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Lee51673
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Name: Shannon
Country: United States
State: Georgia
Metro: Savannah
Gender: Male
Interests: God, my wife, the outdoors, writing and performing music, worship, eating oysters, reading books; Jonathan Edwards, John Piper, Wayne Grudem, Sam Storms, Rich Nathan, Iain Murray.
Expertise: Anything I care to have an opinion on. ;-)
Occupation: Administrative
Industry: Nonprofit
Message: message meEmail: email me
Website: visit my website
AIM:  lee51673
Member Since:
2/2/2004
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| So, I've been offered a rather significant part-time job (which would
GREATLY suppliment my current income) by the Church for whom I've been
the Youth Worship Leader for the past 3 years. The stickler: this
would involve me actually switching to this church full-time.
Doctrinally, it is a solid church - founded by Presbyterians, Southern
Baptists, and a few moderate Charismatics, but the problem is: it's
modelled after NorthPoint, meaning it leans heavily towards
'Seeker-Sensitive', and the sermons don't go terribly deep, and
secondly, as a Seeker Sensitive church the worship just doesn't express
the passion that my wife & I look for. Now, the job I would
be doing would be to develop the worship community at that church and
sometimes lead, but coming from a Charismatic church where the worship
is VERY passionate and free, this may be more than my wife can
take. Personally, I love the individuals at this church - they
are good friends, and I think I could work there, and it has the
potential for becoming a full-time job in a few years: it's pretty
exciting to imagine being the future music minister of a church of
1500+ (by the time that opens up, the numbers will be much higher), but
again - SHOULD we? In some ways it seems like God's provision for
this to come up right now, as things are REDICULOUSLY tight, and my
wife & I have both had some frustrations with her old church, and
some of it's teaching (which occasionally veers too close to Word of
Faith for my tastes).
And if I turn this down?
Well, I'm seriously considering the possibility of researching what it
might take and the steps to take to consider planting a church here in
the Brunswick area. I'm also pondering whether I should pursue it
as a plant of a denomination (either EPC, Vineyard, Acts 29 Network,
Treasuring Christ Together (Desiring God ), Sovereign Grace,
Grace Churches Int., New Frontiers, Spirit & Truth Churches Int.,
or Assoc. of Charismatic Reformed Churches), or as an independant
community church model. Anyway, if this does happen, it's a long
way off, but - any thoughts?
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| Since I hope to one day finish a book that I've begun writing on how to
practice the more 'miraculous' charismatic gifts in a
non-charismatic/cessationist church setting that I should share ,
publicly, a few of my personal experiences, and chosen expressions, or
special things that the Holy Spirit has done in and through me, apart
from salvation.
My first experience was when I was in my spiritual infancy: I had gone
to a pentacostal church with one of my friends - a musician (which is
why we were friends) and a member of the praise team there. After
a few HOURS of worship (yeah - flags and dancing - it was WILD) someone
near me began to speak in tongues, which pretty much pushed me over the
edge - I decided that it was time for me to leave. As I was
heading towards the center aisle a Bible verse from the Psalms shot
into my memory - something about glorifying God - so I said it aloud,
and didn't understand a single word of what came from my lips, much to
my suprise. At that point I sat down and stayed for the rest of
the service. It always struck me that it was God's way of saying
"I'll do what I want and how I want it and it's not yours to say that I
can't." Though I didn't pray/speak in tongues again for at least
10 years (after I began studying the gifts it came naturally), I rarely
doubted that the gift was valid - I never read a cessationist argument
that convinced me, even during my stricter reformed stage.
Later in college, one of my band-mates, a former sex-addict, alcoholic,
and generally all-around bad fellow before he came to Christ, told me
that he could sometimes see demons - what he called a very STRONG gift
of discernment. On numerous occasions he'd tell me to stop and
he'd point to someplace across the street and say, "I see darkness
there - someone VERY bad is about the happen", and within minutes a
fight would break-out in the exact location he pointed to. Though
I never personally experienced such a gift, he was almost always DEAD
on.
More than one time in college I heard what I believe was God's 'voice'
- not an audible voice, but an overwhelming impression that an idea
from outside myself was ringing in my mind. Once, I awoke at 3 in
the morning 'knowing' that I needed to go to a friend's apartment,
which was almost a mile away. That wouldn't be so bad, but it was
below zero outside, and there was almost a foot of snow ont he ground,
and I had no car! I went back to sleep, but only for a moment -
the idea was still there, and it distressed me severely. I laid
in bed for a while and argued with myself, finally giving up, throwing
on some boots, a t-shirt, and a thick trench coat (I looked like a
flasher, I'm sure), and trudged through the snow to my friend's
apartment. Suprisingly, the lights were still on. As I
approached the door, normally locked tight, I noticed it was propped
open, so I walked right on in. As I entered the hallway, another
friend (one who didn't live there) busted through a door and nearly
knocked me over - his face was red, and his eyes teary. He said,
"Thank God! I was praying someone would come!" Turns out several
college leaders of the various local ministries were having a HUGE
arguement - the sort that ends fellowship, and I was the only person
that didn't take a side on their 'debate', yet knew all three, and so I
became their mediator for the evening. On another occasion, while
just passing time between classes, I 'heard' that same voice - it
simply said "Turn here." 'Here' was a rather nasty, and somewhat
dark and creepy, alley between two buildings. But, seeing that I
could think of no reason that I would WANT to go down that alley, had
no classes, and no place I needed to be, I did it. An
acquaintance of mine was behind a dumpster down that alley about to
slash his wrists. God used me to stop a suicide and share the
gospel with this very friendly Goth guy. Another college
experience is when God 'told' me who my the 'love of my life' was going
to marry, and I introduced the two - though I was saddened by it, and
it was my first hard lesson in God's sovereignty - they were married
within a year. I only had a few similar experiences while in
Athens, GA, but when the 'voice' did come I usually attempted to act on
it, in a way that was as unobtrusive as possible. For instance,
the 'voice' usually came while talking to non-believers, and I'd
incorporate whatever it told me into the conversation, which usually
stopped them in their tracks. I'd be discussing something and
say, "So, how was it growing up Presbyterian" or "When did your father
leave you", and it would change the dynamics of the entire conversation
because they'd given me no hint whatsoever of those truths.
Since moving to Brunswick, I've also had a few surprising works of
God. One of my friends one night seemed down, so I asked him what
was on his mind. His uncle was in the hospital dying - had been
given less that 3 hours to live - and was too far away for him to
visit. I just suggested we pray, we prayed, and in a miraculous
turn-around that astounded the doctors, he went home healthy and well 2
days later (those 2 days mainly for observation because they were so
befuddled by the turn-around. Last I heard, he's still alive and
well.
Lastly, just a couple of weeks ago my wife and I went to a conference
in Jacksonville. The last day there, while Cyle was getting a few
piano tips from a respected musician, I looked over at a young teenager
(no older than 15, I'd guess) and the words "No on needs to fix
you. It will come with time. I'm not disappointed.
It's okay" popped into my mind. I'd never really seen this girl
before, and didn't know her from eve, and sure as heck wasn't going to
walk up to her and say such things. I prayed over those words for
about 15 minutes, then pulled out my journal and wrote them down.
Tearing the page from my journal, I folded it and laid it on the (VERY
LARGE) stage about 20 feet from the girl (who was looking the other
way) and simple prayed "God, if these words are for someone in this
room, you are able to lead that person to read them." I left the
room and went to another training session in the other end of the
church (and this church is HUGE - it has it's own TV show and
such). An hour or so later as Cyle and I were leaving the church
that young woman shout out "Sir" - she had clearly been crying.
She asked me if I had written the words that were on the stage, and I
nodded - she then asked if they were for her, and I said, "I thought
they might be, but just asked that God would lead you to them if they
were", and she said, "They were exactly what I need to hear." I
walked around the rest of the day in a daze, yet again amazed by how,
when, and where God doesn't miraculous things. Anyway...life is
strange, and so is God. Don't limit what you think He might and
can do.
amen...
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| Well, I'm FINALLY finishing Stackhouse's "Gospel-Driven Church" - not
what I'd call a 'fast read', for sure. I also think he
over-states his case, a bit like a charismatic version of Michael S.
Horton, who, though he often speaks truth, is so beligerent with it
that you WANT to disagree with the guy in the end. Okay,
Stackhouse isn't quite that harsh - like Horton, he makes a few very
good points, but the book could easily be shortened to the size of
'Prayer of Jabez', and the language could be simplified significantly,
since many charismatics don't read a great deal of academic
literature. Anyway, still worth reading.
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| So, this has been a very interesting last few months...
We said 'no'. Cyle & I travelled with Kenimer to Statesboro
to check out the church: Grace Community Church (modelled after
NorthPoint in Atlanta), and at first it seemed like a really good
fit. The pastor was an excellent Bible teacher - taught Bible
doctrine, yet in a way that non-believers and new believers could
really connect with and undertstand. The church was growing like
crazy (600+ already, and they were building a 1200 seat sanctuary to
cover for projected growth). The people there were incredibly
nice, most in the same station of life as we (25-40 years old, with
children - there were over 75 children at the church below 5 years
old!). The position was incredible: assistant pastor, and
music minister - and the pay was almost $10,000 more than what I
currently make. BUT (and you were all waiting for the 'but'),
Statesboro is VERY RURAL - I came from that sorta town, but don't think
I could return to live in that sort of place (honestly, I'd really like
to put my nose-ring back in, if I move). We really could get a
vision for that town. Secondly, and this is a little hard to
'nail down' and put our finger on, but God just said "NO", and both
Cyle & I knew it. Sometimes those things are hard to explain,
but it couldn't have been more clear if it were written on the power
point between every song.
So, for now, we're still in Brunswick, trying to make all sorts of
other big decisions. The Community Church I've been working for
is somewhere between either letting me go and replacing me with someone
with more free-time, or promoting me to a more involved (yet for now
still part-time) position there with their music program. At the
same time, Brunswick Christian Renewal wants me to basically take over
(essentially START) a college/career ministry (imagine WDA's weekly
meeting, only charismatic) for their church.
At the same time, Cyle & I are continually getting requests to lead
worship are various churches and functions. In the past 2 1/2
months I've led for one week long baptist youth conference, she and I
have led at 2 methodist churches, 8 services at various community
churches (some for youth, some for the whole congregation), and a
couple of morning and evening services at a charismatic church - and
this weekend Cyle and one of her girlfriends are leading worship at a
women's conference out-of-town. It's been an interesting
month...but a good growing experience.
...and wait till I tell you what happened in Jacksonville!
but I'll save that for later...
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| So, one way I've changed since leaving Athens is that I've fallen in love with a great deal of contemporary worship. That's partially because of the worship culture that I've entered, but also partly because of the growth in depth of many contemporary worship artists. Reworked, or new hymns are all the rage, and that's influenced the new songs in that 'theology' is much more prevelant, sometimes to a fault (the songs are sometimes quite wordy). Anyway, if you have iTunes and want to experiment any, here are a few of the newest (and a few that are 'new to me') that I've been learning and beginning to introduce at the various congregations locally (St. Simons Community Church, Brunswick Christian Renewal, St. Simons United Methodist, Wesley United Methodist, among others) that Cyle & I get invited to lead at. I hope they serve to spark a fire in you.
I stand Amazed (How Marvelous) - Chris Tomlin
The Greatest Day - Evan Rogers
Creation's King - Paul Baloche & Graham Kendrick
There is nothing Like - Hillsong United
Sweetly Broken - Vineyard
Jesus paid it All - David Crowder & Passion Band
You never let Go - Matt Redman
Daylight - Nigel Briggs
What can I Do - Paul Baloche
In Christ Alone - Stuart Townsend
Bless Your Name - Vineyard
Saving Grace - Vineyard
King Forever - Vineyard UK (Burn band)
All for You - Vineyard UK (Burn band)
Marvelous Light - Charlie Hall | | |
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