Monday Soup

Happy Memorial Day!  Hope you all are enjoying a weekend away from work, outside, maybe around the grill with family.

We took some great steps at PLC over this past weekend, all with a purpose:

First, we started the service like this:



Second, we remembered the sacrifice of our service men and women first by showing them this video, and then by having them standing and praying for them.  It was a great moment, a moving moment, and I hope that they felt honored and remembered.

Finally, ALL of our campuses this weekend were a video venue.  We filmed John preaching on location from Overman Park in Cedar Falls, Lincoln Park in Waterloo, and the Mitchell County fairgrounds in Osage.  It was awesome to give our people at Cedar Falls a taste of what it's like to engage in the message via video.  Surprise, surprise... it worked!

So, why did we do it the way that we did?  Well, since Memorial Day marks the unofficial beginning of summer, we wanted to take the opportunity to help our people see the need to engage with their community, especially as it concerns the bigger community events - like My Waterloo Days, Sturgis Falls, and the Mitchell County Fair.  And since we are a church of more than one campus, we needed to contextualize the message for all of our different locations.  I think we really hit the mark.

From Jon Lloyd over at Waterloo:

• Great crowd (numbers wise) despite being a holiday weekend.
• The crowd was very engaged during the worship set, had a lot of energy, and sang their lungs out. 
• Had some people from the Osage campus come and check out the service. 

If you were one of the many who were out of town this weekend, I highly recommend you jump on the website this week and take a look at the sermon video.  From the video, here were his thoroughly biblical principles:

• We will engage.
• We will choose proximity over protection.
• We will participate.
• We will enter in with a kingdom mindset.

Jesus is our model.  These are the principles by which he conducted his ministry.  And you know what? He was accused by religious people as being a glutton and a drunkard because of how often he was at parties with party people, drink in hand.

These are also great principles for us in artistic ministry.  Think about it:

• We will engage with the culture around us.  It's ok to take some cues from them.  In fact, it's good.
• We will choose proximity over protection.  Our worship services need to look and feel closer to what they are used to than what we are used to.  No Christian bubbles.  How do we know we're on the right track?  We'll know when insiders tell us that they are a little uncomfortable.
• We will participate.  Yes!  Let's play some Guitar Hero in church!  Absolutely!  Let's jump in to all of the ways are community invites us to have fun with them.  Let's enjoy everything that God has to offer with them.
• We will enter in with a kingdom mindset.  God is always up to something.  Let's put ourselves in a position alongside those who have yet to know him, and see what he does.  92% of us at Prairie Lakes Church came because we were invited by someone.  What better opportunity to invite than at Sturgis Falls, or My Waterloo Days, or the Mitchell County Fair, with a corndog and a beer in your hand?

Now, no one is asking you to violate a personal conviction.  But we are saying this: Jesus chose not to hold his personal convictions over the lost, and instead chose to engage and even participate with them in what they were doing, without sin.  How awesome is that?  What freedom there is in that!  Let's boldly have fun this summer, seizing every opportunity along the way to invite, not worrying about what other people think of us.

Have a great week!

staffing update

I'm very pleased to announce that Angela Payne will be stepping into the role that Shari is vacating, effective this Monday.  Many of you already know and love Angela.  She's been serving in our ministry for a couple of years now, and has been on staff in various roles at PLC for the past few years.

Most recently, Angela has served as the Connections Coordinator in our GroupLife department, coordinating all of our First Impressions teams on the weekends.  Upon hearing about the position in our ministry, Angela prayerfully considered a move, and eventually decided that it was the right one.

From an excerpt that Angela wrote to her First Impressions volunteers:

Just wanted to share some news with all of you.  After a lot of prayer and consideration, I have decided to move into the role of Administrative Assistant within Programming and Production.  I am very excited about what God is calling me to do, but at the same time, sad to leave First Impressions, as I have truly enjoyed working with and getting to know all of you over the past year.  As some of you know, I have loved the time I have been able to volunteer within Programming and Production and this new position will allow me to use my gifts and passion for worship at Prairie Lakes Church as we reach Iowa for Christ.

Angela will transition over the next 4 to 6 weeks, sharing hours between the two departments, gradually increasing her time in Programming and Production.  A special thanks to Gabe Berger and the GroupLife staff - though this will be a difficult transition for them, they are approaching it with an incredible amount of grace and understanding.  It's great to work at a church where a move like this one isn't "high drama."

On a personal note, I'm excited about Angela joining our team for several specific reasons:

• In her previous position, Angela's hours demanded that she work on the weekends.  Now that she's going to be with us, she'll be able to sing on a team again!
• Angela already knows and loves so many of you.  I'm looking forward to her getting to know the rest of you - especially on the technical side of our ministry - and for you to get to know her as well.
• Angela's strengths organizationally and administratively will really help our staff team of artists, where strengths like those are admittedly in short supply!

So, please begin directing your scheduling and other questions to Angela at angela.payne@prairielakeschurch.org.  She'll begin handling the communication with you all immediately.  And join me in welcoming her to our team!

fasting from... church

Happy "Seek Me to Live" Wednesday.

I don't know if you all know this or not, but my wife and I just had our first kid.  I mean, it's not like all of my facebook and twitter has been about it for the past two weeks.  (On a side note, shoot... I am totally that guy.)

Anyways, one thing that having a kid afforded me was a weekend off.  No church.  Not even in attendance.

It was kind of a "mini fast" from church, if you will.

And it was good.  Very good.  Not "I wish I could get away like this every Sunday" good.  Not "wouldn't it be nice if I didn't have to work every weekend" good.  Good in a much different way.

It was good in the sense that I realized how much I enjoy doing what I do.

That's one thing that fasting does.  It reminds you how much you really enjoy something.  It takes you from being so stuffed that you're sick to your stomach back to a healthy hunger.

We're in a crazy season of ministry, friends.  We have volunteers at Waterloo who are on literally every weekend, and are approaching the same trend at Cedar Falls.

So, why on earth then would we dedicate a "Seek Me to Live" Wednesday to fasting, of all things, from church?

Well, here's why.

On the weekend that I was at home, I tweeted this:

So this is what it feels like to not be at church on a weekend. Nice as a break. But I do miss it.1:51 PM May 23rd via Twitter for Android

And I received this wonderful response from an incredible mentor of mine:

bkkru

  

@jessetink ya...but you need to put it in [missing church] as a rythm of life. NOT just because of a birth. ALL will benefit....

about 17 hours ago via web in reply to jessetink 

Did you get that?  We need to put "missing church" in as a rhythm of life.  And if we do, all will benefit.

As God's artists, let's be careful that our experience of worship extends beyond our service to him on the weekends.  Sometimes the most worshipful thing we can do is not serve.  Sometimes the most enjoyable thing we can do with God has to happen apart from church.

Sometimes we need to fast, even from church.  Not just to "recharge our batteries."  Not even because we're entitled.  Rather, so that our hunger for God and our passion for service will be reignited.

All will benefit if we do.

Monday Soup

Monday soup this week is going to have to be written vicariously through my staff, because I wasn't at church this weekend.  I was at home with my newly born son, Jude.  He's pretty great.

Anyways, Pastor Carl was actually scheduled to preach, but was unable to due to the pneumonia that he's been fighting for the past couple of weeks.  He thought he'd be better in time for this weekend, but as it turns out, he wasn't.  So, on Saturday morning, I received a call from Carl saying that he wasn't going to be able to go.  John was out of town this past weekend; I had just gotten through my first night with a newborn.  Awesome.

So what do I do?  I send one text message to Chris Rygh, our Executive Pastor, and he takes over.  Just takes over.  I am so grateful for him, for stepping in at the last minute (Saturday morning!) and doing a fantastic job with zero anxiety.  Although we had a few hiccups on Saturday night at Cedar Falls (including a CG computer that decided to lock up during the service), we got through it just fine.

I understand that a motorcycle made it on stage this weekend.  Heard good things about that.

Jon said that the worship set went well in Waterloo... but that they found out the hard way this weekend that the gymnasium at Hoover doesn't have air conditioning.  Why is that a problem?  It's where all of the kids are.  Don't know what our solution there is going to be... but you can bet it'll be a creative one.

It was great to have Larry Ravn back at the lighting board this weekend.  Welcome back, Larry!

Also: thanks to Chris John for stepping in and leading from the stage at Cedar Falls.  Like many of you, we've been relying on Chris more than just once every 3 weeks, and he always does a fantastic job.

That's it for the soup this week.  Hope you all are enjoying the early summer heat!

a special thanks

A special thanks to all of you who wished Erin and me well on the birth of our first son, Jude Thomas.  I know that so many of you sent emails, texts, facebook, and twitter messages congratulating us and asking us how we're doing.  We're doing great.  Erin is up and around, almost like her pre- C-Section self, and Jude (for the most part) is sleeping well.  For your prayers, cards, gifts, and well wishes... thanks.

Here's a verse from Jude (the Bible book, not my son) that I hope will get your week off to a good start.  It's the same verses that I'm dedicating to my son:

24 To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— 25 to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen. 

Seek Me to Live Wednesday

Some of you may be wondering why I'm posting anything on Wednesday when I'm supposed to be out of the office enjoying my first child at home.  Let me put your mind at ease: though this is posted Wednesday, I really wrote it on Sunday, and just used the feature on Blogger to post it at a later date.

Yep.  Pretty clever.

So, brief reminder.  "Seek Me to Live" is our ministry's vision for 2010.  We want to press into God, find our life in him, and have his life flow through us.  We know that if we don't, we're lost this year.  We'll be overcome by the challenges, by the stresses, by the weight of our mission, and by those who seek to get us off course.

So here's what I have for you on this Seek Me to Live Wednesday.

I have nothing.

Yep.  Nothing.

Not "nothing" as in no ideas for how to seek God to live.  Rather: "nothing" as in absence, as in getting rid of something you previously had, as in clearing out the junk so that nothing remains.

Let me tell you a story.

Last Thursday, most of the staff of PLC took a bus up to the Relevance Conference at Eaglebrook Church up in the Twin Cities.  Erin and I both did not go, for obvious reasons.

This left us with this incredible little gift: a day normally that was dedicated to work became a day where we had nothing to do.

As in nothing.

Nada.

Of course, you fill in a day like that with stuff.  But we filled it with the right kind of stuff: we rested, we ran a few errands that we'd been putting off, we got some maintenance done on the car, and then we spent the rest of the afternoon sitting at Panera, enjoying some drinks, and reading.

If you hopped over to my personal blog, you'd see what came out of that day for me.  Look at the entries on May 13.  It was one of the most incredible times that I've had with God and with God's word recently.

That day was a gift to me.  It was like God was saying, "Here, take this, and enjoy it."

And then it occured to me:

He's given us a day like that every week.  It's called the Sabbath.

The God of the universe wants to give me a gift every single week of getting rid of everything so that I can be filled with every good thing.

So, on this Seek Me to Live Wednesday:

When was the last time you gave yourself the gift of doing nothing so that you could have everything you really need?

Monday Soup

Oddly enough, this weekend could be described more in battle language than artistic language.  At Cedar Falls on Saturday, here's what we had to deal with:

• a lighting board that was locked up and unable to be reset
• an HD camera that we rely upon for our Waterloo feed that had to be switched out due to some setting changes, only to be replaced by one that was eating tape
• a prompter projector that overheated and powered off 2 minutes before the service started
• programmatic miscues at the end of the servcie

It felt like we were right in the middle of an all out war.  And it felt like we were losing.

Ugh.

That's probably the best word to describe how many of us were feeling:  ugh.

And it didn't simply end on Saturday night.  Really, I'd say that most of the weekend experience felt more like a battle than it did anything else.  I even heard from two of our core leadership staff at PLC about how some of the negative talk has increased in both volume and frequency these past few weeks.  Negative talk about... well... about everything.

And yet, people still came forward to pray, still stayed in their seats to pray, still talked with our chaplains to pray... after every service.

Why?  Because when you plan a service around the biblical truth that you can never outrun God's grip, as it turns out, God really likes that.  He can use that.  He'll bless that, because it's right in line with who He is and what He's up to.  He'll use it.  He'll bring fruit from it.

And in the end, that's all that matters.  Period.

So gear up for the battle, my friends.  People on the inside will want to make it about our style.  Equipment will fail.  The naysayers will get louder, though they remain small in number.  We'll be tempted to be discouraged.

But don't be.  Lean into this truth from Joshua 1:9

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.

Let's keep pushing, keep following, keep going.  Though this part of the road may be rough, it's lined on either side with the unbelievable fruit.  Make sure you see it.   And God is right beside you.  Make sure you see Him.

the Bible. that's it.

Confession time:

Over the course of my days as a follower of Christ, I have spent more days not in the Bible than in the Bible. Pretty sure I've said this to most of you on one occasion or another.

This past weekend I made this same confession to our teams in Cedar Falls. I followed it up with this question:

"How many of you are currently in a season where you're reading your Bible regularly?

Of the 15 or so people there, how many do you think raised their hands?

Three.

That's 20% of us. Three out of 15. 20% of us who are leading the church in worship are actually in our Bibles regularly.

That stings a little, doesn't it?

I know, I know. I hammered away at this same topic last week.

But I have to hammer away at it again.

In fact, I tweeted (as in used Twitter for those still entering into the social media world) about it a couple of times last week. One was a verse from John 4. The other was a statement about cheering for what God is up to in your own life before you can help others cheer for God in their own. Check it out on the right hand side of the screen.



Tell you what...

Why don't you take this challenge:

Make this week the week that you dive into the Bible regularly.

Make this blog the place where you share what God is revealing to you by writing in the comments section below.

Listen: it doesn't have to be profound, earth shattering, or even properly spelled for that matter. Just real, authentic reactions to what God has been speaking to you through his Word.

Take on the challenge. Don't just read this and wait for next week's post. Really: do it.

And then share what God has said.

Monday Soup: What Are You Cheering For?

We finished our Big Questions series this weekend with a live panel Q&A at both Waterloo and Cedar Falls.  I'd love to share a story with you.

We did this live panel for 2 out of the four weekends of this series.  At Cedar Falls, that meant that we've had 6 different services at which we took live questions.  But it wasn't until the very last service - the 11:00 a.m. - that we received this question:

"Why don't we play more real piano worship music?"

Phrased just like that.

It was my decision whether or not to have the panel answer it live.  After seeing it in the cue and prayerfully considering whether it would be beneficial to answer the question (vs. the hundreds of other questions in the cue), I decided to throw it up on the screens and have the panel (myself included) answer it.

Fuller did a great job of fielding it.  I followed it up with a few brief thoughts of my own.

But our answers are not really the part of the story that I want to share with you.

Here's the part that sets up the rest of the story: right after I asked that question, we had a handful of people in the audience loudly clap and even cheer their approval in support of that style.  

I responded by recognizing them and trying to draw our attention to how loaded this topic can be.  And then we proceeded to answer the question.

Although I didn't think much it at the time, I thought about it later.  As I did, it started to bother me a little bit.

Here's why it bothered me:

Of all the things that we talked about that day - from:

how to share your faith with one of your friends who seems curious but isn't quite ready to make a faith decision, to 

how to really keep in step with the Spirit, to 

how one can study and know the Bible, to 

how to come alongside those who have gone through a tragedy in which they've lost two of their little kids and maybe their wife, to 

the picture and significance of baptism, to 

the difficulty but call to be transparent and confess your sins to one another...

...some folks cheered only for a preferred music style.

Now, if you've been to any of our All Team meetings these past few months, you know that this isn't an insignificant issue.  In fact, we've spent a lot of time, prayer, and wrestling in determining what style we should choose, and why we should choose it.  Bottom line: when it comes to our church's personality (mission, vision, values, culture), our church's spiritual direction, and our arts ministry's personality, we think that the contemporary rock style is the one that best suits us, our mission, and what the Spirit is up to right now.  Period.

But I'm not really thinking about that.  Rather, here's what I'm thinking about:

I want to be a part of a church that knows what to cheer for.

And artists, hear me clearly: this most certainly is not a dig at the handful of people who clapped for the piano style music.  I didn't see who they were.  Some may have had pure motives for their approval, and others not.  Who knows.  It's not like knowing would change anything anyways.

But here's what I do know:

It's our sacred duty to help our people to know what to cheer for.

This duty starts with us.  And it starts way before the weekend is upon us.  Way before we hit the stage, and way before we look at a service order.  Way before we turn it on, set it up, lock it down, or dial it in.

Here's the deal:

It's impossible to help others authentically cheer for God if you can't first authentically cheer for what he's doing in your own life.

Yeah.  There it is.  Read it over, again and again, until that truth sinks in.

We have to ask ourselves:

In our lives before God, are we cheering for him?  Are we cheering for what he's doing in us as we read his word, as we pray, as we fast, as we care for our own souls in silence, solitude, community, and worship?

Are we?

Are you?

Too often we come, we serve, we work hard, we produce, and then we just hope and pray that people either get it or like it or tolerate it or respond to it or affirm it or whatever.

Forget people for a moment.  Forget those who clapped for a different style.  Forget those who you wish would have clapped more loudly after the song, or after the lights, or after the video shot.  Forget those who said the music was too loud, or too soft, or too whatever.  Just focus on you.

Are you cheering right now for what God is up to in your life?

P.S.

I left that 11:00 a.m. unbelievably encouraged.  I had a chance to talk with a woman who was in the thick of it - I'm talking the kind of story that is at a life or death crossroads/I've made an incredible change/but I don't know if my past is still gonna rear its ugly head and take me down/and I don't know what my future holds for me or my marriage/I just know that I can't ever go back/and oh my gosh I could tell you story after story of how God has protected me/would you just pray for me... kind of an encounter.

I left cheering for her... for what God is up to in her life.

Because God is up to the same thing in mine.

a transition

One thing that is seemingly constant in the life of our ministry these days is change.  And we're approaching another significant one.

Shari Ford, who has served at Prairie Lakes Church in a number of different staff and volunteer roles for a number of years now - most recently as the Administrative Assistant for Programming and Production - is transitioning out of her role.

This transition was something that Shari initiated after much prayer and wrestling.  In the end, she felt that this was the right decision for her at the right time.

From Shari:

I love our church and the direction we're moving.

I love our ministry and the artistic steps that we continue to take.

I love our Creative Staff and the freakishly talented way you guys operate.

I love our volunteers and the very concrete way they model 'the church' and community to me.

And I love our God, so very much.

Nothing about any of that has, or is going, to change.

If I were to be authentic (as I think everyone has come to expect from me) I will admit to being confused about what comes next.  I mean, I am the girl who likes to know what's around the corner.  And, when I look at the list above, and measure it against the decision that I've made, it doesn't seem to add up.  Yet, it appears that God is asking me to do exactly what I'm doing.  And, in faith, I will trust Him and try and walk in obedience to His calling.  (The one thing I think I said well, early today!) . 

God has been so faithful to all of us, hasn't He?  I've seen it, heard evidence of it, from every one of you.  We all know it to be true.  And He's not about to stop now.  There have been times in my life when the leading I sensed from Him was a gentle nudge in a general direction, and other times it was clear He was giving me a stiff 'push' off a particular cliff. (*wink*) Whichever situation it was, I've always known He's in control of it all and looked back to see His faithfulness.

I think you guys are one of the most talented group of artists in the entire world.  I really do.  And It has been one of the greatest joys of my life - - - truly an honor - - - to have worked with each and every one of you.

Thank you, all of you, for what you've taught me.  For what you've brought into my life and for the role that you allowed God to play through you, to me. I am so incredibly grateful.

I love you guys.

Thank you, Shari, for your selfless, humble, and faithful service.  Though you will remain connected to our ministry and community, you will be missed in the role that you served.

What's next?  Well:

As it concerns Shari and our community, at her request, we won't be doing some big party.  Just not her style.  She'd welcome cards, emails, and conversations (oh... and cash, she'd like to add).  So, direct those her way.  Her last day as an employee will be Friday, May 28.

We will start a search immediately for Shari's replacement.  If you are interested in applying, check the bulletin this weekend, or hop on to the newly designed Prairie Lakes Church website.

Please join me in praying about Shari's future, a new season for the Ford family, as well as a new season for our ministry as we head out on the journey to discover who will fill Shari's position.

Like Shari said: God is, has always been, and will forever be faithful to us.  It's now time to discover what's next.

is the Bible a wishing well?

How many of you spend regular, intentional time with God by reading the Bible?

Pause for a second.

Really: hit "pause" in your brain, and stop to think:

What immediately comes to my mind when I'm asked that question?

• I should read the Bible more often than I do.
• I wonder if God is upset with me for not spending more time with him in his Word.
• I try to read the Bible regularly... but it usually ends up lasting only for a few days.
• I wish I could spend as much time in the Word as I used to.

Maybe none of these thoughts immediately pop into your head when you're asked that question.  Maybe you're reading the Bible regularly.  If so:

I think that you're probably in the minority.

In fact, I even have some data to back up that hypothesis.

USA Today recently did a story on a study done by Thom and Jess Rainer that the Christian firm LifeWay Research picked up on.  In studying the Millennial generation, the study found that only 8% of Millennials read the Bible or other sacred text daily.

Yep, you read that right: the Bible shares - not commands, but shares - the daily time of only 8% of people born in the U.S. from the mid 1970s onward.

Now, this isn't going to be one of those posts that simply laments this state of affairs, or that calls for some sort of overzealous recommitment to the Bible, or that shames you into a came-and-went spurt of Bible reading.

I simply want to make an observation.

One of the reasons why so few of us read the Bible daily - even as followers of Jesus - is that we sometimes approach it like it's a wishing well.  We deposit a little bit of the last part of our time into it every once in awhile, like dropping the loose change after a Starbucks purchase into the fountain at the mall... hoping that maybe, just maybe, we might get what we are wishing for.

And then, when we don't, well, no big deal... after all, it was only a few pennies.

So here's my question for you on this Seek Me to Live Wednesday:

What if I gave God the best part of my day, every day, as I read his Word?

Maybe we'd start wishing for different things.

Or, maybe we'd stop wishing for things, and instead become what we wished for.

prayer request

Hey folks,

If you would, keep Kelly Banes (audio for Cedar Falls) in your prayers.  From PLC's PrayerCARE:

Paula & Kelly Banes—Please pray for Kelly’s parents. His Dad, Larry, hospitalized at Iowa City has been diagnosed with lung and spinal cancer. He is  undergoing further testing today. His mother continues to deal with a brain tumor and pre-surgical testing. Additional tumors were discovered on her kidneys. Both the brain tumor and the kidney tumors need to be attended to as soon as possible.

Kelly left early this weekend to go down and be with his dad.  Thanks for praying.

Monday Soup

In case you missed it, we had another great weekend at PLC:

• Pastor Carl brought the message for week 3 of our "Big Questions" series.  Love it when he preaches.  He answered the question of "Is the Bible trustworthy?"  Made me want to dig in deeper and really let the Bible speak for itself.
• We created a moment at the beginning of the service that was a little out of the norm for us artistically.  We started with just a piano on stage for a prelude, playing a medley of hymns.  It was beautiful.  Then, we started singing "Come Thou Fount" together, with each of its three verses played with a more contemporary style.
• This set up a wonderful teaching moment: though style changes, the truth in those words remain the same, and remain just as powerful as the day they were first penned.  In fact, all of God's words are like this.
• Austin Murray, who has been serving as an audio assistant, jumped on the sound board as the front of house engineer for the very first time this weekend.  He did a great job.  Special thanks to Kelly Banes who decided to help Austin get trained up at that position.  Love to see that.
• In kind, Steve Dunbar over at Waterloo trained Eric on the light board this weekend.  Those guys are doing an absolutely incredible job, especially since they are doing all of their programming on Sunday morning!
• Renee Tink is serving on a couple of teams now, both as a vocalist and and as a shader.  This not only helps us out to fill a spot, but gives her a unique perspective on how everyone looks and sounds on stage.  I'd recommend all of our vocalists try their hand at that position sometime.  You won't regret it.

Overall: it was just really cool to be reminded that God's Word is indeed trustworthy.  To quote Pastor Carl who quoted Martin Luther:

"The Bible is like a lion... just set it loose, and it will defend itself."

One quick note: I got to step in for Pastor Ron over at Waterloo this weekend.  It's always, always great to worship there.  Our teams do such an amazing job.  (Special thanks to Chris John who stepped in for Jon Lloyd this weekend, giving him a much needed weekend off.)  Take a look at the video below:

Hope you enjoyed the beautiful weekend.  Check back Wednesday for a "Seek Me to Live" entry inspired by this past weekend.