Disturb us, Lord, when
We are too well pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because we have dreamed too little,
When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to the shore.
Disturb us, Lord, when
With the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst
For the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life,
We have ceased to dream of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision
Of the new Heaven to dim.
Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wider seas
Where storms will show your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.
We ask You to push back
The horizons of our hopes;
And to push into the future
In strength, courage, hope, and love.
I haven’t posted in a while, maybe from the insecurity I feel over competing with the epistles Scott writes. Blogging is about honesty, right? I do realize the differences between Scott and I, and really know that there is no “competition”. It seems that we tend to do this sort of thing in all the time in church life. It’s no competition, and we know that, but we still don’t like to underachieve. That aside, I know that I have different areas to contribute in that others might, so I am going to contribute in those ways.
I just recently saw a video by Brian McLaren on the Worship Industry. I am very intrigued by what he has to say about how if we aren’t careful, our services become rated on how they make us feel as a consumer of worship. What do you think about the video?
 I hear that you don’t change
How to you expect to keep up with the trends?
You won’t survive the information age
Unless you plan to change the truth
To accommodate the brilliance of men, the brilliance of men
Some folks think we’re better now
Social evolution’s new synthetic will
Will keep us on a straighter path
As better men use brand new math
With no wrong answers
I’m just a little bit worried
Do you have some sort of plan?
Have you been finally defeated
By the cunning of these fully evolved men?
And I hear that you don’t change
How do you expect to keep up with the trends?
You won’t survive the information age
Unless you plan to change the truth
To accommodate the brilliance of men, the brilliance of men
(Letter from a Concerned Follower by Pedro the Lion)
It’s a strange and beautiful dichotomi. The truth of God never changes; There is nothing new under the sun. The problem is, we see change all around us.
Traditional forms of communications don’t have the same impact they once had. Even major news organiztions, from cable news to local newspapers, are having to rethink ways to communicate with their audience. SMS Messaging. Online Video. Social Networking. Web 2.0. It seems that the world is moving forward at an astonishing pace, and that the truth of God is lagging behind.
The problem lies not in the truth, but in the world’s perception of God and Christianity. As the Church, it is our very difficult responsibilty to teach the timeless, never-changing love of Jesus to a world in a way that seems new and improved. Isn’t that what we all want? New and improved! Now with new marshmallows shapes!! New look and feel!!
That’s where the Church Remix comes in. It is about constantly challanging the means of delivery and the packaging, but never changing the product. I’m motivated to do this not because of the challange, but because I know that the product I have to offer the world is the best out there.