24

Darcy and I don’t watch much TV – we have neither the time nor the reception (no cable!). Most of our…um…viewing pleasure comes from DVD’s borrowed from friends or the library. Our one TV vice, however, is “24″ on Fox – 24 1-hour episodes filmed in “real time” following sometime Special Agent Jack Bauer as he works to save the country from terrorists, political corruption, etc. in the space of one day.

While the storyline is not overly original, the show is fascinating – dare I say, enjoyable? – for a few reasons:

• First, the “real time” factor (1 hour in the show = 1 hour in real life) adds a certain tension/suspense that you don’t see with other shows. This is probably because the action only takes 24 hours, but it takes the viewer around 18 weeks to see it all (opening and closing hours are doubled up).
• Second, Jack Bauer is the epitome of the “ends justify the means” philosophy. In order to find and take out the bad guys who have no interest in rules, laws, or morality, Jack often has to ignore rules, laws, and morality. His techniques range from questionable to downright bad as he does whatever is necessary to protect the country. His only real redemption here is that he is driven to help others…often at great personal sacrifice.

24 is just a TV show. It’s an enjoyable one that makes you think and probably hits a little too close to reality…but still just fiction. What would happen, though, if we as Christians adopted some of Jack Bauer’s…um…zealousness (?) when spreading the Gospel? No, I’m not advocating questionable or illegal activity! But what if Christians were really willing to do whatever it takes to be God’s hands and feet on this earth and so spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ? What if we put aside our weekly meetings and Bible studies and blogs and bands and events and got into the world and brought God’s mercy out to where people are? I’m talking to a radical, sacrificial level.

We have many in our church who already have that mindset. But are you one of them? Am I one of them? I honestly don’t know…but it begs for thought and prayer.

Prepare For Worship – The Reality of Hell, Part 2 (Jan. 31 – Feb. 1)

Hell, Part 2. Really! We are continuing this week with Pastor’s series on Heaven and Hell and I’m coming to realize how much this series is really needed…as shown by an automatically generated link on my Worship Debrief this week. It was a discussion on heaven and hell and included in the comments were thoughts like:

• We can’t know if heaven or hell really exists, just like we can’t know if God exists.
• Can people move between heaven and hell…as in be sent to hell from heaven as a kind of time out when we do something wrong?
• People choose to believe in heaven or hell because they are afraid that this life is all there is…and it may be.

While I don’t know that Pastor will be answering these questions specifically, he will be bringing us the truth about Hell from God’s word this week. Hell is a real place, as we heard last week, and as such exists for the punishment of those who have rebelled against Him. Fortunately, there is hope for all in Jesus Christ.

The readings for this week:
Old Testament:  Genesis 6: 5-8
New Testament:  2 Thessalonians 1: 5-10
Gospel:  Mark 9: 42-50

Sunday
Gathering:  “Enough”
Opening:    “Blessed Be Your Name”
                   “Better Is One Day”
Communion: “Come Unto Me”
                       “Father, I Adore You”
                        “Only Always”
Offering:    “Shout to the Lord”
Closing:      “Trading My Sorrows”
Sending:     “You Never Let Go”

Saturday
Opening:  “Blessed Be Your Name”
                  “Shout to the Lord”
Prayer:    “Come Unto Me”
Communion: “Only Always”
Closing:    “Trading My Sorrows”
Sending:    “You Never Let Go”

Worship Debrief – The Reality of Hell, Part 1 (Jan. 24-25)

Life usually gets interesting when you start talking about Heaven and Hell…particularly about Hell. Let’s face it: most of us would rather Hell not exist. But Pastor’s message this week (and for the next few) brings us to the reality that Hell is a real place. Introducing the series this week, Pastor’s message focused more on some realitites of life that lay the ground work for the weeks to come:

1) God made us to love us and wants us to love Him in return.
2) We were made to last forever.
3) God has prepared two eternal places – Heaven and Hell.
4) Heaven is a gift, Hell is a choice.
5) There is no second chance after we die.

Saturday, 1/24 – 7:00pm:

• No drummer tonight (Matt was sick). That left Elisa and I to hold our own with just a guitar. Given that some of the songs were rather upbeat and go better with drums (& bass and electric guitar, for that matter ), I was rather pleased with how the music came off.
• Again, we welcomed two new couples to worship. It’s amazing how many people visit First Trinity at that service!
• Martha and Anne had a nice snack spread for us between the worship services. I’m not sure what the occasion was, but it’s always nice when they put the tables up…and fill them!

Sunday, 1/25 – 11:15am:

• One of the things I like about the band that played this morning is that we can hear the congregation singing with us. It’s nice to have the songs coming back at us as we worship.
• Joel (son #4) was in church with us this morning and that always makes things interesting. He’s pretty good, just active…and usually getting sleepy during church. He was pretty cute, though, watching Sue with the children’s sermon (his two oldest brothers swooning over him!)
• Little issue with some distortion in Pastor’s mic. Mark was on the ball, however, and got it taken care of.
• Franc and Papouch are a trip! They were adopted from Haiti by a member of our church and these two love the music. They are always willing to clap, and can often be seen right up with the band following worship grooving out to our sending song.

If you have feedback on the worship services, please drop it in the comments! Standing up front with the band makes it very difficult to know how the service comes across. Also, if you know where to get more rechargeable lithium 9-volt batteries…

Jesus Wants to Save Christians?

A few months ago, one of our band members gave me the above noted book – Jesus Wants to Save Christians. (No question mark in the book title!) It’s written by Rob Bell (of NOOMA fame, for the Monday’s Meal regulars) – Founding Pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church in Grandville, MI, and Don Golden – Senior Vice-President of church engagement at World Relief in Baltimore, MD. While I tend to gravitate towards fiction over non-fiction, I found this book to be a fascinating read.

The premise is that God hears the cries of the oppressed and then sets them free…and has ordained His church to do the same. Starting with the exodus in the book of…um…Exodus, the authors show us God’s desires through the journey of the Israelites in the Old Testament. They are oppressed in Egypt and cry out to God. God hears and brings them out from under oppression. They grow into a great nation of God’s people, but forget that God rescued them when they were poor and helpless – they became like Egypt. So God sent them into exile. When they cried out to Him again, God began to reveal to them a greater exodus that He would bring about for all people, not just the nation of Israel. The pattern that we see in the Exodus from Egypt is a pattern that flows through all of scripture. God hears the cries of the oppressed, and rescues them.

Check out these excerpts from the Epilogue:

“Rescue. Redemption. Grace. This grace takes us to Sinai. Egypt. Then Sinai. Sinai is where we find purpose and identity. God doesn’t just want to save us; God is looking for a body, a people to incarnate the divine.”

“It isn’t just about trying to save the world. It’s about saving ourselves. From the kingdom of comfort. From the priority of preservation. From the empire of indifference. From an exile of irrelevance. Jesus wants to save our church from thinking the priests are somebody else. Jesus wants to save us from standing at a distance, begging Moses to speak to God because we’re convinced that if we speak to God, we’ll die. Jesus wants to save our church from fear.”

“We find God in our own oppression, in our own crying out, in our own response to the body of Christ broken for us, the blood of Christ poured out for us, and when we can’t find God in our own oppression, we can always find God in the oppression of others. A converted church will cause the mountains to tremble. A group of people taking the bread and the cup, asking, “What now, Jesus?” – the stars sing when that happens.”

Prepare for Worship – The Reality of Hell, Part 1 (Jan. 24-25)

Pastor mentioned in his sermon last weekend that he really enjoys preaching on the subject of money…probably more so than the congregation does hearing him preach on money. I can’t imagine why that would be! Anyway, he has decided to embark on a four week journey though heaven and hell and provide insights from scripture on those two relatively overlooked topics.

We start this week looking at “The Reality of Hell” in the first of a two-part message. This is certainly a more controversial topic than heaven (which it seems everyone wants to believe in), and I have to confess that I’m not really sure where he’s going with it. I encourage you to look up the scriptures yourself this week and then ask God to open your heart and mind for the word He has for us.

Fun fact: The New Testament reading this week contains the verse (1 Cor. 13: 11b) that President Obama almost – but not quite – quoted in his Inaugural Address on Tuesday.

The readings for this week:
Old Testament:  Psalm 139: 7-12
New Testament:  1 Corinthians 13: 9-13
Gospel:  Matthew 25: 41-46

Sunday
Gathering:  “In the Secret”
Opening:     “Hosanna”
                    “Kindness”
Offering:     “I’m Forever Grateful”
Closing:       “What We’ve Come Here For”
Sending:      “Grace Like Rain”

Saturday
Opening:  “In the Secret” 
                   “Kindness”
Prayer:     “I’m Forever Grateful”
Closing:     “What We’ve Come Here For” 
                   ”Grace Like Rain”

Technology – A Love/Hate Relationship!

I like technology…really I do! It’s probably part and parcel to being a bit of a SciFi fan (BTW – Jason, do you have seasons 3 & 4 of Battlestar Galactica?) I can sit and type on a computer most of the day and be perfectly happy…

…until the little beast decides to pull a fast one on me and I don’t know enough to fix it! (Okay, so I’m also a bit of a control freak.) I was working on an audio file in Audacity – one I kind of needed – and when I went to pull it up tonight I found that it had been purged from the software’s history for some strange reason. The data is still on the PC, but I’m still trying to figure out how to get it back into Audacity – a program I’m still learning – in a usable form. Grrr!!!

I’m thinking it has something to do with the file synch function here at the church, which didn’t work right tonight. But again, I don’t know that function well enough to be sure…

If there’s a true love/hate relationship in this world, it would be our tie to technology!

Worship Debrief – Managing Our Money Wisely, Part 2 (Jan. 17-18)

Pastor was back this week to conclude his message on “Managing Our Money Wisely.” Fortunately I got to hear it on Saturday night, because Joel (age 1½) showed signs of being sick on Sunday morning and we elected to keep him home. Since Darcy was teaching Sunday School this morning and I was less needed with the band, I stayed with him. Getting back on topic, we heard the remaining keys to obtaining freedom in the area of our finances.

Saturday, 1/17 – 7:00pm:

• I’m grateful to Tom for filling in the drums while Matt was away. I love having that flexibility in this ministry!
• Short on tech personnel this week: Thanks to Abby Stone on projection and Jim Brese on sound for filling in.
• I was able to hear the congregation over the band some of the time. I love hearing that…let’s me know they are worshipping with us.
• Need to know what you all think of the viability of this service. I’m thinking about some structural changes to the Contemporary Worship Ministry that may have an effect on the Saturday evening contemporary worship.

Sunday, 1/18 – 11:15am:

• This is your debrief this week: I wasn’t at the service. Please tell me what you heard/saw/experienced so I can know how things went!
• I was bummed to miss the baptism of Addison Christ (and the cake that followed!)

Life in the Grey

We have family friends who have recently been through a very tough situation with some equally tough decisions. The outcome was hard, but in the end it looks as if it may be the best for their family. However, the ordeal begs some hard questions; questions that reside in the area of life that lurks between the black and the white – the shades of grey where right and wrong can sometimes blur beyond recognition.

How do you respond when you are faced with the choice of falsely admitting to wrongdoing verses pursuing the truth with a high probability of losing everything that is important? Conventional Christian wisdom would say that God wants us to stand up for the truth no matter the cost because God is truth and we follow God. But we are surrounded by people who do not follow God and have different ideas about what is true…and sometimes they control our immediate future. And that is where conventional wisdom can fall apart.

We in the church like to live in black and white, right and wrong, and absolutes. The rest of the world lives in shades of grey, and when those worlds collide, it can send life spinning in directions that no one ever thought possible. Decisions start to become a matter of the lesser of two evils rather than right verses wrong. Options come down to bad, worse, and disastrous and after a while you are just looking for the door out. And when an out comes, what do you do when it is not the one you were looking for? And what if that out means essentially telling a lie in order to preserve your family? Sometimes maybe the end does justify the means. It is not relativism…it is just a fact of life!

I can look at our friends’ situation and analyze it until I am blue in the face. I can wish and wish and wish for a different outcome, or that something will change and things will work out the way I want them too. But that is not how life in the grey works. Life just keeps plugging on – or running us over – until that time when God has ordained and He peeks in to shine a little light on things. We may see things we could have done differently. We may see that things were not as bad as we thought…or maybe see that they were far worse. And then there’s the fear of learning that we made the wrong choice. But there is one thing that I am thinking will be blindingly evident: Life in the grey is where God’s grace is at work.

Prepare for Worship – Managing Our Money Wisely, Part 2 (Jan. 17-18)

With the team back from Haiti, Pastor will be back in the saddle again this week finishing his message on “Managing Our Money Wisely.” This week we get to see more scriptural principles of money management that we can apply to our lives. From knowing what our assets are to paying what we owe and giving generously, God has provided a plan that allows us to experience freedom when it comes to our finances.

The readings for this week:
Old Testament:  Proverbs 27: 23-27
New Testament:  Romans 13: 1-8
Gospel:  Mark 12: 41-44

Sunday
Gathering:  “On the Third Day”
Opening:     “Nothing But the Blood” 
                      “The Heart of Worship”
Communion:  “I’m Counting on You”
                          “Throne of Grace”
                          ”Freely, Given Freely”
Offering:     “Rescue”
Closing:      “I Believe in Jesus”
Sending:     “Hosanna”

Saturday
Opening:  “Hosanna” 
                   ”Nothing But the Blood”
Prayer:    “The Heart of Worship”
Closing:    “Every Move I Make”
Sending:   “On the Third Day”

Putting God First in Corporate Worship

Corporate Worship is what we do on Sundays (and in the case of First Trinity, Saturdays, too) when we go to church. Corporate Worship is NOT a worship service sponsored by Gibson Guitars, Shure Micorphones, or Ford. You probably knew that, but with the “corporate sponsorship” of just about everything, I thought I would make the clarification.  From the latin word meaning to make into a body, “corporate” is defined by Merriam-Webster as “of, relating to, or formed into a unified body of individuals.” (def #2) So, in corporate worship, a body of believers comes together and unites to worship the Most High God.

The funny thing is, corporate worship really stems out of our personal worship. See what the author of the book of Hebrews says:

“Therefore, brothers (and sisters!), since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, His body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope that we profess, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another-and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” – Hebrews 10: 19-25

It is not until the last two sentences (if you are reading in English) that the writer begins to speak about a corporate setting. Before that, the language is all personal…all one on one. When we are worshipping by ourselves and on our own time, we find that we have a greater desire to gather with other believers for the purpose of worshipping together. We find that we want to encourage others to experience what we are experiencing and that we desire to repeat that experience on a regular basis.

Now, I’m not saying that personal worship is required to worship in a corporate setting. That would be placing personal worship first, and we are talking about putting God first! But if we want to put God first in our corporate worship, then I think we need to take our cue from personal worship. We need to come collectively to our church service without any agenda; without looking at what we can get out of worship, without worrying about what we’re supposed to do, and without worrying about who’s watching us. It can be a challenge – especially when you are the worship leader and it is your job – but God will meet with us when we do.

We church staff members endeavor to create worship settings and services that will help you focus on God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But our unity comes when we together shift our focus off our cares and concerns and back onto the one who created us to live in an eternal relationship with Him.