Worship Leaders: Let’s Speak Prophetically

i was recently inspired by an artist who I had met on a few occasions here and there through friends, friends of friends, and various ministries, up here in Bellingham. His name is Scott Erickson, and he is the resident artist at ecclesia Houston. What an amazing talent!

The thing that I loved was the idea of worship leaders leading prophetically. Not in a predict the future sense of the word, but instead speaking to the church; leading the church with God’s calling that is placed on their heart. The amazing thing is this: if we as artists are called to lead as a Prophetic Voice, then how do we do so? Prophets were often ignored. Prophets looked pretty crazy. They were silly.

What is it then, that the church needs to hear? What is the prophetic message? Is it mercy and justice? Is it a song about love and compassion? is it a poem regarding race relations? What does your church need to hear? Who is writing these songs and are they written for personal worship or corporate?

Scott’s letter truly made me start thinking even more so through an artistic lens, but even more so through a prophetic filter. What does my congregation need to hear? What does God have for the church – for our neighbors outside of the church? Love.

 

Drug Testing for Welfare Recipients?

I’m having troubles with this whole debate over drug testing for welfare issue. I haven’t read a lot about it, but I think just by the few articles I’ve read, i get the gist of the whole thing. Here is my take: I can see why so many people back the idea, i guess. I saw a guy on twitter say, “we have to test to make money, they should test to get money”. Fair enough.

But there is something inside that says this is wrong. Does testing for welfare take away from any american rights? More so, does it not take away human rights and dignity? Let’s take a minute to look at this, because I believe that it does take away from a person’s dignity. I know that there are people who take advantage of the system, but whenever there is a system made, someone will always take advantage of it.

So i guess my question is this –  Drug Testing for Welfare: is it helping or taking away from people? Also, as a Christian, how does one stand on this issue? Do we simply support the masses who are saying that it’s a great thing, or do we lean on the side of dignity?

 

The Return to Running

Man. I’m sore. I ran for the first time in a little over a month (last run was on July 22) and it was brutal! The body likes to return to the darkness a lot quicker than i would like it to. I decided to take a “quick” 1.92 mile run. I was wrong.

Last time I did this run, It took about 5 minutes less than I did today, and I could run without stopping. Good news: I ran. It took a little encouraging and positive self talk from me, but it happened. While I was running I decided to put on Pandora’s “Foo Fighters” channel because it was a rocker, right? I was wrong.

The Foo Fighters channel will play 90′s music like Soundgarden, the Foos (naturally), Nirvana, etc. The problem is that it was their slower songs being played: Man Who Sold the World (Acoustic), The Best of You (Live at Wembley Acoustic), Blackhole Sun, and the coup de gras was finishing up my run with Wonderwall by Oasis. Not exactly the Power music that I would usually listen to. By the end of the run, I just couldn’t change the channel. I thought it would just interupt my run.

Hey. at least I got it done. But the thing that keeps me going on this run is the pay off at the turnaround:

 

To Pastor or Not to Pastor

I’ve always found myself keeping the term “Pastor” at an arms legnth away. Really, I’ve never wanted to take that title on because of what happens once it is attached to you. For starters, you have to marry and bury, which is no big deal, but between those points is where it gets messy. I see a pastor as a councelor without the liscense. Advice for the curious/hurt/needy. A pastor needs to be the voice of reason and held to a standard high above everybody else. It seems that pastor makes a superhuman. Yikes. Thus why I avoid the title.

For me, I prefer Creative Arts Director or Music Guy or him. But Pastor??? Too much to chew.

But alas, I have found this that I am excited to read:

 

From what I’ve seen and read, Peterson shares his memoirs and memories as he walked into and through this role of Pastor. Will it make me change my mind about adding Pastor to my name. Probably not. Will it make me think differently about the idea of Pastor? Having read Peterson’s books in the past, most definitely.

 

That Guy Doesn’t Care…

The other day our neighborhood celebrated the National Night Out. While i didn’t attend (I was giving a guitar lesson), I had heard a story that was pretty funny:

One of the points of National Night Out is to have police come out, communicate safety and safety procedures, and show that they are a presence in the neighborhood. Great. I love it. My friend, though, had pointed out that one of them was a political figure who is also a cop.

At one point, trouble was brewing between two groups at the event. As this was happening (i was told that it was hard to miss) the politician/cop walked right through oblivious to what was going on. Now granted I wasn’t there to see it, but my source is a first hand witness and credible.

So here is my take: This politician/cop doesn’t care. He walks through an argument and doesn’t do anything? Does he believe that his presence was enough to stop it? It says to me two things: 1) If he didn’t see it, then he is not very observant and doesn’t care about the people who he is catering to for votes. 2) if he did see it going down and ignored it, then he just plain doesn’t care about the people who he is catering to for votes. 

 The true hero of the night was the lady who lives in the neighborhood who went into the trouble and asked some of them to help her move tables. De-escalating in a positive way. This is caring. This lady cares for both sides no matter what. She didn’t want to see anything happen, and lord knows that the cops were far from the park at the time.

In the end, a party broke out in one group and dancing and fun was being had. The other side looked on cluelessly as if they were trying to figure out how to talk to some of the girls that were dancing. Resolution was found. The neighborhood was calmed. All because the lady asked for help. She cares, the politician does not.

 

Triathlon Training Continues: 6 Weeks left.

In honor of my friend Audrey, over at goteamwolf.com, I will do this post Wolf Style.

SIX WEEKS?!? I have six weeks until the Chelan Man Tri!

The above pic is from a Bellingham Geology website at Western Washington University, but it’s of the lake I’ve been swimming in. It is Lake Padden. I’ve been doing open water swims since the end of April. It’s warming up though. The best time to swim lately is at 6 am, because the sun is coming up and you’re in the middle of the lake to watch it happen. Since I have a heavy duty wetsuit, I float like a duck and I only get the ice cream headaches when I start swimming. But it’s nothing a cup of coffee won’t fix in the end.

I’ve been running from my house up to a bridge via the interurban trail up the street. It’s been a great two mile run (four round trip). the pic above I got from a blog called Transportation Choices. Check em out! This marker is along the old railroad trail that I run. Lately I’ve been pushing myself a little further and last night I made it .3 mile further, so i am running over 4.5 miles! That’s the furthest my legs have ever run before! I guess I just have to tell myself to keep moving. Really, It’s a game. A sick, sick game.

This week I NEED to hop on a road bike. I have been riding my hybrid bike as much as I can, but when I am watching Loa, I don’t think that Cynthia would appreciate her riding on the handlebars. Maybe I can get those pegs that my friends had on their back tires and Loa can stand on them. Old school!

 

Shedding Identity As A Christian

Our pastor recently returned from a trip to Indonesia with a story of people who are running covert operations in the name of Jesus. What I mean is, they are immersing themselves into the Muslim Culture and teaching the way of Christ to them, or how to follow the Teachings of Jesus and still be a Muslim.

My question that I keep going back to is this: can we shed our Christian name and identity but still be Christians? If we are immersed into the Muslim Culture, are we then Muslims if we take on their identity (i.e. names, rituals, etc)? Can we still call ourselves Christ Followers if this is the case?

I wonder this because amazing things are still happening that would be considered “normal” for a Christ Follower. For Example, the idea of Christian ethics are being introduced unknowingly, Muslims are praying in Jesus’ name, and Bible studies are being formed by muslims as well. But it is not known “in the name of Christ”. It is just happening.

I guess I stumble, because I feel as if there has to be some kind of Christian stamp on it. Somewhere, we need to know that it’s happening, in some form, for and by Jesus’ strength alone. BUT IT DOESN’T! Does it?

 

Addicted to Triathlon Training

Today I was thinking about Triathlon. Seriously, it takes up a lot of my brain space. I’ve only been training for a month and a half, but I think about it a lot. Some of the the things I think about include my workout, my diet, prep for my workout, stretching, when I can get a work out in, how excited I am that I can run three miles in a row, why cant I run three miles any faster, when is it going to warm up so I can run/bike/swim outside, when I’m swimming what is the easiest way to do it, what are my arms supposed to look like, I need to get new padded shorts for bike riding because my butt be hurtin’, maybe that will make my butt look big, that’s probably not a bad thing…

really the list goes on and on.

My name is Ron. I am addicted to Triathlon Training. I keeps it real.

 

Confession: I’m only human! I’m Sorry…

Yesterday I led the church through a worship service and we discussed dreaming about how we can impact our immediate neighbors.

Afterwards, I went to Haggen and a guy speeding through the parking lot had to slam his brakes so he didn’t hit me in the crosswalk.

My Confession: I almost flipped him off. After leaving the service talking about loving God and Neighbor, I was half a second away from giving this guy his half of a peace sign. Whoopsie.

My question: Why do we smile and wave when we almost kill people with our vehicles? I’ve almost hit a person who came out of nowhere before, and I did the exact same thing this guy did. Smile and wave. Does this make it better?

 

Whatever Happened to Please and Thank You?

Is it me, or are people getting grumpier and grumpier? People pushing and shoving. No Please or Thank You’s.

Manners? Forget about it. They don’t seem to exist as much anymore. I wish that I could tell more customers at St. Arbucks about this. In fact, I wish more people heard this song below.

As cheesy as it is, the message of the song sure could be used by a lot of the people I come into contact from day to day. I find it funny that we push manners on our kids, but we don’t use them ourselves. Eye Contact People!!! Friendly Conversation! Otherwise, this bumper sticker may be right up your alley:

Thoughts?