Here is the video of me leading at Lowcountry Community Church in Bluffton, SC

10-21-12 from LowCountry Community Church on Vimeo.

This was my last Sunday at LCC.  I had some a great time during my stay- thank you all!

Tomorrow is my last Sunday at Lowcounty Community Chuch.  I have the honor of leading the worship that day as well before moving back to Greenville to take a job as Worship Pastor at Velocity Church in Taylors.

I have been thinking about my six months there for the past week or so.  About how I was when I came there- broken, confused, I thought about just giving up the whole ministry life.
And they brought me in, told me to just rest.  They wrapped their arms around me and lifted me up.
God has done some amazing things these past six months, and alot of it was because these people were willing to pick me up when I couldn't on my own.

They taught me things I wouldn't have been able to learn if none of this had happened, let me help in raising up of the next generation of students, ha- they even trusted me to design a stage for them!

I can't say thank you enough to Eric, Pastor Jeff, Corey, and the rest of the staff there.  Ever.  I have made lifelong friends that Dorothy and I are going to greatly miss.  I know we will be back to visit as often as we can!

This is a short post because words can't express how thankful I am and how much I have learned.  I pray that God uses me the way that He used Lowcountry to heal me.

I announced yesterday on twitter some news that Dorothy and I are very excited about: we are moving back home to Greenville so that I can be the new worship Pastor of Velocity Church in Taylors.

As I said in a post a week or so ago- we have known we would be moving come Nov 4, and that God had told us to simply wait on Him before freaking out.  God truly works all things for our good (Romans 8:28).

I am so excited about what all God is going to do through this opportunity- being back near family and old friends, and being part of an awesome church like Velocity.

We are going to greatly miss all our friends here in Beaufort and Bluffton- but our guest room is always open!

I start my new job November 5th!

This has been such an incredible experience- letting God truly take control and living by faith the past few months-  when the pieces come together in this way, all you can do is sit back and say, Wow!

I had the honor of designing the newest stage design at Lowcountry Community Church.  I wanted to utilize the dark space and bring bright pops of epic color.

We built the frames out of 2x4s and the bars are made from underlayment sheets that were painted white.
The glow under the risers is made from wax paper and sheer fabric.

Everything is lit with a mixture of LED COLORado 1's and 2's.  We used one on each of the back boards above them, and five onto the band
Total cost of everything came to around $300.000

Everything turned out better than I could have dreamed, and I cannot thank everyone who helped enough.  

I recently read a quote.

"God wants us to take art seriously and understand that everytime the Church creates something, it reflects on Him personally."       - Josh Loveless 

I have to say first off- that over the past  few years, I have seen a reformation in creativity in the Church.  Churches are taking creativity and making it their own, and I am so glad.  

But until then, and still in a majority of places- there isn't creativity as much as there is Copy and Paste.  See something, like something, copy something. Sometimes we give the "if it isn't broke- don't fix it" excuse.  And that works, if the copy matches standards with the original. More often than not it doesn't.  

Back when I was a youth pastor, I wanted lights in my youth room to create a "stage area".  I found a light set that was handbuilt in a closet, and set it up in a way that was meant to mimic what I had seen before.  If turned out horrible.  I put painted flood lights in them, and sat them right behind me on my guitar amp pointed directly into the eyes of students.  Looking back now, I am mortified!  But I saw something in culture that I lazily thought would be cool and "create an atmosphere", and did it poorly.  The even worse part was the the room we were in had so much potential for original creativity that I couldn't see because I was too focused on copying something else.

I'm sure you have heard a parody Christian song sometime in your life, you know- Top 40 hits with the lyrics changed to Christian themed.  I don't mean the next statement in a mean way- but when did the church become like a dad making lame jokes to his teenage kids?

Now, I also want to say- the Gospel will always be relevant.  The story of God is always relevant.  This challenge of relevancy is not on God's part- it is us.  It is the church that has slacked in staying relevant, following the wind as the speeding car of culture passes by.

We need to step it up.  Yes, notice I said WE, not the church, not you.  We are all in this together.


God wants our best.  He doesn't demand perfection from us.  He simply wants the best we can do.  So let's stop lazily stealing ideas and being even lazier in our execution of them.  We can do better than taking a poorly made lighting rig set up on a guitar amp.

Our God is the ultimate Creator.  He created everything.  Culture gets their inspiration from God.  Whether they admit it or not- it comes from God's creation.  So why are we, God's people, copying culture, taking secondhand ideas when we serve The Creator?

Let's create something new.  Let's take a risk on something original.  Let's make the ultimate Creator proud!

I am getting ordained this Sunday.  And a lot of people have asked me what exactly that means.  I figured I would take some time and explain what it means- to me at least.

Being ordained into the ministry is basically a church declaring that they support the ministry of a believer who is dedicating their life to ministry.  I used the word 'ministry' a lot, I know.

Think of it this way (it is how I like to look at it): Baptism.  The baptism doesn't save you- it is an outward expression of an inward decision.  Baptism tells the world "I a beginning a relationship with Christ, I have been washed clean."  Ordination is like that, but instead of telling the world I have been washed, it tells the world I am dedicating my life to ministry- in my case- worship ministry.

I know people who think of ordination as a "traditional" thing, so "contemporary" has no place for it, no need for it.  While I can see where they are coming from- its not some tie to a "old way".  It is simply confessing my dedication to the spreading of the Gospel.
 I have no real desire to marry people.  I have no desire to bury people.  Now, if someone I care about comes to me and asks me, I would be honored.  But I have no real desire to marry and bury.

Ordination is not the means that allows you to marry someone.  it is so much more than that. It is first and foremost a declaration to spread the Gospel.

I'm getting ordained on Sunday.
It doesn't change who I am as a person.
It doesn't mean I am any more or less relevant in a contemporary and modern world.
It doesn't mean I'm only going to sing the 1st, 2nd, and 4th verses of "Just As I Am".
It doesn't mean I'm going to walk around making people call me Reverend.
It doesn't mean I am going to start marrying and burying people.
It doesn't mean I am a Super Christian who knows everything about theology (FAR from it!)

It does mean that I am dedicating my life to spreading the good news of Christ.
It does mean that I want the support of my fellow believers, of my Tidal Creek family, and of Rocky Creek- the church I grew up in and who is ordaining me.

If you have any questions.  Just ask me. If I don't know, I can give you a long list of people smarter than me.  Well, its a book actually.

Catalyst Space posted this article yesterday, by Ron Edmondson.  The article is entitled "7 Pieces of Advice for the Young Leader"

This caught my attention because, you may or may not have noticed, but I am young.  I am only 23 years old, and I know that I can learn alot from those who have gone before me.

I'm not going to copy/paste the article here, but I will highlight some points that I want to pass along (the points in bold are from the article- my thoughts below)

1)Never attend a meeting without a way to take notes.
It shows you care about what your meeting about.  For me (Josh), I always try to my Moleskine or something, because I know my memory is terrible.  So it helps in two ways- one- you can remember things, and two- it shows you aren't just blowing through it.

2) Respect Your Elders
There is a reason they have been doing this longer than I have- because they found a way that works.  It may not be the way I prefer things, it may not be the modern way, it may not be the best way.  My ways probably aren't the best ways either.   But they have found what works for them- and deserve the respect that is due.

3)Learn all you can from everyone you meet
You can learn something in every encounter, but are you willing to?  It is helpful, and this is one that I had not thought of.  I knew you can learn something from everyone, but to actually take the stance to learn all you can from everyone is pretty.... bold, radical.... and can lead to some awesome findings!

4) Keep a resume handy and keep revising it
I can say with no hesitation I love where God has placed me.  But after just going through the resume thing- I have seen the benefit of having an updated resume handy- it saves time of having to say "when did I work here???"  You also have no idea when God  will work in you and move you.

5) Never burn a bridge
This is something I have always held to.  Yes, we as pastors and ministers sometimes get so frustrated that we just give up on our relationship with someone.  This happened to me recently, someone offered to do something for me and then didn't follow through, and just wasn't helpful- almost like they went out of their way.  I could have burned that bridge and walked away- and honestly I probably would not have seen this person again, just chalked them up to an old college friend.  But two things happened: my friendship was more important, so I did what was best for it, and cancelled my request.  I didn't want to ruin it.  And two: I knew that I might need something in the future, and it is always good to have a good sized network.  Me and this person aren't as close as we used to be, by far.  But that relationship is still there.  Bridge not burned.  And since then, I have seen our relationship change, not stronger, but different.  And it works now.

6) Be an encourager in the organization
Be a positive member of the team.  David said this past Sunday, (paraphrasing), "Those who criticize the most are the ones being criticized the most; those gossiping are being gossiped about."  So again- two-fold.  You don't want to be harshly and wrongly criticized (although criticism is needed- you need to learn what you aren't doing right or well), and you want to genuinely be a positive part of the team.

7) Never Underestimate a Connection
Take the time to meet new people.  When you are introduced to someone, don't brush it off- pursue it.  You have no clue where it could lead!
I met Kenny, the soundguy at Tidal Creek, during my interviews (he was on the search team).  We have been able to form a very good friendship, and he has been able to help me out with many things.

and 8) Drop the defensiveness
I know it said 7- but oh well.    But I am not sure what it is about young leaders (myself included), but we get very defensive when someone suggests we don't know everything.  We take 1 Timothy 4:12 waaayyyyy too seriously, and build up walls so that no one can get in .
Take a deep breath.  Now listen: 'You don't know it all.'
I don't know it all.
Those who have gone before us don't know it all.
But they know more than we do.


I found this to be very helpful for me, and I hope it will be to you as well.

We are starting a new series this Sunday at Tidal Creek.  We are talking about our core values.  

Its incredibly important for every person apart of our church to know the core values of Tidal Creek.  Because, let's face it: a bad core ruins the entire fruit.  The core of an apple holds the seeds- holds the life of future apples.  I believe the same exists in churches: bad core, bad values, bad theology, ruins it all.  And a good core should hold life for future churches and generations.


This Sunday, the core value we are talking about is 'Story Telling'.   If we are in Christ we have experienced lifechange.  The Gospel Story meshes with our story and becomes a story that we need to tell the world. 


As you prepare for Sunday, read John 9: the story of Jesus restoring sight to a blind man.  The Pharisees ask the man about Jesus, trying to get him to denounce Jesus, and the man says, ""Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see." (v25)
The Pharisees are not satisfied, and ask details of what Jesus did.  This is what I love about this story- he starts arguing with them about if Jesus is of God, and that this miracle should not be a big deal because the Pharisees thought Jesus was a sinner.  The man replied:

"Why, this is an amazing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind.  If this man were not from God, he could do nothing." (John 9:30-33)

This man went through a lifechange, and he couldn't help but tell everyone.  By telling the Pharisees, he was at risk of being thrown out of the synagogue, and he didn't care! He stuck to his convictions, and told the story of his lifechange!

What is your story?  


If you would like to download the sermon graphics set, you can download the .jpgs here for free, to use for your church services.

First off: I'm not exactly sure what an open letter is.  But I've seen it written enough to know its the cool thing to do right now (I kid).

But I want to spend a moment to talk to my Tidal Creek Family.  Thank you for giving me the opportunity to lead you in worship each week.  To be the one who holds the door to the Throne Room for you.  

I want to let you know what to expect from me, after all- you should know what your getting into.  Maybe we haven't gotten to meet yet.  I hope we do soon.  But until then- you can learn more about me on this site- find out what makes me tick.  I try to post on here as often as possible, at least a couple times a week, writing on the subjects of worship, creativity, music, or life in general.

But onto what you should expect from me, as your worship leader.  I do not take this job lightly.  Worship is something that goes beyond our music- it is something that should touch every aspect of our life.  My prayer is that through song, through singing together as one united voice, we are able to celebrate the redemption we have found in Christ, the sacrifice He laid down for us, and the joys we celebrate in the worship-filled life we have lived throughout the week.  I want our worship time together to reflect the worship times you have had all week long.

• Expect me to play music.  This one is a given. 
• Expect me to pray for you.  Know that I am lifting you up in prayer throughout the week.  Praying that you will stay strong, praying that God blesses, teaches, leads, and reveals Himself to you.
• Expect me to occassionally mess up.  Yes- I misspelled occasionally.  I didn't do it on purpose- but it proves my point.  I am human- just like you.  Just because I am on staff at a church doesn't mean I'm perfect.  We all mess up, have messed up, and will mess up again.  Don't expect me to mess up all the time- but don't expect me to be perfect.
• Expect me to give it 110%.  As I said before, I don't take this lightly.  I will not do something half-heartedly, or just 'throw something together'.  I want everything I present to my God, and to you, and to the world, to be something I can be proud of- to be my first fruits, not my leftovers.

I am so excited to start this journey with you all.  I know that God has big things in store for us at Tidal Creek.  

If you are curious as to what kind of music you should be expecting- I would compare my style to the likes of Passion.  I think that worshipping through music should be filled with excitement, energy, and reverence.  It should be a time of brutal honesty- to ourselves and to our God.  And above all else- it should be filled with glory to God.  

I am not here to point to myself.  If I ever do, please call me out on it.  Everything I am is because of God, and given to me by God.  

I look forward to seeing all of you this Sunday!

Josh

I admit it- I'm not the most organized person in the world.  If I don't write something down, I will forget it.  My mind is a scattered place.  But I am a prepared person.

Why? Because I know my faults.  And as I am starting this new job/ministry/journey/experience/life/privilege I am noticing even more my need to preparation.  

Preparation should be a big part of your journey as well.  Whether you are a worship leader, pastor, small group leader, musician, sound guy, door holder, attender.  Preparedness plays a pretty big role in all aspects.

I know some speakers that don't 'plan' their sermons- they just get up and let the Holy Spirit do its thing.  That's cool.  They might even say they didn't prepare anything- but they did prepare.  They prepared by spending time in Scripture, getting to know God more intimately so that when they spoke, His words came flowing out like second nature.

As I said- it is important for everyone to be prepared when they enter the church.  Part of this is a mindset of expecting God to work.  David, my new pastor at Tidal Creek, told a story Sunday about a church that held a big prayer meeting for rain during a drought, but only one little girl expected God to work and brought an umbrella.

Another part of this is getting to know God privately.  If you want to see your spiritual life soar- stop starving it by only feeding it once a week.  You don't have to jump straight to spending 4 hours a day in prayer and reading, try starting at 15 minutes a day.  Try reading a Psalm a day, and spending a few minutes in prayer with God.  Pray honestly, God knows your heart already- but He wants you to be honest with Him, and yourself.  No need to hide behind big, empty words.

If we all prepare for worship on Sunday when we gather with fellow believers, we will see God do some amazing things.  I challenge you to prepare. To seek to see God move in an amazing and powerful way.

I have been thinking the last few days on the music we use to worship, and what its purpose is.  Surely we don't believe music should simply be some pleasant melodies we sing along to but no further than the occasional hand raise or closed eye. Do we?

The music we use to worship should do several things.
1) First of all,  it should focus on God.  I don't mean we shouldn't sing songs like "How He Loves" or songs that revolve around mankind's redemption, but each song should ultimately point towards God.  This one is pretty obvious; I don't know too many worship leaders who will kick off worship time with an acoustic version of 'Gangsta's Paradise'.

2) It should teach.  Well, let me rephrase that.  They all teach- but they should teach good theology.  The songs should be centered around the teachings of Scripture, not some catchy line that everyone will like.
And the musical side of worship is a great way to help emphasize the teaching side of the worship service/ Gathering of believers.  It creates a flow- the people hear it through Scripture and teaching, they sing about it/ proclaim it themselves, and then they can take it to the streets.
 Sometimes it can be a theme throughout all the songs.  Sometimes it is just one song that the congregation sings, sometimes it is just a song that you sing over or to the people while they reflect and pray.

3) It should leave us humbled. This goes along with point number 1.  The song 'Above All' really irks me on this.  It is a beautiful song, but the problem is the main message of the song is that "when Christ died on the cross- he though of me!"  I can honestly say- I have no idea what Christ was thinking when he was dying. And while yes, He laid down the ultimate sacrifice for me- I don't want to focus on the 'me' part.  The 'me' who we sing as a wretched sinner in Amazing Grace.  And maybe I'm focusing on the wrong parts of the songs, that's why I didn't say that song was a horrible worship song, it just... irks me.  I'm sure there are worship leaders who can really lead that song effectively.  I am just not one of them. [End of rant]
But the music should leave us humbled.

There are many more things that worship should do.  But these are the ones that really have stuck on me all day.  Because the music time in worship is not about the leaders being rock stars, or 'chilled out acoustic guys', or great piano/ organ players.  It is about Christ.  And the moment we forget that, the moment we use worship time for anything other than giving praise and glory to Christ is the moment we missed it.

Just a quick thought today:

How will you worship today?  Will you try to find the experience where you found God last time? Or will you be willing to pray for change, to pray for a new experience where You see God in a new way?  Will you long for God to reveal Himself in a way you have never seen?

And just as importantly-

How will you worship tomorrow?  How will you use what God has taught you today in your worshiping?

Don't be afraid to ask God to reveal Himself in new ways. Don't be afraid to take that to the streets.

I am listening to Daniel Bashta's song, "Unlock My Roar" (the link will take you to Spotify where you can listen for free).  You can download the chord chart here.

This song, one line in particular, has grabbed a hold of me and won't let go.  The line is "I am Jesus to this city." I want to explain why I believe this one line is so important.

There are several reasons why this line is important.  1) It is not your church's responsibility to share the gospel with your city- the people you see everyday.  By this I mean it is not an organizational duty.  Each member, partner- whatever you call the people active in the church and sharing in its vision- should be showing Jesus to the people around them. 2) When people see you on the streets in the town/ city you live in- people who have seen you in church- they will relate your actions to the church as a whole.  Your actions reflect the church's actions.  Why? Because you are the church.  and 3) We are called to minister to the people around us, to the people in our community.

Acts 6 shares with us a story that brings us deeper into this matter.  A complaint came to the Apostles that some of the widows were being neglected by the church.  The Apostles say in verse 2, "It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables." They then told the church to choose seven men from the community to serve as the local ministry. The 'Hospitality team,' if you will.
The Apostles knew that a) they needed to be focused on sharing the Gospel and preaching the Word, and b) they would not be as effective as someone in the community.

In Acts 1:8, Christ tells us that we "will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the world." (ESV).  The explanation to this that I have always heard is that we, as Christians, need to be His witnesses in our immediate community (Jerusalem), in our State/ Nation (Judea/ Samaria), and to the end of the world.  Local ministry is key- witnessing to people not by going on mission trips, but by ministering to the people you live next to- the people in your community.

We are to be Jesus in our city.  The city we live in.  Capstone does a fantastic job of this.  They are not a church ministering to Simpsonville, or to Greenville- but to Fountain Inn.  The leaders of the church do not live in Simpsonville, or Greenville, or Traveler's Rest- but in Fountain Inn.  They surround themselves with their community.  They are Jesus to their city.

Collide Magazine posted an article last month entitled "Secular Music In Sacred Settings".  In the article, the author, Kyle Baker, explores the idea of using secular songs in services.  Traditionally, in more traditional churches, that idea is 'frowned upon'.    
I'm not going to quote the whole article- here's the meat of it:

1. All truth is God’s truth, regardless of the source. The personal righteousness of a creator or artist has surprisingly little to do with the truthfulness of their work. Many humans who deny God in their personal lives create artifacts that celebrate His truths. We make no apologies for using work (music, video, stories, quotes or otherwise) by non-Christians if it contains truth.
2. Not every action during a service or assembly is intended for corporate worship. We assemble the church for a weekend service for a variety of reasons: fellowship, worship, teaching, celebrating, sharing, testimonies and announcements. Generally speaking, corporate worship songs are songs we sing about and to God. Sometimes there are songs we sing for fun, for teaching, or to edify the body.
3. Music is a part of how we participate in our culture. God has not asked us to withdraw from our society; he has called us to reach our community and share the Good News of Jesus Christ with them. For that reason we occasionally make use of secular music as an act of hospitality towards those who are unfamiliar with our church culture. Similarly, we also sing a hymn every week as act of hospitality for those who grew up in church, so they might hear something that is familiar to them. We do this in the spirit of 1 Cor. 9:20-22.
4. There is no clear boundary between the sacred and the secular. The whole earth is His, and everything in it (1 Cor. 10:26). Any attempt to delineate the vulgar from the holy fails, and places us in God’s seat. Man looks at the outside, but God judges the heart. We use worship music by despicable and fallen Christian musicians—some are adulterers and frauds; we also use music from atheists and pagans that is profoundly worshipful to those of us that know God. Strange as it may be, all beauty is God’s, whether it is brought to life by a faithful Christian or proud pagan. To us, this only reinforces our belief that God is alive and active in all men, just as he used Rahab, Pharaoh, and Pilate’s wife in the Bible.

My thoughts?
I agree- but I think you have to be careful.  Some people can see the truths of God in secular music, while others cannot, and see a fun song they heard on the radio, not an opportunity to worship God.
Paul says in 1 Corinthians 8:9, 

"But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak."

Now, there is a difference between playing secular music before the service and during "greeting time", and using in in the worship set.  I find nothing wrong with playing it before and during greeting times, and I personally struggle with its use during worship- mainly because of this verse.


For me, I typically avoid secular songs in worship, for the reason that I don't want to distract from worship or cause anyone to lose focus on Christ.  My job as a worship leader is not to introduce awesome sounding songs, my job is to usher people into the Throne Room of the Almighty.  


So it depends on the people, how will they best connect?
What do you think of secular music in sacred settings?

Today was a great day with Capstone.  The Gathering had a feel to it, as if God was saturated in every breath spoken.

It was an amazing worship experience, as we studied Stephen and martyrdom, then began singing proclaiming  that It Is Well, no matter what storms, tribulations, or blessings we go through.

That is a message I think we as Christians know, often, but we don't transfer the knowledge.  Sort of like in math class, I knew what certain formulas were, but I had no idea how to use them or what they were used for.  And this is one of those lessons, a hard lesson, but a necessary lesson.

The idea of praising God through the bad is hard.  Sure, it's easy to say "I'm going to praise God during bad times", and then get a flat tire and still have an optimistic look.

But this isn't about optimism.  This isn't about staying perky and cheerful.  This is the idea of praising God in the absolute darkest moment of your life, a time when you, in fact, aren't happy- but miserable.  A time when everything is crumbling around you, and you are staring your life in the face.  A time where tomorrow probably won't come, where pain is common.

And in that moment, turning to God,knowing that He is carrying us through, and praising His holy name.

That's a sobering thing to grip, and yet it is something that, I believe, we need to be reminded of more often.

In Acts 6, a man named Stephen is seized.  He was chosen to serve his community by the Apostles.  He was seized because some of the Jews disagreed with Stephen's love for Christ.  Stephen became the first martyr, being stoned to death.

Reading this, God laid some heavy convictions on me.  We think of martyrs today as people who die for Christ by the hands of godless people.  But the truth is, the first martyr died at the hands of "God-fearing people".

When Christianity started, it was just a "Jewish sect", or a part of Judaism.  When this occured, it wasn't even that official, it was just a group of Jews who believed that Christ was, in fact, the Messiah that was promised.
But the Jews were so closed-minded that they killed any variation of their version of God, or at least they tried to.

Today, in Christianity, there are hundreds of variations.  We get so wrapped up in the differences in them that we many times forget the similarities- we worship a risen Lord and want to see the world know Him intimately.

Stephen death today would be like if a group of Catholics killed a person for believing Baptist theology.  That has happened throughout history.

This saddens me, but it shows a reality that even church-people need Christ. I am saddened because I see that kind of attitude in myself growing up.  I used to believe that Baptists were right, everyone else was wrong, and that Heaven was for those who were right.  I wasn't verbally taught this, my parents never trained me to believe this, but somehow I formed this view due to a traditional Baptist upbringing.

Denominations all started from an argument. Somebody believed something different and split.  And yes, there are denominations with pretty messed up views, but in the realm of Protestantism, every denomination believes a common idea of a risen Christ and a world in need of knowing Him.

Can we just celebrate that for a second.  You can go back to fighting in a second, but let's just celebrate that today, on Easter, there are millions of people celebrating the fact that the cross and the tomb are empty today!

Let's celebrate the common goals.
Let's celebrate the fact that we will stand side by side in Heaven praising our Lord and Savior.
Let's celebrate our mission: to let the world hear the Gospel of Christ.

Easter, the Superbowl of Christianity, is tomorrow.  We just finished our run through here at Capstone, and I couldn't be more excited about the Gathering tomorrow!

I get excited each week, but this Sunday is different.  It is a day set aside as a special celebration of the resurrection of our Lord!  People who never come to church come to church on a day like tomorrow.  And while it saddens me that people believe it is okay to only "go to church" twice a year, it excites me that there will be lots of lost souls hearing the gospel.

There will be souls that are resurrected tomorrow, just like Christ raised from the dead.  People will walk in dead, and walk out living!

I hope you don't take tomorrow lightly.  Have fun, do an egg hunt if you so desire, but don't lose track of the resurrection.  Keep your eyes on Christ

Remember, The story of Easter is not about a bunny.  It is not about a dude who lived a pretty rad life, died, and pulled a magic trick and came back to life.  It isn't about family.  yep, I said it: Easter is not about family.

The story of Easter is about a Divine Being who created the world. The world decided it would rather indulge in sin than worshipping that Being, and the world was doomed to death.  The Being wanted the people of the world to be with Him, but the world's sin and evil kept them from being in the presence of the Being's purity.  Purity cannot be with evil.  God came to Earth, as a man, and took the weight of the world's evil upon His shoulders.  And for this, the world hated Him, and killed Him.  What the world didn't know was that by killing this man, he had paid a debt on each soul, allowing mankind to once again be in the presence of God.  Christ, after death, rose again three days later, showing his power and authority over death.  And for this, we celebrate.  For this, we worship. For this, we serve.

The song got it right- it's all because of Jesus I'm alive.

While watching TV today, a NewBalance commercial came on, in which at the end, a slogan popped up.  A slogan that fits the shoe company, but would better fit the Church.

"Let's make excellent happen."

Claiming a striving for excellence is not something uncommon in churches.  But making it happen is something that happens a little less often.  Why? Because its hard.  Excellence doesn't happen by accident, or by just thinking of a great "big picture" idea with no idea of how to get to it.  Excellence happens by practice, strategy, and people that share a vision for excellence in the church.

"So why should a church seek excellence?" you may be asking yourself.  "Church isn't a production."  Correct.  But it is a service designed to worship our God.   The God who created everything around us.  So right off the bat- have you ever seen a tree designed to be held together with duct tape?  Probably not.  God is not a god of "well, it will work for now."  God is a god of perfection.  of excellence.

A worship service is not a production in the same way a play is.  But, it is a production.  Something is being produced.  Do you want lost people visiting your church to come in and see a poorly structured and horribly planned service put on in honor of the King of kings?  It will reflect poorly on you and your church, and more importantly, it will reflect poorly on God.  

The reason I believe the church should adopt the phrase excellence rather than perfection- is because churches have different resources.  Excellence, to me, means using what you have in the best possible way.  Capstone does not have a multi-million dollar budget, so we make the best out of what we have.  

There is a difference between 'limited resources' and 'lazy'.

Excellence can be portrayed in many, many ways.  Some churches are traditional, and portray excellence through it.  Other churches are modern and contemporary, and portray it with excellence.

When you are planning your services, stage design, set list, even sermon, announcement slides, and bulletins- think about what will make God look best, not what is easiest and most efficient.

Maybe you are a portable church, or use a portable projector.  Start setting it up 15 minutes before normal and make sure the screen is focused, level, and straight.

Maybe you are making a video for your church- take the time to write out a script idea, even if it isn't a word by word thing.  Take time in editing to make sure everything flows smoothly.  

When I made a video for Capstone about the 10 Commandments, entitled Perfect, I didn't proof as closely as I should and realized after it aired that I had left out "Do Not Murder" on one of the graphics.  Did the average person notice it? Maybe not.  But I did. And I should have checked it before hand.  It was a good video, but it was not a video of excellence because of minute errors.  Little things like that can make a huge difference.

Let's make excellence happen.  Let's create worship services for God that not only we can proud of, but our Lord can be proud of. 

Creative Collective is a site/ group about helping others create.  In their words: "We are about helping people Create like they were Created"

They have put out a e-book- Creative Matters, well, a manifesto, on the subject of creativity and the church.  I have not had a chance to read it yet, so I am not going to try to give a review, but I will when I'm done. It is a "call to arms," as they write,  to create beautiful and inspiring things.  God does that when He creates, so shouldn't the Church be a place where we try to be like God? 


 More often than not we find churches to be the place where creativity dies.  Where ideas may start out good, but dwindle to something hum-drum because we believe we could not do that, the idea is not a possible reality.  But here's the great thing- it is!  And because as His Church we are His people, and as His people we should be showing the world that we are creative, that we strive to be like Him in all ways!  And one of his ways is creativity!

I am not saying if you don't read this you aren't creative, aren't a follower of Christ, or aren't cool.  But this is a chance to challenger your creativity, because, as they say in the first pages,


"Every time you create, you are incarnating a reflection of your Creator God. This is not a point to be taken lightly. Creating matters to God."




You can download the e-book here.


UPDATE: I just found out that the e-Book was written by Jarrett Stevens.  I loved his book "The Deity Formerly Known As God"- a book about bad and good views of God.  Stevens is the pastor of Soul City Church in Chicago

We've all seen them.  The church's website that looks like it was designed by a 70 year old woman, or a 5 year old.

There's nothing worse than going online to check out a church and finding a horrible site featuring Papyrus font and some sort of stone pattern background.  Well, maybe I exaggerate- but you know what I mean.

So churches, here is a list that tells you that you should change that website! (This is mainly for amusement, because I seriously doubt  hope that no church that uses the internet as a social tool uses these things)

1) If you are using an angelfire or geocities website. 
            No explanation needed.

2) If your site features a custom cursor, like a dinosaur or target.
            

3) If your site features an animated .gif
           If you don't know what an animated .gif is, or if you have forgotten what they are- here is one.  I would rather see a 404 Error screen than an animated .gif.

4) If your site has a guestbook.
          Seriously, who uses guestbooks anymore?

5) If there is a 'games' page.



Well, there's the list.  Now I, and I suspect you if you are between the ages 21 and 40ish, have had a website featuring one (or in my case) all of these things.  And then I was proud of it, but it was also 2002.  Times have changed- lets show people that church's can be creative and embrace social media just like everyone else!