Hello Friends,

Well it was a fantastic week at Saddleback. The third evening ended with an impressive performance by the Saddleback Valley Community Church Creative Arts Team. It was a powerful service of worship that utilize a band, choir, dance, drama, worship team and soloists. The story of salvation was told with visual projections of scripture verses interspersed with powerful music and dramatic interpretations. It was an evening of worshipping our Lord and Savior with other artists and it was good. And it was followed by a dessert fellowship. You can’t get any better than that.

The conference ended on Thursday, but I had a great experience that extended my time of learning on Friday. There was a meet the creative team coffee on Friday morning for any conference attendees who were still in town. I arrived expecting a room full of people, but there were only about a dozen conference attendees and a dozen creative arts team staff. For the next two hours we got to dialogue about the ministry at Saddleback. It was fun, it was relaxed and it was informational. There were several things that I jotted down and plan to pray about, think about and use and adapt for our arts ministry.

But then, I had a special experience. While talking with Rick Muchow, the Pastor of Magnification (worship), he invited me to lunch with their creative team. So I went to the auditorium and helped clean up a few things from the conference, then got into Rick’s truck. As we drove to lunch we talked about ministry. There were so many good things that he said. Things like you must love the people and your leadership must always be one of love. They can criticize you, but they should never be able to say anything about your love and obedience for God and your love for them. He also said that you must always support your senior pastor (unless there is a moral or ethical lapse). God has called him/her to be the shepherd of that church. But the most important thing that I learned was the depth of love that Rick has for people. That he was willing to take the time to talk with me and take me out to lunch with their team was a tremendous witness to me. And his love is genuine.

I have said it earlier this summer. One of my challenges is to relearn how to love well. To take the time to really listen to people when I talk with them. To sense needs that may not be openly spoken. To not view people as commodities but as dearly loved children of God whom Christ died for. Rick has a powerful personal message in the way he cares for people and prays for people. He has some gifts that I have and some that I don’t. But I am challenged to use my gifts well and to love others well.

It was a great week and I hope to return again in the near future. I will be thinking about, praying about and seeking how to implement much of what I have learned. But one overriding concept from the summer is that I need to be spending a lot of time listening to God and follow Him as He leads.

Take care my friends,

Cameron

Hello Friends,

The last breakout session that I attended at the Saddleback was called Three Paths to the Summit of Your Creativity. It was led by Randy Elrod, a recently retired/redirected minister. He has a popular blog at

http://randyelrodblog.com/

His talk was wrapped around three mountain climbing experiences that he has had. Two that were not very successful and one that was very successful and fulfilling. I believe that you can read about these experiences on his blog. Here is what I got from the breakout.

The first path to creativity Randy called the “In Spite of You” Path. This is a path of conflict. Have you ever known some people who do everything the hard way. They are filled with conflict and conflict seems to surround them. In life conflict drains emotional energy. A concept that Randy talked about and gave credit to bill Hybels was the concept of three gauges in our life. There is the Physical Gauge, the Spiritual Gauge and the Emotional Gauge. Just like a gas tank, they can be full or empty or somewhere in between. According to Randy, the emotional gauge takes a lot more time to refill than the physical or the spiritual. He also said the a lack of passion and creativity is directly related to a lack of emotional energy. We tend to ignore our gauges and our creativity dries up. He challenged us to let go of conflict and seek a better path to creativity.

The second path to creativity Randy called the “Because of You” Path. This is a path marked by control. We try to dominate, to hold in check, to command our creativity and others. We try to exercise restraint or direction over. Randy challenged us with the question, who am I restraining. My self, co-workers, other artists? The path of control will take a huge toll. In his personal story, Randy tried to control a climbing situation and didn’t do the necessary homework. He made it to the summit but at a great cost to himself physically and emotionally. He challenged us to relinquish control.

The third path to creativity Randy called the “Alongside of You” Path. This is a path of collaboration. He talked about the idea of plenty. This idea is a popular one in business and economics. There is plenty to go around and we don’t need to hoard and do things alone out of fear of losing resources. There are plenty of artists. There are plenty of servants in the church. There are plenty of opportunities. We are free to collaborate with other creatives. Creative leaders need to eat, breathe and sleep collaboration. Many gifted artists living in isolation don’t accomplish all they can. One of the things he talked about was the fear of other churches or other ministries. I can’t collaborate with the music ministry across town because I may lose some valuable artists! But that is wrong thinking. The old phrase “a rising tide raises all ships” applies. There are plenty of artists in our community and when other churches do well, it will actually help our church. And when other ministries in our church do well, it will improve the arts ministry. God created us to need others. The path of collaboration is definitely the best of these three paths to creativity.

Once again, I was challenged. I have a dream of working with more people in our community and more people within our church in projects of collaboration to use arts to bring joy to the heart of God and Christ to the heart of East Tennessee. I challenge you to do the same.

Seeking Collaboration in Serving Christ,

Cameron

Hello Friends,

On my last afternoon of the Saddleback Worship Conference, I got to attend three breakout sessions. The first was called Choreography with a Tweenage Twist. It was about choreographing movements for songs with older children. I thought it would be a good practical session for our Creative Kids After School Arts Program. Other than the leader, I was the only man in the room. And with my bum knee, I was not able to hop and bounce and spin quite as effectively. However, it was very energetic. Our leader, Chris McPherson, choreographs shows for Disney and other big time things like that. I think that our children would love his energy and ideas. I feel a little bit old and out of the loop, but I can understand the value of adding this energy to a presentation by children. One of the big ideas that I came away with was Chris’s ability to adapt his plans to the needs. He showed how to plan a complicated hip-hop move with body, feet and hands. Then if that was difficult for some of the kids to create a second tier of just hands people or just feet people or a simplified motion for one group. Basically keeping a positive attitude and allowing the kids the participate at the level they are able. Great stuff.

The second I went to was called Creating a Culture of Worship. It was led by Buddy Owens. What attracting me to this class was the culture of worship that seems to pervade the campus of Saddleback. I saw high energy worship by their adults, their youth, their singles, their children, and by just about everyone on that campus. They have taken the steps to teach it and instill it in their people as well as practice it and model it in all of the leadership of the church. That is something that I desire for our church. I want out church to understand the importance of worshipping God. I want all of our attenders to know how to worship God is Spirit and in Truth. I want our church to embrace different styles of worship and different worshippers with deep love and joy. I want worship to be a part of all that we do from nursery care to Sunday School retreats to Small Group meetings to First LIGHT to mission endeavors to personal daily experiences of all our people to Sunday mornings and evenings and Wednesday evenings. I want our church to get it and embrace it.

Buddy outlined four ways to create a culture of worship. First, we must teach it. We have taught about worship from time to time in worship, but there is probably more that we can do. One of my goals for the Fall is to work with Shane and Cyndy in any way that they need to ensure that we are teaching and modeling worship for the next generations. Some scriptures that Buddy gave for sermon series on worship were: Romans 12:1-2, John 4:23-24, Psalm 89:15, Psalm 105:1-5, 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, Acts 16, 2 Chronicles 20. I encourage you to look up some or all of these as see what it says about worship. One of the ideas that Buddy developed a little was that there are Biblical postures of worship and of prayer. There is kneeling, prostrate, and lifting hands to name a few. There are positions of prayers. We are to kneel in supplication. There are examples in the Bible of standing for intercession.

The second way Buddy talked about was demonstrating worship. Our pastoral team and church leadership needs to be modeling worship for our church. We need to be sharing out of our own personal experiences. One idea that he talked about was from 1 Chronicles 6. When all of the tribes were being given territory, the Levites were not given one chunk of land. They were given villages within each territory of the other tribes. He equated this with incarnational leadership. Living out worship from the midst of the people. It is so easy for us to define worship as Sunday morning, but it should be interwoven through all aspects of the church and of our lives.

The third way was resourcing worship. Doing small group studies of worship. Providing paid and unpaid staff to lead in corporate worship and to lead or teach worship in Sunday Schools, small Groups, etc.

The final way was providing opportunities to experience worship. You can’t just tell people about worship. They must experience it to learn it. One of the ways Saddleback does this is having a monthly night of worship. On the weekends they have 5-10 minutes of worship and 50 minutes of teaching. But once a month they have a night of worship which includes 30-40 minutes of music, 25 minutes of teaching and an extended time of communion/anointing/music.

Well I think that is enough for one day. I am going to save the third breakout for a later blog. I hope that you have been challenged to be adaptable and that you have been challenged to develop a life of worship. My challenge is going to be to do a better job of making worship a lifestyle for our church. I dream of a day when worship will be an integral part of all of our church. Incidently, I also dream of a day when growth, and groups and gifts and going and giving will be as integral to every aspect of our church as well, but my calling is to lead you in worship and grace.

Praying for you and Developing a Lifestyle of Worship

Cameron

http://www.mattredman.com/

http://www.mattredman.com/blog/ 

Hello Friends,

Over the summer, I have had the opportunity to read several books.  One of them was The Unquenchable Worshipper by Matt Redman.  You may recognize Matt as the writer of many praise songs included “The Heart of Worship.”  This is a short book with ten chapters, but packs a lot of impact.  Each chapter explores one aspect of being a worshipper and links it to a worshipper in the Bible.  I want to breeze through the general idea, but please take the time to pick up this book and read it carefully and digest all that it has to say.

The first chaper talks about the unquenchable worshipper and how when we meet the living God face to face, we will never be done worshipper.  Our fire will never be quenched.  We will be uncontrollably in love with God in any and all circumstances of life.

 Chaper Two focused on the Undone Worshipper and used the story from Isaiah chapter 6.  It is one of my favorite worship passages in the Bible.  Isaiah has a vision of coming into the presence of God and isaiah is overwhelmed with his sinfulness.  He is undone in the presence of God.  Sometimes I forget the awe and the fear that should be present in the presence of a holy God.  I am reminded that I need to be undone in God’s presence.

Chapter three is about the undignified worshipper and uses the classic example of king David.  He was criticized for dancing before the Lord.  But he said, I will become even more undignified than this.  I think that many of us, myself included, spend so much time in worship worrying about what others are going to think.  Instead of following the lead of the Holy Spirit.  I am learning more and more to be undignified.  At times, and with restraint of course!

Chapter Four is about the Unpredictable Worshipper and is another favorite of mine.  The Biblical character is the woman who broke the bottle of expensive perfume on the feet of Jesus.  The depth of sacrifice that she made is overwhelming.  The oasis in the struggle of the cross.  It is beautiful and unexpected.

Chapter Five is about the unveiled worshipper and uses the story of Moses face showing the glory of God when he would come done from the mountain and be with the Israelites.  When Moses was with the people, he wore the veil so as not to scare them.  But before God Moses could not hide anything.  This reminds me of how many times I think that I can hide from God.  Adam tried.  Many (probably all) try.  But nothing is hidden before God.  When we come to worship Him, we are unveiled.  He knows our hearts.

 Chapter Six is about the Unstoppable Worshipper.  It begins with an interesting story about Charles Wesley, but also uses stories about numerous Christians in the New Testament who learned to worship in all situations and at all times.  Nothing could stop their worship and nothing should stop ours.

Chapter Seven is the Unnoticed Worshipper.  The Biblical character is the woman who put in her two mites amidst all the large monetary gifts of the rich.  Christ praised her quiet unassuming sacrificial gift.  Jesus was looking at the heart.

Chapter Eight is about the Undivided Worshipper.  Redman quotes Psalm 86:11 where David pleds for an undivided heart.  In this world we are tempted to divide our allegiances.  We may seek riches or popularity or comfort or power or whatever.  But the throne of our hearts cannot be shared.  The only phrase Christ cannot be Lord at all if He is not Lord of all.  You cannot split your allegiances.  God won’t have it.
Chapter Nine is about the Unsatisfied Worshipper.  It talks about the tension of the now and the not yet.  We see in part, but then we shall see fully.  We worship in part and imperfectly.  One day we shall worship to our fullest extent.

Chapter Ten is about the Unending Worshipper.  One day we shall see God face to face and we will worship Him forever.

This has been a quick shallow fly by.  The chapters are deep and challenge the soul to deeper more meaningful worship.  I hope you will take the time to take the challenge and to become an Unquenchable worshipper.

Worshipping,

Cameron

Hello Friends,

During the second part of the morning worship, Kay Warren taught us from Mark 8:34 – If anyone wants to be my disciple, you should deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me.

Kay called the first part of this being Dangerously Surrendered. Surrender is usually viewed as a bad thing. It is viewed as bad because it gets in the way of the kingdom of me. Surrender is always giving up my wants, my desires, my plan, my kingdom, my stuff, my freedom. It is all about me. (Remember the first line from the Purpose Driven Life!) But it is impossible to say the phrase “no, Lord.” Why? Because if Christ truly is your Lord, by definition He makes the calls. You just say yes, Lord and do what He tells you. When you say no to self and yes to WHATEVER God asks, that is dangerous and it leads to part two.

Kay said that when we take up our cross, we become Seriously Disturbed. We are frothing at the mouth. It is becoming so consumed with God’s cause that we are willing to do anything. The picture in Isaiah 53 is of Christ taking our iniquities on himself. He was so disturbed with our state that he took our sins and sorrows and was bruised and acquainted with grief. Philippians 2 contains the great hymn of the church describing Christ taking the form of a servant because He was so disturbed at our state. He did not cling to His rights as God. Christ was so disturbed that it moved Him to action. We must allow Christ to disturb us. Allow Christ to show us the cross we must bear. Allow Christ to show us the evil and suffering in the world and how we can make a difference by taking up our cross. Kay described her calling into the ministry of HIV/AIDS. She became so disturbed that she could no longer ignore it. She became seriously disturbed. She also warned, there is only one outcome of taking up a cross – death! She challenged us to be willing to die. And she challenged us about what limits we put on serving Christ. Somewhere there has to be a moment where you sell out. You give up everything to take up the cross. This leads to the third step.

Kay called this last step being Gloriously Ruined. You don’t look at life through the same lenses. The things of this world no longer satisfy. You desire to enter into the lives of the hurting of this world. You follow Christ to seek and save the lost – the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, the orphan, the immigrant, the widow, etc.

One of her most convicting statements to me was “There are over 150 million orphans in our world, do you know one of them?” You can do the same thing for a number of statistics. Widows, AIDS patients, homeless, immigrants, prisoners, etc. The fact that I know so few, if any, in any of these categories says a lot about my following Christ. Because is concerned with all of these. They are not numbers. They are not categories. They are not things. They are precious people who Christ died for. And I should care.

One of her last statements was the church should not be at the end of the line in addressing the AIDS pandemic, or the orphans, or the homeless, etc.

I am proud of our church and the ways that we have ministered in our community. But I hope that we will continue to seek ways to do more. I am not proud of the way that I have stepped up and ministered in our community and with regards to these issues, but I am praying that I would become Dangerously Surrendered, Seriously Disturbed, and Gloriously Ruined for Christ. Watch out!

Trying to Deny Self, Take up my Cross and Follow Christ,

Cameron

Hello Friends,

My plans for writing today have changed a little.  Last night our small group met.  We have been inconsistent this summer due to travels and sabbaticals and surgeries and one couple moving out of town.  But we began to get back on track last night and continue our study of the book Boundaries.  We got into a good discussion and today I actually want to encourage you to get involved.  I would love for many of you to respond with comments to this issue after I lay it all out there.

We were studying the chapter of Boundary Myths.  Myth number 2 is that if I set boundaries, I am being disobedient.  The example given for this myth, is a man who is asked to lead in their singles Bible Study.  He doesn’t want to, doesn’t feel equipped to, but says “yes” motivated by fear of broken relationships, that he is not serving God enough, etc.  The section also talks about God being interested in our motives – God desire mercy rather than sacrifice, God desires a cheerful giver – not out of compulsion, we should function out of a spirit of love not fear.  All of these have specific bible verse references.  I understand and agree with all of that.  The church universal has far to many people serving in guilt and fear, etc, than out of love.

Where our discussion turned was what if you don’t in you heart feel like serving?  One of the things that I am dysfunctional at is rules following.  I have mellowed a little, but I love the rules.  And one of the things this summer that I have experiences in studying a lot of churches is seeing their mission statements and how they follow them and live them out.  The first church I visited was NorthPoint.  Their mission statement is something like: ”to lead people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ . . . by creating environments where people are encouraged to pursue intimacy with God, community with insiders, and influence with outsiders.”  Let me break this down a little for you.  Leading people is Discipleship, Intimacy with God is Worship, Community with insiders is Fellowship, Influence with outsiders is Evangelism and I suppose serving and ministry also go with the last two.

Saddleback Community church is built around the five core purposes of the Christian and the church.  These are clearly defined in the popular Purpose-Driven books.  The five core purposes are Worship, Ministry, Evangelism, Discipleship and Fellowship.  They draw these from the Great commandment – love God and love others, and the Great Commission – go, make disciples, baptize, teach, I am with you. 

Our mission statement is “To bring joy to the heart of God, and Christ to the heart of East Tennessee.”  This could easily be a paraphrase of teh Great Commandment.  We try to realize this mission through a 6 G Model – Grace (Worship), Growth (Discipleship), Groups (Fellowship/Community), Gifts (Ministry/Serving), Going (Evangelism/Missions), Giving (Stewardship).

Here is where the rub came.  If you notice, these three churches have worded the principles in different ways, but for the most part, the same core is present.  I believe that as Christians we are supposed to, no commanded to Worship, to Grow in Discipleship, to Fellowship with other Believers, to use our gifts to Serve others through Ministry, to share the Gospel through Evangelism and on Mission, and that we are called to Giving Sacrificially of our resources specifically our money.  They seem to be non-negotiable to a Christ-follower.  And I realize that people need to enter each of these at the maturity level where they are.

Now the point to all of this.  What if I don’t have a heart, a good motive, to serve in any ministry area?  What does that mean?  As we discussed it several issues were brought out, but I want to hear your feedback.  In general, I think a Christian needs to be serving in a ministry that is both where they are spiritually gifted and that they have a passion for the ministry.  I think there are short time frames when we are going through personal crises (bad – death, divorce, etc and good – marriage, childbirth) where we may not be serving.  Or maybe even just transitioning into a new church.  But I believe it should be the norm for Christians to be serving.  If we are not serving, in most cases, I think that is disobedience.  If we don’t have a heart for any ministry then we have a spiritual problem.  Because Christ lives in us and Christ has a heart for a lot of things.

So what do you think?  Are there times when a Christian can obediently not serve in any ministry?  Are there times when if we cannot give cheerfully that we are exempt from sharing our resources?  Are there times when we are not in a right heart that we should not worship?

I know these are broad, but I am interested.  When you post a comment, I have to read it and approve it before it gets posted.  I will post comments of differing opinions, but I will not post comments that attack people or share information that is inappropriate for all the world to see.  This is a public blog that anyone can read.

I love you all and miss you dearly.  And I love our church’s mission.

In Christ’s love and struggling to serve Him well,

Cameron

Hello Friends,

I still have a day full of activities at Saddleback that I would like to share with you.  The last morning of the conference we were led in worship by Rick Muchow and his team as well as Buddy Owens, the Pastor of Spiritual Growth and Kay Warren, wife of Rick Warren and is using her influence for those who suffer in the worlds HIV/AIDS pandemic.

Buddy began the morning talking about deserts.  (That is with one s.  If it had two s’s I would have a lot of incite and expertise.  However, I know very little about the one s variety.)  The largest desert in the world is the antarctic.  That was surprising to me.  He said deserts are not measured by heat but by precipitation.  Anything with less than 10″ of precipitation is considered a desert.  Also a place that has more evaporation than precipitation is also considered a desert.

Buddy then turned to deserts of the heart.  That is when we do not take in enough nourishment of the spirit or when we give out more than we take in.  Wow!  That is a great description of how I get sometimes and quite frankly of how I was feeling just before this time of sabbatical.  Neglecting the time to refill my spirit takes a huge toll on my creativity and on my joy.  However, if I take the time (it is more about me taking the time and not the circumstances) to refill my spirit, then my creativity seems endless and my energy and joy tireless.  Usually one of the best feelings that I have is immediately after a musical or a Christmas Eve service or a big Lent service.  I am usually physically exhausted, but creatively I am energized.  Those are usually very filling time for me.

Buddy went on to address three “desert” questions: 1. How did I get here? 2. What am I supposed to do while I’m here? 3. When am I going to get out?

First, don’t be in a hurry to get out of the desert (question number 3).  Embrace the beauty of the desert.  And learn the lesson the first time!  I have been there.  I have been in such a hurry to get through a difficult time or situation, that I did not learn the lesson.  And sure enough I’m back in the desert again.  The Israelites had this problem as well.  As did many who have gone before.  But God is in the desert and He has a lesson for us to learn in the desert.

Question number 1 – If you are following God, chances are He led you there.  He led the Israelites.  He led Elijah.  He even led Jesus there.  Andy Stanley has a wonderful sermon series on teh temptations of Christ in which he describes the desert experience of Jesus.  Immediately after Christ’s baptism, God says He is well pleased with him, then he puts Him in the desert.  Later in His ministry Jesus is teaching the disciples to pray and He instructs them to pray “Lead us not into temptation.”  He had been there and faced the ultimate adversary.  So God does lead to the desert so that the valley of trouble may be turned into a place of hope.  A doorway.  A path to fruitfulness.

Question 2 – what to do in the desert – Isaiah 40:3-5 – in the desert prepare a place for the Lord . . .”  Expect God to show up.  Eliminate distractions in your life – clutter, mindless activities, lower priorities, noise, too many “yeses” – commitments – get rid of the distractions so that your soul can focus on God.  Search your life for idols.  Sing!  He wants to hear your voice.  It keeps you in an attitude of prayer.  He will come to you.  He will sing back.

That is all that I can focus on right now.  I hope that you will embrace your desert times and learn God’s lessons for you.  And I hope that you will sing and worship always.  More tomorrow from Kay Warren and her talk.  Also later another class that I went to with Buddy Owens talking about positions of worship and prayer.  Very interesting.

In Christ’s love,

Cameron

Hello Friends,

I have been out of touch for a few days due to my surgery on Monday.  It went well, although I am still on drugs.  My thoughts today may be more meandering than normal!

I had my ACL replaced on Monday.  The ACL is a ligament that is in your knee and helps keep it stable and bending properly.  In medical technology they can rebuild the ACL in at least three different ways.  They can replace it with the ACL from a cadaver.  They can replace it with a graft from your own hamstring. Or they can replace it with a graft from your own patella.  In general using your own tissue reduces the risk of rejection by the body and reduces the risk of transmitted disease.  Using the patella is still the standard and that is what I had done.

It is amazing how the human body can heal and adapt.  And it is amazing how science has developed ways to heal the body.  But that is not how the body of Christ is designed.  The Bible tells us that the church, the body of Christ, is designed so that each part would do its job.  In essence we all need one another.  in teh body of Christ, the patella is not supposed to replace the ACL.  The patella needs to do its own job.

How often in the church do we use the patella or hamstring to do the job of the ACL?  And we don’t leave it at that.  Sometimes we allow the patella to do the job of the patella and the ACL and the index finger and several other jobs as well.  The problem with this is the patella was not designed to do that.  it was designed to do one job (actually several jobs at one location).  Overutilizing it will wear it out and risk destroying it forever.  Another problem with this is that when a body part is not used as it should it atrophies.

I had this surgery done on my other knee ten years ago.  it was amazing to me how quickly my quadricep muscle shrank while I was on crutches.  The quadricep was designed to bear the weight of your body everyday as you walk.  In a short time, my leg shrank to the size of my ankle.  and it took a while to build that muscle back up.

In the church we have some people who do a lot, probably more than they should.  But we also people who are not using their gifts and not doing the job(s) that God has gifted them and called them to do.  That leads to spiritually atrophy (and apathy).  When we are not serving we will not grow, we will shrink.  It is just not possible to be a disciple of Christ and not serve.

I challenge you today to find out the gifts that God has given you.  I challenge you to seek out what God has called you to do.  Then I challenge you to step up and do your part in the body of Christ.  For some of you, you may need to let go of doing someone else’s job.  For others, you need to begin to build your spiritual muscle back up and start using your gifts again.

A Part of Christ’s Body

Cameron

Hello Friends,

My family and I recently saw the movie The Last Mimzy.  We had been wanting to see it because it looked interesting and featured several children.  It was rated PG and was in the fantasy genre.  Both of my children like the fantasy genre.

Aside from the heavy Eastern mysticism that ran throughout the movie and an overuse of the word”sucks” it was a pretty good movie.  There are two other words that stick out in my mind as words to ponder: risk and purity.

The first word, risk, is something that the children had to do.  They had to take a risk, a calculated risk, but a risk none the less, in order to do what they knew was right, and ultimately to save the world.  I grew up in a pretty sheltered home.  I never faced any tremendous adversities in my childhood.  I can’t remember not going to church and my closest friends were at church.  Other than a cigarrette once or twice and some chewing tobacco, I did not face any strong peer pressure to rebel.  My biggest risk was toilet papering people’s houses occassionally.  However, we only did this to those we cared deeply about.  As I would leave, my mom would tell me that if I was arrested, she would come in the morning to get me!  All this to say that I have not been a very risky person.

But there are times when we are called on to take risks.  The whole issue of faith is a risk taking venture.  Faith by definition is trusting in things not seen.  Beyond that initial faith, we are called to take risks for God.  These are not foolish risks, but calculated risks.  They are risks that deepen our faith.  When we know God intimately, they become less serious risks in our mind, because we know that God is in control, that God loves us, that God wants the best for us, that God has won, and that God’s glory will prevail.  So I challenge me and you to take risks for God’s kingdom and for God’s glory.

The second word that I associated with the movie was purity.  In the movie, the future DNA is polluted and they need the purity of the DNA of a little girl from the present.  Again, aside from the eastern mysticism that pervades the movie, the idea of purity runs throughout our faith.  “Create in me a clean heart of God” (Psalm 51).  “And He shall purify” (from Isaiah).  “We are a holy (set apart) priesthood” (1 Peter).  We are best, we are the most useful, we are the most joy-filled, we are the most fulfilled, when we are pure.  When we have confessed and repented and been cleansed and forgiven.  God’s commands (the big ten and others) are not meant to be restricting, but life-giving.  When we have no other gods before Him we are more fulfilled.  When we don’t bear false witness, but live in truth, we are more joy-filled and free.  When we are not stealing or coveting or committing adultery (either literally or lusting in our minds) we are enjoying abundant life.

It is not too late for purity.  We have all sinned.  But the free gift of God is eternal life to those who repent and believe.  God can and will make us a new creation.  He will purify.  He will create a clean heart.

Until next time, keep pure and take risks.  (Imagine some eerie humming/whistling sound here – if you’ve seen the movie you know what I mean)

In Christ’s love,

Cameron

Hello Friends,

Way back on Fathers Day, June 17th, I had the opportunity to visit the Vineyard Church in Friendsville with my family.  The church is in a warehouse like building with a gravel parking lot out in the countryside.  We had a great experience.

Our first experience at this gathering of friends was two smiling faces directing the cars in the parking lot.  The service probably only had about 100 people.  There were probably only 40 or 50 cars.  However, there were people in the parking lot to guide and greet everyone.  I have said it before, I don’t know what our church offers, but I don’t think we offer this kind of personal touch.  Relationship does matter and it can begin in the parking lot.  I think that is a challenge for our church to improve.  I know we have some great greeters at the doors, but to actually greet people at the parking lot entrance and direct them to open spaces I think is our next step.

As we entered, there were a number of people having friendly conversations and enjoying coffee and pastries.  You have to go through this fellowship area to get to the sanctuary.  I think this kind of fellowship happens at our church at the coffee bar in the snack room and in our Sunday School classes, but I don’t think it happens for the visitor to our church in large part because we don’t have a good gathering space close to our sanctuary.  This is one of the issues that we have spoken of in every discussion of future renovations.  We need more gathering/fellowship space around the sanctuary.  However, there are probably some ways that we can accomplish this in the interim time.  I think this is another challenge for our church.  How can we provide a welcoming, inviting, comfortable, fellowship environment in the halls and vestibule just outside the sanctuary.  This can be a place for relationships to happen.  It can be relationships with old friends and greeting and making new friends.  One aspect of this may also be giving a little more breathing room between our services so the hallway does not get packed bull of people waiting to get into the next service while others are trying to get out of the first service.

Well Julia and Mary Beth really enjoyed bringing their coffee into the service.  The music was strong.  I enjoyed the PowerPoint presentation throughout.  The sermon was challenging.  The point of the sermon was from Leviticus 19:9-10 and Deuteronomy 24:19-22.  The big point in the old testament teachings is to leave some of the harvest for the poor and needy and for the traveler.  The challenge is to bring that into a modern setting.  And the challenge was to use our rich and abundant resources to help others.  This is a theme that has also arisen in the second half of my summer.  You heard about it some in my post about Rick Warren’s message during the Saddleback Worship conference.

The challenge is that we are commanded to help the poor and needy and the traveler and the widow and the orphan.  That we are to use our resources for others.  Aaron McCarter, the pastor of Vineyard, shared a statistic that last year Americans spent $1.22 for every $1.00 that they made.  That is not from generous charitable giving.  That is from making our lives easier and more flashy and more self-serving.  And I am right there in the thick of it.  I am constantly thinking about how long until I can get the latest technological gadget that is going to make my life easier or more efficient (that is a joke with modern technology) or make my entertainment experience more high definition or more surround sound, etc. etc. etc.  And again statistically I give to charities FAR BETTER than the average American or even the average Christian.  But so much of it is self-serving.

It is difficult and I don’t have any easy answers, but I do know that something has got to change in my life.  And I think that something needs to change in the lives of most people who call themselves Christians.  We need to care for those in need much more than we do.  We need to share our rich resources.  We can and are called to make a difference.

One of the things that they do at Vineyard church is they have a ministry box at the back of the church.  They call for people to put money into the box and all the money goes to immediate needs in the community.  This is different from the church offering box.  I think it is a good focal reminder to the church that they are called to care for the needs in the community around them.  I would like to encourage you to give to our church’s general budget.  Many of us painstakingly create a budget each Fall that attempts to be faithful to  our calling as a church to bring joy to the heart of God and Christ to the heart of East Tennessee.  And we attempt to faithfully and responsibly administer that budget throughout the church year.  And our budget represents how we as a church have felt led by the Spirit and how we have chosen to be obedient to the Spirit’s leading.  My challenge for all of us is to give richly, extravagantly from our rich resources.

I was challenged by a message that is not popular, but that is needed.  Pray for me in the changes that I need to make.  And pray for our church that we will continue to be obedient to the Spirit’s call to die to ourselves and let Christ live in us.

By Christ’s Grace,

Cameron