add some wattage to Jesus’ fame – Louie Giglio – Passion world tour dates

I’ve been writing a lot of blogs lately and haven’t been posting them. Does anyone else do that? Maybe I’m getting too critical of myself, I don’t know. Maybe I’m starting to care too much about what others think of me.

I think I need to start throwing things out there again, so here we go…

I was listening to Louie Giglio speak on the Passion Podcast, he was talking about the world tour…listen to what he said…

We’re all about the fact that Jesus Christ and his Fame and his Name are the thing that light up heaven…And If we want our lives to count, not just here in the few minutes that we’re on this planet. But forever! Then we want to be in that moment in eternity when Jesus just lights up all of forever. And We want to say “I had a part in that. My life somehow added some wattage to Jesus’ fame in eternity. I did what I did in such away to help the world see who he is.” And that’s what Passion is really all about.

That’s what I really what to be about too. I love the picture that Louie creates when he charges us to “add some wattage to Jesus’ fame”

I think the idea behind his statement is that no matter what we do, we need to turn the light towards and brighten the light on Jesus. We can’t lose that image in whatever we’re trying to accomplish with our lives.

So how am I turning light towards Jesus? And adding to the “wattage” that’s increasing his fame?

Hopefully we’ll be turning the light towards Jesus this weekend at the HBC men’s conference. Worship is going to be beautiful.

He is the Lord, the famous one.

Joshua 9:9 – Your servants have come from a very distant country because of the fame of the LORD your God. For we have heard reports of him

Two passion world tour dates in Europe, that’s what I’m talkin’ about…

• Paris – June 3, 2008
• London – June 5, 2008

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one clear choice

Here is the prayer God gave me today…

God, give me one clear choice – that is awesome.  And help me to follow.  Amen.

This was spurred on by two things:

1.  A breakfast meeting with Jon (who totally spurs me on, & maybe instigates a bit too).
2. And by the lyrics of James Blunt.  (God can work mysteriously, right?)

On Blunt’s new album there’s a song called “Same Mistake“.  I don’t completely understand the song, and I don’t necessarily think it’s theological.  But the lyrics do capture my prayer to God right now…

I’m not calling for a second chance,
I’m screaming at the top of my voice.
Give me reason but don’t give me choice.
‘Cause I’ll just make the same mistake again.

is technology helping the church?

Is technology a killer? Is it killing the church? Or is it killing true worship?

Especially when it comes to worship, I wonder if technology (overall) is helping people connect with God on a fuller spectrum? I wonder what God’s take is on all the things we’re adding to worship?

Below is a link to the opening of one of the Hillsong Conferences.

I love the song Bittersweet Symphony by the Verve. And I love the song Amazing Grace. And I love the chorus Chris Tomlin added – My Chains Are Gone But I never expected to hear the 3 songs merged together. That’s how the 2007 Hillsong conference started.

If you have nothing to do for the next 12 minutes, watch this version of Amazing Grace. I’m sure John Newton never imagined this. It’ll at least make you think. About 11 minutes into the video Chris Tomlin shows up, with his humble redeeming smile. I love that guy. I love the look in Chris’s eyes towards the end of the clip. It’s like he doesn’t know quite what to think. It’s like he’s thinking, “What am I doing here?”…which he probably was.

Hillsong Conference 2007 Opening
Uploaded by ajchz

I found this here.

Is technology killing the church? I don’t think it’s killing the church, in fact I think overall it’s helping. But when it comes to worship – sometimes simple is better.

HBC – 25 years of worshiping together

Libby and I started attending Hockessin Baptist church (HBC) in 1998. We’ve had such a great time worshiping there. The place is very alive to God. People are real, and it’s a place that real spiritual healing happens on a weekly basis.

I LOVE leading special services. I had the opportunity to help lead our 25 year anniversary service a few weeks ago. It was such a blast to be in the presence of God, celebrating what he’s done over the last 25 years – and looking ahead to what he will do through His little piece of the body @ HBC.

I believe He will do great things. Even this coming year I’m excited of what He will do. I’ve been talking to Jon and Rick about a worship idea I have. I have this vision of HBC getting together on a monthly basis to worship in an informal setting. Right now it’s called “Embers”….the idea is to have a place where we can come together and be free to worship God, practicing different elements of worship. I’m really excited about it. I’ll be talking more about my ideas later.

Here is the set list from the 25 year anniversary…

Set #1

1. Here I Am to Worship (D)
2. You Are My God (D) – I love this song, it proclaims that “early in the morning we will rise to meet him.”
3. Ancient of Days (E) – I think I said something like “this is the song that helped us find our funkier side”.
4. Great is Thy Faithfulness (C)

Set #2

Set #2 was neat because we started with How Great Thou Art, then ended with the chorus of How Great – “Then Sings My Soul…” by taging it to How Great Is Our God. The idea was to have book ends to the set. I love when things come full circle.

1. How Great Thou Art (G)
2. Blessed Be Your Name (A) – Joanna has a great post on this song here…read it!
3. Jesus, All For Jesus (D) – Brett has a great post about this song here…read it too!
4. How Great Is Our God (G) – resolved to “Then Sings My Soul” for the book end.

I love worshiping God with all my friends @ HBC. We have such a great group of people.

If you go to HBC, chime in on something you love about our body of believers….

what i learned from my mom-in-law

Libby’s mom said something to us a while ago that has really stuck with me. It’s just so wise I had to post it here for posterity.

Libby and I have been exploring how to follow God more fully in our lives. We’ve talked about everything from moving to Paris and helping start a church, or becoming a campus/university pastor or going on staff at a church as a worship/arts pastor or associate pastor. Libby’s parents were missionaries in Germany for almost 20 years. They started 2 evangelical churches south of Frankfurt, Germany that are still thriving and alive today.

This was her mom’s advise…

Don’t expect to go on the mission field (or into ministry) and start doing something you’re not already doing here, because it won’t happen.

That’s just pure wisdom. This comment alone helped me realize that worship leading will be part of the next steps in our journey of following God – no matter what it is.

What’s something you learned from your in-laws?

the abundant life (on a farm in Winnipeg)

I love the King James Version of John 10:10

The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

Jesus came to bring the abundant life. Thinking of American culture I wonder if we’re off on his idea of abundance.

This past summer I spent some time farming with my brother-in-law and his family in Winnipeg. Darrell grew up farming, but now he has a day job but he still helps out during harvest. I had the chance to ride with Darrell’s dad on the combine, harvesting the early summer wheat. It was an awesome experience, I felt like a little kid.

Darrell’s dad and I talked for a couple of hours on the combine. He is retired now, and his oldest son runs the farm. He said something pretty profound, and it relates to the idea of abundance.

He said that farming has changed over the years. When he was farming, it was done for survival. But now it’s done for profit and it’s turned into big business. There’s no room for the small farmer and farms just keep getting bigger and bigger. He said the whole mindset has changed.

I wonder if that’s where we’ve gone even with our spirituality, and how we view abundance in our life. We’ve shifted from having enough, to turning a profit.

Our whole idea of the abundant life is so far off, that when we hear Jesus offering us the abundant life – our response is just confusion. We want the abundant easy life, filled with easy stuff.

Maybe we need to reclaim the word abundant, in a whole new way – so it has nothing to do with easiness and stuff.

Spiritual abundance is connecting with God in a complete way, that overflows into each corner of our lives. I hope I’m running after this idea and not chasing after profit in my life.

 

worship confessional 10-14-2007

Worship was great this past Sunday. We got off to a late start on our practice, but that didn’t hold us back.

The set reminded us that Christ is our daily bread and He is the very word spoken in our lives.

The sermon – A Life Worthy: Studies in Colossians

We pray…that you may live a life worthy of the Lord…. Col. 1:10

Set list:

• Be Thou My Vision (traditional) by Eleanor Henrietta Hull and Mary Elizabeth Byrne – Key: D
• In Christ Alone by Keith Getty and Stuart Townsend – Key: D
• Sing Hallelujah by Mark Stokes/Vineyard – Key: Bm
• You Are Holy (Prince of Peace) by Marc Imboden and Tammi Rhoton – Key: E
• Breathe by Marie Barnett (this version by Christy Nockels) – Key: A
• Mighty To Save by Hillsong United (Ben Fielding and Reuben Morgan) – Key: A
• Everlasting God by Brenton Brown – Key: A

Random notes:

• We layered the first two songs, they both had a very traditional hymn feel driven by the piano. Holly did a great job on piano driving those songs. We used a more percussive piano beat on Be Thou My Vision, with less melody and accented each downbeat. We really built the song In Christ Alone at the end of verse 3, then left it just to the piano for verse 4.
• We finally nailed Sing Hallelujah, thanks to John realizing we were jumping on the Bm on the chorus. That song is amazing, if the timing is right. And we pretty much nailed it during both services. I love the lyric: “He has rescued us with a strong right hand” – there is so much energy to the lyrics of that song. We butchered the song during our Monday practice, but even during the practice before service we really had the timing – it was beautiful.
• I used my cut capo on You Are Holy
• The block of the last 3 songs was all done in the key of A. I played in capo 2 G chording. This part of the worship was the highlight. During Breathe we had a scripture reflection time that was powerful. We gave time in between the scriptures for people to meditate. The scripture we used is below.
• The end chord progression on “Breathe” leads nicely right into “Mighty to Save”. I went straight from the G – C – D to the C on “Everyone Needs Compassion”, I did it much better the second service.
• Lowlight- I started singing the wrong words to Breathe during the first service.
• We did the entire first verse and chorus of “Mighty” with just voices and acoustic guitar. Added full band on intro line of verse 2. That was nice, and adding e.guitar, bass and percussion all at the same point had a nice ramping feel to the song.
• In my opinion, we finally hit the right tempo on Everlasting God. In the past, we started too fast and then the pre-chorus and chorus loses some of its power. That song is powerful at the right tempo. I was seriously getting into that song this week, could anyone tell?
• I’m trying to be less stiff when I lead, but I don’t know how much I improved this week. Letting loose is a good thing in moderation.
• The vocal harmonies we had were SWEET thanks to Ali, John and Libby. I love the way our voices blend. Next time we’re all signing together I want to perform “You Are so Good to Me” as part of the worship block.
• The sound mix was the best we’ve had in awhile thanks to James and John tweaking the set up earlier in the week.
• Rick had a great sermon from Colossians 1, that challenged us to evaluate our lives and live a life worthy of our calling.

Some of the screen shots:

 

My wife Libby took the background pictures for Prince of Peace and Mighty to Save. The picture for Prince of Peace was taken of our dining room window with the sun setting through our sheer curtains. The picture for Mighty to Save was taken along the coast of California during our 10 year anniversary trip. Check out her other photos at libbyportraits.com. Let me know if you want to use either of these backgrounds and I’ll email them to you.

Scripture reflection during Breathe:

Develop the idea that

1. Jesus is our daily bread, and
2. He’s the very Word that is spoken in our lives.

“This is My Daily Bread, Your very word – spoken – to me”

John 1:1

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Job 23:11-12

My feet have closely followed his steps;
I have kept to his way without turning aside.

I have not departed from the commands of his lips;
I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread.

John 6:32-35

Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

“Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.”

Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

1 John 2:4-6

The man who says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.

Colossians 1:10-11

May you live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God and being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might.

Final thought

I was inspired to worship. There were a lot of people that gave of their time and energy as a sacrifice and offering to God.