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!

My Quota of Quotes

As the year 2011 draws to a close, I am reflecting on the wonderful things people have said to me this year. I guess when you work for a church everyone that attends is like your boss. Therefore, some critical comments are most welcome as long as we mix it with a compliment. It reminds me of the passing phrase "no offense". That  phrase is meant to be read as "no offense" as in... "I didn't mean to offend you"; not "no offense" as in the Philadelphia Eagles football team. That's completely different.
People feel the need to say "no offense", usually following a statement that was in fact offensive, but if we say that it isn't, then it must be so. Something like; "Your voice sounded really awful today, but usually it is better, no offense. You must be sick."  Yep, that was an actual comment. My response was "Thanks, I actually feel pretty good. Perhaps your hearing is a bit off today, no offense". And so it goes. The verbal sparring that takes place while smiling and exchanging "no offense" tags that excuse our unfriendly exchanges. Whoever created that phrase excusing our rude comments was an idiot, no offense.
This weekend we performed a Christmas program that was unlike our "normal" music. Our church music is contemporary in song and instrumentation. This program was "classical baroque" with chamber choir accompanied by double bass, cello, classical guitar and harpsichord. We had two professional actors that attend our church read the narration.  I arranged all the music and worked hard for several months to make this different on purpose. Following our performance one person said to me, "the classical guitar sounded amazing, even though it was you playing it."  Oh...thanks?
Earlier this year I produced a CD of worship from our church. I selected the songs and recorded the majority of the music in my home studio. We did this as a fundraiser for a music mission trip. By the way, if you are interested in a copy of this CD, contact me and I will make sure you get one. One of the leaders in our church told me she thought our CD was alright, but if I really wanted to make a better one next time, consult with her to choose songs more people will like. This was after she asked where the songs came from and I told her I wrote several of them.
Obviously these are not the kind of comments I like to reflect on at the end of the year. There have been so many wonderful, appreciative people that lift my spirits to encourage and motivate me. I want to say thank you to those people. I want to say thanks to the thousands who visit my blog every month to read what I write about. It is quite a humbling experience to think my words are interesting enough for others to read, when I place such a high value on people's time. I am really looking forward to the new year. Not because this one wasn't good enough, but because I love to see what God does next. His plan for us is to learn to love better. Love God, love one another, and love who we are, probably in that order but I am pretty sure that isn't really important. The priority or order of things isn't the issue because we are supposed to do all of those things simultaneously.
I have said many times here "God has grace for the human race" because I think the Bible makes it clear. If it's good enough for God, we should give it a try too. So the next time you hear the phrase "no offense", be sure to offer the cliche "none taken" with a smile.

The Anglican Mission Smorgasbord

Well, I finally jumped in. A bit late to the discussion, but after all, my blog is mostly dedicated to the musings of a Worship Leader working at a church. I have no clout or influence, but I do have an opinion and it is usually spiced with sarcasm so I figured I should weigh in. Many people have asked me if I would blog about the recent developments in the Anglican Mission. I didn't think I would until I couldn't stand the stuff I have been reading and decided to add to the smorgasbord of opinions.
I like the word smorgasbord. If I had some of those crazy fonts I could insert the proper characters in place of our "o" and "a" but since I don't...try to imagine I used them and now it is a Swedish word for buffet. Everyone loves Swedish stuff. Who doesn't like the Swedish Chef? Smorgasbord. The word is usually associated with food but we also use it as a description for something that has a large variety. Not just a large variety, but also when you think smorgasbord, you think of all things good. I'm not sure what you call a large variety of bad things, other than trash, but that really isn't important here.
So after reading all the articles on AMiA, I have determined that there is no simple summary so I will take a shot at it. By the way, "summary" means I left out a bunch of details. My blog; my prerogative on which details I leave out. The Anglican Mission in America (AMiA) is an organization of churches Chuck Murphy created when he left the Episcopal Church. In order to be an official Anglican organization recognized in the world by other Anglicans, he needed an endorsement from a genuine Anglican province. Rwanda and Asia stepped in to fill that role and now Chuck is Bishop Murphy. What they didn't tell us (or at least what I didn't get)....apparently this organization is not part of the province of Rwanda, as I had thought. It is a business venture of Bishop Murphy. So when Bishop Murphy breaks ties with Rwanda and leaves, so does the Anglican Mission. And that is what has happened. Bishop Murphy has cut our relationship with the Province of Rwanda.
Editor's note here...I really don't know what happened to cause this and I certainly am not taking sides.
This is where it gets complicated. Our church is an AMiA church, but our priests were received as official missionary priests in the province of Rwanda. So it would seem our church is under the authority of Bishop Murphy, but our priests are under the authority of Rwanda, but not Bishop Murphy. What? Exactly.
As someone who works at a church, this is kind of like a buy-out, but I'm not sure who is buying what. As far as I know, I will still be paid every week by New Covenant Church. Where will we go for the special meetings? That is what all the important people will figure out. I'm okay to let them do it. I have a Christmas service to plan and many visitors to share wonderful music with. Why are there so many other people involved in speculating what is going to happen in church politics? I'm not sure, but I am sure every minute they are doing that is one minute less they are doing ministry of the church.
Smorgasbord. A variety of good things. Maybe there are bad things to eat, but we try to eat the good stuff. If we get something bad, we usually recognize it as bad and don't eat the whole thing. We leave it for waste. Then when we return to the buffet, we choose only the things that were good. God made us like that. We have the ability to choose the good from the bad. Sure we can be tricked, but we are fast learners. It didn't work out so well for Adam and Eve, but God expects that. And He still has our back. Christmas will still come. What will you do to tell the Christmas story this year?

Don't Stand So Close to Me

Some songs become anthems in their time. There are many hymns which have managed to survive the ages, and a few contemporary praise songs have already etched a place into the place you would etch something.  Woven into the fabric of our lives. Every cliche that says it is something you will remember.  The Bible is full of stuff we are supposed to remember. The Last Supper. Jesus says "do this in remembrance of me." And so we do, or at least some of the churches do.  I'm not sure how people manage the rules in the Bible to select the ones they think will count. When the big guy says we should do it, it seems like a deal breaker if we don't.  It's not like other rules.

What about the rules for construction. Some people quote construction "codes" like they wrote them.  A fence cannot exceed 6 feet high when it backs up to a residential roadway, but if it is a city highway, the wall can be 15 feet. I'm not sure if that is true, but it sounds good.  Wherever that code is, it probably is right next to the code for urinal spacing.

Urinal spacing you ask? I believe there is an unwritten rule about how close two urinals can be together. In our church, in the main church building, we have a men's room. It contains three toilet stalls and two urinals. In most bathrooms the urinals have a little wall between them. The wall of separation. Not ours. Our urinals are about 8 inches apart with no wall. In my 19 years of attending this church, I have not once seen two men use the urinals simultaneously. If one is taken, you go use a toilet stall.  In church we can be buddy-buddy and even hug another guy, but once you enter the men's room, all bets are off. No talking. 

Awkward as it may seem, you can listen to the service through overhead speakers.  This idea had to come from a man who thought up this great distraction to avoid conversation. "Sorry Bob, can't talk right now.  I am concentrating on the sermon."
Maybe the urinals are put there as a test. Male bonding. We all failed.

So why the urinal blog?
It occurred to me we like excuses to avoid uncomfortable situations.  Speakers in a restroom give us the excuse not to talk.  "I thought you were going to talk to him" is a good way to avoid greeting visitors on Sunday. "I don't have time to share everything this person needs to hear, or answer all their questions" is a good excuse to walk away from an opportunity to share your faith with someone. Too many people avoid.
Too many Christians use "I want to be nice" to avoid telling someone what they need to hear.
There are lots of stories in the Bible about confrontation. There is no lesson to be learned in a story without conflict. Think about that.
Conflict draws us close. If closer is good, conflict must be okay. Avoidance separates us. If separation is bad, our urinals must be okay.