Colorado Springs

some of you know that we (the hamptons) used to live in Colorado Springs. this week i get to be in the Springs for some time away to focus on songwriting. one thing that we value at the Vine is creativity and we believe in singing songs that speak directly to our community and say things that we may uniquely want to say to God...

i'm very excited about this week. so far i have co-written 1 song with an old friend about not trusting in our faith from yesterday but letting God set us on fire today. and this same friend challenged me to write a new verse for one of my existing songs that might make it just that much better.

a couple of hours ago i was sitting in the midst of the 'garden of the gods'

as i'm sure you can see this is an amazing place of inspiration. here are some lines i wrote while looking at this that may or may not make it into a new song:

you came to search for us

over a thousand hills

we knew that we were dead

you came, you lifted our heads

now we have come alive

now we know you are alive

Session #6

1. In the beginning God CREATED

• Then he asked Adam to name the animals
•  This is God inviting us into the creative process
• And God validated Adam’s creativity

2.  Romans 1:20

• The invisible attributes of God are clearly seen
  

3.  4 things to build for a creative environment

• Security (with each other)

1. Trust
2. Honor one another
3. Loyalty
4. Creative community begins with the leader

•  Safety

1. Within this church
2. This is a place people can thrive

• Stewardship

1. Of time
2. Of ideas

• Strategy
  

1.  Creativity without boundaries is chaos
2. You have to be okay with ideas not being used

Session #5

1. How to share the trust you have earned with younger generations

• Invited constructive input (environment of collaboration)
• Include them on the team for “Big Church”
•  Invest in them, not just use them
• Make sure song selection overlaps between youth and adults

2. Be secure in the call and gifts God has given you

• We all have different roles, but equal value
• We need superstars and the average

3. Bless the Innovators

• Blessing the Innovations isn’t just praying for them but opening the doors for them
• Find ways to make the successful
• Find ways to stir up their gifts

4.  Effective “Jacobs” (younger generations) are self-aware

• They know who they are
• They know who they are not

5.  Don’t attribute motives because the young are immature

 6.  If you clothe yourself with humility you will not have to be humiliated

Session #4

1. We are not consumers of worship but to be consumed by worship

2. Worship is not meant to insulate us from the world but wake us up to it

3. God gets Moses’ attention then tells him what has His attention, what God was thinking on

4. Worship helps us hear what God hears.

5. There is a lot we don’t hear because we’re surrounded by noise

6. What God hears

• 6 million children die every day
• 5 million die due to malnutrition
• 2 million children in commercial sex trade
• 800 million go to bed hungry ever day
• every 30 seconds an African child dies of malaria
• every 15 seconds a children becomes a AIDS orphan in Africa

7. Worship is loving the least of these as if they were Jesus

Enter Session #3

1. Teams are made up of individuals willing to give up their rights for the good of the team

2. The kingdom isn't a fairness system

• we think its shameful to be at a different skill level than others
• many are obsessed with the opportunities they don't have rather than the ones they do

3. Care for and love your team

• God is more concerned with our love for people than our boasts of love for him

4. Be hones and direct with your team

5. Admit when you're wrong

6. Be consistant

7. Create a culture of evaluation

• humble ourselves
• become child-like, not childish
• get rid of your baggage

Enter Session #2

Lead Pastor/Worship Pastor Relationship

1. The Lead Pastor/Worship Pastor relationship that works the best are the ones that choose to honor each other.

• Don’t think of yourself more highly than you should
• A pure heart always wins out
• Jesus knew he was going to be with the Father SO he washed the feet of the 12

2. The environment

• It has to start with the senior pastor deciding it will be a relational environment
• The senior pastor has to set the tone that they can be open and vulnerable and honest
• If not people begin wearing masks
• There is no more miserable experience than working with people you aren’t friends with, that you aren’t vulnerable with

3. There must be a timing and a tone to the relationship

• When you carry the same passion and burden as each other, conflict will be minimal
  

Enter Session #1

A Biblical View of Worship in the 21st Century

1. God is the initiator and we are the responder

• If we are the responders it takes the pressure off of worship leading
• Burden of performance kills worship 

2. We are called to be skillful stewards of those we lead in worship 

3. We are called to be story-tellers

• You are a theologian
• What will be the long-term picture you paint with the songs you sing

4. In the year King Uzziah died…

• In a time of crisis your theology simplifies
• In times of crisis, God wants to visit us in even greater ways

5. Revelation: Biblical worship has everything to do with revelation

• God has to reveal Himself
• We can not reveal Him on our own
•  People tend to be more open to God revealing Himself during crisis
• When we see God we see the way we truly are as Isaiah saying he was ‘ruined’
• As soon as we see the way we are God provides a way to be redeemed and cleaned and made right
• God’s revelation causes repentance
• You don’t have to repent before worshiping, worshiping is the pathway to repentance

6. Transformation

• If you go out the same way you came in there may be something wrong
• Revelation of sin being washed away brings transformation

7. Illustration

• The power of worship isn’t just telling the story but BECOMING THE STORY!
• No one has ever seen God but if we love God He is in us
• Worship leading is about becoming the story

Why The Vine

who are we? what do we stand for? 

big give

this past sunday we kicked off the vine's big give. everyone at church received a small amount of money to invest and multiply like in the video, but the big thing is that every cluster (small) group in our church will be given $500 to multiply creatively then bring back and give to two local missions organizations!

check back occasionally to see what is happening with the vine's big give.

New Life Worship

Why The Vine

He did not need...

"now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many people saw the miraculous signs he was doing and believed in his name. But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all men. He did not need man's testimony about man, for he knew what was in a man." -John 2:23-25

why is it we want the approval of "people" or "man" so badly. even those of you that are saying, "i don't need the approval of people," are lying through your perfectly whitened teeth (why did you get your teeth whitened other than to try and fit some cultural norm that people with whiter teeth are well liked and/or more acceptable than those with stained and ragged teeth, and don't try to deny it because the whiteness of your teeth really has nothing to do with the function of your teeth in eating and chewing).

on a daily basis we do a number of things to find ourselves in the grace and acceptance of others and/or to "help" them be more receptive of us. i had a professor once say the most important thing a minister needed with him/her at all times was mints or gum. he would say you didn't want to have a chance to share the gospel with someone only to have them not hear a word you said due to your bad breath. i'm not trying to demonize this or say there is no value in fitting certain norms of culture (because of course Paul speaks of "becoming all things to all people").

i do however think we ignore them and become unaware of them to the point of blurring the line between pleasing people and pleasing God. in the verse from John we see Jesus had "no need for man's testimony" for he knew what was truly in the hearts of men. what is truly in the hearts of men? what is there about us, in what we say or do, or in what we look like, or the form we may or may not fit that can ever change what is truly in the hearts of men?

there is nothing. nothing about us can change what is truly in the hearts of men, in our own or others. a mint, a whiter tooth, a straighter bow-tie. nothing. 

Jesus knew what was in the hearts of men, and during this Passover, he already knew that only a few short years later during another Passover these same people he would not "entrust" himself to would hand him over to be killed. Jesus did however entrust himself into the hands of the Father to please and follow Him with all His life.

it would be wise to remind ourselves what is truly in our hearts and in the hearts of the fickle and ever-changing people we at times so desperately try to please. keeping this in mind may make it that much easier to entrust our whole life to the only One that sees what is in our hearts and yet loves and gives himself for us anyway.