Worship

So I just sat through a 4 hour planning meeting with a few of my friends with the goal of planning a worship gathering for the church plant they are involved with. (You can check out their website here.) We sat down and talked about the pluses and negatives of different styles of worship as well as the things needed in order to achieve certain goals. 

Ultimately we came to the conclusion that no matter what we do, the worship service shouldn't be about us and our musical preference. However, we are still stuck wrestling with the desire to create an atmosphere that will encourage the community to come and join in worship. Regeneration, the church, places a high priority on community. They want everything that they do to remind them of the need to develop and maintain community amongst the congregation. 

I think that they are on to something...

As always, my mind roams back to what we are doing with the middle school ministry at Y.L.P.C. I'm trying to figure out how we, as the junior highers, become a community that chooses worship as a natural response to who God is. 

Up at Hume Lake we had an amazing band that would lead us in worship through music every morning and evening. It was so easy to worship God as we were in His beautiful creation, it was so easy to worship Him as we were away from the distractions of life, it was so easy to worship Him when we were with others of a like mind who choose to do the same. 

This leaves us with this question, why is it so hard for us to do the same down the mountain? 

Why do we have a hard time getting excited about the hymns that we sing in "big" church? 

Is it because they are boring? 

Or is it because we don't have an appreciation about the truth they reveal of God?

I think that if we really take the time to consider these questions, we have to be honest and admit that the main reason the hymns of old have no appeal for us is because they don't have rocking guitar solos or loud drums. I know that when I was growing up out in San Bernardino I hated going to church with my grandparents because they would always make us sing the old boring hymns. However, over the last couple of years I have really developed an appreciation for the good theology (fancy word for the study of God) that they teach us. Someone told me that songs were written and taught to people back in "the day" as a way to teach people because they were illiterate. Now I don't know if that is true or not, but it is a very interesting subject to explore. As I look at a lot of the newer worship songs that are coming out, I find that a lot of them are really self-centered. They are about us and how we feel. What about God?

So my question is this: What can we do to become a community of middle schoolers who are intent on worshiping God? How should it look? Should there be guitars, drums, piano, rocks clanging in the background? I am curious what your thoughts are on this.

Rainstorm!

Hume Lake Summer Video

After much frustration I was able to get the Meadow Ranch video up onto youtube last night. Apparently I had to go back into the editing programing and re-export it so it would be small enough to format to youtube's space requirements. 

All that's to say is it's done. However, I have been having some issues on getting the video to load up on this blog, so I think that I am going to just post a link and try to figure it out later. You can fid the video on right here. Let me know if there are any issues in loading or whatnot. Be sure to also check out the Grizzly Barbasol video because he is more or less my new hero. 

Rainstorm!

REMINISCING HUME LAKE

I miss the trees, I miss the lake, I miss the air. When it comes down to it, I just miss Hume Lake and all it stands for.

Coming back from spending an amazing week with the Jr. Highers in Hume Lake I find that I am being overwhelmed by how many things there are seeking to control our attention. Our time is continually consumed by sports, home work, extra-curricular activities, and just the every day tasks in life. 

I begin to think about how easy it was to relax in Hume Lake as we were away from our cell phones and computers for the week. I begin to think about how fulfilling it was to watch students enjoy community with one another and embrace those who did not come into Hume as a part of the community. I begin to think about how easy it was for us to spend time with the Lord through prayer and the reading of Scripture. 

I watched students let down the barriers in their lives and make decisions to follow Christ and to surrender control to Him.

But as awesome as Hume Lake was, I still find myself being worried as we begin to settle back into our daily routines and prepare for this upcoming school year. I have seen too many kids who have made decisions to surrender control to Christ be swallowed in the following year by the hustle and bustle of life. They began strong but one small sacrifice lead to another and at the end of the year they were asking themselves how they traveled so far off their intended path. 

However, I have seen a few students who have stayed true to the commitments that they made to Christ at Hume Lake. I have seen students who have made the right sacrifices. They decided that to follow Christ is more important than anything else in their life, He became their top priority. It is my hope and prayer that this would be the story of each and every Jr. Higher who went to Hume Lake this year. 

It will be work, and it won't be easy. But I can promise you this, it will be good and fulfilling.

To do my part at Y.L.P.C., we will be doing everything that we can to help you along this journey in the coming years. Beginning September 5th, 2008 we will kicking off our fall programing as we introduce the new format for youth group call Friday Night Live. Traditionally we have always had fellowship on Sunday nights, but there was to much competition with other activities and it has kept us from our goal of being able to reach out to our friends who are not a part of a community that is united by faith in Jesus Christ. We will also be taking sign-ups for small groups in the coming weeks. If you have any interest in being a part of our small groups, please e-mail me at ndavis@ylpc.org or just leave a comment on this blog.

Thanks for taking the time to read this post, we will use this as our main way to communicate with students. Feel free to comment and send in items that you think would be worth having on here, such as funny stories or prayer requests. Blessings to you!

P.S.

RAINSTORM!!!

(see the video below)