Easter Pics

A couple of our middle school leaders handed out these pics yesterday morning. They were taken in the middle school room Easter morning to capture the students in their Easter "pretties." We didn't get all the students in the pics but we did get most of them. Oh ya, and we got a group shot of most of the leaders as well.

[Hannah, Susanna, Jaclyn, Gina, Erin, Becca, Savannah, Grace, Brooke, Haley, Sarah, Hannah, Abby, Gina, Kayla, Sarah, Ashley, Zak, Andrew, Teddy, Kadin, Bug Man, Ian, Parker, and Maclane.]

[Clendinindinin, T.I., Snackerman, Geer dog, Luuuuuzod]

[Ray, me, Keith, Dan and Sarah, and Jessica and Joe the Fireman.]

Work Week at Michindoh

[The whole group, minus Jack, because Patrick cropped him out.]

This past week the middle school and high school students piled in a bus and headed out to Camp Michindoh to spend a few days volunteering at the camp. We left church Wednesday morning and got home Friday night.

[Do work, son.]

[The crew cleaning up the grounds around the water slide.]

[Rachel, Arianna, and "The President"]

[I didn't know they took this one.]

We spent a few hours raking leaves and picking up sticks during the afternoon on Wednesday and then again during the mornings and afternoons on Thursday and Friday. The skies were clear and the sun was shining so the 65 degree weather made it enjoyable to be outside.

[I believe this was right before I said to myself,

"I hope they don't dive in."]

After working hard all day on Wednesday group of students jumped into the lake to cool off, and cool off they did. The week before we arrived the camp had been blitzed with 9 inches of snow so the lake was FREEZING cold. The girls all screamed after they hit the water, but they still enjoyed themselves and were talking about the adventure at church this morning.

[The girls felt like chasing after the "duck." Unfortunately, this

was not allowed, and we were notified of this by a woman

dressed in 1800's clothing who yelled at the top

of her lungs, "Ladies!!!! Leave the goose alone!!!!!"]

Wednesday night after dinner we spent some time as a group reflecting on the day and discussing the topics of complaining and laziness before heading over to the gym to play dodgeball. Thursday night after working we piled on the bus and went to Arby's for shakes and then hung out around a bonfire enjoying the beautiful night sky.

The trip was a great experience and many of the students are looking forward to attending again next year.

Another Week ... Another Entry

[Artsy photo in Findlay. Her idea, not mine.]

A week ago, Friday, I met up with my good friend Emily Kraft in Findlay, Ohio for dinner. I hadn't seen her in a while so it was a ton of fun. After dinner we walked around Findlay and stumbled across a coffee house that was hosting a Friday night open mic. They also had a guy inside drawing caricatures for people while they listened to music. As you can see, we had the guy draw our picture.

[said caricature]

Good Friday's afternoon service went well and so did the evening service. Whereas the afternoon service consisted of six 25 minute segments of preaching, the evening service was primarily music. The choir and orchestra did a fabulous job and all their hard work paid off.

After the evening service I went to Starbucks with some of the middle schoolers and then we went and crashed at Brooke's house where we ate pizza and just goofed off. I don't remember anything specific. We did take a couple pics that I'll hopefully be able to post soon.

After hanging out at Brooke's I brought Parker and Maclane home and then headed back to church to help out with the Sr. High all-nighter. After playing dodgeball for a couple hours, the students hopped on buses and headed out to play laser tag for a couple hours. After that, we all went to Total Soccer where we played soccer and football for 3 hours, and then we all went to Ram's Horn and ate pancakes and tried our best to not fall asleep at the tables.

I got home at 7:20 a.m., was in bed by 7:25, and slept for 5 hours and then bummed around during the afternoon before heading back to church for a college age group hang out time. We ate pizza and played various group games and then finished off the night with soccer.

This afternoon I went with the Rudds (the family I live with) to their family Easter get together and had a great time. Now we are sitting down to watch Madagascar 2. I've heard it's a good one.

Jesus Wants the Rose

This is from the 2009 Desiring God Conference for Pastors.

**The video is a little large for my format here, but I don't know how to adjust it.

One of my favorite sermon clips of all time:

Christians and Music

I came across this article today dealing with music in general, but also music in the church. I found it very insightful and challenging in many regards. I will include the link here for those who are interested, but I'll also post the article below.

I Hate That Music

by Bob Kauflin

I’ve been musing recently about how we express our musical opinions. Why do we feel so strongly about songs, bands, and styles? And why do we draw conclusions so quickly? Someone plays a new song or band for us and we have an immediate response:

Nope. Don’t like it.

That stinks.

I can’t stand that kind of music.

You like that stuff?

Is there anything wrong with raving about the music/artists we love and being swift to trash those we despise?

If we’re Christians, yes. Let me suggest ten reasons why musical forbearance might be good for our souls.

1. Being a self-appointed music critic is often just a sign of pride.

Using exaggerated or biting words to put down certain songs, styles, or artists can be a symptom of selfishness, laziness, or arrogance. Music is a vast topic, and no one knows everything there is to know about it. I know at times I haven’t taken time to consider whether or not my assessment was accurate because I was busy sharing my opinions. (Prov. 18:2)

2. Music doesn’t define us.

Why do we become offended when someone critiques our favorite song, group, or style of music? Often it’s because they feel like they’re insulting “our” music, which means they’re insulting us. The problem might be that we’re viewing music as an idol, the thing that satisfies us and gives meaning to our life. Music isn’t our life — Christ is. (Col. 3:4).

3. Great songs don’t always sound great the first time through.

Some songs require repeated listenings to appreciate their value. Albums and songs often grow on us over time. Is the best music always instantly accessible or appealing? If we’ve learned anything from hundreds of years of music making, the answer would have to be no.

4. Listening to music the masses have never heard of doesn’t make us better.

Some of us derive a particular joy in finding and listening to obscure, undiscovered artists. I sure like coming across a great band I’ve never heard of. But finding an unknown artist isn’t admirable in and of itself. Some bands are undiscovered because they’re not very good. And if we do happen to discover a talented unknown band, it’s an opportunity to serve others, not look down on them.

5. Listening to music that is massively popular doesn’t make us better.

This is the opposite craving of the previous point. It’s the mindset that says if the song or artist hasn’t been on the radio, at the top of the charts, or on TV, it’s not worth listening to.

6. Learning to appreciate unfamiliar music is one way to prefer others. I can find this hard to believe at times, but not everyone likes the music I do. And patiently seeking to understand why my friends like the music they do will not only cultivate humility. (Phil. 2:4) It might broaden my musical world!

7. Learning to like other kinds of music can open my eyes to God’s creativity.

In his book, Music Through the Eyes of Faith, Harold Best addresses musical elitists. “Among all this stuff that needs aesthetic redeeming, there is also goodness, a whole lot of integrity and honesty, from which they themselves can learn.” (p. 89) That means I can actually enjoy music that is less sophisticated than what I’d ordinarily listen to.

8. We may have to eat our words.

It’s happened more than a few times. I mouth off about how bad a song is, and later on start to think it’s actually pretty good. Or I tear up a song on my blog and later find myself talking to a person who loves it or the person who wrote it. Oops.

9. We might be missing an opportunity to be grateful for God’s gifts.

Our tendency is to assume that God’s gifts all look and sound the same. They don’t, and that shouldn’t surprise us. What would happen if the first time we heard a song we were grateful rather than critical? James 1:17 tells us that “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights.” Those good gifts might include that new song that sounds so strange to our ears.

10. Being opinionated about music can affect our ability to worship God corporately.

How many times have you heard the first few bars of a worship song on Sunday and thought, “Oh no…I can’t stand this song.” Or maybe you’re talking with a group of friends at lunch on Sunday, and you’re letting them know which songs you really didn’t like. In either case, we’re giving more value to our musical preferences than God’s command to sing his praise and to love him with all our hearts. Do we really want to let our musical opinions keep us from worshiping the God who gave us music in the first place?

Let me be clear. No song is above evaluation and some songs are better than others in a particular genre. But we just might serve others and ourselves more effectively if we expressed our musical opinions with a little more grace.

---

Bob Kauflin is Director of Worship Development for Sovereign Grace Ministries and blogs at WorshipMatters.com.

He also also written a great book on church music (I haven't read it yet, but I've heard great things about it) entitled, Worship Matters.

Twilight

[I know this post is borderline outdated, but I have been slow in getting posts up. So, for the two people who faithfully read this, here is one last entry to get me up to date. More or less.]

Last Sunday afternoon (March 29) I went with a group of students over to Kayla's house to watch Twilight. The group was split 50-50 guys and girls and consisted of everything from freakishly obsessed fans (you know who you are) to kids who hadn't read the book or seen the movie.

I'm not gonna lie. I don't know if anything could have prepared me for what I experienced that afternoon. It all started off under control. We (the students and I) were sitting around the living room eating hot dogs, Sloppy Joe's, and chips and sucking down way too much pop ("pop" is what mid-westerners call "soda") and asking each other random questions, like "What's your most embarrassing moment" type stuff. This carried on for a while but inevitably we had to do what we came for...watch Twilight.

Girls (and also some guys) have been going nuts over this book series and movie. I read the first book in the series several months ago in an effort to familiarize myself with what all the students were talking about. "I like Edward." "Bella is so cool." "I'm on team Jacob."

[The basic story line is that main character, Bella (pictured above in
the brown), falls in love with Edward (the pale faced, golden eyed,
perfectly groomed guy/vampire to the right of Bella).]

I am not making up what I am about to say, nor am I exaggerating in any details. When Edward first makes his appearance on screen, he is shown in borderline slow motion walking into the high school cafeteria. At this point, I kid you not, the girls in the living room started uncontrollably screaming their faces off! I have never seen such a response to a movie character. Ever. I would also like to add that some of the girls had already seen the movie multiple times and were still screaming.

This screaming episode repeated itself later when Edward was seen in a scene glittering in the sunlight. Don't ask. I'm just saying what happened.

The peak moment in the movie, and by peak moment I mean the moment that almost forced the previously consumed Sloppy Joe's and chips to resurface in a projectile manor, was when Edward was confessing his undying, forbidden love for Bella and he tells her, "You're like my own personal brand of heroin." Please note that I am not lying or exaggerating.

I turned around to the girls and said, "What was that!? That's the most awful line I've ever heard in my life!"

That being said, I did feel that the movie was a fairly accurate representation of the book and I can see why girls (and some guys) like it, but it's not gonna be on my Christmas list any time soon. Unless I'm naughty. Then Santa might put it in my stocking.

So that's what happened a week ago Sunday.

Yesterday, I taught in Sunday school on the Day of Atonement and in the afternoon I talked through the Romans Road with the high school group preparing for their missions trip this summer.

This week I'll be prepping for Good Friday and Easter.

Cheers.

More Birthday in the D

[L to R: What, Me, Rachel, Michelle, Dave Niff, and Josh
on the people mover in downtown Detroit]

Ok, so last Saturday after the Clothing Closest, a few friends from the college age group took me and What out for a belated birthday celebration. We hit up a little El Charro's for lunch before hopping in Dave's SUV to head down to D-town. We spend the better part of the afternoon/early evening walking around and checking out many of the sites I hadn't been able to see yet. Rachel brought her camera and we/she took a boat load of pictures. Here are a few for you all to see:

[One of the tigers (with a coat on because it's winter) outside of Comerica Park. He, the tiger, wanted to eat What for dinner. ]

[Comerica Park...and us jumping off the ledge.]

[The location of the Final Four...and if UNC beats UCONN
in the finals, I officially win the church staff bracket contest.
Actually, I think I still win even if UNC loses.]

[This gentleman was kind enough to let me share his newspaper.]

["The Spirit of Detroit" sculpture ... as seen on Sportcenter
this morning. Interestingly enough, the wall behind the
sculpture quotes a verse from the Bible and in the "guy's"
right hand are three people depicting a family (husband, wife, and child). How long till this is considered intolerant?

[Were we to start a band...or become thugs...or try and be
cool doing nothing, this would be a great promo shot.]

The day turned out to be a lot of fun. Thanks, friends, for taking me on the excursion.