church
- We’re going to a two service format starting in September. This will of course require extra organization and willingness to change from everyone involved.
- We’re eliminating our adult Sunday School classes in favor of 8-week weeknight courses to be held off-campus, at coffeeshops and the like. The goal is to get folks to bring unbelieving friends, and for the unbelievers to have a more comfortable place to come and discuss the Bible. Adult SS attendance has been waning, so it’s a good time to change.
- We’re starting up a ministry with a focus on the arts - drama, music, film, etc. Fortunately I’ve managed to stay out of any responsibilities with this one so far. Hope it stays that way - I just don’t have the time.
- Our youth pastor is moving from full-time youth pastor to part-time associate pastor. He has sensed a calling away from youth ministry, but wants to stay on somehow, and we want to keep him. To go along with that…
- We’re going to hire a new part-time youth pastor. At the moment, our #1 candidate is the senior pastor’s son. We’re hoping this doesn’t cause too much controversy. I think personally he’s the right man for the job.
- We’re going to change the name of the church. I’ve talked about this before. We know we should change to remove any hindrance that the word ‘Baptist’ causes… but it’s hard for some of the old-timers to want to change.
- Peace Church
- Peace Community
- All Souls Church
- All Souls Community Church
- Last Baptist Church
- Community of Faith
- Glory of God Community
- Image of God Community
- Potter’s Clay Community
- Last Chance Church
- Last Stop Church
- Noelridge Church
- Gratia Dei Church
- Charis Deo Church
- Pax Dei Community
- Imago Christi Community
- Without reproach
- a “one-woman” man
- self-controlled
- hospitable
- able to teach
- not given to drunkenness
- gentle
- not quarrelsome
- not a lover of money
- a good manager of his own family
Enough DaVinci, already!
I’ve heard just about enough about The DaVinci Code by now.
First, the hoopla over the best-selling novel.
Then, the adulation from the press and all of the discussion regarding the “historicity” of the fiction.
Next, the Christian reaction to the movie, covering the entire spectrum from “Cool” to “Yawn” to “EVIL, RUN FOR YOUR LIVES AND BURN THE HERETICS WHILE YOU’RE RUNNING!!!”.
So it was with some hesitation that I read a piece on Opinion Journal today entitled “Debunking the Debunkers”. The topic: how would C.S. Lewis have responded to DaVinci Code fans? I was glad I read the article.
“I have been reading poems, vision-literature, legends, myths all my life,” Lewis wrote. “I know what they are like. I know that not one of them is like this [the Bible].”
So said Lewis, and he was right.
The wrap-up:
Here is the real harm of these modern conspiracy theories: They may appeal to our emotions, but they violate our common sense. They reject reason, just as surely as they reject revelation. “I do not wish to reduce the skeptical element in your minds,” Lewis explained. “I am only suggesting that it need not be reserved exclusively for the New Testament and the Creeds. Try doubting something else.”
Good stuff.
a time of refreshing
I hadn’t realized how burned-out I was getting. When I step back and look at it now, it should’ve been obvious. I’ve been leading worship at Noelridge for the last 5 years or so, and have never taken off more than about 4 weeks a year. And those weeks were even more work than the weeks that I just led it myself. It wasn’t the leading so much; it was the preparation. Planning the service, writing instrumental parts for our various musicians (some need chords! some need notes! some can transpose… some can’t!), practicing beforehand, then leading. First it was one service per week, since last September it’s two services. I was getting to the point where I didn’t even want to do worship team.
It came to a head last fall. My initial position was that I wanted a bunch of time off. O.F.F. I didn’t figure it was feasible, but it sure sounded nice. (It still does, sort of.) After some discussion with the pastor, we decided on a scheme that we started in January. Under this new scheme, I lead solo and usually take requests one Sunday a month, and another Sunday every month I enlist somebody else to plan and lead. God has blessed us with David, who is willing and able to plan, prepare music, and lead. He’s been improving every month.
So this month, this upcoming Sunday is the week I’m off. Which means I don’t have to worry about dealing with worship team practice tonight. I don’t have to be there for the early service on Sunday if I don’t want to. Heck, I don’t have to be there at all on Sunday if I don’t want to. And it feels good. It’s refreshing. And next week I’ll be cranked up and ready to go again.
So that’s my little thought for the day: rest is good. Time off is refreshing. Don’t be afraid to ask for it. No sense in burning out.
reasonable theological concern, or overly picky?
I was thinking through some songs that we haven’t sung for a while in church, and this issue came to mind, so I thought I’d share it here. One of my main criterion when selecting songs for the church to sing (and I plan the music for almost every week) is that they be theologically sound. This manages to disqualify a substantive number of modern praise songs, and a surprising number of older hymns from our hymnal. I might go so far as to say that this is my primary criterion. Certainly there are others; singability is right up there. But theological correctness has got to be at the top of the list.
So we come to today’s topic: the old chorus “Create In Me A Clean Heart”. The text is pretty much straight from Psalm 51:
Create in me a clean heart oh God,
And renew a right spirit within me.
Create in me a clean heart oh God,
And renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from Thy presence oh Lord,
And take not Thy Holy Spirit from me.
Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation,
And renew a right spirit within me.
My theological nit is with the fifth and sixth lines. When David penned these words some 1500 years before Christ, the threat of having the Holy Spirit taken from him was quite a real one; he had seen a similar thing happen to Saul when Saul rebelled against God. At that time the Holy Spirit didn’t indwell all those who believed in God, but God specifically directed the Spirit to rest on certain people at certain times. But now we’re after Pentecost, and so those that believe are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit remains as a seal of our salvation. We’re not in danger of having God take it away.
So on to my theological question. While I love the submissive attitude of the first part of this chorus, I have real questions about singing those two lines, because I think they represent a fear or concern that we shouldn’t have. Is this an appropriate distinction to make? Or am I being overly picky? Your thoughts are appreciated.
a good weekend to be off
Yesterday was my first Sunday of just taking a break from leading the worship team. David Green did a very respectable job in my absence. The Lord used this weekend to remind me once again that His plans are so much better than mine. He knew I would need this weekend off.
Laura was difficult all weekend. It’s not really her fault; she’s teething, which makes her cranky anyway. It was combined with a cold this time (a cold that I have too), so in addition to the drooling, her sinuses are perpetually clogged, and she’s been running a 103 degree fever. Tylenol or Motrin will bring the fever down for a few hours and turn her back into her bubbly self, but about 4 hours into the 6-hour dosage, the fever comes back and she gets owly again. She’s not sleeping well, either; she’s been in our bed the last two nights, which is a last resort for us. We don’t sleep well with her in the bed; she’s a restless sleeper and snores. However, it’s better to lose sleep to a snoring baby in your bed than to a crying baby in the other room.
Sunday I made it up in time to get to the second service at church, so I did get to hear the sermon and the worship team. Like I said, they were pretty good, David’s got a good musical sense. Mostly they were just lacking a clear leader. Somebody on the WT has to know where you’re going, when you’re going there, and then just grab everybody and take them along. That just takes practice, and time doing it. As long as people are willing, I’ll be happy to provide them opportunities to practice, and any coaching that I can do along the way.
Now it’s Monday. Becky reports that Laura is still feeling bum this morning. Please, Lord, can this teething get done with?
worship team follow-up
So we did two services this morning after the great WT practice on Wednesday, and the services went really well, too. Nice to be back in the groove. I did an Andrew Peterson song for the offertory: Faith to be Strong. I think it was well-received.
worship team stuff
We had our first WT practice in about a month on Wednesday night. It was good to get back to it. I don’t know what was up on Wednesday, whether I turned the monitors up higher than usual, or what, but we sounded really good vocally. Harmonies were tight. Everybody sounded nice and even and balanced. What a nice sound. I’m looking forward to Sunday… hopefully we accomplish something similar then. Hate to leave your best stuff on the bullpen mound in warmups. But the glory goes to God either way.
One of the good things that’s come out of my sickness over Christmas and my efforts to weed out my schedule has been several people coming forward to help out with leading the worship team. For much of the six years I’ve led the team, it’s been hard to line someone up for just the occasional Sunday I had to be gone. (Just a few times a year!) But things are changing. One woman who has attended for a long while and has led worship other places in the past wanted to start participating. So we got her involved. Now the gal who volunteered at a moment’s notice when I was sick back in December has indicated she’d like to be available to fill in from time to time. And then earlier this week our bass player (a phenomenal all-around musician) said he’d really like to lead some services and he could do that playing either the bass or the piano. Praise God for his supply!
I distributed a WT schedule for the next two months that includes me having one Sunday off each month and another Sunday where we are more informal and don’t have a WT. (That was the pastor’s idea, not mine… but I don’t mind it.) We’ll see how it plays out, but I think this is the start of some easing off of my WT load… and that will be very nice.
Noelridge Park Church
So, after months of planning, debating, and voting, we finally have a new name for our church. Formerly Noelridge Baptist Church, we are now Noelridge Park Church. We will be implementing the change as quickly as possible.
I think it’s a good choice. People wanted to keep the Noelridge name. (it’s the name of the surrounding neighborhood.) They had discussed Community or Bible as words to go in the name, but those are so common as to be kind of “blah”. “Park” is good since we’re right across the street from the park, and it also has a bit of a stately feel to it.
I’ve got the domain name registered (www.noelridgeparkchurch.org), and as soon as I can get a few pictures taken we’ll have a new website up. We’re still in need of a logo, so if any of my loyal readers happen to have mad talents with graphic design and want to do some pro bono work, leave a comment and let me know.
It’s fun to see things moving in this direction. I am excited as I look forward to what the Lord will do in the coming months.
The church name is changing!
After months of prayer, planning, and discussion, we took a congregational vote last night of intent to change the church name. The question wasn’t one of voting for a specific new name; rather, in this step, we indicated our decision that we want the name to change. Next up is to pick a specific name. We’ll meet again in a couple weeks to do that.
Our hope in this whole thing is that our church name would not be an impediment to the gospel. I think it’s a good step.
Worship Team changes...
We had our first worship team practice using individual microphones last night.
Currently, we just have one condenser mic on each side of the stage and 3 or 4 people gather around it. The sound quality is terrible. Thanks to Nate Hines who graciously loaned us 4 SM-58’s, we now can practice using individual mics. We’re going to split into two worship teams, each with 3 vocalists and some instrumentalists. The start date is Sept 11, so we’ve got some work to do pretty quickly. I think it’ll turn out OK, though.
Practice last night went about as well as it possibly could have; the singers really noticed how much better things were with handheld mics - better sound, you can hear everybody… good stuff. It was kinda funny - I told Janice “sing louder, we can’t hear you”… and her reply: “I thought if I can hear myself then I’m singing too loud…” Welcome to real sound with monitors! :-) It’ll take some ironing out, but in the end it will be a huge improvement over our current configuration.
nothing is constant except change
It has been one of those summers at church. We had a leadership meeting last night (to review: I am the worship leader and an elder apprentice) where we started through everything… it went all evening. Just a thumbnail sketch:
I have to remember in the end that ultimately, it’s God’s church, and He will have to work His will in everything we do. He will get done exactly what He wants to get done… we just have to make sure we don’t make hindrances and slip the schedule by months or years. Such is the lesson for today. :-)
What's in a name?
We’re holding some church leadership strategy meetings this summer, and one of the big topics is the proposal that we change the name of our church. It’s a big step - we’ve been Noelridge Baptist Church for almost 50 years. But the times, they are a-changin'. The denomination with which we’re loosely affiliated (Conservative Baptist Int’l, ‘CBI’) has mulled over a name change for the last year or so and settled on WorldVenture. The rationale for the name change is that when you poll the population at large and ask for church-name-type words with bad connotations, right at the top of the list are both “conservative” and “baptist”. Two strikes against you before you even get started. We have discussed it for a while and decided that Baptist has got to go. But what will we change it to?
Our leadership group at these meetings is comprised of eight of us: our four elders (two of whom are the staff pastors), two elder apprentices (of which I am one), the chair of the deacons (my friend Steve), and the chair of the deaconesses (my wife). (Did I mention we’re a little bit involved in our church? :-) ) Anyhow, our group is pretty well split on naming philosophies right now. Our senior pastor (by far the dynamic leader of the group) is in favor of something more seeker-friendly, and is a big fan of something perhaps in Latin that will pique the interest of seekers. (Think of Imago Dei in Portland, for an example.) I think that both of us apprentices and probably the elder chair would go for that.
But then there’s the other side. Steve and John (the youth pastor) and Becky are all on the opposite side, thinking that a “foreign-sounding” name will just turn people off; that they’ll go “huh? what’s that? can’t even pronounce it!” and that’ll be it. John (I love ya', bro) likes to play the stupid card: “well you guys may be rocket scientists, but I’m just a simple guy and I wouldn’t even know how to spell it if you told it to me…” It drives me nuts sometimes. He’s not that simple. :-) Anyway, their vote would be for something simpler, like “Peace Church” or “Potter’s Clay Community”. Sure, the names are simpler, but to me they don’t inspire the awe or interest that some other type of name would.
So there’s our dilemma. We will be making a change, but to what? Do you, the reader, have any ideas? Here’s the list of everything that was proposed yesterday at our meeting.
Do any of them strike you as good or bad? I’ll take all of the input I can get.
Mr. Murphy works on Sundays
Mr. Murphy and his dang-blasted law were working busily yesterday. It was certainly one of those mornings.
It started off innocently enough, just another Sunday morning, with its usual hassles. It didn’t really start to go downhill until about 10:15, when I was trying to fit the pastor with the new earpiece microphone. It’s supposed to bend to fit to your ear. It bent just a little, and then… *snap*. It just broke in two. We’re talking a $400 microphone here. It’s still under warranty, so I’m hopefully they’ll replace it. It shouldn’t just snap like that. We switched the pastor to the regular lapel mic and that went OK.
So then I ran back into the sanctuary to hook up the laptop to the new projector (which we used for the first time last week) to show some announcements before the service started and then to run the slides for our song lyrics. First, I couldn’t turn on the projector until Sunday School (which meets in the sanctuary during the summer) was over… and it ran late, didn’t end until 10:28 for a 10:30 service. So finally I turn it on, only to read with with horrified eyes, “NO VIDEO SIGNAL DETECTED”. Arrrgh. No time to debug, gotta switch to plan B. Fortunately the old overhead projector was still sitting in the back of the room, under the coat rack.
Sam was kind enough to grab it for me so I could go start my piano prelude. He also pulled the overheads for the songs we were singing. Becky agreed to run the overheads for me. We got the service started about 5 minutes late. When we finally got to the singing portion, the second song was supposed to be Open the Eyes of my Heart. I’m in my usual tuned-out, eyes-closed mode. After singing the first couple lines, I look up at the screen to see it… blank. I look over at Becky and see a helpless look on her face - Sam had mistakenly pulled the overhead for Open Our Eyes instead of Open the eyes…. I kinda stopped mid-song and apologized. But folks know the song, and were singing pretty well, so we just continued sans lyrics. I think it ended up working OK but I was so dang frustrated it didn’t really matter to me at that point.
I pulled out the ladder afterwards to check out the projector and I still don’t know why it’s not working. I tried a different laptop, but still no signal detected. Today I’m going to try a different monitor cable and see if that’s the issue. There’s not that many links in the chain, so I should be able to localize it…
…oh, and next time, Mr. Murphy? Take Sunday off.
I've been replaced by a machine!
At least for Sunday, that is… I was unable to wrangle up a musician for the Sunday service, so my next option is to record my piano-playing on the electronic keyboard, so they can just play it back on Sunday. How lame is that? (I am humongously opposed to using recorded music in a church service, pretty much just because it can cause so much trouble for anyone who loses their place, it seems artificial, etc. Live accompaniment is always better.) Anyhow, it’s a nice Roland keyboard with a disk drive built in, so I’ll be recording the tracks and then they can play them back live… it’s at least better than recording on audio tape and playing it back. :-)
I’m sure it’ll end up uncoordinated and kind of lame on Sunday, but unfortunately I can’t really help that. We need more musicians!
I need a musician...
…any musician. One of the downsides of being the music leader at a small church is that it’s hard to find a replacement when you’re going to be gone. I have a couple people who are on the usual list to back me up… one guitarist and one pianist. Usually at least one of them will be available. Well, I’m out of town this weekend for my sister’s graduation. The guitarist is also out of town this weekend. The pianist is watching 4 of her grandkids all weekend and doesn’t have the time she needs to practice. Our bass player who might be able to fill in on guitar in a pinch is also out of town. I’m not quite sure what I’m going to do… they may be singing a capella on Sunday.
There’s one other possibility that someone mentioned - a recent attender who is rumored to be a piano teacher. However, I’ve never talked to her about playing for a service, and I’m not sure of her skill level, (or even if she’s actually a piano teacher). So, I’m fairly uncomfortable making a phone call that will go something like this: “Hi, I’m Chris from Noelridge, remember me? I know you haven’t been to church in a couple weeks, but I heard a rumor you might be a piano teacher and so I’m wondering if you’d like to play the piano for church this week and by the way practice is tomorrow night…” Not a real good option in my book. Well, it’ll work out somehow. I will get out of town this weekend.
preaching on short notice...
It had been planned for about a month that I would fill the pulpit at my church on April 24th. Then about a week ago I got asked if I could switch to the 17th, to fill in for our youth pastor who has been sick. So, on short notice, I think it turned out OK. You can listen to the second half of the sermon here… apparently the audio guys only managed to record half of it. Arrrgh.
The topic of the sermon is “Three Characteristics of a Loving Follower”, from Ephesians 5:1-2. It’s not super-exciting, but one of my better efforts (of which only total 3, so I’m relatively inexperienced here). And that’s your little insight into Chris’s life for today. :-)
elder = older?
I’ve had several conversations lately regarding the qualifications for being an elder in the church, specifically in regard to how much a man’s age should play into that qualification. I’m still wrestling with the answers myself.
Let me start out by giving some background: I am 28 years old, and an “elder apprentice” in my church. That basically means that we have identified that I have the gifting of an elder and the desire to be one. The apprenticeship entails attending elders meetings, and performing any tasks they assign me. I’ve been helping lead Bible studies, have preached a couple times, and have had a lot of input on the administrative side of things (which is where my gifting really is). We have 4 elders right now (including the 2 pastors) in a church of about 200. There are two of us that are starting our second year of apprenticeship.
So, back to qualifications before I add my 2 cents. On one hand, the qualifications given in Timothy and Titus don’t mention age at all. They do mention:
There’s nothing there about age at all. In fact, in 2 Timothy, Paul specifically tells Timothy to not let people look down on him because of his youth… and we can be certain that Timothy was an elder in the assemblies he founded. So, I don’t see that “youth” (however that is defined) is a disqualification.
My wife is of the opinion that men should at least be somewhat older - enough to have a family and some track record with how they manage their household. I didn’t ask her then how single men would meet that qualification, but it seems like a reasonable question. My wife’s bigger concern is just how much time it’ll require of me if I become an elder… but that’s an entirely different subject.
I had a discussion last night with an older woman whom I have a good deal of respect for. She is the mom of a good friend of mine, a woman who has raised 7 great kids and dealt with a difficult husband for 30+ years. She is prone to having slightly odd views on some things, though, so I take everything with a grain of salt.
Her opinion was that to truly perform the “shepherd” function of eldering, a man really needs to have the experience that comes with age. She thought that maybe in one’s 60’s does one finally have the experience necessary to be a good shepherd. She has seen younger guys attempt it, and has seen them chewed up and spit out by churches that they were not ready to handle. She agreed with me that the gifts that an elder may have (i.e. teaching, administration, etc) should be used immediately, but that the true “eldering” (by which I think she means shepherding) requires people of a more senior age.
I’m really trying to understand where I fall on the subject, seeing as it affects how I want to serve in the body. Of our 4 elders right now, only 1 would fall into the “60-and-above” category that my friend suggests. He is over 70, recently suffered a stroke, and is struggling to see how much he can still serve in that role as he goes through rehabilitation. Two others are 50-ish, and the third is almost 40. They’re all in different places in their lives and walks, some of them are more gifted at administration, others at teaching, but I see all these activities as “shepherding” in a way. So I just don’t think I can accept the “60-and-above” rule.
My bigger question is whether I am ready. My spiritual walk could use improvement; I feel like I should work on that before thinking I’m ready to be an elder. Otherwise I think I meet the 1 Timothy 3 qualifications. But I’m not very senior. But the elders think I’m qualified and would be a good fit sometime in the next year or two. I guess I’ve got to keep praying about it.
My real wish is that there were a few more senior mature men who could step in as elders so I didn’t feel like I was so “needed”. I would be happy to see a couple other guys in those roles, teaching and mentoring guys like me, so that maybe in 10 years I’d be in a better place to step into the role myself. But those guys don’t exist in my church. There’s only two who want to/are qualified to be apprentices. We’re it. The church needs shepherding. I don’t want to resist that call.