A very heartfelt thanks for the great thought and energy that went into the dialogue on Sunday. What is amazing to me is that very similar ideas and recurring themes came to the table independently. To me this indicates the Holy Spirit is speaking, bringing confirmation of God's will. Meetings with much disagreement, or disparate views seems to indicate more individual agendas.
Please continue to pray for the next few days as I try to capture what was said on paper (or computer). I really want the content of the conversation to be a guide for some more practical application as to how we worship at the Bible Church.
Please also begin to pray for adding members to the Worship Advisory group, if that is something that God truly wants. Can we pray for discernment, that the impulse to add is out of love and a true desire to care more completely for the body, and not "church politics".
Please also pray for how we can best serve the body. Do we continue to quietly serve behind the scenes, which I think is a very compelling option, or is there any benefit, and edification that would come from being more visible and accessible? The motive for being more visible should be similar to the one that led to the introduction of all the elders to the congregation months ago. If someone in the congregation needs help of any sort, they know who they can talk to. There may be benefit in just knowing who is serving on the WAG so that they can be prayed for.
Appreciate your thoughts on these items. I will be coordinating our next meeting time in the next few days via email. Thanks again everybody.
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Tuesday, August 09, 2005
Outtahere
Kids:
I am going out of town for two weeks. I will see you all when I get back from the Left Coast. Andrew, that looks like a good agenda for the gathering on the 28th. Thanks. I am excited for us to share people's remarks about worship at the Bible Church. I've had some good conversations myself.
Love you guys.
I am going out of town for two weeks. I will see you all when I get back from the Left Coast. Andrew, that looks like a good agenda for the gathering on the 28th. Thanks. I am excited for us to share people's remarks about worship at the Bible Church. I've had some good conversations myself.
Love you guys.
Friday, August 05, 2005
Worship Community
I really think this is an excellent idea. Denise also talked to me about it. I liked the idea then, I like it now. As one of our mandates was to broaden participation, I really think this format will help. I would add that the advantages of having broader participation, and a growing sense of community far outweights the advantages of tighter, smoother, better rehearsed music on Sunday morning because of set groups. My opinion, for what it is worth.
Couple other items that I would like to propose. We have a meeting coming up. I would like suggest this as an agenda.
1. Feedback from the congregation - compile a list of main positives and negatives. Please everyone have research prepared, in written form.
2. Discuss what practical things can be done to strengthen/maintain positives and respond to negatives.
3. Discuss the possibility of a more elder member being included on the team - pro's and con's.
4. Discuss the idea of the worship community. Nat would you be willing to flush out some of the details for the meeting and present. I can ask Denise for some of the correspondence she recieved from the church in Madison, that she was referring to.
5. Discuss progress made in dialogue with the teaching Team. Nat, have you had any further conversance with Mark on this matter?
6. Other items deemed important?
Couple other items that I would like to propose. We have a meeting coming up. I would like suggest this as an agenda.
1. Feedback from the congregation - compile a list of main positives and negatives. Please everyone have research prepared, in written form.
2. Discuss what practical things can be done to strengthen/maintain positives and respond to negatives.
3. Discuss the possibility of a more elder member being included on the team - pro's and con's.
4. Discuss the idea of the worship community. Nat would you be willing to flush out some of the details for the meeting and present. I can ask Denise for some of the correspondence she recieved from the church in Madison, that she was referring to.
5. Discuss progress made in dialogue with the teaching Team. Nat, have you had any further conversance with Mark on this matter?
6. Other items deemed important?
Wednesday, August 03, 2005
New Topic...
Hi.
Even though we've quasi-decided (for now) to focus more on macro-philosophical type stuff and less on pragmatics, I want to get your take(s) on something.
As many of you know, we now employ a worship team format for musicians on Sunday mornings. We have three teams, all of whom have "core" instruments of guitar, piano, bass, drums, and some vocalists. There are also others not on teams that come and fill in, usually either as a substitute or additional instruments (violin, cello, brass ensemble, etc.). I have been doing a lot of thinking about this format for the worship ministry -- its structure, cohesion, sense of community, etc. -- and I have some observations.
I feel that structure of the worship teams has broken down a bit (e.g., what has been known as "Team Page", led by Branson/Cristy, has been severely hobbled by the SpencerAcuff tour circuit, and by brand new Caroline Rebecca Page, bless her little heart!!) and are in need of revamping. However, I do not believe the solution is a restructuring of teams. I have been more and more drawn to the idea of a 'worship community'. A year or so ago, Denise Stillwell cited something like this going on at a church she knew of. I think there is some great potential for a group like that: to kinda have one large worship team that all know each other (to an extent) and all have the plausibility of working with each other at some point (rather than a team of 5-7 that only participates with each other; this too has advantages, of course, which is why we employed it in the first place). This larger group would meet on a regular basis, whether it's once a month, or every other, or every three, etc., and have a wonderful time of sharing, praying, worshipping, and community-building. The group would include visual artists, dancers, and other "non-musician" worship folks as well. From this larger group would be drawn each week's music team. This also means that we are not "limited" to having a full piano/guitar/bass/drum band every week, which is what the "old" teams often, by default, would be. We could have the freedom of doing a lot more mixing and matching of people as well as more variety of groups and instrumentations, which would really help to expand the repertoire and worship language of us on the team and those in the congregation.
What do you think of this? I am very aware of the challenges and benefits to both of these formats, and welcome comment and suggestions. Thanks...
Even though we've quasi-decided (for now) to focus more on macro-philosophical type stuff and less on pragmatics, I want to get your take(s) on something.
As many of you know, we now employ a worship team format for musicians on Sunday mornings. We have three teams, all of whom have "core" instruments of guitar, piano, bass, drums, and some vocalists. There are also others not on teams that come and fill in, usually either as a substitute or additional instruments (violin, cello, brass ensemble, etc.). I have been doing a lot of thinking about this format for the worship ministry -- its structure, cohesion, sense of community, etc. -- and I have some observations.
I feel that structure of the worship teams has broken down a bit (e.g., what has been known as "Team Page", led by Branson/Cristy, has been severely hobbled by the SpencerAcuff tour circuit, and by brand new Caroline Rebecca Page, bless her little heart!!) and are in need of revamping. However, I do not believe the solution is a restructuring of teams. I have been more and more drawn to the idea of a 'worship community'. A year or so ago, Denise Stillwell cited something like this going on at a church she knew of. I think there is some great potential for a group like that: to kinda have one large worship team that all know each other (to an extent) and all have the plausibility of working with each other at some point (rather than a team of 5-7 that only participates with each other; this too has advantages, of course, which is why we employed it in the first place). This larger group would meet on a regular basis, whether it's once a month, or every other, or every three, etc., and have a wonderful time of sharing, praying, worshipping, and community-building. The group would include visual artists, dancers, and other "non-musician" worship folks as well. From this larger group would be drawn each week's music team. This also means that we are not "limited" to having a full piano/guitar/bass/drum band every week, which is what the "old" teams often, by default, would be. We could have the freedom of doing a lot more mixing and matching of people as well as more variety of groups and instrumentations, which would really help to expand the repertoire and worship language of us on the team and those in the congregation.
What do you think of this? I am very aware of the challenges and benefits to both of these formats, and welcome comment and suggestions. Thanks...
Tuesday, August 02, 2005
Monday, August 01, 2005
Response to Service
Greetings all,
Wanted to say that Sunday Service was very uplifting and nourishing for me. Thanks Holy Spirit, for opening my heart, ears and eyes. Thanks Nat for putting your heart into it.
One small update on the teaching/worship coordination front. I wanted to report that I have talked with both Bill Cobey, the Teaching team chair, and with Mark Acuff and communicated that we were praying for them, and that it seemd to make alot of sense for the two groups to be in closer dialogue.
I also communicated that we are starting off our group by collectively thinking about some fundamental questions, before we get into some more practical concerns. I gave the example of asking the basic question "Who is God". I reasoned if we are to worship God in spirit and truth we really need to continue deepening and expanding our knowledge and appreciation of God's complex nature. Being more articulate and precise in our understanding will really help inform "how we worship". I suggested that teaching can really help in this goal.
I elaborated:
If God is a Holy God our response should be one of reverence
If God is a Forgiving God our response should be one of sorrow and repentance
If God is a Redeeming God our response should be one of Joy and Celebration
Others?....
It was interesting to me that Bill and his team have also been trying to take the pulse of the congregation and came up with a similar observation; that we are really good at the celebration part but that there is a desire to also be finding ways to express reverence and repentance on a more regular basis.
Please all continue to pray for unity between Teaching and Worship.
As a parting thought, A song that was sung on Sunday made me think about the importance of worshiping with deep knowledge of the Truth, and how teaching and worship are so inextricably linked. Wambui sang a beautiful song that for the most part provided much encouragement to me about the faithfulness and unfailing love of Jesus. There was one line, however, that simply did not ring true, and I thought..."we need teaching". The line stating that "(Jesus) will follow me wherever I go" to me is not a completely accurate description of how God responds to us. I may be wrong here but it is my understanding that we have the choice to walk away from God, and go to places that He cannot go, because of His holy nature. There we get to taste death. The example of the Prodigal Son comes to mind. The Father waited and searched from the hill, but did not go into the pig pen with His beloved but rebellious Son. The relationship was redeemed when the prodigal Son repented and turned back to the Father. Grace abounded upon the Son's return.
Churches seem to fall somewhere in a spectrum of being Grace focussed, sometimes to a fault and comprimising truth, and overlooking some of the harder truths that Jesus communicated, and Law focussed, being more legalistic in nature and minimizing grace. My prayer is that the Holy Spirit blesses our Church with discernment, so we can Woship God in spirit and truth.
Love you all.
P.S. The Teaching team I believe calls themselves an "Advisory Committee". I am going to suggest, to facilitate unity, we call ourselves something similar. Nat could you ask Mark about their title?
Debbie...thanks for following through on the interviews. I will be eager to hear your conclusions. In addition to deliberate interviews I would also encourage keeping track of some of the more informal dialogues, where folks don't know they are being "interviewed". I have some good feedback.
Wanted to say that Sunday Service was very uplifting and nourishing for me. Thanks Holy Spirit, for opening my heart, ears and eyes. Thanks Nat for putting your heart into it.
One small update on the teaching/worship coordination front. I wanted to report that I have talked with both Bill Cobey, the Teaching team chair, and with Mark Acuff and communicated that we were praying for them, and that it seemd to make alot of sense for the two groups to be in closer dialogue.
I also communicated that we are starting off our group by collectively thinking about some fundamental questions, before we get into some more practical concerns. I gave the example of asking the basic question "Who is God". I reasoned if we are to worship God in spirit and truth we really need to continue deepening and expanding our knowledge and appreciation of God's complex nature. Being more articulate and precise in our understanding will really help inform "how we worship". I suggested that teaching can really help in this goal.
I elaborated:
If God is a Holy God our response should be one of reverence
If God is a Forgiving God our response should be one of sorrow and repentance
If God is a Redeeming God our response should be one of Joy and Celebration
Others?....
It was interesting to me that Bill and his team have also been trying to take the pulse of the congregation and came up with a similar observation; that we are really good at the celebration part but that there is a desire to also be finding ways to express reverence and repentance on a more regular basis.
Please all continue to pray for unity between Teaching and Worship.
As a parting thought, A song that was sung on Sunday made me think about the importance of worshiping with deep knowledge of the Truth, and how teaching and worship are so inextricably linked. Wambui sang a beautiful song that for the most part provided much encouragement to me about the faithfulness and unfailing love of Jesus. There was one line, however, that simply did not ring true, and I thought..."we need teaching". The line stating that "(Jesus) will follow me wherever I go" to me is not a completely accurate description of how God responds to us. I may be wrong here but it is my understanding that we have the choice to walk away from God, and go to places that He cannot go, because of His holy nature. There we get to taste death. The example of the Prodigal Son comes to mind. The Father waited and searched from the hill, but did not go into the pig pen with His beloved but rebellious Son. The relationship was redeemed when the prodigal Son repented and turned back to the Father. Grace abounded upon the Son's return.
Churches seem to fall somewhere in a spectrum of being Grace focussed, sometimes to a fault and comprimising truth, and overlooking some of the harder truths that Jesus communicated, and Law focussed, being more legalistic in nature and minimizing grace. My prayer is that the Holy Spirit blesses our Church with discernment, so we can Woship God in spirit and truth.
Love you all.
P.S. The Teaching team I believe calls themselves an "Advisory Committee". I am going to suggest, to facilitate unity, we call ourselves something similar. Nat could you ask Mark about their title?
Debbie...thanks for following through on the interviews. I will be eager to hear your conclusions. In addition to deliberate interviews I would also encourage keeping track of some of the more informal dialogues, where folks don't know they are being "interviewed". I have some good feedback.
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