21st Century Problem

In my theology class today my professor talked about some of the issues facing the church (meaning the body of believers). In his opinion, the biggest obstacle in the 20th century was answering how God could allow such grievous suffering. With tragedies such as the Holocaust, and dictators such as Fidel Castro this was certainly not an easy question to answer.

He feels that now the biggest challenge to the church is the idea that there are many ways to get to heaven. Not only is this something held by several religions already but many Christians would even say that Jesus isn't the only way. This could be called a form of universalism and it is very dangerous.

Meeting Jesus in a Bar

Just a few weeks ago I went to a bachelor's party for a wedding I was in just recently. It wasn't anything too wild and crazy. Went to a hockey game, went to a sports bar and then to an Irish pub. I don't think the Scriptures "outlaw" alcohol (or obviously I wouldn't have gone). But I don't want to talk about what is the way of Jesus when it comes to alcohol...that is for a different day. I hadn't been to a bar since I had to go for my old sales job.

It was a sad night for me. Since my decision to get into Christian ministry, I have been around situations like this very rarely. I forgot how sad the bar scene can be. People lead lives that focus solely on the weekend to go out and get drunk. Of course they probably would look at someone like me and think that I am stupid for trying to live for God. They would say that it isn't a very fun life. Let me paint the scene. I saw one guy passed out on a chair, others working on trying to get this girl or that guy onto the dance floor. I'm not going to say it is wrong to go to bars or to drink beer...I mean look at this story...I was at a bar. What I am saying is that I was shocked about how far I've distanced myself from people like this. I do not run into people like this in my everyday life. My life has relatively zero impact on the life of a weekend partier.

So you're thinking..."okay, you were at a bar. So how could you think the bar scene is sad." I find it sad that there are so many people so disillusioned and yet they are largely untouched by Christians who can give hope. I've heard stories of church meetings in bars in Portland. I know some people who are relatively outraged about this. This is because they feel the church is then saying that what happens in bars is considered ok by the church. I don't agree with this statement, because as I think about my night out on the town, all I could see were people who would never walk into a traditional church setting.

How do we reach these people? Is showing up on Sunday and hoping they come to our church enough?

How it all Began .3 of 3

During high school the youth worship team and I led for the adult services many times and I think we were pretty decent. I started college and I didn't lead for anything all of freshman year. I would play in my room when my roommate was gone working.

Then my dad started at a new church, New Harvest. At the time they were pretty weak within the worship area. I started just playing guitar every week throughout that summer (2004). Then I started leading a song here and there, and then I think they got the clue that I had could do fine leading so I led every week. The worship director played piano but didn't sing so I wasn't the head person for worship but I was the up front person on Sundays. I played every week, then every other week, then once a month and now I lead there only a few times a year. During college I led a Friday all campus worship time during chapel, but it wasn't a required attendance thing. Little did I know I was leading with my future wife.

Final Lesson-
I have done little to nothing to make myself a musician. During high school and college I always thought I was more an athlete than a musician. You are really one or the other, you can't be both to your friends. Most people I went to college and high school with don't even know I sing or play guitar. So I'm weird, I know, but I also think that you can try and try to be a good singer but it partly is just a thing given to you. For whatever reason God gave me that gift that I hardly ever work at. I just put a cd in my car and sing along. I don't and can't play lead guitar, I don't know music theory well enough, but I can lead worship. Practice makes perfect. I've grown leaps and bounds musically by just playing on worship teams. I've also grown in my leadership abilities by just doing it. You will learn more by doing something than by taking lessons or reading a book about it. Bottom line: DIVE IN.

How it all Began .1 of 3

I've been asked thousands of times...when did you start leading worship....how long have you been playing guitar...did you take lessons? This will be the story of how it all began. It will be a story of how an athlete can become a worship leader without taking choir in school or taking guitar lessons.

In 8th grade I took drum lessons for 3 weeks and then had to quit to focus on basketball season. I didn't really enjoy it too much either. Freshman year I joined the youth worship team as a vocalist. I sang, along with usually 2 other singers, almost every Sunday morning. I never really loved it but my small group leader played guitar and I liked the people on the team so I stuck with it. I wasn't much a harmony guy but we weren't very good so I would just sing. It was easy.

That same freshman year my mom begged me to join choir so I did. Because I never did choir in middle school I had to join the lowest choir (all the people who wanted to sing but couldn't). I HATED IT!!! So I quit after one semester of it even after my teacher begged me to come back. I hated the songs we did. I hated the way that the teacher wanted me to sing, it didn't feel natural. I hated that I knew no one in the choir because obviously none of my friends did choir, it wasn't cool. So for many reasons I quit and to this day I have not sang in a choir.

Lesson #1 You don't have to do choir to be able to sing. Singing is some sort of a natural gift. I've never taken singing lessons and I know people who have that did not improve much. Of course a vocal instructor can help but only if they are good. If you sing like William Hung...vocal help won't do much.

Good Reminder

One of my favorite churches to glean from is LifeChurch in Oklahoma. Their pastor has been doing a short blog series called "spiritual esteem" that has really got me thinking. It is easy to do ministry for people because a lot of ministry is trying to reach people for Jesus. However, I think Lifechurch's pastor Craig Groeschel is right on when he says, "You are not what you did, what you do, or what you are going to do. You are who Christ says you are." Check out his post here. I always find myself living in the moment and living for success in a human perspective, but not very often do I truly live for Jesus. It was a good reminder.

PS. Tomorrow I'll post the final piece to "Church Politics"

Church Politics .2 of 3

#2 Why Politics Exist in Churches...

1. I think this is partly because people are passionate about their beliefs. Churches have to be able to make decisions and this can create politics. People accept Jesus and one of the after effects is that they are going to be convicted about different things they are doing wrong in their lives. The same thing happens at a church, some things aren't ideal and there has to be a way to change them. But people hate change...and so begins church politics.

2. I posted a video of Andy Stanley talking about leadership here. Leadership is a gift is primarily what he was saying. Church politics don't have to be negative but when we begin to view leadership as something entitled to us I think church politics begin to take on a new form.

3. I remember the an old friend told me that we should never hold on tightly to our roles on the worship team. I've seen situations when someone new comes along and changes some things and people begin to get upset. Was the new way different? yes Was it worse? no. I think the reason people were upset is because their role was changing but if they would have really taken the advice it wouldn't have mattered what their role was, God would use them.

4. Decisions have to be made within churches and usually people are passionate about what they feel God is telling them. Once you have two people who are passionate about what they think God is telling them and they don't agree, so begins politics within church.

For whatever reason people expect church to be perfect. They won't ever get hurt, nothing will ever convict them, and everyone will be happy. I know that I sin all the time, even at church and church is full of leaders and members who are just like me. People make mistakes, people screw up and all of this allows for bad situations to develop.

I remember how hurt I was after the crap that happened at my old church. I hated being around town and seeing people from there. It almost ruined my freshman year of college. People would often ask me what I thought of church after everything went down. I would always say that church is run by sinners so not everything is perfect, but church is the body of believers and I will always go to church because it is how God designed for us to fellowship and meet together to lift Him high.

Church Politics .1 of 3

My life whole I've heard people say the reason they don't go to church is because of church politics. Christians will use it as a reason for why they don't attend a church and non Christians use it for why they don't want to. Even people who do go to church complain about church politics. So you might be wondering..."you're 23 Tyler, what on earth could you tell me about church politics? You haven't lived enough to know about that." Well let me tell you...

After I graduated high school my parents threw me a graduation party and invited a lot of people from church, including a lot of the pastors since my dad was the senior pastor. Not many people showed up and little did I know at the time that it was the beginning of a rift at the church. That same October the elders asked my dad to step down from his leadership role and give the speaking and main leadership duties to the then associate pastor who my dad had hired a few years before. My dad agreed, but when they announced it to the volunteer leaders many of them were outraged and asked my dad to not accept this change. So he stood firm. After many church member meetings, 8 pastors from the church gave their resignation to my dad (my dad was the only pastor left).

That same weekend my dad apologized for being self seeking and gave his resignation from the church. Make no mistake about it, the leaders of the church wanted my dad gone and to this day there are many of them who do not like my family or my dad. That next summer I went back to that church to watch my friends on the youth worship team lead for the adult service. I remember walking in and people just staring at me like I was breaking the law. I sat in the very back of the balcony and left as quick as I could.

That was four years ago and now I know only one pastor out of the nine who is still at that church. That graduation party was the beginning of a disrespect the other pastors and elders had for my dad and so they didn't send me a card or come to my party. I didn't know it at the time but it was the beginning of the hardest six months of my life. In my life, church politics have been very real and because of that I think I can shed some light on the subject.

Are politics a reality in church life? Yes. Will that ever change? No, I don't think so.
Next time I'll look at why I think they exist.

Blessing from an Unknown Source

Many of you know what happened with my wife Rose last friday. If not, you can read about it here. Basically it was something where a lot could have gone wrong but it ended up just being a hassle, something to stress us out, and a $102 tow truck bill.

On Wednesday I was mopping a floor and my boss handed me an envelop that said "personal and confidential" and it was for me. I opened it, there was a note that said "Tyler and Rose- blessings" and inside was $102 cash. I was floored. I still can't even begin to say thank you to whoever this was. The tow truck bill wasn't something that was going to break our financial back but it was just something else to hold us back from paying for school and trying to save money. So to this unknown giver: thank you for blessing us. It is so greatly appreciated.

This is on top of a cashier's check we got in the mail about a month ago for $50. All I know about that is the mail was routed through San Francisco but there was nothing on the envelop or on the check that said anything about who it was from.

Growing up I had always heard stories about how people would need x amount of money to pay for this or that and they would just receive it on the mail or something random like that. Something like this had never happened to me until the past month. I don't know if it is one person or two or whatever, but Rose and I are so thankful and humbled by all this. It is often said that where God leads, he provides and we really see that God is providing.

THANK YOU!!!

Jonestown

Tonight on SportsCenter they had a showcase on Jim Jones, one of the most infamous men in US History. I have to admit that I had never heard of him. It isn't common for history classes to teach modern religion history is my only excuse. I consider myself a person who knows a fair amount for my age but this I did not know. Here is a video about Jim Jones and Jonestown, Africa.


SportsCenter was showing this because Jim Jones' grandson is now a freshman on the basketball team at the University of San Diego. Jones' son was in the capital of Guyana at the time of the mass murder-suicide. He and some of his brothers had formed a basketball team and they were playing in a tournament in Georgetown, Guyana. That is how only a few descendants of Jim Jones survived. Really...an amazing story despite how shocked I was that I had never heard of this event specifically.

I know this isn't news to most people who read this. It just amazes me how much the Gospel can be skewed.

a Starting point

I'm going to talk some about church politics later this week I think. I was watching this video of a message that Andy Stanley gave to a bunch of pastors at a conference. Its about church leadership and its only seven minutes. There are a lot of reasons church politics exist but I thought the video was a good starting point for thinking about this.



I've never read anything by Andy or listened to him (until this video), but I see what all the roar is about with him. He is pretty captivating, like a great Young Life speaker with great Biblical content. I dig it.

Things I've Learned about Leading Worship by Being a Janitor .5

I started this janitor job back in August. It would be obvious to say I'm a lot better at my job today than when I first started.

Leading worship is not like riding a bike. I've been leading worship for about seven years in some way and I'm fairly certain I'm "better" today than I was then. I don't just mean musically though. I have grown in leadership, awareness, confidence, knowledge...and the list goes on. I know I'm not the only one that can attest to this growth after years of leading. Leading worship is unlike any other musical "performance" (there isn't a better word, don't freak out over it). I've never been to a concert (outside of a worship night) where it was the band's job to lead the people in singing and to focus and play for someone else. That is what I mean by different. So if you want to become better at leading worship...all the seminars and conferences in the world won't help you. You just have to do it and from that you will learn the areas that you can improve on.

I'd say 5 of these is enough. So its your turn.

What has your job taught YOU?

Things I've Learned about Leading Worship by Being a Janitor .4

A lot of times I have to clean an area when something else is going on. Usually this is just taking out the trash, but it is important for me to either blend in or not be noticed. I could easily be a distraction to people who are trying to meet together.

I don't know that there is a bigger principle in worship than in not being a distraction. Having the gift of fading away during a worship service is important. Leading worship is a lot different than speaking during a weekend gathering. I do think there is a place for instrumentals, special songs, and speaking between songs, but being able to not be a distraction is so important on how easily people can enter into worship. Now and then I feel distracted by an instrumental and I wonder if others are thinking about the instrumental or about God. I can also feel distracted sometimes by someone talking between songs because it can cut the flow of the worship I had begun. It is easy to worship the music and the talent instead of God. I think it is always a battle to figure out a balance of letting the music do the work and bringing people into the presence of God. The goal is to bring glory to God.

Things I've Learned about Leading Worship by Being a Janitor .3

A big part of my job is simply making an area look clean whether its been cleaned or not, it needs to look clean. I might have cleaned the carpet but if there is still a huge stain on the floor it probably doesn't look clean to most people.

Probably the most overlooked part of worship is presentation. How something looks matters. Example...if you are doing a more reflective song and the lights are on full blast it probably doesn't reflect the mood you are trying to set with the song. Today churches have gone to a lights down approach, a more serious feel. But if the lights are down when people are greeting each other it probably doesn't allow people to connect very well.

We should always be thinking about how the presentation of song/look/volume/lighting/powerpoint effects the mood and personality of the service.

Found

This last weekend I sang the song "Found" by Hillsong at Sunset Presbyterian Church. Randy (piano) and I did this during the opening of Communion. I don't have a whole lot to say about it other than its good and I like that its very un-Hillsongish. So if you haven't heard it then enjoy the video. We did it mostly the exact same way, or tried to at least.

Things I've Learned about Leading Worship by Being a Janitor .1

For those of you who don't know I work at Sunset Presbyterian as a glorified janitor. I say that because I set up for meetings and events, but really I vacuum, wipe down tables, take out trash, wash windows...etc. Now and then during my day I try and think of ways of how my job is preparing me to be a worship pastor or how it relates to leading worship. I've been leading worship for awhile now but I think a lot of my job relates to leading worship.

1. Washing windows. You don't just wipe down a window. You spray, wipe down to get finger prints off, then sqeegee (sp?), then wipe the edges with a towel. Its a process, you can't do a good job in one step. You can't have a great Sunday morning gathering with one great song either. The whole is a sum of its parts, not one part. I think a Sunday could be centered around a song or the message but its not going to be great because of one thing. It is how a set of music works together that makes it great, not the last song before the message.

Serves Them Right

Some of you might remember a funeral for a Marine who was killed in Iraq that was protested by a church in Kansas. They weren't protesting the war....no, instead they were protesting America's acceptance of homosexuality. This is an article on the court ruling today, between the Marine's family and that church.
Here is another article on this court ruling.

Whether or not you agree with gay rights or not I don't think is the point here. This Kansas church has protested about 300 military funerals and their purpose for this was they think that the military is allowing homosexuality to grow around the globe as our military advances. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one disgusted by this church and what they are doing.




How can anyone come to Jesus when this is their view of what a Christian is? I guess my biggest question is though: is this church doing anything positive or should we protest the protesters?

Rip City

I was looking at Google Trends. A google app that allows you to choose words and look at the trends of how often people search for a word and where they do it from. So I typed in "emerging church" and it was a little weird...it shows that most searches for this word occurred in 2007 and the highest number of searches per capita happened from Portland, OR. You can look at this search HERE. I just thought it was interesting....its per capita basically so its not sheer number but the highest percentage of people in Portland out of all other cities were searching for this. It can be a sign of optimism because I don't think Portland would be called a highly reached area for Jesus.

Fridays are for New Music .2

I bought the new Casting Crown's cd a while back. It is pretty good. I'm not a huge fan of them, but I can't put my finger on why. Partly because I can't sing as high as Mark Hall. If I do try and sing as high as he does, it takes a couple days to recover from straining to do it. The last song on that new cd is called "All Because Of Jesus" and it sounded so familiar, like they didn't write it or something. Well I was looking at Steve Fee's music...he is a worship guy at North Point Community Church in Georgia and the worship leader specifically for their singles group 722. He wrote that song, which is awesome. Steve was a part of the original Passion worship movement back in 2000 and 2003. Back then they did free concerts at college campuses. I remember before I even liked music in church that I went to George Fox to see them and it was incredible. Anyway, he is on their first One Day cd playing Kindness and Give Us Clean Hands, but then he moved to Europe for awhile and is just now getting back into music production. This song is wonderful. Hope you enjoy.

Mr Happy

On Sunday I took some time to watch the focus on Joel Osteen on 60 Minutes. I'm kind of torn with this guy. I already said that he is polarizing and 60 Minutes did a good job of portraying this.

Many theology buffs say his theology is distorted. This might be because he went to college for a semester and has no theological schooling. His positive message seems very self reliant which is a bad theology. It is saying that God has empowered me to take care of myself, instead of thinking that I need to rely on God to provide in my life. He himself says that he tries to give a positive message because people already deal with so much negative in life. I think Kurt is right when he said that better to be positive than negative. Joel also said he tries to avoid using Scripture until the end of his message to emphasize his point.

I talked with my dad about some of this and we both kind of agreed that only in the South could someone like Joel Osteen thrive. Is it ironic that in the Bible belt that the biggest church is trying to avoid the Bible except to emphasize a point? In his big building there are no crosses or other familiar references to Christianity. In the end, better for people to come to church than not come to church. But Osteen would not make it on the West Coast in just about any church here. My dad said churches that are successful on the left coast are either fundamental or relevant and Osteen is really neither. There is no way he could reach a postmodern audience and you certainly see an older crowd at his church which seems to confirm this.

I don't see a lot of reason to banter about whether or not we like him, because there will always be some people who are attracted to a message no matter what it is, and clearly he is making a difference. But I won't be going out and buying his new book on how to be positive, and his message certainly does not bring me closer to Jesus. If I were in Texas I would never think to go to Lakewood to see Joel...I'd rather see Chris Tomlin or David Crowder.

Sunday Night Thoughts .3

October is such a busy sports month. A great month but lots going on.

It was great to see the Yankees lose, but they would be stupid to get rid of Torre. The Red Sox better not pitch Gagne when it matters after his choke job last night. The Rockies have won 18 out of 19....?? thats crazy. I still think the Red Sox look like and are the best team, but thats why they play the games.

Another wacky college football weekend. 3 weeks ago South Florida was ranked something like 18th....now they are #2. Two nice wins for Oregon and Oregon St. Sure didn't see that coming from the Beavers, but then again Cal looked horrible without Longshore.

The Patriots are just unreal. They have the best offense and best defense in the NFL. Unless the Colts have a freakish 4th quarter in the playoffs again I don't see anyway the Patriots don't win it all. How about my Vikings baby!!!! Adrian just went off today. I said a few weeks ago that the Bears were garbage and getting lit up for 34 points by my Vikings just proves that. I think the Patriots, Colts, Jaguars and Cowboys are the best 4 teams in the league (in that order).

Joel Osteen is on 60 Minutes Tonight. He is the pastor at the biggest church in the US. I don't really get the big deal with this guy but I'll probably post something about that. I had a Comcast guy over to deal with some TV issues this afternoon and the 60 minutes ad came on talking about Osteen. He muttered to himself "its cause of the money" as to why people go there. I'm not exactly sure what he meant and I don't think he knew I could hear him but its interesting to get an outside perspective (I have no idea of he is a Christian or not) of how Christians are viewed. Clearly Joel is a polarizing figure. People either love or hate him. This video is a good over view of him. Take a look if you don't know much about him.