I dare say we Worship Pastors need to pay close attention to the counsel offered in this article.

Take a click to his page and read some of his other musings.

Enjoy the article, "Don't leave your garbage on the Pastor's Desk."

While there, I was treated to the passionate, gospel filled, Christ centered message of our need to face injustice and violent cruelty, if we dare to call ourselves Christians.

Shane Claiborne delivered peaceful uppercut, after peaceful uppercut, of truths that spoke deep into my heart.  I then decided to learn more about the work Shane does and came across a few blogs.

One that I read needed to be posted here. I'm quite sure I will be adding more of Shane's cerebral musings in the coming days and months.

This particular post is called, "Occupy Nonviolence."

Enjoy!

For whatever reason, I decided to venture to News 91.9 FM's website today. Once there I saw a link to Richard Zurawski's blog. I read a couple blogs then came to this one about the importance of science. I agree that Science is "vital" as Mr. Zurawski states. But, once again, there was an undertone in the article that assaulted faith.

Rarely do I respond to these types of articles as they generally turn into a useless war of words and banter. However, I thought today I would go on an adventure and add my thoughts. I wasn't defending science or intelligent design, creationism, religion... whatever catch phrase you want to pin to it. I was actually commenting on my disgust with the lack of openness to investigate both at the same time. Why does one have to be the exclusive option. In my opinion, both require a faith of sorts to fully accept. I would offer that evolution science requires a ton of faith.

Anyways... here was my reply to the blog. Feel free to read the original by Richard Zurawski and the one other comment entered to get some context for my reply.

My response:

Thank you for this article. It has given me a chance to speak to an attitude that exists in the science world, as well as the religious. Both of which, in my opinion, are filled with hypocritical, fundamental, legalistic, over defensive, protectionism.

I personally enjoy the study of science as much as I do intelligent design/creationism. I have yet to discover, in my limited (compared to some) reading and studying, truly provable, unequivocal evidence to write either off. You can take a lean in either direction and with a little stretch, firmly state a case for science or intelligent design. Both have a scape-goat of sorts. In religion there is the God factor. God is God and can do anything. In Science, they have replaced God with time. Given enough time… anything is possible.

Why does one or the other have to be absolutely right? To limit any possibility is simply narrow minded, prejudice.

I personally believe in the co-existence of both. I am a Christ follower who absolutely loves science.

Cheers,
Kurt

Kurt

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Excerpt from kemmeyer.com | by Kem Meyer, Director of Communications

Ignoring social media may be hazardous to your organizational health. The number of users is up 87% since 2003 and now outnumbers email users for the first time. In the past year, the time spent on social networks increased 73 percent, Nielsen says.
The full article shows ways more companies are using it. Thanks for the link, Guy Kawasaki.

This may be a stretch, but I started thinking about the relationships we experience in church. Let's place the older generation (not meaning age... but more experienced and traditional backgrounds) as the Egyptians in our story, and the relatively unchurched or younger generation as the people of Israel.

The fear of losing something is one of the greatest causes of conflict in our world... and therefore in the church. We voice it in our opinions of things like musical style, Hymn or Chorus, pews or chairs and even King James or another version of God's word.

The Israel people were content in Egypt. They worked alongside, everyone lived and were sustained by the fruit of the co-operative. But insert Fear... and you get chaos and bitterness.

I consider myself to be in the cusp of the generational battlefield that rages in churches. I grew up in a very traditional baptist environment and love much of this history. But I also have the inquisitive, investigative, dislike for cliched answers and "just the way it is" attitude I see and feel much of the time.

I fear, that fear, has done much to hurt the cause of Christ. "No weapon formed against us shall prosper..." but what about ourselves?

First off... Happy New Year!

Sorry for the break in posting these last weeks. Life always throws in it's curve balls and December was no exception. To summarize:

- Mother-in-Law diagnosed with Ovarian Cancer. Chemo started, going well, she is living with us.

- Lead Pastor took a three month leave of absence. Back now and doing well.

- Regular Christmas ministry rush stuff also made posting difficult.

WE ALL have times like this in our lives and these give us cause to lean on the Lord for an extra measure of grace and support. (Prov 3:5-6) I never like times such as these, but, do appreciate the reminder of my need to lean on the Lord and remember His promise that He is with me and I can make it through all things with His strength. (Phil 4:13). We welcome any prayers you would like to send our way... Thank you in advance!

I'm excited to get back into the books and have a course starting up in a few weeks.

Blessings until the next time!

Drop Inn works in 16 countries. They have a school in Haiti that was completely destroyed by the earthquake. They have committed to rebuilding the school as well as the homes of those who attended. Click the banner above to make a donation. Thank You!

This is a topic that has been preying on my heart and mind for almost a year. I have used a lament Psalm, for example, during a recent service and it was very well received.

I posted a comment and thought I would put it here as well.

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Let me start by saying I totally agree! Thank You!

In my denomination we are always trying to encourage people to come into the presence of God in a transparent manner. We tell them it doesn’t matter where they’ve been, what has happened this week, the highs and lows… just bring it to the Lord and worship Him from the honesty of your heart.

Basically we want our people to experience the freedom of God in the rawness of their state of mind… like the author’s of Psalms used to do. Having integrity… Being honest with God and each other, in worship.

But… do we plan our services in a way that would allow for a broad spectrum of “rawness?”

If we expect to see the church worship in “Spirit and Truth” then we as leaders need to lead in “Spirit and Truth.”

This includes laments.

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Cheers!

At least they're there... so that has to represent, to some degree, a desire for Jesus at some level. I find this a hard topic to talk about with people because you can quickly run into a defensive spirit. I'm hoping we learn something about how to inspire others into doing those things that engage the heart, open the world to them and get into a action-based relationship with God that blows their mind.

It is so true... "As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead." (James 2:26)

Anyway... I'll let you know how it goes.

So... I'm taking a course called Essentials Red. I'm having a wonderful time learning about the history of worship and being challenged to bring the gems of our tradition into the creativity of our present. I found that this course has brought back a freshness to preparing a service. It is amazing how easy it is to get caught in a liturgical rut of sorts. The languages of worship and thinking about them all as I plan worship is wonderful and refreshing.

This mornings worship service at our church was an excellent example of how a variety of worship languages being used at one time can exponentially increase the impact. We enjoyed listening to old Hymns repackaged into a nice blues-rock tone (Uncloudy Day), drama, testimony, prayer, scripture, preaching, missions update, Remembrance moment and offering. All the elements were weaved together around the core theme, "Joy Filled Living."

The Joy of the LORD was in our service... I always love it when God comes to church!

This morning was also special because I had the privilege of having a dear friend take part in the service. My good friend Bim (Turner) Ingersoll has decided to tour again after 21 years and he kicked it off at our church last night. Bim and I served on a mission project back in 1989.

The Worship Band had a pretty easy morning. We only did an opening song and a closing number. They were:

- In The Secret (Andy Park)

- Leaning on the Everlasting Arms (Elisha Hoffman,  Arr. by K Parks)

I will be posting the words and a rough (very rough) mp3 this week of a song I've been working on... I would love any feedback I can get on it.

Cheers,

Kurt

- Victory in Jesus (Eugene Bartlett)