The Warning Knock

Kings (NBC): Highly Recommended

2009-08-10T10:00:00.010-05:00

So I’ve made no secret of my enthusiasm for Kings, the NBC television series, that, alas, was cancelled… nay, slaughtered in infancy by the mouth-breathing Herodian troglodytes that pass for execs at the dear network. Their philistinism, however, takes nothing away from the brilliantly conceived and executed single season that is Kings.

Kings is a complete modernization of the story of David and Saul from the Old Testament. It’s written with a nuance and complexity and dignity that is almost completely absent from American culture. Leading the cast is the brilliant Ian McShane. McShane’s Silas is a deep ocean breathing regal gravitas; with fatherly affection, royal generosity, fatal pride and understated whimsy occasionally emerging from the depths.

It’s available to watch online for free at NBC and Hulu until September 20. The DVD Kings – the Complete Seasonwill be released September 29.

Or you can purchase the entire season for $20.70 at Amazon Video on Demand… which is what I did.

Go here to watch the FREE 7 minute season preview at Amazon Video On Demand:

My message at Super Summer

2009-07-03T09:42:00.004-05:00

I got to speak on Tuesday night at Super Summer this year. I've gotten lots of encouraging feedback on the talk, so thanks to everyone for their kind words.

Just for fun, I wordled the sermon manuscript, and here's the result:

Questions from a Thinking Person

2009-06-08T10:22:00.002-05:00

At my church we just had a “Hard Questions” Panel. A friend of mine got some questions from her son, who lives in another state and is not a Christian, but is at some level curious or interested. We did not have the opportunity to answer these questions during the forum.

I thought they were pretty good questions, though, so I’m posting them and my attempts at answers to them here. Here’s the first one.

Question: Why does it seem that religious people are the first people to judge other people when Jesus said "Let he who is without sin throw the first stone"? Why don't Christians lead by example instead of telling people when they are wrong? I believe actions speak louder than words and when you point your finger at some one you should look at the three other fingers pointing back at you. Why don't we focus on what we can do better as people? Take for example the person who killed the abortion doctor the other day. If he would have looked at himself and focused on his faults instead of worrying about others he could have changed the world for the good instead of giving Christianity another bad name.

This is a fantastic question. Let me begin with the part about judgment.

When Jesus taught, “Judge not, lest ye be judged,” the typical reading is if we judged other people, then we will be judged by God. I think this is a misreading. I think it means if we judge others, then others will judge us. And I think it’s absolutely true. The fact that this guy has asked this question means that he has seen judgmental Christians and is (quite fairly) judging them right back, and asking why they don’t live up to their own principles. He deserves an answer.

Christians ARE judgmental, often much more so than unreligious people. I think this is true for a few reasons:

First, the Christian faith is based on believing certain things to be true—and not just any things, but absolute, transcendent truths that, if true, affect all people in all places. Firm faith in these truths (existence of God, deity of Christ, authority of the Bible, etc.) begins as conviction—which is a good thing—but easily slips into pridefulness and arrogance.

If I’m completely convinced of these truths and I see everything through the lens of them, then other people’s failure to live up to those truths will stand out to me.

If I’m young in my faith, spiritually immature, or frightened and uncertain, then I will use my “certainty” defensively, and point out or even lash out at things I see as offensive to God. I’ll also decide that things that offend God should offend me, too, and I will seek to fight God’s battles for him by opposing the “infidels.” Most perniciously, I’ll see myself as superior for having seen and recognized the truth, and be patronizing, condescending or mean to those who don’t agree.

Here’s an example. A Christian friend of mine knows a fellow from his work who is gay and has a live-in boyfriend. The gay guy was moving to another city, and it was his last day at work. There were two Christian ladies at his workplace who decided to get him a gift. They bought him a Bible—a nice one—and as a service to him, highlighted all the verses in the Bible that condemned homosexuality. This was their going away present.

That these ladies did not see how utterly rude, patronizing, condescending and plain old mean this was, is as astonishing as it is common.

By contrast, a mature approach to this would be to hold those truths with no less conviction, but not be intimidated when I find people who don’t agree, and live as if they don’t agree. Further, I will hold those convictions with humility, meaning that I’ll be the first to recognize that I have fallen short of God’s standard and in many ways still do.

A mature approach will recognize that everyone has the right to make their own choices and decisions, and will give them perfect freedom to do so, like Jesus did, and will not attempt to coerce or manipulate or guilt people into agreeing. This does not mean that they will not share with them or even try to persuade them, but they’ll do so without the need to hold others who continue to disagree at a distance or in contempt.

In my experience, it takes Christians many years to achieve this kind of maturity. Consequently, that leaves lots of zealous, immature Christians running around the world, reinforcing the judgmental image that we have unfortunately given to our faith.

The other dynamic at work here, I think, is that people can be threatened by those who don’t share their worldview. If I’m firmly convinced, for instance, that abortion is wrong, then if I meet an abortion doctor at a cocktail party, there is going to be instant, awkward tension between us. The same would be true if I was an animal rights activist, and I met a guy who runs a factory chicken farm. The person’s very presence somehow incarnates a challenge to my beliefs… or at least it feels that way.

That no doubt is what was at work in these ladies, who had this guy at work who fell into a prohibited category according to their worldview, and probably didn’t know what to do, but felt like they had to do something.

As far as Scott Roeder, the man who murdered the abortion doctor, he violated the tenets of his own faith while seeking to defend it. I think I can understand it: if you believe that unborn babies are human lives, made in the image of God, then the reality that there are 1.3 million aborted in this country every year is going to seriously burden you. It certainly burdens me. I mourn and lament it.

All of the prolife community’s efforts to address this problem through legal channels have paid off very scantily. They’ve worked hard with legislatures to pass some restrictions, and they are almost always slapped down by the courts, and every day, more and more babies are killed as birth control. It’s easy to see how that leaves a person with his convictions in a very frustrating position.

In every constituency and ideological group, you’re going to find emotionally disturbed or unstable people. So I’m not surprised when occasionally something like this happens. The details and thought processes differ, but this guy has company: the Unabomber, the 9-11 terrorists, the kids who shot up Columbine High School… each of them was serving an ideology which, mixed with their instability, was a recipe for tragedy.

In fact, I would say that the problem for both the Bible-giving ladies and Mr. Roeder was that they did not believe their faith enough. The ladies didn’t have confidence in gospel’s ability to change a person, so they resorted to the law. They believed that what he needed was to understand that homosexuality is a sin, but what he really needed was the same thing the ladies need: the grace of God in Christ forgiving their sin and enabling them to be better people. Mr. Roeder didn’t believe his faith enough, because he conveniently ignored the commandment “Thou shalt not kill.” There is no clause in the Bible that permits killing in defense of the faith. Vengeance belongs to the Lord, not to us.

At the end of the day, people can recognize the inconsistency between the example of Jesus—the prophet who hung out with prostitutes—and the judgmentalism of Christians.

In fact, the conclusion of the guy’s question, in my opinion, is right on: “If he [Mr. Roeder] would have looked at himself and focused on his faults instead of worrying about others he could have changed the world for the good instead of giving Christianity another bad name.”

Amen.

Let me conclude my response, however, with a caution. It’s easy to dismiss the teachings of Christ because some of his followers get all screwy. In the same way that it’s unfair to judge a teacher by his worst students, it’s unfair to judge Christianity by its worst adherents. If the students do things the teacher would never have agreed with and even condemned, it’s not really right to hold that against the teacher.

Fair judgment of a teacher involves looking at the full range of his students… but mostly at the teacher himself. So I would encourage you to first and foremost evaluate Christ himself as the best barometer of the worth and value of Christianity. If you don’t find him compelling, then you need not bother with anything else.

I'll try to address his other two questions soon.

Great Diving in Panama City with Wreck Raider!

2009-05-21T06:23:00.006-05:00

If you’re looking for a good dive operator in Panama City Beach, I’ve got a recommendation for you!

When I was planning my Panama City trip I knew I wanted to scuba dive while I was down there, but I knew nothing about the local dive charters. So I decided to do a test.

I sent emails to four of the dive operators I found online. My hunch was the way they handled my inquiry would tell me a lot about their character. I told them I was a novice diver, having just completed my open water certification in February. I got replies from three of them. One was a brush-off. The speediest reply, most helpful and honest, was from Captain Rod with Wreck Raider.net.

He set me up with a dive trip on Thursday. I wanted to do two days of diving, but wanted to see how Thursday went before I committed to another.

Rod has a fast and compact dive boat; six is about maximum occupancy, but that translates into having personal attention and not having to fight crowds. Other dive boats, I’m told, can be cattle calls, with up to 20 divers or more.

Thursday was awesome. Captain Rod is laid back and polite, a very likeable fellow. No bossy-ness or attitude, but still professional and confident. When I arrived, I found out there would only be three of us on the boat: me, Captain Rod, and the dive leader, Nick. Nick is 19 years old, but very experienced—he’s been diving since he was 12. He’s a scuba instructor and is attentive, observant and authoritative. He took fantastic care of me. I found out that he helps lead worship at his church, so we had that in common right away.

We dove two bridge spans on Thursday. When I first got in the water, my BC and weight belt needed adjustment, and I was trying to refresh myself on everything I had to remember. I got discombobulated a bit. Nick and Rod were very patient and helpful. They got me back aboard and properly adjusted. Once I got underwater, however, everything went really great, and I enjoyed myself immensely.

Highlight of Thursday was probably the 6-foot tiger shark that made an appearance at the end of our second dive.

So on the way back I asked about joining them on Friday. Rod had three spearfishermen to take out, but he said he’d accommodate me, and true to his word, he did.

I really enjoyed watching these guys spearfish. Nick served as my dive buddy (mainly to keep an eye on me), but I tagged along and watched his expertise at work.

On Friday, we dove hard bottom reefs in about 70-80 feet of water. On my first dive, Nick came upon a hole in the reef, laid aside his speargun and pulled two lobsters out of the hole. They were shovelnose lobsters, which are smallish—about the size of a big TV remote—and aren’t regulated: there’s no season or restrictions, except that you can’t take females with eggs. Nick hadn’t brought a stringer or a mesh bag or anything, so he stuffed them in his BC pockets. Then he reached back into the hole, and grabbed some more, and then more, and then more. When he ran out of room in his BC, I offered mine. He wound up getting eight lobsters out of one hole. And that was in the first five minutes of the dive!

So on the second dive, I borrowed a pair of reef gloves (I’ve since purchased my own), and once I knew what to look for, I went searching for them, and sure enough, scored one of my own. Lots of fun.

Captain Rod hooked me up with three lobster tails at the end of the dive, and also a nice filet from the 20 pound grouper that another diver had speared. We ate well that night!

All in all, I had a great experience, and I’m sure you will, too. Check out the website, www.wreckraider.net, or call Capt. Rod directly (850) 249-DIVE (3483).

Sunday's Sermon: Grace and the Prodigal

2009-04-21T07:10:00.003-05:00

Here is my sermon from this past Sunday. I used the parable of the prodigal (Luke 15) to illustrate the idea of salvation by grace, not works.

You can stream it or download here:

You can also go to my church's sermon archive, which also has options for subscribing to our church's sermon podcast in iTunes.

Easter Set-up Time Lapse

2009-04-16T20:57:00.002-05:00

Following is a sweet time-lapse of set-up for the Easter service in the CMS gym. Thanks to Jason the tech guru for having the idea and executing it!

More Easter pictures

2009-04-15T14:22:00.005-05:00

Here are some more pictures from our Easter worship service.

Easter 2009

2009-04-14T09:43:00.002-05:00

We were once again at Columbia Middle School for one combined worship service.

Here’s the order:

Prelude: “He Lives” (Gloryland Band arr.) – FBC Wind Orchestra
“I Believe” – Children’s Choir
Christ the Lord is Risen Today (Nice pipe organ with this.)
Welcome
Testimony – Brett & Jennifer
“Jesus Saves” – FBC Choir & Wind Orchestra
Worthy is the Lamb
Message
Offering: Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone)
Days of Elijah

A few notes

A record crowd this year: 903. There were 40 at our sunrise service, for a total of 943.
Sound was surprisingly good. It’s a good environment for the Wind Orchestra, nice and resonant. The drums were bit over-resonant, but we survived it.
The gym environment makes it harder for people to focus on worship, I think. Too bright, too many people. As I looked around, it seemed like people were more distracted than normal. By the end, however, they had warmed up, and responded well to Days of Elijah.
Pastor’s sermon was on John 3:16. Simple and clear!
Volunteers make the world go round. Dianne, Dave M, Caitlin, Dave F, Stephanie, Mike, Terry, Tim, Ryan, Jordan… many thanks to all the folks who spent hours with us making it happen.
We blew our time estimate by 10 minutes. In an effort to be godlier, I'll not assign blame here.

For now, just a couple of pics from set-up time. I should get pics of the service later today.

Yesterday was a big day

2009-04-08T11:47:00.006-05:00

Yesterday was a day I’d been looking forward to for many, many months. It marked 20 years since God in His mercy opened my eyes and I became a Christian.

Paul identifies himself in several of his letters in the New Testament as a slave (doulos) of Christ. Inspired by John MacArthur’s discussion of the term in the new edition of The Gospel According to Jesus (which, by the way, was one of the most influential books I read after I came to Christ), I preached a sermon last year on the whole idea of slavery to Christ, and how counter it is to our American sensibilities.

Here's the sermon:

Approaching the 20 year mark of following Christ, I also have been thinking about the passages in the Old Testament that address the manumission of slaves. Slaves were to be set free after 7 year, but there was a provision for them to serve for life if they so chose.

Here’s the passage:

If a fellow Hebrew, a man or a woman, sells himself to you and serves you six years, in the seventh year you must let him go free. And when you release him, do not send him away empty-handed. Supply him liberally from your flock, your threshing floor and your winepress. Give to him as the LORD your God has blessed you. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the LORD your God redeemed you. That is why I give you this command today.

But if your servant says to you, "I do not want to leave you," because he loves you and your family and is well off with you, then take an awl and push it through his ear lobe into the door, and he will become your servant for life.
Deuteronomy 15: 12-17

My heart resonates so much with verse 16. After 20 years of following Christ, I love my Master and his family, and I am well off with Him. I do not wish to leave.

One of the prayers I have been praying for myself for many years is that God will help me to endure to the end, to persevere, and to finish well.

So this idea of being marked for life really appealed to me. A friend of mine who was inspired by this passage had his ear pierced… but I didn’t want to do that. Jewelry… not really me.

So I started thinking about a tattoo. Those of you who know me well know I’m not a tattoo guy at all. In fact, I used to think they were silly. Any time I saw people with tattoos I wondered how silly they would look when they were 70 and all their skin sagged, etc. “My body is not a canvas,” and so on.

But being marked for life in this way is EXACTLY what I was going for. I wanted to be marked for life as a follower of Jesus… a doulos of Christ Jesus.

So last night, on the 20th anniversary of my conversion, I went down to the Loop to Enigma tattoo, and got myself a dang tattoo. No turning back. For your entertainment, here are pictures and a short video.

I hesitated briefly when I thought people would point out Leviticus 19:28 to me:

Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the LORD.

Yikes. But then I read the verse before it, and figured I’d be ok:

Do not cut the hair at the sides of your head or clip off the edges of your beard.

(We’ll save the discussion about the role of the Old Testament law in the Christian life for later.)

I’m still a little surprised I did it, and yes, it hurt.

False Conversion

2009-04-03T10:02:00.003-05:00

I've had a handful of conversations in the last couple of weeks about false conversion--namely, when someone believes that they are in Christ when in fact they are not. I've visited with friends about how evangelistic methodology over the past 50 years has encouraged a culture of false conversion. A new member of my small group has a very clear testimony of being falsely converted, and later, truly converted, and articulates the difference pretty well.

Tim Brister has posted a discussion of false conversion on his blog. Here's an excerpt:

We can miss biblical conversion in any number of ways. If a person is converted only in the mind, he will substitute repentance and faith with mental assent and assume that the mere acquisition of more knowledge (intellectualism) will guarantee salvation. They will profess, “Lord, Lord” with great profundity for sure. If a person is converted only in the heart, he will substitute repentance and faith with emotional experience (experientialism) and assume that more mountaintop experiences (or rededications) will guarantee salvation (by “nailing it down”). They will profess, “Lord, Lord” with great passion no doubt. If a person is converted only in the will, he will substitute repentance and faith with determination and resolve to do better (legalism) and assume that self-improvement (self-righteousness) brings him acceptance before God. They will profess, “Lord, Lord” with great persistence as you could expect.

Contrary to all this, a truly converted sinner will be transformed by the Spirit of God with a change evidenced by turning from sin (repentance) and turning to God (faith) which encompasses their entire being–mind, heart, and will. In recent years, we have all but taken God out of the equation so that conversion is not the miraculous working of God but a mere decision by man. Now, certainly one has to “decide” and respond in faith and repentance, but if there is not a true understanding of the gospel and a true gracious working of regeneration in the heart of a sinner, then no trick, technique, or trend will be able to accomplish what God has determined Himself to do. Conversion is not merely “our part” or something we contribute in salvation apart from God’s sovereign work of effectually drawing and applying the new covenant promise of transforming our lives from within. Everyone to whom God begins the “good work” will bring it completion (Phil. 1:6), and there should be distinguishing marks of the saving, sanctifying, and persevering grace of God in the converted sinner being daily conformed into the image of Christ.

Remembering Fred Winters

2009-03-08T19:30:00.003-05:00

Today one of my mentors, Fred Winters, was killed by a gunman in his church while he was preaching.

Good reporting on the tragedy here.

My pastor and I were part of a mentoring group with Pastor Fred a couple of years ago. It was like a spiritual book club; we would read one book per month about living as Christians and spiritual leaders. It was a really great time. I found Fred to be forthright, generous, and kind; a man deeply committed to the gospel and able to make tough decisions.

I was impressed by his testimony—he came to Christ out of a pretty dysfunctional and irreligious background, and his own life and love and faith were a testament to the kind of change God can make in a heart.

But more than that, his example of leadership was stirring and inspiring. Fred was certainly busy enough leading his own congregation; but part of his passion was building into other leaders, so he organized & led this group with several local pastors—just another example of his personal generosity and kingdom-focused mindset.

Please join me in praying for his beautiful wife and daughters, and for his church, FBC Maryville. Their worship pastor, Mark Jones, is a friend, and one of the most prayerful men I know, and as one of the most visible leaders for the church, will carry quite a burden.

Pascal on Spiritual Knowledge

2009-03-06T09:33:00.002-06:00

Spurred by a conversation with my roommate last night, I revisited a portion of Pascal’s Pensees, in a marvelous edition edited with commentary by Peter Kreeft.

Pensee #816

“I should soon have given up a life of pleasure,” they say, “If I had faith.” But I tell you, “You would soon have faith if you gave up a life of pleasure. Now it is up to you to begin. If I could give you faith, I would. But I cannot, nor can I test the truth of what you say, but you can easily give up your pleasure and test whether I am telling the truth.”

Kreeft’s commentary:

Pascal, like any psychologist who ideas are based on experience rather than theory, is more of a voluntarist than an intellectualist; that is, he see that our moral choices have more causal power over our mental beliefs than our mental beliefs have over our moral choices…..

Voluntarism entails the conclusion that we begin the process of education by willing it.

So often, I see that people unwilling to surrender their pleasures never find faith in the Christ or experience the life-giving beauty of the gospel. Those who are willing, find it immediately.

My roommate, a Marine, has just come to Christ out of a typically hedonistic Marine Corps life (lots of women, lots of beer…). He walked away from that, and his faith in Christ has…, well, exploded.

We were talking about inviting others to faith in Christ. Inviting people to repent, to change their ways, seems fundamentalist, hackneyed and lame. Pascal, a realist and a pragmatist, shows us its hidden power and psychological sophistication. Curious people who lurk on the edge of faith often crave and even demand experiential proof of faith Christ before they commit to anything… but it is denied them. Those who are “dumb enough” to actually repent, however, discover it immediately. Obedience always precedes knowledge.

Unblogging

2009-02-24T10:19:00.003-06:00

Without announcement or explanation several months ago, I drastically curtailed my blogging activity, both here and on Seminary Survival Guide.

I've since noticed some very active A-list bloggers doing the same thing--either dramatically curtailing their posting frequency, or taking blog-fasts for periods of time.

I think many early adopting blog-rats, after running the race for a while, come upon a point of exhaustion, and ask the question: is this effort really worth everything I'm putting into it?

After all, how many cute stories or videos can you link to? How many really original and worthwhile things can one person say? How many contributions can one person make to the success and enjoyment of others?

My conclusion: not that many.

I've wanted, esp at Seminary Survival Guide, to only say something when I have something worth saying. Here at The Warning Knock, I never felt that constraint... especially not at first. After a while, though, I discovered how many people were reading and being influenced by what I wrote, and felt the need to be more judicious in what I said.

Furthermore, I've developed a growing distaste for what I call "mediated relationships." These are online relationships you have at a distance from people, whom you keep up with only through blogs, texting, twitter, or facebook. Maybe I'm too old-fashioned in this, but I think humans were created to have real, live, in-person, face-to-face relationships. Distancing ourselves via technology from that impoverishes our experience of life.

I don't want to live an impoverished life, even if everyone else in the world is doing it.

So let me express my gratitude to all my readers for their interest in my blogging activity. No, this is not good-bye, just an explanation for where I've been. I plan to continue blogging--infrequently--but without any regard for my stats or who's reading or who's linking or whatever.

If you miss me, then call me up and let's have lunch.

Awesome 12 year old

2009-02-19T15:53:00.000-06:00

HT: Chris

Simple Math

2009-01-29T08:49:00.003-06:00

Came across this video illustration of the power of one-on-one discipleship. This goes along well with the direction our church is heading, trying to make a cultural change, so that this kind of personal investment part of our DNA, and happen spontaneously and organically.

Check it out.

HT: Brad

Lunch Reunion

2009-01-10T12:28:00.003-06:00

I got to reunite with some old high school friends while I was in Florida. Leilani, who has been the best about keeping up with everyone, kindly put it together. I came in from St Louis, Erick drove up from Miami, and Rachel drove down from Sebastian. We had a fabulous time catching up.

I was struck by two things:

How similar everyone looked to how they did in high school. I know not everyone makes it 20 years without drastic appearance changes.
How relaxed we all seemed. I guess 20 years of living makes you comfortable in your own skin.

I'm hoping we can get together again soon.

Top Worship Songs of 2008

2009-01-09T10:54:00.002-06:00

By usage, here are our most frequently used worship songs of 2008.
(HT: Chris from Canada for the idea.)

FBC Columbia Top 30 Worship Songs of 2008

You Never Let Go
You Are My King
Hosanna
Your Name
Fire Fall Down
Jesus Paid It All
Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)
Before The Throne Of God Above
Here I Am To Worship
In Christ Alone
Just As I Am
How Deep The Father's Love For Us
Be The Center
Worthy Is The Lamb
Blessed Be Your Name
King Of Love
Mighty To Save
Agnus Dei
Shout To The Lord
Hear Our Praises
All Creatures Of Our God And King
Glory
Come Thou Fount Come Thou King
How Great Thou Art
Great Is Thy Faithfulness
'Tis So Sweet To Trust In Jesus
The Solid Rock
Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing
Blessed Assurance
There's A Stirring

Christmas Program Confessional

2008-12-17T11:34:00.003-06:00

Our Christmas program this year was an incredible success. The people who helped make this happen did such a fantastic job, I want to give some kudos.

The production was called “The Talk of Columbia – Christmas Edition.” It was set up like a morning talk show doing a special Christmas music show. We had male and female hosts, four musical segments, a cooking segment, an interview with St Nick (The real St Nick – Nicholas of Myra), and some man on the street interviews asking “Who is St Nick?” to set up the interview.

In between segments we had commercials – audio only. We put color bars on the screen as the sign that we were at commercial, and played the commercials while we changed the set. They were pretty funny, poking fun at me, the pastor, Baptists in general, and Orville, who is the tootsie roll guy.

The Wind Orchestra functioned as the house band, playing Jazzy Christmas music for show openings and transitions.

St Nick shared the gospel towards the end of the interview. The host asked what’ the big deal about a baby in a manger two thousand years ago? Nick’s answer was in how he changes lives. Then we transitioned to choir and soloist singing Glory in the Highest (Tomlin), while our people shared cardboard testimonies (the idea proudly stolen from youtube).

After that, we had traditional carol singing with the congregation, and then concluded with Christmas Angels, a combined number with Choir, children, trio, and Wind Orchestra.

Here’s the program order:

Countdown to airtime

Show Opening (Live)
Mark, Kim, TOC Jazz Band

Commercial Break 1 (Audio)
Presslar’s Christmas Tree Farm
Peters’ Toupees and Implants

Musical Segment 1: Christmas Men’s Ensemble (Live)
Go Tell It On the Mountain
Away In a Manger

Commercial Break 2 (Audio)
The “Bapper”
Mark Warnock Institute for Intelligence

Cooking Segment: Frankie Stanley’s Sugar Cookies (Live)
Mark, Kim, Frankie, and assistants…

Commercial Break 3
Christmas Eve at FBC (Audio)
Around Columbia: Man on the Street, Part 1 (Video)

Musical Segment 2: Rockin’ for Jesus Children’s Choir (Live)
Do You Hear What I Hear?
What If?

Commercial Break 4
Fireproof DVD (Video)
Around Columbia: Man on the Street, Part 2 (Video)

Musical Segment 3: FBC Adult Choir (Live)
Christmas Is the Best Time of the Year
Home for the Holidays Medley

Interview Segment: St. Nick (Live)

Inspiration Segment: The Difference He Makes (Live)
Glory In the Highest

Musical Segment 4: Congregational Singing (Live)
Hark the Herald Angels Sing
Away in a Manger
Silent Night
Come All Ye Faithful

Finale: Christmas Angels (Live)
FBC Adult Choir, Trio, Children’s Choir

Show Closing (Live)

Kudos to:
Dianne, my producer, who helped handle an incredible load of details, coordinated the tech aspects, and led the program design. As always, joyful and indispensable.

Wind Orchestra, who worked very diligently to learn Christmas Angels, a piece that should have been much too hard for them. They rose to the occasion and knocked it out of the park.

All the Cardboard Testimony people, who were willing to share their stories. It was the most powerful moment of the night, and left everyone in tears.

Dick, one of our cardboard testimonies. Dick is deaf and has balance problems, but he agreed to be one of the testimonies. On the first night, he fell hard while trying to navigate the steps on his way in. Mercifully, he was ok, and showed up to do it on the second night without complaint. What a trooper. His testimony:

First side: Deaf for 20 years
Second side: But I can still hear God.

Awesome. Makes me cry.

Children's Choir. They looked good, and sounded great! They knew their songs really well, especially the slightly bewildering Christmas Angels, and belted it out with the best of them.

The Choir. We bought performance outfits for the first time (Thanks, Christy, for finding the bargain!), and they looked great. They sounded even better. Memorized they harmonically challenging jazz harmony, and just did an outstanding job.

Frankie and the cookie team. Mrs. Frankie has been making these sugar cookies for years, and she and Sherrie and their team made hundreds of these cookies. (Of course we had to serve one to everybody, just like on Oprah!!). And Frankie was a natural onstage, fussing and kidding with Mark and Kim. Lots of fun.

Kim, our female host, hasn’t done a lot of acting or theatre, but she did a very poised and relaxed job as a host.

Mark, who is a veteran actor, also hosted well, but was even more valuable as a writer for these silly commercials.

Here are the commercials:

Presslar’s Christmas Tree Farm

Peter’s Toupees and Implants (spoofing our pastor, Jonathan Peters, who is follicularly challenged)

The “Bapper”

Mark Warnock Institute for Intelligence

Tech crew, who did a great job handling a very busy script.

Our church, who invited their friends, and filled up both performances. We had a lot of guests who had a good time and were exposed to the genuine stories of lives changed by the power of Christ. One person helping us with the production saw the cardboard testimonies and said, “Those can’t be real. They made those up.” No, we didn’t. Every last one of them is true. Many of those stories I’ve been here and watched unfold as a pastor.

That’s the beauty: the gospel is real, and Jesus does change lives. Awesome.

Finally, kudos to our Lord Jesus, who came to rescue us from our sins, and will come again!

Worship Text-fessional 12.7.08

2008-12-10T11:10:00.004-06:00

Haven't seen one of these lately, have you? I'm putting this up b/c I notice that many churches this seasons aren't really singing a lot of Christmas music. I've even read comments from some worship leaders who *dislike* Christmas music. Wow. Sorry, Ebenezer.

Anyway. My Pastor is preaching a series on missions called "A Church to Change the World", and it's really fantastic. You should check it out. This week the focus was on going to the ends of the earth.

Early Service:
Hark the Herald Angels Sing (arrangement that Brett and I wrote, with an extra chorus)
O Come O Come Emmanuel
Be the Center
To the Ends of the Earth (Hillsong)
Solo: Away in a Manger

Late Service:
Shout to the North
Hark the Herald Angels Sing
Offering (Baloche)
To the Ends of the Earth
Solo: Away in a Manger

(This post is part of Sunday Setlists.)

My Favorite Christmas Movie

2008-11-26T10:14:00.002-06:00

There are lots of movies, new and classic, associated with Christmas. I know a lot of families who have traditions of watching "It's a Wonderful Life" (or some other movie) together every year.

My favorite Christmas movie is a bit off beat, as you might imagine. It's Millions (2005), a well-conceived story about a spiritual and imaginative boy who finds a large stash of money. He wants to give it to the poor, which turns out to be hard. His older brother is worldly wise and more materialistic. Great commentary on money, consumerism, and what's really important.

I really like this film. I spent several months raving about it to friends, who mostly rolled their eyes at me and refused to see it.

Sigh. I live among Philistines.

Anyway. What's YOUR favorite Christmas movie?

A Little Perspective

2008-11-21T09:08:00.002-06:00

Hilarious clip, reminding us how stupid our impatience is. Life is good!

HT: Bobby

Sounds like a good idea to me

2008-11-15T08:03:00.003-06:00

Especially this year, we need to re-think Christmas. Check it out.

(RSS readers: embedded video)

I read somewhere that there are three forces trying to take over the world:
Islam, Christianity, and Western consumerism. Hmmm.

Clash of the Nerds

2008-11-06T15:08:00.003-06:00

I can't decide if loving this makes me more a music nerd or a Star Wars nerd.

You decide.

(RSS readers: embedded video)

I have a new president

2008-11-05T08:29:00.003-06:00

Last night I watched the election returns, knowing in my gut that McCain, who I voted for, was not likely to win. Sure enough, Obama won handily.

Here are some factors that led to victory for Senator Obama, which I think have gone under-acknowledged:

Weather. In many critical states, the outcome hinged purely on turnout, which broke records all across the country. Yesterday most of the nation enjoyed beautiful, unseasonably mild weather—the kind where you could wait in a line outside for hours without being cold and miserable. If yesterday had been rainy and cold, the outcome would have been different.
Republican Demoralization. The truth is many Republicans are as dejected about President Bush as Democrats are disgusted with him. I voted twice for President Bush, but think that especially in his second term, his leadership has seriously faltered. Sure enough, Republican voter turnout was significantly down. As a Republican, I voted yesterday out of duty, not out of excitement.
Money. The Obama campaign out-spent McCain an incredible 3 to 1. Had Obama stuck to his promise to take public funding, the playing field would have been leveled, and the outcome may well have been different. McCain, a leading advocate of campaign finance reform, stuck to his principles, and it likely cost him the election.

The amount of support Senator McCain was able to garner was remarkable given the factors against him:

Economy. Economic cycles are no respecters of parties or election timing. According to long term forecasts, one of which I read all the way back in 1992, we are overdue for a major, 20 year-long period of economic and social turbulence. Had the economic slump been delayed a year, the outcome might have been different.
The 80% factor. According to polling data cited on the news last night, 80% of Americans think our country is headed in the wrong direction. For the candidate from the party in power to still garner 47% of the popular vote under those conditions is remarkable.

McCain did remarkably well given the strong headwinds he was facing. The selection of Governor Palin as running mate was brilliant, and gave incredible energy to a campaign that otherwise might have slumped months ago.

The tone of this campaign, and of these two men in particular, is greatly encouraging to me. Yes, in the last days, it was hard-fought, but did not become bitter. And last night’s speeches also reflected a nobility that has been long absent from American politics. McCain has always been a man of honor, and showed it with great dignity in his gracious concession last night. “Country First” is not a slogan for him; it’s his life. He showed us how to lose.

But President-elect Obama showed us how to win. There was no gloating in his acceptance, none of the gabby, Clinton-esque in-your-face meanness. Instead, there was humility in the face of history, sobriety about looming challenges, and an inviting, inspiring call to us to unite for the common good. And underneath, a genuine, unforced hopefulness about our future, even in the midst of great challenges. He seems to understand that despite winning handily, 47% of Americans were hoping for another outcome.

I think it’s one of the best political speeches I’ve ever heard. I found myself really hoping he means it.

This election feels very different to me. I don’t mind admitting that I held President Clinton in contempt. I thought he was a boor, a lout, a churl; a slick, lying conniver who would do anything to achieve or cling to power. And I was right about him. The Democratic party’s rejection of Hillary Clinton as their candidate is hopefully a turn away from this ugly brand of raw power and deception politics.

But even though I have great, fundamental differences with Obama on lots of issues, I find I really want him to succeed. He is the first of a new breed of politician: the first African-American, but who does not seem to wear his race as an identity or badge. The first post-Boomer president, who will hopefully reflect our generation’s best qualities: openness, adaptability, and resilience in the face of challenge. Most encouraging to me, he seems to embody a dignity and seriousness we’ve been missing for a long time. I doubt he’ll be jogging over to McDonald’s for super-size fries.

I have two concerns nagging me on the morning after:

First: Can he do it? Given Obama’s inexperience, it will fall to his natural gifts of leadership to guide our country well. Will he seek wise advisers, or assemble a group of yes-men like President Bush did?

Second: When will the “promise of America” extend to the most helpless among us, the unborn? Obama is the most pro-abortion candidate ever. He even refused to support the Born Alive act: he actually thinks that infants lucky enough to survive our attempts to kill them should not have the protection of the law, the simple right to live. Abortion on demand has been the law and practice of our land since I was three years old, and now, at 38, I still can’t believe that we do it.

Obama’s election drastically diminishes the possibility that Roe v. Wade, possibly the worst judicial decision ever made, will ever be repealed. Since that awful day, well nigh 50 million children in this country have been killed by their mothers in utero, before they ever saw light or took breath. It is the worst injustice the world has ever seen. Hitler’s camps and Stalin’s gulag on their tiptoes cannot rival it. The purges in China and Cambodia pale against it. That in this country, the most prosperous in the world, we cling so hard to that prosperity, that we’ll kill our children rather than endure economic hardship, is the moral black eye and deepest embarrassment of our country.

What, after all, would it take to care for these children? Surely with the trillions of dollars we spend on wars and social programs and research, our country could find the love and the means to care for these children, rather than consigning them to the trash. Why is this simple measure of compassion too hard for us?

Under President Obama, however, it appears there will be no relief. In my observation, his party has been more resolutely committed to preserving the right of slaughter than to any other objective, and given his record, I can only see that resolve crystallizing to diamond hardness under his leadership. May God have mercy on us.

But it’s a new day in America, and I have a new president. This time around, whatever our differences, I’ll give him my respect, my best wishes and support, and my earnest prayers for his wisdom in turbulent times.

God bless you, President-elect Obama. I’ll be praying for you.

Martin Luther at our church!

2008-11-01T09:56:00.002-05:00

Showed up at church to observe "Trunk or Treat" with my new camera, just purchased to replace the one that fell out of my pocket in a cab in China.

I was surprised to see that the Wittenburg church moved to our parking lot, and dear old Martin himself was there.

I got to shake his hand!

Hard Questions, finally working!

2008-10-31T16:01:00.004-05:00

I think I've finally worked out the Hard Questions audio for everyone. Sorry this has taken so long.

To refresh you, this is a panel discussion I participated in at SIU Carbondale with my pastor and two others. The audience posed hard questions about the Christian faith to us and we tackled them as best we could.

The panelists:
Phil Nelson, pastor of Lakeland Baptist, Carbondale
Travis Peterson, pastor of 1st Southern Baptist, Olney
Jonathan Peters, pastor of First Baptist, Columbia
Me

Streaming and downloadable audio follows:

Part One:

Index to part one:

0:03:09- How did you become a Christian? What was your college experience like?

0:17:14- What makes you qualified to answer questions about God? Why should we care what you think?

0:20:00- How can we be sure that the Bible is the word of God?

0:28:45- How can we be sure that the Bible contains the right books?

0:36:55- If God is all powerful and all good, why does He allow suffering to exist?

0:49:13- Would it be hypocritical for a Christian to support a female candidate for elected office if they wouldn’t also support a woman as pastor of their church? What does the Bible say about feminism?

1:03:55- What does the Bible say about homosexuality? How should Christians think about the legalization of homosexual marriage in areas of our country?

Part two:

Index to part two:

0:02:47- Why do Christians follow some, but not all of the rules of the old Testament?

0:09:15- What should Christians believe about the Creation/Evolution debate?

0:17:40- How does God judge those who have never heard about Jesus? Can they be saved?

Questions from the Audience-
0:22:57- If the first chapter of Genesis is allegorical, how do we know when it becomes historical?

0:24:08- Do you believe that the Bible teaches that the role of a woman is to be a homemaker?

0:25:20- What should a father's priority be?

0:26:09- What kind of resistance should Christians have to homosexuality in our culture?

0:30:12- Since humans are cursed and fallen, how can we trust our interpretation of the Bible?

0:32:05- How should Christians think about the death penalty?

2008 Presidential Election Endorsements

2008-10-28T17:11:00.004-05:00

Before we're subject to 30 minutes of the socialist Messiah on the networks tonight, this reminder:

Hamas has had an on-again, off-again preference for Obama, first endorsing the candidate in April when Hamas political adviser Ahmed Yousef said the Mideast terrorist group supports Obama's foreign policy positions.

"We don't mind -- actually we like Mr. Obama. We hope he will [win] the election and I do believe he is like John Kennedy, great man with great principle, and he has a vision to change America to make it in a position to lead the world community but not with domination and arrogance," Yousef told conservative radio host John Batchelor and WorldNetDaily reporter Aaron Klein.

Obama adviser David Axelrod told the American Spectator the comparison to Kennedy was flattering, but that admiration of the former president was where the similarities between Obama and Hamas end.

Hamas yanked its support in June when Obama made a pro-Israel speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Reuters reported. But last week Yousef told Batchelor and Klein that Hamas would send Obama a congratulatory letter "the moment that he will win the election."

Obama has also gotten a nod of approval from Iran.

The country's parliament speaker said on Oct. 22 that Iran would prefer an Obama presidency. "We are leaning more in favor of Barack Obama because he is more flexible and rational, even though we know American policy will not change that much," Ali Larijani told Agence France-Presse.

Chosun Shinbo, a newspaper based in Japan that is a mouthpiece for the North Korean government, wrote in an editorial in June: "We will see a better relationship between the U.S. and the Korean Peninsula with Obama, who sternly criticizes Bush and who would meet the leader of Chosun without pre-conditions, than with the 'Bush clone' and scarecrow of the neocons McCain."

In February, Investors Business Daily reported that while not endorsing Obama, Colombian guerilla terrorist organization FARC's chieftain Raul Reyes has said he wants to see him in the White House. He told supporters that he met "two gringos" who said "the new president of their country will be Obama and that they are interested in your compatriots. Obama will not support "Plan Colombia" nor will he sign the TLC (Free Trade Agreement)." Plan Colombia is the U.S. program funding the war on drugs and giving military support to the Colombian government.

Obama has even garnered the praises of Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam. "You are the instruments that God is going to use to bring about universal change, and that is why Barack has captured the youth. And he has involved young people in a political process that they didn't care anything about. That's a sign. When the Messiah speaks, the youth will hear, and the Messiah is absolutely speaking," Farrakhan said.

Fidel Castro has also jumped on the Obama bandwagon, saying Obama "without doubt is, from the social and human point, the most advanced candidate" running for the U.S. presidency, Reuters reported in May.

From a report by Jennifer Lawinski, FOXNews.com

One Zany Birthday Party

2008-10-28T16:52:00.005-05:00

Here are some pictures from my surprise birthday party. (I'm 38. Still climbing.)

The surprise was not that I was HAVING a birthday party; the surprise was when. I was planning for a Saturday night birthday party. Mark and Michelle then stated they wanted to "take me out to dinner" for my birthday on Friday since "Saturday was already spoken for." Seemed a nice gesture, and since I'm not the suspicious type, I dutifully arrived around 7:20.

Mark promptly escorted me downstairs, where he said his three children wanted to surprise me. Since I'm such a great lover of children, I eagerly complied. My suspicions should have been precipitously aroused when I saw that the downstairs family area was immaculately clean.

So I popped into the playroom, and surprise, there they all were. The food was great, and the company superb. I'm so blessed to have all these people in my life. Lisa likes to take a lot of zany pictures, esp with people acting crazy. Here's a sample from her more extensive collection on facebook.

Hard Questions, trying again

2008-10-25T10:15:00.002-05:00

Several of you have tried unsuccessfully to download the Hard Questions audio. Our sermon content provider is migrating to new servers, and we've had tons of trouble.

So, to work around them, try right clicking below, and do "Save target as...", or "Save Link as...".

Part One

Part Two

Girl from China Comes Home

2008-10-23T11:28:00.003-05:00

My friends Mark and Shannon are bringing home their daughter from China tonight. Check out their journey. I love the recent video, especially when Mark says "You're slobbering on my head!"

Brilliant

2008-10-22T19:05:00.000-05:00

Finally. Something fair and incisive.

Blog Action Day

2008-10-15T09:18:00.005-05:00

Today is Blog Action Day, and the focus this year is on poverty.

My own personal action plan on poverty is child & family sponsorship. For many years, I've sponsored a child in Zambia and a family in Romania through World Vision. It's a very personal way of connecting to the needs of the world and of making a difference in a very definite way.

I want to urge every reader to sponsor at least one child through World Vision or Compassion International. Both are great organizations, which focus on holistic community and economic development. These are not handout agencies. They are great stewards of the funds you donate.

I believe people in prosperous nations like ours have a moral obligation to care for the poor of the world. What's YOUR personal action plan for poverty?

"The righteous care about justice for the poor, but the wicked have no such concern."
Proverbs 29:7

I've Been Nominated for Sainthood

2008-10-06T10:33:00.004-05:00

So for many months I’ve been wanting to do bluegrass Sunday at my church. I had a guy who was allegedly learning banjo, and I was waiting for him to get his act together. Which he never did. Then he moved to Texas. (Thanks for that.)

That of course merely hardened my resolve. I said to myself, “We’re doing this,” and I put it on the calendar for this past Sunday.

To skirt the learning curve, I bought a 6-string Rogue banjo that plays like a guitar. A cheap shortcut, I know, but I’m not a purist, and I hardly care. It was enough for our purposes. I also pulled out a resonator guitar I’d been given a couple of years ago, which had mostly collected dust in my basement.

So we had acoustic guitar, resonator guitar, mandolin, banjo, bass and drums. Piano isn't much of a bluegrass instrument, but I played on some of the songs anyway. Choir was in the loft, too, and brought their characteristic energy and enthusiasm to the morning.

Set list:

I Saw the Light
When the Roll is Called Up Yonder
When We All Get to Heaven
I’ll Fly Away
Amazing Grace

One concern I had was that the novelty of the genre would prevent people from engaging in heart worship. I didn't want people to just stamp their foot and shuck the corn--I wanted them to worship God. So I did a short talk on how the joyfulness of bluegrass reflects people's deep beliefs in the promises of God and the hope of heaven. I think the setup helped.

Well, sweet Moses, they went for it. Holy smoke. Early service lit up (for them) like fireworks on the 4th of July. Late service, even better.

If one person said to me, “We ought to do that more often,” then 50 did. It was crazy. I’ve never had such a strong positive response to anything I’ve done. One guy—no fan of contemporary music, he—told me that it was the best music we’ve had since I arrived, almost six years ago. (I ignored the latent criticism in that remark.) Others without axes to grind were simply effusive. My pastor says that he thinks I’ve been nominated for sainthood.

So now my question for other worship leaders: how do I respond to this? I’ve obviously hit a chord. This is obviously a place of need and joy for my people. Now what do I do? Leave everything they way I’ve had it, change FBC Columbia into the Grand Old Opry, or something in between?

Your responses would be most welcome.

Hard Questions

2008-10-04T09:32:00.004-05:00

A few weeks ago, I was one of four panelists at an event called "Hard Questions", held at SIU Carbondale. This was a forum where college students could ask hard questions about the Christian faith--anything they wanted to ask--and have the panelists responded as best we could.

The other three panelists were:
Phil Nelson, pastor of Lakeland Baptist Church in Carbondale
Travis Peterson, pastor of First Southern Baptist Church of Olney
Jonathan Peters, my pastor here at First Baptist Church of Columbia

This was a lot of fun. All of us on the panel are good friends, and enjoyed being together and facing the challenge very much. I narrowly avoided putting my foot in my mouth with my "women who want to be men...." remark. (It's toward the end of part one.)

If you'd like to listen to it, the audio is below. Thanks to Lakeland Baptist Church and Baptist Student Union at SIUC for organizing the event and providing the recording for us.

Part One:

Index to part one:

0:03:09- How did you become a Christian? What was your college experience like?

0:17:14- What makes you qualified to answer questions about God? Why should we care what you think?

0:20:00- How can we be sure that the Bible is the word of God?

0:28:45- How can we be sure that the Bible contains the right books?

0:36:55- If God is all powerful and all good, why does He allow suffering to exist?

0:49:13- Would it be hypocritical for a Christian to support a female candidate for elected office if they wouldn’t also support a woman as pastor of their church? What does the Bible say about feminism?

1:03:55- What does the Bible say about homosexuality? How should Christians think about the legalization of homosexual marriage in areas of our country?

Part two:

Index to part two:

0:02:47- Why do Christians follow some, but not all of the rules of the old Testament?

0:09:15- What should Christians believe about the Creation/Evolution debate?

0:17:40- How does God judge those who have never heard about Jesus? Can they be saved?

Questions from the Audience-
0:22:57- If the first chapter of Genesis is allegorical, how do we know when it becomes historical?

0:24:08- Do you believe that the Bible teaches that the role of a woman is to be a homemaker?

0:25:20- What should a father's priority be?

0:26:09- What kind of resistance should Christians have to homosexuality in our culture?

0:30:12- Since humans are cursed and fallen, how can we trust our interpretation of the Bible?

0:32:05- How should Christians think about the death penalty?

5k run pic

2008-09-23T11:05:00.002-05:00

This pic from Saturday's run has already provoked some encouraging sarcasm on facebook.

Running Again: 5k results

2008-09-20T18:37:00.002-05:00

I ran in the 5k for the local pregnancy center again this year. Always a fun time.

Usually by this time of year, though, I'm pretty sick of running, and ready to get back in the gym to do circuits or something less monotonous and painful.

My training partner, Rich, was unable to run with me. He'd been in Germany until the night before, and then got ambushed by the family schedule: two soccer games and a wife with a hair appointment. Sigh.

But I was pleasantly surprised to find my friend TJ was there to run, which was fun.

I ran a personal best of 24:10, which is about a 7:47 mile. (This is my third 5k.)

I was also surprised to be awarded 3rd place in my age division of 30-39... surprised because my friend TJ, who is 30, finished about 10 seconds in front of me, but was not in second place. I was really fourth. Must have been a data error.

I protested (mildly) but they gave me the "medal" anyway. TJ's mom works at the pregnancy center, so she solved it by giving her son an extra 3rd place medal, and pronouncing him the 3rd place winner of the "lower 30s" age bracket, and me the 3rd place winner of the "upper 30s" age bracket. Very diplomatic.

Sorry no pictures yet. My camera is somewhere in central China.

Worship Confessional 9.7.08 (after a long absence)

2008-09-06T14:54:00.001-05:00

For a while now I’ve been programming early and late service the same, but after several months I can’t escape the fact that the people and ethos of each service is different. It became apparent to me that treating them the same was denial of who they really are and how they worship and what kind of help they need doing so.

So beginning this Sunday, I am returning to my previous practice of programming for each service separately. I expect there will continue to be substantial overlap between the two, but for now, this is how we’ll do it.

8:00am
Open the Eyes of My Heart
What A Friend We Have in Jesus
In Christ Alone
I Am Thine O Lord
Jesus Draw Me Close

10:45am
Hosanna (Baloche) w. click track
Fire Fall Down
In Christ Alone
I Am Thine O Lord
Jesus Draw Me Close

Orange Blob = Misery

2008-09-02T11:48:00.002-05:00

A Bit of Online Fame

2008-08-29T12:56:00.004-05:00

I was honored to be featured as "Biblio-Blogger Of The Week" by Shaun Tabatt of Bible Geek Gone Wild.com.

Shaun has been a fan and supporter of Seminary Survival Guide.com for some time now. Pop over and check the interview and Shaun's blog.

By This Time You Ought to Be Teachers

2008-08-07T18:01:00.004-05:00

I preached a few Sundays ago on Hebrews 5:11ff. My subject was Growing to Maturity in Christ. To apply the Scripture, I asked those who have been following Christ for more than 14 years to stand up.

I stood them, looked in their eyes, and said, straight from the scriptures, "By this time, you ought to be teachers." I challenged them to demonstrate maturity in knowledge of God's word, in how they treat others, and by taking responsibility and stepping up to lead.

I also gave admonitions to those who have followed Christ for 7-14 years, and less than 7 years.

I've gotten a lot of good response. Always amazing to see how God uses the preaching of the Word. So for any of you who may be interested, here's the audio:

Alternate Instruments

2008-08-06T21:08:00.000-05:00

One of my philosophical positions as a worship pastor and worship planner is that I like variety. I despise tokenism in worship planning (e.g. 2.2 hymns per Sunday), but I like variety. I think some Sundays we should do lots of old things. Some Sundays we should do lots of new things. It should be different each week.

And of course, that’s much easier said than done (consistently).

I’ve had good intentions for a while to expand the variety idea to our instrumentation. Each week we run with a standard band: Bass, drums, acoustic, electric, piano, organ (usually just early service), keys and vocals. From time to time, we’ve changed things up, but not very often.

So I’ve wanted to change that. And, for my left-brained self, the best (and only) way to do that is to schedule it and plan for it. So I met last week with Matt, one of my worship leaders, and we scheduled Sundays from now through the end of the year where our instrumentation will be different.

Here are some of the alternate arrangements we’ll be using:

Normal band plus horns and/or aux percussion
All acoustic with scaled down set/djembe
Orchestra (I’m starting up Wind Orchestra again this Fall.)
Piano only
Bluegrass Band. This is the one I’ve been dying to do.

Do any of you worship types intentionally change up your instrumentation? How do you do that? What alternates do you use?

Complaining About Worship

2008-07-18T14:48:00.002-05:00

Worship leaders often struggle with meeting the needs and scratching the itches of very diverse sub-constituencies in the congregation. Usually there is someone who's unhappy with music.

Often, I think it's related to other heart and immaturity issues. I can't think of a single time that someone I regard as a deep and mature follower of Christ has ever really griped at me about music.

But if you have something to say about it--good or bad, there is a way to do it.

Billy Chia, an Alabama worship leader, gives great advice for people who want to tell their worship leader how good or bad he or she is doing.

Here's a brief quote:

Getting Your Worship Leader to Listen

If you really want your words to be heard here are five tips to get them to listen more:

1. Don’t Gossip. If you talk behind a person’s back you lose major credibility. People don’t listen to gossips, but if you keep your thoughts to yourself and share them appropriately then your reputation will make you more influential.

2. Go directly to your worship leader. Call them, email them, write a note or set up a time to meet. Most people will at least listen to you if you say, “Can I share something with you? It could be potentially hurtful and I don’t want you to feel you need to be defensive about it. I want you to know because I care about you being successful.” Who’s going to say, “no” to that? Most people will listen.

3. Start/build a relationship. Do things that are encouraging. If you make emotional and spiritual deposits now you’ll be more likely to have the social funds to make a withdrawal later.

Read the rest.

Children's Pastor Position

2008-07-17T14:10:00.003-05:00

My uncle is administrator for a big church in the North Atlanta burbs; they are looking for a children's minister. Know anyone who's interested?

Here's the ad:

Atlanta, Georgia
Minister of Children:

First Baptist Church partners with families to teach Bible stories and apply Biblical principles at home, at church and in the community to lead children to make wise choices concerning God, salvation, others and self.

We are a 2,000 member, growing, thriving; purpose driven church located 28 miles north of Atlanta, Georgia and are looking for a creative, strong leader to take an already strong ministry of 250+ birth - 5th grade children to the next level. The church has an average worship attendance of 1,100 and has a large and growing population of young families.

We are seeking someone who is hands-on and can administer all facets of preschool and children’s ministry. This is a full-time position with benefits reporting to the Senior Pastor and supervising a paid Preschool Director and a Sunday morning Elementary Director. Strong administrative skills and experience working with children’s programs in a Bible-based church setting is needed. The ability to assist in the design of our new children’s facility will be a plus.

This leader will be a visionary able to recruit and train volunteers to affect and change the lives of the children and to reach their families and friends. The next level will include creative, dynamic children’s worship and improved methods of discipleship, missions training and added means of reaching and involving families and friends.

This is a life opportunity to do something significant and to impact the lives of children and families for generations to come. God is calling someone to this exciting opportunity…. Is it you?

Contact person:

Tom Hayslip
Church Business Administrator
First Baptist Cumming
Cumming, GA 30040
770-887-2428

Please email resume to:
tomhayslip@firstbaptistcumming.org

Back from Vacation

2008-07-17T13:48:00.004-05:00

Had a very restful vacation in the mountains with my parents and nieces. We laughed a lot and ate a lot. I gained 5 pounds. :-(

Highlight of the trip: The Virginia Creeper Trail. It's a old railway bed that's been converted to a bike trail. You pay an outfitter $25, and they give you a bike and haul you up the mountain. Then you coast gently down at a 1% or 2% grade... for 17 miles, through beautiful forest and across quaint wooden bridges that cross burbling creeks. Beautiful!

Glad to be back, trying to dig out.

New Header

2008-06-28T09:47:00.002-05:00

Quick note for RSS readers: I put up a new header at The Warning Knock. So far everyone I show it to laughs. At me.

What makes a service "contemporary"?

2008-06-28T09:41:00.002-05:00

When Chris from Canada came and led a worship team retreat for us, he also led worship for my church that day, both for early and late services. Did a fantastic job, too.

Later, he commented on his blog that we had two services, a traditional one and a contemporary one. He said he didn’t understand the split, because it was evident to him that our church was hungry for a contemporary expression of worship.

As the worship pastor here, I found that curious. My personal philosophy has been that both of our services are blended. I actually don’t like the “traditional” or “contemporary” labels. I think they’re poor labels that don’t say nearly enough. And in all honesty “blended” is kind of lame, too.

In programming: a church that abandons hymns is arrogant: the church did not start when you got saved. We’ve been around for thousands of years, and our singing should dip into the testimony of the great cloud of witnesses.

In instrumentation and presentation: a person entering the church should not feel like they've gone back in time. At the same time, our musical expressions must convey both the joy and reverence that are appropriate to the worship of God.

When Chris was here, I think we had different instrumentation in early and late, and had different music programmed (just one song was different that Sunday), but the services in my mind were not that different. But I also figured that my perspective may not be very accurate, so I made a mental note.

A couple of months after that, I heard one of my musicians stand up in a meeting, and asked to comment on what she liked about our church, she gave a little speech like a commercial for our church. She said: “we have two services: one contemporary and one traditional.” Hmm. There it was, again. Maybe I really AM missing something!

Part of the picture is that in the months before I came here (now almost 6 years ago!) the two services were led by different leaders and programmed very differently. Early service was keyboard driven with a blend of hymns and contemporary songs. Late service was driven by a band of 17 year olds and a rockin’ woman--they sang almost nothing written before 1990.

Since our church is early in the relocation process, I’ve begun thinking ahead to when our congregation will be all together in a single service, and I have decided to prepare us for that by bringing the two services more into alignment.

So over the past several months, I’ve changed our programming and instrumentation to be virtually identical in both services.

I raised this issue with my pastor a few weeks back, and he said that (again, contra me), that the two services are very different, but it is the congregation that makes them different, not the programming. Our early service crowd is a little older and less expressive, and the room is not full. Our late service crowd is younger and more expressive—though even in late we’re not much of a hand-raising bunch. The late service is also crowded.

So what is it that makes a service “contemporary”?
Programming? Instrumentation? The energy and expectations of the congregation?

And should I even care?

Bible or Blogs?

2008-06-28T09:35:00.001-05:00

What shapes your thinking more: the word of God or the blogs you read?
What would you miss more if you were without it? Your Bible or your RSS Reader?

On Thursday night at Super Summer, Phil Nelson, pastor of Lakeland Baptist in Carbondale, spoke on the sufficiency of Scripture. His lifting up of the value of the Scriptures, was at one a tonic, a rebuke, an encouragement, and a display of wonder. We—I—have lost sight of this amidst the busy-ness and noise of increasingly technological and info-crowded life.

Leaving my worship comfort zone

2008-06-28T09:32:00.001-05:00

I normally lead worship from piano. It’s very comfortable for me, because I lead by the way I play. My musicians know my playing well enough that I don’t have to tell them when we’re going to repeat a chorus or get softer or louder—-it’s evident from my playing.

Plus, I’m a control freak and perfectionist, so being at the piano is a comfortable place to be.

However, playing and singing at the same time requires a division of your attention. Not that I have to concentrate excessively—-playing and singing together come very naturally because I’ve been doing it for so long.

A few weeks ago, in an attempt to get out of another of my comfort zones, I asked Emily to play piano for me, and I stood out front with only a microphone. She’s very capable—just finished high school, and unafraid to play confidently.

Part of me was dreading it. The piano is my security blanket. Standing out front with only a microphone—-well, I thought it would feel like leading worship without pants on or something.

Well, as it turns out, it was nothing like that at all. We had to rehearse a bit longer, because I play lots of transitions without thinking about them, and had to teach Emily where and how to do those.

But it went well. I was very comfortable. I leaned on Emily and on my drummer (Joe that day) and they did great. It was an exercise in trust for me, but good for me to let go and let my volunteers carry the band musically.

Additionally, I found that since I only had to concentrate on singing, I sang better, I could worship more freely because I had more mental resources I could devote to Jesus, and I could shepherd the service better, for the same reason.

I loved it. So the next week I wanted to do it again, and we rehearsed it accordingly, but Emily got sick and I wound up playing on Sunday anyhow.

It was a good lesson for me to let go and trust my people.

Other worship leaders, especially you guitar guys: do you ever hand your guitar to someone else and just lead with a microphone? Do you trust others to do it? How have you found it?

Click Tracks!

2008-06-28T09:27:00.003-05:00

So I’m not exactly on the bleeding edge of emerging worship technology. Doesn’t bother me one bit. I’m not an early adopter. I’m happy for other people to waste their time and money chasing the latest tech trends (like the iPhone—give me a break!, or Twitter, which I’m pretty convinced is evil. No offense.). I like to pick up new technology later, once the bugs are out and the price comes down.

Innovation is fine, so long as it has a clear purpose, and can be executed well. In short, just because you CAN do something doesn’t mean that you SHOULD. Anyway.

I am excited to report, however, that after having made a successful and welcome transition to in-ear monitors, we’ve begun using click tracks.

Our first foray into playing with click was occasionally using a Korg Metronome, which we simply plugged into our monitor sends. The beeping sound was annoying, but it did the job of showing us (me) how warped our (my) sense of rhythm really is, and holding us together well on songs where we were shaky.

A metronome, like the word of God, is a plumb line (Amos 7)—an objective standard you can compare yourself to, and see how far off you really are.

Encouraged by my own desires to expand our musicianship, the example of fellow bloggers, and the cheap price of click tracks on praisecharts.com, I bought a few real click tracks for us to try.

The first one was Revelation Song, which the choir sang a few weeks ago as their last anthem before summer hiatus. Wow did it help! I led the choir and sang harmony on the verses, with the click in one ear. Fantastic!

When the entire band is “leaning” on the click, rather than on the drummer or other instrument as a tempo referent, it seems to me to be incredibly freeing to the musicians. Joe was our drummer that morning. Joe is really talented and is very capable of playing much more intricately than worship services usually demand. There is a straightforwardness to drumming for worship, and I think Joe often feels constrained by the band’s need for him to play simpler in order to keep things together.

Well, pah on that. Having the click drive Revelation Song apparently freed Joe up a great deal. The increase in creativity and variety in his playing that morning was remarkable, and the band was just as tight as we ever were.

A couple of weeks later, I tried a click track with another drummer, Jason. We did the Paul Baloche Hosanna. We took to it like a duck to water.

So far our only issue is that we’re not quite getting enough gain out of the non-click channel for the house. I’m working on a solution for that, however.

Joe was at Super Summer with me this week, and when I was recruiting him to help me avenge a student who was giving me some trouble, his stated price for helping was “click tracks three weeks in a row.”

No problem, Joe.

A rash of posts after a long absence

2008-06-28T09:21:00.003-05:00

Where on earth have I been? Sorry about my failure to post updates, I’ve been living in the real world!

Quick summary of my past and coming travel:

Last week: Super Summer in Greenville, Illinois.

Next two weeks: Vacation to Roan Mountain, Tennessee, with my Mom’s extended family. My pastor encouraged me to take two weeks of vacation in a row, so I could really unplug and refresh.

My plans:

Sleep a lot
Read a lot. I’m taking Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, and Milton's Complete Poems. Might try to finish Paradise Lost while I’m up there. Also planning to spend a lot of time soaking in the Bible.
Hang out with the family.
Hike.
Disconnect. No cell phone coverage, and no Internet on the mountain. Aaaah!

I’m going to post a massive rash of things I’ve been storing up, and then you won’t hear from me for a while.

Grieving Our Old Self

2008-06-03T15:52:00.003-05:00

In my sermon on May 25th, I mentioned an idea in passing that I want to develop a bit more here. (Sorry we didn't record it!) Interested in your thoughts about it. (Especially Phil, now that I know you're reading faithfully each weekend!)

The sermon was on Jesus command in Luke 9:23. “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life must lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.” Here’s what I said (more or less):

“Making the choice to no longer live for yourself is death, or more accurately, dying. It is a process, often painful, of ridding yourself at once of your most mortal enemy and your most cherished friend. Often, you do it with mixed feelings. It’s like putting down the family dog—it may be the best thing to do, but it’s really hard to let go.”

Since losing our selves is a real death, a real loss, then maybe it has to be grieved like a real loss.

One of my friends didn’t like this idea because it implied we should regret the exchange of our old self for life in Christ. I agreed with him: exchanging our old self for all that we get in Christ is wonderful, not sorrowful. Certainly I have no regrets about it.

What I DO have are adjustments to make. I have to adjust to living without meeting all the desires of that old self. If we understand grief not as sadness and missing what you’ve lost, but as the process of adjusting to a new reality, it makes more sense. The hardest part of the adjustment, I think, is working out all the details of what Christ’s lordship means in our lives.

One of my counselor friends helped me develop this idea a bit. He suggested that the five classic phases of grief, articulated by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, seemed to fit.

Denial: “God doesn’t really expect me to give up all this stuff. I’m fine.”

Anger: “This is not fair. Everyone else is doing X, and no one cares. Why can’t I?”

Bargaining: “Maybe instead of tithing I can teach Sunday school.”

Depression: “This is too hard. I’ll never be a good Christian.”

Acceptance: “Well, ok. I’m not comfortable with it, but since that guy needs to know about Jesus, I’ll just go talk to him.”

Don’t these sound familiar? They are the sound of a dying self. The stages in grief don’t go in any particular order, not all people have all of them, and many times we flip from one to the other with no predictable pattern.

The call for us is to work through the loss of our old self, pressing through to acceptance. We may have periods of time where we’re angry or bargaining or depressed—it helps me to know that it is part of the daily process of denying ourselves, taking up our cross, and following Jesus.

A Lighter Note

2008-06-01T16:47:00.002-05:00

I just discovered the YouTube phenomenon of 5-second movies summaries. I spent Friday evening laughing through these with some friends. There are dozens of them.

Here are my two favorite so far:

A Serious Note

2008-06-01T16:44:00.001-05:00

Had to put up this blog post by Al Mohler on the value of attention and its precipitous decline in our media-saturated, ADD culture.

Here's a portion:

As Courtney Miller reports, Josh Waitzken wrote a letter to the students he observed when visiting Professor Dalton's class. This section of his letter should be seen and savored:

I understand that your minds move quickly and we are all impacted by a fast paced culture, but do you realize the horror of shopping online while Dalton describes…mothers throwing their children into a well to avoid a barrage of bullets? What are you doing? There comes a day when we must become accountable for our own learning process…Take it on. This is your life. What is the point of neurotically skipping along the surface when all the beauty lies below? Please seize the moment and listen deeply to Dalton's final lectures. Close the computers. Stop typing madly and soak in the themes he develops…Learning is an act of creativity, not mind-numbing, tv watching passive receptivity.

This is good advice for us all, regardless of age. We are al living distracted lives that promise only to grow more complicated and distracted in years ahead. The discipline and stewardship of our attention is a matter of great and unquestionable urgency.

Join the revolution and refuse the seductions of the mind-numbing allure of all things digital -- at least long enough to think a great thought, hear a great lecture, enjoy a quality conversation (with a real, live face-to-face human being), listen to a great sermon, visit a museum, read a good book, or take in a beautiful sunset.

People who cannot maintain mental attention cannot know the intimacy of prayer, and God does not maintain a Facebook page. Our ability to focus attention is not just about the mind, for it is also a reflection of the soul. Our Christian discipleship demands that we give attention to our attention.

The full post here.

Key West

2008-05-21T09:38:00.004-05:00

Here are a few pics from my trip to the Keys with my parents.

Our campsite:

Seven Mile Bridge on the way down:

At Dry Tortugas National Park

Taking a Break

2008-05-07T10:29:00.003-05:00

I've not been blogging a bunch lately, as you've probably noticed, if you're a regular. My apologies. After my big trip to the East, I had lots of catching up to do in real life. (Remember that, all you blog addicts? Real life?)

And I'm off to Florida soon to hang with my parents in the Keys. I plan to snorkel a lot, get sunburned and read and rest. So you won't be hearing much from me for a while.

My suggestion: turn off your computer and get outside! Take a walk, ride your bike, work in the yard, breathe the fresh, warm air.

BTW, I decided not to post a complete report of my trip out East for security reasons. If you're dying to know how it went, send me an email. (FBC folks will see a complete report in the newsletter; trip supporters will get a report mailed to them.)

Until I get back, check out some of my favorite blogs instead:
Zen Habits
Chris from Canada
Tim Ferriss
Tim Brister

Back

2008-04-30T19:13:00.002-05:00

Just back from a great trip to China. I'm very jet lagged, trying to adjust. I'm working on a summary of the trip, which I'll post when I'm coherent enough to finish it.

Me & my metronome

2008-04-11T12:52:00.002-05:00

Our worship band is moving in the direction of playing with click, but for now we're still very much in the dabbling phase. I have a metronome which we plug into our in-ear monitors and use that (for now) to generate a click for us to play to, mostly for rehearsal.

Anyway. Here's my question for my worship leader friends. I find, consistently, that when I take the metronome markings from published music, I almost always find them slow and draggy.

For instance: last night at band practice, we did the Baloche-Brown Hosanna (Praise is Rising), which is our opener for Sunday. The choir arrangement I had used before Easter was marked q=114. We tried that, and found it slightly draggy. One of my worship together songbooks puts the marking at 102(!!!). We settled in at 118.

So is it just me? Am I Speed Racer or something? Help me out.

You've missed me...

2008-04-11T12:44:00.005-05:00

...haven't you? Sorry I've been away from posting of late. Too much going on right now.

Meanwhile, courtesy of Chris, check out Joe's Story. Amazing.

We found Jill!

2008-03-27T10:23:00.002-05:00

Chris found this YouTube video of Jill Paquette, who gave us one of the sweetest moments at re:Create this year.

She sounds way more amazing in person.

She needs to get something recorded and on iTunes, pronto.

More Easter pics

2008-03-26T10:18:00.004-05:00

Here's me in action. It's not vanity; these are for Mom. :)

Easter pics

2008-03-25T18:04:00.003-05:00

Easter panorama

2008-03-25T18:03:00.001-05:00

100_0198, originally uploaded by fbccolumbia1.

Here's panoramic shot that shows most of the gym and layout, etc. More coming soon.

Easter!

2008-03-25T10:54:00.002-05:00

I’d say that our Easter service was the best we’ve done in my five years here.

Since we can’t fit everyone in our church on Easter Sunday, we always go off-site for Easter Sunday, to Columbia Middle School. The main service is in the gym, Children’s Church is in the Cafetorium, and preschoolers go in rooms down the hall.

This year we added a sunrise service at our new property at 7:00am, in addition to the main service at the middle school at 10:00am

As with Christmas Sunday last year, I wanted to go for a grand and slightly formal feel to the service. We achieved that with the Wind Orchestra, which I organized and rehearsed just for Easter Sunday. I had

7 trumpets
4 flutes
4 clarinets
1 French horn
1 Alto sax
1 Bass clarinet
2 Baritones
1 Trombone
2 Percussionists
Piano
Strings
Bass

Twenty-six players. With only four rehearsals, and a mix of skill levels, they sounded just great. Really resonated in the gym. I would have loved to have had more lower brass, but this is not bad from a church of 500 people or so. One of my trumpets was a member of another church, but his grandmother is one of ours, which is how he got involved.

Highlights:

Snow. It snowed on Easter Sunday. Came down pretty fiercely during the sunrise service, I heard.
Attendance: 45 at Sunrise Service, plus 755 at the main service, makes an even 800.
Sermon: My pastor preached from 1 Peter 1:3-5 (just like Earl!), what I thought was a very clear presentation of the gospel.
Time: We wanted the service not to drag out, both for our guests and our childcare workers who were caring for nearly 100 children. I planned the service for 70 minutes, and we came in at 73. Not a bad margin of error.
Responses: Musically, we ran the gamut stylistically; and I think the overall response was great. People visibly engaged during Mighty to Save at the end.

Here’s the set:
“It’s Jesus” - Children’s Choir (w piano, bass, drums)
Welcome/Announcements
“Easter Celebration” – FBC Wind Orchestra (Awesome, exciting, energetic piece.)
Christ the Lord is Risen Today - Congregation and Wind Orchestra
In Christ Alone – Congregation and Wind Orchestra
My First Step – Todd Bennett (His testimony of how he came to Christ – did a great job)
Offering: "His Life for Mine" – FBC Choir and Wind Orchestra
Message
Response: I’m Waiting for You – Worship Band
Mighty to Save – Worship Band

Pictures will follow when I get them.

I could take 17 five year olds in a fight.

2008-03-25T09:33:00.001-05:00

You all know my deep love and passion for children...

17

Worship Text-fessional 03.16.08

2008-03-17T16:27:00.004-05:00

We’re in a series on personal revival, called Downpour (loosely modeled on MacDonald’s book of the same name.)

My pastor preached on holiness today, probably tied for the strongest message I’ve ever heard him preach.

Listen here.

Little known fact: Jonathan preaches about 10-25% better in early service. All you people fighting for chairs in late service should think about switching.

High points:

This was our second week coming forward to receive communion at stations. It’s been a deviation from the norm for us. Although couple of members have let us know (not softly) that they don’t care for the new method, I think overall it’s been received well, and I think the requirement for the congregation to move from where they are to participate has underscored our message on the need for personal change.\
Karen sang Look at His Glorious Cross for offering. We used a cross loop; she stood off to the side and looked with us at the cross. Worked great, sounded great.
I brought out Worthy is the Lamb after a long hiatus, because I deemed the time right. We did an arrangement that included a meditative bridge in the middle, and ended big. In early service, we could have done without the bridge timing wise, but in late service the timing was absolutely perfect. Congregational engagement was strong.
Response time went well. Halfway through, I stepped in and led the congregation through some prayer for personal revival. I felt like God helped us in those moments. I’m trying to continue to fight for time for the congregation to really meet with God, and not just be an audience to our programming. They need to meet with God, not listen to us.

Which leads me to this:

Challenges:
Getting service timing right. We were long in both services today, 90 minutes in early, 95 minutes in late. Planned times were 70 and 75. Since we started using Planning Center, I’m trying to see how long things REALLY take. My early conclusion?

All the pastoral staff talk way too much.

I absolutely include myself in this. We were responsible this week for a roughly 15-20 minute inflation of the service time because we don’t shut our big yaps. We all need to repent.

Here's the set:
Hosanna (Brown) - FBC Choir
Welcome
Baptism (Late)
Tis So Sweet (early)/Your Name (late)
Message
Response: Fire Fall Down
Offering: Look at His Glorious Cross - Karen
Lord's Supper
There is a Fountain - Lydia, flute
Worthy is the Lamb

Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed

2008-03-11T07:20:00.003-05:00

In academia, anything that even hints at questioning Darwinian evolution is pounced upon with cultish fervor. I studied logic with one of the professors who wrote a favorable blurb on William Dembski's original dissertation, published as "The Design Inference." I mentioned the book in his office, and in an unguarded moment, he told me that I wouldn't believe the amount of crap he'd taken for writing that blurb. He said that he thought Dembski was asking really good questions.

But in academia, challenging Darwinian orthodoxy is forbidden. You can't even respect those who do.

Why? Evolution is the creation myth of materialists. They cling to it with the ferocity of a two-year old clinging to his blankie. Evolution is to atheism what the resurrection of Christ is to Christianity: the keystone of the system. Take it out, and the whole system collapses like a house of cards.

In this debate, tone tells all. Listen to the sound of their objections, and you can hear the truth.

"Expelled" is a new film highlighting the hostility of academia towards those who would challenge their cherished myths.

Sneak previews are underway now; film releases in April.

Here's a trailer: (RSS readers: video here)

Leave Me Alone and Let Me Pray

2008-03-10T12:13:00.005-05:00

Following the example of many of my blogging friends, I did the Sacred Pathways Worship Style Assessment.

The results:

The premise is that we respond in worship to God in ways that are appropriate to our personality and temperament.

Find yours here.

Here's the summary of spiritual temperaments:

Intellectual - Loving God with the Mind:
These Christians live in the world of concepts. They may feel closest to God when they first understand something new about Him.

Contemplative - Loving God through Adoration:
These Christians seek to love God with the purest, deepest, and brightest love imaginable. They want nothing more than some privacy and quiet to gaze upon the face of their heavenly Lover and give all of themselves to God.

Enthusiast - Loving God with Mystery & Celebration:
Excitement and mystery in worship is the spiritual lifeblood of enthusiasts. They are inspired by joyful celebration; cheerleaders for God and the Christian life. They don't want to just know concepts, but to experience them, to feel them, and to be moved by them. They like to let go and experience God on the precipice of excitement and awe.

Caregiver - Loving God by Loving Others:
Caregivers serve God by serving others. They often claim to see Christ in the poor and needy, and their faith is built up by interacting with other people. Caring for others recharges a caregiver's batteries.

Activist - Loving God Through Confrontation:
These Christians define worship as standing against evil and calling sinners to repentance. They are energized more by interaction with others, even in conflict, than by being alone or in small groups. Activists are spiritually nourished through the battle.

Ascetic - Loving God in Solitude and Simplicity:
Ascetics want nothing more than to be left alone in prayer. Let there be nothing to distract them--no pictures, no loud music--and leave them alone to pray in silence and simplicity.

Traditionalist - Loving God Through Ritual and Symbol:
Traditionalists are fed by what are often termed the historic dimensions of faith: rituals, symbols, sacraments, and sacrifice. They tend to have a disciplined life of faith and have a need for ritual and structure.

Sensate - Loving God with the Senses:
Sensate Christians want to be lost in the awe, beauty, and splendor of God. They are drawn particularly to the liturgical, the majestic, the grand. They want to be filled with sights, sounds, and smells that overwhelm them. The five senses are God's most effective inroad to their hearts.

Naturalist - Loving God Out of Doors:
The naturalist seeks to leave the formal architecture and the padded pews to enter an entirely new "cathedral", a place that God himself has built: the out-of-doors.

New FBC Columbia website

2008-03-06T10:50:00.003-06:00

Another thing I've been working on is the final edits to the newly updated FBC Columbia website. Shawn Key has done a good job with the basic design.

We still need some pictures and a few other improvements, but they will come as we go.

Here's a screen shot:

Go over and check it out!

The New SSG.com

2008-03-05T08:58:00.004-06:00

I've not been posting a lot lately, primarily because of everything else I've been doing. So I thought I'd try to fill you in. One of the things that's been keeping me busy is the re-design of SeminarySurvivalGuide.com.

I was going for a format that was clean, attractive, and made searching the archives much more intuitive. So far, I'm pleased.

Here's a screenshot of the new look.

There are still more adjustments to make, but one thing at a time. Head over and check it out.

Ah, the flu

2008-02-21T19:13:00.003-06:00

For the first time in a long time, I got the flu. Been home with a temperature all week. My symptoms have not been bad, mainly because I take lots of Reliv, my amazing nutritional supplement. I've been on it for six years, and not only has it dramatically improved my allergies, but when I get sick, I double up on it, and it reduces the severity of my symptoms. Interested? I can hook you up!

Anyway, pray with me for my healing to the glory of God. And sympathy and food donations are always welcome, too. :-)

and did I mention

2008-02-17T19:45:00.002-06:00

Did I mention that during this awesome worship service, we were dealing with a brown-out on the local power grid? When I came into the worship service to start it, it looked dim in the room to me... but I didn't have time to deal with it.

Toward offering time, it started feeling warm, and the anal worship producer in me started to kick in. It was 75 degrees in the room. Starting to get stuffy. Uh oh. Then as Lonnie started preaching, I heard this weird low-pitch buzz with his voice... unlike our normal sound quirks. I shot a look up at our sound operator, and he motioned me to come to him. So I went to the back to figure it out.

We went outside and found the AC compressors were trying to run but not doing so. The fans were blowing--but the air was only cool, and not cold. We cut power to the AC units so they wouldn't fry.
We noticed that lights were dim and occasionally flickered.
Then there was the weird hum in the sound system.

We just rolled with it, because there was nothing we could do about it, and the congregation seemed to hang in there pretty well in spite of the heat and the hum.

Then, just when Lonnie was transitioning to his conclusion, the lights abruptly came up to full strength.

Turns out that part of Columbia had a blackout--traffic signals out, the works... but we kept power, albeit at less than 100%.

And strangely enough, we met powerfully with God anyway.

Worship Confessional 2.17.08. Amazing.

2008-02-17T19:30:00.002-06:00

We had a great worship time today. Fresh off the energy from Chris Vacher’s visit last week, I was inspired to look at Sunday’s service with fresh eyes.

Highlights:
1. We inserted an intercession time before the offering.
I pulled out a couple of headlines: NIU shooter, Bombing in Afghanistan, and the tension in Kenya, and shared them as points for prayer in intercession. I wanted us to get outside of ourselves in our praying. So I set that up, and then opened the altar for prayer.

Now in early service, no one moved at first, so I took a pastoral moment to admonish them.

I’ve been concerned about early service for a while. I’m not sure if it’s the early hour or the mentality of those who attend then, but there is usually not much visible response to the Lord in that service. Not to say that they’re not responding to the Lord… but I think you can usually tell by looking. Anyway. It concerns me when a whole chunk of our congregation is... chronically unmoved. Does it mean they’re unmovable? Does it mean I’m leading them poorly? Good questions.

So I told them what I saw and why it concerned me, and tried to encourage them to respond physically to the Lord… and they did. They just needed a little prompting.

2. Truly Spontaneous Testimony
In late service, we had a spontaneous moment. I’m kind of a control freak, so it wigged me out a bit. I finished the announcements and turned around to start the choir song, and a voice called my name from the back of the room. Yikes. I turned around, and Chris was coming up the aisle. I’m told by astute observers that I had a panicked look on my face.

Earlier this week, Chris’ father had been rushed to the hospital with a brain aneurysm. He lives out of state. We sent out the mass prayer email as Chris rushed down to be with him. I didn’t even know Chris was back. All this slowly returned to me as Chris came up to the pulpit. He thanked everyone for their prayers, and gave us an update. When he first arrived, the docs thought his father was going to die. And then they looked again and the bleeding had stopped… and his Dad just got better and better. And now, he’s fine. Chris said one of the hospital staff stayed in the room the whole time commenting on how rare it was to see this kind of recovery.

What an awesome testimony of the goodness and power of God responding to people’s prayers. It was really a great moment.

So parenthetically on my control freak-ness. I’m very careful about what is said or presented from our pulpit. It is a rare occasion that I allow anyone to speak from our pulpit unless I know in advance exactly what they are going to say. Once I even refused to give a mic to a man who wanted to grab it for a spontaneous testimony. I had a very good reason, for that, by the way. But I digress.

Anyway, it’s important that I remember, in the words of Oswald Chambers, to look for God to come—not to look for Him to come in a certain way, but to look for Him to come. Well, He came. And it wasn’t on the order, or in my script. And despite my face, I had peace about it. When I saw Chris coming, I was confused at first, but not panicked. I had peace, and sure enough, it was just an awesome moment. Our people really rejoiced together and praised God for what He'd done.

3. Click!
And our out of the box moment for the week: we put a metronome in our in-ear monitors for the very first time, on We Are Hungry (Steve Fee). We kept rushing it in rehearsal, so we gave it a shot. I didn’t expect to start using click in this way, but we did, and it worked.

The other out of the box thing I did was leave the security blanket of the piano for that song, and sang out front with just a mic. (This was right after the intercessory prayer time.)

8:00am
Higher Ground (4/4 version)
Welcome
“Made to Worship” - FBC Choir
Uncreated One
Spirit of the Living God
Intercessory Prayer
Offering: “East to West” - Dave and Caitlin
Message - Lonnie
Response: We Are Hungry

10:45am
Higher Ground (4/4)
Welcome
“Made to Worship” - FBC Choir
Glory
Uncreated One
Intercessory Prayer
We Are Hungry
Offering: “East to West” - Dave and Caitlin
Message - Lonnie
Response: We Are Hungry

Ripping out the heart

2008-02-15T11:26:00.004-06:00

These Compassion bloggers and their stories are awesome and heart-rending. Check out this video, from Ragamuffin Soul.

Come on, people. Sponsor a child. Bring hope.

World Vision
Compassion

Star Wars: The Clone Wars

2008-02-15T09:38:00.000-06:00

Just saw the sneak peek trailer to Star Wars: The Clone Wars. The new opus is an animated feature film that will be followed up by a television series. I think it looks pretty good. Hopefully the effects won't eclipse the story this time.

The film is scheduled to release August 15, 2008. Full announcement here.

Compassion Bloggers

2008-02-13T16:04:00.003-06:00

16 Bloggers in Uganda with Compassion International. Their different perspectives really give the sense that you're there.

Read them
Heather Whittaker
Shaun Groves
Randy Elrod
Chris Elrod
Carlos Whittaker

Compassion in Uganda

2008-02-12T21:22:00.003-06:00

Compassion International is sponsoring a trip by 16 influential bloggers (several of whom I follow) to observe their work in Uganda, and to spread the word about child sponsorship. Check out their stories and follow the experience with me.

Carlos is probably the most video-driven and purely entertaining.

I preached on God's heart for the poor in December, and Christian child sponsorship was one of the action points I recommended. (I sponsor through World Vision, but Compassion is a fantastic organization.) For $32 a month, you could change the life of a child forever.

What are you waiting for?

Worship Retreat and Confessional 2.10.2008

2008-02-12T20:37:00.002-06:00

Sunday was really great. On the 8th and 9th we had a worship team retreat, led by Chris. Chris and I met at re:create last year. This year, I met him at the airport for the conference, and then afterward, we came back to St. Louis so he could lead our retreat. He did a fantastic job. He encouraged us in developing our songwriting, and worked with our band in refining our arranging skills and musicianship.

I had two mystery activities scheduled. Saturday afternoon was a Group Initiative Course, led by Camp Wartburg staff (with poor Julie injuring her knee swinging on a rope). Saturday night was dinner at Fitz's. Yum! Good times.

We came back from the retreat Saturday to get a good night's sleep and lead worship on Sunday.

Chris led worship in both services Sunday, with great positive energy and a warm, encouraging spirit, which really helped the dynamic of worship. It's evident that he loves God and loves His church. It was a great treat to have him here. Our people really sang and responded well, I thought.

The choir was scheduled to sing on Sunday, but since I was out of town the week before, and we didn't have rehearsal, many of them forgot that we were singing. So I took it out. It worked out just as well. The singers I had in the loft added energy to the service, and the timing worked out about right anyway.

I hadn't scheduled anyone for offering, so I just played short piano reflections in each service.

Here's the set:
Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing (8:00am) / Your Grace is Enough (10:45am)
Welcome
You Are My Strength
You Never Let Go
Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone)
Offering – Mark Warnock
Message
Response Time: You Never Let Go

Recreate Day One

2008-02-05T18:14:00.000-06:00

I'll have more to report on many things today, but for now, these reflections.

Jon Tyson from Origins Church NYC spoke today, and really provoked me. In a good way.

A few bits from my notes:

The story starts with creation, not with sin.
If mankind had never fallen, what would we be doing?
God original intent for us was to be creators of culture.
Now that mankind has fallen, we still create culture; only now it’s destructive, and selfish and ugly, instead of beautiful and profound and life-giving.
We were not designed to be saved. We were designed never to be lost.
It’s silly for the church to complain about the filth coming down the cultural river if we’re not willing to go to the places where culture is being created (New York, LA, Hollywood, arts communities, etc.)
The aim of a redeemed humanity is the creation of culture for the glory of God and for the flourishing of humanity.

I’ve read all this stuff before—although never expressed so elegantly. (Tyson is a fantastic communicator.) Read it, bought it, believed it. But I have failed to fully integrate it into my thinking “on the ground” of my day to day personal and ministry life.

I was raised on Four Spiritual Laws theology—true as far as it goes, but thin gruel for the full-orbed design of God for an abundant-living humanity. FSL theology won’t lead me to contribute to the renewal of culture. Fuller theology is necessary for this.

Questions:

How do I reshape my thinking to the degree that the awesome and important themes of redemption don’t eclipse the larger view of God’s purposes?
How do I begin to position myself to walk in the implications of this?
How should it change how I think about my current ministry tasks and responsibilities?
Is worship really as ultimate as we say it is? In the eschaton, will the continuing creation of culture BE our act(s) of worship? What about now?

Worship Text-fessional 1.27.08

2008-01-28T11:32:00.001-06:00

I've been behind on worship confessionals. Here's this past Sunday:

8:00am and 10:45am
Low Down the Chariot - Men’s Quartet
Welcome
Worship set led by student choir and musicians:
Holy Is the Lord
Here I Am to Worship
Mighty to Save
Offering: Hymn Medley - Men’s Quartet
Message
Response (8:00am Trust and Obey, 10:45 I Give You My Heart)

Our student choir and musicians led worship for the first time. I had four acoustic guitar players and two percussionists on djembe, and me on piano. I had originally planned to have the rest of the band back them up, but after hearing them, decided to go with the sparser texture. They did great. They'd practiced well, knew their songs, and played confidently. And the congregation received it well, and sang well. It was a nice change of pace to have less sound in the room. I had student soloist sing on the verses of Mighty to Save, and they did just great.

Our men's quartet also sang much more traditional selections. I got to sing with them on Low Down the Chariot (so it was actually a QUINtet, but who's counting?). So I thought the style contrast was good. We had something for everyone.

Friends at cre:ate

2008-01-28T11:19:00.000-06:00

So last year at the cre:ate conference, I met Chris. Our first conversation was about what Canadians could teach Americans about what it means to be the church. We had a great conversation. Then I started following his blog. Then I went up to see him in Orangeville while on a trip to the Toronto area.

So now I've roped him into coming down to lead a worship team retreat for my church and to lead worship for the church on Sunday. We'll meet up at cre:ate conference, and then drive back here together, grab my team and go away for the weekend. I'm pretty excited. Chris is doing great work at his church. I love his strategic thinking about worship and church life, and have learned much from him already.

Now I have to go get current on all my Canadian jokes.

Cre:ate is coming!

2008-01-28T11:11:00.000-06:00

Won't be long before I'm in Nashville at the best worship conference I've ever attended. Last year was my first year, and I actually can't believe that I get to go.

The thing I love about it: Everyone there is better than me. I'm surrounded by people more skilled, more experienced, more creative than I could ever dream of being... so I just sit and soak it in. Just the environment makes me better!

The challenges and lessons from last year have really stayed with me and shaped me.

Randy Elrod, the conference organizer is a very creative, very generous, and very connected man. He also has a strong leadership gift that brings it all together. Can't say enough about him.

And the food. The food..... is.... AMAZING.

Going East for Jesus

2008-01-16T11:47:00.000-06:00

I am leading a team of guys from my church to do contact evangelism in a major city in East Asia this Spring. Our church has a partnership with some folks doing ministry over there. (I'm being intentionally vague about trip details for security reasons.)

I'm very excited, looking forward to it very much. This is the first overseas mission trip I've led, although I've been on several.

We're currently in trip preparation mode, and trying to raise funds. The trip for all four of us will cost $6500. I'm putting a PayPal donate link in the sidebar in case any of you would like to contribute. Every little bit helps! (If you need tax credit for your contribution, then contact my church directly for instructions: 618-281-5605).

So far we've raised just over a thousand dollars, so we have quite a bit to go.

I’ll be posting more information, prayer requests, and when we return, pictures.

Crazy Good

2008-01-16T10:39:00.000-06:00

Awesome arranging. This is really nuts!

HT: Ethos

Ugliness

2008-01-13T19:57:00.000-06:00

I was talking with my mom the other day. She was telling me about someone who she thinks is about to be forced out of their job. It's one of those situations where there are stated reasons and there are real reasons. Anyway. Mom thinks that one of the real reasons is that the guy is unattractive. He's not a looker. He's overweight. He doesn't dress that great...kind of sloppy. The band director look. The unmade waterbed. You get the picture.

Anyway, she thinks that if he looked nicer, that there's no way he'd be forced out of his job.

It's hard to tell in a particular case, but man, we do this don't we? We judge by appearance. We like good looking people more.

Ok, so then today I saw this video of Paul Potts for the first time. It's been out a while, so maybe this is old news to you. Wasn't to me. He was a contestant on Britain Has Talent, an American Idol-like show in the UK. Here it is.

I was totally taken in with it. We hit play, I saw the guy, recognized the script, and in three seconds had it figured: ugly guy, probably no talent, no one ever told him he couldn't sing, he's going to embarrass himself and we're going to laugh. Here we go.

And then he stands up there and sings Nessun Dorma with this incredible, golden lyric tenor voice... I was blown away. Amazing voice. I ordered his CD. You can too, right here.

Like Simon, I was NOT expecting that. Why didn't I expect it? Because I already judged him by appearance. Since he didn't meet the running standards of attractiveness, I assumed he couldn't sing. Why? It's completely illogical. You don't have to be attractive to sing well.

But apparently the lady on the panel made the same error in logic. Did you catch her comment: a lump of coal that's going to turn out to be a diamond? I think she meant it as a compliment... but I thought it was pretty insulting... even though I was thinking that same thing.

Watching this video showed me my own heart: that I judge people by their appearance. I thought he was ugly and instantly assumed he had nothing to offer.

The reality? My judgmental spirit makes me the ugly one.

The most pro-abortion candidate ever

2008-01-11T08:52:00.000-06:00

Is Barack Obama.

HT: Between Two Worlds.

Thanks for the links!

2008-01-06T14:56:00.000-06:00

I wanted to mention some kind folks who've helped me promote SeminarySurvivalGuide.com. These folks have posted about SSG.com on their own blogs, which has in turn helped spread the word.

Chris Vacher (He was the first!)
Said at Southern This one made my blog traffic really spike!
Caleb Billingsley (Extra Credit for the RSS headliner in his sidebar!!)
Shaun Tabatt
Going to Seminary

So far, I've gotten great response. I deeply appreciate all the support!

Worship Confessional Turbo Update

2008-01-04T21:27:00.001-06:00

I’m way behind, so let me catch up with one long post.

December 23rd
We used about 15 instrumentalists: 3 trumpets, 2 flutes, 2 clarinets, 1 alto sax, 1 tenor sax, 1 french horn, 1 baritone, 1 bass clarinet, and 2 percussionists, along with piano, organ and keys. Nice big sound.

All the arrangements I found online were too pop-y and contemporary—I wanted something that felt more formal, so I wrote the arrangements myself. Took a long time, and I enjoyed it. Made a few errors, and didn’t get all the ranges quite right, but it was a fun learning process.

Who is He in Yonder Stall went really well for a first time combining choir and instruments.

8:00am and 10:45am
O Come All Ye Faithful
Welcome
Joy to the World!
Lighting of the Advent Wreath: The Incarnation Candle
King of Love
“Who Is He In Yonder Stall?” - FBC Choir and Wind Orchestra
Message
Response: King of Love
“Angels Song”
“Jesus Light of the World” - Rockin’ for Jesus Children’s Choir

Christmas Eve:
We added a late service at 11:00pm to try to relieve the crowd at the 6:00pm service. We got about 125 at 11:00pm, but were still packed to the gills at 6:00pm.

6:00pm: Handbells, piano and organ. I led from the organ, only the second time in five years I’ve done that. I couldn’t hear anything except myself, so I did the best I could. Also, the handbells sounded better in service than we ever did in rehearsal. Phew!

6:00pm
Prelude: “Carol of the Bells” - FBC Handbells
O Come All Ye Faithful
The Christmas Story
Lighting of the Advent Wreath – The Christ Candle
“Angels” - Amy G, soloist
Observance of the Lord’s Supper
What Child Is This
Silent Night
Candlelighting: O Holy Night

The 11:00pm service, however, went great. The band played; I led from piano like usual. The service had a great feel about it…very intimate, almost magical. We sang the little Drummer Boy, and it went off surprisingly well, considering that we had struggled a good bit in hammering out the arrangement.

11:00pm
O Come All Ye Faithful
Welcome
There Is Peace in the World Tonight/Away In a Manger
Lighting of the Advent Wreath – The Christ Candle, Luke 2:1-20
“The Little Drummer Boy” - David’s Men
Observance of the Lord’s Supper
What Child Is This
O Holy Night
Candlelighting: Silent Night

December 30th
I preached on Sharing God’s Heart for the Poor. The audio from the sermon, however, did not take, which was a shame, because I got really good response from it. It was anew subject for me; I’d never preached on it before… and don’t recall ever hearing a sermon on it.

Matt led early service, and Brett led late service. Both of them did a great job; honestly, I think they led better than I have lately.

Here’s the order:
8:00am
All Creatures of Our God and King
Welcome
Mission Report from Oaxaca, Mexico - Angie H
‘Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus
How Great is Our God
Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone)
Offering: “My Lips Will Praise You” - Dianne Miller
Message
Response: You are My King

10:45am
Hear Our Praises
Welcome
Mission Report from Oaxaca, Mexico - Angie H
‘Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus
You Are My Strength
Thank You for Saving Me
Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)
Offering: “My Lips Will Praise You” - Dianne Miller
Message (Mark Warnock)
Response: You Are My Strength

Decisional Regeneration and Precision in Theological Language

2007-12-26T20:09:00.000-06:00

Tim Brister, over at Provocations and Pantings, is a Southern Seminary blogger I've been reading and enjoying. He did a retrospective on his posts from 2007, and this one caught my eye.

An interesting read. Many of us raised in Baptist life absorb uncritically the assumption that salvation comes down to our choosing God.

It's not up to us. We have to be rescued. It is God who saves. Brister offers a good illustration of the importance of precision in theological language.

He and his wife just had a baby, too, so drop by his blog and leave him a congratulatory comment.

Our new Christmas song

2007-12-19T21:11:00.001-06:00

The new chorus Brett and I wrote to go with Hark the Herald Angels Sing is really a simple little thing. Maybe that's why it worked so well on Sunday.

We squeaked out a scratch track this afternoon. It's a little rough, so be kind. We're total recording novices. You can listen here:

And the lead sheet is here.

Very interested in your feedback.

Preaching Confessional: On the Incarnation

2007-12-18T10:12:00.000-06:00

Got to preach Sunday, which I always enjoy. This time I spoke on the Incarnation and virgin birth of Christ.

Three notable moments from the sermon.

#1: Unclear
I always enjoy being provocative and occasionally inflammatory, but if I'm unclear it can get me in trouble. I said that if you don't believe the doctrine of Trinity, you're not Christian in any recognizable sense. I meant that the content of your faith is not recognizably Christian, but NOT that it's impossible for you to be saved. I don't believe assent to the doctrine of Trinity is a prerequisite for justification.

Anyway, I was, um... given the opportunity to clarify myself right after late service. But all is well.

#2: Strange
I played part of an organ piece by Messiaen, Dieu Parmi Nous, as a sermon illustration. I'm sure it's the first (and last) time anyone in my congregation has ever listened to French organ music. (Ugh.)

#3: Funny
On Sunday I wore the Christmas tie my secretary gave me last year. It has one of those things in it where you squeeze it and it plays 10-15 seconds of Christmas melodies. I discovered Sunday that when you lean against the pulpit, it goes off. Did it twice in early service, once in late. I of course take myself very seriously when I'm preaching, and right in the midst of deep theology or some profound point I'm trying to make, I'm interrupted by a high-pitch electronic version of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town." Humbling. And hilarious.

For those of you who might be interested in 40 minutes of me...(all two of you) ...you can listen or download here:

Worship Confessional 12.16.2007

2007-12-18T07:28:00.000-06:00

It's been a dream of mine that our worship team would write original worhsip music to use in our congregation. I've tried to encourage it in different ways. So Sunday was a very exciting day for me: we did our first original music for congregational singing.

Kind of a cool story. Several of you have blogged about whether to use traditional carols in worship. Like here. Many of you, I think, leaning against it. Here, I felt strongly led to go in a very traditional direction this Christmas. So we have done almost entirely traditional Christmas music the whole month.

I was preaching this Sunday on the Incarnation, and wanted to use Hark the Herald Angels Sing because of its rich theological language in verse 2. But how do you make all those dratted 3/4 carols guitar-friendly? (Usually, convert them to 6/8.)

Anyway, I wanted to figure that out, so I called Brett, one of my guitar players and asked him to come by and help me think like a guitar player. So we converted Hark the Herald to 6/8, which worked well and felt good.

But then, I got this urge in my gut. I said: we need a chorus here, sort of Chris Tomlin-like, to help us reflect on the verses, rather than marching stoically through them and being done. Brett is a very creative type. I started writing lyrics, and he started fiddling with melodies. My lyrics were ok, but were wordy and complicated, and didn't contrast well with the verses.

Brett, however, came up with a very simple melody using "Glory, Glory, Glory to the Newborn King." It gave good space for reflection. But I thought it was too much contrast--slower melodic and harmonic rhythm, so much slower it felt like another song. So we split the difference. We kept Glory, Glory, but substituted other lyrics for the second line, with a faster harmonic rhythm.

It sounded pretty good to us. Not bad for 90 minutes' work.

Then we tried it at band rehearsal, and it sounded even better.

We introduced it as opening song on Sunday morning, without telling people anything about it, and they took to it very, very well. They learned it fast and sang it pretty strongly. I was thrilled.

I'll see if I can talk Brett into letting me post a lead sheet.

Here's the set.
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing (with chorus)
Welcome
World Mission Offering
Lighting of the Advent Wreath: Mary’s Candle: Luke 1:26-38
“God of Every Generation” - FBC Choir
O Come O Come Emmanuel
Offering: “Mary’s Boy-Child”
Rob H
Message - Mark Warnock
Response: Here I Am to Worship

Tears at Christmas

2007-12-15T15:45:00.000-06:00

I am moved more deeply at Christmas than at Easter or Good Friday. I don't know why; it's always been this way for me.

I'm working on a sermon on the Incarnation for this Sunday, and came across this wonderful gem of a poem by Luci Shaw. The last couplet just rips me apart.

Mary's Song
by Luci Shaw

Blue homespun and the bend of my breast
keep warm this small hot naked star
fallen to my arms. (Rest...
you who have had so far to come.)
Now nearness satisfies
the body of God sweetly. Quiet he lies
whose vigor hurled a universe. He sleeps
whose eyelids have not closed before.

His breath (so slight it seems
no breath at all) once ruffled the dark deeps
to sprout a world. Charmed by dove's voices,
the whisper of straw, he dreams,
hearing no music from his other spheres.
Breath, mouth, ears, eyes,
He is curtailed who overflowed all skies,
all years. Older than eternity now he
is new. Now native to earth as I am, nailed
to my poor planet, caught
that I might be free, blind in my womb
to know my darkness ended
brought to this birth for me to be new-born
and for him to see me mended
I must see him torn.

The Gift of Life

2007-12-14T09:10:00.000-06:00

I first saw Tim Tebow, this year's Heisman trophy winner, play football when I was home for Thanksgiving. I'm too cheap for cable, so you don't see many Florida football games in St. Louis. Wow! What a talented athlete.

Now, the rest of the story. His mother was advised to abort him. Tebow's parents were both Christian missionaries in the Philippines. They refused.

The full story here.

Abortion is still the scourge and shame of this country. In the words of a fellow board member at the local pregnancy center, "As an American, aren't you embarrassed by this?" Yes. Profoundly.

Thanks, Tim, for being another example of the grace and wonder of a single human life.

Those who know me best mock me most

2007-12-13T08:12:00.000-06:00

We finished up our Christmas musical last Sunday night. Robbie Starr is a drummer and sound tech for us. He's 23ish, goofy sense of humor, and really enjoys making fun of me in particular. I endure it because he's occasionally useful to me.

Anyway, he threatened early on to write a review of the Christmas musical... and delivered on the threat. It was waiting for me in my inbox on Monday.

Just to prepare you, the "new face in choir" is Robbie's future grandfather-in-law. And the two finger points is a reference my finger pointing when I preach. I do it entirely unconsciously and get needled for it relentlessly.

Here, with light editing to correct only the most grievous grammatical errors :), is the review:

Rock Starr Review

A Christmas Prayer

It’s that time of year. The stockings are hung, the halls are decked, and the local church attempts to put on a Christmas cantata.

For the First Baptist in Columbia it was a new excitement in the air.

Director Mark Warnock presented J. Daniel Smith's A Christmas Prayer.

A new view to many of the longtime veterans of the First Baptist Church: lights hanging, headsets in ears and enough red and green sweaters to make you feel like you're in the North Pole. The production began with a great ensemble. As if we hadn’t seen Mark Tullis and Brett Geist enough, they showed up determined to pull off another ovation from their fans. While Geist didn’t seem to stray too far from his roots, he played a guy who can’t be on time like he had done it many times on the spot. I wasn’t for sure if it was scripted or improv. A much more serious side reflected off this dynamic duo and presented an almost Oscar worthy performance.

Warnock, a belligerent director who will attack anyone who gets in the way, made sure that even the slightest flaws were hidden from sight. A perfectionist, if you will, could only tolerate such ill lighting. It was almost a ghostlike persona in the theatre until the new beams of light were glistening and tugging on the trusses strength. While many choir members were off in the darkness I know Warnock didn’t put it past him. The strict choir director hiding behind such a great crafted prop was probably sweating for a precision production. I was waiting for him to trample down the aisle to fix a minor sound mistake.

New faces in the choir bewildered the audience. Who was this face and where was his body? He put on such a great excitement that reminded me of a great (Elvis) performance. The idea of presenting such new songs to a congregation that has no blood for change left a cliff hanger when "Mary Had A Baby" and "Mary Did You Know?" were not even in the set.

A new production surfaced and shared the love of family on Christmas. It was a cliffhanger left me wondering what happened with this family and what was their judgment. I give Warnock two finger points for effort and expect a much larger adaptation in the future.

Introducing SeminarySurvivalGuide.com

2007-12-10T14:33:00.000-06:00

I'm very excited to unveil a project that's been in planning for about six months.

I got this idea for this laying in bed praying one morning. I was thinking of the four seminary students from our church, and remembering back to my seminary days. I remembered how much I thought I knew, and how little I actually knew about ministry and about what things are really important. I especially remembered colleagues from seminary who are no longer in ministry. Some burned out. Some failed morally. Some should never have been in ministry to begin with.

The attrition rate is bad. Check these stats:
* Half of all seminary students drop out before they complete their degrees.
* The protestant clergy divorce rate equals that of the general population.
* The average seminarian in 2001 graduated with $25,000 in debt
* Of those who begin a career in full-time ministry, only one in ten makes it to retirement.

And so I thought: what if an injection of realistic counsel at the beginning of their ministry preparation could make a difference?

After all, ministry is hard. You have to juggle God, family, church, living transparently with high expectations. At times, it can be very emotionally draining. And, you're typically not paid like a CEO, to put it mildly.

When you're in seminary it's even worse. You have very time-intensive graduate theological study, a low-paying job (or three), plus part-time or volunteer ministry positions. And seminary is expensive. It's a lot to manage.

So I wondered what was out there to help seminary students will all of these things. I looked. Answer: very, very little.

And the Lord nudged me. I thought, well, I could do something about that. It's certainly not that I have all the answers, but I have learned some things...and more importantly, I know some really godly people who have done well in ministry, and are willing to share their wisdom with me.

And so was born Seminary Survival Guide.com.

SeminarySurvivalGuide.com will cover a variety of topics, like
* Time management
* Spiritual life
* Emotional health
* Financial matters
* Marriage and family
* Friends and dating
* Calling
* Exercise, rest and nutrition
* Ministry during seminary
* Ministry after seminary
* Stories
* Random ideas

I will be the general editor, but not the only contributor. My friend Lonnie is a financial planner, and we are working on his first post related to financial matters. My counselor friend Seth is helping me with addressing emotional health issues, and there are others, too. I expect the community of contributors to grow as we go.

So I'm asking my friends in the blogosphere to help me promote it in any of these ways:

If you know any seminary students, please mention it to them. Email them a link or something like that.
Write a brief referral post about it.
Add SSG to your blogroll.
Insert a feedburner headline animator in your blog sidebar (some options below)... at least for a while if you don't want to leave it up permanently. (If the "grab this" handle doesn't work, email me at mark -at- seminarysurvivalguide (dot) com, and I can email you the HTML.)

I'm super excited about this. I've always had a heart to help people in ministry to really thrive. I'm praying that God uses this to make a big difference. And, if this is not too bold to ask, please encourage me in this when you get a chance. This is a big undertaking for me.

Thanks to all of your for your friendship and support!

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Big Announcement Coming

2007-12-05T12:42:00.000-06:00

I have a big project I've been working on and praying on for the last several months, which I hope will go public by the end of the year. I'll need many of you to help me spread the word around.

So stay tuned for a big announcement. I'm praying that this new endeavor will bear a lot of kingdom fruit.

More to come.

Worship Updates

2007-12-05T12:31:00.000-06:00

We are in the thick of preparation for our Christmas musical this weekend. I'm sure many of you are, too. I also traveled over Thanksgiving, so these updates are late.

For Christmas this year, we are moving in a very traditional direction. We're singing mostly traditional carols, and I'm having my organist play for late service each week this month. (Late service doesn't hear much organ...) We're also lighting the Advent Wreath with scripture readings.

I'm also excited about the 23rd. I'm re-convening the FBC Wind Orchestra to play that Sunday. I've recruited about a dozen players. All the Christmas charts I found for purchase online were way too pop-y for my taste, so I wrote all the instrumental arrangements myself. I also arranged "Who is He in Yonder Stall?" for Wind Orchestra and our combined choirs. I think it's going to be a great Sunday.

Here's catch-up on our set lists:
November 25. I was out and Matt led for me. I hear he did quite well.
8:00am
Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing
Welcome
Your Name
There Is A Fountain
My Jesus I Love Thee
Offering: "None but Jesus" - Caitlin and Tori
Message
Response: Lay it Down, Surrender

10:45am
Sing to the King
Welcome
Your Name
There Is A Fountain
My Jesus I Love Thee
Offering: "None but Jesus" - Caitlin and Tori
Message
Response: Lay it Down, Surrender

December 2
8:00am and 10:45am
The First Noel
Welcome
New Building Committee Report
“Christmas Praise” - FBC Choir
Lighting of the Advent Wreath: The Prophet’s Candle - Isaiah 9:1-7
O Little Town of Bethlehem
World Mission Offering
Offering: “He Made A Way in a Manger” - Jamie W
Message
Response: At Your Feet

This coming Sunday, December 9:
8:00am and 10:45am
Go Tell It On the Mountain
Welcome
World Mission Offering
“Look to the Light” - FBC Choir, Kim D
Lighting of the Advent Wreath: Joseph’s Candle; Matthew 1:18-25
Angels We Have Heard on High
Offering: To the Ends of the Earth
Message
Response: Be the Center

Worship and football

2007-11-29T14:59:00.000-06:00

This is an excerpt from an excellent post over at Rich Kirkpatrick's blog, about the necessity of heart engagement in worship. After a weekend of UF vs. FSU football rivalry madness down in Florida, the fan analogy resonated.

Is not becoming more like Jesus our act of worship? Indeed. Well, you might say that everything we do is an act of worship. Right? Wrong. Worship, if it is an act of faith, requires intent as well as expression. Just like faith requires works. In other words, if I am a fan who worships my football team I need to show that I am not just wearing the jersey but am getting upset when someone disrespects my team. My heart has to be for my team, not merely the wearing of an outfit. And when I go to my version of church--on my couch at home in front of the big screen--I act in a sort of exuberant, crazy sort of way. Perhaps I have a room even designed for this purpose--kind of like church. Now, what makes me a worshipper of my team is not just that I become like my team in thought and heart, but that I express those things. And, since I do not play on the field, I have to live out the values of my team in the reality that is mine to live. I do not lose my personality, will or mind, I simply follow the team and express that in how I live. But, it is the visible expression that reminds me of the commitment I have made to my team. So, wearing that jersey and having that party at my house in front of that big screen TV is important. It then is the action of worship that builds from the inside out and from the outside reminds me of what I aspire to have on the inside.

Read the whole thing.

Play for Free Rice!

2007-11-28T11:27:00.001-06:00

I've seen this around, and finally got to go and play. It appeals to the vocabulary snoot in me. I'm a hopelessly supercilious sesquipedalian.

Play a vocabulary game and earn free rice for the world's hungry. Crazy and fun.

Listen to me talk for an hour

2007-11-27T16:59:00.000-06:00

On November 13 I gave a talk at the Baptist Student Union in Carbondale. They are doing a semester-long series covering major areas of Christian doctrine.

My task was to talk about Salvation Present and Future...sanctification and glorification.

The audio was recorded on my little Olympus digital voice recorder, so it's not exactly crystal clear. But if you're in the mood for doctrine, you can give it a listen here.