Posts Tagged ‘worship’
Prepare The Room: Psalm 51
This is the video I did to help us get focused at the start of our services.
Prepare The Room: Psalm 51 from Grant English on Vimeo.
Sunday Should Be The Most Dangerous Day Of The Week
“There is no way we could ever pull that off.”
That’s a direct quote from a pastor friend of mine when he heard about our current series Sacred Rituals. He saw our trailer for the series and when he heard that we played that music while we shared communion as a church two weeks ago — he said those words again.
So I asked …”How come?”
“It’s too risky. You didn’t pass the communion around, you played a chant, you’re hanging stain glass everywhere…” Then he said those words again – “There is no way we could ever pull that off.”
“I still don’t quite understand. Why couldn’t you?”
“It would be so far outside what people expected….”
Our conversation shifted in the awkward moment of silence that followed. I wish we had continued the conversation…maybe we will one day. I know what I’d say now. I’d challenge him a bit that our role as worship leaders is consistently create a context for others to connect with God. It’s Jesus they need, not another well planned worship service that will teach them another Greek word they will never use.
And by that mandate alone — Sunday should be the most dangerous day of the week for us. If the goal is to connect people with God, who knows what He’ll do when He gets a hold of them. We’re talking about God and He’s ‘not a tame lion.’
The point is – our worship services should be anything but predictable, boring, and static. Mainly because God is none of those things. There is no way on the planet that should be ‘business as usual.’ What is ‘normal’ when talking about the presence of God? I’m reminded of a Sally Morganthaler quote — when we show up for worship, we should be wearing life vests and crash helmets.
There should be a sense of wonder and trepidation every Sunday morning. We want an opportunity for a ‘holy moment’, a ‘thin place’ experience where the veil between the mundane and the Holy is merged. Why? Because it’s the seedbed of transformation. It’s fuel for the soul, sometimes it’s healing for soul. Because people need God Himself more than they need to be informed or entertained.
BUT that’s not ALL that worship is. Worship is larger than just the service, the encounter. It’s also a living sacrifice. Practically speaking, a living sacrifice is when Jesus gets the last word in every decision, thought, and deed in my life. If I start living like that… If I start worshiping like that…
I’m convinced the same sense of wonder and trepidation WOULD be available to me every day. And Sundays would be so much more sweeter, deeper, and yes…dangerous.
Sacred Rituals Trailer
I completely stole this idea of the sermon series from Mark Batterson over at NCC. Here’s the trailer for the series we will start on February 21st. Come experience it with us.
Rick Stones said that if we got 20 comments on this post, he’ll sing a Gregorian Chant for us during the series.
Origins: earth
And it was good…
All good theology starts with Genesis 1. That is, I think all good theology starts with the concept that God existed before the beginning and He created and what He created was good. Why?
Because God is good and the creation has His fingerprints all over it. It is creative, diverse, wonderful, complex, beautiful, full of folly, complicated, simple and….good. Because if it isn’t good, it isn’t worth redeeming which makes the rest of scripture pointless.
These particular paintings were done by Jenny who has Williams Syndrome. WS is a rare neurodevelopmental disorder but Jenny has a very sunny, fun disposition in spite of this. You can probably see this in her artwork. It made her the perfect choice to be the artist for this topic.
Another aspect about Jenny came out in the artwork. She loves to help people. That’s part of God’s good creation – people, the ability to help and receive help from others. Jenny recently graduated from Washburn Rural and started her own business JennyLu Designs.
25 Hours of Seeing God Work
Sunday, August 2
9.00 am
I’ve been up at the church for almost an hour now, listening to the worship team practice, smelling the eggs and sausage from the men’s breakfast. I didn’t go to the breakfast this morning. I normally do but today is going to be a long but an awesome day. We’ll spend some time after church with the worship team interviewing our potential new part-time worship leader, youth have a service tonight where we get to hear what God has done in and through them this summer, potential youth volunteer meeting after that…
But before all of that happens, I have to ‘unpack’ Ephesians 2. Struggling with how to end the message. This is the part of my preaching that I struggle with – landing the plane. It’s not how you start but how you finish. I’ve crash landed a few sermons since I’ve been here. It’s painful. I feel like I’m in the groove to start, have good insights in the middle then when it comes time to end it…wheels off the wagon. I’ve slammed it down in the runaway a couple of times and just prayed that no one was injured.
This is where the craft of speaking comes into play. I REALLY want to get better at this. The creative team that meets every week helps with this. The teaching time must end with a point of response. What does God want us to do with this information? How should we respond? It’s not really worship until that happens. It’s just a learning experience, a mental exercise. I want more than that. I want worship, an encounter, a transformational opportunity.
9.20 am
I get out of my office to get wired up and see some old, dear friends from Emporia – the Euseys. I met Don at BK every week at 8 am for about a year. He’ll never know how much he helped me. I wish I had words. Lucy is one of the most creative, insightful people I’ve ever been around. I love catching up with them. It’s not enough time with them.
9.30 am
Service starts with video of last week’s VBS. We had several kids accept Christ last week, we gathered over 1,000 items of school supplies for McCarter Elementary School. I love to see children ‘get’ the gospel but on the other hand I know there will be a time in their life where the re-evaluate their decision. They’ll question the validity, wrestle with the depth of which they made this decision. Almost every kid that makes a decision as a child goes through this. It’s why I’ve never been comfortable baptizing children. I want them to go through that process first, then get baptized so that it means something to them. At any rate, I’ll still think it’s important to teach kids the truth in a way that can understand it. It’s worth the process.
10.43 am
First service over and it was good. I do feel like I struggled with landing the plane but it wasn’t a crash landing. Interview with Brandon was great, plugging the youth service tonight.
10.55 am
Second service is about to start. I’ve met numerous new families that are starting to become regulars at Western Hills. I’m nervous. I love the new faces, I love the slow growth we’re seeing. The need for Life Group leaders who reproduce followers of Jesus is increasing. It’s the missing piece of the puzzle for us. We’re not unique in this. Most churches have a hard time reproducing leaders. This is where we are starting in a couple weeks with a Turbo Group.
We know that people want more than just a good worship experience from their church (as they should). They want a group of other believers to do life with, to serve with. To be discipled and to disciple. We’re heading that direction, we will get there but the unanswerable question is this – will the ‘newbies’ hang on while we get there? Will they go there with us or will they bolt for another church that is further down the road than we are? Ultimately I know this is a ridiculous stupid discussion to have with myself. We are who we are right now and God’s working on us and He’s moving us on His timeframe. Trust that, not anything else. Rome wasn’t built in a day…
12.10 pm
For the first time in a long time, I actually feel decent about how the service ended. Big point this morning – Objects of wrath is self and/or Satan inflicted, not God inflicted. God wants us to be objects of his great, unmeasurable mercy. But it only comes through Jesus Christ – his death, burial and resurrection. Had some folks pray with me after the service…wrestling with the grace of God. It’s a good thing.
12.30 pm
Worship team is meeting with Rick Stones. We’re thinking Rick is the next worship leader for us at Western Hills. It’s been unreal how this process came about. After working with him 4 weeks, seeing him lead practices, work with creative team, how he reacts to critiques – I’m impressed. We’ve had them over for dinner, lunch. I played 17 holes of golf with him. (Don’t ask about 18.) I’ve never been this positive or sure of hire in my life. I’m floored that God has moved the Stones and Western Hills this direction.
Worship team asks some great questions. How’s your walk with Jesus? What is going to be difficult for you moving forward? What prompted this movement at this time? Rick is himself and it’s just wonderful to see it all click. Randi (wife) – gosh…how blessed are we going to be with this couple? The team is amped about them, the future, working with Rick and Randi. We go to Church Council Wednesday night to affirm this. I’m becoming a crying idiot because I’m just overwhelmed at what God is doing.
3.00 pm
Finally home, time for a quick nap before youth service.
5.30 pm
Back at church to help prep for youth service.
7.00 pm
Service is over and the word ‘awesome’ was used at least 97 times. And what incredible life change stories we got to hear! It was….awesome. (98)
8.00 pm
While students are playing volleyball and eating pizza and ice cream, we get a room of around 11 potential youth volunteers to talk about the future of student ministry. I’m floored by the response. We have the makings of an incredible team here. I’m once again humbled at what God is doing in our people. Looks like we’re going to get at least 4 new coaches, lots of support help out this crew.
9.55 pm
Still in gym laughing and goofing off with Rob Ginder. I’ve found a new goofing off buddy. Of course, Lisa T has called me down a few times in meetings. I’m guessing this will continue – us goofing off, Lisa getting us back on task.
10.30 pm
Home, put kids in bed, catch up on Burn Notice.
Monday, August 3rd
8.30 am
Up at church, loading up 3 cars to take school supplies to McCarter Elementary. Dale and Marion Liby are here to help as is Brandon and Hannah. It’s 50 some odd bags of school supplies plus a huge bin.
9.00 am
Get to school, principal is there. She sees the stuff (we’ll have a video on Sunday) and I can tell she’s not sure what to say. She tells us this is huge for them. Many students don’t have all the supplies, this lets them supplement them in a way that isn’t embarrassing. We talk about the mats that Marion and the ladies bible study have made.
10.00 am
Back to WHBC with Brandon.
BG: “That was cool. This is really what it’s about.”
GE: “Yeah…”
I want to say more but that pretty much summed it all up. An extraordinary 25 hours.
Silence
Yesterday we took a pretty big risk. Well…it felt like a risk at the time. It played out.
Instead of preaching/teaching on the discipline of silence, we just did it. We sat in silence for a little over 13 minutes. Afterwards, I kind of gave some pointers of how to practice the discipline and we went home. That was it.
And I got more compliments than ever. (Insert rim shot)
One of the things I wanted to do when I became a lead pastor was to actually turn Sunday morning into an experience, less observation. The desire is for people to experience God, not just hear about Him or learn about Him. The encounter with God is what is life changing. Head knowledge has its limits. If that knowledge isn’t translated into some meaningful experience, it will be lost forever.
So when we came to the blind guy getting healed, we did the service in the dark. When we unpacked “I am the bread of life,” we baked bread. Instead of teaching on Passover, have a Jew come in and lead us in a seder. And yesterday when we unpacked silence…we got silent. Every week, we ask ourselves how do we involve everyone in this story?
Does it carry risks? Absolutely. But not like you think. I’d guess that lost or curious people of Jesus would wig out at some of the things we do – prayer wall, move around during the service, write cardboard confessionals, sit in the dark and silence – and never come back. It’s actually having the opposite effect. Husbands that hardly darken the door of a church have been showing up more, we’re seeing more of these curious people make decisions to follow Jesus. There is an expectancy on Sunday morning, a desire to engage not just show up.
At risk are those of us ‘leading’.
A new friend of mine recently talked about the church as a ship – cruise ship, cargo, battle, medical – which kind of ship is your church? And yes – all analogies break down at some point – but of those choices the one I least want to be is the cruise ship. The staff exists to entertain and feed and serve you so that you can have a pleasant experience. Do you realize that of those choices the cruise ship is the only one whose mission is itself? “We exist to perpetuate our own existence.” All the others have an external mission – deliver goods, defeat bad guys, heal sick.
And that’s the danger I am capable of becoming. I can totally see how the focus on creativity and impact on Sunday morning morphs itself into a self-perpetuating mission. “We have to do it better, bigger, louder, smoother than we did last week.” “The show must go on.” I can totally see how creativity begins to take the place of God.
That’s why as important and meaningful Sunday morning is – it will never be enough to justify our existence. It’s just one piece of the puzzle.