We sing the song in church every once in a while and I have to admit I cringe a little when we do. “O the wonderful cross…” we sing - such a melodic tune for such a violent and tragic image. My guess is Jesus wasn’t singing about the wonderful cross while he was dying on it and for us to sweetly sing of how wonderful it was negates the power of Jesus’ willingness to die for what he believed. It is to go from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday without remembering the hurt and pain of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.
To think of the cross as wonderful can confuse our spiritual thinking. It can cause us to think maybe God sent Jesus to die on the cross. I believe God sent Jesus with the great hope we would listen to Him, follow Him and build the kingdom God put into His heart and mind. Jesus was the continuation of the covenant relationship God had whispered in the ear of Abraham, engraved on stone tablets for Moses and wrote on Jeremiah’s heart. It was God’s promise to always be our God and God’s demand for us to always be His people. The people were never fully able to remain loyal to the covenant relationship, so God sent Jesus to be a living, breathing connection to Him and His desires.
The cross came not by God’s direction, but because of the inability of those listening to Jesus to hear the word of God through him. His message threatened them and the religion with which they had become comfortable. It should remind us that crosses are never wonderful and are not the way God chooses to work with His people. God does not use crosses to test us or to get back at us for something we have done. Thinking this way distances us from the One who is always pursuing us that we might know His love. Crosses come not from God, but out of our shallowness, selfishness and sinfulness. They come out of our inability to see the vision of God for us.
The good news comes when God responds to the faithlessness and cruelty of the cross with the resurrection. God gives the life the world took from Jesus back to Jesus. And God continues to do so for us today. God still loves us through the hurts and difficulties of life; not making the crosses we bear wonderful, but manageable. The love of God helps us to live through the crosses to a new life – and not just a new life in the world to come, but a new life in the world we live in now.
You may have noticed crosses in Protestant churches and Catholic churches look different from one another. In Catholic churches Jesus is on the cross, while in Protestant churches the cross is empty. One recognizes the suffering of Jesus while the other emphasizes the resurrection. We should probably have examples of both in our churches, because both concepts are important for our faith. As the song says, “O the wonderful cross bids me come and die and find that I may truly live.” I hope the next time we sing these words, you will cringe a little with me.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Monday, June 22, 2009
What is a Worship Leader?
In our 2008-2012 Strategic Plan, seven priority areas are identified to give us direction as we continue to seek to “change our community and world through growing relationships with Jesus Christ.” The second of those priorities is to expand on the excellence of our worship services to include a focus on passion in our worship. A team of our members was put together to think through what that might mean for us as a church.
The first consideration that came from that team was to hire a worship leader. The idea came from the book Go Big by Bill Easum and Bil Cornelius. This was the book we used to help challenge us as a congregation into our next stages of growth. In the chapter on “Staffing the Church for Explosive Growth”, the authors emphatically recommend hiring a worship leader. In fact, they say that the most important staff person following the lead pastor is the worship leader. In our setting here at Stonebridge UMC a worship leader would work with the other music and worship staff to design worship, help in choral song selection, conduct a growing number of music groups and lead in the presentation of music, particularly in the Celebration Services. In a sense, this person is to make sure the congregation is brought into a spiritual mood of worship as we begin our service. The worship leader is to help us reach our potential in our praise of God. He or she is to enable us in glorifying God.
When Don Smith started this church, he recognized the importance of music and made some of the first hires of the church our music leadership. When we started The Bridge, we knew the success of that service would revolve around the music; so we hired D-MAC to team up with Pastor Terri and The Bridge was off and running. Now, the next step for the Celebration services is to enhance the dynamic music Stonebridge has become famous for by adding a worship leader to our staff. Our Staff Parish Team has already written a job description for the position of worship leader and has approved posting the position to gather candidates for the job.
You are going to get a taste of what that might look like in Celebration Hall on Sundays, June 28, July 5, and July 12. Our very own Tracy Lastrapes will play the role of worship leader in those services to, as Emeril Lagassi would say, “crank it up another notch.” This does not mean the Celebration Service will become more Bridge-like. We want each of our services to be as distinct as always. It also does not mean it will be louder or more contemporary in style. What it does mean is that our worship will be more passionate; with the singing more robust, infectious and praiseful.
Make sure you are in church these Sundays to see the beginnings of our next steps of growth in the name of Christ.
The first consideration that came from that team was to hire a worship leader. The idea came from the book Go Big by Bill Easum and Bil Cornelius. This was the book we used to help challenge us as a congregation into our next stages of growth. In the chapter on “Staffing the Church for Explosive Growth”, the authors emphatically recommend hiring a worship leader. In fact, they say that the most important staff person following the lead pastor is the worship leader. In our setting here at Stonebridge UMC a worship leader would work with the other music and worship staff to design worship, help in choral song selection, conduct a growing number of music groups and lead in the presentation of music, particularly in the Celebration Services. In a sense, this person is to make sure the congregation is brought into a spiritual mood of worship as we begin our service. The worship leader is to help us reach our potential in our praise of God. He or she is to enable us in glorifying God.
When Don Smith started this church, he recognized the importance of music and made some of the first hires of the church our music leadership. When we started The Bridge, we knew the success of that service would revolve around the music; so we hired D-MAC to team up with Pastor Terri and The Bridge was off and running. Now, the next step for the Celebration services is to enhance the dynamic music Stonebridge has become famous for by adding a worship leader to our staff. Our Staff Parish Team has already written a job description for the position of worship leader and has approved posting the position to gather candidates for the job.
You are going to get a taste of what that might look like in Celebration Hall on Sundays, June 28, July 5, and July 12. Our very own Tracy Lastrapes will play the role of worship leader in those services to, as Emeril Lagassi would say, “crank it up another notch.” This does not mean the Celebration Service will become more Bridge-like. We want each of our services to be as distinct as always. It also does not mean it will be louder or more contemporary in style. What it does mean is that our worship will be more passionate; with the singing more robust, infectious and praiseful.
Make sure you are in church these Sundays to see the beginnings of our next steps of growth in the name of Christ.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Wear Your Shirt and Share Your Faith
A few weeks ago, our Coordinator of Adult Ministries, Suzy Cass, was presenting a devotional in which she used a video clip from a sermon by Adam Hamilton, Senior Pastor of Church of the Resurrection in Kansas City. In the sermon Adam told a story about a meeting he had with his youth pastor, Dan. It was one of those weeks when time had become tight and their regular staff meeting had been cancelled, so Adam and Dan, both being night owls, decided to meet on their common agendas at a pub down the street from the church at 10pm.
They were seated at a table and talked church matters and enjoyed soft drinks and appetizers. Adam was wearing a sweatshirt with the church’s logo on it which evidently drew a few people to their table. The first was a drunken woman from the table next to them. She asked with slurred speech, “Do you guys go to that church?” They answered “yes”. Then she asked, “Why did God kill my sister?” Adam promised the congregation listening to his sermon that he would be talking about that in his sermon the next Sunday. A while later the waitress stopped by their table and asked, referring to his sweatshirt, “Is that the church on…” and gave the address. They said “yes”. And she asked, “Do you like that church.” Sheepishly, Adam answered, “Yeah, I like it a lot.” Then the woman confessed, “My life isn’t going so well. I just recently got divorced and I have a three year old child. I’ve been a pagan witch for the last eight years and that’s not really working for me. I just feel like I need something else in my life. Do you think that church you go to would let a divorced, single mother who works in a bar and has a been pagan witch come to church?” Adam responded, “I can tell you without hesitation the people of that church would welcome you.” She came the next Sunday – a little surprised to see him preaching in his robe – but that was the beginning of her journey.
As most of you know, we have been selling shirts with our church name on them. You can buy a “golf shirt”, a “camp shirt”, a “t-shirt” or even a shirt with rhinestones on it, but, whatever shirt you buy, I hope you understand the purpose of these shirts. It is not to be a fashion statement (even though I am sure you will look really good in one), but rather an opportunity to share your faith and invite people to church. For most of us, the most difficult part of our Church + 3 commitment is to share our faith. It does not seem to come naturally. Certainly we have had few good role models to show us appropriate and helpful ways to go about it and, we would probably have to admit, we are not always comfortable articulating what we believe. But wearing a shirt with our church name on it gives you a simple way to invite someone to church. First, they will come to you to ask their questions; you don’t have to feel like you are “assaulting” someone against their will. Secondly, you don’t have to be a theologian to invite someone to church.
I hope you decide to wear a shirt as a commitment to your discipleship and a sign of your willingness to share your faith and church with others. You might just find yourself telling a story about how you helped someone start their journey of faith. To order a shirt, contact Suzy Cass at suzy@mysumc.org or call 972-529-5601 x332.
They were seated at a table and talked church matters and enjoyed soft drinks and appetizers. Adam was wearing a sweatshirt with the church’s logo on it which evidently drew a few people to their table. The first was a drunken woman from the table next to them. She asked with slurred speech, “Do you guys go to that church?” They answered “yes”. Then she asked, “Why did God kill my sister?” Adam promised the congregation listening to his sermon that he would be talking about that in his sermon the next Sunday. A while later the waitress stopped by their table and asked, referring to his sweatshirt, “Is that the church on…” and gave the address. They said “yes”. And she asked, “Do you like that church.” Sheepishly, Adam answered, “Yeah, I like it a lot.” Then the woman confessed, “My life isn’t going so well. I just recently got divorced and I have a three year old child. I’ve been a pagan witch for the last eight years and that’s not really working for me. I just feel like I need something else in my life. Do you think that church you go to would let a divorced, single mother who works in a bar and has a been pagan witch come to church?” Adam responded, “I can tell you without hesitation the people of that church would welcome you.” She came the next Sunday – a little surprised to see him preaching in his robe – but that was the beginning of her journey.
As most of you know, we have been selling shirts with our church name on them. You can buy a “golf shirt”, a “camp shirt”, a “t-shirt” or even a shirt with rhinestones on it, but, whatever shirt you buy, I hope you understand the purpose of these shirts. It is not to be a fashion statement (even though I am sure you will look really good in one), but rather an opportunity to share your faith and invite people to church. For most of us, the most difficult part of our Church + 3 commitment is to share our faith. It does not seem to come naturally. Certainly we have had few good role models to show us appropriate and helpful ways to go about it and, we would probably have to admit, we are not always comfortable articulating what we believe. But wearing a shirt with our church name on it gives you a simple way to invite someone to church. First, they will come to you to ask their questions; you don’t have to feel like you are “assaulting” someone against their will. Secondly, you don’t have to be a theologian to invite someone to church.
I hope you decide to wear a shirt as a commitment to your discipleship and a sign of your willingness to share your faith and church with others. You might just find yourself telling a story about how you helped someone start their journey of faith. To order a shirt, contact Suzy Cass at suzy@mysumc.org or call 972-529-5601 x332.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Super God
“It’s a bird! It’s a plane!” No, it’s just some guy in blue tights and a cape. The other night, nothing was on television (Can you imagine, hundreds of channels and nothing to watch?), and I found myself watching the movie Hollywoodland. It is the story of the mysterious death of George Reeves, the original TV Superman, and I’ll have to say the movie took a little of the “super” out of the man. To tell you the truth, even though I grew up loving the show, I never really thought he looked all that “super.” The suit showed a little more of his body shape than it should have. It was hard to imagine him being “faster than a speeding bullet” or “more powerful than a locomotive” or able to leap much more than a foot off the ground.
My favorite part of the show was when he would demonstrate his many powers to the bad guys; bullets bouncing off of his chest, bending steel with his bare hands, using his x-ray vision to overcome a criminal and save the day. Now that was television! I hated those shows where he was weakened by kryptonite or unable to see through lead. Even though I knew he would win by the end of the show, I didn’t like it when he was vulnerable. Seeing the “man of steel” exposed as a man with a number of human frailties in Hollywoodland reminded me of how alluring the fantasy of invincibility is.
Throughout history, we have often made our gods, super gods. Huge images of the gods of Egypt, Babylon and Mesopotamia were erected to show the immense power of that god; often to instill fear and servitude. The God of the Old and New Testaments was not such a God. Yes, we proclaim our God to be omnipotent (all powerful) and believe God to be the creator of all that is, but the more we learned about the God Yahweh, the more we realized He was never an aloof God. God connected to us by making a covenant with us, became vulnerable in sending us his Son and the only image God ever wanted erected to Him is us. Too often we have tried to make God who we have wanted Him to be, rather than who God has revealed Himself to be. We would rather think of God being responsible for everything than realizing God calls us into a partnership to be responsible with Him. We want God to right the wrongs, overcome the bad and defeat evil at very turn. We want our enemies to be God’s enemies. We want God to rescue us from anything bad that might happen to us, rather than understand that God walks with us through the valleys of life. So, we have blamed God for not fixing something in our lives, blinding us from our responsibility as His partners and seeing His presence loving us through it.
We are created in the image of vulnerability rather than power. It is in giving ourselves to another person that brings the wholeness of humanity, not wielding our power over them. As I think back on it, Superman became a model for little boys. He was the epitome of masculinity. He was powerful, fearless and invincible. To be manly growing up in the 50’s meant to show your muscles, never cry or show that you were hurt and never take a chance on showing your feelings in front of someone else. Most of us took seriously those Charles Atlas ads on the back covers of comic books that said to be a man meant never to let anyone kick sand in your face and get away with it. I am afraid not much has changed.
The Bible calls us to remember that we, not some enormous idol, are the images of God in the world today. God expects us to bring the kingdom of which Jesus taught into reality. It might be fun to imagine there is a being out there fighting “the never ending battle for truth, justice and the American way”, but what makes God “super” is the love that comes out of being vulnerable.
My favorite part of the show was when he would demonstrate his many powers to the bad guys; bullets bouncing off of his chest, bending steel with his bare hands, using his x-ray vision to overcome a criminal and save the day. Now that was television! I hated those shows where he was weakened by kryptonite or unable to see through lead. Even though I knew he would win by the end of the show, I didn’t like it when he was vulnerable. Seeing the “man of steel” exposed as a man with a number of human frailties in Hollywoodland reminded me of how alluring the fantasy of invincibility is.
Throughout history, we have often made our gods, super gods. Huge images of the gods of Egypt, Babylon and Mesopotamia were erected to show the immense power of that god; often to instill fear and servitude. The God of the Old and New Testaments was not such a God. Yes, we proclaim our God to be omnipotent (all powerful) and believe God to be the creator of all that is, but the more we learned about the God Yahweh, the more we realized He was never an aloof God. God connected to us by making a covenant with us, became vulnerable in sending us his Son and the only image God ever wanted erected to Him is us. Too often we have tried to make God who we have wanted Him to be, rather than who God has revealed Himself to be. We would rather think of God being responsible for everything than realizing God calls us into a partnership to be responsible with Him. We want God to right the wrongs, overcome the bad and defeat evil at very turn. We want our enemies to be God’s enemies. We want God to rescue us from anything bad that might happen to us, rather than understand that God walks with us through the valleys of life. So, we have blamed God for not fixing something in our lives, blinding us from our responsibility as His partners and seeing His presence loving us through it.
We are created in the image of vulnerability rather than power. It is in giving ourselves to another person that brings the wholeness of humanity, not wielding our power over them. As I think back on it, Superman became a model for little boys. He was the epitome of masculinity. He was powerful, fearless and invincible. To be manly growing up in the 50’s meant to show your muscles, never cry or show that you were hurt and never take a chance on showing your feelings in front of someone else. Most of us took seriously those Charles Atlas ads on the back covers of comic books that said to be a man meant never to let anyone kick sand in your face and get away with it. I am afraid not much has changed.
The Bible calls us to remember that we, not some enormous idol, are the images of God in the world today. God expects us to bring the kingdom of which Jesus taught into reality. It might be fun to imagine there is a being out there fighting “the never ending battle for truth, justice and the American way”, but what makes God “super” is the love that comes out of being vulnerable.
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