Happy Wednesday!

So, about 3 years ago, as I was on a spring break trip to Seattle, same trip I met Sarah on as a matter of fact, I heard one of the most deep impacting sermons I have ever heard by Milton Jones at the Northwest Church. He was kicking off a series on "The Seven Deadly Sins." And he was talking about pride...and how convicting it was! Tonight, we begin that same series here at North Davis in OASIS, our Wednesday evening worship time, I stole the title from Highland...sorry Mike! I hope and pray that it will help bring some things to the surface that we often refuse to talk or even think about! I rarely do something like this, I guess its the ACU influence shining through, but here is a quote from Ed Young Jr. of Fellowship Church in Grapevine...
"The temptation to sin exists at every turn of our lives. The seven deadly sins are part of our interior landscape becuase of our 'fallen' human nature! If these sins are allowed to exist and grow in us, they can overtake us, overwhelm us, and destroy us from the inside out!"
Pride, anger, envy, slothfulness, lust, gluttony and greed!

God is Good!!

Well,
It has been beautiful weather-wise the last few days here in Arlington! I was lucky to be outside playing in a Golf tournament on Monday and got to soak some of it in! Just absolutely in awe of God's creation!
From Psalm 8...
"O LORD , our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory
above the heavens.
From the lips of children and infants
you have ordained praise
because of your enemies,
to silence the foe and the avenger.
When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him,
the son of man that you care for him?..."

God's creation is amazing!

Second...
I've been meaning to post this for some time now, but have been too busy to think about it. The ZOE group, the best acappella worship group on the face of the earth today, is recording one of my arrangements on their upcoming CD, due out late September/early October. The song is "In Christ Alone." I am pumped and can't wait to hear what they do with it! You should check out their website at http://zoegroup.faithsite.com

More later...Same Bat-Time, Same Bat-channel!

Gotta love Friday...

After researching for many years, after much in-depth study, I have come to a major discovery: (Drum roll please...) FRIDAY IS THE BEST DAY OF THE WEEK!!!

It is the wrap-up of the week, the anachrusis (go ahead...look it up in your musical dictionary) into the weekend! Beautiful weather, no pressing engagements, only cleaning up the apartment, a little baseball perhaps, and who knows, perhaps a little golf tune-up for the tournament on Monday! I know my church choir is looking forward to a rehearsal-free Saturday! As am I!!! Well, enjoy the weekend! Hopefully stress-free!

Can you count the number of hyphenated words?

Hi! 

Just Another Not-So Tequila Thursday...

I dont know what prompted me to title today's entry as I did...I just did! Live with it! I have just finished doing an overhaul on the old blog this morning! You will notice some links of interest to the left and I would definitely encourage you to check them out! My friend Matt just recently joined the world of blogging and his link is the newest to the bunch...If I know Matt as well as I think, and I dont, then you can be sure that there will be some interesting eminations coming forth from his blog! more later...

A Modern Creed... A Statement of Faith

I know, I know...For some of you, my lengthy absence in blogging may seem to indicate an absence in brain activity...While for part of this time of sabbatical that may very well be the case, I can assure that life has just been flat hectic! But nevertheless, the long awaited ramblings continue to this end...


There is a song that has been on the worship scene for a while now called "In Christ Alone..." One that our church has come to know and love. Yet, I know as I sing the words, I cant help but ask myself if I really mean, really and truly believe and what it is I am singing...You ever had those moments? Those moments when you found yourself perhaps singing right along those words like "All to Jesus I surrender..." and then like lightning, it strikes you and you realize just what it is you are saying? This song does it to me every time. What do such powerful statements like the ones Keith Getty and Stuart Townsend have so craftily scripted in "In Christ Alone" lead your mind to think? Can you sing this along with many other songs and honestly believe and live out the words you sing?

Paul talks about this just a bit in the context of the Lord's Supper meal in I Corinthians 11 when he says that when you come to the table you should "look deep within yourself..." When you come to the throne of God in worship, I believe that the same applies. If you aren't looking deep within yourself, if you aren't actively seeking out the transforming power of God, the active work of His Holy Spirit, if you aren't looking to place yourselves facedown before God and be "lost in wonder, love and praise," then you have to ask also the question "Have I really offered God the best I can offer?"

Just something to think about...Here are the lyrics.

In Christ alone my hope is found
He is my Light my strength my song
This Cornerstone this solid ground
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm
What heights of love what depths of peace
When fears are stilled when strivings cease
My Comforter my all in all
Here in the love of Christ I stand


In Christ alone who took on flesh
Fullness of God in helpless Babe
This gift of love and righteousness
Scorned by the ones He came to save
'Til on that cross as Jesus died
The wrath of God was satisfied
For ev'ry sin on Him was laid
Here in the death of Christ I live


There in the ground His body lay
Light of the world by darkness slain
Then bursting forth in glorious day
Up from the grave He rose again
And as He stands in victory
Sin's curse has lost its grip on me
For I am His and He is mine
Bought with the precious blood of Christ


No guilt in life no fear in death
This is the pow'r of Christ in me
From life's first cry to final breath
Jesus commands my destiny
No pow'r of hell no scheme of man
Can ever pluck me from His hand
'Til He returns or calls me home
Here in the pow'r of Christ I'll stand

CCLI Song No. 3350395
© 2001 Thankyou Music (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing)
For use solely in accordance with the SongSelect Basic Terms of Agreement. All rights Reserved.
CCLI License No. 480296

He's Back!!!

Excellence...

To acheive to do one's best...
To set lofty goals and pursuit of one's best...


What is excellence to you? Do you seek after excellence in all you do? Job? Family? Relationships? Fill in the blank...

I have been thinking about a lot of things these last few months since I last posted...Yeah, I know, go ahead and say it...Yes, my brain DOES have the capacity to think.

My training is in two areas. One--classical voice and choral music, and two--worship and music ministry. Two areas that have been separated historically by a chasm that has been for the most part un-travelled. Why is that? They each have similar ideals, but why do they remain so polarized?

This is a question I have, and am struggling with. How can I, a classical musician in constant pursuit of excellence, help bleed over into church music and worship a desire for excellence?

If God requires no less than our absolute best, and I am not saying that people aren't offering their best to God, than why do we far too often settle for mediocrity? Mediocrity in Christian living? Mediocrity in Chrsitian relationships? Mediocrity in worship? Mediocrity in our levels of commitment? Mediocrity in bible study?

How can I help my parishoners see the need to set a higher level of excellence for our faith commuunity, specifically in reference to worship?

We need to be about God's business, we need to be about the ever-incresing reign of God in this world. And as we do that, God deserves all of our attention, all of our hearts, souls, minds and strength. May we seek excellence in all areas of our devotion to God as he deserves no less than perfect!

Big Faith...Small God?

I dont know about you, but far too often I have neglected that little cluster of books near the end of my old testament...I am ashamed of this. One night not too long ago, as I searched for another passage my bible landed on the rarely read pages of the book of Zephaniah (When was the last time you read through the book of Zephaniah)...and lo, and behold I found a passage that has changed my life. The passage is this, from Zephaniah 3...

14 Sing, O Daughter of Zion;
shout aloud, O Israel!
Be glad and rejoice with all your heart,
O Daughter of Jerusalem!
15 The LORD has taken away your punishment,
he has turned back your enemy.
The LORD , the King of Israel, is with you;
never again will you fear any harm.
16 On that day they will say to Jerusalem,
"Do not fear, O Zion;
do not let your hands hang limp.
17 The LORD your God is with you,
he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
he will quiet you with his love,
he will rejoice over you with singing."

As I have read this passage I have been convicted abotu the picture I have long held of God...He is almighty, poweful, and grace-besotwing. But this passage to me, especially the musician and artist side of me, makes me think that my picture of God is way too small. Not only is he the things mentioned above, but he is a God who loves me so much he would come down in a way only he can, and with his holy voice, whisper a word of comfort, grace, love, into my sinful ears, and rejoice over me with singing...What a thought! Do you envision a God who would do this? What is your picture of God?

Is your view of God too limited? Is your faith too small...mine is!

What Kind of Christian Are You?

Yesterday our worship was centered around the thought of "Holiness."

...To be holy is to be completely different.

...To be holy is to be so completely different from the rest of the world that the world cant help but see your difference.

...To be holy is to not be what Brian McLaren calls a "Vampire Christian."

McLaren was our keynote speaker Last week at the ZOE conference in Nashville (there isn't enough room here for me to reflect). And he said this..."The gospel of sin management produces Vampire Christians who want Jesus for His blood and nothing else." Therefore, to be holy, is to live like someone who realizes that it isn't okay to take advantage of that precious blood that Christ shed to purchase you and me! To be holy is to live like you actually embody the life of a redeemed person! As my dear friend and fellow worship minister and fellow blogger Ryan Porche has previously stated (www.ryanporche.blogspot.com), I think the song "For All You've Done," recorded by the ZOE group on their recent release "Desperate," (www.ZOEgroup.org) puts it best.

For All You've Done
(by Clint Lagerberg)

Oh cleanser of the mess I've made
Upon the hill our places trade
Stretched on a cross Your body crushed
By human hands You formed from dust

How wonderful Your mercy is
How awesome are Your ways
I come, I come
To worship You
For all You've done

Are you living like a Holy Person?
Or are you living like a Vampire Christian?

I AM A GRAD STUDENT!!!! WOW!!

Well, it is official...I am a graduate student. And I have let my first class, which is this coming Thursday through Saturday, sneak up on me. But slowly and surely I am becoming a reader...Something I have always wanted to do, but have never been able to do...Grad school forces you into it! Amidst the 5 books I am reading for this course, one of them is by my favorite worship writer, Robert Webber, entitled The Younger Evangelicals. Here is a quote from his chapter on the ecclesiological mindset of the younger generation, the "younger evangelicals." (see p. 121)

"The best way to be effective is to care little for success. The best way to be a transforming leader is to care more about what's in your own heart than what we accomplish. When we give up this need to be successful or powerful for purposes of inward validation, we are free to be truly effective in fulfilling our callings. I long to see the church led by people who care so little about being successful as the world sees it and care so much about being in touch with God and in community with the people that the reality of God's power is powerfully unleashed!"

It's All About Who, Jesus???

"It's all about You, Jesus; And all this is for You, for Your glory and Your fame;
It's not about me, or that You should do things my way...
for You alone are God and I surrender to Your will!"

There is rarely a time when I lead worship that the words of this song don't creep into the forethoughts of my oft otherwise occupied brain...I struggle with this though...How do I take the focus off of myself, how can I become vulnerably transparent as a Worshipper or Worship Leader so that all is obvious is a heart worshipping Christ?
My best friend sent me this article by Brian McLaren, a man who I have a ongoing internal argument with in my brain when I read his work...But this article, taken from Christianity Today.com was worth the read! See what you think!

It's All About Who, Jesus? If worship is for God, why are so many songs about us?
by Brian McLaren, Leadership contributing editor
If a Martian visited earth and observed earthlings at public worship in contemporary or nontraditional settings, what would he/she/it report back to the home planet? (A similar exercise could be imagined for more traditional churches, with different results.)
My friend John, a music professor rather than an extraterrestrial, noticed something too few earthlings have noticed (see his full article at http://www.anewkindofchristian.com/). Too many of our worship songs are more about us than God. Yes, we say the words "praise/thank/bless God," but mostly, what for?
For glorious attributes and wonderful mysteries? For historic deeds and cosmic judgments? For rescuing the widow and orphan? For setting the captive free? For humbling the arrogant and sending the rich away hungry? For spinning galaxies and salting starfields with glorious light? Uh, no.
Rather, we praise God for holding us close, for keeping us secure, for making us feel loved and blessed and forgiven and warm and cozy in our electric blanket of eternal security (with a warm comforter of national security thrown in too). We congratulate God on how well God is meeting our needs. When we say, "You're such a good God," it sometimes sounds like comforting words spoken to a pet.
It pains me to say that, but I think it needs to be said.
When we're not affirming God for how well we're nurtured, our songs often congratulate ourselves on how well we respond to God's grace. Have you noticed how much we sing about how loud or passionately we sing? We talk a lot about what we're going to do—usually in the singular: I will worship, I will praise you, I will bow down, etc., etc. One beautiful and well-intentioned song even tells us that God thinks of "me above all."
As my professor friend says, "Begging your pardon: the only person who thinks of Me above all is Me."
If it's not in our singing, it's in our preaching. Whether it's contemporary meet-my-needs sermons or old-fashioned fire-and-brimstone, the focus seems to circle in the vicinity of getting our fine wide souls into heaven, and between now and then, into better circumstances here on earth. And yes, I may be overstating the case. But then again, am I?
A Martian visitor might judge, then, that God for the sake of the poor, the forgotten, the alien, the widow, the orphan, and the oppressed is not a big hit here. Neither is God for God's sake, apart from what God does for us in contributing to our personal happiness and success, which tends to tell us who is the real star of the show.
Speaking of show, Jim Carrey's The Truman Show comes to mind, along with an unsettling question: if we stood poised, as Carrey's Truman did at the end of the film, ready to step out of our dome, leaving a safe and scripted world where we're the star and where it's all about us, would we take the step?
In my travels (real and virtual), I have the privilege of meeting hundreds of pastors and other Christian leaders, many of them young and many even older than me, who are stepping out of the dome, resigning from spiritual stardom, and stepping from their little ponds into a broader and more humbling world. They are doing the hard work of re-examining their self-centered (and church-centered) theological systems, even if doing so makes them seem odd, dangerous, heretical to some of their friends.
They've grown tired of songs that worship our beautiful, passionate sincerity, and include God as an accessory to our own material, emotional, and spiritual affluence.
They refuse to limit the focus of their preaching to the "needs" of saved and elect insiders, but instead keep the cries of the least, the last, and the lost alive in the ears of their listeners. They're writing new songs and preaching new sermons of justice and compassion, of mission and hope, of God-love and neighbor-love, of the glory of a God who loves, not just me/me/me, but the whole world—red and yellow, black and white, as the old Sunday school song said. In so doing, their sermons and songs shift the focus from a self-centered gospel to a world-blessing gospel.
No doubt, much of the talk about "emerging church" can be fit into the category of a new demographic needing everything tailored to its finicky, funky tastes. It's still all about me, just a me from a different market sector. It's as if we're asking for the set on The Truman Show to be redesigned for a newer, hipper Truman.
But if there's even a spark of something else at work in the emergent conversation, just a flicker of hope that the real God is to be found outside the dome of a narcissistic consumer religion (in any of its demographic forms), and that God is actually so wonderful that we would actually like to sing and preach about God for a while, more than ourselves, then we should fan that flame.
That would give the Martians some good news to report back to the home world. And it would be good news here as well.

Tomorrow is here!

Tomorrow is a day I have awaited for a long time. I am traveling, along with one of my colleagues at North Davis, over to First Baptist Euless to hear a man considered to be one of the top worship theologians and scholars in North America, a man I admire very much and respect greatly, Robert Webber. In light of this, I was familiarizing myself with some of his writings again and came across this quote of his. Chew on this thesis, and read Revelation, then, see what you think.

"The emphasis of biblical and ancient God-directed worship is ultimately about the victory of God over all the powers of evil. In worship we remember God's saving acts in history, and we anticipate the consummation of God's rescue at the end of history. "

Meeting People Where They Are...

I dread what I have to do over the next 10 days. Read three books, write 3 papers, GRAD SCHOOL HAS OFFICIALLY TAKEN OVER!!!

However, in reading one of these books, I came across a great quote from Eddie Gibbs. He puts eloquently into words a thought that many have said, but not so well...What do you think?

"Churches cannot stand apart from society and invite people to come to them on their terms. Rather, churches must go to people where they are and communicate in terms that will make sense to them, addressing the issues that shape their lives and speaking their language."

[--Eddie Gibbs, ChurchNext (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000) 39.]

What does that mean for the way we inculcate people into our churches? What does that mean for us and the way we prepare and construct worship? What kind of impressions do we want to make on this broken society?

Who would have thunk it...

I knew that I wouldnt be able to keep up with this blog on a daily basis as I set out to do...But the goal was noble, right?

Here are a few new definitions, thoughts on the dominant topic seen on this sight: WORSHIP. These, like another post of recent weeks, are based on Donald Miller's book Blue Like Jazz.
"Many of our attempts to understand the Christian faith have only cheapened it. I can no more understand the totality of God than the pancake I made for breakfast understands the totality of me. The little we do understand, that grain of sand our minds are capable of grasping, those ideas such as God is good, God feels, God loves, God knows all, are enough to keep our hearts dwelling on His majesty and holy otherness forever..."

It is not about me...never has been, never will be!

This last week has been a very good one spiritually for me.  Wrapped up my first stint of speaking on Wednesday evenings...and I have discovered that that time of sermon preparation has been very enriching for me.  This last week I spent some time talking with by best friend Kevin about Psalm 107 as I prepped for the message.  Couple that with my beginning reading Max's new book "It's Not About me."  Whats all that to say?  When we find ourselves, like the fourth group giving their testimony in Psalm 107:23-32, in situations that we have gotten ourselves into where the waves are soaring above our heads, we gasp for air, thinking we can get ourselves out of this proverbial pickle, we realize that it isn't about us, and that it never has been about us or anything we can do.  We can no more die for our own sin than we can solve the world's hunger problem.  God has been so incredibly good to us...blessing us by taking us out of the calamities of life we get ourselves into, hearing us cry out for help, rescuing and saving us...then, we are to respond by telling the whole world of the healing, redeeming, saving, powerful message of God!

Reflecting on the Benefits of God

This week I am speaking from Psalm 103. After reading and re-reading this psalm over and over, a couple of things come to my mind. Firstly, who ever gave anyone the right to complain? IF you read this psalm between vs 3 and 19, David lists off a mere 17, yes SEVENTEEN, "benefits of God." David, whether he meant to or not, in this song he wrote to be sung in tabernacle worship of the people of Israel all but undresses those who come to worship with this selfish attitude of "It's all about me..." And secondly, God is good, all the time! I thought that phrase was so trivial a year ago. But if you read this psalm, and you see your place in relation to a God who has redeemed, healed, forgiven, renewed, loved, and grace-covered you, how can you even begin to think that GOd is not a god who is eternally, unutterably good!!

"Bless the Lord, O my Soul...and all that is within me, bless His holy name"

July 6th...Quite a hiatus!!

It has been, yet again, some time since I last updated the ole' blog. Safe to say that I am not addicted...For the next 4 weeks I am speaking on Wednesday nights. We are doing a series at the moment based on titles of the songs we sing in worship...coming from the angle of how so often what we sing is at the core of our theology, and how when we sing such things we rarely let it soak in what we are singing about. I am constructing the first of these 4 sermonettes coming out of Psalm 63, one of my absolute favorite Psalms. Being the worship-junkie that I am, something came to my mind as I read the middle portion of Psalm 63 that I apparently just have skipped over in past sittings. It prompted a question I need to ask myself constantly. How often, in moments of spiritual and physical longing and thirst do we rejoice in worship; realizing that we are held in the palm of God's hand, "under the shadow of God's wings?" Do we...can we...truly get our hands around the fact that regardless of how awful our life is or how wonderful life is at any given time, God's all-encompassing love is better than life. If I read this Psalm now, it speaks to me that whatever state our life is in at any given moment, our minds, hearts, souls and strength should be so overcome with the depth of God's love that we shouldn't be able to keep from singing, worshipping, outstretching our hands in praise to God, awaiting to receive his blessing. When is the last time we lay awake in bed at night, unable to sleep, because we were so overcome with the incredible-ness of the love of God?

Read the words of this olden hymn, recently reworked by MercyMe, original words, still intact...
"The Love of God" F.M. Lehman, c.1917

The love of God is greater far than tongue or pen can ever tell;
It goes beyond the highest star and reaches to the lowest hell;

Could we with ink the ocean fill, And were the skies of parchment made;
Were every stalk on earth a quill, and every ma a scribe a trade;
To write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole, Tho stretched from sky to sky.

Oh, love of God, how rich and pure! How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure the saints' and angels' song.

The Noblest of a Father's Goals

Several years ago, Phillips, Craig and Dean wrote a song for each of their children...This Song, called "Lord I Wanna Be Just Like You," is carved out of the desire of every parent to be a great role model for their children. The older I get, the more I reflect, and the more that I reflect, the more I see Christ in my father, mother, grandmothers and grandfathers...It is the noblest of all goals as a parent to reflect Christ to your children so they will then model Christ in return..."Lord I [the father] wanna be just like You [The Father] so he [my son] can be just like me!"

Well...It has been another while!

I have got to get better at maintaining this BLOG!!! Anyway, there you have it! Sunday was a great day at North Davis. We took the whole worship time to gather around the table, sharing in Christ's body and blood communally the Lord's supper. I think too often in Churches of Christ we have lost sight of what Communion is all about. As my senior Minister said, "we have made it the Lord's snack...we have ritualized, privatized, and trivialized, Americanized, industrialized," and another -ized word that I forgot, "what was the most important meal to the early Christian community." We need to recover that sense of community that early Christians shared when they took the Supper together. Yesterday at the close of our worship time we sang a song called "We Are the Body of Christ," and a gentleman came up to me at the conclusion and said that he had never felt this type of unifying activity done at this church before. That is a powerful statement, both for the positive and for the negative. ON one hand, we have hurt ourselves in the past by not doing worship as an act of unification of the worshipping body. On the other hand, we are beginning to recognize community-forming activities as a vital part of the worshipping church. May God bless us as we draw closer to one another, and as we draw closer to him!!

Well...it's been a while!

Well, it has been a while since I have posted something, yet not as long as others that I Know! Anyway, here is a quote I would like to share for this morning! Whoever Joseph Joubert was, he was a wise man!

"That which astonishes, astonishes once; but whatever is admirable becomes more and more desired."
— Joseph Joubert