To The One Reader

My only reader left a comment on the last post and posed some interesting questions here were the questions he posed: I wonder, what is the purpose of Christians meeting together? To glorify God? How do we glorify God? Is it by challenging or solidifying held beliefs? Some balance of both?
These question I'm assuming stemmed from my last post about using media in our church gatherings. I believe that Christians meet together for fellowship to edify and encourage each other and in doing this bringing glory to God. I do want to clarify one thing this doesn't mean that this is what Sunday mornings have to be. In my church Sunday morning gatherings are not necessarily for the believer but for those who don't believe. By loving people and continuing forward in our journey with Christ I believe is how we glorify God. How this looks I think can widely vary depending on the individual. God made us each unique with unique personalities, talents and ways of expression. Thus, we each uniquely glorify God. An example could be someone who is a talented musician. I believe that they are glorifying God when they use that gift in the way that God intended them to use it. For someone else it may look very different. I'm sure that challenging and solidifying held beliefs makes God happy but for some reason I can see him also looking down at us once we have solidified and thinking to himself "It's' about time you figured that out, now lets get moving!!"
I don't mean to bring less importance to solidifying ones beliefs it is important and it is all of those times which make the journey the journey.
Now how does this even remotely relate to my previous post about using an AC/DC song during one of our Sunday Gatherings? .....I guess the question is did using that clip of that song bring glory to God? I think that it did. It's purpose aligned with the mission of our church which is introducing people to a growing relationship with God. It was one tool of many that we used that Sunday which to introduce people. I believe that the chosen song worked well. Highway to Hell is a extremely well known song. Most people know it as soon as they hear it. Some people thought that we shouldn't use it because of the reputation of AC/DC. To me that was a reason to use it. People don't identify that music with church which in turn makes them begin to think about why they are hearing it in a church, of all places. I love it!!! It begins to get there minds cranking before the Pastor has even stepped up on stage.

Can God use AC/DC

So this past week I created a bringback. A bringback is what we use at our church during a gathering to let everyone know that coffee break is over. The topic this particular Sunday was Is There A Hell? So naturally going with the topic the song Highway to Hell by AC/DC came to my mind. As I began to discuss with some people about my idea I got some strange but not too strange reactions. Some people thought that it wouldn't be right to use a song by a band such as this because of their reputation. Others thought that it wouldn't be glorifying to God to use such music. In my simple mind this is where we as Christ followers tend to go over board. This is how I processed it. A bringback is a tool used to let everyone know that it is time to sit down and lead them into what the talk is about. Why should our tools be limited to those that are created by Christians. Does the Holy Spirit work through only material that is tagged as "Christian." I do agree that we should sensor what we put up on screen. Profanity and such material should not be used. But by limiting ourselves in this way we put God into a confining box that he is not in. We limit the ways the people can connect and relate to God. So I've included the bringback. It is is really nothing special but it brought up interesting conversations about how people can connect with God through media. In my role as Tech Team Leader at Cedar Hills I am continually learning about this. I will post more as I continue to process the thoughts and challenges of using media in the church.

Love to Serve

I got to say that I love serving in my local church. I serve as Tech Team Leader at my local church, Cedar Hills Church, and today we had some training on the presentation software that we use. Some how it worked out that I got to take 4 hours off of work and hang out with an unexpected amount of people from the Tech Team, which is always good, and watch some online training classes that were better than expected. Then at rehearsal tonight we apply some of what we learned and accomplished some great things. I know that this is like the euphoria of serving that typically it's more like people didn't show and the computer didn't work so we missed most of everything and the classes were horrible, but I can't help but be excited. Seeing people use the talents that God has given them, and watching them be applied in a practical way is just an exciting thing to see.

Challenge to Grow

Typically in the past my perspective when looking at the course and direction of my life has been me centered. I guess what I mean by that is that when I move or make some change life in general changes for me. I do something then I change. Recently a good friend of mine moved from Idaho to California. Yeah, not the typical move but he's also not the typical dude. And I find myself facing change that was not created by me. I'm not saying that this is a bad thing in fact I think that is good. It is challenging me in more ways than I thought. My friend is following God and I sincerely encourage him in that, he will be missed but once again as he has periodically done in the past he is challenging me to grow. Or I could say God is working through him challenging me to grow. I've had to step up in my leadership which I think is just what I needed. Anyway if your reading this then most likely you are him. Thank you for your guidance, friendship, and challenging me to see myself and others with the potential that God sees.

Just a little bit of snow

If you have been following the weather you know that here in the pacific northwest we are getting slammed with alot of snow. I actually kind of like it. My kids do also.







This is my wife infront of our neighbors house and you can just barely see my youngest daughters head.

Family Ski

We took our girls skiing yesterday. It was Yeo Won's second or third time and Kimberly's first time. They had a great time and they love their pink ski goggles!

leave the bling at the door

So I decided it was time to redo the blog and add some pictures that are a little more recent, but are still old. The new description was inspired from a single friend of mine who recently had a date. Me being the caring sensitive friend that I am decided to help him get as nervous as possible for this encounter. So for Christmas I bought him a huge shiny plastic necklace (I know, I'm cheap) with a huge Bling Bling medallion hanging on it. this got me thinking about what the Bling Bling actually is. What I concluded was that the bling is what we want people to see when they look at us. All those great admirable qualities that put envy on the face of every person you encounter that are really a fancy projection of a low resolution self. Bling is the gleaming smile covering an agonized soul, the enthusiastic "Good!" answered to the half meant "how are you?" How do we function like this? How can we expect to have true relationship with others if we can't get past the impressing shiny plastic and to the core of who we are?