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Showing posts from August, 2010

Music Tames the Savage Beast Within

http://wimp.com/remarkableexperience/ Watch the video. Music I believe is a direct link to our souls. If music can have that effect on a German soldier, what can musical worship do to you?

A Student's Prayer

Dear God, I leave today and I am a little nervous, but mostly excited.  Lord you gave Solomon wisdom to make the right decisions; I could use a little wisdom as I head away from home.  I know there will be lots of temptations, so go ahead and deliver me from those too.  I am gonna make new friends right?  Because most of mine are going in different directions and I don't know if those relationships will be the same anymore.  Take care of my parents because they are having a hard time with me growing up.  Help me be patient with them as I am anxious to do my own thing.  I do love them and I thank you for the lessons of life and faith that they have taught me.  Jesus, help me see this journey through your eyes as an opportunity to increase your kingdom through my actions in love you and loving my neighbor.  I am going to mess up, so please be patient with me and provide lots of forgiveness. I promise to try and hang out with you each day, but I will probably be distracted from t

Teens and Worship

This past Sunday our fearless leader, Dr. Dale Schultz spoke about passionate worship and you. He shared that the most important part should redefine worship for you. Worship is dynamic when our hearts are tuned to God. The two most important worship experiences of my life were very different. One was rockin praise With Chris Tomlin and Matt Redman. The other was an Anglican worship, high Church, liturgical experience. The point is, style doesn't matter if your heart is there. We all need worship, but especially you youth out there need worship. Our souls call out for the divine and if we are not giving our hearts to worship on a regular basis we become dry.  The kind of dry of a person walking through a desert who needs water.  What does worship feel like when we are devoted to God?  "The desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom. Like the crocus,  it will burst into bloom; it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy."  Isaiah 35:1. 
I have been thinking about the concept of radical hospitality today as it pertains to our youth program.  The teenage years are an important time in the life of a person, and it is one of the most important times for faith development.  Something like 90 percent of the people who become Christians do so before the age of 18. It is a big deal we create a home for the young people in our Church. In the last couple of years we have struggled to get our younger youth to commit to our youth group.  I believe it is vital for us to reach out to as many youth as possible and so starting this fall we are making some changes that I believe will allow our hopitallty be radical to teenagers in this important time. We will have a separate night for the Junior High and the Senior High.  The reasoning for this is so that we can have activities that are tailored for each group.  Sunday nights will be focused on Junior High and Wednesday nights will be focused on Senior High.  To fost