I'll probably start blogging again sometime in January

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Starting Fresh

So I've just been hired by Joy Christian Center in St. Cloud, Minnesota. I am the creative arts pastor and am in charge of everything creative and "artsy." Actually, to put it more clearly, I will be responsible for the music ministry, tech ministry, and will be basically the producer for the Sunday services. I am very excited at the prospect of starting a new job that I know I will love. I guess I'm a bit nervous also, mainly because I just don't know what to expect completely. However, I know God will guide me through. Hopefully I will be blogging more often now that there are people in my church that might actually be interested to read what I write. We'll see I guess...

Group Dynamics

I'm in the process of selecting a committee that I'm in charge of for next year. It's hard. The biggest problem I'm facing is making a group that will work well together while not making a committee of people who are all the same. If your group is all alike, it looks like an exclusive committee which keeps out people who are not like the members. I'm a firm believer in hiring the best person instead of the person who looks the best to others. For example, in the NFL, teams are often criticized for not having enough diversity among the coaching staff. Well, if the best people are all of the same ethnic background, then so be it. Being diverse at the expense of good group dynamics is stupid. The same goes for group building in the church, but it is a little different because you want to get as many people involved as possible. Church is a funny thing like that. I'm frustrated at how politically correct we have become in this country (and sometimes church) at the expense of making the right decision.

PKs

Why is it that PKs are some of the most hurt and misguided people in ministry? Pastors are supposed to be the model leaders, ministers, and PARENTS. I think pastors care too much about what the people in the congregation think. They raise their children to be trophies on display. They have them wound so tight that at some point they can't fake it anymore and they rebel against their parents, the church, and God. It breaks my heart to see this. I mean it. Not much makes me more angry than watching the devil destroy kids in one of the most amazing opportunities ever. To grow up in a pastor's home and have a behind-the-scenes look at church is an awesome experience. I count it an amazing privelege. I'm not going to fix all the problems addressed here, but maybe I can be a small part of the solution.

Old Songs

How old is too old for a song to be played in a youth worship service in a cutting edge church? I think that question is absurd. Who cares what the age of the song is if it is still relevant? If it helps people connect with God, then how can it be bad? I wonder if Jesus were the pastor of a church today, what would his music service look like? I'm not sure, but it is a fun question. Are hymns on their way out? I hope not. I love hymns. They hold some of the most meaningful, honest lyrics ever written for music. It is Well is one of my favorite hymns. It speaks to the most honest part of the soul. There are no pretenses in that hymn. It is raw and uncovered. That is true worship. I wish we could get back to hymns and older songs because they hold value more than most people realize.

Accomodation

There was a speaker on campus yesterday who intrigued me with quite a few of the things he said. One of the things I thought about as he was speaking is the issue of musical accommodation within the church. There are the older folks who connect with the hymns and the songs about heaven and going home. There are the middle aged folks who really connect with those choruses we used to sing back in the day. And then you've got this generation who connects with the cutting edge worship music of today. What's a music minister to do to cater to the needs of all of these people? Well, there's an answer to this question that makes me mad. This answer is that these people should be able to find God in whatever music we provide. Undoubtedly, the music that "we provide" is the favorite music of the person saying that. It is probably easy for the person in charge of picking the music to connect with God during the music service because he loves the music he chose. What we don't understand often times is that the sole purpose of a music service is to assist in any way possible the people we are leading. If your congregation identifies best and worships well with hymns, then you better give them a steady diet of hymns because that is what they need. It doesn't matter if you want a church with a rockin' post-modern worship service if the people don't respond to that. This chapel speaker I spoke of talked about the vision of the church not coming down from the top of the leadership in the church anymore. The vision of the church needs to be a cumulative "puzzle" if you will, with each person holding a piece. The vision comes from the people and the leadership needs to find that vision and bring it to the surface and enable it to happen. That is the picture of church leadership and church vision that he portrayed. I agree completely. What does that say about the music minister cramming the most recent worship tunes down people's throats when they don't want it? Not much, I'm afraid. That leader is cramming his puzzle piece into a hole that is not ready for it-at least not yet. Music ministers should not be people who impose their own style on a congregation. They should be people who accomodate and cater to the styles of the congregation in order for them to worship more effectively.

Minneapolis Assembly of God Hospital

The church should be a hospital. I wrote this on a piece of notebook paper during a class last week. I recently took out the piece of paper and thought about it. One of the things about church that bothers me is that we have become a sort of club. A club is a group of people who are alike and who like each other and who do things together. More importantly, however, is the fact that a club is exclusive. A person cannot simply decide to be a part of a club. Said person must apply or ask the right people in order to be included. What if the church functioned not as a club, but as a hospital? One of the characteristics of a hospital is that people who are completely healthy don't get admitted. In church, people act like they are perfect and people who are less than perfect have a more difficult time gaining acceptance. What do people expect from non-Christians who have decided to come to church? We expect them to be perfect because that's what we all pretend to be. A hospital is for people with serious problems. It's a place where they can come and be made better. Does the church admit people with serious problems? How about a young person with blue hair, black make-up, and all black clothing? Do we go out of our way to make this person who is obviously crying out for SOMETHING feel welcome, or do we go out of our way to avoid this person. I feel that the latter is practiced more often. I challenge myself and everyone else involved in the church to pay special attention to PATIENTS in need of God. Don't avoid them. Help them.

This is me.

My First Entry

This is my first blog ever. I don't know how this whole thing works, but I'm gonna try to do it. I set this up because of my Worship Leading class. We are required to do 3 journal entries per week. I thought it would be easier to do a blog than to do a paper journal. We'll see.

I was talking with a new friend (who I have realized is a lot like me) about church and what we thought it should be like. We were talking about the move of God in services. We discussed our church and whether or not God could move in one of our services if he so desired. I was curious. I have heard rumors that my church, River Valley Church, plans services three years in advance. Three years! My friend was apalled and so was I. I tried to figure out why I was apalled and all I could come up with was that I thought planning a service three years in advance was "putting God in a box." How could God move if we already have a three year old plan for what God will do? The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I had put God in a box. God's new shiny box that Caleb had just put Him inside read "God, I don't think you can speak to someone three years in advance about a service and then move in that service." Ouch. When we (I) try to pretend like we know how God works, we show how little we really know about him. I really didn't think that God could move in a stale, three year old service. But who am I to say that God can't do something? I need God to blow apart my understanding of Him and renew the mystery. God can't be figured out -- especially by some 22 year old college punk.