Death and Life all in one week.

This morning I went to the park to be alone and pray. I have to go the park on weeks when I feel my body telling me that it’s time to retreat for a while and clear my head. I have had a very busy few months, with a full range of emotional roller coasters. One of my best friends moves away to pursue a ministry opportunity, church stuff, this week a death of a close friend and the birth of a new nephew. wow!

On Tuesday I received a phone call informing me that Brent, a good friend had passed away. My heart began to sink and I’ve got to tell you that I was very upset and angry with God. I mean Brent had been coming to thursdays (a young adult group that I lead at Northgate) for about two and a half years. We had many conversations where we would cry together, laugh together and wrestle with God together. I cannot believe that God would do this. I loved Brent and wanted to see him well. I was shocked. Brent was sick, but I totally believed that God was going to heal and restore him into a person that would live a long, productive life. What happened?

This really shook me.

Then last night around 4:30am my wife and I got a call from Ethan (my brother in law) telling us that our new nephew had been born! We were so excited at the thought that we are going to be an aunt and uncle again! What an exciting thing to happen to our family. God has really blessed us this week. I love my family, even the new little one that I haven’t met yet.

So sitting at the park this morning I was just reflecting on all of this and realized that I have experienced the opposite spectrum’s of human life. Death and life all in one week. Two people that I love, one now absent, and one newly present. How often does that happen? Well I think more often than we think.

I was reading this morning in 1 John 3, “Let us practice loving each other, for love comes from God and those who are loving and kind show that they are the children of God, and that they are getting to know him better…For though we have never yet seen God, when we love each other God lives in us and his love within us grows even stronger.” God does call us to love people and love them well. And this can be difficult because love means taring a part of our heart and giving it to someone else. It means that we care so deeply for this other person that Christ has made. Then that person moves away, losses touch or dies taking that piece or your heart that was such a sacrifice in the first place for you to part with. But nevertheless we as Christians are compelled to freely give what we have freely received…love.

As I was meditating on my week and this passage of scripture something hit me, when God removes one love, he brings another. And by saying that I don’t mean replaces, but calls us to remember. Their is this constant cycle of shifting love. When Brent died this week a piece of my heart went with him, and now I have a new little nephew that I am compelled to love and poor myself into. And I think that death helps us to remember to love those that come after even more. Because we really are unsure how much time we have to poor our love into a person. Brent will always serve as a Godly reminder that I must love my nephew with all of my heart. Hold nothing back, give myself away willingly and pray that God has everything under control.

Love someone today so that tomorrow you can do it all over again!

The Wonder of a Quieted Soul.

I am the director of worship ministries and Thursdays at Northgate Free Methodist Church in Batavia N.Y. (www.northgatefmc.com). And I love our community. I believe that God has blessed us so much. Every week close to a thousand people attend one of our weekly services, all of them about 60 minutes long, hopefully leaving refreshed and ready to be a light that reflects Christ. That is the goal of every service at Northgate, to facilitate life change. But what goes on the rest of the week?

You know every weekend a minority of people in our cities and towns actually find time in their schedule to come to church. We lead such busy lives that by the time service roles around there are other things pulling for our attention.

Every man, women and child has a story, a life that happens Monday through Saturday. In fact for most people it’s hard to get all the kids up, get them ready and out the door on time, I think that is why my mom always had to put her lipstick on in the car. And then once they get in the car, fight the traffic, look for a parking spot and find their way to a seat what really is at stake? How much does it really matter what takes place in the next hour?

I believe that many people are hungry for truth, peace and self-reflection. We all need a safe place where we can come, relax, put our guards down and be molded further into what God wants us to be. I also believe that that is our job as leaders of this church. To help facilitate those events to take place in every service that happens at Northgate. All in a one-hour service, sixty minutes. Can this all happen? The answer is yes.

I have been reading a book called “An Hour on Sunday” by Nancy Beach. And she says this, “The hour on Sunday matters to me because it matters to God. During that hour, people are forming impressions of a faith community—but they are also forming impressions of God. We have an opportunity either to draw them closer to their heavenly father or push them away… That sixty minutes can be a time of wonder, a time of quiet souls, spark deep emotion, and prompt turning points with eternal significance.”

We must become truly excited and seriously look at what happens in a sixty minute service.

How much time for quiet moments, outside of sleeping, does the average person have in our culture? No much, if any. How can we? We have errands to run, bills to pay, jobs that call us to work long hours, kids to take care of, and the list goes on. So when people walk into church, they rarely arrive expecting to be still, to quiet themselves before God. Most people have not had a chance all week long to experience this peace.
When I was in Toronto a couple of weeks ago with my wife and parents we saw this massive Catholic Cathedral. It was very tall and the architecture was breathtaking. From the outside it looked as though the top of the steeple could touch the sun and stood out with such beauty and elegance.

We decided to go in and take a look around. And when we did it was absolutely beautiful. I immediately grabbed my camera and began snapping pictures to take in this awesome sight. But just then a sense of awe came over me. A sense of wonder at what I was viewing, caused me to stop, and quiet myself before God. God was there; I could feel his presence in the viewing the beauty of this church. So I just sat there in a pew and paused for a moment. I then began to think one of the biggest gifts that our church can give to someone is the opportunity to quiet their souls before God. Nancy Beach says it this way, “In a sixty minute service, we have the magnificent opportunity to give attenders an enormous gift—the gift of slowing down, encountering the presence of God, and wrestling with life’s deeper issues.”

They cannot reach such quiet immediately. I believe it is our jobs as the church to lead people their, and then pray that God will do his work.

Let me close with this quote from author Garrison Keillor, “If you can’t go to church and, for at least a moment, be given transcendence…then I can’t see why anyone should go. Just a brief moment of transcendence causes you to come out of church a changed person.”

The Messiah and His Brothers and Sisters.

Life is such a strange thing sometimes to think about. We were placed here on this earth, created for a purpose. Yet we find that there are times when we struggle to find answers to questions like “why am I here?” or “what should I do with my life?”.

I did not have a say in being born. God and my parents had a meeting about that one. I had no choice, it wasn’t up to me, which leads me to believe that why I live, and what I live for is not really my decision to make. When I gave God my life that meant that my life was well, not mine any more. But we tend to, even as Christians think our life belongs to us. As if we created ourselves, therefore we have the right to do with it as we please.

We need to remember why we were created in the first place and guard ourselves against personal autonomy. Feeling that we can run our own life without restraint. Pretending that we control what we do with “our” lives.

God desires to be intimately connected with each and everyone of us. God wants to reconnect with his creation again. We live in a world of disconnect. Things are no longer about the community at large but more focused now on the individual. In fact we find that there is this positive, even heroic emphasis placed upon people who paved their own way to living what we would perceive as a successful, happy and fulfilling life. Being independent from all others…a making it on your own mentality.

I believe that modern technology has contributed to our individualistic thinking. I mean families used to watch t.v. together, now we have multiple t.v.’s in every room so that we can all watch what we want…separated from each other. I was in Toronto the other day and everyone had an ipod jammed in their ear. It used to be that everyone talked to one another in a community. Now we have these music boxes that isolate us from those around us.

What’s my point?

I believe the reason why so many people are unhappy is because they do not know what their divine job is. I love to work because it makes me feel productive, healthy and sane. I feel good about myself when I put in a good day of work. Yet there are still times that I find myself losing sight of why I am alive.

Listen to what the contemporary scholar Ken Boa writes, “We cannot become authentic selves without being embedded in community.”

I am a firm believer that we live life for each other. To help one another, to experience life stories together. God has placed us here to look after one another. To be brothers and sisters, a family like love for one another. We all have a responsibility to care for each other.

So next time you are not really sure what you are supposed to do with your life, remember that first it’s not yours, it’s Gods and you are meant to give your life away to others.

Why in the world do we sing?

I am sitting here this morning working on future service planning. This is the time of the week that I sit in front of my computer and stare at a blank screen for about an hour and wonder what am I going to sing for such and such a week. I know that I am supposed to spend time in prayer when putting together a list for a particular weekend, and I do, but often times I find myself thinking about what other people will think about this song or that. If I sing that song, this person would be happy. At the same time I can picture in my mind a few people who will just stand there, with there arms folded wondering when I am going to be fired. That is of course I play “their” song and then they are appeased.

I think that sometimes we give a person the title, but that doesn’t always mean that that person will have the freedom to complete the calling that brought him or her into ministry in the first place. The community will often express their opinions whether you want to hear them or not. This is what causes me to doubt my own abilities in what I know that God has called me to do. Thus the hour stare.

Nevertheless I need to remember a few things.

Why do we sing?

There is something about a group of people singing together. It’s a little strange. It really is. Unless you are at a concert, baseball game or birthday party you generally will not find a group of people singing together. But why do we, as a church, sing? Well first of all it is part of our history and tradition. From King David to Martin Luther to Fanny Crosby, men and women have expressed their thoughts, whether in times of distress or joy through the power of music. Music seems to tap into a deeper part of our being that words alone could never express. In Psalms 21:13 David writes, “We will write songs to celebrate your mighty acts”. It has been said that music is the language of the soul. I believe that to be true.

I also believe that here at Northgate that it is my job and calling to lead the church in the act of worship. I strive to play my instruments and sing in such a way that does not distract anyone from connecting with God. Every worship song we sing is meant to bring honor and glory to Christ. And although I am concerned with the quality and style of the music I also want to make sure that my life is a worship to God. I want to be a person that leads the church in living what I sing.

I want to listen to God and sing for Him not people.

what happened…reconnection

yesterday we had over 160 people get baptized at Northgate (where i serve as director of worship)!  i was absolutely amazed by what was happening when it began to unfold.  we had only slotted 3 people to get baptized and ended with over a 160.

what happened?

i left the church services yesterday with hope in my heart because i got to see first hand people get connected or reconnected again with Christ.  from the beginning of time God wanted to be connected with his creation.  he longs to have an intimate relationship with every creation on earth.  but when adam and eve sinned the plan went south.  the created chooses another path and thus becomes disconnected from the creator.

so now we live in a world of disconnect.

Rob Bell in his new book “Sex God” says this, “We were born into a world, into a condition, of disconnection.  things were created to be a certain way,

and they’re not that way,

and we feel it in every fiber of our being…and so from an early age we have this awareness of the state of disconnection we were born into, and we have a longing to reconnect.”

so what happened yesterday? reconnection at it’s best.

people who have felt unconnected from Christ were reconnected again.  a community of believers were all connected together again in a  special way.  it was unreal.  Jesus came to earth to become reconnected in a new way with his creation, and i believe that i saw that first hand yesterday…and i am blessed.