SHINE Lesson for December 30, 2007 - delivered by Brian Beasley
Feel free to right-click and select Save Target As… to download to your computer, or simply hit the small button to the left of the title to play!
This is part four in what will become a series of posts following the creation and evolution of SHINE, a contemporary worship service at Glenwood Presbyterian Church. You can find the table of contents here.
On May 2, 2006, Christian Endeavor practiced for the first time. At that time, it was just me, my wife Jeana, and our fearless drummer Kevin. The plan was to get a couple of songs together for our first public spectacle/performance after a Sunday evening worship service on June 25, 2006. Kevin brought along a Strawberry Shortcake tape recorder/singing machine to record our efforts (its unclear as to whether his daughter Sarah actually gave permission for the use of her equipment for this.) And we had an audience of sorts - Debbie had come to babysit our children, and Kevin’s wife Jennifer and mother-in-law Sylvia were present as well. No one quite knew what to expect, but things went relatively well.
To: Brian and Debbie
From: Kevin
May 4, 2006
Subject: CE — The Good, The Bad (and the Ugly)Hi gang,
Good news and bad news:
Bad news is that the Strawberry Shortcake tape recorder was a failure from the git-go. I now understand that the Smurf tape recorder is the one recommended by Consumer Reports
The good news:
1. Sarah sure had a blast. She told me on the way home she wants to LIVE at Glenwood.
2. It turns out we really impressed Sylvia. Jennifer says she went home and really bragged on our sound to Lyn (no kidding). This says a lot, since Sylvia attends Calvary (with Jennifer) and is accustomed to hearing their very professional 25-piece rock band. Jennifer said she really thought we sounded great too. These reviews are way beyond anything we were really attempting. I was just curious to see if we could start a song, and then finish the song, all at approximately the same point. So I am encouraged to say the least.
3. Jennifer may have located a guitar player for us. He is a 20-year-old from ASU (”Josh”) who presently attends Calvary Church. I spoke with him today by phone, and he is THOROUGHLY excited about the prospect of joining us. Jennifer met him in a restaurant, and it turns out he is the son of Jennifer’s friend “Diane” from Calvary. He told Jennifer he knows both “Word of God Speak” and “Never Been Unloved.” Of course we’ve not heard him play yet. He is sending me a CD of some of his guitar work, however. He also plays bass (to some degree anyway), some piano, and piccolo (I am not making that up). He can also sing harmony, he tells me. Apparently our project is “just what he is looking for.” So we’ll see…
4. Listening to the Strawberry Shortcake tape, I believe we need to go back and listen to the CD again on “Word of God Speak” — we had some sort of a disconnect between the lyrics and the piano score. And on “Never Been Unloved” I did a poor job on the tempo (if I try to wear finger picks on the guitar I tend to push things a bit).
5. I don’t know when anyone might want to schedule another rehearsal. But I have two more songs I would like to try, and they are numbers 3 and 4 (or 4 and 5??) on the CD Brian made. We will definitely need a guitar on these. But let me let you guys pick our next song or two.
So, it wasn’t exactly Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul, and Simon Cowell, but at least we didn’t completely fall flat on our faces. We scheduled another rehearsal and recruited Josh Furr and my niece, Sammie Jo Beasley (soon to be Sammie Jo McCluskey) to play with us. Both were very good guitar players, although neither really wanted to play bass guitar.
As a band, we began to start thinking about basic things like where everyone was going to stand, and what equipment we needed to get, along with some advanced topics like the following points raised by Kevin…
As we begin thinking about some sort of a playlist, it occurs to me that song material could be planned in two categories:
“Performance” numbers, such as the ones we’ve been focusing on (Word of God Speak / My Savior My God, etc.); and
“Group” (much simpler) numbers that are easily done by a congregation in sing-along mode. Calvary Church does the sing-alongs by displaying lyrics across large TV screens (I am trying to compile from the screen the “small credit” info identifying where this music may be found, such as “worshiptogether.com.” — you may already have some ideas on this).
One mistake many bands make is to have every available musician playing every note of every single song exactly the same way as every other song from start to finish. Result: songs sound repetitious, and with a boring “sameness” to the playlist. I would like for you and Jeana to help us begin giving some thought to how we can best discipline ourselves and avoid this pitfall. For example, certainly every song won’t need drums. Similarly, if we have a prominent rhythm guitar featured on a particular number, the “full” piano can yield a bit, or completely; or be used for effects such as strings (or to cover a bridge; or by adding a “flourish” here and there, that kind of thing). By the same token, on a pure piano song such as “Word of God Speak,” we won’t need a rhythm guitar cluttering up the mid-ranges. And vocals can be addressed the same way. For example, in “Word of God Speak,” what if Jeana or Sammie Jo were to step up and do a verse? Or in “Awesome God,” what if all the instruments dropped out in the second verse and several vocalists continued the song acapella* (then the instruments could be brought back in one by one for a “building” effect). There are so many creative things that can be done that make songs fun and interesting (and unique), and yet so many bands fail to ever take advantage of the opportunities. Obviously we have our hands full now just learning chords, tempo, stops and starts, and so forth. But let’s begin making some mental notes about how to best choreograph these songs as we go along.
Meanwhile, we kept fishing for a bass player and started focusing in on our June 25th “gig.” The only problem was that we didn’t realize that God didn’t want us to perform on June 25th - He was going to put us on stage at the right time and date for His purposes. But that’s a topic for the next installment.
SHINE Lesson for December 23, 2007 - delivered by Brian Beasley
Feel free to right-click and select Save Target As… to download to your computer, or simply hit the small button to the left of the title to play!
Note: There was no SHINE service this Sunday night due to the Youth Christmas Program. This is the Sunday School lesson I gave the adults on Sunday morning.
This is part three in what will become a series of posts following the creation and evolution of SHINE, a contemporary worship service at Glenwood Presbyterian Church. You can find the table of contents here.
One of the struggles that we faced early on was finding a bass player. We thought we had struck gold early on with a guy named Frank, who Debbie knew. But as we would find out, tragedy was about to strike. As we started fleshing out our ideas, the enthusiasm and trepidation began to grow. One word of caution: these emails contain a lot of references to the Andy Griffith show. If you’re not a big fan, go study up by watching some episodes…
To: Debbie
From: Kevin
April 9, 2006Hi Debbie. Just letting you know that I sent Frank an e-mail explaining what we have in mind. I’ll let you know if I hear back from him. In the meantime, I have a couple of other bass player possibilities, but these are guys I played in a band with years ago, and I am having some trouble tracking them down.
Debbie, while I have you (and I am copying this to Brian as well), here are a couple of other thoughts that I have had:
As a working name for the band, I would like to call it “Christian Endeavor.” I can envision Christian Endeavor as sort of an extra-curricular “adjunct” to the church, sort of the way that the softball team (our famous Gladiator squad) was an adjunct. It wouldn’t be a replacement for anything Glenwood is presently doing, but just a little something extra that could make an appearance now and again. It could feature different vocalists for different types of songs, whoever might be available, whoever has some free time, that sort of thing. I would like to see Sam involved with a couple of numbers. I can envision the choir (or a “mini-choir”) as a vocal component doing backup harmony. Debbie, I see you as a first-rate tambourine shaker. Or maybe Christine. Who knows?
Apart from performing on an occasional Sunday morning or Sunday night, this band could perform at special events (can we say covered dish?). Maybe take the band on tour and do a performance for another church’s event. Or some warm summer evening, a Glenwood church cook-out, with Christian Endeavor playing out on the front lawn (we’d have to get a city permit, but the whole neighborhood would hear the concert, whether they wanted to or not!).
And dare I say it — how about taking Christian Endeavor to Camp New Hope for a live performance from “Drink Machine Palladium.” Volleyball, frisbee, Mountain Dew, swimming, and live music. Glenwood would be the coolest thing going. And throw into the mix an occasional beach music song, or the Eagles, Doobie Brothers, Jimmy Buffett — this would be a Christian music band, but versatile enough to change gears on occasion for “good clean fun.”
Well, I’m getting carried away, of course. But a band can be a very fun thing, and in my experience a band is great device for attracting people — those who want to hear the band, and those who want to be involved in it. Unfortunately, a band is also very time consuming, and it takes an awful lot of practice just to be awful. I note that when I was last playing in a working band (we were fairly decent — we used to open for the Drifters) I was not married, did not have children, and did not have my own law firm to manage. And I know Brian has even less free time than I do (Brian, how do you do it!?). I am concerned that I may be biting off more than I can chew.
There’s also a money issue (e.g., some additional sound equipment, monitors, board, that type of thing; church rehearsal time requires electricity, heating and AC — the Session would have to approve all of this, of course).
So yes, we’ll start with very tiny steps, see what happens, see whether learning even one simple song is going to be possible, and worthwhile. And forget what I said about the Doobie Brothers, that was silly.
I meant Fleetwood Mac.
From: Brian
To: Kevin
April 10, 2006Kevin:
Do you know what we’re talking about . . . we’re talking about having a band concert…
Glad to hear that you are still excited about it – I know I am. I love the name, but I was thinking more along the lines of “The Extremely Mediocres” or “Musical Crucifixion.” I’m also glad to see that you have to fight the inclination to get way ahead of yourself with ideas.
I’m the same way. One thing I envision is at some point having a regular worship service featuring our music and aimed at the young people – a contemporary service with a bible study/devotion/evangelistic talk. Certainly not every week, but maybe once a quarter or once a month – something like that. I’d be happy to (teach/preach/tell everyone what I think they should do) in an outlet like that. Sunday or Saturday nights, maybe? Just an idea to add to the list.The church currently has two monitors (which are pretty beat up, but still work), a limited sound system located very inconveniently in the room beside the choir loft and some extra speaker cords. We have about six or seven good microphones plus the wireless one that was purchased for Brock and Jane’s birthday celebration. In the fellowship hall, we have a basic “thingie you plug microphones into” (at least that’s the technical term for it). We also have two “Singing Machines” in various stages of operation (just like the pros use!).
I have a cheap acoustic guitar and Jeana has a pretty good electronic keyboard which we could use (and the talent to use it to cover a lot of mistakes.) God will have to provide the rest.
As for your idea of a neighborhood cookout, we have spoken about doing a Fall Festival type thing on the church grounds aimed at attracting the community. We will probably not be ready this year, but I envision making this an annual event, so Christian Endeavor (or “Suffering
Sinners”) could certainly be a part of that in the future.We are definitely biting off more than we can chew so let me leave you with these thoughts. Jesus picked eleven disciples to first spread the gospel – eleven mostly uneducated, untalented, ordinary people, and because of them, we are here today.
“God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things – and the things that were not – to nullify the things that are, so no one may boast before Him.” 1 Corinthians 1:27-29
“Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.’” Matthew 19:26
From: Kevin
To: Brian
April 10, 2006Brian
The similarities between this project, and a certain band concert in Mayberry, are so frighteningly palpable that I had hoped no one would think to mention it in polite company.
Thanks for the inventory of sound equipment — maybe there’s more stuff than I thought. There is also a collection of spiders underneath the choir loft (oops! did I mention that again!?)
Hey, great idea about the Bible Study for young people, with “Musical Crucifixion” as kick-off music. Believe it or not, Jennifer has expressed a strong interest in being involved in something like this at Glenwood (she
mentioned an occasional Wednesday evening Bible series, rather than Saturday or Sunday — but the same basic idea). Jennifer’s idea was that me and her could do the lessons, and she has even gone so far as to sketch out five
Bible lesson topics already. I was quite surprised when she expressed so strong an interest in this. She wanted to start next month. I told her the band wouldn’t be ready for another twelve years, and that’s assuming Clara can get the mildew out of the uniforms.I was only half-joking in my e-mail to Debbie about rock or pop numbers (Doobie Brothers, etc.). Some songs could be just for fun, but surprisingly an occasional Christian theme is heard where you least expect it (”Don’t you feel it growing, day by day; People, getting ready for the news…” –from “Listen to the Music”). Put this in the “getting way ahead of ourselves” category, but it would be fun to take a song like that, tweak (or omit) a lyric here or there, and create “subtle” Christian music out of classic rock that would catch an audience totally off guard. When I played in a band called Timberwolf, it was always the greatest fun when the audience could never anticipate what was coming next. [Here's another song idea, capitalizing on the recent success of the Johnny Cash movie. The song "Walk
the Line" could be a Christian song in its own right, without changing a word. Send Rob Kota out in a black suit and a guitar slung across his back, folks would go nuts...]. This suggests that even if this turns out not very good, it could still be quite entertaining!Hey, seriously, I appreciate the enthusiasm for this crazy idea (Suffering Sinners), and the scripture you provide lends much encouragement!! But as Andy once told Goober, don’t over-expect. And let’s not allow ourselves to
become discouraged if it doesn’t work out. My biggest concern now is not having adequate time to devote to it.
For those of you that like to skip to the end of a book to see how it ends, you will be glad to know that Johnny Cash/Rob Kota did indeed make an appearance at SHINE this year, singing “Walk the Line.” Things were starting to take off!
To: Brian
From: Kevin
April 13, 2006I have located some very basic drums. They were salvaged from Fat Albert’s junkyard circa 1971, and purchased recently at a yardsale for $6. Thank Rick Smith for this. Hey! Hey! Hey!
Word of our project has leaked out somehow. I don’t know whether it was Laura Lee Hobbs at the dimestore, or Helen (not Crump) at the coffee clatch. But it’s clear that the gold truck is on its way. This is not the crowd I was expecting to get excited, but let’s take what we can get.
To: Kevin
From: Brian
April 13, 2006As for the excitement generated, the demographic I have always excelled at is 70-80 year old men and women. Jeana was the exception.
And I’m going to have return the drum set I bought from that Sanford guy and his son - I paid $10 for mine. Boy, did I get ripped off! I felt sorry for him because he kept having chest pains while I was there.
To: Brian
From: Kevin
April 17, 2006Okay, here is our first rehearsal date: Tuesday, May 2nd, 6:30 p.m. See if this works for you, and I will pass it along to Frank.
Assuming we will meet at church, are we now at the point that we should seek some sort of approval from Randy and the Session to go forward? I suppose if we got together somewhere besides the church we could postpone alerting the paparazzi for a while longer, and avoid more rumors about a gold truck coming through Mayberry. Just like the episode, this truck may not have any gold on it either (I understand the real band will go by way of Raleigh). My preference would be to meet at church, however, since this is where the sound equipment is.
As usual, I am getting way ahead of schedule with these meanderings. The goal now is to see if we can put together one song. Let me know what you think of the May 2nd date.
So the plan was hatched. We had our first rehearsal date. We thought we had a bass player. Past that, we weren’t sure what we had. Unfortunately, Frank suffered an injury to his shoulder at work the next week and couldn’t lift his arms. I think it may have required surgery. Kevin then tried to recruit a guy who was supposedly named Landon Crane, although I’m sure that was an alias. That didn’t pan out either - but we marched ahead nonetheless.
To: Kevin
From: Brian
April 23, 2006Kevin:
Just wanted to let you know that the Session approved our rehearsal date - I just told them that I was getting together some “special music” so as not to alert them about the gold truck.
…But they’ll hear the music … and they’ll know it’s tonight…
In our next installment, Christian Endeavor appears on stage for the first time at rehearsal, and we add a few new members to the group. A couple more bass prospects die mysteriously. Stay tuned!
This is part two in what will become a series of posts following the creation and evolution of SHINE, a contemporary worship service at Glenwood Presbyterian Church. You can find the table of contents here.
(To be read in overly dramatic fashion:) When we last left our friends, Kevin had admitted to having at least one idea….A phone call was made, and was followed by this email to Debbie….
To: Debbie
From: Kevin
March 8, 2006Thanks Debbie. I enjoyed our talk. From a different angle, it occurs to me that what Glenwood might do to “improve” (revitalize) is really no different than what an NFL team might do to improve or revitalize. If the Jets aren’t playing up to snuff, the Jets look to other franchises that are very successful, with the idea of emulating what works for the successful club (if that’s the “west coast offense,” then the Jets consider giving that offense a try, and so on).
And so it is with churches, one imagines.
My thinking with the music is that one feature many highly successful churches seem to have these days is music (and musical instrumentation) beyond a traditional organist. Is this alone the key to their success? Certainly not, and yet “modern Christian music” sure seems to play a vital role in filling the pews and attracting a membership (while beloved “hymns of old” are not completely set aside either, thankfully).
I think this is something that could be attempted very slowly and incrementally, allowing Glenwood to continue to cater principally to its present older membership, but paving the way for the future at the same time (noting that our “older” congregation is not going to be there forever, except of course that WE are going to be the older membership very shortly!). Again, I don’t envision rock’n'roll and bouncing off the walls by any means, but if something like this were to take root and show some promise (and if I could have an opportunity to be involved somehow), you would probably have to beat me with a stick to keep me away. Especially if I could have a hand in some percussion somewhere along the way.
In my heart I cannot help but be intrigued about the possibility of getting involved in a musical project such as this at Glenwood. I’ve thought about this many times. In fact, I have a couple of ideas about how something such as this might be attempted on an experimental basis, maybe “once a quarter” (or maybe even on an occasional Wednesday evening?). It would involve borrowing a couple of musicians to get started.
Is this God giving me a nudge now? I don’t know. But because this idea generates excitement in my heart, and involves Glenwood, I felt “nudged” to mention this to you after your remarks on Sunday. Take that for what’s it worth.
And I’d like to see Sam involved in something like this as well!
Let’s keep praying!
I hope to talk to you or see you soon.
Love,Kevin (& Jennifer & Sarah)
So the idea was out there. Could we incorporate contemporary Christian music into the worship of Glenwood Presbyterian Church? What form would it take? And who made that long-distance call to Denver on my phone? These questions and more were still looming.
But soon, the ideas started to take on a more specific shape. On Sunday, March 19, Brian sang “Word of God Speak” by MercyMe accompanied by Jeana on the piano to begin the morning worship service. That helped crystallize a plan in Kevin’s mind…
To: Debbie
From: Kevin
March 19, 2006It was good seeing you this morning. I thought the service today was great. Debbie, that song Brian and Jeana opened with, absolutely fantastic. Maybe they’ve sung that before? If anyone in your family has them performing that on tape, I’ll pay to get a copy. Tell me where to send the money.
At the risk of getting carried away, in many churches a song like that would have the congregation on its feet. Glenwood is a bit stoic, as we know, and it’s an older crowd so that’s okay (just barely could the congregation eek out a smattering of light applause, seeming very self-conscious in doing that much — I hope my loud clapping didn’t cause any heart palpitations). But Brian and Jeana’s performance deserved a standing-O. I glanced back at you and thought you were a bit teary-eyed. Maybe I imagined that last part, but I do believe there is a powerful emotion in that genre of Christian music that younger people (and maybe even us) really identify with, and feel drawn to. If anyone were to ask me, I would say that music, under Brian’s direction, is the future of Glenwood. Five years from now, I see a vibrant church, full of the Holy Spirit, where four or five responsive readings have been eliminated to make room for three more songs like this one; where a younger congregation is beginning to flourish; where you better arrive early if you hope to find a place not to sit, but to stand.Okay, I’m getting carried away after all. But I was touched when you gave me a hug this morning and told me you “missed our little talks” from a couple of weeks ago (of course I returned your hug on Becky’s recommendation; and I’m beginning to feel a bit faint at that). Seriously, I was so moved by Brian and Jeana’s performance this morning that I had to tell you that it filled me with a vision of great things to come!
Talk to you later,
Kevin
And this one….
To: Brian
From: Kevin
March 20, 2006Listen, here is what I would like to propose that we do (after much talking about it): Purely as an experiment, let’s plan to put some instrumentation to “Word of God Speak” and just see how it goes. We’ll make it very simple — me, you, Jeana, and a bass player to be named later. It’s a very straight-forward song, and the additional instrumentation should be quite easy to add. I recall you mentioned to Debbie that you didn’t have much experience with “band stuff,” so I will look after these details, if you will of course handle all vocal direction.
For planning purposes, let’s pick a date a few months from now (say, the Sunday evening service June 25th) and debut the song (and our band) during the refreshments. The “audience” will understand that we are just beginning, and only throw the smaller doughnut pieces.
Brian, with your approval to move foward on this, I will see if I can locate a “session” bass player who would be interested in helping us. I will also need to arrange to get (borrow) a very basic drum rig for some light percussion. Hopefully we can have these details in place by May, and thereupon schedule a couple of rehearsals.
And then we’ll just see how it goes. We can make this a one-time thing, or consider taking it to the next level if it seems worthwhile. If we get really ambitious, maybe we could even open a Sunday morning service with our “Christian band” by around Rally Day — and have the choir blend background vocals into the mix? Lots of possibilities with this. But we’ll move very slowly and see how things develop.
Let me know what you think. As far as locating a bass player, I happen to know the Grateful Dead recently broke up, and some of those guys are still looking for work.
-Kevin
So, we now had a tentative date for our first “gig.” There would be some setbacks (the lines about a bass player in that last email are foreshadowing) but there would also be some things that went just right.
In our next installment, we begin the search for a bass player and start to prepare for the band’s very first practice!
This is part one in what will become a series of posts following the creation and evolution of SHINE, a contemporary worship service at Glenwood Presbyterian Church. You can find the table of contents here.
It’s ironic, I guess, that the path to a new contemporary worship service at Glenwood started with a recent technological advancement - a simple email. You could also say it started with some other unusual things, that looking back, are clearly the handiwork of God.
The events that were set in motion by the email in question didn’t have anything to do with a contemporary worship service. Who knew but God that it would end up there? And the email was sent only as a welcome and an invitation from one member to another, but it turned into so much more, just as the simplest spark can produce a roaring inferno.
Glenwood is a small church with a membership of around 85 and an average Sunday morning attendance of around 50. Much of that membership is getting older and there were concerns that without an increase in the number of young families, the church would be in serious trouble in the not-so-distant future.
Kevin, a member of our church, had lately been attending other churches with his spouse and daughter due to a move to King, NC. He came to Glenwood on March 5, 2006, to worship because he mistakenly thought he was supposed to serve as an usher that morning. But Debbie, another member, spoke to him that morning and followed up with the following email. This email, like others that I will post here, has been heavily edited in order to focus on the important parts and have been used with permission from the authors.
From: Debbie
To: Kevin
March 7, 2006Hi Kevin,
It was so good to see you at church Sunday! It is ironic that you were there because you thought that you had to usher. There seems to be two different lists floating around since it said in the newsletter that Brian is supposed to be responsible for locking the church this month and it is actually my turn on another list that i saw. Anyway, I am thinking that maybe God brought you there Sunday because I had been thinking about you and your family and writing you an email and i just never stopped to take the time.
Glenwood needs you and Jennifer and Sarah!! Our church membership has really dwindled down and it seems like the few of us that are left are working all of the time trying to help it survive.Glenwood Church means so much to our parents and family members that grew up in the church and also to our forefathers that sacrificed in order to build the church and all the history that it contains. As my mom says, “Everything important that has ever happened to me, happened at Glenwood Pres Church.
I am sure you have noticed…our church has very few men….and some of the most active, older ones are starting to step back….which is only understandable….they have worked hard and deserve to be able to turn the reins over to someone else. You would be such a valuable asset to Glenwood….you have your dad’s gift of leadership and public speaking. We need you!
With love in Christ,
Debbie
This was followed by a reply from Kevin:
From: Kevin
To: Debbie
March 7, 2006Hi Debbie. Thank you for this very thoughtful message. I want you to know that I pray regularly for Glenwood and that I would love to see a resurgence and revival at this church that is so very special to all of us.
For so small a church, Glenwood accomplishes a great deal more than most people realize, I suspect. Sometimes I feel like Glenwood is akin to a “mom & pop” store trying to survive in the age of Wal*Mart (i.e.. “competition” from so many larger churches with “mega” congregations, mega programs, mega musical productions, etc.). But small or not, I love Glenwood. I love to attend there.
One thing Glenwood offers Sarah, that Calvary cannot, is the chance to be “one of few,” such as in a stage program (such as Bible School, singing on the stage during our Christmas get-together, and maybe this month’s talent show for Habitat, I hope). This is one time when being small has an advantage. Calvary has simply too many children for any one four-year-old to feel unique, or to be able to “take the stage” and perform for the whole church. Sarah LOVED her chance to perform (sing a Christmas song) back in December — and at Glenwood she can do things such as that, where at Calvary she is one of seemingly hundreds of children.
I’m like you and everyone else — I love that church with all my heart. There will never be another Glenwood.
Hey, do you have a phone number where I can call you this afternoon? I would like to talk with you.Debbie, thanks again for your remarks Sunday, and for this e-mail. I look forward to discussing this with you some more. I have at least one idea…
Kevin
Kevin made that phone call, and shared his one idea with Debbie. And the spark had turned into a flame….
Tomorrow, we’ll hear what Kevin’s idea was and how the fire grew…
SHINE Lesson for December 16, 2007 - delivered by Kevin Smith
Feel free to right-click and select Save Target As… to download to your computer, or simply hit the small button to the left of the title to play!
In case you’re looking for something special to do this Christmas, Kevin recommends that you go see Beautiful Star: An Appalachian Nativity. This is a wonderful musical telling of the story of Christmas that starts all the way back in Genesis with the Fall of Man.
It is running at Triad Stage through December 23rd. Check it out!
An excerpt from an article named Fixing Glenwood in the December 11th edition of Yes! Weekly, a local paper.
“Last year people planted peppers, corn, tomatoes, zucchini; we tried cucumbers but they didn’t work out,” says Scarbrough, a prominent member of the neighborhood association, watching her children fiddle with the lights in her car as they wait for her and UNCG students David Smith and Marie Cox to finish raking dried leaves from the garden, which is demarcated into sections by stakes and chain-link fencing. A 20-by-4-foot plot in the garden is available to Glenwood residents for $15 a year, and among its growers is the local Food Not Bombs chapter, which is one of the tenants at the Hive (an acronym for History Information Vision Exchange), a community center intended to improve relations and communication between Glenwood residents. Susan Burkholder, a volunteer at the center, hopes the Hive will become a resource for the neighborhood.
“We hope to branch out and see which needs in the neighborhood can be met.” She is more optimistic in her outlook than some of the other Grove Street tenants. “I’m really excited about the energy and projects that the GGNA has come up with. I think they’re on a great track. [Grove Street] has potential to become a hub if we could get a coffee shop or a small restaurant, a place where folks could connect and feel more rooted.” While Burkholder feels the other Hive tenants have high hopes for Grove Street and “a real willingness to bring it alive,” there’s some question of what to do or how to go about it.
Check out the whole article here and be sure and look at the photos to see some of the Glenwood Presbyterian Youth!
This is part one in what will become a series of posts following the search for a new pastor at Glenwood Presbyterian Church. You can find the table of contents here.
As most of you know, our minister of 10 years recently resigned to take a job with the Servant Center here in Greensboro. As a Presbyterian church, it falls to the local church with assistance from the Presbytery office, to call a new pastor when there is a vacancy. I am an elder on the governing board of our church which is called the Session, and while we make decisions that enable the church’s day-to-day “business” to continue, two special committees will handle the hiring of an Interim Pastor and the search for and call of a new permanent Pastor.
In the ten years since Glenwood Presbyterian last had to go through this process, there have been quite a few changes made. The most striking is a greater emphasis on the period of time where a church has an interim pastor and what should happen during that period. In the past, a preacher left, a pulpit nominating committee was elected, and the search was on. The interim pastor was hired more to bridge the gap between full-time pastors than anything else.
Now, however, the first step in the process is the creation of a transition committee (or team, for those that don’t like the negative bereaucratic connotations of the “c” word). This team of about 5 people are tasked with the duty of finding and hiring an interim and then working with that interim pastor in completing a series of five developmental tasks for the congregation. These tasks focus on the church’s history and vision, helping the church discover who it has been, who it is, and where Christ is calling it in the future. Normally, this type of “moshy” stuff doesn’t appeal to me at all - but the idea here is to get everyone in the church on the same page with what our goals are for our church. The idea is that we as a congregation take stock of who we are and who we are called to be so that then we can search for and find a pastor who fits in with and shares those same goals and visions. It is only after that process is complete that Presbytery gives permission to elect a Pastor Nominating Committee (or PNC).
Here’s the rub: persons on the transition team will not be considered (generally) for the PNC. So taking a position on the transition team means that you will not be involved with the search for and calling of the new pastor.
I was very unsure of which committee God was calling me to serve on or whether He was calling me to be a part of the process at all. But if you are patient, God will usually let you know where you need to be. So at our Session meeting last Sunday night, I had one of those moments where God hits you over the head and lets you know pretty clearly what His will is. We were discussing who we might ask to be on the transition team as opposed to the PNC and we asked our moderator for a little guidance. (Our moderator is assigned by Presbytery to preside over our Session meetings until we get an interim.) He described the type of person that should be on the transition team and one of the things he stated was “someone who likes setting goals.” At that point, I could feel the eyes in the room look at me, because I had been the one who pushed our church to set goals for the last two years. So, I agreed to serve on the transition team.
And you know what? I’m pumped! Immediately after Randy resigned, I was dreading this process a lot. But I believe that this transition process, if done correctly, could lay a great foundation for the future of this church. And I have the added comfort of knowing that this is the job that God wanted me to do - and His Word tells me that He will provide the strength and wisdom to enable me to complete it…
So let’s get to it!
