Tag Archive - Worship

Paseo in El Paso (Part One)

October 14, 2010 in Church Planting, Faith, Ministry, Paseo, Worship with 30 Comments

Brian and I have been processing our trip down to El Paso this last week (plus). The main reason for going down was to candidate for the Worship Pastor position at Paseo Christian Church.

We had been down to El Paso before for our friends’ wedding (they were stationed at Fort Bliss at the time of their wedding)… but that was 8 years ago. The first thing we noticed when we landed was that El Paso had grown quite a bit since we last visited. That’s always a fun thing to see.

Greg (the lead pastor at Paseo) was there to pick us up at the airport and took us straight to his house where he and his beautiful wife, Jill, hosted us for the next five days. Bless their hearts.

The next five days were a whirlwind.

Church members toured us all over El Paso (as well as parts of New Mexico). We spent one-on-one time with MULTIPLE couples. Many invited us into their home for a delicious home cooked meal while others treated us to some of their favorite El Paso restaurants. I led a full band of people I barely knew but immediately fell in deep, deep LIKE with. We rocked out in band practice and then I led beside them on the platform the next day. And MAN oh MAN are they a seriously talented bunch of musicians.

Playing with this team humbled me and drove a desire within me to be better than I currently am. Being a part of leading Paseo into worship that Sunday morning reminded me of some of my favorite days leading at Sunset for students. I remember looking out and seeing their innocence as they cried out to God in anthem song. I remember feeling like I wasn’t alone but part of something WAY bigger than I could ever imagine. I remember feeling so small, yet I belonged.

This time I looked out and saw honest, authentic, broken, seeking and worshipful men and women singing their hearts out, hands lifted, faces raised, eyes closed. The feeling was familiar… but oh so different. I wasn’t leading anymore. I was being invited into a worship experience. Paseo was warmly inviting me to worship our great and powerful God WITH them.

Oh how I’ve missed feeling like I’m part of a body.

The next two days didn’t slow down much. We met TONS more people, drove down into the very poor areas (the projects), met some of the homeless people Steve works with, saw some of the different projects/organizations Paseo has partnered with and helped out with, watched Steve speak Spanish to a few Mexicans, realized I wasted 6 years taking French, realized I needed to learn Spanish, wished for a superpower in which I could steal Steve’s magnificent Spanish speaking skills, discovered I was ridiculous, saw a graffiti’d plant (seriously… it was amazing), had dinner with the entire Paseo Elder Team & Staff, shared our story, and attended the weekly staff meeting (which I’m proud to say I successfully STOPPED myself from derailing. thankyou!)

WOW RUN ON SENTENCE… moving on…

Even while we were on the plane headed down to El Paso, I truly thought the possibility of the Clayville Clan ending up in the desert was a long shot. The only reason Brian and I even agreed to go was because we both heard God separately say to us that He wanted us to see what was there. And when we hear God… we obey. Little did I know our trip down there would change how I saw everything.

We returned home with a pit in our stomach.

I was about to see how very selfish I really was…

(to be continued)

Exponential – Day Two:Part One

April 21, 2010 in Church Planting, Faith, Ministry, Worship with 0 Comments

Sorry if these notes are a bit scattered, but it’s what I took down during the day.

Speaker: Ken Blanchard

  1. Leadership: from direction to coaching
  2. Can’t teach people to change from the outside.
  3. Jesus wants to give us a heart attack… from the inside.
  4. Did you come to serve or BE served?
  5. QUESTION: ARE YOU A GOOD STEWARD???
  6. Servant leader: when you get constructive criticism, say “thank you”.
  7. Your position is on LOAN!
  8. Be a shepherd… go after the ONE.
  9. Be as SERVANT first… and a LEADER second.
  10. Servant Leadership:
  11. (1) Set the vision & direction (Jesus first, others second, me third)
  12. If you mention Jesus, he does all the marketing and all the work.
  13. (2) Serving = implementation.
  14. Serve, cheerlead, support, HANDS.
  15. “we can do it, you can help” vs. “YOU can do it, WE can help!”
  16. Habits
  17. Eternal life is not all that attractive to people who’s life isn’t working out right now.
  18. Anytime you’re not feeling joy, peace or righteousness, you’re detached from the vine.
  19. SOLITUDE
  20. PRAYER
  21. STUDY the scriptures.
  22. SUPPORT GROUP
  23. Do not forget the unconditional love of the Lord. Your performance is not greater.

——————————–

Speaker: Matt Chandler

  1. 2 Corinthians 3:18…
  2. Working for Jesus gets replaced by being WITH Jesus.
  3. Transformed from one degree of glory into another degree of glory by beholding Jesus.
  4. Constantly preach the gospel to yourself. It’s not an “entry point”
  5. Judgement: Your righteousness is a stench to God outside of Jesus Christ.
  6. Romans 15:13
  7. Jesus told his disciples the Holy Spirit will remind them of everything… but when he gets to the communion table, he says, “REMEMBER THIS!”
  8. God’s plan wasn’t only Israel… it was the ends of the earth.
  9. HE has reconciled us to the Creator God.
  10. Don’t just teach them about Jesus… but teach them to OBEY God’s commandments.
  11. Mistakes today are made because we forget God was at work LONG before Luther and Calvin showed up… and long before YOU.
  12. We have been invited in!
  13. Have a respect for what has been handed to you… and a sense of responsibility for what you will be handing off.
  14. The Church doesn’t need to be saved. It needs people to preach out of a pure heart.
  15. Be faithful, let Him transform us… not gadgets.
  16. Christ first… then His mission.
  17. My calling is NOT better than Jesus Christ.

——————————————

Building Worship Ministry from the Ground Up
Speaker: Mark Deymaz

  1. Ethnic diversity and financial diversity.
  2. If your church is going to make it in 10 years, you better be a diverse church.
  3. First thing: THIS SHOULD HUMBLE US. Humble ourselves.
  4. Humility is a conscious church.
  5. Everyone in your church should be uncomfortable… and that makes them comfortable.
  6. 1-The right theology of music: It’s not about you… your style of music.
  7. Align the church with Christ vision… not with YOUR vision.
  8. Go ahead and be an Acts 2 church, but you’re not done till you’re an Acts 11 church.
  9. You begin with the right attitude and the right perspective.
  10. How do you teach that to your team and others?
  11. It’s not about the food… it’s about the family.
  12. Phillipians 2 – “Thank God I have a seat at this table!”
  13. 2-Practically: SAVE MONEY
  14. Authentic worship is not about the hype… it’s all about the heart.
  15. Assimilation: THEY change to fit into you.
  16. Accommodation: YOU changing to include.
  17. Revelation 7
  18. If the kingdom of God isn’t segregated, why is the church?

Worship Confessional -Easter 2010 Edition

April 4, 2010 in Church Planting, Faith, Ministry, Music, Worship, Worship Confessional with 6 Comments

HAPPY EASTER!!! He is Risen!

Today’s Sunday Setlist was:

  1. Holy Is The Lord – Chris Tomlin
  2. Rain It Down – Carlos Whittaker
  3. How Great Is Our God – Chris Tomlin
  4. O The Blood – Hillsong version
  5. Nothing But The Blood – Robert Lowry
  6. Hosanna – Brooke Fraser

I don’t know why we don’t bring our camera to church more often. We document just about everything else in our lives. Anyway… took some photos this morning:

I was just making my way through the crowds saying “Hi” when Brian took this.


During the worship service.

And to prove how short I am when everyone stands to worship. I know, I know… go ahead… crack a joke in the comments section. The best one gets a prize… of… a HUGE SMACK IN THE FACE! Yeah… ninja that!

Anyway… I digress. Back to church service stuff.

Part of being a church plant means you have to set up church from scratch every Sunday.  I like to call it “Church-in-a-Box” because we LITERALLY build church out of boxes EVERY WEEK. We don’t get luxury items like a baptismal because of the set-up time, not to mention the crazy high cost of one.

Well… thanks to my friends (and church attenders), Sean & Faye Whitacre… today was the first time in Church! at Bethany history that we had our OWN baptismal in our service. Well… let me clarify, we’ve had baptisms… but always at other locations. The Whitacre’s built our baptismal basically from scratch and did an AMAZING job at it. Check it out!

We had seven baptisms today:

  1. Dave Blauer
  2. Nate Blauer
  3. Bethany Gibbs-Blauer
  4. Diana Graalum
  5. Alex Graalum
  6. Kristian Thackery
  7. Jensen Thackery

I’ve posted pictures below of some shots Brian got.

We also “closed-up-shop” for our church’s IMPACT Offering Challenge today. Our total today ended at $5,500. That’s over 5 times what we handed out 7 weeks ago. Though we didn’t make our goal of $7,500, we’re still EXTREMELY pleased at how this turned out. If you feel you’d like to contribute to our IMPACT, I’m going to keep the donate link (in the right column of this blogpost) open for a couple more weeks. Please feel free to give if you feel led.

How was YOUR Easter?

Prodigal Son – Part Four

March 25, 2010 in Church Planting, Faith, Ministry, Worship, Worship Confessional with 0 Comments

This past Sunday, we continued with the second part of Mikey’s story.

The prodigal son chose humility when he returned. There was nothing easy about coming back with nothing, knowing he had wronged the people he turned his back on. This week at Church at Bethany, we talked about accountability, small groups, and choosing to be intentionally integrated within a community. These are all things Mikey has chosen to do after falling away. This is the opposite of what most people do when they’re trying to heal.

Here’s Mikey’s Story – Part Two:

Our Sunday Setlist was:

  1. Forever – Chris Tomlin
  2. Not To Us – Chris Tomlin
  3. We Will Worship You – Carlos Whittaker
  4. Healer – Mike Guglielmucci
  5. Devotion – Marty Sampson
  6. Hosanna – Brooke Fraser

This was the second week I got to lead with my sister, Helen. That was fun… and reminded me of times we would sit around the piano and sing when we were younger. Looking at my baby sister is a great example of the Prodigal Son story. She was the son who never left, while I was the one who ended up feeding swine. She rebelled by being good… and well… I just wanted to run away from home.

My past has passed. All that matters now is where I am… and that’s HOME.

Are you home?
If not… how do we get you here?

_____

To read and watch the stories from the past weeks, click below:

Prodigal Son – Jessica’s Story.Part One
Prodigal Son – Jessica’s Story.Part Two
Prodigal Son – Mikey’s Story.Part One

Prodigal Son – Part Two

March 7, 2010 in Adultery, Church Planting, Faith, Friends, Marriage, Ministry, Worship, Worship Confessional with 2 Comments

Our Sunday Setlist was:

  1. Glory to God – Steve Fee & Vicky Beeching
  2. O Worship The King – Chris Tomlin Version
  3. King of Glory – Chris Tomlin
  4. Hallelujah – Tenth Avenue North (Response)
  5. We Will Worship You – Carlos Whittaker, Jason Ingram & Mia Fieldes
  6. Mighty To Save – Reuben Morgan

Despite one new song (Carlos’) and another “newer” song, it felt as though people were really singing out, worshiping together and praising the One who made this all to be. I was also extremely pleased with how the music pieces fit in well with the sermon.

Today, at Church at Bethany, we continued Part Two of our series, “Finding Your Way Back To God” (CLICK HERE for last weeks’ story). Matt’s talk today was titled, “This Isn’t What I Want” and it featured my good friend, Mikey, who finally got to share her story with our church.

Mikey has always been the “good girl” so when her life started to unravel, to her own doing, she was unequipped to handle it.

She ran.
She hid.
She ignored it.

Then… she found her place of safety. Watch the first part of her story below:

Mikey is in a COMPLETELY different place in her life now. Her realization that she DIDN’T have to live a life she didn’t want overruled the lies that told her that she was doomed to the consequences of her choices. Truth spoke loud and clear. She lives not only with integrity and strong conviction now, but she lives in search of REAL LIFE accountability.  She repented of her mistakes, turned 180* from them and willingly chose to start over… which is more difficult to do than to just SAY to do.

I’m SO proud of her for sharing her story so boldly. I know it was one of the scariest things she’s ever done… but she did it anyway, in hopes that she can help even ONE person find their way back to God.

So how about you?
What in YOUR life do you NOT WANT?
And when are YOU gonna start over?

Worship Confessional – 02.07.10

February 7, 2010 in Church Planting, Faith, Ministry, Music, Worship, Worship Confessional with 6 Comments

It’s been awhile.

I’m not sure why, but I haven’t been in the “mood” to write Worship Confessionals for the last month. Things have been going well… but I’ve just been really focusing in on my family after church on Sundays and Mondays. Then… like most things… I just forget.

Well… I’m refocused now. So, here goes:

Today went well.

Matt spoke on Impacting our Community and really pushed for small group involvement. It’s great that we go to to church and even participate in serving on Sunday  mornings… but church (in the New Testament) was about community… and that happens when connection happens on a “smaller” level.

I think Matt was worried about offending people, and maybe he did… I hope not… but my take is that it’s always our job to speak God’s truth and the receivers job on how they let it affect them.

I hope more people get involved with small groups and grow in their relationship with Christ because of it.

Our Sunday Setlist:

  1. King of Glory – Chris Tomlin
  2. Desert Song – Brooke Fraser
  3. All Creatures of Our God and King – St. Francis of Assisi
  4. Take Me To The Cross – Dave Lubben
  5. From The Inside Out – Joel Houston
  6. Glory To God Forever – Steve Fee & Vicky Beeching

Highs:

We were set up and ready to go 30 minutes before church started. That’s always a plus to not feel rushed going INTO service. Matt also asked one of the prayer warriors of our church to step it up and lead us in prayer EVERY Sunday morning. This sounds bad, but because we’re a mobile church, sometimes, we skip the team prayer because we are LITERALLY setting up and sound-checking UP TO the minute people start walking in. Prayer becomes an afterthought. This is why Matt put Brian B. in charge of prayer. We’ll be more consistent in something we believe is VITAL to the health and purpose of our services.

During the service, it was obvious many were participating through singing and worshiping. This is my favorite part of being a part of a church. Corporate worship. Listening to everyone lift up their voices in declaration of who God is. THIS… is something I will NEVER grow tired of.

Lows:

I don’t feel as if I chose the best response song (#4 – Take Me To The Cross”) post sermon. Usually the connection between the sermon and the song tie in a lot better. I’m not saying that it didn’t connect at all because it did, but I think a better response song would have been Remedy by David Crowder. Also, I felt distracted this morning. Not by anything in particular… just didn’t feel 100%.

Overall… I felt today went pretty well though.

Here are some questions I have for you:

How was YOUR Sunday?
Did you feel like you connected to God?
Are you a part of a small group? Do you like it?

Ready? GO!
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