A Fantastic End To A Really Lousy Week

(Editor's Note: This post is a few days ovedue, but this is the first chance I've had to sit down at the computer for any length of time since then)

Several months ago, my wife and found out that on March 21, one of our favorite bands -- Casting Crowns -- would be at our local entertainment venue, the Bi-Lo Center. Yet, we also knew that we had other things that the $70 cost of the tickets could better go toward. So everytime for the past couple months we heard mention of the concert we just kind of sighed and turned the station. "Nope, don't want to hear about it. We're not going, no sense in hearing about it."

Fast forward to the day of the concert....

My wife and are at the local Crossway store right down the road from our place, looking for a birthday gift for her sister. We made our way back to the CD section where I start listening to some new CDs that had recently come out. She walks up to me and starts talking. Then suddenly we hear, "Sorry man, I haven't been able to find anyone to take those Casting Crowns tickets off your hands." Huh? We both look up quizzically.

So we go over and talk to the sales associate that we had just overhead. Turns out some friends of his are about to head in to the Bi-Lo Center with two unused (the couple who were going to use them had to bail because of lack of a babysitter) tickets. "How much do they want," I ask. "They're free. They just want someone to use them," he responds. "SWEET!", I think.

This is at 6:55 we find this out. The show starts at 7. So we tear down to the Bi-Lo Center, park near the top of the parking deck, make our way over to will-call, get our tickets, and find our seats. We miss the first act in the process... and sit down about three songs into the second act.

We were jazzed. This was just the best thing to cap off a really lousy week of sneezing, coughing, stuffy head, headaches, and sore throats for both of us, along with a missed day of work for me because I had been feeling so horrible. God knew that we needed some lifting up.

The concert ended up one of the best I've ever seen from an entertainment standpoint. Keep in mind, this is coming from someone whose seen probably more than 30 concerts over the last two decades -- starting off with a rain-soaked NKOTB-Tiffany concert to Van Halen to Travis Tritt to Metallica to MercyMe.

The best show I've ever seen from an entertainment standpoint and a worship standpoint was a Rebecca St. James - Barlow Girl show at the new Gaffney High School three years ago in their gym. It was phenomenal.

I think that in itself says alot about what I'm listening to these days and my outlook and spirituality now versus years ago. Years ago, I would go hang with my college friends at a Metallica concert just to have our eardrums blasted out. As much as I might leave the dial on a Metallica song just to turn it up in the car now, I think I'd turn down one of their concerts. Some of my good ol' 80s music -- REO, Night Ranger, Journey -- yeah, I'd go to the concert. For the pure entertainment value.

Now I'm listening to contemporary christian music as my primary music souce (and have five stations to choose from on the local dial).

Getting back to the Casting Crowns show, what really makes a show like theirs stand out is that they do things that I haven't seen any other artists do. They had the words to their songs up on the screen. They had a local artist doing hand paintings of images and words to go along with the music. They would take time between songs to talk about the scripture relating to the song, what inspired them to write it, how God talked to them at the time and what he is saying to us through their music. They prayed after every couple of songs, encouraged the audience to sing along with them, and truly connected with the audience on a very spiritual level. It was a very, very powerful worship experience, as well as a very entertaining one.

One of the things that really impressed me is the fact that they allow local high school strings program participants to play with them on stage at each venue at which they perform. These kids are so talented. I can't imagine how and what they felt being able to help bring the messages of those songs to the people at the concert. At one point the camerman had focused in on one of the violinists, during a song in which they were not playing, and she was singing the words along. That was awesome.

The feeling of joy in that arena was palpable during the entire show. Everyone was singing. Cellphones were up in the air (so bizarre is that fact when I look back at the Van Halen or Def Leppard concerts of high school and college when lighters in the air was the thing to do). My wife and I both left the show amazed by the performance and the message that Casting Crowns had brought.

It turned out to be an amazing night that we basically lucked into (I know that God knew that we needed it) and one that we are very thankful for. I tried to give the guy who left the tickets for us at will call some money for the tickets, but he wouldn't take any.

An Interesting Couple of Months

My wife and I have been going through a bit of a transition for the last 5 weeks relating to our church.

Some background that might be relevant to this story:

• Our church, which we just started attending 2 years ago this month, has had an "Early Service" for just shy of 3 years. Apparently it wasn't easy to get set up. This is a 150-year-old church I'm talking about here where most of the session members in the church grew up together some 60 to 70 years ago.
• Last summer, our pastor left for a calling at a church in North Carolina. An interim was brought in about the first of December 2006.
• This Spring, our former praise team leader KDC announced she was leaving the praise team. Shortly after that, she told us that she and her husband had decided to start looking at other churches. KDC is a 5th generation member of our church.
• A new praise team leader was brought in at the beginning of August.
• While people at the church may say that they feel our "Early Service" is moving forward and is successful, a large percentage are scared of it being called "Contemporary" and for that matter don't want a "Contemporary" service even though they continue to deny this but we continue to hear backhanded comments about it through the grapevine.
• One of the things that attracted us to this church was that the Praise Team at the "Early Service" was singing songs we enjoyed -- because the vast majority of them were contemporary.

Now we're sort of at a crossroads. There have been a lot of hurt feelings in the past few months because of some issues a lot of people at the church have been dealing with for a long time. There have been and still are some hurt feelings because of things that were and weren't said during the hiring process of the new praise team leader.

Around that time we lost another member of the "Praise Team" because she and her husband felt that our church was no longer a good fit for them. So in the process, the Praise Team has lost a very special feel to it that had been key in developing a close bond between the members. And it lost two very special people, who I would go to the wall for any day.

At first my wife and I decided we'd try to tough it out even though we weren't too sure of everything that was going on and how we felt about it. After a few practices with the new praise team leader, it was evident that this was going to be a very bumpy trip down "Music-we-don't-want-to-sing-because-it-just-don't-feel-right Lane" with no evident end in sight. My wife was frustrated with that and other things. I had been running the sound for the Praise Team and the "Early Service." I got frustrated not only with the fact that she was frustrated, but also for other various reasons.

So we decided to take a break. It's been five weeks now.

We went to our "Traditional Service" a few weeks ago. I remembered very quickly why I have always felt somewhat of a disconnect with God in the traditional church setting. It is so regimented; the recitation makes you feel like a robot; and it is just stuffy. There is no inspiration to it. I don't feel like it allows me to be in touch with God as closely and to worship him comfortably, in a way I want to communicate with him. Our "Early Service" started off making me feel so much closer to God than I ever have in church. I loved that experience. I love being able to talk to God and have a worship experience with him that I enjoy. That may sound selfish, but I don't think people should be forced to all worship God with the same songs, the same recitations, and the same monotone methods week in ,week out.

I also enjoy being able to sing songs that are written in a language that makes sense in modern times. I know there are people that love the traditional old hyms. I've never been a big fan of that. I like the contemporary stuff.

That word in itself scares alot of people who grew up in traditional church settings. We're seeing it first hand at our church.

We went back to the "Early Service" this morning. It was weird. The new praise team leader has changed up the Doxology from what we used to call the Funkology because it had a killer bassline to some really singsongy, showtuney version. I couldn't sing it. I just shook my head dumbfounded. None of the songs that were sung this morning had any relation to the message of the Sermon at all -- which was something that we had been working on establishing more and more of until all the recent changes.

Now we're not sure what to do.

We have a terrific,wonderful, close-knit group of friends in our Sunday School class who are some of the greatest people we have ever met. We have great discussions and studies in our class; we have all grown together spiritually and been there to support each other through bad times and share each other's joys in good times. We have each other over to our respective houses for various events like Super Bowl parties or Halloween parties. Several of the couples from our class went on a trip to the mountains a few weekends ago, ourselves included, and had a blast.

We don't want to be disconnected from that element. But we're so frustrated with the worship styles right now at the church and some other people's attitudes toward those.

Our only temporary solution for the time being is to pray for guidance from God and know that he will help lead us down the path that he knows is best for our souls and spirit.

One of my favorite verses in the Bible is Isaiah 40:31 (NLT) "The Lord is the everlasting God, The creator of all the Earth, He never grows weak or weary, No one can measure the depths of His understanding, He gives power to the weak, and strength to the powerless, Even youth will become weak and tired, And young men will fall in exhaustion, But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength, They will soar high on wings like eagles, They will run and not grow weary, They will walk and not faint"

It kinda seems appropriate to keep that in mind as we go through this transition.

Other Things In Store

About a month ago, I applied for a job with one of the local municipalities. They are starting up a communications office and I thought that it would be a wonderful opportunity for me. The job would have been 1/3 of the distance from home than my current one is, would have paid a good bit more, and probably would have been a great next step for my career.

You may notice that I'm writing about the job opportunity in the past tense.

I didn't get the job. I got that call yesterday morning. And I wasn't too tremendously upset about it. Yeah, I would have liked to have had the job. I won't deny that.

I don't make near market value for my position. I have a 35 minute commute into work and a 45 minute commute out. During the school year, I work a lot of evenings and weekends.

But I really enjoy the job I have right now. It allows me to do things I enjoy, and I have some great coworkers - they're very good people to work with. I've made some friends at this jobs that I'll probably stay in close touch with for years to come; a lot of the vendors I've come to know are really fun to work with; and the students at the college I just have a blast working with, watching their antics, and just listening to the way the conversate with each other.

A college is a great place to work -- and I think the college I work at is a very special place. It's small and tight knit, but people look out for each other. There is a strong sense of family. We look out for each other.

I'm going to go into territory now that you may or may not agree with and/or feel comfortable reading.

Until recent years, I struggled with my faith alot. I've always been one of those people who has to see the concrete evidence or have things explained away by science. Alot has happened in the past few years that has really tested, yet strengthened my faith. I trust God completely with my life and know that he has plans for me that I am unaware of and that he knows what is best for me.

We all don't have the same beliefs. It is everyone's own perogative to develop and practice their own faith and beliefs. I have developed my own, but despite that, I don't feel the need to explain every aspect of my faith and beliefs to every person on the street nor do I have the right to judge people for their own beliefs. Nobody does.

I know God has plans for me. I guess that my leaving the job I'm currently in right now just isn't in his plans. And I am fine with that.