Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Getting ready for week 2 of Advent

"God, you can now release your servant; release me in peace as you promised. With my own eyes I've seen your salvation; it's now out in the open for everyone to see: A God-revealing light to the non-Jewish nations, and of glory for your people Israel." - Luke 2:29-32 (The Message)

I am happy to report that I am now caught up in my devotional reading. I am now starting again with the plan to read the devotional every morning before going to work.

The theme for Advent at Esquimalt United Church is "Stories on the road to Bethlehem". The bible readings for this week are: selected verses from Matthew 1:18-25 and 2:13-23 as well as Luke 2:22-33,39-43. I have just now read the Bible readings, so I am not yet ready to start selecting songs. I have to let things "percolate".

God Bless You!
 
posted by Christian Thibodeau at 11:09 PM | Permalink | 0 comments
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Catching up on my reading
"For God is the one who gives seed to the farmer and then bread to eat. In the same way, he will give you many opportunities to do good, and he will produce a great harvest of generosity in you" - 2 Corinthians 9:10 (New Living Translation)

I have to confess that I have let my devotional reading slip the last little while. So I have been trying to catch up. The interesting thing though is that one of the devotionals was based on the reading above. It is interesting because the reading for next week's Discernment meeting is based on the 6th mark of discipleship "Giving a tithe and beyond". Which reminds me that I better get started on reading that chapter.

God Bless You!
 
posted by Christian Thibodeau at 11:23 PM | Permalink | 0 comments
Sunday, November 27, 2005
Worship service
I think that the song "Mary did you know?" that I sang after the reflection (sermon) - which was about Mary and her choice to accept God's request to give birth to Jesus - really connected with the congregation. I know it connected with me - I have not been able to get it out of my mind for a week now. The most powerful lyric for me (in a song filled with powerful lyrics) is "when you kissed your little baby, you kissed the face of God".

The singsong went well, the people were singing out which is always great. I do wonder though if it would have been a good idea to go over a couple of the songs that were used in the service. They were nice songs, but the congregation did not know them. I am not sure I know the answer to that problem. I do not think we want to limit the singing to songs that the congregation already knows, but on the other hand I think it detracts from the impact of the song if people are struggling with trying to get the tune right instead of just singing out and getting into the flow of things. Maybe just singing the songs over again?

God Bless You!
 
posted by Christian Thibodeau at 10:35 PM | Permalink | 0 comments
Songs for first Sunday in Advent
The following is the list of the songs I will be doing Sunday morning for the singsong:

"O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" Latin antiphons - VU1
"Waiting for the Light" Bruce Harding
"Star-Child" Shirley Erena Murray - TFWS2095

I do not have links to lyrics this time around - mainly because it is already 1am and I need to get to bed so I can be rested for church in the morning.

More substantial comments coming later today.

God Bless You!
 
posted by Christian Thibodeau at 1:02 AM | Permalink | 0 comments
Saturday, November 26, 2005
Still wrestling with songs
I have been thinking about songs for next Sunday's singsong. I always have trouble finding songs for Advent. While I was in the shower a couple of days ago wondering what I should be singing, the hymn "O come, O come Emmanuel" came to me. And then while I was drying my hair I was thinking that this was only one song and the song "Waiting for the Light (Harding)" came to me. So those are the two songs I have so far.

Well I have gone ahead and rented the mixing console. We are planning to go to the church early Saturday to set it up and see if it will work. I have also gotten some cables and a microphone to get things started.

Then it will be back to the house to proofread the service slide presentation (and make some last minute changes) and get my singsong presentation ready.

Tomorrow (well I guess it's now today) is going to be a busy day.

God Bless You!
 
posted by Christian Thibodeau at 1:50 AM | Permalink | 0 comments
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
Earthly things
I have been thinking for a while now that we need to do something about the church sound system. The system can currently handle two inputs and those are the minister's wireless mike and the "podium" mike. One of the complaints we heard last year when dramas were done to illustrate the service theme is that it was very hard to hear those taking part in the drama.

I was at the local "Long & McQuade" yesterday, and I finally got a chance to ask the questions that I had been wondering about. So it turns out that it is possible to use a mixing console for multiple inputs and then feed the output of the mixing console into the current sound system arrangement. And not only that, but it is possible to rent the equipment so you can find out if it will work as hoped.

All this to say that I think I will just go ahead and rent a 6 mike input mixing console for the next little while and see if it can be used at church to give us more flexibility. The rental cost is about $32/month so it will be an inexpensive way to try things out. And buying a few mike cables and one cheap mike should give us enough equipment to really test it. My daughters and I were talking about it and we have already decided that the console should go on the lower shelf of the multimedia stand; that way it is somewhat out of the way and is not so far that the 20foot cables I am planning on buying will be too short. And that mixing board also has other inputs that can be used for sound from presentations or for a guitar as just a few examples.

God Bless You!
 
posted by Christian Thibodeau at 11:48 PM | Permalink | 0 comments
Monday, November 21, 2005
Discernment meeting - take 4
The atmosphere at the discernment meeting was still charged from the service on Sunday. It was certainly great to see how much more easily people jumped with both feet into the "river of grace" by having upbeat (the word does not do the music justice, but that is all I can come up with) music to sing to. And if you were wondering who was the amazing musician that caused that change, you might want to have a look at his website.

I think we all agreed that the kind of spiritual growth we have experienced in our small group (the discernment committee) should be something that everyone in the church should have a chance to experience. One of the committee members pretty much volunteered to lead such a group. I tried to say that it was not where my gift was, but somehow I found myself agreeing that maybe a worship band would be something that I could be a part of (mentor?).

I had not mentioned this before, but one of the people I was talking to during the after service "kingdom party" said that the singsong was the reason they had come back to our church again. What a humbling and awe-inspiring experience it is to find out that my efforts are having such an effect on people. The awe-inspiring part is that God would choose me to help spread His word.

One example of this is a song I was trying to find out if it would be okay to use in the singsong this week. As you are probably aware, Advent begins next Sunday and we are going to see things through Mary's point of view this week. So this song came to mind: "Mary did you know?" Turns out that the song speaks exactly to what our minister was going to talk about so the song will now be used in the service. The song just popped into my head when I saw the bulletin for the service. This happens too often to be a coincidence.

God Bless You!
 
posted by Christian Thibodeau at 11:08 PM | Permalink | 0 comments
Surprising finding
No, the surprise was not the worship service as it went very well and I enjoyed it. The surprise was in how much the manner in which the music was played made a difference. We had a replacement music director on Sunday, and he was able to get the congregation excited about singing the hymns like they had not been before. And I am not alone in thinking that: have a read of this blog.

There was some visioning done during that service, and it was great to see how many people went and put up their vision of how they see the future of the church. If there is one thing I regret, is that I did not spend some time to go over what was written as I am really interested as to what the congregation sees as the future of the church.

My wife tripped and fell on Friday afternoon and wrenched her right knee and banged up her lower right leg as well so she has been spending most of her time in bed. Although it is getting better, she is not yet well enough to venture up and down the stairs. Which means that I am staying home today since we are having the kitchen floor redone. All that to say that it is a blessing in disguise as it will give me a chance to go over the reading for tonight's Discernment meeting.

God Bless You!
 
posted by Christian Thibodeau at 9:47 AM | Permalink | 0 comments
Saturday, November 19, 2005
Singsong line-up
It is fortunate that I started early working on figuring out which songs to sing for the singsong because it turned out that I had to go in to the office to deal with a problem we were having. In any case, this is the order the songs will be in:

"He is Exalted" Twila Paris
"Majesty" Jack Hayford
"King of kings, Lord of lords" VU167

I decided to concentrate on songs directly related to Christ the King since it is "Christ the King" Sunday. There is already plenty of music in the service directed at the theme for this week: "The church is..." So I did not feel like I had to follow that route in the singsong.

It should be a great service, I am looking forward to it.

God Bless You!
 
posted by Christian Thibodeau at 11:58 PM | Permalink | 0 comments
Friday, November 18, 2005
Stuck in the slow lane
There it is, already Friday Midnight, and it feels to me like I have just gotten up. The day seems to have just whizzed right by me. I have barely begun to look for songs and it feels like it is time to play them already. In any case, I have at least one song so far:

"Majesty" Jack Hayford

I am wondering if singing "The Church is a Kite" in the singsong would be too early. I don't think that the song is that hard to learn (of course, I am a little biased since I wrote the tune) and I also I ran it past the choir on Thursday so they are somewhat familiar with it and can help with getting the singing jumpstarted.

I have looked at the songs suggested in "Voices United" for Christ the King Sunday (pp.210-214). Although those songs are well known, I just do not feel like singing them right now.

I have been asked to write a small piece to speak about my dream for the future of the congregation. I have been thinking about it and I think that this is what I would like to say:

I think the future of the congregation begins with being involved in the community. We have to go and meet the people where they live if we want them to come to us. I don't profess to have the answers, but I keep hearing about it when I listen to music and also when I look for music to play here. Let me read you three messages I have run into just these last few days:

The first two come from Contemporary Christian artists:
First, from a song from a band called "Casting Crowns":
But if we are the body
Why aren't His arms reaching?
Why aren't His hands healing?
Why aren't His words teaching?
And if we are the body
Why aren't His feet going?
Why is His love not showing them there is a way?
There is a way.

Jesus paid much too high a price
For us to pick and choose who should come
And we are the body of Christ.

Second, from singer/songwriter Chris Rice:
There is a candle in every soul,
Some brightly burning, and some dark and cold.
And there is a Spirit who brings a fire,
Ignites a candle and makes His home.

Carry your candle, run to the darkness,
Seek out the helpless, confused and torn,
And hold out your candle, for all to see it.
Take your candle and go light your world.

And finally, from Voices United (VU214):
Mighty and tender God,
voice of the voiceless,
power of the powerless:
we praise you for your vision
of a community of wholeness,
a realm of peace,
in which all who hunger and thirst are nourished,
in which the stranger is welcomed,
the hurting are healed,
and the captive set free.

Guide us by your truth and love,
until we and all your people
make manifest your reign of justice and compassion.


Well, maybe that is a little heavy... I don't know.

God Bless You!
 
posted by Christian Thibodeau at 11:59 PM | Permalink | 1 comments
Thursday, November 17, 2005
Catching up on my sleep
I have not been entering much this week as I have been trying to catch up on my sleep since I have been really tired lately. I am now feeling better so I can get started on figuring out what I will be singing for the singsong. This week is Christ the King Sunday, and we are having a Kingdom party to celebrate the fact.

God Bless You!
 
posted by Christian Thibodeau at 11:08 PM | Permalink | 0 comments
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Another slow day?
I was going to say that I did not do much worship work today either, but I guess that it is not really true. I was looking at the bulletin for next Sunday's service after reading our minister's comments about having to remove the song they had planned to used because they could not find a tune for it. So I was looking at the words of the songs (I had made a copy last Thursday as I was going to try to find the song on the web - which I was unable to do) thinking how it was a shame that they had to replace the song. As I was reading the words, I could hear a tune in my head, so I wrote it down. I now have a tune for the words - this is the first time I have written a tune since I was a teenager. Hopefully people will like it.

God Bless You!
 
posted by Christian Thibodeau at 11:31 PM | Permalink | 0 comments
Monday, November 14, 2005
Slow day
Well, it has been a slow day on the worship side of things. I have been burning the candle at both ends and need some extra sleep. So today, I spent some of my free time catching up on my devotional reading which I had let slide lately. I was a few days behind - now I am only a couple of days behind. I'm hoping to be caught up by the end of the week.

Well I'm off to an early bed time.

God Bless You!
 
posted by Christian Thibodeau at 10:01 PM | Permalink | 0 comments
Saturday, November 12, 2005
And some songs got picked
Jesus replied: 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' Matthew 22:37 (NIV)

Well the crisis at work finally subsided long enough for me to actually get some worship work done. I was able to finish the service presentation while waiting for IBM to get back to me. And this evening I finally seriously looked for songs for tomorrow's singsong. These are the songs I ended up with (in the order they will be sung):

"You Are Mine" David Haas TFWS2218
"What a friend we have in Jesus" VU664
"Love the Lord Your God" Jean and Jim Strathdee TFWS2168

I could not find the words on the web for the Strathdee piece, but if you are familiar with Matthew 22:37 (and you should be now since that passage is at the top of this entry) you pretty much know all the words.

God Bless You!
 
posted by Christian Thibodeau at 11:58 PM | Permalink | 1 comments
Friday, November 11, 2005
So much for Friday
I have spend most of Friday dealing with problems at the office - so much for a day off where I could catch up with the song picking. Normally, this would not be too much of a problem, but it looks like the problems at work have not gone away and I will spend some of Saturday dealing with that.

The youth that has been doing the PowerPoint has been super busy this last week and has asked me if I could do the slides for this week - there goes another chunk of my time. I guess this is just going to be one of those real busy weeks.

Well I better go get some sleep so I can tackle my busy Saturday.

God Bless You!
 
posted by Christian Thibodeau at 11:59 PM | Permalink | 0 comments
Wednesday, November 09, 2005
Love [Your City] wrap up
Tonight's meeting was about looking back on the events of last September: what went right, what went wrong, what could have been done better, and what new things should be done. We had a preview of the DVD that was made recounting what happened during the Love Esquimalt/Vic West/View Royal event. All the efforts to produce the DVD (and gather the raw footage) were given freely as that person's opportunity to serve.

It was very heartening to see that everyone that came to the meeting had come to the same conclusion: that the servant evangelism that took place that day cannot be kept to a single day of the year but instead should happen regularly. As a matter of fact, Terry Lamb (I sure hope I got his name right) one of the co-founders of Love [Your City], said that he hoped that it should become a way of life. To see people from so many different congregations get together to show the love of God to the people is such an uplifting happening and that they are willing to do it again, and sooner rather than later, is just out of this world and a sign that what Terry hoped for is actually taking place!

Since I have not been home a lot tonight, not much work has been done on the songs for Sunday. Fortunately for me, Remembrance Day is a statutory holiday which means I will have Friday off to catch up.

God Bless You!
 
posted by Christian Thibodeau at 11:56 PM | Permalink | 0 comments
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
Starting the journey to Sunday
"Don't fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life." Philippians 4:6-7 (The Message)

The theme for next Sunday's service is "How to find God when you don't know where to turn". The passage above comes from one of the Bible readings for next Sunday: Matthew 22:36-38, Psalm 150, Jeremiah 29:11-14a, and Philippians 4:1, 4-7.

I have not yet looked for songs since I have just read the Bible readings, but I would hope that some songs will come to me now that I have read the readings. Which of course reminds me that I was supposed to send the URLs of the websites I visit to choose songs to the other members of the Worship Committee. I better put that in my ToDo list.

God Bless You!
 
posted by Christian Thibodeau at 9:47 PM | Permalink | 0 comments
Monday, November 07, 2005
Discernment
"All these gifts have a common origin, but are handed out one by one by the one Spirit of God. He decides who gets what, and when." 1 Corinthians 12:11 (The Message)

Tonight's meeting concentrated on "Serving in and beyond the congregation", the 4th Mark of Discipleship. The point of the meeting, I think, was to recognize the many different ways that people can serve. I found myself in agreement with the material contained in the chapter. And after talking it over during the meeting, it dawned on me that maybe I had been looking at things the wrong way - and that my audience is not whom I thought it was. I thought that the people that should be touched were those for whom I was doing the work - but since I really do not have any direct interaction with those people for whom I do the work it turns out that how I act in the office would affect my co-workers - and they are the people I can touch.

I guess after a week off singing for the singsong, I better start looking at songs for next Sunday. It is kind of late though, so I will look up the Bible readings and the theme for next Sunday tomorrow.

God Bless You!

 
posted by Christian Thibodeau at 10:57 PM | Permalink | 0 comments
Sunday, November 06, 2005
Sunday worship
Today's Sunday service was our Remembrance Day service. I think it was a very moving service, with a different focus which presented a fresh way to look at the meaning of the celebration.

Not a whole lot to talk about as I have been taking it easy all day. I do have some reading to do before tomorrow's Discernment committee meeting - I guess I know what I am going to do during my free time on Monday.

God Bless You!
 
posted by Christian Thibodeau at 10:44 PM | Permalink | 0 comments
Friday, November 04, 2005
More discernment reading
"God loves the world through you and me" - Mother Theresa

As usual, I have left the required reading for the next discernment meeting to the last minute. The chapter to be read this time is about the 4th Mark of Discipleship (as put forward in Michael W. Foss "Power Surge" book) "Serving in and beyond the Congregation". I have just started reading the chapter, and I must confess that one of the quotes at the beginning of the chapter really struck me. It is the one I have put at the top of this entry. Is it not amazing how some people have a way to put an idea in a simple statement that just drives the point home. I just see that as another way of putting into a sentence what we did with "Love [Your City]". And that is also why it cannot be a one time thing. It has to be ongoing.

Better go do some reading.

God Bless You!
 
posted by Christian Thibodeau at 10:27 PM | Permalink | 0 comments
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
Sneak peak
"Every day their number grew as God added those who were saved." Acts 2:47b (The Message)

Our minister sent us the agenda for the next Finance Committee meeting. There are some Bible readings mentioned and the verse above is taken from one of those readings (Acts 2:42-47). That is certainly the end result that every one would like to see in our church. I would like to think that God will guide us to find one way to make it so that those that "need to be saved" will find their way to our church. And that is the challenge that lays in front of us; discerning what it is that God wants us to do.

There will not be song choices listed this week. This Sunday will be Remembrance Day Sunday and there is not be a singsong in keeping with the somber occasion.

God Bless You!
 
posted by Christian Thibodeau at 11:00 PM | Permalink | 0 comments