The Friday Five

This week's Friday Five focuses on bluegrass icon Ralph Stanley who passed away yesterday at 89. Here are 5 songs/performances that you should check out.

1. Pretty Polly. As great a singer as Ralph has always been, I actually preferred his voice as he got older. There was just something about a little age that made his tenor voice even more powerful. This performance with Patty Loveless from several years back is an instant classic.
2. White Dove. This one dates back to Ralph's days with his brother Carter in the Stanley Brothers. The Stanley Brothers are in my opinion the embodiment of the "high lonesome sound" in bluegrass, & nobody does death songs better than the Stanley Brothers. White Dove is one of their classics & features Ralph's legendary high harmonies
3. Dickson County Breakdown. Ralph wasn't just an incredible singer. He was also a banjo pioneer. Although overshadowed by Earl Scruggs, Ralph was no slouch. Ralph had a tone that was distinctly his, & Dickson County Breakdown is a great tune featuring his playing.
4. Glory Land: The Stanley Brothers were also known doing great Gospel songs, many times a capella. Glory Land is one of many great tunes. This version is from a show in 1983 & starts around 30:40.
5. Little Maggie. Even though it may be a little predictable, you can't have a list of Ralph Stanley greatness without Little Maggie. When I hear the name Ralph Stanley, this is usually the first song I think of. If you're unfamiliar with Ralph Stanley or the Stanley Brothers in general, this song needs to be your introduction.

BONUS: Sweetheart of Mine Can't You Hear Me Calling with Bill Monroe. Here's a clip with arguably the two most important vocalists in the history of bluegrass.

The Friday Five

This week's Friday Five focuses on great documentaries that music lovers have to check out. Most of these are available online either through Netflix or another provider.

1. Muscle Shoals. Some of the best music ever produced was recorded in a sleepy north Alabama
   town on the Tennessee River. This documentary tells the story of the musicians who played & the giant genius that is Rick Hall, founder of Fame Recording Studio. You'll be shocked at how much incredible stuff came out of this little town.
2. Winding Stream. I literally found this one on Netflix yesterday. It recounts the story & impact of the Carter Family on American music. If you don't know who the Carter Family is, you should be ashamed of yourself, & you need to educate yourself immediately.
3. The Wrecking Crew. While great hits were being recorded in Muscle Shoals, there was another hit factory on the west coast. There a group of musicians were creating some of the biggest pop classics of all time. This is the story of those musicians. Again, you'll be amazed at how much great music was made by a relatively small group of musicians.
   
4. History Of The Eagles: Bottom line: This is one of the best music documentaries ever. But you better set aside some time. It's around 3 hours long, but it's the good, bad, & ugly behind one of the most iconic bands in American music.
5. Carol King: Natural Woman. Great documentary focusing in on the life & music of one of the most important songwriters of all time. Yes, you get a lot of focus on Tapestry, but you also find out that she wrote seemingly every hit you ever heard, while also seeing what was going on in her life during those years. Great stuff from PBS>

Feast or Famine?

“The world is perishing for lack of the knowledge of God and the Church is famishing for want of His Presence.” -A.W. Tower

This weekend we continued our series "I Am" as one of our deacons shared a message from John 6 as Jesus says, "I am the bread of life..." As we examined the passage & its implications, I thought of this quote. The world is dying in its sin and too many have never heard the message of the Gospel from the Church. At the same time, too many congregations are dying and closing their doors because they've forgotten the message & ministry of the Gospel.

As Jesus invited people to come and feed on the Bread of Life. He not only promised that this Bread would give them life, real spiritual life, but He also showed Himself to be the sustainer of that life. He is the Source & the Sustainer. The Gospel is what bring us to life in Christ, & it's the Gospel that transforms us to live as Christ. But somehow too many of us have forgotten this. So our salvation becomes an event rather than a way of life. The Gospel becomes something that happened to us at a particular moment rather than the very life blood of our existent. And along the way, in a very slow, subtle, unintentional way, we forget the Gospel. As Jesus said in Revelation 2, we forget our first love. As we forget our first love, we also forget to do what we did at first, namely pursue Jesus & pursue the lost. So in the end we not only neglect the Gospel, we end up neglecting the Great Commission.

As a result, the world begins to starve for the knowledge of God because the vehicle for that message of God's loving, gracious pursuit of sinners has been starving for God's presence. When we stop walking in the Gospel, it won't be long before we stop sharing the Gospel. 

"Consistently & Faithfully Following Jesus Means 

Continually & Faithfully Feasting On Jesus."

How are we supposed to feed on Jesus? Let me share a couple of verses to guide us. John 1:17 says that "the Word became flesh & dwelt among us." The eternal, preexistent Word of God, the very Word of creation, the very Word of revelation, put on flesh & lived among us, & His name was Jesus. So again, how do we feed on Jesus? We feed on Jesus by feeding on the Word because He is the Word. Then what? Well, let's consider what Ezekiel 3:1 says. In this verse God commands His prophet to eat the word & then speak the word. Sound familiar? It should. As believers we consume the Bread of Life, Jesus. He gives us life & salvation. As we experience the work of Christ, we're moved to advance that Good News of life, hope, & salvation in Christ. We consume the Word, then we speak the Word so that Jesus is magnified & lives are saved. If we want the world to have knowledge of God & therefore live, we must feast on Christ & His word so that we're moved by the Gospel to advance the Gospel. 

So let me ask you, are you in a season of feast or famine? If you're feasting, is it leading to action? Are you eating the word & speaking the word? If you're in a season of famine, come back to the table. Jesus has invited you to come & dine so that you will never have to hunger or thirst again.

The Friday Five

This week's Friday Five focuses exclusively on things that would be valuable for the Church. I've listed some music & other resources here to encourage & instruct church members & church leaders as they seek to know Christ & make Him known.

1. Music: Grace Alone by The Modern Post. This is a nice little EP from a Seattle based group led by Dustin Kensrue. The songs are great with deep, rich lyrics & a cool, modern sound. They do a great job reworking classic hymns while also offering great original content.
2. Blog: Vanderbloemen Search Group. Vanderbloemen is one of the premier ministry search firms in America. William & his team provide great resources for churches who are looking to fill a staff role as well as actually partnering with the church in the search process. June is Pastor Search Month at Vanderbloemen. The folks at their blog have already loaded the blog with some great posts about the dynamics of a search process. If your church is in a search process, it would be well worth the search team's time to check out the blog. If not, it would be wise to bookmark these posts because eventually, your church will be looking to fill a staff position & these resources & insight will be at your fingertips.
   
3. Book: Reclaiming Glory. This is a new book from John Mark Clifton. John Mark is a church replanting & revitalization specialist with the North American Mission Board. He is working with other church leaders to do something about the alarming rate of church decline & deaths. His new book forces us to wrestle with the question, "What about a dying church brings glory to God?" The answer is obvious: nothing. Therefore, what are we going to do about the thousands of churches at death's door? In the book he shares some great insights gleaned not only from his own, hands on experience, but form the stories of other leaders who are doing the work of replanting & revitalizing churches.
4. Quote: "Men's ideas of the wrath to come may be judged of by the earnestness with which they exhort others to fly from it." J.C. Ryle
5. Follow: NAMB_SBC on Instagram. This gives us a great glimpse into what the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention is doing to further the Gospel through church planting, church revitalization, & equipping believers to live life on mission.

The Friday Five

1. Music: Real Time by Tim O'Brien & Darrell Scott. This album is 16 years old, but it's definitely not mainstream. This is a great sort of Americana/Folk album by two incredibly gifted musicians & songwriters. They play all the instruments on this album & wrote I think all but two of the songs. If you're into great playing, great songwriting, & great singing (which is sorely lacking in most popular music today), you should give this one a try. It's great.
2. Food: Coffee Rub Pork Chops. Here's a new addition to the Five. On Memorial Day I tried a new take on grilled pork chops. I modified the recipe I've got linked here & used it on the chops. I didn't have turmeric, coriander, or cayenne on hand. I substituted a little Cajun seasoning for the cayenne instead & just skipped the turmeric & coriander. They turned out great. Just be careful not to overcook because an overcooked pork chop is like eating shoe leather. Here's an extra tip: save some for breakfast the next day. Serve the leftover pork chop on biscuits with just a little bit of apple jelly or apple butter. It's slap yo momma good.
3. TV: Gotham. Season 2 of Gotham just wrapped up. If you're not aware of Gotham. It's basically the story of Gotham City, Jim Gordon, & Bruce Wayne beginning with the murder of Bruce's parents. If you're looking for Batman, he's nowhere around. The show begins with Bruce as a pre-teen dealing with the death of his parents. As he grows, the writers do a good job of giving you glimpses of who he will eventually become. The stars of the show are really a young Jim Gordon, who will one day become Commissioner Gordon & the villains. If you need to catch up from the beginning, you can catch season 1 of Gotham on Netflix.
4. Quote: "Self control is the ability to do the important thing rather than the urgent thing." Tim Keller
5. Nerd Corner: Follow Pablo Hidalgo On Twitter. As you might expect, this is Star Wars related nerdom. Pablo is one of the leaders of the Lucasfilm Story Group at Disney who gets to be a part of creating Star Wars. He literally gets to decide what becomes "canon" in the Star Wars universe. Pablo is a great representative to the fans as well. He's very active on Twitter. He's really interactive. Sometimes he'll answer questions, sometimes he won't. He also pokes fun at the insanity that is alway present in any sort of rabid fanbase. Pablo himself is worth a follow, but if you ever feel a little ashamed of how into Star Wars you are, following him also gives you access to people who are way more gone than you are. It helps you & your family realize that you could be a much bigger nerd than you already are.

Get The Church Outside The Church

This past Sunday our church did something way out of the norm. We didn't "have church." Instead, we were the church. We intentionally shut down our typical Sunday schedule & programs in order to host a Memorial Day Weekend Block Party. We promoted it throughout our community. We encouraged & equipped our people to invite friends, neighbors, or co-workers through social media & old fashioned invitations. Our goal was to build bridges with our community & sow Gospel seeds in the hearts of our neighbors.

Needless to say, this was probably very uncomfortable for some of our members & attenders. After all, Sunday is when we go to church & worship. However, what we wanted to remind everyone of is the fact that on this Sunday we were going to worship through serving & evangelizing our community. If we say we want to be known for loving our community & being #ForToccoa, shouldn't that be reflected in our schedule, even our Sunday schedule?

This outreach event allowed us to connect with people who wouldn't come to a worship service at 10:45am. In fact, we were able to connect to one young man who literally would have never crossed our path were it not for this event. This young man recently took ownership of a local convenience store. As he drove by our property, he saw everything that was going on at the block party. He grabbed some donuts from his store & came by to drop them off for us as a nice gesture from a new business owner. However, as God would have it, he dropped by just as we were sharing the Gospel. He stayed & listened intently. He then responded to the message by sharing with me that he was raised Hindu but that he really wanted to learn more about who Jesus is & that he thought he needed to come to church to find out. That's where we were able to share with him that our next message series is called "I Am" & it's Jesus talking about Himself, telling us who He is. 

This young man would have most likely never set foot on our property or had a conversation with the pastor were it not for the church's willingness to get outside the church's building. He would have possibly never heard the Gospel & had it stir something in his soul. Churches are often worried about what it will cost to do something really different. Churches should be worried about what it will cost if they don't do something different. Are our comforts, traditions, & conveniences really worth withholding the Gospel from our neighbors? Today is a different day. Many non-believers will no longer just show up in our sanctuaries on Sunday. That means we need to get out of the sanctuary & hit the battlefield. There are souls to save, lives to change, & seeds to sow. 

How can you & your church get outside the church in order to advance the Gospel?