The Church Inaction

Look at the church in action!  Inspiring!  Uncommon.


Look at the church's inaction.  Harder to see.  Tragically common.


It's hard to see the church inaction.  Most churches, after all, meet once or several times a week and maintain a schedule of events.  Is that the Church in Action?

Shepherd's Gate Fellowship doesn't meet all together each week, so there's no camouflage for our inaction.  If we're inactive, it's painfully obvious.  But if we're active, it's visible and strong.  It's an unintended side effect of not meeting weekly.

SGF Saturday, July 2012

July 7th is a Shepherd's Gate Fellowship Saturday.  This is open to friends and friends-of-friends of SGF, and please get back to me at sgfbend@gmail.com with a headcount if you're coming and/or bringing friends.

Theme/Venue/Time:

We're doing India on the River as our theme--you'll see why below.  We'll be down at the Deschutes at a location to be disclosed (yes, it's a surprise, and no, we haven't been there before).  From 10:30 to 3:30, roughly speaking.

Fun:

We'll rent Standup Paddleboards and bring canoes and floating islands and bocce balls and nice things to eat and drink and have fun.  We mean to do it up "right" with Karen's gala tent and streamers and tablecloths for the tables and torches and bean bags and whatnot.  Feel free to bring high expectations.

Churchy-Content:

At the river, I'll provide three printed-out prayers from the Apostle Paul.  As you move about and talk with others during the day, offer to pray one of those prayers for them, substituting their name in the appropriate places.  I'll put the printed prayers in ziplocs so that if you need to be on a standup paddleboard or kayak to pray, that's okay.

At some point I'll gather people (it's optional, but I hope you'll want to) to talk with a guest of mine about her work with Indian women who are rescuing others out of the sex trade there.  Please read ahead about the organization that she founded, The International Princess Project.  Later on I'll gather a group (also optional) to help me find what the Bible says about certain topic (and no, it's not gay-marriage).  I'll bring Bibles to share around, but if you bring your own that's all right, too.  I think this research will lead to "fruitful" discussions.

Kids:

This is an adults-only day at the river, and all our kids and the kids of our guests will be welcome to participate with our Children's Weekend Bible School, provided we give the WBS team several days' notice on how many kids to expect.  They'll be taking all the big kids to Juniper Pool and their home-base will be the Chase's house that day.  Little ones can stay at the house with adult supervision and play in the sprinklers.  We'll drop kids off an hour later than usual (10:20) at the Chases' house and return pick them up at 4:00.

Food:

The church will provide the main dishes and drinks for this day.  Everyone who comes should bring a side or dessert--though it's possible we'll be making it more organized and having an Indian food-theme to go along with the decor and whatnot.  That would be way cooler but would require someone with the vision for it to step in and organize that aspect.

~Tim and Janet

Fear itself

FDR: "So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes..."

Fear is bad.

But only if the object of your fear can do you no harm.  The more it can do you true harm, the wiser it is to fear it.

Trust isn't wise.

Trust is only as wise as the object of your trust.  The more it is trustworthy, the wiser it is to trust in it.


Do not be afraid, but trust wisely and well.

Goldilocks and the three worship events

What do I do with my heart when worship music pleases God but doesn't please me?

It's an important question, because it's going to happen to me again and again.  Sometimes I'll participate in a worship event where the songs are too hymnish or too George Beverly Shea (sorry, Dad).  My heart is rarely stirred to worship with organ music and complex lyrics where you sing first-second-and-fourth, though I recognize that as a fault in me, not the music.  Or maybe it will be a worship session with shouted lyrics and a throbbing beat but not so much in the melody department.  I keep expecting the smoke machine to kick in.  My heart doesn't naturally respond in worship in such environments, either.

Like the Goldilocks of legend, who found some porridge too hot, another too cold, and a third "just right," there is a mode of worship that best leads me into the throne-room.  And there are worship styles that I don't like.  Last night I went to a worship event at a church that seemed to be roughly split into two sets . . . the first set was the throbbing, shouted-lyric style for an hour, and the second was the more melodic music that I prefer.  I think I'll go again, but maybe I'll aim for going late.

And yet.

It's not as if the worship night were held for my benefit.  Several desired outcomes came from the event last night.  In no particular order:

• I woke up this morning with "There's no other, other than You . . . I stand amazed!" running through my head.  That's good.
• My three kids worshiped, danced (we need to get Michael into a hip-hop class), and had individual opportunity to worship God.  That's important.
• Most of SGF came to check it out with us.  When I expressed to a couple of them that it was hard for me to worship to the throb and noise, they prayed for me.  I don't know that the second set would have been as meaningful without that.  Thanks for praying.
• SGF arrived at 7 and connected with each other while the worship band was setting up, always good to connect.

What do I do with my heart when the music isn't seasoned to my taste?  It's a dish that's not meant for me, but I have to eat it in order to give it upward.  The problem won't go away by insulating myself and finding worship events where they serve my Goldilocks-medium flavor of worship music--that will just mask the symptom.  My heart needs to learn to praise Him in every circumstance.  Praise the Lord, o my soul . . .