Legousalem

At my church we have recently started a new service. This service is primarily created to serve the emergent culture. I really enjoyed this last service. I preached on Isaiah 58:10-12. A week before the service, we got two brothers who have creative minds to build a miniature version of Jerusalem out of Legos. They had been playing the video game Assassin's Creed so they were familiar with the city. We set up our sanctuary with five high tops and left chairs out for people to use. In the center below our stage we used two large rectangular tables to put our model of Jerusalem.
During the service, I invited the congregation to come forth to collect Legos that had been donated to the church. I asked them to build a part of a city and to let that part represent where they were or where they were going in their lives. I preached for a bit on how God takes care of us in our parched places and how God desires to restore His people. Then I invited them to get together in groups and discuss what their lego creations represented in their own lives. The discussions were amazing. People had truly put their hearts and souls in their Lego creations. Then I went on to talk about if they want God to restore them then they must submit to God's will which in this section involves giving to the hungry and taking care of the needs of the afflicted. So in the end of the service the people came forward to build onto Legousalem.
For those who enjoy a play on words the word Legousalem is a three part compound word. "Lego" is Greek for "to say" and "u" is English slang typically used in text messaging finally "salem" is Hebrew for peace Jerusalem was the "foundation of peace." So putting the words together it means "you say peace." Part of the rebuilding process involves us saying peace in our own lives and helping to create peace in others. After the sermon, Jennifer lifted up all of the broken cities in our world and prayed for God's Restoration.


It was an awesome service. I love being in a dynamic group of leaders who can come up with these great ideas. It started with talking about how God wants to rebuild his people and turned into a beautiful service full of worship and personal healing. It's great what we can do with Legos. What things/mediums have you used to help people to understand God's word besides using your own words?

Worship conference: I am the best and Labels

This weekend we hosted a Worship Conference at our church. We being the conglomerate of UMCs around this area of the four corners. During the conference, I got a lot of things out of it. I realized that I need to work on my personal time with God and drawing others into commune with God. We also had a fun seminar on the emergent movement which made me think more about my generation/worldview.
I also had some frustrations during this conference. That I would like to see turn into a discussion.
One was the main speaker seemed to be full of herself. It felt condescending at times the way she would speak. Granted she spoke a lot of truth but I felt robbed because she left some of the truth out. It felt like she was saying "I am the Best" over and over and over. I am glad she has an awesome ministry but I missed the authentic trials and tribulations she faces. I like to call this hero preaching style. It's like she was throwing herself up on a pedestal saying look at me look at me. I pray to God that I may always remain humble in my preaching style. I feel that our lowest points are our best preaching points. Some people say you should never address yourself in a sermon and rather should focus on a text. And then we have the example of Hero preacher. What is your style? How often do you talk of you triumphs and trials? What do you like the best?
The other thing that happened at the conference lasted a short paragraph in a book but still managed to annoy me. When speaking on emergents the speaker went political. She was talking about liberals and fundamentalists. This is typically fine with me until she used the word evangelical like the media always does to define conservatives. I am an evangelical and proud of it. My political views are not tied in with liberals or conservatives. Evangelicals can have their own thoughts. The core meaning of an evangelical is someone who wants to spread the word of God by word and deed. They don't always have a political agenda. Come on!! Think don't fall in with the media and use their ignorant terms to describe people that want the word of God to flourish. Our agenda is that unbelievers would turn to believers. Have you ever experienced this? What are your thoughts?