Friday, May 15, 2009

Passing Along Your Music to Your Kids

Occasionally, I have the opportunity to share with my kids something that I enjoyed as a child myself. A couple of weeks ago, one of our members, Samantha Siverling, participated in a concert put on by the symphony, of which she is a member. Judy took our two youngest children to the concert. They thoroughly enjoyed it. Timothy was mesmerized.

I have a few of the Leonard Bernstein Young People's Concerts on DVD that I recorded a few years ago. I had wanted to introduce the younger children to these concerts, but was waiting for the proper time. Well, the future is now. I actually introduced them to the first concerts with the series that I checked out from our public library.

If you are not familiar with these concerts, or with Bernstein, let me elaborate. Leonard Bernstein was one of our greatest conductors and composers in the 20th century. Beginning in the late 1950s, Bernstein began holding concerts in Carnegie Hall in New York City for young people. He would use these to teach young people about music and to give them an appreciation for it.

Fast forward to my fifth grade year. During my fifth grade music class, our teacher, Mrs. Glenda Winkle, played these concerts for us on a movie projector. I was enthralled. It was in this class that I began my lifelong love for classical music and opera. I hope that now I am passing along that love to my two youngest children.

ETCA Graduation

I had my ETCA Bible class over this week for a hamburger cookout. This is my way of saying “thank you” as well as honoring them for their senior year. I have thoroughly enjoyed this class. In class, they have great attitudes, they are always on time, they are fun, they provide good discussion, and I will miss them.

After supper, I gave them the choice of several games to play or several movies to view. They chose to watch Flatliners. This proved to be a good selection. At first, only a couple were watching and the rest were kind of talking among themselves. But as the scarier scenes appeared, any talking that they did was to the entire group and it concerned the movie. By the time it was over, some exclaimed that they were going to go home and sleep in the same bed with a sibling!

The item I was most grateful for was this, during the movie, I heard them reflect upon the theological categories and spiritual themes they were seeing. They did this naturally without my prodding. They have learned this in class and I hope this proves some benefit for them as they enter into the rest of their lives.

Weddings

I have a wedding to perform weekend. It is the wedding of Kevan Kirksey and Katie Scott. People asked me a lot of times what it's like to be a preacher and do weddings. I enjoy them, and I'm honored to do them.

On the other hand, when you have children, it is often difficult because weddings typically occur on the weekend. That means you have two nights that are probably lost -- Friday and Saturday nights. Moreover, just because you have weddings that week, does not mean the church does not expect to be fed on Sunday. You still must crank out the sermons. However, you know this before you become a preacher, so there is no room to complain.

The neat thing is there are times when you can make a bond with a couple that will last for life. Some of my greatest memories are of weddings and the relationships that have come out of them.

Preaching in the 21 Century

I Chron. 15:32, “men of Issachar, who understood the times and knew what Israel should do …”

I encountered an amazing quote from Seth Godin’s book, Tribes, last week:

“It’s really easy to insist that people read the manual. It’s really easy to blame the users/student/prospect/customer for not trying hard, for being too stupid to get it, or for not caring enough to pay attention. It might even be tempting to blame those in your tribe who aren’t working as hard as following as you are at leading, but none of this is helpful.

“What’s helpful is to realize that you have a choice when you communicate. You can design your products to be easy to use. You can write so your audience hears you. You can present in a place and in a way that guarantees that the people you want to listen will hear you. Most of all, you get to choose who will understand (and who won’t).”

Seth Godin – TRIBES, pages 117 – 118 (emphasis mine).

When I preach, I choose who will understand and who will not. I can focus on the deep thinkers, or those who are new in the Lord. I can focus on those who learn by hearing, those who learn by experiencing, or those who learn by seeing. If I choose to isolate my focus to only one group, I will probably eliminate my opportunity to impact the others.

I believe one of the biggest myths we face in churches is this: preaching has historically occurred with a preacher standing behind a pulpit lecturing the congregation. This is simply not true. Frankly, preaching as we know it has been a phenomenon of the past 400 years. Luther, the printing press, and Protestant Reformation have played the major role in formulating the preaching experience that most of us know today.

Biblically, preaching was much different. Typically, the preacher was out with the people who needed to hear his message. Rare were the times when the proclaimer was behind anything resembling a pulpit. For example, when Jesus spoke at the synagogue, after having read from the scroll, he was standing perhaps behind an item that resembled our pulpit. Most of the time, however, Jesus was with his disciples away from any building or pulpit.

Jesus’ manner of preaching and teaching gave him an opportunity to help his hearers learn from his message in various ways. When he wanted to address worry and anxiety, he would point to a lily in a field and ask his audience to consider with him what the lily could teach them about God and themselves.

I want to preach less like Luther and more like Jesus. My problem is that I cannot take my audience into the field to see the lily. So, to the best of my ability, I must bring the lily from the field to the people in my church.

The other day, I preached from Psalm 139, that great Psalm that celebrates God's work in our lives from birth. Before I even reached the pulpit, I had our guys in the booth show the Dove commercial I have described to you in this blog (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYhCn0jf46U). If you have not seen that commercial, it is a commentary on our view of beauty in this culture. It shows a normal looking woman being prepared for a photo shoot. Her photos been airbrushed to perfection, and then placed on a giant billboard.

I could have lectured the church all day on how our culture places value on the wrong things. I could have lectured the church on how God has made them like he wants them. Nothing, though, would have had the impact of that sixty-second commercial. The marketers at Dove had tens of thousands of dollars at their disposal to create what I could never afford. I was more than happy to allow them to provide that work for my opportunity.

I was gratified by the positive feedback I received, none more gratifying than from my 14-year-old daughter. She has since gone back and viewed that commercial a few more times. It encourages her because now she gets it— you cannot compete with someone who does not exist.

That Dove commercial was a lily that I was able to bring in from the field, point to, and direct the congregation as I told them to think about what the “lily” teaches us about God.

I think preaching in the 21st century should be more like preaching in the first century.

Five things I think I think (a tip of the hat to Peter King for this idea)

1. I checked out of the library this week the book Jimmy Stewart: A Biography by Marc Eliot. I did not care for the intimate details of Stewart's single years in Hollywood, but the rest of the book has been very enjoyable. I especially like the detail that Eliot delves into as he describes the various movies that Stewart made. Stewart was always one of my very favorite actors. Without question, Elliott praised him as a kind and gentle man—the kind of man that you would want to know.

2. I laughed out loud at Phil Jackson's excuse after the Lakers were defeated in game six by the Houston Rockets in their Western Conference semifinal. He reminded the press that, after all, LA has a couple of players hurt. This after having been defeated by team that has lost its two best players – Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming. Rick Adelman has got to be coach of the year.

3. I was saddened to see that GM is dropping over 1100 auto dealerships. Through the years, I've had dear friends who have owned GM dealerships and others who have worked for them. I currently own two GM vehicles, I have enjoyed driving. The proof is in the pudding – one is 19 years old, and the other one is 18 years old. (Maybe GMs problems are all my fault!)

4. I finished The Reagan Diaries this week. This is the publication of the diary Ronald Reagan kept during his two terms in the White House. In a disciplined manner, President Reagan every day wrote down his thoughts and opinions by hand. I listened to the book on CD each day while I shaved, brushed my teeth, put in my contacts and got dressed. I think the average person reading or listening to these diaries for the first time would be struck by Reagan's humor; his insights into the country, the world, his presidency, and current events (this has typically been underestimated); his opinions on people; and the sheer work load of his daily life (again, underestimated.)

5. I saw the last thirty minutes of Castaway again last night with Haleigh and Abby. I have never seen a movie that made me feel so indifferent initially and yet, in time, made me appreciate it so much. I’m sure I will watch it again. To me, the nobleness of Chuck and Kelly doing the right thing in the face of severe tragedy, a tragedy brought on by the fallen world and not as a consequence of their own sin, trumps the final scene in Casablanca.

It’s Friday, But Sunday’s Coming

A few years ago, I saw the movie produced by Oliver Stone called World Trade Center. It was Stone’s take on the events of that fateful day – September 11, 2001. He focused mainly on two families and what they suffered as their loved ones, John McLoughlin and Will Jimeno, laid buried in the rubble of the World Trade Center. Based on a true story, these men were Port Authority policemen, who courageously tried to help the victims of the terrorists’ attack. In doing so, they became victims themselves.

Normally, I am not a big Oliver Stone fan, but I was very much a fan of this movie. I think this motion picture brought honor to those who worked so hard during that tragedy.
Rick Blackwood, in his book The Power of Multi-sensory Preaching and Teaching, tells about a minister on his staff named Eric Geiger. Geiger appropriated an event from World Trade Center that brought clarity to me in describing the mission of Jesus.

The movie moment that impacted Geiger was seeing Dave Carnes onscreen. Carnes had served in the United States Marines in his younger days. He had become a successful businessman, but as he watched events unfold at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, he realized that America was under attack. Deeply moved, Carnes said to his co-workers, “I have to go down there to help.”

Next, Carnes prepared for his mission. He went to a church building and prayed. He traveled to a barbershop and had his head shaved as it had been when he served as a Marine. He dressed himself in his old Marine uniform. He then entered into his Porsche and sped down to lower Manhattan.

Since Carnes was wearing a Marine uniform, he was allowed to go inside the rubble of the buildings. He shined his flashlight into the darkness and called out to any possible survivors. In the rubble, lay the two policemen, John McLoughlin and Will Jimeno. Crushed by the debris, the hours had passed tortuously slow for them in the darkness. Dehydrated, their lives were slowly ebbing away. There seemed little reason to hope.

With one last effort, Jimeno moved a pipe, making a sound just audible enough for Carnes to hear. Carnes called out, and Jimeno replied. Carnes searched out for Jimeno with his flashlight and spotted him—barely. Jimeno cried out to Carnes, “Please, don’t leave us! Please, don’t leave us!” Carnes, the former United States Marine, called out a dramatic and noble reply: “Sir, we are the United States Marines. You are our mission!”

God had planned for centuries to send his Son on a mission. After he came to earth, Jesus prepared himself relentlessly for his mission, including the extreme act of fasting in the desert for forty days as he battled with Satan. In Luke 19:10, Jesus reveals his mission to Zacchaeus, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost."

I think that was Jesus’ way of delivering to a small, inconspicuous man, who had resorted to crimes against humanity to deal with his pain, a special message. The message was this, “I am the Son of God. You are my mission.”

I want to encourage Shiloh Sunday morning with the knowledge, they are Jesus’ mission. I believe Jesus is saying to the young mother who feels lost and overwhelmed, “I am the Son of God. You are my mission.”

To the young man who feels lost and overwhelmed by addiction, Jesus says, “I am the Son of God. You are my mission.”

To the one who is flailing away at the bitterness of divorce, Jesus says, “I am the Son of God. You are my mission.”

To the child who feels lost because her parents are going through the pain of divorce, Jesus says, “I am the Son of God. You are my mission.”

To the parent who is losing a child, Jesus says, “I am the Son of God. You are my mission.”

Have a great weekend!