for those of you who want it here’s the tapestry monthly prayer email for october. if you are not already receiving this by email and would like to then just email me and i will add you to the list.
cellist & a beat boxer
i’m putting this audio file up here because i think it is cool. the ladies and gents who have been leading the music at tapestry have been doing an incredible job. heather has a done an amazing job of getting some very creative and talented people involved in leading worship at tapestry. this past sunday they wanted to start things off with a cellist and a beat boxer. i had no idea what it would be like but it was great. it was a great and unusal way of starting off worship. it just makes me excited for more.
anyhow, you can hear the audio below.
9.28.2008's videos
for those of you who are interested here are the two videos that i used sunday night at tapestry.
this is a video of the scripture that the message came from. work of the people produced the video. i really love their stuff.
and this is a segment from olbermann that i used as an illustration.
it takes a village
one of the coolest things that pam and i have experience in this little adventure of planting tapestry has been all the unexpected support we have received. we went into this thing believing that GOD would provide and knowing that i do a pretty lousy job of asking for help. we moved up to stevens point with a $100 a month pledge from our former church and a commitment from about 20 people to regularly pray for us and tapestry. apparently we had the right 20 people praying because support has come from unexpected and unasked for sources over the past year. it has been amazing.
without me asking people the prayer group has grown from 20 to 80 people and at least 5 different churches that i know of (there are a couple of more that have discussed it but i don’t know if they have begun or not). this has been huge because they have been an endless source of encouragement. it always seems that on the days that i am down or doubting i receive a card or message from one of the individuals or churches that has committed to praying for us. in fact, the photo above is of an encouragement banner from a group of ra’s in thorndale, texas who have adopted tapestry. it’s quite cool knowing that these little guys are praying for us.
i have also been amazed at the financial support that has come in. i haven’t asked people to give but we have had several people from family to former co-workers to friends send money and resources to be used within tapestry. since, we were starting from "ground zero" this was a huge asset. i hate asking people for help, it really tears my stomach up. yet because of these supportive individuals i haven’t had to ask anyone to support us. don’t get me wrong, we’re not rolling in the dough budget-wise but we do have the funds necessary to do the bare minimum that is necessary without pam and i going into debt. this would not have happened without people and a couple of churches randomly giving to what is happening.
there are people in point who believe in what GOD wants to do through tapestry but many of those people would never had the chance to hear the message if it were not for people outside of point who believed to the point of supporting it.
so what i am trying to say to everyone who has helped is THANKS! i completely recognize that this whole thing is a team effort to glorify GOD. some of the team lives in point and other members of the team aren’t as fortunate. 🙂
showing off GOD’s grace
when we were dreaming about starting tapestry one of the things that kept popping up into our discussions was that we wanted to be a place that “shows off GOD’s grace.” basically this means that we want to a place that people in our community will be able to see doing things that really convey the love of GOD. words help do this sometime but actions are so much better for doing it.
today the stevens point journal helped us with our goal. if you read my blog regularly then you are probably familiar with tapestry hooking kilumbo up with water. the journal ran a story on the experience. HERE’s a link to the story. hopefully it goes a little way in helping us to achieve our goal of showing off GOD’s grace.
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.
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.
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.
5 days
simulacra and simulation
i like candles in worship. nothing blatantly spiritual about them, they just help me to get into the right mindset. washington elementary school now has a no open flame policy and therefore regular candles are a “no no.” the issue i now face is whether flameless candles are just completely cheesy or not. i feel pretty lame putting out flameless candles just as a mood setter but at the same time i really do like candles in worship gatherings. of course, flameless candles are merely a simulation of the real thing and therefore it could be argued that they aren’t really going to serve the same purpose anyhow. i no for most of you this is probably not a big deal, but it’s twisting my brain in knots. any thoughts?
SIDE NOTE – here’s the itunes address for our podcast once it begins. obviously it won’t begin until our gatherings do (september 14).