Fire in raleigh

1 Corinthians 15:3-4

“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures”

This is an incredible verse. It seems to me like Paul is saying, “We talk about lots of things and I write all kinds of things in these letters that I write you. But listen…this is the most important thing….”

 

I think it’s awesome. For Paul, the “most important” thing is that the scriptures said that Jesus would come and die and be raised again for our sins. AND THAT HAPPENED.

It was basically an event.

The scriptures said that there would be AN EVENT. And that event happened.

Christ is not dead. He is risen. It happened.

 

Sunday – 11.13.11

Nehemiah 6:15-16

15 So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty-two days. 16 And when all our enemies heard of it, all the nations around us were afraid and fell greatly in their own esteem, for they perceived that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God.

This is tough. Look at your life and ask, “What am I doing that, unless God is real and God comes though, will fall flat on its face?” I know for me I really had think for a while….and I am still thinking. People looked at Nehemiah and the Jews and they saw God. That’s what we should be. People should look at us and see God. (Matthew 5:16)

I think a lot of people would struggle to answer that question and I’m certainly not getting on anyone’s case about it. The thing is, I think most people would say, “Look, if God would just show me or tell me what he wants me to do…if it was just clear…I would do it.” Abraham’s call, while on one hand really uncertain and dangerous, was on the other hand kind of clear. God said “Get up and go” and he went. God told Jonah to go to Ninevah and preach; really clearly. So I think most people just sit around and wonder ,”what am I supposed to be doing?”

Which leads to another question..are we anywhere close enough to Jesus that we would hear him tell us to do something anyway?

Setlist for the week was:

Forever Reign – Hillsong

We Believe – Visio Dei

In Christ Alone

Give Me Faith/Oh Come Let Us Adore Him/In Christ Alone – Elevation/Visio Dei

 

Band for the week was:

Brent Francese – drums

John Enzor – bass

Amaree Davis – violin

Marty Linn – keys

Katie Pritchett – vox

Patrick Downing acoustic guitar + vox

 

 

Sunday – 11.6.11

We were back in Nehemiah this week. Jeff dug into chapter 5 and brought an awesome word on authority.

People are flawed. No person is going to be a perfect authority. The authority in your life will inevitably fail in some way. So the temptation is to not trust authority and to rebell against it. But you have trust that God is control. He knows that people are flawed and he knows that human authority is flawed.

In Jesus’ time, God knew the Sanhedrin (Jewish Authority) was flawed. God knew the Roman authorities were flawed. The trials of Jesus were a mockery of justice. But at the end of the day, who was it who sent Jesus to the cross – it was God, his father. God used the messed up forms of human authority to accomplish his purposes.

The ultimate point is this: God uses imperfect authority, perfectly. 

So trust your leaders. Pray for them. Know that they know the standards by which they will be judged and they are constantly seeking the guidance of the Holy Spirit so that they might be used more perfectly.

Setlist for the week was: 

Hosanna – Brenton Brown

Lead Me to the Cross – Hillsong

Lord I Need You – Tomlin

How He Loves – McMillan

Forever Reign – Hillsong

 

Band for the week was:

Jason Gore – acoustic guitar + vox

Julie Watkins – vox

Brent Francese – drums

Scott Wenger – bass

Alex Dellapenta – electric guitar + vox

Ben Davis – electric guitar + vox

*Note – we try to switch things up a good bit at Visio Dei. It’s true that we have lots of rock and roll musicians, so we play a lot of rock and roll. BUT, The body of Christ is not a completely uniform bunch of people. We are pretty eclectic bunch. 1) we have people on the team are really skilled in other types/feels of music and 2) we have people not on the team who really respond to other types of music. So we try not to cram the body of Christ into one little rock and roll box. THAT SAID, if you know some of our players, then from looking at that list above, this week was pretty rock and roll….

M83

I just listened to the new M83 record called Hurry Up We’re Dreaming.

It’s incredible stuff. You should listen to it.

Sunday – 10.16.11

We were back in Nehemiah this week at our Sunday Morning Gathering. My friends will tell you, anything old testament really gets me going. There is some amazing stuff in there. You should read your Bible

There is so much to learn from the book of Nehemiah and a lot of things to be learned from the man himself. See he was a Jew. He was a prisoner. He was a nobody. But he bloomed where he was planted. He sought the welfare of the city where God had put him. He became cupbearer to the king; no small job. I think for all intents and purposes, he was comfortable. But he allowed his heart to be broken by the status of Jerusalem. And the disrepair of the city. And the status of the temple of God. And the “lostness” of the people of God.

It’s challenging for me. I live in Raleigh, NC; a place that is routinely mentioned as one of the best places to live in the America, which means its one of the best places to live in the world. I think it’s fair to say that we are pretty comfortable here. But do I allow my heart to be broken by the things that break God’s heart?

This place needs the gospel. Do I act like that’s true? Do I believe that Christ is reconciling us to himself. And do I believe that he has given me the ministry of reconciliation to spread the good news that others can be reconciled to him too?

Challenging…

Band for the week was:

John Enzor – bass

Brent Francese – drums

Jon Pritchett – elec guitar

Aaron Chappell – elec guitar

Rebecca Schlieman – vox

Patrick Downing – acoustic guitar + vox

Setlist for the week was:

All to Us – Tomlin

In Christ Alone – Visio Dei Arrg

Nothing but the Blood – Redman – Visio Dei Arrg

From the Inside Out – Hillsong

We Believe – Visio Dei

Its October

…which means its the fall….

 

Continuous Outpouring

I read an article recently (on a website called The Resurgence) by a guy named Harold Best. His point was that the 3 persons of God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) exist in what he called “continuous outpouring”. The “persons” of God are continuously outpouring to each other in community, communion, love, respect, friendship, etc… Then he said this,

“We were created continuously outpouring. Note that I did not say we were created to be continuous outpourers. Nor can I dare imply that we were created to worship. This would suggest that God is an incomplete person whose need for something outside himself (worship) completes his sense of himself. It might not even be safe to say that we were created for worship, because the inference can be drawn that worship is a capacity that can be separated out and eventually relegated to one of several categories of being. I believe it is strategically important, therefore, to say that we were created continuously outpouring—we were created in that condition, at that instant, imago Dei.”

I think that’s awesome stuff.

So then I noted that our vision at Visio Dei is to be “learners, lover and givers” right?

I really think the same thought process applies to Visio Dei’s vision.

We exist constantly learning something. We are constantly loving something. And we are constantly giving ourselves to something. We obviously have a choice as to what those things are.

My prayer is that we would be learning about God. We would be loving God. And we would be giving ourselves to God.

Sunday – 9.25.11

This Sunday we continued our series called Rhythms (or Time to Grow Up….which I like better)…

Jason delivered a message about the necessity of community using Genesis 1 and 1 Peter chapter 2. The short of it is, we are made in the image of a communal God. He always has and always will exist in perfect communion with himself (trinity). And that communal God has always been about having a people; a holy people; a holy nation. The gospel demands that, if we are to live out the gospel rightly, we must live in community; and this is only possible THROUGH the gospel.

Band for the week was:

John Enzor – bass

Jon Pritchett – mandolin

Alex Dellapenta – acoustic guitar + vox

Rebecca Schlieman – vox

Patrick Downing – acoustic guitar + vox

Kendal Quinn – djembe + perc

 

Set list for the week was:

Always – Kristian Stanfill

Lord Almighty – Kristian Stanfill

Stronger – Hillsong

We Believe – Visio Dei – I was very excited about this new song. It was written in the middle of last week specifically for our church and specifically for this message. It’s fantastic when a song so clearly falls out of what we are studying and going through as a church.

 

So give this a read…..

1 Corinthians 9:24-27

English Standard Version (ESV)

  ²⁴Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. ²⁵Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. ²⁶So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. ²⁷But I discipline my body and keep it under control,^[a] lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

 

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I dont have anything groundbreaking to say about this. I’m sure most of it has already been said. But I was memorizing these verses this week and something dawned on me.

If you are an athlete, you get up every day on a mission. You eat a good breakfast to get things going. You work out hard. You lift weights. You run and stay in shape. You watch game tape. You study the opposition. You study your own game plan. You hang out with the folks on your team or other athletes and talk about things and give each other tips and practice together so that you get better.

Point is, you work really, really hard. And you stay focused.

If you want to be a good athlete, is there another option?? There’s really not.

But so what else could you do? You could get up and NOT work as hard. You eat bad foods. You stay up too late. You don’t as hard. You don’t run to stay in shape. etc….

But here is the thing, if you are doing anything less than working really hard and staying focused, you are just moving backwards as an athlete. You are getting our of shape. Your skills aren’t as sharp. You don’t know your competition. Etc…

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So when Paul compares the Christian life to that of an athlete, I think the same thing is true. We HAVE to stay focused. We have to read. we have to pray. we have to study. we have to have good fellowship. we have to sit in silence and meditate. If we are NOT doing that, we are moving backwards.

Sin is subtle. It sneaks in. If you are not on the offensive against sin then you are on the defensive.

As John Owen said (I think)..Be killing sin or sin will be killing you.

I can tell you, that’s a fact. I know it first hand and I bet you to do.

Work hard. Run hard. Be disciplined in your Christians life. It’s really really important.

Sunday – 9.18.11

This week was week 2 of our Rhythms series at Visio Dei. Jeff has been spending some time talking about some of the disciplines of the Christian life. These things are essential if we are going to prepare our hearts for the gospel to really sink in and change us.

This week we talked about a pretty simple concept: reading your Bible. Simply put, the story that is taking place in the Bible is the story that you are living out. The God in the Bible is the real God. The problem on sin in the Bible really is your problem. The good news about Jesus Christ really is the good news that can change your life. If you are not living out of this story then you are trying to live out of another one; one that is not true.

My prayer is that we will dig into our Bible every day. And we will be open to what the Spirit is telling us and teaching us through that.

Setlist for the week was: 

Cannons – Wickham

Here is Our King – Crowder

You are the Lord – Hillsong

The Stand – Hillsong

Always – Stanfill

Band for the week was:

Jake Taylor – acoustic guitar + voc

Katie Pritchett – vox

John Bass – bass

Amaree Davis – violin

Marty Lynn – keys

Sunday 9.4.11

What an powerful morning @visiodei. (twitter).

I thought it was powerful because the truth was spoken so amazingly clearly. Often times churches tend to gloss over hard topics (read: sin) in favor of talking about more warm, fuzzy things like community, mission, justice. All of those things are great and we should talk about them often.

But the truth is, those things are not the gospel. I feel like those things come out of the gospel.

But if we never talk about the gospel then those things won’t ever happen.

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This week at Visio Dei, Jeff talked about sin. And he talked about it through the lens of the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. And specifically through the story of Lot and his involvement with the city of Sodom.

Most of the problem started with the fact that Lot didn’t take sin anywhere as close to as seriously as he should have. At the start of the story he is moving into the valley towards Sodom. And then later on he has moved into town. And then he is going to war with the king of Sodom. Towards the end of the story he is offering his daughters to the men of the town. And by the end of the story his daughters are getting him drunk and raping him. Crazy. Sin has ruined him.

It looks like he has gotten more and more comfortable with sin. And thats scary. Because its subtle. It might take time. And it involves lots of little decisions along the way. Scary stuff.

As believers, we are continually called be different than the world. To be set apart and to be holy. But we are sent into the world, much like Lot’s uncle Abraham was, for the sake of its redemption.

And we only do that by the power of Christ.

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Band for the week was:

Jason Gore – acoustic guitar + vox

Julie Watkins – vox

Aaron Chappell – electric guitar + vox

Patrick Downing – electric guitar + vox

Zack Van Hoy – drums

John Enzor – bass

Set list for the week was: 

Day After Day – Stanfill

How Great is Our God – Visio Dei

Give Me Faith – Elevation/Visio Dei

Lead Me to the Cross – Hillsong

Nothing but the Blood – Redman

Sunday – 8.28.11

This week at Visio Dei we wrapped up our series called Where is God When Life Happens?

You have probably noticed that the details of these last few posts are pretty thin. That’s intentional. It’s because I don’t really want to plaster the stories that people have told all over the internet. Some of them get pretty hairy

That said, this week we were really confronted with the fact that we are NOT in control. God’s will will be accomplished in His way and in His time. For our part, there are times when this can be as frustrating as anyway. Patience is not something that comes naturally to many people. Situations can be hard and answers can seem far away. Our prayer is that we keep God in his proper place: on the throne.

He is always Good. He is always right. And He is always perfect.

Band for the Week Was:

Jon Hathaway – acoustic guitar + vox

John Enzor – bass

Rebecca Schlieman – vox

Kendal Quinn – cello

Marty Lynn – keys

Patrick Downing – drums

Setlist for the week was:

Glory to God Forever – Fee

Cannons – Wickham

Beautiful the Blood – Fee

In Christ Alone – Visio

Center – Charlie Hall

Sunday – 8.21.11

This was our third week in the “Where is God When Life Happens” series.

Awesome Sunday of being challenged to know that God is working even in hard situations, and to know that God is using those situations to accomplish His purposes and to sanctify his children.

 

Set List for the Week Was:

• Our God – Tomlin
• Safe – Wickham
• Hosanna – Baloche
• From the Inside Out – Hillsong
• Lord, I Need You – Tomlin

Band for the week was:

• Ben Davis – lead guitar + vox
• Alex Dellapenta – rhythm guitar + vox
• Jason Gore – acoustic guitar + vox
• Katie Pritchett – vox
• Brent Francese – drums
• John Enzor – bass guitar

 

Cool or Uncool??

Here’s the question (as it relates to this post…obviously):  how cool should Christianity be?

Really cool? Like “everyone wants to be a part of it” cool?

Sort of cool? Like “only nerds and some super geeky people will like it?

Should it be trendy? Like only scenster kids will like it? Because Paiste tells them to?

Should it be lame? Like only old folks and people with desk jobs will like it?

(No offense intended by any of these, just trying to be descriptive

But really, how cool should Christianity be? How cool should the church be?

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I read a super interesting article recently that really got me thinking about this idea.

America, and really the world, (which really just means “people”) thrives on the idea of “cool” (and sometimes “anti-cool”).

We spend lots of money at the Guess store so that everyone knows we spent lots of money at the Guess store to look really cool. OR we spend just as much money at Urban Outfitters to look like we didn’t spend much money to look anti-cool… and really just be cool with the anti-cool folks…..Hmmm…(again, no offense intended….)

We like to like things that other people like so that we fit in with them. So we look for what’s cool. Or what’s fun. And we like it. Or agree with it. Because, at the moment, its cool.

But that’s the key. At any given moment, without notice, at the drop of a hat, it seems like what was once cool is not cool any more. Something else is cool. So we all do that.

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Should it bother us that people often use  words like “cool” and “fun” to describe churches. Should it bother us that people say they go to a certain church because they “agree” with the teaching? Should it bother us that people go to a certain church because the music is “rock and roll” and they think that’s cool? Should it bother us that people go to a certain church because the teaching pastor is just “awesome”?

What if you stop liking the music? What if you don’t agree with a particular teaching? What if something stops being fun? What if another pastor comes along that is more “awesome”? What if it stops being “cool”?

I think a lot churches have fallen prey to the same consumer mentality that runs the rest of the world.

And we, as the people, treat the church like we do every other thing in the world; we consume it.

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The church should be lasting. The message of the church is universal. Jesus is always relevant.

Church leaders – stop doing things to be cool. Soon what you’re doing won’t be cool. If your church is built on being cool then you will do just about anything to stay that way… and that’s bad news…

Everyone else – please stop “consuming” church. Are you willing to stick with the body of christ when it’s hard? not fun? disagreeable to you? When your pastor is not the cool kid in town?

Should the church be cool? Should it be uncool? Should it be neither?

I think that whole conversation might not have any place in our conversation. Because what’s cool won’t always be cool. Let’s not base our churches on that.

Jeff, the lead pastor at Visio Dei always says “what you win people with is what you win them to”.

Let’s not win people with cool.

Let’s win people with something that actually means something.

Sunday Morning Gathering. – 8.14.11

This week was week 2 of a series that we do every year called “Where Is God When Life Happens”.

The idea is this: we in the church tend to gloss over things. Or better said, it’s easy for us in the church to gloss over things. We like to talk about confessing sin and talking through hard times with each other, but the truth is, sometimes it’s just easy to go about our business as if everything is OK. This series kind of nips that in the bud.

We all have things that most people wouldn’t believe about us. Most of us have things that would flat out shock people. This series is designed to 1) make people aware of that 2) encourage us to be open and honest with each other and 3) do some serious teaching about God in the midst of some really hard things.

Each week, Jeff interviews someone who is a regular Visio Dei. And we talk through his or her situation. As we look at things in retrospect it can sometimes be easy to see how God was moving in that persons life. Other times it is not so easy to see. But the hope is that the spirit moves in each of us as we get to know each other and get to know God in each others lives.

We have dealt with all kinds of things in the past. Alcoholism. Rape. Pornography. Drugs. Murder. Lying, Cheating. Stealing. All kinds of abuse…. It can get pretty emotional and intense. You have no idea what the person sitting next to you every Sunday has bee through and might be currently going through.

It’s an extremely valuable series for us as a community at Visio Dei. Hopefully you guys can make it out next week. I hope to see you there

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Setlist for the Week Was:

At the Cross – Renstrom

Here is Our King- Crowder

I Surrender – Visio arrg.

Christ is Risen Mahar

How He Loves/ Jesus Loves Me – McMillan

Band for the Week Was: 

Jon Hathaway – acoustic guitar + vox

John Enzor – bass

Kendal Quinn – cello

Patrick Downing – perc + guitar + vox

The Word is Not Hidden

So I was reading 2 Kings the other day. It’s great stuff.

The story goes like this…..

Josiah, who was a great king, was in the 18th year of his reign. He was having some repairs done to the temple of God. While that is going on, Hilkiah, the high priest, comes out and says;

          “Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, “I have found the Book of the Law in the temple of the LORD.” 

Read that again. Seriously. Read it again. It’s amazing.

The HIGH PRIEST….FOUND…..THE BOOK OF THE LAW…..IN THE TEMPLE.

I think that’s just incredible.

1) The book of the law was lost. This was God’s word to them. It was everything that their faith was based on. And for the hight priest to FIND it must mean that it was lost. How the heck does that happen?

2) When they found it, it was in the temple. Which means that it was lost….in the temple.

Which begs the question…..

How do the people of God, lose the word of God, in the dwelling place of God?

Which begs another question……

Do we tend to do the same thing???

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God’s word is not hidden. It is not hard for us to find.

We have the Bible. We have what he wants us to know.

On top of that, God says that He will write his word on our hearts.

Jeremiah 23:23 says that God is not a God who is far off. He is close by.

I pray that we don’t lose the word of God in our hearts.

That we will treat His word with the respect that it deserves. That we will read it and study it and learn from it and be changed by it.

 

 

Worship Team – The Hard Part

From a musical standpoint, most worship songs aren’t too complicated, right?

Most of them are in 4/4. MAYBE 6/8. Pretty simple.

97% of songs sung by a male are in the key of “B” (slight exaggeration)

The songs are usually “shaped” pretty similarly from a dynamics standpoint. (Intro, verse, chorus, verse , chorus, bridge, chorus chorus)

Most of them stick to the pentatonic box so there aren’t too many surprises in chord changes.

From a certain perspective, its really not very hard.

Even if a song IS more complicated than usual, in order to get something down, you just have to practice it.

That CAN be hard. The specific part might be hard. The timing might be hard. The harmony part might be hard to hear. The lead line might have some awkward fingering. Etc…..

But in general, what it takes is practice. And then……you get it. And it clicks. And it’s not really hard anymore. Formulaic? not really. But…maybe.

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So what is the hard part for me?

Well, I’m a worship director right? (The title can be misleading, but they have to call the job something

A lot of people think that just involved getting some music to happen on Sunday……not really the case.

I’m not going to get into all the specific of the job right now (and I probably never will)

But I am going to tell you what the hard part is.

You see the worship team title is telling – it’s a team. A team is made up of different people. In this case, about 25 different people.

All of those different people are in different places. They are all reading different things. They are studying different things. They are praying different things.

All of those different people are NOT in the same band (we have 3-4 different bands at Visio). So they don’t all see each other and hang out together all that often.

All of those different people have different musical tastes. They have different likes and dislikes.

Simple put – all of those different people are ….different.

I’m absolutely not saying that’s bad. As a matter of fact I think it’s a very good thing. But it does provide a bit of a challenge.

Theres not much that I want more than for everyone on the musical worship team to be on the exact same page. To be thinking about the same things when we gather to rehearse or lead the congregation on Sunday mornings. I would love for all of us to be reading the same books and having the same discussions. And desiring the same things for 1) our team and 2) our church.

As the “Worship Director”, I feel responsible for that. But not in a “this is my job” type way. My heart longs for this. My heart longs for us to all have the same vision and be of the same mind (seems like Paul talked about that in Phil. 2). And have the same purpose.

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I’m trying to figure out the best way to do that. Or to drive that. Or to steer us in that direction.

Because we have really talented people. And the music is not the hard part. Getting the music to sound good is not what keeps me up at night.

It’s the other things. The somewhat immeasurable things. The intangible things. Those things are the hard part.

Prayer

Been thinking a lot about prayer recently. Mostly because of some conversations I have had with a really good friend of mine.

The other day he put things in terms of having either adult conversations with God vs. coming to Him “like a child”. (Not that I am in any way trying to say that one is better than the other or one is right and one is wrong or….anything like that).

What I mean is basically this: It’s easy for me to come to God like a child. I pretty regularly will pray throughout the day. Playing the guitar. Driving. Watching soccer. Brushing my teeth. The Spirit will bring something to my mind and I will quickly pray about it. I think that’s a good thing.

What I am not good at is having adult conversations with God. There’s lots of reasons for this I guess. It’s hard for me to sit still. It’s hard for me to stay focused.

I am teaching through the book of Acts right now in my homegroup. I am struck my how much these guys prayed! They prayed constantly! They would go up on rooftops to be alone and be quiet and just pray. I have a hard time sitting still long enough in my living room to pray.

Now some days are better than others. Some weeks are better than others. I don’t want to be legalistic about it, but there is something to be said for being disciplined about “meeting” with God. Being quiet and being still and talking and listening.

I want to be better about it. Maybe I’ll pray about it.

Sharks

It’s Shark Week on The Discovery Channel. I do love Shark Week…..