One of the questions I always ask pastors, is what books they are reading or what their favorite three books are. Recently talking to Pastor Phil over at CrossRoads church in Woodbury, he turned me onto the book The Power of Moments by Chip Heath and Dan Heath. He explained to me, he was using it to figure out how to make worship more memorable. I thought this was pretty telling coming from Pastor Phil because each week they have between 3 to 5 thousand people come to their five church campuses. This book he suggested isn't a church book. It is a book for business. How do you make your busy and customer experience really memorable. There was an example of a hotel in LA that has been reviewed to be one of the top hotels in all of LA. Looking at the hotel it doesn't seem to be anything special, it doens't have a bigger pool than anybody else and their rooms are not very fancy at all. So why are people flocking to come there? It is the experience. For one thing they have a popsicle hotline. So when you call the special red phone in the pool area a staff person asks you want kind of popsicles you want and then brings them to you on a silver platter. Guess how much it costs? It is free!!! It is touches like this that people remember and it is why people come to this hotel in droves and why they rate it so high. So it got me thinking about church. How do we make each worship a good memorable experience for folks. This June we did an experiement where we blocked off the back pews so that people wouldn't sit underneath the balcony. This was good not because they would be closer to service but because underneath the balcony it is hard to hear. I haven't hear too much back from anybody yet as to whether people like it or hate it. So what make worship memorable for you? Leave a comment and let me know. Also on a related note, what was a power moment for you? Why was it powerful? Leave that in the comment as well.
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So I am reading this book by Tony Morgan called Killing Cockroaches. The book is a collection of blog posts that Tony has done over the years. As I was reading through this week, my eyes were drawn to his blog post entitled "Leadership Lessons I learned from Football". Here are the five things he thought about after going to a Clemson Tiger Football game in Death Valley which is the nickname for their home field.
1. If thousands of people make some noise, it can get pretty loud. 2. People will do some crazy things to worship something they love. 3. When you really believe in something, you'll take a stand. 4. People will put their money where there heart is. 5. When the cause is big enough, people will give their time. It got me thinking do we ever get excited for God or worship as we do for our favorite professional or college teams? Why or Why not? What would a church look like if it was really loud? Or what if we had face painting before or after service? Sounds crazy? I think Tony brings up a good point, how do we get excited about God and how do we show it? What do you think? What could you do to show how excited you are about your faith? "Christ the Lord Is Risen Today; Alleluia!" (ELW 369)
1 Christ the Lord is ris'n today; Alleluia! Christians, hasten on your way; Alleluia! offer praise with love replete, Alleluia! at the paschal victim's feet. Alleluia! 2 For the sheep the Lamb has bled, Alleluia! sinless in the sinner's stead. Alleluia! Christ the Lord is ris'n on high; Alleluia! now he lives, no more to die. Alleluia! 3 Christ, the victim undefiled, Alleluia! God and sinners reconciled, Alleluia! when contending death and life, Alleluia! met in strange and awesome strife. Alleluia! 4 Christians, on this holy day, Alleluia! all your grateful homage pay; Alleluia! Christ the Lord is ris'n on high; Alleluia! now he lives, no more to die. Alleluia! Text: attr. Wipo of Burgundy, d. c. 1050; tr. Jane E. Leeson, 1807-1882, alt. Listen with the ears of your mind as you read the words of this hymn. What can you hear? I hear trumpets and a booming chorus of people. What do you smell? My nose is filled with the smell of Easter lilies and other fresh flowers. What do you see when you close your eyes? I visualize a brightly lit sanctuary full of people. This song reminds me so much of my experience on Easter morning. I can't help but sing the words as I read the text. This song will forever be ingrained in my being. We all have songs that do this to us--bring us back to a certain time and place. As Christians, Easter brings us back time and time again to be bathed in Christ's grace. What if the tunes of our lives reflected this amazing gift? Will Easter continue to just be a day, or will it become the heartbeat of our lives? Alleluia Lord, may we live our lives with the beat of Easter in our hearts, and may our lives be a song of gospel to all we meet. Amen. |
AuthorPastor Paul. I hope you find these reflections insightful and help you in your faith journey! Archives
December 2019
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