Tonight's Slides Show

Enjoy your preview (you will if you're a fan of 10,000 Maniacs).

Fave Five and New Zion Church and

We're participating with Johnson City Ministerial Alliance Holy Week. It's our first year and I'm really excited to be a part of it. Last night's service at New Zion (near Carver Park) with Hopwood's choir and with Tim Ross preaching was wonderful, and a cultural experience as well.

Tonight's service is at Bethel Christian Church in Jonesborough. It will feature our own choir and I will be preaching. Should be interesting.

Two4Two faves:
Alyssa and Cora

Ethan and Luke

Cassady and stained glass.

Patience.

Mia.

Tonight's Slide Show

Here is your preview of tonight's slide show. I have to thank two Sams this week (but one of them is Samantha). Thanks everybody for your help in putting these together!

My Fave Five from Last Week's Two4Two

Finding my Five Faves this week was rough because I just didn't take great pictures last week. Someday I will invest in a real camera instead of using my cellphone (although I am thankful for what I have).

Mr. Luzadder looking dapper on St. Patty's Day.

Charles decided to grow a goatee. Hmm... he reminds me of another Charles whom I liked very much.

Meghan goes to battle with Abby in Carpet Ball.

Abby is obviously up to the challenge.

And Miss Nipper awaits the baking of the bread.

March 17th Two4Two slideshow

Here is tonight's video. Sorry I didn't get around to posting my Fave Five pics from last week, but they're all in this slideshow.

Tonight's Slide Show

Sam did a great job creating this week's video/slide show for Two4Two. Hope you enjoyed it.

Taking the Church Seriously

I'm preparing to read the following devotional thought at staff meeting this morning. It's from my hero, A.E. Whitham and his essay, "Taking the Church Seriously". Whitham wrote in the 1930s ... this one hit me right between the eyes today.

My plea is that we take our Church seriously--her prayers, fellowship, sacraments, and preaching. We may have a different conception of the Church, of her functions and the scope of her authority, from that of others. But the Divine necessity for a Church, its spiritual uniqueness as an institution, the belief in a special grace through her sacraments, the conviction that her preaching and teaching are of things revealed to men supernaturally in Christ, these seem to me to be the only justifying grounds for the elaborate and expensive machinery of the Church, the costly demands upon her sons and daughters for sacrificial service, the rituals and observances, whether ornate or simple, the punctual and regular attendance we exhort people to make at her services, and the distinction we feel between her gatherings and that of any other society on earth.

The Church that exalts to the highest degree her importance and necessity, her Divine validity, may or may not survive in popular esteem, but this is certain, that a Church will never survive, and does not deserve to survive, that belittles herself, and qualifies her claims until they cease to be claims and degenerate into weak and apologetic invitations. This pathetic effort to win men into the Church by echoing their own unthinking indifference and disparagement of the Church has gone so far that to speak with respect, not to say reverences, of the Church, calls forth angry retort and remonstrance from the members of the Church itself, as though you were accusing her of sin.

Fave Five from Two4Two Last Night

The ballet ladies.

The Smiling Bread Makers: Brynn and Elizabeth.

The other bread makers!

AJ and Ryan

Miles cheeses for the camera.

I haven't had the chance to upload photos from last night, but here is last night's slideshow.

My Fave Five from Last Night's Two4Two

I'll try to keep this up, but you know how blogging goes. On again. Off again. Last night's Two4Two was another good night and I'm very glad snow didn't prevent us from gathering.

I received a couple of requests to repeat the Amena Brown video I showed during Rendezvous. You'll find that video at the bottom of this post. She sure has a powerful poetic voice.

Now to the photos:

I told Brooke and Abby to look unsure about each other.

I told Ashley and Talulah not to look at each other.

I told Seth to look pensive.

I think my daughter was feeling competitive during dodge ball.

Austin took time to pose for me as well.

Celebrating a Ministry

Grandview showed up en masse to celebrate Dana's decade long ministry on Sunday night. It was a tribute to her hard work and dedication. As one person told me, "One of the things we learned last night was that our fellowship hall isn't large enough."Dirk led the festivities with his typical wit and charm. Becky Swain did her usual brilliant job of bringing humor and appreciation to the event (I'm sorry that I didn't get a picture of Becky and Meredith dressed as Larry the Cucumber and Bob the Tomato).

And here is Dana with just a few of the kids whose lives she has touched.

In Lieu of Two4Two

With the cancellation due to snow I wanted to give you a chance to see the slide show we WOULD have viewed together during Rendezous. Thanks to Sam Vaughn for creating it. We will watch it together NEXT Wednesday (Lord willing and the snow doesn't rise).

Grandview's Own Artist

First, here's Bob Hall's prayer for the 11am service tomorrow: link. It was delayed a week because of weather.


If you get a chance to go downtown to the Johnson City Arts Council rooms in the King Center, please do it. You'll get to see a wonderful showing of Peggy Root's paintings. If you've been around Grandview very long you already know that Peggy (link to Peggy's website) and Tom (link to Tom's website) are fantastic artists, but you still owe it to yourself to stop in and see Peggy's art.

In this picture you see Peggy and her mother-in-law chatting with admirers.

Gwynn takes a break from dancing to smile for me.

How can you not smile at Charles. Admit it ... you're smiling right now.

My favorite painting in the show (my iPhone doesn't quite catch the beauty, but you get the idea)

Scenes from Two4Two ... Week One!

The return of Two4Two and Rendezvous went well on Wednesday night. These are my favorite pics of then night, beginning with Ryan and the band leading the worship time.

I love this picture of the Ross Ladies!

And Sosie's picture is my favorite of the night. This little girl is bursting with personality.

Logan and Anna are table mates during the meal time.

I'm thinking Travis has his hands full with Thomas.

Here's Thomas smiling for us again.

Jack is in the house.

You is in this picture with Jonah.

Seth strikes a pose.

In a biblical anachronism, Samuel blesses Isaac.

And check out the smile on Mihail! This picture is my shining achievement of the night.

The foyer bristles with the incoming.

Get Ready For Sunday

Youth minister extraordinaire', Ryan Bader, sent me the link to this video. I thought you might enjoy it as much as I did.

It's baaaaaAAAccck!

Here's tomorrow night's Two4Two slideshow ... enjoy the sneak preview!

Good Things ...

Back in September I posted a blog entry about the closing of the Oasis Coffee Shop on the southside of Johnson City. The Oasis was a good meeting place. There were two guys who, when they were there, always made me glad. One of the men would often bring his small daughter along in her little car-carrier. He would place her next to him on a chair and then he and his friend would pull out a chess board and begin playing chess. When I saw them I always had a feeling of all being right with the world.

I haven't seen these guys since the Oasis closed. But last week they resurfaced at Panera. One of them is a teacher in Sullivan County, so he can only come when school isn't in session.

They invited me to play (they have a board that allows for two to four players). I didn't accept their invitation because I would have dragged the group down. The teacher (Dave, I think) is starting a chess club at the school where he teaches.

When I was in high school I would have scoffed at the idea of joining the "chess club". My age is showing, though, because now I think it's cool.

Aspect #4: Communities Entangled

Before we talk about entangled communities, I just wanted to take this chance to show you the kitchen ceiling at Grandview. The sprinkler system that is supposed to save us during our fiery emergencies has frozen and exploded again. Special thanks to Carla McKinney, Maggie Schade, Gene Nix and Neal Voke for being the first responders.

Here is Neal as he continues to handle all of the hubbub that comes with a water pipe mishap.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

Aspect #4: Communities Entangled

Welcome to the final installment in this short series on aspects of Grandview that are our weaknesses and strengths all at once. This final topic is a little tricky because it’s something I witness more than I experience--so I may be way off base. Feel free to correct me, enlighten me, challenge me, or affirm me on this issue (on any of the issues, but on this one in particular).

Bob Owens once told me that it was sometimes difficult to go to church with the same people you know at work. He likened it to a fish bowl. He isn’t the only one who has mentioned this to me.

Imagine you are staff or faculty at a school (maybe you don’t have to imagine this) and you work with someone who has a different vision of Christian education than you. Also, this person thinks that the direction of the college or seminary should be very different than the one you prefer. Now throw in the fact that when tensions rise you see flaws in this person, even as you expose your own flaws.

Shall we throw another level of difficulty into the equation? Imagine that on Sunday morning you go to worship God and THAT VERY PERSON is giving the communion meditation. Suddenly, your desire to focus on forgiveness and love and the power of God to heal relationships is being outflanked by a person who is grating on your last nerve.

I can see how working and worshiping with the same set of fallen characters could be a distraction. The closest I come to this is when I’m holding a grudge against someone and I have to stand up and preach the undeserved, overwhelming, free grace of God. If you have never been in an extended “discussion” with your spouse and then tried to walk to the pulpit and preach on forgiveness then I highly recommend the humiliation that wreaks on your soul.

Let’s deepen the entanglement, shall we? Milligan and Emmanuel are sister institutions, but they aren’t the same institutions. When one institution speaks the other one doesn’t necessarily say, “Amen.” Not only that, their funding sources are often entangled as well. Not deep enough yet? How about this: When I became the senior minister of Grandview, Dan Lawson was the chair of the elders. Dan is the guy who asks me for money for Emmanuel ... and he was my boss at the same time.

Wait, wait ... it gets better. I’m now a trustee at Emmanuel and that makes me a part of the board that oversees the Presidency of Mike Sweeney at Emmanuel. Mike is a member at Grandview and, as such, has some say over my job as well. Let’s not stop yet; we’re on a roll! Grandview gives money to Emmanuel and Milligan. Emmanuel and Milligan staff and faculty give money to Grandview. And we’re all answerable to each other in official, unofficial, and sometimes annoying ways.

How great and twisted is this!

You can guess some of the strengths and weaknesses of these circumstances. The weakness is that some folks are tempted to withdraw from the church emotionally. I understand why. People only have so much emotional and spiritual strength and we kind of hate to summon it for something that strikes us as voluntary after summoning it all week at work. And, like it or not, people slip into the mistake of viewing the church as a voluntary institution. Never mind that Jesus didn’t institute college or seminary, but did institute the church. With the exception of the church staff, the church doesn’t pay our bills, so when we’re feeling emotionally and spiritually tapped out, the church is the easiest place to cut.

Now to the strength of the entangled community. The anonymity of contemporary culture doesn’t really allow the church to encourage discipleship on difficult issues. If I challenge somebody on something in his life and he doesn’t like my challenge, he can too easily slip away and start attending a church where nobody will notice or challenge him. In fact, if he looks like a decent chap, when he shows up at the new church they might even put him in charge.

Only when our communities are hideously entangled do we discover that sooner or later our flaws will be uncovered. Once uncovered, maybe we’ll take seriously the need to apply God’s standards to our flaws.

If your job situation causes you to resonate with what I’ve written, allow me to challenge you to make some friends at church with people who aren’t in your workplace fish bowl. There are plenty of those folks here. If you’re reading this and you’re not part of this entanglement, thank you for being the kind of person who can help bring fresh air from the outside! God can use you at Grandview in marvelous ways.

Please make it a priority to form kingdom friendships that God can use to bless others. The strongest of these bonds will be formed when we invite people who are not like us to become a part of our lives. When that happens we are truly living BEYOND ourselves.

An Unpaid Advertisment

While I'm working on the sermon and the final post in this series, I invite you to take a gander at our dual Two 4 Two Adult Class offerings this Spring.

Spring Two 4 Two Adult Classes

Beginning February 3 at 5pm:
Lorna Crouch, Teacher

Beginning February 3 at 7pm:
Jason Bembry, Teacher

Aspect #3: A Surprising Ability to Change

Aspect #3:
A Surprising Ability to Change

Grandview has a history of embracing change. We’ve had more name changes than the artist formerly known (and now re-known) as Prince. What began as Fourth Christian Church became Virginia Street Church of Christ became Virginia Street Christian Church became Grandview Christian Church.

We’ve never considered our building sacred. We met in a house at first, then the energetic young church built a building (by themselves ... in two days) on Virginia Street. That building is still in use by a church today. They added a fellowship building at some point (I’ve never seen a picture of that one). The city demolished that building when they built University Parkway. To compensate Grandview the city sold us the plot of ground we now occupy. We built the original sanctuary in 1975. The original sanctuary was essentially unfinished when they began using it. Carpet and pews came later. We still have people here who volunteered to hang drywall, paint, and do other things to cut costs (Bob Hall ... which one? Both!). In the 80s we added an education wing. Then, in 2004, the building took the shape we now enjoy (and continue to fund).

Grandview leaders weren’t just willing to change names, buildings, and locations, though. The most remarkable change came in the 80s when, under the ministry of Frank Smith, the church moved to accept women as full members of Grandview (meaning: women could hold any position that men could hold). That change is a tough one for a church to make. I wasn’t around here in those days and I don’t know much about how the change was received.

In the mid to late 90s the church allowed a change in they way we worship, adding more contemporary elements. I wasn’t around for that, either. I’ve heard differing stories from different folks on that process, how it unfolded, and what it meant.

A year and a half ago we added a new worship service called the Table. It felt like a bizarre experiment at first, but that change was well received and the service is doing very well, even when students aren't in town (thanks, Jeff Miller, for your leadership there!).

I don’t believe in change for the sake of change. Neither do I believe in staying the same for the sake of staying the same. If you drive around East Tennessee you will spot plenty of churches that decided change was an enemy. I mentioned yesterday that if leadership hadn’t made tough decisions in the past then Grandview would still be Virginia Street Church of Christ and most of us wouldn’t know each other. We wouldn’t have the missions budget we have now. We wouldn’t have Grand Central Station for the children. We wouldn’t be able to support Interfaith Hospitality Network at the level we do.

Here is the dirty little truth about change that some people avoid: Change will happen, no matter how hard we try to deny it. We can fool ourselves for a little while, but change will catch us. I used to hear that Dick Clark was the “ageless one” and that he never changed. Plastic surgery and youthful genetics made that description seem almost real. If you’ve seen him lately you know that age did catch him. Denying the aging process isn’t as healthy as recognizing it and “growing old gracefully.” The church you now enjoy as Grandview Christian Church will never be the same as it is today. The question isn’t, “Do we change?” but “How do we become more and more faithful to God?”

If we want to be a church that follows Jesus to places we haven’t yet been, a church that goes BEYOND where we are today, then we need to be open to the changes God might bring into our community. I believe the change that would make me the most uncomfortable right now would be the destabilizing jolt of an influx of people who are new Christians. People who don’t “get it” yet. Want to have some fun, Grandview? Reach out to people who don’t know Christ. Pick one. Get to know the person in need. Invite him or her into the community (not just to worship). If that “unstable” person has kids then the youth group’s equilibrium falls to pieces, your Sunday School class will have a very different conversation than normal, and the eyes with which you see Grandview and the importance of Christ will change in an instant.

Tomorrow's Post: Aspect #4
Communities Entangled