Forge Conference

In late September/early October I will be speaking at The Forge Conference a.k.a. FORGECON. I'm very excited about this opportunity because I believe in what they are doing.

I believe in their vision to create "a worship and tech training conference that is small and reasonably priced for teams to come to" and I love the fact they are committed to helping smaller local churches.

I remember being in small churches (I've worked in all sizes) and going to conferences where I would leave discouraged because I didn't have the budget, connections, or buy-in to pull off the eye candy and musical heroics the host churches had. And, for some reason, I was lead to believe I had to strive to become what they were in order to be effective. I now know that isn't true. It's good to know there are conferences for creatives where they can network with and brainstorm with other like-minded and like-sized churches.

If you are in a small to medium sized church, consider registering for FORGECON.

This is a list of my talks for the conference:

Aggregates and Gateways: A Corporate Worship Philosophy and Methodology
The popular school of thought in planning weekend worship revolves around theme with the apex of the weekend being the message. In this widely accepted model, the message/sermon or theme is king—driving our choices for music, art, video, and whatever else we might “use” on a weekend. On one hand, this model provides ease of planning, a wealth of resources, tight transitions, clear communication, and a network of support. Conversely, the model has the potential for squelched creativity, lack of spontaneity, robotronic boredom, laziness, frustration, and lack of freedom in our weekend gatherings. We need a new model that doesn’t vilify the old, preserves what is actually working, and stretches us to question what we are actually trying to accomplish and how we go about getting there.

Sleeping Beauty: Towards a Theology of Beauty and Aesthetics
The word “ethos” has become quite a buzz word in the Church. Usually, when someone asks “what is the ethos of the church like?” they are really saying, “What is the vibe? Is it cool? Are they friendly? Do they do neat things? Is the music engaging? Would my kids dig it? etc.” However, the idea of ethos in Aristotelian thought is something much different and much more in line with a Hebrew understanding of beauty. If Aristotle stepped into your church and judged it’s ethos, you might be surprised at how he scores you.

All the Cool Kids are Singing It: A Plea for Indigenous Worship
We are killing our imaginations. As function continues to contend for beauty’s position, accessibility sucker-punches ingenuity, and uniformity trumps the hard work of creativity, we run the risk of creating “artists” in the church’s own image who in fact are not really artists. Or, at least, the artists are getting the art sucked out of them. Are church artists losing the ability to discern what is good, what is mediocre, and what is crap? A good metaphor for the artist in scripture is that of a priest or prophet—seeing the world as it is, experiencing joy and suffering with (and on behalf of) others, understanding the reality of the non-material world, challenging the world to be different, and surfacing a need to pay attention and see things differently. How are we doing?

Detours

Today I had to drive across town for a meeting. It was a last minute meeting set up last night.

I rarely drive through East Jackson but I did today. Michigan Ave. or the freeway? I took Michigan Avenue. Longer by about 5 minutes but prettier and quieter with the top down on the Jeep. I just took the top down yesterday after a rainstorm.

As I was driving I decided to take another road I seldom go down for a change of pace.

A half-mile down that road was a car stalled in the middle of the street.

Traffic was routed through a parking lot around a building to another side street.

On that side street was a lady leaning against a delivery van with two kids. As I drove by I asked if everything was okay. We could talk easy with the top down on the Jeep.

She said, "We're out of gas." Would you be willing to take my son to go by gas? I don't have a can but the gas station might have one if we give them a deposit to borrow it." My first thought was 1) I'd love to help. My second thought was 2) Wow. I must look trustworthy (* wink *)

I didn't know her but I thought she may have recognized me from the church. I introduced myself thinking she might say, "I know who you are." But she didn't.

I told her I'd be willing to take her son to buy gas. I introduced myself and told her I am a pastor at Westwinds across town.

I took her 13 year old son to buy gas. They didn't have a can to use so we had to buy one. We bought the boy and his sister a pop since they had been sitting in the sun.

After we put gas in the van, she told me they are looking for a church and asked what our service times are on Sunday. She told me she was going through a divorce and would love to find a place for her kids to feel comfortable. She told me she would see me Sunday.

When these little detours happen in life, I am reminded that God gives us freewill to make choices but he also orchestrates situations for us to cross new paths and meet new people outside of our routine. Those little detours are often written off as "coincidence." I choose to think differently.

• last minute meeting
• new part of town
• different street
  
• traffic routed differently from stalled vehicle
• through a parking lot to a side street
• a conversation with a stranded motorist made easy by a convertible
  

You be the judge.

Instead of "coincidence" I like to think of these detours as God-incidents.

This detour was pretty obvious to me. However, I wonder how many detours I have all the time without thinking twice? Do I get mad in those times? Frustrated? Sometimes those emotions seem inevitable. But what I really want is a perspective that takes stock of all the detours and says, "Ok, God. Who am I supposed to meet today?"

Our Children Must Never See This

I remember these stories in the Bible. The ones about all the white people dancing in bathrobes.

This is the very reason some children are afraid to go to church.

More stuff like this at Christian Nightmares.