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I have a pretty particular taste in preaching style and, while I certainly have not mastered the manufacture of that style when I have an opportunity to speak, I am always looking for preachers online who have that “it” factor… the kind of interesting, logical, biblically supported, relevant, unabashed style that gives you loads of insight that you never discovered and leaves you wanting loads more. I do really like Andy Stanley of North Point Community Church and Francis Chan of Cornerstone Church but, until this week, I only really noticed that special factor in two communicators… Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church and Brian Hunter of GenesisChurch.tv.
But this week, I stumbled upon a speaker that really appeals to my taste and challenges my ideas in a way I haven’t found in a while. Jerry Gillis of The Chapel at CrossPoint in the Buffalo, NY area seems to have a genuine heart for the Word and people of God, as well as a mature, reverent, practical understanding of scripture. I followed a link that someone had posted in a forum and found myself listening to a message from Gillis’ recent series, “Elephants in the Church”. I can’t seem to stay away from change and controversy and the pursuit of a fresh approach, so this set of sermons on difficult, avoided topics in the church was right up my ally. The content of the series made me recall the past Genesis series, Politically Incorrect, though the messages don’t really deal with the same issues. Gillis covered evolution, gender roles, homosexuality, alcohol, divorce, and hell using good, biblical arguments and a humble, conversational manner that kept me listening and got me thinking.
You are, as always, welcome to disagree, but I think that this guy is very good. Honestly, his style reminds me a lot of Ben Liles of GenesisChurch.tv. What else can I say? I love it. Check him out below and tell me what you think.
Like him? Check out the full series and many other videos HERE.
I AM ENGAGED!!!
That’s right folks… I popped the question to my lovely girlfriend Jacqueline on Friday night and am now affianced! I love her so much and can’t wait to marry her. We’re looking at a Summer 2010 wedding and details will, of course, be provided as they come available.
The engagement evening itself was pretty special as well, I think. Jackie knew that the question was coming soon and, naturally, I wanted to surprise her. So I was very sneaky about getting the ring assembled (separate stone and setting/mount), meeting her father to ask permission, and even making the evening special. I made the evening great without tipping her off by using the camouflage of her birthday! I took her to the restaurant where we had our first real date, wore an outfit strikingly similar to that which I wore on that first date night, and took her to the park where our relationship really began. We walked the sidewalk that follows the edge of the lake for a few minutes, stopped to open her birthday presents (which she loved!), and then finished the lap around the lake.
At this particular park, Jackie and I have a tree that we call our own. It is a great tree that we have talked, cuddled, and kissed at since the outset of our relationship and I knew that that was where I wanted to ask her to marry me. Of course, as my luck would have it, there was a kid climbing on our tree as well as a group of cigarette smoking teenagers standing a few feet away… So, I asked Jackie to go try to get the kid off of the tree while I put the birthday gifts back in the car (and, unbeknownst to her, retrieved the ring). The kid finally felt uncomfortable enough and ran off and Jackie and I assumed our position at our tree. I could tell that she was tired and ready to go home. I commented on how great an evening it had been. She agreed and smiled that beautiful, sleepy smile that she wears so often. I began to tell her that I had taken her to the restaurant where we had our first real date for a reason… that I brought her to this park and to this tree for a reason… I told her that I loved her and I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her. “Will you marry me, Jackie Redd?”
Almost immediately she was wide awake and smiling, crying, saying “yes”, and looking very confused at once! I slid the beautiful ring onto her left ring finger and laughed at her surprise. “How… but I thought… but you said…” Sentences failed her for a few minutes as she grappled to figure out how I had pulled this off without her knowing. The smoking teenagers began applauding and a random jogger stopped to ask if he could take our picture. We retrieved Jackie’s camera from the car as she asked me question after question about how in the world I had tricked her. She affectionately called me a jerk for engaging in said trickery and accompanied me back to the tree for a couple of photos, taken by one of the teenagers. We smiled, kissed, embraced, and gushed romantic words for the next several minutes before deciding to head home (her house) to show her parents. We texted and called friends and family and updated online social networks until we couldn’t stay awake any longer. My cheeks hurt from involuntarily holding such a big smile for so long. The perfect night closed with a final kiss and the exchange, “Good night, fiance”… “Good night, fiancee”. It had been the one day that she wouldn’t have expected the proposal… and it was perfect.
In her parents' foyer before dinner
On her parents' porch swing before dinner
At our tree, just after I proposed
I’m reading, this morning, from Psalm 73. There are days when I digress from the beaten path of scheduled readings and simply flip my Bible open. Where it lands may be luck or chance… but maybe it’s God… And the lessons that I often learn in those moments of wandering through the Word take on a unique importance for me. Because I’m not searching but find wisdom anyway, I feel that I’ve been guided to a message that God Himself prepared for me… And for a seeking, planning, structure-loving guy like me, that is something special.
So, having arrived at Psalm 73, I am challenged by it’s message. In short, it demonstrates that integrity pays off. I’ve heard countless pastors and assorted church folk talk about integrity as the distinction between true Christ-followers and religious actors. I’ve heard integrity defined as “doing what’s right just because it’s right”. This integrity may be lumped in with “character”, which I’ve heard defined as “what you do when no one is watching”. Webster contributes such concepts as honesty, moral uprightness, internal unity, consistency, and lack of corruption to the mix. It all sounds great to me. So what is the psalmist whining about?
At the outset, we find Asaph (the psalmist) recalling a time of ignorance and confusion in his life. For all his integrity and self-satisfaction and ability to sleep at night, he is upset that those who aren’t “playing by the rules” always seem to win. He doubts the wisdom of his decision to live in righteousness since he feels that only the cheaters win and only the ruthless rule. Their success, wealth, and power are constantly displayed before him and he begins to envy them… begins to wonder why he is even wasting his time trying to do the right thing. He feels betrayed by God, though he doesn’t express this feeling publicly. The Message interprets his frustration in these words:
“What’s going on here? Is God out to lunch? … I’ve been stupid to play by the rules.
What has it gotten me? A long run of bad luck… a slap in the face every time I walk out the door.”
The fact is, the way of the world was starting to get to Asaph. Sinful, human default says to amass whatever you can at the expense of others, follow your own plans and desires, and do only the minimum necessary to skate by. And though the psalmist knew that this was wrong, he wondered why God allowed disobedient people to get ahead and enjoy success with such regularity. Had he been forgotten? … or simply ignored?
Did I mention that Asaph was a worship leader, like me? He didn’t speak about his internal struggle publicly because he would have negatively influenced the thoughts of the people that he led. He silently battled for understanding and, in looking at the situation through the lens that took only immediate wins and losses into account, he could not make sense of it. It has been said that to look at the things of God through the world’s lens is only confusion, but to look at the world through the lens of God’s Word is understanding. For all his musical talent and leadership skills and prophetic abilities, Asaph had the same doubts and difficulties that everyone else has!
I can relate to Asaph and I can certainly identify with the circumstances by which all of his concerns were dissolved and all of his anger dismissed.
“When I tried to figure it out, all I got was a splitting headache…
Until I entered the sanctuary of God. Then I saw the whole picture.”
I’ve tried, many times, to make sense of things in my own way. I’ve tried, more times than I care to recount, to do things my own way. My foolishness is always made plain in the light of God’s Spirit. All of that time wasted looking at life from a perspective that doesn’t account for God’s justice and favor becomes obviously childish and my eyes are opened to the faithfulness of God to honor those who do His will… and to judge those who do not.
As you worship God today, begin to see the “whole picture”… Find strength and encouragement in the knowledge that He will reward your integrity in His time and in His way… and He will not allow the actions of the unjust to go unchecked. Don’t let the success of cheaters, liars, thieves, and other ruthless people get you down. Your success is eternal and your God is sovereign. Amen.
What’s up gang?! I am proud to report that I am now coming to you from a Macbook Pro! 1A was having a lot of trouble with two of our computers. Since media and technology falls under my Worship Arts Department (I sometimes wonder if Creative Arts Department would be more appropriate considering the span of “non-spiritual” hats that I wear!), I was responsible for finding a solution. With 1A’s vision for the near future in mind, I wanted to suggest a step toward increased efficiency, quality, and longevity… so, naturally, I recommended an Apple. 
– I was able to find everything we needed and so much more at a very fair price. Thanks to the foresight and agreeable assistance of the board of trustees and lead pastor, 1A is now set with a good foot toward our plans and I’m thrilled to be a part of the early steps of this process.
In other news, my dad, along with several volunteers from the congregation, is working on the construction of a youth facility on 1A’s campus. The enclosure of a pole barn behind the main building will provide a new structure to house the Student Ministry and Royal Rangers meetings. Thankfully, the completion of this project will finally open up an unshared workspace for me. Working out of the so-called “Sunday school office” has sufficed for the last couple of months but I am ready to get back into my own office. Also, I look forward to the efficiency that can be gained by restructuring the Sunday school office to be more of a volunteer base camp. Several of the volunteer department directors lack ample personal equipment to fulfill their necessary and desired tasks so opening up the space by removing clutter and equipping it with a couple of desktop computers with word processing and printing capabilities will be a great win, I think.
In older, as yet unreported news, I have my own place here in Perry, now. I’m leasing a two bedroom, one bathroom house from a family friend for the next year or so. Features of the home include a car port, sizable deck, boat/RV port, laminate wood flooring throughout, and great location. I am just a couple of blocks north of downtown Perry, less than a mile from work/church, and only a few minutes from restaurants, supermarkets, and family. I’ve settled in nicely and made the house my home with the help of my incredible girlfriend, Jackie, and other friends and family. I am probably proudest of my living room, furnished with a cool green ensemble that I purchased from my “Tallahassee parents”, Piney and Michelle DeVeas. It’s tied together with a neat, abstract area rug and accented with art and decorative shelves that Jackie contributed to the cause. My flair for all things creative led to a very functional, yet very minimalistic, clean, trendy setup. It’s a place of structure and comfort that really has become home to me over the last month.
Snippets of other information might include that I am playing church league softball with 1A, my FSU diploma finally arrived, and I am thrilled to finally be making headway in paying down my credit cards and still staying afloat in my bills with ample recreation. In this economic atmosphere, I feel blessed to have a job at all, much less the rewarding, challenging one that I have. God is great.
In a final note for this edition of CBB2B Catching Up, I am really happy with the way things are going with the 1A Worship Arts Deparment. With the addition of this Mac running Pro Presenter 3, presentations are going to be better and simpler than ever. Sound has improved tremendously since my arrival through new equipment purchases (drum enclosure, drum mics, in-ear monitors, etc…) and tweaking and direction from the great Steve Vickery of GenesisChurch.tv (whom I often refer to as “my sound guru”). – On top of that, the 1A Band (Max, Rebekah, and I) has had increasing efficiency and effectiveness from week to week. I almost feel that a plateau is inevitable, and while I know that it would allow time to prepare for what comes next, I am not ready for the changes to slow down! I would love nothing more than to go ahead and add two to three more people to the the 1A Band, begin recording and editing audio and video, train more service team members for the multimedia and sound teams, and get marketing and web presence up overnight! — But I don’t want to go with what I want. As much as I love the initial progress that I have seen and want to see it continue, uninterrupted, I know that the plateau that I sense approaching would do us some good. I’m just praying for God’s will to be done and for my acceptance of it when it is revealed.
