New Community

We were back at New Community last night after a hiatus. It felt great to be there! (And it was great to run into Crystal and Scott!)

Aaron Niequest (who is featured in this weeks Spiritual Fitness Corner along with my BIL, Mark) brought his worship team from Mars Hill to lead worship for the evening. We've all seen a worship service start out with a rhythm section using household items, but this is the first time I've seen an entire worship set performed using mostly household items! There were about eight or nine guys, maybe two guitars, and the rest were playing things like card board boxes, sheet metal, garbage cans, buckets, wiffle ball bats...And if that wasn't risky enought, he added a new tricky part to Bend My Knee and taught us this big four part round thing that was super complicated.

Aaron understands how easy it is for people to simply check out durring worship and what he orchestrated last night is a worship experience that requires the full attention of the participants. It ended up being a great success and a much needed reminder that sometimes it's more important to push people out of their comfort zones in worship than it is to make it feel and sound as smooth as silk.

The message was titled "If Jesus Lived in My Neighborhood, Pt 2" and was given by Dave Stone, of Southeast Christian. After Randy Frazee's tantalizing vision of neighborhood community I was hoping (given the title) that this series would be on that topic, but it was a more general "what would Jesus do?" talk. The sermon was given out of Mark 10:45 and outlined four reasons to serve:

1. Serving promotes unity.
2. Serving fosters relationships.
3. Serving imitates Jesus.
4. Serving changes you.

One funny moment was when he told us we were going to be washing each others feet and then, after an agonizing pause, told us he was just kidding. He joked that we were so uneasy we probably thought he was Rob Bell incognito. This isn't the first time Rob Bell's name has been the punchline of a joke (always good natured) - that's proof that the man is now officially in the big leagues.

Dave was funny and nice and seemed to feel so at home that he made a couple of slip ups...said something like "Aaron doesn't know us" (I would assert that Aaron knows us too well!) and "I'll see you this weekend," which would be news to Mike, who is supposed to talk this weekend. Well, I'm glad the hospitality of Willow made such an impact! If people who visit feel like this is home than we're doing something right!

Next week New Community is going to be led by Robert Guerrero and a woship team from the Dominican Republic! That's going to rock!