Strings & Pen

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 24 Mar 2018 17:41:00 +0000

Why Do We Go to Church

By Sherri Karnes on September 19, 2017

My last blog sparked some conversation, though not here in the comment section but there was conversation. The conversations that did happen left me with several things to think about. Before we go on a journey about what type of church we need or what type of church we fit into or what’s wrong with churches that they only welcome like-minded people. Before we dissect the church from which we came, maybe we should talk about why we go to church. I have thought about this for a while but I am not sure I have an answer. I can give several reasons for why I go to church but I don’t know if they are the correct reasons that should drive a person to go to church. I go to church because I am a Christian. That’s simple enough I suppose. It says in the Bible, Hebrews 10:25, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. So I go to church because the Bible says I should. That is certainly reason enough to go but I really don’t think it is reason enough to continue going to church. So I have to dig a little deeper about this why we go to church stuff. I have friends who I know attend church because it is a socially accepted place to be with the one you love regardless of who it is you love. Now that isn’t true in most churches but the churches I have attended in the last 15 years that has been true. I suspect that some attend church because it is what they were taught to do. Those of us that were raised in “Christian homes” and were told that if you are a Christian you must attend church, often have too much guilt to deal with if we choose not to go to church. Some people go because it gives them purpose. We feel the need to serve our brothers and sisters or our community in some way and the church provides that opportunity for us. Some of us go because we sing in the choir and we like to sing and we like belonging to a group. Some of us go because it is not only a calling but a vocation as well and we are paid to be there. There are probably as many reasons why people go to church as there are people sitting in the pews but I am not convinced that those are the reasons that God calls us to join together in a body of believers. I am also convinced that those reasons alone will not keep us in a church. We should come to bring glory to God and to worship God but what does that look like. I come to a sanctuary and I worship God but how? This is not about style. It’s not about the music I sing when I worship or whether or not I raise my hands to God in worship. Worship is why we come. Worship is our response to God loving us. God calls us to worship and we worship by responding to what God has called forth in us. What does God call forth in you? What does God call to within you? What answers when God calls? So if we are called to gather together to worship God then why is it that our church experience is too often determined by our response not to God but to the other people in the church. Why do other people determine my ability to worship God? Why, if I am angry with people in my church do I say I am angry with God? Why when people hurt me in the church do I decide that going to church is no longer an acceptable practice. If those things are happening in our worship services then maybe we need to redefine what church is. Church isn’t about you or me but it’s about God and worshipping God. We are there to find sanctuary, which is defined, as a safe place of refuge. Most churches are anything but a safe place of refuge. The act of worship is an act of surrender and an act of abandoning my self into the hands of a loving, merciful God. How can I do that if there is no sanctuary in the church? If I am not safe to worship then how do I find sanctuary and worship? We should come to church knowing that we are in sanctuary. We are safe and we can take refuge there. I need sanctuary but for the moment that sanctuary is my home.

Enter in to the sanctuary

Lay all your burdens down

Bring all that you carry

Lift your eyes to Heaven

Leave it all behind

Rest in this sweet comfort

And call on your Savior

Singing….Praise Him

Praise Him

Lift your hands in sweet surrender

Let all your sorrows slip away

No more to remember

Lift your eyes to Heaven

Leave it all behind

Rest in this sweet comfort

And call on your Savior

Singing….Praise Him

Praise Him

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 24 Mar 2018 17:40:00 +0000

Choosing a Church Community

This week my thoughts have turned to church and what people really want in a church community. We have just left a church that we have been a part of for the last 6 years so it seems appropriate to me that we do some soul searching regarding a church community. Finding Your Community in Denomination: Most people I know begin their search for a church by looking first at the churches in their community that are of a certain denomination. If you are a Baptist, you go looking for a Baptist church. If you are a Pentecostal you probably go looking for a Pentecostal church. This would be a great place to start except for the fact that many mainline denominational churches are not open and affirming. Many of my friends and myself included cannot just go out and decide to attend all the Baptist or Methodist or Church of God’s in our area because most of those churches are only open and welcoming to their own kind. If you are white, straight and conservative then you most likely can choose any of those churches. If you are not those things then your church searching gets narrowed down quite bit right from the start. So if looking for a church community by denomination is not going to work where do you turn next? Finding Your Community in Style: If I cannot choose my church community based on denomination then I can begin by looking for churches that have a style of worship that fits my own. For me, that style would involve contemporary worship with modern worship music. I would also look for a church that had relevant teaching and preaching. The teaching/preaching would need to be from an educated viewpoint. I grew up in churches that did not have educational requirements for those that pastored or preached. As a teenager I began attending a Presbyterian Church where the pastors were educated and I found that I preferred and educated Pastor to one that was not educated. As I look in my community for such churches it becomes clear that I am most likely not welcome in those churches either. They are heavy on the “family” values and they cater most of their activities and services to that wonderful American family of Mom, Dad and 2.2 children and maybe a cat or dog as a pet. It is probably helpful if you live in a nice sub-division and fall firmly in the middle class range of income. When my friends show up to these churches they are welcomed until they realize that the guy they were coming with is not just their best buddy and the little girl they bring is their daughter and not their niece or nephew. So much for looking for a church with a contemporary worship service. So it seems that I cannot just look for a church that matches my preferred denomination. I cannot simply go looking for a church that matches the style of worship that I prefer either. What happens is that I begin searching for a church based on who will let me in the door. Something inside of me says this is not how we should have to find a church. I find myself in a church that is much further away that what I would like to drive. I find myself in a church that sings songs that I don’t necessarily like. The preaching may or may not be anywhere near what my beliefs are. They have rituals that I don’t agree with and their liturgy doesn’t quite match what I believe but hey, they let me in the door. So here I am in a church that I would never have chosen based on doctrine, theology, style of worship or use of liturgy. Where do I go from here? How do I find a place in this church? Will I find a place? Are my thoughts welcome here? What happens when I join the church and have to agree to their basic beliefs that may be in direct standing to my own personal beliefs? I am going to explore some of these questions in my blog in the coming days. I think there are some important issues that need discussed regarding what happens when people join a church based not on mutual agreements in doctrine and belief and worship style but rather they join because it is the only church within driving distance that will welcome them without asking them to change.

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 24 Mar 2018 17:37:00 +0000

I am reading a book which talks about what is or isn’t the holiest hour of the week for church folks. The author does not believe it is Sunday morning at 11am or 1030 or whatever times your church has their Sunday worship service. I have thought about that statement and how very true it is at least of the churches I have been a member of. The last church I was a member in I even heard it said that you should leave your baggage at the door that church is no place for all that personal stuff. Now you need to know a little more about that church in order to appreciate that comment. We had a way of piling our baggage up in the sanctuary and then prying it all open and throwing it at one another so that statement about leaving baggage at the door might have been some good advice for that church. However it does seem wrong that the church is not the place for our baggage and for our honesty. Why is it that we put on our Sunday best before entering the church doors? Why is it when someone has the audacity to show up “just as the are” which is what the website and Facebook group says that the church welcomes, that people talk about them and whisper about them in not so good ways? The church really doesn’t want you to show up just as you are. They really would rather that you put on your Sunday best and leave your baggage at the door. Well, I don’t want to do church that way anymore. I don’t want to dig through my closet for my Sunday best. I want to come as I am. I want to bring my baggage and I want to dump it on the altar. I want to hear what the other church people really think. I want honesty. Do you think that after Jesus would preach to the large crowds of people that he and his disciples would go back to their campsite or upper room and talk about the people in the crowd? Do you think they were only honest when it was just the few of them? I hope not. I hope my faith is built on something more than pretty Sunday bonnets and nice pressed dressed pants. It is my experience that pretty Sunday services rarely if ever change our life for the better. I don’t often meet Jesus in that hour on Sunday where everyone is on their best behavior and all cleaned up. I have seen Jesus on Monday evening when friends have gathered to talk about what a long day they had a work. I’ve met up with Jesus at hospitals where people show up just as they are because when that person you love is in an emergency situation, your Sunday best is not what you need. You come as you are. You often run as you are. You don’t stop to make it all pretty. What is it that makes us more honest in that situation than when we meet up for church on Sunday morning? I think we are trying to dress up for God. We really don’t believe He loves us just as we are or that He made us just as we are or we wouldn’t try to dress up what we are. We know that person laying in the emergency room loves us no matter what so we come running just as we are. We might be dirty and tired but we come running. So I want that in a church. I want to know that I am loved just as I am. I don’t want to put on some Sunday Bonnet. Maybe everyone else will still be in his or her Sunday best but if I come then I am coming as I am. Just as I am.

Why We Need A Savior.........Or Do We?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 03:21:00 +0000

I was browsing through some random blogs tonight when I came across one that was titled “Atone”. One of the articles was regarding Rob Bell who wrote “Love Wins”. From what I could tell it was simply a restating of what others had said in their review of the book. The big issue they had with Rob Bell was his questioning of whether or not hell exists and if it does why would that be acceptable to God. The blog took issue with this because they feel it negates the need for a Savior. So I have thought about that………what did Jesus come to save us from if he did? Did he really only come to save us from an afterlife spent in Hell? If that is what he came to do then why didn’t he just say that. Why all the teaching about how to live this life. It would seem to me that Jesus was more interested in life here on earth than he was in some afterlife. So I don’t think he came to save us from Hell. So do we really need a Savior? I think so……we need a savior to love us because we loathe ourselves. We need a Savior to forgive us because we can’t forgive ourselves. We need a Savior to listen to us because we don’t have a clue how to listen whether it’s to ourselves or to others. We need a Savior to walk with us because we so often run others off who would walk with us. We need a Savior for many reasons but I don’t find the afterlife to be a real compelling reason for a Savior. We need a Savior to redeem us from well…us. We have turned on ourselves and we have separated ourself from the part of us that recognizes God. We can’t see the good in ourselves so how could we ever recognize the God in us…….we are made in God’s image but we spend a lifetime trying to erase that image from our heart and our mind. We don’t believe we are worthy to be made in God’s image…….That is why we need a Savior……..to save us from ourselves and put us back together.

Giving Thanks

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 05:06:00 +0000

In a book I am reading, the central thought is about giving thanks. One of the themes she carries throughout the book is that giving thanks always precedes the miracle. This seems to be true for things like turning the water into wine and especially feeding the many with a few loaves of bread and some fish. What strikes me most are the not so obvious miracles that take place after giving thanks. One such miracle is the opening of the eyes of the men who walked unknowingly with the resurrected Christ.

When He had reclined at the table with them, He took the bread and blessed it, and breaking it, He began giving it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him; and He vanished from [j]their sight.

When Jesus gave thanks then the miracle happened. They saw who he really was. When we give thanks for those around us we begin to see them differently. Our perspective is different when the framework is one of thankfulness rather than our usual perspective of viewing the world as if we stand in the center of it. It is hard to be thankful for something which we don’t value. The boy with the small amount of food on the hillside valued what he had enough to think that it would make a difference somehow. Jesus received what the boy valued and gave thanks and somehow it was enough. If we are thankful then it is most always enough. If we are not thankful then most often it is not enough.

Filling Emptiness

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 12:42:00 +0000

We live looking searching
To fill the emptiness of birth
Finally grasping something of substance
Pouring in to fill us
As it seeps thru our hearts
Leaving as it came
The holes of emptiness are bigger still

Tithing..........Really?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 03:30:00 +0000

We have been reading a book called "Liberating Hope!" Daring to renew the Mainline Church by Michael S. Piazza and Cameron B. Trimble in our weekly Bible study at church. The chapter we just finished was on Stewardship. I had some enlightening moments while thinking about this chapter. I grew up with that whole idea of giving God our tithe faithfully would result in God blessing us tenfold. I don't know that it has ever really happened in my life, well at least not in a monetary way.

It seems to me that it was easier to write a check and pay tithes when I was more conservative/charismatic in belief. The more progressive I become in my theology and thinking, the less likely I am to pay tithes and write checks. I think the problem becomes one of belief…..the more liberal often means we apply more intellect than emotion to scripture. I think we also tend not to interpret the scripture quite as literal as those who are more fundamental in their theology. So for me I end up in a spot that doubts whether or not God really cares about money and how much I give. Does God really bless our giving? I would say we feel good about giving especially in things like food drives and such because we lean towards a more social gospel. But where does this leave the idea of tithing because God said so? Are we really going to give over 10% of our paycheck because there is a scripture that says God said to do it.

Finding What Was Lost

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 13:02:00 +0000

As I sat in church yesterday listening to our Pastor speak I began to realize that my spiritual life had taken another one of those turns in life. One of those turns that become a defining moment in your life. It seems God has led me back to a place spiritually that I have not been in the last 20 years of my life. Over the last several years I have mostly been at a place where I felt responsible for others spiritually. Going to church had become a chore in some ways for me and in other ways it had become a place of failure. Not just a place of failure that I felt personally but a place that I failed others and a place where often entire groups of people were failing in living out God's call on our lives. Not all of the past several years have been full of just failure. There have been great times of spiritual growth in my life personally and those around me. Times of true actual growth in the body I was a part of that could have led to a better place where people could flourish in their relationship with God and with others. These times of growth would always end up short lived. A lack of leadership often was a factor in watching the growth slowly die back to the place where it was before the growth began. Often I have felt responsible to at least a small group of those people for letting that death come and steal our growth. Leadership is not only a function of the highest seats of authority in our churches but leadership belongs to those of us sitting in regular pews as well. We all can be responsible at times for assisting the growth of a church just as we can be responsible for assisting the death of that growth.

So I sat in my pew and I thought something is different here, something is not as it has been in my life lately. The person in the pulpit was actually speaking a blessing over the congregation. He was telling the church that they "were doing it right". I hadn't heard that in a long time. I was used to being told how "wrong we were doing it." I realized his positive words that he was speaking over the congregation were not just the something different that I was trying to identify but rather it was just a small part of that difference. The biggest difference was leadership. When we begin to build something we start with the foundation and often the state of the foundation will also be the state of the rest of the building. Leadership and foundation are very similar for me. If the leadership is strong and balanced then the other layers will follow. I read a quote the other day about leadership that said
"Leadership is ultimately about creating a way for people to contribute to making something extraordinary happen."
Something extraordinary is happening in our church. Leadership is making a way for others to give and use their gifts and people flourish when they are living out who God made them to be. We are at our best when we begin to realize that God gave us a purpose and gifts to pursue that purpose. We are at our best when leadership can affirm those gifts and can affirm who we are in God and then make a way and a place for the people to live that out. Leadership is making the way for this congregation to not only contribute to making something extraordinary happen but to live extraordinary lives in God.

So I had found what I lost…………someone to follow. Someone to say "you're doing it right". I can live out the calling on my life because others are living out the calling in theirs.

Communion

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 04:21:00 +0000

I have been working on a new song about communion. While I've been working on this song I have also been watching some "church" events unfold in the area. For me life is about a journey. It's not about where we are going so much as the going. Some of the churches I have been hearing about in the last few weeks were a part of my journey that has led me to where I am. I am thankful for those parts of my journey that allowed me to walk with some of those people. A depth was added to my life that could have only come from walking that path at that time. Sometimes we come to an end of a part of our journey but something happens that causes us to stop forward movement. I think for me it is often a fear of not knowing what is around that corner. We learn how to control a familiar path so it becomes predictable and we no longer fear turning a corner because we've been there before, we know what is coming. I would like to say that I willingly moved forward on my journey and embraced that new corner but I can't say that. In fact when I found myself on a different path than what I had traveled for the last 10 years or so I came to a stand still. I refused to move and I just knew that I would never turn a new corner. God has a way of giving us a push towards that corner. I'm sure God uses all sorts of things to nudge us but I think my nudge came in the form of desperation. A desperation for communion. Communion is just what I found around that corner in the form of a church that places value on the journey over the destination. Communion with others who share common things and yet bring such diversity to those who walk this common path. The one thing I didn't expect to find around that corner was the lighter side of faith. The last 10+ years church has more often than not been a battlefield of sorts. Every time I thought I had reached a place of peace and a place where growth was happening something ugly would appear and rob all of us of the beauty of where God had brought us too. All of those years I had thought we had to be serious about our faith and have a little fun but not too much. It was always about "where" we needed to get to. I came to a place where I judged my faith and my value on whether or not I could lead a group of people into a serious encounter with God and where often the heavier side of emotions would emerge as proof that we had delivered what we thought God had called us to. Communion and worship were suppose to lead us to repentance so that God could better use us. I know those things have a place and they certainly have been a part of my journey but maybe there is a different side to faith and God that I have missed. What I have seen around my new corner is healing that comes from joyful praise of a God who gives laughter instead of tears. Where worship flows from genuine relationships with God and one another. So when I stood a few weeks ago and asked this congregation to sing along with a few songs of worship and praise, I truly knew it was not about "getting somewhere" or evoking some emotion. It's about the steps we take and the paths we clear for those who may walk with us. It's about celebrating who God is and what God is doing right now right here in our lives that we share. It's about a 100+ people singing "love came down and rescued me" not because some movement of God suddenly evoked some deep emotional response but rather because it's how we live. We don't have to wait for prayers to break through to God or for some great and mighty wind to come along and blow us to a place closer to God. What we need is to love our neighbor and to love God. We need to walk with each other and share what God has done in our lives. We need to laugh and to pray and to sing joyful praises because God has filled our hearts and they are overflowing. We need to live as Jesus did, open and honest and available to those who walk close to us. We need to live in a way that our whole life, our whole selves become our reasonable act of worship. We need communion with each other and with God.

Communion

Here lies the bread
Here lies the wine
Pieces of a life we share
Come walk this path
Our common ground
Joining hope to lift the weak

Come and see the works of God
Taste the goodness of this love
Hear the Savior whispering
Remember Me
Remember Me

God of glory God of light
Come walk inside our brokenness
Raising us to life and love
Healing wounds with joyful praise

Worthy is the lamb of God
Who takes away our sin
Worthy is the lamb of God
Who takes away our sin

Come and see the works of God
Taste the goodness of this love
Hear the Savior whispering
Remember Me
Remember Me

Regressing In Order to Progress?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 12 May 2011 06:16:00 +0000

I found myself in a Bible study called "The Bible for Progressives" this evening and that has led me to think about the progression of my life over the last several years. The thought that keeps coming to me is that often we appear to go backwards in order to move forward. For the last 10 years or so I have led the Praise & Worship at a small church in the Charleston area. Before that I was a member of a larger praise band in a larger church. That would appear to be a progression of sorts to me... member of larger band to leader of smaller band. Now I find that I have progressed to being neither...this may be where the regression thought keeps coming from. Spiritually I had hit a dead stop in the road. Leading worship was the greatest gift I could be given but after 10 years of that God seemed to either call me away from that or maybe I just walked away from it. I learned from a friend in High School that God knows all of our choices and it may not really matter how we came to make that choice but in the end God will turn that choice to good if we just keep walking with God. Sometimes it's not about moving or progressing from one place to another but rather it's the journey in between the two places. Now I find myself fully in my period of regression or at least I have viewed it as regression only to find that maybe there has been progression after all. This coming Sunday I will pick up the guitar once again to lead a different congregation in what may only be a "special music" moment in the service or maybe it will be the beginning of yet another period of progression. I suspect it will look different from the small church I began teaching praise choruses to 10 years ago and it may not take a path that even remotely resembles the one I just left. Maybe it's progression out of regression or maybe it's just another step in a journey. Tonight I heard someone say during Bible study that progressive means living now and attending to this life rather than living in a way that is only looking at the end result of getting to Heaven. To me that sounded a whole lot like living that journey in between two places rather than just trying to get from one place to the other. So maybe progressive means moving and living in that moving and not so much about the direction we are going in.

For in him we live and move and have our being." Acts 17:28

A Bad Day

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 17:19:00 +0000

I feel utterly alone and desperate. Never have I had so much to say and not a soul to tell it too. I once had friends but I find more often than not that they are as lousy at friendship as I am. This isn’t pity………..it is my fault and it’s a path I chose to walk. I suppose it just gets overwhelming and surely there is an outlet some place in this world. There is no one who knows the whole story but then I don’t think anyone’s story is ever really told, at least not all of it and never to just one person. We are fragments of a whole, pieces that generally do not fit together but we keep trying to force them. The fragments of me that I have been trying to force just seem to shatter more and more leaving me with slivers of something that I no longer recognize. Darkness has crept in between the broken pieces and the more the pieces shatter, the more the darkness invades. With each piece of light that is swallowed by the blackness the less hope can shine in such places. I no longer dream of what tomorrow can hold but I live only to mark this day off as one I have made it through. As I write that last sentence, I wonder what exactly a day looks like that one doesn’t make it through. We hear and say that all the time ……”If I can just make it through this day….” Then what? How do you know if you have made it through the day………..how do you know if you haven’t made it? If you are still here physically does that mean you made it? What of the pieces that you left, that are no longer a part of who you are? I suppose they didn’t make it and when all the little pieces that make up the whole of me are gone then I imagine that will be the day that I don’t make it through.

Sanctuary

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 14:08:00 +0000

Sanctuary

Sherri Karnes on iLike - Get updates inside iTunes

I have been thinking about the word sanctuary over the past few days. The dictionary defines sanctuary as “immunity afforded by refuge in such a place and any place of refuge; asylum and a tract of land where birds and wildlife, especially those hunted for sport, can breed and take refuge in safety from hunters.”

With all of the ups and downs of the last few years, Sanctuary has become very important to me. It is ironic to me that the word sanctuary often means a holy place to us but yet it is often those “holy” places that we need sanctuary from. The so called “holy” places in my life over the last several years have caused me to run many times to find a place of refuge. Sanctuary has come to take many shapes in my life lately. An actual place that I find sanctuary is right in my front yard. In fact we have named it Sanctuary. It’s a small water garden/pond that my family works on every spring and summer. We have moved it two or three times, fish and all. We have planted flowers and water plants and nursed sick fish and sometimes had mass burials for the fish when their “sanctuary” has become defiled by outside sources. Sometimes the sanctuary has become defiled from within. Sometimes the fish produce too much toxic waste and it is fatal to most life forms that live in the Sanctuary. I have found that my other sanctuaries have often been defiled from within, causing toxins that often kill many of us. Toxins come in many forms……..gossip, lies, deceit, control issues…….We run into sanctuary then slowly turn on each other until we find ourselves in need of sanctuary from the very thing we thought would afford us peace and safety.

Above is a picture of our little Sanctuary and you will also find a song, written by me at a time in my life when I needed Sanctuary and found it in friends and family.

This Is Love

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 10:02:00 +0000

John 15:13 says Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. It occurred to me tonight that this passage has a much deeper meaning than what appears on the surface. I believe we would all consider it a great love if someone were willing to take a bullet for us and to die so we could live. We all know that the love Jesus had for all of us was this type of love because he did exactly that…….He laid down his life so that we might live. The more I thought about this tonight the more I realized that there is more here than living and dying. Friday night our church group shared communion and a simple foot washing service together. Our theme for the evening centered on brokenness and how by giving that brokenness to God and in some ways to each other we might be able to find a wholeness again and find healing. It was a very moving time and I am sure that some healing took place but I believe there was also a kind of "laying down our life for another" so that they might begin to find healing. No one had to die in the physical sense. Jesus has already done that for each of us but some other type of dying took place. Some of us saw our pride die, if only for that short time, so that others could see a brokenness and a realness that would allow them to lay down their own brokenness so that they might live. Some of us gave our hurt away to death so that others might live in the life that comes from offering to help carry that hurt. There was one particular death I saw that night that allowed me to gain life. I saw a friend give her hurt and her anger and disappointments up just long enough for me to glimpse the true face of my friend, a friend I have missed for quite a time. I don't remember the exact words she spoke to me after she washed my feet but what I do remember is her grabbing my face in both hands, as she had done in the past, and saying with whatever words…"I love you." She gave up a piece of her life in order to do that. She gave that of herself in order that I might find life, a life that I thought was dead. She breathed life back into a friendship for a moment that up until that point had more death than life in it. I know she had to push aside some things in order to do it. Some things in side of her had to die if only for that brief moment, things she had to let go of in order to give that life for that time. So when she put her hands around my face I was taken back to a year or so ago when she made the same gesture and said to me "don't you understand there is nothing you can ever do that will make a difference to me. I love you……I just love you." There is no greater love than this, that a friend lay down her life (her disappointments , her anger , her mistrust, her hurt) for her friend. I am humbled by her ability to love no matter what ……….there is no but…….just I love you.

Pasted from <http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+15&version=NIV>

Do You Forgive Me? Really Forgive Me.....

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 13:01:00 +0000

I have been thinking lately about forgiveness. A while back there was some conflict in our church which resulted in some leaving. I heard the other day one of those who stayed say that "all was forgiven". I wondered at that.......how can all be forgiven when there has been no discussion or no exchange of words at all. Can you blanket all of the wrongs done to you with one "all is forgiven"? I don't think that's possible. Here is why I don't think it works that way. You may say in your heart and in your mind that you have forgiven all but have you accepted forgiveness from them? When we say we forgive all doesn't it say somewhere underneath that statement that we have done no wrong and we possess the power alone to forgive? Forgiveness is a two way street. I don't think we can only walk one-way down that street. How can you extend forgiveness to me when I don't even know what my wrongdoing is? Is it possible that both parties are responsible and both need forgiveness but yet if you blanket all of it then you deny me the opportunity to accept your forgiveness and you deny me the opportunity to offer you forgiveness. If one party believes that they alone can offer forgiveness and do not need to accept forgiveness as well then I would say forgiveness has not really been offered. Jesus offered himself as a sacrifice and he said basically all is forgiven but yet even Jesus requires me to come to him and confess my sin and my wrong doing in order to actually receive that forgiveness.

State of the Church Address

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 04:51:00 +0000

Mighty Hand Fellowship came into being just six short months ago. I am amazed and astonished by the work that has already taken place and the accomplishments that have been made by this group of people. God has truly been in our midst and richly blessed us with many gifts. I believe this is a good time to reflect on where we have been and where we are going. The Psalms frequently encourage us to remember all that God has done and to rejoice in the marvelous ways that God has moved among us. As we worship each Sunday in this wonderful place that God led us to we look back to our beginning and marvel at our journey.

We began as a few people who met for a small group Bible study twice a month and as a choir that longed for relationship with our God and each other. With hearts filled with worship we longed to lead others to that place of communion with God. We grew from a small group of 8-10 who met in each other's homes to a group that filled the church building. The choir grew from a few members who met to practice to a body of believers who met together for church service with the choir leading the way. We together found that we had become more than what the current church organization that we belonged to could support. We found ourselves without an organization to call our own so God led us on an Exodus to a new land. With a mighty hand God turned our seemingly impassable sea into dry land and Mighty Hand Fellowship was born.

We met first in a member's home and within a few weeks we were moving to our own building. Most of us had prayed for our own building but God gave to us over and above what we envisioned as our first building, a beautiful sanctuary, a fellowship hall, classrooms and a kitchen of our own. We watched as God met our needs one by one. We had no chairs but within a week we had chairs enough to fill the sanctuary. Our passion was praise and worship in the form of music and our sanctuary came equipped with a small stage area already wired for a sound system which a member so graciously supplied. Another member came forward with an incredible keyboard and there were drums and guitars and plenty of tambourines to go around. A board was elected and pastors were put into place and so we were on our way, running the race that God set before us.

All was not perfect in our blessed church though. We soon realized that we came with faults and imperfections. We were capable of turning on each other and hurting one another. We came with issues and things we kept hid and now the light was exposing them. We soon discovered that we all live messy lives of faith and in the midst of it all we discovered God's grace and mercy. We cried and we healed and we grew stronger. We doubted ourselves and questioned how we even arrived at the place we were in. Did we do the right thing? Did we exhaust all other avenues before we ventured out on our own? Was it a step of faith or was it arrogance?

Then one day there was our answer standing in front of us. Twenty-seven children of all sizes, colors, shapes and personalities, a rainbow of children from upper middle class to the lowest of economic classes. There they stood, smiling, clapping and singing "Deep and Wide" and "There's No God like Jehovah". From our own children to children of the surrounding community, from children raised in church to those that had never been in a church. God had met us here in the face of a child who did not know us but kept asking to sing "that Mighty Hand song".

God met us in other ways as well. Those that came in off the street seeking help through prayer. Those that were hungry and those that were addicted and needed a safe place to say I need help. We saw God in those that found us because the other churches did not want them. We saw drag Queens that came because they could be who God created them to be.

So six months into our journey and we have seen God move in mighty ways. We have church pews to fill the sanctuary, a new sound system and other church equipment. We have seen God move in the hearts of those in control of things such as rent and other finances. We have seen business donate hundreds of dollars to help us purchase things such as outdoor signs. We have seen children fill our church for a week of celebration and laughter and learning of Jesus. We have fed the hungry and clothed the homeless. We have seen our own youth perform drama's that stirred a passion for Christ deep within us.

God has truly blessed us with material things, with wonderful people and wonderful uplifting services; sermons that speak to our souls and our mind, music that makes our feet dance and moves us to tears. But mostly we have been blessed with a need for grace. A need that has brought us to our knees and then raised us again. Grace that has poured over us even as we found ourselves broken and hurting, not from a cruel world but from each other. God met us here with grace and mercy that allowed us to say to each other "I love you" not perfectly and not always in a beautiful way. Sometimes our love is sloppy and our faith is wobbly and our lives are messy but grace lives here and is poured out through God's mighty hand and covers us. May our next six months show us more of God's grace as we seek to know God more and to love each other more and to reach a world that so desperately has a need for grace.

Sherri Karnes/moderator MHF

Don’t Bury My Bones Yet

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 18:43:00 +0000

I have spent the better part of this week trying to figure out how I came to be so far off track with my last blog. I promise it started with the best of intentions but I took a wrong turn someplace. The truth is I spouted off without much thought to who it would effect. I had no idea that more than 3 people actually read this thing. So since I shared the selfish and thoughtless ramblings last time I thought I would share the other side of them this week. I hope I don't make any wrong turns with this one.

A friend reminded me this week that I have spent the last several months praying that God would send leaders to our church. Not just people to fill up the chairs but people with the ability and spiritual depth to lead. She reminded me that what and who God chooses is not up to me and God doesn't have to get my approval before sending someone. I guess we all kind of do that with prayer sometimes. We say God we need "this" and then God answers that prayer and we say "wait now that wasn't exactly what I had in mind." It's a good thing that God is all knowing and can see the bigger picture because we usually can't see past the 4x4 sticking out of our eye. I listened to one of our new members bring the message last Sunday night and I thought the point she made was very much right on target especially with me. She talked about how God buried Moses' body and the Israelites to this day have no idea where the body was buried. She made the point that if they had known they would have dug it up and most likely used it much as they had made other idols to worship instead of just worshipping God. She talked about how we bury our Moses' and then we go dig them back up…well I am very good that. I wondered while she was speaking if maybe I wasn't a Moses in the life of this church and maybe they should bury me so they could move on to bigger and better places. So here I am facing the people that God has brought into our church because we have asked Him to bring us leaders. Now what will I do? Will I continue to obsess about what they think of me? Will I continue to think that I wouldn't do things the way they do them or will I be the leader that God called me to be? Sometimes God calls us to get out of the way not to be gone and buried but just to get out of the way. One of the biggest blessings I have ever received came when I finally removed myself a little and got out of the way. I spent several years solely leading the choir and then one day God sent another who obviously had different talents and in many ways much more talent than I had. I had struggled with losing control but when I finally got out of the way then I began to see the vision I had for the choir come to fruition. Sometimes God gives us a vision and we think because we have the vision that no one else can add to it or take that vision and go further with it. I am learning that it takes all of us to bring about the vision God has given us.

All of the things that I thought I wanted to say just really never came out but I believe I have said what was in my heart. I need to apologize to Tiffany and that should be done face to face not on a blog. I may not agree with her on some things but I know that God has a place for her within this church. I made assumptions as the last blog is so rightly named and I'm sure she made some but that's what we do as humans. We make assumptions and screw up but what counts is what we do about it. So don't bury my bones yet I believe God still has some things for me to do.

Assumptions

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 16:53:00 +0000

I am considering resigning my position as Board member and Moderator of our church. How can I lead a congregation of people when some in the congregation think I am not fit to lead? We are a group of people who have been discriminated against because of who we love and now we are turning on our own and doing the same. I don't really care if someone disagrees with who I love but I do care that they make assumptions and then act on those assumptions without ever attempting to find out the truth. Here is a prime example of this: We have some new people at our church and the first few Sundays they really enjoyed the worship and especially the singing which I lead. They even had commented on the sweet spirit that seemed to be present while I was leading worship. They even went so far as to say the Sunday evening service was lacking that "spirit" because myself and another person do not attend the Sunday evening services. Now I would probably take issue with the Spirit thing but that isn't the point here. They overheard a conversation that gave them some false information a couple of Sundays ago. The next time we were in church together they had changed their opinion of me and no longer thought that I was worth their time to even speak to. They made an assumption and then acted on it without ever finding out the truth or even caring to find out the truth. Finding the truth is often much harder than just making an assumption. Making that assumption requires no energy on our part and requires no face to face conversation with those whom you are making the assumption about. While the assumption takes no action on the part of the one assuming, it requires an enormous amount of time and energy and pain from those who the assumption is about. I personally had to have several conversations with people who had been exposed to this assumption. These conversations weren't exactly pleasant and they often revealed parts of me that I had not intended to discuss at that moment with those people. I didn't make the mess but I had to clean it up. The thing that bothers me the most about these assumptions is that they came from people who are leaders in our church and one who would like to be a leader in our church. Here is the problem I have with remaining in a leadership role in this church: If those who are leaders will do this then how can they lead a congregation. I cannot fight forever for a congregation of people who prefer this type of leadership. I have a real problem with the one who would like to be a leader in our church but so easily made her assumption and acted on it. If that is the level of integrity then they have no business leading people anywhere. If she couldn't even have a conversation to find out the truth before she acted on it, then what kind of message will she send to a congregation full of people who are vulnerable and desperately need integrity and honesty and true leadership? The sad thing is that these people choose this type of leadership. They don't want to know the truth and they don't want to grapple with their faith and their relationship with God. The book of James tells us that our salvation should be worked out with fear and trembling. I believe this refers to a struggle to find the truth, to work out that which we believe and the way in which we are going to live. It doesn't mean we just make assumptions and act on them. There certainly isn't much work in that and certainly no soul searching and grappling with God or our faith.

So if this is the leadership they want then why do I bang my head against a wall with them. I am not always full of truth and integrity but I will give it all I have to try and find that truth and act on it rather than an assumption. I can only conclude from this that they do not want a person like me in leadership whether it is because of how I live or how I lead. It seems the same thing to me. But then I guess I may be making an assumption.

Living and Dying by Our Emotions

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 22 May 2009 12:25:00 +0000

I have not written here since leaving my former church and helping to start the current church I attend. First let me say there are very good things in each of these churches and wonderful people in each. But hindsight is a bitter sweet gift is it not? Looking back I now see all the deception and lies that brought us to where we are. I know that God can and does take our wrong choices and turns them into something good. I know that even though we have been led down a wrong path that God will use that path to teach us something while moving us back to the path we should be on. I have watched from day 1 a group of people being swept up by this great emotionalism that has become a way of "doing" church. I watch week after week as the co-pastor of MHF tries to whip up some emotion for the people to ride and if she can't get them on her emotional wagon then the church service is declared a "bad" one. Sunday after Sunday the people leave with nothing more than emotions to get them thru the week. There is no spiritual food only fluff. Emotions flare week after week because that is all that we have. I grew up in churches like these and I promised myself I would not go back to one but I find myself leading one. I can no longer lead these people in the direction they choose to follow. I can no longer lead myself I have found. I long each week for a service with substance but it never happens. I'm at a crossroads here and I have no idea what to do. I can't go back to where I came from...I would never ask those people to extend any welcome to me regardless of how deceived I and others were in leaving there. I cannot stay where I am unless something drastically changes. So for now I will listen and hope and pray that it's not too late to hear God calling and maybe this time I will get it right.

sherri

Seeing Jesus

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 09:21:00 +0000

My heart is heavy tonight with a burden for our church, our pastor, and our members. Tonight I watched and listened to our choir during practice and it is just overwhelming to me the work that God has done there. I looked around tonight and saw a group of people who love each other and who love God above all. There was a time we could barely sing as a choir let alone lead the congregation in worship and song. Worship has become as natural as breathing to them now. I feel I have failed miserably in some aspects lately with the choir. I have not been the leader they have needed at times. I have let my own sin separate me from the very thing God has called me to do. At times I know I have been a stumbling block for the choir members. I have thought of quitting recently but something inside of me just can't fathom what life would be like without those people and that outlet for music and for worship. As we met tonight and prayed for some upcoming events this weekend, the prayer that kept coming out of me was that God would empty my heart of everything but Jesus. There is a song that says "Only this I want but to know the Lord and to bear his cross so to wear the crown he wore." I don't know how to empty myself of the selfishness in my heart and the deceit that often lives there. I only know that I have to know Him more, to be like him more and to be less of me.

There is a friend that seems to have grasped this concept much more than I have. She is someone that looks like Jesus to me. Whenever I can't seem to find my way or when I think God has left me because I am not worthy for God to even be near me let alone work through me………she is there encouraging me and telling me that God loves me and that she loves me. It really isn't the words she speaks to me that makes the big difference when I am down or discouraged. What makes the difference is looking at her and seeing what surely must be a heart like Jesus looking back at me and saying its ok I'm here. It doesn't matter if I'm wrong or right in whatever thing it is that is on my mind that day…….it just doesn't matter because I know she will still be standing there when all the dust settles and others have moved on. She is what I call a "steady on" person.

I can think of no better person than to be in the spiritual trenches with this coming weekend. I can think of no other who will model Christ's love even while her heart is breaking for the things that this weekend will bring. I only hope that when she needs to see Jesus that she can find him in me as I have found him in her. Thank you friend.

Finding Rest

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 07:05:00 +0000

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

12:56 AM

I have not written here lately not because I didn't have anything to say but because I had too much to say. My life has been a little like a roller coaster with every turn and twist bringing a different emotion and a different reaction to the things happening around me. I don't know if the roller coaster has completely come to a stop or maybe it's just on one of those straight stretches that sets you up for the next big climb and fall. I suppose if the roller coaster completely stopped then so would life. I still have too much to say and too many things to sort through to actually be able to write about them but tonight I found a rest that I had needed for several months. It wasn't a physical rest but rather a rest that my soul needed. Our church has been growing lately and a revival of sorts has broken out. Instead of meeting just once a week for service, it seems the people can't get enough and they have been meeting on Mondays, Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sunday. I mostly look forward to these meetings but at the same time they have been a little draining on me. The services have usually been very emotional in one way or another. The more emotional or moving the services have been, the more energized the people have become. I guess for me it has an opposite effect. I don't always do well with all the feelings and emotions. I learned several years ago that unleashing all those feelings and emotions leads to turmoil in my life. I had forgotten what that turmoil could feel like and what it could do in my life so God allowed me a little reminder here lately. I dropped the walls to those deep feelings and allowed all those emotions to be explored and felt. Emotions and feelings aren't bad things and I don't believe one should ever stop experiencing the wide range of emotions and feelings that God has given us. I also believe that some of us can lose control of those feelings if they are left unchecked. So during this last month I have been trying to clean up the mess of emotions that I have let run unchecked in my life. But that is another blog entry. Getting back to the church services. While the others have been energized by all these wonderfully emotionally charged services, I have felt drained and emptied. So today when the phone began ringing and people began texting saying let's have "church" this evening, I ignored my phone. I thought if I don't answer it then I won't be persuaded to go to yet another emotionally charged service. I also had hoped that by not answering the phone that I might escape the feelings of guilt that would come with saying no to another church service. But God used one of those people today to convince me that I could come and just sit in the pew and be ministered to. So I went with very little expectation but nevertheless I went. So for most of the time I was there I did indeed sit in a pew and it felt good. I enjoyed what was happening around me but still I had not found what I was looking for which I think now was rest and not physical rest but a rest in my soul. My soul has felt battered lately and just wore down. It seemed that every time I thought healing was coming that something would come to snatch it away. It seemed always just out of reach. Tonight for a few minutes I found that healing, that Balm that is in Gilead that makes the wounded whole. It came in two ways: through an unexpectant but welcome friend and through a precious little infant. At some point in the service a few worship videos were played and people were worshiping and singing. As was holding this baby and singing, a sense of rest and healing in my soul began to take place. There was no great wave of feelings or emotions like some were experiencing but rather the opposite for me. My soul found rest for that time and somewhere within my soul I heard and felt God say "I Am" and that is all you need for the moment. That friend who gently convinced me to come and find rest in a pew has been a source of that soothing balm as well. So many others have expectations or needs or it just seems to require a lot of energy right now to maintain some relationships but this friendship brings me rest. It's a rest that speaks to that same place within me that hold Seth brought to me tonight. For those few minutes the world just slipped away and there was nothing but Seth and God and a feeling of awe of just being in God's presence. My soul found rest, it found that balm that can heal a sin sick soul. What I felt was my soul connecting with God's spirit and speaking to my spirit saying "God is and that's enough for this moment.

There is a balm in Gilead

To make the wounded whole;

There is a balm in Gilead

To heal the sin sick soul.

Sometimes I feel discouraged,

And think my work's in vain,

But then the Holy Spirit

Revives my soul again.

Pasted from <http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/t/i/tisabalm.htm>

A Lack of Direction

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 05:35:00 +0000

I've been having discussions tonight with my co-choir director regarding developing a mission statement for our choir. I wish that we both had read the book "Simple Church" by Thom Rainer & Eric Geiger. I found myself trying to explain the ideas in this book in a few sentences. I thought wow maybe we could just read the book in a small group/Bible study and let everyone discuss it. The central theme of the book is found in this statement on p.67-68

a simple church is designed around a straightforward and strategic process that moves people thru the stages of spiritual growth. The leadership and the church are clear about the process (clarity) and are committed to executing it. The process flows logically (movement) and is implemented in each area of the church (alignment). The church abandons everything that is not in the process (focus).

So this is what I would like to see happen in our church. We need to develop a plan that is simple and effective. The biggest problem I see in our church is a lack of clarity and direction. We don't know where our focus is so we are all over the place. Instead of focusing on one area and doing it well, we kind of act like a church with ADHD. We go after every little thing that piques our interest but have no follow through with any of them and no narrowing of our focus so we can excel and be effective in one area or the other. I'll use the choir as an example. The choir in my opinion is there to lead the congregation in worship. To open the gates into the courts of God so that God's people can come through to the holy of holies and worship. I have repeated this to them for several years now, always using Psalm 84 as our guiding scripture. The choir has been very effective in that area up until now. We have branched out a little and we either need to redefine what our mission is or separate our groups. Right now part of the choir is consumed with putting together things for the annual pride picnic. This is a good thing to be a part of our larger community but it doesn't really fit with our plan does it? But even if it did here's my problem. We waited too late to get involved. So it will not be a positive experience for those from the church rather it will be stressful. The problem here is not the fault of the church members who wanted our church to be a part of this event but rather a lack of a clear cut plan for our church. A lack of organization from leadership. Leadership of the church has to create boundaries in which the members can work and move. We can't simply leave the church members out there on their own to decide whether or not this is a good event for the church. We must have something from which they can draw upon for guidance. Some boundaries, some clarity as to where our church is going and how we are going to get there. If we had this plan or theses boundaries then we wouldn't have church members all over the place trying to make the church be a part of this or that and not being effective when we do half-way participate. So what do we do? How do we handle such situations as the one that currently taking place in the church or rather in the smaller group of the church, the choir? The only answer I see for this situation is to follow through with what we said we would do. Then I think we can use this situation to build upon and change the way we do these things. I would like to see a clear cut pathway to those who can make these decisions and support the people involved. They didn't know where to go or who to ask for support so they came to the choir as a whole on one of our Wednesday night free for all chats. So I have ideas for restructuring the church so that leadership is available and involved with the congregation but at the moment the only platform I have is the choir so I thought I should start there. We can change how we do things. We can develop our own plan based upon a wider plan that fits our church. Maybe we should read the book together and discuss these things and see what we can come up with.

sherri

Congregation Participation

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 13:45:00 +0000

So I've been wondering what would church actually look like if we allowed the congregation to participate? I don't mean the usual standing and singing a hymn or singing along with the praise team. I mean really being a part of what is taking place. What would happen in our church if we had a 20 minute dialogue response time after the sermon? What if we actually engaged each other in conversation regarding the sermon and the service and its applications? I think people in our church are desparate for a place to express themselves and to connect with others. It seems to me that Jesus would probably not have done church the way we do. Building relationship and living out your faith in the world seemed to be his main concerns not the order of the Sunday morning worship service. We sometimes get so caught up in enforcing our order on others that we forget that church is about people and relationships and taking our faith outside our small circle that we call church. Church and worship services should be a place where we come to encounter God in an atmosphere that fosters that. Once we have learned to encounter God in that protected atmosphere then when we go into the world we will know God when he speaks to us even among the noise of every day life because we have come to know him in our worship.

Sherri

Worship That Changes Us

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 05:38:00 +0000

Worship that Changes Us

Thursday, October 02, 2008

1:24 AM

We had a very good practice tonight. The face of the choir is really changing. I have always believed that if we worship God and we come into His presence then we can't help but be changed by that encounter. How could one encounter the living God and not be changed. Paul speaks about being changed into Christ's glorious image and becoming more and more like Him. The more we encounter God the more we become like Him. So the choir is changing and I have to believe it is because we are learning to worship more and more. We used to just sing and then we started leading the congregation to sing with us. Now we lead the congregation in worship. The more we worship and the more we are changed the more the congregation will worship and the more they will change and reflect Chirst. We have a long ways to go but then the length of the way is not what is important but the journey is. Our journey is to become more and more changed by worship. Ever changing until we see him face to face and our face will reflect his face……….a true face to face.

sherri

What keeps us from Growing?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 06:07:00 +0000

So I've been reading about growth barriers in small churches. I noticed that the small church I attend has most of these barriers.

The desire to preserve social intimacy
The desire to maintain control
The desire to conserve memories
The desire to protect turf

The desire to preserve social intimacy

I think this is a more subtle problem in our church rather than a real noticeable problem. We like knowing everyone in our little church. We all like to go out to eat together after church and we like the fact that we can all fit into one restaurant. It's tough to break out of this because we all know each other and there is a certain predictability in that intimacy. New people bring surprises and new things to deal with.

The Desire to maintain control

This seems to be our biggest problem. We bought a church building after renting a space for almost 10 years. The desire for control is in full swing right now. We've changed the locks on the doors at least once because we felt we were losing control of who had keys. While that might seem a prudent thing, it also speaks volumes about what our priorities are. Right now the congregation is feeling a little out of the loop you might say. Most people had certain expectations when we purchased our own building and I think one could make the case that most of those expectations have not been realized. Some of those expectations understandably were too high to be met in the first year but others I believe were very attainable. Some of those expectations were growth and to some extent that happened but after a year and a half of not tapping into that growth and building on it we have slipped back to the mostly same old crowd with a few of the new ones sticking around and as many old members leaving so mostly it stays the same.
A second and a very crucial expectation was that we would finally have our own building to carry out those things that we weren't able to do while renting. This I believe is where we have utterly failed. For the most part the congregation has been literally locked out of their own church. The church is only open on the two evenings that pre-planned events are scheduled on. In fact I believe that most weeks we probably utilize the church building for less than 5 hours. So we aren't experiencing anything differently than what we had before. In fact very little has changed except the frustration level of the members. So I have wondered why is it we don't utilize our building now that we have one? I have gathered a few reasons from just listening over the past few months. The number one reason it isn't utilized is that most people don't want to jump through all the hoops in order to get permission to use the building. Now I think there should be some restrictions placed on using the church but I don't believe we should have so many restrictions that the building sits empty 95% of the time. I have also heard the very valid arguments of money. If the church is used then the electricity bill and water bill goes up and well we just don't have enough money for that. I would argue that we can't afford not to let our building be used by it's members. If the congregation does not feel vested in the building, if the members do not feel ownership of some sort then they will cease to behave as owners. By that I mean they will cease to take care of the building both physically and financially. They will defer those things to the ones that actually have possession of the building and the ones they perceive to be controlling the use of the building. I believe we have already seen this happen to some degree in our church. The church is also under utilized because no one is available to have the church open so that members may come and pray and worship at different times or just come to talk with one another. One of the things that I miss most from the church I used to attend was the ability to meet in the church during the day or evening to pray or worship or just sit with a friend and talk or pray together. I realize our church is not large enough to have the resources to have our church open on a regular basis all week long but I believe we could offer some hours of availability to our members.
Those are just a few of the ways I think the control issue is out of balance. There are other issues that directly relate to control such as the secrecy that goes on in our church. When the leadership continues to keep important things from the general members of the church there is a problem. When leadership tells one thing to some members and then tells something totally different to other members then leadership is using their power to control the entire congregation. We cannot allow our good intentions of moving the church in what we think is the right direction to become a tool used to control the congregation to achieve what we think is the right thing for the church.
In conclusion, I have to say that I include myself in the leadership and that I have been guilty of most of the things that I've written about. There is no one person responsible for our lack of growth. We are all responsible and we need to step up to the plate and begin to work for the changes that need to take place. We have to learn to listen to each other and learn to admit that sometimes the congregation does know what is best for the church and sometimes we as leaders don't have a clue. Sometimes we just need to get out of the way. I wonder what a study of Jesus' idea of leadership would look like compared to our model of leadership. A blog for another day.

As always feel free to comment and always take what I say as only my opinion which can so often be skewed by my very myopic perspective of things.

Brokenness

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 06:26:00 +0000

God began stirring in my heart a new song a few weeks ago. Sometimes when there is a song in my heart I can tell you "oh this is where these words are coming from" but with this new song I really didn't have any idea. But I keep singing the words and playing the little chord progression over and over and praying over the words and waiting for God to fill in the blank spots. The words come from Psalm 51. David I believe wrote this psalm after he had committed adultery with Bathsheba but he didn't write these words until after he had been confronted by Nathan a prophet in the land. So I have been thinking about this idea of what is acceptable to God and what exactly is brokenness and what does it look like. Before now the term brokenness has meant to me something that needed fixed. If something is broken don't we call the repair person to come fix it? So I guess I thought that brokenness in this psalm referred to David having something wrong with him………..his sin with Bathsheba………and what God desired was for David to bring that brokenness, that broken part of him or his sinfulness to God so it could be fixed. I viewed brokenness as a way to restoration with God. But the more I thought about that idea of brokenness the more I realized that I was presuming that before it got broke……obviously something was right and I'm just not sure that is the way it is.

Verse 5 in this Psalm says: "Surely I was sinful at birth,

sinful from the time my mother conceived me."

Are we not born into sin………..ok you say that cute little innocent child cannot possibly be born into sin well I think we are all born into sin. I'm not saying anything about going to hell or judgment or who is going to heaven. I don't think brokenness and sin have anything to do with judgment or the afterlife rather I think it all has to do with our relationship with God in the right here and the right now.

So if we are all born into sin, we are all "sinners" from birth then we are already broken before we ever take a breath so that means I need to rethink my idea of what brokenness means in this Psalm.

As I looked into some of the meanings of the words used in Psalm 51, I discovered that the word "broken" can actually translate into crushed, broken in pieces, torn and brought to birth. I liked the last one especially. The word contrite is often used in Psalm 51 and it can mean crushed or collapsed whether physically or mentally. So if we bring a brokenness to God then we are in a sense bringing something totally crushed or broken in pieces and when we give those broken things to God then
God can bring forth a new birth from them. So God doesn't want our brokenness so it can be fixed, God wants it so that something new can be born. One could use the analogy of garden soil to understand this form of brokenness. The soil is unbroken or solid but it can't yield anything that way other than some grass or weeds. So we take a tiller or some other machine and we break the ground so that seeds can be planted and in time the garden soil will yield fruit or vegetables. The ground, once broken, can give birth to something new, to something that could only be born out of brokenness.

So my prayer with this song is that God will take those things in me that will not yield anything positive and break them and crush them and bring about something new that could never have been without the brokenness.

Wash Me

(Psalm 51)

I lift my voice to You

I raise my hands in praise

All to You I freely give

All to You I owe

Not a sacrifice You desire

Not an offering that You seek

But my brokenness You'll take

And wash me

Wash me in Your love

Empty I come to You

Fill me with Your unfailing love

All I have is Yours alone

Only by Your grace

Mercy like a river flows

Washing me white as snow