Passion Problem

Have you ever met someone who was more passionate about something than you are? Chances are you have. Passion is an amazing driving force that makes our world what it is today and what it will be tomorrow. Now, have you ever met someone who was more passionate about something than you and actually looked down on you because of it? I have, in fact, I was that guy. As I've aged and mellowed a bit, I came to the realization that everyone doesn't and won't share my passion. I have been created and uniquely designed to be passionate about certain things. This seems to be a problem in the church world. You hear people say, if not directly, "If you aren't actively reaching out to the homeless, you aren't doing God's will", or "If you aren't sharing your faith with everyone you see, you're lukewarm."
Romans 12:4-8 describes us as the Body, made up of many different parts and many different gifts. My gift is music, I don't look down on people who aren't passionate about music, I think they are weird, but I don't look down on them. Can you imagine saying "If you don't do the songs we do at our church then you are doing it wrong"?
Everyone doesn't have the gift of an evangelist, and everyone can't be a public speaker, and everyone can't be a Pastor. Find your gift and be passionate about it and be the best whatever you are that you can be.

Sunday High

You know you are at a great place in life when you start to feel bad for talking about how good things are going. I was talking with a new friend who is also a worship pastor and I was describing our situation at New Life Church and I felt like I should shut up so I didn't make him feel bad. I wasn't bragging, just expressing my excitement.
I feel like I am drinking from the Holy Grail of ministry and I fear that I might become too familiar with this for my own good. Like someone who climbs Mt. Everest and then says, "Now where do I go from here?" I have to remember that mininstry isn't about doing the newest and greatest thing or having the best musicians, it's about people. If I become focused on the "Sunday High", I will lose sight of that and become bored. If I filter everything I do through our purpose; "Leading people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ", I will continue to enjoy every step of the journey.

Another Great Day

We had another great day at New Life Church yesterday celebrating Mothers' Day. We have been doing a song called Reign in Us by the band Starfield and it's really catching on. I've been trying to get my mind prepared for youth convention even though it's not until October. I have been polishing up some new songs and will be trying to record them soon. I came up with a cool melody hook for one of them this morning, that was encouraging. I'm going to try to have a new CD available by Youth Convention.

Good Times

At New Life Church, we have been in a crazy season of blessing. Giving is up, attendance is up, things seem to be firing on all cylinders. We took a special offering this past Sunday for Convoy of Hope and raised enough money to feed 30,000 people for a day. On top of that we started moving dirt on the property! I am making a conscious effort to enjoy this time and not take it for granted.

Picks Down Please.

Yesterday after church we hosted a lead guitarists workshop with the intent of getting all the current and future lead guitarists on the same page. Essentially, the message was, "If you're going to play lead guitar at New Life Church, this is how we want it done." It went really well, Corey presented the technical aspects of technique, theory and tone, while I was there to provide demonstration music.
It was really an "Above and Beyond" kind of event. We have a wealth of quality musicians here and it would be easy to sit back and enjoy that fact but we want to go above and beyond just having quality musicians, to actually developing our musicians into quality worship teams. The hardest part was keeping 9 guitar players quiet long enough to say anything!

If you would like to learn how to play guitar, check out www.coreysublett.com

No Communion Cup Holders?

We purchased a used vehicle yesterday. During the test drive, I tried out the radio and it was set to 106.9 which is a pop station. While I was talking with the salesman, the fact that I work at a church came up. When we drove off the lot, we noticed that the radio had been set to 105.3, the local Christian music station. I thought that was funny. Religious profiling.

What Do You Say?

I just talked with a guy who came in to the church office wanting to talk. He told me his story. Let's just say he had a sordid past. He moved out here from really far away to escape his old life after becoming a Christian. He has been struggling to find work and more importantly, someone to talk to. He has been to a number of churches but found judgmental stares and words. He is contemplating returning to his former life.
So what do you say to someone who has turned to God but found nothing but rejection from people who bear the Name of Christ? Sorry? What do you say to someone who can't find work and is staying in his car? Wow that sucks?
I prayed with him and encouraged him to get connected here at New Life. I hope too much damage hasn't already been done. Say a prayer for this man, let's call him Joe.

You Know You're In A Large Church When...

I brought my oldest son to the kids event at the church Friday night called Friday's Rock. It was great and he was so excited. There were so many people there we stood in line to get in line. We had to fill out an emergency contact sheet and the woman helping at the table asked me if we had been to the church before. I thought that was pretty funny because I get a lot of "face time". I said "Yeah, we come" not wanting to embarrass her or pull the whole "Do you know who I am?" bit. You know you're at a big church when that happens.

It's things like this that illustrate the importance of small groups. In a congregation this large, it is easy to get lost in the crowd (apparently even for me). Having a place where you can experience accountability, belonging and care is vital to our spiritual growth.

You know you're in a big church when...

You can't see the building from where you parked.

The walk from your car to the building counts as your 30 minutes of daily exercise.

The camera operator is closer to the stage than you are.

The ushers have to swap out for empty plates halfway through the offering.

The pastor introduces himself every Sunday.

They have trough style urinals like the Kingdome had.

Every week in staff meeting, the pastor asks "Is there anybody new here today?"

The band has more members than your old church did.

Winter Camp '09

This past weekend was our youth ministry's Winter Camp. We had a great time on the ridiculous tubing hill and the drive over the pass provided enough memories and inside jokes to last for a long time. The best part however, was seeing the kids engaging God in worship and praying for each other. The last night, after service we were packing up and getting ready to head back over the mountain and I started to feel a tickle in my throat. So now I am fighting a pretty bad cold. I am thankful that it waited until we were done with camp to come on.
The speaker for the camp was Roosevelt Hunter who really connected with the kids. On Sunday morning, he spoke at New Life in the Main Services and absolutely KILLED it! I think the funniest thing he said was in regard to Jesus not being white or black but in the middle: "He was white enough to get into the dignified places but dark enough to eat chicken with the brothas on the weekend."
Roosevelt is dealing with cancer and if you read this, say a prayer for him and his family as they go through it.
Here are some inside jokes from the weekend, you probably won't get any of them but I put them on here for posterity.
Fly Away
Busting Grumpys
"No, I have coffee."
T-Shirt
"Uh, they have good coffee there."
"Ees on dee paper, ees close enough"
"I don't know anything about trailers...I don't know anything about guys either."

Beans and Eagles

I had coffee with Jeremy Johnson this morning. He killed it yesterday morning at New Life Church. That guy is an incredible communicator. It was nice to spend some time talking with him and getting to know an Eagle.

Lazy Sunday Morning.

I'm having a pretty good morning. I am sitting at home watching football, drinking a non-fat peppermint mocha from the Bux, and just about to get ready for church. Since I'm on vacation right now, I have no responsibilities at church today. We discussed visiting another church today just to see what other churches are doing but when we thought about it further, we decided that we would rather attend our own church. This will be the first service my wife and I have driven together to in about a year.

Better Days

Better Days from Brent Schindel on Vimeo.

I've never seen so much fog in church.

We just finished up our Christmas production this weekend. We did 1 Friday night and 2 on Saturday. The only bad thing about only doing 3 shows is that by the time you really get things dialed in, you're done. My part was a Goo Goo Dolls song called Better Days. I had a guitar strapped on my back and singing while I walked down the center aisle with spotlights on me the whole time so everyone was calling me "Rock Star". Hopefully that will go away soon. It was more uncomfortable being called "Rock Star" than it was to actually do the part. It was a fun show and the best Christmas production I've ever been to. The hardest part was sitting around back stage waiting until my song.

Congratulations.

I want to congratulate Nik Baumgart and his family on becoming the new Senior Pastor of Marysville First Assembly, the church in which I grew up spiritually. The church has had some difficult times lately and I pray that under his leadership, things can turn around. There is and always will be a special place in my heart for that church.

Amazing Grace

I watched the movie Amazing Grace the other night. It was a bit slow, but the story was great. If you haven't heard of it, it is the story of a man named Wilberforce who was a member of Parliament (but not Funkadelic) in Britain in the late 1700's early 1800's. He had a passion to see the slave trade abolished in the British empire. Year after year, he would introduce a bill calling for the abolition of slavery, and every year, he would be laughed out of the building. After years of struggle, he finally realized his dream, slavery was abolished.
The movie made me think about my own life and whether or not I have the same passion to see people freed from their spiritual chains as Wilberforce had to see people freed from their iron ones. I should, but sadly, I don't. I should hate their chains with a righteous anger. I should be consumed with the idea that people every day are being sold into spiritual bondage and equally consumed with the fact that I know who can redeem them, but to be quite honest, it doesn't keep me up at night.
I don't always understand my apathy. I do, however, understand that the more self-centered and self-focused I am, the less I care about other people. That is not the kind of person I want to be, nor is it the kind of person God has made me to be. Nevertheless, this is where I find myself today; needing to be shaken.

Do you have a passion that keeps you up at night?

Fortune

We had a Pastor's night out tonight. We all met at The Rock pizza place in Covington and then we headed up to Cutter's Point for some coffee. When we showed up, there was some live music going on and it was a guy from Zambia named Fortune. Dude was phenomenal! You will hear that name again believe you me.
It is awesome to be a part of a team like this one. I have never felt more appreciated.

Another Great Sunday

I got home from church today and after a little lunch, headed to the gym because I didn't have to lead a service. Did 68 minutes on the elliptical machine, 1008 calories burned. So I got home today and I was thinking about the day; What a great church! I really feel like we are gaining momentum with our worship in the area of participation. We began a series on missions and today we had three church planters come and tell their stories and we blessed them. Sometime during the third service it became clear to me that we are a church that isn't simply trying to survive but we are the kind of church that really wants other churches to succeed. We aren't the kind of church that plays the jealousy game, but the kind that is outwardly focused. The fact that we are committed to missions the week after our own groundbreaking ceremony shouts volumes. I love my church. There has been a great feeling in the place the last 3 or 4 weeks and attendance has been up like crazy.
One student brought a friend today who had never been in church before. That's exciting by itself but his mother told me that the guest was impressed with the music. Man, that gets me going. There is sort of an expectation that music in the church is sub-par. I would like to see that change, and we are making progress.
One funny story: Right before the third service, one of the musicians, who shall remain nameless, said "Hey you haven't broken a string in a while." And another nameless musician said "Yeah, you're due." I said "What are you doing!? Quit jinxing me." So we went out and during the first song, guess what happened? Yep, broken string.

What are you doing tomorrow?

Sunday was a great day all around! There was a great atmosphere in all three services as we worshiped together as a church. Pastor Troy spoke about sin and we showed our final Interview With Satan video, which killed by the way.
I went to lunch with an old friend who was the youth pastor in Bend, OR while we were there and he is now the District Youth Director for the state of Oregon.
Sunday night at Axis Church, Jeremy Johnson spoke and as always, tore it up. That dude is funny. During the response time we sang Mighty To Save and we hit another gear as the students pressed in to God like I've never seen them press.
Just a great day all around and the kind of day that makes you say "I could do this again tomorrow!"

The stuffing was my favorite.

Today at New Life, we celebrated Pastor Appreciation Day. The admins prepared an incredible lunch for us and had it all set with nice china and silverware and everything. Nothing beats getting prime rib and not having to pay for it.

You Never Know

So in our 4th installment of the Interviews with Satan, we randomly mentioned that Beelzebub himself prefers Samsung flatscreen T.V.s. In our 9am service that Sunday, it just so happened that there was a man there who is the Regional Director of Marketing for Samsung. Oops. He actually wasn't mad and thought it was funny. He asked for a copy and wanted to show it sometime at his office.
We were pretty shocked and were thinking "What, is David Hasselhoff going to be in the 10:30 service?"