My Worship Revolution

Alright, time for a participatory post.  Get ready to comment.

This past week at the Democratic National Convention, there were two prayers given from the stage by prominent Christian personalities.  First in the opening by Donald Miller, and then at the closing, by Joel Hunter.  Take a few minutes to watch both prayers below:

Now I definitely have some thoughts and opinions on the content and delivery of both, however that is not what this post is about.  Rather, it is about the idea of the prayer itself at the convention.  I am WAY behind on reading all your blogs out there right now, so I don't know how much this is being discussed at the moment, with the exception of a few posts on one fairly prominent blog (you get three guesses which one and the first two don't count).

On the one hand, I love both their hearts in the issue, and have lots of respect for both these guys.  In a nutshell, it's the not gonna turn down an opportunity to pray anywhere concept.  I get it.  A great opportunity to be a light.  While I can honestly say that I would vote for a non-Christian candidate, I can't deny that faith, and more specifically faith in Christ, is a big positive in my book.  Of course I want a leader of our nation who I believe is seeking to follow after God, so that's great to see them praying on this platform.

But at the same time, I can honestly say that something just didn't sit right with me when I watched those prayers.  Even outside of what was prayed, I wonder if it's the idea of having the "benediction" at the convention at all.  Several questions come to mind. 
Are politicians using those of faith just for the sake of votes?
Even if they are, do we say fine, have your agenda and we'll take advantage of the opportunity and have ours? 
Many Christians champion the idea that prayer should still be allowed in schools.  I'm not one of those.  Faith isn't something I want the government having any say or authority over.  So does this marriage of faith and politics blur that line too much? 
Then again, you can't deny, as Rick Warren stated in front of a national audience a few weeks ago, that our faith does affect our politics.

Those are a lot of thoughts, without a lot of answers.  I'm curious what you think.
Was this a great opportunity, or a mistake?
Regardless of party affiliation, as Christ-followers, do these guys represent you well?
People without faith, does this irritate you, or do you welcome the opportunity to invite faith into politics?

I'm honestly pretty torn on the issues.
So let me know what you think!

For a long time I’ve mentioned our heart and desire to one day plant a church.  In a way, that could be a good way off still.  So don’t worry CLC peeps, this post doesn’t mean I’m going anywhere TOO soon.
On the same note, we also feel that day rapidly approaching in the grand scheme of things.  My desire is to be fully devoted to all that God has called me to do through CLC in Santa Cruz, and also to be preparing myself for the day that opportunity arises.

That being the case, A few weeks ago I spent a full day with a great church planter named J.R. Woodward being assessed in my ability to plant in the future based on my current skill sets and experiences.  Great guy, and was fun to sped the day getting to know him as well and getting a glimpse into his world.  Thanks a ton to Rick Mysse who provided the opportunity.

*Sidenote: for those who have no clue what I’m talking about because you luckily don’t speak churchianity in your everyday life, church planting means we feel called to start a new church in a community with the desire to see a greater impact in being missional and reaching a community fwith the message of Jesus.  I guess there was still a lot of Christianese in there, but hopefully you get the point, at least.

Anyway, I debated in my head whether or not to share this part on the blog, but in a way it feels like the first big step in moving that direction, and I really do want to share as much of the journey as possible with our community here.  The assessment itself is 7 pages, and besides boring you to tears, I’m not about to show everyone all of it anyway.  Sorry!  However there is a graphical summary at the end that gives you an idea of what the assessment looks like.  The areas where J.R. and the material he used perceive as my strengths and non-strengths.  I’ll try to not just share the stuff that only makes me look good on the journey, but try to be somewhat vulnerable as well.

Anyway, enough of that.  Here’s a glimpse at what the outcome had to say.  Just a small chance for you to learn a little more about me and share in the journey!

The two lower scores had to do with (a) not having experienced building anything from complete scratch yet, even outside the context of an established church, and (b) a desire to see me rebound from hurts and dissappointments quicker.

Great stuff for me to process and think about what it means for the future.  Already has my head spinning with lots of thoughts and ideas!  Honestly, I love being stretched and challenged!  How about you?

So this past weekend, rather than lead worship I had the privilege of teaching on Sunday morning.  On the worship front, 3 of our worship team members, Lori Hazen, Whitney Stewart, and Cory Samuelson stepped up to lead worship, and I just played piano for them.  It was awesome to see them step up and lead!!  A new experience for all of them to some degree, and overall it went great!  Here was the set:

• Hosanna (led by Whitney)
• Unchanging (led by Lori)
• • MESSAGE
• All For Love (led by Whitney and Lori)
• Jesus Paid It All (led by Cory)
• I Give You My Heart (led by Whitney)
• Enough (led by Lori)
• Now That You're Near (led by Cory)

Unfortunately, with all the business I had going on that morning, I didn't get any video of it.  I have a feeling the three of them are cool with that though!  I do however have a confessional from last week that I need to just get edited and uploaded.  Maybe soon.

On the teaching front, I taught this week on our topic of money, and more specifically on the concept of tithing.  Touchy subject, but I actually loved teaching it cause I believe so strongly in the idea.  Teaching still stretches me out of my comfort zone quite a bit, which is another reason I love getting to do it.  It's a great way to learn and hopefully get a little better each time.

I'll embed the message below in case anyone wants to check it out.  We missed the beginning with me talking about Caleb and his new use of the word "mine", but it works out fine without it.  Most of the content is pulled from a mix of stuff from Craig Groschel and David Trotter when we went through the topic at Revolution a few years ago, and I think he pulled a bit from Ed Young. 

Anyway, that's it.  I also stretched myself by not reading a completely reading a
transcript of the message, but getting it into bullet point form and
trying to really get it in me. Overall, got some good feedback, and it was a good morning.  Now, on to next week!

Every so often I get inspired to read some new books.  The problem is, I have a bunch I still haven’t finished cause I just can’t get through them quickly, but then I decide I want to read new ones regardless.

That being said, I was inspired last week to order some new books, and the last of them arrived today.  Hopefully I’ll get through these ones eventually.  I’m most excited about the first on on the list.  It’s a brand new one by Andy Crouch.  Here’s the list:

Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling
Andy Crouch

Paul And Empire: Religion And Power In Roman Imperial Society
Richard Horsley

Jesus And Empire: The Kingdom Of God And The New World Disorder
Richard Horsley

The Church In Emerging Culture: Five Perspectives
Leonard Sweet, Andy Crouch, Michael Horton, Fredrica Mathews-Green, Brian McLaren, Ermin McManus

The Rise Of Christianity: How The Obscure, Marginal, Jesus Movement Became The Dominant Religious Force
Rodney Stark

There ya have it!  Time to get started…not to mention getting through the books I’m already reading.
ANyone read any of these?  Any suggestions on which one I should start with?

I know.  I've been kinda absent from the blogosphere lately.
You'd think that when there's a lot going on in my head, I'd blog more.  Not the case.  Life's been busy.  I've been thinking.  Moving on.

Back in May I wrote this post about Steven Curtis Chapman losing his 5 year old daughter.
One of the things that I pondered then was what it would look like for them to share their lives and grieving process with the world.
Then I saw this post the other day.
The Chapman family went on Larry King to share what has happened in their lives as a result.
I stayed up late watching it Saturday night.
It is powerful.
There are six parts.
Go watch them.

Here's the link for part 1.  Then just keep moving through them with the related videos on the right.
It's incredible to hear their story.
If you have kids, watch it.
If you've been through grief or tragedy, watch it.
If you haven't, watch it anyway, cause someday you will.
How amazing to see how this family has reacted to such a heartbreaking tragedy.

Oh.  And check out what Larry King had to say about it the next day.
Pretty amazing.

Yes, that was the title of Ed’s sermon on Sunday.
No, this post has nothing to do with that.

A bit overdue, but the good news is, the peanut in Rachel’s stomach is coming along healthy and all good so far.  Had an appointment last week, but here’s a pic of the little amoeba from 3 or 4 weeks ago.

The bad news, the baby is due to arrive February 10th.  Why is that bad news?  The one gathering I look forward to all year long isn’t in the cards for me this year.
I know, small price to pay, but let me mourn a little, ok?

This week at church we started a new series called "How To Be Rich."
We talked about our concepts of rich and whether we are or not.
So as part of the message, Josh and I hit the streets in Santa Cruz looking for rich people and finding out what people think it takes to be rich.
Here's what we found out:

Wanna find out how rich you really are?  Check out this link and see what you find out.
Feel rich now?

Well, weight update anyway.
Still trying to keep with the Ragamuffin Tops here.
Trainin for another Tri.
100 push up challenge.  (Which Liana and Kieth are supposedly doing…I think.  Supposed to be anyway.)
Weight loss?
Check it out:

Any of you who have watched a couple of my worship confessionals, or weight loss updates, or just about any other video on here know that I have a tendency to film them while I drive.  I figure, hey, I got time while I’m in the car, and contrary to popular belief, it isn’t too tough to keep your eyes on the road and hold a camera.  Kinda like holding a cell phone and…oh wait…that’s illegal now.  Which is stupid anyway.  But I digress.

Not everyone believes me that it really isn’t that bad.  Hey, that’s cool.  I’ve got my own pet peeves, too.  Like chicks who do their eyeliner while they’re driving.  So is there a point to this rambling?  Yes, in fact there is.

After a nail biting Yahtzee tourney before bed tonight, (which I won, getting a Yahtzee in all 5 games we played) she asks me if I have seen the poll on my cousin’s blog.  When I say no, she insists that I go look at it, refusing to tell me herself what it is.  This is the blog for my cousin’s family.  They live in Arizona and have an awesome family with two awesome kids (although Zach could get them killed someday since Travis has taught him to mouth off at every Raider fan he ever sees in public).  I started laughing when I saw it.  Here’s what I saw:

I think she thought of it cause she was calling me lucky after the dice rolled my way.

So yeah, I’m kinda honored that there’s a poll in my name over at their blog.  Right now there’s only 3 votes, though.  So go on by their blog and weigh in!

What d’ya think?
Will the Po-Po crack down on me and my SD1000 or Elura 100 one of these days??

Alrighty. In reality, this post is probably geared more toward those of you who are involved in ministry at an administrative level of some sort, but maybe someone else will surprise me.

I’m looking for some help.
I’ve never used a database to operate.  However, as a church we own ACS and several modules that they offer.  It could be really useful, but I’ve kinda remained ignorant on 2 fronts.

1. Not sure how it could really be used to help with everything.
2. It only works on Windows, which doesn’t make it very exciting or easy to use for my Macbook Pro.

And I think we poured some serious cash into these things several years ago.  So I think it kinda bugs our bookkeeper that we aren’t really using it! 

So, help a brotha out.
Are you using a database, and if so, how so?
Anyone out there using ACS?  What do you like?  What don’t you like?
Any other suggestions out there for a databas that you’ve found helpful?  Maybe something based online?

Who knows, maybe someone else out there has the same questions and you’re thoughts will help them too.
Please, do share.