Monday Memo

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Hi Five Oakers, There are a few things I want to share with you today: ötztal alps

// We’re up to 22 participants in the Story of God for the winter session. We’re hoping to offer it on Sunday mornings in the spring, so plan now to attend if that time works better for you.

// Here are the comments we received from the cards we send to first-time guests:

Went with a friend who attends regularly.  Great music.

// Here’s a selection of your comments, observations and questions from the weekend Communication Cards.

  • Beautiful, beautiful worship set – loved the new song. Soft at beginning to crescendo to soft. Always meet nice people at point where we meet and great others! Great message. Slides were very well done, too. I like how you keep repeating, it helps to sink in the message in the frame work give in the story of God. What a fantastic closing set, themes, words, pictures. You guys did a terrific duet to open the time of personal worship. Loved the piano Jonathan. [So true! It was a simply beautiful service and the whole flow of it tied together and took us through the four movements in an incredible way.]
  • Loved the song during our response time “You Make Beautiful Things”. Who wrote it? [See next comment. I’ll also embed a YouTube video at the end of this post.]
  • Thanks for including the Gungor piece in response. Nice job!
  • Love the duet! Awesome job! Very powerful. Great energy this week.
  • Suggestion for community building, for it is our middle name, offer free coffee or bagels or food in between the Sunday morning services? [Would LOVE to. We’ve considered it many times. I asked a pastor friend how much it costs his church and he said about $20,000 per year. Not sure what it would cost us. But it makes me gulp. On the other hand, now that we’re partnering with Kid City Java, proceeds from selling coffee go to a great cause.]
  • Great worship and message! Thanks.
  • Fantastic worship today! The whole time, from start to finish was filled with worship!
  • Great music this week!
  • Love the Gungor Song!
  • ”Here I Am, Arms Open Wide” was sure nice. Pretty harmony from Pam Hawley.
  • Just because you are sincere in your belief does not mean you are saved. God sets the terms, which we need to know and believe the truth. Can we have the scripture reference printed somewhere on the worship folder, as the date is printed?  If I don’t pick up sermon notes it is only quickly referred to. [The timing of completing the worship guide and completing my sermon don’t coincide, so we can’t do it. Sorry.]
  • Is it possible to get the parking lot plowed out on a warm day? [From Dave Casmer, Facility Manager: “Regarding the parking lot, we did have the plowing service salt and they did scrape it on Friday. It's better than it was, but still not great.  There was a lot of build up from the massive freeze right after of the slushy snow.  We're supposed to get 1"-3" tonight so another plowing is likely.]
  • Henry, can you blog the quote you read about if you worship…. then….? [It’s in the second quotation from my post yesterday.]

Blessings, Pastor Henry

Idols

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Clay idols of villege women Tim Keller:

"What is an idol? It is anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, anything you seek to give you what only God can give… An idol is whatever you look at and say, in your heart of hearts, 'If I have that, then I’ll feel my life has meaning, then I‘ll know I have value, then I’ll feel significant and secure.' There are many ways to describe that kind of relationship to something, but perhaps the best one is worship."

David Foster Wallace:

"In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And an outstanding reason for choosing some sort of God or spiritual-type thing to worship…is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things— if they are where you tap real meaning in life— then you will never feel you have enough…. Worship your own body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly, and when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally plant you…. Worship power—you will end up feeling weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to keep the fear at bay. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart— you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out."