Worship Wars

My 4yr old daughter taught me what worship is about (remember, I'm a Pastor and I'm supposed to know all these things). She was in the car with her grandparents and they were listening to an oldies radio station. A song came on by the Beetles and she instantly recognized it and said, "We sing that in church!"
I was beeming! When someone associates a song that is heard on the radio with 'church', that's an awesome thing! We are able to take church into the week ahead. Worship doesn't just happen for 1 hour on a Sunday...worship is 24/7 and when a song on the radio helps worship God, that's a good thing in my book.

Leadership is Tough

We Lutherans always say that God is a God of order and we take that verse and justify to ourselves the intricate structure, elaborate traditions, the fancy manners that we make up in order to somehow think that we're pleasing God.
Whenever I see others rely on their traditions more than God, I read Genesis 1:1. Genesis 1 is cool. Before anything was created, there was nothing. And that can be a scary thing, right? Then God starts setting up shop and in 7 days creates everything. But that pre-first day is chaos. But it's a good chaos because God is in it.
Well, just when I thought things were going honky-dory, I'm slapped in the face with the reality that there's more bubbling under the surface than what I see. For those who don't know, our church is going through a revitalization (say that 5 times fast), or a transformation, so that our church reaches out into the community better.
Things are exciting with all the new possibilities and directions that we could go with certain areas: structure, interest groups, worship, etc. One day I get comments from someone that we're going in the right direction and the next day (literally) I get comments that it's all going to pot.
God is keeping me humble and no matter what the comments, I know His hand is in all this and that He will guide it the way He wants to. I compare a lot of uncertainty and unknown to that Genesis 1 pre-creation scene.
Sorry that this post sounds like a bit of venting, but I want to encourage you that no matter what you're doing: at your job, with your family, whatever; just remember that you're NOT the one in control: God is. And when it feel like it's chaos, disconnected, doesn't make sense, God is still in it.

Ever get stopped by a train?

I did just last week. It doesn't happen too often because most roads go right over train tracks. Or, the tracks are built parallel to the road. But there are some places where trains stop traffic. And I'm glad. When you're stopped by a train, you're forced to take your foot off the gas pedal, take a deep breath and slow down your hurried pace. You watch the tracks give way to the weight of the train. You hear the methodical grinding of steel and the 'clickety-clack' of the wheels. You wonder if a mischievous kid put a penny on the tracks (unless you already did!)



But the caboose always comes too quickly. The gates go up, the relaxing moment is gone and we pick up our rushing and hurrying about.



Take a moment to stop.