Three Simple Words

There are three simple words in the English language that we throw around without care, almost egregiously. It seems as though we feel obligated to say them, to the point they start to become a meaningless cliché. Yet these words are potent, as at their very core they bring the fullness of the human capacity for emotion to the surface. People have sacrificed a great deal for these words throughout history; many have even given their lives for them. The three words to which I am referring are quite simply, Peace On Earth.

Particularly during the holiday season, we are inundated with this notion of peace. But what is it we are really talking about here? Is it merely the cessation of war? I am certain that is part of it, but I have a feeling true peace encompasses so much more and I am beginning to come to the realization that peace, on earth, is much more difficult to achieve than we ever thought possible, yet more readily attainable than any of us ever dreamed.

I have been practicing yoga for almost 8 years now, but have just recently been introduced to the concept of the Satsang. There is more to it than I can discuss now, but the basic concept (and meaning of the word) is Divine Association: intentionally segregating what is divine from what is not and allowing your mind to focus solely on the divine. The belief is that when we associate our mind and body with something, we develop an attachment to it, whatever that may be – good or bad. We see something that appeals to us and so we think it is good. It entices us, it beckons us, and soon it begins to dominate our thoughts. We begin to desire it, to love it and we become attached to it and are then dependent upon it. This process is the same for the things of the world that can bring pain and suffering, such as addictions, as well as the things that bring health and life such as love and joy. The crux is in choosing what to be in association with and recognizing that the longer we submit to a specific association, the stronger it becomes.

When we look at a thin sheet of ice on top of the water, we see it can be easily broken, but over time, that thin sheet of ice thickens and can eventually become a glacier, which is strong enough to carve mountains. If we continue to feed the ice by slowly dripping cold water on it, we will see its size and strength grow. However, if we slowly drip warm water on it, we will see it begin to melt. So it is with the mind…if we constantly associate and dwell on the things of the world, then there will be no room for God, yet if we steadily begin to associate and attach to the things of the Divine, it will slowly take the place of any negative attachments.

Brother Lawrence, a 17th century monk known for the closeness of his relationship with God, depicts a similar concept to the Satsang in his classic text, The Practice of the Presence of God. To summarize, the majority of the text focuses on how he daily associated himself with the things of God. He would simply think about God constantly and when he recognized that he had become distracted, he simply refocused his attention back to God. And the more he practiced this, the easier it became. His heart and mind were bonded to God in such a powerful way, that meditating and being in communion with God became second nature for Brother Lawrence.

The way I see that this relates to peace on earth is found in the teachings of Confucius; “To put the world in order, we must first put the nation in order; to put the nation in order, we must put the family in order; to put the family in order, we must cultivate our personal life; and to cultivate our personal life, we must first set our hearts right.” There is another saying that reiterates this concept, which is attributed to the Dalai Lama; “We can never obtain peace in the outer world until we make peace with ourselves.”

Regardless of your religious beliefs, I have a feeling that there is something here worth investigating...and that is if we truly desire a world of peace, then the only possible way for it to become a reality is for us to take responsibility for the unrest we each bring into the world and begin to set our hearts right. No longer can we tacitly place the blame on others, be it our neighbor, our employer, our politicians, our religious leaders, or even our fanatical left and right wing extremists. I have to accept responsibility for my contributions to preventing peace in my sphere of influence. And slowly, each day, I attempt to make decisions that bring me closer to the divine in hopes of finding an inner peace that may change the world.

So, the next time you hear those three simple words, take a moment of reflection, and hopefully we can all allow the divine that we have become attached to inside our hearts, see and recognize that same divine in others. It may be at that very moment that we truly know and experience peace here on earth.

Seeing gray in a world of black & white

Our senior pastor, Adam Hamilton, is starting a new sermon series on January 6th titled Seeing Gray...which will look at a variety of issues, particularly in regards to the upcoming election. Here's a video promo...looks to be quite intriguing and informative. And I just want to say that it is great being part of a community that is not afraid to talk about these issues. We may not all come down on the same side of each issue, and that's okay....I'm just glad we're talking about them!

What Not to Wear - Comfortable is Out!

You may have seen the TLC show What Not To Wear. If you have, you are probably aware that the majority of people on the show are wardrobe-challenged. You come to find out that many of the people just do not give their wardrobe that much attention. You also find out that most folks on the show take the 'function over fashion' adage to the extreme by saying that they prefer their clothing to be comfortable.

What the hosts of the show argue is that the way you dress is a reflection of yourself, and how you dress communicates a great deal about you and how you feel about yourself. Many times when people say they want their clothing to be comfortable, what they are really saying is that their current style of dress (being sweats or baggy clothes, or 1980's style) has more to do with their psychological comfort zone and not so much how the actual clothes feel.

The hosts then help each person venture outside of their comfort zone by trying on new clothes and giving them guidelines on how to shop for their particular body-type. Without fail, each person on the show comes away saying that not only do they feel great about how they look, but that their self-confidence has grown tremendously. A transformation has occurred.

I sometimes wonder...do we as the church sometimes find ourselves in the exact same place as some of the people on the show? Do we have a way of doing things that may be outdated, or just doesn't work? A way of functioning that alienates others, or is downright unhealthy?

Do we as the church have a comfort zone that is keeping us from realizing our full potential?

Are we intentional about doing the things Jesus told us to do, such as spending time befriending those outside the faith, or in different cultural or socio-economic standings? Do we allow the fear of change to dictate how our corporate gatherings are shaped, or to allow a program to continue which shouldn't, or a whole host of other things?

Is our desire to be comfortable?

I know for myself, deep down, that I desire comfort. I usually resist change that I do not help initiate. I think it is human nature to desire consistency, pattern, and repetition. But I also wonder if our affluence has contributed to our desire for comfort. We've grown accustomed to being able to satisfy our needs very easily and without much sacrifice, so why should we have to sacrifice in our churches. Why should we have to change?

If we cater our churches only to those who are already a part of them, then we are probably not developing relationships with those outside the church. If we are not developing relationships with those outside of the church, then we become no more than a narcissistic organization trying in vain to relive its glory days.

So I find myself continuously asking myself and those I am in ministry with, are we currently trying to reach others in this particular effort...or are we just trying to keep those of us already here happy and...comfortable?

Church growth in Russia

The methodist church has an agency called the General Board of Global Ministries, which part of their purpose is to assist with the expansion of the methodist church across the globe. Russia happens to be one of the places which is experiencing a great deal of growth and expansion which has been assisted by the GBGM's Russia Initiative Conferences held annually throughout the US which attempts to partner local churches in the US with churches in Eurasia in order to grow & learn from each other.

We've had the opportunity to host this years Russia Initiative, which is number 13, and has been an incredible experience. A delegation of 110 pastors and lay leaders from Eurasia along with 227 pastors and laity from the US have gathered to be in dialogue and communication on how to best continue supporting the church in Russia and Ukraine and I must say it has been great meeting folks from halfway across the world that share in the same mission and vision.

I'll try to post some pics soon.

When belief systems fail

Kem Meyer has a great post on belief systems and what happens when they fail. Makes me think about what my assumed belief systems are, how I define myself, and whether or not my actions show that I believe what I say I believe.

are you Innovative?

check out these videos of all the main sessions from Granger's Innovate '07 conference. They have some pretty sweet stuff going on.

Everything is spiritual

Rob Bell, creator of the popular nooma series, went on a tour last year entitled 'Everything is Spiritual'. It was just him, a white board, and 2 hours of incredible teaching. After he finished, a man in his mid-forties who was sitting in front of me stood up and said to his wife, "that was the most amazing presentation I have ever seen". Anyway - if you know nooma, you know the quality, and they have just released the DVD of the everything is spiritual tour. I highly recommend it. There are some video clips available on their site.

5 Conferences in 5 days!

The church I serve has one week in October that is quite literally insane. This is that week. we have almost 2,000 people coming from all over the country (as well as several other countries) to gather, worship, learn, reconnect, network, and learn about communicating the message of Christ in today's world. We have compiled several different conferences together so the energy is contagious and they seem to feed off of each other. There is an IT roundtable, a Contemporary Worship Institute, some Pre-Institute intensive sessions, an all-day conference hosted by Group Publishing on the 'Me to We' phenomenon, and then finally the actual Leadership Institute.

Things are going great, on the line-up is Greg Scheer, Doug Flather, Len Wilson & Jason Moore (Midnight Oil guys), Sally Morgenthaler, Adam Hamilton, Emanuel Cleaver, and several other great presenters. I'm totally stoaked about the night of worship that our contemporary music ministry is hosting tomorrow night...should be pretty tight! Hope to see you there.

What do you think of megachurches?

Rob Bell was asked about being a part of such a large congregation (the mega church question)...I dug his answer.

"Any pastor that would answer that, I would be very skeptical. I am as skeptical of the mega church as anybody. In fact I am more skeptical, because I have seen things that people who would say they are cynical of the mega church haven’t seen. So I am just as skeptical as anybody. When you get big and God together, there is trouble there. So you have to be very, very careful. We’ve just simply asked, “all these people have gathered so what are we going to do?” We are going to try to draw attention to all of the causes and people who have no voice and no one is listening to. So we are going to try to help single moms, people in poverty, people who have lost their job, people who nobody will listen to. We believe that anytime a crowd gathers if you don’t immediately start asking “how can we use this crowd and this gathering to promote the kind of thing that God cares about?” If you don’t ask that question, it becomes about yourself. Then yeah, something really destructive is going on. I think when people say they don’t like mega churches, I think people are scared because they know that when things get big their natural arc is to be all about themselves, so you’re building bigger buildings etc. Like yesterday, I was talking about Marilyn Manson who said, “it’s all relative to the size of your steeple.” It just becomes this giant ego show. We just try to strip it all away. What is this beautiful thing that we are all compelled by? Then let’s pursue that."

worship as relationship

when my daughter aliyah was 2 years old, there were times she would wait at the front door for me to come home. When she saw me walking up to the door at the end of the day, she would jump and scream and burst with joy that her daddy had come home. I loved this. I cannot tell you how much joy this little demonstration of emotion gave me as a father. I looked forward to it each day. It is good to know that someone loves you, but to see it expressed without reservation is breathtaking.

as i reflect a little bit more on this experience, the action of my daughter jumping & screaming upon my return is not completely what gives me joy, but i think it is what the action signifies that gives me joy. It shows me that when I am apart from aliyah, she misses me and when we are reunited, she is overwhelmed with emotion that she can't contain herself. I see this as testament to the relationship we have developed (or maybe she was just tired of being around mommy all day).

I wonder if our relationship with God is (or should be) similar. If our worship of God is an expression of our relationship with God, then I would argue that by the looks of things in most churches....(now this may sound harsh)...that we don't really like God all that much.

I am reminded of Anne of Green Gables (yes...i admit that I have read, and even enjoyed the stories of young Anne Shirley, who I feel we may have a lot to learn from). Anne is an orphan who has recently been brought into a new home where she is instructed that she must pray before bedtime and that the 'correct' way to pray is to kneel quietly. this is her response:

"Why must people kneel down to pray?" If I really wanted to pray I'll tell you what I'd do. I'd go out into a great big field all alone or into the deep, deep, woods, and I'd look up into the sky--up--up--up--into that lovely blue sky that looks as if there was no end to its blueness. And then I'd just FEEL a prayer. Well, I'm ready. What am I to say?"

Anne, I feel, is looking at the purpose of prayer, not the method, and for her - she seems to be closest to God in nature, and not necessarily in a building. I am not saying that kneeling is bad. in fact - i don't think we humble ourselves enough in the presence of God, but what I think I'm trying to say is that we seem to isolate either the method or the emotion and are out of balance in one or the other. Some of us have lost the emotional part from of our relationship with (worship of) God and all that is left are the methods whose meanings have been lost or forgotten or we focus so much on the theology of God that we forget we that we are in relationship with God. Then others of us have slowly lost much of the tradition and history that enriches our faith and our worship. we need balance.

So what happens in a relationship when something is out of balance? It seems that in our society, when speaking of marriage, people usually get a divorce. And that is really sad. No matter how good the emotions feel, or how great one aspect is, if all we count on is that one element of the relationship, then it will eventually crumble. We must build our relationships holistically. but how? with what?

I would suggest spending time developing trust, respect, intimacy, joy, laughter, security, hope, and a ton of other things to make a healthy relationship. If this is so in a marriage, why would this not be so with our relationship with God. Of course, saying it and doing it are 2 completely different things. I know in my head what I need to do to express love to my wife & daughter. I know what I should do to develop my relationship with God. But doing it is hard. In fact, sometimes it is a pain. but, I am always glad when I have put in the extra effort.

I think all relationships come down to something I heard in a sermon once:

The best use of life is love
The best expression of love is time
The best time to love is now

worship as instinct

A friend once asked me about my theology of worship. I was a little taken aback as I had never really consciously thought about it in that way. I thought only pastors, deep thinkers and theologians have a theology of something. Anyway - as I tried to answer, to describe my thoughts on worship, I found myself with a flood of ideas and passion about what worship is intended to be, but also with frustration and bitterness with how worship has come to be defined. So here begin some of my thoughts on this thing we call worship (although i still wouldn't call it a theology).

instinct
All creatures have instinct. I really don't quite understand it, but somehow all living things have them. Wikipedia defines instinct as 'the inherent disposition of a living organism toward a particular behavior'. So, something inherent in us is encouraging specific behavior. I find that interesting.

Now, assuming that God did create the world, then one could suppose that there would be traces of God left within the creation. Could it be those traces of God that give us the inherent desire to seek meaning beyond ourselves? Could the quest for self-actualization really be an instinct not only to find, but also to worship God?

I am reminded of a song by the late Rich Mullins entitled 'The Color Green'. I am told that it was written on a tour bus traveling through the mid-west, looking out onto acres and acres of farmland. To me, the song speaks of all creation uniting in worship, declaring that this earth is part of the house of God. Creation worshiping God through its existence.


The Color Green

And the moon is a sliver of silver
Like a shaving that fell on the floor of a Carpenter's shop
And every house must have it's builder
And I awoke in the house of God
Where the windows are mornings and evenings
Stretched from the sun
Across the sky north to south
And on my way to early meeting
I heard the rocks crying out
I heard the rocks crying out

And the wrens have returned and they're nesting
In the hollow of that oak where his heart once had been
And he lifts up his arms in a blessing for being born again
And the streams are all swollen with winter
Winter unfrozen and free to run away now
And I'm amazed when I remember
Who it was that built this house
And with the rocks I cry out

Be praised for all Your tenderness by these works of Your hands
Suns that rise and rains that fall to bless and bring to life Your land
Look down upon this winter wheat and be glad that You have made
Blue for the sky and the color green that fills these fields with praise

beautiful. absolutely beautiful. rocks crying out, fields praising God through color. It is in nature to worship God. It is in our nature, our instinct, to worship God.

Could this be the first step to understanding what worship truly is...allowing the traces of God within us to help us recognize the Creator. The creation instinctually seeking the Creator? It's something to think about.

More to come on this....

Worship Production Process

Adapted from the Willow Arts Conference 2007

I attended a breakout entitled Conducting an Effective Technical Rehearsal where one of willow's technical directors (Todd Elliot) and one of their producers (Chuck Spong) co-presented the material. All of which was very good, but the thing that really caught me was their production development model. I have added my own interpretation and experience to it and adapted the following diagram and commentary:


Theory:
The vertical axis represents the amount of influence someone has on the pre-production & development of the event/video/project/etc. The horizontal axis represents the production time-line. This will range greatly depending on the project. The main theory (which is actually quite obvious, yet few of us actually practice) is during the first half of pre-production, the creative inputs have the majority of influence on the project. But once you pass a certain threshold (which is determined by each individual team and may be different for each project), the influence transfers from the creative input to the implementation and execution aspects of production.

I am going to use the example of planning a weekly worship gathering to help illustrate this process.

Creative Development:
Whether it is an individual or a team that plans worship, the inception is where the creative brainstorming begins. We ask ourselves the question... "what do we want to do this week"? Ideas are thrown out and eventually the elements of the gathering begin to take shape. Often, many planning teams stay in the brainstorming stage too long (days - even weeks) which will ultimately negatively affect the overall health of the team due to unnecessary stress and anxiety created by the lack of decision making.

Creative Threshold:
This is the point at which the overall influence on the project/production (worship gathering in our case) changes from creative brainstorming to the implementation and execution of the ideas presented. This is where a plan needs to be (for the most part) agreed upon & finalized. I say 'for the most part' because there will always be small changes and tweaks that will occur (which is accounted for in the diagram), but major themes/elements/ideas do not change after this point.

If, for some reason, significant components or elements do change after this point, all involved will need to accept this unavoidable result: either the timeline is extended to accommodate the changes or an understanding that since the normal timeline has now been reduced, the normal expectations will also need to be reduced.

Production Implementation:
At this point the elements of the production/project (worship gathering) have been set and confirmed. A plan is in place, and all involved know what they are responsible for and begin to actually create, implement, and coordinate the ideas that have been generated. It is important to note that creativity does not cease to exist at this point. In fact, this is when artistic influence is very important in regards to creating the specific elements (music, art, photography, dance, message, etc). This is when our artists are freed up to create. The planning team has defined the end goal and some guidelines and now we can enable our teams to do that which they do best.

It is my opinion that when those involved in the implementation are all on the same page & there is trust that the overall goal & guidelines of the project will not get changed that truly great expressions of faith emerge in ways that we could never plan.

Of course there will be unforeseen challenges requiring tweaks and modifications. These are common and should be expected. There should always be a philosophy of flexibility in all projects & productions. If you are rigid and try to micromanage large productions, it will make everyone hate you, which wouldn't be very fun.

That 1 great idea
I do want to acknowledge that it is usually in the midst of implementation, less than 3 days out from the service, that the best ideas come. This is a truth that we just have to accept. You find yourself siting there editing a video or setting up the stage and KA-POW it hits you. You think to yourself that this idea will have so much impact that the entire congregation will be motivated to give an extra 10% but it can only be done during this particular service. You rationalize it by saying, this is the least we can do...it's for God, and didn't he send his Son to....well you know the thought process. If this happens less than 3 times a year and your team is able & willing to try it, I'd say go for it. If it happens more frequently than that, then I'd say write the idea down and save it in your ideas folder (you have one of these that you reference at every planning meeting right?) because there will come a time that you can incorporate that idea...and make it even better with proper planning!

Timeline
One thing to consider is that there is a direct correlation to the level of complexity in a project/production and the timeline you set for the entire process (inception to implementation). The more complex a project, the more time you need to design & implement. For example...

Elements:
If you have multiple elements (drama, dance, music, video, message, baptism, etc) that will increase the amount of design, planning and communication needed.

Art:
The type of art you utilize will effect the timeline. Does a dance need to be choreographed, a new song to learn, a painting to create, a set to design & build.

People:
The more people you have involved, the more difficult & longer it takes to communicate, organize, and mobilize all those people.

Technology:
The type of technology matters too. Do you have lights to program, microphones to set up & sound check, videos to create, etc.

anyway...I hope this helps. I have talked to, and heard about many churches who struggle every week with worship production (and other projects as well) simply because there wasn't an agreement about when the creative influence on the overall direction of the production/project would give way to the actual implementation of the ideas created. I have seen many talented people burned out after the normal 2-3 years in ministry because they are always working with significant last-minute changes. I would challenge all of us who are in a role of influence regarding church production to take stock of our current process and compare it with some of these principles. I don't think it would hurt anything to try.

what's right with the world

as i mentioned earlier, the theme for the willow arts conference is 'what's right with the world'. As always, willow delivers by bringing out new & exhilarating ways to integrate faith, art and culture in a corporate worship setting. I will do my best to relay some of my experiences and learnings here, but I also suggest you check out their online experience which is a blog with video clips from the main sessions, backstage interviews, pics, etc. Here's a pretty good pic of the crowd...pretty sweet stage design.