By the time you read this we will be living “in-between”. In-between Pastor Tyson and Pastor Davis.
We will be tempted to mourn over the past, and I think we should, to a degree. I think it is always appropriate at such a milestone to reflect on the past and to cherish the memories. Then of course we should look to the future while learning from our past in order to know how to avoid some of the same mistakes, while at the same time carrying some of our successes forward. But if we simply look into the future only through the eyes of the past I think we are limiting ourselves.
It is important to learn from our history, but God is doing a new thing. I expect to be surprised by our future. We always find it interesting to look at our past and realize how different things were then, as if we are surprised by our past. I’m sure if we could look into our future we would also be quite surprised about it.
Twenty years ago I could not have imagined text messages, social networks, or that I would have a device in my pocket with far more computing power than Eniac, the first computer that was so large it filled the room. God does some new things that we may think are ridiculous! Yes, I think God has his hand in these things. God created the universe. I think God has an influence in everything in the universe. But who can say how God chooses to work God’s miracles? God may choose to express influence in many cases by allowing the creatures God created to work toward the solutions to their own problems. I think it is a privilege that God allows, even delights, in our participation in our own future in this respect. We take part in “our” continuing creation story. But let’s be sure to acknowledge that “our story” is not just us, it includes God with us. I’m excited to see how God’s hand works in the future through Pastor Davis, just as God’s hand has worked in the past through Pastor Tyson. And let’s never forget that God is always with us and that there is always. Always. ALWAYS AND FOREVER. there is. always. HOPE. God Wins.
Until next time, Happy Hiking, and God Bless,
- allen
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Holy Week
What is the purpose of a blog entry? Of course that varies. The central purpose for my blog entries is to try to consider where God is with respect to my contemporary topic, while at the same time, being mildly entertaining, thought provoking, and maybe even inspiring. My blog entries actually serve that purpose for myself. I hope that occasionally I connect with a reader and God’s purpose is fulfilled.
As I write this it is Holy Week. Holy Week is so complex to me emotionally and spiritually. It’s a difficult week but it’s a wonderful week. Someone once expressed to me the question, “Couldn’t God have found a better way rather than to become human and die a sacrificial death for the creatures God created?”
Well, I believe God knows all, is all-powerful, and works for good. Since I believe that, I also accept that this is it. That this IS the best way God could have arranged things. So I believe that when God created us, God knew God would also have to die for us. Why would God create something God had to die for? It’s all about love. God desires to love and be loved back. But it’s not that simple either. God wants more than that. God wants to love and be loved back by creatures that love each other as well.
For the record, I don’t believe that God consciously controls every very detail. If God did, then love would not be a choice. I believe that God delights in seeing us make choices, especially decisions of our own to follow Christ. But to allow God’s self to be “surprised” by our choice to love, God also has to permit us to make those decisions outside of God’s control. And that means sometimes God will be “disappointed”, as well as surprised.
But I wonder if it’s even appropriate for me to tell you what I believe, because I’m afraid that I might influence you to believe the same thing, just because I said it. That’s really scary on many fronts. What if I’m wrong and I mislead you? That’s one reason it’s important for you to listen to people and decide for yourselves where you discern God’s truth. Otherwise, it’s not really YOUR faith at all, it’s mine, or whoever’s you decided to believe for the sake of believing the same thing as they did.
You must own your own faith. Contrary to St. Augustine’s point of view, I believe that I cannot beat my faith into you. You must come to know God on your own terms. Otherwise, I don’t even believe God will accept it, even if you were to say all the right words. Saying the right words for the wrong reasons isn’t love.
So, I hope by the time you have read this, that you are looking forward after Holy Week with a renewed zest to come to know and love God, for your own right reasons.
I feel led to share a secret with you. A little tradition I share with God. Sometime after the Good Friday service, I find a moment to go to the landing behind the sanctuary door by what used to be the men’s choir loft. On the wall above that landing is a painting. It depicts what I perceive is that same very moment, following the crucifixion. John is leading an exhausted and distraught Mary to her home. Three crosses are in the distance. The sky is menacing. It is a sad picture. But it captures the essence of that moment in time. From then until Sunday morning we live in darkness. Wondering why Christ had to die.
But as Tony Campolo says, it’s Friday, but Sunday’s a-comin. It’s Friday, but Sunday’s a-comin. It’s Friday, but Sunday….. Sunday’s a-comin.
Easter people – Sunday is here ! Praise God almighty, Jesus Christ is alive and the very Holy Spirit of the Creator of the Universe lives in you! So Love God! Love People!
Until next month, Happy Hiking, and God Bless,
- allen
As I write this it is Holy Week. Holy Week is so complex to me emotionally and spiritually. It’s a difficult week but it’s a wonderful week. Someone once expressed to me the question, “Couldn’t God have found a better way rather than to become human and die a sacrificial death for the creatures God created?”
Well, I believe God knows all, is all-powerful, and works for good. Since I believe that, I also accept that this is it. That this IS the best way God could have arranged things. So I believe that when God created us, God knew God would also have to die for us. Why would God create something God had to die for? It’s all about love. God desires to love and be loved back. But it’s not that simple either. God wants more than that. God wants to love and be loved back by creatures that love each other as well.
For the record, I don’t believe that God consciously controls every very detail. If God did, then love would not be a choice. I believe that God delights in seeing us make choices, especially decisions of our own to follow Christ. But to allow God’s self to be “surprised” by our choice to love, God also has to permit us to make those decisions outside of God’s control. And that means sometimes God will be “disappointed”, as well as surprised.
But I wonder if it’s even appropriate for me to tell you what I believe, because I’m afraid that I might influence you to believe the same thing, just because I said it. That’s really scary on many fronts. What if I’m wrong and I mislead you? That’s one reason it’s important for you to listen to people and decide for yourselves where you discern God’s truth. Otherwise, it’s not really YOUR faith at all, it’s mine, or whoever’s you decided to believe for the sake of believing the same thing as they did.
You must own your own faith. Contrary to St. Augustine’s point of view, I believe that I cannot beat my faith into you. You must come to know God on your own terms. Otherwise, I don’t even believe God will accept it, even if you were to say all the right words. Saying the right words for the wrong reasons isn’t love.
So, I hope by the time you have read this, that you are looking forward after Holy Week with a renewed zest to come to know and love God, for your own right reasons.
I feel led to share a secret with you. A little tradition I share with God. Sometime after the Good Friday service, I find a moment to go to the landing behind the sanctuary door by what used to be the men’s choir loft. On the wall above that landing is a painting. It depicts what I perceive is that same very moment, following the crucifixion. John is leading an exhausted and distraught Mary to her home. Three crosses are in the distance. The sky is menacing. It is a sad picture. But it captures the essence of that moment in time. From then until Sunday morning we live in darkness. Wondering why Christ had to die.
But as Tony Campolo says, it’s Friday, but Sunday’s a-comin. It’s Friday, but Sunday’s a-comin. It’s Friday, but Sunday….. Sunday’s a-comin.
Easter people – Sunday is here ! Praise God almighty, Jesus Christ is alive and the very Holy Spirit of the Creator of the Universe lives in you! So Love God! Love People!
Until next month, Happy Hiking, and God Bless,
- allen
Friday, April 1, 2011
Lent
There is just way too much going on in the world today. Egypt. Libya. Japan. Not to mention all of the things each of us has going on in our personal lives. Of course these vary according to our season of life but even those of us without places to report for work each day have our own burdens. The pace of life is for me at least, and perhaps for some of you, sometimes a bit overwhelming.
And Lent arrives. How do you fit Lent into this? How do you fit Jesus into this?
I don’t expect that many of you even have the time to read this blog entry, let alone fit a Lenten Bible Study or Daily Lenten Devotion into your life. This is sad. And I include myself right in there in my lament. I found something very helpful to me this Lenten season, a Lenten Devotional I could download to my smartphone or laptop. I put it on the youth website so you can download it. Just go to www.coatesvillemoca.org and click on the link to download the .pdf. But, even with this convenience, I find it difficult to keep up. Yesterday I confess, I read 4 devotions in one day to catch up.
Before long, Good Friday will arrive, whether I’m ready or not. Good Friday means a lot to me. I think it should mean a lot to every human. It’s such an ugly day to get through. It reminds me of my imperfection, but it also reminds me of how my imperfection is viewed through God’s very own self-sacrifice. I am perfected only when viewed through God’s gift of Christ. I am tempted to feel a tremendous debt to God, a debt I have no hope to repay. And neither does our world have any hope to repay for the tragic choices we make in the way we treat our fellow humans.
But - God does not desire repayment. Our life, our free will, and our perfection in Christ, are all freely given gifts from God our Creator. All we need to do is come to a place where we say, “God, I owe a huge debt. Thank You Jesus for paying it on my behalf. Holy Spirit, how can I do anything else with my life but love you back, by trying my best to live a life that puts a smile on your face? I know I will fail time and time again, but time and time again, You will cover my imperfection. Thank You Jesus. Amen.”
Happy Hiking and God Bless,
- allen
And Lent arrives. How do you fit Lent into this? How do you fit Jesus into this?
I don’t expect that many of you even have the time to read this blog entry, let alone fit a Lenten Bible Study or Daily Lenten Devotion into your life. This is sad. And I include myself right in there in my lament. I found something very helpful to me this Lenten season, a Lenten Devotional I could download to my smartphone or laptop. I put it on the youth website so you can download it. Just go to www.coatesvillemoca.org and click on the link to download the .pdf. But, even with this convenience, I find it difficult to keep up. Yesterday I confess, I read 4 devotions in one day to catch up.
Before long, Good Friday will arrive, whether I’m ready or not. Good Friday means a lot to me. I think it should mean a lot to every human. It’s such an ugly day to get through. It reminds me of my imperfection, but it also reminds me of how my imperfection is viewed through God’s very own self-sacrifice. I am perfected only when viewed through God’s gift of Christ. I am tempted to feel a tremendous debt to God, a debt I have no hope to repay. And neither does our world have any hope to repay for the tragic choices we make in the way we treat our fellow humans.
But - God does not desire repayment. Our life, our free will, and our perfection in Christ, are all freely given gifts from God our Creator. All we need to do is come to a place where we say, “God, I owe a huge debt. Thank You Jesus for paying it on my behalf. Holy Spirit, how can I do anything else with my life but love you back, by trying my best to live a life that puts a smile on your face? I know I will fail time and time again, but time and time again, You will cover my imperfection. Thank You Jesus. Amen.”
Happy Hiking and God Bless,
- allen
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
She's got a ticket to ride
I just started a course in “boundaries”. I am really excited about this course ever since I visited Children’s Hospital 5 years ago and the Chaplain there recommended the course to anyone who provides pastoral care in any form. He indicated the course gave him tools to be able to deal with the successes, but most especially the failures that are inevitably encountered in his vocation.
Here’s a case study related to boundaries, based on a real situation that just happened to me moments ago before I boarded the train on which I am now writing this blog entry. The specific case may not be familiar to you, but I suspect the nature of the case will indeed ring a bell. I’ll place the case in third person for you to place yourself in the scenario.
You are waiting for your train to arrive at the station on a winter night at 9:25pm, after a long day at work and an evening at school. You’ve had a good night in class because the professor is outstanding, the material you are learning is engaging, and you just barely covered enough of the required reading prior to class that you were able to follow the professor’s points in an effective way.
A distressed middle-aged woman comes up out of the pedestrian tunnel from the inbound tracks and asks you when the next train comes bound for Thorndale. You reply, “Your timing is great it is just 3 minutes away”, to which she responds, “I hope they let me on, my boyfriend’s truck is broke down and I don’t have any money. I’m not sure what to say to them.” Meanwhile you realize you have 15 tickets in your backpack that you bought ahead at $3.75 each. What do you do?
This is no longer a simple decision for me. Ever since I was a college student at Drexel back in 1970 I learned to simply say, “I’m sorry but I’m a college student” whenever someone asks for money. But she didn’t ask me for anything except information about the next train. I’ve also had people give me huge stories before that I choose to believe and I end up helping out. The course I’m taking is teaching me that healthy boundaries mean that saying “NO” is something you need to be able to do. If you don’t say “NO” to a person who always “has a story”, then you are enabling their behavior by helping them when perhaps they didn’t really need the help or wouldn’t need the help if they managed their life differently.
I might have asked her why she needed to get to Thorndale, so I could evaluate her situation. I didn’t ask. In my estimation her distress was real and it wasn’t just about the timing of the train. Am I going to grill her and cause more distress? That might be the right thing to do if she does this every night. I am at the train station a lot. I never saw this person before in my life so I don’t think her behavior is habitual.
I asked her if she does this often. She said “no”. I believed her, and handed her the ticket I had ready in my hand with the words, “use this”. She thanked me, and boarded the back car as I got on the front car with another ticket from my pack.
A mistake? Maybe. For me I think the criteria comes down to discerning on the spot whether the individual is in a situation that they really need help with, or is this normal behavior they use and their entire life is a sequence of scraping by from one handout to the next, never taking advantage of opportunities to live a better life. Is that rude? I’m not sure. I can’t help everyone, I have to have a boundary somewhere. For now, this is where I place it. If in my estimation you are dealing with a burden that is out of your control, I will try to help you. Galatians 6:2 and Galatians 6:5 form a dichotomy between sharing one another’s burdens but carrying one’s own load. My take on the text from our course interprets that to say that if it’s out of your control and it’s a hardship, then I am called as a Christian, and also as a Deacon who is called to a life of service, to share your burden. What do you think?
Until next month, Happy Hiking, and God Bless,
- allen
Here’s a case study related to boundaries, based on a real situation that just happened to me moments ago before I boarded the train on which I am now writing this blog entry. The specific case may not be familiar to you, but I suspect the nature of the case will indeed ring a bell. I’ll place the case in third person for you to place yourself in the scenario.
You are waiting for your train to arrive at the station on a winter night at 9:25pm, after a long day at work and an evening at school. You’ve had a good night in class because the professor is outstanding, the material you are learning is engaging, and you just barely covered enough of the required reading prior to class that you were able to follow the professor’s points in an effective way.
A distressed middle-aged woman comes up out of the pedestrian tunnel from the inbound tracks and asks you when the next train comes bound for Thorndale. You reply, “Your timing is great it is just 3 minutes away”, to which she responds, “I hope they let me on, my boyfriend’s truck is broke down and I don’t have any money. I’m not sure what to say to them.” Meanwhile you realize you have 15 tickets in your backpack that you bought ahead at $3.75 each. What do you do?
This is no longer a simple decision for me. Ever since I was a college student at Drexel back in 1970 I learned to simply say, “I’m sorry but I’m a college student” whenever someone asks for money. But she didn’t ask me for anything except information about the next train. I’ve also had people give me huge stories before that I choose to believe and I end up helping out. The course I’m taking is teaching me that healthy boundaries mean that saying “NO” is something you need to be able to do. If you don’t say “NO” to a person who always “has a story”, then you are enabling their behavior by helping them when perhaps they didn’t really need the help or wouldn’t need the help if they managed their life differently.
I might have asked her why she needed to get to Thorndale, so I could evaluate her situation. I didn’t ask. In my estimation her distress was real and it wasn’t just about the timing of the train. Am I going to grill her and cause more distress? That might be the right thing to do if she does this every night. I am at the train station a lot. I never saw this person before in my life so I don’t think her behavior is habitual.
I asked her if she does this often. She said “no”. I believed her, and handed her the ticket I had ready in my hand with the words, “use this”. She thanked me, and boarded the back car as I got on the front car with another ticket from my pack.
A mistake? Maybe. For me I think the criteria comes down to discerning on the spot whether the individual is in a situation that they really need help with, or is this normal behavior they use and their entire life is a sequence of scraping by from one handout to the next, never taking advantage of opportunities to live a better life. Is that rude? I’m not sure. I can’t help everyone, I have to have a boundary somewhere. For now, this is where I place it. If in my estimation you are dealing with a burden that is out of your control, I will try to help you. Galatians 6:2 and Galatians 6:5 form a dichotomy between sharing one another’s burdens but carrying one’s own load. My take on the text from our course interprets that to say that if it’s out of your control and it’s a hardship, then I am called as a Christian, and also as a Deacon who is called to a life of service, to share your burden. What do you think?
Until next month, Happy Hiking, and God Bless,
- allen
Saturday, January 1, 2011
NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION FOR 2011
I am pretty excited right now.
I probably share that with a lot of people as we anticipate celebrating the birth of God coming to live with us as a Human.
I know I also share another excitement with other college students. I am finished another semester! Thank you Jesus! 4.5 years down and only 3.5 years to go at my rate.
I’m also excited about my January term course, “The Holy Spirit and Christian Spirituality”. I wonder what changes that will bring in me. Usually the changes are not at all what I expect. That probably makes sense, since if I expected a particular change, it probably wouldn’t really be a change at all. I wonder if anyone remembers my “Transformer 101” sermon. We talked about change and how some of us like it, but most of us don’t. When I get right down to it, I think I look forward to change because I find it exciting, but at the same time I fear change too.
One of the authors on my personal reading list is Shane Claiborne. I’m actually a little scared to read his stuff. Because it might bring changes in me that I don’t think I’m ready for. I don’t want to pre-suppose what Claiborne’s work will do to me. But, I do suppose that is exactly what I’m doing when I fear reading him. I have heard just enough about “ordinary radicals”, which I believe Claiborne is one, to know that if I follow his suggestions, I may have to make some radical changes in my life that I feel uncomfortable with.
What scares me is that I believe Claiborne is probably right-on, and that not just Claiborne, but Jesus the God-Man whose birth we celebrate now, also calls me to the same changes. I believe I will discover that Claiborne will act as a prophet to me, and as such his work will challenge me in some major ways. Just as much and probably much more than my courses at seminary challenge me to become someone a little different for every course I take. At the same time, I hope that Claiborne can help me learn how to love and place God’s value on my neighbor, and that I can realize who my neighbors are. If I get what God and Jesus are telling me all over the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, I am told that my neighbors are everyone, but most especially the broken, the poor, the aliens among us, and the oppressed. I think Claiborne is going to teach me that I need to love my neighbor not just with my prayers and my money, but in the way that seems the hardest today, with my presence and my time. That scares me. I don’t have any time to give away, do I? I’m not rich. But I’d rather give my money than my time.
Then again, I don’t know that is the change I will be called to. I guess I need to start reading to find out. So on January 1, 2011, I will begin my New Year’s Resolution. I intend to open up Claiborne’s work, “The Book of Common Prayer: A Liturgy For Ordinary Radicals”, and begin to find out, how it might change me.
Who’s with me?
Happy Hiking and God Bless,
- allen
I probably share that with a lot of people as we anticipate celebrating the birth of God coming to live with us as a Human.
I know I also share another excitement with other college students. I am finished another semester! Thank you Jesus! 4.5 years down and only 3.5 years to go at my rate.
I’m also excited about my January term course, “The Holy Spirit and Christian Spirituality”. I wonder what changes that will bring in me. Usually the changes are not at all what I expect. That probably makes sense, since if I expected a particular change, it probably wouldn’t really be a change at all. I wonder if anyone remembers my “Transformer 101” sermon. We talked about change and how some of us like it, but most of us don’t. When I get right down to it, I think I look forward to change because I find it exciting, but at the same time I fear change too.
One of the authors on my personal reading list is Shane Claiborne. I’m actually a little scared to read his stuff. Because it might bring changes in me that I don’t think I’m ready for. I don’t want to pre-suppose what Claiborne’s work will do to me. But, I do suppose that is exactly what I’m doing when I fear reading him. I have heard just enough about “ordinary radicals”, which I believe Claiborne is one, to know that if I follow his suggestions, I may have to make some radical changes in my life that I feel uncomfortable with.
What scares me is that I believe Claiborne is probably right-on, and that not just Claiborne, but Jesus the God-Man whose birth we celebrate now, also calls me to the same changes. I believe I will discover that Claiborne will act as a prophet to me, and as such his work will challenge me in some major ways. Just as much and probably much more than my courses at seminary challenge me to become someone a little different for every course I take. At the same time, I hope that Claiborne can help me learn how to love and place God’s value on my neighbor, and that I can realize who my neighbors are. If I get what God and Jesus are telling me all over the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, I am told that my neighbors are everyone, but most especially the broken, the poor, the aliens among us, and the oppressed. I think Claiborne is going to teach me that I need to love my neighbor not just with my prayers and my money, but in the way that seems the hardest today, with my presence and my time. That scares me. I don’t have any time to give away, do I? I’m not rich. But I’d rather give my money than my time.
Then again, I don’t know that is the change I will be called to. I guess I need to start reading to find out. So on January 1, 2011, I will begin my New Year’s Resolution. I intend to open up Claiborne’s work, “The Book of Common Prayer: A Liturgy For Ordinary Radicals”, and begin to find out, how it might change me.
Who’s with me?
Happy Hiking and God Bless,
- allen
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
The Wilderness Map / Christmas Expectations
Hello!
The Olivet Youth Ministry team has a new monthly youth newsletter, “The Wilderness Map”. December 2010 is the first issue. The Wilderness Map is sent to Olivet Youth and Friends via US Mail. If you know someone who isn’t on our mailing list but should be, please contact our office manager Darlene McCormick, or any of us on the Youth Ministry Team.
Because The Wilderness Map is rich in graphic content, a special “Tidings-friendly” version, without the graphic content, is included in Tidings.
It is our hope that The Wilderness Map becomes the one-stop reference for information about all of the youth ministry programs. However, because any publication is out-of-date as soon as it is printed, we are also working to determine the best ways to communicate updates directly to youth and parents.
There will be a major update to the youth website, www.coatesvillemoca.org. There is also a FaceBook page, Coatesville MOCA (Mount Olivet Climbing Association). If you type MOCA in the FaceBook search window, you should find it quickly. Today we have 43 members. The FB page and the youth website eMail list are both used in tandem to distribute eMail / FB message updates of a timely nature.
For a few years we have been using and will continue to use short automated phone calls direct to youth and parents for ASP and Creation events. We are considering and have also begun to experiment with the use of concise text messages, direct to youth and parents for urgent updates.
Anyone on the distribution of any of these forms of communication will always have to ability to easily “opt-out” for whatever reason.
Hopefully, The Wilderness Map provides part of the solution for youth and parents to find their way through the pleura of youth activities going on.
Well, that has all been rather technical, hasn’t it?
It is almost the Christmas season. The anticipation is building. What are your expectations this Christmas? What do you value most and hope to get from this season? Would you like it to be different, or the same? I hope to spend some time considering the meaning of Jesus Christ in my life. What could be more important than God becoming one of us? God, being willing to come live with us in all the dirt, sweat, and blood of a human birth 2000 years ago? Christ became the God-Man, Jesus, for each and every one of us. Miracle of miracles. Hallelujah! A Messiah is born!
Happy Hiking and God Bless,
- allen
The Olivet Youth Ministry team has a new monthly youth newsletter, “The Wilderness Map”. December 2010 is the first issue. The Wilderness Map is sent to Olivet Youth and Friends via US Mail. If you know someone who isn’t on our mailing list but should be, please contact our office manager Darlene McCormick, or any of us on the Youth Ministry Team.
Because The Wilderness Map is rich in graphic content, a special “Tidings-friendly” version, without the graphic content, is included in Tidings.
It is our hope that The Wilderness Map becomes the one-stop reference for information about all of the youth ministry programs. However, because any publication is out-of-date as soon as it is printed, we are also working to determine the best ways to communicate updates directly to youth and parents.
There will be a major update to the youth website, www.coatesvillemoca.org. There is also a FaceBook page, Coatesville MOCA (Mount Olivet Climbing Association). If you type MOCA in the FaceBook search window, you should find it quickly. Today we have 43 members. The FB page and the youth website eMail list are both used in tandem to distribute eMail / FB message updates of a timely nature.
For a few years we have been using and will continue to use short automated phone calls direct to youth and parents for ASP and Creation events. We are considering and have also begun to experiment with the use of concise text messages, direct to youth and parents for urgent updates.
Anyone on the distribution of any of these forms of communication will always have to ability to easily “opt-out” for whatever reason.
Hopefully, The Wilderness Map provides part of the solution for youth and parents to find their way through the pleura of youth activities going on.
Well, that has all been rather technical, hasn’t it?
It is almost the Christmas season. The anticipation is building. What are your expectations this Christmas? What do you value most and hope to get from this season? Would you like it to be different, or the same? I hope to spend some time considering the meaning of Jesus Christ in my life. What could be more important than God becoming one of us? God, being willing to come live with us in all the dirt, sweat, and blood of a human birth 2000 years ago? Christ became the God-Man, Jesus, for each and every one of us. Miracle of miracles. Hallelujah! A Messiah is born!
Happy Hiking and God Bless,
- allen
Monday, November 1, 2010
TRANSFORMER12-2 : The Colors Tour
In my last blog entry, I talked about how the Transformer 12-2 concert came about. Now I owe you a report of how it went. In a nutshell, it was wonderful, just an all-around wonderful experience!
The name of the concert is based on Romans 12:2, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds".
Leading up to concert day, our youth were thrilled to have a concert at Olivet, and helped tremendously with the publicity. One of our students got approval to put up posters at CASH. When I visited CASH for “See You At The Pole”, I was told by one of my students, “The posters are up all over the school, everyone is talking about the concert!”.
Finally, on September 26, Olivet Church became the venue for the final stop of “The Color’s Tour” and hosted our first Contemporary Chirstian Music (CCM) Concert. CCM concert is “Christian-speak”, for rock concert. The bands, Leo, and Shine Bright Baby, gave an awesome high-quality performance and were absolutely the nicest group of outstanding young musicians you could possibly ever want to meet. Our adults and youth also did an outstanding job “working the concert” by selling tickets, taking tickets, selling merchandise, cooking and selling hot dogs and beverages, serving food, working with the bands and the sound engineer to load equipment in and out, move and store furniture, work the lights and DVD player, provide wireless internet service and a green room for the bands, and provide security personnel to keep the high-school group of about 70 youth, from wandering into back-stage or office areas of the church. The bands raved about Harvey’s home-cooked meals for lunch and dinner.
In addition to band merchandise tables, Good Works, TWLOHA, and Compassion International had tables setup in the Garden room. Compassion even provided a speaker for intermission, with a video to show. I briefly talked about TWLOHA and we also presented a dynamic Rob Bell video during intermission. TWLOHA, (To Write Love On Her Arms) is an organization that works to help people in self-abusive habits of many forms.
There were not enough attendees to quite cover all the expenses but Olivet church was financially isolated with the exception of providing the venue, heat, and electricity.
We only had 70 youth show up, but, WOW, WE HAD 70 youth show up! We didn’t cover expenses but after the first song and I saw all the kids get up in front of the band doing “their concert thing”, I knew that my primary message was getting across, “You can be a Christian and you can still listen to rock music and have fun!”
The bands were wonderful to work with and expressed that they were doing what they do, for Jesus. I love when bands express that from the stage! My favorite quote of the night was from our senior pastor, when the fog machine set the fire alarm off. Someone was running to answer the call from the fire department, and Joe said, “Tell ‘em the youth set the church on FIRE!” Yes, I think, with the help of the Holy Spirit, they did!
Happy Hiking and God Bless,
- allen
The name of the concert is based on Romans 12:2, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds".
Leading up to concert day, our youth were thrilled to have a concert at Olivet, and helped tremendously with the publicity. One of our students got approval to put up posters at CASH. When I visited CASH for “See You At The Pole”, I was told by one of my students, “The posters are up all over the school, everyone is talking about the concert!”.
Finally, on September 26, Olivet Church became the venue for the final stop of “The Color’s Tour” and hosted our first Contemporary Chirstian Music (CCM) Concert. CCM concert is “Christian-speak”, for rock concert. The bands, Leo, and Shine Bright Baby, gave an awesome high-quality performance and were absolutely the nicest group of outstanding young musicians you could possibly ever want to meet. Our adults and youth also did an outstanding job “working the concert” by selling tickets, taking tickets, selling merchandise, cooking and selling hot dogs and beverages, serving food, working with the bands and the sound engineer to load equipment in and out, move and store furniture, work the lights and DVD player, provide wireless internet service and a green room for the bands, and provide security personnel to keep the high-school group of about 70 youth, from wandering into back-stage or office areas of the church. The bands raved about Harvey’s home-cooked meals for lunch and dinner.
In addition to band merchandise tables, Good Works, TWLOHA, and Compassion International had tables setup in the Garden room. Compassion even provided a speaker for intermission, with a video to show. I briefly talked about TWLOHA and we also presented a dynamic Rob Bell video during intermission. TWLOHA, (To Write Love On Her Arms) is an organization that works to help people in self-abusive habits of many forms.
There were not enough attendees to quite cover all the expenses but Olivet church was financially isolated with the exception of providing the venue, heat, and electricity.
We only had 70 youth show up, but, WOW, WE HAD 70 youth show up! We didn’t cover expenses but after the first song and I saw all the kids get up in front of the band doing “their concert thing”, I knew that my primary message was getting across, “You can be a Christian and you can still listen to rock music and have fun!”
The bands were wonderful to work with and expressed that they were doing what they do, for Jesus. I love when bands express that from the stage! My favorite quote of the night was from our senior pastor, when the fog machine set the fire alarm off. Someone was running to answer the call from the fire department, and Joe said, “Tell ‘em the youth set the church on FIRE!” Yes, I think, with the help of the Holy Spirit, they did!
Happy Hiking and God Bless,
- allen
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