And God was praised...in silence

When was the last time you experienced silence? Where you intentionally (and not just before bed) turned off the radio...turned off HGTV (all that we watch these days)...took out the ipod...turned off the cell phone...and had quiet.

Noise is all around us. We create noise all around us. Even in places where people try and be silent they can't help but make noise.

Not all noise is bad...sometimes it can lead us into praise and joy. But a lot of times noiese can block us from hearing God.

Are the noises in your life so loud that you can't hear God?

On Sunday we had another Experience God Sunday. The high school and middle school groups joined together to experience God in a unique way. This time they were led in a silent devotion.

We led it from the big screen typing out the words as opposed to saying them...we needed silence. It turned out to be really cool, sort of like the kids were reading a text or IM or something. And they were silent. And they studied the word of God, and worshipped and praised Him through mini journals.

And God was praised...in silence.

much Love,

Johnny

Experience God Sunday...express this!

This past Sunday we had an Experience God Sunday. For those of you who don't know...we take the last Sunday of the month off from teaching, combine the two age groups, and try to experience God in a fresh new way. This week was through expressions.

The kids had the opportunity to express how they felt to God via different crafts throughout the youth wing. We had painting (on real canvas!), we had songwriting/poetry (really poetry, but songwriting sounds more manly), we had clay for molding, we had a cool magnet like wall with a ton of words on it and kids could move them around to make sentences (scrabble praise?), and we had a community collage (on a really big canvas!). These were great avenues to experience God in fresh ways!

On top of these options the kids were "required/encouraged" to do two more things. They all wrote a letter to themselves that will be delivered to them in one year. They were to challenge themselves, and write down where they are spiritually...and in one year they will look back and hopefully have changed. The second "required/encouraged" station was a video journal. We asked the kids to answer one question in front of the camera, where we will make a cool montage out of all the answers. The question was "How have you seen God work in the past year?"

It all turned out great! Check out these sweet photos!





















much Love,
johnny

Experience God Sundays

Yesterday we had our first "Experience God" Sunday at CrossTalk (our catchy name for sunday school). Scott and I thought it would be cool to bring the students together once a month to experience God in a new and unique way.

I thought yesterday was great. We wanted to experience God through Worshiping Him with singing. Sounds unique doesn't it? Well, we did it a little different than you might be thinking. It was set up as a "Worship through the Ages" and we looked at how people praised God through song in Jesus' day (or how we think the chant sounded), we then looked at what singing praises to God looked like for the monks. Thanks to Nate Cripps for showing us how Gregorian Chant would have sounded like, and even explaining the latin you were chanting.

We then moved on to more familiar territory. We sang old hymns. Starting back in 1707 we sang a song that has been praising God for over three hundred years. Very cool! We moved from hymns to the spiritual songs/hymns of the 19th century, then went right into the awesome 80's! Shine Jesus Shine still has a special place in my heart, a place that I don't like to think of very often...which takes us to the point of the day. God can be praised, even if we don't like the style of song we are singing.

Let me say it again. God can be praised, even if we don't like the style of music.

That is something that plagues our churches here in America! That is something that plagues our church at Believers Fellowship, starting with me. I need to remember that when I sing to God, it is about Him. It is about praising Him, and not about pleasing me or my favorite style (which is early 90's white Christian rap ie. DC Talk style).

So next time you go to church, and there is worship through singing, try to praise God even if you don't like that music.

Look for more "Experience God" Sundays on the last Sunday of every month. It will bring a fresh view of God as we experience Him in a different way every month.

much Love,
Johnny