For as long as I've been doing these little video snippets, I've focused on the praise and worship aspects for the most part. And for good reason: it tends to be an overlooked element of the service. It's something you don't see on the 30-minute television production and yet it's as vital a part of service as any other.

But for a few weeks, I want to at least try and somehow put a focus on someone who seemingly has enough of a focus on him: Joel Osteen. That'd be the guy you do see on the 30-minute version of events ... and on the cover of books and magazines and a whole lot more.

In this clip, there's the end of Stephen & Da'Dra leading "How Great Is Our God." What makes Joel's mid-service prayers at least slightly more powerful than they might otherwise be is the way they're wrapped around the entire praise & worship service. You literally don't lose a beat segueing into the prayer.

Fear not to the band & choir ... the special from this weekend is over at the video site. It was a nice homage to Israel Houghton on the eve of his performance Sunday night at the Grammy Awards. And if anyone wants to pick up that song, here it is.

Or ... "What I Learned from Mary Kay"

I now know what it's like to feel like the proverbial frog in a pot of slow-boiling water. That is, what it's like to gradually feel trapped and by the time you've come to the conclusion, it's too late.

I head out from the early MVP meeting we had before service, stake out a good spot with emphasis on a quick sprint to the 4th floor after service. Translation: I'm close to the aisle. If you've done this at a movie theater or other venue, you know to expect to get up a bit to let people through. I figure I can deal with a bit of that. Maybe not a lot, but some.

Then the women arrived.

Not all at once, but pretty close. It was a group of 10 at a time, as best I can tell. They filled up a half-row here, a full row there. Nothing really jumped out at me immediately. But I didn't really have the time to observe as I had to get up to let people through on what seemed like a minute-by-minute basis. I feel like I should have abs of steel thanks to the number of crunches I was doing.

The routine was simple: 10 women come in, spot their seats ... and then leave in ones and twos, returning shortly thereafter. In some cases, they repeat this routine. I apparently did this once at a football game when me & my sister were bored. We heard about it all the way home from mom & dad, who had to deal with the aggrieved parties sitting in front of them.

Mind you, I'm there early. So my goal is to soak up a little extra music and maybe get some reading done. I've hauled my massive Taylor Branch book that practically doubles as a dumbell to work out with. I'm sure that added to my agony as I kept having to get up to let people through. But suffice it to say ... no real reading done and precious little music appreciation.

At a few points, I'm debating locating another seat further back. But then I'd have to do to the lady sitting on the aisle seat what these other ladies have been doing to me for about an hour. Inertia won the day ... I stayed put.

What should have clued me in was that it seemed like everyone was there to snap pictures. With the touristy feel of the night and the notable lack of Y-chromosomes, it really felt like I was transported to Branson and plunked in the midst of a Tom Jones concert. If you don't fully grasp how uncomforting that is for me, you should really get to know me better.

Obviously, throughout all of this, I'm actually doing a decent job of maintaining my sanity and good cheer. I won't claim to have fully lost my joy for the evening, but it was a battle. Once the praise and worship started, I'm a little more cognizant of the fact that it feels like I'm in a crowd of spectators rather than participators. Again, discomfort city. For once, I want to find myself on the rowdiest row at Lakewood. Maybe that's my cue to go recruit a gaggle of punk rockers to get to church with me.

But as the service went on, the ladies loosened up and the place felt a bit more like home. A slightly more crowded home, but home nonetheless. One thing I do take from the night is that it places a renewed emphasis to try and take in a Friday night with the Celebrate Recovery band. I never know when I'm going to be packed in like a sardine at service. I never know how easy it is to just lose yourself in praise & worship, one song at a time, at service. But Friday nights are usually a safer bet: same great music, smaller venue, space to spread out, great atmosphere, lots of participators. Note to self, I may need to force myself out of the office early on Fridays.

As for Joel's sermon, I strongly recommend this one. Every once in a while, he just does a superb message that captures a lot of the meta-narratives of his ministry in a concise way. Definitely on par with this one, which I also rank rather highly.

Just to make my bias clear, I'm rooting for the Patriots in next week's Super Bowl. But Lawrence Tynes' game last week for the Giants was a great example by Joel in this past weekend's sermon on "Reaching Your Highest Potential."

Here's the New York Times' version of the story ...

Giants punter Jeff Feagles, who is also the team's holder on field-goal and extra-point attempts, has been around a lot of kickers in his 20 N.F.L. seasons. He knows that in the uncompromising world of pro football, they are ultimately judged by their failures. And, how they respond to them.

"Because everyone misses," Feagles said Monday. "Then what?"

Talk to kickers, at least the ones that last in the N.F.L., and they will tell you that they do not get rattled by missed kicks, they get angry.

"I saw some resolve in Lawrence's eyes to make this better, to make the next kick," Feagles said Monday of his teammate Lawrence Tynes, who missed two fourth-quarter field goals but converted the game-winner in overtime of Sunday's N.F.C. championship game in Green Bay. "Earlier in the year, I didn't always see that. I think a miss bothered him."

Earlier in the season, Tynes had missed enough field goals and extra points that Giants Coach Tom Coughlin was trying out other kickers. Look in Coughlin's eyes back then, and there was a resolve to find somebody, anybody who could get the ball between the uprights.

But with the score tied Sunday night at Lambeau Field, Coughlin and Tynes found themselves gazing at each other, with Coughlin trying to figure out what to do on fourth down at the Green Bay 29-yard line. On Monday, he conceded that he was not sure of his decision at first, so he looked for Tynes.

To Coughlin's surprise, he found Tynes not on the sideline but standing on the field, preparing for a 47-yard field-goal attempt. Tynes had not waited for Coughlin, or anyone else, to send him into the game. He just ran onto the field. And when Coughlin saw that, he knew what to do.

"I looked right at him, and when I saw him out there, it made a very strong impression," Coughlin said. "I knew he was feeling very confident. I was looking for a sign, and that was it."

Newsday offers up a few more details on Tynes' adversity, this time preceding the game itself. If you prefer some video of the game itself, here's NFL Film's treatment of it.

Joel starts off with a bit of info covered in the Early Show interview. But then goes on to tease his critics in the blogosphere. Someone might wanna tell Joel that not every blogger is critical of him, though ;-) ... I can think of at least one other blog written by a Lakewood member.

Still, a great sermon and a great display of how Joel takes something he's confronted with and makes it a teaching lesson for us all. If life were completely fair, I'd take all sorts of time to blog about how much I loved this sermon and enumerate every single way in which I do. But since work is kicking me right now, I'm probably going to have to suggest that you just pick up the CD or tape ... or wait a few weeks for the message to be on TV.

Wild hunch that you won't get this in Sunday's service. In the midst of watching Marcos deliver yet another powerful sermon, I had no shortage of options to show off various aspects that mere words fail to do justice. But as he closes out his message in true Marcos Witt fashion (ie - in song), I couldn't resist this moment to let shine. So watch as Marcos gives a music lesson to all of us.

There's more to show off on Monday. Consider this just a head start.

Right off the bat, I've got to hand it to our all-star ushers at Lakewood. I manage to get a few fellow travellers wanting to sit with me after Compass Class went a little over on time. I'm thinking this means I'll end up with less-than-stellar seating both due to needing three seats and little time left before service starts. I notice a familiar usher who's waving me up before I inform him how many seats I need - or so I thought. I was really thinking he just assumed I needed a onesie, but he was really putting all three of us on the second row, dead center. I immediately apologized to my friends for not having enough pull to get one row further up.

So, that aside, I've got two clips that sorta accent one another. The first (over at the left) is an excerpt of Marcos' sermon. The premise of the sermon was twofold: that we need to have a cause and that there's no greater cause than Jesus Christ. Coincidentally, if you want another tangent on this point, Gary Haugen was a guest speaker at Joel Hunter's Northland Church (Week 34: "Unfamiliar Passions of God") the week before and gives another great message along this line.

It struck me as a bit odd listening to this sermon from Marcos. Odd, because it was rather affirming of what I've been through over a long course of time. It wasn't the type of sermon that I found myself listening to taking away anything new, so to speak. But that's just me. And that's not to suggest that the sermon wasn't useful for me - far from it. I have at least a small collection of causes that are interwoven and have taken up about the bulk of the past decade. And touching on that N.T. Wright quote I pulled out earlier, I keep meditating on that last sentence in particular: The substance and structure of the different aspects of our world need to be interrogated in the light of the unique achievement of Jesus.

In other words: let everything you do expand the kingdom in some way. Make the kingdom a little more enjoyable while you're at it. If you don't see how what you do does that, keep looking. I don't claim to have my own life sorted out all that neatly in this regard ... but it's been something that's a constant work in progress. And it should be for all of us.

Since it's Labor Day, I thought I'd just combine the Monday Video and YouTube Tuesday posts into this one for the day. It didn't hurt that I found myself mentally adding the song below as a soundtrack to Marcos' sermon. It confounds me as to how this song is relatively obscure as far as Stryper tunes go. Obviously, it's got a great message: Keep the fire burning ... move on ... hold on ... never let go. A little headbanging toward the end of the tune doesn't hurt, either.

Stryper: Keep the Fire Burning
[Verse 1]
We've been through a lot together
We've seen what some will never see, you and me
Prayer after prayer's been answered
We can't go on without belief, can't you see?

[Chorus]
We just gotta be strong
Keep the fire burning
Gotta move on, keep our hearts from turning
Gotta hold on, onto what you're learning now
And never let go

[Verse 2]
Nothing can stop us now
We're growing stronger every day in every way
Spreading the word together
It doesn't matter what they say, no way!

[Chorus]
We just gotta be strong
Keep the fire burning
Gotta move on, keep our hearts from turning
Gotta hold on, onto what you're learning now
And never let go

A few links of reference from Marcos' sermon this weekend ...
» Larry Walters (aka "Lawnchair Larry")

Various petitions & movements mentioned ...
» I Hate Mimes
» Mariah Carey Doll
» Bring Back OJ's Cereal
» Slower Traffic Keep Right
» Heinz Ketchup Unification

I'm ok with the anti-mime group ... I think they've got a point. Is there anything more annoying to run into on the avenue as I shop for my baguettes? Apologies to those readers related - however remotely - to Marcel Marceau.

I couldn't resist commenting on this small bit of Marcos' sermon from Saturday (and today if you're reading this in time):

In short, no ... I don't have anything else to do. Well, almost. I still manage to make it to work on time, get to church a few times a week and maintain some minor semblance of a social life.

And in fairness, this little, tiny clip doesn't do justice to the humor Marcos wrapped this point in. But somewhere in the midst of a wonderful sermon, I just feel compelled to offer a counterpoint that suggests that not all blogging is created equal. And I'm sure Marcos gets that. Believe me, I've seen my share of blogs that make me think some people need to really take the art of finding a new hobby much more seriously. I'm sure my reaction was something close to Marcos' point in the video.

I've charted my own course with this blog at the outset. The mission has gotten a few minor alterations, but the purpose remains well within the calling that Marcos preached about last night.

As it happens, I was a little proud of myself when I saw how well the video I wanted to post this past Tuesday dovetailed with Pastor Joel's message. I might have a semi-decent second act when I post something tomorrow. What with it being a holiday and all, I figure I'll combine the Video Monday/YouTube Tuesday concept a bit. Trust me, it'll be good.

UPDATE: This may come as a surprise to Marcos' anti-blog 'crusade' (kidding!).

As promised, some musical notes from this weekend's service. The first song here was too beautiful to not include, but I also didn't want to only show something that excluded the rest of New Breed. It was a pleasure to finally see them live. They'd done one other Lakewood show last year that I missed.

Both of these tunes are coming up on the new CD out in September. The first song, I don't have a title for. Be sure to check out some great guitar work by Israel there that often gets drowned out in the mix of Lakewood's more traditional service. The second, we've sung the heck out of at Lakewood. Sing along and enjoy ...

SIDENOTE: Oh, and one point I certainly wouldn't want to pass up since we're talking about the New Breed band ... be sure to look for Dakri Brown back on the Lakewood stage. Dang if it wasn't great to see him once again.

What to say about Israel Houghton ministering to us this weekend? If you missed it, you missed a treat. I'll have a musical clip later in the day, but here's a small sample of Pastor Israel talking about Sister Sandpaper.

Wonder who's minding the shop while most of the band is over in Europe? Well, the kids only hit the stage for one song, but what the heck - they deserve a little video love, too:

Be sure to notice Tommy Peters back on guitar for the weekend. That was a nice surprise. Tommy's work stands out in the mix and there were easily a few moments where it was nice to hear just a simple distorted riff mixed in with a few songs.

Oh, and the kids rocked, too. Hats off to Michael Woelfel for making what I believe is his debut. I've been too swamped to even look up the song title, so I'll let Dominique ride to the rescue with that detail.

A nice little update from Joel & Victoria with a video clip taken before their final stop in Birmingham. I decided to leave this clip mixed in with Marcos Witt kicking off the sermon on Sunday. I've said it once, I'll say it again ... words don't do the man justice. Just watch for yourself and you'll see what I mean:

Just to commemorate the unique day, why not blog?

I'd have loved to comment more about Marcos' sermon on Wednesday, but when I got back home, I discovered something unique. It seems the recording I'd gotten of the webcast had all the video, but none of the sound. Weird.

But I did find it interesting that Marcos' own musical history shared something I'd witnessed elsewhere. Namely, that of critics of his music. In Marcos' case, there's t he comic irony of him having his hair too long on his first album. The only slightly more serious concerns about the music being too fast as well as the drums & bass being too heavy remind me of the criticisms I once heard of another form of Christian music that came onto the scene in the 80s.

Christian heavy metal, of course, had a rich diversity of critics. If it wasn't the hairstyles (too feminine), or the volume level (much, much too loud), there were even wilder tangents to tackle. I found the oddest from Jimmy Swaggart (pre-fall from grace). Swaggart, to those who will recall, was/is actually a talented musician, and is related to Jerry Lee Lewis & Mickey Gilley. While Swaggart touched on a wide array of criticisms of the band Stryper, in particular, the one criticism that I was most astounded to hear was that the use of minor chords and scales reflected a particularly satanic influence. That's it ... the use of minor scales. Who knew that even if the most well-intentioned musician (according to Swaggart) missed a note, he'd have hell to pay for it? Feel free to check out the Wikipedia entry on Stryper for more on the Swaggart critiques.

And just to make sure it doesn't go unstated, there's a "new" Stryper CD out today. "The Roxx Regime Demos" is a collection of demo recordings the band recorded to get a record deal back in the early 80s (under their original name of Roxx Regime). The band has long used the "777" symbol as sort of a beatdown on the more satanic "666." It would have been unfortunate to see the date 7-7-7 pass without a Stryper album of some sort.

Needless to say, my own favored genre of Christian music took a few poundings from many of the same type of critics that Marcos seems to have experienced. Small world, I suppose.

We're once again blessed to have Marcos filling in for the touring Joel Osteen this weekend. With a little luck, the sound will return to the webcast. I'm tempted to pick up a CD of Wednesday's sermon and synch it up with the video. If nothing else, it'd make a good experiment on my part.

Marcos also plugged another treat coming up on the calendar: Israel Houghton preaching next weekend. Mark your calendars now for that one. No idea what to expect, but I doubt Israel will disappoint. The Wednesday inbetween then and now will have another night of praise & worship with Steve & DaDra. Those nights are always one's worth looking forward to.

For now, though, 7-7-07 sounds like a great day to head to church ... which is exactly what I think I'll do.

It's a good weekend to take in a little extra at Lakewood. For one, it's the final weekend Joel's preaching before heading overseas. The touring version will be in the UK for the next couple of weeks & we'll be treated to Marcos Witt and Israel Houghton preaching on weekends during that time.

Beyond that, Carrie Hodge graces the stage once again. I don't think I'm the only one suggesting she outdoes herself with a great rendition of Michael W. Smith's "Healing Rain." But last night was good all the way around and I just love those praise & worship moments where there's something to take from just about every song, every musician, every singer and every moment.

It also helps that I need to be at church for something else between services. Good timing, that.

I'll have loads more to blog about with regard to John Maxwell's sermon this weekend, but for now a few brief takes:

» If there's any chance you see this before the last service Maxwell preaches, by all means drag yourself to Lakewood and savor the opportunity. This practically qualified as a Christmas present (in June, no less!) by Pastor Joel to the entire congregation. I can't say enough good things about the entire night, but obviously, I'll give it a shot sometime tomorrow.

» No sooner do I review all my book-purchasing options over this past week than I get confronted with that foul demon, temptation. And of all places: at church. In conjunction with Maxwell's performance, there was a pretty nice offer on Maxwell's books.

So I spent what had to be the most conflicted time I've ever had in Lakewood's bookstore. After many tortured minutes of rationalizing any number of last-moment alterations, I'm proud to say I stuck to my gameplan & grabbed Eugene Peterson's "Eat This Book."

The remaining Maxwell works that lured me on this day will still be available at some point afterward. And I'm sure if I dig and scour the internet hard enough, I can get a good deal on them then, too. Nice try, Maxwell!

Now, if Greg Boyd ever preaches at Lakewood, I may as well just tell the boss to make my paycheck out to Lakewood.

» Speaking of Greg Boyd ... there's yet more book news on my favorite "MP3 Pastor."

I’m taking a (much needed) break from my work on "The Myth of the Blueprint" and my related insatiable obsession on ancient Greek philosophy. I’m going to spend the next few months working on a book for Zondervan on what I consider to be the revolutionary movement Jesus came to unleash in this world. (Hint: it doesn’t look much like the American Church). I think I’m going to entitle this book something like "Revolting Beauty: A Manifesto for Kingdom Revolutions." It’s a sequel (but really a prequel) to "The Myth of a Christian Nation." In this latter book I spelled out what the Kingdom is not (e.g. a religion or political party). In Revolting Beauty Zondervan wants me to flesh out what the Kingdom IS.

In a nutshell, I’ll argue that the Kingdom is a movement that revolts against the powers by being beautiful, refusing to participate in the ugliness of the world system. And the Kingdom is a movement that manifests a divine beauty that will, in significant respects, be revolting to those conditioned by the world’s system. In other worlds, the Kingdom always looks like Jesus, displaying the beauty of God’s love on the revoltingly ugly cross as he vanquishes the powers of evil that oppress this world.

ANYWAY, in preparation for this work I’ve been tapping into people who seem to have a similar vision of the Kingdom. The research I’ve done thus far is very encouraging. There REALLY IS a grass roots Kingdom movement sweeping our land – and the globe.

Undoubtedly the best book I’ve read so far is Shane Claiborne’s "The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical." I heartily recommend reading it.

I've run across Claiborne's book a few times. Flipped through it once. What I recall is that it certainly qualifies as radical, but also encouraging. I'll definitely have to take another look at it. Boyd's recommendations have been music to my ears since I've started paying attention to him, so I'm sure Claiborne will move up the fast track on my suddenly expanding reading list.

» Speaking of Boyd again ... he's got a new book out in two months: "The Jesus Legend: A Case for the Historical Reliability of the Synoptic Jesus Tradition." I'm only reserving judgement on it due to the fact that I'm curious how much of it will read like Greg Boyd. Having listened to the guy on a weekly basis, read him, and watched TV interviews, there's a certain style and cadence that you get used to. I tend to love what Boyd describes as "thinking in paragraphs." Listen to him enough times and that makes sense. But what to some may sound like a disjointed, rambling style is music to some ears.

As a rule, I've already brought myself pretty close to concluding that I'll read pretty much anything of Boyd's and that gives me a long backstock to find time for ... somehow. But I'm not quite in an apologetics mood and that's a rather substantial part of Boyd's specialty. Color me conflicted on that one. For now.

» I'm well aware of some of the criticisms toward Eugene Peterson's interpretation of the Bible ("The Message") and that's created a reluctance on my part to dive into any of his material in the past. I'm over that for the most part, even as I stick with my NIV preferences firmly in tow.

But there's no denying Peterson's ability to make words dance. I'm only briefly into "Eat This Book" and there's already numerous highlights. I've yet to distill any standalone paragraphs (for those of us who think in paragraph form), but here's a few brief excerpts to help reflect what it is that led me so strongly toward this book:

Re: Karl Barth on how to properly dive into a book ...

Barth insists that we do not read this book and the subsequent writings that are shaped by it in order to find out how to get God into our lives, get him to participate in our lives. No. We open this book and find that page after page it takes us off guard, surprises us, and draws us into its reality, pulls us into participation with God on his terms.

Re: personal experience over the Bible as an authority for living ...

An interest in souls divorced from an interest in Scripture leaves us without a text that shapes these souls,. In the same way, an interest in Scripture divorced from an interest in souls leaves us without any material for the text to work on.

At a level of oddity, "Eat This Book" is simply a book about reading. At a level of normalcy, I refuse to undo that simplicity.

June just has an awful lot of exciting things going on at Lakewood. We kick it off in style with John Maxwell preaching this weekend. This promises to be a great weekend, so feel free to drag along friends & family along with. Good seats can still be had at the Saturday service at least.

Also leading off the month is a new book for the Compass Class on Saturdays: "S.H.A.P.E." by Erik Rees. The first chapter is available to preview here (PDF). I may have to cave in and add this to the reading list from my prior post.

Well, yesterday I broke a little bad news. I recall that when I realized my stuff was missing, I was pretty mad yet also quick to not let it steal my joy for the day. I've been through moments far less worrisome and done just that in the past. And here I was on a day to anticipate an Aimee Beard solo and the return of Heath Rosborough to our Koinonia group.

I recalled one of my favorite stories of Max Lucado's. It involves a moment when his daughter nearly drowned. You can get the jist of it here. The short version is that upon thanking God for his daughter's safety, the question pops to Max's mind: "Would I be less wonderful had I let her drown? Would I still be receiving your praise this morning had I not saved her?" All I lost was a few trinkets. No lasting damage of any significant kind. Just a few minor inconveniences to replace them and a credit card to cancel. No way that ranks any worse than Lucado's example. So I was determined to enjoy the praise and worship a little bit more that day. Blaring Lincoln Brewster's CD before then helped, too.

After my usual early arrival at church, I opted to sneak into the sanctuary to see if there would even be a few musical refrains to enjoy a bit earlier. I'm almost tempted to not mention what a great feeling it is sitting in the sanctuary with maybe 5 other non-staff folks to be seen and the best band in the land rehearsing. It's almost surreal to be sitting on the front row and the whole church is quiet enough that you can hear Michael strumming with only negligible amplification and nothing coming through the sanctuary speakers. The lady singing along was also a pleasure since she's normally part of the ensemble and it's difficult to pick out each individual's voice in that setting. Not a big surprise that she has an incredible voice. Truth be told, though: even if it was just Larry tuning his piano, it'd still be great.

Normally, upon learning that Aimee's singing, I'd make plans for a Sunday service just for that. But due to a mix of good and bad reasons, I had even more cause for a Sunday repeat. The bad was that I ended up seated further off to the side than normally. The allure of a quick escape for my Koinonia duties was pretty strong. But I think I was also hoping I could sweet talk an usher or two into letting me and a friend move up a row or two ... ya know, where the sound is actually good. Suffice it to say, I was stuck in something akin to an auditory dead zone in the sanctuary. Clearly, I need to work on my sweet-talking. But the rest of the songs performed by Cindy, Steve, & Da'Dra was some of my favorites ... so that made it beyond mandatory that I'd be there Sunday morning. Even if the acoustics left a little to be desired, the songs were already planted and in full bloom in my heart.

Taking advantage of the one plus for my seat, I had a good deal of fun flying by the seat of my pants at Koinonia. I'll admit this: one of the many wonderful adventures of making some enormous changes to the format of this group is that we learn something new every day. Kudos to Marie for being even more adept than myself at finding some of the solutions we needed to make everything go well.

The added bonus of it all, of course, was seeing Heath Rosborough once more. Not only did we get some well-received praise & worship with him, but we also got a look at "Pastor Heath" as he shared a great message that already confirms for me a book that's been sitting on my wishlist for a while now. The music, of course, is always a pleasure to soak up. I don't recall whether I'd seen Heath perform "You Took My Place," but he was gracious enough to lead off with it as he took the stage after group discussion. Clear and away my favorite from his CD ... with a lot of great runnerups to choose from.

Part of Heath's message mentioned how we sometimes get so wrapped up in our routine that we lose sight of true worship. Heath went into Psalm 50 for a word on this. In particular, Psalm 50:8-15 hit home:

⁸ I do not rebuke you for your sacrifices
or your burnt offerings, which are ever before me.

⁹ I have no need of a bull from your stall
or of goats from your pens,

¹⁰ for every animal of the forest is mine,
and the cattle on a thousand hills.

¹¹ I know every bird in the mountains,
and the creatures of the field are mine.

¹² If I were hungry I would not tell you,
for the world is mine, and all that is in it.

¹³ Do I eat the flesh of bulls
or drink the blood of goats?

¹⁴ Sacrifice thank offerings to God,
fulfill your vows to the Most High,

¹⁵ and call upon me in the day of trouble;
I will deliver you, and you will honor me."

The routine - the rote mechanical motion defined by man - isn't what God is truly after. Give thanks ... keep your word ... call upon God in your times of trouble. Skip down to verse 23 and we get a reiteration of this as well as the reward:

²³ He who sacrifices thank offerings honors me, and he prepares the way so that I may show him the salvation of God."

So give thanks ... even in times of trouble.

So Sunday morning comes around. I wake up late enough to ensure that I get a few rows further back than I'd like, but I at least make sure to pick a spot with good acoustics. Nothing left to chance here today. The experience? A hundred times better. Sure, I could be saying that because the music alone was great. The sermon from Saturday night was one that hit home. Or even because of Heath's message. But by the time you add it all up, there's a cumulative effect that's hard to describe.

After the service, I owed it to myself to go out of my way to meet Stephen from the Ensemble (as well as Darrell ~
assuming I'm remembering names reasonably well). Still amazes me that more than five people read this little site, but the usage stats beg to differ. These guys, along with the entire Choir and Ensemble, orchestra and worship leaders, do a magnificent job each week. The level of talent on the Lakewood stage would probably intimidate lesser folks and it's just great to hear that anything I do or say via keyboard encourages them one iota more. By the time Stephen said he heard what had happened to me yesterday, I literally had to jog my memory rather quickly to even recall that for myself. That, to me, says what a great job he and a whole lot of other talented people do to help keep a song of praise alive in people's hearts.

Oh yeah, and Joel gave a great sermon, too. With a little luck, I'll have a few thoughts to cobble together on the subject. Video on the way tomorrow. Marcos at the pulpit on Wednesday.

Here's a twist for Monday Video ... some Joel. The sermon was great, as usual and while there were a couple of segments I could possibly excerpt from it, this won out. A little bit of humor, a little bit of politics, a little bit of bling ... and a point well made.

There's a hiccup in the video toward the end, which gets the audio and video off sequence. It's minor and the message still gets across, though.

As promised, I've got only a slight bit of info to retell after Saturday night's service. I had a rather unique experience that night ... I got to sit on the front row. Amazing amount of leg room up there. That, I can get real used to. But it made for a very different praise & worship. Typically, I'll key in on the band, try and learn something new from Michael on guitar or just revel in the moment with any number of the more expressive band or choir members. This time around, it was hard not to just spend the whole time focusing on Cindy, Israel, Stephen & Da'Dra. It was a fun experience.

Upstairs at Koinonia, we had another unique experience. We've been altering the format a little, kicking off with a bit of praise and worship upstairs. In the two weeks we've been doing this, we've had to call an audible or two due to the occassional surprise, glitch, or unlocated musician for that night. Nathan Walker got the ball rolling with a nice three song lead-in to the Nooma video, Rain. Typically, we don't have any music on stage till after our group discussions. This time around, it was great to see so many people getting into Nathan's music right from the get-go. Also great to see that we're raising the bar for the Koinonia experience. Kudos to Todd for his vision on that front. Next week, we'll have something totally different in store for folks. And as a reminder - Heath Rosborough hits Koinonia on May 5.

Anyways, there's a video clip up from the Sunday version of the Saturday service. Soak it up ... the whole thing was great.

Some great pictures shown during Victoria's message:

More later ...

I've just got to rant honestly here, but I am truly taking one for the team today. After taking part in the 8:30 service, I found myself contemplating the benefits of just sticking around for the 11:00 service. It was that good.

Obviously, I've relented to recording the 11:00 service so that I might have evidence to prove to someone else that I wasn't exaggerating.

UPDATE: Video ... Banked ... MONDAY!!!

Pray for me.

In Brennan Manning's Ruthless Trust, he refers to a call from a musician and friend, Michael Card:

After gospel song writer and recording artist Michael Card finished a concert in Wembley Stadium in London, the audience rose to their feet in sustained, thunderous applause. Their unharnessed enthusiasm demanded one curtain call after another. When the brouhaha finally ended,. Michael ran to his dressing room and called me long-distance here in New Orleans. "Please pray for me right now, Brennan," he begged. He knew that , like me, he could easily be seduced by the siren call of success, the unbounded adulation of his fans. "I don't want this stuff," he fairly shouted. "Ask Jesus to set me free."

To this, I can now relate to in some small way.

While I may not have been out performing in front of thousands of fans, I did have the good fortune to spend time talking to one of Lakewood's own musicians, Randy Allison. As we prepared for some Koinonia fun (he performing, me doing a dose of technical mumbo-jumbo), I got a rather ample portion of ego inflation. The particular cause of this has something to do with the degree to which this little blog seems to have gotten what I'm told is some positive reactions among the band. I'd go on and on with tales told out of school that might better illustrate why I might be excused to floating a bit higher these days, but I might have to start accepting all of Randy's encouragement as a gospel unto itself. Needless to say, it was all very good to hear.

Call it coincidence if you want. But all this comes after a particularly great praise and worship at this weekend's service. Not just because Carrie & Michael Hodge blessed the stage with one of my favorite Two Hearts songs: Never Forget. One particularly well-received moment was the inclusion of two of Israel Houghton's new tunes, Everywhere That I Go and We Have Overcome. Those two songs have an energy level unto themselves that just gets magnified when they are included in the same service. The whole musical side of the night was perhaps one of the best I've seen in the nearly two years I've got to benchmark it against. I can't wait to make it back for a repeat viewing.

Another coincidence - if we want to keep calling it that - was Joel's sermon. The message was on setting a good example, letting our lives be our ministry. To me, that's long been viewed as one of the most beautiful, yet difficult to fulfill messages Christ left with us. Obviously, at Lakewood, we accentuate the positive. And the message was replete with examples of how to let our own light shine even when the situation makes it challenging. Lending that positive attitude is just as important to be that positive attitude since we're never fully aware of who's watching.

Some time ago, God put before me a wonderful example of this. It happened that I was dining out (Luby's to be precise) and was a bit flustered from the hectic pace of the day. It wasn't that I was in any sour mood of any kind, but I was certainly focused a bit on just me, isolated from the world thanks to my MP3 player, and there's no telling what my body language was saying ('cuz Lord knows I wasn't paying much attention). The woman ahead of me on this slow night at the restaurant, however, had all the good cheer in the world to spare. And not in the weird, scary Hare Krishna way ... just as sincere and well intentioned good spirits as you could possibly imagine. She made sure to lend me a smile and a kind word for the day. She proceeded to do the same for everybody working behind the serving line, the cashiers, and no telling how many other people. I pray that she's still at it. It was all I could do that night to just stand in awe of this woman and take a few notes. Whenever the memory bank flares up, I still try to include her in a prayer that she continues that example and is surrounded by enough of God's favor to live her life in a way that builds her up even higher in that regard.

On my way out of the Sanctuary Saturday, I figured I'd lend a nice word to Carrie Hodge. To do this is no small feat. You literally have to brace yourself for the excitement that Carrie exudes. And I'm even more convinced that the word "handshake" is simply not even in her vocabulary. I'm convinced that I'm all hugged out for the week now. But in my simple effort to congratulate Carrie and verbally applaud her performance, her response to me was the same as it was to everyone else who did the same: "God is good." Would that we all find it so easy to deflect the praise and give God the glory. Fortunately, God continues to put good examples in front of us. Maybe it's His way of saying we should keep the notebook handy at all times.

So back to my story. As luck, coincidence, or whatever we're calling it now, all I managed to do on a Saturday was go to church, hear an incredible praise and worship service, receive a great sermon on letting our lives be our ministry, and then watched as Carrie and Randy gave great examples of that sermon - which makes me appreciate the Lakewood band even more.

I've written at some point in the past about how music had always been the way that helped me connect with God in the years before I had a church home. So perhaps it's a far cry from coincidence to suggest that this blog has gravitated a bit towards the musical. What's odd is that my initial thought was that maybe someone out there in the world might connect with God a little bit like I do and enjoy Lakewood on at least a few of the levels I do. The thought never occurred to me that it might also be the occasional word of encouragement back to the very band and choir that I'm trying to spread that light with. From the front of the stage to the back (and even to the sound crew), I just hope that I never fail to run out of those words of encouragement.

Though at some point, I should just drop the word "coincidence" from my vocabulary.