood |
| Top | Solid Englemann Spruce |
| Fingerboard | Rosewood |
| Fingerboard Inlay | 12 F Diagonal |
| Body Binding | Maple |
| Soundhole Rosette | Abalone |
| Tuning Machines | Nickel Die Cast |
| Finish | Natural |
| Electronics | System 600T Mk II |
what i've learned about leading worship as a volunteer
Leading worship well (and for free) – the art and technique behind leading worship within a volunteer/lay worship ministry model
Spiritual aspects:
- Don’t be afraid to take an uncomfortable step of leadership – I’ll share a little of my story and share about the example of Moses – He wasn’t even that willing really, God Himself taught him on the job.
- Be authentic - bring in aspects from your real life – I often share stories from my family and friends and about how God is teaching me – (Reference some personal stories in the article. Use Eli’s story about how God sings over us.)
Artistic Aspects:
- Accept that God has placed you in an important role of ministry and be confident that he will give you a voice – and something significant to say to his local people. (i.e. don’t downplay the fact that you’re “just a volunteer”)
- Don’t just use other famous worshipers’ ideas – listen to God and ask Him how to lead his local people to Him, through you – be a true servant. Write your own song, or do a song in a new way.
- Be willing to put the effort into preparing, but come to the worship time prepared to follow the Spirit – and let go of things a bit. Those most prepared to worship are the most able to follow the Spirit (This is a Louie Giglio point)
- Don’t use your “volunteer” status as an excuse not to prepare.
Logistical Aspects:
- Think specifically about what you will say between songs, and how you will help lead people into God’s presence.
- Get lots of people involved.
- Have high expectations for the entire ministry (even though it’s a bunch of engineers/lawyers/scientists making some noise for God)
- Ask people to commit.
- Bring people along in their own journey of leading others in worship – help them take small steps of leadership along the way
- Practice as a band for three hours for every ½ hour of worship time
- Be clear to the worshipers about how the team and ministry works – so everyone has realistic expectations
- Search for that hidden talent within the church – young and old
- Don’t decide/judge how God might use or not use someone – I’ve been wrong on this too many times
- Work with church staff to connect all aspects of any given worship service together
daddy, i'm scarred
usually when eli runs to my bed in the middle of the night his first words are - daddy, i'm scarred
i thought this would be a great children's book idea...here are some quick thoughts:
- me back and forth with Eli from my bed to his
- The defender of our faith
- Use Everlasting God ideas in book
- Have car bed in story
- Do summer Sault when I put him back in bed
- Pray with him.
- Not sure about animation, or if characters will be people or animals…
The Marks of True Worship - Louie Giglio - Thirsty 06 Talk
Worship is what it’s all about, it’s all about God, but we make much of him when we worship.
If anything you want to be known as a worshiping church!
Some say - We want to be a missional church – missions isn’t the beginning or ending of anything, missions starts and ends with worship, missions is in the middle
Evangelism/Giving/teaching/discipline/innovative/whatever kind of church
What you really want to say is that we want to be a worshiping church, because that encompasses all the things we want to be about (like above list) when we ARE a worshiping church.
Two Baselines:
1. You are a worshiper! Everyone is a great worshiper (of something)
Worship is about giving glory (setting our affection) to what we value most.
Worship is a human activity, not a Christian thing (Romans 1 – exchanged truth of God for a lie…and they worshiped and served the creature instead of the creator…) worship went right on happening w/out God.
We are good at giving glory to STUFF, humanity is good at it.
The question – are you a TRUE worshiper?
“Worship is a full life response to the greatness and the grace of God”
- Is God happy? - A preoccupation for God’s happiness
- At the end of the day – worship for God (pleasing to God) in Romans 12:2
- God decides if the worship is acceptable or not
- Is there an aroma? – An acceptable offering of worship that is pleasing to God
- Jesus offered himself as a fragrant aroma, an acceptable offering
- This is our spiritual act of worship
- Are we more concerned if they like it or if we like it, instead of wondering if it was a sweet sweet sound in his ear
- Here’s the question – God, did you like it?
- We don’t ask, ‘cause we’re afraid of the answer
- Sometimes we need to stop singing, put our hands down and repent
- Has it reached the least of these? – The mark of demonstration
- Is worship still a meal for you?
- Or is it fuel for missions?
It is trickling down to the least of these?
- Are people alive? – Are people being turned upside down.
- They’re seeing in color, not B&W
- Are they talking about Jesus
How prevalent is the work of the Spirit in you and in the planning of worship?
Distance worship from worship programming…you cannot program worship
You can program a worship service…
- Where are our ideas coming from?
- Are we looking over there to those people,
- Or are we looking up there to the face of God?
- What do you want people to change? (As opposed to what do you want people to feel or experience – we need to worry less about vibe and feel)
- What internally has to happen for that change to take place? (As opposed to what just has to happen externally for the program to work)
- This could mean – we don’t need any music tonight
- How prevalent is the work of the Holy Spirit in You and in the body dynamic?
- In other words, is the question being surface a lot – where is the Holy Spirit? When he is moving and active – stuff happens
John Piper - session 4 @ Passion 07
Dealing w/the guilt of failure in the sexual life
Substitutionary Atonement – whose hands did the nails go through, not yours – his…who’s warrant was on him, not his – but yours…
Rom 8:3 – what the law could not do, God did.
Micah 7:8 – rejoice not over me o my enemy, when I fall… “trusting Christ to the hilt with gutsy guilt”
The Bible wasn’t written to be misunderstood
Louie Giglio - Passion 07 session 5
In the end, we need to be able to say “I had a part in making my savior famous to all the peoples of the world”
Lord, we know you don’t need us, but we want to be part of the story
God says - "Everything is about the party, and the party lasts forever – and it’s all about the party"
If we pour our lives into anything else, it's going to be different when we walk into the party....
Don’t waste your life on something less than this….be in it, because it is….I want to be a mission minded going person all the days of my life…I want to be a part of God’s story going to every person on the planet…so they hear the name of Jesus
You can get into the story no matter…it's easy to say "I don’t know if I can be part of God’s story because I don’t know!" - so what!
Can I get some of that, can you use me in that story I’m in? I don’t need to know what, or when or how, I just need to know if you will go w/me Jesus?
Francis Chan - session 3 @ Passion 07
o you really want to know the will of God?
I’m concerned – do you really love God? (not do you serve enough or sing loud enough)
wreck our lives - passion 07 session 1 - Louie Giglio
Louie Giglio - “Wreck our lives and put us in the stream of what God is doing”
“Lean forward into what God has for us”
worship in spirit & truth
Worship and spirit and truth… notes from a Chris Tomlin Thirsty '06 talk
Part 1 - Worship in spirit...
Focused on Jesus (John 16 – Holy spirit brings glory to Jesus)
Worship is unpredictable (You don’t know what the spirit is going to do in others lives – the Spirit is unpredictable)…It’s not about me, and we have no idea what’s going on in people’s lives.
God is orderly, so this is not permission to do whatever we want to do, but God’s ways are higher than ours…
The people (leaders) that are most prepared to worship are the ones that are most lead by the Spirit of God….when you have prepared you heart, you are lead by God
Proverbs 20:27 (KJV)
Are we singing Truth? (content)
Wonderful Maker…
No eye has fully (was truly) seen how beautiful the cross and we have only heard the faintest whispers of who you are….truly is a derivative of the word truth, and that is not right and we have seen the truth of the cross, because we have been saved…you have not seen it fully, you’ve only seen in part now, one day you’ll see in full
The Adventure of Worship (Garrett Gustafson)
Worship in truth quote “External expression (lifting hands) without internal reality is unacceptable worship to God”
Jesus said “They praise me with my lips, but their hearts are far from me – their worship is in vain” (Mark 7 or 2)
Practical tips:
Community event (revelation, worship around the throne – thousands upon thousands – day and night they never stop singing)
Psalm 22:3 – God is enthroned upon the praises of
Hebrews 10 – let us not give up meeting together (why we do what we do)
Leading is a continual process of reminding those who follow of where we’re going…
This was not made up by man – this is biblical worship to God.
Key aspects to worship:
- Humility….the favor of God comes in humility
“Humility comes from seeing God” God will raise you up from humility! “Those who are exalted will be humbled, and those who are humbled will be exalted”
- The gift of Leadership (from the holy spirit) – You will never lead the masses unless you can lead the people closest to you
- Discernment – ability to be sensitive to what God is doing in people’s hearts
- Excellence (David was known as a skillful excellent musician – 1 Sam 16.)
- To love your audience (an effective leader loves the people he’s leading) – love your neighbor as yourself
go after the work of the kingdom
one of my best friends encouraged me to go after the work of the kingdom....i'm waiting to see what God has for me...
Thursday, March 15, 2007
louie's take on passion
Passion - going with the wind (setting up their sail) - trying not to row on their own...
This is a Louie Giglio quote from Episode 9 of the Catalyst podcast - August 10, 2006
life springs from the heart and if you don't have life you're not going to lead too many people too far
(college kids) they don't really gravitate towards enterprise in this moment - in fact they hate it...that's a lot of the whole emergent conversation is ya know people are anit-industry and they are for grass rootsy authentic what's real what's true community what's true motive - the don't have a lot of time for - "that looks like an enterprise - a man made concocted thing"
so for us we don't want to row - we want to keep the sail up
and we want to say to God - "Please Blow"
and if the wind goes another way - then our boat'l go a different way
if the wind doesn't blow - then our boat won't go
if the wind blows a 100 mph - we'll hold on for dear life - and just trust me survive this movement of God...
but we don't want to row...and we don't want to get locked into "oh this is what Passion is"
and so we're gonna keep doing this every day till Jesus comes...
the only promise I think Jesus made for me is that he's going to build is church - and Hell's not gonna to stop him...
He didn't say that every local church had to exist until he comes back...
He didn't say every organization has to exist until he comes back...
The church is going to exist until he comes back...but...you know....you've got people in "shady grove baptist church" and they've been going 33^ north for 79 years...but the wind hasn't blown in forever, and so you have to ask the question "Is it time for Shady grove to not be?" or "Can they turn around and catch the wind going different direction?"
...and I just don't want Passion ever to fall into that place and so for us it's always a question - and that's the simplest part of it....Lord, what do you want to do?
missions @ HBC
let's adopt a group/country/town or island and make a diference - to focus our mission involvement - a place to start
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
compassionate worship @ HBC
i'd like to develop this idea of compassionate worship @ HBC...expanding the idea of what worship's all about - showing compassion is a great form of worship and showing glory to him - doing something tangible can even be a higher form of worship....
in today's pop-music church - music has been asked to carry more than it can bear....let's see the church grab onto a bit more than just music and art....let's live like we sing - and make this planet totally different... - David Crowder said something similar to this on a recent Passion pod cast
top concert moments
i want to document some of my top concert moments...here are some that are coming right to my mind...i need to put some more time into this and develop some of the outcomes/impacts relating to worship
shane & shane - embracing accusations (fall 2007 @ UD)
david crowder - somewhere in NJ - in the fall of 2005? a day or two after Kyle Lake's death
david crowder - nyc nokia theatre (the line out front was hysterical)
over the rhine @ eastern college
the prayer chain in st. david's PA the day after creation
the choir in philly
the violet burning
bill mallonee @ the tin angel
the real sensation
"i'd rather suffer my whole life than be this rich man's wife if loving you means suffering - don't give me medication - i want the real sensation - even when living feels just like death to me" - derek webb
in church.....i want to think through how i can bring things to God in worship, rather than getting something out of it....
know who you're not
"the success in being a little leader - and I think in being a leader period - is to know who you're not" - Louie Giglio
This is a good for me, because I definitely know who I'm not...I'm still trying to figure out who I am...Friday, March 9, 2007
money & sacrifice
Notes from "Mind Your Own Business" - Part 1 - Craig Groeschel
Define your vision - What is God calling you to be about? - What's your mission? You want to be driven by God's vision for you - not money.
Romans 13:8
Consumer debt is taking you out.
You gotta be weird - you can't be normal. Normal is fighting, panic and stress and worry.
Set up a business plan:
Develop cash flow plan - a budget.
1. Lower overhead
2. Plan for down times (save)
3. Develop Investment Strategies (invest)
4. Plan for profit sharing (10% is a starting point)
How are we going to get there? - sacrifice - Intensity
Proverbs 22:7
We will not have our hearts in this world.
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
the beauty of grace is that it makes life not fair
who's says that punky kids can't say something profound?...(sorry Matt Thiessen)...there's nothing like deep theology set to some pop/punk jangles...
"the beauty of grace is that it makes life not fair"i gotta get outa here...but maybe i need to stick around for awhile - i'm ok w/5 months from tomorrow (2/8) - but i don't know about beyond that...but sometimes life's not fair - like with my brother david - seeing his wife die before his eyes - she's one step closer even today...
when i led worship a couple of weeks ago we sang Turn Your Eyes as a tag to Charlie Hall's song "Center" - during the prayer afterwards I said something about us being in front of God - in His Glory - and how that day is close for some of us, right around the corner in fact...I hope David can hang onto the beauty of grace today...
the hope to which he has called you
A friend shared this passage with me today....we were discussing where God is leading us...we talked about seeking His face in the midst of this battle we're in...Ephesians 1:17-19
I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.
Today's New International Version (TNIV)
© Copyright 2001, 2005 by International Bible Society
the universe
Hebrews 11:2-4
This is what the ancients were commended for.
By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.
Today's New International Version (TNIV)
© Copyright 2001, 2005 by International Bible Society
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
brickianity
...i was just reading part of Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell - he had a neat way of looking at Christian theology as something that should be experienced rather than defended...he uses two analogies, one of a brick wall and one of a trampoline...he equates following Jesus, or following "the way" to being on a trampoline - he talks about questioning everything and having joy in life....he says how we often think of theology as something that we need to defend and convince people about - rather than embrace some of the mystery that comes with following God...he asserts the historical orthodox Christian faith - but he questions whether we should look at that faith as a brick wall, where some are inside and some are outside the wall...i thought brickianity was a cool word - thanks Rob.
life @ HBC
we need to focus more on sending people out - rather than focusing solely on bringing people in
may we never ever become inward looking - outward condemning - know-it-all holier than though - judgemental - so-called Christiansrather - may we be Christ-like - generous - hearts breaking for those who don't know Jesus***these notes are from Craig Groeschel - Lifechurch.tv - Vision 2007***
Monday, March 5, 2007
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