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An apostle

As I was growing up I heard some really silly "Christian" things. One of those things always baffled me; the idea that apostles don't exist anymore. (I actually had a pastor tell me this last year)

As I've been studying missiology I've discovered something I always knew at a subconcious level . . . of course apostles exist today. Paul was an apostle, in spite of never having walked with Jesus or having been trained by Him personally.

And that calling didn't end with Paul. Anyone that steps out in an entreprenuial sense to bring the story, the life, and family of Jesus to a community is an apostle.

Kinda like the movie . . . 

giving it away

In my last post I spent some time writing about dangerous motivations for planting a church.  Over the past few months I've spent a considerable amount of time reading and writing about church planting, and I've been struck by what one of the most popular reasons to plant really is.  You might be surprised . . .

When you get down to it, many of the leaders who plant churches do so because they are not allowed to lead fully in their current ministry settings.  In the hierarchical model of church leadership, the senior pastor has veto power over everything any leader on the staff wants to undertake.  New ideas, new approaches and new pursuits can all be ground to a halt under this model.  Very often, non-senior pastors are not allowed to give ministry away by senior pastors who are unwilling themselves to give leadership away. 

Other times senior pastors are unwilling to unleash the broader passions of other pastors at their churches because those passions don't fall inside their preconceived structural boundaries.   More than one friend of mine is planting a church because the senior pastors at their previous churches wouldn't allow them the opportunities to develop their gifts as evangelists and teachers.  I've certainly be called to task for having the nerve to step outside my 'worship pastor box' at previous churches.

Taking the model a step further, I've recently learned of a young church in Wichita that decided they needed to sever ties with their denomination because they could no longer allow the denominational leadership to dictate what kinds of decisions and ministries they were and were not able to do.  In this instance and entire church removed themselves from a hierarchical to be free to pursue what they felt God was calling them to.  

In situations like these young pastors and leaders are almost compelled to pursue new avenues that allow them to stretch and grow into who God has designed them to be.  In the coming months I'm hoping to explore alternate leadership models that will continually be unleashing new leaders without the destructive fall-out today's dominate model creates. 

I'm hoping you'll join me in these conversations.  Leave a comment below if you're familiar with situations like the ones I've described . . .

the next step

I graduated last weekend.  Thanks to all of you who have sent cards and congratulations.  So many young(er) people are graduating right now as well, as we all seem to be asking the same question . . . now what?  Of course, I'm luckier than most.  I have a good job working with people I really like.  But a good job isn't always the same as a life calling. 

Over the past few months I've begun to dream about planting a church, planting a new Christian community, reaching people with God's story that's otherwise would never experience it.  It's a dream that my wife and I have kicked around since our very first years together, but it's always be something we'd do someday.  For the first time it seems like maybe I'm supposed to begin seriously exploring the possibilities.  Granted, it will be years to process this, but it's exciting nonetheless.

In the coming months I'd like to begin exploring together different ideas, concepts and hopes associated with church planting, but for today I want to talk about dangerous motivations.  I have a number of friends that are in the process of planting right now, and I'm inspired and excited by what they are doing.  But in the past I've also known church planters who seemed to be planting for reasons that I just couldn't get behind. 

To me, one of the most discouraging motivations for planting is to start a new church just to have a place to preach or lead.  While it's not always readily apparent, this type of plant ends up focused almost exclusively on the weekend worship experience and attendance numbers.  A second dangerous motivation is planting simply to perpetuate an institution.  Far too many planters I've known and worked with were planting new denominational outposts, and their relationship with the denomination ultimately became their undoing.

A third errant motivation is planting in order to enact a slight modification or variation on worship or styles or preferences.  A vital Christ-centered community has to be about SO much more than the weekend worship experiences.  Having said that, worship experiences in this country really do need to be re-imagined from the ground up . . .

The final, and to me most dangerous, errant reason to plant a church is planting out of personal hurt or bitterness.  If you're in ministry long enough you're going to get hurt.  People will betray you, and hard experience has taught me that the most painful ministry wounds come from those who you have served alongside.  While the temptation can be strong to "show them", I believe that a church born with this kind of hurt and unforgiveness at it's root will ultimately manifest that same pain on a larger scale.  Some of you reading this know exactly what I'm talking about. 

Looking forward to the conversation - I'd love to hear your thoughts . . .

top 10 albums of 2008

So a new friend of my, Arial Vanderhorst, encouraged my to tying putting together a Top 10 album list from last year.   Sounded like fun, but as it turns out, from where I’m sitting 2008 wasn’t a terribly great year for music.  As I started compiling the list I quickly realized that a lot of the stuff I was getting into came out in ’07.   So in the interest of list-making discipline I’ve kept this to 2008 (wide) releases only, in no particular order . . . 

“We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things” - Jason Mraz
- Hands down the best release from Jason Mraz to date.  Great blend of wit and candor.  And of course, since it’s Mraz, the hooks are a mile deep. 
Stand out track: “Love for a Child”

“I Am . . . Sasha Fierce” - Beyonce
- Right up front, I far prefer Sasha. 
Stand out track: “Single Ladies”

“Viva La Vida” – Coldplay
- It seems like it would have been impossible for these guys to live up to everyone’s expectations for this album.  Pulled it off. 
Stand out track: “Yes”

“Limbs and Branches” - Jon Foreman
- If you didn’t hear about this project, Foreman release four ep’s, one for each season, over the course of a year.  Probably my favorite project on this list. 
Stand out track: “Somebody’s Baby”

“Dreaming Out Loud” – One Republic
- Easily my favorite neo-pop album of last year.  Great, great songwriting. 
Stand out track: “Say (All I Need)”

“Gossip in the Grain” – Ray Lamontagne
- Ray Lamontagne is a new discovery for me.  This is the new standard-bearer for white-boy-soul. 
Stand-out track: “Let It Be Me”

“The Bright Sadness” – Charlie Hall
- Writing for corporate worship is hard.  Really hard.  Charlie Hall is one of the best as it. 
Stand out track: “New Year”

“Wall-E (original Soundtrack)” - Thomas Newman
- Speaking of hard.  Try writing the score for a movie that has no dialog for its first hour.  Then try to approach something like the elegance of Newman’s score for Wall-E.  Hands-down my favorite soundtrack of the year. 

“Where the Light Is” - John Mayer
- This one’s worth it for the blues set alone. 
Stand out track: “Free Fallin’”

“I Will Go” – Starfield
- This final spot goes to Starfield, more for their cumulative body of work that for this particular album.  These guys are just producing some of the best worship music out there. 
Stand out track: “Reign In Us”

funny, robot

So my friend Jason Watson has been working on this new video for RezLife.  Jason's funny.  And insanely talented.  But the script was actually written by my other friend Janelle.  So I guess she's funny.  Jason will just have to settle for insanely talented this time. 

sad state of affairs

Fitting firmly under the "just when you thought things couldn't get any worse" category, Yahoo! has posted a story this morning about the new depths people getting divorced can sink to.  According to the story a man in Long Island is suing his soon-to-be ex-wife for the return of the kidney he donated to her in 2001.  Which makes for an extraordinarily ugly headline.  Of course, the flip side of that story is that the wife had an affair in 2004, which triggered the divorce proceedings. 

What a mess.  When God says that He hates divorce, you can definitely see why. 

where would Jesus be today?

Last week my buddy Dan Hinz asked a really great question on his blog.  Essentially he was asking where would Jesus be if Christmas were to have taken place 25 years ago instead of 2008 years ago.  It's a great question, and it reminded me of a recent conversation I had.

I was shooting a video interview with a 19-year-old agnostic named Charlie last week, and during the conversation he postulated that if Jesus were to come to earth today he'd be a homosexual.  After picking my jaw up off the floor, I asked Charlie a couple of follow-up questions.  What was fascinating was that he really wasn't saying anything about sexuality.   Charlie pointed to Jesus' love of the outcast, the controversy Jesus always seemed to be generating and the way powerful people were threatened by his existence.

What was really shocking to me was the different ways we both saw both Jesus and homosexuals.  To Charlie, homosexuals are people with specific values and burdens that set them apart.  At least in that moment, in my head homosexuals were people who needed to change their behavior. 

While I think there's truth in both views, it's important to ask which conversation Jesus would want to have first with a homosexual he was hanging out with.  (and yes, if Jesus was being called a friend of prostitutes I really doubt he'd get too hung up on homosexuality)  Maybe he'd be like the woman at the well and deal with sin head-on and in the moment.  Check out the story here.  Or maybe he'd be like he was with Zacchaeus and just play it cool.  (read here) 

In both stories people got upset with Jesus for him hanging out with someone he was not supposed to have been hanging out with.  The gospel writers almost go out of their way to point it out.  Sounds familiar to me. 

What's scary is finding that, if you're honest with yourself, maybe you're becoming the wrong person in the story.  The person wagging their finger instead of getting in the game.  While speaking with Charlie I realized that all too often today Christians are way to quick to get hung up on the wrong thing.  Sometimes it takes a 19-year-old agnostic to help to you see it in yourself. 

new puppy

One of the hardest things our family went through in the last few years was having to get rid of our beloved dog. Now that we've moved to KC we can finally get a new puppy. So meet Charlie. We have to wait until the end of January to bring him home, but he's going to make an awesome addition to our family.

dog tired

There are a few things in life that I never seem to be able to move out of the life-lesson-in-box.  One of those things is learning to balance my life.  For most of 2008 was doing a great job with this.  But then I started a new job.  At the end of November.  The week Church of the Rez kicked off it's Christmas series. 

So for the past five weeks I've been running and working like my hair's on fire.  Moving in.  Getting unpacked.  Learning a new job, a new operating system, a new editor.  Learning to find my way around KC.  Making new friends.  Knocking out a full-time class load.  Attempting to do the best work of my life while I do all of that other stuff. 

Trying to balance all of these things really pushed me to the limit of what I was capable of. Last week I was literally experiencing chest pains and headaches just trying to live up to my expectations of myself.  The plan was to just make it through to Christmas, so I could have just one day to do absolutely nothing but rest and recover.  Of course, you know the thing about plans . . .

On Christmas day this year, my poor wife and kids were completely knocked out with the flu.  I ended up spending the entire day taking care of all of them (which I really was happy to do).  What that meant, however, is that today I'm back into the full work swing again having not rested yet at all.

In 2008 one of my goals was to achieve a life balance that would accurately reflect my own personal values, not anyone else's.  So I guess that will be a 2009 thing too.  And this year I'm going 12-months for 12-months. 

Anyone else working on this?

unChristian concept video

Here's a concept video I've been working on for the past few weeks.  (click the image above to check it out)  We're starting a series based on the book unChristian by David Kinnaman in January, and this is the trailer for it.  It's not too often that a piece turns out this close to what I had it my head, but when it does it's pretty sweet.

Special thanks to the band Starfield for letting us use their song. 

worship music

One of the changes I've been struggling with most over the past four or five weeks is not having the chance to serve musically.  In some ways it's been good to step back and remember why I love leading worship.  In some ways, however, it's felt like part of me has been asleep.  It's always been about more than just the music itself, but sometimes I forget how powerful music created for worship can really be. 

The other night I had the chance to lead Christmas worship for some new friends.  And it was great.  Really great.  I've always been more of an 'eyes-closed' style of worship leader; as I was sitting on the floor the with my guitar, just singing my heart out, I'm not sure my eyes were opened for more than ten seconds total.  In a very real way, it felt like . . . home. 

I'm not sure whether this is going to become on ongoing thing or whether it will be more sporadic, but I hope and pray that God will continue to open those doors in the days and weeks moving forward.  I'll let you know how things continues to develop in the future . . .

change is good?

Since I was 18 years old, one of the mainstays of my life has been my old leather backpack.  Sometimes it carried textbooks.  Sometimes lunch.  Sometimes baby bottles.  Eventually, it started carrying my laptop.  It became a sort of through-line for all of the steps, both little and big, in my life.  I loved my backpack.

A couple of weeks ago, I had to replace my old beloved leather backpack.  There were things I needed to carry that that old pack couldn't fit, and so I had to get a new one.  It wasn't necessarily something I would have chosen, but it needed to be done.

And you know what?  The new one's not as bad as I thought.  It's actually lighter and stronger, and it feels a lot better on my shoulders.  It provides better protection for my new Mac laptop (which is another post entirely).  Basically, it's better for me right now.

There are a whole lot of things in my life that are changing now.  Some things I really wish hadn't changed did.  But a lot of the changes have been better than I thought.  Some of the changes have been sublime.

I'm not sure about the future.  There are so many paths God may lead me down, so many doors He may open.  But hopefully right now, today, I can learn to hold on a little more loosely to the backpacks in my life. 

you've got to be kidding me

So I'm in Best Buy today helping my wife knock out some Christmas shopping, and since we didn't exactly know what we're looking for we decided to take a lap around the store.  As we get to the back of the place we notice that the entire wall of one of the back corners has been painted primary red.  As we get closer we saw a sign that read "Musical Instruments." 

Honestly, my first reaction was straight-up cynicism.  Best buy has always had a small assortment of cheap casio-style keyboards, but we decided to step into the little sub-store to have a look around anyway.  I almost has a heart attack when I discovered that Best Buy now carries Taylor Guitars.  And not the cheap ones either.  The special humidity-controlled room was sporting 814 cutaways, T5s . . . even the new solidbody electrics were there.  (as well as Gibsons, Fenders, Line 6, DW and Korg)

So basically, one of my worst nightmares has come to pass.  They've created a single centralized location where I could feasibly wreck my financial future in the space of a single hour, with a single yellow card. 

Lord, save me from myself . . .

back in the swing

Hey everyone.  So it's been a while since I've posted anything to this page, and I'm thinking it might be good to try getting back into the swing of blogging.  A lot's happened in my life over the past six months, not the least of which has been us moving to Kansas City a couple of weeks ago.

There are so many friends we have all around the country, and I hope this will get back to being a way I can stay connected.  Feel free to leave a comment below and say 'hey' . . .

good night, and good luck

Hey everyone.  As you may have noticed if you're still stopping by, this blog has been inactive for going on three months now.  Over the past year my life priorities have changed to some degree.  I've started back to school, and have been taking huge classloads with the intention of finishing in the spring of 2009.  I've also been asked to take on the role of Webmaster for RiverValleyRockford.org, which continues to expand in scope and ambition as time progresses.

All of which is to say, I think I'm going to have to suspend the blog for the time being.  As to what this site will become in the future, I'm not exactly sure yet.  Feel free to stop in again from time to time to see what's going on.  Thanks for making this site a part of your life.

alex

weekend set list

This weekend we spent a little more time than normal in musical worship, and it's great that so many of you were really able to experience God in service this morning.  Thanks so much for all of the encouragement - it's great to get to serve each other.  Here's the set list from this weekend -

"Salvation" by Charlie Hall ("Road to One Day")
"Everything Glorious" by David Crowder Band ("Remedy")
"I Will Overcome" by Charlie Hall ("On the Road to Beautiful")
"When the Tears Fall" by Tim Hughes ("When Silence Falls")
"Mighty to Save" by Hillsong ("MIghty to Save")

"why-fi" series kickoff

Last weekend we kicked off our new "Why-Fi" series at River Valley, and it was definitely some good times.  So many people worked so hard to pull together something that would be dynamic and engaging, and it was so fulfilling to see it all become reality.  I had high hopes for this one, but in a lot of ways reality actually exceeded my expectations (especially the stage - check out the 'Staging' link to the right!).  It was also encouraging to have so many people come to worship and experience God - last weekend was our biggest as far as attendance since I've been at River Valley. 

Probably even more encouraging than the attendance numbers was the way people participated during the service.  We've been working really hard over the past year or two to make our worship experiences more interactive, and "Why-Fi" has taken that to a whole new level . . .

worship styles and philosophies

Hey Everybody.  So this weekend at River Valley was amazing, and it felt great to work with our team to pull together something that felt so groundbreaking and unique.  I'll planning to write more about that tomorrow or Thursday.

But before I do that, I want to write about something that's come up over the last few days.  In a post I wrote a few weekends ago a new friend challenged me on what authentic worship should sound like and look like and feel like.  Over the past 14 years I've share many similar conversations.  Most of them begin as discussions about musical styles, but it you stick with them long enough you'll find something deeper under the surface . . .

Easter Plans

And just when you thought your church's plans for Easter were out there . . . Mission Bay Church in S.F. is launching their Easter series entitled "Come and Follow Mii."  If you look closely in the graphic you can see the Easter Bunny doesn't think much of the Mii Jesus, as his thoughts are so dark that the can't even be articulated. 

I would really love to know how this one works out.  Anyone else trying something 'out-there' for Easter?

Drums

Last night I had the chance to go play, really play, drumset again for the first time in a few years.  Some good friends of mine are putting together a new band (Briarhill - more about that later), and they invited me to come and play drums for them last night.  It was so much fun.

It's been great developing a number of other artistic gifts over the past few year, but in all of that time I think drumset's remained my first love (artistically!).  There's simply nothing like the feeling of commanding that much natural musical power and harnessing to create something rich and subtle and complex and simple.   I love me some drums.