Sunday, June 28, 2009

I thought the song sets and creative elements really came alongside the message today on Balaam, and enhanced the services.

Chuck led a great song set:

A Mighty Fortress
Better is One Day
Psalm 62 (we introduced this for the first time today)
Come Thou Fount (with Sing Praise chorus)
Psalm 62 tag


After Jeff had taught on Balaam, he asked, "Do we really want to do God's will, or do we want God to bless our plans?"

We showed the following video, which I think opened people's hearts to the question of the day - "who is sitting on the chair of your life?"

Pure Praise Starts Monday

Team,

Remember that our summer Bible study start on Monday, June 29th. I'll post my thoughts/reflections on Wednesday, and then you can comment any time after that.

The one and only Eddie Ebeling found this video intro for the study. It might help give you a feel for where we're going.

I'm really looking forward to doing this together, and learning what it means to be lead worshippers at Cherry Hills. Blessing.

Stripped

I just finished reading another one of Jud Wilhite's books. This one is called Stripped: Uncensored Grace on the Streets of Vegas. You can buy it here. This book is absolutely worth your time to read.

One of the main things that stuck out to me in the book, and that I am still wrestling with revolve around three words, Belong, Believe, Behave.

So many times in our churches we expect people to follow the progression of needing to believe and/or behave before we accept them.

But Jud turns this idea on its head and says, "Many churches are more or less reversing this order out of live for people far from God. Their philosophy is first you belong (you're loved), then you believe, and finally you behave.

Why should se expect people who are far from God to behave like a follower of Jesus should behave. Shouldn't we simply love people where they are, love them and disciple them to a place where they can cross the line of faith, and once they are a follower of Jesus they are challenged that their behavior should match the talk.

I pray that Cherry Hills can be a church where people feel like they can belong before they are expected to believe and behave.

Just finished reading another book on the blog tour. This one was "Eyes Wide Open" by Jud Wilhite. I had the opportunity to meet Jud in Washington D.C. last summer at a small conference at National Community Church. Since then I have run into Jud at Catalyst in Atlanta and at the Willow Arts Conference last week in Chicago. I really admire Jud as a young leader navigating the huge responsibility of leading Central Christian in Las Vegas.

This is a great book. Particularly for young believers, but also a good reminder for those who have followed Jesus for some time. In Eyes Wide Open, Jud invites you to discover the real you. Not the you who pretends to be perfect to satisfy everyone’s expectations. Not the you who always feels guilty before God. Not the you who secretly feels God forgives everyone else but only tolerates you. Not the you who looks in the mirror and sees a failure. The real you, loved and forgiven by God, living out of your identity in Christ.

I'd encourage you to pick this book up and be reminded of your real identity in Christ. You can click here to find out more about the book, or go to Amazon.

Willow Arts - Session 1 Reflection

Nancy Beach opened the 2009 Willow Arts conference by talking about Wonder. Nancy gave several memorable soundbites in this session, including:

As artists, we are called to be agents of wonder and hope.

And to be those types of people, we need to be grateful. We need to look around and be grateful for what God has given us.

Through the arts in church, we need to show people the wonder of God, and the hope of His Son Jesus Christ. We can do this through cretion, relationships, and God's grace.

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Each week I'm going to start posting what took place at CH the previous Sunday. I always appreciate hearing what other churches are doing, so I'm joining the party.

Our team had just gotten back from the Willow Arts Conference, so we stripped everything down, and led corporate singing with just an acoustic guitar. Al, did a great job, and Sara joined us on vocals.

The set was: Great is thy faithfulness; Corporate reading (see below); Let us Adore; How Great is our God (chorus and bridge); How deep the Father's Love; and Grace Flows Down.

The Responsive Reading during the set was actually written by Tim Hughes, and went like this:

You shaped the heavens and the earth revealed Your splendour
You spoke Your life into our hearts
And we belong to You

You are the Maker of all things,
First and the last
Creation sings praise to You God


And Your people join with heaven declaring Your glory
Proclaiming the works of Your hands


We started a new series this past week called Heart Check, and we're using the Scripture Proverbs 4:23, "Above all else guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life."

We're looking a different characters in the Bible all summer, all of whom had a heart problem. This past Sunday we looked at Cain (Genesis 4).

I have included our series graphic for you to check out. Thanks Tamiko for creating another graphic for us!

The Disappearance of God

I'm part of this blog tour thing where I get asked to read books, and then eveluate them here. This is one of those books.

Dr. Albert Mohler Jr., President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary has written a new book called "The Disappearance of God," where he talks about the foundations of the Christian faith that are disappearing in this post-modern, pluralistic, relativistic world we are living in. If you would like to read more about the book, click here.

Surprisingly, as an academic writer, Mohler was pretty easy to read and understand. I have to admit that I was a bit surprised at some of the "core" truths Mohler decided to write about. I understand writing about the doctrine of perseverance; salvation by grace through faith; sin; the reality of hell; the emerging church; pluralism; and church discipline. But is "A Christian View of Beauty" really one of the most pressing issues?

Probably my biggest beef with the book was Mohler's argument against the emerging church. While I agree with almost every point he makes, and his reasons are biblical and solid, he needs to expand his resources against the emerging church past D.A. Carson's Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church.

In spite of this criticism, I would encourage people to pick this book up. If you are concerned about the church and how the church relates to culture this would be a good read for you. In the age-old battle to preserve the foundations of faith, it's up to a new generation to confront and disarm the contemporary shams and fight for the truth.