My Worship Revolution

That’s right.  just a quick check in today to celebrate.  Three years ago on March 1st this blog was born.  And lots about it has changed in that time.  Maybe some more thoughts on that next week if I feel so inclined.

A couple real fast and easy stats.  In the past three years there has been 568 posts…this would be 569.
Y’all have left 1,206 comments.
According to sire meter (bottom left) there’s been 30,550 visits here.

Anyways, point is, thanks to all of you for stopping by and reading my random ramblings.
And happy blogiversay, blog birthday or however you wanna say it!

Here’s a final installment to share the impact Life Group has had on peoples lives.  Unfortunately, it’s kinda hard to share this one without some of you knowing who they are, so hopefully they don’t mind.   

This is from a great couple that used to go to our church that was a military family and have since been restationed in another state.  Here’s what she had to share about their time involved in Life Group before leaving:

The life group [we attended] really helped us even though we were only able to attend 3 or 4 times before we left. I always felt that I was being upheld in prayer during the week and [we] really felt like it was great for our marriage and family.

Not only was it good for our family, but our friend hadn’t been to church since she was a little girl. Her brother had passed away last year and she was really having trouble understanding and dealing with it. But she later told us that the life group she attended with us was a great support system and she felt so at home there. She is now regularly attending church here on base and often says how much she misses the life group.

Wow…I love that!  Yay God!  To see not only a member of our church family blessed, but another person reconnecting with God as a result of relationships…that’s the kind of thing that keeps me going!

So, whether you go to CLC or are a part of another faith community, it’s you turn to respond.  Are you a part of a Life Group/Small Group/Care Group/Cell Group or whatever you feel like calling it where you are?  If so, have those relationships changed your life in some way?  If you’re not a part of one, why not?
Share with us.

Alright friends, so here’s the deal.

Several weeks ago, for the last day of Re:create, I got to participate in a bonus session at EMI records with some songwriters and publishers.  As part of that workshop, we were all invited to bring an original song of our own that the group, us and one of their producers, would critique.

I have felt a desire to write for years now, but I have had a lot of trouble getting past the whole artist insecurity thing.  The idea of actually sharing something I wrote freaks me out.  A while back I collaborated with a few others to write a song while on a retreat.  Outside of that, nothing much…until recently.  I mentioned it in a Worship Confessional here.

So here’s the deal.  I got some good feedback to improve the song at that workshop.  But I also wanted to go ahead, open myself up, and share it with you, my blogging community,  as well.  Several of you are worship leaders and songwriters and the rest of you are just flat out opinionated.  So I want your critique now.  before I work on the stuff they mentioned, what do you think of it?  How could it be improved?  And don’t worry about hurting my feelings.  Trust me…I’m my own worst critic.  So bring it!  Here’s the story of how the song came about, and embedded below that is the audio file with the lyrics.  Check it out:

We used this past Christmas to do a series on worship as we shared the Christmas story.  We spoke one week about Luke chapter 1 and Mary’s magnificat, her song that she offers up to God in response to his message to her.  We talked about the importance in worship of bringing ourselves and our own talents to God.  As response after the message, during the worship, we invited people to write their own "songs" to God.  To write out their own words and thoughts from their lives.  After a few songs, we brought it down and invited people to share with our community what they had written to God.  It was amazing!

Well I figured that if we were asking people to step out of their comfort zone and share their responses to God, I needed to do the same and write a song for our body (although, I of course didn’t mention I had written it).  So this is the song we sang immediately after sharing with each other what we had written to God.  The verse was kind of inspired by that passage in Luke 1 from The Message.  It’s real simple: a verse and a chorus, with a quick recording in my office.  Here ya go:

HEAR OUR SONGS

Verse
Our souls are bursting with the news of Your good works
Our feet they dance the song of our savior
Your mercy flows in waves and washes over us
The things that you have done, they will not be forgotten

Pre-Chorus
And so we respond to You
We offer You these songs

Chorus
Hear our songs to You God
Receive these offerings from our hearts
We worship You
Hear our songs to You Jesus
This is our offering, oh God

Alright people…
fire away!!

Here’s a few pieces from another email I received when I asked some people at our church how Life Group had changed their lives.

Overall, Life Group has been extremely impactfull in a positive way in my life. For the first time in my life I feel like I’m involved in my church and that I can make a difference.

In just a few short months, between CLC on Sundays and Life Group [during the week], God is transforming my life in radical ways. I never was really passionate about reaching out to others, but God has really been working on my heart in this area. I now have a sense of belonging to a group that can make a difference in the world and I’m genuinely excited to see all the ways we can positively impact others. In the past 16 months since I came back to Christ He’s been doing a lot of work in my life. I don’t think it’s by any accident I found myself hooked on CLC where God is visibly drawing me closer to Him…I now am in a personal relationship with Christ I’ve never felt before and I know this is only the beginning. And the more He draws me near to Him the more compassion He puts in my heart to be Christ to those around me.

I love that.  That’s why we do Life Groups, to see genuine life change in people’s hearts.  If you’re not involved in a Life Group, now is as good a time as any to jump on board.  You can see our current groups at our webpage, and/or email me for more info.

If you go to CLC and are not in a Life Group, you are missing out on a HUGE part of the experience of our community.

The past couple of nights we have started to go through our typical routine around dinner time.  One of us gets Caleb and puts him in high chair.  Actually, I think last night he knew it was coming and was actually standing there looking up at it.
We put the table on it, serve up out food, and begin to get his ready.
And then we look at Caleb and notice him with his hands out, just kinda looking at us, like, "We’re gonna pray now, right mom and dad?"
Here’s a pic of it:

So we all grab hands, and thank God for His provision.
Asking God to bless our food, especially when it isn’t healthy is kinda a pet peeve of mine.
We finish and say "Amen" at which point Caleb blurts out something and pulls his hands in with a big smile on his face.

I love that our son is only 17 months old and already reminds us to pray!

This week I’m sharing some responses I got to the question put out to some CLC folks, regarding if/how their lives have changed.  We got some real encouraging responses and life stories.  Here’s an excerp from another email I got back.

The stories and perspectives we share in the groups are great ways to learn about how God is working in our lives.  Through the Life Groups I feel more "a part" of the church now than "apart" from the church, like before. The Group experience gives me an opportunity to hear God speaking into my life through the experience and voices of others.
I think the most important thing though is that I feel a stronger sense of community because of this experience.

I’ve prayed to God to bring me closer to Him and He has. The Life Group is one way He is working in my life to do that. The opportunity to serve [on Sunday morning’s] is another.
Now, just recently, I prayed to God to help me deal with my commute. He found me a carpool buddy for the rest of the school year but best of all, He’s giving me the opportunity to work in Santa Cruz by connecting me to a possible position here in town! God finds a way!
This is such a big deal for me. I didn’t want to leave my church, my daughter, or the beach (in that order).
What brought the church to the top of the list? An increased sense of fellowship.

Some of that email, specifics and what not, were altered a bit to "protect the innocent."   
So awesome to hear stories of people feeling more connected to our community through life groups.
And there’s more to come!

So, I’ve talked to several friends about the wonderful tool that is Twitter.  I shared some about it here.  I was skeptical for a long time, but have become a full fledged fan.  Randy insisted that all Re:create attenders sign up for Twitter before the conference.  So I caved.  Here’s one situation that helped me become a believer.

This is my new friend David.

Let me tell you how I met David.

Rewind about 3 weeks.  Super Bowl Sunday.  Time to go to Re:create.
So my wife and I fly down to San Diego before Nashville to leave our son with my mother.
Weather sucks.
Plane delayed.
Miss first half of Super Bowl.
Charge my Macbook Pro at mom’s house.
Now, back to the airport.
Fly to Atlanta.
now we’re in the airport in ATL for a 4 hour layover.  I go to get out my computer, and low and my heart sinks.  My power cable isn’t there.  How will I survive a whole week at a conference with no laptop?!?!  There will be plenty of Mac’s there, so i’m sure I could get some puffs from people, but that won’t be enough.

After emailing my mom, begging her to overnight the power to the hotel, I decide to Twitter in my disappointment.

About ten minutes later I refresh the Twitter page on my Blackberry, and see this:

And that made my week so much better!  Thanks David!

You see…you need Twitter.  It’s also helped me know what’s happening in the Re:create folks lives since leaving.  Sign up (and update it) so I can keep up with you too!

We’ve had our Life Groups at CLC up and running as we now know them for about 6 months.  One thing I am not always so great at is celebrating the successes of ministry.  It is often too easy for me to see what isn’t as good as I want it to be.

We recently had our first huddle with all of our life group leaders.  We see life groups as a key element in the church, believing that life change happens in the context of relationship.  Wanting to encourage our leaders and show them where we are succeeding, I went out on a limb and emailed the people I knew had been involved in life groups to ask one simple question: how has being a part of  life group effected your life?

It turned out to be a huge encouragement to me as well.  So, I thought it would be fun to share some pieces of some of the emails I got here.  A chance to share where our life groups are succeeding, to celebrate, and to encourage some of you who may be in the same place at your church.  So I’ll share 1 email a day for the rest of this week.  The first one is a little general, but gives a small glimpse of why we do life groups:

I feel  an intimate relationship with the people in group.  We can share and pray together; you can sense the love and care we have for each other.  The members share from their hearts; we’re getting to really know them…family, ideas, thoughts, hurts, needs, etc.

And what the heck…one more general one for today…a Tuesday bonus.

I look forward to spending time with the group of folks in our life group. I have gotten to know people from CLC that I would not have even thought to approach. I consider these folks my friends. I always get something out of the group. I appreciate hearing their life stories. My life is richer for knowing them.

Video confessional embedded below (that was a heads up for RSS readers).
You just never know when the next confessional might decide to pop up.
I guess it was about time for another.
Here ya go.

How was your Sunday?

Many of you know, one of the passions in mine and Rachel‘s life is church planting.  That being the case, I love to follow the life and adventures of brave church planters.

One of those pioneers who I have enjoyed following over the past couple of years is Jonathan Herron.  Honestly, not even sure how I came across his blog.  But I’m glad I did.  It’s been fun watching fom a distance as he and his wife start a movement in one of the least churched areas in Ohio.  Kent, Ohio.  College town.  85% unchurched.  It’s also been fun to watch them go through the adoption process and to see them raising their son, just a few weeks older than our Caleb.

Following Jonathan’s blog is also where we got the idea for our Easter Egg Helicopter Drop we’ll be doing the day before Easter.  More on the that to come in the future!

Their church, Catalyst, is now in the midst of a serious campaign.  With big dreams and goals, their looking for churches, organizations, and individuals willing to partner with them to make a serious impact in the city of Kent.  Swing by their Be A Catalyst page and take a look at their history, their vision, and what they got goin on over there.

I’m looking forward to following along to see what God does through the community at Catalyst out there.  And if you don’t follow his blog yet, check it out.  My wife, on the other hand, really enjoys following his wife Amber’s blog.
Happy blog surfin on this Friday morning friends!