Month: March 2013

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Resurrection Sunday

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But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.” And they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles, but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. But Peter rose and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; and he went home marveling at what had happened.

Luke 24:1-12

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My Sources

I have loved the Einstein quote concerning creativity for quite sometime. I think one of the main reasons I enjoy it so much is because it recognizes that originality only takes places by standing on the shoulders the people who have influenced and helped you. Every creative thought or thing I have ever done has been the result of me working with the influences that are a part of my life. It turns out originality isn’t usually so original.

good fridayEarlier this week I saw this image on the Facebook profile of Joe Thorn, a pastor I follow. I don’t know how the church he leads used those three words (Guilt, Grace, and Gratitude) or the graphic (I assume it was part of their Good Friday service) but the words really rang true for me and started me thinking of a way to take what I already had for Tapestry’s Resurrection Sunday worship gathering and reshape it around those three words. Tomorrow night’s worship gathering at Tapestry will be directed by remembering those three words.

I guess I am actually doing the opposite of Einstein’s quote by not hiding my source but I like knowing the connections that are behind things and I therefore kind of like showing the connections behind what I do. I like seeing how people take something someone else has done and then shaping it into something brand new and then someone else doing the same with the new idea.

SIDE NOTE – the best book I have ever read on creativity is A Whack on the Side of the Head which I probably need to read again.

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7 Words

Since it is Good Friday I have been thinking about the 7 last words/sayings of Jesus. I’ve been focusing on one word from each saying. Here are the words that have stood out to me.

  • Forgive
  • With
  • Behold
  • Forsaken
  • Thirst
  • Hands
  • Finished

It is amazing how much one word can say. At least they are speaking to me. I hope that you have an amazing Resurrection Sunday from the God Who loves to forgive you and me, wants to be with us and us to be with Him, hopes that we behold His truth, was forsaken to find us who felt forsaken, thirsts for us to thirst for Him, has strong hands for us to commit ourselves to, and has finished what no one else could finish.

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Long Day

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Montana’s current position pretty well expresses how I feel right now.

Did the chaplain thing at St. Mike’s hospital, fed 70ish people jambalaya at the Place of Peace meal tonight at the First Baptist Church of Stevens Point, and setup led Tapestry’s 2013 Tenebrae. Long day. Missed a lot of friends who would normally be there if it hadn’t of been Spring Break this week – I hope you guys and ladies know that you are missed. Jambalaya pot is now cleaned but the church sound equipment will end up staying in the minivan for at least another day. Tired and ready for bed. I am very thankful for the threads that make this stuff happen. Looking forward to celebrating Resurrection Sunday with Tapestry mainly because I really enjoyed celebrating it with them today by serving others and reading the 14th and 15th chapters of the Gospel According to Mark (which is pretty much all our Tenebrae gathering is – reading the 14th & 15ht chapters with 7 candles and 7 songs).

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Can Versus Will

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I loved studying statistics during my undergraduate degree. Actually to be truthful I hated statistics after the first test of my second semester of statistics but that changed back to love again after I figured out what I wasn’t understanding. I learned a great deal from the general and business statistic classes that I took as a student at the University of South Alabama (yeah the initials of the school I attended are U.S.A.) that I still use today. Even as a pastor there is a great deal that I learn in those classes that I regularly use. One such lesson was the difference between possibility/chance and probability. Let me talk about example right now.

Every now and then I hear the following statement …

You can be a Christian without regularly being a part of a church.

You can add other statements such as “You can be a Christian without caring for the weak,” “reading your bible,”  “praying, ” “forgiving those who hurt you,” etc., etc. The problem I have with the above statements is that they mistake “can” (possibility) with “will” (probability). Such statements use a theoretical possibility to dismiss the personal probability and  faith always has a  personal element to it. Can you be a Christian, someone who professes Jesus as their Lord and is trying to follow Him as their Lord (Romans 10:9),  without regularly being a part of a church? Sure, though I think you would have a hard time figuring out how to live out the instruction in Hebrews to not giving up gathering together. The question shouldn’t be “can” you be a Christian without regularly being a part of a church but “will” you? Again my definition of being a Christian isn’t someone who just thinks Jesus existed and the bible is a good (but often unread) book. Nope my understanding of being a Christian comes from Jesus calling His disciples to come follow Him. So the question shouldn’t be “can you,” a theoretical discussion that doesn’t affect your live, but “will you,” a practical discussion of what is most likely based on your actions.

Since I believe faith experiences shouldn’t be separated from what we understand from our normal life experiences I will give you two life examples of the can versus will fallacy. I take great pride in my marriage and family. I work hard at being a loving husband and a good dad. Can I be a good husband/dad with out intentionally working on being one? Yep sure can. I theoretically could have a great relationship with Pam and the boys without ever spending much time with them. Yet the practical truth is that while I can have successful family relationships without effort the probability of it happening that way isn’t very great. If I don’t spend regular large amounts of time with Pam and the boys I probably won’t have good relationships with them. It doesn’t matter that it can happen. What matters is will it happen.

Another example comes from running. Can I run and finish a marathon without training for it? Again, yep sure can. The reality, however, is that without large amounts of time training for a marathon I probably won’t ever start to run one let alone finish it.

As I have been saying, possibility and probability are two different things. This is true is so much of life and faith. Can you do something or not do something and effectively follow Christ? The answer is usually yes that is a possibility. That doesn’t mean it is probable though. I am much more concerned with probability than I am possibility. I want to do the things that most help to follow Christ. I hope you do too.

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Not to Snatch People Away

“Jesus’s resurrection is the beginning of God’s new project not to snatch people away from earth to heaven but to colonize earth with the life of heaven. That, after all, is what the Lord’s Prayer is about.”
― N.T. Wright, Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church

It is Holy Week. For many of us that means more religious services than normal. I like religious gatherings and that is a good thing. It would suck for Tapestry to have a pastor that never wanted to be at any of the organized religious activities that we did. That would make for fun conversations with guests.

    “So where is your pastor?”
    “Well, he doesn’t really like organized religious gatherings…”
    “So you’re saying your pastor doesn’t come to your church gatherings?”
    “Yep, that’s it exactly.”

I could be wrong but I just don’t think that would fly very well.

With all the religious activity it can become easy to think that these gatherings are what faith is all about. They aren’t. They are just supposed to help us live out our faith. They are reminders and energizers but they aren’t the real deal. The real is living your faith out every where else.

So since it is Holy Week why not do something Christ like and infuse life back into something or someone who is experiencing the pain that comes from death. Find a hurting person and be a part of God bringing healing, faith, hope and love to their lives. After all, the kingdom of God isn’t about Christians escaping the earth. Instead it is about God invading and reclaiming His creation, bringing heaven to earth. Those of us who are followers of Christ are the people who wants to do this through. We work with Christ to see heavenly things happen. So go be heavenly.

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Lenten Project & Free

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If you haven’t checked out Tapestry’s Lenten Project yet then please let me recommend that you do so. Various threads have used their talents to help Tapestry prepare for Easter.  I am really enjoying each week’s art and song. Good news is that you can download the individual songs now and the better news is that Joel is going to work on all the songs again before we release all the songs together so they will be normalized to each other (thus having an equal volume). It is amazing to me what these ladies and gents are able to do.

Part of what I love the most about what the threads consistently do is that they do it for free. They offer their talents freely and that is just plain cool. By the end of this project Tapestry will have developed a 7 song EP that is being given away for free. The threads don’t hesitate a second in just giving their talents away. I think that is a different type of mindset and I am honored to be a part of such a group.

Here are the songs thus far (one more song comes out on Easter):