Definitions

this is Nate's. He gets all the credit for this. It is just too important not to share


Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Definitions
In order to make our conversations on this blog a little easier, here are some of my personal definitions of some of the words you may see me use on my blog."Purpose" - I use this word to refer to the meaning of existence of a certain something. For examples, the purpose of my truck is, "Getting me safely, reliably and quickly from Point A to Point B." The purpose of my church is, "Reaching people to discover life in Christ." While many use "purpose" and "mission" interchangeably, I do not."Mission" - I usually use this word to describe an action that involves living out The Great Commission of the Christian life as found in Matt. 28: 18-20. My basic definition for this word is, “Anything a believer(s) does to serve an unbeliever in the name of Christ.” Mission usually takes place outside the walls of the church.“Missional” – I use this word to describe a person, church, etc. that is living out The Great Commission.“Ministry” – My basic definition for this word is, “Anything a believer(s) does to serve another believer in the name of Christ.” Ministry often (but not exclusively) takes place in the walls of a church or in another “Christian” setting such as a Bible Study or Small Group.“Worship” – I use this word to describe any thought, action, behavior, etc. that brings glory to God. My basic definition for this word is, “Worship is our response, both personal and corporate, to God – for Who He is! And what He has done! Expressed in and by the things we say and the way we live.”"Unchurched" - I use this word as an synonym for "unbelievers", "seekers", "the lost", "pre-Christians" or whatever else you want to use for people who don't know God.I’ll add to this list as questions come up. Thanks!

Nate

a great piece by Shaun Groves

From Shaun Groves

"If tomorrow my wife leaves with the kids and says she's never coming back. If the doctor says it's cancer and it's hopeless. If Chick-fil-A closes down and I never get to hold a warm chicken biscuit in my hand again. If all this happens will I still worship God? Am I worshipping God only for what He's done, or for who He is? "

http://www.shaungroves.com/shlog/comments/shut_up_and_worship_pt1/

Hey, this brings up a point, actually a hymn

Oh how I love Jesus
Oh how I love Jesus
Oh how I love Jesus
Because He first loved me


would THAT be worshipping Christ f0r A) what he's done or B) who he is??????

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm


Jim

Some lights on Broadmoor Street....

I left the house about 5.40 a.m. today, trying to make it to the 6 a.m. prayer meeting at South Haven. While traveling up Broadmoor st. ( like I do 3-5 times a week) I drove past a house with it's Christmas lights on, just like they are every night. They were the only lights on, except for a few street lights here and there. What was special this time, as the house came into view, Josh Groban's "Oh Holy Night" came on the radio at the same time. It was a nice moment to experience, the one lonely house lit up in the darkness.

Here's to wishing our Heavenly Father and his Eternal Son a Merry Christmas. I'm grateful for all they've done for me

Merry Christmas to you too.

Jimbo

Merry Christmas to ME

the wife bought me a new piece of gear for Christmas, an Epiphone Valve Junior guitar amp head. (Point to be made here. I got a LES PAUL CLASSIC for father's day, and did not expect anything at all for Christmas. What a wife!) I wanted one of these because A) they're affordable B) they sound GREAT C) they're small and light, and D) I can tinker/tweak/modify it. My original intention was to put in on my talkbox for those really rare occasions I can crank out some Frampton licks on Sunday morning.

Sorry, we don't use a regular guitar amp on Sunday mornings. We are POD XT people. No amps on stage allowed, but we do have a really cool AVIOM (sp?) monitor mixing system, with SHURE in-ear monitor headseats, of which I am VERY grateful

Merry Christmas to all!

Jimbo

Survived Sunday Morning

Silent Night was tough, but we made it through. When the drummer felt like ending, the keyboard player stopped, the bass stopped, and the acoustic guitar (me) stopped. The extra keyboardist was involved in a run he felt would express himself, so he ended the song with a solo.

BTW Mr Brad Henderson says to re-arrange the pages so I can look at both of them at the same time. Too bad they sell them as a front-and-back combo. Maybe someone will buy us a copy machine that only does sheet-music-sized copies.

Turns out it was the best we've ever done the contemporary 'O little town of Bethlehem'. It was really nice. Thank you God for allowing me to play music for your purpose. I'm grateful you could have time for me.

Merry Christmas to all

Jimbo

Worship music for Sunday Dec. 23rd

Our usual lineup of songs is of course prempted by music of the Season. I do NOT mind music of the Season. Additionally, I do not mind musical challenges ( Children of Eden at Central High School is all the proof I need ), but this year's holiday selections from Praise Carols is enough to cause several members of our worship team to comment as to the sanity of these arrangements. Evidently, a Mr. Dan Galbrath is trying to flex his musical muscles, and cram everything he learned in his music education into some of these tunes, which is probably a master's degree at the minimum. The chords are odd and complicated enough that the congregation will not be able to follow the normal flow of the song, and I expect participation to be at a minimum.

The purpose of our worship band is to be invisible , right? We are there as a conveyor, to point the people to our loving God with music and praise, and try to not get in the way. People will be climbing over the clutter this Sunday morning, trying to find the three-chord version of Silent Night they've sung for their entire lifetime.

BTW, these contemporary arrangements are so 'white-bread-and-mayo', I'm embarassed to play them. Surely there's a choir somewhere that could use the donation of my interactive CD.

While I'm at it, I'd like to thank Hendersongs for putting a repeat on pages One and Two of 'Joy to the World'. Evidently, Mr. Henderson can play guitar with one hand, and doesn't mind turning the pages back and forth for each repeat, and we only had to play it four times. FYI, there was blank space on the third page. They could have easily pushed it down a single staff and all would have been fine.

When you have a killer band, just because they can play such arrangements doesn't mean they should. Regardless, I'm going to go in on Sunday and play it exactly as our Music Leader would have us do it, after all; He's the one actually called by God to lead us. Meanwhile, let's all pray that our congregation can ignore the arrangements and think about the baby that came to die for each of us. I'll shut up now.

Jimbo
Dec . 22nd, 2007