this book sounds great

this post is a direct copy from my personal blog, which i realize is a little weak, but here it is. and by the way, you can check out my personal blog here.

i'm sort of a quitter-reader. i've got an impressive list of books i've started reading, but usually get distracted about 3 quarters of the way through. so please feel free to read this book and give me a synopsis. otherwise i'll enjoy the first 75% of the book sometime soon.

THE MYTH OF A CHRISTIAN NATION: How The Quest for Political Power is Destroying The Church

Dr. Gregory Boyd


Dr. Boyd states in his introduction that this book is the result of a sermon series he preached in 2004 titled, " The Cross and The Sword", in reaction to growing pressure being placed upon him to endorse political candidates and thier policies from the pulpit. Dr. Boyd has since been branded a heretic by many for his refusal to bow to the will of his church and board members as they desired for him to use his pastoral clout to make political endorsements. The naive assumption that if you dont vote for the party that best matches God's Biblical Mandates equals your abandoning your faith and betraying God is tackled decisively by Dr. Boyd.

impending christmas series

this december we'll be starting a series called "choosing christmas." i don't have much detail about where the series is going but any ideas for creative elements would be awesome!

Last year we did an advent series. here are some of the creative elements we used:

Joy! by Gay Dad
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For by U2
Sing Mary Sing by Jennifer Knapp
Yahweh by U2
Hang On To You by Delirious
Peace on Earth by U2
When I'm With You by
Better Days by Goo Goo Dolls
Rich Herman Video

The List

here's some music from Sunday

with the video camera set up at the back of the auditorium, it's been easy to let it run and see what we get. here are 4 tracks from Sunday. there's quite a bit of echo, but the mix sounds great! way to go, Wade!!


Take the World But Give me Jesus
Perfect
God of Miracles
Beautiful One

October 29, 2006

"Risk: Live While You're Alive"

Touch - Delirious
Look What You've Done - Tree 63
Inside Outside - Delirious
Unashamed Love - Ten Shekel Shirt
Go You Are So Good - Ryan Townsend

One Thing - Finger Eleven

Let's get together on this

I'm gonna start posting information about upcomging gatherings as much as possible. i'm not quite sure about the format yet, but the goal is that with the info i post, you as a reader can help to brainstorm and design creative elements for the gatherings. these elements may be music, video, live drama, etc. if you're a part of cedar hills, you know what i mean.

so please, please comment with suggestions to the upcoming topics. i'm very excited about this new venue for widespread participation.

October 22, 2006

Take the World But Give Me Jesus - Matt Redman*
Take Me Away - Lifehouse
Perfect - Ryan Townsend*
God of Miracles - Ryan Townsend*
Beautiful One - Tim Hughes*


*each of these artists was at one time associated with Soul Survivor, a church movement that i believe was started by Matt Redman, which maintains an emphasis on worship thru the arts, especially music, as well as social justice. the movement began in the u.k. and is now gaining momentum worldwide.

cds of last week

i have 5 leftover copies of the cd that i burned for the band for 10.15.06. this cd contains the songs recorded by the original artists. if you want one, please reply to this post within 5 days with your name and address and i'll drop it in the mail.

October 15, 2006 - Initiative

let the praises ring - lincoln brewster
filled with you glory - starfield
all creatures - st francis of assisi (redone by david crowder)
o how you love me - jami smith
yesterday, today and forever - vicki beeching
meant to live - switchfoot

Mary Herlihy's story

series/teaching schedule planning

The process we go through to plan out the next year’s worth of series/teaching topics for cedar hills church.
1. plan a 2-3 day retreat where we can get away from the office and spend some
time with this planning
2. pray individually & then pray together
3. look at a running list of series/teaching topic ideas that Eric (our lead
pastor) maintains that includes resources that we’ve come up with, resources
from the web, etc.
4. talk through the list, discuss series’ that seem to bubble to the top
a. sometimes we have a tendency to get bogged down in the details of
individual series. At those times we have to bring ourselves back to the big
picture so that we can make the most of our planning time together.
5. write down series’ that seem to have some momentum
6. go through the new list and categorize the series/teaching topics. They
usually end up falling into one of these 5 categories:
a. Christian Living
b. Bible
c. Vision/Values
d. Theology
e. Felt-Need
7. look over the list and determine if we’re missing anything big that should be
taught on during the next year.
8. pencil series onto next year’s calendar. This scheduling is impacted by a
few assumptions:
a. statistically, the biggest days for people who don’t normally, to
attend a church gathering are easter, mother’s day and Christmas
b. the fall is a good time to begin new emphases; people are typically
excited to get back into the rhythm of the school year and have a renewed
passion for church involvement.
9. compile that schedule into an ms excel document


this is a basic outline of how we get the next year's schedule put together. while this functions as our teaching schedule, it is totally flexible based on opportunities and issues that arise, whether a sense of spiritual leading or simple current events.

October 8, 2006 - Choice

beautiful one - tim hughes
thank you - sanctus real
i will - justin fox
fragile moon - john elliot

and here's the video that Brice & Melissa Filippini did.