Rock Bible Church - 10-24-2010

Ahoy!

Three weeks now... pretty cool! As is the pattern so far, a few neat things from last Sunday:

1) Baptisms. Acts says that as the church began and grew, people were being baptized. So rad to see people hearing the call to publicly declare that Christ has saved them... on a cold rainy day.

2) Scott brought it from Genesis 1. His main point, simply, was centered around what the Lord chose to tell us about creation and what He chose to not tell us. When, how, what, who, why? The first two, "when" and "how", aren't that detailed. And really, these are secondary to "what" and "who". The Lord (Elohim!) made everything.

Those of you who were there know that Scott didn't touch on the "why". That's ok, I was trying a capture that a little with the music for the evening. The Lord created everything for His glory and His praise - everything is for Him. Let Everything That Has Breath and All Creatures Of Our God And King, the bookends of our worship together, truly capture this. Let every creature and created thing praise our Creator! David Crowder (to my knowledge) wrote the "Alleluia" outro to All Creatures, and I think it is so fitting. What would the praise of all creatures be? If everything the Lord gave breath to started praising, what would that be? "Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia...." isn't a bad guess. Christians have been praising the Lord with "Alleluia" since the beginning.

I was hoping to explain a little bit of my thought process with Indescribable, Wonderful Maker and I Stand Amazed during service, but my head was pounding. To be honest, I was a little distracted by it too. Colossians makes it clear that all things were created by, through and for Christ (1:16). I found myself in such awe when I thought about the fact that our creator God came down to save us by dying. Indescribable is one of my all time favorites: great imagery, great biblical lyrics (Job 38:22 for example), and great praise of the Lord's love for us. After 3 minutes of praising the Lord's power, majesty and creativity, we get to this: "You see the depths of my heart and You love me the same." wow. How truly marvelous and wonderful is that?

Colossians 1:16 -> New Song

"For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities - all things were created through Him and for Him."

-------

Separated dark and light,

Placed the sun and moon

And it was good.

Set aside aside Your dwelling place,

Formed the earth from empty space;

it was good.

By You all the earth was made.

By You all the people saved.

"Holy" is its praise;

"Holy" is our praise

You created man,

Placed Him on the earth

And it was good.

Every living thing

A purpose and place

And it was good.

By You all the earth was made.

By You all the people saved.

"Holy" is its praise;

"Holy" is our praise.

For You all the earth was made.

For You all the people saved.

"Holy" is its praise;

"Holy" is our praise.

Father in heaven,

Christ who died,

Spirit who came now dwells inside:

It's by Your power,

Through Your grace,

We approach You face to face.

Creator in heaven - face to face.

By You, all the earth was made.

By You, all the people saved.

"Holy, holy" is our praise to You.

For You, all the earth was made.

For You, all the people saved.

"Holy, holy" is our praise to You.

By You all the earth was made.

By You all the people saved.

"Holy" is its praise;

"Holy" is our praise.

For You all the earth was made.

For You all the people saved.

"Holy" is its praise;

"Holy" is our praise.

Youtube soon (days, not hours)

Rock Bible Church: 10-17-2010

I thought last night was a great follow-up to launch day! A couple cool things:

1) Similar to last week, a local pastor (Jim Meek, Trinity Baptist in Livermore) came to pray for us and dedicate our church to the Lord and His work. It's such an encouragement to see local pastors come and stand by Scott and what the Lord has called him to do.

2) I have never shared my story about worship leading to a congregation before; I apologize for being a little scattered! ...His grace is enough. I am continually humbled that He allows and chooses me to lead His people in songs of praise. Thank you for extending me grace as your leader.

3) Podcasts are up for launch night and last night. www.rockbiblechurch.com.

4) I thought Scott nailed it last night. Our God is 3-in-1, 1-in-3. He is all powerful, creating all things from nothing. He is active, moving always. He's not done either. Amen.

As for the music, I was pretty excited about the truth we proclaimed in our song time. Here is Our King by David Crowder Band is one of my favorites. I went into some detail about this song at the beginning of the year (here). Briefly, He came for us. He is here. He is here with the fullness of His majesty and beauty. The verses, metaphorically, drive this home. From wherever spring arrives, there is our King. From wherever searching comes, the act of looking itself - there in it is our King.

I want to take a moment and talk a little about simple and clear lyrics vs. abstract and metaphorical lyrics. Take a song like Here is Our King and compare it to How Great Is Our God by Chris Tomlin. What do you notice? How Great is Our God lays is out so clearly: "Age to age He stands / Time is in His hands / Beginning and the end / Beginning and the end." We need songs like this. (and thankfully, we have them!). Our faith and our knowledge of God is confirmed and strengthened by these words. Here Is Our King takes a more abstract approach. Imagery of spring and the unfolding rose are created to depict a parallel of the beauty and majesty the Lord has given nature, and what He has done for us. Our winter is now spring. Our night is now light. Our bud is now blossoming (He is continually perfecting us. Philippians 1:6). We need these songs too. To close this section, I will say two things: a) we need balance of these types of songs. We need to balance a song like Here Is Our King with an In Christ Alone. And (much) more importantly b) these songs need to praise the Lord. The metaphor needs to resolve to a fundamental truth about Him (He is here to bring us back to Him). (ok that was more than a moment. sorry).

As I mentioned above, I believe abstract and imagery driven songs need to be balanced by straight-forward, more clear ones. Your Grace is Enough (by Matt Maher) and In Christ Alone (by Stuart Townsend) are definitely the latter. Going through Genesis makes the "Heaven reaching down to us" (from Your Grace is Enough) even more powerful and astounding to me. Him who by, through and for all things were made (Colossians 1:16) came down to us! In Christ Alone proclaims His coming down and His rising up. The truth is chilling: "There in the ground His body lay / Light of the world by darkness slain," and the truth is triumphant "Then bursting forth in glorious day / Up from the grave He rose again." I will not to over-play this beautiful song.

I felt that Jesus Lord of Heaven by Phil Wickham was a fitting close to learning about our creator King of heaven, who freely brought grace to all. His love cannot be measured in depth, width, height, or greatness; it simply is deep, wide, high and great.

My "theme" for the evening, if you will, was this: Heaven's creator King came down to us with undeserved, yet perfectly sufficient grace. Through Him alone we can have community with God.

...As I'm sure will be the normal case, I'm already getting excited for this upcoming Sunday. We will go deeper into what the Lord created and praise Him because and for it. All of creation was made to praise Him. Since the fall, the deep longing and hope of creation is for the Lord to redeem it. (Romans 8). We will proclaim His glory and His grace this Sunday. Hope to see you there!

PB (Post-Blog?): Read and take in Colossians 1 this week as you prepare for corporate worship (singing and hearing His word).

Looking forward to this Sunday

Just worked on this Sunday for a little bit (order of service, band emails...). I'm hoping to see the momentum that began last Sunday continue through this weekend. Scott will be returning to Genesis 1:1 and continuing through creation. I previously mentioned (last post) I was aiming for clear and simple exaltation of God with our music last week. This week we will zero-in on exaltation of Christ - that He was there at the beginning and all was created through Him. Not only that, He came with bountiful, undeserving grace for sinners like you and me.

We aren't singing this song this weekend (sad-day) but I hope to soon. It touches on this topic so well and so poetically.

"Oh The Glory of It all" by the David Crowder*Band (lyrics in video):







Have a great night - See you Sunday!

10-10-10

Awesome.

That's my one word for RBC last night. It's overused I know, but it fits. I dont know how people were there, but it felt pretty full at Centerpointe around say 5:10pm. A few sweet non-worship things:

1) Centerpointe Pastor Mike Barris (we lease their building) prayed for us, during the serice. Their tech guru has been helping us twice a month in the soundbooth since June. These guys have lived the Gospel to us. Church A helping start Church B... in the same town.... at the same place... these are guys who understand what is important to God, not man.

2) Pastors Leron Heath and Gino Cunninghman led us in prayers of dedication and for our offering (respectively). I know these guys have been and are very close to Scott. Really neat to see that many godly men are affirming Scott and Rock Bible Church.

As for worship, I went for exalting. I hope that was clear. I wanted to start our worship as a church with Hosanna (Praise Is Rising) "You are the God who saves us / .... / Come have Your way among us / We welcome You here Lord Jesus". After that, Holy Is The Lord, How Great Thou Art and Agnus Dei rounded out the evening. My thought process: "....the anthem of the Lord's renown" is "How Great Thou Art".

It's hard to think about yesterday - I'm already looking forward to this Sunday!

See you then...


www.rockbiblechurch.com

Lift-Off is coming!

How can you have a "launch day" without a lift-off?

Rock Bible Church, the Tri-valley's newest church officially begins (lifts-off!!) THIS SUNDAY 10/10/10 at 5pm. www.rockbiblechurch.com

Personally, this is a day I have been looking forward to dating back to November of last year. Since then, we have moved from (grown out of, really) a living room to a space leased to us by Centerpointe in Pleasanton. Unplugged, solo-led worship has become a 4-piece rock-tastic experience (slight exaggeration). We have sung songs that I have led for years (Here Is Our King, Holy Is The Lord, etc.) and a few new ones for me (Hosanna, Awesome is Lord Most High, etc.).

In the coming weeks and months we will be exploring the Beginning. Scott Berglin (Senior Pastor) will teach from Genesis and I will (attempt to) lead praise of our great, eternal and creating God.

More to come soon!

Song of the week: Constant by Charlie Hall from his latest album "The Rising".

...I love that bridge: "God, You are here with us, constantly here with us!"

Happy Blogtober (haha).