There and Back Again

I’ve sat and stared at an empty computer screen for a few minutes as I try to decide exactly what to post first. There are so many places that we need to go. What will the worship gathering look like? What will be involved in getting it organized? Who’s going to be on the leadership team? What will we call it? Who’s going to do what? All good questions. But before we tackle those questions, there are a few very important things to remember as we plan and get ready.

To prepare myself for the journey ahead, I finished reading Emerging Worship by Dan Kimball. He pointed out a few things that I think are good to keep in mind.

First, in a worship gathering, we create a place where we can express love, devotion, adoration, and praise to God (4). Whatever elements we include, whatever music we play, whatever videos we use, ultimately we are unable to make anyone worship. Our best efforts can only create an atmosphere where worship can occur. But make no mistake that should be our goal every time we gather.

Second, the results of worship produce in us a greater love for God and a greater love for people (11). Hand-in-hand with that is that worship is a lifestyle of being in love with God and in awe of Him all week long (4). At the end of the day if what happens in the Apex on Sundays doesn’t affect how we live our lives on Monday through Saturday it will be a failure regardless of how many people show up.

Tomorrow, I will post some of the names that we have tossed around. We will meet Sunday night. The plan is to meet at 7:00 but we may move it up to 6:30. I’ll let you know.

Peace -- Jamie

It's Not About Me

3:20 AM...It's either really early, or really late depending on your frame of reference.  Well, for those of you who don't know me yet, that is the time that my alarm goes off every morning during the week.  See, I work at The Home Depot stocking shelves and my shift runs from 4 AM to 8 AM.  I usually don't have many coherent thoughts during my morning routine, but today I as I drove to work, with my radio blasting David Crowder singing "The Doxology" (Passion: Hymns Ancient & Modern), I had two thoughts. (1) 11:45 is much better than 3:20 and (2) "Praise God from whom all blessings flow."

Now you may not see many blessings in having to be at work at 4 AM each morning, but for me that is a huge blessing.  A little background on me will help clear this up.  January 2007:  I had just graduated from Seminary and was looking forward to moving to a full-time position at the church I was at in Pasadena, CA.  Lori and I had attended this church the whole time we had lived in Cali (since Fall 2003).  I had also done all of my Internship work at the church (about a year and a half).  But God had other plans.  I was laid-off and all of my plans were shattered.  I started looking for a job and learning a lot about the business side of church.  Lori and I became very discouraged.  But then things started to look up because I got plugged in with a church in Columbia, SC that was looking to improve on its existing "contemporary" service.  I worked part-time for them from California planning services and emailing the sets in each week.  At the end of October I packed up the apartment, said goodbye to Lori and got on a plane for SC to live with my in-laws.  Lori was finishing up her Masters at Southern Cal and I was coming to SC to start my first full-time ministry job after seminary.  But that job only lasted 4 days.

Once again, my plans were shattered but God had other plans for me.  Before long I was eating lunch with a family member who leads worship at a church in Charlotte and he mentioned to me that a church in Rock Hill was looking for a worship leader to help out.  About the same time, a position came open at The Home Depot across the street from my in-laws sub-division.

All along this journey of the past 16 months, God has been telling me "It's not about you...It's about me."  And His blessing have flowed in some amazing ways.  I am really looking forward to all that God is going to do in this 11:45 service.  But we need to remember that even though we are going to do a lot of "work" to get this service up and running, God is ultimately the one who is going to make the service happen.

In the meantime, I'll keep praising God for that 3:20 alarm.

Will

Temporary Home

I always love getting on a bus on a Saturday morning with my backpack, a bottle of Diet Mt Dew, a couple of magazines and a Donald Miller book and heading out to some obscure location for a weeklong mission trip. Let's see, I've been to Brunswick, GA on a few occasions, Myrtle Beach, Miami, Nashville, and the list could go on. That morning is always filled with anticipation and the hope that at the end of the week, I will be exhausted and fulfilled. It was a hope that almost always was met. At the end of that first Saturday, I would unroll my sleeping bag in a corner on some hard floor of some church or gym. Then I would put my suitcase at the foot of the sleeping bag, pull out my alarm clock, my handmade (by my wife and daughters) Peanuts blanket, and my sound machine (yes, a sound machine, set on white noise if you must know) and settle in for an exciting week. By Tuesday, the floor, the roommates, the bugs, the temperature, the distance to the bathroom, the lack of hot showers or some other distraction had me longing for home. And when I would climb back on that same bus just one week later, I was ready, very ready, to sleep in my own bed, eat at a table with my family, and stand in a hot shower that would last way longer than is environmentally responsible. But I would also climb on knowing how important that week had been in my life. On many of those trips, I had built a home for a family or a church, shared a meal with a homeless man, led a child to begin a walk with the Creator of the universe, or given water to a stranger on a hot day. But it was always me who ended up being changed, finding hope, experiencing the love of God. Those temporary homes were important places for me and will always be cherished.

Today, I am getting a new temporary home. Here at eleven forty five at fbc we are setting up a temporary home for the leadership team of the new service that is going to begin in the fall. This will be a place for us to discuss ideas for the gathering, to share our dreams of what God can do, and to encourage one another. Once we get a name established, we will move on to our permanent home.

Will and I will be posting ideas as we discuss them. We will also keep it updated with news of meetings, events, prayer needs and more. I am filled with the same anticipation and hope that filled me when I first hopped on those buses. I know there are gonna be a few Tuesdays along the way where some obstacle will make me want to give up, some difficulty will make me long for the end of the trip, or some 'disaster' will make me question why I'm here. But I make this journey with the confidence that when the bus comes back to get me this temporary home will have inspired us on our journey. It will be a place where we encountered God together and sensed His movement and direction in our lives. It will be a place that I look back on in the same way I look back on Brunswick, Myrtle Beach, Miami, Nashville. In other words, I hope this new, temporary home will be one that we cherish.

Now if you'll pardon me, I have a sleeping bag to unroll and a suitcase to unpack.

-- Peace, Jamie