Some blogs to share with you, all of which are close to my heart because they are by people who are close to my heart.
First up, are the three—yes, three—blogs of my wife. The first one, FiveJs, is about whatever is going on in the family, or whatever is of interest to Joy at the time. Second, is her homeschool centric Homeschooling for the Real World, where Joy shares tips, tricks and resources for homeschooling families. Third, is a group blog she is a part of called Happy to be at Home. Joy, two other ladies, and many guest bloggers share kitchen/menu ideas, household tips, homeschooling ideas, and generally cover other family issues. Click any of the three images below to go check them out.
Next up is the newest blog in the family, authored by my (nearly) 6 year old daughter, Joely. Her nickname is “JoJo Bean,” and so The JoJo Bean is open for your amazement. She’ll be posting her drawings and little stories to go along with them—stuff she doing for school. Please do stop by and comment often, as that is one of the ways we are teaching her to read—reading and approving her own comments.
Finally, is the new devotional style blog by my pastor, Elmer Cummings. He’s finally hitting the blog world, and we’ll even be starting to (kind of) podcast his sermons via his blog and our church website. Stop by and say hello at Sheep Am Dumb.
Happy reading!
Technorati Tags: blog, blogs, family blogs, new blogs
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Brody Harper has this really cool thing going on Tuesdays called Positive Post Tuesday. Essentially, you just pick someone to say something good about, and post it for all to see. I’ve never participated before, but I think I’ll jump in today.
I want to spotlight someone I’ve never met, but who has become a friend via our correspondence with one another on blogs, Twitter, and Facebook. I haven’t told him I going to do this, so it will be a surprise to him.
Billy Chia is a great guy. Why do I say this? For numerous reasons.
He recently dove into full-time ministry and relocated his family to Huntsville, AL to serve as a worship pastor. He’s been a member of our worship blogging community for quite a while, and is someone you can constantly count on to be an encourager. So many times, Billy may be one of the few—or the only one—to comment on your posts.
In fact, when I recently twittered about my pastor’s new blog, Billy was the only non-local to drop a comment. That’s really a great gesture. I can’t tell you how many times someone’s twittered about a new blogger to welcome to the community, and I just let it pass me by. Not so with Billy.
I can’t tell you how many times notes through the aforementioned avenues have been an encouragement. Not only to me, but I’m sure to many others in our blogging community as well. (Even as I write this, I’m looking over at TweetDeck and seeing Billy welcoming another sheep into the Twitter fold.)
Lately, Billy has been featuring the Facebook flair of other bloggers. That’s such a great thing to do, give up your own time and blog space to freely promote someone else.
Billy is always full of energy, and I’m praying that God uses him to enact great things for the Kingdom in Huntsville. Just last week he was part of an inter-church time of worship in Huntsville along with the likes of fellow bloggers Jan Owen and Dean Lusk. I love seeing stuff like that happen in the body of Christ.
If you haven’t checked out his blog, you definitely should. Go say hello to Billy.
Technorati Tags: billy chia, encouragement, positive post tuesday
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If you’ve never read Harold M. Best’s Unceasing Worship, you’ve missed one of the seminal works on worship and the arts in the Church. I’m on my second read-through, a process which will likely take me quite a while since I’m reading it alongside other, newer books—and because it is such a deep read. The first time through took me a couple of months, and this time through will likely take even longer since I really want to completely absorb the book.
One of the “big ideas” in the book is that of mutual indwelling. Beyond the “Christ in us and we in Him” idea, it is a huge expansion that you’ll have to read about to even begin to completely understand. Essentially the idea is this: God mutually indwells Himself (the Trinity), God indwells us (personally) and we abide in Him, God indwells us (corporately) as the Church, and we indwell one another (via service, corporate worship, fellowship, etc.)
There are many rock-your-world statements throughout the book, but the one that really grabbed my attention today was this one from chapter 3, on page 50.
“There is only one worship war that can be properly described as such. It is the war between God and Satan, in which being in Christ or in Satan is the bedrock issue. Our petty skirmishes about worship, as ignoble, silly and demeaning as they can become, are nothing compared to the violence and tearing of the real and only war. This war is simply not ours at our dithering local level. It is the Lord’s, and if we were to better understand this one splendid fact, we would be placing far less emphasis on what we do, what style we do it in, what we keep and what we throw out, and what latest poll or societal ‘insight’ we choose to use as our template.”
~Unceasing Worship. Harold M. Best, 2003 InterVarsity Press, p. 50.
Technorati Tags: music style, mutual indwelling, unceasing worship, Worship, worship war
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A group of former students from my alma mater were contacted by a former professor—and good friend I might add—asking for relevant input for his upcoming Church Music Administration class. Basically, what were the things we wished we had known before entering ministry full-time? Here is my (edited for blog relevance) off the cuff reply.
- Read the Word, Know the Word, Live the Word, Consult the Word. This is first and foremost before anything and everything. This should go without saying, but sadly it needs to be said. It is so easy to get caught up doing the “work of God,” and start to leave Him and His Word out of it. I’m guilty of this far too often. Don’t forget to pray. Read the Word and pray apart from your study time. Don’t have study time until you’ve had personal time with God. Don’t plan any music or program or whatever until you’ve had time alone with God on a regular basis.
- If you neglect your family and choose to “minister” first, you will soon find yourself as an ineffective minister without place in which to minister. My wife and kids put up with too many years of me being a minister first and husband/father second, or third, or last. I think I’ve finally got a handle on it, but I regret the years of joy we missed together.
- Network, network, network. Start now getting to know as many different music/worship leaders as possible, from as many different churches/denominations/traditions/styles as possible. Not only are they a great source of encouragement, but they are your number one source apart from spending time with God for resources/creativity/ideas/etc. when you find yourself lacking. There is no excuse to not be reading some the worship leader/music minster blogs out there—there’s a group of people out there doing the job and sharing with the whole world how they’re getting it done. If students don’t know where to start looking, I have a huge list of blogs I read on a regular basis I would love to share.
- Get in the trenches now. Don’t wait until graduation to get neck deep into ministry. I wish I had been forced into it more when I was in school. I know we had our Christian service requirements when we were in school, and I assume those are still in place, but I wish I had been pushed/required to do more. Find a church to either intern with or volunteer in NOW.
- Realize that, no matter how good and relevant the teaching you get in class is, no matter how good the professor is at giving you the best, most relevant information he/she can (in terms of technology, use of said technology, trends, etc.), it will be out-of-date before you graduate. Yet again another reason to network and get personally involved. It is only then do you see the applications both practical and possible when merging the truth of the Gospel with technology and culture. It is your responsibility as a student to keep yourself “fresh,” not your professor’s. Plus, you’ve GOT to figure out how to best operate your ministry. Don’t try to take what you learned in class, plop it down on your first church and expect it to go perfectly. Learn how to fit yourself into the church, not fit the church into you.
- Don’t cut yourself off from the culture around you, but rather immerse yourself in it as much as is possible/practical/permissible. My old interpretation of “be in the world, not of it” was to completely cut myself off from anything that was not implicitly Christian. It made me where I couldn’t even relate and understand the language of those I was trying to minister to. Realize that, wherever you go as a minister, you HAVE to learn how to relate to the local culture(s). Jesus was involved with the average Joe.
- Learn everything you can. Realize that, even though you’ve graduated and earned a degree, you really know nothing. Don’t stop learning from every source possible. Keep the good (what is true, what is applicable, what has value, etc.) and throw the rest away. Just be willing to learn from all angles. Even someone you complete disagree with can teach you something, even if it is how NOT to do something.
- Become a reader, if you’re not one already. If reading is a chore to you, then you’re setting yourself up to remain limited.
- Don’t stop training. Keep taking voice/instrument lessons. Push yourself to learn a new instrument, even if it’s just the basics. Keep yourself current on software and hardware. Learn how to mix audio, how to record audio/video, how to master a track. Put yourself in a position where, if you were to lose a key person on your team, you would be able to at least train someone in the basics of that position. Beyond the basics, try to keep current (via networking) as to where to find further information/training beyond what you are able to teach so that you can get it into your team member’s hands.
- Learn how to replicate yourself. Work everyday as if you are trying to train others and work yourself out of a job. Be less of an on stage leader and more of a facilitator.
What do you think? For you ministers out there, what would you add to this list. What practical advice would you give a young person preparing for ministry?
Technorati Tags: advice, bible college, bible school, education, ministry, training, worship leading
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We had our back to school crowd today, along with quite a few visitors. We started off with a pretty popular song for our folks, one written and taught to us by traveling artist/speaker David Crain. It’s funny how a church seems to take ownership of songs from a visiting artist.
Both rehearsal on Thursday and sound check this morning seemed a little rough, like we just couldn’t get in the groove. You know those days where everyone is playing well, but separately? Yeah, it had been one of those days. However, for the gathering itself things seems to click, and the crowd really got into the first song.
I don’t know if it was from the sudden gelling of the band, or my feeding off the crowd, but in the middle of the second song’s first chorus I broke a string. I haven’t broken a string in quite a while, but it always seems to happen in public. Go figure. Here’s the list du jour.
- We Believe // David Crain
- The Wonderful Cross // Isaac Watts, Lowell Mason, Chris Tomlin
- Beautiful One // Tim Hughes
- Grace Greater than Our Sin // Julia Johnston, Daniel Towner
- O Mighty Cross // David Baroni, John Chisum
- There Is a Redeemer // Keith Green
- In Christ Alone // Keith Getty, Stuart Townend
This entry is part of Sunday Setlists at Fred McKinnon [dot] com.
Technorati Tags: church, guitar, Music, sunday setlist, Worship, worship confessional
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Well, I made the cut with all the cool kids in the blogging world. I’m now listed in the modern church section at alltop.com.
I won’t lie to you, I flat out used a Biblical principle and the power of Twitter to get in. “How’s that?” you say. I just flat out direct messaged Guy Kawasaki and asked “What are the chances of getting my blog listed on church.alltop.com?”
Ask and you shall receive. It’s a lesson for us all. If you don’t take the initiative, you might get left behind. Take the risk and ask for something you want. If you don’t have it, and you don’t get it via asking, you haven’t lost anything.
Thanks to Guy Kawasaki for the honor.
Technorati Tags: alltop, ask, guy kawasaki, initiative, reward, risk
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By now, most of you know about the rising controversy over the song “Healer,” and the subsequent revelation that the composer was lying about his struggle with cancer. I know some of my readers don’t keep up the latest news in the church/worship scene, so here are some links for you to check out the story for yourself.
Other than a couple of comments via Twitter, I pretty much kept myself out of the conversation yesterday on the blogosphere. There are some great discussions that have gone on, and I think it would be well worth your time to go check out what has been said. Here’s a nice little list for you to check things out: Carlos, Alex, Rich, Chris, Joel, Fred, Scott, Jordan, Gary.
I didn’t get into the debate for a couple of reasons. First, yesterday was my anniversary (if you hadn’t heard), and I really didn’t feel like getting involved in the conversation. Second, as with one of the few tweets I did contribute to the mess, I’ve never really been all that enamored by the song “Healer.” I’ve heard the song numerous times, watched the video, watched the now known to be fake testimony, and was never really drawn in all that much. Sure, I thought it was a cool story, but it never really resonated with me, and I never really thought the song was anything special. Probably because of my cynical nature, I thought there was more hype behind the song than actual moving of the Spirit.
I’m also fully willing to admit that I could be wrong on that score.
Either way, for whatever reason, I couldn’t keep the whole story and song out of my head all day as a result of the brewing controversy. So, I’m posting a day later to at least get some things off my mind. During Bible study last night, we read and discussed 2 Peter 2, and it really resonated with me in the light of the news of the day.
2 Peter 2 (NASB)
But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned; and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.
For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment; and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; and if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter; and if He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men (for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds), then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority daring, self-willed, they do not tremble when they revile angelic majesties, whereas angels who are greater in might and power do not bring a reviling judgment against them before the Lord.
But these, like unreasoning animals, born as creatures of instinct to be captured and killed, reviling where they have no knowledge, will in the destruction of those creatures also be destroyed, suffering wrong as the wages of doing wrong They count it a pleasure to revel in the daytime They are stains and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, as they carouse with you, having eyes full of adultery that never cease from sin, enticing unstable souls, having a heart trained in greed, accursed children; forsaking the right way, they have gone astray, having followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; but he received a rebuke for his own transgression, for a mute donkey, speaking with a voice of a man, restrained the madness of the prophet.
These are springs without water and mists driven by a storm, for whom the black darkness has been reserved. For speaking out arrogant words of vanity they entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality, those who barely escape from the ones who live in error, promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved.
For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment handed on to them. It has happened to them according to the true proverb, “A DOG RETURNS TO ITS OWN VOMIT,” and, “A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire.”
All emphasis mine. Here are my thoughts on the matter.
Should we be angry? Absolutely. Scripture is very clear that we are to be angry at sin. The Name and cause of Christ have been smeared by this situation. There are potentially many people around the world who were on the verge of making a decision to give their life to Christ, and now this might keep them from doing so. People going to Hell should make us angry.
This doesn’t mean we are to stand as judge, jury and executioner, yet we are instructed to be discerning. “What about not judging?” you say. Read Scripture clearly and you will find the provision that says “judge not, and you will not be judged” is not really teaching against judgment, but is a call for us to realize that we will be judged by the same measure with which we judge.
When Scripture—and the nature and character of God as revealed by Scripture—are our measure for judgment, then we are standing up solid ground. We are not being judgmental when we agree with God when He has already passed judgment. I would hope that, if I were to fall in a like manner that is damaging to the Gospel and to the Church, I would be judged in a similar way by Christ-followers—and that said followers would be angry for the damage to the cause of Christ.
Can God still use this song? Again, I say absolutely. Just as in the passage above, when a believer like Balaam tried to turn speak against the people of God for his own personal profit, God was able to speak through Balaam and make him pronounce a blessing when he thought to produce a curse. It is in this way that I liken this situation to a false prophet. A false prophet does not have to be someone who is an unbelieving charlatan, they can also be a believer who’s allowed themselves to be led astray, and become trapped in their own devices. I think this is largely what has happened in this “Healer” situation.
A call for accountability and repentance. This whole situation is yet another reminder for all of us who name the Name of Christ to check ourselves and see if we too are entangled in sin. Our sins WILL be found out, and those things we have done in secret will be shouted from the rooftops. It’s time to clean up the household of the heart if it is in need. Not only does sin break fellowship with the Father, it causes damage to His mission on this earth.
A call for discernment. I don’t know how things in this “Healer” situation got as far as they did without anybody checking the story out. I wasn’t there, so I don’t know how the ball got dropped on this, but it did. It’s akin to all those silly emails that Christians pass around to each other that are meant to incite fear or otherwise make us look bad. We really should check sources out before we hit send. Did those who thought the story true trust that the Hillsongs folks had checked their facts? I’m sure that’s the case. Whoever is closest to the “story” needs to do a better job of establishing truth. We all have that responsibility.
A call for forgiveness and restoration. Quite obviously, despite the damage done, we all need to move on toward forgiveness. Did Mike mess up? Yes, he did. Just like we couldn’t read his heart when he taped the bogus cancer story, we won’t be able to read his heart when he says he has repented and asked for forgiveness. Our only responsibility here is to forgive him and move on in continuing our work.
Can Mike still be used in the future by the Lord? I believe so. If he truly repents, I think God can use him. Look at the rogues gallery in Scripture and see what I mean. Abraham got caught in lies; Moses murdered somebody and tried to cover it up; David devised a murder to cover up his adultery; Solomon (based on Ecclesiastes) seems to have been an adulterer, a drunk, a drug abuser, a worshiper of false gods, the list goes on; Peter denied he even knew who Christ was; Paul rounded up Christ-followers and saw them put to death. Need I go on?
Mike will have to rebuild trust, and will likely never have the influence he once had, or could have had if this had not happened. However, I believe in a God of forgiveness, grace, and mercy, who will use all vessels made available to him, even broken and dirty ones. It is in this way that the lyrics of “Healer” find their full measure of application.
A reminder of where our faith resides. As with everything in our lives, this is another reminder that our faith is in Jesus Christ and not in any of his followers. If we are putting our trust in any man other than the Son of Man, our faith is in vain. If worship happens apart from worship of the only One worthy of worship, then our worship is in vain.
Technorati Tags: cancer, forgiveness, Healer, hillsong, lie, Mike Guglielmucci, restoration, sin
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I find it hard to believe I’ve had the privilege and blessing of being married to Joy for 14 years. She is my best friend, and my greatest positive influence other than Christ. I am a much better man because of all the love she has poured into my life.
Joy, you are a wonderful mother and wife, beautiful woman (inside and out), and I’m glad the Lord gave you to me as my lifelong companion.
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