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Top 9 reasons for Opposing the New Music Trend

I found this on Paul Baloche's blog. Pretty interesting.

1.   It is too new, like an unknown language.
2.   It is not as melodious as the more established style.
3.   There are so many songs that it is impossible to learn them all.
4.   It creates disturbances and causes people to act in an indecent and disorderly manner.
5.   It places too much emphasis on instrumental music rather than on godly lyrics.
6.   The lyrics are often worldly, even blasphemous.
7.   It is not needed, since preceding generations have gone to heaven without it.
8.   It monopolizes the Christian’s time and encourages them to stay out late.
9.   These new musicians are young upstarts, and some of them are lewd and loose persons.

The crazy thing is these were Adapted from statements directed against the use of hymns, in 1723:

OWNERSHIP VS. STEWARDSHIP

It is amazing how this position can change everything for you in life.

An approach of ownership in life say's that all is yours. It's here to serve you. the reason you have the stuff is so you can withdraw from it when needed.

An approach of stewardship in life says all is not your. You are here to serve. The reason you have the stuff is so you can invest in it.

This can be place on anything:

Kids

Job

Objects

Ministries

When we live in ownership we go about managing things like it doesn't really matter.

When we realize we are in stewardship over things suddenly it changes are approach of management. we realize it does matter because everything given comes from God so we are accountable to Him on how we manage His stuff.

"Every good and perfect gift comes from above" - James 1:17

random shots

I took a trip to Newport Tennessee a few weeks ago so I figured I would post a few shots. There are a couple of the kidies too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Middle Of The Ocean VS. Close To The Shore

All you can eat, lots of sun, and half naked people that should be completely clothed. That pretty much sums up my experience on a cruise. Beth and I were lucky enough to go on a cruise few years back and it was pretty much amazing. I will suggest one thing, it's is definitely not a good idea to choose glass bottom kayaking back to back with snorkeling....one word to describe that experience HURL!

So one night I was on the deck of the boat with my sweetheart(mushy) and I noticed that you could not see anything, anywhere. We were so far out it was terrifying to think about how deep the water was and how far you were away from any land or people(once the giant boat left carrying a couple hundred of them of course).

Here's the thought...

Where would you want to live you life close to the shore or in the middle of the deep? Think about it....

The Shore - Pretty safe and comfy

    The Middle - completely unknown and dangerous

The Shore - Really rough waters

    The Middle - surprisingly calm

The Shore - The Crowd

    The Middle - feeling pretty alone

Now depending on personality you probably gravitate to one of the other descriptions. Here is my two cents. It is really safe to stay by the shore but there is only so much to achieve and see. You can pull off most of the activities you are going to do all by yourself. It really does not take much faith to live there. In the deep you have to rely on  other things rather than your own abilities. it can feel pretty lonley out there and There is a ton of uncertainty but the adventure of it is breathtaking.

When I think about my personality it is to stay by the shore, but my heart tells me to live in the deep. the greatest discovery and adventure is found in the deep.

Just think about it how many scuba divers do you see 10ft. off the shore?

Critic VS. Student

Remember when you were young and the complete amazement of life was all around. Everything seemed to blow your mind. All magic tricks were real even the one where gran-pa pulls the coin out of your ear, T.V. was real, you honestly thought your new shoes could make you jump higher and run faster. Everything was a learning opportunity and the smallest thing seemed huge.

So when does it happen? When do we go from being a student of the world around us and learning to professionals at life and constantly in critique mode.

When we are students there is never an end to what we can learn. Our potential is unending.

As a critic our learning is over not because we lack things to learn but because we lack the capacity to learn. Our potential is capped.

students see great success

Critics.......well they just critique

Responsive VS. Reactive

Have you ever been in the situation when something happens and before you know you have said or done something? To make it worse most of the time we do this we reflect back on the situation thinking "why did I say that" or "I wish I did not do that".

If you can relate to that you have found yourself face to face with the difference of Reacting VS. Responding.

Reacting tends to be impulsive

    Responding usually is calculated and thought through

Reacting usually creates an opportunity for Apologies

    Responding has the potential to make everyone grateful for the experience when its all over

Reacting causes relationships to erode

    Responsive straightens relationships

Reactive provokes fear

    Responsive builds trust

A long leadership life of reactive leadership leaves a path of broken discouraged people and leaders, including the reactive leader. Most of the time the leader can not figure out why they end up in situations. it can be just as discouraging for them.

A long leadership life of responsive leadershipleaves a path of faithful  followers that are reaching their God given purpose. usually behind them are more leaders with the same passion to serve.

whether we like it or not we reproduce what we are, so if we are reactive those under us will be reactive. But if we guard our emotion and commit to responding after wise thought and council we will reproduce leader that live and lead the same.

Jesus spent His time responding to the needs of people around Him, never reacting. I don't know about you but I want to learn to do the same.

Emotional Map

About two weeks ago I had a really active week. It was a bit stressful but completely fun. I was journaling and decided to think through the emotions of the week and map them out.

This is the list of emotions when it was all said and done.

- fear and anxiety

    - confidence and excitement

- nervous

    - anxious

- excitement

    - satisfaction

- tired

    - anxiety

-relief

    - overconfidence

- nerves

    - cocky

- humbled

    - awkward

- defensive

    - discouraged

- conviction

    - optimistic

- overwhelmed

     - confused

- trusting

I promise I am emotionally stable. It is amazing to me how many and how fast we can move through this emotional roller coaster of life.

When I reflect it just makes me realize that It is by the Grace of God that we can even make it. When I think back on this week and as stressful as it seemed it actually was one of my favorites.

Go figure....now I feel happy.

Closed Hand VS. Open Hand

I heard Matt Chandler(listen to his sermons here) mention this concept in a sermon a while back and it got me thinking about it.

 

In life we live with a position, well maybe a lot of positions but one has great influence in our lives.

 

When reading this think in terms of three things. People, Possessions, & Positions. From now on I will list them as the three P's because I'm lazy and that is like 30 characters to type!(yes I counted)

 

Closed Hand:

    - Ownership of the 3 P's

Open Hand:

    - Stewardship of 3 P's

Closed Hand:

    - Protective of the 3 P's

Open Hand:

    - Gracious with the 3 P's

Closed Hand:

    - Defined by the 3 P's

Open Hand -

    - Defined by the giver of the 3 P's

 

Closed handed people do there best to maintain ownership of the 3 P's. In the end they are owned by the 3 P's.

 

Open handed people understand the 3 P's are on loan to them and do their best to be a steward over what they have. In the end they find they are a slave to nothing except His(God) will.

 

Relational VS. Social

I think that there is a difference in Social people and Relational people, they are extremely close to each other but I think that one brings greater impact in peoples live.

Just so I don't seem like a jerk towards people who lean towards the social side of things I want to give a few disclaimers.

- If we had no social people the world would be a very boring place.

- I don't intend to sound negative towards social personalities, I want to think of better words to describe them.

- I don't think that one is better than the other, I just think that they approach relationships differently.

- I don't think that you can only be one or the other, one may be dominant in your personality.

 

Ok, so with all that said see what you think:

    - Social Talk...It's a gift

        - Relational listen....also a gift

    - Social tend to be surface in relationships

        - Relational tend to have a greater depth to relationships

    - Social lean towards personal agenda...fun, great time

        - Relational lean towards others agendas(the needs of the people they are with)

    -Social usually are the life of the party,

        - Relational are life to others

    - Social loves the group

        - Relational thrive with the individual

    - Social are tipically distracted in conversation

        - Relational are connected and focused

 

Unity of Team VS. Unity of Burden...

 

We spend alot of time talking about this subject. Many books have tried to tackle it conversations are saturated with it and conference's are created for it. The Unity of a team is an unbelievable thing.I certainly am not trying to say it doesn't matter I do however think that there is a unity that will accomplish more.

There is a difference in a staff that has a relational unity (team) and a staff that has a unity of burden. Look at these point and see what you think:

Relational Unity helps us not openly fight and bicker

    A unity of burden causes us to serve one another

 Relational unity helps get a job done

    Unity of burden causes us to concur a mission

Relational unity helps us to like each other

    Unity of burden causes a deep love for each other

Relational unity can allow fragmented focus

    Unity of burden is singularly focused

Relational unity can change with transition of team members

    Unity of burden carries because it is the DNA  not just the atmosphere

Relational unity is inward focused

    Unity of burden is externally focused

 

It seems you have to have the foundation of a unity within the team, but when you reach a unity of burden it is a whole new level of mission.

 

Let me know what you think...