Thomas

Thomas Young passed away Friday after Thanksgiving. He was a evangelist, pastor, and friend and I am going to miss him. We worked on a few projects together but I'm not sure he would really remember my name, but nevertheless, I felt that he was such a champion for the gospel and really called Christians away from religion and into relationship. He started The Sanctuary Fellowship near Sugar Land, TX with that in mind - moving people away from "church" and into relational exchange between the Father and friends. There is still some ambiguity regarding his death, but his legacy will live in me as one who helped church be more than church and Christians be more than people acting Christian.

Re-Casting In Worship

I was in a meeting yesterday with a good friend of mine and we were discussing the need for visioncasting in worship. In other words, we were feeling that often in a typical worship service you don't really have an opporutnity for a team leader/pastor to just shift his weight to one elbow, look over the pulpit and cast the vision, again.

I'm re-reading "IT" by Craig Groeschel and I completely resonate with his concepts of casting vision. Simply, he states that churches with "it" state, re-state, cast, re-cast, package, and re-package their vision. I found myself as a leader casting vision expecting my people to function out of the casted vision. Irregardless if I'm waking up excitied everyday to fulfill the vision, my people probably aren't...unless I cast and re-cast. How can I continue to say the same thing over and over again differently, how can I continue to recast vision, to whom do I need to continue to cast and once I feel they've caught the vision, what kind of re-casting is necessary?

Then it hit me. Worship. Well, really worship service. When do we provide the time to cast and re-cast the vision? Does this take place inside an announcement? Is it happening in a song? Is it an application point in a sermon? I guess so. But shouldn't it be so much more?

As a student pastor, I find myself laboring over a sermon or over a program time. Thinking through every detail and every facet. Thinking things like, "this game will help students find new friends and make stronger connections", or "during this announcement I'll remind them to invite friends and exemplify the great commission", or even "on this point, I'll pause and restate one of our purpose statements and that will reinforce our vision..." Inasmuch as those things maybe happening, I think to most a game is just a game and an announcement is just an announcement.

We have got to provide occasionally, yet consistent times, in our worship services to intentionally cast and re-cast the vision to our people. That's right worship times. We can't rely on small group leaders, letters, websites, nifty print peices to adequately share the fabric of our vision. It has to happen in a venue where we have the most impact, the most attention, and the most return - weekly worship services.

I think this looks like video testimonies, an on-stage interview, and video loop of the vision statement, and so many other possibilities. Should worship leaders stop talking about a song and how it matches our vision or should preachers stop referring to vision during a "sermon" - absolutely not. But I think we as church leaders think our people aren't recieving our message of vision when we camoflouge it in our worship bulletins.

Taking It In

We just found out that our oldest son Gavin is allergic to pretty much everything. We knew he had food allergies when we has 18 months old, found out he asthma when he was 3 and through a process of events found out yesterday he is allergic to 31 out of 38 common food allergies and 45 out of 58 environmental allergies.

Our hearts are broken for our big guy. Sure it will be an adjustment for our diet (imagine not eating chicken, beef, pork, fish, bread, milk, eggs, even apples and so much more) but I just hate it for him. He has always been embarrassed and anxious about his food allergies. You see his food allergies cause his skin to become irritated, itchy, and dry around his eyes, face, arms, legs, feet, and back. He scratches all the time and consequently his skin looks like patchwork. He is so self-conscious of it he wears pants when people come over and doesn't like to take his socks off because he sees the sores. I wonder how much more he will worry with the addition of so many more known allergies.

God is answering our prayers through my wife being a clinical dietitian and know that we know the facts we are able to start an action plan. But it still hurts me to know my boy is dealing with all of this.

My kids have always been relatively healthy and I know so many parents who have children who are so much worse off than my son. I'm experiencing a glimpse of the anguish they feel and I absolutely hate the feeling.

God, you are the God of comfort and you comfort those who are hurting. Help me to receive your comfort through your Spirit, your Word, and your people.