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!

What's Important; Part III Insights of Worship

4 new insights to consider for your expectation of worship. Here is where I share my heart for worship. 

1. The primary work of church is worship.
Most people think evangelism is primary work. It is important, but worship is our primary function. Everything we do should come from our love of God. Evangelism flows from that. Missions flows from that. Discipleship flows from that.

2. Worship is a source of renewal. God speaks and acts in our service. The sermon is not just an educational or motivational tool. It is another way to hear God through our Pastors. Worship is not a rule or chore, it is something to look forward to. I always remember Carl saying people don't ever say they are taking a day off from going to a ball game or going to see a movie. Why do people take a day off from coming to celebrate Christ? Our service celebrates Christ. One great thing about our church is our Anglican faith. One of my heroes Andy Piercy says Anglicanism gives us tools, not toys. Tools are useful, toys entertain us. These tools are traced back to the early church. We follow a prayer book with hundreds of years of history. It frees us from inventing a way to draw close to Christ, or inventing a new way to celebrate Christ.

3. Worship is an active experience. Worship is God speaking and acting to us like He did to the prophets and apostles. We sing together. We pray together. We read scripture together. Scripture is not just a book, we hear God speak. We can respond to God, to his word. 

4. I desire a return of arts to the church. Music, banners, dance, drama, color. God came to us through flesh and blood...he died a physical death. Emmanuel, God with us. Thomas wanted to see the scars. We use art to help us in worship. Backgrounds, images that enhance the message. Flowers, banners. And when we sing, we use songs not to entertain, but to enhance our service. We hear His Word in the songs we sing. I really want to talk a bit more about this part. I know a priest who refuses to call the musicians in his church Worship Leaders. His reasoning includes the explanation that all of the service is worship, therefore, the priest is the Worship Leader. I agree with him, but I would add that our service is led by the Holy Spirit, and many people share in following the lead during our worship. The prayers of the people are led by the people. The Gospel is read by one of our Deacons. At any point of the service, a person other than the priest could be leading. At that point they are the appointed Worship Leader for that time. My time is to lead the church in song. I take this seriously. Every week I seek God to find a theme for Sunday. Sometimes I find it in Scripture, sometimes I find it through prayer, and other times, such as this week, I find it in where I feel God is speaking to me. After attending the inaugural meeting of our new Anglican Mission Society, I felt the Spirit saying we needed to steer the focus away from organizations and the work of people. What does that look like for me? I heard clearly God was reminding me that He alone is Holy and worthy of praise. Our songs today reflect that. The opening hymn was O Worship the King. During our time of singing our praise to God, we sang Holy is The Lord God Almighty, I Cannot Hide my Love, How Great is our God, and "my Jesus, my savior, Lord there is none like you", in Shout to the Lord. Our praise time is as purposeful as the scriptures we use every week. It doesn't end there. I want our music to reflect the words we are singing. This is done through the arrangement of our songs. Arrangement not like as in the order of songs, but directing how the music will sound in each song. We shouldn't be singing 3 different parts in a song that claims "we are all as one." We shouldn't have drums beating like running horses if we are singing "Soaring on the wings of an eagle". Is it too much to ask for details such as this? To get back to the stage, story and scene, an actor portrays a different person by his or her costume. They can speak in an accent. They use props where detail is important. All of this is like arranging a song. Words are the script. Our instruments are the props. When detail is important we leave nothing to the imagination. We paint the image of calm in the way we play. We display the image of majesty in a well-played trumpet part.

All of this is to say worship is more than a trendy band with electric guitar and drums. But those trendy bands can bring our culture into the church in a way that people identify with. The line between being trendy for the sake of entertainment and bringing the music of the church into relevance is a fine line.  If we walk that line in the context of the stuff I already mentioned above, we will probably be ok.

What's Important; Part II Church Un-simplified

What about our culture? Our American culture has reshaped the way we worship.
There are four consequences of this re-shaping, reflected in comments of people who are cynical in their view of church.

1. Worship is entertainment. We have become focused on what we get out of worship. We need a good band with nice singers. I hope the Pastor tells some jokes during his sermon. If the show is good enough, we will put some money in the offering plate as payment. I often have joked about putting a coupon in the Oak Forest newsletter as part of our advertising. $5 dollars off your next offering.
   2. Worship is over- sensitized. The reason we hear so much about no more crying in the Bible is because there is plenty of it going on today in our churches. We want a feeling or an emotion when we come together. Our culture has shown us that emotional responses are an indication of success. The cameras zoom in on a person weeping at a wedding or funeral. If we are not moved visibly to an emotion, somehow our church is over-intellectualized. This brings us to the third consequence.

3. Worship is over-intellectualized. We have become a culture of explanation. Any person with cable TV can learn the secrets of magicians, myths and legends de-bunked, or how to make that favorite restaurant food yourself in your own kitchen. Many churches today will explain the Christian faith to you. We will read from scripture and the latest book to teach you everything you need to know about Christianity. This was an interesting concept in India. I was told several times that Hinduism is not a religion. It is a way of life. You can't read how to be Hindu in a book. You have to experience it. They were telling me this because our culture is known for explaining Christianity in an intellectual way.

4. Worship focuses on the self. I need to tread lightly here with all of the counselors we have in this church. I don't need to remind you of all the American preachers under fire for the prosperity Gospel message being preached in many churches today and on TV channels broadcast across the globe. Since much of our culture focuses on the self, it shouldn't surprise you that many of our churches focus on the self. I don't want to make any enemies here, but an example of this for me is the "I am second" campaign. I know they do great things and they want you to say God is first, but I was always bothered by the title. There are two ways to state their campaign. I am second. God is first. By saying "I am second", we focus attention on our position in relation to God. Worship doesn't focus on where we are. It focuses on where God is.

Enough said about what cynical people think.
Back to my trip to Uganda, Africa. I was asked to visit to help recover the sense of Festive worship. Festive worship is centered around an event. It is hard to have a party without a theme. We celebrate birthdays, National holidays, weddings, and many other events. On Sunday we celebrate the Christ event. What is that you might ask? Well looking back to the Old Testament, Jewish worship was centered around the Exodus event. When Jesus came to die for our sins, we have an event to celebrate. I went to a soccer match in Uganda. It was a big deal. The King of Buganda, Uganda was there. The Kingdom of Buganda was playing against another Kingdom area of which I don't recall, but that isn't important. The important part was how they celebrated after each goal. The people would run up to the king's feet and bow. Not just bow, but throw themselves flat on their faces before him to honor him for the goal. We went to church that following Sunday. I noticed nobody bowed. Nobody was excited at all. It was as if they had forgotten why they were at church. It is a celebration with our God who saves. We honor him. We bow before him. Later this morning we will sing "We Bow Down". I commented during my rehearsal on Thursday that I expected to see people actually bowing down. I was excited to see people demonstrate last week how deep, high, and wide their love for God is. Do we believe the words we sing? Can we catch a bit of celebration in the moment? I challenge you that this type of event is only good when you are here. Have you ever taken pictures of a really great party and shown them to someone later? Somehow the pictures can't capture the moment. We use phrases like "Well, you should have been there." We recorded many songs in India. We had some great moments of worship. When I listened to the recordings they didn't sound as good as I remember. I think it's because I was listening for quality of music. I listened to the voices as one would listen to determine if the recording is worthy. It wasn't. But we were not singing to make a recording. We sang to worship God. On Sundays are we worshiping or listening? If we listen, our music will always fall short of expectations. If we worship, God joins in and when God joins in, he brings it! There have been moments for me that the music or singing lacked in my expectation. It is on those Sundays that people come tell me how amazing the worship was. What is your expectation?

What's Important; Part I

I was asked to preach on sunday in my church. I don't get asked very often, so when I do, I want to say something that makes sense. Since I write so much, I decided to write my sermon out as a blog, then use it to preach from. Since I wrote it out, I figured I may as well use it here for people to read. It was kind of longer than a blog post should be, so I decided to break it into a couple chunks. Here is part I.

One of my fondest memories of my grandfather was when I was a kid. I used to play church with him. We would march around the house singing from the hymnal. I would go in front carrying a hobby horse, holding it high. He would walk behind me carrying the hymnal singing what now are some of my favorite hymns. He would use some sort of cloth around his neck as a stole. That was pretty much it. Later I would celebrate communion with Necco wafers. Most of the time that was by myself. As I look back my grandfather was probably tired from marching all over the house so that was all he could do. I remember mumbling as many words from the Eucharistic prayer as I could make sense of. That part of the service was there but not all the time. As I look back on this story it tells me what I thought about church as a kid. I was probably 5 years old. What was important to me as a kid? The processional was important. Evidently the cross part of it wasn't the important part. It was a symbol for me that had some meaningful part of the service. I could substitute the cross for any item that had a stick and we could carry it. A broom would do, but the horse was better because it was something cool to look at. I saw church simplified as the processional. We sang. I didn't substitute other songs for the hymns. It had to be hymns. Hymns were all we had back then. There were no praise and worship songs so I don't know if I would have sung those songs. That part of church influenced my life so much to this day our processional songs are always hymns. To me its a rule. Another rule was the person holding the "stick" had to go first. The priest had to come in last. That was important to me as well. I obviously understood the processional carried an order of significance. There was no sermon. Pretty much my view of church consisted of marching around singing hymns.

We all have things that are important to us. Sometimes we don't acknowledge or recognize them as important, but our actions define them. When we traveled to India a couple weeks ago we noticed fences everywhere. Not complete fences. A fence made of brick only 2 or 3 bricks high surrounding a piece of property. Fences go up before the first brick is laid to build a house. Not just a few sticks to mark the property line, or some rocks laid. Bricks. Cemented together. It was explained that people had to mark their property lines to keep out squatters. Apparently bricks 12 inches high do the trick where some rocks or a wire fence tied to posts would not. When the property is finished enough to move into, the wall around the property will be finished with a proper gate. The gate often times was very ornately decorated. Opening the gate led you to a house nearly completed, but having an amazing looking front door. Entrances. This is important. As you approach someone’s home the appearance of the entrance is important.

The house always has a room to gather. Social interaction is important. Not a room to watch television, but a room to gather and talk. This is similar to Africa. I recall Kezlon, the Dean of the Cathedral in Uganda, moving into a home here in Oviedo. People had gathered couches to donate for his new home. I rode around in a U-Haul with Jon Holland and Sheryl, our Missions Pastor, to collect these donations. After collecting 3 couches and seeing the size of Kezlon's small home, we told him this was enough. He insisted on picking up the next two couches. When we got to his home, he wanted us to arrange all the couches into the living room, all against the wall. We tried to help him by selecting a few couches that would work, then moving some of the others to storage. Once again he insisted on arranging all the couches in the room all facing in toward each other. It wasn't until six months later that I made my first trip to Uganda. Upon entering the first home of a family in Uganda, I looked at Sheryl and we laughed. Every home had a room in which it was filled with mix-match couches and chairs, all facing inward. It was for people to sit and gather to talk. This was important in their culture. We got it.

Are You In The Club?

This past week I changed vehicles with my youngest daughter to help her get some maintenance done. I own a 1992 Mustang and she  owns a 2006 Jeep Wrangler (which she saved and paid for herself...proud dad).  I took her Jeep to get new tires and then drove around to do my normal routine.  As I left the church that afternoon, some guy driving by waved at me. I was pretty sure I didn't know him but I waved politely. Then another woman waved at me. I was certain I didn't know her.  It was like I was in some strange movie.  Then I realized that the people waving to me were also in Jeeps. Aha! I recalled a similar time when I rode a motorcycle. Everyone on a motorcycle waved as you rode by. It was the low wave, where you put your hand out as if to give a low five (opposite of high five). You see, bikers can't be cool and wave, so it's not really a wave.
Anyway, it seems Jeep owners have this private waving club as well.  I looked in the owner's manual and it doesn't tell you anything about such a club or how to join. I also am pretty sure the dealer doesn't tell you about the club either, so it's like a secret club. I began to wonder who started this club and how does everyone that drives a Jeep know that you are supposed to wave?
I have a Mustang and I know there are car clubs for Mustangs where people get together and show off their cars, but there is no waving.  Why don't they wave? What about Nissan Altimas? My middle daughter has one of those and there are many on the road, but no waving. I tried it. We waved at another Altima owner and they drove away quickly with a worried look.
It made me think of the church. We have a club called Christianity.  Do you remember the old song that said "and they'll know we are Christians by our love"? It seems like that song should be re-written today with new lyrics. "And they'll know we are Christians by our judgmental attitude!" Of course that doesn't sound so good, but maybe it's more accurate.
We could take a lesson from Jeep owners. Jeep owners don't care what year you joined the club. If you have owned a Jeep since 1980, you get the same greeting as a 2012 Jeep owner. Actually it seems like the newer Jeep gets more attention. I remember when new Christians got the most attention.  In today's church it seems like the new Christians aren't really in the club until they have completed a few Bible Studies. Or spoken in tongues. Or participated in a Mission overseas, etc. You have to pay your dues! Of course, thats not MY church, but I know it happens.
Jeep owners don't care how old you are, or what color your Jeep is. They don't even care what condition your Jeep is in. (minus 5 points for ending in a preposition) They will wave at you if you are having a bad day, if you ran a red light, if you cut them off....  Well, actually for cutting them off you probably get a "special wave", but that's not the point here.
The truth is, this really is not what the church should be. This kind of club is superficial and requires no relationship, but the church can still learn a lesson here.
When will the church begin the club of waving to and welcoming other Christians? When will people identify Christians by their love again, and not by their judgmental attitudes?  If the church is not a building... if the church is really the people... then we will always have some broken pieces. But we shouldn't let the broken pieces hold up the building, and we don't put the broken parts up front for everyone to see. We can work with them, help them to be like new, and then let God fully restore them.
I say the problem lies with the church (people) removing God from the club He started. We stopped following His rules and began to try and fix things ourselves.  Things he originally made. That needs to stop. We should recognize God as the President of our club.  I bet God does the high-five and the wave.

Get Ready To Run

I love to travel. As much as I like to travel, I like to host people that are traveling. When we host people in Orlando, we take them to see the sights of Central Florida. That usually means Walt Disney World, Daytona Beach, air-boat rides to see alligators, or Universal Studios. When I visit other countries, they take me to see their sights. I will be in India next month and have been told we will visit the Taj Mahal.
I was in Rwanda for a church mission trip a few years back. During our time, they took us to see a game reserve. It was very exciting. We were going to see monkeys, zebra, hippos, and perhaps elephants.
Upon entering the park, we stopped several times for the guide to point out various birds. Birds? That is like stopping to show a visitor to Orlando Chuck-E-Cheese on the way to see Disney. Forget the birds! Take us to see big animals we don't see every day!
Next stop, a family of giraffe. Now we are talking! As we drove through the uncharted course of the game reserve our guide told us he had heard of a sighting of Mutwumbe. Mutwumbe was a large elephant who had been kicked out of the herd because he was aggressive. Even elephants have standards apparently. Because he was alone, he became even more aggressive toward anyone that approached him, like a grumpy old man.
We drove to the spot where he was bathing, and had to walk a short distance to find him. There he was. Very large, and in about three feet of water facing away from us. You could hear all the cameras clicking away under the whispers of our group of 10 tourists, not wanting to attract the attention of our grumpy friend.
Our guide addressed the group in a low voice. "Let me call his name so he will turn and you can get better pictures", he said. "Oh, I think we are ok with these pictures" one person replied. Another asked, "is it safe?" "Sure", came the confident reply of our guide.  With that, he turned to shout at the elephant as we anxiously waited to see what would happen. As the guide drew his breath, he glanced our way and whispered "Get ready to run!"
Um, no, wait...was all I could think. And then I thought back to 3rd grade and remembered the survival of the fittest. I don't have to out-run the elephant, I just have to out-run someone in our group.
Fast forward to today. Our church just went through a tough time. We had news crews on our property last weekend inquiring about a breaking story that was not favorable for attracting new members. When our pastor called me the day before to tell me the news, it was like he was telling me "get ready to run". I turned on the news at home to see what was being reported.  Our story was small compared to other news.  Just like my safari story, I saw that we don't have to out-run the news, just out-run the other people that have bigger problems.
As we study the New Testament, we find plenty of warnings for the church about the behavior of the people. These writings are not prophetic. They were not predicting the problems we would face today. They were actual problems the church faced then. But we are to use the teachings and advice for today. It still applies today.
Jesus told us in Matthew 28 to get ready to run. Not to run from the world, but to run into the world proclaiming the truth. That also applies today. What is the church doing today? Are we hiding? Or are we ready to run?

Are We Really Anglican?

Well now it is official. Our church is part of a Missionary Society. I'm not really sure what that is, but some people who understand church law made it happen so it must be good. After all this, I was wondering if we are still an Anglican church. It seems now-a-days everyone has claim to the Anglican faith. Well, not really everyone. The Catholics don't want to be Anglican. In fact, very few people have even heard of it, but who is right?  Who is Anglican? Will the real Anglican Church of America please stand up? Seriously...stand up.
To simplify this, I look at it from a food angle. I love Chinese food. There are many Chinese restaurants in the area. What makes a restaurant a Chinese restaurant? There are four basic types of Chinese restaurants.  First is the sit down and order type. Next we have the "New York style" take-out kind that shows you all the pictures of the food on the board above the counter. The third kind is the buffet.  Last, but certainly not least is the food court "try my sample" kind.  Can you pick which one is the true Chinese restaurant? They all claim to be Chinese restaurants.
Can we choose by the employees? Have you ever been to a Chinese restaurant, greeted by a teenager wearing trendy clothes? ("Welcome to PF Changs, how many are in your party?") Does the cook speak fluent Mandarin? A true Chinese restaurant would have an all Chinese staff, wouldn't they?
What about the food? I spent several weeks in Taiwan and visited China. There is no such thing as Egg Foo Yung on any menu there.  An insider secret here. Most of our favorite dishes in America don't exist in China.  They are made for Americans.
So what does a real Chinese restaurant look like? Nothing like you would see in America, but that's the point.  The Anglican church is as American as rice noodles. Not to confuse you, but that means its not American. The Anglican Church originated in England as the official Church of England. It is the Queen's church. It has spread through the world mostly through missionaries from England (not really important to the story so if you think I'm wrong...tell wikipedia).  You will find Anglican Church services in Africa that look nothing like our services.  Sure they are similar, but similar as in Chinese take-out food is to Chinese buffet food. There are things on the menu we don't have.  For example, I wonder if Chinese Anglican churches serve fortune cookies after communion.  (fortune cookies also not found in China)
Figuring out who is Anglican is as controversial as naming which restaurant is truly Chinese, or Mexican, or pick your fare.             
We have the 1979 prayer book Anglicans. We have the Reformed Anglicans. The Episcopal Church Anglicans. And now all the trendy acronym Anglicans like ACNA, CANA and AMiA. I read all (or some of) the blogs concerning Anglican churches in America. If you think it's just the common church-goers who are confused let me leave you with an example.
Our former Bishop is now the priest in charge of a small Anglican church by the beach, not part of our new Missionary Society. At the same time, he is also an assisting Bishop in another Anglican affiliation, and claims to be seated as a Bishop in our Anglican Missionary Society as well.
If you thought Bishops on a chess board were difficult to understand, this is inconceivable (shameless Princess Bride quote).  Which rules do you follow if you belong to more than one organization? If they are all the same, then why aren't we all the same?
I always say God has grace for the human race. It didn't work out so well for some people in the Bible, but then Jesus came to die for us and our mistakes. Let's show a little appreciation folks. This debate over who is really Anglican is embarrassing.  What happened to taking ground for God's Kingdom?  We can work with the Lutheran church down the street but we can't play nicely with the other Anglican churches because we think they are posing as impostors. Really? Let's stand up....together.

Decorating the Church

One of the areas of responsibility for me working at a church is church decor. If you know me than you can see how God has a sense of humor. Church decor? Really? Quick Bible history inserted here.
The Levites from the Old Testament were the appointed worship leaders in the day. You can read about them in Chronicles (both books) and Numbers. These guys not only played the music, but they were in charge of making the church look good with decorating. Now its my job. Thanks guys!
The idea behind church decor is to stay seasonal. Just like the malls and department stores. The big difference is we don't decorate in advance of the holiday and we stick to one at a time. We decorate for Christmas, just days before the celebration. We don't put out the wise men until they appear historically in the story, which is after the birth.
A quick side note. A pastor once told me that his first assignment as a young priest in a large church was to put out the giant manger scene in the front yard of the church, which happened to be on the corner of a very busy intersection. It was the first Sunday in Advent, four weeks before Christmas. He went to the storage room and put all the stuff out, including the wise men and baby Jesus. When the Senior Priest saw this he immediately shouted at the young priest to get them out of the scene. As the pastor tells it, "the senior Priest called me into his office and said "This is humiliating! Clearly the wise men don't come until after the birth! Now everyone will think we don't know the story of Christmas!" So he went out and took away the wise men and baby Jesus before the whole town would see it. Unbeknownst to them, while they were discussing the problem in the office, a reporter from the local paper shot a picture that was published the following morning on the front page. Wise men and Jesus front and center with the church name clearly in view. 40 years later he is still a priest. Christmas still came.
This week we celebrate Pentecost. I love the images of Pentecost. The color red, Holy Spirit flames, and fire. The Spirit as a bird of peace, and the dove. These are all good images, but why do people insist on using them all together. Come to my church and look above the drums. We have a red banner of a dove barely escaping the mountain of flames below. "Fly higher little bird!" is what a friend said to me.

On the front of our altar, the hanging piece of cloth is officially called a frontal. Aptly named. We use a red frontal for Pentecost. The flames look so slick one person commented that it looks like our church is sponsored by NASCAR. Sure I get that, but once again we have a poor little bird caught it some sort of telephone wire as it was about to fly into the flames. It looks like we are celebrating a sacrifice with a roasted bird. Who makes these banners? Try to stick with one theme. Either the bird or the flames.
A few years back someone on the decorating committee (which we no longer have) recommended hanging red cloth around the cross to look like flames coming out. I rejected that idea saying I didn't think a burning cross was the image we should be going for, especially when all our priests were wearing white robes. Just saying.

Rhodes Scholars, the Chicken, and the Egg

As I looked at pictures this week from missions trips, I was reminded of my first music mission trip to Uganda, Africa.  We traveled by mini-bus where there were roads, and motorbike where there were no roads.  Knowing when to travel by bus, or when to travel by bike, was up to our guides who knew the roads well. You could say they were road scholars.
The great thing about the mini-bus is that it had room for 15 people.  That would be 15 Ugandans which apparently equals about 8-10 Americans who enjoy a bit of personal space.  Frequently we would see the buses stuffed with over twenty people and their goods. Clown cars have nothing on these guys.
On the paved roads in Uganda, there are police checkpoints.  If the driver of the bus is carrying more than the allotted 15 passengers, he is fined along with the riders.  This explains the phenomenon of seeing buses on the side of the road randomly letting people off and putting people in.  About one half mile before the checkpoint, the bus pulls over to let out all the extra passengers and they begin to walk. After the bus clears the police and are out of view, they pull over and wait for the ones who walked through the checkpoint and get back into the crowded bus.
We traveled through busy towns and tried to ignore the frustrated looks of the locals who wanted to hitch a ride with us. After all, there were only about 10 of us in the bus. Surely we could fit about 10 more.
One day as we traveled to visit some family of our host, we stopped in a remote location well outside the normal path a mini-bus would take. We visited the home of an elderly woman and her family. It was really nice. She gave us gifts. As the leader of the group, I received the most notable gift. A live chicken.
I am not really sure what was said when she gave it to me or what we were supposed to do with a chicken, but we said thanks and put it in the van with us. It squawked and made quite a bit of noise as we spent the next several hours driving around Kampala with a chicken scurrying under our seats. At one point it made such a commotion we pulled over to see what had befallen our new feathered friend.
Sure enough, she laid an egg. In the van. Under my seat. Now we had dinner and breakfast!
Upon return, our host asked if I wanted to help prepare the chicken. I asked if that meant killing it.  She looked at me wondering if I was serious and then smiled as she took the chicken around the back of the house.
I would like to say it tasted good. It really didn't. It was like when you catch tiny fish on your first fishing trip and eat them just because you caught them.  It was tough and chewy. But we thought of how we received that meal.  An elderly woman who had nearly nothing gave us this chicken. All of a sudden it was amazing.
I think this is how God sees our gifts. What can we give to the one who created everything? We give what we have to offer knowing we have nothing worthy to give.  Help someone less fortunate than you. Help someone more fortunate than you.  Respect people. It seems so little. It seems so tough.  But God sees it.  And then all of a sudden it becomes amazing.  

My Favorite

Today I returned from a vacation. Not just any vacation, but a vacation on a cruise ship. I would have to say that is one of my favorite ways to enjoy time off.  One of my favorite things about cruising is dinner. You sit at the same table each night with the same waiter and get to know some interesting people. Our waiter for the trip was named Rolando.  Every item we ordered from the menu he would affirm by saying "my favorite".  This was amusing for a while, but after seven nights it lost the effect.
It didn't take long to figure out every item on the menu was his favorite. It reminded me of some recent favorite stories.
I had coffee with a man high in status with the Anglican Mission leadership recently.  He wanted to meet "people on the ground".  He really did use terminology like that. We were there to discuss things that were "above board" and "effective for the people in the trenches".  As we discussed the problems that other churches have and their hypothetical solutions, we discussed ways to mentor younger worship leaders. He told me that his church just hired the young man he "poured his life into" for the last several years.
In fact, or at least in the words of the guy I was talking with, he was like a father to this young man and helped to develop his leadership skills for many years.  He was "his favorite" worship leader now that the church had put him on full time. I expressed my nearly sincere appreciation for his dedication to "shape and mold him" (his words not mine).
I asked him the name of the young man that meant so much to him. Well....not even a first name? Nope. Could not recall the name of the young man, as the expression goes, to save his life (or ego).
This was nearly like the recent incident of a new father who approached me on a Sunday to request a song. Not an odd thing actually. I get song requests more frequently than when I played in bar bands. This one stood out because it was to accompany a baptism. This couple had a wonderful testimony. After many years of trying to conceive in which there were many problems, his wife finally gave birth to a beautiful baby. As the song request went, the father told me during the times of struggle, one song was like the foundation of peace. It was the song they listened to almost every day to get through this troubled time. It was their favorite song.
Sure I will do it! What is the name of this favorite song? "Um....I can't recall".  No problem, what are some of the words that meant so much to you? "Um... " How does it go? Hum a few bars (that never works).  Three strikes and we are out. No worries, he emailed me a few days later with the title, probably after asking his wife.  I did it for the baptism. It was wonderful.
I like the image the Bible gives for how God knows us. He knows each hair on our head (Mat 10:30). For me that isn't very much but my daughters have lots of hair. He knew us before we were born (Jer 1:5). And the scary part is he knows what we have done. Not in a silly Santa Claus "naughty or nice" sort of way, but in the "you may not get into heaven" kind of way.
I saw a bumper sticker once that read "Jesus loves you, but I'm his favorite". I'd like to think that's true.

Lyrics I'd Rather Not Hear

This post could also be called lyrics I would rather not sing.  Its funny how we can sing things we would never say in conversation.  There are too many bad songs simply because of bad words.  Songs should be like well-crafted poems.  One of my favorite writers is Dan Haseltine from Jars of Clay.  I happen to know Dan.  Don't worry, I will pick up any names I drop by the end of the blog.
Dan also has a blog which is well written and contains intelligent, serious thoughts; a contrast to the stuff I write.  I was always a fan of the lyrics in Jars songs because they were deep, complex, thought-provoking, and yet simple. On his blog he explains some of the meanings behind the songs. I like that. This post is not about Dan's songs.
As a worship leader, I try to use songs most people will know.  One of the downfalls of using other people's songs is we are stuck with the lyrics. Well, unless you don't mind changing them. Actual lyrics in a song we are recording for an up-coming CD say "heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss".  Really? Usually a song evokes visual images for me. "No thanks" to that image.  David Crowder changed the lyrics in his version to an "unforeseen kiss".  Ugh.  Not much better really, but we will probably use it instead of that sloppy wet kiss.
Another of my not-so-favorites is any reference to being the bride of Christ. Oh, I get it. The Bible makes reference to the church as the bride, etc. But really? The bride of Christ? I am not singing that I want to be a bride.
I recall one time when a person who was filling in for me sang a song he wrote for his wife before they were married. I asked him if it was his anniversary, to which he gave me a puzzled look. This sunday wasn't about his wife.  Silly me. He told me his song "works" for a church song because you can just substitute Jesus for Jenny. Um, no you can't.  I hope I'm not the only one that finds that a bit weird.
We also have a song that has lyrics about the fragrance of God being intoxicating. One of our pastors always tells me he doesn't like smelling God. Another person told me they were offended by the use of the word intoxicating. As a recovering alcoholic...you get the idea. Seems like it might be a bad choice of words.
I do have another pet peeve when it comes to worship songs. One of God's ten commandments is not to take the Lord's name in vain. In a sub-category of that command I am sure it precludes rhyming the word Jesus with any other word. A song by a popular worship artist proclaims "come have your way among us, we welcome you here Lord Jesus".  I never liked that line and it doesn't even rhyme well. I wouldn't say it's cheesy, but I would say that it has the likeness of cheeses, which I am sure displeases, our savior Lord Jesus.
A big influence in my worship song selection came from a small retreat where I spent a couple of days with Matt Redman. He talked about the importance of what we sing about. He even talked about changing lyrics in his own song. One of his songs says that we are so "in love with" God. Matt offered that the phrase "in love" was not the proper image and that he now sings the song as someone "in awe of" God.
In one song, we have eyes on our heart that need to be opened. If we really had eyes on our hearts, what would they see when they open? Good thing God knew not to put real eyes there.
Robert Webber says songs are like greeting cards. You find the one that says what you want and use it. Greeting cards suffer the same problems as worship songs.  How many new and creative ways can we say happy birthday before we use words that don't make sense in a birthday greeting? Probably about the same number of new and creative ways we can say we love our God.
In support of song writers, it isn't just the writers at fault. We sing about shouting while people are actually mumbling the words. We sing about dancing while we stand in one place.  We sing about raising our hands while they are firmly planted on the chair in front of us or in our pockets. We sing about bowing down while we stand upright.
Maybe church songs really are like greeting cards to God. The problem for me is I usually pick funny cards over serious cards. I don't think people are writing funny worship songs on purpose, but I bet God laughs at some of them.  That shouldn't discourage us from writing.  We should strive to do what is pleasing to God, because then he smiles and says "well done my good and faithful servant".

Winning the Mega Millions Lottery

What a funny country America is.  In tough economic times; when people are out of work;  as we look at a national debt reaching enourmous levels; the lottery still flourishes.  Last week a single ticket was worth over 650 million dollars.  The day before the drawing, the prize was at a mere $550 million.  In one day, with the excitement of the largest prize in the history of the country, the prize jumped $100 million dollars.  Americans poured more than $100 million dollars into our economy in just one day.  Well, sort of.  The money won't actually help our economy.  A large share will go to the government for taxes. I sure don't see anyone from the government thanking us for that huge tax income. They don't even have to buy a ticket and they are big winners of millions of dollars from the person who actually buys that ticket.

My father had great wisdom. One of my favorite things he taught me was "nobody ever went broke paying taxes." He told me that as we watched the news one day.  Some big executive was going to jail for tax evasion.  While the media made him out to be victimized by a huge tax bill, my father explained that his taxes are less than half of the money he ever had at any one time.  So he squandered away his money long before the tax bill came.

I can't buy a ticket for the national lottery in Florida. We are one of only eight states that doesn't participate. I have a daughter in Oklahoma. They play. She and her husband make up the infamous improv comedy duo Red Letters.  I knew she would be up for one of those improv comedy games called "only questions".  We called her. "Can you buy us a ticket?" we asked her. "How many?" she asked.  My response was, "How many sets of numbers do they draw?" She is really smart so she knew that was the end of the questions game. I won.  For the record, she could have won. She usually does. Back to the lottery.
We didn't win the lottery.
I saw the man in charge of the lottery on TV the day before the drawing. The reporter asked why people buy tickets with a one in 170 million chance of winning. His answer surprised me although it shouldn't have. It was obvious. He said that people love to dream. Once you buy that ticket you think of what you will do with the money. Holding a ticket gives us hope. People invest in hope. $100 million dollars in one day for hope, not for the economy.
I saw a Facebook post from my cousin. She said her family had the best time sitting around the table talking about what they would do with all that money. She said it was one of the best family times they had experienced in a while. We did it too. Plans for buying houses. Vacations we would take. Dreams only millions of dollars could accomplish.
It made me think beyond that. Being a Christian gives us hope. The day you buy into all that stuff you learn at church is like the day you bought a ticket for the biggest lottery. But in this lottery there are many winners.  We have hope. Well, sort of.
The fact is once you "buy a ticket" in this game you are a guaranteed winner. Christians sure don't act like it. We walk around worried about what we will do before we cash in our ticket, never talking about what it will be like after we cash in the ticket.  We could dream. We can dream of what it would be like to be in heaven. To see all the things you wanted to see for free. To have the best foods.  No rent, no mortgage. No debt. You can do all the things you ever wanted to do without worrying about money.
As my father told me, "nobody ever went broke paying taxes." Jesus said that too. Give to Caesar what is his, and give to God what is God's.  He wasn't just talking about money here. We belong to God.  We have hope. With Easter coming, lets act like it!

Do This In Remembrance of Me

As we approach the week before Easter, called Holy Week, things get out of control in the church.  We have some sort of event happening every day from this Saturday's early egg hunt right through Easter Sunday eight days later.
Part of the preparation includes planning for the services we will have.  Some services have communion, others do not.  As the person in charge of communion supplies, I have been privy to some situations people could only imagine. It's why I write this blog!
Our church normally serves the little white wafers on Sunday. We experimented with bread for a while, but the bread has to be unleavened bread and so that means you can't just buy a loaf of Sunbeam bread from the grocery. You can buy Pita bread but it doesn't break nicely.  We had a volunteer make it for us. Well she didn't want to make the bread every week so she began to bake 4 loaves at a time. The first part of the month was great, but by the end of the month we were serving stale bread. The final straw was when we found mold. Wafers tasted great after that incident.

You should know that the wafers aren't exempt from staleness either. They will take on a "flexible" texture after some time. As a kid I thought this was the normal texture, but fresh wafers are crisp like a cracker.
Recently I was looking at our inventory and discovered a large supply of wafers. More than six months. Concerned for freshness, I asked about them.  I was told there were some from a store that had gone out of business. What? A store that sells the little communion wafers went out of business? Well lucky day for us. Or was it? Upon inspection of the wafers, they were two years old. Is that bad? We tasted them.
I think it's ok to eat them if they aren't blessed by a priest. Without the blessing it is just wine from the grocery store and little styrofoam wafers from a store that sells them. But after the priest says the blessing, they somehow become Holy. I am not making fun of that, it's true. Don't ask me how or why I believe that. "Do this in remembrance of me." Like Nike says, just do it. We threw out the stale wafers.
Wafers come in all sizes too. We have some that are so big they have perforations so they can be broken easily into 24 pieces. Nobody knows how we got them, but we decided to keep them and use them anyway.  We served those at our early service at 8am. Normally a crowd of 24 or less. Mostly older folks. They didn't like the broken wafers. Why? Because they had sharp edges. I can't make this stuff up. They preferred the round individual serving size wafers.
As a kid I used to play church with my grandfather. We ate Necco wafers for communion. I have often thought how great it would be to have those at church. But take out the pink ones that taste like Pepto Bismol and the black ones that are licorice. May as well remove the white ones too because they are a bit spicy.
I heard recently that churches that don't use real bread get made fun of by the ones that do. What do they call our little communion wafers that we serve? Jeezits. I suppose I should be offended, but my first thought was it's a little bit funny and kind of clever.  After all, we are a church that uses a small plate of wafers that has a tiny cup with the wine attached.  Very sanitary.  The person takes their own wafer and dips it in the wine.  I have heard this referred to as chips and dip. I am pretty sure this departs from the "do this in remembrance of me" command.
Almost to Easter, we re-tell the story of the crucifixion this week.  This is the time of year where we hear the words of Jesus say "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do".  I say ditto.   

Tastes Like Chicken...or Horse

My oldest daughter just returned from a trip to China. She told me stories of her travels, and most always when people tell stories of their travels, it includes food. She didn't disappoint. One of her first stories was how she was served a 100 year old egg. Not the whole thing, because an egg that old needs to be shared. You can't just have 100 year old eggs every day. I'm not sure if you actually need to age an egg 100 years to get the taste. I would think after about 50 years it's all the same.
She also told me she tried donkey at a meal. Donkey? When asked if she had ever tried donkey she told them no. "Well", they explained, "it tastes just like horse!"  Oh.  No more explanations please.
In my travels I have had llama, snake, insects, parts of animals I'd rather not know about, as well as so many other unidentifiable foods. It usually is best not to ask what you are being served, unless you want to tell stories about it later.
One of my favorite stories is while visiting a pastor's home in Africa. They served us tea with milk. Since there was no electricity, there was no refrigeration. Without refrigeration the milk was...well...odd. And a bit lumpy. We sat in the main living room of their house as everyone on our team reflected on their good manners and desire to be gracious guests. Because I am a quick thinker I also reflected, but much faster. I decided as a good guest to take a look at the beautiful surroundings of the home. As soon as I stepped out through the front door my tea found its spot on the ground to nourish the bushes. It soaked into the dry ground rather quickly leaving behind very little evidence.
I smiled, walked right back into the house and complimented the pastor on the beauty of the land, almost oblivious to the glares of my fellow travelers. I sat down and asked them how their tea was. Mine was so good I had finished it, but had no room for more.
Just like a 100 year old egg, there really wasn't a taste to compare that tea to. We like to compare. Everyone hesitates to experience something new without knowing what it will be like. We have expectations and then we measure our experience against it. Unless it's like eating donkey. Never tried that. Never had horse either. Is it like deer?
As Easter approaches, I can only imagine what it was like 2000 years ago. People had never seen the sick healed, the blind made to see, the crippled made to walk. They had no expectation and so they believed. Today if Jesus came we would compare him to David Blaine or David Copperfield. Our expectation would be that it is somehow a trick because we have that experience of being tricked. 20/20 and other investigative shows like that have exposed many false preachers on TV.  We wouldn't believe.
The fact is, there is not a way to compare Jesus to something we know of. Every time people feel they can explain God we have ten more questions we cannot answer. Why does God allow suffering? I don't know, but its ok by me not to know that answer.
Here's a question for you. Would you try the 100 year old egg if nobody told you it was edible? I wouldn't. I want someone to tell me they have tried it and it is good. We have thousands of years of testimonies telling us God heals the sick and still does miracles today. Psalm 34:8 says "taste and see that the Lord is good".  That works for me.

Osama Bin Laden in Heaven?

Is he? Probably not, but really that isn't the point of this blog post. The truth is, a title like this one shows up in search engines so I am fishing for some accidental readers. If you are one of those, welcome!
I recall looking at our prayer book in church a few years back. In one of the prayers every week in our service, we would say "We pray for all who have died, that they may have a place in your eternal kingdom".  Someone had written in pencil right under that prayer "Too Late!" That stuck with me for quite some time.  Not the response, but the prayer.  The response made me look again and think what a funny prayer that is.  Are we letting everyone in without any kind of requirement? The only stipulation to get into heaven is to die. We all will do that sooner or later.  Is that really what the Bible says happens?
This past weekend we had two funerals at our church. Neither one was for a parishioner of ours. I played the music for the second funeral.  The first one wanted Bob Marley on iPod.  Not the strangest music request I have ever heard, but it goes in the top 10. I am pretty sure neither one who died had a home church or if they did, rarely attended.  
What do you tell a family who walks through your doors and asks for a funeral service at a church?
If we were like the person who wrote in the prayer book we could tell them it's too late.  If you never went to church in your living days, why would you want to visit now? Isn't it like taking your car to a car wash after you totaled it? Who does that?
My favorite part of planning for the service is when one of our members asked me about the second service. She told me they wanted several people from our church to be there because the people in attendance were not only non-believers, but many were addicts.  "Oh" was all I could think of to reply.  People in need of good news is where I thought she was going.  She asked me "Do you know why we are wanting many of our parishioners to come?" "Um, to witness to the non-believers?" was my guess.  That was an incorrect guess. Apparently some people (who are some people?) were worried the addicts...mourners at the funeral, would steal stuff from the church.  I looked around to take quick inventory.  A few of my CDs, some 12oz bags of coffee, some candles were all anyone could carry off if they wanted.  I would be happy to give anything away that someone needed, but that wasn't a comforting response to her concern.
Sure we have stuff.  But the great things we have as Christians are faith, hope, and love.  Faith; to believe the promise of God. Hope; to anticipate our place in heaven. Love: to love our neighbors as ourselves.  Love our neighbors enough to support them in time of grief.  Hope they won't take our stuff? I don't think so.

Maybe everyone gets into heaven.  If they did, would it make it any less better?  Challenge your faith like the workers in the field from Matthew 20:1-16.  If you are there, is that enough?  Is it fair?

Tree Huggers, Church Decorations, and Evangelism

We have a department (or "ministry" for church people) of our church called "Environmental Worship".  It sure sounds a lot like the people who love and worship the environment. We love clean water, the rain forests, and everything green.  Algae is green too, but we really don't love that.
I actually started and named this "ministry" a few years ago.  We didn't have this group and after attending a conference in Colorado, I was convinced we needed it.  The part you need to know is it has nothing to do with rain forests and the earth's environment.  It has everything to do with the environment of the church.  Allow me to explain a bit.

At this conference in Colorado, we saw videos of church services in an old warehouse.  People have church in the most unsuspecting places.  People also feel like church should look like a church and not like a warehouse.  So we decorate.  But like anything else secular in church, a decorating committee doesn't sound very church-like.  So we come up with the Christian version of a decorating committee and we call it environmental worship.
This committee gets together to discuss what the environment will look like, smell like, even feel like.  Incense, flowers, styrofoam blocks. These are our tools.  Shopping carts.  Yes, even shopping carts.
Our church is having a food drive. People bring in cans of food and put them on the floor of the lobby. Some scattered around, some in plastic bags, and even some in nice environment-friendly bags.  It was a mess. Food scattered on the floor of the lobby doesn't look inviting. It doesn't look like an organized event or that we need any more.  Enter the Environmental Worship team. Time to make it look nicer. What should we do?
If anyone knows how to decorate food displays it would be the grocery store. So I looked at a few and sure enough, we needed a shopping cart for our lobby to put the food in.  I know a parishioner who works for Publix.  In fact, she has worked there for more than 30 years.  I called my friend and asked her if we could borrow one for a while. I told her if they said no I was going to have to steal one for our use so she should keep me honest.  I don't think I would have actually stolen one, but lucky for us she came through.
I went to the store and I am not sure what fanfare I expected, but they simply told me "Just take any one you want. They are over there." Nobody walked me out. Nobody watched to see if I selected only one. They really didn't seem to care if I took one or not.
As I loaded the shopping cart into an SUV with my assistant, an older woman was putting groceries into her car. She casually glanced at us as we stuffed the shopping cart in and closed the hatch. As I looked at her she quickly looked away as if to say she didn't want any trouble.  She didn't know. She didn't know we had permission. She didn't know we worked for a church. She didn't know we were using it for a food drive decoration. I didn't tell her. And that's it, isn't it?
People say sharing the truth of the Gospel with a stranger is hard. I say sharing any kind of truth with a stranger is hard.  I was hoping the older lady in the parking lot would ask what we were doing. Then I could explain easily. If she started the conversation, I could talk all day. How easy to explain what we are doing.  In the same way, I wanted the Publix manager to ask what we were doing.  I wanted people to notice we were taking the cart so I could tell them about our church. But it's not how evangelism works. We go and tell people. Tree huggers are great evangelists for the environment.  They tell people what they believe.  People don't come into our churches asking what we are doing. We have to go and tell them. The great commission.  Go tell someone about your church and what you believe this week, then comment below to tell others how you did it.

Orange You Glad I Said Lemon?

I am amazed at the difference in foods across the world. What we cannot grow here in the United States we can import. We have an abundance of interesting foods. In my travels, I have noticed how mixed up the foods can get. In my trip to Africa last July, we were shown 3 different kinds of bananas.  We had some of the more famous jackfruit, and saw small fruits I can't seem to recall the names of, but they were tasty.
We also saw sweet potatoes that look like our white irish potatoes. In Africa the very same sweet potato we know as orange is white over there.
In Costa Rica the citrus fruit is really mixed up. On one hike along a river, I noticed a tangerine tree. We had purchased some tangerines earlier from a store and they were very sweet. Now it was my turn to climb through a barbed wire fence and pick a few to eat. Now just to be clear, the barbed wire fence was to keep cattle from getting into this area near the river. I was not stealing from private property, or at least that is what was told to me.
As I approached the tree, our host yelled out from the road, "I think those are lemons!"
Now of course I come from the State of Florida, one of the largest growers of citrus in the U.S. Not to be outdone in knowledge of local fruits, I replied to him in jest, "I think you may be colorblind. Clearly these are tangerines!" I did notice many un-ripe fruits on the tree that had a yellow tint to them so obviously from the road they would look like lemons.
I picked 5 or six of the ripest ones on the tree. Never have I seen such wonderful tangerines! I brought them back like a hunter that had been on safari for 12 days and made a kill that will feed the village for weeks. I proudly threw them up the hill to my waiting friends so I would not lose them on my climb back to the road.
"Did you taste one?" came the shout from our host as he caught one. "Not yet, but I will now!" was my reply as I peeled into the fruit. Yep, same texture skin as we all know for a tangerine that peels so easily.  These even look like they might be seedless!  A good, dark orange color inside says they are ripe and ready to eat. Looks really good!  Now the first bite, and.....wow! Maybe this one isn't quite ripe yet. Or wait....maybe it tastes like something else I know. Perhaps a lemon?
My gracious host began to tell me all the wonderful things they make with these lemons.  He told us that the yellow fruit that looks like lemons as we know, are also here in Costa Rica, but are not very strong in taste. These lemons are used to make ceviche, and great lemonade.
How many lessons in Sunday school did we have on how God doesn't judge us by the outside, but by what is on the inside? Don't judge a book by it's cover sound familiar? Yes, I was reminded of this lesson once again. And as I thought about the many uses for lemons, I thought they probably go really well with humble pie too.

Blessings to You!

I just returned from a trip to Costa Rica. It was a missions trip, not a vacation, therefore it can be included here on my blog. I have quite a few good stories from this trip but this one was my favorite.
Ten of our church members made this trip to work with a Costa Rican church.  Part of our mission was to teach on prayer and healing in a three day conference. During this conference I was asked to lead worship. I couldn't really tell how many songs they wanted me to do or for how long we were supposed to play. Lucky for me I have some experience on my side and a pretty good working knowledge of the Spanish language. I guess in the church we don't ever say luck because we believe (as I do) God directs all things. I'm certainly not going to explain that because that's not what this blog is about. We are talking about worship music in a Spanish church.
I would do a couple songs, then glance at the Costa Rican Pastor who looked at me with an apprehensive glance. I was trying to interpret this glance as either he is ready to speak, or I should do another song.  I would start a song with music, and if he didn't look too troubled I would sing the verses.  His face became more anxious after one more song in particular so I figured I was done. He came to the front began to pray out loud.  In some Pentecostal churches, they like music during the prayers. I played some music and the Pastor turned to look toward me. Once again I couldn't tell if he wanted me to stop or keep going, so I compromised and played, but much softer.
During prayer time after the preaching, I came back to the stage to play some more soft music. Music is a funny thing during prayer. Some people love it and others not so much. I guess it depends on the praying person. I have been told to play and sing, sometimes just play, and other times keep silent. I notice never have I been asked to just sing and not play. This would be very unusual in church prayer times but maybe I should try it someday.
Anyway, after the service a kind man came to me in, and in Spanish said something about a blessing. I wanted to clarify so I asked him what he meant. He then tried his English, which was not nearly as good as my spanish, and pointed at himself saying "blessing for me!" to which I asked, "you want me to pray a blessing over you?" A few more awkward exchanges had me convinced this man wanted me to pray for him and especially to pray a blessing over him. I put my hand on his shoulder and in my best authoritative voice prayed a blessing for the man. He looked at me kind of like the Pastor did and them bowed his head and closed his eyes. I realized even the facial expressions in Costa Rica seemed to be in a language I didn't understand. "That went well" is all I could think as he walked off, when suddenly I was again approached by another man who seemed to be asking me the same thing. Apparently he saw me praying for the other man and wanted to get in on it as well.
This time, in a addition to his blessing, he mentioned a blessing for everyone in the room! "Wow", I thought as I looked around the room at all the people. Should I pray out loud so everyone can hear or just to the man in front of me. I guess he thought my looking around the room was a signal to bring in an interpreter, which while not completely accurate, seemed to be a way God had rescued me.
The interpreter explained that he was telling me my music had been a blessing to everyone there tonight. Thus the blessing part. Now it made sense. The very same thing the other guy was telling me before I did my best Pope imitation on him. One more person came to me with the same words about blessing. This time I was ready. "Gracias" was the correct response, affirmed by his smile.

Out of the Box, No Receipt

We are off to a great start in 2012 already. They don't let me preach too often, but it was great speaking to our congregation on the first sunday of the New Year. I can safely claim to have had the best message anyone had heard this year in our church.  I was asked to do a children's sermon. I guess I am qualified to do that. I have three kids of my own and taught pre-school for many years.  A kid's sermon. That really means "We want you to talk to children and entertain them and their parents. We don't really expect you to preach on anything important since you only have 10 minutes." Ok.  I can do that.
I check the readings for the week. It turns out we are celebrating the feast of the circumcision of Jesus. What? That's a feast day? Since a feast means we eat, what do you suppose we should eat to celebrate that feast? I think I will do a sermon on re-gifting instead. Before I get to what I talked about, you need to know that the reason I started writing this blog was because of the ironic silly things that can happen at a church. For example, suppose it is the lesson from Luke on Jesus' circumcision that is to be read by one of our deacons. Well the deacon gets to the last part of the lesson; the part where they actually mention the circumcision...and stops early.  Apparently there was a complication with the notes on how many verses were to be read that day.  In most churches nobody would notice. But in our church we put the lessons on the screen for folks who don't want to bother carrying those heavy Bibles to church. So everyone saw that our Deacon stopped the lesson short. You might even say...as I did...the deacon circumcised the lesson on circumcision. Ouch.
Moving on to what I talked about. Re-gifting. It is what we do with the presents we don't want or won't use. The phrase came from the meaning to give a gift to someone that was given to us by another person. I suggested we can do that with the gift God has given us. The gift of Life. I even brought in a game of Life wrapped up for kids to open. Forget outreach and missional movement and all the trendy words we have invented for sharing our faith. Re-gifting is all we need. Hopefully God's gift is not one we want to return or won't use. But that is the good part. Even when we give it away we still have it to give again and again.
Speaking of returns, check out Philippians 4:17.  It talks about returning gifts to the store without a receipt. If you have ever stood in line at Wal-Mart or Target to return something for 30 minutes only to be told you can't, try this verse out on the customer service rep.   In the NIV it says "Not that I desire your gifts; what I desire is that more be credited to your account."  The Bible says to ask for a gift card from the store.  I am pretty sure God gave us his gift of life to be re-gifted and never exchanged. He gave us his only Son as a gift and we tried to return that gift without success. The Bible promises Jesus will be the one to return and when he does, he gets to go to the front of the line and believe me, he has his receipt!