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I know I haven’t posted in a while so I’ll jump right in…
So much and so little has happened since I last came to you. I stay busy with my work at 1A and with running back and forth between Tallahassee and Perry seeing my super hot hottie fiancee’. 
– But on the whole, nothing is really new… Here are a few things of some interest, though…
Over the months of July and August, I spearheaded a couple of intergenerational worship projects in concert with Pastor David and the rest of the great staff here at 1A. We are fairly middle-of-the-road in our typical worship experiences… Tomlin, SONICFLOOd, Brewster, and Hillsong with some slightly diluted United and Desperation Band mixed in. While this tends to work well for most, I am aware that there are those among us who have difficulty transcending musical style in worship. Some of these desire hymns and country gospel music while others would like to see more of the cutting edge, guitar driven worship that is exemplified by Hillsong United. While these may seem to be the extremes of church music, I am quietly thankful that our membership’s preferences do not reach all the way from Gregorian Chant to Christian metal music like that from Disciple, Underoath, and Demon Hunter. Still, we saw a need to express our commitment to both outlying groups.
Drawing from an experience at Encounter Community Church, we evidenced our commitment to the well being of our older congregants by holding a one-time, Sunday night, special service called “Vintage”. This experience at the end of July featured traditional music including “I’ll Fly Away”, “I Surrender All”, and “It Is Well With My Soul”. To increase the perception of the service as a special, atypical, just-for-you offering, we did some marketing for the event, invited a few guest musicians to sit in for the night, and even dressed in the traditional, “Sunday best” fashion.
Our foil to this service came at the end of August and was entitled, “Engage: A Modern Worship Experience”. For this event, we aimed to please the younger generations’ taste in worship by cranking up the mains, using colored lighting effects, and playing a set that included electric guitar driven songs from Fee and United as well as intensely passionate slower pieces that would drive hands into the air and hearts into the light. For this event, we invited guest musicians again, but also a guest speaker from a local, modern church. We marketed the event to the middle and high school aged youth in our county via invite cards in the hands of our student ministry attenders and to the general public via the local newspaper and word-of-mouth.
Both events came off very well and achieved the intended effect. Both experiences prompted several people to request that we begin to do one or the other of the events on a regular basis (weekly, monthly, etc…). But more importantly, both services accomplished the greatest goal that we could have hoped for. In all of this planning, our essential vision was intergenerational worship. While this looked like an appeasement for each group, it served the greater purpose of exposing the entire congregation to the preferences of some subset of the congregation. The younger generations loved Engage… but they also had fun with the hillbilly beats of the faster music in Vintage and worshiped as though they didn’t even realize that some of the slower songs were even hymns. The older generations loved Vintage… but they gained a great appreciation for the modern worship style once they were able to see it in action… to see that it was not sinful worldliness brought into the church, but passionate praise with the same integrity as the oldest of hymns… albeit to an unfamiliar tune. And while neither of these experiences is planned to be offered on a regular basis, the combined effect of those two Sunday nights has forged a greater unity and respect between generations… a greater understanding that worship of God transcends personal preferences… and that understanding is the very foundation for intergenerational worship.
Also, this past Sunday was First Assembly’s homecoming service. Some people have trouble understanding the purpose of homecoming in a church while others regard it as a nearly sacred institution of the church. We sought to bring clarity by including explanation in our marketing of this event. We expanded the scope of our invite card marketing and added a local radio advertisement to the already effective newspaper public service announcement. The effect was apparent as there were tons of new faces in the crowd. Our purpose was to celebrate the heritage of the church and the sacrifices of past generations while looking forward to the future… being challenged by our great history to pursue an even greater future. If I could suggest one thing from the experiences of Vintage and Homecoming, it would be to make sure that you always use your regressive glimpses of tradition to encourage motion toward your vision. Never let the past be so glorified that it dims the hope or excitement for the future. Be trailblazers… not museum keepers.
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Anyway, that is enough for now. I’m looking forward to my wedding day (around 40 weeks from now!) and everything else that awaits me in the coming days. Keep me in your prayers as I strive to be a better partner, leader, and Christ-follower.
God bless,
— A
Good luck… I make my own luck… I don’t believe in luck… Lucky break, lucky stars, lucky numbers, getting lucky, lucky charms, luck be a lady, luck of the Irish, luck, luck, luck, luck, luck…. What is it? Does it even exist? The Word says that that the rain falls on the just and the unjust but doesn’t it seem that some people get the sprinkles while others get the hurricane? Don’t get me wrong, I do believe in God’s ability and desire to favor those who do his will, but I can’t get my mind off this culturally ingrained idea of luck… chance… fate.
Maybe that has something to do with the horrible “luck” I’ve had this week! – From my car breaking down on the side of I-10 on Saturday to locking myself out of my house later that night to breaking the side mirror on a borrowed truck yesterday, this has just not been my week! It makes me question whether the old cliche “everything happens for a reason” is really true or if there really are some things in life that just happen.
Do I believe that every little action that each person makes is designed by God? Wouldn’t that destroy the notion of free will? And if everything happens for a reason, would that predestination of fortune, decision, and action make God more or less just? I can’t imagine a reality wherein I never make a surprising decision or a world where every exchange is scripted beyond amendment… A life where there is no God beckoning confused people to choose Him or calling saints to take action for the furtherance of His Message that some may decide to follow Christ. I think that life is, sometimes, simply forged from happenstance, motives and decisions, and the overriding power of God to create and compel and judge and love whomever and whatever he wishes.
The driving point is that God, being a gentle and honorable sovereign, doesn’t force himself on anyone. Rather, he uses creation to influence creation. We decide whether to focus our attention on the church membership or the broken, sinful, searching people outside our walls. We decide whether to acknowledge or ignore the broken, sinful, searching parts of ourselves and the people sitting around us on Sunday morning. We decide whether to stand in our air conditioned, well furnished churches and pray for God to bless the indigent people in our community or to become that blessing and to take the compassion of Christ (with no strings, gospel tracks, or behavioral expectations attached) to those people. We decide whether or not to value light skin over dark or rich over poor. We decide whether the Kingdom of God is about more than our personal preferences. We decide whether to let minor annoyances ruin our day and whether to let someone else’s attitude affect our own. We decide who and what is important enough to warrant forgoing our own plans and desires. At the end of the day, the decisions that comprise our lives are ours to make. God is not absent in this process. By the influence of His Spirit on earth, he urges us toward truth, mercy, compassion, peace, fairness, and humility.
So what does that have to do with luck? Decisions do not happen in a vacuum. The plans and actions that we make and take are influenced from every direction. Perhaps, within this complex web of interacting thoughts and actions, uncertainty fabricates anomalies that we call luck. Or maybe luck really is a God-designed product of the the ever-changing symphony of decisions that only He can comprehend. In any case, I am reminded of a great scene from “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”. Check it out below… and for heaven’s sake, pray that my week will improve. For the results of prayer aren’t chance at all, but the glorious evidence of God’s power to intervene in the chaos whenever he so chooses.
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.
The sixteen dollar word in the title is probably the characteristic of the “ideal church” that I find most challenging to manufacture. Due to the multi-generational composition of our current congregation @ 1A, I’ve been studying up, a bit, on the subject, hoping to get some insight that will make both my worship leadership and my administration in this modernization of our operations more effective.
I understand that the wisdom (and let’s be honest… the checkbooks) of the more chronologically advanced individuals in the church is necessary. I also understand that the youth of the young is vital, if only logically, to sustain the existence of the church. But how on earth are we supposed to appeal to all ages, especially if we are trying to do so simultaneously?
The materials that I have read, thus far, all seem to promote an atmosphere of variety. Two sample suggested solutions were:
- Use many different types of music or even different bands.
- Make sure that every service team has members that represent every age group in the church.
And while I am aware that this method has proven effective in some churches, I have to admit that I don’t fully understand its success or understand how to make it work in our situation.
People have opinions… People like and dislike things in life… People have different passions, different callings, different gifts, and different levels of spiritual maturity… – The compulsion to develop a ministry that includes all of these individuals is perfectly understandable, of course. The apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9:22 that he became all things to all people (NKJV), tried to find common ground with everyone (NLT), or became just about every kind of servant you can think of (Message) in his efforts to bring whoever he could to belief in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But I have to admit that I question the effectiveness of this approach as an organizational strategy in the modern church.
If, in college, I had decided to major in, not one or two related fields, but five to ten unrelated disciplines, I’d have had much more difficulty in my pursuit of greatness and academic success. The difference is like determining what your interests, values, and skills are and then selecting the best option for you versus simply going into college without evaluating yourself at all and declaring majors in history, accounting, Russian, computer programming, interior design, dietetics, chemical engineering, dance, meteorology, and psychology. Only the very best of students could accomplish anything at all in taking on such a task and only the most dedicated scholars would even be slightly interested in being a part of such a broad program of studies.
My point is that, with the advent of globalization (and indeed, since the era of imperialism), adding multi-culturalism to the mix, and the widening of the gap between the experiences of different generations, it simply seems inefficient to use a fragmented multi-style of ministry in the hope of reaching everyone. It’s like Paul had the standard field and rules in a game of baseball… but by now, when we are covering the field, someone has come along and added several dozen more bases and changed the rules so that a batter can run in any direction and to any base he chooses. The punchline? — We just can’t cover all of the bases…
… At least not the way that we’ve been trying to do it. I am in no way suggesting that people should stop trying to relate to and reach everyone possible, the way Paul did. People should… But I’m feeling, more and more, that churches that desire to thrive in their God-ordained vision just can’t… at least not the way they’ve been trying to.
I believe that your church can be intergenerational… if you only have and only want mature believers. I have seen churches where devout, impassioned young adults truly worship and grow alongside older generations in a traditional setting/style and I have seen churches where visionary, spiritually mature senior adults worship and grow alongside younger generations in a contemporary setting/style. But if you only have these mature believers who are able to worship God regardless of the circumstances and conditions of the music, speaking style, infrastructure, or decor, are you really following Paul’s example anyway?
Recently, I posted concerning consumerism in the church. At that time, I was addressing the need for excellence in the operations of the church due to the expectations of the mal-churched and the un-churched. But to achieve that excellence, you must know who you are and who you aren’t. You must evaluate your God-given passion and calling to find out where you fit and who you’re supposed to be reaching. Who needs you most? Who do you feel that God is affecting, through your ministry, on the greatest level?
As much as so many church workers hate it, the institutional church is a business. It absolutely must also be a welcoming community of faith and a school of biblical knowledge, but a church that desires to reach anyone who is not already in attendance is a church that must employ at least a small measure of business sense.
Who is your target market? –<>– Hint: If you answered “everyone”, you are in that analogical ten major program and I wish you all the best… You have your work cut out for you. –<>– If, however, you are aware that your God-designed personality, calling, and experience creates an area of passion that has a specific style, purpose, target group, etc…, then I believe that you are well on your way to determining what kind of church you are meant to lead.
This can be difficult to wrap your mind around. Am I saying that our goal should not be to reach everyone? Yes and no… I believe strongly that the love of God is intended to save anyone who believes in atonement through Jesus Christ and wholeheartedly desires to follow his example for living. I believe that it is the charge of the Church at large, according to the word of Christ Himself, to take the Message to the entire world and make disciples of all different types of people. But I believe that the individual… and even the individual church/congregation can certainly have a narrower target than “all the world”.
I’m not speaking against missions work now, either… We should do anything we can to assist other bodies of believers just as we should do anything we can to build up and enrich the ministries of fellow individual believers, as I demonstrated in the recent post, 1A: Day One. My statement is simply this:
- The leadership in a church should be in agreement about what the purpose of that organization is and how they plan to effect it. If there is no agreement, leadership may have to be changed. If you are standing alone, stop holding up progress and go find where God wants to use and develop you. — Straight talk…
- The collective effect of all Christ-followers, all over the world, following their personal calling and all churches reaching the market that they feel equipped and impassioned to minister to is, theoretically, the perfect, harmonious fulfillment of the Great Commission and the individual spiritual and institutional health of the Church at large.
We will attract and impact more people when we design our worship experiences to combine parts of their social culture with the leading of the Holy Spirit and the same Gospel that has been around since Christ Himself. The importance and time-sensitivity of our Message is too great to simply keep going and hope they begin to feel guilty enough, get curious enough, or become broken and lonely enough to turn to the church.
We have to customize our methods to fit our market. If that means reading from the King James Bible, decorating with lots of flowers and banners, wearing suits and ties to church, and singing traditional hymns with a pipe organ, so be it… And if that means reading from some other translation, decorating in a retro-modern style, allowing food and drinks in our sanctuaries, wearing jeans and flip-flops to church, and playing rock-n-roll praise music, that’s fine too. Neither way is wrong… It really does depend on who you feel called to reach.
But the experience that I have and the research that I’ve done seems to suggest that you can’t expect to attract unbelievers from all generations with either method. Neither do I believe that the variety that so many articles swear by is truly the answer. In a church that does two traditional hymns and two rocked out, contemporary worship songs per service, has a senior pastor who spits sermons with little substantive content and full of religious jargon and cliches, uses a small group model wherein the groups are fun, age-based, and led by a member of that age group, decorates with artificial flower arrangements, and projects the song lyrics on a large projector screen with colorful, abstract backgrounds, I am going to be incompletely satisfied.
I’d love the contemporary music, the small groups, and technology and style of lyric projection… but I’m going to be dissatisfied with the hymns, the sermons, and the decor. The beautiful thing is that I could still worship through those (perceived) imperfections because I am spiritually mature enough to ignore it and adore God. An un-churched person with my same tastes may not be so gracious.
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Let me tell you a story of two senior adults in a transitioning church… One woman: an excellent giver, clerk of the church, and social hub among the “silver surfers” in that body… One man: a spiritual pillar in the church, groundskeeper, and board member. Both were long-time members and both had long looked for the day when that church would fill up with young families, skeptical college students, and all sorts of people who needed the love and forgiveness of God in their lives.
But after thirty-five years of ups and downs and with only minimal changes in between, the church was dying. Membership and attendance held steady at around ten or fifteen people… Everyone saw the signs and no one knew what to do about it. The pastor left… The denomination determined that either the church would have to change drastically and experience a resurgence under new, authoritative leadership or the doors would be closed and the congregation merged with another one, nearby.
A young, modern pastor was offered the task of effecting this resurgence, by the denomination. He accepted, moved his family to the new city, shared his vision for the church with the membership, and began developing relationships with the people. The decor changed as the banners and flowers were replaced with candles and colored can lights. The music changed as the piano was replaced with a keyboard and the hymns replaced with modern worship music under a new, young worship leader and college-aged band. The messages changed as the pastor began to teach in everyday language with an NLT Bible, sometimes sitting on a stool, rather than shouting his sermons from behind the grand pulpit… which had now been replaced by a much smaller, more mobile lectern. Suits and ties and silver hair were embraced by jeans and flip-flops and hair gel.
Through it all, a sense of community was maintained. Through it all, a remembrance of the vision… the destiny of that church was maintained. — And through it all, our two senior adults exhibited two very different responses.
The man recognized all of this change as the God-given path to reach the dream that the congregation had held for so long… The woman wondered why the pews were sold and replaced with chairs. The man wasn’t crazy about the rock-n-roll worship songs but knew that it was sincere and Spirit-led and that the people that he wanted to find Christ in this church would love it and worshiped God anyway… The woman sat with a scowl and folded arms through every service and tried to force the pastor to bring the hymns back. The man saw the congregation growing and becoming younger and thanked God for answering his prayers as he tried to share his realization with the less satisfied older members of the church… But the woman wouldn’t hear of it. She couldn’t believe that they were spending money to make the church look like a disco or that the pastor never “preached” anymore or that they had changed the name on the sign… and she lobbied her view to whoever would listen, expressing her dissatisfaction and complaining that new pastor had stolen and ruined their church.
And though the young pastor tried everything he knew to satisfy the needs of the older generation, including planning and offering a special service with only hymns and a guest speaker who preached in a traditional style, the woman eventually left the church… The man stayed and experienced the glorious providence of God to raise a dying church from obsolescence to a place of effectiveness and salvation and Christian community once again. The woman found a church that provided her with hymns and had pews and a preacher that stomped and spit, the way she liked, every week… The man continued to be a great leader in the young congregation and poured love, good will, wisdom, and hard labor into the church and its people until his dying day… And the impact that he had on many of those young leaders and parishioners is still evident in their lives today.
That man proved that a church can be multi-generational and that intergenerational worship is possible, no matter the style… That woman demonstrated that some people simply lack the spiritual maturity to see that God isn’t planning to do things their way, this time, and that people really do, often times, simply want what they want and nothing else. The man showed God’s will for us… to be passionate God-lovers who desire to worship him and share his love and grace in whatever setting we find ourselves in. The woman showed us that we do still need churches that are fully committed to a single style of worship. Some people just can’t handle things not being the way that they like them.
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I can understand not wanting anyone to leave your church. I agree that you should make every effort to bring whoever is willing along on your journey toward the vision that God has given you for your church… But we can’t afford to wait too long to reach that dream. There are many dreams to come after we arrive there and much more work and change to go through. The people that your heart is breaking for right now, perhaps people that you’ve never even met, need you to exercise your faith and make the move.
Use different services for different styles if you simply must reach everyone… But know your calling and know your purpose as a church. When the tough decisions have to be made, make them in the knowledge that God gave you a passion and interest in certain people and areas because he wants you to thrive there. Evaluating your options and executing a strategy will eventually become necessary. Don’t be afraid.
We do need the wisdom of the venerable and the energy of the young… But we only need wisdom from the elders if they are spiritually mature and open to the possibility that God’s plan to reach the vision may differ from their own. And we only need the zeal of the youth if their zeal is rooted in a non-circumstantial passion for God and a desire to see him glorified no matter what the worship style is. I believe that that is where intergenerational worship exists… where true worshippers existed in the first place. Beyond that, decide who you’re meant to reach and do all you can to become their perfect church.
The title verse reads like this: “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”.
I have ears… but I can’t hear. I went to the doctor today unable to hear out of my right ear… just a congestion / blockage issue that I’ve experienced several times… And I’m still not quite sure why it was a two-hour visit or how I managed to leave the doctor’s office unable to hear out of my left ear, instead! — But without standing on a soap box in an indictment of incompetent medical services, I do notice a parallel between this situation and the process of culture alteration in a church or business.
In any organization, there are always going to be things that need improvement. There will be methods, policies, and systems that become ineffective, whether due to incomplete foundations from the outset, or because of some shift in skills, resources, or values within the organization or your target market. Change is uncomfortable and it’s easy to fall into avoidance of it, but it is necessary in some situations.
Like my blocked right ear, some things in your operation may already be at the point of dysfunction. Maybe you have several programs or assets that are “banging, flopping, and dragging” as my new Pastor and boss, David Stephens, once put it. If so, you have a responsibility as the director of the organization to, first, assess the need and evaluate the possible solutions, and second, to administer the treatment quickly. The health of your company depends on both the constant observation and evaluation of your operations as well as the swift and confident execution of actions that address the problems that you find.
Most people can accept that notion… When something is broken, you should fix it. Furthermore, I believe that many could agree that the longer you leave a deficiency unresolved, the worse its impact. But what about that left ear?
When everything seems fine in your organization and when nothing crazy is going on, should you avoid change? When things are all pretty good and you have only minor complaints, can and should you bring yourself to upset that equilibrium? — Only if you want to be great.
My friend and mentor, Pastor Ben Liles of GenesisChurch.TV, likes to quote author Jim Collins in saying, “Good is the enemy of great”. Let’s face it… Good feels pretty good. When things are going smoothly and you’re getting by without incident, there isn’t much natural motivation to take action and risk conflict or trouble. But when the personal, God-given passion that I mentioned in yesterday’s post enters the equation, good is never good enough.
Some would say that the doctor just couldn’t leave well enough alone in the case of my left ear. I came in hearing pretty well. I hadn’t had much trouble with it, at least not anything that I couldn’t work out on my own time… But by meddling where there was no immediate problem, a much bigger issue was created.
Maybe they’re right… Maybe the doctor did at least expedite the presentation of hearing trouble in the left ear. But the vision and the intention was to improve my condition and to give me an even greater level of auditory capacity than I came in with. Great intention… Great vision… and even a great plan. The method that was used to attempt to repair a minor, potential problem was the same treatment that worked perfectly on the more problematic right ear. So what happened?
I’m not saying that you’re never going to fail. There will be times when you choose to move when inaction just feels right and you’ll end up creating more conflict and malady than you began with. However, for those who understand that such risk is necessary to truly pursue greatness and fulfillment, there is only earnest prayer and study prior to making the move. Not trying is not an option when you realize that your effectiveness impacts countless lives.
And the knowledge that however badly you manage to mess things up in your well-meaning hunt for your best offering and effort, God is capable and faithful to transform that failure into something useful, provides the support and confidence to dream big and pursue greatness – not for yourself, but for the glory of God and for the salvation of all who will have it by the mercy and grace of Jesus.
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[I wonder if the doctor had all of that in mind? ]
So, today is my first official day in the office at First Assembly. And while some of my time, thus far, has been spent situating my things, other tasks have included setting up a second computer in my temporary office, dismounting a computer keyboard drawer, and framing a slightly comical glamor-shot-like picture of Jesus… on a white horse… in a crown and… is that a cape?! — …riding atop a gloriously lit patch of cumulus clouds. Oh and… yes, he is White with flowing brown hair, too. And no, it wasn’t a joke.
Let me stop right here to give my two cents… I know that some of you would find such an image to be very inspirational and would take offense if anyone dared make fun of this Revelation illustration while others of you would suppress your gag reflex at such a cheesy depiction of our Lord, reaching for the nearest trashcan or box of matches to destroy the eyesore. Is it a difference in taste?
Doubtful… I dare say that some of those who would defend the portrait wouldn’t actually like it, but would feel that, just because it is Jesus, it should be exempt from quality judgement. This fundamental difference in how people look at products and services in the Christian sector, I think, does much to define the difference between churches who are operating in the creative Spirit of God to repackage the Truth in a way that attracts a target audience… and churches who are either still doing it the same way it was done fifty or a hundred years ago or who are using the shotgun method of ministry…- try a little bit of everything and surely something will hit.
What if there really are poor-quality goods and services? What if the evaluative selection that we demand in everyday consumerism is the same consumerism that the un-churched come into our doors with? Maybe it’s time that we begin to realize that there really is such a thing as boring music, impotent preaching, and cheesy art. The rest of the world realized this long ago… And perhaps that’s why the Church, as a whole, has lost touch with the people.
God became flesh in order to die in our place… But while He was flesh, He used the time that He had to model innovation, compassion, leadership, training, delegation, spirituality, and faith. The disciples and the leaders of the early church modeled these as well. Yet, somehow, Christendom has managed to twist that model into traditionalism and entrenched my-way-ism.
The fact is, we are called to be fresh and alive in the creative power of our God… not copy-cats of our grandparents’ religion. In their time, they understood this challenge and became the innovators that they needed to be. Their way was exactly what the world needed… at that time. Now it’s our turn to step up and take the Message of Christ to those who need it most in a way that they can and will accept it.
We are each created by God with a personality and style and passion that is all our own. And why would that be instilled in us except to forge a mission and a vision in our souls to be love in action — not the way someone else does it or the way we’re commanded to by the other members of our respective communities of faith — but in a way that reflects that unique personal flavor that only we can offer. When you operate in your very own style, that passion makes you do everything with greater quality and effectiveness.
Stop settling for less than your calling. Someone out there is depending on your God-inspired creativity to finally make it all click for them. Someone out there is laughing at the outdated church and its glamor-shot Jesus and needs you to find a way to make the Gospel real to them… Find your direction, set your goal, and be intentional about getting there.
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… And be sensitive. At the end of the day, you have to realize that your style is not going to appeal to some people. You must allow those who find things that you think hideous, amazing, to thrive in who God made them to be. Help each other to accomplish your respective goals however you can.
That’s why I spent fifteen minutes framing the picture of glamor-shot Jesus… He isn’t on my bulletin board anymore (so I won’t break out in hives!)… but I did a fellow minister the courtesy of preserving and enhancing something that she considers spectacular. The picture hangs beautifully… across the room and out of my line of sight!
Okay… I have an awful lot of catching up to do and a short amount of time to do so.
So, the Cliff’s Notes version goes something like this:
- I have a new job as the Worship Pastor at First Assembly of God in Perry, FL.
- I transitioned into the new position and out of my former role at GenesisChurch.TV on good terms with the staff and I did not leave as a response to the recent merge. The opportunity was presented before I even knew about the campus merger and only through much prayer and consultation did I accept the new job.
- I will graduate from Florida State in just over a month… SCHWEET!!!
- I’ll be moving (back) to Perry, FL after graduation to work full time at 1A.
- Jackie and I have been together for five months today! She’s incredible and it feels like I’ve known her forever. She’s so supportive and I don’t know what I ever did without her. {Love you, Kiddo!}
I’ll try to get more in about the new job and the move and anything else that comes up in the next few weeks and especially after I am finished with school and back in the office everyday. Hang tight and pray for me, gang. God is leading… I’m just along for the ride.
