The Best Seat In The House

Please come in, sit back, and relax.  We want to make sure the temperature is comfortable and that the lighting and sound give you the optimal experience – at least that’s the message our culture gives.  Every experience is focused on me, and my comfort, and I’ll only engage as much as my environment gives to me first.

Do you remember Rainbow theatre?  Maybe you still head over to Saskatoon’s budget theatre, but it’s been a long time since I’ve been there.  I remember fondly the cheap movie nights, the slightly sticky floors, and creaky old theatre seats.  But honestly I don’t give it much thought anymore, and the reason of course is Galaxy cinemas.  I’ve upsized my movie experience.  The entrance is full of flashing lights and movie posters the size of my house.  The screen is slightly bigger than the size of the moon.  And of course the seats are worth it as well; you really can’t beat the slight recline, and the ample headrest.  I really owe it to myself not to go back to the lesser experience.  Or so I tell myself.

This shapes in subtle ways the expectations we bring into the Cornerstone Church worship experience each week.  We feel like the environment needs to be a certain way, or feel a certain way in order for us to adequately worship God.  And if we didn’t worship, or connect with God, then it is an obvious issue with the environment.  Which leads me to the question:  what is the best environment for worship?

Let’s take for a minute the Biblical model of Paul and Silas in Acts 16.  They arrived in Philippi and were just doing as they usually do, preaching the good news and healing the sick, when inadvertently they offended some powerful men who had them beaten and thrown in jail.  Under close guard they were placed in stocks and left there for the night.  And of course they react like any of us under such circumstances.  They complained, threatened, called for their lawyer, and asked for a representative of the media to put their unjust arrest all over the internet and cable.  Not a chance.  See instead their response in verse 25: “About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. “

If ever there was an environment that was not conducive to worship, you think this would be it.  They have wounds all over their bodies; they are cold and by all accounts should be miserable.  Yet for them this was an opportunity to enter into the presence of God.  It didn’t really matter where they were, or what the circumstances had done to them.  No, they had a joy that was beyond the reach of what was happening to them.  They knew that God is awesome and worthy no matter the circumstance.

The key here is obedience.  Instead of living life for their own agendas or desires, they were whole heartedly pursing God’s specific job for their lives.  And the suffering that resulted could not contain the sense of Joy and contentment they had.  Christ modeled this as well when He went to the cross.  Hebrews 12:2 says: “For the joy set before him he endured the cross…”.  Jesus was obedient to the Father in going to the cross.  Crucifixion wandered far beyond discomfort, into a death both shameful torturous.  But there was joy to be experienced in accomplishing the work of God.

So if we find ourselves unfulfilled and frustrated with our times of worship, it could be because we come first for ourselves.  It’s a subtle form of idolatry that puts us as the center of worship.  Should we really have the best seats in the house?  If worship is for God, then really He should be honoured with the center of our attention.  When we gather it should be to humbly consider our lives as an offering, and that extends far beyond that specific moment into every waking hour of our lives.  We are not disciples at Sunday worship, or just in the church building proper.  Being a disciple has to impact every aspect of our lives.   If our true agenda is to do the work of the kingdom and conform to the will of God, then we will find true worship no matter where we are or what is happening.  And no matter what we will live a life of joy.

Pastor Lorn
Music & Arts

Haiti Arise Mission Team

The Haiti Arise Mission Team will be reporting on Sunday, April 3rd at 9:30am and 11:00am.

Home at Last

We arrived at the airport at 240AM last night, after a delay in Calgary… sans Mitchell.  Due to a checking in issue, they were one person over, and Mitchell agreed to stay the night in hotel.  He should be home at 8PM tonight, to completely close the loop.

Thanks to everyone who prayed for us while we we’re gone.  On a personal note, thanks for praying and caring for Melissa.  She felt very loved, and, thank the Lord, Baby is still where it should be.

It was a wonderful week, in all kinds of ways, and each person took home something different.  We’re looking forward to being able to to share with Cornerstone (tentatively the evening of March 20th), and anyone from out of town has been following along, feel free to ask away!  We’d be happy to share.

I’m going back to bed now…

DAY 10 AM: The Long Way Home (PART 2)…

For Part 1 of this post, check HERE.

I won’t even pretend to have a complete grasp on Deuteronomy.  Exploring the blessings and curses found within God’s discussion with the people of Israel make for some fascinating research and Bible study.  But in my own reading this week a passage from Deuteronomy 28.  In the chapter, God is outline the blessings of obedience if Israel follow Him, and then the judgment if they don’t.  What stuck out to me was verses 46-48:

⁴⁶ They will be a sign and a wonder to you and your descendants forever. ⁴⁷ Because you did not serve the LORD your God joyfully and gladly in the time of prosperity, ⁴⁸ therefore in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and dire poverty, you will serve the enemies the LORD sends against you. He will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you.

We absolutely live in a time and culture of prosperity.  And so often, that preoccupies us from being able to serve the Lord joyfully and gladly.

As I spent some time looking up joy in Scripture these past few days, working out my own thoughts, I think what we really need to take away from church services like the ones we were privilege to be a part of is what it means to be joyful in our worship.  And this, we absolutely have to bring home with us and live out at home if we want to effect transformation.

Psalm 100 is as good a place as any to start:

¹ Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.
² Worship the LORD with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
³ Know that the LORD is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his^[a];
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

⁴ Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.
⁵ For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Paul calls us to rejoice.  Luke tells us to be joyful of the good news of Salvation.  James says to have joy in the midst of suffering.  Over and over throughout scripture this theme of joy surfaces.  Even worship itself is joyful (James 5:13; Acts 16:25; Hebrews 13:15; 2 Corinthians 9:7; Luke 1:46-47; John 16:22).  Paul’s writings talk about having joy, or being joyful over and over.  In 1 Thessalonians, Paul puts it bluntly enough to say that it is God’s will for us. This is not just circumstantial.  That is the lesson to be learned from watching people worship in places like little Grand Goave, Haiti.

Nehemiah sums it up:

…for the joy of the LORD is your strength.” (8:10b)

It all comes back to the big picture we’ve been working through back at Cornerstone:

1 John 3:17 : “If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?”

There are needs here.  Needs we have the resources to do something about.  Yes, we can enjoy the blessing that God has given us, but we absoloutely must not miss the chance to care for the need as well. If we as a church were challenged in this last year to give, we should be challenged all the more.  They bring the last of their finances to give while going to home to nothing. We bring a drop in the bucket while going home to mansions and pantries stocked full. They worship with joy, while we find something to complain about, or nitpick over, or be bothered because there’s wasn’t the program we wanted.

We need Haiti.  Maybe even more than Haiti needs us.

But mostly, we need to rediscover what it means to full of the Joy of the Lord.

DAY 10 AM: The Long Way Home (PART 1)…

30 Minutes.  That’s only half an hour.  HALF AN HOUR!  That is the exact amount of time I spent outside today before I realized I had forgotten sunscreen.  It is the ONLY time I spent outside this entire time without sunscreen.  It also happens to be the only time this week I pulled my shirt sleeves up over my shoulders.

yep.

BRIGHT red.  Just cause Lukas and I wanted to trying playing catch with a mango from the roof to the field.  sigh.

I, for one, am ready to go.  Time to go have a baby!  At the same time, it is still sad to leave a place you are just starting to get a feel for.  I am more than excited about the opportunity for long term relationship with Haiti Arise, not only as a church but as a student ministry as well.  Moms and Dads, this is our “home” for the foreseeable future.  We want to continue to build relationships, and the bond between ministries.  We’ll be looking to open things to high school students again in February break of 2013.

As we leave this morning, I wanted to expand a bit on my ramblings the other day about worship in churches outside our own.  I’ll break this up over two posts over the course of the day, so check back later around noon-ish for the second half.

Like I said in Sunday’s Post, what it boils down to for me, is an understanding of the Joy of the Lord.  Perhaps the best thing do would be to have Lorn follow up with some thoughts on this as well, but for the time being, let’s see how far down the rabbit trail I can get.

The main idea behind my thought from earlier in the week was this:

I think maybe what we should be saying, rather than “church should be like that” in the sense of all the movement and noise, is rather, “the church should always have a joy in the Lord like that.”

It is always easy when abroad (sometimes even the next town, but more noticeable in different countries) to find thing is churches we visit that we see as being “better” or in some way, more honest or truthful in the hearts and attitudes of the people.  The challenge, in the midst of that, is to actually be a catalyst for change when we return home.  I have no patience for those who want to gallivant around happily and find things to complain about, only to come home and be completely disconnected from effecting any change, even in their own lives, and in their own approach to worship, simply because it wasn’t the way it was.

If, however, we are open to seeing areas we need to grow or be challenged in, and then to be part of the change process, and allow our own hearts to be changed along the way… then we’re talking!

The way we express ourselves is going to be different from one culture to the next, and to suggest that each one should be the same as the next is actually counter-productive.  God created us each differently and unique because each of those small nuances can bring honor and blessing to Him.  In that sense I don’t think the comparison game is fair, or appropriate.  The cultural context of Haiti is going to be different from the cultural context of rural China, which will be different from that of Ghana, Mongolia, Turkey, and Northern Vietnam.  While in each context you may find a deep understanding of the joy of the Lord in all circumstances, and–as Shaquille put it–a people who “have nothing, and yet have everything”, they will not all worship in the same exact manner.

And that’s fantastic!  So from that, we shouldn’t feel as though we have to mimic the same behaviours back home in Saskatoon.  If we want to dance, we should feel the freedom to dance, and having the courage the shuffle the feet from side to side from time to time is absolutely something we can grow in.  There are times that I feel like bouncing a little more than I actually do.

But what we should share with all our brothers and sisters in Christ around the globe is a deep understanding of what it means to find our sustenance, our hope, our faith, our life, and our daily understanding in the person of Jesus Christ.  And that shouldn’t be something we mimic, but something we commit to discovering for ourselves.  In this, our affluent North American culture can work against us.  But we have to commit to battling against that independence and apathy, and recognizing that we are in desperate need of God, and that we find our everything–tou bagay–in Him and Him alone.

(To be continued… check back around noon.)

DAY 9 PM: Last of the MoBloggers…

We’re all done.  Finishing up our last debrief tonight, then packing it in for night.  It’s been filling and emptying at the same time.  Here’s Mark with the last word from those on the trip:

MARK

It wouldn’t be the complete experience without, you guessed it, a tremor.  Around 3am this morning, a small tremor woke some of us up and reminded us of one of the reasons why we are here.  It was a small one so there was no damage that we know about.  It did make for some great conversation around the breakfast table though.

Another concrete pour is scheduled for today (footings for the Technical School), and the morning has been occupied with preparation work for the crews on the compound.  It has been a slower morning for most of our team, providing some time to reflect on the past week and to allow our bodies and minds to wind down.  One of the pressing issues has been “are the clothes we wore for the last concrete pour,really fit to give away?”  The conclusion has been “yes”, but not without some significant soap and water first.  Brad has finally wrapped up his projects with the completion of a cart to be used for acetylene and oxygen bottles…much better than being strapped to a tree which was their previous home.  The girls also had their last recess at the school this morning; I am not sure who will be more sad…the girls or the kids.  After a week of recesses, some great bonds have developed.

This afternoons schedule includes some R&R at the beach, cleanup and wash down of the areas we have been using, and church service at 5.  After that it’s final pack up and preparations to say farewell.  With an early departure in the morning, we will have to make sure we are ready to go tonight.  Stephen WILL NOT allow us to be late tomorrow morning.

A few final notes : we have had a tremendous time at Haiti Arise working on projects, building relationships, passing along the blessings that were sent along with us and also receiving many blessings, in many different forms, from our hosts and members of the community. The Haiti Arise leadership and long term volunteers have provided leadership and have been great role models to us.  I also want to commend Stephen for leading our team this week and keeping us moving along as a well oiled machine. Pray for us as we hop our way through the US and back to Canada.  See you all again soon!

DAY 9 AM: Rumble in the Jungle

Let’s get this out of the way first:  If you are a relative of mine (Thiessen, Quinn, May, Reid, whatever…), then “Pinch-and-a-Punch for the First of the Month”.  There.  I win, since I haven’t heard from any of you.  I think that’s my first win in about two years.

Glad that’s settled.

Laying in bed last night wide awake and unable to sleep when we we’re treated to an aftershock.  A decent shake–enough to wake about half our group, who, for the most part, all thought they were dreaming, since it only lasted about 5 seconds, before settling to a hum-like vibration for about a minute.  Still, enough to shake some windows, scare the cat, and give a deep rumble for a few minutes.  Kind of a weird feeling to feel it in your gut as you’re laying there.  I remember the odd little tremor growing up in BC but this, even tiny as it was, had a shade of the raw force and power exerted when plates shift.  I laid in bed smiling, and praying that God would comfort those for whom, I am sure, it was more frightening than exciting.  I can’t imagine what must go through the mind of Haitians–especially those without a firm grasp on cause and development of quakes–when it rumbles away like that, especially in the dead of night.

As we speed headfirst towards the end here, I would be remiss not to mention how grateful I have been to have Brad with me on this trip.  I have already asked him to come with me again in two years when we bring the next crew of students.  He has been a constant servant, to me and to Haiti Arise, a fantastic sounding board and I value his insight and wisdom greatly.  Cheryl, Lisa and Loretta have been fantastic with our girls, and the work ethic, relationship and leadership that Mark and James have shown has been fantastic and genuine in their care of students.  Jon has been a wealth of information as a grizzled veteran.  Mitchell, I think, is a cyborg.  He just doesn’t quit, and has inspired us to keep going as well.  He has left a lasting impact with the people here, and Haiti has left a mark on him as well.  Michelle and Alyssa have been a joy to watch as mother and daughter both have stepped so wildly out of their comfort zones to embrace all that God has for them here.

I have been so proud of “my” kids.

Laura has worked tirelessly in ways she probably never imagined, and has been a huge help with her french.  She’s been a hit, and has been completely selfless all week, whether she realizes it or not.

Tyson has shown his Sawatzkian work ethic, and has kept us all entertained.  He was constantly working, and his example helped set the pace for his peers.

Lindsay has been absolutely fantastic with the kids, and to watch her pray has been a gift.  She had led confidently, and always helps.  When she speaks, one would be wise to listen.

Hannah has a gentleness about her that blesses everyone.  And she’s been fantastic in the mornings too, which, for her and I, is quite an accomplishment in and of itself.

Bethany is a wise, wise young woman of God.  I loved hearing her lead devotions, and her intensity of thought, and purity of heart bless and rub off on everyone.

Shaquille’s take no prisoners attitude has been fantastic.  She attacks whatever she is doing with energy and passion, and her laughter has lifted many tired spirits.  It was especially fun to see her grasp what it means to “have nothing, and yet have Everything.”

Lukas has been a Man’s Man.  More than that, he’s been a Godly man.  He has worked hard and long, and yet I could not be more proud of hearing him pray a blessing over each young boy at the end of Kids Camp.

We are running around cleaning and packing this morning amidst finishing up some work projects, and a last pour (and we WILL be packed.  Everyone has been informed that not leaving on time in the morning is not an option.  I have a wife to get to.), and I have been reflecting on the  week that was.  My hope is that each one carry a piece of Haiti with them in their hearts.  That the prospect of return excites them.  That they go home with the memory of what it means to worship joyfully planted deep in their souls.  I hope too, that for those of you back home you have gotten just a glimpse of how the week has been for us, and that it has, perhaps in a small way, challenged you to look for ways to live outside yourself.  Maybe it’s Hands On Ministries in Saskatoon.  Maybe it’s changing the way you approach church on a Sunday morning.  Maybe it’s coming with us next time to Haiti, or getting involved in the lives of these incredible students at Youth.  Maybe it’s sponsoring one of the students in the school through the education fund of Haiti Arise.  The lady that Brad mentioned in his story yesterday has taken in two children who are now orphans due to the cholera outbreak, and can barely get by).  Or helping to finance the Children’s Village.  It could be as simple as committing Scripture to your heart they way the children up at Tapion do, and committing to live it out in your day to day life.

Regardless, my prayer for those on this trip is that we not allow ourselves to get swallowed up by old habits and busy lives the moment we get home.  Sure, it will be different.  And routine and life will return, but even still, we can chose to remember and celebrate, and live in the Truth that God has made plain to us here.

And that–more than houses, or clinics, or wall–is the big picture of why we come.  That we would be transformed into the likeness of our Lord.

One last guest blog tonight from Mark Dick, then an early morning  post before the long bus ride to the airport…