Tag Archives: worship

Sunday Six-Pack (36)

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Saturday escaped me one more time, but here is the latest Six-Pack.

The best ministry-minded or faith-focused articles I could find this week? Here they are, with some grace space for a bit of who-knows-what.

If six options stuns you, start with my two *Picks of the Week*, and pick up steam from there.

For a steady stream of such links, follow me on Twitter ( @JasonBandura ) to the right of this post.  Sharp quotes and solid articles are tweeted 3-4 times daily.

Today’s edition:

1) Autopsy of a Deceased Church (*PICK OF THE WEEK*)
Thom Rainer’s most popular post last week was this piece of post-mortem analysis on a church that he had sadly predicted would die.

2) 42 Leadership Lessons from a Disney Executive
Brian Dodd put together this best-of, point-form review as he listened to Disney’s Brian White (also a church elder) present at the Orange Conference.

3) Fired
In this recent Leadership Journal piece, Nathan Kilgore shares a few lessons he’s learned through an abrupt move from pulpit to pew.

4) Why Traditional Churches Should Stick with Traditional Worship…if They’re Content with Dying a Slow Death
Every church, regardless of heritage or style, will need to figure out how it expresses its corporate worship, and why it chooses that particular expression. Adam Walker Cleaveland interacts with a few recent posts to highlight why he thinks this is so important.

5) The Outside View of a Former Church Insider (*PICK OF THE WEEK*)
Shaun King was wrapped in roles of ministry, serving as pastor and church planter, back into his teenaged years. An unforeseen exit at age 29 put him in the unfamiliar role of church outsider. From there, he’s made at least ten insightful observations.

6) Jerry Seinfeld’s Productivity Secret
Anyone who has ever desired to “get in a groove” will be intrigued by this simple move that kept Seinfeld on track when he was still a struggling-to-make-it comic.

Blessings on you, my friends.  May the week ahead be filled with God in ways that you can sense. Tune yourself in, and walk on!

YOUR TURN: Add a line below to direct other readers to the best stuff above or to highlight the piece that gave you something worth keeping.

Your input makes this post better!

[You can subscribe to this blog via RSS or email, in the upper right corner of this page.]

Saturday Six-Pack (21)

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Leaning heavily on the adage “better late than never”, I give you this week’s Saturday Six-Pack… on Tuesday!

The perk? Only five days to the next half-dozen online offerings.

As usual, these articles are mostly faith-focused or ministry-geared, with a bit of disorderly-pile-of-who-knows-what tossed in!

If you need help starting, begin with my two *Picks of the Week*, and move from there.

For a steady stream of such links, follow me on Twitter ( @JasonBandura ) to the right of this post.  Sharp quotes and solid articles are tweeted 3-4 times daily.

Today’s edition:

1) The Bonds of Freedom
There is great paradox within the Christian understanding of freedom.  This piece from Christianity Today‘s Roger Olson fleshes out the tensions that differentiate Christian freedom from the version many of us fantasize about.

2) Tracking Wonder and Making More Time to Create
This non-Christian piece from Psychology Today was my morning call to prayer.  If you need more time for living, your next move is worship.  At least, that is what I read.  For the original statement, click the link above.

3) Great Quotes on Great Leadership (*PICK OF THE WEEK*)
Anyone who knows me knows that I love a great quote. Tim Challies offers this list of the best bits he found in Albert Mohler’s book, “The Conviction to Lead.” (He reviews the book, which he calls “probably the best book on leadership I’ve ever read” HERE.)

4) You Asked: Does the Bible Separate Salvation from Baptism?
This brief but balanced response is offered by the Gospel Coalition to a question received from a reader, a question relevant to the whole of the Christian community, and helpfully clarifying to my Churches of Christ heritage, whose views get unnamed mention in this piece.

5) Why Should We Care About Advent? (*PICK OF THE WEEK*)
In regard to Advent, there’s one question that trips up more Evangelicals than any other: “Why bother?”  Elliot Grudem, for the Resurgence, offers a handful of solid reasons on why the pre-Christmas season of Advent is full of power and potential.

6) Top Ten Gandhi Inspirational Quotes
I have long loved Gandhi. I have long loved quotes.  This LifeHack offering seemed like a no-lose way to close this installment of the Six-Pack.

May your week be full of awareness and enjoyment of the God who already fills it with Himself and every good thing.  Blessings on you, my friends.

YOUR TURN: Direct other readers to the best stuff with a comment below, or weigh in on what you read.  Your input makes this post better!

[You can subscribe to this blog via RSS or email, in the upper right corner of this page.]

Brokenness Aside

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My Twitter feed served up this devotional based on the song “Brokenness Aside” by All Sons & Daughters.  I only skimmed the article, but I have soaked in the song on numerous occasions.  Inspired by the concept, I offer the following reflections birthed from this artful piece of worship.

These touching lyrics are below, and if the song is unknown to you, then THIS will help you “feel it”.

Brokenness Aside
Leslie Jordan and David Leonard

Will your grace run out
If I let you down
‘Cause all I know
Is how to run

‘Cause I am a sinner
If it’s not one thing its another
Caught up in words
Tangled in lies
You are the Savior
And you take brokenness aside
And make it beautiful
Beautiful

Will you call me child
When I tell you lies
Cause all I know
Is how to cry

CHORUS

“Will your grace run out if I let you down?  ‘Cause all I know is how to run.”

I lived in a state of fear for years, certain that God’s nature must be as fickle as mine.  In my finest moments, perhaps I am courageously consistent, steadily stepping toward God.  But how few are my finest moments!  The vast majority of moments involve failure to meet even my own lax standards, let alone the brilliantly holy nature of the One Without Beginning or End.  Wearied myself by my inconsistency and unfaithfulness, it seemed only logical to conclude that God must sigh an exhausted sigh every time I returned in need-filled prayer.  Stumbling the same path repeatedly was furiously frustrating to me, yet apparently it was not frustrating enough, as I was apt to be there again the next day.  Every taste of personal disappointment worked to foster in me a belief that God’s dominant emotion toward me must be, at best, an obligated kindness.  I mean, I would be frustrated enough to give up on such weakness.  Surely God would too.

How pleasant to be woefully wrong about Him!

Will you call me child when I tell you lies? ‘Cause all I know Is how to cry.”

What a joy to sense God speaking over me as “His son”.  The acceptance of the Father is staggeringly hard to accept.  Truthfulness is so foreign to our crooked-to-the-core natures.  Love freely given makes a mockery of the merit-based systems that we so proudly function within.  Surely God cannot maintain His affection and commitment toward children so quick to compromise, so prone to wander.  And yet, PRAISE GOD, He does, for His faithfulness is based upon the integrity of His being rather than than the fragmented states of the rest of us.

And that is indeed very Good News.

‘Cause I am a sinner
If it’s not one thing its another
Caught up in words
Tangled in lies
You are the Savior
And you take brokenness aside
And make it beautiful
Beautiful

The distortion runs deep within us.  The moment we shore up one gap, we create another.  There is simply not enough wholeness within us to cover up our brokenness, not enough fabric to hide the nakedness.  Yet God, the Abundant One, wades into the depths of our deception, cuts the cords that bind, and miraculously brings beauty from ashes.  From Genesis 1 onward, the Spirit of God hovers over formless voids of darkness, shaping them into conditions that sustain thriving and God-honouring life.  There is One striving to work such wonders in every life today, and Yahweh is His name.  You can be certain that He is hovering over life as you know it today.

If you haven’t yet heard “Brokenness Aside”, then let your soul be fed by clicking below.

Peace on you today, my friends.

Miserere Mei, Deus

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The above title is Latin for “Have mercy on me, O God,” a phrase from Psalm 51.

It is also the title of a stunningly beautiful piece of music composed by Gregorio Allegri sometime around the 1630’s.  It was intended for exclusive use in the Sistine Chapel during the morning services of Holy Week.  These services typically began around 3:00 AM, and during the rituals, candles would be extinguished until only one remained.

At some point, it became forbidden to transcribe this music and was allowed to be performed only at the services described above, adding to the mystery surrounding it.  However, in 1770, a fourteen-year-old Mozart was visiting Rome.  Hearing the piece for the first time during the Wednesday morning service, he left the chapel to write it down from memory.  It is said that he returned on Friday for a second listen to make some minor revisions.  He published the piece a year later, effectively ending the “ban” and earning him surprising praise from the Pope, who was understandably astounded at the musical genius before him.

When your schedule today will fifteen minutes of listening, press “play” on the video below and be blessed by this once mysterious, ever-majestic creation, dedicated to the Creator and Redeemer of all.