We Lost a Family

We lost a family this week. No, they didn't die, but they are going to worship somewhere else. The reason given...they just prefer expositional preaching as opposed to topical. We've been doing the latter lately.

A few years ago, fresh out of Bible college I would have felt the same, but having been planning worship services or helping to plan them, I see things from a different angle. It is just a lot easier to plan out a series topically/thematically than it is expositionally.

I mean, did Jesus preach expositionally or topically? Topically. Same with Paul and the rest of God's "secretaries."

Anyway, I'm sorry to see them go because they were instrumental in setting up technical aspects of Mosaic. I don't think it means we won't ever do expositional again. A lot of this depends on John though.

My First Sermon

I've done a talk or too or shared the sermon with John, but this is my first time doing the sermon all by myself. Whew! It went pretty smoothly I thought. What helped was that the elements really blended together and made for a good service as a whole.

I heard a lot of positive feedback from people afterwards. I wasn't even fishing for it either. People just came up to me and told me what a good job I did on the sermon.

I had fun with the power point and some of the illustrations, but I really do also feel that I got message across.

Three in a Row

We've been able to plan fairly well for this series. There are the kinks and I'm still learning the worship pastor ropes, but for three weeks in a row we have dramas going up that will be well rehearsed and prepared. This is Jared Steiner and Chris Pitotti rehearsing for a drama I wrote called "L'amour De Dieu est Folie" (The Love of God is Folly)

All is Calm on the Music Front

I talked to Jill in person, which is probably what I should have done in the first place. She's cool. She just talks things out is all, it wasn't so much lobbying, griping or faction forming as it was just wanting to make sure it wasn't just her.

It wasn't, I actually think there could be more music . . . a little more anyay.

Worship Missing?

Praise involves music. I see it in scripture. I just don't know what to do about it. I got this forwarded to me from John:

"Hi John, Gary, Eric and whoever is involved with the order of service and music. I have never emailed anyone at Mosaic but worshipping God through music is something I am passionate about. I didn’t realize I was passionate about it until it was missing from my church.
I love the way Mosaic has developed its own personality or culture. The way we do things is exciting, fun, inspirational and more family… more people friendly -lot’s of good stuff. The complexities of having so many pieces of a service to pull together must be hard. It’s fine to use music to link those pieces but know that it is no longer worship. Most times at church I feel like I’m there dancing with God, it’s glorious, wonderful, I’m sharing my heart with him……...and then the music stops. Time for the next activity. I have been doing some informal polling with twentysomethings, Moody students, Holly and Nathan, Natalie, my own son Andrew. They all feel that the few songs we lump together don’t give us enough time to interact with God.
I was wondering what you thought of this idea. Mars Hill mentioned that their music is at the end with communion. Is it possible that you could start with the interview of someone at the beginning instead of the end? Then you could use the band wherever needed but from communion on, there would be 3-4 songs without interruption, no prayer, no announcements, only song. The wonderful thing about communal music is that it draws everyone together. They are now participating in the service. John could announce before communion that this could be a time to sing, to worship, pray in their seats, or go up and receive prayer (people could be available on the stage for this) The beauty of it is that children don’t have to be quiet during the song service.
I miss my time with God in praise and worship. I don’t like leaving my church feeling hungry for that time with him. Many times this is my time to reflect on what I’ve heard, to repent, to lift my hands in surrender to Him. My morning devotional cannot replace my need for this. I’ve tried having worship music in the car, at my computer…nope, it’s not the same. Thanks for listening. Jill"

Worship is missing? Where did it go? Is it all about the music? Is music all there is to worship? I responded to John and others:

"Polling the twenty-somethings are we? I don’t know that I completely disagree the concept of having a longer music (notice how I didn’t say worship) set, but something strikes me not so right about the way this voice is being made known. I guess I feel like a faction is being rallied before we’ve even had time to discuss this. Is it just me?"

Art felt the same way..

"I feel the same way Eric--We need to discuss it, but not allow "lobbying" to dictate a direction. I come from churches that have used the 45 min. sermon and 20 min. music set, but I'm open to other ways of doing it. I'm just wondering if one person's preferred style is getting in the way of open discussion and the Holy Spirit's leading as opposed to lobbying for the direction you would like to see it go. We'll put it on next week's agenda and get other people's input. Art"

I need to pray and search God's Word on this more.