emily's chronicles

new blog site

2010-03-29T15:24:00.002-05:00

I know, I can’t seem to stay at the same site for my blog. Blogger, MobileMe, Blogger again, and now WordPress. So why WordPress? I like the templates and the flexibility. And it just looks cleaner. Plus, if I decide I want to learn CSS (which I eventually do), I can do whatever I want to my blog. You don’t mind if I give it a try, do you?

Please go to emilyschronicles.wordpress.com.

Maybe I’ll stay for a while. I'll try. :0)

the worship experiment, uk: week 16

2010-03-25T17:53:00.008-05:00

Carlisle Cathedral
21 March, 10:30am

I attended the Cathedral’s weekly Service of Holy Communion. The service is thoroughly Anglican and high-church, but from what I understand, and unusually, this church is evangelical. The choir consists of all men and boys, similar to other high churches, and they sing the Litany, Psalm of the day, congregational hymns, Sanctus, the song during Communion, and the Motet, as well as a daily (except Saturday) Evensong.

Though this type of church is not one I would want to call home for various reasons, least of all being that it is too formal and impersonal, it was beautiful. The service was structured as follows:

We Gather
Collect of the Day

We Hear the Word
Old Testament reading
Psalm
New Testament reading
Hymn
Gospel reading
Sermon

We Affirm our Faith
Nicene Creed

We Pray for Others
Intercessions

We Confess
Moment of silence for confession Prayer of Penitence
Proclamation of God’s forgiveness

We Celebrate
Passing of the Peace
Offertory hymn

We take (bread and wine placed on the altar and we say, “All things come from You, and ofYour own do we give You.”)

We give thanks (litanies, Sanctus, other words)
The Lord’s Prayer

We break (the President breaks the consecrated bread)

We share (partake of the Lord’s Supper)
The Motet

We Are Sent Out
Prayer after Communion Blessing
Final hymn
Voluntary

There are a couple of impressions I would like to mention. One is that I was surprised at the relative friendliness. I was greeted as I came in the door and helped to find a seat. When I have visited a church like this in the past, the greeting has been very utilitarian; this one was genuine. The passing of the peace lasted for a few minutes, similar to St. James’. The congregation will come out of their way to greet you; not just the four or five people around them.

The sermon was fifth of a five-part series on the Eucharist; this section was on the Eucharist as Penitence—in terms of repentance. In it, the Very Reverend Mark Boyling said that repentance is more than confessing one’s sin, but it means turning around entirely and going the other direction. I wondered if St. Paul’s or Westminster would have a sermon like that. He also mentioned that during Lent, the church changes the place of confession in the liturgy from the beginning to after the intercessions. When it is at the beginning, it is meant to remind us that confession is always before us and always necessary. When it is later, it is so that our mindset is more reflective. I must say that having it after this particular sermon made it much more meaningful and possibly allowed the Holy Spirit to convict is response to the sermon. A regular part of the liturgy, but one more contemporary churches tend to breeze by, is the proclamation of God’s forgiveness. After this time of confession, it is really good to remind us that God has forgiven us. I think we should take this to heart and practice this more often. It also made Communion more meaningful— after the time of reflection and assurance of pardon, we were reminded that Christ’s blood was shed so that we could be forgiven.

Having had visited many cathedrals in my time here, I have been reminded that these spectacular houses of worship were constructed to remind us of the greatness of God. Having this so tangibly, as you are sitting in this amazing work of art, and having recently read in Exodus about the construction of the tabernacle, I was reminded of God’s awesome power. This morning, I experienced both awe of God’s transcendence and the personal nature of His immanence, specifically that shown in Christ’s being one of us.

The Cathedral from my vantage point

Spring time at Carlisle Cathedral

the worship experiment, uk: week 15

2010-03-07T18:22:00.000-05:00

St. Michael’s Church, Stanwix
28 February, 6:30pm

I decided to go to St. Michael’s, my parish church (the one in my community), at the last moment. I was on the way out of the door to go to St. James’ and decided to walk up the street and see if St. Michael’s was having their evening contemporary service, Engage. They were. In fact, sometime in the past 6 months, they’ve switched from doing this service once a month to every week.

The feeling when I walked in was very casual. The church building is pretty large, with a big choir area. Though the nave has pews, the transept area has chairs, which on the left side, had been moved—some facing forward, others inward. To the left of the chairs was a table with coffee, tea and biscuits, which I was invited to twice and was open during the service. To the right of the transept, in line with the chairs, was the band, which consisted of the worship leader on acoustic guitar, drums, flute, and three vocalists, all around one mic. All of the vocalists were female, including the worship leader, Jo, who is the vicar’s wife. We received no bulletin or books when we came in and the songs were on the screen only.

After a brief intro of the service by one of the vocalists, we had a time of musical worship—about 4 songs, a mixture of choruses and hymns. I caught a glimpse of the service order because it was on the chair next to me, and saw that they had split the scripture passage into three parts with a time of prayer and reflection between each—probably the least “Anglican” and most creative service I’ve seen during my time here. The woman who was “speaking” came to the front and read the Mark version of Peter’s denial, then explained how they had divided the message into three parts. She then proceeded with the first (read from notes), then we had a long time of silent meditation followed by prayer. The guitar and flute followed with a little music, and we repeated this two more times.

After that came another set of worship songs, then a closing prayer. It was a very thought-provoking evening and refreshing because I sensed that to those leading the service, worship was more than music, but all of the elements of the service. They flowed together and there was never a moment when I was distracted by the next element. I spoke with the worship leader after and thanked her for the evening.

the worship experiment, uk: week 14

2010-03-07T18:17:00.002-05:00

St. Peter’s Church
21 February, 9:30am

This morning I went back to St. Peter’s church which I attended back in October. Last time, I had attended their evening service, which was a more traditional format with a very small, older constituency. The vicar encouraged me to attend the morning family service. About a month later, I attended their sister parish, St. John’s Houghton, which was also traditional, and again, the vicar encouraged me to go to the family service. So, now, 3 months later, I decided to try it. The room, packed with people (about 130), including lots of kids, parents and older people, generated a feeling of excitement. Honestly, I was expecting a full band, but that wasn’t the case. In fact, the service was still a fairly “Anglican” service, with a song, then another element, then another song, then element, etc., though it was casual, and the musicians consisted of a keyboard and a flute, with no worship leader. The vicar (the leader that day) “led” the music with no amplification. The room is a strange shape—it appears as though the church was originally just a nave and that it has an addition to it which extends the left side of it. Because of this, the instruments are in the newer portion of the room, but the vicar, pulpits and altar are in the original portion.

We were handed songbooks and liturgy books when we came in, though the liturgy wasn’t used the song words were projected. As is typical in the Church of England, there was a time of confession, Scripture reading and a time of intercession. There was also a missions focus. The offering plate was in the back of the room as we came in, and it was presented at the front during the closing song.

Right before the children were dismissed, the vicar invited kids and leaders who were in the previous weeks’ Holiday Club (it was half-term) to come up and teach the motions to a song they had learned. Everyone sang and a few people joined in on the motions.

The preacher that morning was a visiting preacher from the London area, who was a previous vicar at St. Peter’s. Before he shared from the Word of God, the vicar interviewed him and he shared about a difficulty his church is going through. The church did a series on marriage, tied in with Valentine’s Day. They have been given a hard time by the media over some things they said about marriage. It has hit national and even international coverage. He asked us to pray for them.

His sermon was on Philemon and he took us through the letter as if Philemon and his wife were reading it for the first time. After the close of the service, the preacher and the vicar left quickly to go to St. John’s and lead that service (not dissimilar to a large church in the States with multiple campuses).

the worship experiment, uk: week 13

2010-01-30T16:48:00.007-05:00

The Border Kirk (Church of Scotland in Carlisle)
24 January, 11:00am

I wasn’t planning on getting up to go to church this day. I’ve been attending St. James in the evening, but this morning I woke up around 9:30 and thought, “Maybe I should check out another church since I’m up.” So I went online to see if there was a church I could check out. Criteria: 1) one I hadn’t been to; 2) a service which started at 11:00. I remembered that there was a Church of Scotland somewhere, and since I worked at a Presbyterian church for a number of years, I was interested in seeing what the “original” Presbyterian Church was all about.

A number of things seemed to come up to keep me away. First, the church is in the City Centre, and I couldn’t find a place to park. Then when I finally found one, it was a good 7 minutes’ walk away. This made me at least 5 minutes late. Third, when I got to the entrance, the door was locked. I saw a doorbell but thought, “Surely they don’t mean for me to ring the doorbell! What if it rings in the sanctuary?” So I walked around to the back of the church. No door. I walked back to the front and strongly considered leaving, but I really wanted to see this church, so I went for it. I rang the bell. Did it ring in the sanctuary? I didn’t know at the time, but found out later that, yes, it did. I’m really glad I didn’t know that.

The man who greeted me was very friendly and helped me find a seat—which, by the way, was upstairs.

My first impression … not a user-friendly church. I mean, how many visitors would actually ring the doorbell? I almost didn’t, and I’m a thoroughly churched, vocational church person.

Let’s move on from that. The worship space was set up differently than any other church I’ve been in. True to Reformed form, this church was plainer than that of many of the Anglican churches. There was limited stained glass, and the beams of the church were made of wood rather than stone. Three plain banners hung on the walls. There were three rows of pews stretched straight out, with the largest in the center and a balcony behind. There was a flat stage that stretched the length of the first two rows of pews. Behind the platform there was more seating. There was a large pulpit to the side and organ pipes beyond that. The organ itself was on the back side of the platform. On this particular week, the pulpit wasn’t utilized; instead, the pastor used a smaller pulpit.

I found out later that the service I attended was one that happened monthly. Typically, they have two services; one is a traditional service with organ and full sermon, and the other is considered their contemporary service, with a band. Once a month, they combine for a family service, in which the children stay in all morning and are involved. The also use both the band and organ (though separately), and the pastor doesn’t preach; instead, he does a couple of mini-sermons, which are very kid-friendly and are not expositional. They’re only about 5-7 minutes each.

It was good to see how involved the children were—besides coming up during the “sermons,” they helped with the scripture reading (an older child was part of the group that was reading, while a younger child held up props to show the body of Christ—I Cor 12:14-26), and a teenager read a poem. The pastor held everything together thematically. All of the songs were about being the Church, and the poem and one of the sermons was about Martin Luther King, Jr. and about being the Church in the community. He had an easel pad at the front with the words, “I have a dream” on it. He must have invited people to write their dreams on it throughout the service, but since I was 10-15 minutes late, I missed that part. At the end, he read what people had written and asked the congregation to pray for the “dreams” throughout the week.

A woman who is training under the pastor led the prayer time and asked everyone to turn to their neighbor and pray for something on their hearts. This was obviously a novice idea to the congregation, as she had to instruct them twice and even then, only a few people did it, whispering very quietly to one another. It was obviously uncomfortable for them. In talking to the pastor later, he mentioned this and said that the Church of Scotland, particularly in Scotland, is extremely reserved. I recalled how my pastor at First Presbyterian used to call Presbyterians the “frozen chosen.” Apparently, this congregation in Carlisle is considerably less reserved than his last parish in Scotland! They did attempt to clap during one song.

It was good to see the children’s participation and the pastor’s creativity, and I was impressed with his heart to do everything he could to build unity in the congregation by having this combined service once a month (not to mention, to try to help both polarities of worship style learn from and appreciate each other), but I felt something was missing: expositional preaching. I don’t think it’s good that he’s losing that because the children are in the service. And in a denomination that holds “the Word and the Sacrament” so highly, it’s a bit surprising.

I know they’re doing the best with what they have, but the music was not stellar. Except for the Doxology, I don’t remember one song that was directed at God. Simply put, what we had that morning musically was not worship. We sang “I Am the Church,” a simple kids song about what constitutes the Church, “Welcome Everybody,” a song whose chorus says, “Welcome everybody, it’s good to see you here” to the tune of “Do Lord,” and the South African tune “We Are Marching” (we even sang one chorus in Zulu). I appreciated that the pastor brought in music from the global Church, but once again, this song doesn’t say anything, and I doubt that the congregation can speak Zulu (I sang it in college so was at least familiar with it). We also sang a hymn called “Brother, Sister.” This one was probably the closest to exhorting one another in worship. The band consisted of a drummer, keyboardist, two acoustic guitars which were not in tune, and an accordion. All of the instrumentalists were given microphones to sing.

With the exception of the Doxology and the bringing forward of the offering (there was an offering taken during the service), there was less liturgy than I expected. In general, I’m under the impression that the Presbyterian Church in the States is more liturgical than its counterpart in the UK. When I interviewed the pastor later in the day, he mentioned that the U.S. churches “have embraced elements of Anglo-Catholic worship that we’ve resisted” (he did work in a PCUSA church in the States for a while). He said, “The best of traditions in other churches we adopt now. But even 80 years ago, candles in worship would have been anathema!” Wow! I guess that makes sense, considering one of the things many Protestant churches were protesting was anything that could be construed as iconic or getting in the way of the Word.

After the service, the lady I sat next to invited me downstairs for coffee. On the way down, she introduced me to the pastor, and I found out that some of his relatives live minutes away from my home in the States, and that he’s visited The Chapel before! He came over to me while I was conversing with some others, and we talked for a while. Then his wife invited me over for dinner, so I went, hesitantly. I must admit, this was the first time that’s ever happened. We ended up having a lovely afternoon, learning about each other’s church experiences and hearing one another’s passion for the church. I ended up interviewing them for my paper as well. To top it off, the pastor’s wife, who works for the Presbytery, invited me to come with her on a Sunday in April and help her lead a service at a church (with two parishes) in Scotland!

So what started as waking up early, deciding to try out a church and almost being turned away, ended up as a total God-thing! What an interesting adventure of a day it was.

haiti follow-up

2010-01-20T16:21:00.003-05:00

Here's one way we can help:

Giving. Sometimes it doesn't seem like enough, doesn't it? Like we're not on the front lines, getting dirty and really touching lives. Though I still tend feel that way a little, if there's one thing I'm reminded of working at OM, it's that praying and giving are HUGE. I couldn't do what I'm doing without the prayer and monetary support of over 100 amazing people. This week, we've been rejoicing because of a large amount of money that has been donated to OM internationally in the past few weeks—huge answers to prayer on many accounts! Ministries, churches, people require money to do their work effectively.

So giving to Haiti will help. World Relief says that every $2 provides 2 hot meals for one person. Providing a meal for someone hungry. That sounds like something Jesus would appreciate.

haiti

2010-01-13T17:11:00.005-05:00

So, what do we do about it? What do I do about it? Feel bad, pray, and then go along in my life as normal? O God, what do we do?

AP photos, from Telegraph

the worship experiment, uk: week 12

2010-01-10T11:53:00.006-05:00

All Souls Langham Place
27 December, 9:30am

While in London, I decided to attend the church where John Stott was the Rector for 25 years, and has now been Rector Emeritus for 30 years.

All Souls has a beautiful and unique facility. It is not a typical European cathedral. The sanctuary is square, with balconies on three sides. There is a large, flat stage at the front. The stage is a deep red wood. The second level has gold pillars all around, and there is a large painting of Christ on the wall at the front. They have a 16x9 screen which comes down in front of the painting, with plasma TVs all around the sides and under the balconies, so they are visible at all angles. There is a large gray pulpit at the front, very contemporary and either metal or marble—symbolic of their commitment to the Scriptures.

The service I attended had a different combination of musicians: piano, organ, bass, flute, trombone, acoustic guitar and two male vocalists. The music director conducted everything, including the vocalists, and every song had a long introduction (not necessarily by the music director). Unfortunately, I had a difficult time worshiping during the music. The major hindrance was that one of the vocalists had an aura that made me uncomfortable. It was like being back in music school around some of the vocalists. It’s hard to explain, but it was in his demeanor and confidence. It may have been simply that he was a classical musician and knows how to perform in classical venues but doesn’t know how to translate that into a worship setting. I don’t mean that a worship setting is a performance, but as a musician you need to learn how to take what you know about stage presence and translate that into different settings. I was reminded how important it is to always be aware of what I'm communicating non-verbally and how I can be a help or hindrance to someone's ability to worship.

Another reason it was difficult to focus that morning was one of the song choices. There were some regular Christmas songs and a lot of Christmas tunes with different words; but the doozy was that they took “Jingle Bells” and put new words to it. They called it a “children’s song,” but still …

As many of the other Anglican services I’ve attended, the songs were interspersed with prayers, readings, a “family focus” and notices (announcements). The offering was taken more formally than at other churches. After it was taken, it was brought forward and placed on the altar during one of the songs. I actually like that occasionally. It makes the act of worshiping through giving more about thanksgiving for what God has given us.

The sermon was on “The Names for Christmas,” from Isaiah 9:6. During a time of greeting one another, I was greeted by a man next to me, who asked me my name, where I was from, why I was in London, etc. He made me feel welcome. The music director also came up and shook hands. I think he recognized I was new, which was impressive in a large congregation (I don’t know the exact number, but I would say the sanctuary seats at least 800, and they have 3 morning services and 1 evening service).

the worship experiment, uk: week 11

2009-12-19T15:20:00.003-05:00

Hebron Evangelical Church
13 December, 6:30pm

This was my second time attending Hebron, but my first at their evening service, which is geared towards young adults. It was a good evening of worship.

The service opened with “Joy To the World” and was followed by a video. The band that night was pretty good and consisted of guitar, bass, keys, drums and tenor/soprano sax. The worship leader was a young guitarist who led the band fairly well but didn’t lead vocally. There were two other vocalists. After the video, there was a soprano sax/clarinet duet of “O Holy Night” which was really good. It was wonderful to see some creative use of the arts. We also sang “In Christ Alone,” a huge favorite in English churches. I’ve sung it many Sundays here.

Also in the service were the lighting of the advent candle, a missionary update, and a commissioning/thanksgiving for the youth leader who was moving on to go to Bible school and minister in a different country.

Peter Maiden, the International Director of OM, preached on “The Surprising Jesus,” along with the pastor, who illustrated Peter’s message at the end. Peter talked about Jesus’ requirements of following Him from Luke 14:25-33, hating family and giving up all, and discussed its meaning and implications. He did this in the context of one of Christ’s teachings on the kingdom, from Matthew 13:44: “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.” I found this very encouraging—his point was that when we realize the treasure that we have, giving up everything is worth it.

After the service, besides a farewell event for the youth leader, they had dessert and drinks for everyone in another room, followed by a time to hang out for young adults, in a coffeehouse-type environment, with live Christmas music, candles, coffee, hot chocolate, etc. I really enjoyed the evening at Hebron, and was encouraged to look to Christ and worship Him. In fact, it made me want to return for their carol service on the 20^th.

the worship experiment, uk: week 10

2009-12-13T05:51:00.003-05:00

St. Michael’s Stanwix
6 December, 9:30am

St. Michael’s is the Anglican church in my neighborhood. I knew it was evangelical by the Alpha Course sign outside, and by the same token, I also knew they have a family service once a month, which I was interested in checking out. On Saturday, my housemate and I received a brochure through the door inviting us to all of the Christmas services. The December 6 service was a “Nativity Parade.” This sounded unique, so I decided to make it my next church visit.

The church was packed. This church still has seating in the transept (cross section), and this area was full, mostly with children dressed in costumes of sheep, barn animals, shepherds, angels and innkeepers. The vicar stood up and welcomed everyone to the nativity play. Ah—so it wasn’t really a parade, but something which reminded me of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (without the Herdmans). Before the play began, we followed a card which had the family service liturgy. It was informal (geared towards the kids), with Christmas songs projected on the screen and accompanied by a piano or organ, interspersed with litanies, scripture reading, and the lighting of the advent candle. On the advent wreath, the vicar explained what it is, but he failed to mention the wreath’s or the candles’ significance—just

that it was a countdown to Christmas day when the “big white candle” would be lit. This was a disappointing for me. It took the symbolism and power right out of it.

After this, the vicar explained the nativity play. He would be reading it, and the kids would act it out as it went along. As he read keywords, different groups (barn animals, sheep, shepherds, Mary, Joseph, innkeepers, angels, wisemen and guards and even the congregation) would shout out a word or phrase (many of which were humorous). He had everyone practice their “lines” and instructed the groups of kids where to sit or stand. Then the play began. At first I thought it was all spontaneous, but at one point, the angels sang a song which they had prepared. The play was cute, and the morning definitely had a “small town church” feel. It was fun to see all the life. There had to have been at least 50 kids participating!

After the play, the children went back to their seats and we had a time of prayer. In this, I thought the vicar did well at instructing the kids in what to do. Then we sang one last Christmas song and had a benediction.

A couple of extra notes: the church took an offering during one of the carols. This was one of the only Anglican churches I’ve been to which has done this during the service. There was an awkward moment for me after the benediction (when we were standing), when the organ started playing and I assumed everyone would start putting on coats to leave, so I turned around and grabbed my coat. Instead, everyone sat back down first and then got ready to leave. Oops! I still don’t know when I’m “supposed” to sit and stand, even in these informal churches. At least I know when to say, “Thanks be to God,” “And also with you,” etc.

look at what the LORD does

2009-12-06T18:27:00.002-05:00

Don't trust in men:

they cannot save

they return to dust

their plans come to nothing.

Trust in the LORD:

He remains faithful forever

He upholds the cause of the oppressed

He gives food to the hungry

He sets prisoners free

He gives sight to the blind

He lifts up those who are bowed down

He loves the righteous

He watches over the alien

He sustains the fatherless and widow

He frustrates the ways of the wicked

He reigns forever.

from Psalm 146

the worship experiment, uk: week 9

2009-11-29T14:31:00.004-05:00

St. James Church
29 November, 10:30am

I’ve come full circle. Today I went back to the first church I visited, but this time I went to the morning service. Unfortunately, I got a little lost on the way over, so I was about 10 minutes late. The room was totally packed—at least 250 people were there.

It is the first Sunday in Advent, and instead of an Advent wreath (I was told that they are only used in high churches), St. James has a Christingle service. According to the Wikipedia entry, “Christingle is a symbolic object used in advent services in churches of many Christian denominations. It has its origins in the Moravian Church, with the first recorded use in Germany, in 1747.” A Christingle is an orange wrapped in a red ribbon, with fruits or candies stuck into the orange with 4 toothpicks. In the center, a candle is fixed into the top. The orange represents the world; the ribbon represents the blood of Jesus; the candies represent the fruits of the earth and the four seasons, and the candle represents Jesus, the Light of the World.

Because the Christingle service is a family-oriented service with lots of children involvement, the kids stayed through the entire service, and most of the time they were invited to the front. (Actually, kids were running around the room much of the time.) The band, besides guitar, electric guitar, drums and three vocals, included a small “orchestra” with string bass, trombone and clarinet. For the first time, I actually knew 75% of the songs (instead of 25 or 50)! It made me feel at home to have an orchestra, albeit a tiny one.

The worship leader and a woman, whom I assumed was the children’s director, led the service, which was about light. There were two mini-messages, and a creative time of prayer: gum drops were passed out, and each color represented a different topic to pray for. We were given a few minutes to pray silently. The second mini-message ended with the Christingle time. The children’s director explained the meaning of Christingle, then the children and their parents went to the four corners of the room (representing the four seasons) and were given their own Christingles, which they lit and brought back to their seats as we sang (believe it or not) “Shine, Jesus, Shine.”

It was a special service and exciting to be a part of a light-hearted, festive, family service, and interesting to celebrate Advent in a different way.

oh, yeah

2009-11-28T20:07:00.002-05:00

I was just reading through some of my old posts, sort of like looking back at a journal. I needed a big picture perspective on the past year. I came across this entry.

Jesus, help me to continually see You walking on the sea and know that everything's all right.

the worship experiment: uk, week 8

2009-11-23T15:45:00.007-05:00

St. John's, Houghton
22 November, 11:00am

Warm. That’s how I’d describe the people at St. John’s Anglican Church in Houghton. As I walked in the door, I was greeted by a member of the congregation who noticed I was a visitor. Not only did she strike up a congregation, but she sat beside me. She even invited me to her small group in the middle of the week!

This church is in the same parish as St. Peter’s, so the Vicar recognized me and came to talk to me after the service. I told him that I had visited HTB and he mentioned that he believes the UK churches with growing, flourishing congregations are the ones with a staff ratio of 1-50. He said that their churches don’t have enough staff to really reach out into the community and do all they would like. He asked me how many staff were at the church I came from, and observed the similar staff ratio there, although The Chapel’s at a lower staff-layperson ratio than his theory. But I’ve observed that the English churches generally have more staff than American churches.

The service was similar to the evening one I experienced at St. Peter’s; there was no band this morning, just a piano. I was told that they have a band 2-3 times per month, and St. Peter’s has one each week at their 9:30 service. We sang four songs out of the Mission Praise book, scattered throughout the morning (lyrics were also on the screen). There was an older man leading the service, who didn’t know all of the songs, so the congregation tried to rely on the piano for the one they didn’t know, but it didn’t work too well. He also introduced each song by talking about the lyrics (a lot).

After the first song, was a congregational reading and prayer out of a liturgy book, then there was a time of focused prayer. Then one of the pastors (who preached as well), brought up a couple of little girls and they taught a kids’ song to the congregation—actions and all. The congregation really got into it. After this was the scripture reading and sermon, from I John 3:1-10. After the sermon, we sang one more song and had a benediction. As people were leaving, a table was brought in with drinks and biscuits. I think every church I’ve been to has had refreshments after the service!

I walked through the side of the church to leave and found a large section of the church I didn’t know was there. There was a hallway, some classrooms and a large multipurpose room. There was a large display on the wall with information about the two churches, staff, and Christ. It was very well done. I just more people were there who are inquiring about God. The church has about 90 people, most of whom are older, and St. Peter’s has about 130 and is a younger congregation. But each congregation has more members then most churches in the UK.

the worship experiment: uk, week 7

2009-11-20T15:40:00.006-05:00

Holy Trinity Brompton
15 November, 9:30am

Monica and I visited one of the largest churches in the UK, Holy Trinity Brompton. It’s a charismatic Anglican church in the heart of London’s shopping district, right down the road from Harrods. It’s famous for creating the Alpha Course, a 10-week course for those looking to discover the Christian faith, as well as worship leader and songwriter Tim Hughes, author of “Here I Am To Worship.”

I say that HTB is one of the largest churches in the UK, but I was surprised at how small the room was. The church was started in 1829 and now includes St. Paul’s Church in Onslow Square. My guess is that there were around 500 people in the room, maybe less, but the two churches combined have 8 Sunday services, of which all but the earliest service at St. Paul’s are informal.

HTB has been successfully transformed into a place for modern worship without damaging any of the traditional architecture. It is professionally equipped with Aviom in-ear monitors, one screen with an aspect ratio of 16x9, flat panel TVs mounted under the balcony so that everyone can see, and at least two mounted cameras. Their media, print and video, is professionally done. I was amazed at how good the sound was in the room (IEMs have to make a huge difference in a cathedral!). Service flow was good, and still included some Anglican elements such as readings (from the screen) and the words of institution during Communion. The crypt below has been transformed into a bookstore, nursery areas and choir room.

Before the service, a row of tables was set up at the side of the sanctuary, with drinks and food. It was a great way to gather people in the room instead of congregating in the hallway. The service began with all of the kids sitting in the front of the room, some of them leading the first two songs with their leaders—hand motions and all! Then there was a congregational reading and a time of prayer for the persecuted church. We prayed in groups of two for the country of India, and then there was simultaneous prayer (out loud—“Asian style”) for the two Christian women who are missing in Yemen. After prayer, we watched the HTB News—the announcements via video. It was a clever, interesting and professional way to do announcements—announcements with B-roll video and a voiceover. It was very well done and didn’t detract from the rest of the worship service, I think partly because the 12 or so minutes prior were a great mix of being professional and laid back. We could certainly learn from that!

Next, the children were dismissed to their own classes and we had a 15-minute worship set, led by a young guy on guitar (possibly an intern), keys, drums, female vocalist, an older lady on a cello (she played by ear and rocked!), and another guy who was playing either bass or electric—I really couldn’t tell. I could hear both instruments, but there was only one. I assumed he was playing bass and the keyboardist was playing electric, but later I watched him strumming an electric part.

After this, one of the pastors introduced the sermon (a sermon on healing from a series on spiritual gifts) by interviewing three people. One had experienced healing in her own life, one had experienced the healing of a number of people while he prayed for them, and one had experienced healing in stages—emotionally, then physically. Tim Hughes gave the sermon, and I must say, it was the least sensational, most down-to-earth and most biblical message on healing from a charismatic church that I’ve ever heard. Tim himself is very well-spoken and passionate. He didn’t seem like a famous worship leader, but one who has a deep love for his congregation.

Following the service, we took Communion. The ushers went forward and brought the elements to different sections of the room, then we were dismissed by rows to come forward and receive it by dipping the wafer in the juice. The band led us in reflective worship during this time (mostly keys, guitar and cello), and continued to pray as Tim asked people to come forward if they wanted prayer for healing or if they would offer prayers for those who came forward. As the service was 1 ½ hours long, and they had another coming in ½ hour, one of the pastors gave a benediction while those down front continued to pray.

During the announcements, a Christmas concert was promoted, which will be led by the choir & orchestra at HTB. My understanding is that it will be classical. While we in the States have found it necessary to make our choirs contemporary (and rightly so), choirs here remain classical. A worship service with a choir will be traditional, where an “informal” service will be led by a band. It was great to have a cello included, however!

food blog

2009-11-18T15:42:00.011-05:00

I'd like to give you a little tour of the food Lydia, Monica and I ate on our week-long UK holiday.

There's this adorable little village in the Lake District called Grasmere. They have the world's best gingerbread, or at least that's what I was told. And it was really good. It wasn't what I expected. I was picturing thick bread, but it was thin, with crumbles on the top. It was hard but a bit chewy and yummy heated up. I don't have a picture of it, but this is where you get it. It's the only place in the world to get it, as it's a secret recipe.

On Tuesday in Edinburgh, we ate at Canon's Gait. This is what I had: pan fried chicken on a bed of bubble & squeak w/ panchetta & white wine sauce.

I'm not sure if that's where Lydia had Yorkshire Pudding, but here it is. Served with peas, of course. There's a lot of peas here.

Upon arrival in Bromley (where we stayed in London), we walked to the town centre and ate at O'Neill's Irish Pub. It was good. I think my favorite place we ate at all week. I had a Seafood Crockpot, which had mashed potatoes, cabbage, shrimp, fish, salmon & mussels (which I did not eat) and cheese. Served with potato bread. I topped it off with an amazing chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream.

This is Monica's Irish Breakfast. I think it's self-explanatory.

Lydia's Steak & Guinness Pie, with chips and, of course, peas.

On Friday, after our free tour of the Royal sites, we ate at a restaurant with most of our touring group. This is traditional fish and chips, with—you guessed it—mushy peas (in that little cup). They were actually cold and quite good. However, my fish still had the bones in it. It was a bit of a surprise.

That night, we ate a little Italian cafe in Covent Garden. Here's my spaghetti. It was nice to get away from all the English food for a meal.

On Saturday night, we had Indian food at Bengal Cuisine. Here are all the sauces/relishes they brought us.

No week is complete without the great taste of Starbucks, which we frequented. We seemed to have a goal of visiting one in each city.

origin of rain, rain, go away

2009-11-16T15:06:00.002-05:00

It was raining in London. Go figure. We got the entire London experience.

Anyway, I bought a poncho. On it were these familiar lyrics (though somewhat different than I remember):

Rain rain go away,
come again another day;
little Johnny wants to play,
Rain rain go to Spain,
never show your face again.

On the back it said, "The origin of the lyrics are said to date back to the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603), one of the English Tudor monarchs."

Who knew?

Amazing what you can learn from a £1 poncho.

driving civility

2009-11-12T16:02:00.006-05:00

There's this concept here in England that many Americans are unfamiliar with. It's known as politeness. When driving down a motorway (highway), English people actually allow you to change lanes if you put on your turn signal. They use the fast lane as an overtaking lane, not a cruising lane. There's also this thing called a "speed limit," and sometimes lorries (trucks) have a lower one. In Britain these trucks actually follow it. If you are on a side road and want to turn onto a main road, incredibly, they'll let you in! British road rage is a horn honking.

Amazing!

the worship experiment: uk, week 6

2009-11-01T14:53:00.010-05:00

Carlisle Christian Fellowship
1 November, 10:30am

This morning I attended Carlisle Christian Fellowship, a non-denominational Charismatic (not Pentecostal) church. As we walked in, my housemate and I were welcomed in by a greeter who handed us the morning’s notices. She showed us into the room, which was more compact then most and almost round, with a stage in front. It had old red carpeting and chairs, and heavy drapes around and behind the stage. There were three sections of chairs with aisles in between and a sound booth in the back. A large screen hung stage right off the stage, and there was a flat panel TV on the wall stage left. Another TV was on the left side of the room under the ceiling where it was hard to see the screen. The band was playing a prelude and there were people everywhere mingling about (I counted about 140-150 during the service). We took seats in the middle near the back. The lady behind us welcomed us. I commented to my roommate, “I think this band’s going to be good!”

And it was. This young band consisted of acoustic guitar, bass, keys, drums, female singer and male worship leader on electric guitar. Though the sound in the room wasn’t fantastic, the band was mixed pretty well and wasn’t too loud for the room. They played with dynamics and interest, and that was quite refreshing. The offering was taken during the first song. The worship leader opened the service with a scripture and then led a 30-minute song set, and true to charismatic form, there was freedom to stand, sit, kneel, jump, cry, speak in tongues, etc. Though none of this was led from the front (except once near the end where we were encouraged to kneel physically or in our hearts and pray to the Lord), there were a few people praying (and singing!) in tongues; one directly behind me, which was a bit unnerving. I kept thinking that if spiritual gifts are meant to edify the Body of Christ (which someone attested to later in the service), how does speaking a private language to the Lord do that?

After the worship set, the pastor got up and there was 15 minutes of announcements, including a few people telling about upcoming events. Then there was a children’s sermon, after which the kids were dismissed to the crèche. There was no sermon, as the speaker was unable to make it at the last minute. Instead, the pastor extended the usual sharing time to 45 minutes, and the remainder of the service was spent with people comingto the front and sharing what God was doing in their lives or what they had been learning. There was a theme of suffering in the worship set and it was good that those sharing seemed to keep to that theme. Even though this time was very family-like in many ways, the experience of allowing anyone to get up and speak without putting parameters on the topic and not knowing if what they are going to say is grounded scripturally, made me a bit nervous. On the other hand, I really appreciated that when someone shared a prayer need, the pastor immediately got up and prayed for it. However, there was once when I sensed a little bragging about a ministry and another time when the prayer request bordered on gossip—in the worship service!

A little before noon, the pastor closed out the sharing time by saying something about the service being a little different than normal if and they liked the way it started, maybe they’d do it again. He also welcomed the visitors. Then the band closed with an arrangement of “Be Thou My Vision” that was in 4/4 time.

After the service, there was coffee, tea and biscuits in a room behind the sanctuary. Two or three people introduced themselves to me and made me feel welcome. I actually knew a number of people because quite a few OMers attend CCF.

In many ways, it was a refreshing service, especially because it was musically good and I felt very welcomed, but I have some theological difficulties and mixed emotions about other aspects of the service. It is quite amazing how much feeling welcomed pulls me back to some of these churches that I wouldn’t otherwise attend. That’s been my experience at a few of them. I understand why the main reason why an unchurched person will attend a church for the second time is because he/she felt welcomed the first time!

the worship experiment: uk, week 5

2009-10-31T14:36:00.003-05:00

St. John the Evangelist’s Church
25 October, 10:30am

When I walked into St. John the Evangelist’s Church a few minutes late, I was still greeted by a member of the congregation. 60 or so people were in attendance, demographically older. The church building, an old cathedral-style like most others in town, is about to undergo a facelift. Currently, there are two rows of pews with an aisle in the middle, the pulpit is at the front of the choir, but the choir extends far behind it—a typical church in Cumbria. They use a screen in the front and the band is off to the side. The other side has a small play area. It actually has quite a bit of space, and the vicar has plans to make use of it. This old congregation is getting ready for “Fit for a Purpose,” where they are being asked to give £10,000 to refit the room. The pastor’s plans are to remove the three sets of entry doors and put in one set of glass doors, and add a kitchen and youth office in the front entry. Inside he wants to remove the pews, gut the floor, put in a stage, re-carpet and put in chairs. The front of the church has an old Victorian-style cement decorative wall, which he intends to cover with a nice drape and put a cross overhead. He also wants to add a café and charity shop after the entry way. He said that they have a charity shop down the street and it is a great outreach, and so he’s hoping to put it inside the church so that people have to go in the church to do their shopping. It was exciting to see this pastor’s heart for the community and especially for young people. He knows he has an old congregation and desperately wants that to change. His sermon was all about “Change for the sake of the gospel” and he really challenged his people. He gave some disturbing figures: 25% of adults have left church in the past 20 years; 60% of teens have left, and even more 20s-30s. He was a good preacher and interacted with the congregation. He even used a flipchart to illustrate a bell curve of types of churchgoers and their reactions to change.

As far as the worship service, it was a bit more formal than any of the others I’ve been to. There were no song sets; we would sing one and then there would be another element of the service: announcements, singing “Happy Birthday” (with Christian lyrics) to those who celebrated birthdays that week, prayer (as at the other Anglican churches, it was in sections: prayer for the youth [the theme of the morning], for ourselves, etc.), congregational readings (from the screen), and a Scripture reading before the sermon. The vicar would instruct us to stand when we were about to sing, but no one would stand until the song intro was complete. That tripped me up more than once. There were at least two people missing from the band (sadly they were the guitarist and worship leader). Playing were a keyboardist, flautist and drummer. We sang a total of 4 or 5 songs, half of which I knew. One of them was “The Power of the Cross” by the Gettys, and one of the ones I didn’t know was by Stuart Townend. If I know 50% of the songs in any given service, I’m doing pretty good. Many of the songs are by British songwriters we know in the States, but the percentage of their tunes that make it over the ocean is quite low. Once again, there was no offering; the plate was in the back of the room, but during the closing song, two ushers brought the offering forward to the altar.

After the service, my friend who brought me introduced me to the vicar, who talked with me, told me his plans for the church, and escorted us to the other building, to what would be like a fellowship hall for tea. This room is also where they have children’s church. (As has been the case at every church I’ve visited, the children are in the service until a point, usually just before the sermon, and then are dismissed to their own church.) This other building is twenty years old and is quite impressive. It contains the kitchen and fellowship hall, a very nice gym with a second story overlook, and offices on the top floor.

Though St. John’s was formal and stylistically not very relevant to this generation, I really appreciated the pastor’s heart for his congregation and community. From its beginnings, this church has historically been an instrument of change in the community and I suspect that they will be again soon.

video

2009-10-28T16:27:00.003-05:00

I was browsing OM USA's web site today for pictures, clicked to a video on youtube, and eventually landed on this video. It's called "I'm Dalit, how are you?"

There's not much I can say. Just watch it.

i'm back!

2009-10-27T19:28:00.004-05:00

I've decided to return to blogger. I like some things about iWeb, but I don't like their blog interface or functionality. Posting's easier and posts are better looking on blogger. So I moved everything back over here and did some seriously updating to this site. My web site is still up and running, and I'm in the process of redesigning it. But the blog's staying here.

Welcome back!

the worship experiment: uk, week 4

2009-10-18T17:56:00.001-05:00

St. Peter’s Church
18 October, 6:30pm

Tonight I visited St. Peter’s Church, another evangelical Anglican church in Carlisle, connected to St. John’s Church. The vicar, Simon Austen, pastors both congregations. On the Web site, the service was called an “informal Holy Communion” service, so I thought it would be similar to St. James and geared toward younger people. Though the churches are trying to build a service like that at St. John’s, this was not tonight’s service. In fact, Simon told me to please come back in the morning when the church is full (about 140 people) and there is a band. The service tonight, however, was refreshing for a change. There were 19 people in attendance, all with grey hair except for me, the vicar and the assoc. pastor, and 7-9 of them were involved in the service in some way.

When I walked in, I was greeted by the vicar, who asked me where I was from, how long I would be in town, and what I was doing—all details which, by the way, he remembered afterward. I was handed a songbook and liturgy book (for Communion). The service started out with some announcements (called “notices” in the UK). The associate pastor led all of the service except the sermon, and all of the insight he gave added to the worship. He also instructed us to sit and stand, which in many churches is neglected. I appreciate that instruction rather than the general expectation that everyone knows what to do—not too visitor friendly. The music was led by a keyboard and the pastor stood up front, but no one was leading the songs and we got lost a number of times. I knew only the last hymn and was somewhat familiar with an old 1980’s English tune, because we had sung it earlier in the week at OM. After the notices were two hymns, then a time of prayer led by a layperson. He prayed in different sections (e.g., for the church, for the sick, silent prayer) but it was not something we were reading together. We then sang another song, and then a woman read the Scripture passage for the sermon, John 2:12-25. The vicar preached about a 25-minute sermon. He was very good—sound theologically, knowledgeable in the scriptures, in touch with the post-modern shifts in culture, and not a bad orator. He was focusing on two events—the overturning of the moneychangers in the temple and Jesus’ “sign” that He would raise this temple in three days. He taught in context of chapters 1 and 3 (Jesus—the new religion—coming, the old religion’s destruction, then His destruction, and salvation and new birth resulting) He also taught in light of John’s epistles.

After the sermon, we sang another hymn and took Communion. At this point, we read together from the liturgy. (“Informal” Communion in the Anglican Church always seems formal to me as it has involved the liturgy in both churches I’ve been to, even though the rest of the service hasn’t.) The serving of the Eucharist involved giving the elements to two others, adding a middle section to kneeling benches, which were in the very front of the church, behind the pulpit, and dismissing us row by row to kneel and receive the elements, which included two common cups. I had appreciated that St. James had us dip the Bread into the Cup because of Swine Flu, and I have to admit that drinking from a common cup was quite distracting for me and I struggled to focus on remembering Christ. But I am not used to it. We did all of this in silence, which I appreciated this evening.

After Communion, we sang “Abide With Me,” and then had a closing prayer. The awkward moment for me came next, when the keyboardist started playing and I began to gather my things, while everyone else sat back down for a few moments. Oops. But the lady next to me started talking to me and the moment was over.

I had a nice chat with the vicar after the service, and he asked me about my church, told me about some churches to visit in London, and explained the state of the Anglican Church in England. He said the issues they face are completely different from the Episcopal Church in the States: the main issue here is, are you evangelical or not? There is a gamut of Evangelical Anglican churches, from ones like his to a couple of large churches in London (about 1,000), like Holy Trinity Brompton, which is charismatic but not Pentecostal. All of the churches of that size in England you can count on two hands. There are a couple of very large churches (like The Chapel), but they are Pentecostal. I asked him if the difference was that the Pentecostal churches believe that the baptism of the Spirit happens subsequent to salvation and the charismatic churches don’t, and he said that’s basically true but there would be some even in the charismatic Anglican churches who do believe that, though it wouldn’t be taught by the church. Simon told me that when I go to London, besides Holy Trinity, I should visit All Souls’ Church (where John Stott was vicar). We also talked about how churches his size in England have more staff members than in the States. He said he thinks it is because it is so hard to do evangelism here and takes more staff to reach the community. He considers his church understaffed, and when you realize that he is pastoring two congregations, he’s right. (Actually, if the two churches combined, they would have the largest congregation in town.)

the worship experiment: uk, week 3

2009-10-10T17:52:00.000-05:00

Elim Community Church (St. Paul’s)
10 October, 10:45am

Elim Community Church is a Pentecostal church meeting in the former St. Paul’s Anglican Church. They have done some interesting work to the choir area of the building. They’ve added a glass front so that the stained glass is still visible but inaccessible, and they’ve built a stage in front of it. They have chairs instead of pews.

The band consisted of a worship leader with guitar, bass player, keyboardist, drummer and a male and female vocalist, both of whom sang melody the entire time. The worship leader was a decent guitarist and this was the first place I’ve been to where the worship leader actually engaged with the congregation. However, he was superseded by the pastor, who did all of the talking for the worship leader, and at one point grabbed a microphone and started singing with them. There was a screen with the lyrics—yellow on a blue background. The screen was used for nothing else.

There were about 100 people at the service, but the pastor mentioned that quite a few were out sick. It’s been a long time since I’ve been in a charismatic setting, and I’ve never been to a church service, although it was very similar to the chapels I attended in Jr. High. They opened with a song, then had a greeting, in which the pastor said that we should feel free to sit or stand or raise hands or whatever we wanted to do, and we should “forget about the person next to us and just focus on God,” a phrase I’ve grown to dislike as corporate worship is corporate, not private. There was a lot of “We praise You, Jesus; Hallelujah,” etc, by the pastor while he was talking. We sang for at least 30 minutes straight, with no stopping. I’d forgotten what it was like to stand that long. After this two new members were commissioned into service at the church. The elders came up and one of them prayed. Then a new staff member was commissioned. Then we took Communion—the band played and sang while the ushers went forward, took the elements themselves, then passed them around the room. They actually handed the trays to each person. We each took them on our own time, but had to take the cup immediately and put it back in the tray. Somewhere in here was a prayer time in which everyone was praying aloud at the same time. There was a lot of this during the music as well. After that was an invitation to come to the microphone and share what God had done. There was no speaking in tongues or anything, but it was very free. However, the pastor kept it to just a few minutes. There was an offering at some point—the first church I’ve been to with one. Next, another man (not sure if he was a pastor or layman) threw candy to those with birthdays and anniversaries in the past week, and to the two of us who were first time visitors. He threw it to me and said, “I don’t know your name.” After the service, a number of people remembered my name, which was pretty cool. After this came some announcements and then the sermon. I think another staff member or layman gave the sermon, which pretty good. After this, the pastor came up and invited the band to play as anyone who wanted prayer could come forward. They anointed them with oil and prayed for them.

Though I left Elim realizing that I don’t fit into a Pentecostal church, either theologically (they do believe that the Baptism of the Spirit comes subsequent to salvation, that it’s something we should seek and manifests itself in spiritual gifts) or in worship style, I did leave with an appreciation for the people’s sensitivity to the Holy Spirit. The people were very friendly and I felt quite welcomed. The preaching was sound and I could tell from the sermon that the church does not teach any kind of prosperity gospel, although I have a hunch that this is an uniquely American theology. The charismatic nature of the church is more subdued (possibly an English trait?) then in many American churches. There were people raising hands and praying freely, but it wasn’t overwhelming.

One other thing—there was a boy (a teenager, I think; I couldn’t see him very well) there with his mother, who threw a fit audibly during the music and testimony time. We could hear him screaming, “I don’t want to worship” and other things in a horrible-sounding voice at the top of his lungs. Everyone in the room acted as if he wasn’t there. I wondered if this was a frequent occurrence. I wondered what kind of emotional/psychiatric problems he had, but honestly, I also wondered if there weren’t something demonic going on. It was very strange.

the worship experiment: uk, week 2

2009-10-10T17:47:00.003-05:00

I know I’m a bit late on this, but I need to get it up before I visit another church tomorrow!

Hebron Evangelical Church
20 September, 11:00am

Hebron Evangelical Church, originally a Brethren Church, meets in a storefront in town in Carlisle. They have an early traditional Brethren service (hymn sing, people sharing when they feel lead), an 11:00am family-oriented service, and a 6:30pm service oriented towards young adults. I attended the 11:00 service. The first thing I noticed was why it is called the family service! There were about 65 adults and probably as many children! The school-age children stayed in the service until the first set of music was over, then they went to KidsZone. KidsZone met in the multi-purpose room next door, and from what I could see, it was buzzing with activity and fun! The nursery-aged children stayed in the service until just before the sermon, and then they went to the Creche. I found it strange that the youngest children stayed in the service longer, or were in there at all. There were babies crying all over the room! It’s quite refreshing to see a church that is so welcoming to families and very kid-friendly. I don’t think visitors with kids would feel looked down on if their child started crying; on the other hand, it was a bit distracting to have that much noise in the room. But maybe that’s what multi-generational worship should be like.

I was encouraged by the amount of young adults and children attending this English church, and by a pastor who I believe wants to engage the community and challenge his people.

the righteous person

2009-10-05T17:43:00.001-05:00

I read this tonight and—whoa.

“Surely he will never be shaken; a righteous man will be remembered forever. He will have no fear of bad news; his heart is steadfast, trusting in the LORD. His heart is secure, he will have no fear; in the end he will look in triumph on his foes” (Psalm 112:6-8, emphasis mine).

That’s who I want to be. Imagine the peace this person always carries with him. Just constant trust in whatever God’s doing. No worries. I wish I could say I was this person, but I have to admit, when bad news came this past year, I had fear. And it’s still a constant journey of learning to trust God for the future. You know how it is? Some days, it’s no problem: since the Lord has done such and such, this is obviously no problem for Him. That intellectual knowledge is always there. It’s getting the will and emotions to follow. The good news is that that’s part of sanctification, and my Counselor intends to fully sanctify me (Romans 8:29)!

“The righteous will live by his faith” (Habakkuk 2:4; Hebrews 10:38).

“Without faith it is impossible to please God” (Hebrews 11:6).

the worship experiment: uk, week 1

2009-09-22T17:41:00.000-05:00

St. James Church
13 September, 2009, 6:30pm

On my first visit to a church in the United Kingdom, I choose the Anglican church St. James. Here are some of my thoughts from the evening.

The people were welcoming. During the passing of the peace, the vicar had asked the congregation to find someone they didn’t know and introduce themselves. I’ve heard that for the English, this is out of their comfort zone, because they typically don’t tell you their name right away. That’s something you find out once you know them well enough and have “access” to something that personal. But the people at this church were willing to forgo that and introduce themselves. I noticed they didn’t just “pass the peace;” they greeted and hugged one another. The time actually lasted for quite a while—probably 3 minutes or so. My experience in the States is that if a “meet and greet” time were to last a minute, people would be anxious.

The evening service is casual and led by a band. There were about 100 in attendance. I was impressed that a church of this size had a pretty decent band. It consisted of a worship leader playing acoustic guitar, an electric guitarist, keys, drums, 2 female vocals, and a woodwind guy who played tenor sax and clarinet. There was no bass guitar, but even without it, they weren’t bad. I was also surprised that the room acoustics handled amplified instruments fairly well.

There was a time of intercession after the first set which was quite moving. We prayed through the Lord’s Prayer by being prompted to pray aspects of the prayer, and then it finished with a corporate Lord’s Prayer. There was an impromptu 15-minute interview with a couple back from the mission field, which gave a casual, small-church feel. From the sermon through the end, it felt a bit more “Anglican” with a liturgy of corporate readings and prayers, though it didn’t feel formal. Communion felt a bit rote to me, though I don’t think this was true for the congregation. A really helpful thing was that the minister explained how Communion was to be taken, instead of expecting everyone to just know what to do, which has been my experience in every liturgical church I’ve visited. The offering wasn’t taken during the service—there was a plate at the back of the room when you walked in, and then it was brought to the front during a corporate thanksgiving. The people in the room were a good mix of old and young, and both were joining in worship, with many hands raised throughout the room.

They used both programmes (bulletins) and two screens mounted on the front sides in the transept areas; the programme didn’t need to be used if you preferred the screens. One thing that surprised me was the length of the service: it was almost 2 hours long!

The church has 4 full-time staff members, a morning service (an older demographic, but still uses a band) and evening service. They have 302 members*, with an average attendance of 280—150 at the morning service, 100 at the evening and 30 at a satellite church in Cummersdale, where they have a traditional Anglican service, with preaching from St. James (on a rotation basis). They have a youth group, and a 20-30’s group called “The Gap.” They have a good missions program and seem to be active in the community. I visited this church first because I was impressed with the things I heard they were doing. I got the sense that this church is thriving and very alive, and I could sense the Holy Spirit moving in this place. I told the Assoc. Minister that this was my first time in an Anglican Church, and he told me that they were pretty “unanglican.” That didn’t surprise me.

* Numbers received from the Parish Office of Saint James, Sept 15, 2009.

amsterdam

2009-09-04T17:25:00.004-05:00

On Monday, I had the opportunity to go to Amsterdam for a day. At the GO Conference, I found out that two people from OM USA had registered at the same hostel as I, so we traveled together. We stayed at Shelter City Christian Hostel. Amsterdam is a very interesting city, with lots of beautiful canals, bicycles and uniquely Dutch architecture. The home of Corrie Ten Boom and Anne Frank, there’s a lot of thought-provoking history to move you. For the artists and musicians, the Christian Müller organ, played by Mozart and Handel, is there, along with museums of Van Gogh and Rembrandt. There’s all sorts of shopping and good places to eat.

It’s also a sad city. Well-known around the world is the Red Light District. Prostitutes advertise themselves in the windows. Shops on the outskirts of the district sell not only wooden shoes and tulips, but “XXX” logo t-shirts, hats and mugs, as if they’re proud of this section of town. Holland was the first country to marry gay couples. There is a homomonument in Amsterdam. No surprise to most people is also the fact that if you want to score a joint, it’s perfectly legal in the Netherlands. I definitely remember smelling weed in a restaurant we poked our heads into in the artsy-cool section of town, Jordaan.

Let’s pray for this beautiful but immoral city that God loves and gave His Son for. That His people in that city will let His light and love shine to their neighbors, colleagues and friends. That Shelter City can make an impact to the people in the Red Light District, that the women who give themselves away each night and live with deep hurt will find the One who loves them as they are because He created them.

here starts the adventure

2009-08-23T17:19:00.002-05:00

What day is it? This has been a whirlwind week of packing, airline travel, moving into temporary digs, moving into semi-permanent digs, then switching countries and traveling to a camp in the Netherlands, changing time zones, meeting people at the office where I’ll be working, then meeting tons of other people from literally all over the world, sleeping in, getting up early, eating strange camp food, trying to drink unchilled milk, trying chocolate sprinkles on bread, and worshiping with people from many nations and tongues (at least these that I know of: Taiwan, Holland, Korea, Germany, France, England, Scotland, Ireland [Northern and Southern—and yes, they’re almost 2 different countries], Trinidad, United States, Canada, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, Austria, Sweden, Norway, Japan, Switzerland, Russia, Kazachstan, Kosovo, Chile, Mexico, Spain, Egypt, Belgium, Finland, Denmark, Faroeur Islands, Morocco, Albania, Bosnia, Croatia, Singapore, Israel, Argentina, Arabian Peninsula, Philippines, Laos, whew!).

I had a really interesting conversation with my Dutch roommate about worship last night. We’ve been singing popular worship songs in English, and it’s fascinating to see how many people in the room know the tunes. She asked me what writers we use at my church and she knew everyone I mentioned. I asked if they translate the songs into Dutch and she said unfortunately, yes: some translate well, but most don’t. She would prefer to sing them in English, and most younger people do. I asked her if she liked singing in English and she said yes. On the other hand, most of this conference is being translated on the stage into German. It seems that most of them speak English, but not all. We also have translators (into headphones) in Korean and French. How do these people join in? The worship leader at the conference is from New Zealand, and I asked her if it’s a challenge to pick song sets for a gathering of this type. She said yes, but that’s why her band is multi-national and she has all of the vocalists choose sets. Yesterday we sang a few songs in Dutch, and later in English.

I had the privilege of worshiping by watching others worship as we sang a tune (in English) the Europeans obviously knew, but I did not. I swelled with emotion as different parts of the room lit up, and praised God for His people.

God's purpose or mine

2009-07-22T17:18:00.001-05:00

Thanks to Oswald Chambers (via @cottrelltravis) for this. I really needed to read this and I may be processing it for awhile.

“He made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side . . . –Mark 6:45

We tend to think that if Jesus Christ compels us to do something and we are obedient to Him, He will lead us to great success. We should never have the thought that our dreams of success are God’s purpose for us. In fact, His purpose may be exactly the opposite. We have the idea that God is leading us toward a particular end or a desired goal, but He is not. The question of whether or not we arrive at a particular goal is of little importance, and reaching it becomes merely an episode along the way. What we see as only the process of reaching a particular end, God sees as the goal itself.

What is my vision of God’s purpose for me? Whatever it may be, His purpose is for me to depend on Him and on His power now. If I can stay calm, faithful, and unconfused while in the middle of the turmoil of life, the goal of the purpose of God is being accomplished in me. God is not working toward a particular finish— His purpose is the process itself. What He desires for me is that I see "Him walking on the sea" with no shore, no success, nor goal in sight, but simply having the absolute certainty that everything is all right because I see "Him walking on the sea" (Mark 6:49 ). It is the process, not the outcome, that is glorifying to God.

God’s training is for now, not later. His purpose is for this very minute, not for sometime in the future. We have nothing to do with what will follow our obedience, and we are wrong to concern ourselves with it. What people call preparation, God sees as the goal itself.

God’s purpose is to enable me to see that He can walk on the storms of my life right now. If we have a further goal in mind, we are not paying enough attention to the present time. However, if we realize that moment-by-moment obedience is the goal, then each moment as it comes is precious.”

-from My Utmost For His Highest

smyrna

2009-07-22T17:15:00.001-05:00

Our church is currently doing a series on the 7 churches in Revelation. This coming Sunday will be the letter to the church that met at Smyrna. I looked up some history concerning the city of Smyrna, to shed light on the culture and issues the church must have faced.

Smyrna is an ancient city; Old Smyrna dates back as far as the 11th millenium B.C. New Smyrna began as a Hellinistic city in the 3rd century, but then appealed to Rome in 197 B.C. and created a cult of the goddess Roma (deifying the city of Rome), essentially creating the goddess herself.

Smyrna fought with Ephesus and Pergamum for the title “First City of Asia” and was a leading commercial/port city during Roman times.

Apart from the worship of Roma, the city had a large Jewish constituent and the Christians in the city felt considerable opposition from the Jews.

Jesus, through John, encouraged the church to stand strong through the coming persecution and warned that some would face imprisonment and even death (Rev 2:10). Polycarp, a bishop at Smyrna and possibly the apostle John’s disciple, was martyred there ca. A.D. 155.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smyrna; bibleplaces.com/smyrna.htm.

not fretful in business

2009-07-13T17:14:00.000-05:00

“My son, says the Lord, commit your cause always to Me; I will dispose of it in due time. Wait for My ordering of it, and there you shall find your good.

O Lord, most cheerfully do I commit all unto You, for my thinking can little avail. Would that I did not so much dwell on future events but gave myself up without reluctance to Your good pleasure.

My son, oftentimes a man vehemently struggles for something he desires, but when he has attained it, he changes his mind. For the affections remain not firmly around the same thing but rather drive us from one thing to another. It is no small thing for a man to forsake himself even in things that are very small.

The true profiting of a man is the denying of himself, and a man who has denied himself is exceedingly free and secure.”

from chapter 39, Of the Imitation of Christ, Thomas â Kempis

cleveland

2009-07-05T17:02:00.005-05:00

Monica came for the weekend and we had a great time! On Friday, we went to Cleveland to go to the Indians game (which they actually won, by the way—15-3). We went up early for lunch and went to the Great Lakes Brewing Company. They have some of the best fries! While we were waiting to get in, we walked to the West Side Market. What a cool place! I highly recommend trying it. Later, we walked around the downtown. We came across 4th Street, which is this cool place that looks like a side street in Paris. Flowers everywhere, outdoor seating, strings of lights overhead, music, etc. After we had some coffee (chai for me), we walked around Tower City. After that, the game. A very fun day!

house pics

2009-05-28T16:54:00.004-05:00

I had to get some pictures of my house with my Miss Kim Lilac. It blooms for such a short time and I always miss it. I planted most of these plants 3 years ago and they’re really starting to flourish! It’s really cool to see and to enjoy God’s handiwork.

remembering

2009-05-10T16:46:00.005-05:00

Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Deuteronomy 4:9

Ways I would have never seen God work if He hadn’t taken away my job:

1. Emotional provision—providing a person right when I need it most; or if not, He’s there Himself.
2. Gently reminding me “Do not fear. I will help you.”
3. I was afraid that after my last day of work, I would be alone and forgotten. Hardly! People have been wonderful. The fear was unfounded. It is true that I shouldn’t try to imagine what the next step will be like as it won’t be anything like what I imagine.
4. He has been providing exactly the right length and amount of jobs to get me through until I leave for England, and closed doors which wouldn’t have met those qualifications—even when I wished for something else and had no idea what was coming next.
5. Okay, obviously providing the England opportunity.
6. Finances—it’s been like the 5 loaves and 2 fishes—somehow He’s stretched money and I haven’t had to use savings or even my tax refund. And I’m not even making enough to pay for everything, but yet I must be.

Am I happy I lost my job? No. But remembering this makes me wonder what He has in store, and that’s kind of exciting!

The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised. – Job 1:21
… or as it has been recently paraphrased, “You give and take away. My heart will choose to say, ‘Lord, blessed be Your name.’”

terrified and depressed

2009-04-28T16:42:00.002-05:00

No, I’m not talking about myself. I’m talking about Jesus. My Lord and Savior. My God.

I know I’ve missed Good Friday by a couple of weeks, but this is really striking me tonight. This is possibly the most human Jesus we’ve ever seen.

 I’m reading a book by C.J. Mahaney called Living the Cross Centered Life (thanks Gail!), and this chapter is “Staring into the cup—the shock of Gethsemane.” Mark’s gospel tells us that when Jesus got to Gethsemane with His disciples, “He began to be deeply distressed and troubled” (Mark 14:33). I looked it up—the Greek for deeply distressed actually means “to be struck with terror.” That’s like one moment you’re fine and the next you’ve been slapped in the face with gut-wrenching fear. Jesus experienced this? God? The One who calmed the storm when His disciples were terrified and told them they had little faith?

What about this other word—troubled? This word means “to be troubled; great distress or anguish; depressed.” This is the strongest of the Greek words for depressed. Jesus wasn’t just a little sad here; He tanked. He says it in the next verse, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.” Whoa.

Why?
Mahaney calls it “the detestable drink.” Read his words:
As Jesus lies prostrate on the ground, we overhear Him praying: “Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Remove this cup from Me. Yet not what I will, but what You will.” He’s making this plea repeatedly. With His face to the ground, we can see sweat on His temples. He lifts His head, and His expression reveals an agony so intense that His sweat is “like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” His words tell us why: “Remove this cup.” Jesus pleads again. In this moment, there’s no doubt what is dominating His heart and mind. ... This cup contains the full vehemence and fierceness of God’s holy wrath poured out against all sin, and we discover in Scripture that it’s intended for all of humanity to drink [Isaiah 51:17]. ... No wonder that when Jesus stares into this detestable vessel, He stumbles to the ground. That’s why there’s shuddering terror and deep distress for Him at this moment. In the crucible of human weakness He’s brought face-to-face with the abhorrent reality of bearing our iniquity and becoming the object of God’s full and furious wrath. What Jesus recoils from here is not an anticipation of the physical pain associated with crucifixion. Rather it’s a pain infinitely greater—the agony of being abandoned by His Father.

So when I am struggling in emotional or psychological pain, I need to go to Gethsemane and watch this scene. ‘Cause He gets it.

here come the robins again

2009-04-20T16:38:00.001-05:00

So last year, this robin built a nest on my porch. I don’t want her to do it again because another robin built a nest on my security light and kept attacking me every time I tried to get in my car. So guess what? Last week I opened my front door to find a nest. So I got out my broom and knocked it down. Two days later ... another nest. Knocked it down. Yesterday—you guessed it—back again. I’m not gonna let this thing beat me!

Anybody know how to keep out a robin for good?

it’s spring in Marietta

2009-04-12T16:29:00.001-05:00

Today I went to visit my Grandma and Aunt Ellen in Marietta. I found out that Spring has arrived! Grass is growing, trees are budding and forsythia and magnolias are blooming. It’s wonderful! I love Spring. Fresh and new. Don’t cha just love the trees when they start budding and the green is bright and almost glowing? I wish I could say this picture is from today, but it’s not. It’s my purple plum tree last year. But pretend I took it today.

And of course, it’s great to see my grandma and aunt. My aunt lives in Wisconsin and I rarely see her, so it’s always great to catch up and hear how my cousins are doing.

new web site

2009-04-11T18:37:00.004-05:00

Hey friends: I have a new web site: behindtheart. I've moved my blog there and I would also love to have you check out my portfolio. If you have any music or graphic design needs, I may be able to help you. I won't be posting to this site anymore. Thanks!

"all anxieties cast on God"

2009-03-01T23:34:00.003-05:00

I haven't posted for a while. I haven't had much I want to say in cyberspace. But today I read some amazing words from Thomas A' Kempis in Of the Imitation of Christ. I thought I'd share them so that not only could you see them, but so I would remember them.

"My son, suffer Me to do with you what I please; I know what is expedient for you. You think as man; you judge in many things as human feelings persuade you.

O Lord, what You say is true. Greater is Your anxiety for me than all the care that I can take for myself. For he stands very unsteadily who casts not all his anxiety upon You.

O Lord, if only my will may remain right and firm toward You, do with me whatever it shall please You. For it cannot be anything but good, whatever You shall do with me. If You will me to be in darkness, You will be blessed; and if You will me to be in light, You will again be blessed. If You vouchsafe to comfort me, You will be blessed; and if You will me to be afflicted, You will be ever equally blessed.

My son, such as this ought to be your state, if you desire to walk with Me. You ought to be as ready to suffer as to rejoice. You ought as cheerfully to be destitute and poor as full and rich.

O Lord, cheerfully will I suffer for Your sake, whatever You will to come upon me. From Your hand I am willing to receive indifferently good and evil, sweet and bitter, joy and sorrow, and for all that befalls me, to give You thanks.

Keep me safe from all sin, and I shall fear neither death nor hell. Cast me not from You forever, nor blot me out of the Book of Life, and whatever tribulation may come upon me shall not hurt me."

– The Third Book, Chapter Seventeen

the advent video

2008-12-15T11:37:00.005-05:00

Here are a few videos from our Christmas concert this weekend (final performance).

From Little Drummer Boy

Gabriel's Message

While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks

worship staff Christmas party

2008-12-14T23:46:00.002-05:00

Each year our staff gets together for a Christmas party and gift exchange. This year, we met at Matt & Kelli's new house and ate yummy food (like Tim's volcano of chocolate marshmallow cookies), got a tour of the house, laughed, prayed for one another, heard some cool news and stole gifts.

the advent

2008-12-06T11:42:00.010-05:00

Our first of six Christmas concerts was last night. This year, the concert is called The Advent and is organized around the tradition of lighting advent candles to share the Christmas story. For those not accustomed to this tradition, there are 5 candles lit the 4 Sundays before Christmas and Christmas Eve: Prophecy, Bethlehem, Shepherds, Angels and Christ. With each candle is a corresponding reading from the Bible.

Here's some pictures from our dress rehearsal Wednesday night.

Gabriel's Message

The set was inspired by Chicago's Millenium Park and our department's trip to Saddleback Church this summer (the plasmas and trusses). Our production team did a phenomenal job!

Sing Noel, Sing Hallelujah from Michael W. Smith's new Christmas project

While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks as performed by Andrew Peterson (but Rick does it better!)

Jesus Messiah

new windows!

2008-11-20T23:35:00.007-05:00

I am so blessed to have new windows! Just installed in the last two days. My old windows were just that—old—83 years. And most of them didn't have screens. I got to do something yesterday for the first time: It was really hot in the room I was in and I got to open a window! Woo hoo!

Here's some before and after pictures.

Living room before ...

after ...

Breakfast room before ...

after (he's still finishing the woodwork but framed it in quite nicely) ...

I got a new back door, too!

election grammar question

2008-11-07T21:58:00.004-05:00

I was listening to NPR on the way home from class ... more post-election nonsense—I thought the election was over and we wouldn't be subjected to more of this! Anyway, it stirred a question within me.

Is it really correct to say that someone won an election? Rather, wouldn't it be that he won votes?

sovereignty

2008-11-05T23:43:00.003-05:00

Got this question from @richbarrett. Got me thinking. "How would my leadership change if I really believed in the sovereignty of God?"

There's a lot of little (and some big) things at work that press on my heart and mind that keep me from focusing on what God has called me to do. If I really believed in the sovereignty of God, these would be left to Him and I'd be incredibly more effective in leading—specifically in doing the things that matter most—making time for people, encouraging them, supporting the vision of our church and ministry. I wouldn't care when people "interrupt" my work; in fact, that would make my day. And it wouldn't be my ministry at all. I wouldn't need to be in control.

Thanks, Rich.

good news

2008-11-03T21:58:00.004-05:00

Great news to remember this election eve:

1 Clap your hands, all you nations;

shout to God with cries of joy.
2 How awesome is the LORD Most High,
the great King over all the earth!
3 He subdued nations under us,
peoples under our feet.
4 He chose our inheritance for us,
the pride of Jacob, whom He loved.
Selah
5 God has ascended amid shouts of joy,
the LORD amid the sounding of trumpets.
6 Sing praises to God, sing praises;
sing praises to our King, sing praises.
7 For God is the King of all the earth;
sing to Him a psalm of praise.
8 God reigns over the nations;
God is seated on His holy throne.
9 The nobles of the nations assemble
as the people of the God of Abraham,
for the kings of the earth belong to God;
He is greatly exalted.

– Psalm 47

fall fun

2008-10-14T22:06:00.006-05:00

I love fall festivals and the like. Apples, hayrides, corn mazes, pumpkins, fall decorations, etc. So far this fall, I've been able to go to three. I went with my friends to the Mum Fest, where Meredith & I get mums every year, then we went to the Johnny Appleseed Festival. Then last Saturday, my friend Jen went with me to a local horse farm where they have a corn maze, hayride, petting zoo, food, games and more! We had a great time!

Tori, Katie & me at the Johnny Appleseed Festival

at the corn maze

Trying to be tall enough

The goats were cracking us up!

Jen enjoying the farm

starbucks free wi-fi

2008-09-29T20:12:00.003-05:00

This is probably not news to many of you, but did you know that Starbucks now has free wi-fi? And not just for AT&T wireless customers. I'm actually sitting here typing from my local Starbucks! If you have or buy a Starbucks gift card, you have access. You have to use or reload the card once a month and sign up for an account on starbucks.com. If someone gives you a new gift card, you can add it and delete the other when it's out of money. Yeah, thanks Starbucks! Now I can work/study somewhere other than Panera.

how do you TV?

2008-08-27T22:18:00.003-05:00

Live TV is becoming old school now, isn't it? Besides turning on the tube while eating breakfast and watching the Olympics with the mute button on (while streaming something else online), I've hardly watched live TV at all the last few months. I spend most of my viewing time on hulu.com. Right now, I'm enjoying Season 2 of Adam-12. Also, I don't have more than basic cable, and never got to watch Monk until my friend taped (yes, taped) it for me. But now I can see it on hulu or usanetwork.com/monk! I enjoy searching for favorite shows streamed. It's amazing how you can search to no avail one day and a week later find it! Columbo. Star Trek: TNG. Still haven't found M*A*S*H. If you do, let me know.

I also enjoy borrowing free DVDs from the library. Our main library in town has a great DVD selection!

So, how do you TV? Stream online? DVD? DVR? Live TV?

experiential worship

2008-07-06T20:52:00.003-05:00

I just finished reading

Experiential Worship: Encountering God With Heart, Soul, Mind, And Strength by Bob Rognlien

rating: 4 of 5 stars
Very good. It has greatly informed my worship theology and brought new perspective.

Rognlien takes the great commandment to a deeper level. We are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. The highest way we love the Lord is worship. Therefore, we are to worship the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. Heart=volition, soul=emotion, mind=intellect, strength=body. Most church traditions have typically focused on one or two aspects. For instance, Baptists tend to focus on heart, then mind. Episcopalians and Catholics, strength. Presbyterians, mind. Pentecostals, soul. My church tends to focus on mind and volition. I think we're a bit afraid of strength. Is it possible that the reason our congregations aren't experiencing transformational worship is because we don't have a wholistic view of it? Instead of leaning on one or two aspects, we need to help our people worship with all their being.

waitin' for saddleback

2008-06-23T17:42:00.002-05:00

Our team from the Worship Department departed this morning at 5:30am for the Saddleback Worship Conference in Irvine, CA. We met up with my good friend, Tiph, on the way, and will be meeting former co-worker and friend, Brian, tonight. After arriving at the Orange County John Wayne Airport, we got our rental cars and headed out to find lunch. It was noon here, but 3:00 our time and we were hungry! So we went to the Cheesecake Factory. It was delicious! Now Tiph and I are hanging out in our hotel room waiting to meet up for the conference.

the return of smash volleyball

2008-06-16T22:28:00.003-05:00

I had an incredible time playing "Smash Volleyball" with musician friends tonight! We came to a court that had the promise of freshly-tilled, weedless sand. Instead, we found a huge pile of sand on one side of the court with all of the weeds we remembered from two weeks ago still covering a good portion of the court. So Stephanie ran home and picked up shovels and a rake, and Glen, Cody & Guy spread it out.

We played through the rain, sun, rain-and-sun combination, rainbows, the smacking of the forearms from the wet, sandy ball, and smack-talking competition. About two-thirds of the way through the evening, half of our players had deserted, but Rob, Marie, Bonnie, Maureen, Glen and I played some serious 3-on-3 v-ball. By that time, we really didn't care that it was raining because we were soaked and sandy. And then the sun came back out and it was beautiful anyway. It was a blast!

As soon as I get some pictures from the evening, I'll post 'em.

the robin solution

2008-06-15T21:54:00.005-05:00

Found out that the reason I've been confused about the robins is that they aren't robins at all! Yesterday my parents, who are here for the weekend, and I were watching the nest and saw the mama bird fly out of it. Not sure exactly what she is, but she's definitely not a robin. So, I think when the robins flew the coop, a new bird took over the nest and had new babies.

the robins are confusing me

2008-06-06T16:12:00.006-05:00

Update on my last post ...

I really thought that my babies had up and left. The nest would be empty for a day or so, then one would sleep there. But they've been building an addition. And yesterday I heard very young tweeting. I took my camera and found that there are three teeny babies in there.

I don't get it ... maybe they had two litters (or whatever they're called for birds)?

The babies as of a few weeks ago

I thought these were the babies

Here's yesterday's video:

my friendly neighborhood robin (okay, not so friendly)

2008-05-11T19:40:00.005-05:00

A local robin decided that she liked my porch for her eggs.

4 eggs! I think only 3 survived. Amazing how they look nothing like their mother.

Hungry baby.

Mama watches her babies.

my day as an IT "guy"

2008-04-12T21:51:00.004-05:00

I'm not really an expert when it comes to the tech support side of things, but, alas, I can at least install a new OS, set up the computer and install anti-spyware.

11:15am. Left for my friends' house to try to fix their computer filled with spyware.
11:20. She asked me to stop by Wal-Mart to pick up some CD-Rs to back up her files.
12:20. Finally got to her house. She starting backing up files.
1:15. Tried to back up the video file she really wanted to save. Too big for the CD.
1:30. Started reinstalling Windows XP.
2:00. Continued reinstalling Windows XP.
2:15. Continued reinstalling Windows XP.
2:30. Reinstall finished.
2:45. Finished eating lunch.
3:00. Downloaded and installed Firefox. Installed the add-on parental control ProCon.
3:10. Downloaded and installed ZoneAlarm (firewall).
3:30. Ran Windows update. Tried to install Service Pack 3 four different times to no avail. Still can't figure out why.
Downloaded and installed AVG (antivirus), Adaware, Spybot Search & Destroy (antispyware).
4:00. Set up AT&T email account on Outlook Express. Tried to set up Yahoo email account. Discovered that they cannot use a mail client.
4:30. Downloaded and installed iTunes. No sound.
5:00. Realized there was a reason for the driver installation disk. Ran it.
5:30. Sound on. Set up equalizer. Recommended buying new inexpensive speakers with subwoofer.
6:00. Finally finished.

I'm glad this isn't my day job!

i joined twitter

2008-04-08T19:39:00.003-05:00

I've gone to twitter.com at least twice before and left without joining, mostly because it's yet another thing to update. Today I was listening to Leo Laporte's radio show, The Tech Guy. He was talking to a caller whom he follows on twitter. I finally decided to join not because I think anyone will follow me, but because I can keep updated on what's new in the tech world by following guys like leolaporte and acomputerpro. Oh, and of course, brianmegilligan. But if you'd like to follow me, please do! I'm sunnyside1204. I'll try to update it more than this blog. :0)
Hope to see you there!

race #1

2008-03-29T20:28:00.002-05:00

I made it a goal this year to run in four races, which is one more than I did last year. I'd also like to do my first bike race if I can.

My friend Erica sent me an email on Tuesday about a 5K race and asked if I wanted to run with her. When was the race? Saturday. You want me to run 3 miles by Saturday?! I've only run outside a couple of times this winter. Mind you, I'm far from a hard-core winter runner. Well, we ran around the church trail 2 1/2 times Wednesday evening—that's 3.1 miles. And we made it!

So today I completed my first race of the season and at almost exactly 10-minute miles. The official time was 31:21:30. For my first race with hardly any prep, I'll take it.

seven credits are better than three

2008-03-05T22:47:00.002-05:00

So, I decided to take another class this semester—New Testament Survey. This is my first time taking two seminary courses in one semester. But it's the right thing to do. Almost all of the work for my counseling class is due next Thursday, and NT doesn't start until that weekend. Counseling will be over before the second weekend of NT. This was a good lesson in thinking ahead instead of for today. Do I want to take a second class? Not really. But in two years, when it's offered again, I'll be really glad I did. So, here goes ...

beautiful sunrise

2008-02-10T17:30:00.000-05:00

I can't forget to add this—probably the most beautiful sunrise I have ever seen was on the beach in Pass Christian, MS. Yes, I got up to see it. Just once.

more katrina pics

2008-02-10T16:22:00.000-05:00

The choir volunteers in front of the tool trailer the choir purchased.

Me spreading mud—trying to even out the dirt under the house. Some of the houses just plain needed more dirt!

Becky installing bi-fold doors.

John & Tim installing a floor.

Here's the landscaping we did in front of Emmanuel Baptist Church.

The choir at Emmanuel Baptist Church was a woman named Keisha and her three children. Her other son played the drums.

Tom gets the keys to his new house and unlocks the door. What a moment!

Connie opens her new house.

Extreme Makeover: Chapel Edition

katrina relief trip

2008-02-03T19:34:00.000-05:00

This week I'm down in Pass Christian, MS, with 12 other people from our church choir doing Katrina relief work. Today we sang a couple of songs at Mt. Zion United Methodist Church. Then this afternoon, we went to a Mardi Gras parade and right now are enjoying a Super Bowl party. We will be working tomorrow!

Singing the prelude at church

me and Bob with clowns

Cindy, Sheri & me waiting for the parade to begin so we can get some beads

parade floats

Jetsons float

Dennis & Steve got some beads

At the parade waiting (it took over an hour for the parade to get to us)

team picture

digg this!

2008-01-31T21:43:00.000-05:00

This is the fastest a story I submitted on digg.com ever had a second person digg it.

If you're at all interested in the new Star Trek movie, click now and digg this, please!

Even if you're not, do it anyway. If you don't have a digg.com account, it's a lot of fun.

os x dock time lapse

2008-01-05T20:57:00.000-05:00

Here's my first attempt at time lapse photography using my new digital camera. What better subject for a first try than an iBook dock?

happy 2008

2008-01-01T01:28:00.000-05:00

Here we are. Crazy. It's 2008. I used to dread the new year. Probably because I don't like change very much. I didn't like having to write a different year. I didn't want to be older (yeah, even as a kid). But I think I'm used to 2008. I've been typing it for a few weeks now. We've already planned worship services through the end of January. Of course the new 2008 cars have been out for months. I might also not mind as much because I don't work with little kids anymore. When I did, I realized how old they were getting and how soon they'd be in the next grade. Since I don't see lots of kids on a weekly basis, this doesn't bother me as much. Except Katie who will be 11 next week!

Plus, I'm looking forward to going to Amish country in 3 weeks. It's one of the most relaxing, albeit short, vacations I get to take every year. We (my family & friends) have been doing it for probably 15 years. And it had to be 2008 before we could go again! So welcome, 2008.

I'm sure I'll write 2007 on accident the first time I write a check.

merry Christmas eve

2007-12-24T21:32:00.000-05:00

The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son and will call him "Immanuel"—which means, "God with us."

– Matthew 1:23

Star Trek meets Monty Python

2007-12-21T22:31:00.001-05:00

Original Star Trek scenes to "Knights of the Round Table." Very funny. I especially enjoyed Chekov dancing.

read more | digg story

the means of grace

2007-11-13T23:37:00.000-05:00

Here's a paper I just finished for Theology class on the Means of Grace. It was actually a very interesting topic and I learned a lot and actually came up with some conclusions! Many times in seminary classes, I find myself just asking more questions instead of coming to conclusions, so this was kind of refreshing. It's a good topic for worship because of all of the interaction with the topics of baptism and the Lord's Supper. Also a good study for discipleship. The term "means of grace" isn't something we use much in evangelical circles, so it was good to research it and discover.

I'd love to hear your interaction and thoughts!

Means of Grace paper
Sorry, Safari users (including me!). You'll have to use Firefox or something else. Google Docs doesn't work with Safari yet.

P.S. – Panera is a great place to write papers. Free wi-fi and a fireplace!

hugging banned

2007-11-08T18:18:00.000-05:00

Crazy or not? You decide.

Oak Park School bans hugging.

almost done

2007-10-27T19:50:00.000-05:00

Earlier this summer, my neighborhood experienced a devastating hailstorm. And I am thankful! Because of it, I got a new roof, siding and gutters. Still waiting on the gutters and the shutters they're throwing in, but my house looks great! My favorite feature is the porch. They removed the ugly railings on the porch and wrapped the posts.

Before:

After:

a little bit of france

2007-10-05T22:55:00.000-05:00

It's about time I post something from my France trip. It was great! Lydia, Monica & I flew into Paris and took the TGV (train) to Macon, a city of about 45,000. We stayed at the Chateau de Saint Albain. The castle is magnificent and the grounds are beautiful. Here's a little tour of the chateau.

indians 12, yankees 3

2007-10-04T21:22:00.000-05:00

'Nuf said.

ooh la la

2007-09-12T21:29:00.000-05:00

Je suis aller en de la France a deux les jours!

winona lake vacation

2007-08-09T20:41:00.000-05:00

I had a great time in Winona Lake last week. Skiing, swimming, relaxing, seeing friends. It was wonderful.

First, there's my friends' adorable kids.

Tiph and her son, Reagan

Reagan in his Johnny Jumper. He's quite the cutie. And always laughing.

This is Caroline's son, Caleb. He just turned two. He's talking like crazy.

Caroline, Sarah Ashton and I went biking on the new trail.

Caroline & I went to visit Monica on Thursday.

Ah, Winona Lake. Here's Ryan Goebel skiing.

While we were skiing, this hot air balloon launched over the lake.

On Saturday, Tiph, Chris, Reagan & I went to a ski show. It was the first one I've ever been to.

word of the day

2007-08-07T20:36:00.000-05:00

floccinaucinihilipilification – the action or habit of estimating something as worthless (the word is used chiefly as a curiosity).

origin mid 18th century, from Latin flocci nauci nihili pili ("at little value")

The Latin elements were listed in a well-known rule of the Latin Grammar used at Eton College, an English public school.

50 states quiz (thanks, Megilligan)

2007-08-03T21:21:00.000-05:00

2m 12s

Click here to try the quiz.

romans 8:28

2007-07-26T21:38:00.000-05:00

A very misunderstood verse. And most often taken out of context. "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose."

What is the good? The next verse tells us: being conformed to the likeness of God's Son—becoming more like Christ. It's like James' description in the first chapter of his book: "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." And earlier in Romans, chapter 5 to be specific, Paul says that we rejoice in our sufferings because they produce perseverance, which produces character, which leads to hope.

This is much bigger and ultimately, much better than "good" just being good things we want to happen. This is much more comforting than being told that the loss of a loved one or the loss of a job is hey, all going to work out "for the best." Romans 8:29ff comforts us in our grave situation of the hope and shelter we have in Christ—He has chosen us, justified us, glorified us, and loves us with an unbridled passion—nothing can separate us from His love, nothing that happens to us or comes against us, not even death. And before the famous, misunderstood verse comes the assurance that even though, through our weakness, we don't know how to pray, the Holy Spirit intercedes for us!

What a great verse this truly is!

worship quote

2007-07-24T22:18:00.000-05:00

"Worship is the submission of all our nature to God. It is the quickening of conscience by His holiness; the nourishment of mind with His truth; the purifying of imagination by His beauty; the opening of the heart to His love; the surrender of will to His purpose—and all of this gathered up in adoration, the most selfless emotion of which our nature is capable and therefore the chief remedy for that self-centeredness which is our original sin and the source of all actual sin."
– William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury (1942-1944), from Readings in St. John's Gospel

france, ahoy!

2007-07-16T22:33:00.000-05:00

I'm going to France! Yesterday I purchased my plane tickets, so it's official. I will be traveling with my friends Monica and Lydia to Paris and Macon. We have some friends who live in both cities. In Macon, we'll be staying at Le Chateau de Saint Albain. Pretty cool. We leave September 14 for 10 days. I can't wait!

update

2007-07-01T22:20:00.000-05:00

I promised I'd let you know what happened with the drive-in. I didn't go. Maybe next time.

However, this weekend I did run in a 5K race on a kind of spur of the moment whim. I had originally planned to run it, but then Friday night decided against it. I was too tired and didn't want to get up that early to run. Then the unthinkable happened—I awoke at 6:40am! So, I figured, what the hey. It was the hardest 3.1 miles I've ever run. In the grass and up and down hills. It was crazy, but I finished and didn't walk any of it!

drive-in theater

2007-06-24T14:40:00.001-05:00

Hmm ... I was thinking I might do something a little crazy tonight and go to a drive-in theater. The theater part isn't what's crazy. The crazy part is staying up until 1:30 or 2:00 on a work night to see a double feature. Don't know if I'll make it through. I'm getting so old.

One theater is showing Shrek III and Pirates III. (They should throw in Spiderman III to complete this trilogy theme.)

Another theater is showing Evan Almighty and Surfs Up. If I go to that one, I'd probably be home by midnight.

Well, it sounds fun, but I'll have to find someone to go with. It's $16 per car. I'll let you know how it turns out because I'm certain you're waiting with baited breath.

i forgot i was tagged

2007-05-31T23:34:00.000-05:00

I was just reading Lydia's blog about how she had been tagged to write 8 (eight) things we may not know about her when I remembered that I, too, had been tagged and forgot all about it.

So sorry, Marlise, and thanks for tagging me. It makes me feel special even though you'd never know since I neglected to respond.

1 (one) I, too, love to travel. My only overseas trip so far was to Chiang Mai, Thailand on a missions trip. It's a delightful country with deep heritage and culture and beautiful people.

2 (two) My first car was a 1997 Dodge Neon named after Lucy in While You Were Sleeping.

3 (three) Hobbies/things I enjoy: gardening, biking (bicycle, not motorcycle), graphic design, scrapbooking, jumping on trampolines, watching episodes of Monk, Law & Order: CI, MASH, Star Trek: TNG (see #6), Dragnet and Family Ties (which has finally come out on DVD), hanging out with friends, and decorating

4 (four) Even though I used to despise running, I've now run a 5K in a marathon twice and a 5-mile race our church puts on each Labor Day.

5 (five) I love hobbits, elves named Legolas Greenleaf, and three orphans named Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire.

6 (six) I'm an avid Star Trek: The Next Generation fan. (Okay, you probably knew that.)

7 (seven) I love studying theology.

8 (eight) I had a half-hour radio show for a few years in high school.

thought for the day

2007-05-15T12:16:00.000-05:00

Today, in a series of "things that make me go 'hmmm,'" one of our pastors made this statement and it made me go "hmmm."

"We who believe most vehemently that God created this world care the least about taking care of it."

What do you think?

beautiful day

2007-05-06T16:15:00.000-05:00

Picture perfect. I had to go to the store about 20 minutes South of me (on the freeway). I took the long way home. It's 63 degrees, the sun is shining, the sky is blue and cloudless. The trees are rustling in the breeze because they almost all have their foliage now, and those that don't are pink and white with blossoms. I listened to Watermark while driving. Christy Nockels has the perfect driving-in-the-country-on-a-sunny-day-with-the-windows-down voice. And unexpectedly, through the lyrics of two songs, God reached down and grabbed me.

First, it was this:

Incorruptible indescribable
Salvation's calling when I was longing
You're the strength that holds my life
With a love that will never die
And never fade like the flowers
It is a love that stands forever

Oh I am not redeemed by corruptible things
Not by silver not by gold
Not by aimless tradition
But by the blood of God's sacred Son
Jesus
You alone are my living hope
And my inheritance is incorruptible

Incomparable inconceivable
Your plans for me shall always be
And for the day that You're revealed
My heart is forever sealed
With the promise of mercy
And the hope of all Your glory

Oh sacred Son who paid the price
Oh may I live a grateful life
That magnifies Your name forever

And then this wrecked me:

Living water swallow me
Deepest river wash me clean
Jesus, Savior more of Thee
Jesus, more of Thee
Come and ruin me with Your love
So no other is enough
Come and leave Your mark on me
Jesus, more of Thee
Jesus, more of Thee

Jesus, give me more of Thee!

So, if you saw a girl driving with her knees with both hands in the air, it could have been me. Don't worry, I've got the right car for knee driving. And my eyes were still open.

purpose of prophecy

2007-04-17T22:06:00.000-05:00

In reading Isaiah today, I came across this verse:

"Therefore I told you these things long ago; before they happened I announced them to you so that you could not say, 'My idols did them; my wooden image and metal god ordained them'" (Isaiah 48:5).

I think this is so cool! God's ways and purposes are so amazing and transcend anything we would ever think of. According to this passage, God revealed certain happenings to His people before they occurred for the express purpose that they would know that it was He who did it, not their idols. He made it known before it happened; He performed it. Idols made of wood and stone could not take the credit.

happy easter

2007-04-08T20:37:00.000-05:00

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?" John 11:25-26

"God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ." Acts 2:36

He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. Romans 4:25

We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. Romans 6:4

Praise be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!

He is risen.
He is risen indeed.
Alleluia!

super mario brothers theme song

2007-03-05T23:05:00.001-05:00

The Super Mario Brothers theme song is famous world-over and has been played on thousands of different instruments. Here are videos of fifteen different instruments. My favorites include "Beat Boxing Flute," "Hand Fart," "A cappella," "Two Guitars," "11-stringed Bass Guitar," and "Blindfolded Pianist" (a full version of this is available at youtube).

read more | digg story

isaiah 9:6 reflection

2007-02-26T19:10:00.000-05:00

"And his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."

I was initially exposed last year to the idea of Isaiah 9:6 as a synopsis of the ideal qualities of the Davidic dynasty and not primarily a reference to Christ, and I am finally understanding what this means. The passage was a pattern, an expectation of the Davidic kings, but no one met it. The people would have heard what Isaiah said and looked at King Ahaz to see if he would fulfill it. He failed at the first one. Hezekiah? Closer, but not quite. Zedekiah? Definitely not. But then—wait. Jesus. Matthew and the other apostles watched Him with baited breath. Wonderful Counselor? The wisdom He spoke with had to come from above. Mighty God? He healed the sick and forgave sins. Everlasting Father? He protected women, cared for children, and provided food for 15,000 people! Prince of Peace? His death brought salvation and peace with God. And the apostles believed that He will bring ultimate peace over the whole earth when He returns.

I realize that I have read the Bible referentially most of my life (immediately linking a passage with a future person or event), but it is becoming easier to approach Isaiah from a literary perspective and to understand the author’s original intent. I am sure that this will be a continued theme for me for many years. I am starting to see the patterning of Isaiah 9:6 in other passages. Some of these tell how the LORD or His messenger exemplify these (Isaiah 11), while some show how other rulers have failed to meet them (Isaiah 9:13 – 10:2).

I think what strikes me the most is that as a church leader, these same qualities should be true of my character.

Am I a “wonderful counselor”—do I make wise decisions and give advice from a framework of wisdom?

“Mighty God”—how do I use power? I can think of three specific avenues:
1) The power (authority, influence) of my position as a leader:
Do I use this power to love and help the people entrusted to me in their relationship with Christ or for my own selfish gain and notoriety?
2) The power and resources to help those less fortunate
3) The power (strength, might) of the Holy Spirit:
Am I relying on His power in all of these areas, or my own strength?
All three of these make me think of the example I am to others—my character in each of these areas affects the people in my sphere of influence. This is an overwhelming prospect which I do not take lightly but too often forget.

“Everlasting Father”—I am not a man and in that sense will never be a father, but there are qualities of a father that should be true of me—comforter, encourager, and protector and provider (which can be exemplified by generosity).

“Prince of Peace”—am I a peacemaker (Romans 12:16-18)? Do I seek the unity of the Spirit or cause petty arguments with my fellow workers? Do I complain and grumble? Am I vindictive? How do I relate with staff from other churches? (We're all in this kingdom thing together.)

prototype 3-d interactive desktop

2007-02-15T23:04:00.000-05:00

"Bumptop." This is sweet. Sign me up! It's about having a desktop that truly reflects how we organize (not organize) stuff on our real desks. I especially like the "crumple" effect for the intermediary step when I have an icon on my desktop I'm almost ready to delete. And then there's the whole idea of using a pen instead of a mouse. The downside to this system is that I don't have a messy desktop that needs organized. But it sure looks cool!

1980s mcdonald's commercial

2007-02-02T14:48:00.000-05:00

Remember this piano recital? It certainly brought the popularity of Fur Elise up a couple of octaves.

parable of the shrewd manager

2007-02-02T00:29:00.000-05:00

Luke 16:1-15

This is one of the most difficult parables in Luke and one that I've wrestled with. What exactly does it mean?

In this parable, Jesus says that a steward was given the pink slip by his master because he was wasting the master's possessions. The steward, not having any other marketable skills, cuts the bills of his master's debtors by 50 and 20 percent, so that they will think highly of him and help him when he is fired. The master praises the "dishonest" steward for his shrewdness.

There are three views on what the steward did. At face value, the first view always seemed like what happened, but Jesus' application never made sense to me because of it.
1) Traditional – the steward undercut the master (thus, the master calls him dishonest, but also "shrewd"—in this case, using worldly wisdom)
2) The steward removed the interest charge
3) The steward removed his own commission

Any of these three would have made both the steward and the master look good, and so the shrewdness of the steward is seen.

The pros of #3 include:
a) The master would have commended him #3, but I have a hard time seeing why he would commend him for cheating him (#1)
b) The wisdom of #3 lines up more closely with the Greek word for "shrewd" (wise or prudent) than does the worldly wisdom of #1
c) #3 makes "dishonest" in v.8 refer to v.1 (wasting the master's possessions), not to what the steward did in v.5-7
d) From the IVP Commentary: "The steward has sacrificed what he could have taken now and has given it to others so that he can receive gain later." The steward sacrifices nothing in #1-2.

I believe letter d jives the most with the point Jesus is making: be generous and wise with your money (included here is sacrificial generosity). Think through what you do with it. Help people. Here on earth, you will make friends for yourself. But this is also an eternal perspective. This is loving God, not money. If you can be trusted with little, you will be trusted with much, but if you can't be trusted with this world's wealth, you won't be trusted with true riches—kingdom service—serving God and others. This also shows the high honor of serving God.

This passage finally makes sense to me! Now I just want to know what v.18 is doing in this context.

more thoughts on isaiah 1:16-17

2007-01-27T12:02:00.001-05:00

In the last few years God has been raising my awareness of the poor and needy and showing me the theology of the poor in Scripture. While that is continuing, God is now calling me to do something. Positively, I am beginning to think of ways to live generously and instead of a generous deed here or there. However, I still need to learn how to prevent making a mental list and checking it off, as if one generous deed holds me for a while. What I am doing is motivated out of love for God and a desire to respond to Him and to live a holy life, but I still have a tendency to mentally check things off. I want to get past that and just respond to God every time He nudges me, without thinking that I am somehow “okay” if I do this. Realizing that “justice” in Isaiah 1:17 is more than just social justice, but following the will of God, is helping me to grasp the holistic nature of the theology of the poor. It is about a lifestyle of generosity, not a list of good deeds.

isaiah 1:16-17

2007-01-25T21:51:00.000-05:00

"Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight! Stop doing wrong, learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow."

This verse is in the context of a chapter in which Yahweh, through Isaiah the prophet, tells the people of Judah that He is sick to death of their meaningless, obligatory religion. Does God hate the rituals He Himself had prescribed? No, it is because the people do their religious activities but neglect what in the New Testament Jesus called "the more important matters of the law" (Matthwe 23:23). It's as if God is saying, "I can't stand your worship. Stop singing, stop praying. Yuck. I can't take it any more. Just do what's right." He even calls them murderers, rebels and thieves (Isaiah 1:21,23).

In verses 16-17, God calls His people to do three major things1:
1. Purify themselves (make clean)
2. Reorder their lives (stop doing wrong, learn to do right, and seek justice)
3. Transform society (put right2 the oppressor, defend the needy).

I want to look closely at the phrase, "Seek justice." I find it fascinating that it is included in the second category, not the third. However, the word justice is much more than social justice. In his book, The Prophecy of Isaiah, J. Alec Motyer says: "The underlying verb of justice (mispat) is vsapat meaning 'to judge, come to a decision, determine authoritatively what is right'. Mispat is often therefore used, as here, to express the sum total of what the Lord has adjudged to be right, in a word, the will of God (cf. Rom 12:2)."1

In other words, Isaiah is saying, "Stop doing wrong, learn to do right! Seek the will of God." God's will is not some nebulus entity which we must pray to discern and that tells us which job to take or person to marry; it is whatever God has called right. Living according to His Word.

Subsequently, Isaiah gives us some specific ways to live rightly: transforming society by helping the oppressed and needy and rebuking the oppressor.

Thoughts?

1Motyer 47. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1993.
2NIV renders this "encourage the oppressed," but the NIV text note says "rebuke the oppressor," and Motyer states that though the noun for "oppressor" can be rendered "oppressed," this destroys the contrast "between the two ends of imperfect society, the oppressor and the needy, the one inflicting and the other suffering the hurt (Ibid.)".

how rich are you?

2007-01-24T09:59:00.000-05:00

http://www.globalrichlist.com/

happy day

2007-01-14T18:16:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Happy day before! That's for you, Rob!

I'm on a little vacation in Amish Country. My family and our family friends have gone on this vacation for years—probably since I was 14. It's really relaxing. We eat really good food and play games.

I'm looking forward to this little vacation.

merry christmas!

2006-12-25T08:38:00.000-05:00

The people walking in darkness
have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of the shadow of death
a light has dawned.

You have enlarged the nation
and increased their joy;
they rejoice before you
as people rejoice at the harvest,
as men rejoice
when dividing the plunder.

For as in the day of Midian's defeat,
you have shattered
the yoke that burdens them,
the bar across their shoulders,
the rod of their oppressor.

Every warrior's boot used in battle
and every garment rolled in blood
will be destined for burning,
will be fuel for the fire.

For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Of the increase of his government and peace
there will be no end.
He will reign on David's throne
and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
with justice and righteousness
from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the LORD Almighty
will accomplish this.

Isaiah 9:2-7

iTunes visualizer

2006-12-23T11:11:00.000-05:00

Want to download a cool iTunes visualizer, but you have a PC? Check out G-Force— it works on both platforms, with multiple media players, and auxiliary line-in media!

musical bike

2006-12-15T23:46:00.000-05:00

This is interesting ... it's Tchaikovsky's "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" played on bicycle parts. And it's a little like watching animusic.

http://www.specialized.com/bc/microsite/holiday/index.html

Info about the composition.

merry christmas

2006-12-13T17:04:00.000-05:00