My Favorite Christmas Albums

November 29, 2008 1 Comment

When I became a full-time worship minister I got into the habit of listening to Christmas music in early September. This would give me a good month of two before planning and rehearsals would start to take place for Christmas programs and regular services. Truth be told, I love Christmas music, and although Christmas and Easter are the most intense times of year for worship and music people, I always loved breaking out the Christmas CD’s and immersing myself in some of my favorite music. I still do! In my office and at home I’ve Christmas music playing for a few weeks now. Here are my favorite Christmas albums in no particular order.

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Michael W. Smith, Christmas and Christmastime.  Michael’s first CD, Christmas, ties with A Charlie Brown Christmas for my all-time favorite Christmas album. Christmas came out in 1989, I think, and it was really different from his “regular” albums because it was orchestral and worshipful. Almost all of the songs are originals. I remember hearing it for the first time (via cassette tape, no less) when my brother played it for me in Clay City, IL where he was doing a weekend youth ministry at the time. It is still a phenomenal CD even after nearly 20 years. Standout tracks are “Lux Venit,” “No Eye Had Seen,” and “All is Well” (which still brings me to tears).

mws21

Michael’s 2nd Christmas CD, Christmastime, is very different from his first one, but it’s still very good. It’s a mixture of styles, and the standout tracks are “Carols Sing, ” “Christmastime,” and “O Christmas Tree” with Phil Keaggy on guitar.

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Vince Guaraldi Trio, A Charlie Brown Christmas. This is one of the few CD’s I could listen to constantly and never get tired of it. It makes me feel like a kid again, watching Charlie Brown on TV. That was back in days when you had to look through the TV guide each week to see when your favorite Christmas specials would be on. Standout tracks: “Christmas Time is Here,” “Linus and Lucy” (the one everybody knows), “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing.” Read more of this post

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The Process of Ministry

November 27, 2008 2 Comments

Click for a bigger image and read the text.

Click for a bigger image and read the text.

As strange as it may sound, one of my favorite “father and son” things to do is getting a haircut. But we don’t just to any old haircut place; we go to the Hair Saloon just a few miles from our house. Just as it sounds, the Hair Saloon is a “salon” (catch the play on words?) created just for men. It’s sort of like an old-time barbershop, except classier and updated for the 21st century. The whole place is geared toward male sensibilities – everything from the dark wood trim, the pictures of sports legends on the walls, the TV playing a news channel, the small putting range, the classy wooden tables with checkers, a few shelves of books, and the general look of the place. Best of all, when you walk in the door you aren’t knocked over with the smell of hair care products that knock you out when you go into a regular hair care store.

This week’s visit was an enjoyable experience. I was lucky to have our “usual” stylist there (“stylist” sounds so feminine, but I’m not sure what the proper term is). They offered us an ice cold drink; Coke for me, a Sprite for Ben. We played a little golf and we were off for back-to-back haircuts. But the Hair Saloon doesn’t just give you a haircut – it’s a whole experience. After the haircut, she gave me a scalp massage with peppermint oil. (I know it sounds kind of weird, but it’s very relaxing and almost makes you want to fall asleep.) After a shampoo and a “style” of my hair (if you’ve seen my thinning hair, you know it doesn’t take long…), it was Ben’s turn. Ben is only 4 years old, but he loves this place and is totally relaxed here, as opposed to the louder places we’ve been to. Here they really take their time, as opposed to just rushing through the haircut to get to the next customer. After the haircuts, they brought out a tray with mints, along with a steaming hot towel for us to wash off our faces and necks – a nice touch.

Another small touch that I really love is the shoe shine station. The last time I went with Ben for a haircut I was in my dress clothes, and the “shoe shine guy” (not his official title, I’m sure) approached me and asked if I would like my shoes buffed up. I gladly obliged, and by the time my haircut was over my shoes looked brand new. How cool is that! It’s so old-fashioned but such a nice tough.

Another reason I really the Hair Saloon is that the employees in general seem very glad to have you there. Each time we have been there, someone acknowledged us as soon as we walked in the door. One of my biggest turnoffs in a place of business (or anywhere else, for that matter) is an employee who sees you come in the door or walk up to the register, but they don’t acknowledge your presence. Or worse yet, they send nonverbal signals that they are irritated with you just because you’re there. Very near our college, there is a chain restaurant that is well-known on our campus for having grouchy employees. This is too bad because it’s a wasted opportunity to make people feel welcome and wanted in their restaurant.

In the past when I have gone for a haircut anywhere else, my objective has been to get in and get out as quickly as possible. But now I actually make a point to come a little early so we can enjoy a refreshing soda, play on the putting green and enjoy an atmosphere that is fun and inviting.

In all fairness, I should point out that going to the Hair Saloon does cost a little more (but no much more), but for us it’s completely worth it. We go because of the quality of the haircut, but as much or more so, because of the atmosphere and the experience.

In short, I’m as interested in the process as the end product. Read more of this post

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Rich in Mercy (Chapel Message, 11-21-08)

November 27, 2008 4 Comments

rembrandt_prodigal-son

The Return of the Prodigal Son (Rembrandt)

This is the message I preached in the SLCC Chapel service last Friday, for anyone who is interested. I have never been so transparent and candid in a message. (The rest of the service was detailed in the previous post.) You may be interested to know that I preached from the floor instead of the stage, and didn’t use a pulpit or a lectern. It reflects my personality, but I also wanted to eliminate any barriers between myself and everyone else.

Key Idea: God is rich in mercy; he redeems what is lost and restores what is broken.

Ephesians 2.1-7:

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience-among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.  But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ-by grace you have been saved-and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

It was January 2004, and I was on top of the world.  I had been the worship minister at our church in Streator, IL for 7½ years, and things were going very well.  I was well-liked in the church and my ministry had a lot of momentum.  The previous May I had received my Master of Divinity degree from Lincoln Christian Seminary.  I had accepted the call to come and teach at St. Louis Christian College and was ready to hit the ground running.  We had bought our first house, and best of all, my wife Melanie and I were expecting our first child in just a few months.

I was headed for greater things and thought to myself, “How could things possibly get any better?”

Then April 11th hit, and our son Benjamin was born.  My wife had an emergency C-section and he came out purple, with a pointy head, and screaming like a banshee.  And he didn’t stop for 9 months.  Literally.  He suffered from a severe case of colic, a condition where babies cry for hours on end.  Not just your typical crying-blood-curdling screams at the top of their lungs.  Some doctors say it’s caused by acid reflux or some kind of gastro-intestinal problem, but truthfully, no one knows.  Day and night, night and day, for hours on end, we heard screaming. Read more of this post

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Cardboard Testimonies in Chapel (11-21-08)

November 26, 2008 1 Comment

img_0867Last Friday I had the privilege of preaching in our chapel service at SLCC. Although I have the opportunity to teach students in class several times a week, there is something special about preaching in chapel. If you’re faculty, you usually only get to do it once a year. We also have special guests come in frequently.

Chapel usually consists of several songs led by a worship team, announcements and offering, and a sermon – though not necessarily in that order. For my chapel, I wanted to do something different. My church had done “cardboard testimonies” a couple of months ago, and I had seen other churches do it as well. It’s a very powerful display of God’s work in a person’s life. If you don’t know what “cardboard testimonies” are, check out a previous post from a few weeks back, or just get on YouTube and type in the phrase.

I want to look at the service from a couple of different viewpoints.

Production

“Production” seems to be a dirty word in worship circles these days because of its connotations to big programs, television and entertainment. But “production” is nothing more than organizing a service so that it flows smoothly. Every church service is “produced” on some level, even if it’s just a person leading hymns with an organ and someone preaching. If it’s organized, it is produced.

The order of service went like this:

- Worship song: My Glorious

- Announcements, offering, introduction of speaker

- Message (and a transition into the testimonies)

- Cardboard testimonies (the music behind the testimonies was “Grace Like Rain”).

- Worship songs: God of This City, Mighty to Save, How Great is Our God. During the songs people were invited to come forward to write their own “cardboard testimony.”

- Closing thoughts, and closing prayer

Although you can’t tell from this order of service, this was a very powerful time of worship and sharing. Let me share with you some of my thoughts on the service from a production standpoint, what went into creating the service. Read more of this post

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Gettin' the Blues

November 25, 2008 Leave a comment

One of my favorite artists is Phil Keaggy, one of the premiere guitarists not only in the Christian world, but in general. Legend has it that Jimmy Hendrix was once asked what it was like to be the best guitarist in the world, and he replied, “I don’t know, you’ll have to ask Phil Keaggy.” That was back in the day before Phil became a Christian. I don’t know if the story is true, but the man sure can play!

I love Keaggy’s acoustic version of the classic “John the Revelator.” The video and sound quality aren’t that great, and I don’t know when this was filmed (I’m guessing the mid-90′s, but can’t say for sure). Even so, you can easily see he’s one of the greats. In some parts of the song, he uses a cool gadget he’s been using for years, the Jam Man. It lets him record a part, loop it and play over it, creating kind of a one man band. At about the 5 minute mark, he finishes the actual song and goes into an impromptu jam for a few minutes.

Keaggy originally recorded the song back in 1992 for one of his best albums ever, “Crimson and Blue.” He and his producer Lynn Nichols heard “John the Revelator” on an old Son House record and decided to re-arrange it for the album. “Son” House was a delta blues great who was influential on many other musicians, including one of the towering figures of the blues, Robert Johnson. Here is Son House himself doing the song along with a little introduction.

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Who Owns Your Stuff? (Stewardship Series, Part 1)

November 17, 2008 4 Comments

coinTo the reader: Doing an interim ministry is kind of like eating the cake without having to bake it. Preaching and teaching are the fun parts! This past Sunday I began a stewardship series. For the next several weeks I will be “hitting where it hurts” instead of preaching on more fun topics like Thanksgiving, angels, shepherds and the baby Jesus. Don’t get me wrong; I’d rather be doing the more fun topics, but this is what the church needs, and truth be told, I will probably grow more than anyone else. OK, maybe I’m baking the cake after all.

One more thing: I’m under no delusion that these sermons are literary masterpieces. As “Pastor Karl” said in the classic IVP book “Pastor Karl’s Rookie Year,” sermons are not meant to be literary masterpieces, just Dixie cups of cold water to thirsty people. Feel free to skip over these sermons if it’s not your thing. But perhaps there are one or two of you out there who may be helped by these.

OK, one last final thing, then I’m done, really. To any preachers out there, one resource that has been very helpful to me since I’ve been preaching regularly is Andy Stanley’s book “Communicating for a Change.” Not that you can really tell from a written sermon, but it changed my whole approach to preaching.

Key Idea: God owns everything, and we are managers of what God has entrusted to us.

Introduction

I want to begin with a few questions:

1. Do you have anxiety about your money or the economy?

2. Would you like to give more to the church or others in need but don’t feel you can?

3. Do you want to have more peace and joy in life?

4. Have you ever wondered what the Bible has to say about how we use our money?

If you’ve answered yes to one or more of these questions, this series is for you.  Starting today we will be looking at the issue of stewardship for several weeks.  Let me give you several reasons why we’re doing this series:

1. Money is an issue that is very close to our hearts.  God’s Word has a lot to say about money.  The church where I used to serve did a stewardship series every year, and my church in St. Louis does as well.  PHCC is overdue for this series!

2. The economy is the foremost issue in America right now, and this is a very timely series.

3. It’s my responsibility to give you what you need, not what you necessarily want to hear.  Since I’m the interim minister, it’s easier for me address these hard issues because you’re not supporting me with a full-time salary.  Although my intention is help you, not offend you, most of you will listen more cautiously because we’re all protective of our money.

4. I want to help make the church as solid as possible for the next full-time minister.  The role of an interim is to prepare the way for the next minister.

5. The Bible says, “God loves a cheerful giver!” (2 Cor. 9.7).  God blesses those who are generous.  I want to be blessed by God!

6. This series will go into December, and this is a natural time when we think about giving and finances. Read more of this post

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Darkness and Hope in "Citizen Kane"

November 10, 2008 Leave a comment

kane

Charles Foster Kane

Each fall I take a couple of weeks in the schedule of my Introduction to the Arts class to discuss movies. The first week we talk about how to analyze movies, the key elements contained in most movies (plot, theme, protagonist, antagonist, conflict, resolution, etc.), and the movie ratings system. The second week we watch and discuss Citizen Kane, one of the greatest movies of all time, if not the greatest. There are a multitude of reasons why I would classify it as the greatest, but here are just a few:

  • Orson Welles was only 24 years old when he began making it. (It was released in 1941.) This was the first time he had acted on screen or directed a film. By this point he was already famous in Hollywood, notably for his “Wars of the World” broadcast that caused quite a stir when many people thought Martians were actually invading the planet.
  • Citizen Kane broke with standard linear storytelling, and instead begins with the death of the main character, Charles Foster Kane. From there it proceeds to tell the story of his life in a circular kind of fashion, through the memories of those who knew him best.
  • The way the movie was shot was incredibly creative, using interesting framing techniques and many instances of “deep focus,” where everything in the frame is in focus, thereby messing with your sense of perspective. In at least one instance they dug out the floor of a set so they could point the camera directly up at the actors. The result is to make them appear larger than life. In terms of his creativity as a filmmaker, Orson Welles was sort of the Quenton Tarantino of his day (but without all the language, sex and violence…).
  • It didn’t hurt that Citizen Kane was embroiled in controversy before it was even released. The basic story centers around Charles Foster Kane, a newspaper tycoon who influences American life for the first few decades of the 20th century. It shows his rise and gradual decline into a bitter old man with a broken marriage and a huge, empty palace. The movie is a direct satire of William Randolph Hearst, the famous…you guessed it, newspaper tycoon. It directly mocks details of his life, right down to his mistress and his huge estate. As you might guess, Hearst was vehemently opposed to the picture, and even tried to buy the negative for over $800,000 so he could burn it. Read more of this post

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Worship Horror Stories

November 9, 2008 2 Comments

homealoneThis morning I had to laugh at the minor problems we had in church. I’m preaching at a small country church as an interim. Several families took a weekend trip to Branson, and a number of other regulars were gone. It came time for communion, and someone realized that the people who normally prepare the communion trays were gone. A couple of people went to prepare it quickly, and we had to fill the time with an extra song. The pianist (who was also gone) had recorded the accompaniment a few days earlier, but somehow the song leader and the sound tech weren’t on the same page, and the song leader was singing a totally different song than the accompaniment was playing. Thankfully we stopped halfway through to put the song out of its misery. I was laughing to myself not because I was pointing fingers, but because things don’t always go according to plan in church. I have made many blunders myself. We just have to laugh at our mistakes, hopefully learn from them, and be thankful that God loves us anyway.

It reminds of a moment a couple of years ago (when I was doing my first interim ministry with the church) when a woman from the congregation asked for prayer for her Dad during our prayer request time, and I asked her Dad’s name. She replied, “You know, Randy, your cousin!” (This is my home church, so this should have been obvious to me. But in my defense, I have a really big extended family…)

Then there are, of course, the blunders in worship leading. We all deal with sound or media problems – those can plague you like…well, the plague. But that’s part of the territory. More than once, I have been leading with a band and didn’t have my guitar capo either on the right fret, or had forgotten to take it off. There’s nothing quite so worshipful as starting a song in one key and having the rest of the band join in while in another key.

When I first started out leading worship, the song “Lord, I Lift Your Name on High” was really popular. One Sunday morning we were leading the song and the people were sitting down. In the middle of the song a fellow staff member (who had quite an outspoken personality) stood up and pointedly asked me why I didn’t have everyone stand up and do the motions. I was young and said the most intelligent thing I could think of in the moment: “OK, let’s sing it again!” So everyone stood and we did the song again. Read more of this post

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The Voting Booth (Politics & Faith, Part 4)

November 2, 2008 2 Comments

This is the final message in this series: “The Voting Booth.” Voting is an incredibly private matter – so much so that we do it in a private booth!  It seems like an incredible invasion of privacy to ask someone who they voted for.  It reminds me of what Linus says in the Charlie Brown Halloween special: “There are three things I have learned never to discuss with people: religion, politics, and the Great Pumpkin.”

Everyone in our culture knows that the political process is sometimes messy. Remember the election of 2000, when the President was basically decided by the Supreme Court?  I remember in 2004 hearing about potential fraud in the elections in some parts of St. Louis.  So many people are desperate for their candidate to win, they will go to any length to make it happen.

Regardless of the fact that voting is an imperfect process, it’s about as good as it gets here on planet earth.  Some people – even some Christians – are very cynical about politics and have decided the best option is to not vote at all.  I don’t think this is a good option at all.  As Chuck Colson says, “…voting is never an option-it’s both our civic duty and sacred duty. Voting is required of us as good citizens and as God’s agents for appointing leaders.”  He also says, “Today, God no longer chooses our leaders directly (although some of us wish He did, if only to avoid the two-year-long political campaigns). But we live in a democracy, so God entrusts us with the job of choosing leaders He will then anoint. Instead of a prophet, we are to commission leaders of competence, virtue, and character. That’s why not voting, or rejecting candidates because they’re not perfect on some biblical score sheet, is a dereliction of our trust.” (1)

With that in mind, I’d like to share some biblical wisdom for the process of voting this coming Tuesday.  Note: These points are adapted from a message given by my brother this past summer at our church. Read more of this post

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One Citizen, Two Kingdoms (Politics & Faith, Part 3)

November 1, 2008 Leave a comment

I brought my passport with me today.  Without this document you cannot travel to another country.  How many of you have been to another country?  It’s exciting to travel abroad, but it can also make you uneasy because you’re not under the protection of your home country any longer.  When I went to Nicaragua last fall with a music group from my church, we got off the plane and had to go through customs.  You know they are going to scrutinize your passport pretty closely, and for good reason.

Being a Christian is sort of like going to another country: you are visiting another place for a time, but your real “home” is somewhere else.  1 Pet. 2.11 says, “Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.” As the old song says, “This world is not my home, I’m just a-passing through.”  Our real home is in the kingdom of God, as Eph. 2.19 reminds us: “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God…” We are both citizens of the world and citizens of the kingdom of heaven.

Today I want to take some time to look at how these two citizenships work together.  What are our rights and responsibilities?  This is the 3rd week of a series on politics and faith, and I think it’s a helpful reminder that political situations are temporary (because everything changes).  In contrast, our heavenly citizenship is permanent.  That helps to give us a proper perspective.

First, let’s take a look at Paul’s Roman citizenship to help shed light on our own situation.  Then we’ll contrast our heavenly and earthly citizenships, and the rights and responsibilities of each. Read more of this post

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