Archive - March, 2008

Sunday Night Wrapup

March 30, 2008 in Church Related with 0 Comments

We had an awesome service today, but I’m ready to get some rest. My voice is shot. I’ve had a chest cold for several days and I started coughing late Saturday night and it continued all Sunday morning. At least it continued until it was time for me to preach. God carried my voice through the sermon and afterward my throat felt like it had a tennis ball lodged inside. I managed to make it through youth tonight, but I really don’t feel like talking tonight. I’m excited about what we did at Cornerstone this morning. I will post more details tomorrow. If you want to know now, then check out the Cornerstone blog here.

Sunday nights are always such a rush of emotions. You crash back down after all the adrenaline rush of preaching and teaching, but you’re on a Spiritual high because you know that God is transforming lives. I just want to follow the Holy Spirit and say and teach what God puts on my heart. This morning, I was able to speak passionately, because I knew I had heard from God. That’s always a great feeling.

Sleep Can Be Your Friend

March 28, 2008 in Crazy Stuff with 0 Comments

I have been on a crazy schedule since Daylight Savings Time changed. I am still functioning based on the old time. I go to bed after 1am and get up around 8:30am and just can’t seem to get adjusted. I know I need to get on a better routine, but it’s tough since I seem to be most productive getting work done after the kids go to bed. I think it goes back to the fact that for the past 12 years I was in effect a bi-vocational minister. The only time I had to spend preparing lessons and sermons was late at night. It’s tough to break old habits.

The last few days have been especially tough, I’ve had a lot on my mind and have gotten much less sleep than normal. But at least it’s time well spent, since I am usually reading or studying my Bible. Enough rambling for now, I just wish we could stick with a time and not change back and forth. About the time I get adjusted, we’ll be switching back.

Quick Sermon Intro

March 27, 2008 in Church Related, Technology with 2 Comments

Here is an example of how you can create a sermon intro video quickly and easily. For Easter, I did a special sermon about responding to God. While I explained various events leading up to the cross, I wanted to establish a mental timeline of when the events occurred. I came up with the idea of using the style of my favorite tv show, 24. I didn’t want to spend a whole lot of time creating the video elements, so I decided to try something new. I used Apple Keynote, which is Apple’s equivalent of Powerpoint. I added a dark cross moving background and then added the background sound effects from 24. The last thing to add was the title in an LED font with one of the built in text entrance effects.

Start to finish, I spent about 20 minutes on the whole project. Keynote allows you to export to a quicktime movie file. I then used visualhub to export the .mov file over to a windows video file that I could use in EasyWorship.

Check out the short video clips. I think they turned out pretty good for the amount of time put into them. As a small church, you have to learn how to make things happen with limited resources. Using Keynote allowed me to create very quickly and use the built in functionality to create the look and feel of what I was looking for.

Blogging Break

March 26, 2008 in Church Related with 0 Comments

It’s been a busy week. I didn’t take a blogging break on purpose, but I’m glad I did. I needed the time away from the computer. Leading up to Easter I put most of my time and energy into preparing for the service. It was the biggest crowd we have seen since Cornerstone has started. And it was the third week in a row where we had someone surrender their life to Christ. It’s exciting to see God changing lives. I can’t wait to have a baptism service this spring. It looks like we will have 20+ people to baptize. It’s exciting!

The response time at the end was very encouraging. The message was about responding to God and I focused on the last supper, the garden, and the cross. So for the response time at the end, we had opportunities for people to take communion, pray, or nail their struggles to the Cross. It was a very humbling experience to see the cross covered in notes about what people were leaving there.

This week has been busy as well. I’ve been able to meet with several people from church and it’s exciting to see people take hold of the vision for making disciples of Christ. I’ve also spent time the last two nights working on our bathrooms at home, doing a little remodeling. I’ve got a lot on my mind to share, so you can expect a bunch of posts later this week.

Modern Worship

March 21, 2008 in Book and Music Reviews with 1 Comment

I have 3 CD’s on my iPod right now that I am playing constantly. To me, this is what worship music should be for our generation. Contemporary and compelling. Lyrics that challenge you and music that is just as good as anything you here on a current rock station. Most churches would have trouble pulling off some of these songs unless they have a large teenage/college/young adult crowd, but there are plenty of songs that would work in any contemporary church. All three have strong guitar driven rhythms, but are able to slow it down without sounding feminine. I agree with Mark Driscoll who says that much of contemporary praise music is like “prom songs to Jesus” and Chris Elrod who calls it “Panty Praise”. Here are some short thoughts about these three CD’s. Click on the album art to go straight to iTunes and listen to the songs.

Steve Fee, one of the worship leaders at Northpoint, Catalyst, and Passion has an incredible worship album out. These songs are being sung everywhere right now, and for good reason. They are easy to sing with and they have a strong message. I got to hear many of these at Catalyst this year and it was absolutely incredible to hear an entire coliseum singing at the top of their lungs. It was seriously loud, but the power came from the lyrics that focus on Christ.

Lee McDerment is the worship leader at NewSpring Church in Anderson, South Carolina. I have been reading about this CD for quite some time on Perry Noble’s and Tony Morgan’s blog. At Unleash, I was able to pick up a copy. This is an incredible CD that takes you on a musical journey from loud arena rock to soft ballads that still sound powerful. I like the distorted rhythm and lead guitars. That crunch is what is missing in too much worship music today. I also like the fact that this CD does not sound “over produced” It is real and passionate. I think you will be hearing some of these songs in other churches real soon.

The passion conferences have brought us some incredible worship music. When you get Matt Redman, David Crowder, Charlie Hall, Steve Fee, Christy Nockels, and Chris Tomlin all together on the same stage, you can expect a serious worship encounter. I think that this newest Passion CD is the best one yet. It is a live worship album so you get to hear the response of the people at the conference. This is one of those CD’s that you just find yourself singing along with. The influence that Passion has on the music sung in churches today is incredible. You will hear almost every one of these songs across the country in churches every week.

You should check out all three CD’s if you get a chance. iTunes has all of them so you can also just pick out your favorite songs. They all have the FaithEngineer stamp of approval.

Visioneering

March 18, 2008 in Book and Music Reviews, Leadership with 0 Comments

I just finished reading Visioneering by Andy Stanley and I wanted to share a few things that I learned. I had a little trouble getting into the first half of the book. I don’t know if it was just me, but the book really didn’t grab me until the later chapters. Andy Stanley weaves in leadership and vision lessons as he takes us through the story of Nehemiah rebuilding the wall. He tackles how visions are formed through prayer, how and when we should share visions, how to handle criticism, and how to maintain your moral authority in striving to achieve God-ordained visions.

For me, this was exactly what I needed to read at this point in my ministry. At times, I have been a hesitant and reluctant leader and I have let other people hijack the vision that God has put in my heart. I am learning how important it is to …

  1. Stay connected to God through prayer and Bible study so I can clearly listen to his voice
  2. Maintain moral authority by living a life that honors God
  3. Ignore distractions and criticism that would bring me down off the wall. I agree with what Perry Noble shared at Unleash. I will only listen to criticism from those people who love God and love me. Criticism from others does nothing but tear you down.
  4. Share the vision clearly and passionately so that others can see God at work and so that God will get the glory

I want to leave you with the closing quote from the book. I think all leaders are burdened. They aren’t satisfied with the way things are. Leaders are able to see how things could be, and that vision creates an inner struggle at times. Our tendency is too give up when things get tough, or to push so hard to achieve the vision that people are hurt in the process. We must maintain our focus on God and the vision he has given us, but we must honor Him in how we lead others. Here is Andy’s quote.

Everybody has a mental picture of what could and should be for his life. But not everybody will pay the price to turn that mental image into reality.
If you are consumed with the tension between what is and what is and what could be, if you find yourself emotionally involved … frustrated … broken-hearted … maybe even angry … about the way things are, and if you believe God is behind your anguish, then chances are you are on the brink of something divine. Something too important to walk away from.
Pay the price.
Embrace the vision.
After all, everybody ends up somewhere in life.
You have the opportunity to end up somewhere on purpose.

Financial Freedom Experience

March 15, 2008 in Church Related with 0 Comments

Here is an invite card that we are handing out in church tomorrow. Cornerstone is hosting Joe Sangl from NewSpring Church to come up and lead his Financial Freedom Experience Workshop. You can pre-register at church, online at MyCornerstone, or by calling the church office at 276-233-8750. I’m super excited about how God can use Joe to help us become better managers of the 100% of what God has blessed us with. I think too many churches focus on the 10% and forget about the other 90%. Invite your friends and let them know about the class. We are holding it downtown in our new facility. It will be downstairs in the children’s ministry area. You can find out more at Joe’s website.

Reflections on Unleash

March 15, 2008 in Church Related, Leadership with 0 Comments

Going to conferences usually evokes several emotions in me. I am usually excited about what I’m about to learn, but secretly I sometimes dread the travel, the time away from home, and the confusion that typically exists about where to go and what to do. It’s just my structured, analytical side coming out. I went to Unleash this week with my emotional ministry tank running low. It’s been a tough few months for me for a number of reasons, but the end result is that I didn’t know what to expect.

From the time we pulled into the parking lot, there were smiling faces everywhere. Thank you NewSpring for having volunteers so passionate and excited about the vision of your church. The main sessions were inspiring, the breakouts were informative and I left energized and excited about what God has called me to do. I think the second main session gave everyone a glimpse of what pastors go through. The emotional weight of leading a church can be overwhelming at times, and the conference really encouraged pastors. Thank you NewSpring for realizing that we are all in this together. That as churches we should share and encourage one another instead of competing against each other.

The worship led me to tears several times. I think everyone in our group was caught a little off guard by the volume and especially the subwoofers (right Sonda), but I absolutely loved it. I guess that is the result of going to so many youth conferences and concerts over the years. After the conference, our group from Cornerstone stopped and ate supper at Sticky Fingers in Greenville. As a pastor, I was excited to see how God birthed a passion in our people from seeing the volunteers at NewSpring. But it all comes down to vision. Having a vision to reach people in our community. Having a vision to help people grow and become more like Christ. I think everyone is starting to realize the impact that a church can have if they become passionate about fulfilling the Great Commission. God is amazing. He knows exactly what I need to hear and when I need to hear it. Thank you NewSpring and Perry for listening to God, and for encouraging and motivating our church to follow God passionately.

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