Monday, November 22, 2004
I was thinking i really should post something here. but whenever i get some spare time i always have something else to do.. in which case it isnt really spare time as such!
oh well!
I think im becoming.. not cynical, but.. very weighted down in religion and really a bit 'meh' with Christianity. which sounds a lot badder than it really is. I know its bad, you know its bad, so there!
A lot of my 'meh' ness comes from the fact that i really dont appreciate the way things are done. Especially at this youth service. It really bugs me, gets under my skin the way people talk there. Why cant they talk normally, like normal people, instead of pausing dramatically, emphasising every third or fourth word, and always sounding so breathy.
Church should not be about feelings In my opinion at least. I go to church, not to have a connection with God, not to bathe in his glory. Because Church is about WORSHIP not about ME. not about What the individual can get out of it. I want to go to church to praise God, and by praising him i dont mean getting a warm fuzzy feeling thanks to the special lighting effects and the emotional music being played, I just mean do whatever I can to thank God for what he has done. I like the singing. not for the effect, but because I can use my all, my skills (or lack thereof! :P) and gifts for music to praise.
I could go on for ages here, about how clapping and applauding the band and people who helped put the service together is really inappropriate, or even clapping the guest speaker. What are we at, a seminar? NO! and its not as if we're at a Musical production either where every man and his dog who helped gets applause. We are at church. If there is to be clapping, then let it be applause for God. Clap To him and only him. Everyone does their part to help, but he is the only one deserving of praise.
I dont like how the pastor of that congregation constantly refers to my home church as 'that traditional church' and always speaks of it with contempt to score points with the younger people.
I dont like how a few of my friends are trying to change our home church and say we should keep with the times as to not 'scare people away'. I would feel that if we changed too much we were selling out. CHURCH SHOULD NOT BE A PLACE WHERE WE GO TO FEEL GOOD ABOUT OURSELVES. ARGH! makes me so mad sometimes. I also am saddened to hear that these same friends are now planning to go to the youth-oriented church for Christmas services, whereas every other year they had come to our home church.
I Dont appreciate our own home pastor a lot of the time too. He really needs to connect more with the actual congregation. there needs to be heaps more communication, otherwise these problems wont go away.
Ok and im gonna stop right here because im sounding really elitist and snobbish and ack! Im not. really, i just think these things need to be said! so, moving onto the next part of this post, about passion!
Last night our Youth service (SNL) was about having a passion for God. and it started off with a video interview of all these different people and what they were passionate about. (which people applauded for after! :P ARGH!)
Anyhoo, it occurred to me that I have a real passion for music, and not the same feelings for God. This, seems to me to be a problem.
Music - Its hard to describe if you dont have it yourself. But the passion I have, which i know others out there share.. Ok Ill try
There are some symphonies, some pieces of music.. That are glorious. The way they mix together the different instruments, the way the emotions can be moved in the music.. and sometimes, in some of the very best symphonies there comes a moment of pure joy. Where there is a purity of tone.. a harmony there that crunches just right. Eg - Vivaldi's Four Seasons Mvmt 1 - The Violin comes in really high with a series of semi-quavers.youd recognise it if you heard it. In other pieces too. Barbershop harmony.. Messiah Oratorio..
That moment can stir me up and... sometimes just make me teary. THat sounds really bad, but i feel as if for those few seconds of that moment, that I am complete. that this is perfection. THat no matter what else is happening, the world is perfect in that moment. THAT is my passion for music. And i want to be able to share that.
But I wonder if I have that passion for God? And I know the answer already.. no.
Thats bad thing. I should ask for help on that one. and yet... I dont know! ARGH!
Oh! and the best thing that is happening all this week?
WORLD OF WARCRAFT!!!!!!
ITS FINALLY HERE!
MY PRECIOUS!
I HAVE BEEN WAITING OVER TWO YEARS FOR THIS GAME AND TOMORROW IT IS RELEASED!
but other things to do tomorrow as well! Work from 9-1, and hopefully if the weather is good, paddling out to an island off redland bay in surf-ski's with my mate Greg. Should be fun! and tiring. hopefully more fun than tiring. And smallgroup tomorrow night. So yeh! thats it for now!
i hope that it wont be this long again before my next Post!!
Cheery-bye!
SAM
oh well!
Passion - Music Vs God and my gripes about Church
I think im becoming.. not cynical, but.. very weighted down in religion and really a bit 'meh' with Christianity. which sounds a lot badder than it really is. I know its bad, you know its bad, so there!
A lot of my 'meh' ness comes from the fact that i really dont appreciate the way things are done. Especially at this youth service. It really bugs me, gets under my skin the way people talk there. Why cant they talk normally, like normal people, instead of pausing dramatically, emphasising every third or fourth word, and always sounding so breathy.
Church should not be about feelings In my opinion at least. I go to church, not to have a connection with God, not to bathe in his glory. Because Church is about WORSHIP not about ME. not about What the individual can get out of it. I want to go to church to praise God, and by praising him i dont mean getting a warm fuzzy feeling thanks to the special lighting effects and the emotional music being played, I just mean do whatever I can to thank God for what he has done. I like the singing. not for the effect, but because I can use my all, my skills (or lack thereof! :P) and gifts for music to praise.
I could go on for ages here, about how clapping and applauding the band and people who helped put the service together is really inappropriate, or even clapping the guest speaker. What are we at, a seminar? NO! and its not as if we're at a Musical production either where every man and his dog who helped gets applause. We are at church. If there is to be clapping, then let it be applause for God. Clap To him and only him. Everyone does their part to help, but he is the only one deserving of praise.
I dont like how the pastor of that congregation constantly refers to my home church as 'that traditional church' and always speaks of it with contempt to score points with the younger people.
I dont like how a few of my friends are trying to change our home church and say we should keep with the times as to not 'scare people away'. I would feel that if we changed too much we were selling out. CHURCH SHOULD NOT BE A PLACE WHERE WE GO TO FEEL GOOD ABOUT OURSELVES. ARGH! makes me so mad sometimes. I also am saddened to hear that these same friends are now planning to go to the youth-oriented church for Christmas services, whereas every other year they had come to our home church.
I Dont appreciate our own home pastor a lot of the time too. He really needs to connect more with the actual congregation. there needs to be heaps more communication, otherwise these problems wont go away.
Ok and im gonna stop right here because im sounding really elitist and snobbish and ack! Im not. really, i just think these things need to be said! so, moving onto the next part of this post, about passion!
Last night our Youth service (SNL) was about having a passion for God. and it started off with a video interview of all these different people and what they were passionate about. (which people applauded for after! :P ARGH!)
Anyhoo, it occurred to me that I have a real passion for music, and not the same feelings for God. This, seems to me to be a problem.
Music - Its hard to describe if you dont have it yourself. But the passion I have, which i know others out there share.. Ok Ill try
There are some symphonies, some pieces of music.. That are glorious. The way they mix together the different instruments, the way the emotions can be moved in the music.. and sometimes, in some of the very best symphonies there comes a moment of pure joy. Where there is a purity of tone.. a harmony there that crunches just right. Eg - Vivaldi's Four Seasons Mvmt 1 - The Violin comes in really high with a series of semi-quavers.youd recognise it if you heard it. In other pieces too. Barbershop harmony.. Messiah Oratorio..
That moment can stir me up and... sometimes just make me teary. THat sounds really bad, but i feel as if for those few seconds of that moment, that I am complete. that this is perfection. THat no matter what else is happening, the world is perfect in that moment. THAT is my passion for music. And i want to be able to share that.
But I wonder if I have that passion for God? And I know the answer already.. no.
Thats bad thing. I should ask for help on that one. and yet... I dont know! ARGH!
Oh! and the best thing that is happening all this week?
WORLD OF WARCRAFT!!!!!!
ITS FINALLY HERE!
MY PRECIOUS!
I HAVE BEEN WAITING OVER TWO YEARS FOR THIS GAME AND TOMORROW IT IS RELEASED!
but other things to do tomorrow as well! Work from 9-1, and hopefully if the weather is good, paddling out to an island off redland bay in surf-ski's with my mate Greg. Should be fun! and tiring. hopefully more fun than tiring. And smallgroup tomorrow night. So yeh! thats it for now!
i hope that it wont be this long again before my next Post!!
Cheery-bye!
SAM
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