King Tut

We went down to Chicago a couple of weekends ago to see our friends Ben and Nikki, but also to see the Tutanhkamen exhibit at the Field Museum. It was awesome! First of all, I am fascinated with ancient Egyptian culture, so it's easy for me to get excited about stuff like this. Vicki just had to humor me for a couple of hours (she really didn't mind it all that much) while we walked through the golden pieces of art and religious artifacts.

As we walked in, it felt as if the high priests were pulling back the curtain to the Most Holy Place to show us the ark of the covenant. What we were seeing had been hidden from sight for over 3500 years. A wooden chair, which should have disintegrated 2,000 years ago, stood proudly bearing the marks of the young king. His grandmother's casket, covered in gold and adorned with ancient spells from the Book of the Dead, sat in the middle of one room begging people to come closer. A crown, a dagger, and a golden necklace were prominently displayed in one of the final rooms. A creative video showed that Tut was buried adorning these priceless pieces. He wore them until they were pulled off his mummified body in the early 1900's. Man, I could've stayed in there all day!

I don't know if there is a hobby or a particular part of history or subject that you find fascinating. You know you don't regret it when you explore that world. What is that one thing for you?

Indulge me

Worship and lament

I can remember growing up in a very traditional southern country church and noticing one Sunday that every song we sung never made it back to praising God. We sung about heaven and evergreen trees. We sung about ships and mansions. But I distinctly remember one Sunday never singing one song that addressed God at all. Now this is an extreme example, and I'm not bitter at all about it . . . :) But you see my point!

Truth is, there are waves of inspiration in worship music, we write what we are experiencing and frame it within the biblical story. During the depression, we wrote songs of hope and longing for the future when we wouldn't struggle like we do. Recently, we have written songs expressing the joy we feel was missing from the corporate worship.

In light of this, I agree that the element most missing in our worship is lament. Everyone goes through painful situations, divorces in the family, loss of loved ones, etc, etc, and there is very little to express that in our services. We tend to clean things up a bit in our offerings to God. But that shouldn't be the point, should it? God wants us to be genuine and come to him in the midst of our pain, our dark times. He wants our heart, broken or not.

As I read through the Psalms (our guide to "worship music" from ages past) and it seems that about 2/3 of the songs has massive elements of lament vs. 1/3 which are upbeat and positive. It seems to me that we have some writing to do! We need more songs that express our questions, confession of sins, and just simply "God, where are you?" Off the top of my head, I can think of only a handful that do this well: Deep Calls to Deep (being the only true lament I know), Healing Grace; Lord Have Mercy; Have Mercy O God (another Randy Gill original); Create in Me a Clean Heart (maybe?); and Blessed Be your Name.

I love the honesty in these songs. It doesn't clean up our spirituality, it leaves it messy. God is big enough to handle our problems AND our questions. Don't you think?

-chris

The World Series

I'm sitting here right now, on edge of the stairs, watching Game 5 of the World Series. My friends reading this will laugh at me. Chris? Watching baseball? Not just watching baseball, but getting into it? Never in my life have I declared allegiance to any team in any sport at any time. But, for some reason, it really has been fun to get caught up in the buzz of the World Series. As many of you know, I have always described the chore of watching a baseball game on TV like this: 3 minutes of action packed into 3 hours of television.

But there is a buzz in Detroit. We have hosted the Superbowl AND the World Series in the same year up here. You will never find more dedicated hockey fans than the fans of the Redwings. There is just something different . . . My initial guess is that it gets so cold up here, that professional sports is about all there is to enjoy- cause you can't bear the weather for months. Still, there is something in the air, you can feel it. It makes me want to go to Chelio's ( a restaurant owned by a Redwing player) and watch a Redwings game in the midst of the crazed fans.

So, the Tigers just lost. Wainright just threw the winning pitch. Disappointing. But I didn't think the Tigers could've come back. They just weren't playing as well as they should have- especially the pitching. Ahh, but it was fun . . .

So, hopefully my friends have stopped chuckling to themselves while reading this. Yes, times have changed. I'm a daddy, and I'm watching sports on TV. You'd better watch the skies for Jesus to come back. I think I hear the horsemen of the apocalypse now.

P.S. Anyway, Vicki and I took some "artsy" pictures of Genesis before she gets to big. Vicki got some great shots of her. So, I'm sure you'll be seeing some of them very soon!

ZOE Worship Conference

This weekend, we took a group of 12 from RCC to the Zoe Worship Conference in Nashville, TN. We had an incredible experience worshipping with 1200 worship leaders, praise team members, and ministry leaders from churches all over the US! The keynote speaker, Mike Cope, knocked every sermon out of the park!! I was so blessed to be there.

Initially, I was a little worried about getting everyone down there, since a week before we lost our van rental accomodations. So, we got a few voluteers to drive and caravaned all the way to TN! It ended up working out for the best- since we got an opportunity to bond and get closer with our little group. AND, I got to show them a little piece of Nashville too! Man, do I miss it . . . especially since a big part of the trip was the food. From CheeseCake factory to El Mariachi to Sonic, we ate very well for the three days we were down there. And I didn't get a chance to take them to Baja Burrito. ( there's always next year . . .) But a few of us DID stop to grab a latte at one of my favorite coffee joints- FIDO'S.

But more than anything, I enjoyed the friends and the fellowship. I loved showing off little Genesis to our friends ( Mike was way smitten with our little girl) and spending time with BT and Steve. I loved seeing our group laugh, make fun of each other, and draw closer to each other.

Which was the theme of the conference, by the way. CLOSER.

How do we draw closer to God? With all the avenues and ways in which we open ourselves up to Him, I have one for you to think about. When the body of Christ does what it is supposed to do- be in community with each other, admonish each other, build each other up- then we ARE closer to God.

We become closer to God not as a result of community, but through it. He lives and breathes between us. "Whenever two of you are gathered in my name, there I am with you" (CLV version ;)

Something to think about . . . .

Genesis Nicole Lindsey

Announcing our new little girl: Genesis Nicole Lindsey. She is 7 lbs. 1 oz., 20 inches long, and absolutely beautiful, so she definitely takes after her father :) ! Here are some pics of the newest addition to our family.

Some Fun Random Pics

I hadn't posted any pictures in a while, so I thought you might like to see some fun random pictures of us over the course of the last year. So here's the game: can you match the event with the pic?

a) Lunch in New Orleans

b) Worship at the Emerging Artists' Series

c) Dinner at Benihana's

d) Baby Greyson's first concert

e) Peyton at the Invisible Children's Global Night Commute

Have fun!