New Community

New Community is a bit of a blur right now. I went with a head ache and ended up in some kind of sugar coma after trying to treat the headache with a $4 fruit smoothie from Dr. B's.

There was a guest worshipper, Drew Cline, from Crossroads Community Church (not the same Crossroads mentioned in last weeks New Community post.) He was gracious and confident, a great worship leader. If we were shopping for worship leaders (and I don't know anything, I'm just saying...) then he'd get my vote.


Thanks to The Revealer (see link in sidebar) for the photo.

Gene Appel gave the message. It was out of Colossians 3:12-17. The most memorable thing about his talk was the emphasis he put on the singing of "psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God." He pointed out that we, as the core of the congregation, are rarely as demonstrative in our worship at the weekend services as we are at New Community. He said that this is a mistake because the way that we participate, or fail to participate, in that part of the service can be seen by our visitors as a test of whether we really believe the words on the screen or not.

It was remarkable to hear this from the pulpit at Willow because Steph and I clearly remember hearing John Ortberg, back in the 90's, warn us that demonstrative worship was alarming to seekers and often used inappropriately by people desiring to appear holy. I agree with what Gene said last night, and I agreed with what John said ten years ago...I think that reflects the changing needs of seekers as well as Willow's evolving understanding of the importance of public worship.