2009 Teaching Topics

Well, I think I figured out what the rough plan is for sermon topics for 2009. It looks like Pastor Dan will be leading the Grace Community through an in-depth series on the book of Ephesians. This should be really good. On the Living Stones side, 2009 will see the beginning of an extended trip through the book of Genesis. If you've been around in the past for the chapter-by-chapter studies in Colossians or Revelation, you know we're in for a great series.

I think there's plenty for all you creative geniuses to sink your teeth into with these two books. My suggestion is that in the coming weeks you take some time to read through and study these books. If you have any brilliant ways to communicate any of the truths contained in these books, please email me. I'd love to share them with the creative staff.

Here are some questions you might consider:

• What is the author trying to communicate in a broad sense?
• What focused points are the author trying to communicate?
• What words or phrases particularly stand out?
• Are there any words or phrases that don't make sense to you?
• What contextual difficulties stand in the way of understanding these passages?
• How can we re-contextualize the passage to communicate it to a modern audience?
• If you were directing a movie about this passage, who would you cast in the lead role?
• Do any of these verses bring to mind another scripture passage, or a story, illustration, movie scene, television commercial, song, or poem?
• Try to imagine that you are reading these verses for the very first time. How does that change your impression of them?

I think the type of process I'm describing would be beneficial to you personally on a spiritual level. Even if it doesn't lead to a creative breakthrough, asking these types of questions can help you become a more thorough student of scripture. And that is never a bad thing.

So, engage with God's word!

"Heart of the Artist", part III: Chapter Two

Humility is a concept that I have always found fascinating. Like many, I have often admired it from afar. Very rarely have I had what I would call a true taste of it. But sometimes I catch fleeting glimpses.

Pride – or a desire to be exalted by others – isn’t always the primary enemy of humility for me. In my life, humility has more often been warded off by a simple preoccupation with self. Self-concern. Self-centeredness. Sure, I get overly concerned with others’ opinions of me. But more often I’m just overly concerned that I get what I want.

So what is humility? In Noland’s quote of C.S. Lewis on page 59, humility is equated with “self-forgetfulness”. Where does self-awareness fit in relation to humility? Is humility a lack of self-awareness? Or is it simply a proper view of self?

Is it that I find the truest and best Jeff when I take my eyes off Jeff and focus instead on Christ? If this is the case, then taking eyes off self (or fighting self-absorption) doesn’t equal “self-forgetfulness”, but rather a true and appropriate self-awareness. Truly this is a topic of great subtlety and nuance, but I find it reassuring that Moses’ prayer in Psalm 90:17 (and on pg. 70) – “Lord, give permanence to the works of my hands” – is counted an appropriate and faithful expression of self which is self-aware, yet fully humble.

Changing gears:
I thought Noland’s discussion on volunteering versus being called of God (pp. 70-74) was very insightful and keen. In my experience, some people just get this and some just don’t. I don’t know how to effectively turn a volunteer into someone called by God. Just a guess, though: Maybe it’s because I’m not God! So any level of exhortation or challenges to “step up” that I may issue only make somebody called by Jeff. The harvest is plenty, but the workers are few.

Lord, call your servants to the work of the harvest!

Right Brain Left Brain

Typing w/ a fractured elbow is really fun.

Just read a great article by Mark Batterson entitled Right Brain Preaching. It's not just about preaching, but about the creative communication of the Gospel in general.

Here's a tease...

I think the greatest threat to the future of the Church is a failure of our
God-given imaginations.

Enjoy.

Artown 2009?

This article got me to thinking...

What if Grace Church was somehow a presence next summer amongst all the Artown festivities in our community? What if the community saw us as a beacon of creativity?

Any ideas?

Butterfly Happy

We are wrapping up the Ecclessia series and we just tie up the creative side of it by posting some more of the creative elements used over the last couple weeks.

For week 4, we constructed a mobile of an alien butterfly galaxy- I mean, of the elements that make up Ecclessia:

The center unit is the church, and the outside forms represent Mission, Gospel, Leadership, Sacraments (baptism and communion), Preaching, and Relationship (including church discipline). These 6 elements are essential to the definition of the church; any element missing and one risks intergalactic imbalance of the universe, at least for the butterflies anyway...

The entire mobile was placed in the hands of Christ who presents the church as his bride for he is at the head. The hands were sculpted separately by Cassandra Star.

The final week of Ecclessia we used a video made by Gina Peraldo:

(to be posted soon)