i saw this twain quote on my google homepage this evening.
When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained.
randomquotes from "what would JESUS deconstrcut?"
i’m reading john d. caputo’s book “what would JESUS deconstuct” at the moment and here are a few quotes that have stuck out thus far.
deeconstrcution is organized around the idea that things contain a kind of uncontainable truth, that they contain what they cannot contain [emphasis added]
page 29
the nest time we look up to heaven and piously pray “come, LORD JESUS,” we may find that HE is already here, trying to get warm over an urban grate or trying to cross our borders.
page 30
the truth will make you free, but it does so by turning your life upside down.
page 30
it’s a good read thus far.
what dad and i did
this is pretty much what my father and i did on the parental units’ visit to wisconsin. i took mom to the cheese factory and dad to the river.
the play by play
okay per stephen’s last comment i will post more details about the launch.
sunday was the launch of tapestry and it went wonderfully, but even better is that there are already several ways that some of us see to make it connect even better with the people within our community. when i say it wonderfully what i mean is that it seemed to connect with those who were there. they seemed to get what we are trying to do with tapestry. there were 55 of us there (which i was thrilled with since i didn’t know anybody when the terrell family moved here a year ago). obviously all of those people won’t stay but a significant enough group really seemed to “get” the mentality of tapestry. in fact, i’ve already heard reports from three people who weren’t there concerning how positively someone had talked to them about the service.
the band was great. heather, hillary, and cory did a terrific job and i know that they are just going to get better. the music had a very laid back vibe to it which i liked. they also are not afraid to take risks. this is great because one of the things that i had hoped for was that we would be a group that would regularly experiment with the way we do things.
it was also a very positive experience because half of the launch team wasn’t there and things still pulled together. as many of you know mike penza’s brother (dave) died last week. therefore mike and kaylyn where with his family where they needed to be. since casey was already going to be missing this made us a little short-handed. i was a little worried about this. it turned out to be a none issue because everyone else jumped in and filled the gaps. jacob is an amazing servant and the band turned out to have the same mind set. at the end of our worship gathering i was able to spend time with our guests instead of directing take down. it was just what needed to happen. it’s just going to be better when all the “family” is there.
one of the things i have dreamed about is leading a church that encourages participation within every aspect of worship. part of this is involvement within the message. i firmly believe that GOD’s word is too powerful to be adequately conveyed by one voice. maybe other pastor’s voices are powerful enough to preach all of GOD’s truth but mine isn’t. i need the church through the SPIRIT to fill in the blanks that i miss. part of this is some participation within the delivery of the message and then another part is participation within the development of the message (which we will start in a few weeks or months). i tried asking some questions during one of the previews and the response was crickets in a background of silence. for the launch i decided to give everyone a simple “baby step” for moving toward the participation that had not been accomplished the week before. i gave everyone a bid card, like you would use at an auction, to hold up when i asked certain questions. it seemed to work. it’s not where i believe GOD ultimately wants us to be but i think it will help get us there. of course, the second i asked an open ended question the crickets were back.
the things we will be working on over the next few weeks
- continuing to improve the setup process
- refining childcare – we’re a very young congregation so i thought this would be something we had to deal with in a couple of months. turns out i was wrong. it’s a good problem.
- a little more organized guest greeting – of course, that’s hard to do on the first week because everyone is a guest.
- introducing everyone to our nontraditional “invitation time.” this will be new to those who are used to a traditional evangelical church.
how do we read JESUS?
the end of the beginning
i’m pretty tired right now so i won’t post anything too long but i did want to let everyone know that the birthday tapestry has been accomplished. now we get to started the growth and maturing processes.
after 3 years of dream, 2 years of planning, 13 months of being in point, and a ton of conversations 55 other people joined our family tonight for the first public worship gathering of tapestry. it was a great start.
thank you to everyone who prayed and supported us. there is still so much to do but we have at least reached the end of the beginning.
jesus bobble head
for those of you who are wondering i did most definitely buy a JESUS bobble head figure for the “would JESUS be a CHRISTian” message series. the main point of it will be a reminder for everyone that this is not what our LORD should be like. a bobble head JESUS agrees with everything you agree with and disagrees with everything you disagree with because you control HIS head. if you want HIM to agree with something then you just make HIM do it. this means JESUS never finds your personal sin that big of a deal but HE abhors the sins that you have no problem with. no body is every challenged by a bobble head JESUS.
of course the real JESUS isn’t like that. the real JESUS challenges everyone and unfortunately steps on my toes way too often for my tastes.
so i have a bobble head JESUS coming to hold up during the messages as a reminder that our GOD is not like this thing, so we should never treat HIM like HE is a bobble head.
SIDE NOTE – i chatted with my friend josh today. we’ve talked before about his wife and his desire to be a part of GOD planting a new church. last time we talked i thought it was years away. well today i found out it was a year away. that’s right uno! being one year away from planting a church is an amazing time. it calls for a ton of prayer, planning, and most importantly large and small “leaps to faith.” if you have a moment would you lift up josh & kimberly in prayer? i think GOD would be honored if you do.
find your work on the web
always fun to find something you’ve done posted by someone else on the web. the above slideshow is found on slideshare. i go there every now and then to get new ideas for more engaging powerpoint presentations. i looked at this slide show out of curiosity and low and behold i ran into my own photos. slides 30 and 36 are from the youth worship service that i used to lead at parkview in baton rouge. it’s fine that the guy used them because i list them as creative commons (though it would have been nice to have been notified). it was fun to randomly run into something that i have done.
would JESUS be a CHRISTian?
this is the sermon series i am working on for september 21st through october 12th. the idea came from an college article i read from 2005 called “capitalists make bad CHRISTians” by ian greenleigh. i didn’t agree with everything in the article but i did think it raised some good questions. then i read several other articles asking what would happen if JESUS were to walk into many of the churches in north america – would HE want to associate HIMself with us? would we submit to our revolutionary SAVIOR?
obviously i’m not the first or the only one asking this question. look on the web and you’ll find several posts on it. you’ll even find an interesting article from an atheist asking the same question.
anyhow i decided it would be a good way to start tapestry off.
so what are your thoughts? would JESUS identify HIMself with most modern american churches?
tapestry launch video
tapestry launch video from Robert Terrell on Vimeo.
this is the video i will probably show at the opening of the tapestry launch service.