This past weekend, I had the opportunity to go back to Camp Sumatanga (a place I have talked about before: see here). As I have said before, I can’t imagine a place on this Earth that is more bathed in prayer or has a more consistent and palpable presence of God.

This time, I had the great privilege of attending a once a lifetime experience called “Walk to Emmaus”. The walk is based on Luke 24:13-35 where Jesus appears to two disciples on the first Easter afternoon. First let me say this: I was a little freaked out by the idea of this experience. I mean, I know that everyone says it is a positive and wonderful experience. The thing is, no one will tell you much about it. I didn’t understand why, but now I know. To try to explain my experience would be meaningless to you. I can tell you some of the things I got from it, but if you went through the whole thing sitting next to me, you’re experience would be different. Of the men I talked to, no two people got the same message.

What I will say is this: My life will never be the same. I will never look at the world quite the same again. I know i’m going to fall, I know I’ll probably have days where I am cynical and the mountain top I’m on right now is bound to lead to a valley. Any journey must move forward and this one is no exception.

I learned about and experienced God’s Grace, love and his forgiveness in a way that I had never before felt. The whole weekend was full of new friends, new perspectives and a new appreciation for God’s call on my life.

For now, I will just say this: Christ is counting on you to be his hands and feet in this world. Go out there and share his love!

De Colores!

Today we had a great church service, but at the start of the second service I noticed something was up. It’s unusual for our pastor to change things up the second service, and he grabbed a stool and moved it to the side of the stage before service. No big deal, maybe his back is hurting and he wants to take a load off.

After the sermon, he said a prayer and I knew right away what the stool was all about. Our pastor is preparing to resign. You see, for weeks now several of us have been talking about that God was ready to do something big in our Church. We saw a change in our staff and we knew that they were feeling something big too. We didn’t realize that about that same time our Pastor was reconciling a new call on his life to plant a church and leave the Church at Lake Guntersville.

Ann and I feel a little like a curse on churches. Everywhere we go, the pastor resigns or is moved to a different church. Of course, we know it has nothing to do with us, but it’s hard for us to get really connected with pastors because of the eventuality that one of us will be called somewhere else. In the last 2 years though, we had connected with Pastor Keith and his family. His wife, Amy, is  a total hoot, and a fantastic Piano player. Keith is a great pastor, and I have had some conversations with him that I would have never thought I’d have with a pastor. That’s the sort of thing I think most of our  congregation will remember about our time together.

So, today marks a new beginning. The search committee will be formed in the next few weeks and the hunt for a new pastor will begin. My prayer is that we will be able to focus on what God has in store for us and not jump in on a new pastor because we “need someone now”. We have a great staff who can carry the load until God presents the right person. I don’t know what that looks like, but I have been talking with some folks who just went through this process to get a feel for where we are headed, and I know they will give some great counsel.

So today, we have some uncertainty, but there is no confusion: This is the direction God wants us to move.

I’m not a worship leader. It’s just not where my talent lies.

I struggled through a 4 song set and managed to not get booed off the stage. I had a great band, the other singers did great, and I don’t think I sucked too bad at playing guitar, but (when I could hear myself, which wasn’t much) I don’t think I sang one single note on key.

It didn’t do loads for my self-confidence, that’s for sure!

Anyway, I filled in. I did what was asked of me the best I could do it, and I lived through it.

I found this and it really speaks something that so many worship team members need to hear, myself included. It’s always to good to be reminded of why we do what we do.

1. You are not Singing or Playing Because You are Good: You have been given this opportunity by God because He is good. His grace has allowed you to represent Him in spite of your imperfections. Eph. 2:4-10; Titus 3:5.

2. Being Seen or Recognized is not Your Ultimate Goal: God always sees you and recognizes you. Our ultimate goal is for Christ to be seen. John 3:30.

3. God is a God of Order, not Confusion: You will be expected to be punctual, professional, accountable, dependable, and flexible according to the needs of this ministry. Structure and order are essentials to giving our best to God. I Cor. 14:40; Rom. 12:11.

4. Your Music will not be What Determines Your Success: Millions of people can produce great music. God once made a donkey talk! Your success will be dependent only on your love for God, people, and each other. The Biblical definition of greatness is servant-hood: I John 3:23; John 13:1-17; Phil.1:9-11.

5. Participation in this Ministry is not a Substitute for Bible Study, Tithing, or Serving as God Leads in other Necessary Functions of the Church: Your personal spiritual growth depends on your relationship with a good church. Your ongoing fellowship, sacrificial giving and consistent Bible study will enable you to properly relate and contribute to the movement and ministry of this church. Hebrews 10:24-25.

6. Your Participation in this Ministry Makes You a Minister: People will look to you for advice and example. If you lead them astray by word or deed, you will be held responsible for their sin. If you lead them to Jesus, he will reward you. There is no in-between. Also, remain mindful that you are involved in spiritual warfare. I Cor. 15:33, 58; II Cor. 4: 1-6; I Cor 1:23; Ezekiel 33:6; Eph. 6:12; I Thess. 5:22.

7. You are not the Stars: The star of this ministry is Jesus Christ. When you lose sight of that fact, you become a liability to the group. II Cor. 4:5; Col. 1:18

8. God Deserves Our Best: God gave His best through Christ, and everything He does is perfect. We therefore show our appreciation by giving our best back to Him. Specifically, this means getting proper rest, rehearsing faithfully, dressing appropriately, speaking intelligently, and anything else that will represent Him properly. Genesis 4:4-5; Matt. 5:16.

9. Confess Your Faults: Nobody is perfect. No need to make lame excuses. If you choose to stay away from your commitment because of something other than a legitimate reason, ask God to give you the inner strength to follow through, even when it’s hard; OR come back when you can stick with it. Let someone know when you have a real problem, and let’s all pray about it. We are all in this together. James 5:16.

10. Support Your Leaders: ____________ and __________ are the leaders of this ministry under our Pastor. Many of you are leaders in other avenues of life. Good leaders have learned to be good followers. God has given them talent and vision. You are responsible for constructively supporting them. If you feel that this is no longer possible, please be Christian and mature enough to let them know directly. Also, when you have a concern, criticism, or complaint, please extend the same courtesy of direct honest communication. I Tim. 2:1-3.

Adapted by Michael Adler for SMBC Music & Worship from a memo written by evangelist Buster Soaries to the members of the BeBe and CeCe Winans touring group.

I was reading Clay’s blog tonight and my comment started turning into a blog post, so I shortened the comment and decided to write my thoughts on my own blog.

His blog was about a church near him that is advertising a “Patriotic Sunday”. His point (I hope I am accurately summarizing here) is that there is a line that should not be crossed in making our Country or a flag the object of our worship. I totally agree with that assessment and I also agree that using something like this to draw seekers can be questionable.

My particular soap-box was constructed a few years back. I was in a church Christmas play about how the season was so commercial, we take our good fortune for granted and need to re-center our focus on Christ. Roger that.

Then it happened… I didn’t know it was coming, and from the look of things my Dad (the pastor) didn’t know it was coming either. Someone stands up at the front of the church and says something to the effect of “Does someone hear Reindeer?” and Santa busts through the center isle door. Right in the middle of the sanctuary they set up this big chair and put Santa in it for all the kids to come tell him what “stuff” they want for Christmas.
I was livid. If there is a stronger word for livid, that would be more accurate. I was inconsolable. How can we do this? We just told everyone that they needed to focus on Christ during Christmas, and immediately turn around to tell them “Nevermind, ask for more junk”.

Since then, my disingenuous detector has worked overtime when it comes to church services. Anything that I perceive as being duplicitous, phony or overly theatrical makes me want to scream. I’m no stuff-shirt when it comes to church. I don’t think there are many valid “sacred cows” in worship, but when it comes to sending a message about our Savior, I think we need to be clear and consistent.

While I am on a rant: As someone who basically left the faith for a few years, I can tell you that from the outside looking in nothing is more unattractive than the fake fun we sometimes as Christians want to portray. I’m all for good wholesome fun, but when it is so over-the-top-kindergarten-teacher-driven cheesy “fun” I don’t think we do ourselves any favors. To me, it was insulting that Christians thought they were fooling me with how much fun they were allegedly having. It wasn’t until I met a group of guys who would drink a beer and talk about Jesus that I came back to Christianity. They weren’t faking anything, they were just people having fun and they happened to be Christians. They lived within the boundaries (i.e. they weren’t getting drunk and talking about Jesus), but they were real and they really love Jesus.

People want us to be who we say we are, and any attempt at faking it just turns them off.

So, I’m sure I took a left turn here somewhere into something totally unrelated to Clay’s blog, but I decided that while I had the soapbox out I might as well get it all off my chest.