Transitions

Wow... it's been quiet here the last little bit. To say that it has been an interesting year would be an understatement. I have been through a lot of transition in the last year. And it continues... today is my last paid day on staff with First Baptist Church. It's been a very unsettled week emotionally.

I am currently looking for another job (so if you have any leads let me know) and plan to stay connected to and involved with FBC. I'm not quite sure what it will look like moving forward because I don't know what my time constraints are going to be like. I do know one thing for sure... I am going to discontinue posting here for now.

I haven't posted much anyway with everything that's been happening and I need to focus on some other things for the moment anyway.

I want to send a big thanks to all of you who read what I write. It is an honor that anyone reads this at all.

If you want to keep up with me I will be posting on my photo blog here, or you can follow me on twitter here, or connect on facebook here.

God has some great things in store and now I am in a position of discovery and trust wile I find out what it is.

Thanks for everything along the way, lets keep after it and not get distracted by the small stuff!

Aaron

This is how all business meetings should be!

Worship Questions Part 1 - How Loud is too Loud?

Ok, so it seems that the first issue we need to tackle is the volume of worship. How loud is too loud?

The main problem we run into when we start talking about volume is that the arguments usually head toward worship style and instrumentation. It seems that in our minds we see things like piano, organ and strings as quiet and guitars and drums as loud.

If you've ever heard a real pipe organ with all the stops pulled you know that this is not the case!

So, in order to talk about this topic we're going to ignore style and instrumentation and do our best to talk about volume and attitude.

What does God think is the perfect volume for worship?

When we look at the Biblical accounts of corporate worship we see that God likes exuberant and elaborate praise with lots of dancing and excitement!

Take a look at this...

So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting and with the sound of the horn. As the ark of the Lord came into the city of David, Michal the daughter of Saul looked out of the window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, and she despised him in her heart.

2 Samuel 6:15-16 (ESV)

...and all the Levitical singers, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun, their sons and kinsmen, arrayed in fine linen, with cymbals, harps, and lyres, stood east of the altar with 120 priests who were trumpeters; and it was the duty of the trumpeters and singers to make themselves heard in unison in praise and thanksgiving to the Lord, and when the song was raised, with trumpets and cymbals and other musical instruments, in praise to the Lord, "For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever," the house, the house of the Lord was filled with a cloud, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God.

2 Chronicles 5:12-14 (ESV)

And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, "Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!" And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying, "Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created."

Revelation 4:8-11 (ESV)

So there are just a few examples of worship as it it is shown in the Bible. Take a bit and think about each of those passages. In the next couple days we'll unpack them and look at a couple others so that we can get a good view of how people in the Bible worship God.

Stay tuned for part 2...

Your (and my) Questions Answered.

I'm back from a little bit of vacation and have some new ideas!

Here's the scoop. We're going to spend a little while on the site talking only about worship. Music, technical, heart, attitude, execution... whatever. But to kick it off I want to hear from you. What are your questions about worship? It can be about here at FBC, at your church, anything.

I can't promise any definite answers or to be the ultimate authority on any of this. I plan on drawing on a bunch of resources and people who are smarter than me to answer the questions.

I have few topics in my head already... things like: volume, solos, style, approach, cheerleading/ushering, and a couple more.

But I would like to hear from you. If you have a question you want answered drop me a note here or in the comments and over the next couple of weeks I'll answer them!

Let's see what happens and what we can learn.

My friend Zac

My friend Zac Smith passed away this afternoon. If you haven't seen his story check out his blog and watch this...

The Story of Zac Smith from NewSpring Media on Vimeo.

What Faith Looks Like

So what does faith look like?

This morning, Micah, my two year old, ran out of milk in his cup. He came into the kitchen handed me the cup and said "More please."

I gave him more milk.

That's what faith looks like!

My friend Zac

If you want to know more about my friend Zac, or want to hear more of his story check it out here.

A Story (As told by Craig Groeschel)

One day a bird was flying south for the winter and caught in a snowstorm. As snow landed on his tiny wings, it melted slightly. then quickly froze, causing the bird to fall to the ground. As he sat helpless and shivering, encased in ice, the bird thought to himself (to be spoken in a little bird voice) "This is the end!"

To make matters worse, a cow wandered toward the freezing bird and - wouldn't you know it? - deposited a stinking pile of manure on top of the bird. (I know this is gross, but there is a point to it. Hang with me.)

The bird panicked, horrified at the thought that he was going to freeze to death, covered in manure.

But slowly, the warmth of the manure caused to bird to thaw out. He fluttered his newly freed wings and began to chirp with joy!

Chirp! Chirp! Chirp! Chirp! he sang.

That's when a cat, drawn by the chirping, ran over, dug out the bird... and ate him.

Three lessons from the bird...

1. Not everyone who drops manure on you is your enemy.

2. Not everyone who digs you out of manure is your friend.

3. When you are in manure, keep your mouth shut.

I Don't Ever Want to Recover!

Recovery. It's an interesting word in my life right now. I'm going to the doctor on Tuesday to have a surgery consult on my foot. I am going to have a tarsal tunnel release. I know, it's sounds like so much fun you all want one now to don't ya!

One of the things that I've been looking at seriously is the recovery time. How long is it going me to get better after they slice my foot open and put it back together?

It looks like right now it's three week without any weight on it and then up to three weeks in a boot and maybe up to a year for a full recovery.

But this post isn't really about my foot. It's about recovery.

I heard a pastor today describe another man as a person who "has never recovered from the cross."

That floored me. It made me realize that in a lot of ways I've fully recovered from my experience with the sacrifice of Jesus. I've been working hard to get reinfected. I think I'm starting to get to the contagious stage again. But it caused me to think really hard about my "recovery." I see it all the time. People who encounter the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross and are just wrecked. And then over time they begin to recover and get back into the old routine and normal habit. And it's at that point when we aren't contagious anymore. We can't infect others with the life change that comes from Jesus.

I don't want to be recovered. I don't want to ever recover for the cross. I want to be wrecked for the rest of my life. Because it's out that the power of Jesus will show through. That His Glory will be brightest because I'm so hopefully about Him and not about me.

So just a thought for tonight. Are you recovered?

What's It Gonna Be?

The new year is here. I've always like the New Years holiday. Don't get me wrong, Christmas is awesome. I love Christmas, but New Years always just had something a little different about it.

I learned to play Trivial Pursuit at New Years Eve parties my church growing up would have every year. I was, of course, not old enough to actually play but I did hold the title of "Official Question And Answer Reader." In fact, most of the crazy and useless things that are stuck in my head come directly from the 1980's Genus Edition of Trivial Pursuit. Not the game about the 80s but the game that was released in the 80s!

Before Janaye and I were married we went to one of these parties together. We were a very spiritual group so instead of playing games, counting down the ball drop and yelling our heads of at midnight about 11:45 everyone would gather in the sanctuary (I don't think the term "worship center" had been invented yet) and we would sing and pray in the new year. Now this isn't a bad idea... I kind of like it. But it was at this party that I really felt like God was giving me the go ahead to spend my life with Janaye.

The next new years we were in Los Angeles with a group of people from Chi Alpha attending a conference. I had spent an agonizing two hours with Janaye's dad two weeks before getting his blessing to ask his daughter to marry me. I had the ring in pocket and every chance I got I would pull it out and look at it. The plan was to find a spot around midnight on New Years Eve and ask the big question, but after trucking the ring across four states I just couldn't wait. So she got asked a few days earlier than planned. She said yes!

We used to do a Comedy Show on New Years Eve. They were a lot of fun. But I can tell you that they were more work than anyone will ever know. I really enjoyed the improv and getting to meet and spend time with the talented people we brought in to help out. It was a good time. But after everyone left to go to another party or go home to bed we would hang around and spend another hour or two tearing down the setup. I would get home sometime close to midnight and just collapse into my bed.

The last few years we've spent New Years Eve with people from our small group! We play poker, or we watch movies, but we always cook (this year it was tri-tip roast slowly grilled with homemade coleslaw and mac and cheese!).

For whatever reason many good things have happened to me around the turning of the year.

I would encourage you to find something good as this year turns. Maybe you need to join a community group. Maybe you need to develop a daily Bible reading habit (This is my recommend). Maybe you need to find someone who can hold you accountable for your stuff.

Whatever it is, instead of making a resolution, make a change. Dive after it. Chase it hard. Don't give up.

What's it gonna be?