Postcard from New Orleans, Pt 2

After we finished working on Tuesday, we went to downtown New Orleans. We walked down Canal St and rode the ferry across the Mississippi River. The ferry is free unless you have a car and, well, you don't want me trying to pull the mini-bus onto the ferry. I could begin to see some of our team building relationships and getting to know each other better. Here's our team picture from the ferry. On the walk down to the ferry, there was a street band playing at the corner of Canal and Bourbon and most of the group stopped and listened to the band for a few minutes.

Wednesday we worked a half day. I spent the morning on the floor of a house covering it with brown paper for protection - no AC this time. In the afternoon we spent some time doing some serious shopping in downtown. We also went into St. Louis Cathedral at Jackson Square. The cathedral was pretty big and contained a lot of cool architecture and art work. One of our college students thought that it was neat that the pews all had little footrests. The highlight of Wednesday was supper at Mulates. We rode the trolley from the French market down to Julia St and ate at a very cool cajun restaurant. The food was very good - alligator, crawfish tails, crawfish etouffee, skewered shrimp, or a hamburger (for Andrew Kiel). But the best part was the band that played the whole time we ate and the dancers who took to the floor just in front of our table. There were probably about 6-8 couples who danced for almost an hour. Some were so good they looked like they were gliding around the floor. One of our guys - Mic Anderson - couldn't stand it and asked one of the ladies to give him a spin on the dance floor. Mic earned some beignets at Cafe Du monde for his effort. Soon, we had a few of our group giving the dance floor a shot and providing a good time for those who were too chicken to hit it ourselves. For the record, neither Jimmy Watts nor I made it to the dance floor. We were too busy eating. Most of us (there were three exceptions, you know who you are) finished the night at Cafe Du monde for beignets and cafe au lait. The food was good but the powdered sugar fight was the highlight of the trip. Before we left most of us had quite a bit of sugar in us and on us.

Tuesday night and Wednesday really became a great time of team-building. I have a couple of more stories to share and some reflections about the trip before I completely leave NO in the rear view.

-- Peace, Jamie

Teams

Last night at our meeting, we clarified some of the language for our teams. To help people understand our structure and how we will go about launching the new gathering, here are the teams that we will be using to kick things off.

• Launch Team
  The Launch Team will include everyone who will commit to attending and supporting the 1145 worship gathering @ FBC for the first 18 months. Launch team members will be asked to be a part of one of the 1145 Support Teams (i.e. Parking, Connections, Childcare, Counseling/ Follow-up, and Greeter).
  
• Leadership Team
  The Leadership Team will include the team leader from each 1145 Support Team (i.e. Parking, Connections, Childcare, Counseling/ Follow-up, and Greeter). Each team leader will be responsible for making sure that each aspect of their team is covered each week. The team leaders will also meet on a regular basis with the Young Adult Minister and the 1145 Worship Leader to plan and coordinate all aspects of 1145 @ FBC.
  
• Creative Team
  The Creative Team will consist of the Young Adult Minister, the 1145 Worship Leader, the sound technician, the video technician, the stage manager and the graphic artists. Different members of the Launch Team will also be asked to be a part of and give input to the Creative Team on a semi-regular basis. The Creative Team will develop ideas for creatively communicating the main idea of each 1145 worship gathering.

I've covered the responsibilites of the support teams in an earlier post (see Support Teams). We are still building our Launch Team. Anyone interested in being a part of the Launch Team with questions can email me at jamieb@fbcrockhill.org. Also, our next Launch Team meeting is scheduled for 11:45 am on Sunday, June 29.

-- Peace, Jamie

Postcard from The Big Easy

I didn't get a chance to blog from New Orleans last week because I was usually ready for bed by 11:30 every night. But I thought it would be great to give you a few highlights from the trip.

• New Orleans is a long way from Rock Hill - On Monday, it took us 14 hours to get there. We left RH at 9:00am after waiting around to get an updated sticker for the license plate. The DMV moved at warp speed for us. We pulled in to Celebration Church at 10:00pm (that's 11:00pm RH time). On the way home, we left NO at 7:00am Central time. We pulled in to the FBC parking lot at 10:20pm Eastern time. Granted we did have a little problem with the bus around Biloxi but it's still a looooooong trip.
• Never pass up Zaxby's for Krystal - A couple of our guys decided that going cheap at Krystal's was better than taking advantage of a well-placed Zaxby's. I'm not sure they ever truly recovered from that very bad decision.
• Hanging blinds is good work, if you can get it - On Tuesday, our team set out for our work site. The guys working with us assigned us different tasks - putting down a fake wood floor, putting siding on a house, putting down ceramic tile, digging holes, etc. I told the leaders I would do whatever. Whatever ended up with me hanging blinds in a house that was mostly finished. It was 88 degress outside. Inside where I was hanging blinds - 72 degrees. Yep, that's right. They gave me the tough job of hanging blinds in an air-conditioned house. Let me just say that I did NOT request the inside job. I did not, however, decline the inside job.

I'll post some more about the trip in the next few days. Trust me, the best is yet to come.

-- Peace, Jamie

Team Meeting

We will have a team meeting at 7:30 Wednesday night, May 28 in the Rock. The meeting is for everyone interested in the 1145 service. Part of the meeting will consist of discussing launch plans and the leadership team vs. the launch team.

-- Peace, Jamie

Top 20 Movies for Kids

I get addicted to lists. I'll see a list and want to check it out, compare it to my list, critique it. Entertainment Weekly posts lists all the time. However, they're 'photo gallery lists' which means you have to click through twenty or so pages to get the complete list. Whenever I go there, I always tell myself I'm not clicking through all of those pages but inevitably I do. So to save you from going here and looking at 20 different pages, I did it for you.

Entertainment Weekly's The 20 Best Movies for Kids

• Wizard of Oz – The flying monkeys always scared me as a kid. I read the book in fourth grade and fell in love with it. The movie holds up well seeing that next year it will be 70! years since it was released.
  
• The Parent Trap – They’re talking about the original. I’ve seen it and the Lindsay Lohan remake and actually prefer the remake. But they’re both pretty good movies.
  
• To Kill a Mockingbird – The book is one of the best ever written. I never liked the movie that much and don’t see kids enjoying it a whole lot.
  
• The Sound of Music – My family loves this movie – and by family, I mean, the girls in my family. I laugh at and make fun of the movie constantly when it’s on, which leads to glares from my daughters. It’s usually best for all involved if I leave the room when this one’s playing at my house.
  
• Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory – So much about this movie scared me when I was a kid – the oompa-loompas, the bad eggs, the big, purple girl. I have to admit that I enjoy this version a lot now. If I see it on and flip over to it, chances are I’m gonna be there a while.
  
• Charlotte’s Web – This is the old cartoon version. I loved the book, read it probably 20-25 times in my life. I don’t remember much about the movie except Templeton’s voice was done by Paul Lynde and he made me laugh.
  
• E.T. – Darn, I had forgotten how good this movie is until I saw it recently. WOW! I laughed out loud. I also cried when E.T. died. Man, that is one of the most emotional moments of any movie that I can remember. Plus, Neil Diamond did an incredibly bad song based on the movie. Hearlight, anyone?
  
• Back to the Future – Okay, this is one of my favorite movies of all time. However, I question how much of a kid’s movie it is. It’s more of a teen movie to me. Some of the language I would consider kind of rough for elementary age kids.
  
• Spirited Away – Never saw it.
  
• Little Women – Very good movie. Never read the book.
  
• Babe – A very good movie. It’s funny how much character that pig had, plus James Cromwell was excellent.
  
• Shrek – As bad as the sequels are, this movie is not only very, very good, it also passes the rewatchable test. Funny how a movie that set out to destroy all of the ‘Disney’ clichés ended up playing to every one of them.
  
• The Incredibles – Funny, I didn’t particularly care for this movie the first time I saw it. However, I’ve seen it probably 7,8 times since and it gets better every time I watch it.
  
• Iron Giant – Never saw it.
  
• Star Wars – For the record, this is episode IV (A New Hope). For me, it’s Star Wars. All the others have to have names (Empire, Return, etc), but not this one. This one is my favorite movie of all-time. It came out when I was nine. I fell in love with Princess Leia. I wanted to be Luke Skywalker. I wanted a droid like R2D2. I’m sure the FX are passé and boring now. But in 1977, they were incredible. The story is great. It’s entertaining for kids and yet deep enough for an adult to give it some serious thought. Do I take Star Wars too seriously? Probably.
  
• The Lord of the Rings trilogy – How this movie series made it on to a list for kid’s movies I’ll never know. For the record this series comprises my third favorite movie of all-time. The story is awesome. The movie-making fabulous. But way beyond most ‘kids.’
  
• The Princess Bride – Now THIS is a kid’s movie. I love almost everything about it. And again, it’s in my top 10 favorite movies of all-time. Inconceivable!
  
• The Lion King – The best animated movie of all-time.
  
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban – I prefer Goblet as a movie. Although Prisoner is a better book.
  
• Stand By Me – Saw it a looooong time ago. Don’t remember much about it.
  

Movies that my family likes that aren't on the list include Nanny McPhee, Ever After, Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl, Peter Pan (live action), and National Treasure. I could go on but that's enough for now.

-- Peace, Jamie

New Orleans

It's almost 7AM CDT and we are in the process of packing up the bus and heading back to Rock Hill. To say that a mission trip has been a fantastic experience never truly captures what happened. We did a lot of work on houses in areas that were as rundown as any I've seen. We had the pleasure of working with Crossroads Missions on about five homes that they have built in an area that is downtrodden and in many place falling down. The homes that they have built are for the most part the only bright spots in the area. We laid flooring in some houses. In other houses we put the finishing touches so that they could be sold to first time homeowners in the area.
It was a great week. I'll post more about next week. Right now, I have a 14 hour drive to begin!

-- Peace, Jamie

Clearing the Desk

I had a ritual at some point in my life where I would clear everything off of my desk on Friday before I left my office. Well, it was less of a ritual, more of a good intention. I tried to do it as often as possible but, more often than not, I rushed out of the office to get home and begin my weekend and arrived at my desk on Monday morning to find the same clutter that I had left from the week before. Today, though, I will symbolically clean off the desk of the 1145 gathering before I close up shop on Friday.

• Will and I met for a couple of hours this afternoon. It was good to have Will back and it's great to have Lori back on the east coast for good. Will heads back to Home Depot on Monday morning. Lori will be working in Charlotte and getting ready for a very important test in the fall. Pray for them as they get adjusted to their new apartment.
• In our discussions for naming the new gathering, Reveal is the one name that we kept coming back to. We have a couple of other names that we tossed around this afternoon as well. We will probably have one or two more names that we toss into the discussion at our next Leadership team meeting.
• As discussed earlier, we will be doing four pre-launch gatherings. Will has the theme for the first two-week series and will be meeting with some people who will hopefully be on the creative team to begin going through the creative process. It's exciting to begin getting involved in what's going to be an incredible journey.
• Our next Leadership team meeting will be on Wednesday, May 28 at 7:30 in the Rock.
• On a non-1145 related note, my family played Jenga tonight. If you haven't played Jenga, don't do it unless you like loud crashes and tense moments. We reached the 29th level before yours truly pulled a Jenga-thingy from the bottom row and sent the whole tower crashing to the ground. We decided that a time-lapse video of Jenga would be pretty cool.
• Check out this link. Tony Morgan blogged about the article here. It's a great article that we all need to think about in our journey here at 1145 as well as in our personal and professional lives and our faith journey.
• Don't forget NASCAR All-Star Sunday this week at FBC.

Thanks for your patience this week. I will be in New Orleans next week with our college ministry. Pray for the 24 of us who are going. If I get a chance to post from NO, I will. Does anyone know if the Hard Rock Cafe in NO is open or not? I need an HRC t-shirt for the collection if it is. Have a great weekend. I'll see you on Sunday.

-- Peace, Jamie

Support Teams

The support teams for the worship gathering will be a vital part of the planning process as we get ready to launch. The success of the gathering will depend greatly on people, called by God, serving Him through this gathering. Here are some of the areas that we will need people to serve in:

Parking - People to stand in the parking lot and make sure that people coming to the gathering can find a place to park. They will also be a first touch person, greeting people with a smile and a wave before they ever get out of their car and as soon as they get out of the car.

Greeters - People who will . . . wait for it . . . greet people at the front door with a smile and a helping hand, holding the door open and, once again, welcoming people who are coming to the gathering. Greeters will aslo be at the entrance to the Apex, handing out pens and 'welcome and announcement' cards (we'll be looking for a better name for that).

Connections - People who will set-up and serve at different tables for the gathering. The tables will include a welcome table with information about First Baptist, small groups, etc., a missions table with opportunities to become involved in missions/service locally and globally, a media table with books, CDs, etc. for sale, and a coffee/snack table.

Counseling - People who will be prepared to pray with and answer questions after each gathering is finished. These people will be trained and equipped to meet with people who are searching for the presence of God in their lives.

Follow-Up - People who will be in touch with guests. These people will be responsible for following up with letters, emails, phone calls, etc for people who are new to the gathering.

Creative - People who will work directly with Will to develop the creative aspects of the worship gathering. These people will meet regularly to develop creative (wow, imagine that) ways to communicate the gospel and the themes and topics of any given series.

Of course there are things that aren't mentioned here because we are still developing them (like childcare, taking up the offering, etc.) or because we haven't thought of them yet. Thanks for you patience this week. Let me know what you think of what we've put down so far. It has been a rich and rewarding week putting some of these thoughts and ideas into a more organized form. It makes me even more excited about the possibilities of the new gathering.

-- Peace, Jamie

Pray for Will and Lori and Will's dad. They will be driving back from California in the next few days. Will and Lori will be moving in to their apartment on May 15, at least I think that's the date. Will, let me know if I'm wrong.

What in the world are we doing? Pt 2

Running a little behind. Will and I had a great meeting yesterday. After it was over, we had a pretty good handle on how some of our teams are going to be set up. Look for a post with more info about our teams later on this week. We will be having a creative team meeting once Will and Lori get back from California. Then on May 28, we will have a launch team meeting to finalize plans for the fall.

Following up on yesterday's post about questions that we need to ask, here are three more.

4. Do we experience the joy, love and encouragement of being together as a church? (See Hebrews 10:25 and John 13:34-35)

5. Do we somehow remind everyone of the mission of the church and why we exist? (See Matthew 28:18-20)

6. Do we enable people to individually contribute something as part of the body of Christ? (See 1 Corinthians 12:27 and 14:26)


-- Peace, Jamie

What in the world are we doing?

Getting back to some of the things that I gleaned while I was reading Emerging Worship was making sure we ask the right questions as we plan our gathering. I mean, let's be honest, if we want to get a group of people together to get excited about something, to applaud and maybe even give a shout of encouragement, and to sing some songs, we can host a concert, a football game or some other athletic competition or a play. But there's something very different about a group of Christians gathering to actively worship God. But what makes it different? Great question! Here are some questions that need to be at the forefront of our thinking (hey, forefront, i like that name).

1. Do we lift up the name of Jesus as the centerpiece of why we gathered? (See Revelation 5:6, 13-14, Colossians 3:17, and Philippians 2:9-11)

2. Do we have a time in the Scriptures learning the story of God and man? Do we invite everyone to be part of his story today in Kingdom living? (See 2 Timothy 3:14 - 4:4)

3. Do we pray together and have enough time to slow down and quiet our hearts to hear God's voice and yield to his Spirit? (See Acts 1:14 and John 4:23-24)

There are more but I'll save those for tomorrow. For now, let's get excited about what God is able to do in our lives and about the plans that He has for us in our journey together at First Baptist Church.

-- Peace, Jamie

Meeting Tomorrow

Will and I are getting together tomorrow to do some planning. Pray for us as do, that God will give us wisdom as we meet, that we will know what questions we need to be asking, that we will be prepared for the unexpected. Also, be praying for people to be called to be a part of our leadership team.

Also, I am working on a description of some of the needs we will have for the gathering. Look for a post about that tomorrow or Wednesday.

-- Peace, Jamie

Asking the Question "Why?"

My ultimate goal in the planning/programming for this worship service is to ask (and be able to answer) the question "Why?" for every element, song, movie, etc. that we use. This is important to me because questions may arise as we begin to push the boundaries of what is currently normal for worship at FBC. But if we (as a team) have already been able to answer the questions of "Why?", then we will be ready to explain the reasoning behind the element. Some of those "Why?" questions could be:

Why would we use this ______ at all?
Why would we use this ______ at this point in the service?
Why would we use this ______ in this way?

It is my hope that we would be able to think theologically (as well as aesthetically) through these questions and ultimately avoid the dreaded "Because we've always done it this way" answer.

Will

New Music?

As we begin to select and work with the band, I wanted to give everyone a list of some of the songs that we will be working on for the new service. As a worship leader It is really exciting and encouraging when the congregation is engaged in worship and singing out to their Creator with confidence. But it can be very uncomfortable for the worship leader and the congregation when a song becomes a solo because the congregation is not familiar with it.

So in a attempt to help in the transition of learning new songs and building a new repertoire, here is a preliminary list of songs for the new service.

O Come Let Us Adore Him (Passion - Sacred Revolution)
I Am Free (Promise Keepers Band- The Awakening)
Happy Day (Tim Hughes - Holding Nothing Back)
Marvelous Light (Charlie Hall - Flying Into Daybreak)
Let God Arise (Chris Tomlin - See The Morning)
Undignified (David Crowder Band - Can You Hear Us?)
Center (Passion - Passion: The Early Session 02-EP)
You Are God Alone (Phillips, Craig & Dean - Let The Worshippers Arise)
Til I See You (Hillsong - Look To You)
On Jordan's Stormy Banks I Stand (Jars Of Clay - Redemption Songs)
O Praise Him (David Crowder Band - Illuminate)
Blessed Assurance (Kenny Clark - Music Of The Spheres)
By His Wounds (Mac Powell - Glory Revealed)
Kindness (Passion - Passion: The Road to OneDay)
Glorious Day (Todd Agnew - Better Questions)

Obviously, this list will not cover all of the needs of the first few services so I will be using other songs as needed.  The goal here is to give everyone some songs to be listening to over the next few months.

Also, if you have a song (Christian or Secular) that you would like us to use let me know (willbeaty@hotmail.com).

Will

Worship Is A Verb

In preparing for this new service, I began to read back through several books that I read in seminary for my worship concentration. Here is a list of good books on the subject if you are interested.

Introduction to Christian Worship - James F. White
The Complete Worship Leader - Kevin J. Navarro
Worship As Theology - Don E. Saliers
Real Presences - George Steiner
Unceasing Worship - Harold M. Best
The Great Worship Awakening - Robb Redman
Worship Is A Verb - Robert E. Webber

Since we are not wanting to simply change the musical style of the existing services while keeping the basic service order and elements the same, I thought that some discussion on "What is worship?" and "How do we want to worship?" would be helpful. So over the next few months I will post a few quotes from some of these books to help spark some discussion and thought on worship. To start off, here are some from Robert Webber's book, "Worship Is A Verb"

"The focus of worship...is not human experience, not a lecture, not entertainment, but Jesus Christ - his life, death, and resurrection." (1)

"The purpose of worship is not to prove the Christ it celebrates, but to bring the worshiper so in tune with God's reconciliation through Christ that his death and resurrection become a living experience." (25)

"In worship there aren't 'preliminaries.' Every part of worship is an intricate aspect of the whole." (74)

"In beholding our God, these gods that would divert us and send us away from Christ are exposed and sent on the run. Worship is not complete without beholding our God, without seeing and experiencing the greatness of his power and love." (100)

"It seems to me...that we twentieth-century Christians have perhaps unconsciously lost something that is extremely important in our worship experience - a recognition that the one before whom we stand is Almighty God." (111)

"Worship is not something rote, mechanical, or intellectual. I do not worship because I've always done it. I don't worship because of peer pressure or for a better social standing in the community. I respond to God in worship because he makes a difference in my life. Worship reminds me of my commitment to Christ." (125)

Will

Disturbed Minds Working Together

UPDATE: I've pulled off some of the names that I think we decided against last night. Destiney is supposed to email the complete list from last night. Here are a couple of more that I am adding:

Frontline

Axis

Both of these are names of existing young adult ministries in other places. But I thought I would toss them out anyway!

-- Jamie (5/5)

Brainstorming - the unrestrained offering of ideas or suggestions by all members of a committee, conference, etc. in an effort to find a solution to a problem, generate fresh ideas, etc.

A sudden clever plan or idea.

A sudden, violent disturbance of the mind.

Coming up with a name or brand for a new worship gathering is not the most important decision that we will make in the coming months. However, if we are going to be about creativity and excellence, then the first task that we tackle should reflect both excellence and creativity. With that being said, there are no bad ideas. Ok, maybe there are some bad ideas. But some of the best ideas may be sparked by one of those ideas that make everyone make a funny face when they first hear it.

Here are some ideas that have been tossed out for the new gathering.


Dwelling Place

Converge- Coming from different directions to unite for one purpose

Link1820 - For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them. Matthew 18:20

Raised Up - Egeiro (to raise up)

Beloved - agapao

Revealed/Reveal/Revelation - Phaneroo

Risen

Connection

Atone/Atonement - kaphar

Conversion/Converge

Grace - charis

Offering - qorban

Redeemed/Redeemer

Faithful - pistos

Fusion

Wellspring/Lifespring

Unseparated/Inseparable (From Romans 8:38-39)

Providence

Please feel free to email me any other ideas that you have (jamieb@fbcrockhill.org) or you can post in the comments section as well.