Impact

November 3, 2009 · Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged , , , , , ,

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to go and see “This is it,” the movie about Michael Jackson’s last tour that didn’t happen. It was an incredible movie. Having lived for a season of my life in the world of live performances and the music industry, it was so amazing to see the whole process. And no one can really dispute that he has a commanding persona. His musicians and dancers were the best of the best.

The movie starts out with some of the dancers talking about the impact of Michael on their lives. They are moved by how Michael has inspired them and influenced them. It was staggering to hear them talk about MJ the way that they were, but, I know people who were severely devastated with his passing. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing but respect for MJ and his talent and his catalog.

As I was watching these young dancers talk about Michael with such emotion, I thought… I wonder do I talk with such great emotion about Jesus, about his impact, his influence on my life? Am I daily missing him? What effect would his passing have had on me, if I lived in the time that He did?

I was also thinking that for these dancers and musicians… what an experience to be around Michael. To look next to you on stage and think… there is MICHAEL JACKSON!!! That is crazy. I have had the opportunity to run in a circle where I got the privilege to meet some pretty influential people and some that are somewhat known or famous. And those moments are etched in my memory. I would think it would be overload to be working on something with MJ. It is crazy to think. But, then I think… What would it be like to have been running around with JESUS? I heard someone hypothesizing that disciples very well could have been early teens, probably 15 years old…

What if, I mean really what if… when I turned 15… I met Jesus and he asked me to follow him… to go on the ultimate world tour… perform next to the quintessential all-time performer??? (sidebar: is there any correlation between the fact that most people have their significant life change interaction with Jesus before age 18??)

Let me say this… I am not saying that Michael Jackson and Jesus are equals. But when you hear people talk about the impact they have had on their lives… they could be competitors. I respect Michael for his talent, his abilities, his agenda to spread love… but, he is not my saviour. Jesus is the saviour of my soul. Let me be effected when I think and talk about him.

sj

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Like a child…

September 4, 2009 · Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged , , , , ,

I was driving into work the other day, earlier than I normally head into my office. I quickly realized that I was coming in while children were waiting for the school bus. There were kids playing at their street corners.

Then I passed a father and two boys waiting at the end of their driveway. The one son was probably 6 years old or so, and he was pacing back and forth while having a conversation with his dad. The other son was probably 3 or 4 years old and he was standing with his back to his father, his right hand over his head to hold his father’s hand.

I started to think to myself, at some point we all grow up and stop leaning on our father. It is very uncomfortable to stand the way that kid was standing, but it was also very natural for him. We all move away and want our autonomy from our parents… “daddy, let me…”

It is probably why when the disciples asked Jesus about entering the kingdom… Jesus used this picture we all knew… “whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” (from Matthew 18) If we were like the younger of the two sons with our hand over our heads leaning into our father.

I hope that I would be more uncomfortable and lean into my Father more often, every day… will you join me?

sj

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How far?

September 2, 2009 · Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged , , ,

My life situation has brought me to a place where I am working in a ministry position that is a great skill-fit for me. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I am where God wants me to be.

That being said, I have yet to feel like I am home.

What I sacrificed to take this new position and move my life from Nashville to North East, MD was my community. I was spoiled with a ridiculous amounts of great friends who were in similar life-stages. I truly had a secure sense of community. I had people calling me and people I could call. Here in North East, I haven’t got to that place.

Trying to overstate the glaringly obvious:
Nashville is a city with 500,000 people and about double that within the county…
North East, MD has 2,733 people

I have talked with some friends and I need to accept that I am in a different place. It is going to require traveling a distance to get anywhere… Which takes me to the question of the day…. How far? How far would you travel for; church, dinner, shopping, friends?

sj

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Every Morning

September 1, 2009 · Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged , , , ,

“Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.” Lamentations 3:22-23

I am struggling with a theological issue.

I know that this is a great truth.

I know that I am tremendously blessed.

I have so much for which to be grateful.

And yet… there are days when I wake up and have a hard time getting my engines going. Days when I feel like I might have gotten up on the wrong side of the bed, and/or should have just gone back to bed… they happen.

So, how do we reconcile these?

sj

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The season’s are a-changing

August 31, 2009 · Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged , , ,

So, today is the first day that I am wearing long pants, or jeans to work in a long time. I have the luxury of being able to wear whatever is appropriate to work, and during my summer, shorts do the job.

I can feel it in the air. I can tell that the sports seasons are changing. And, I can tell that we are about to turn the corner and no matter what I do… tomorrow is September.

I just finished my first full year in my new job, and so everything up to this point has been “firsts.” Now I am looking at September with memories of last September. I don’t know if it is because I know what I am getting myself into, or if there are other things going on inside of me, but I am having a hard time turning the corner.

Yesterday at church the message was one that I felt didn’t really move me or hit me significantly. I have been stewing on it, and thinking about it, and trying to take application from it. The message was on God’s wrath and justice. And the thing that I am taking away from the message is that “God is in control of his business.” Justice and wrath are God’s responsibility. And more importantly… NOT mine.

So, as I feel a little indifferent… I feel like the season’s are changing and I am just watching… I know that God is doing His thing. He is faithful to do what He says. He will take care of his responsibilities. I will take care of mine.

God is Good… through every season… and through every change….

sj

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Quick introduction to thoughts on leadership…

August 28, 2009 · Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged , , , ,

This is a concept that I have been thinking about for a while and needs a lot of development. The concept is fairly simple to understand, and based on a simple research procedure I like to call “google with quotes.” I have researched this enough to know that I am not coining a phrase, but I am stuck on this concept.

I had heard someone a few years ago refer to worship leaders as lead worshipers. The thought that to lead others in worship, you must be a true worshiper. I would say that this principle is true in leadership too. To truly lead others you must be a true follower. I have observed that the best leaders are those who follow well. So, I want it to be known that I desire to be a lead follower.

sj

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Confession, well frivolity really

August 27, 2009 · Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged , , , ,

If you know me at all, you know that I don’t have a folder entitled “things I shouldn’t share.” Therefore, I will share with you a very intimate confession from my life.

It happened on Sunday.
I was at church.
It was a great service.
They served communion.
I prayed and reflected.
I partook of the elements.

As I was sitting there thinking, I thought to myself, “I am really glad that God chose for it to be wine that we use to represent the blood.” I then chuckled as I thought, “what if it was tomato juice?” My communion experience would be much different. (I know selfish and frivolous… that’s why I warned you)

All this to say… I know that God loves me… I love communion… I mean no disrespect, but in an effort to live out loud, this was my experience.

sj

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thoughts on worship… (pt. 2)

August 26, 2009 · Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged , , , , ,

As I mentioned yesterday, I have had the privilege of leading worship over the summer. It was a great opportunity and a great challenge. It had been a while since I had lead somewhere consistently and I forgot about “opinions.”

I really enjoy all styles of music. I think that there is something about a good song that will stand the test of time. And as a song used in the context of a corporate music worship service, if it is a good song full of truth that expresses the cry of my heart, I don’t care if it was written in the 1800s or last week. I don’t care if you are playing it on the organ or the guitar. I have come to learn that I am not the center of the demographic on this discussion.

Music is powerful. People connect through different styles of music and I am guessing because of the intimate emotional attachments that they have to these experiences with the particular styles, that the bond is strong. The danger becomes when we start to defend or prefer a style or method over the content or even the purpose of the music.

I read a powerful article written on this topic and it really helped me… it can be found at Christianity Today The article’s summary is in this final quote.

“The primary key for holding the two poles of this dialectic together is education—teaching the gifts of the faith tradition to those who do not yet know and understand them, and teaching those who love the heritage some new forms in which it can be presented to others.”

Education is the key, and the responsibility lies with the worship leaders. I realized after reading this article that teaching is an important and valuable part of leading worship. (and guess what… it worked!)

sj

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thoughts on worship… (pt1)

August 25, 2009 · Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged , , , ,

So, it has been a long time since my last post promising more posts… I will not promise more posts, but it is my desire to become more disciplined and write more often. We will see where that goes…

I had the privilege to lead worship for 6 or more weeks this summer. It was a great time. I had an amazing team of young musicians that were tremendously talented and had great hearts.

I quickly realized and remembered that musical styles and tastes are varied. I would love to write this and pick on all of “those” people who don’t share my tastes, but, I realize that I am a great offender of this issue myself.

I decided to go to a different church than the one I have been attending this past weekend, and lo and behold the topic was… “worship.” It was a powerful message and what I realized as I processed the message was that he never once even talked about styles. An entire message about worship and he didn’t discuss styles or methods.

He camped out on Psalm 100:

“1 Shout with joy to the Lord, all the earth!
2 Worship the Lord with gladness.
Come before him, singing with joy.
3 Acknowledge that the Lord is God!
He made us, and we are his.
We are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving;
go into his courts with praise.
Give thanks to him and praise his name.
5 For the Lord is good.
His unfailing love continues forever,
and his faithfulness continues to each generation.”

It is about identity. Whose are you? “He made us and we are his.” I would challenge you to use personal pronouns to get the effect… “He made me and I am his.” Worship is then an expression of declaring, “Yes, I am Yours!”

It is about service. v2 can be translated instead of “worship” to “serve.” The Amplified Bible has it “Serve the Lord with gladness! Come before His presence with singing!” Which makes me think of the great theologian and recent local stray, Bob Dylan, and his hit song “You got to serve somebody.” You see we all worship something, we all are serving someone, someone sits on the throne of your life, who is it?

It is about obedience. Samuel says it best in 1 Samuel 15:22 “…Obedience is better than sacrifice…” How many songs do we sing about bringing sacrifices of praise? In John, Jesus states it fairly simply, “if you love me, you will obey me.”

The common theme in all of these statements…

Worship isn’t about you.

It is about who is on the throne, who is worthy, who is the King of kings.

The most convicting quote from this sermon was this:

“Come like you are coming into His courts, not like you are window-shopping.”

Psalm 27:8 “My heart has heard you say, “Come and talk with me.”
And my heart responds, “Lord, I am coming.”

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Back at it…

April 13, 2009 · Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged , , , ,

To those of you who were, or potentially are readers of this blog page, I apologize for the delay… Life has been a bit crazy, but at some level that is just an excuse… so I simply say… “I’m Sorry”

Yesterday was Easter and I had a great day with friends and family. I hope you did too.

In our church service, we covered the story of the ladies going to the empty tomb, and then they come back and they start telling the others. Then in verse 12 of chapter 24 in Luke, we see this:

“Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.”

I would like to think that I would have done the same. I love the passion of Peter. Obviously, Peter didn’t get everything right in his life… but you cannot discard the passion and fervor that he lived with… I would like to think that if I lived in that time… and had just been through the emotions of that weekend, that at the news that Jesus was alive, I would have ran towards the tomb.

So, the challenge today, the encouragement for us, is to run towards Jesus… live passionately!

(I will be trying to be better at posting more regularly)

sj

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