Comments for Worship on Your Face

Comment on Safety vs. Spontaneity by Liz

Liz — Tue, 31 May 2011 03:08:51 +0000

Steven , I’d like to introduce myself. My name is Elizabeth (Liz) Radmore. I met Jana Elliott a few weeks ago. I was/am completey impressed with what she is trying to accomplish~ that you & Michelle had started.
I was raised in Foster Care. I have been searching for years for a way to “give back” being an avid Motorcyclist..I was having a real tough time finding the right platform to gain the interest.
I can attest to the fact that Foster care is typically Not nice…& very uncomfortable for All involved ( I am understating here)..anyway if if wasn’t for the love of just ONE person, I would have not survived.My Foster Mother literally saved my life.
So i want to express my gratitude for what you began,,,what Jana is running with & what I HOPE to become a strong leader for/with.

Comment on Daring Communities of Truth by Steven

Steven — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 18:20:19 +0000

Thanks for your response Kim. While I do agree with you that in practicality, this would work better in a small group, I’m not trying to talk about practicality here. Rather, I am trying to say that this would be the ideal in Christ that we should be striving for as His body (the Church). We may not be able to get there because of the exact points that you bring up, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. (Even the quote from the Winner’s book suggests doing this in a small group rather than church-wide.)

Maybe a good start would be small groups of 2-3 people being rigorously honest with one another. I would rejoice to see what God could do with even that kind REAL community. The problem is, even small groups (or individual friendships) like that are the exception and not the rule these days. Blessings.

Comment on Daring Communities of Truth by Kim Huntley

Kim Huntley — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 18:06:54 +0000

It seems that the community you speak of is more easily found between two or three close friends, who can function as one anothers’ accountability partners in the areas of their lives in which they struggle, and can love one another despite sometimes painful honesty. The larger the group, the less detail we want to share, perhaps because we all struggle with the temptations inherent in knowing very private information about others, including the temptation to gossip, to judge, or to use others’ sins to rationalize our own, thus making humans our standard instead of Christ, who is THE standard.

God’s blessings to you and your family as you begin your ministry at Ecclesia.

Comment on The Wisdom of Stability (review) by Stan Dotson

Stan Dotson — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 21:54:12 +0000

Hey Steven, thanks for the review. I still need to get the book and I look forward to getting to know this author. I was thinking about the age-old tension humans have had between the settled community and the nomadic life. Wendell Berry versus Salman Rushdie (have you read his book of essays, Imaginary Homelands, which celebrate the virtues of the unsettled life?). I certainly resonate with the settled side of life, but I also understand that it is not the only way to experience community. I’m learning the tools of social networking, in hopes that they can actually be useful in my quest for the settled life. Whenever I feel technophobe feelings rising, lamenting how the new networking is liable to have a deleterious effect on community, I remember that they said the same thing about the printing press (people would hole up with a book instead of visiting with each other). Anyhow, thanks again for the post.

Comment on Poetic Hermeneutics by Stan Dotson

Stan Dotson — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 11:01:48 +0000

Lovely! It reminds me of Pablo Neruda’s poem, Poesia, in which he describes what happened to him as a youth when he wrote his first poem. “Something ignited in my soul” he said. Verse is a powerful force. And I appreciate the way you call us to see the poetry of scripture.

Comment on Leadership Transparency by Stan Dotson

Stan Dotson — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 10:58:55 +0000

Yes, I suspect this discomfort with the institutional role is shared by m any seminary trained folk. I certainly remember this being a lively conversation and challenge to the system of education when I was in Loulsville. I’m glad you have the perspective you do, and I will certainly pray for you to withstand the insitutional tempter while at Ecclesia. I like the “living transcript” image. When I was at Mars Hill, I did some curriculum development with faculty on the core humanities courses they required, and my contribution was to add “living text” to the list of required reading, with an explanation of how important it is to become literate in your own experience.

Comment on Leadership Transparency by Steven

Steven — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 21:42:03 +0000

Thanks Stan for your concern/comment. In all fairness, taking a small section out of a 200 page book will never do it justice and can cause confusion anytime a text is quoted out of the full context. Given the context out of which Rasmus entered the ministry and the particular ministry at St. John’s UMC that he entered, it might make these statements a little more understandable/believable. That said, however, I fear the “professionalization” that characterizes so many ministry positions (though I fully recognize my own complicity in this as a paid pastor). There is a certain “professional distance” that comes from the current methods of clergy training that has diminished the level of community that can truly develop between pastor and congregation. Without this community, how can a faith community rightly interpret the Holy Text when much of the “hidden transcript” (to use James C. Scott’s term) remains hidden? This “hidden transcript” often makes pivotal judgements that radically alter our interpretation of the text, yet the community has no insight into this due to the “professional distance” required of pastors in certain schools of thought. This I find regrettable and is the main point that I was trying to make here.

Comment on Leadership Transparency by Stan Dotson

Stan Dotson — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 15:39:51 +0000

Hey Steven, I’m enjoying reading the blogs. One comment on Rudy Rasmus’ statements–I find it pretty unlikely that anybody can truthfully say that they have no secrets and that their wounds are visible to all. I think he probably needs another unit of CPE to overcome those fantasies! As much as I value transparency, I don’t think communities of faith want or need somebody that see-through. Good leadership, it seems to me, means being authentically human, which means having some secrets and some hidden wounds. Just a thought.

Comment on Corporate Lyrics by Doug Thorsvik

Doug Thorsvik — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 23:29:03 +0000

Excellent thoughts; I share your concerns. I referenced your blog entry in my latest blog and just wanted to let you know: http://strategicsongselection.blogspot.com/2009/08/i-trouble-we-i-balance-in-corporate.html

Comment on Worship – Who exactly are we addressing? by Doug Thorsvik

Doug Thorsvik — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 01:51:53 +0000

StevenI'm glad you broadened your definition of worship in your comment. I believe when we are singing a bold testimony about our faith "We Believe" by Graham Kendrick, God is honored and therefore is worshiped even though the song is not directed to God.You said "we need to think about our songs and the role we are expecting them to play in our worship." and I couldn't agree more. I think there is a tendency to put song sets together based on theme, key, tempo, style and without any real consideration of balancing the content of the songs. "I" songs have their place, but for congregational worship "We" songs probably need a more consistent presence to remind everyone we are a worshipping community not just individual worshippers doing our own thing. I know this is an area we need to work on in our worshipping community.You said "these songs become a part of people’s lives". What a significant responsibility! Doug