My Worship Revolution

Saturday night was an awesome night at our second Tapestry event. Tapestry is our coffeeshop night designed to give people a place to relax and invite friends as well as creating a venue where local artists and musicians can be highlighted. Dave already did a great review of the night if you want to check it out, and I’ll steal a few of his pics cause my camera sucks in dark rooms!

This time we had music performed by Stacy Clark, Hank Floyd and Mike Barnet. I’ve enjoyed Mike’s music for several years now and it was awesome to have us join us. That’s him in the bottom picture below. Many of you know that I hate country music, but I was amazed by how much I loved Hank Floyd. They were amazing musicians and put on an awesome show. I’d actually love to catch another show of theirs sometime if I get the chance. Don’t worry, I’m not about to start listening to Tim McGraw now or anything! Stacy Clark also did a great job opening the night. She moved here about 9 months ago from New York to work more on getting her music out. It was great having all three musicians there.

Huge thanks also to Scott Laumann and Deborah Allen who brought some art to display. Below is a picture of Scott’s stuff, a series based on a quote by Dallas Willard. Overall it was an awesome night. It’s fun to connect with others at our church and to be able to support the local artists and musicians. Thanks to everyone who came out and to everyone who helped make it happen. I look forward to doing it again!

Yesterday, Rachel and I went up to Laurel Pines, a camp in Big Bear, with Michelle and Drew to lead an extended time of worship during their high school camp. It was an awesome night. It is so fun to just let God lead and to see students engaging with God as they worship.

Upon returning home, somewhere around midnight, we found a letter on our door. Here’s what it said:

Dear neigbor,

The City Of Long Beach Community Development Department is
applying for a permit to operate a Walk-In Center at 601 Pacific Ave., Long Beach, Ca 90813. This facility will provide services and training to at risk persons ages 16 thru 24.

One of the programs the center will offer is a “GANG
DIVERGANCE PILOT PROJECT” to assist in the personal development of at risk youth. This program is not limited to, but will reach out to:

Youth beginning to see problems with law enforcement, gang affiliation or have probationary involvement.

Youth who may have substance abuse problems.

This center will provide services to more than five thousand clients a year and employ a staff of twenty two, without on-site parking. Street parking is very limited; and if this center is permitted to open, parking may be impacted within the entire area.

A uniformed guard will be stationed within the facility for the protection of staff but will not patrol the nearby bus stops or streets. We, the residents, will have to deal with graffiti and trash that may be generated by the facilities at risk clients.

MEETING
This is your opportunity to voice your opinion regarding the proposed permit.
Meeting Date: August 8, 2005
Meeting Time: 2:00 p.m.
Place: City Planning and Building Dept., 7th
Floor Large Conference Room

The letter then added the representative to contact and where to get info. This left me thinking. When did our parking situation become more important than trying to make an impact on the lives of at risk youth? I understand that possesions and appearance of an area are important, but when did the possibility of trash become more important than helping others?

It saddens me to see what some of the values of our community have become. While there may be some legitimate concerns to be addressed, I personally would welcome those trying to make a positive impact on the community and the people who live here. Yes, at times there are costs to helping others, but at what point do we look ahead and see positively changed lives being well worth the costs of inconvenience?

Wow, I have a bit of blogging to catch up on! Normally I figure once it’s past, I missed it. But there’s a few things I think are worth throwing up here, so here we go. The first one is some pics from our worship community gathering at Bolsa Chica State Beach last Saturday. We had a great time playing beach football, roasting s’mores, and singing around the fire. I look forward to more chances for our community to connect in the future!

Hey Bret, this one’s for you. This guys 20 now, but here’s a video of him doing a drum solo at 12 years old…12!!! This kid is insane! Maybe we can get him at Revolution as a sub. [via]















watch video

For those of you who weren’t able to be at church on Sunday, or who read this blog but don’t attend Revolution, here’s the video we made to start our series called “Be A Link.” There are lots of very common fears that people have in sharing their faith with other and being a part of linking them to Jesus, and we had a good time making light of some of those. The idea came from a similar video I saw done by Rancho Community Church several years ago. You’ll need Real Player to view it. Hope you like!
Download Video

If you didn’t know, I’m currently in class every Monday night at Vanguard University working to finish up my BA.  Each class is 5 weeks long, and tonight was week 1 of Teaching and Preaching with Bill Dogterom.  The next 4 weeks will consist of us teaching scripture, but tonight he talked about our personal life preparation for preaching.  He shared things that we should be working on in different areas of our life, and a lot of them were great reminders.  They were things that resonated with me as things I need to stay focused on even as a worship leader in a church, and many of them are things that anyone could benefit from.  The ones with astericks are the ones I think I need to work on the most in my life right now.  Here’s the area’s of life and some of the things he talked about:

Spiritual
-Study of the word
-Prayer as relationship (silence, solitude, listening to God)*
-Rest (Sabbath, regular seasons of retreat)
-Accountability circles*
-Fight against sin as if your life depends on it

Social/Relational
-Family is priority after God and yourself*
-Have quality friendships*
-Love the people you pastor
-A good attitude is critically important
-Don’t take yourself to seriously, have a sense of humor

Mental
-Read – read books that expand vocabulary, books you disagree with, out of your proffesional subject and old books*
-Stimulation – have a friend you can argue with
-Develop a mind cleansing hobby

Emotional
-Don’t operate heavy machinery on Monday
-Monitor your moods but don’t give in to them*
-Give yourself a break, you’re only human
-Be sensitive to the continuing quiet despair that signals burnout
-Learn how to laugh
-Feed your soul (art, music, nature, etc.)*
-Get help when you need it

Physical
-Exercise regularly*
-Get rest
-Eat properly*
-Learn to relax
-Pace yourself

Like I said, lots of great reminders in there for me.  Any of em pop off the screen for you?

It’s always nice to see people from our community supporting other artists in our community. So, that being said, here’s a couple of dates that Adam Rose and his band are playing. If you need a place to go hang and hear some good music, check him out one of these nights:

Sunday July 24th – Viper Room
8852 W. Sunset Blvd
West Hollywood
7 pm
$8 with flyer (get from Adam)/$12 at the door

Thursday August 4th – Hard Rock Cafe
Universal City Walk
10:30 pm
$8 with flyer/$10 at the door

For those of you who have any interest in the story behind some of the things happening in current christian culture, PBS aired what I thought was an interesting piece on what many refer to as the “Emergent Church Movement.” It is interesting to get some different perspectives on the changing landscape of how we come to worship God. I thought the story did a pretty good job of showing both the positives of the movement as well as some of the concerns.

Watch here and see what you think.

It was a long but great weekend. Saturday night was a great luau dinner to appreciate all of you volunteers who do so much around Revolution. If you weren’t able to make it or just want to see some fun photos from the night, just go ahead and check out David’s blog. He posted a great recap of the night. Then we had a great time of worship on Sunday morning and then it was off to fulfill another one of our 10 activities for the summer(as noted in previous post)!
Last night we joined some friends for a movie marathon. We did lots of laughing! We started with Napoleon Dynamite which Rachel and I had never seen. It seems like everyone we talk to either loves it or hates it. We loved it. It helps to watch with friends when you’re already in a goofy mood. Then came Rat Race, which the Platts had never seen. I still die laughing at that movie after
numerous viewings! And finally, afraid that 2 movies might not really qualify as a marathon (although special features do add quite a bit of time to movie viewing!), we finished out the night with A Series of Unfortunate Events. Rachel has read through book 10 and had been wanting to see that one for a while. It was actually much better than I expected, but not at the top of my list. It was pretty nice to have a day where we could kick back like that and relax.
So that puts 2 down and 8 more to go for us. I’m not sure we’ll really be able to finish this quest, but it will be fun to give it a shot!

The July/August issue of Relevant magazine had an article with "10 Things to Do in the Summer of ’05." The idea is to take pictures of yourself doing all 10 with the magazine and send em in. You then get a free Relevant T shirt and, better yet, you’re entered into the chance to win a Sony PSP. There was some fun stuff on there so I said, "Hey hon," (to Rachel of course), "let’s see if we can do em all!" We already had some of the events planned, so we started today with a parade for the fourth in the Platt neighborhood!
Every year since 1985, Jenny’s parents, Bob and Sara Matulich, have a community parade in their tract in Long Beach. All the kids decorate their bikes and the fire truck even comes to lead the parade. So we joined in the festivities with the Revolution Scion. We kicked open the back and blasted patriotic music throughout the neighborhood while we cruised.  I think my ears are still ringing!

It was such a cool morning!  I’m kinda sappy like that (and I’m really patriotic), but it was just so cool to see so many people together in community for the holiday.  There must have been 100 people there in the parade and then hangin in front of the Matulich home eating and celebrating afterward.  It was such a fun morning!  This afternoon we’ll be heading out to a barbeque, and then hopefully catching some fireworks tonight.

I hope everyone’s having a great fourth!  As we check off more of our summer activities, I’ll be sure to throw em up here just for fun!