We’ve been trying a new ‘discipline’ in our worship services the last couple of weeks at Western Hill – we’re calling it ‘prepare the room.’
Rick actually came up with the phrase after going to a worship conference last year. He observed that at the conference before any worship service, there was always a few minutes at the start where they prepared the room. Could have been a video or a practice or silence – but it was a prepared, purposeful pause at the start of the service to remind themselves that they were about to engage with the Holy God in worship.
What does that look like in a local congregation that meets every single Sunday morning?
And no – the Opening Song doesn’t really count as “prepare the room.” See Northpoint’s video below to see what I’m talking about. So last week we started with the video below followed by another video depicting Psalm 31 – My times are in your hands.
The feedback has been pretty positive. Not everyone got the “artsy” rendition of Psalm 31, but everyone loved the reminder to get prepared to worship.
It’s a new tradition, new spiritual discipline of worship for us at Western Hills – prepare the room. And it’s rubbing off in other areas as well. I find myself walking into a meeting or a lunch – pausing in the car to ‘prepare the room.’
Prepare The Room
Psalm 31//My Times video by Jakub Blank
Jan 24, 2012 | Categories: church & emergent musings, leadership ramblings, theological ramblings | Leave A Comment » | 106 views |
I actually stumbled on this video the day it was uploaded - January 10. I sent it to our creative team before it went all viral. Now it is everywhere with different people sounding off on it. We ultimately decided to NOT use it mainly because it didn't exactly fit the series we were in and we →
Jan 18, 2012 | Categories: cultural ramblings, leadership ramblings, movies & music, theological ramblings | Leave A Comment » | 182 views |
I'm going thru Men's Frat with some guys at the church. (We meet at 6am on Tuesday mornings - consider this your invite.)
Before I get to the thing that hit me this morning - I got a glimpse of Bill Smith in the video this morning. That 2-second glance of his white head just sent a flood →
Jan 17, 2012 | Categories: leadership ramblings | Leave A Comment » | 170 views |
This originally appeared as a weekly evo on www.whillschurch.org.
Had this great conversation spring up during our Men's Fraternity small group time yesterday morning which proves two myths wrong.
Myth 1: 6 am is too early for any kind of deep conversation.
Myth 2: Men can't really talk about deep spiritual matters longer than 10 minutes.
But that's →
Jan 12, 2012 | Categories: random ramblings | Leave A Comment » | 164 views |
This is the first part of some training I'm taking my leaders through at Western Hills.
These are Grant's notes from his Winter 2012 Confab.
Couple of thoughts as we begin on this topic of multiplication.
First, when we speak of multiplying our ministry, what we are really talking about is multiplying people. People advance the Kingdom of →
Jan 10, 2012 | Categories: leadership ramblings, lifewalking, spiritual formation | Leave A Comment » | 249 views |
These are the two best teams in the country. People might not want a rematch, might hate defensive football. Hate Saban or the Mad Hatter but the bottom line - these are the most talented, best coached teams in the country right now.
Reasons Alabama could win:
1. They are healthy...for the most part. There are →
Jan 06, 2012 | Categories: Alabama Football, sports ramblings | Leave A Comment » | 197 views |
This year was our 20-year anniversary. Now this is a significant date for me for a couple of reasons. First, I'm one of the only family members (that married) that hasn't been divorced. Second, we spent the first 17 years of our marriage in student ministry. That means that while everyone else was on vacation or →
Dec 23, 2011 | Categories: family ramblings, travel ramblings | Tags: Disney, My Disney Story | 4 Comments » | 317 views |
Image is of Stirling Castle in Stirling, Scotland. More info can be found here.
This originally appeared as a weekly evo for whillschurch.org
Last night we opened Christmas gifts from my Dad and Mary while they were on FaceTime. (By the way, this is just one more reason why I think the iPhone is best invention ever. →
Dec 22, 2011 | Categories: weekly evos | Leave A Comment » | 313 views |
I fell off a ladder a couple of weeks ago and in the process of ridiculously embarrassing myself, got a cool bruise on my rear end and a pinched nerve in the neck.
I'd been going to the chiropractor and was having some improvement when the workman comp people called and said stop going there and go to this other →
Dec 21, 2011 | Categories: leadership ramblings, theological ramblings | Tags: gospel | Leave A Comment » | 319 views |