APEX Spiritual Breakthrough Retreat

I’m looking forward to August 21-23. Every few months at APC we host the Spiritual Breakthrough Retreat. Pastor Jeff gives a great description over at his blog. This upcoming retreat, we as young adults are concentrating together on breakthrough. To do this we’ll take part in the retreat, spend a couple nights at the church, and rise up in our walk with God.

The SBR is powerful because it’s an opportunity to set aside time to focus; to sit under powerful teaching by Pastor Jeff; to hang out with a big group of people all hungry for more of God. You don’t want to miss it.

If you’re interested in joining APEX Young Adults in this retreat, leave a comment and let me know. The cost for us will be $30, which includes all retreat materials and food for the weekend. It will change your life.

DS

Why We Love the Church

Just finished reading Keven DeYoung & Ted Kluck’s new book, “Why We Love the Church: In Praise of Institutions and Organized Religion.” With all the numerous ‘church-as-we-know-it-sucks’ books out there, this was a refreshing read. I read a lot of books and it seems that everybody is always ticked off at somebody. This book is a bit of a reaction to George Barna, Leonard Sweet, Brian McLaren, Donald Miller, & emerging church types.

Aside from the playful banter, I came away from this book with a renewed appreciation for my church and a stronger desire to serve there. I will leave you with some wise counsel from Kevin:

“Find a good local church, get involved, become a member, stay there for the long haul. Put away thoughts of revolution for a while and join the plodding visionaries. Go to church this Sunday and worship there in spirit and truth, be patient with your leaders, rejoice when the gospel is faithfully proclaimed, bear with those who hurt you, and give people the benefit of the doubt. While you are there, sing like you mean it, say hi to the teenager no one notices, welcome the blue hairs and the nose-ringed, volunteer for the nursery once in a while. And yes, bring your fried chicken to the potluck like everyone else, invite a friend to church, take the new couple out for coffee, give to the Christmas offering, be thankful someone vacuumed the carpet, enjoy the Sundays that click for you, pray extra hard on the Sundays that don’t, and do not despise ‘the day of small things’ (Zech 4:10)” (226-227).

Amen.

New Francis Chan book

Looks to be a good read.

Weekend Worship Songs 7.25-26.09

What a great weekend of worship. One of our values in the worship ministry of APC is for our worship to be ‘willfully expressed’. We desire to attach our faith to the promises of God. We look for songs that will assist people in doing this. So, here we go:

• How Great Thou Art – this is a great song to kick off with because of its familiarity. We did it upbeat. A good song to use before introducing a new one (which we did).
• Glory to God Forever (new) – amazing new song by Steve Fee & Vicky Beeching. I heard this song at last year’s Catalyst conference and it’s just been released. Very declarative, simple, and engaging.
• God of This City – Great song of prayer/intercession.

Speaking to Young Adults

If you or someone you know is involved in young adult ministry, I’m sure this brief blog will be of tremendous benefit. In a culture where we constantly seeking to improve our methods (not necessarily bad), let’s not forget about what’s most important – the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Be more consumed with your message than you are with your delivery.

Preach on.

DS

What Defines Me?

Last night at APEX we dug into an intense passage that is Romans 12:9-21. We talked about the depth of love that God calls us to, commanding us to love even our enemies. Not easy stuff.

Here are some of the points I made:

• When we love others Biblically it reveals what God is like (John 13:34-35)
• When we love other Biblically it reveals where our hope lies (I Peter 2:21-23)
• Instead of getting even we must learn to ‘entrust’ ourselves and our circumstances to God
• Christianity is not about completing a ‘to-do’ list in order to appease God. Our deeds must be done in dependence on the finished work of the cross
• In order to love others consistently, I need to see Christ consistently
• If I were to ask those closest to you, “What is (fill in your name) defined by?” What would they say?
• May we be defined by the radical, selfless, crazy love of Christ

Weekend Worship Songs (7.18-19.09)

This weekend, Kate Griffin (other worship leader at APC) led worship.

Here’s what we did:

• Faithful (Steve Fee) – really a great upbeat song. Love the declaration.
• I Have Found (Kim Walker) – we’re continuing to reinforce this tune. Really catching on well with our congregation.
• Stronger (Hillsong) – One of the best songs to come out of Hillsong EVER, in my opinion. Can’t get enough of declaring this truth. We actually did a key change in the bridge which seemed to reinforce the “Let your name be lifted higher” very well.

The Glorious Unseen Trailer

lala

I just subscribed to this cool website. Lala is an online place for sharing music. It’s free and just for signing up you can add 25 free songs to your lala collection. Lala enables you to listen to any song once in its entirety (the 25 free songs are yours forever). You can add a song to your online lala collection for only 10 cents. Mp3’s can be purchased cheaper than iTunes.

There is a massive selection of music.

Yours truly is even there with bells on.

I find a website like this helpful before I purchase an album, say, on iTunes. I like to hear the whole thing before I buy it.

Music lovers, indulge thyself.

Weekend Worship Songs

I am going to start posting our worship song setlist from the weekends here at APC. I hope this is simply a practical tool for you worship leaders to see what songs we are doing and how they are working.

This past weekend we had a very high-energy set with some spontaneous moments. It was a powerful time.

• Let God Arise (Chris Tomlin)
• My Savior Lives (NewLife Worship)
• I Have Found (Kim Walker) – this was a new song for us. It’s a song that has an ‘immediate’ effect on people – easy to learn and very catchy. I love the simplicity of it and how it leads you to cry out for the glory of God. Great congregational prayer. Highly recommended.
• All Who Are Thirsty (Brenton Brown) – An older song, but a great follow-up to ‘I Have Found’. It’s helpful to have a simple chorus that enables you to continue pressing into God’s heart in a service.

Are there any new songs you are doing?