Merge Worship

I love helping others figure out how to navigate the issues going on in their life/team/church/organization. It makes me feel alive to help other people. I've given advice over this last month on social networking, worship team policies, connecting a firewire hard drive to a USB only computer and church service formats. I love seeing others succeed. I have my bouts with personal ambition and jealousy when others go further than I do, but at my heart I'm a servant leader who believes in supporting the dreams of others.

I'm becoming convinced that one of my strengths moving forward will not be knowing all the information but knowing where to find information. I am building more relational capital by sharing information freely than I ever did by trying to keep my sources on lock down and appear smarter than I am. I have my former church to thank for that to a large degree. They helped open my heart even more to how to bless others.

There is a paradigm shift from being the guy (or gal) with all the answers to being the gal (or guy) who can steer someone to thought and on their own process to find answers. It's one of the reasons I'm always linking to others. Sometimes it can get annoying if you turn into some one's personal google, but people truly appreciate someone who knows where to find answers.

Do you share your knowledge freely? Any thoughts on how this applies to your world? I'd love to know your thoughts.

The guys over at Church Crunch have posted a dynamite blog today. Check it out below and sign up for their rss feed and continue to get great stuff from John and crew.

This is a Guest Post by Nate Beaird.

A few years ago I had the opportunity to make a historical film for the 75th anniversary celebration of some local churches. Reviewing the script, I read about the power of the Great Commission and the momentum it gave the individuals who followed it.

It was an unforgettable experience. After completing the project I walked away amazed.

I learned about the blood, sweat, and tears that went into the birth of these churches. My generation knows very little about the stories of old, yet, I believe to work together effectively, the different age groups need to become acquainted with each other.

Some from my generation call the “older” generation “out of touch,” but I know the truth: The older generation has been more in touch with the heart of God than I may ever be. These are the people who have lived through the history I read about in school, the open range cowboys, the civil rights activists, the veterans of wars fought for my freedom, those who knew and loved Christ before I ever lived.

They have been faithful to their calling, and are cheering me on to be faithful to mine.

What is my calling? My generation, just like Noah, Moses, Esther and other heroes of the Bible who had a heart for their home, and their generation. No one is going to be able to reach my generation as well as… my generation. That means new methods must be used, “out of the box” ideas, maybe even ideas that are possible and feasible, but previously unheard of.

More thoughts after the jump…

Just as the pioneers of these local churches were trusted to build a church, so must we be infused with trust to push forward for our generation. We are visual. We are relational. We are unlike any previous generation before us, which is probably why we’re misunderstood.

We pierce our face and buy jeans with holes already in them.

So!? It’s time, Church, to let appearances go. Our passion for Jesus eclipses the naysayers and bonds us to any age group that lets us worship by reaching people on a different level. We may need to be patient at times. We don’t want to just attend church, we want to be apart of something that’s making a difference. We don’t pledge our commitment lightly, but once we find something to live for, we’ll die for it.

For the past 15 years God’s been breeding an army so massive, so passionate, so united, that Christianity as we know it will be rocked to the very core. We are kingdom-minded with no strings attached. As the older generation is like Elijah, we are like Elisha, asking for a double portion of God. We are reckless and fearless for God. If he says we can do it, we believe we can.

Peter Craig, of the 24-7 Prayer Movement, writes in “The Vision”:

Their DNA chooses Jesus.
(He breathes out, the breathe in.)
Their subconscious sings.
They’ve had a blood transfusion with Jesus.

Their words make demons scream in shopping centers.
Don’t you hear them coming?

Herald the weirdos!
Summon the losers and the freaks.
Here come the frightened and forgotten with fire in their eyes!
They walk tall and trees applaud, Sky scrapers bow, mountains are dwarfed by these children of another dimension.

I realize there are issues we all could work on. The older generation worries about how low my jeans hang and I can’t get up to go to a prayer breakfast at six in the morning.

Nonetheless, we will not unite our generations by bickering about our weaknesses, so, what if our strengths got some talk time? If we were to combine the older generation’s wisdom, knowledge, and experience, and our networking, strength, and passion the possibilities would be endless.

“We” are not the future; we are the today. “They” are not the past, they are the today. We are not the next of “them,” we are the first of “us.”

We don’t want them to pass the baton to us, because that means their race is over. We want their blessing on our baton, so we can run together.

My song, We Will, is being used on Iran30 in their video to promote prayer for Iran. These are trusted friends of mine and I'm thankful for the opportunity to play a small part in helping bring awareness to what God is doing in this country. You can check out the video by clicking here.

God has been gracious enough to do some cool things with this song through us giving it away over the last year. We're making it available for sale for the first time now. You can purchase either the single or the background track if you'd like to perform it in your own church. You can get it by clicking on one of the buy it now buttons below. 25% of the profit will go back to Iran30 and their ministry. Thanks and feel free to link and tweet away. :-)

We Will (Single) $0.99

(begin rant)

I'm angry today. Pissed would be a better word, but my Mom doesn't really like it so it couldn't be the title of this post. I'm going to share something that I loathe here today. I got a new twitter follower today who will remain nameless, but reminds me of all these guys who buy up time on BET on the weekend to ask you to send them money for them to give you a prophecy.

Get your golden key here. Buy my prosperity package there. Here a scam. There a scam. Everywhere a scam scam.

This guy in particular has a pretty famous parishioner who he ordained and is the logo for my fantasy basketball team. He has a church in NYC and a TV show and website. All dedicated to the greatness of him and how you can give him or his associate's money to prophecy over you. You can also get a prophecy for free mailed to you right after you provide him with all your pertinent information. In researching him briefly, I found several of his followers on Amazon debating about one of his books. Here's some of their direct quotes:

"I am an example, he awaken me as to who God is in me and who Iam in God....so guess what??? I DO NOT PLAY GOD...I am God." (I think I threw up in my mouth a little after pasting that)

"You are a child that's why you can't hear the Lord's voice. God is a gentleman. He does not MOLEST kids. Good luck with your irrational mind." (this was in response to someone being critical)

This stuff really makes me angry. I've heard the testimonies. After I called the 800 number XYZ happened to me. One preacher in particular stopped a woman testifying to God's provision of a house to make sure she added "after I laid my hands on you" in several places. Are you serious?!

How about this? "I am the LORD; that is my name! I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols." (Isaiah 42:8)

These men prey on people so poor and desperate that they are looking for saving wherever they can find it. They distract people from the one, true source of salvation and freedom; Jesus. They are wolves among the flock and this pastor, for one, wants to kick them out forcefully.

I normally don't use this space for rants, but this is something that has been stuck in my craw for a while now. I'll leave with these words from 2 Peter 2:

1 But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them–bringing swift destruction on themselves.2 Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. 3 In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.

And all God's people said amen.

(end rant)

I've been trying to think about something profound to blog about, but this last week has left me with somewhat of a blank slate so I thought I'd share these verses.


It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is Thy faithfulness. ---Lamentations 3:22-23

Here's to being thankful for blank slates.

This season of life has been fascinating for me. I've alternated from extreme days of multiple ideas (like a random twitter idea I got in the shower this morning) to days of feeling completely barren creatively. On top of all the stuff going on with my Mom (who recently underwent a stem cell transplant for cancer treatment) and adjusting to a new church with a very different environment than I'm used to, I'm being deeply challenged in my faith.

Don't get it twisted, not challenged in my faith as in "wondering about the validity of Jesus and Christianity", but challenged in the mode of "why do I believe what I believe". As I said in an earlier post, "I hate walls" and I'm willing to go beyond my narrow circle to hear what other Christ followers are saying and what the Holy Spirit is speaking to them. I won't rehash that here, but I will say that there are so many voices out there. And there are extremists in every camp.

The real genesis of this came when I was listening to Derek Webb's new CD. He uses some pretty provocative word pictures to ask some pretty pointed questions about our practice as believers. As I listened and explored I found myself reading a post called "Should Christians Be More Worldly?" on John Mark McMillan's blog. (love his song "How He Loves Us" btw) I didn't finish reading it because I just began to get overwhelmed.

It's the same feeling I had when reading "A New Kind of Christian" by Brian McLaren. (Not a resource I'm recommending by the way. I only recommend that book to close friends who I think it would benefit which has been a grand total of one person since I first read it. For a book I'd recommend without hesitation on the topics of freedom in Christ that will challenge you, check out "Ragamuffin Gospel" by Brennan Manning or "Messy Spirituality" by Mike Yaconelli) Just this overwhelming since of "I don't want to miss it". I don't want to live my life in a wasteful way and I need to reevaluate my view of what God's purpose for our lives as believers is. The bottom line is that I desperately want to please Jesus. I want to please Him in every way that I can so I search for Him. I search for ways for the Holy Spirit to reveal truth to me as Jesus said He would.

When I get overwhelmed like this I am finding I have one of two responses. I either shut down and ignore those feelings for a bit or I retreat to Jesus and His Word. I'm all for pushing forward, growing and stretching but I will say that I think sometimes the best thing to do is retreat. Go back. Find out exactly what Jesus said. Allow the Holy Spirit to use His Word to challenge you. So I'm taking a step back from the controversy and the company line. I'm retreating to the solitude of Scripture. Because one thing that my "wall breaking" lifestyle always does is lead me back to Him. And I love the adventure.

Do you need to retreat? Where do you find you go to find your footing?