And this is what I love about Page CXVI, they love hymns and want people today to love them too. They take some liberties to bring the story and truth of each song through to our world, but I believe they do an incredible job.

On November 6th they will be leading worship at my church in the morning and leading a *FREE* concert later that evening at 7pm (bring some cash to support the band, directions can be found on the link to my church’s website).

If I could name an artist or band I would want to come lead worship at my church, Page CXVI would be on the very short list.

The difficulty with hymns in church is that they are often divisive. I wish it wasn’t true but it is. Hymns to many older church members represent the “good ol’ days.” But hymns to a younger church member represent being stuck in the past. This is why so many churches, including mine, have created multiple service formats almost exclusively based around musical expression.

Why am I excited about having them? Because for at least one Sunday I hope hymns build a bridge between generations instead of creating a gap. One of my biggest struggles is that our high school students are never in a room together with any of our older church members. For at least one night (maybe the first) this won’t be true.

I look at it like baby steps and this is a big first step.

If you’re in the Portland area you definitely don’t want to miss this on November 6th. And if you are a part of Sunset with me, I’ll look forward to worshiping with you that morning.

Never heard any of their music? Listen below and enjoy (you’ll need to come to this post to listen RSS readers).

Having been involved with The Mentoring Project and also been blessed by having several mentors throughout middle school, high school, and college, I’ve seen first hand the incredible blessing great mentors are. The mentoring series I hosted here on this blog last summer still remains one of my favorite things I’ve been a part of, take some time to read those posts if you haven’t.

I would imagine that many in my church today are feeling inspired to start mentoring someone…anyone probably. And despite mentoring being a bit of a buzzword I hope many of you sense God’s leading to get involved in mentoring others in some way. With all that said, I do believe it is possible to go at this whole mentoring thing wrong. I’ll look at mentoring here primarily from an older person mentoring someone younger, even though I know a lot of 45-year-olds who need some mentoring from mature 25-year-olds. From my experiences, here’s some good first steps for mentoring:

• DO NOT ever start a conversation with someone by saying, “I want to mentor you.” How do you expect the person to react? It is forcing a relationship on someone. That isn’t helpful.
• Pursue time with them in a casual environment to begin the friendship. Bill Hybels says you can’t have a quality relationship without a quantity of time invested. Take time to simply get to know someone to allow both people to see if a mentoring relationship would even be a natural fit. Go to coffee, ask them to go to a sporting event with you, invite them over for dessert.
• Get to know their story before you walk them through the 3 steps to becoming a better follower of Jesus. Hopefully this one is obvious. The worst thing a mentor can do, especially with a younger person, is walk them through a few steps in a booklet and think the job of mentoring is done.
• Ask questions before giving answers. This principle could really go for any conversation, however I think the natural tendency when trying to mentor someone is to provide answers without asking the right questions that allow the mentee to find the answer themselves.

What would you add?

(This isn’t meant to discourage those of you thinking about mentoring, only some advice. If you’re sensing a desire to mentor a person or two around you, I’d say the desire is probably the Holy Spirit’s leading in your life. Time to stop reading this post; time to do something about that leading.)

Here’s a bigger chunk of that story in Acts 15:36-41,

Some time later Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us go back and visit the believers in all the towns where we preached the word of the Lord and see how they are doing.” Barnabas wanted to take John, also called Mark, with them, but Paul did not think it wise to take him, because he had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in the work. They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company. Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus, but Paul chose Silas and left, commended by the believers to the grace of the Lord. He went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.

Essentially Barnabas wants to take John Mark on an upcoming journey with Paul, but Paul has been burned by John Mark before and he won’t go with him. The disagreement was so bad that Paul and Barnabas went their separate ways, despite Barnabas being a key figure in Paul’s development as an apostle.

Most Christians hate disagreement, and rightfully so…The Bible does put a strong emphasis on the unified church and unity within the body (which I take to mean both universal church and local churches). It was Mark who talked about a house divided being unable to stand before Mr. Abe Lincoln.

As I’ve written about before, a year ago my church began a difficult journey around a church disagreement. This one being between the then senior pastor and the Session (elder board). It would be fair to call it a “sharp disagreement.”

During the months of dealing with the disagreement in order to find some sort of resolution, I heard so many say things like, “There’s no way God can be glorified in this. This is just sinful people tarnishing the name of the Lord.”

And while I understand the sentiment and certainly within the emotions of the disagreement, it makes sense…I don’t think we fully understand how God can work in the midst of disagreement.

Is it good that church disagreements are so commonplace today? Absolutely not.

Is it fair to assume God can’t work in the midst of the disagreement for His glory? Absolutely not.

We show our lack of faith and misunderstanding of God’s power when we begin to assume that he can’t be honored in the middle of upheaval.

• For All You’ve Done (Hillsong)
• Responsive Reading (I mixed this reading between this source and one other)
• Jesus Paid it All (arrangement by Stanfill)
• Poem Reading and Scripture Reading
• Offering: At the Cross (the hymn, Rose and I sang this by ourselves, based off of this arrangement)
• Glorious Day (Bleecker arrangment)
• Amazing Grace (traditional hymn)
• The Wonderful Cross (Tomlin/Redman arrangement)

In our later morning gathering we switched out a few of the songs and did Jesus Saves (Tim Hughes), Beautiful the Blood (Steve Fee), and Grace Like Rain (Todd Agnew).

A couple quick thoughts on the morning:

• Doing this many readings was a bit abnormal for my church. I’d love to hear from those who were there how it came across for you. And I mean that, if you didn’t like it, you won’t hurt my feelings. I always prefer feedback even if it isn’t positive.
• Putting this post together made me realize how many hymns we sang. Most of them we did arrangements of, some of which kept the traditional melody totally intact, others did not. I had a kind older man comment to me that he didn’t appreciate the new arrangements.
  • We do those arrangements to allow for the whole band to play, create more energy, to try and mix a bit of the old with new musical forms. We never take lightly doing a song that changes the way it is sung. I always consider a song’s words more important than the music as it was originally written though.
• The more I’m involved in worship ministry, the more I consider preparation to be the biggest key to “success” for church worship bands. I’m beyond grateful to serve at a church where volunteers continually pour themselves into preparing well for a weekend.
• If I had one goal for the morning, it was that the meaning of Palm Sunday within Holy Week would come through to those near and far from God.

How was your Sunday?

Honestly, I love the whole concept. I love their raw honest look at church, I love their writing, and I love their ability to pick up on BS.

I was a little scared about what they might say about my church, because you never really know if what you desire to be about as a church translates to people who have little to no church background. To really get to know a church, a time and energy investment must be made. No one can fully see all that a church is or isn’t in an hour or two on a Sunday morning.

So even though I was a little scared, I was mostly looking forward to hearing their perspective. Most of church becomes about what appeals to “insiders” and very little thought goes into what it takes for the Christian faith as presented on a Sunday morning to translate to “outsiders” (I use quotes there because I hate the idea of inside and outside, like I am God and determine those things, they’re merely meant as gross generalizations to help you in understanding).

Here are some of the highlights for me of what Joel shared:

“Consider yourself forewarned. Sunset Presbyterian isn’t for bench warmers. Also, its sermons aren’t quite ready for prime time. Like any good megachurch, however, it is home to a well-rehearsed rock band and karaoke system.”

“Sure, the service was dry and Tex couldn’t give a straight, non-preachy answer my questions if I’d held  a .44 magnum to his head. But these folks are trying to be better people, and they’ve found a like-minded to community in which to pursue that ideal.”

And here were my favorites of what Amanda wrote:

On the offering…I guess we use similar baskets (bags) as other churches they’ve visited: “I had to laugh again when the velvet bags went around the room. Is there a Jesus Supply Warehouse or something?”

Finally, the pastor summed up the day’s message by saying, “Maybe God’s tapping you on the shoulder and telling you to go to Uganda?” I turned to Joel and whispered, “What if God’s NOT tapping me at all, but I still want to go to Uganda.” “Check your meds.”

“Would I go back to Sunset? No. We just didn’t click. But I’ll tell you this: I am glad this church exists. Their members reek of kindness and generosity and I believe they do good work in the community and in the world. That’s pretty much all you can ask for.”

Take a look at their posts about my church home (Sunset) and then subscribe to their blog (Joel’s post // Amanda’s post).

One of the things worth thinking about is whether churches should plan their gatherings with non-Christians in mind or not.

I fully believe most churches have people who would not call themselves Christians in their midst every weekend.

But should churches change their focus on weekend gatherings for non-Christians or not? Why?

(Maybe a better way to think of this is…if you knew Joel and Amanda were coming to your church on Sunday, would you do something different? If so, why not change that right now?)

I use these labels more as a way for you to understand what I’m talking about, but I do understand the labels likely mean something different at each church, my church being no different.

Last Sunday in our “contemporary” service we decided to do 3 separate hymns. We planned to do those songs about a month ago. With so much transition going on at my church, I’m sure one of our factors in choosing those songs was hoping they might facilitate unity the best. As is normally the case, we did “contemporary” (can you tell I hate that word?) arrangements of 2 of the hymns which we really enjoy playing. However, the last hymn we did just straight traditional (piano driven, no frills, more vocally led).

One thing I noticed, especially on the last hymn we played (It Is Well), was very few people were singing along. If we did this in our “blended” service people would have joined in immediately but with the somewhat younger group at our “contemporary” time many were clearly not excited to be singing some hymns. I say this from my experience during the morning, but also from the many conversations I’ve had with various people who usually come at that time. Based on this I have a few thoughts:

1. Doing contemporary music does not mean we have to throw away what some would call “traditional.”
2. I get as bugged by the people who demand hymns as I do by the people who say we should never sing them. Neither of those mindsets is helpful to a church body.
3. Many people care more about how we worship than who we’re worshiping. And that’s a very sad thing.

What has your experience been with integrating hymns into a contemporary environment?

There’s so many details to the story left out but in the end the elders asked him to step down to the role of teaching pastor, something he didn’t feel called to do. At that point, all of the pastoral staff resigned, until the next day when my dad announced his sabbatical. That week began the most painful 6 months my family has ever gone through.

My dad was never given a blessing from the staff, the elders, or the congregation. My family was shunned from everyone but the closest of our friends. We quickly went from the embrace of the church to the outcasts.

In many ways my dad’s forced sabbatical and resignation felt like a death in our family. Because of the rough circumstances of his resignation/removal, many friendships ended with no closure.

It was such a painful time. I have a hard time talking about it or thinking about it without re-living those same emotions.

The blessing in all this is God has been faithful and wise with my family. Though it was impossible to see or feel at the time, God was taking my family and dad to a far better place in life. He has been good to us.

—

This week I’ve gone through all those painful emotions again. I found out about a week ago that the Session (Board of Elders) at my church had voted to dissolve the relationship between the Senior Pastor and my church.

Before you try to read between the lines, let me first say that I trust Sunset’s Session 100%. They are people I know personally and they have been given authority to govern and lead my church, something they have not taken lightly and I do not believe they have taken this decision lightly. The Bible states that elders are to be above reproach and the process they have taken in this decision has been that in my opinion. Before we begin to doubt the motives of elders, we should first expect and trust them to make Godly and wise decisions in the best interest of furthering the kingdom of God and reaching people with Good News.

—

I know what it is like for a family not to be given their due on their way out. I know how painful it is to feel abandoned by those you poured your life into. The last thing I want to do is have that happen in this case.

I’m grateful that those involved in the decision to end the Senior Pastor’s time at my church are choosing to honor and bless him in every way possible during this transition.

If there is one thing I would say to those of you who are a part of my church it would be to do the same. Honor and bless Ron and his family. I know how much pain it causes when that does not happen. I’ve lived that. God is and will be taking care of Ron and his family, but he will be using us to love them.

Be a blessing to those who disagree with your opinion on this decision and be a blessing to the Kincaids.

Be a blessing.

I’m not a great songwriter so I rely on those I believe God has given a gift of writing songs for the church.

I thought I’d share some of the songs we’ve been introducing to our youth and adults in some cases over the past 3 months (if you can’t see the videos below, come here to watch them):

• We Cry Out from Kim Walker and Jesus Culture:

• Rise and Sing by Steve Fee (link to the audio of the song, no good video available)
• Awakening by Chris Tomlin (introducing it this weekend and at the high school retreat in 2 weeks)
• Glory to God Forever by Steve Fee (being led by Steve with this song was a special moment for me):
• Desert Song by Brooke Fraser (just introduced it this weekend, I’m not sold on it, we’ll see if it catches on):

So now that you’ve seen and heard some of the newer songs we’ve been doing at my church, I’d love to hear some of that songs that have been connecting at your church.

Let’s hear it.

Fast forward to Sunday morning and I was in the midst of a full-on cold. The kind where you sound like a frog when you speak and feel tired all the time. And it was also one of those weekends where I could not get out of my duties of being at a practice on Saturday and leading worship on Sunday morning.

I led for the 11am service at Sunset yesterday. Here was our set:

• You’ll Come (E, Hillsong)
• From the Inside Out (C, Hillsong)
• Offering: You Never Let Go (A, Redman)
• Message
• Communion Special: By Your Side (G, Tenth Avenue North)
• Jesus Paid it All (B, Stanfill arrangement)
• You Hold Me Now (D, Hillsong)

I have a weird thing where most colds don’t affect my singing voice much. I definitely didn’t feel right, but most people told me they couldn’t tell I was sick. I think they were just trying to make me feel good because I felt pitchy and strained, but in the end none of that probably matters.

You’ll Come is a song that I have my own issues with as I shared before. We’ve sung it 4 times now and it still hasn’t caught on much. Tough to say whether or not we’ll continue to sing it as a community.

The last 3 songs were a perfect set. I love By Your Side and Jesus Paid it All. After those songs I spoke briefly about Christianity being a faith of the here and not yet. We can experience Christ’s presence now and yet we long for heaven.

Revelation 21:3-4

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

That passage led into You Hold Me Now which is a powerful song about heaven we’ve done quite a few times now. Here is a video of it (come here to watch RSS readers):

All in all it was a great morning. The band was solid and having the choir helped mask some of my vocal deficiencies. I felt like the congregation connected well with the last 3 songs. I definitely left everything my voice had to give on the stage. I had absolutely nothing left.

A great morning:

God was honored. People responded to the Gospel through music.

(Sunday Setlists)

About a month ago I applied for a part time position at my church for director of student worship. I interviewed for that position a few weeks ago and found out last weekend that I was chosen. My time at Sunset will now be split equally between student worship and weekend worship (my current position, students call weekend worship “big church,” ha), 20 hours to each position, starting December 10th.

I am very excited, and if I’m honest, also humbled and scared about this. I know and have played with many of the students in the past, but starting a new thing is always a bit intimidating.

Nick Lind has served faithfully in this student position as a volunteer for a year and a half and the transition will obviously take hard work. The past people in the position like this have created a strong ministry for students in music and worship. More than anything I hope to build on what the three of them have built in the past number of years.

Some exciting parts about this:

• Rose and I will have health insurance for the first time in close to 3 years. Both my parents and her parents are more excited about this than I am, but it is a great thing for sure.
• I’m hoping to bridge the gap between the student world and the adult world when it comes to music at Sunset. Having me in place in both areas should make that easier.
• 3 guys: Mike, Kurt, and Jay will now all be my bosses and they are 3 guys I also consider to be friends as well. That is rad.
• I’ll be scaling back the amount of classes I’m taking next semester while I get a feel for how much I can handle going into the future. I still value my education and the constant teaching I receive, but I value the journey of that more than simply finishing to get a degree.
• The small increase in money that I’ll receive because of this will allow Rose and I to save money for the first time in our marriage. We’ve been able to create an emergency fund of sorts over the past 3 years by being extremely frugal, but this should help us not feel up against it each month as previously.
• In many ways this is a continuation of what we both feel is God’s true blessing. A new house, a new job…we’re very humbled by what God is bringing our way.

I’d appreciate your prayers for the transition over the next month or so. I’m sure many of the students are upset that someone else is coming in to lead them. I don’t pretend to be the most talented musician, but I am honored to be chosen to lead students into worship.

Feel free to ask me any questions about this position.