Coincidence?
Last night something amazing happened. Some people were over (Forrest, Clayton, Lani, Sarah, Zac, Claire, Jeremy and Lexie.) We were playing Burnout 3 where you try to get into the biggest crash that you can and total up the most damage. As we were playing Steve Cecil called from Madison, WI. As we were talking he was like, "Whoa!! There's a huge accident here that I'm going by!" We were trying to make an accident, and Steve drove right by one. Coincidence? I think not.
Front Row
A couple weeks ago I was in LA for a conference at Angelus Temple (
http://www.angelustemple.org) and I had a great experience. The band from their church led the music. It was great. Then the whole band came and sat in the front row to listen to the speaker (which was also great.) I noticed that seeing the band all come down from the stage and give their attention to the speaker motivated myself to engage moreso than I was at first inclined. I thought, "This band is really leading worship, not just playing music. Look how eager they are to hear God's word. I want to hear God's word too!" At least something like that was going through my head.
Isn't that how it would be in an ideal world? The people leading us in what is often called worship are just as passionate about other forms of worship. Worship is not just a set list but a humble attitude turned towards the Creator.
Here's the catch. It's the rule there. The band is paid and part of that includes sitting in the front row during the sermon. You don't want to sit in the front row? Ok, don't play. I've heard a couple side effects of this rule. Some say that it turns hearing God's word into something religious then. Or that it gives a subtle message that sitting in the front somehow is more Holy, or makes you Holy. Or that the inspiration I experienced was manufactured (and therefore bad or wrong or something) because the impression that the band was eager to hear from the pastor was in itself contrived. Maybe they weren't eager for what God has for them to hear. On the other hand, they are getting paid to lead the congregation in worship and I was motivated to worship by seeing them sit in the front row.
Anyways, what do you think? Good rule? Bad rule?
In The Game
Last night Bryant Sabandal spoke at Uturn. I was really encouraged. The main point was that as a Christian we are in ministry. There are no ifs ands or buts about it...if you call yourself a Christian you are in the ministry. And that ministry is to do good works. We were created to do good works, equipped to do good works, called to do good works, encouraged when good works even when they don't seem to pay off, and encouraged to get in the game because workers are few but the harvest is huge. The pictures he showed of his work in New Orleans were shocking. He walks the talk.
His words brought a couple questions to my mind that I would love to talk about. 1) 70% of Americans say they are Christian. What is a Christian? And 2) Less than 30% of American attend a church service and an overwhelming majority of those (about 65%) are Catholic. It's my experience that most people who have given up on church service attendence have also given up on other practicals of faith (ie. Bible, prayer, purity, generosity, worship, evangelism, etc.) Bryant said that if you are not doing ministry you are not being a Christian. True? False? What do you think?
