1:35 am
Volunteer Holocaust…a term that Chris Moncus coined (and graciously let me use in my blog before he used it in his own…thanks Chris!), but a concept that I have been ranting about for nearly 3 years now.
We were having a discussion about how you have to come to the point where you must accept things, and people, for how they are, and focus on the things you can change, and let go of the things you can’t (for you people who read these blogs in order, this concept will sound familiar…). For both of us, one of the things that we must make ourselves move away from, is our home churches back in Georgia. We, for a short period of time, went to the same church, but most of our time was spent at two separate churches. Those two churches however, shared similar denomination, relative church size, ideas, politics, and lack of vision.
Here are my own thoughts…these ideas are not endorsed by any other church or business or organization; they are purely my own observation. I have been in the church since birth nearly. As I have gotten older, I have worked with DOZENS of churches for various reasons, one of which I work at now. Growing up in Georgia (which is the heart of the Bible belt), going to church is what you do, period. It doesn’t matter why, it doesn’t matter what you do when you get there, it doesn’t matter what you did the night before you went there…It is engrained into the southern way of life…On Sunday’s, you go to church before lunch…and that’s how it is. I think it is that mentality, which has created the downfall of the East Coast churches. It affects everybody….church members don’t feel pressured to step out of their comfort zone, church staff live comfortably with the lack of motivation in their church….church members don’t get involved in ministry…and church staff complain about how little they are getting in tithes. Life has always been this way for them…they don’t know any better…..they don’t know it doesn’t have to be that way….and sadly….that don’t even realize that it SHOULDN’T be that way.
The churches where Chris and I came from were very focused on what I call, “playing church”. It reminds me of being a kid, and moving my spinach around on the plate, just to make it look like I was doing something…like I was making some sort of progress. That’s what our churches did…and continue to do. They aren’t making much headway…they are simply moving pieces around, causing enough of a stir to look like they are doing something, so they can feel better about themselves. They start a fundraiser, but come in several thousand dollars short, because of the lack of vision. They want a projection system, but don’t believe it’s worth the money, and refuse to do it right. They are considering selling their land right now, to move out to a different part of the city…they have contacted some cheap architect, who is more concerned about decorations, and giving the church a cookie-cutter building, instead of finding someone who is right for them, and who will design a building that is functional, and will give them what they need.
I could spend the next two hours going through COUNTLESS things that both of our churches make terrible, COSTLY decisions with, but that’s not the point. The point is that these churches have TONS of potential…it’s nearly dead at this point, like a tumor on the body of Christ, the unused potential is actually weighing them down, instead of lifting them up.
Those churches have several hundred members each, and each of those members having SOME type of gift, skill, or talent to offer. But both of our old churches, for whatever reason, refuse to listen to, or utilize those people. Instead, they continue to do their own thing, because they (the leadership) think it’s a good idea…or in an even worse case scenario, they listen to the wrong people, and follow their lead. They are slowly squashing out every serving opportunity available inside the church. They are annihilating the environment for people to connect through serving, therefore annihilating the number of people who serve, THEREFORE pushing people away from the church, and leaving all of the serving opportunities to a select few…which is how church dictatorships start. At my old church, there is a lady there who nobody likes really, and 90% would agree that she has her hands in too many things….but nobody will say anything. I would be willing to bet, that it’s because they don’t want to fill her shoes.
Serving is a vital and NECESSARY part of a person’s spiritual growth. For a church to not provide that opportunity, they are setting a double standard, because they preach how people should get closer to God, but they don’t allow that chance. I know my old church has created an atmosphere, where you serve because you have to, or they pressure you into doing something. I know someone there who always uses the “I deserve_____, I have taught Sunday School for 10 years”. Do yourself and everyone else a favor….Quit teaching today. You aren’t teaching for the church….you aren’t teaching for the people in your class…..you are teaching for you….because you have been called to do it. If you think that you deserve a reserved parking space because of it, get over yourself. The second you expect something in return is the second you are wrong. Shame on you for carrying that thought around, and shame on the church for letting you harbor it. I know others that serve because they feel obligated to, because they are “filling a hole”. Again, serving is not about what you are doing, or the task at hand; the task at hand is about allowing the opportunity to serve. Again, shame on the church for putting the focus on the task. It’s not about that.
So, in the defense of the church, maybe they just haven’t been told what is right, or better to do. Maybe, if someone with experience or something to offer that they NEED were to come to them, they would accept the help…because it’s all about advancing the Kingdom, right? Wrong. I have nearly 15 years of technical experience inside the church; Chris has several years to offer his church as well. For years now, we have been trying to get them to listen….we ARE the people they are trying to reach…and we are offering to give them the keys to reaching our generation of people. Yet, they refuse. It’s not what they have always done. It’s not conventional. It’s not comfortable. It’s not what THEY think is right, so it must not be. Despite the experience we may be able to offer them, they refuse it.
Volunteer Holocaust was the term that started this thought process in me…and it’s right on the money…the churches are annihilating and alienating their members, and their abilities….these churches are killing themselves.
As you can imagine, it’s hard for us to swallow sometimes. Churches that we spent COUNTLESS hours in, trying to make it the best we could, with what we had to offer. To leave, and see that they have trampled over what little mark we may have had, and they aren’t looking back….and refuse to look forward….is sad. They are stuck in their ways, and there is nothing Chris or I can do about it. So what do we do? We look at the resources and potential that Canyon Ridge has, and we are immediately blessed and thankful to be out of the misery of our old stagnant churches. Canyon Ridge treats their volunteers LIGHT YEARS better than our old churches….and better than that….they are always looking at how to do it better. What a place to be. If only other churches could get a glimpse of how it is supposed to be….
I very purposely do not ever mention specific church names or denominations, just because I am not interested in slamming peoples name….but I’ve gotta get this out…
Southern Baptist Churches (specifically the ones I was involved with), you guys have MISSED THE BOAT. You are focusing on the wrong things. Nobody cares about your green carpet….they would rather see and hear better. They don’t care that the pulpit is solid Oak….they just don’t care. They don’t want to be preached to, they want to be taught. Doing it halfway IS NOT better than not doing it at all. Serving isn’t about you making yourself feel good. Having your seat every week in your pew is selfish. The church is about being relevant. As Mitch, my boss has said, “the church as a whole is about seeking the lost, NOT pacifying the saved”. We as the church leadership aren’t here to make the saved people happy, and sing 16th Century songs until we are blue in the face….we are here to connect to the 21st Century in 21st Century ways.
Churches!! Get over yourselves, and stop the Annihilation…it’s making the body of Christ look bad, and it’s killing us all….
12:01 am
Joy.
We’ve all wanted it. Most of us have had it. We all need it. But what is it?
I think the term has a little ambiguity to it…The dictionary defines it as “Intense happiness”. But, what does that mean? Where does it come from? I recently had this conversation, or at least a piece of it, with a very good friend of mine, and that conversation sparked a deeper thought on the subject, and consequently, this blog. The premise of our conversation was that they (the person I was talking to) were having a hard time in a couple areas of their life, and that resulted in them not having fun in places where they should, and not enjoying the things that were supposed to be fun. In the midst of the conversation, this one comment brought to me a realization that, until they said it, I had never considered it.
“I once had joy….and I let something steal it from me.” A thought we have probably ALL felt before, at some point or another. But just as they said that, I instantly, without planning to, began to think about what they had just said. The sentence itself is actually very smart….to identify that you had something, and that you let something, or someone, or some circumstance take it away from you, is a very smart thought. The person I was talking to is EXTREMELY intelligent, so it didn’t strike me at first. But then my mind began to race, and that race brought me to this blog. Nehemiah said “Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength” (8:10). It is in Him that we find our joy as Christians. Are there times when being a Christian is hard? Of course….in fact, every day that we live where it isn’t hard, means we may be too comfortable in being inactive, or complacent with living in the background. As Chris Moncus has said, we need to enjoy the “easy” times as Christians, because they are rare…but we have to make sure that we aren’t negligent to the point of keeping ourselves there. Trials are hard…they are no fun. But it is what you do with them that make up who you are. The Bible says in John “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (10:10). The devil is ALWAYS looking for an “in” when it comes to Christian and their lives…I think this is especially true for those who are really doing a great work, or have the potential to do great work, for God. The devil will use people, or situations, or circumstances that you can’t control, and try to make you lose faith in Christ. Not your overall acceptance of Jesus, but your faith that he is really running the show. In another conversation I had, with a different person, they were sharing how in the last couple of weeks, they had a hard time at work…things weren’t going well for them, because there were several problems that were beyond their control to fix, that were standing in the way in their job. To make matters worse, it wasn’t that they couldn’t fix the problems because they didn’t have the ability to….they did….it’s that they weren’t allowed the opportunity to. It was this stalemate that made their job so frustrating. They realized one day, that you can’t worry about things you can’t change. Sometimes circumstances just are what they are, and you have to accept them, and learn how to best utilize them. After that, they began to work with what they had…they did the best they could, and God’s glory was revealed, even in the midst of things not being “right”. They are now really happy in their job, because they realized it’s not about the details, it’s about Christ, and making an impact for Him, DESPITE the pitfalls of life. Was it, and does is still continue to be a journey? Yes. So, maybe it’s not so much that you had joy, and someone stole it from you….but maybe it was God’s Joy, and you stole it. It’s so easy to get into the human state of mind, where we fret about how things are going to turn out, or how things could be better, or whatever… But sometimes, God is putting us in the situations He is, because He wants to show us something….He wants us to stop worrying, focus, and find His joy that WE misplaced. He isn’t moving, He is leaving, and He’s not going to let us fall. We have to realize that our mission is to “Seek and Save the Lost” (Luke 19:10). The odds might not always be in our favor, but we have to know, that God has specifically placed us in the positions that we are in. We are here, to offer our talents, our skills, and our abilities to further His kingdom, and bring glory to His name. The Bible says “For the LORD your God will bless you in all your harvest and in all the work of your hands, and your joy will be complete.” (Deut. 16:15). We can’t get caught up in the crummy details that Satan tries to put in our lives, because that is how he wins….We have to constantly remind ourselves that we, as Christians, are always in this together, hopefully giving it the best we can, all for one common purpose…to seek and save the lost.
Don’t let the Devil steal God’s joy from you…Serving Christ should be fun, exciting, and fulfilling every second we are in His presence. As soon as we feel obligated to serve, or that we have to serve, the Devil has won. "I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first." (Rev. 2:4-5)
Today’s Disambiguation? Joy equals Christ. Period. It comes from Christ. It IS Christ. And Christ equals Love….and Love equals Patience, Kindness, Thoughtfulness, and a host of other characteristics (1Cor. 13:4). There is nothing confusing about that. Keep God’s joy close to your heart, and guard it. He will bless you for it.
I want to leave you with the lyrics to a Shane Barnard song, “Received”. I encourage you to find it somewhere, and listen to it. I hope you enjoy.
you can only go so far, until the bottom falls out
all my singing, smiling, pleasure finds me, I’m all right
pretty melody, dedicated to God
to be called by one Almighty God and take it for granted
heard a rumor I guess, but I wanna know who told me so
told me serving You replaced me knowing You!
Can I be received?
unclean oh Lord am I
find me in my shame
You are all I need
please don’t pass me by
I call upon Your name
You whispered to Your child today
but I haven’t got a minute to listen
Your child is busy with the work of God and taking Him for granted
got a lot to do today, kingdom work’s the game I play
Lord my serving You replaced me knowing You
can I be received?
unclean oh Lord am I
find me in my shame
You are all I need
please don’t pass me by
I call upon Your name
10:06 pm
Ok, it’s that time again….time for a blog….but, because I’m not all that original, I am again going to rip something off from a book that I wrote a while back….Send your complaints to 888-465-9177….
It is important to realize that you must have a set philosophy in your technical ministry. Just as your church has an overall mission statement and philosophy, I believe each ministry area should also have individual goals set in order to accomplish the overall goal. This is just as true for the technical ministry as it is for Sunday School. Having a philosophy and a set of values that covers what you want to accomplish will help give your volunteers something to work towards every week. Otherwise, they are just stuck in the monotony of doing the same thing over and over, with no clear vision…and they feel that they are merely “Button Pushers”. Even technical crews that aren’t in the church arena have a mission and philosophy about what they do. I had the pleasure of taking a backstage private tour of the Coliseum at Caesar’s Palace where Celene Dion performs in Vegas. That is the largest grossing and most popular show on the strip right now. And as you can imagine, they aren’t singing any hymns. But after talking with their technical guys and the producers, I realized that they too have a very strict philosophy about what they do. They demand excellent quality gear, and excellent quality people to run it. The show has to be flawless, and the audience can never think about any of the technical aspects of the show. Now granted, when you see a flying dancer zipping across the stage, your wheels will start turning, but the grassroots level of technology is never an issue. They want to make sure you get the message seamlessly every time.
Now while we aren’t putting on a show, and we aren’t charging admission, we are conveying a much more important message than Celene Dion ever does any night of the week: The message of Salvation. And for that reason, if nothing else, we should have as strict philosophy about what we expect from ourselves. In almost all venues, whether it is churches or not, the Technical Director for that particular venue will tell you that the philosophy of the technical department is to provide seamless and transparent technology. Transparent is not a word that is used a lot in the world of technology, but I think it is one that should sum up the entire existence of technology within the church. If you go to a rock concert, they want you to see the huge stacks of speakers, and the cables running everywhere. They want you to see the lights moving in patterns, and the pyrotechnics. But when people come to church, they want to hear God speak through message and song. Our job in the church sound booth is to bring that experience to them as efficiently and clearly as we can- maybe even using the same stuff they use in the rock show, but with more tact and grace, so that we don’t hinder or cover up what God is doing.
There is a church that I worked with doing some audio stuff a few years ago, and I call one of the congregation members every once in a while to see how things are going. Since I was there, some teams have rotated out, so it’s almost a completely new team from what started when I was there. I asked how the technical things are going there. I always get one of the following two responses: “It wasn’t as bad as it normally is” or, “It was even worse than usual”. While on of these statements sounds better than the other- the fact is that the church is only varying from one degree of insufficiency to another. It’s not that any of their technicians are idiots (I don’t think); it’s that they have nothing to strive for there. They don’t realize the negative impact on a first time visitor when the singer walks up and their microphone doesn’t come on until about 45 seconds into their song. When this happens, everyone in the room has turned their thoughts from enjoying the song, to “what is wrong with them!?” In an instant, the transparency is shattered and the mood that was set is long gone. Having a philosophy of Transparent Technology, and giving forth the due diligence could have saved that moment.
I’m sure by now you can see how Due Diligence and Excellence are both key players (right up there with the organist) in the church. You may ask why they are so important. I have had many people tell me that having such high standards gives the appearance of being too rehearsed and showy; or even too fake. To that I say this: There are many people out there in the world who don’t care about church, or don’t take it seriously because they expect second-rate ‘performance’. Churches for decades have been given that bad rap (worse than vanilla ice), with the accusations covering everything in the church from second-rate music, to poorly executed dramas. In order to get people out of that mindset, you actually have to do something that will question their stance. You will never see a box office smash filmed with a Radio Shack camera, and costumes made out of bed sheets. So why should you expect to see that at a church? You never go to a concert to hear a poorly assembled band. So why is that many times the case in church? Are we not conveying a much more important message? Are we not trying to somehow convey the excellence and perfection of God through what we do? Of course we are! And YES, that might mean you have to fork out a little more money to buy nicer stuff, or put more time into an event to ensure its success, but you will never find a lost soul walk into the church with a price tag around their neck (Minnie Pearl is long gone)…and I don’t think it’s our job to put one there. The days of the church producing second-rate material are fast fading. I pray that we never let ourselves get in the way of what God is doing. He has always provided, through the rough times and the good. He’s not about the stop now……
10:06 pm
I am intimately involved with the construction program at our church, which is going along quite nicely. I would dare to say that I know more about many of the inside details than most anyone else….this comes from my involvement in the design of all of the Audio, Video, and Lighting systems for the project. This isn’t my first design job though, I have designed AV system for churches all over, probably 25-30 total. My old church is again, starting to build another building, and I am just waiting for the call…..but there are so many church that have the whole PURPOSE of this building thing wrong. If you care nothing about WHY churches are built the way they are, feel free to disregard this blog….but know, it’s not called "The Rant" for nothing. This comes from recent annoyances as i work with other churches….because I see what we are doing, and I know it can be done right…
I call it Architectural Oblivion. Many churches almost seem to worship their building more than anything else. I know of a church that was built for about 2 years before there were ever allowed to put nails in the wall or even bring drinking water in the building. They went as far as to lock rooms that weren’t being used just so the carpet wouldn’t get footprints. In a sense, I get the idea. The church is supposed to be God’s house, and we should respect the reverence and beauty of the building. But where do you draw the line? When is it protecting the building, and when is it prohibiting ministry? If you have to nail something up to help aid in teaching someone about Christ, who’s place is it to say “No” to that? The church exists to Seek and Save the Lost, so by hindering a ministry from using all of their potential, you are hindering the very thing that we as a church are here to do…and the very reason the building was built in the first place…..And if it’s all the same to you, I don’t want to be the guy explaining to God why we couldn’t put a nail in the wall. At that same church, the music minister almost got fired for putting an additional monitor on stage for the band to hear better. The other staff and deacons said it was too messy looking, and demanded that he take it down. To me, this is such a sad place to be. Technology is a ministry all its own, but it exists to facilitate other church ministries- especially a music ministry. The church building itself wasn’t built to be worshiped, nor even dare I say for God to live in. God lives in the hearts of people; the building is merely a place for Christians to come together and worship, learn, and fellowship with others. For that reason, worship centers should be built with one thing in mind- an optimal hearing and seeing experience- So that nothing can distract from what is happening in the service. Having said that, consider this- is it more important to have one less monitor on stage, so that everything looks tidy and proper, or more important that the musicians hear themselves, so that they play better, and don’t take anything away form the worship experience? To me, the answer is obvious. Even if the answer is a compromise, keeping the monitor, but bringing the band closer to shorten cable runs. Yet unfortunately, some people are still more concerned about their pretty carpet. This is one of the technical obstacles you come across in some (dare I say many) churches, and it’s sad…
Doug Parks and the Construction Team have done a tremendous job making sure that every square inch of our campus says Love… It is truely going to be a palce to have un-inhibited encounters
with God. I am so excited for those of you who are from Vegas, to see this place when it’s totally done….Functional, Fun, and safe for everyone…it’s going to be great…..I am proud to say that because of these guys, we AREN’T going to be one of those churches above….
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