Carpe diem

Carpe diem -Seize the day! This motto has been engraved into me ever since I saw the movie Dead Poets Society. If I might add it is a wonderful movie. It was first said by the Roman poet Horace. It is a great model for people to live their lives. Make the most out of every opportunity that comes your way. I admit that some days I live by this and other days I do not. Some people are better at this than others. This phrase does get old though. What if we divided the day into sections and instead of saying ,"seize the day" we said, "seize the moment." This small change is pivotal and will make a huge difference in your life

 In Greek there are two words used for time. One is kronos. Kronos refers to our chronological time frame. One day is 24 hours, one hour is 60 minutes, and one minute is 60 seconds... You get the point. The second word used for time is kairos. Kairos refers to God's timing and things in kairos time are much more weighted on the content of the moments. For example, if you have to give a presentation or speech, and you are not prepared for it, five minutes can seem like an eternity. But what about the five minutes leading up to that presentation? They fly by a little too fast and seem like seconds. This is kairos. Some moments mean more and have a lasting effect on you. God works in this time frame.

We need to be longing for kairos moments with God. If we listen to the Holy Spirit he can make this happen. God is constantly speaking and we are usually off in chronologicaLand not listening. I can tell you from experience that if we stop listening long enough, God will shake things up. And, when God shakes things up you will be on your knees listening. I don't mean that like God is my big brother and if you pick on me long enough he is going to take you outside and whoop your rear. I mean that like when God speaks you realize how Holy He is and how small you are compared to His Holiness.

          Let me tell you a little story of one of these moments in my life. This is probably the biggest one thus far in my life. Setting -I was working as a mechanic for a small city. The job paid really well for a 19 year old. It was a union job and I was making bank! Some other things to point out is that I was leading worship at a small church and dating a girl for about 6 months. So to put it in the terms of a 19 year old I was living the dream. Can you just guess what the focal point of my dream was? Myself. I was living life, looking to better myself.

          Without notice everything was ripped right out of my hands. I was laid off from my job. I thought it was a joke, but it wasn't. In the following two weeks I had so many realizations of who I have become. God shook me and I was listening. God showed me glimpses of who He is. This was only the beginning of a transitional point in my life. I lost my job on Friday and by Sunday I spoke (more like wept) in front of the entire congregation. I told them that I wasn't worth leading them into a time of worship. I need to be an example, and I was more like an example of what not to do. The following year I did a lot of listening to God and made big changes in my life. I broke up with my girlfriend and had enrolled in college. That specific year in my life I lived moment to moment and each moment God showed up and showed me more of who He is. In those moments we realize who we really are and if we want to live by God's standards we will make a change.

That was the biggest transition of my life but it was only a year. What was different about it? It was a year that I decided to listen to God. I decided that this life isn't my own and that my decisions need to be aligned with God's vision.

These kairos moments can be big like my year long journey or they can be small moments. The most important thing about them is that we will listen to God and make changes. If we hear God and don't change we will just harden our heart. We need to live for those moments that we encounter God. You will know you've made the right choice when the goal isn't about you. It's all about God and about His people. Don't harden your heart and be selfish. Life to serve God and serve His people!

Matt Brown

There's a time for daring and there's a time for caution, and a wise man understands which is called for. -John Keating

My thoughts exactly

Okay so in class we went over how a soundboard is operated and its function. Now that that boring part is out of the way let me get to something far more interesting.

Let me highlight on a few things about the status of my week. It has been a lazy week for me. That has its good parts and bad. I've been reading every so often in my spare time. I believe that reading is great and that we need to consistently be inspired by books, or movies, or art, or anything that is beautiful. I loved getting inspired. I see the beauty of God speaking through so many of these things. For example it is raining now and as much as I personally hate the rain, it is God giving us life through it. Things get greener, and life is breathed through the rain. So I will sit on my back porch and thank God for giving us life and the rain. 

One of the books that I am thoroughly enjoying is called The Wild Goose Chase by Mark Batterson. The Wild Goose comes from an ancient Celtic word An Geadh-Glas. This is the same word that the Celtic Christians called the Holy Spirit. It sounds sacrilegious calling the Holy Spirit a wild goose, but it kinda makes sense. Its dangerous and unpredictable, it has a mystery an a sense of uncertainty.  This is what chasing the Holy Spirit is. It's not so much as us following the Holy Spirit we need to be chasing Him. That is a real wild goose chase.
         

The Sea of Galilee

 Something I really took away from this book is that God will challenge our assumptions. We try to prove everything and assume we understand what God is doing, or what the world is doing. We can't. God wasn't created in our image was he? No, we were created in His image. We can't fully understand what His plans are. How about I throw a good story in here. A leading oceanographer says in the last few millenniums their has been weird atmospheric phenomenons causing the Sea of Galilee to form floating ice chunks. This may happen once every thousand years. This is how he believes that Jesus walked on water. I believe that Jesus waled on water because that is what the bible says happened. Also I think it would be equally impressive to see Jesus surfing on an ice chink in the storm. This is just one way we try to understand God. God is omniscient. We must not try to put an understanding on who He is. We can't prove everything. Sometimes the only way to prove something is to deem it a miracle.

I'm sure I will give you another great book review possibly in another post. I don't just read one book at a time. There is several.

Be inspired and look for God in everything. He is there.

Matt Brown

Shepherds

I'm not going to lie, I had a great week. It had a lot of good that happened in it. My weekend was relaxing and great as well. Now I'm approaching Monday morning and I'm getting a little stressed out about the incoming week. Although the biggest day of next week is Monday(tomorrow), so once I get past that I believe I am going to be just great. Moving on...

In class this week we learned about leadership. This is a topic I am very passionate about, and I get excited talking about it. We are called to leadership as Worship Leaders. This can be scary because we don't want to step out and make a fool of ourselves. God has given us these gifts and we need to in turn give them back to Him.A good thing to know is that leadership is not a gift, it is a skill. Therefore, we can practice and get better at it. Notice how I said practice. No leader is born a great leader it must be learned.

Leadership can be defined many ways. Two definitions I like are 1. Moving people and ideas forward. 2. Taking initiative for the benefit of others. These definitions outline some of the best leaders in history and in the world today. Both of these definitions have one subject that stands out, people. As a leader you obviously need people to shepherd and lead. They are above all the most important part of leadership. They are the leaders number one priority. I don't believe you can be a great leader and hate people. You need to put their needs above your own. (Christlike*)

In order to be a great leader you must first be a great follower.. Let me tall you why. If you were never motivated by a leader to move, how can you motivate others to move? Having good leadership needs to be practiced. Like anything else that requires practice, you can't be afraid of failure. It happens a lot. I have led many events into utter failure because of many reasons. I learned from my mistakes and I kept right on going. I know I will make mistakes again, I'm only human. I will do my best to learn from them and not repeat them.

I think one of the most important things about being a leader is having good communication skills. A lot of bad leadership I see is because of poor communication. You need to be precise in your communication and eliminate ambiguity. Also a thing to look out with, is how leadership is so close to selfishness. Selfishness is taking initiative for the benefit of yourself. You don't want to get going down the path of selfishness and lead others only to benefit your own desires.

Lord I pray that I can continue to be molded into a great leader. May I become more and more each day like the perfect leader, Jesus. I pray that I will hold others above myself and that I would lead to the best of my own abilities. I pray that I speak truth. Let my priorities line up with your priorities, God. Amen

Acts 20:28  Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood.


Matt Brown

The Desert

Philippians 2:6
⁶ who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷ but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. ⁸ And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

 This week in class we learned about creating a good worship theology. Yes, it is important as a worship leader to support the teaching when planning a set. One way we can support the teaching is highlighting a different view of God. This is a method called revelation and response. Revelation focuses on the transcendence of God. Response focuses on God's immanence. If the teaching is all about how mighty and holy God is (transcendence) then as a worship leader we should sing a response highlighting  how God is here with us (immanence). Your theology needs to be broad enough to cover both of these things, though.

An interesting thing I learned was that you can become a worship leader, and think you know everything about worship theology, but you don't. You may believe that your theology of worship is correct, when you begin a job leading worship. You can't just walk into a church and change everything to fit your theology of worship. You need to change to fit the environment you are in at the time. If you get hired at very conservative church. You don't want to automatically switch styles of worship from hymns to contemporary worship. You will either loose the entire congregation or you'll loose your job.  

This brings me to my "ah-ha" moment in the class period. It isn't wrong to change your theology of worship, as long as your theology is orthodox. Change isn't easy. In fact it is quite sacrificial. When looking for a place to lead worship don't look for one that you fit in perfectly, look for a place that you can be faithful to. Ah ha so we are supposed to learn self-sacrifice. We are called to run into the desert. Well isn't it hard in the desert? 

Yes, the desert isn't the most attractive places to be. You feel like you are getting nowhere, and you are suffering everyday. This is how we can apply it to everyone's life, not just a worship leader's. These desert opportunities in life may seem like set backs, but these are the most crucial parts of anyone's life.  Funny thing is, you WILL suffer. Following Jesus isn't easy and it isn't meant to be. The desert is the number one place to learn YOU are not in control. God want's nothing more than to carry you in those hard times. He wants all the glory in your life. He deserves the credit for those desert moments. Learn to be faithful in the desert and you will grow.

 ⁵ “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit
                 John 15:5a

Matt