What's in a Name?

Well, here we are.  Thirteen years working at a church are behind me. I still have many stories to tell from those years, but not yet.  It's time for some cliche reviews.  What most people want to know.....did I throw the baby out with the bath water? Well first of all now-a-days we simply pull a drain and let the water out. We don't "throw away" water anymore. And that being said, most babies won't fit down the drain so I guess it's not possible. Neither is losing your "religion" when you resign from a job at a church.
I'm not going to tell that story now, but the name of my blog has changed. I own a restaurant and have already collected so many stories to write about.
I decided the first story should be about the name. I have talked about names before, but since we are discussing the genesis of a new adventure, we can discuss the choosing of the name. I suppose it isn't really a discussion since I am writing and you are reading, but in my head it is a discussion.
Salamanders Sports Grill is the name.  My name...David Mander. "Where did the name Salamanders come from?" is the most popular question.  I tell them my last name is Mander.  About 50% can take it from there. The other half stare at me and say..."so where do you get the 'sala'?" Really?
Check out the logo. See the thing that looks like a lizard? It's a Salamander.  At this point the explanation usually goes into an Abbott and Costello routine and I try desperately to change the subject.
I will say that Salamanders was not the first choice. Selecting a name for a business is much like choosing a child's name. Everyone has to agree and you try saying it aloud in a sentence for a week or so. "Lets go to Salamanders!" Nah...too many syllables.
First ideas?  Rookie Sports Grill (rookie as in... first time owners) * Mander Sports Grill (daughters hated that one) * Game Time Grill * Sports & More Grill (more what?) * Home Team Grill * Grillers * Good Times Sports Grill ( that one was dy-no-mite!!!)
Name after stupid name failed and we kept coming back to Salamanders. It finally stuck when we thought about the design of a logo. My next post will be about the evolution of a logo, but that isn't what this post is about.
I own a restaurant. I have a hard time visiting any church after my 13 years working in one didn't end like I thought it should have. I am pretty sure I made it out safely with my faith in people and organized religion scarred, but my faith in God seems ok. I am ready to see what comes next. 

Food Truck Church

The latest craze in food seems to be food trucks. Personally, I don't get it.  I have been to some of the most interesting restaurants around the world, and most places I choose, my friends won't eat with me. I love little hole-in-the-wall places that are locally owned.  Most of them wind up on the dirtiest restaurant segments of the news, but the food is good. So my friends won't venture into a place like that with me, but a food truck pulls up and everyone thinks...how great is this!!! Really? A truck? Just because it serves "gourmet" food, it must be clean.
I remember when the only food truck was Dots on the Dot, the little pick-up truck converted to cafeteria, driving from construction site to golf courses. Of course they didn't cook anything, but they delivered food from a truck. Now we take a converted UPS truck, install a kitchen and people go crazy.
It made me think of a new idea for the church. The Church Truck.
We can take our church on the road. Imagine the possibilities. What if we had church truck events where all the church trucks came to one mall parking lot on a Sunday and people got to choose which truck they went to. You could visit one truck for prayers, another for a fun, comical sermon, and another that serves freshly baked bread for communion. Advertising is everything, so imagine what the trucks would look like. You would need a catchy name, an awesome paint job, and of course great coffee.
Maybe this will be the next big thing for churches. Mobile church.
Now if you think about it for a minute, it's not such a wacky idea. We take the church into neighborhoods. Just like the ice cream trucks, we could play hymns from a speaker on top of the roof so people would know we were coming. Maybe that part is a bit over the top. Forget the hymns.
But the idea of taking the church to the neighborhoods isn't such a bad idea. What kind of truck would you drive?

Join MY Club!

Last week was bike week in Daytona Beach. I saw a motorcycle group on the road all decked out in appropriate motorcycle garb. Leather stuff with metal studs, boots, bandanas, etc.  On their vests was a cross and the name of their "club".  They were a Christian motorcycle club.  This made me think of all the "clubs" and groups we form as Christians.  Christian Skaters, Christian Bikers, Christian Surfers, Christian Business Owners, and many more you have seen.
I thought the only "Christian Club" we needed was the church.
How do these groups form? Do we as Christians get so tired of hanging out with non-Christian people that we have to make our own club exclusive of those who are not Christian? There are complete communities of Christians living apart from the "secular" world. The church calls them Hallelujah communities. Really? I think we used to call those groups cults.
Our church ran a promotion for Superbowl Sunday. If you throw a party and invite your neighbors, you can get a really good deal on 50 wings from a local restaurant. Sounds good? People asked why they couldn't get the deal if they invited all their church friends. Only 2 families participated.
In a leadership meeting, as discussions of events to reach the community took place, the conversation kept coming back to "but what are we doing for OUR people?"
This is where we are as the church today. It seems the church is frustrated with trying to evangelize the world. Let's just get together and talk about how hard it is to be in the secular world. I don't want to join   a motorcycle club with profanity and drinking. It would be too hard to be an example within that group. I know! I will form my own group of Christian motorcyclists. I guess it goes something like that.
As we separate ourselves from the world, the world separates itself from us. I think it is much more difficult to get someone to join the "Christian Biker" club, than the club founded by Christian people who set an example in leadership.
I am a restaurant owner who operates a restaurant as a Christian. It is not a Christian restaurant. (although that would be fun to design a menu for) It is a restaurant with family values and people who pray for the customers every day. You don't have to be a "Christian business" if you are a business run by Christians. One sounds exclusive, the other can be used to evangelize through honest relationships. A friend of mine who runs a missions organization promotes Business as Mission. For one example, in areas where you can't evangelize, they send in business owners who are Christian to buy coffee from farmers in remote areas. The business deals offer them a way to reach people and develop relationships.
We need to re-focus on going out into the community and stop expecting them to come to us. We can't reject the world and then expect them to believe how loving we are. Challenge yourself to go outside the Christian community. Invite a co-worker to Easter services this year. This is one of two times people go to church that normally wouldn't.  Don't put up a bunch of signs and expect them to come. Go and invite them.

Proof Reading

There is a nearly famous phrase (or maybe they are words to a silly song) that says "if I knew you were coming I would have baked a cake".  I can't remember where that is from and I didn't care enough to google it and find out.  It just came to mind as I was thinking about the kind of people that prepare, and the kind of people who don't.  The thing is, baking a cake actually takes quite a bit of time. It's not like "if I knew you were coming, I would have bought a cake from the grocery store and gave it to you."

There is so much more in the "bake a cake" statement than you can imagine. It says I will take the time to make your visit seem important.  How we prepare shows the level of how much we think it makes a difference. 

To put it another way, I had a music professor that made a profound impact on my rehearsal time with this statement: "an amateur will practice until they get it right, but a professional will practice until they don't get it wrong.  Go ahead, take a few minutes to read that again and process it.  It's worth it. 

Anyway, I think you can apply this principle to most things in life. I know people that always use the phrase "it's good enough" which for me translates into "I don't care to spend any more time doing this thing that I am doing because I don't feel it's important enough." Now of course there are some things that don't deserve my best, such as watering the grass. I feel confident in spraying a bunch of water over the lawn that each blade will somehow get the water they need. There is no need to take extra time to cover every square inch of grass with water.

Another example comes from a missions trip I went on. We were supposed to be digging holes to put cement in. In the bottom of each hole, we had to put rock before we poured the cement in. As we went from hole to hole filling them with rock, we noticed one person taking an absurd amount of time putting rock in the hole. As I approached her to see what the problem was, she had placed each rock so carefully that it formed a mosaic artwork, almost too good to lay cement over. The purpose of the rock was to be a foundation, so throwing a bunch of the rock at the bottom was "good enough" to support the cement.

I always thought that the things we do at church are far too important to take lightly. Speaking of lights, I have a pet peeve about light bulbs. I think all the light bulbs in the church should work on Sunday morning.  Having some, or most of the lights isn't "good enough." 

We always rehearse our music. I need to be completely familiar with the song in order to lead others in singing. It doesn't take long to look over the words to the songs and familiarize yourself with them. This is also the same for reading the scriptures. When assigned to read from the Holy Book known as God's Word, or the Bible, we should review the words to become familiar before we say them out loud in front of the church.

What makes it even more important in our church is that the words are on the large projection screen. Everyone is following along. Most are following along as interested listeners, but some are following as editors. They can't help it. They are just made that way. And when we listen to every word spoken by the reader as an editor, we wait for the hard words. Any person's name that isn't Ruth or Mark becomes fun to listen to. The twelve tribes of Heeber-Jack-in the Box.... or something like that. 

This Sunday we followed along as one reader talked about signs and wonders. It appeared as if she lost her place when all of a sudden we heard about the "ridiculous" signs and wonders. I saw people's heads turn to check the words on the screen. "I am sure I don't remember that translation" is what some people were thinking. The correct word was miraculous. Miraculous signs and wonders was clearly written on the screen for all to see. I'm not even sure the person who read this and said "ridiculous" ever realized her mistake. I can tell you by conversations after church many people noticed. 

After a good laugh, it made me think. Why don't people prepare to recite God's word? It happens all the time in our church. You can tell the people who rehearse, and the people who are surprised by the words in front of them. This is one of those things that shouldn't be "good enough".  Sure God has grace for those who make mistakes, but lets not use it up with silly mistakes that can be avoided. (I also know God's grace does not run out so don't send me notes reminding me of that) Don't make a "ridiculous" mistake by reading like an amateur. Take a few minutes and then read like a professional.

Angel Sightings and George Costanza

My church is an Anglican church. That means we are connected somehow to the church of England. But in order to be connected there we connect through an African church. It's complicated, but all of that really isn't what this blog is about. This is about the words Anglican and Angel. You see, most people confuse the word Anglican (an-gla-can) with a made-up word....Angelican (an-gel-eh-can).

It sounds like a church made up from a bunch of angels. The angels church. Better off to be in Los Angeles if you are going to be the angel's church.

Well one thing is for sure... we are not the angel church. You probably are thinking I was going to comment that we are not all good, etc, etc, etc.  Nope.  Not at all.  I mean, sure we are probably not the greatest people, but by worldly standards we are not that bad.  I am referencing the fact that we don't look like angels.

Now, I don't want to get into a debate about whether or not angels are people or beings. The Bible is pretty clear that Angels are specifically created beings by God. They are not people who have died and get their wings to watch over us. Sorry if I ruined that for you but go look it up.  However, even that is not the reason I say we are not the angel church.

Today our Pastor told a wonderful story about a time he went to a church to be mad with God. I guess that doesn't sound like the makings of a wonderful story, but take my word for it....wonderful story.  All of a sudden an angel appeared. Not in church, but in his story. Angels have a habit of appearing all of a sudden. They never seem to approach from far away or walk on in casually. All of a sudden. The next detail struck me as interesting. I have often heard angels described with long flowing hair, but specifically this angel had blonde curly hair.

I thought to myself, how interesting in stories like this, that the hair... in detail... is always remembered. No details on the clothes, height, shoes, skin color, or foreign accent. Just the hair. And of course they always have great hair. Nobody ever describes seeing an angel with no hair,  or even the popular George Costanza haircut. Why can't angels have a buzz cut, or a mullet, or George Costanza hair?

I looked around the church. There were way too many guys that did not qualify for the "angel look" just on hair alone.

We may never be the church of angels, but we still are connected to God. Not by our relationship with angels, an African church, perfect hair, or even the church of England. We connect by our own personal relationship with God.  That's the good news.  Nobody will ever describe an angel having hair like mine.  That's the bad news.  I can live with that. 

Don't Just Sit There!

Well it's been quite a while since I have taken to the keyboard to type. Many months have passed, and many things have happened. I always keep notes, so I still have plenty to write about. I'm a bit behind, but will catch up soon enough.  I was "coaxed" back into writing at today's service at church by the words of a friend.
Since my last blog, I opened a restaurant named Salamanders. It is going well and I have enough stories to write a parallel blog called working at a restaurant... but not yet. I still work at a church. The very same one, New Covenant. Now I work part time for the church, but still lead music on Sundays for two services.

Today was the follow-up to a women's conference held at our church. I am reminded of other such conferences in years past with many good stories, but that isn't what this blog is about. This blog features stuff we say without thinking how it will sound.
A friend of mine who is a missionary spoke in church today. He has a world-famous column he writes for a legitimate audience. One time he wrote about a blunder I made as a worship leader in his column. It was all in good fun, just like this look at his words.
He is a famous author who has written many books dealing with abuse of women. He travels the world leading conferences, and held one right here at my church. To begin the summary of his year in review, he commented on how great the women's conference was. He then asked the ladies..."Show of hands...How many of you were touched this past weekend?" Ok, now maybe it's just me working only part time in ministry and full time in a place that serves alcohol, but that sounded a bit wierd. Sure I know what he meant, but it still sounded a bit odd when talking about how we minister to troubled women.
He then told the story of how he asked God to send him out to be an evangelist. It happened right there in our church many years ago in a conference. He challenged everyone to ask God to send them. He said, "turn to the person next to you and say 'don't just sit there!'" Awesome! I looked around from the production booth to see if everyone was doing this. They followed his directions well! You could see people getting into it. Pointing at each other and emphatically saying "Don't just sit there!"
Then I saw our assistant Pastor.  The only person near to him was one of the Deacons. In a wheelchair. I noticed that they awkwardly exchanged words but I couldn't hear what was said. The Deacon laughed, visibly amused. I knew it was time for me to write again.

What's Important; Part IV The Final Piece

This is the last part of my sermon. It was too long for one blog post, but I did the whole thing as one piece on Sunday morning. I never claim to have any type of special insight, but wanted to share my passion for music and how I use it in my life to glorify God.

My view of church today.
I no longer see worship as just the singing part as I did when I was 5 years old. Of course the songs have a special place in my heart, but Worship is a more complete image for me.  I just talked about the church un-simplified. Now here is my view of Church Worship simplified. I see four elements of a church service that help us in our worship of Christ, as described by many theologians, including Dr. Robert Webber.

1. We gather together and prepare to worship. We come together as described in Ephesians chapter 4. "So Christ himself gave the apostles, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ." But what happens if we don't do that? Paul goes on to say "Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is Christ. (in case you missed who he was talking about) From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does in work." Here Paul uses very specific language that is so detailed. Gather together.

2. We hear God speak. God has much to say for the church, even today. We also hear God speak as we read from scripture. We then listen to God's word interpreted through a sermon. This is all included in the God speaks section.

3. We respond to God. We respond to his word through prayers. We also respond to God by being obedient in the offering and Eucharist. We gather at the Lord's table to respond to his promises.

4. We are sent out. After gathering to hear God's word and respond, we then go to make disciples. We are sent into the world not to go back as we came, but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12) It says we will be able to test and approve what God's will is.

There are two questions to ask with regards to what is important. The first is; what is important to me? The second is; what is important to God?
In answering the first question, we can look at the story I told about my re-enactment of church. I did the things that were important to me. Even today we come to church with the attitude of looking for things that are meaningful to ourselves. For some of us the sermon is the most important. There are certain criteria that need to be met to have an effective sermon. There are time constraints. There is the presentation of the Gospel. You get the idea. For others the music is so important. We love to sing. Not always at 8 o'clock in the morning, but we love to sing. What style of music do you like? Can a church use drums? Electric guitar? Piano? Organ? How long should the singing go on? For some people I see on Sundays this is also the most uncomfortable time of the service. Some people would be happy to just say the lyrics in the form of a prayer. "I love you, I love you, I love You. Lord, Lord Lord." Other people say communion is the holiest part of the service. It is where we participate in one of the Sacraments. But some churches don't even have communion every week or some not at all.
Time to look at question two. What is important to God. In order to figure out what God wants from us, we need to know him more. We need to read His word in the Bible. We need to seek His voice in prayer. In order to do that we must expect to meet God. God speaks and acts today. He is interested in every one of us. God redeems our lives, for those who believe.
The world tells us what we do defines who we are. God says no; who we are defines what we do. Who are you? The church is your stage. Today is the scene. The story? We were designed for worship. Ready....action!