The Spirit Led Pastor from Acts 29 Network on Vimeo.
I just love Sam Storms. Solid, biblical advice for pastors. Not trying to be clever. Just clear.
Nurturing a Spirit-led Life
Billy Collins is my favorite contemporary poet. He is accessible, humorous and often slyly profound. Here one of his for day 1 of National Poetry Month.
The Golden Years by Billy Collins
All I do these drawn-out days
is sit in my kitchen at Pheasant Ridge
where there are no pheasants to be seen
and last time I looked, no ridge.
I could drive over to Quail Falls
and spend the day there playing bridge,
but the lack of a falls and the absence of quail
would only remind me of Pheasant Ridge.
I know a widow at Fox Run
and another with a condo at Smokey Ledge.
One of them smokes, and neither can run,
so I’ll stick to the pledge I made to Midge.
Who frightened the fox and bulldozed the ledge?
I ask in my kitchen at Pheasant Ridge.
Each month Amazon MP3 download puts out $5 albums. You can see all 100 $5 April albums for April. But you may want to start here with my favorites. Hard to believe we can get music this good for this cheap. Take advantage! If you are looking for a particular style of music and don't know where to start, comment below with what you like and I'll try to direct you to something in your taste-range. Enjoy!
As National Poetry Month (NPM) begins today here's what you'll find at Reformissionary.
I hope to get up a new poem every day. May miss a few, but will make an effort.
I hope to help you find some new voices in poetry and music (the most popular poetic medium of our day). I like to find new poets: whether they are young or old poets, alive or dead poets. Let me know if you have a poet that should be on my radar.
I'll try to get up videos of poets reading their poems or talking about the value and art of poetry.
I also help to find an essay or two on writing poetry and/or enjoying poetry.
Maybe I'll find something new and unexpected to post. Maybe I'll write a poem or two. Maybe I interview the greatest poet ever, whoever that is.
Take in at least a little poetry this NPM. Poetry is good for you. As a communicator I realize poetry can teach us conciseness in language, new angles in seeing the world and our experience of he world, a richness of description, etc. As a human I realize poetry makes me slow down and sip rather than gulp like I do most things. Information consumption has found a corrective in the slow ingestion of poetry, meditation on words and forms.
I had the privilege of attending Catalyst One Day Chicago last Thursday at Willow Creek. I didn't know a lot about One Day before I went. I knew it was ONE day and had Andy Stanley and Craig Groeschel as speakers. I knew it would probably be mostly leadership and organizational principles. That's about it.
One Day's are four main sessions (Andy, 2 Craig's, Andy), significant Q and A time, and Andy-Craig dialogues. You get to hear the nitty gritty aspects of ministry from these two guys who lead two giant churches and who have been through a lot.
Topic was momentum. An important topic for my ministry & church in particular, so I was very eager to hear them on it. Let me first describe 5 things that I really needed to hear.
First, I needed the reminder from Stanley that if people aren't following, they aren't convinced of the vision. I'm working on vision stuff at Doxa this week and heading into summer. It's an important thing for me to hear and hear again. I'm not nearly good enough at casting vision and keeping it in front of my people.
Second, I needed the word from Groeschel that "If you're not hurting, you're not leading." Pain is a part of leadership and ministry, I've experienced it a lot, and it's a part of it that I can't avoid. But I love to try to avoid it. If I do, I stop leading. Another quote: "The difference between where you are and where God wants you to be is the painful decision you need to make."
Third, I needed everything from Groeschel's second talk. So good for me. We need to repent life as "Christian Atheists," as people who are full-time Pastors but only part-time Christians. This was another God moment for me, which are growing in number over the past few months. God is good.
Fourth, I needed the reminder to talk to my wife about when it's best for me to be home. I've just flat-out neglected this. I'm home a lot and I'm a real homebody, a family man. But often not at the times that serve her and my children best. I'm correcting this.
Fifth, I needed Stanley's encouraging closing talk as it pertained to my approach to ministry. He said programs are created to answer a question or meet a need and we must stop them when they no longer answer the question or meet the need. I've seen a need to work on this at my church, and I just needed to be encouraged again on how important this work is.
Now, a few critical thoughts I have and I know some others have.
Some will criticize conferences like this for not emphasizing the Gospel more. I hear that, and agree to a point. I know we can't assume a lot of guys in ministry know and/or preach the Gospel all that well. I agree that the Gospel is THE filter and directive behind all that we do. And I do think the message of One Day would be impacted and improved should the Gospel take a more prominent place as the day begins.
But I also like the format. I like having some assumptions so we can narrow the focus. We don't always have to say everything. You know coming in to this that it isn't really a theology/Gospel conference. There are other places for that. This is leadership and organization and best practices. And I found it of great value for what it is.
I disagree significantly with both Stanley and Groeschel on some organizational aspects of their churches. It's hard to talk best practices without the conference teaching a model, at least to a point. I was able to pass off the stuff I didn't find sound or compelling from my point of view, so it wasn't a big deal for me. Is it possible the Gospel/theology aspect is not only absent because of the narrow focus of the conference, but also because it's under-utilized in these models? Possibly. But that doesn't mean I can glean what I find valuable there, and I found a lot of value.
Another criticism could be that these pastors of large churches with lots of staff aren't speaking quite as helpful for smaller church guys. There's some validity to that and had that thought during One Day. But I also think there is enough there that anyone in any place of ministry will be blessed. Like I said, yu can't do everything at every conference. And the principles discussed are meant to be universal. I was happy enough, though I wasn't always fully tracking with where these two guys are in their leadership journey.
If you have a chance to attend a One Day or other Catalyst Conference, I think you will be blessed. I was.
Daniel Montgomery of Sojourn Community Church in Louisville, KY on the Gospel (via)...
Kyle Bobby Dunn asked if I would check out his new double album. A quick online sample was encouraging so I decided to give it a go. Stunning. I feel it's important to say that I don't know if I have the vocabulary for this style of music. Here's my best shot.
This is ambient, minimal music. The tracks range from 4-17+ minutes in length for a total of just under 2 hours. This explanation from the label's website is helpful...
Utilising an instrumental palette of guitar, strings and brass, often played by classically trained musicians drafted in on the spur of the moment, the sounds of these sessions were recorded as Dunn dictated and then reworked via computer processing into spine-tingling soundscapes.
Dunn's compositions here are fully rich in timbre, painterly, hopelessly romantic and haunting balanced between a wash of pure sound yet subtle dance of classical instrumentation. Occupying a truly cinematic scope, these pieces can transport the listener from the deepest and most forgotten landscapes to the furthest recesses of time.
I liken it to being in a Solaris (movie) dream, but even that is too melodic. I would take two above words and put them together: "textured soundscapes." Everything builds and fades without sudden surprise. It's tide, not waves. And it's expansive and mysterious. It's full of a sense of "the in-between," for me. As if trapped between two worlds. And we willingly linger there.
Where there are storms, and there are a couple (like "Empty Gazing"), they crawl across the plains in full sight. There's plenty of time to take shelter so you stand in the calm before and feel what is coming. There's a sense of smallness before it.
I also appreciate this explanation from CokeMachineGlow concerning the minimal undulation of the music...
The effect—and I’m guessing this is the intention—is similar to watching the sea from the window of a gently undulating aircraft; Kyle Bobby D knows when you’re over that much water you only want to undulate so much.
I appreciate more than anything else the sense I get from this music of time slowing. It's like living in that first moment in the event horizon of a black hole. Experiencing a sense of timelessness in a smart-phone-calendar-alarm world is of massive benefit.
This album takes time and isn't easy. Don't let that scare you. Well, let that scare you a little bit. If you only want 3 minute ditties, this isn't where you turn. This isn't for the person who buys the Hershey's bar. It's for the one who picks the 70% cocoa over the 60% and can give you the reasons why. And I hope it's for the person who is willing to try something new and find something worth the effort. Turn off the phone, take a deep breath or two while decanting an aged red and enjoy.
This is the only place I know to pick up A Young Person's Guide To Kyle Bobby Dunn. I highly recommend it.
Yesterday Alejandro Escovedo brought a great show to Woodstock. We aren't known for getting bands like this. It was the work of Bill and Dawn at Odd Fellows pub to get Alejandro here, and that means good things for this city. And I was very lucky to turn on my Flip Mino to get this video of "Everybody Loves Me," easily my favorite song from the concert...
Alejandro Escovedo - Everybody Loves Me from Steve McCoy on Vimeo.
If you like Alejandro, check out some of his albums: More Miles Than Money ($5.99), Bourbonitis Blues ($5.99), A Man Under The Influence ($6.99), and his most recent album, Real Animal ($9.49).
One of my favorite new albums is Titus Andronicus: The Monitor. Here's a video for the opening song, "A More Perfect Union." The album version is twice as long as the video, and twice as awesome as it rocks out in anthemic, uh, awesomeness. But this is a nice introduction to a fun rock band...
It's Friday, this is a photo, but I didn't take it. At Catalyst One Day they asked "What is the one way the church should innovate to be more effective?" This was the answer of Joe Thorn and me.
Poets.org: National Poetry Month is one week away
Skye Jethani: Why I Don't Tweet (I left him a comment)
Ed Stetzer for missionSHIFT: Introducing Jeff Vanderstelt (via)
This looks like meals together with believers and unbelievers 2-4 times a week; cleaning up the yard of our widowed neighbor next door; serving at the elementary’s auctions, community events and after school programs; going through “The Story of God” 1-2 times a year with unbelievers to introduce them to the Gospel; sharing our house for others to live with us and join us on the mission; having an “open door” policy to our neighbors and friends; throwing parties regularly to meet more people who we hope will also come to faith in Jesus; etc… We focus on demonstrating the change the Gospel makes in our lives through tangible expressions of serving and declaring the reason why we live this way by sharing the Gospel.
Tim Keller
Jamie Munson on Opposition
Opposition is diverse and relentless and, if given all of your time, deadly. Perspective dies as the opposition blurs our vision. Hope can die as the opposition becomes weightier than the opportunity. Fatigue can kill you if you spend more time running from the opposition than pursuing the opportunity.
What would you say if you had cancer and may not make it until next Christmas? Here's what Zac Smith said...
The Story of Zac Smith from NewSpring Media on Vimeo.
I have to admit that as a Protestant I have far more positive reasons for being a Protestant than actual protests. I guess that's a good thing. And, well, I do have a lot of protests for any number of Christian things. But to actually Protest well I've been learning about Catholicism in order to know what I'm actually protesting. It's been tremendous for my faith by causing me to challenge my own assumptions, to know what I believe and why I believe it.
Here are some resources I've been using learn about Catholicism, and my encouragement to other Protestant church leaders.
1. Attend Catholic Mass
It's too easy to talk about things we experienced long ago or have only heard about. Go experience it. See the devoted kneeling, note the art on the walls and ceiling, the candles lit around statues and paintings. Watch the Eucharist take prominence and ask yourself what the devoted are kneeling to. Let the story of the past 500 years of the Reformation meet you in a Catholic Mass and then see what you see. It was eye-opening for me. It was spirit-provoking. I brought my entire family once so we all could talk about it.
You can probably find a Saturday night Mass so as not to miss what your church is doing. Don't take the Eucharist (they don't want you to anyway). I stay seated as others take, and observe.
2. Join discussions or studies
I have joined two discussion groups at our Catholic church. They are 6-8 weeks in length so it's short term and very informative. At our local church they have an Understanding the Catholic Faith class that goes over basics and a Catholics Returning Home class for those who have left and are returning. I've gotten to know several folks at these classes, which is a great way to learn about Catholicism (as I say in #3 below). And the content of these classes have a been very informative for me. Why get what Catholics teach from a book when you can hear it from a Catholic?
3. Talk to Catholics & get to know a priest
When a Baptist pastor joins Catholic studies, you tend to raise eyebrows and get questions. It's a great thing. I'm on a first name basis with the local priest, a deacon, & other teachers including a CCD teacher who is now receiving me with a hug. I love these folks and love getting to know them. And they are probably my best resource for getting to know Catholicism. I'm learning what makes them tick, gives them hope, is the heart of their life of devotion and worship. I'm answering their questions, but asking more than answering. I let them know my religious background and ask about our differences. What do they see as real differences? Ask about their understanding of the Eucharist, Pope, Rosary, etc. Important stuff.
The local priest, Aaron, is a very friendly and knowledgeable guy. We are near the same age, which is a cool thing. We've already been talking about getting coffee and talking more one-on-one. He's also given me a CD about a Protestant pastor who became a Catholic, opening another door for discussion.
As with any faith you have those who are very devoted and those who are somewhat devoted or nominal. Getting to know all these folks helps you to get their faith as a whole.
4. Study stuff by Catholics
5. Study stuff by Protestants on Catholicism
Hope you find all this helpful. What resources or points am I missing from your experience?
I recently heard a discussion with Chris Castaldo on the Stand to Reason podcast about his book, Holy Ground: Walking with Jesus as a Former Catholic. The nice folks at Zondervan sent me a copy to review. Castaldo is the Pastor of Outreach and Church Planting at College Church in Wheaton. Cover endorsements include DA Carson, JI Packer and Francis Beckwith.
I have almost no background with Catholicism. I remember going into Catholic churches for basketball games at the schools and for a few weddings. I had many Catholic friends growing up, but none who said much about their faith.
After becoming a Christian at university and going to seminary I learned a bit about Catholicism, but mostly by way of studying the reformation, like a lot of Protestant pastors have. Indulgences and "Here I stand" and the rest.
The last few months I decided to try to understand the Catholic Church better. I've been reading, listening to podcasts, attended a couple of Mass services as well as some classes at the local Catholic church. So Castaldo's book fits in perfectly with what I'm already learning. I'll have more to talk about with my study of Catholicism in future posts, but let me focus here on my review of Holy Ground.
One aspect of the book I like is that it's unlike anything I've seen. It's really trying to get into the mind of the Catholic who becomes evangelical. Why do Catholic become evangelicals? What reasons do they give? Castaldo tells us why. That makes this one of the most practical and accessible volumes we can give to Christians trying to love their Catholic and neighbor friends to Christ. The tone is thoughtful and kind. This book won't create Christian apologetics flame-throwers.
Castaldo lists 5 reasons why people leave the Catholic faith as found in his survey and then goes on to explain them in some detail. The 5 are...
During his explanation of these 5 in the first half of the book, the author takes an "excursus" from time to time to explain an important idea (Sola Scriptura, for example). It's just a page or two to help fill in a gap. He also threw in a couple portraits, or bio chapters. One is on Luther and another is on Loyola and Cantarini. These give a bit more depth and background.
The second half of the book gets much more practical concerning Catholic evangelism. There are both positives of what to do (like keeping the main thing the main thing, engage in gospel dialog, etc) and warnings as to approaches that will be less helpful (like the pit bull approach, need to not take the Mass, etc). His advice is helpful and careful. Castaldo is thinking long term relationships much more than quick answers to questions.
The appendix, "How the Catholic Church Became What It Is: Trent to Vatican II" is a nice, tight explanation of a complex issue. I can't speak to the accuracy or where Catholics might contend with Castaldo's comments since I don't know enough about them. But it seems a very helpful history that would benefit all of us and help us "get" Catholicism better.
Though most of the book is much appreciated and needed, I'm not entirely happy with it.
I'm not sure how Catholic Castaldo was. He seemed to explain himself and his family as nominal Catholic, not active and practicing. I converted to Christianity from being a nominal Christian/United Methodist. But it's not much of a de-Methodist story. Scott Hahn and Tim Staples, for example, were not only devoted evangelicals, but working in ministry before becoming Catholics. I'm not saying Castaldo can't write this book without having been a priest, but somehow I anticipated something more like that.
From my own recent attendance at our local Catholic Masses, classes, personal discussions with members and priests and personal study, I was always waiting for Castaldo to be more blunt and direct. It seems his desire to keep the tone kind kept him from some needed boldness. When I see certain Catholic practices I am provoked in spirit. I don't remember feeling like Castaldo was there very often as I moved through the book.
Castaldo's "A Taxonomy of Evangelical Approaches" to Roman Catholics doesn't seem to have a tight category for me to fit in. Maybe I shouldn't consider that a big deal. After all, it's helpful to see how others approach RC's and he's thorough. But I think I'd be considered more aggressive in my evangelistic approach yet not "anti-catholic" in the way the book describes. At least that's the flavor I got from Chapter 11. Here's a quote to show what I mean...
Personally, I'm not going to insist that such people demonstrate their commitment to Christ by exiting the Catholic community. I'd much rather provide biblical resources and encouragement to help them grow in their faith, trusting that in God's timing they will look to the Bible to sort out questions of church membership and participation.
I can't go along with that, but the answers aren't always easy.
Despite a few concerns, I like much from this book. It fills a gap and offers us with a readable resource for Protestants. I'm thankful for a thorough index at the end for future reference. My copy will be well worn in the next few years. It also includes discussion questions for each chapter. I encourage you to pick up a copy of Holy Ground. Buy it at Amazon.
Tullian Tchividjian: Counterfeit Gospels
The good news of the gospel is that both inside and outside the church, there is only One Savior and Lord, namely Jesus. And he came, not to angrily strip away our freedom, but to affectionately strip away our slavery to lesser things so that we might become truly free!
Jeff Vanderstelt: Gospel Hospitality, Gospel Hospitality In Our Neighborhood
As I was just talking to Jayne about this she said many people are willing to do the basics of hospitality, but shut down once it gets difficult and messy. It is at this point, where the Gospel gives us strength to continue AND where the opportunities to give a reason for our hope (1 Peter 3:15) open up because most people (believer and unbeliever alike) know how to be “good neighbors”, however, very few are willing to “suffer” (if we can call it that) for the sake of others.
We have found that the mess and the difficulty of loving hospitality done in the power of the Gospel is one of the most powerful witnesses we’ve had to our neighborhood.
Drew Goodmanson quoting Francis Schaeffer (from sermon)
Don't start with a big program. Don't suddenly think you can add to your church budget and begin. Start personally and start in your home. I dare you. I dare you in the name of Jesus Christ. Do what I am going to suggest. Begin by opening your home for community...
How many times in the past year have you risked having a drunk vomit on your carpeted floor? How in the world, then, can you talk about compassion and about community--about the church's job in the inner city?
Tim Chester reviews ReJesus by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch
Joe Thorn: Do You Love the Law?
But here's the rub: we can only love the law after it has been fulfilled by Christ on our behalf. The law will only be a delight to us after we have found life by the gospel.
A photo of my wife made the local paper. A photo of our son, Daniel (from a few years back), made a golf website by my SIU golf team buddy, Steve Keeler: DLRGolf.com.
Lifehacker: Create your own QR-Code, like this one for my Tim Keller Resources...
Still a pile of great $5 albums at Amazon. Check out my recommendations including Radiohead, Frightened Rabbit, Band of Horses and more.
A few other recommendations on some new albums. The Autumn Film: The Ship and the Sea is outstanding (same folks from some of my favorite worship music, Page CXVI). Titus Andronicus: The Monitor is getting tons of playtime on my iPod. It rocks. Makes me think of a mix between The Gaslight Anthem, Conor Oberst and Flogging Molly.
SPECIAL NOTE: The new David Ford: Let the Hard Times Roll was a must buy after I fell in love with his previous album, Songs for the Road. Some of the most "felt" music being made. Melody and heart. The dude can sing, and is a great songwriter. Even better for my Louisville, Kentucky friends. Go TONIGHT to the Zanzabar to hear David Ford play with Sojourn's Brooks Ritter. It's only $10! If you live in or near Louisville and miss this concert you are a moron. I say that in love. Also check out Brooks' album, The Horse Fell Lame.
Go watch The Antlers play a Tiny Desk Concert. Their album, Hospice (only $7.99) was my #1 album of 2009 and this live performance shows you why. Outstanding. Warning: There is some language.
The National have a new album out in May, High Violet. Here's "Terrible Love" played on Fallon (via Heather)...
The Heavy do "How You Like Me Now?" on Letterman. So much fun. Just crank it up and bop along. Grab their album, The House That Dirt Built, for only $6.99.
Here's the first batch of photos from 5th graders at Mary Endres Elementary School. They did an excellent job. For most this was a completely new thing. The project was "shapes." If you click on an image it will get much bigger.
>< Starting to read Introverts in the Church by Adam McHugh soon. So much good buzz out there on this book. I've needed a book like this for years, and now it's here. From the introduction...
My hope is that, through this book, God will begin or continue a process of healing introverts--helping them find freedom in their identities and confidence to live their faith in ways that feel natural and life-giving, the way that God intended.
>< I'm still working on a review for Holy Ground: Walking with Jesus as a Former Catholic by Chris Castaldo. I really like it. If you are doing outreach to Catholics or have Catholic family and/or friends (that's pretty much all of us), I recommend this book.
>< Phriday is for Photos tomorrow. Some of the photos from the photography project for 5th grade art are up at the school and I snapped a couple of pics. Proud of these kids.
>< The last few days have been an explosion in good, new music. Looking forward to a few great recommendations on Monday.
>< New Lots-o-Links post middle of next week or so.
>< I'm planning to put a post up next week on resources I've been using to study and understand Catholicism.
>< Getting a lot of ideas for posts on both evangelism and discipleship. Hope to start getting to those next week.
>< April is coming up fast, which means National Poetry Month comes once again to Reformissionary. Can't wait!
*The last of my series of posts on Verge. See Pt 1, 2, 3.
I've been struggling. Personally, spiritually, pastorally, physically. I was talking with my wife on Saturday night about some of the stuff I've dealt with in the last year and beyond, and it blew me away when I realized the issues that have I've dealt with in my life. I know that's vague, but I want to give at least a little context for what I'm going to say and what I've experienced. I know we all go through difficult, dryer times. We all have detractors. And I've talked to a number of young pastors in the last months and years who have had many of the same issues. I know I'm not alone or unique.
In the few months prior to Verge God was really working on me. I've been doing a lot of repenting of the idols in my heart. I've been preaching the gospel to myself. Molly and I have been thinking through a lot together. She has been going through much of the same through a study that just rocked her world a couple of months back.
When I got to Verge I connected with friends and settled in for a good time. What I didn't expect that God would use this conference as a spiritual pivot-point. Practical, sure. Theological, maybe. Not spiritual. During the conference, through a number of sessions and conversations and events, the Holy Spirit haunted me with God's goodness and faithful love in Christ.
Let me briefly describe how the Holy Spirit worked in me at Verge.
First, I was blessed and challenged by the video lead-ins by Alan Hirsch. Each session started with Hirsch detailing an idea that the upcoming speakers would speak on. One-by-one these videos deepened my love for Christ and the Church. I ended up looking forward to the next video more than the next speaker. It was a great thread tying together the conference, and through them the Spirit was stirring that old fire in my belly to see God's local church vibrant and alive.
Second, as detailed in my previous post, Jeff Vanderstelt and Caesar Kalinowski's breakout on Soma Communities took Hirsch and gave it legs, concreteness. They took the hunger I was gaining for biblical, misisonal community encouraged by Hirsch and made it seem possible. God was renewing my view of community, my calling to shepherd our church toward it, and my love for the Church despite her flaws.
Third, the two sessions with Francis Chan were remarkable. Nothing flashy. Quite the opposite, really. Just real. The dude was real. He was honest about his own struggles and our struggles as pastors to want what God wants and to want them through the means God provides.
Both sessions were on the Holy Spirit. I don't care what the titles or topics were. The Holy Spirit was the point for me. Why are we functioning on any power other than the Holy Spirit? Chan said...
You will try and fail to start movements. Movements come from Jesus, from the Holy Spirit. If you try to go surfing and there are no waves, you send your buddy out to start splashing and try to make waves. We can't do it.
Think about the book of Acts, and how unstoppable they were. This is Holy Spirit powered.
I want to ride the wave. I'm spending way too much energy splashing in the ocean to make my own waves when if I look for the Spirit's waves, they will be unstoppable. How can we think our tactics and strategies and plans and efforts will go anywhere without God?
Chan's honest and sobering message inspired me to dream again about being the church we saw in Acts. I used to dream about the exciting, messy movement of God in the world. I want to want that again. Most preaching makes me want to believe I can do something. Chan made me want to believe and pray that God would do something.
In his second message Chan said something like this...
If you are not suffering, there is a problem. Imagine how close you’d be with Jesus and how safe you would feel had you suffered alongside Him. Then you would know this is real.
This was the message I can quote the least because I was so tunnel-visioned into what God was saying. I didn't hear the sermon, I experienced it. You can get a lot of the message from Jonathan McIntosh's post. He echoes much of what I thought about Chan and the work of the Holy Spirit at Verge.
Allow me to quote JMac here for my fourth and final point.
Fourth, the Holy Spirit showed up. Jonathan writes...
The best part of the weekend was a worship session on Saturday afternoon that never seemed to stop. It was time for the singing to be done and for all of us to move on to the next deal on the schedule – except that God had something else on His schedule.
Matt Carter got up and acknowledged that something was going on. Breakouts were going to start soon and that if people needed to go they could, but he opened the door for others to stick around if they felt so led. And we did. People just stood there. Or knelt. Or bowed.
And then one by one, people spontaneously started calling out to God. In a group of thousands, people started calling on the name of Jesus.
It’s hard to describe what happened, and I really don’t want to dishonor that moment by trying to make it seem more dramatic than it was. I’ll just say that for me it was an intense moment of sensing God’s hugeness and my own smallness and yet feeling accepted in that instead of alienated. It’s the first time I’ve seen something like that happen in a group that large since my charismatic revival days.
I agree. I've had a lot of "aha" moments from God through His Word. I've had a sacred few moments when He was noticeably present in a special way. I've had even fewer like Verge when He moved in unity among many and was, apparently, sensed by nearly all of us.
Truthfully, I'm all too skeptical of these things. So much junk is said to be the work of the Spirit, and that's when eye-rolling and tongue-clucking commences. But I can't deny the experience I (we) had at Verge. It was the culmination of many things happening in my life. It was sparked by truth and Christology and ecclesiology and evangelistic/missional fervor at Verge. But the crescendo for me, and it seems for all of us, was when a "rock star pastor" (Chan) laid himself bare, talked about struggles instead of displaying his flapping cap, and talked about Jesus and the Spirit instead of strategies. It was a moment I can't forget, and that drives me NOT to pursue a new ministry plan BUT rather power that can only come from the haunting of the Holy Ghost.
May our churches find ourselves on our knees far more than we sketch out plans. May the interruptions that God puts in our lives be seen as more important than our intentions. May we be willing to suffer as missionaries for our great God. And may He be glorified.
The Avett Brothers/The Low Anthem concert on Saturday night at The Riverside in Milwaukee was an outstanding show. Molly and I were front row, pressed up against the stage. Yeah, we are old and it really hurt to stand that long. Yeah, we were next to 19 year old girls on both sides. Yeah, we were also right next to a very, very drunk guy who was slamming PBR's, leaning on people and asking the girl next to us "Why don't you think I'm hot?" Yeah, we would absolutely do it again. Best concert we've ever seen. Go buy all their albums. They are all great.
Here's just a little clip of the end of one song. I might have a full song for you at some point...
Avett Brothers - Because We Had To from Steve McCoy on Vimeo.
Vampire Weekend on Saturday Night Live with "Cousins." Always fun, these fellas. Their album, Contra, still only $7.99.
Joanna Newsom playing "Soft as Chalk" on Fallon. Uniqueness. And go download her wonderful 3 CD album Have One On Me. By the way, her previous album Ys is phenomenal as well.
