Judged?

Have you ever been judged unfairly by someone in the church? This message may help.

Quote of the Day

I just started following Max Lucado on Twitter. He posted this gem the other day that I just now read.

Failures are not fatal. Death is not final. Life is not futile.

Gonna chew on that awhile, but my first reaction to this is that it speaks directly to fear. We're afraid to fail, so we do not risk. We're afraid of death, so we do not accept the gift. We're afraid of a meaningless life, and let that fear cripple us - which is destructive, as Bruce blogged about awhile back.

We. Is. Me.

Trust, Control and being a Dad

A constant factor of being a parent is understanding your kids maturity level enough to be able to discern the amount of independence you grant them. For example, an 18 month-old who's just started walking certainly isn't mature enough to realize the danger of walking across the street without guidance, but a 6-year-old likely is. That stuff is pretty easy to figure out for most parents, we simply call it common sense.

As kids get older, though, the level of discernment needed is greater, AND we have to be letting go of our own desires for our kids; the control. That's a little harder.

It's been said that if you have the power to destroy something, you have control over it. Thinking about that for a minute in human relationships, the power to destroy is given by trust. As we divulge more and more intimate details of ourselves to another, we're also extending more trust. Reciprocal trust is relationship, and the control is cancelled out by mutual maturity.

As a parent, we start out the complete trust of our kids. As they grow, we have to reciprocate that trust depending on their maturity level. We yearn to turn our kids free, to see them succeed, flourish, stumble, learn, grow... but they won't get there unless we do this job well, unless we give them the tools and the freedom to make their own choices, and let them suffer the consequences of their choices so they can learn - and ultimately learn to own their own lives. Lots of cultural and sociological pressure is against that, though.

All that said brings me to today's challenge as a Dad. Today, I got an email from my son's school that he has neglected to turn in several assignments. It's been explained to him in the past, and enforced, that his time is his to own. We will help him organize his time and schedule IF he asks for it, but ultimately, it's his responsibility to decide what to do with his time. We've set the expectation that he will do his work and should he fail to do his work, he will suffer the consequences of losing that freedom. So, I informed him tonight that he's lost his freedom for Halloween - a night he's been looking forward to for weeks. I took away trust, and exerted control.

Damn, that was hard.

Help a friend in need

My friend Ken Verheecke is a full-time musician who travels to churches all over America playing concerts and selling his CDs. He's got a huge heart for people and is a fantastic musician.

This past weekend he was driving to a gig in Cody, WY when the engine blew on his car. He drives a Toyota Corolla, nothing fancy. The repair costs are astronomical ($8600 for a new engine from Toyota, and so far the cheapest used engine they've been able to find will run $5900).

As you can imagine, that kind of money is hard to come by, especially given the economic circumstances of our time and the high cost of fuel.

That said, I'm inviting you all to check out Ken's site at http://kvmusic.net and prayerfully consider giving to his ministry. Prayers for this situation are, of course, also needed.

BTW, he doesn't know I'm posting this around the internet. I believe in his calling and believe God will take care of this need once people are aware.

Thanks, friends.

Apostle Paul on Worship Styles

Check out this post on Fred's blog about what the Apostle Paul would say about varied worship styles.
Apostle Paul on Worship Styles

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Worship Setlist and Recap, October 19, 2008

To continue my participation in Fred McKinnon's Setlist Carnival, where you post your song service setlist for the week and link back to his site with the goal is to see what others are doing in order to help with our own planning and whatnot, here's our setlists for Christian Church of Broomfield for this past week:

8:00 (Traditional) Service
When We All Get to Heaven (Hewitt/Wells/Wilson)
Holy is the Lord (Chris Tomlin/Louie Giglio)
How Great Thou Art (Hine)
Great is the Lord (Michael W. Smith, Deborah D. Smith)
I Want to be Where You Are (Don Moen)
Jesus Paid It All (Hall/Grape -communion)
Change My Heart oh God (Eddie Espinosa -invitation)
Because He Lives (Gaithers -closing)

10:45 (Contemporary) Service
Holy is the Lord (Chris Tomlin/Louie Giglio)
Let God Arise (Chris Tomlin/Jesse Reeves/Ed Cash)
How Can I Keep From Singing (Chris Tomlin/Ed Cash/Matt Redman)
Great is the Lord (Michael W. Smith, Deborah D. Smith)
Healer (Michael Guglielmucci)
Jesus Paid It All (Hall/Grape -communion)
Change My Heart oh God (Eddie Espinosa -invitation)
I'll Fly Away (Brumley -closing)

I ran sound for first service. It was my first time in that chair in at least a year, so I was happy to have some coaching from Stephan (thanks!!). We've made many changes to our system since I last did that job, including a new Allen&Heath 32 channel console, Aviom monitoring system, and Sennheiser wireless mics for speakers. We record the message only straight to a CD. I'd like to record directly from the console via Firepod or somesuch...someday. The service went well. Mike, the leader, muffed a change in 'Holy is the Lord' but no one cared.

For second service, I played electric guitar. I brought the Les Paul today since our set was so Tomlin-heavy. The first two songs went well. I felt our timing was pretty good, the vocalists were right on, and the band was together. I was pretty happy with my guitar tones, too.

After announcements, we were to do 'How Can I Keep From Singing' - which I was supposed to start with drums and bass falling in with me. Well, the bass player is also the guy who did the announcements, so I was waiting a few seconds for him to get back and ready. Our Worship Leader apparently thought I forgot to start the song, so he went right in on acoustic guitar - which pretty much blew the intro. I picked up the electric guitar part right away, so thought we recovered from that OK, but then he started in on the vocals after only one trip through the intro's chord progression - where we normally do 2. The electric guitar part changes dramatically going from the intro in the verse, so since I was still in intro mode and Todd was already into the verse, well...it was kinda bad. We finished strong, though - the rest of the song rocked!

'Great is the Lord' went well, though I think we were a touch fast on that one. 'Healer' is one of my favorites in spite of the story behind it (or maybe because of it). Again with this song, the start was in jeopardy. We SHOULD start this song together, but I expected Todd to take off on his own so watched him close and was able to time my start perfectly with his.

We gotta work on starting songs.

Star Trek Barbershop Quartet

I found this on the GeekDad blog today: