Category — Church

I just finished "Pop Goes the Church" by Tim Stevens, and my brain is feeling like it has overindulged at the idea buffet! I’m feeling stretched, I’m kind of uncomfortable, and there’s a lot to digest.

A couple of things stick out.  First, this book is not about dealing with people who are already actively involved in your congregation.  It is about reaching the unchurched. It deals with intentionally looking for the questions and themes that are reflected in the arts and media of our culture and using them to start God-conversations in our community.

Secondly, this book is challenging Christians to make some changes. There is a focus on becoming missionaries to our own communities, meeting needs in order to get the opportunity to talk about God.  Some of us have  become very comfortable inside the church subculture, but by doing so we become isolated and insulated from our neighbors.  As the book points out, when we are all bent over in our "holy huddles", we should consider the view that we are giving to everyone else!

What’s next?  I don’t know.  I’m pretty sure that I’m the first to read this book in our church. I don’t think I’ll be the last, though.  This could spawn some good conversations - and maybe some changes.

-Blessings-

Production week schedules for our kids choir are amazingly hectic, but the final result is worth it.  the Kids of the Kingdom choir at Tigard Christian Church will be presenting “Living Inside Out” tonight and tomorrow at 6 PM.

That’s what I’ve been working on this week instead of blogging - just so you know

On a more technical note, we managed to get a live link set up so that our son Tim could watch the dress rehearsal from 1000 miles away!

Chris over at MinistryMarketingCoach has released a 31 page ebook on using Facebook for Ministry.  It has several good ideas on how to turn a complete time sink into a tool for reaching others for Christ.  Take a look.

Last Sunday our 5th grade Sunday School lesson was on “forgiveness”. As sections of scripture go, the story of David and Bathsheba is not one of the easiest to explain, but the teacher’s guide suggested that I tell the story from David’s point of view.This turned out to be very powerful both for me and for the class.

Speaking as David, I covered the whole story from rooftop voyeur to grieving father, covering all the messy details and wrapping it up with a discussion of God’s amazing forgiveness. At least one of the kids was able to recall both the main point and the details later.

There were several ideas presented, including “forgiveness doesn’t mean there are no consequences”, and “hiding a problem is not the same as fixing it”. This could become one of my new favorite lessons. God is good!

Well, things went smoothly today. The service was focused on the topic “Forget Not His Benefits” and was set up with a lot of music surrounding three fairly short devotions on the promises of God. Simple and effective. Not as dramatic as Ryan had this morning, but very fitting.

I’m running sound for church tomorrow. Things should be fine, but a lot of the regulars are out of town (hence my running sound). Because Labor Day has become the “last chance for Summer” holiday, we historically have one of the lowest attendance days of the year. The past few years, we have switched to a single service for this weekend.
One nice feature of this is that I get to run sound while Jacob, my youngest son, is playing bass guitar for the first time. I’d like to take credit for his talent, but I think guitar skills skip a generation. He does a very commendable job of getting the notes right, the rhythms nailed, and throwing in a few “fancy bits” for effect.
We won’t be having Sunday School this week, but I will still be able to look up a few of the incoming 5th graders to frighten. Mike (my co-teacher) and I have a reputation of being a little scary, but it’s mostly just a show.

Cal covered some difficult scripture in the sermon today. The last part of Matthew 5 where Jesus expands the murder and adultery portions of the law into the heart issues of anger and lust. Also looking at how dealing with the physical issues may be simpler, but when the real problem is the heart issue, you’ve got more/harder clean-up work to do. And when was the last time that your right hand caused you to sin?

After a couple of months of fiddling around with Mambo Open Server, deciding on structure, and importing/creating content, it’s time to release the new web site for Tigard Christian Church to the public! I’ve shown it to a couple of groups (who were very supportive and helpful).
This update came about after absorbing about a year of Mean Dean’s HealYourChurchWebsite. I’ve tried to use many of the principles that he preaches there, but there is still room for improvement. Mainly, I wanted to set things up so that others could provide content - and give the site a general update.
Take a look at the new site here until the big change.