My Worship Revolution

Tonight our Guinea Pig met his untimely demise.
He started having issues recently.
We did some research and treated him for mites.
Unfortunately it didn’t do the trick.

I was never a huge fan of the rodent, but I found myself pretty bummed about it.
Worse though was  seeing Caleb take it hard.
Of our 2 boys, he’s definitely the more emotional one.
And tonight he laid in bed for a while bawling because he was sad about Ham.
Didn’t help that he saw Ham not lookin so good at the end.
Poor kid.

I might actually miss waking up to squeaking in the middle of the night.
Well, maybe not, but we’ll miss ya Ham!

Believe it or not, I just saw Nacho Libre for the first time las week.
But I digress…

I was 22 when I was baptised at Knott Avenue Christian Church.
I had been baptised as an infant in a Catholic church.
So when I got a card saying congrats, my mom informed me it was a waste of time cause I was already covered.  But hey, double dipping never really hurt anyone, right?

Actually, as I read scripture, I came to understand baptism as something significant to do by my own choice.
I had been a follower of Jesus for a little while, then. I was in a season where I was learning what it meant to really let God be in charge of my life.  I saw that baptism was something that Jesus instructed people to do and even modeled himself before he started his ministry.  Baptism is a powerful picture of identifying with Christ’s death and resurrection.  And while many see it as a cool symbol, I also can’t help personally but believe that there is more to it as well.  I think there is a mystical nature to the practice where Christ is present and uses it to reinforce and bring about transformation in our hearts and lives.
All that to say, I think baptism, while it doesn’t “save” you, is a pretty significant event.
Hey, technically I guess based on our church affiliation now I’m a Baptist, so might as well go with it.

So when my sister told me she had decided she was going to get baptised, there’s no way I wasn’t gonna drive down to San Diego to be there for it.
She’s been a Christ follower for a long time now.  So while it might not signify some huge decision or life-changing event, I think it’s significant. It definitely communicates something about God’s continual work in her life.
Rachel had to work so the boys and I packed up the car and headed south to Chula Vista.
We surprised my sister and possibly added some more stress to her life considering my aunt and uncle were staying at the house, too.

Saturday evening at the beach was the baptism.
Here’s a few shots of her getting dunked.

 

 

 

I had a great time BBQing with her church out on the beach.
And it was awesome to see multiple people baptised out in the (chilly) ocean that evening.
Such a fun, powerful, and creative way to celebrate how God is working in people’s lives.

Caleb having asked about baptism in the past, I was hoping for some good conversation with the boys about it, too.
On the way home I asked Caleb if he saw the baptisms.
“They were boring. They just put people under water.”
Oh well. Maybe later.
Proud of my family and how my sister and her family are so committed to following Jesus in their lives.
It was well worth the 8 hour drives there and back.

“Jesus said to them, “You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with…”
Mark 10:39

“We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”
Romans 6:4

A couple times this summer Missio Dei Community has gotten together at my place for a time of music, prayer, and creativity.  We called it “Dwell,” a time for us to sit with God.  A time to pray together and ask for guidance as we head into the Fall as Missio Dei Community.

Worship through music isn’t something we’ve done a whole lot of since starting as a faith community.
Why? We want to create a comfortable place for anyone to join us and just have good conversation about faith and Jesus.
Let’s be honest.  If you don’t “get” the musical worship thing, 10 people in a circle in a living room singing Kumbaya seems a little weird. (FYI – we don’t actually sing Kumbaya. The songs are much better than that.)
As one respected leader once said to me, “Remove as much as the freak factor as possible.”

That being said, it’s also a huge part of who I am as a leader and who we are as followers of Jesus.
It’s a way for those of us who follow Christ and/or love music to connect to God.
And this seemed like an appropriate season to spend some time in prayer together.

We’ve been trying to incorporate more creative ways of connecting to God for people, too.
We’ve been spreading art supplies and altered books materials around the room for people as well.
One of my favorite parts about last month was my friend Todd joining us.
He ended up with my old job as a music teacher at Ceiba.
He grabbed an old 2nd guitar we have in the house and played along.
A little bit later he moved over to the piano and followed along on that.

With some people singing, and others doing art around the room, it created a really cool relaxed participatory feel.
So much worship music at churches today is about presentation, and it was fun to be able to freely express our prayers through different mediums and instruments without feeling the need to “rehearse” beforehand.
My friend Kevin recently described our community’s worship through music as being less like a concert and more like a campfire.
I like that. Stickin with it.
I’m looking forward to doing it again this weekend as we pray for our community as we launch into a new season of ministry this fall.
Feel free to join us.

How about you?
Just out of curiosity…musical worship, makes sense and you love it or not your thing and aren’t feeling the group karaoke?
I’d be especially interested to hear from my friends who don’t go to church regularly but have experienced it about what your perception was/is.

A few days ago I posted this video from Alan Hirsch on Facebook.
His and Frost’s book The Shaping of Things to Come has had a big influence on my and my dreams for the Church and my ideas for a local faith community.
If you didn’t get to see it, it’s well worth the watch:

Alan Hirsch: Communitas, not Community [VERGE 2010 Video] from Verge Network on Vimeo.

My original intent in posting it in relationship to Missio Dei Community is the Communitas idea of being on mission together.
Of being Comrades.
Of having each other’s backs.

But closely tied to that is what he has to say about safety vs. danger.
It’s a conversation I’ve had with several friends recently.
One of my least favorite cliches I hear in church land…

“The safest place to be is in the center of God’s will.”

Ugh.
Bull.
Best place, absolutely.
But I usually hear this in terms of not having to face challenges, peril, or even death.
Try telling that to the Apostle Paul…

 I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. 24 Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones,three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, 26 I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. 27 I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked.
2 Cor 11:23-27

The movement of Jesus was one that was subversive.   ALL of Jesus’ inner circle were killed for what they believed.
I hear people talk about the culture having too much influence on the Church instead of vice versa.  It usually revolves around some moral hot button issue.
But I’m way more concerned by the influence the consumer culture and the American dream have had on the movement of Christ.
The idea that Jesus wants us all to live comfortable middle class lives with a nice house and a nice car is bogus.
(I know…easy to say from a middle class faith leader with a nice home and nice car.  The irony isn’t lost on me.)

But I really believe that Jesus isn’t all that concerned about our safety, security, comfort, or convenience.  In fact, if you’re feeling really comfortable in life, I’d challenge you to consider if you’re really stepping out in faith and allowing Jesus to show up.
It’s not very comfortable.
When we left a fairly good paying, secure job at a church over 3 years ago to raise support, take side jobs, and start a new faith community with a couple of people in our living room, I was actually kinda surprised by how many people didn’t get it and thought we were nuts.  Then again, I guess we kinda are.
It’s been the most challenging thing I’ve ever done, and continues to be.  There have been lots of discouraging times and hurts along with some amazing victories and valuable relationships.
Looking back and seeing God show up at every junction has been amazing.

I think I’m starting to ramble.
What’s my point?
I’m not sure.
(Communication 101: know your desired outcome/central purpose from word 1. Fail.)
Except maybe to say that I really don’t think Jesus is that concerned about our safety and comfort.
How that plays out for each of us will look a little different.
But when we start to make safety a core value of the Gospel, we inadvertently remove most of the heart and power of the Kingdom that Jesus proclaimed.
Without risk, there’s not a whole lot of need for faith or God.
And usually that means getting pretty uncomfortable.

Last month we had a great conversation about art & faith.  I posted a recap over here on our church blog.

Tonight we’re getting together to talk about resting.
Sabbath.
Or as I like to say, creating margin in our lives.
Ever seen a paper that looks anything like this?

Margin is the white space between the writing and the edge of the page.
As trusty Wikipedia says, it defines where the test starts and stops.
When I think of my life as a page, I know I have the tendency to want to fill up every last white space I can.  That’s the most efficient way, right?  Then I get the most use out of it!
Except when a page doesn’t leave any margin, not only is it ugly, it’s nearly impossible to read.
In a Twitter age, it’s bad enough if you expect anyone to read more than 140 characters.

I want margin in my life.
When I don’t have it, it effects my family life.
My work quality.
My spiritual depth.

I need margin in my life.
I think we all do.
Tonight, we’ll see who agrees with me.
And hopefully brainstorm some of the enemies of margin and consider how we can win some back.
Disagree? Feel free to come and be the contrarian.
Seriously though, all are welcome. You’re invited. 

In the meantime (or after the fact), do share…
What are some of the enemies of rest and margin in your life?

Pride goes before destruction,
    and haughtiness before a fall.
-Proverbs 16:18

Confession time.  I used to think I was pretty awesome.
Maybe it’s being on stage and having an audience.
Or maybe my mom just told me I was wonderful too much growing up.
At any rate, I was pretty sure I could do anything.
But then…

There is nothing like trying to start a missional church to make you feel humble.
There is nothing like marriage and realizing your shortcomings as a husband to make you feel humble.
There is nothing like trying to be a good father as your kid yells about how you don’t understand to make you feel humble. 
There is nothing like trying to accomplish DIY projects at the house to make you feel humble.
There is nothing like teaching middle schoolers to remind you how uncool and old you are…and make you feel humble.
There’s nothing like a hike in the Santa Cruz mountains through God’s incredible creation to make you feel really small and humble. 

So what I wanna know is, if pride comes before a fall, is the opposite true as well?
When you get to the point where you feel like a failure and a loser, does that mean great things are coming?
I sure hope so!

How about you?
What do you have to remind you that you aint all that and a bag of chips?
Or maybe you are.  In which case, nevermind. And you should host a seminar.

Facebook killed the blogger star.
I used to have a blog.
I guess technically I still do, but for all practical purposes…I don’t.

I’ve been pondering this lately.
And I think for myself, Facebook really has had a lot to do with that.
Sure, there are other excuses.  I’m in a season of life where I have less time.
Ok, well at least one.
But let’s be honest.  I still waste plenty of time on Facebook.

It started slowly with Twitter.
I jumped onboard, and we could all shoot out 140 characters at a time.  So much quicker to look at.
In a microwave age, that was easy to buy in to.
But there is something about Twitter that wouldn’t allow it to quite replace a blog.
I haven’t put my finger on exactly what it is that makes Facebook so much more powerful, but Twitter really is like the gateway drug to Facebook.
At least it was form me.
Maybe it’s cause on Facebook, everything is right there in one place.  The pictures.  The updates. The “likes.” I’m so glad they got rid of pokes. (They did get rid of pokes, right?)

But the truth is, you just can’t process and share in any real depth on Facebook.
I’m not sure why on that one either.
Maybe it’s that we got used to scrolling as quickly through posts as possible, so if I have to push “see more”, well, it better be really good.

But I miss my blog.
Therefore, it isn’t dead.
As Miracle Max would say, it’s mostly dead. There’s a big difference between mostly dead and all dead.   Mostly dead is slightly alive.

And so I’ll attempt (again) to resurrect the blog.
I might need to mostly give up Facebook for a while to do it.
But not sure if I can do that.  So we’ll see.
Ugh, I really am a junkie.  I need help.
Blogging, not dead.
RSS feed, that’s pretty dead I think.
So at the very least, you’ll see the notifications on Facebook.  Cause that may be the only way I get any traffic.

Anyone else still blogging?
I look forward to sharing more, and communicating more.
Hope you’ll join me.
Feel free to resurrect your own blogs with me.
We can start a movement.
We can call it…blog zombies.

Caleb got a kids video camera from grandma and grandpa for Christmas.
We all told him we could make him a website to post the pictures he takes so grandma and grandpa and everyone else can see them.
As you can see from the video below, I think he’s ready to start blogging!

I think Rachel is making him a Blogger account as I type this.

I’ve been up since 5am this morning.
You’ll see why in a minute.
But that gave me lots of time to think, read pray, etc.
All my thoughts tend to culminate in the shower.  Is that weird?
Anyway, one of my goals this year is to significantly increase my blogging.
As those thoughts were culminating, thought I’d dump em here in case you’re even slightly interested.
A peek in my brain today:

• Thinking of writing a fairly controversial blogpost after reading some news stories this morning.  One that may disturb friends on both sides of issues.  Not ready to open that can of worms yet, so I’ll leave it at that.
• Probably not the best post to start the New Year with…thus, a mind dump post.
• Thinking about issues makes me realize I should send some apologies to a few friends from my past.
•  Inspired  to get some blog posts up at the Missio Dei Community blog.  Need to get on that.
• Had some good ideas I want to jump on for our monthly “Spiritual Conversation” with Missio Dei Community at the end of this month.
• Need to stage some numbers in my head before Bye Bye Birdie rehearsal tonight so I can zip through em in our limited rehearsal time.
• But I have professional development for half the day.  That’s gonna fill my time.
• Speaking of, need to get my final lesson plans and materials together for my sub on Monday & Tuesday while I’m at school.
• Need to work on lesson plans for the next semester.
• Why do I have so much trouble not doing this stuff further ahead of time after all these years of trying to get better at not procrastinating.
• Maybe I should get up early more often.  Fell more motivated this morning than usual.
• Oh yeah, I got up early to make my wife breakfast before she left for work at 6am…cause it’s her birthday.

So the point at the end of that…while there’s a lot I want to get done, most of it will need to be pushed to some other time cause my priority today needs to be celebrating my amazing wife.
She is so worth celebrating and more important than just about any other task I can think of.
Last thought: I better get to work so I don’t get ANOTHER speeding ticket today.

Have a good day y’all.
And wish my wife a Happy Birthday.

Dear Caleb,

I’m writing this to you the day after Thanksgiving.
You probably won’t remember a lot about last night.  I’ll probably forget details over the years, so here’s something for you to read years from now to hear the story, and something to help friends and family share in your journey today.

Last night, we read the story about John baptizing Jesus, which led to you asking lots of questions about baptism; what it means, why we do it, whether or not we have to do it.  And of course that you aren’t sure you want to do it, probably cause of your aversion to ever getting any water on your face.  As a dad it is so awesome to hear you ask questions and have these discussions.
Of course that led to talking about the step before baptism, which is choosing on our own to trust and follow Jesus.

Baptism and Lordship is hard enough to explain to an adult.
I’ve always been unsure how to approach my kid choosing to follow Jesus, baptism, all that stuff.  I want to be sure you can really understand it before you make those decisions.
So we talked about what it means to trust Jesus.  I asked if it was something you might want to do someday.
“Um, I could probably do that tonight, or tomorrow, or next week…pray to God.  That doesn’t sound too hard.”
So, I asked if it was something you wanted to try doing tonight.
“Well, it is past our bedtime, so maybe I should do it tomorrow.  Be sure to remind me, OK dad?”
I said that was a good idea.  Take time to think about it more and we could talk more tomorrow.
After I prayed for you and Micah before bed, you said you wanted to pray tonight.
So I invited mom to come upstairs.
We asked you what it was that you understood.  You went on to tell us that you believe in God, that Jesus is God, and that he died to take away your sins.  And that you want to trust him and follow him.

From there I asked if you wanted me to pray and you could repeat after me.
That got a sideways thumb slightly turned down. Translation: kinda OK, but kinda not.
So I asked if you wanted to pray yourself and I could help you if you got stuck or wanted.
Your thumb went slightly upward.
So you laid your head on your pillow and clasped your hands together.
Mom and I were both sitting in silence, waiting for you to start talking.
Then I look down at you with your eyes closed, quite intent, and your lips slightly moving, and I realized you were talking to God all on your own.
Then you looked up cause you were done.
I asked if you prayed to God on your own.
You pointed to your head with a big smile and said, “Yup! In here!”

It’s interesting for mom and I to process faith and all.
Truth be told, we’re not so sure there’s a whole lot different than yesterday at this time.  Really, you already have been understanding who Jesus is and believing in him.  You probably aren’t any more “spiritual” than you were before.
But there’s a significance in voicing that understanding and making a decision…even at 6 years old.

You have a long spiritual journey ahead of you.
Right now, you haven’t had much to challenge your faith.  Those times will come.  You will doubt what you’ve learned.  And that’s OK.  You will go through difficult seasons.  You will have to confront and wrestle with real issues and questions of faith.
Your faith will be strengthened at times.  You will continue to see God do things that you know can only be him.  You will see his faithfulness to your family and to you.
The good stuff, the bad stuff, these are all things that will really make your faith your own over time.  And as much as I want control over what that will look like, only God can fully participate in that journey with you.
But wherever your path takes you over the next 60 years, we’re grateful that you can always look back to Thanksgiving, 2012, as perhaps the first significant milestone in figuring out who God is, and how you become the bold leader that I believe He has called you to one day become.
While I’m not sure it greatly changes your relationship to Jesus since yesterday, it is significant in beginning to walk with Christ.
Thanks for sharing that with dad.
It’s something I’ve looked forward to since before you were born.
And I can’t wait to be a part of helping you process faith for many years to come.

-dad