About Me
- Joe Garrison
- Fishers, IN, United States
Director of Contemporary Worship and Assistant Director of Student Ministries at Castleton United Methodist Church in Indianapols, IN. Husband,Guitarist,and Drummer
Showing posts with label Body of Christ. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Body of Christ. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
What Makes a Good Worship Service? - Part II
Right now my Young Adult Discussion Group is reading through "Messy Spirituality" by Mike Yaconelli. This week we are on chapter 5, "Odd Discipleship."
Mike is talking in a part of this chapter about the church he pastors and how it is an odd group of people and how their service is "growing".
Maybe what makes a good worship service are those oddities, blunders, awkward moments. Maybe it's as few as ten or fifteen weirdos coming together as the Body of Christ and worshiping together and enjoying fellowship with each other.
As we continue Renovate, our Saturday evening contemporary service, my thought on what makes a good worship service is changed and molded weekly. It is so easy for me to worry about the quality of the band, the sermon, the numbers in attendance...when really all that matters is that a few people that might not attend a church anywhere else are coming together and interacting with Jesus in some way, even if just for a few minutes.
Mike is talking in a part of this chapter about the church he pastors and how it is an odd group of people and how their service is "growing".
"I pastor the slowest growing church in America. We started twelve years ago with ninety members and have ungrown to thirty. We are about as far as you can get from a user-friendly church--not because our congregation is unfriendly but because our services are unpredictable, unpolished, and inconsistent. We are an "odd friendly" church, attracting unique and different followers of Christ who make every service a surprise."We often try to justify what makes a good service by the quality of the "product" we produce, the quality of the music/sermon, the number of people in attendance, the amount (or lack) of awkward moments, blunders and other oddities.
Maybe what makes a good worship service are those oddities, blunders, awkward moments. Maybe it's as few as ten or fifteen weirdos coming together as the Body of Christ and worshiping together and enjoying fellowship with each other.
As we continue Renovate, our Saturday evening contemporary service, my thought on what makes a good worship service is changed and molded weekly. It is so easy for me to worry about the quality of the band, the sermon, the numbers in attendance...when really all that matters is that a few people that might not attend a church anywhere else are coming together and interacting with Jesus in some way, even if just for a few minutes.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
New Saturday Night Contemporary Service
It is almost here. Any of you that follow me or @mattlipan on twitter know that we are starting a brand new contemporary worship service on Saturday nights at Castleton United Methodist Church. The service starts on Saturday May 29, 2010 at 6pm. This has been something that we have been working toward for a while now and I have to say I am very excited to finally launch it.
Monday was my first rehearsal with the worship team for the service. It went better than I even imagined it would. We have a great group of musicians and singers that have been willing to volunteer their time, talents and passion for worshipping Christ to this service. I have no doubt that God is going to do some amazing things through this worship team, Matt Lipan who will be preaching, and the service as a whole.
If you are looking for somewhere to worship or are interested in checking out something new, come see us on Saturday nights at 6pm starting May 29th. Castleton United Methodist Church is on the corner of 71st Street and Shadeland Avenue on Indianapolis' North East side.
Spread the word. We'd love to see you all there.
***Also, if anyone is interested in helping out at this service leave a message. We still need help with some tech stuff (sound booth, slides, lighting, video etc) as well as a few other things. Thanks!***
Monday was my first rehearsal with the worship team for the service. It went better than I even imagined it would. We have a great group of musicians and singers that have been willing to volunteer their time, talents and passion for worshipping Christ to this service. I have no doubt that God is going to do some amazing things through this worship team, Matt Lipan who will be preaching, and the service as a whole.
If you are looking for somewhere to worship or are interested in checking out something new, come see us on Saturday nights at 6pm starting May 29th. Castleton United Methodist Church is on the corner of 71st Street and Shadeland Avenue on Indianapolis' North East side.
Spread the word. We'd love to see you all there.
***Also, if anyone is interested in helping out at this service leave a message. We still need help with some tech stuff (sound booth, slides, lighting, video etc) as well as a few other things. Thanks!***
Friday, April 23, 2010
Cliques or Christian Community?
I have been thinking about this since our meeting on Tuesday. We discussed what Christian community looks like and refferred to Acts 2:42-47. Verse 44 says, "All believers were together and had everything in common."
If you look at this with a quick glance it kind of sounds like a clique you would experience in high school. Just a bunch of people exactly alike huddling around each other talking about how cool their "sameness" is.
So is it ok for Christians to have "cliques," or groups of people gathered with "everything in common"? I think it is unavoidable and designed that way by God. God designed each of us with different interests, passions, talents and abilities. He did this so we would each be able to accomplish something different for his kingdom. We, as humans, naturally gravitate towards those people that are similar to ourselves.
Here is the difference...
In high school we gravitated to those that were similar to ourselves, but we purposely excluded those that were different and chose not to accept them. As Christians this should look different. While we naturally gravitate to those people with similar interests and passions as us, we have learned to LOVE and accept those that are different than us. We do not turn away "outsiders" and we learn to accept each person for who they are in Christ.
We will always naturally gravitate to people like us, that isn't going to change. I'm not sure we are made to be "best friends" with every single person on earth. Where we become the Body of Christ is when my community unites with your different community and becomes one big community. It is ok to have a smaller group of friends that are like you. Where being a Christian come in is when we take our little community and engage with someone elses little community to form the Body of Christ.
Think about the United States of America for example. As Indiana we do our thing, Florida does theirs, Nebraska theirs and California theres. We are all cool and unique in our own state communities. However, we are stronger and become a "super power" when we combine ourselves to be the UNITED States of America. Christianity is no different.
What we have to remember is; even though we may have nothing of this world in common with that other person's community, we all have Christ in common. As strong as we may feel in our tight knit small communities, we have the strength of the Body of Christ when we unite all of our communities together and nothing can beat that.
If you look at this with a quick glance it kind of sounds like a clique you would experience in high school. Just a bunch of people exactly alike huddling around each other talking about how cool their "sameness" is.
So is it ok for Christians to have "cliques," or groups of people gathered with "everything in common"? I think it is unavoidable and designed that way by God. God designed each of us with different interests, passions, talents and abilities. He did this so we would each be able to accomplish something different for his kingdom. We, as humans, naturally gravitate towards those people that are similar to ourselves.
Here is the difference...
In high school we gravitated to those that were similar to ourselves, but we purposely excluded those that were different and chose not to accept them. As Christians this should look different. While we naturally gravitate to those people with similar interests and passions as us, we have learned to LOVE and accept those that are different than us. We do not turn away "outsiders" and we learn to accept each person for who they are in Christ.
We will always naturally gravitate to people like us, that isn't going to change. I'm not sure we are made to be "best friends" with every single person on earth. Where we become the Body of Christ is when my community unites with your different community and becomes one big community. It is ok to have a smaller group of friends that are like you. Where being a Christian come in is when we take our little community and engage with someone elses little community to form the Body of Christ.
Think about the United States of America for example. As Indiana we do our thing, Florida does theirs, Nebraska theirs and California theres. We are all cool and unique in our own state communities. However, we are stronger and become a "super power" when we combine ourselves to be the UNITED States of America. Christianity is no different.
What we have to remember is; even though we may have nothing of this world in common with that other person's community, we all have Christ in common. As strong as we may feel in our tight knit small communities, we have the strength of the Body of Christ when we unite all of our communities together and nothing can beat that.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
