What I've Been Up To...

Life has been moving a thousand miles a minute over the last few months. Between Easter, Anniversary Sunday, Pastor's Retreat, Seminary classes, Financial Peace University, sermon preparation, and much, much more time just flies by. I'm sure your life experience is very simililar. One of the things that I have been investing a lot of my time in is my Old Testament class at seminary. So I thought I would post the product of my hard work for all of you to read. It is an exegesis of Isaiah 14:3-23. Hope you enjoy!

OT2 Final Exegesis Paper - Body & Bib - Upload a doc

Read this doc on Scribd: OT2 Final Exegesis Paper - Body & Bib

Financial Peace University

It was exciting to see over 30 adults meet tonight for the first session of Financial Peace University. I can still remember Cecil and I going through this course a few months after we were married. The principles we learned changed our financial future. The saying is true, "Either you run your money or your money runs you." For those of you attending the class, I encourage you to jump in with both feet. Don't hold back. The principles work and if you work the system your financial future will be changed. You can learn more about FPU at www.daveramsey.com

MacGyver

The other day I came across a web link for some classic TV shows (http://www.cbs.com/classics/). One of my all time favorite TV shows is included - MacGyver. My brother and I really loved watching this show. I had the opportunity to watch some of the episodes from the original season. For some reason, I still love them. Most of the actors are aweful, the dialog is hilarious, and the plots are always the same, but I still enjoy watching them. You might enjoy one yourself so take a look.

My Worship Pilgrimage

Today, I decided to post a recent assignment from the Worship Class that I am taking in seminary this semester. The title is My Worship Pilgrimage. I will spare you the title page and some of the other formalities.

The story of my worship pilgrimage is intrinsically connected to my faith journey. Church and faith have always been the priority of my life. Even at a young age, everything revolved around church and God. As you may have guessed, I was reared in the home of a pastor. When I was three years old, my father started a church in San Leandro, CA. My earliest memories are of knocking doors in the neighborhood to invite people to church, standing on a wooden stool behind the pulpit to sing special music with my brother while my mother accompanied us on the piano, and having missionaries and visiting preachers come over to our house for Sunday dinner. What makes my story unique is the type of church I grew up in. We were unashamedly fundamental, independent Baptists. We believed in knocking on doors, running buses to pickup children, and only using the King James Version of the Bible. Women were not allowed to wear pants, no one could listen to music that had percussion accompaniment, and under no circumstances were you allowed to go to the movie theater. I remember my Dad preaching against rock music, watching television, and women wearing “britches.” As a child, my favorite sermons were the ones dedicated to pointing out the ills of rock and roll and contemporary Christian music. What makes this context so important to understanding my worship pilgrimage is that our church movement considered the use of worship in connection with a song service to be a compromise. I even heard numerous sermons belittling the title “Praise and Worship Music.” For me, a good song service came down to two things. The first was making sure that the right music was being sung (only hymns and gospel songs). The second was making sure that the right music was being sung in the right way (no lifting of hands, no fancy accompaniment, and no sliding of the voice). In our song services we were encouraged to sing energetically and loudly. The idea that the song service was an opportunity to encounter God was totally foreign to my thinking.

Now fast forward about fifteen years and things have obviously changed. I’m enrolled in a Southern Baptist Seminary (this would be the epitome of the dark slide to liberalism), I started a non-denominational church, I no longer use the King James Version (I actually believe it to be an inferior translation from an inferior text), and our church has a rock band that leads worship each Sunday. Things have really changed! With the evolution of my theology and philosophy of ministry, my view of worship has also evolved. I can still remember the first time I closed my eyes during a worship service. I felt as though everyone would judge me for being too charismatic. Even when I started Morning Star Church, I can remember feeling awkward lifting my hands in praise to God (even though I was the pastor). Over time, especially the last seven years, my view of worship has evolved significantly. Because I am the pastor of the church, my evolution has had a profound impact on the worship services that I attend.

In the early years of my Christian life, the essence of singing in church was summed up with these two ideas. The first was that congregational singing was an opportunity for the local congregation to proclaim together their shared belief and faith. The second was that the music chosen for singing should evangelize the lost. Most of the singing in my youth would be considered revivalist in style. It featured upbeat piano music that accompanied gospel songs like: I Have Found a Friend in Jesus, Count Your Many Blessings, Victory in Jesus, and Blessed Assurance. My present understanding of worship, as a personal encounter with God, was not remotely connected with my early thoughts or experiences. This one shift in my thinking has been the most significant. Instead of viewing music in church as simply a traditional element that needs to be included, the focus is now on finding ways for people to encounter God. The emphasis is switched from specific activities to cultural avenues of encountering God. Music is just one avenue that can be used to worship God. Everything in our Sunday services should be designed to assist people in connecting with their Creator. Because of this transformation in my thinking, our church has been free to utilize any and all means, within the boundaries of Scripture, to create these life changing moments. In a normal Sunday service, you might find a loud, rocking praise song and a simple a capella hymn. By recognizing the importance of the end and not being overly conscious of the means, we can study our culture and create meaningful opportunities for connection.

Worship is simply a personal encounter with God. Sometimes that encounter includes praise, sometimes it includes repentance, sometimes it includes silence, and sometimes it includes celebration. Meaningful worship brings me face to face with who God is. God’s truth and essence intersect my fallen, frail humanity. The revelation of truth demands a response. For me that response is called worship. Worship cannot be limited to a service or sacred moment (church). Worship can take place as I watch my children run and play, as I enjoy the comforts of a soft bed, or as I weep in confession of my sin. Worship is a relationship with God. One mark of maturity that I desire is that these moments of worship would increase each day. I can become far too busy in the routines of this life and I miss these God-moments.

As it relates to worship services, I have a few preferences. Some are Biblical preferences while others are just personal preferences. For me, the most important component of a worship service is the idea of truth. Music that communicates truth about God assists me to worship more than any other type of music. In some of the modern worship music, the focus is on the experience of the worshipper. It deals with how we feel, think, and act. There is a place for testimonial worship, but God’s truth is what produces our testimony. The first thing I look for in a great worship song is how much truth is communicated. Personal experiences can vary from person to person, but truth is relevant in all of our lives. The second preference I have is that music not be too repetitive. I am not interested in getting hyped up about a certain line in the song that is repeated twenty times. Unfortunately, many a worship service has been ruined for me by the over use of a particular phrase. Obviously this is a personal preference, but nevertheless it influences me.

The greatest worship discouragements revolve around my personal failings. Because of my upbringing in a legalistic, fundamentalist church, my conceptions about God were quite twisted. It has taken many, many years to detangle myself from these partial truths. The worst conception that I embraced was that I could impress God through my good words. As I grew older, the reality of my fallenness hit me very hard. After sinning, I felt I needed to prove to God that I could do better. Hence, I would wait sometimes for days to pass before coming back to God in prayer and confession. This greatly affected my ability to worship. If I had a morally good week, then I felt worthy to worship God; but if I had struggled with sin, I felt unworthy to interact with Him. The quality of worship was determined by my ability to keep myself in God’s good standing. All of these ideas are obviously unhealthy and unbiblical. The recognition that God’s grace was free, abundant, and always available has helped to liberate my worship experience. I cannot earn my experience and interaction with God.

God continues to work in my life to teach me about Himself. Organized worship is forced focus on God. I look forward to our worship services because the Holy Spirit uses them to remind me about His love and grace, convict me about sin and rebellion, and encourage me to fulfill my God-given mission. My prayer is that my worship experience would never become routine or programmatic. I want to experience God every day in new and exciting ways. Organized worship is an opportunity to have new avenues of connection opened in my life.

Hello Again

It's been a month long hiatus from posting here on my blog. There are numerous reasons for this but the primary one is: laziness...I just haven't gotten around it. But that doesn't mean that nothing important has happened over the last few weeks. Here are a few of things going on:

1. I started the spring semester of seminary. I am taking Introduction to Old Testmant II and Worship and Music in the Faith Community. The countdown is on until graduation. I only have 21 more credit hours to graduate. At my current pace I should graduate in May of 2010 :).
2. Our church is launching Financial Peace University starting on March 8. We currently have over 30 adults registered to attend. I truly believe that this program will change our church forever! It certainly changed my life when Cecil and I attended.
3. We have seen over 40 first time guests attend our services since January 1st. Many of these people are continuing to attend and some are starting to get involved.
4. Church attendance has grown by 40% since January 1st. For the first time in our church history, we are averaging over 100 each Sunday in attendance. I believe that God is preparing us for our future at the Patterson Ranch Property.

So that's a brief summary of what is new. Don't forget Easter is just around the corner! It's on March 23rd this year.

Health Update

As many of you are aware, I was diagnosed with high cholesterol this past November (264). My doctor at Kaiser suggested that I start taking medication to help bring it down. When I was 24, I was also diagnosed with high cholesterol and my doctor had me take Lipitor to bring it down. So...for the past three months I have been on the diet from hell. I decided back in November that I was going to do everything in my power to keep from taking medication. I cut out all desserts, all saturated fat, almost all regular fats. I cut out beef and pork. I limited myself to small amounts of chicken and fish.

So you are probably wondering what happened. First I have to thank my wife for making this lifestyle change much easier to accomplish. She is totally supportive of my diet. In fact everyone in the house basically is living on this same diet. We started making homemade soups, substituting egg whites for eggs in baking, cooking without added fats (butter & oil), using lots and lots of fruits, vegetables, and salads. So here's what happend: 1. I lost 15 pounds (not purposely, but as a side affect of eliminating bad food) 2. My energy level went way, way up (I feel better, sleep better, and need less sleep) 3. I lowered my cholesterol by 74 points (It is now 190!!!)

Maybe some of you need encouragement to make a lifestyle change. In hindsight, I'm really glad that I found out about my high cholesterol because it forced me to change. If you haven't been to your doctor in while you should make it a priority to have a yearly checkup. So eat healthy and live happy!

Time To Start Fresh

Sometimes in life, I just have to start things over again. There have been times with my kids that I have responded the wrong way, I was too harsh, or I was just no fun to be around. Instead of trying to explain to my 3 and 1 year old why Daddy was grumpy or angry, etc...I just told them this: "Daddy's sorry for acting the way he did, please forgive me and let's start over again." Similar things have happened in my relationship with my wife, instead of trying to sort through who did or said this or that, we just decided that we needed to start from scratch, start over again. That is one of the things that I love about the New Year, it's a chance for a fresh start. Thankfully, God is a God of new beginnings and second chances. Maybe there are things that happened in 2007 that didn't turn out how you hoped. Maybe you made some wrong decisions. Maybe you had misplaced priorities. Don't let your past determine your future.
This Sunday, I will be starting a new sermon series on Starting fresh in 2008. I hope that you will either join us at Morning Star Church or take the time to download the sermons from the church website, once they are posted. Remember this is a New Year, make it count!