Like a Child…

I turned in my leased 2009 Mazda3 this past weekend after only 4 months of use. It’s one less payment we have to worry about on the road to reclaiming our finances and possibly even being debt-free at some point. In it’s place, I’m now driving a 1988 (no, that’s not a typo!) Honda Accord. It’s 21 years old, got just a little rust, a few quirks that I’m working to identify, and just over 100K miles. It’s also has an automatic transmission – I’m a stick-shift guy! – but was cheap and I know it will be reliable.

The switch comes with mixed emotions. But fortunately, I have kids. All week all four boys have been “gushing” over my “new” car. Cries of “Daddy’s car” and the brightening of faces when they are getting ready for a ride are starting to make the car fun. They are still young enough not to pay much attention to financial struggles and the concerns of going from such a new to such an old car. To them, it’s different, it’s unique, it’s fun…it has pop-up headlights. Caleb even said that he likes older cars because their styling is not the same as everything else on the road.

“I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18: 3)

The faith of child is totally devoid of worry or concern. It’s sees the fun and uniqueness of each situation and imagines endless, wonderful possibilities for the outcome. We get so bogged down by the worries that come our way that it can hinder our walk with God. Worry replaces worship; planning replaces prayer; stress replaces study…and we suffer for it.

“Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Matthew 6: 34)

I’m learning from my boys that you can find something fun and cool in simple – or, in this case, old – things. They are catching the blessing that I may have been in danger of missing…had I not been listening.

Motivating?

The following “Motivational Quote of the Day” was sent out by one of the General Managers at Northtown:

“There is nothing more marvelous than doing something you love to do and getting paid for it. It ceases to become work, money, and effort; and it becomes fun, your expression of the joy of life.” - Stuart Wilde: Author and Lecturer on Consciousness and Awareness.

The quote is driving me nuts! I wouldn’t recommend Wilde as reading material, but he hits the nail on the head here! In church circles we say it’s our “Calling!” The problem is that no one is teaching us how to make this happen…at least not in any practical sense. Yeah, we take our spiritual gift assessments and look for ways to plug people into different ministries in the church. But what about taking that to the next level?

God has created us each with our own S.H.A.P.E. – Spiritual gifts, Heart (passions), Abilities, Personality, and Experiences – and we each have our own niche God has laid out for us…not just in the church, but in all His creation. He tells Jeremiah “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart…” (Jeremiah 1: 5). And the Psalmist writes “My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the depths of the earth, Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be.” (Psalm 139: 15-16)

If we know that God has designed each of us with a purpose and a specific set of gifts/passions/abilities/experiences/etc., then doesn’t it stand to reason that we in the church should be teaching our congregations how to find and follow our “calling?” Shouldn’t we be offering career counseling and job search assistance with our Spiritual Gifts Assessments? Shouldn’t we be helping our youth explore what God wants them…NO…designed them to do with their lives?

Something to think about…

Prepare to Worship – The Helper (May 30-31)

Okay…here it is, just like I promised. This week Jason will be preaching in Pastor’s stead and bringing us a message entitled “The Helper.” His message will look at the Holy Spirit and the help that is promised us through Him. Jesus tells His disciples in the Gospel reading from John, “…I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of Truth…”

The readings for this week:
Old Testament:  Genesis 11: 1-9
New Testament:  Acts 2: 1-4
Gospel:  John 14: 15-17, 25-26

Sunday
Gathering:  “Enough”
Opening:    ”Hosanna”
                  “And I Love You”
Offering:    ”Shout to the Lord”
Closing:     ”You’re Worthy of My Praise”
Sending:    ”You Never Let Go”

Saturday
Opening:  “Hosanna”
                “You Never Let Go”
Prayer:    ”And I Love You”
Closing:   ”You’re Worthy of My Praise”
Sending:  ”Enough”

Worship Debrief – The Ascension of Our Lord (May 23-24)

I apologize for my silence the past few days – it seems that I took hold of the long weekend and actually rested (gasp)…possibly more than I should have. I’m not feeling guilty about it though, so I guess it was much needed! So, here’s what happened last weekend, and tomorrow I’ll tell you what’s coming up.

This week we celebrated the Ascension of Jesus Christ – a festival on the church calendar – and looked at what it means for us today. After Jesus rose, he spent 40 days appearing to His disciples to:

• Convince them of His physical resurrection.
• Command them to receive His instructions.
• Clarify any misconceptions they held.

For us, the Ascension means:

• Separation from Christ physically, but we can be more intimate with Him as He is now always with us.
• Consummation – the work of the physical Jesus has been completed.
• Glorification of Jesus as He returned to heaven.
• Confirmation that Christ came from Father, and verifies our faith in Him.
• Anticipation of Christ’s return.

Saturday, 5/23 – 7:00pm:

•          We missed Matt on drums.
•          We had Jacob F. back helping our crew in the sound booth.
•          I had a conversation with a gentleman from the 5:30 service about the clarity (lack thereof) of Pastor’s voice in the sanctuary. Jacob made some adjustments, but we will need your feedback. Please let us know when you can…or cannot…understand the words that Pastor’s saying. (No…we are not critiquing the content of the sermons.)

Sunday, 5/24 – 11:15am:

•          Both Pastor and Sue have mentioned the low attendance this week.
•          Darcy covered the nursery last minute this week, so I was in church playing in the band and trying to keep an eye on a sleepy 4-year old and his two older brothers who were having issues with each other. What fun.
•          Annie Morris was back singing with us and was joined by her sister, Jenny, filling in for Cathi.

Prepare to Worship – The Ascension of Our Lord (May 23-24)

I’ve decided that I need to have more brevity in my posts, so this will be short and sweet. This is the weekend on the church calendar when we celebrate Christ’s ascension into heaven. Follow His death and resurrection, Jesus appeared to some 500 people – including His disciples – and ministered to them. Once that was completed, He was taken into heaven to sit at God’s right hand. Our readings for this weekend tell the story, so use them as you worship through the week and prepare to come and meet with God either Saturday or Sunday.

The readings for this week:
Old Testament:  Psalm 110
New Testament:  Acts 1: 1-11
Gospel:  Luke 24: 44-53

Sunday:
Gathering: Meet With Me
Opening:   The Wonderful Cross
                   Sanctuary
Offering:    I Love You Lord
Closing:     Every Move I Make
Sending:    Ancient of Days

Saturday
Opening:    Meet With Me
                   The Wonderful Cross
Prayer:      Sanctuary
Closing:     Every Move I Make
Sending:    Marvelous Light

Turn, turn, turn…

…and you get dizzy!

We’ve decided (or, at least I have) since seeing Dave Ramsey’s webcast that we need to be debt-free. At least, that’s the goal. It may be a while before we actually get there, but as long as we are moving in that direction, I can be satisfied.

I think.

Getting pointed in the right direction is proving to be a challenge. We paid off the credit card and are working to get out of my Mazda lease that I just started back in Feb. But we cannot function right now on one car. So I need a dirt-cheap, reliable replacement, which means scouring the classifieds and driving all over WNY to find the gem in the piles of junk. Then we have to get the budget set, start saving, and get other debts cleared off the books. And it all takes…

…patience. I don’t have any.

Ecclesiastes tells us there s a season for everything, and this seems to be one more day in our season of ambiguity. But God is in control – if I keep telling myself that, I may just believe it – and while He may not remove the blindfold anytime soon, at least His voice is out there somewhere telling me where the donkey is…

Worship Debrief – What Amazes Jesus? (May 16-17)

So, after a week of dealing with the missing equipment, thinking about security, and beginning weekly set up and take down of some of our equipment (which is already growing old!), Pastor talked to us this morning about control. Great. Just what I needed to hear. We normally think that being in control is good. In fact, being in control feels good. But too often, our need for control replaces our faith. And it’s faith – or the lack thereof – that amazes Jesus.

In the Bible, there are only two passages that record Jesus being “amazed” at anything. The first is when he visits His hometown and preaches at the synagogue. The people there could not believe because they knew His family and had known Him growing up – He was amazed by their lack of faith. The second was the Roman centurion who asked Jesus to heal his servant, but didn’t ask Jesus to come. Here, He was amazed at the man’s faith.

Faith is trusting God with control. If we are to have faith, we have to – with the help of the Holy Spirit – give God control or we will not be able to please Him. The steps to faith that Pastor outlined are:

1. Believe in Jesus
2. Follow Jesus
3. Get to know Jesus (and His word.)
4. Watch the works of God
5. Obey Jesus

Production Notes:
Saturday, 5/16 – 7:00pm:

•          We had kids at the service! Okay, most of them were mine, but there were kids running all over the place just before and up until we started the service. It was rather chaotic.
•          Caleb likes to be up in the Media Booth when he is there on Saturday nights (we didn’t let him last night). We have teens working the booth, and they sometimes get lost in being teenagers and “phase out” of the service. I’ve mentioned that at home…and Caleb saw fit to mention it to them last night. Hmm…
•          I think the service itself went pretty well.
•          Did I mention we had kids at the service?

Sunday, 5/17 – 11:15am:

•          I need to hear from you how the band sounded this week. I was using a different guitar rig and we had to totally rework the mix. My in-ear monitor mix was bad…but that’s not what’s important.
•          Band timing was off on the opener. Fortunately, we fixed that for the rest of the service.
•          There was noise on Sue Steege’s mic during the children’s message. Don’t know what was up with that. It sounded like breathing noise, but that’s unusual for Sue’s mic.
•          The overall sound seemed loud to me. How about you? 

Red Tape and Headaches!

I’ve mentioned that we had some equipment stolen from the sanctuary last week – descriptions are below.

• Bass guitar: red solid-body with two EMG pickups, 3 silver knobs, and a small toggle switch. Name on the headstock is something like MKX.
• Electric Guitar amp: Marshall Valvestate 8280 combo – 2×12, 80-watt per side, 2-channel stereo solid state amplifier with built in tube pre-amp. It has a chorus, and the footswitch is missing (’cause I still have that!)

While it’s obviously disturbing that someone would steal equipment – bulky equipment at that – from the sanctuary, I’ve been more thrown by the after-details. Anytime something is stolen, our security is shaken and we tend to feel violated in some way. This is no exception, but I seem to be handling it fine. I’m not even overly concerned about getting the equipment back (’cause we probably won’t!). The real headache is that I’ve spent the first half of the week focusing a majority of my time getting things back in order and it’s knocked my schedule all out of whack! The following is/was all needed:

• Get details to the people who needed them. Thanks, Tim, for filing the police report and handling the insurance issues!
• Determine replacement value for both missing items.
• Find a bass that we can use until we are able to get a replacement. Thank you Laura Ciminelli!!!
• Find temporary – and begin looking for permanent – solutions to better secure the band’s equipment.
• Communicate those solutions to all who need to know!
• Bring in an old amp rig that I have and set it up for use…which hasn’t been done in probably close to 10 years!!! Did you know I’m picky? Not only do I now need to find a sound that I like, I have to deal with this massive throwback feeling to my early rock band days before Caleb was born.
• Replace the equipment…eventually.

And that was all on top of everything else that I normally do. Fortunately our hope is in Christ, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever and who will never leave or forsake us. No matter what stuff gets taken from us here on earth, we can never be separated from the love, grace, and mercy of our God through Jesus Christ. And so in the midst of this little storm…we continue to praise Him!

Prepare for Worship – What Amazes Jesus? (May 16-17

An interesting question: What Amazes Jesus? I tend to thing that nothing would amaze our Lord and Savior because he was there for creation, the fall, the cross (obviously!), and will be there for the end of all things as we know it. But the Bible says on occasion that Jesus was amazed. Mark 6: 5-6 from our Gospel reading this week says:

“He could not do any miracles there, except lay His hands on a few sick people and heal them. And He was amazed at their lack of faith.” (emphasis mine)

So, what do you think amazed Jesus? Give it some thought as you study the scriptures below and then come this weekend prepared to hear from God.

The readings for this week:
Old Testament:  Psalm 119: 81-88
New Testament:  Hebrews 6: 1-6
Gospel:  Mark 6: 1-6

Sunday
Gathering:  “In the Secret”
Opening:      “We Come to Praise You”
                     “Kindness”
Communion: “We Are Hungry”
                        “Breathe”
                        “I’m Counting on You”
Offering:    “Thy Kingdom Come”
Closing:      ”Mighty to Save”
Sending:     “Rock of Ages”

Saturday
Opening:  “In the Secret” 
                  ”We Are Hungry”
Prayer:    “I’m Counting on You”
Closing:    ”Mighty to Save”
Sending:  “Rock of Ages”

Worship Debrief – Mothers Show Us God (May 9-10)

This was Mother’s Day weekend and a chance to show the women in our lives how much we appreciate all they do. It’s something we do far too infrequently! Our day started out making breakfast for Darcy and ended with making dinner for our family at my mother’s house. There were a few hiccups to the day – we have four young kids after all! – but it was a good day nonetheless.

In worship, we heard from Pastor how our mothers show us God in a very practical way. Through our mothers we can see:

1. God is love
2. God loves to protect and comfort

And these attributes ask for a response. Pastor suggested the following:

1. Receive God’s love
2. Reflect God’s love to others (give it away) 

Production Notes:
Saturday, 5/9 – 7:00pm:

• I think we had the whole Sr. High youth group in the balcony this week. In addition to our tech team, there were at least 4 other students up there who, I learned, had visited Megan (had surgery this past week) earlier in the day.
• Annie, youth vocalist on Sunday mornings, was one of the youth in the balcony. She was on crutches from surgery she had in April, but she was there! It was great to see her.
• Thanks to Tom, who filled in on drums while Matt was away.
• Prior to the 5:30 service, I noticed that some equipment was missing from the band area. Our bass guitar, and my electric guitar amp had been taken (apparently stolen) sometime between Tuesday and Saturday of last week. It put a damper on the weekend.
• We praised God anyway!

Sunday, 5/17 – 11:15am:

• A great celebration of our mothers, complete with Sue Steege’s children’s message that included the kids saying “Thanks” and blessing their mothers.
• Pastor and Jason surprised Sue by bringing the kids back up and having them pray for Sue, because she is another woman in their lives who works tirelessly to show them God’s love. It was great…and Sue deserves it!
• We were able to borrow a bass for this morning’s service. A big “thank you” to Tom’s friend Jimmy who lent us the instrument.
• Tom also filled in this morning for Jubal. Despite some tempo issues, we are grateful that he was able to fill in.

So, how was you Mother’s Day? How did worship play into the day and make it more special? Let me know and we can give thanks to God together!