A friend of mine sent me the link to this post and asked whether he thought something like it would be able to fly at OBC – check it out:

A year and a half ago I met a new friend named J-Griff. He has become part of our church and has an amazing gift.

He speaks a different musical language than most of our congregation and I have wanted to use him as part of our worship experiences for a long time, but could never quite muster up the courage. Then I read this post and decided that just because something might fail I have no an excuse not to go for it.

The “this post” he’s referring to is some great thoughts from Tony Morgan on the “new traditional church music” –

Only it’s as if we got stuck in the 80s. While the church still leans on a mix of rock and pop music as the preferred worship genre, our culture has shifted once again. Now, according to iTunes, 1 in 3 of the top 100 songs in the country is either hip-hop/rap or R&B/soul. My guess, though, is that you can’t name a church in the country that’s using these genres of music for worship. Why is that?

Now, before you let your “it’s-not-our-culture” bias set in, consider this. Most of the hip-hop and R&B music has been recorded by black artists. 14% of the U.S. population is black. But, remember, nearly one-third of the music purchased on iTunes is one of these two genres. You do the math. White people like hip-hop.

If you want to hear the recording that inspired this song, check out “One Way” from Soul Survivor 2008 on iTunes here.

What do all of these things have in common?

• fever, which is usually high, but unlike seasonal flu, is sometimes absent
• cough
• runny nose or stuffy nose
• sore throat
• body aches
• headache
• chills
• fatigue or tiredness, which can be extreme
• diarrhea and vomiting, sometimes, but more commonly seen than with seasonal flu

They’re all symptoms of swine flu AND several of them have been ravaging my body for the past few days. I’m definitely on the mend (and no oinking yet!) so I don’t think there’s much cause for concern but it certainly made things interesting this past weekend.

On Saturday morning I got up, felt fine, headed over to the church for breakfast with a bunch of guys and then spent some time with my family at a kids festival in town. By 1:00 we were home and I was totally knocked out by this flu – chills, fever, headache, coughing. I ended up on the couch, not moving until 10:00 or so that night – knowing that I was going to be leading two services the next morning at OBC and feeling pretty confident that I’d be okay to do that.

I drank lots of orange juice and water before going to bed and another full litre of juice the next morning before heading to the church. I can honestly say that I have never led worship feeling the way I did – my head was spinning, a couple of times I had to just step back to catch my breath. During the 9:00 service I sat beside my wife during the message and spent most of it doubled over just trying to get comfortable enough to go back up and lead the closing songs.

In the midst of my great weakness, though, God was definitely honoured. I spoke with lots of people who couldn’t tell that I was sick and told me how moving the service was and how much they enjoyed it.

We are continuing in the series called “Grow UP!” where we’re spending nine weeks on a chunk of verses in 2 Peter which talk about spiritual growth. Earl led us through an exploration of perseverance and godliness and it was clear there were some “aha!” moments for people in the crowd. I think that this series will come out as being one of the most helpful for our people over the last couple of years – lots of good stuff and great content for people to grab on to.

Here’s what our service looked like -

Welcome/Announcements
Call to Worship
Sing to the King – Billy Foote – E (9:00) // You Are – Mark Roach – E (11:00)
Let Everything That Has Breath – Matt Redman – E
Meet & Greet/Offering
Your Love Never Fails – Chris Quilala – G
Responsive Reading – Psalm 118
Tis So Sweet To Trust In Jesus – Hymn – G
Message – Perseverance & Godliness
You Never Let Go – Matt & Beth Redman – Bb
Lord Reign In Me – Brenton Brown – C

A couple things to hilight -

• We switched our opener after the 9:00 service. I thought that “Sing to the King” would give us a good Jesus-focused opening right at the beginning but it didn’t – pulled it out and added “You Are” for 11:00. Much better.
• “Your Love Never Fails” is a new song from Jesus Culture – we’ll give it another couple tries with the congregation before deciding if it’s a keeper or not. Not sure yet.
• That song plus the reading focused on the enduring love of God leading in to “Tis So Sweet” was a really nice section in both services. At 9:00 there was one guy who sounded like he’d been waiting his whole life to sing that hymn and as soon as we started the first line he just let it belt out – awesome! :)

Great weekend – despite my sickness. Couple more weeks of this series and then two weeks of holidays for me – looking forward to all of it!

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You can find more posts like this at my friend Fred’s blog here.

From the Passion website – “Shaping Values”

God’s People
………………………………………………..
We believe that those who have placed their faith in Christ are knit together in one Body, the Church, a distinctive community of faith expressed in local clusters, engaging culture on every front with God’s hope and love… a Church for which Christ will personally return.

Community of Faith
………………………………………………..
The worldwide Body of Christ functions best in localized communities of believers. Seeking to serve the local church, not replace it, is a value that is affirmed by our staff and leadership as they worship and serve within the context of their local fellowships.

Mobilization
………………………………………………..
Believing that God seeks worshippers from all peoples, we desire to inform, challenge, equip and mobilize believers for participation in God’s global purposes among the nations.

Cultural Impact
………………………………………………..
Desiring to see all people worship God in Spirit and truth, we endeavor to engage the culture through creative Biblical communication, one to one sharing of the message of Christ and acts of compassion toward those in need.

If those things ARE in fact shaping values for Passion then why does the lineup for Passion 2010 look like this?

Louie Giglio. David Crowder. Chris Tomlin. Steve Fee. Beth Moore.
Hillsong United. Charlie Hall. Kristian Stanfill. Christy Nockels.

White. White. White. White. White.
White. White. White. White.

To be fair, not included in this graphic are Matt Redman, John Piper and Andy Stanley.

White. White. White.

Sorry Passion – but this is a big fail. If you really ARE serious about local clusters, the worldwide body and all peoples equipped and mobilized then you have a big disconnect with the people you are putting on your stage at this conference.

————————-

UPDATE (08/27/09): This post is starting to get some traffic and I think that will only increase as we get closer to the actual event. Let me be VERY clear that I think Passion is a fantastic, Christ-centred, God-honouring group of people who are doing everything they can to take the gospel to people who need to hear it. This is in NO WAY a slam against Louie Giglio or anyone else in Passion leadership. God has used them and the Passion movement in incredible ways all over the world and I would pray that He would continue to do so for many, many years!

I made it down to Ontario Place in Toronto on Saturday night to spend the evening with 10,000ish friends listening to Hillsong United and Bluetree. The event – a one-day festival put together by Unite Productions – was a big success and everyone really enjoyed themselves.

This was not the first time I’d seen Hillsong United live – they were in Toronto a few years ago and played at a large church in town. They’ve been back a bunch of times since then and have required bigger venues each time. This is the second year they played at Molson Amphitheatre at Ontario Place and the the whole night was great.

We made it down in time to catch the last half of Bluetree’s set. Most of the songs they played were the same from their set in Toronto with Vicky Beeching from last fall, including “God of this City.” The guys are great musicians and learning more and more about playing venues of this size. This is really something they’ve been thrust in to with the Chris Tomlin-induced success of “God of this City” so the band is playing some catch-up when it comes to working a crowd, etc. But, all in all, very solid set from these guys and I’m looking forward to seeing them again.

The always-awkward intermission was next and I’m not exactly sure why the break between bands needed to be 45 minutes but it definitely seemed like the guys on stage (including Hillsong’s youth pastor who made an appearance laster) were just killing time before getting Hillsong United on stage. On a pretty random sidenote, in all of my years of going to concerts I have NEVER been to one attended by a couple who had just been married. Not only did that happen on Saturday at this concert but it also happened at the Michael W. Smith concert in Hamilton last month – two concerts in a row where the bride & groom show up to the concert after being married without even taking the time to get changed. Nevermind the comments about having “better things to do”…

After intermission, the Hillsong United guys finally made it out. The show went pretty much as predicted – 4 or 5 hype songs at the beginning, leading to some more reflective stuff for a while, a quick build leading in to the youth pastor talk, some extended quieter response songs and then ending with the hyped up pump songs. I should have kept a songlist of the show because by the time they were done the band had played for about 3 hours and seemed to just keep going and going!

Hilights of the show for me –

• Joel leading us in the chorus of “The Stand” and looking around at hands and hearts raised to God all over the amphitheatre – thinking about the impact of those lives surrendered to Him
• Jill McCloghry (for everyone who was asking, she was the one in white on the right side of the stage) singing an incredibly beautiful new song (“At The Cross”?) which will apparently be on the new Hillsong Live album.
• Brooke Fraser – that girl could sing the phone book and I’d be mesmerized. I love her voice, her demeanor, how she handles herself on stage – everything. She sang “Desert Song” and “None But Jesus” and also talked about the refining of her faith through struggles. Great wisdom and insight from her – really appreciated it.
• The Hillsong United guys were obviously impacted by the level of engagement of the crowd. They made several comments about loving being in Toronto, their memories of being here and how the Toronto audience was really the first one to “accept them” and make them feel at home away from Australia.

All in all, it was a great night. Big thumbs up to Unite Productions for putting together such a great event. The guys at that company are awesome to work with and I’ll continue to do what I can to support them.

UPDATE: My friend Matt has posted some video of that incredible song from Jill. It’s called “His Glory Appears” – here you go!

Ed Stetzer is coming to Toronto in the fall to be part of a “Church Revitalization” event at Richview Church. If you are in church leadership and interested in the future of the church, you will want to be part of this. Here’s a quick bio blurb with more info on Ed –

ED STETZER has planted churches in New York, Pennsyl-vania, and Georgia and transitioned declining churches in Indiana and Georgia. He has trained pastors and church planters on five continents, holds two masters degrees and two doctorates, and has written dozens of articles and books. He is currently the Director of Lifeway Research and Lifeway’s Missiologist in Residence.

Event details –
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Richview Baptist Church – 1548 Kipling Ave., Etobicoke, ON
416-247-8701
12:00 pm—4:30 pm for Pastors (including lunch)
7:00 pm—9:00 pm for Church Leaders
info@FEBToronto.com

There’s gotta be a sermon illustration in here somewhere!! This article was on the front page of our local paper this week –

Details of this 40-kilometre adventure will never be known, though it’s sure to be a dog-gone good tale.

Exhausted, alone and hungry, Meeko, a four-year-old Orangeville pooch, found her way home after wandering off during a day trip.

She remains tight-lipped about her journey. Meeko offered not a single bark as she laid calmly at her master’s feet while the Jansen family shared the story — what they know of it anyway — of her disappearance and ultimate return.

Eleven days earlier, this laid-back lab cross started on a quest like none she’d known before.

You’ve got to see this. To get a sense of how far this dog actually traveled to get home, check this out –

The distance starts to get impressive once you zoom out on the map. Wow!!

I know that lots of people are looking for more information and for tickets to the Hillsong United event happening in Toronto on Saturday, June 6th. Unite Productions has said that most of the good seats for the United part of the day are sold out but I’ve got a pretty sweet hook-up for you! If you are looking for all day passes at Ontario Place and tickets for the Hillsong United show, leave me a comment on this post and I will reply right away. I’ve got LEVEL 200 (SOLD OUT!) tickets available.

Here are the artists who are playing on Saturday –

Hillsong United
Bluetree
Hello Kelly
Manafest
This Beautiful Republic
Group1Crew
Finochio
Carried Away

That is a pretty sweet line-up of Canadian & international talent. If you are looking for tickets, comment here and I will be in touch. Make sure you include your email address!

This video (God’s Chisel from The Skit Guys) was making the rounds on twitter this week and we were able to use it on Sunday morning at OBC. Normally we never use videos this long but the content, production and delivery was so powerful that we decided to go ahead with it. We are working through a chunk of 2 Peter that is focused on spiritual growth and the push on Sunday morning was that growth isn’t about perfection, it’s about journey. We are often critical about the lack of perceived growth in our lives because we are not perfect in self-control or goodness, etc. The point, however, is that if we are connected to Jesus (John 15) then our lives will bear fruit. Rather than being focused on the character trait we should be focused on our connection with Jesus.

We showed this video right at the end of Earl’s message and it worked beautifully – people laughed at the right spots, nodded in agreement, took deep breaths at the meaningful moments. The impact was significant. Lots of people asked if we could post the video for others to see.

I received an email late last week letting me know that Uxbridge Baptist Church is hiring a full-time worship pastor for their church northeast of Toronto. I know I’ve got some friends who are looking for a worship pastor position so I thought I’d post the info here.

If you are interested in applying, there’s instructions in the job posting which you can see here.