I was serious about not blogging anymore but I have to tell you this. We had our first prayer night tonight getting ready for Grand Openning. We had Tyler, four pastors, myself, and four children 7, 4, 4, and 2. Whether the presence of our little people was deliberate or by default I don't know but read on ... at least one 4 yr. old was prepared to come and "be quiet" because we were going to pray - quite a sacrifice when you're 4, social, and your friends are there, too.
As adults we talked about sacrifice and fasting and giving up things that control us. Two of the kids had successfully given up computer for the day as their fast and very excited about it. 2 year old Emily had given up her nap, though probably not intentionally...
We had some group prayertime and the kids were kids but very good and included.
Then we prayed in the foyer, in the sanctuary, over the supply room and office doors, in the kitchen and outside. It wasn't scripted. It wasn't planned. There was enough space for adults carrying heavy burdens who wanted still, quiet prayer to have that, too.
The kids included me in their outdoor prayer walk. They had prayed over chairs for people in the sanctuary. Now, they prayed for the trees to grow and for the people in the houses behind the church to be safe. They prayed for Artisan to be good neighbors. They ran through the parking lot praying for cars not to break down and for cars to fill the parking lot. They prayed to be lights like the street lights over the parking lot. When we were all done, they prayed for blessings on this person and that person.... Some of these prayers came from them. Alot of it came from a parent walking with them saying, "What [do the houses back there] make you want to pray about."
Bringing your children, praying with them, letting them pray with you, investing your own prayer energy and your own prayertime (corporate or personal) looking for ways for them to connect or helping them quiet themselves while others are praying is a significant sacrifice. It's ALOT of work. The work of it hit me, the sacrifice of it hit me, but I couldn't help but think that these kids are getting something very different from Sunday school and the dynamic potential for their faith to just keep growing is enormous. I have more faith than most adults for this kind of thing but I confess that I waver because I'm not sure there are parents and others willing to work and sacrifice like this. The dynamic of last night left me saying, "Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief! Lord, help us make this happen."
As parents and as a community, it's alot of work to include children and walk with them and let them walk with you - alot of work and personal sacrifice. It requires we change how we think not just about worship but about prayer and probably other things, too. I don't think it's presumptious to believe that God enjoyed watching them bounce around and being very still and that He was listening as intently to to their prayers as to the intense, serious prayers that the rest of us brought. I also believe He received the sacrifice that these parents/guardians made as sweet incense.
The next step? When God answers we can say, "Remember when we talked to God about that? I think He was listening. Let's say thank you." If God doesn't answer? Together, we'll keep praying ... something else to learn . . .
When was the last time your prayer time was solemn but fun? When was the last time God made you smile and gave you hope when you were facing an incredible challenge of faith?
God is pleased to give these little people His kingdom. This is a treasure hidden in a field that a man sold everything He had to buy ...
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
the problem with reading blogs...
The good part about reading other people's blogs is that you get to know them better and they come, read yours, and make comments.
The bad thing? When you read someone else's blog and you find out they tagged you for something just when you thought you were done blogging forever and had nothing else to say...
1. Total number of books you own An excellent question. 50 + shelves... (some small shelves, some big shelves...) Someday (if we ever move) I'll count them and I'll know ... remember 7 people live here. I don't think of myself as much of a reader...
2. What was the last book you bought Christina Katerina & The Box by Patricia LeeGauch (yes, it's a children's book)
3. What was the last book you read All the way through, as in "finished it"? Christina Katherine & the Box by...
4. List five books that are particularly meaningful to you (in no particular order) . . . I tend to read authors...five... "meaningful" being the key word?? ...hmm... I don't know, but these are probably among the most memorable...
[The Bible yes]
Mrs. Mike by Benedict and Nancy Freedman (Good news! Thank you, Lisa! Just because you tagged me and I had to look up the author, I found out that after almost 20 years these people are writing more books!)
The Camel Who Took a Walk by Jack Tworkov . Another children's book. It's just odd and fun in an unexpected, simple kind of way. Also books by Jane Yolen, Ann Rinaldi, George MacDonald, and I did like Harry Potter...
Leon Uris books (Mille 18, Trinity, Exodus...) historical fiction/drama. (I also liked Chaim Potok's books)
How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn A coming of age novel about Wales. I also liked How the Irish Saved Civilization by Thomas Cahill, my first read c. Celtic Christianity.
I AM by George A.F. Knight Knight is a Scots Hebrew scholar from New Zealand. This one of his little books.
5. Tag five people. Any five people who read? or who read my blog? Howabout 5 lurkers who frequently read this without comment :-) Use the comment space or send us to your blog!
The bad thing? When you read someone else's blog and you find out they tagged you for something just when you thought you were done blogging forever and had nothing else to say...
1. Total number of books you own An excellent question. 50 + shelves... (some small shelves, some big shelves...) Someday (if we ever move) I'll count them and I'll know ... remember 7 people live here. I don't think of myself as much of a reader...
2. What was the last book you bought Christina Katerina & The Box by Patricia LeeGauch (yes, it's a children's book)
3. What was the last book you read All the way through, as in "finished it"? Christina Katherine & the Box by...
4. List five books that are particularly meaningful to you (in no particular order) . . . I tend to read authors...five... "meaningful" being the key word?? ...hmm... I don't know, but these are probably among the most memorable...
[The Bible yes]
Mrs. Mike by Benedict and Nancy Freedman (Good news! Thank you, Lisa! Just because you tagged me and I had to look up the author, I found out that after almost 20 years these people are writing more books!)
The Camel Who Took a Walk by Jack Tworkov . Another children's book. It's just odd and fun in an unexpected, simple kind of way. Also books by Jane Yolen, Ann Rinaldi, George MacDonald, and I did like Harry Potter...
Leon Uris books (Mille 18, Trinity, Exodus...) historical fiction/drama. (I also liked Chaim Potok's books)
How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn A coming of age novel about Wales. I also liked How the Irish Saved Civilization by Thomas Cahill, my first read c. Celtic Christianity.
I AM by George A.F. Knight Knight is a Scots Hebrew scholar from New Zealand. This one of his little books.
5. Tag five people. Any five people who read? or who read my blog? Howabout 5 lurkers who frequently read this without comment :-) Use the comment space or send us to your blog!
Random thoughts 2
Audio/video generally reduces life (and worship) to just another spectator sport. Only to the degree that it causes us to engage in life or engage in worship is there life potential- the key word being "engage".
When I get in the car, and turn the ignition, the radio blasts. I look at the station and I know who drove it last. My kids have music on all the time when they're home. They don't understand how I can like music and love quiet. I like to listen to music. But if my head is already full of other things (which is most of the time) I don't put music on. It competes with what's in my head and I like listening to lyrics.
I had opportunity to try out a top of the line CD player this summer when my kids were home from college. I donned the earphones, inserted the worship cd and bounced around the house oblivious to the rest of the world. Needless to say, my kids were dumbfounded then oddly amused. They didn't invite their friends over that day and I don't think the discussion about playing music will come up again any time soon. But they know I like music, they know I love worship, and maybe someday they'll appreciate the quiet.
Doing makes something more alive than just watching - doing the walkman experience, doing the worship experience. Worship isn't empty words. It isn't something imposed on me from the outside. No one can worship for me. It isn't technical or mechanical. It isn't something I can just talk about because God will require that I do what I say to Him - another mystery.
How much of worship is leadership and muscianship? How much depends on planning, prep and presentation? How much is a group of people actively seeking God with a heart to please Him? How much do we do? How much does God do? Is it enough to worship God because He calls us to, or do we have to come away having "experienced something?" Is it enough to include our children in our worship because God is calling us to or do we have to justify it? Do we have to prove something? Well, God will come looking for fruit...
To bring our children to worship with us requires that we draw them into what we're doing. The experience may be something shared but it will also be something personal. There are elements of mystery, life, impartation that we have no control over and in this day and age that's a tough thing to get your head around. Hurricane Katrina, for example.
How we think about all these things affect what we teach children about worship or rather, how we worship with our children. Complicated? Think simple. We come to bring our thanks and praise and offerings and to tell an awesome God how wonderful He is. We come to listen to His stories. We come to draw near to Him, we expect Him to draw near to us, and we bring our children. We don't have to explain it.
We think simple, maybe mult-sensory but simple. What's important? In it's simplist form what does it look like or sound like or feel like or taste like or smell like to worship God? No, a better question – what does He look like, sound like, feel like, taste like, smell like? We worship Him. But maybe we don't have to know these things. Maybe we don't have to know how. Maybe the how and maybe the impartation comes with just doing.
The growing consensus is that worship and doing is more formational than instruction. If you worship the Living God of the Universe and if you do the things He says, you will come to know Him better and you will become more like Jesus. How? It's a mystery.
When I get in the car, and turn the ignition, the radio blasts. I look at the station and I know who drove it last. My kids have music on all the time when they're home. They don't understand how I can like music and love quiet. I like to listen to music. But if my head is already full of other things (which is most of the time) I don't put music on. It competes with what's in my head and I like listening to lyrics.
I had opportunity to try out a top of the line CD player this summer when my kids were home from college. I donned the earphones, inserted the worship cd and bounced around the house oblivious to the rest of the world. Needless to say, my kids were dumbfounded then oddly amused. They didn't invite their friends over that day and I don't think the discussion about playing music will come up again any time soon. But they know I like music, they know I love worship, and maybe someday they'll appreciate the quiet.
Doing makes something more alive than just watching - doing the walkman experience, doing the worship experience. Worship isn't empty words. It isn't something imposed on me from the outside. No one can worship for me. It isn't technical or mechanical. It isn't something I can just talk about because God will require that I do what I say to Him - another mystery.
How much of worship is leadership and muscianship? How much depends on planning, prep and presentation? How much is a group of people actively seeking God with a heart to please Him? How much do we do? How much does God do? Is it enough to worship God because He calls us to, or do we have to come away having "experienced something?" Is it enough to include our children in our worship because God is calling us to or do we have to justify it? Do we have to prove something? Well, God will come looking for fruit...
To bring our children to worship with us requires that we draw them into what we're doing. The experience may be something shared but it will also be something personal. There are elements of mystery, life, impartation that we have no control over and in this day and age that's a tough thing to get your head around. Hurricane Katrina, for example.
How we think about all these things affect what we teach children about worship or rather, how we worship with our children. Complicated? Think simple. We come to bring our thanks and praise and offerings and to tell an awesome God how wonderful He is. We come to listen to His stories. We come to draw near to Him, we expect Him to draw near to us, and we bring our children. We don't have to explain it.
We think simple, maybe mult-sensory but simple. What's important? In it's simplist form what does it look like or sound like or feel like or taste like or smell like to worship God? No, a better question – what does He look like, sound like, feel like, taste like, smell like? We worship Him. But maybe we don't have to know these things. Maybe we don't have to know how. Maybe the how and maybe the impartation comes with just doing.
The growing consensus is that worship and doing is more formational than instruction. If you worship the Living God of the Universe and if you do the things He says, you will come to know Him better and you will become more like Jesus. How? It's a mystery.
We have an hour, 90 minutes, a lifetime. What's important? A visitor or a family comes one time to experience what it is to be part of a people worshipping the Living God and we hope God will meet them (through us or despite us). Our children follow us around all day and we hope God will meet them (through us or despite us). God does what He does, we do what we do and where the two cross is a mystery.
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Random thoughts 1
I've been struggling with this one trying to tie the pieces together. Don't know if I've succeeded.
The word "impart" implies giving something that's more alive than just information. We worship a Living God - emphasis on Living. There are things He’s revealed and things He hasn’t. We parent, teach, lead, share hoping to impart something but impartation is a mystery. Sometimes understanding gives life and sometimes explaining robs experience of its power.
I really can't explain the difference between walking 2 growing black furry four-legged walking machines and walking on the treadmill. But I can tell you that the commitment and the benefits of interacting with something alive are different than the commitment you make to a machine or a program and what you get out of it. Something alive is growing and changing and requires that I grow and change, too. If I ignore something that's alive it moves on or it dies.
Bringing children to worship is something that's very alive right now. Apparently there really are people trying to do this to greater and lesser degrees. Something to nurture. Something challenging with potential for growth and change. We can use a "how-to" to facilitate communication but the rest is relational. We're looking for life but we may not be able to measure it or explain it even after the fruit matures.
If you do something because it pleases God you don’t do it to see whether it works, you do it anyway. It's not just an experiment. The people looking at the crucifixion were probably not convinced at the time that it worked. The people of Israel were surely not convinced that the land God promised was worth battling giants.
The word "impart" implies giving something that's more alive than just information. We worship a Living God - emphasis on Living. There are things He’s revealed and things He hasn’t. We parent, teach, lead, share hoping to impart something but impartation is a mystery. Sometimes understanding gives life and sometimes explaining robs experience of its power.
I really can't explain the difference between walking 2 growing black furry four-legged walking machines and walking on the treadmill. But I can tell you that the commitment and the benefits of interacting with something alive are different than the commitment you make to a machine or a program and what you get out of it. Something alive is growing and changing and requires that I grow and change, too. If I ignore something that's alive it moves on or it dies.
Bringing children to worship is something that's very alive right now. Apparently there really are people trying to do this to greater and lesser degrees. Something to nurture. Something challenging with potential for growth and change. We can use a "how-to" to facilitate communication but the rest is relational. We're looking for life but we may not be able to measure it or explain it even after the fruit matures.
If you do something because it pleases God you don’t do it to see whether it works, you do it anyway. It's not just an experiment. The people looking at the crucifixion were probably not convinced at the time that it worked. The people of Israel were surely not convinced that the land God promised was worth battling giants.
Saturday, September 24, 2005
Interesting Conversations
If you're bothering to read these almost daily posts you'll notice the quality varies from day to day. That's my updated disclaimer...
I had an interesting conversation with my 16 year old daughter yesterday. She asked me about my blog and we got talking about church and a little about why she doesn't particularly like church. (She invites her friends to the house for our Monday night meals which is usually about half Artisan.) She's been through the most changes in her church experience and visited more youth groups than my other kids did. I suggested she read the blog and comment. She said, nah, you can write about this.
Jenny's in a program in her high school that's preparing kids who want to be teachers so they learn alot about how kids learn. She made the comment that most kids are visual before they develope their language skills so worship should have more visual elements. I have to say that surprised me a little because the guys at Artisan are using the overhead posting art and photographic images and using far more visual elements than the other churches she's been part of. Claudia spends a lot of time decorating and setting up the candles and we often have an enacted prayer station for communion. We meet in a space that in itself is fairly simple so it's pretty versatile.
My daughter is an artist so she's a very visual person, herself.
"And you know, Mom, with a name like "Artisan" you'll probably have a whole congregation of visual learners." I'm wondering if Selah is for those moments when all you can do is sit with your mouth open and let such morsels of profound wisdom work it's way through your being...
I talked alittle about what I'm hoping we do with story and she perked up her ears. "And you can just do it as drama or...." and she went on with other visual presentations of the story. The bottom line was, she doesn't like sermons so she was thinking in-place-of. This also surprised me because I thought our young fun pastors sharing every Sunday would appeal to my kids. My son on the other hand used to tell me he really liked sermons and it didn't matter which church he was visiting or who he was listening to... Again, Jenny is visual and she's talking about visual learning...
Our conversation continued. I told her that someone might be asking her and her siblings about their experiences in a public city high school. She went through this long list of all the things they should know. Then she got talking about school and various postions she took in her US govt. class and I just listened. I probably would have taken similar positions but they weren't your typical Christian positions. When we were done she said, "Mom, thanks for just listening and not telling me what you think and whether you think I'm right or wrong." Again, selah...
My generation and my parents' generation didn't do a lot of listening to kids. We have friends in their 40's. I watched them do alot of listening to their children. The other day I watched an early 30's mom guide her preschooler through a challenging decision by asking him questions about his feelings and how someone else might feel and he came to the conclusion she hoped he would come to.
I'm sharing this because all of these people are significantly younger than I and I'm learning volumes from them. I think that generations listening to each other and learning and deciding together will shape the church differently than only top down or old to young leadership models. Maybe it will enable the church to lay groundwork for the future in ways that haven't happened before. I'm not just talking about encouraging and listening to young up-and-coming leaders in the churches. I'm talking about listening to children.
With some wise oversight, let your children take initiative and run with it. . . but that's another conversation...
I had an interesting conversation with my 16 year old daughter yesterday. She asked me about my blog and we got talking about church and a little about why she doesn't particularly like church. (She invites her friends to the house for our Monday night meals which is usually about half Artisan.) She's been through the most changes in her church experience and visited more youth groups than my other kids did. I suggested she read the blog and comment. She said, nah, you can write about this.
Jenny's in a program in her high school that's preparing kids who want to be teachers so they learn alot about how kids learn. She made the comment that most kids are visual before they develope their language skills so worship should have more visual elements. I have to say that surprised me a little because the guys at Artisan are using the overhead posting art and photographic images and using far more visual elements than the other churches she's been part of. Claudia spends a lot of time decorating and setting up the candles and we often have an enacted prayer station for communion. We meet in a space that in itself is fairly simple so it's pretty versatile.
My daughter is an artist so she's a very visual person, herself.
"And you know, Mom, with a name like "Artisan" you'll probably have a whole congregation of visual learners." I'm wondering if Selah is for those moments when all you can do is sit with your mouth open and let such morsels of profound wisdom work it's way through your being...
I talked alittle about what I'm hoping we do with story and she perked up her ears. "And you can just do it as drama or...." and she went on with other visual presentations of the story. The bottom line was, she doesn't like sermons so she was thinking in-place-of. This also surprised me because I thought our young fun pastors sharing every Sunday would appeal to my kids. My son on the other hand used to tell me he really liked sermons and it didn't matter which church he was visiting or who he was listening to... Again, Jenny is visual and she's talking about visual learning...
Our conversation continued. I told her that someone might be asking her and her siblings about their experiences in a public city high school. She went through this long list of all the things they should know. Then she got talking about school and various postions she took in her US govt. class and I just listened. I probably would have taken similar positions but they weren't your typical Christian positions. When we were done she said, "Mom, thanks for just listening and not telling me what you think and whether you think I'm right or wrong." Again, selah...
My generation and my parents' generation didn't do a lot of listening to kids. We have friends in their 40's. I watched them do alot of listening to their children. The other day I watched an early 30's mom guide her preschooler through a challenging decision by asking him questions about his feelings and how someone else might feel and he came to the conclusion she hoped he would come to.
I'm sharing this because all of these people are significantly younger than I and I'm learning volumes from them. I think that generations listening to each other and learning and deciding together will shape the church differently than only top down or old to young leadership models. Maybe it will enable the church to lay groundwork for the future in ways that haven't happened before. I'm not just talking about encouraging and listening to young up-and-coming leaders in the churches. I'm talking about listening to children.
With some wise oversight, let your children take initiative and run with it. . . but that's another conversation...
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