Entries from December 2005 ↓

Amid all of the recent stories of churches (especially megachurches) cancelling worship services next Sunday (aka: Christmas), at least one megachurch pastor got it right (after some re-consideration).

From Josh Harris’ blog

I shared the following comments with my church this morning. Sometimes you learn the hard way, but I’m grateful for a patient congregation and the faithful wounds of friends.

“This year because Christmas morning falls on a Sunday I made the decision to replace our normal Sunday meeting with two Christmas Eve services. Since then I’ve come to believe that this was the wrong decision, informed by the wrong priorities.

I made my decision primarily out of a desire to release the staff and volunteers from their normal service on teams like the parking crew and children’s ministry. What I failed to see is that next Sunday morning is an opportunity for us as a church to reaffirm the priority of gathering to worship as the people of God on the Lord’s day. It’s chance to state to ourselves and our families and our community that the worthiness of our God, not the convenience of the calendar dictates our worship.

All that to say, that we’ve decided to hold a Christmas morning meeting next Sunday. We’re going to have one meeting at 11am that will be an hour long. This is going to be a very simple morning. We’re doing Sunday differently so that we can release our army of volunteers. There won’t be any children’s ministry, but feel free to come worship as a family.

I apologize for my misjudgment and any inconvenience it causes you. And I thank you for your patience.”

Good on ya, Josh

I’m blogging from a coffeehouse, listening to my iPod, Bible open next to me. How pomo/emergent-ish is this scene?

Anyway . . . last week, my family had the privilege of lighting the Advent Candle at the beginning of last week’s liturgy. Zoë was excited to do this, and as Greg said “Amen” at the end of his opening prayer, Zoë (as quietly as she could muster, which wasn’t at all) said “let’s go!”

There was a scripture reading for each candle to be lit (three, as it was the third week of Advent). I held my little girl in my arms and read each passage, and Amy lit each candle after each passage was finished.

Simple acts, but for the first time, I felt as if we were participating with the angels and the ascended saints in the worship of the incarnate Christ.

The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness,
on them has light shined.

Alright, I won’t be slacking on this one, mainly because I’ll soon be one of the folks doing the actual recording . . .

Grace Central now has a podcast available at http://gracecentral.wordpress.com/. The inaugural message is from this past Sunday, entitled Christmas Is An Act of War. It’s a good’un. Listen and tell me (or the Funky Presbyter himself) what you think.

Subscribe in iTunes (or your other favorite podcatcher) to http://feeds.feedburner.com/GraceCentral.

The iTunes Music Store now has Derek’s new four-song EP. The tracks are . . .

1) a rockin’ version of Thankful – from the How To Kill And Be Killed DVD
2) a country-flavored version of Wedding Dress – also from HTKABK . . . really showcases his voice
3) Ballad In Plain Red – again, HTKABK
4) and the real selling point, A New Law – from Derek’s upcoming (12.26.2005) Mockingbird album

Get it! $0.99/track or $3.96 for the whole EP.

Two things . . .

1) I slacked off and quit updating the Northbrook podcast . . . a disservice to the public, because there’s really some phenomenal teaching going on there. Fortunately, Sue saw the need and picked up the slack.

You can now listen to sermons from Northbrook by subscribing to the following URL in your podcast client of choice (iTunes is mine) . . .

http://feeds.feedburner.com/northbrookchurchgatheringplace

I miss those folks.

2) Hopefully within the next *insert time interval here*, there will be a Grace Central podcast. Along with weekly sermons, we’re hoping to feature interviews and talks on various cultural and kingdom topics. Sooner than later, G Love and Special Bloss and myself will have the stuff to make this a reality.

End transmission.