Archives for category: ministry

Open Up The Doors And Let The Music Play

July 8, 2008 //

After rewriting much of the worship vocabulary and reshaping the modern musical landscape of the Church over the past ten+ years and 14 albums, Delirious? has decided to call it quits at the end of 2009.

For all the complaining I might do about Jesus is my boyfriend-type praise songs, I have always appreciated the lyrical depth and musical integrity of the Delirious? crew. Though we might be inoculated to their power from overfamiliarity, there is something so deeply true about the following lyrics, taken from the chorus of Did You Feel The Mountains Tremble?

Open up the doors and let the music play

Let the streets resound with singing

Songs that bring Your hope, songs that bring Your joy

Dancers who dance upon injustice

In our quest (pipe dream?) to build a community that actively engages God’s purposes in the world, we want to see worship and justice wed together in powerful ways. Our desire to become the change we hope to see in the world is fueled by the love who first came down to us.

We’d love to see more joy and authentic expressions of freedom in our gatherings (maybe any expression!), but it would be tragic for it to stop there. A true worship encounter with God does something to us — healing, restoration, joy and hope fill us and then flow out from us, both on a personal level and in the bigger picture of redemption.

Thanks, Martin and company, for the music.

Categories church, community, faith, justice, ministry, music, worship

I Can Do Whatever I Want Here

June 30, 2008 //

So said one of our elementary students after the senior pastor’s wife spoke to him about his aggressive behavior here at church.

Now, I’m not one of those law & order, Footloose types who believes that rule-keeping is the way to inherit eternal life. I’m wondering, though, about how this student came to this conclusion. Did his parents sit him down and say to him, “Son, you must do well in school and you must obey the rules there. Don’t even think about crossing the line at home. Same goes for when we’re out in public. But, happy day when Sunday arrives, because you can totally lose it when you get to church. Seriously, go nuts when you get to the church building.”

I wish that statement were uttered in a positive way. I can do whatever I want here — I can exercise passion, creativity and joy when I’m here! I can worship God with gladness and sincerity, I can dream of ways to partner with friends here in participating in God’s work in the world, I can have fun with others in ways that are not aggressive, mean and/or inappropriate.

One day…

Categories church, family, ministry

Presbyterian 2.Oh!

June 22, 2008 //

Congrats to Bruce Reyes-Chow, who was just elected moderator of the Presbyterian Church (USA)! As with any institution, being on the leading edge of change can be difficult — and it’s good to see the PC(USA) take a proactive step in engaging culture 2.0 rather than waiting and then eventually reacting (and usually defensively by that point).

And, for a denomination that can sometimes feel like the same old boys’ network (despite rhetoric claiming otherwise), it feels nice to have a young, urban, Asian American pastor become its new face.

Check out Bruce’s personal blog for some great, witty insights into life, family, ministry, web 2.0 and the occasional baseball post.

Categories asian american, church, community, faith, hooray!, ministry

Kids Rule!

June 19, 2008 //

Working with preschool and kindergarten-aged kids this week at VBS has been awesome! The three year olds that we just welcomed into the group are hilarious.

For example, I was telling the story of Jesus putting mud onto someone’s eyes to help him see, and I asked the kids what dirt is good for. The older kids (four and five year olds) knew that you can plant seeds in dirt or put it into the garden. The threes, however, were all confused.

So I asked them if I should use mud to brush my teeth. They all smiled and nodded enthusiastically. After giving them a quick personal hygiene lesson, I asked if I should use mud to wash my hair. Again, smiles and nods all around!

Seriously, it is such a joy to participate in telling Bible stories with them. When we told the story of Peter walking on the water, we had them make “waves” with a large blue cloth — so much fun! Maybe a more immersive, participatory approach will keep our adults awake during our Sunday gatherings :)

Categories church, faith, hooray!, ministry

For The Kids

June 18, 2008 //

My wife and I are always very conscious of the fact that our daughter is a PK (pastor’s kid) twice over (we’re both pastors). Danger seems to be lurking on every side — some pastors are so immersed in their work that their families suffer, and their kids stray from the faith; other PKs have this strange sense that their pastor-parent is the “boss” of something, and act accordingly.

On top of all this, factor into the equation that my wife and I are both committed to children’s and youth ministry, and our daughter is well on her way to writing a best-selling, tell-all memoir one day…

This week, we are having VBS at church. It’s great — but also crazy, tiring, and hectic. I feel like I’m running on a constant deficit these days — sleep, attention, you name it. My body is kind of around, but my mind is always half an hour late.

It sounds corny and obvious, but we really want our kids to know and love Jesus more because of this crazy, crazy week we’re spending together at church. The last thing we want to do is create more consumers who crave churchy experiences. Rather, we want to create an environment where kids can encounter God’s love for themselves in the presence of caring, prayerful adults — with tons of singing and laughing together, of course.

My prayer is that more of our church families will take Jason Evans’ words to heart:

We, as parents, need to take back our right to be our children’s spiritual directors. We owe it to our children.

What an amazing thing it would be to see parents joyfully take responsibility for the spiritual growth and formation of their children — that this VBS week would be partnership in ministry to their kids, not the whole endeavor in and of itself.

Categories church, faith, family, ministry