ChurchOrama has Moved!

Go to www.churchorama.wordpress.com or www.christiansbehaving.wordpress.com to resume the blog journey!

I'm not giving you the Finger:
A word of advice to fellow latent guitar players...
Well I did a 2 hour Intercession set at the Abington IHOP yesterday afternoon. It was great. For the record there is no IHOP in Philly or the suburbs that I am aware of at this time, my location happened to be the very spot where Abington vs. USA was determined over 40 years ago, Abington High School. This ruling effectively gave not just school-sponsored prayer the boot, but theoretically made ANY prayer illegal.

So I risked arrest by doing a prayer slot at the high school. Not really I suppose. I would like to think that my set was so anointed that the cops would have picked me up but apparently not.

Anyhow, what you are seeing is what happens when you do a 2 hour set on your guitar after not playing it at all for a month, and not playing it regularly for about 4 months. This massive blister appeared upon my middle finger minutes after the end of my set. Don't try this at home!

Suggested Good Practices for a Worship Team
I've been in places that have the following positive characteristics and it is a wonderful situation. I've also been in other places too, so have you!

Variety - Having accessible, meaningful songs that aren't repeated too much

ESP - Sensing what God is doing as you lead worship & giving him space to break out. I am referring to Extra Sensory Perception as a literal (but not new-age) term here!

Critical listening - if you do this, other people won't as much! Be aware as you play of your

-Intonation (vocal and instrumental, as well as the others)
-Noise level and contrasts
-Texture (avoid droning on with the same sound/noise at all costs)
-Even if you are playing an "anointed" song or riff, consider ending it while it is still fresh rather than risking it turning stale! The people will still be hungry and you can transition into something else and likely retain that high level.

A great way to start is to incorporate some of these ideas in your private worship times. If you lead a band, it can be more challenging to communicate these ideas depending on the skill level and teachability of your players.

Note: If you lead a Seeker Sensitive type service, you can probably disregard a lot of this, particularly the one about not repeating the same songs each week. If you are in this situation, you should probably not learn more than about 20 songs annually, or else people could complain about "too much new music" and that wouldn't go over well! Don't take any of this blog's advice if you are in a SS church!

Got Lingo?

One thing that excites me about churches that have a unique identity is that often there is a mysterious, weird, and fascinating set of foreign terms, names, acronyms, anecdotes, and inside jokes.

Seems to me that in the newer renewal-type movements of the past decade or so, each has had their own language. I didn't know what a "fire-tunnel" was several years back, but witnessed something like a spiritual conga-line in which people emerged noticably happier on the outward end. Indeed, the very announcement of the formation of such a tunnel instantly raised the mood of the room from an already positive one into one tangibly charged with expectation and happiness.

Broken-ness: the missing ingredient

When was the last time you went to a church that wasn't trying to impress you with their:

Building
Vision
Size
Worship
Preaching
Personalities
Culture
Hype

Perhaps the one thing that goads us slightly about the seeker-sensitive thing is that brokenness is not usually in the equation. Think about it... brokenness is probably the most offensive thing about the Kingdom since it is the thing that makes us most uncomfortable about ourselves and we avoid it at all costs. Why would you bring something like this in public! Are you kidding? Are you crazy!

Hence the westernized church situation. No brokenness. A whole bunch of southern hospitality, mixed in with a healthy patriotic ritual, benevolence funds, even a few hospital visits. Brokenness is a forced intrusion, but we can usually limit its appearance to bad health diagoses, natural disasters, an accident, divorce, or something equally unpleasant - intrusions we cannot control.

Brokenness is water to the Kingdom. Want to get power? Get broken. Want to stay in power? Stay broken, even as your life picks up and starts to look better, way better, on the outside. How broken were you to begin with? The test is that you stay broken even when you prosper, regain your health, begin to succeed at things, etc...

Voluntary brokenness is a weapon to allow us to stay in that state. Fasting. Praying all night. Being sensitive. Touching the poor. Giving money, time, and energy in radical ways.

Nothing against the seeker sensitive thing at all, but if brokenness is left out of any ministry, formula, or strategy, any "success" is deceptive and suspect. I don't want to follow a flawed model.

If it's broke, don't "fix" it.

My longtime friend and intellectual Al Lincoln has been emailing me regarding various contemporary topics in ministry. We are considering starting another blog. Here are some excerpts...


[Al] "There is another possibility. Our current millenial generation may be looking for a connectivity that goes beyond being American. They want to be global Christians, and are willing to give up the American Dream and suffer with fellow Christians around the world. Of course, this does not take away the statement "poppycockish naivete! In the end, they'll still need to have a decent wage-earning job or business, and that only comes through the discipline of working hard for pay." I think that accusation will certainly be true for any youth missions person who ends up having a lot of debt to pay in the mid-twenties."


[Nathan] "Said that to say this... I am rather obviously a bit jealous that I haven't jumped into the missionary thing, but the sacrifice now is to find your way through the twisted postmodern economy so that you can get

1. enough stability so that your dreams/calling/vision can remain sustainable - and this comes through job skills/education (as much as I hate to admit it). Otherwise each time you have spiritual breakthrough you lose your job and must scramble again.
AND
2. enough free time at the end of the day & week to re-cultivate your d/c/v and re-engage.
AND
3. once you have truly "arrived", see if you really have enough character not to sell out to the "relentless barrage of Capitalism we call the Western Christian Compromise". After all, you deserve it, I deserve it. We had to stick this thing out and now enjoy increased student loan payments, but also respectably higher wages. We did our hand-wringing and bleeding-heart sympathizing and both-sides-of-the-story scrutinizing back in the 90's, and now life is too busy to worry about that stuff as much anymore... We can leave that ambassador / reconciler mandate with the IVCF folks, right???"

Blog in the works? Perhaps. Vote in comments.

5 Signs of a Top Worship Team

1. Skill & Character Get Top Billing

2. Willing to confront people when necessary for greater good.

2. Great relationship with leadership

3. Sense of Identity

4. Want to serve people & honor leaders, but willing to put God first

5. Value God's presence; despise trends, fads, and performance

7. Exceptional players are treated the same as everyone else

8. Capable of spontenaety.

9. Understanding of prophetic playing and its role in worship, and how music intersects.

10. Understanding of prayer as a worship model

Some Characteristics of Outstanding Church Leadership

20% or more of the congregation is on the ministry team
25% of the congregation travels 30 minutes or more to the church
Tithing and giving is mentioned fairly often from the pulpit without apology
Leadership has a history of a decade or more... possible former ministry rivalries
Senior Leadership regularly expresses appreciation to leadership, and generously anticipates their workloads, fatigue, and morale issues.
Leadership routinely blesses out other leaders to help the larger body of Christ.
Leaders model a culture of blessing and encouragement.

Overview of Possible Subjects in this blog:

Visiting - Pro's & Con's
The Web Site
Impressions
The Worship Team
Values
Evaluation

What is Church-O-Rama

Church - O - Rama is a place where a long-time X'er ministry enthusiast constructively recounts the good, bad, and exceedingly ugly of modern "Churchianity".

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Who Died and Made You a Church Expert

In short, nobody. But this is my blog! Anyhow I bear the huge blessing and hidden liability of having been part of what I consider an unusually relevant spiritual environment in the past. I suppose part of spiritual maturity may involve the process of moving somewhere else. This happened to me a couple years ago when I moved to resuscitate my career via graduate school. Since then I have had a radical shift - from Receiving to Giving without having too much access to good receiving. Again this is part of the process but it has been tough.

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Who Would Benefit From Such Ramblings
These blogs may be of use to anyone in church leadership who are interested in perspectives. I will share my perceptions of a bunch of stuff and give support for my positions on occasions.