Monthly Archives: August 2012

The Exchange

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This week I want to use this post to speak to my church family at FAC

I love my church.  It’s been about 2 months now that I’ve been back on staff at FAC and I have never felt so certain that I am in the right place in ministry.

I get excited when I think about our church because I know that God is up to something big.  He is working on the deep places of our hearts.  He is calling us into closer relationship with Himself, and I believe we are starting to respond to His call with more and more faith and anticipation.

enter The Exchange

The Exchange is a new church experience that will be launching on October 14th.  It was birthed out of a desire to reach an even wider span of Calgary’s diverse community with the truth and hope of the Gospel.

Our purpose is to build lives that honour God.

  • We will be committed to upholding the authority of God’s Word
  • We will be committed to building Biblical Community
  • We will be committed to Biblical Discipleship

We are not reinventing the wheel.  We are not out to create a flashy new church service to be consumed.  We are not a rebellion against traditional or even contemporary church models.

God has gifted each of us in unique ways and He has given us influence so that we can make Him famous.  We’ll be a place of community.  We’ll be a place of the arts.  We’ll be a place for broken people.  We’ll be a place of acceptance.

So why the name The Exchange?

We believe that Jesus changed everything when He Exchanged his throne for our freedom. Everything we do and everything that we are is because of The Exchange.  (Philippians 2)

Every initiative and every aspect of our ministry will be filtered through our core values of Biblical Authority, Biblical Community, and Biblical Discipleship.

What is this service going to look like/feel like/sound like?

That depends on how you want to get involved and what areas you’re passionate in.  We’re building this together.  Our goal is to foster a collaborative community in which people feel driven to use the gifts God has given them to serve together.

Who provides leadership to this service?

Pastor Brad Young and yours truly (Caleb Delamont) will be providing leadership for The Exchange.  There will also be some key leadership positions that will need to be filled along the way.  Maybe one of those positions will be for you?

 

We are essentially planting a church within a church.  This is as exciting as it is daunting but we know that God sized dreams rarely seem like simple tasks.

Come hear more about The Exchange

Sunday, September 2nd 

6:30pm in the Harvest Rooms at First Alliance Church (12345 40 St. SE, Calgary)

 

Consumed

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Sometimes I get pretty scared about doing ministry. In my life I’ve regularly attended church on 2 continents and since I was a kid I can remember people talking about what they ‘like’ and ‘don’t like’ about church. I wonder if we’ll ever be able to escape our checklist mindset of church.

I recently attended a prayer gathering that coincided with the end of Ramadan. I don’t know much about Ramadan but I believe it’s a fairly significant period of fasting and praying observed by Muslims around the world. The purpose of this gathering was to pray for Muslims everywhere. I was there to lead a short worship time. Throughout the night we heard a number of testimonies from mostly former Muslims who had found new life in Jesus.

They were powerful stories, and they made me feel a bit uneasy.

One man told of how he ran for days through treacherous terrain attempting to escape his country because he was afraid that this time the authorities wouldn’t stop at torture and imprisonment. He made it out, but not everyone from his group did.

Another man spoke passionately about wanting to return to his country to share the Gospel with his people. They had a group ready to go, but Christians there are being slaughtered and it would not be safe for them to go at this time.

(Side note, please pray for the Muslim world. They need Jesus and the believers there need encouragement. www.30-days.net)

So we serve the same Jesus, right?

It sure looks pretty different here.

The thing is I don’t necessarily think that we have a bunch of disingenuous Christians here. If we do that’s not really for me to judge (though I do all the time which as a reminder to myself and you is probably a sin). I for one know a lot of extremely passionate Jesus followers and I truly believe they would go anywhere and do anything for God.

But personally, I just can’t shake this checklist mentality from how I approach church. I have my worship leader checklist. I have my service flow checklist. I have my audio mix, visuals, greeters, ushers, checklists. I don’t mean to, and sometimes it’s not really there but that would be a rare case. I suck, I feel brutal, but it’s the truth.

In October we are launching a new service at my church. I’m the Creative Pastor for this new service. I feel the pressure of not just my own, but hundreds of people’s personal checklists. Will it be cool enough? Will it be just the thing that the 20 year old is looking for to get back into attending church? Will it be innovative enough? Will it “work”?

Ugh…

We’re too comfortable here in North America, yet this is where we are and that’s not a mistake. I’m not calling for tougher times for Christians or less technology and distraction in church. As with anything that has to do with following Jesus the important thing here is the posture and focus of our hearts.

When we’re thinking about ourselves we come in with a checklist.

When we are fully focused on Jesus and His Kingdom the checklist is gone.

Once again the bible says it much better than I could…

The very credentials these people are waving around as something special, I’m tearing up and throwing out with the trash—along with everything else I used to take credit for. And why? Because of Christ. Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant—dog dung. I’ve dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by him. I didn’t want some petty, inferior brand of righteousness that comes from keeping a list of rules when I could get the robust kind that comes from trusting Christ—God’s righteousness. Philippians 3:7-9 (MSG)

 

Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a rightspirit within me. Psalm 51:10 (ESV)

 

Will we go on “Consuming” or will we ask Jesus to “Consume” us?

 

There’s Always Someone Better

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(if you can’t see the above video watch it HERE)

an iPhone

iMovie

and a song from my iTunes library

On its own this video is very unremarkable.  The frame is all wrong.  The quality is poor.  I’m filming with the phone sticking out of my shirt pocket as I drive.

A professional or even someone who makes videos as a hobby would have captured, edited, and produced something much better than I did.  But if I had contracted someone to make this video then it wouldn’t have been mine.  It wouldn’t have been my story.

There will always be someone better than you.  Everywhere I go I find better worship leaders, better musicians, and better artists than myself.  This isn’t self deprecation, it’s just  the truth and I’m ok with it.  But imagine if I allowed that to affect me so much that I stopped creating my art?  Stopped leading worship?  Or stopped telling my story?  I would be in danger of hiding God from others.  If God’s fingerprints are all over my life (which I believe they are, and yours too) and I neglect to share my story or my art with the world then what witness would I have?

Tell the God story that is in you

Tell it to everyone and anyone that will listen

Tell it with your personality, with your gifts

Tell it through your actions, tell it through your words

Tell it through your songs, your paintings, your photos, your videos, your anything and everything

Because His fingerprints are on you, and He has given you a story to tell

 

My story that goes along with this video is from August 12, 2012 and I will never forget that night now for as long as I live.  My family threw me a belated birthday party.  What started out as pulling out photo albums to compare my Dad’s gray hair level to mine at age 27 (I have more gray hair) turned into my brothers, my Dad and I telling our wives the stories that went along with the pictures in those albums.

Pictures of me as a chubby 1 year old in Germany – The story of a young family following the call of God to a country they didn’t know to serve people and tell them the God story.

Pictures of 2 small premature babies in incubators – The story of my twin brothers, clinging to new life, sustained by the one who created them, covered in the prayers of hundreds if not thousands.  A new brother reaches in to touch them, the beginning of an amazing friendship.  They are the miracle babies.  The babies who survived in a body that was simultaneously battling cancer.  The babies that gave a stranger, a mother in Sweden, hope for her own unborn twins coming into the world with the same odds against them.  They were with me to tell the story.

Pictures of me imitating my Dad as he plays the bass – The story of a boy who would grow up to tell the God story through music.  The story of a father who in the midst of the chaos and the uncertainty of a wife with cancer and two premature babies clinging to life took the time to be with his eldest son and share with him a moment of joy.  A God moment.

Pictures of a 3 year old me grinning from ear to ear wearing Mom’s wig – The story of a boy who loved his mother with all his heart.  The story of a mother who was strong for her family.  The story of a God who sustained life in a brittle body for much longer than any doctor would have believed possible so that she could build into her sons what it means to trust God in any circumstance.  The story that continues today where Mom is in heaven and I am here with a story to tell.

The video is what I captured on our way home from that night.  Lights in the sky.  Lights on the road.  Lights in the buildings.  Lights that to me in that very moment reminded me that the God story is all around us.

 

God has given you a story to tell.  You will be faced with moments in your life when you want to shy away from it.  You will feel like you should maybe just leave it to the “professionals” or the “experts”.  But it is your story.

There is a God story inside of you that needs to be told.

 

what is your story?

Excellence > Perfectionism

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There’s a tension that I have faced in ministry ever since I started playing on a worship team at age 15.  The tension is encompassed in, and sometimes created by the pursuit of excellence.

The word excellence by itself seems like something we would all like to have more of.  Think of 3 things you do well.  Would you not like to be “excellent” at those things?

I have seen 2 different positions expressed by worship team members surrounding the idea of excellence.

Position 1)

We are doing this for God’s glory.  It has to be as prepared, polished, non-distracting, and as perfect sounding as we can possibly make it.  Each worship team member is expected to be as prepared as they can possibly be.  We work hard, and pray a bit.

Position 2)

We don’t have the ability to change lives, God does the work.  People have busy lives, sometimes too busy to practice but what’s important is the heart of the person.  We’re just glad they’re serving in spite of the many responsibilities they have to juggle.  We pray hard, and work a bit.

 

You might find yourself on one position or the other.  During my time in ministry I have found myself bouncing back and forth between the two positions and hardly ever finding the sweet spot between the two.  There are moments when I try to uphold Position 1 but after the 4th band member has shown up 20 minutes late for rehearsal AND only 1 person has practiced their parts that week I can feel myself starting to lose it.  In those moments I want to scream Position 1 at them.  Am I right to do so?

Other times we start in to practice.  Most of the band is prepared and all that’s left is to pull all the musical pieces together.  But something feels off and after stopping and asking the team if anyone was feeling “off” that week you find out the bass player is “just not feeling like they’re in a good place spiritually.”  Is that the time to get back to practice and not waste everyone’s preparation or is it time to surround that individual and pray for them?

 

On paper there are some good things and bad things about both of these positions.  But the thing you need to remember when you are leading people is that PEOPLE are not PAPER.  People have struggles, burdens, short-comings, and inconsistencies.  And people can also achieve great things on their own and especially when they are led well.  If you are in Christian leadership your primary concern should be helping those you are leading become better disciples of Jesus.  Becoming better musicians is secondary.

A disciple who is a musician will view his/her musical abilities as a gift from God that can be used to bring Him glory.  They will find joy in doing their best for God.  It will become their “spiritual act of worship” (Romans 12) and not just an obligation.  Their goal will be to make Jesus famous (John 3:30) and they will prepare their own hearts for that in prayer and eagerly join in as the team prays together and asks God to work.

Don’t be overbearing on your musicians when they aren’t prepared.  They will just begin to resent you.  Find out what’s on their heart.  Point them to God’s truth.  Instruct them gently and speak words of encouragement to them.

Don’t ignore the preparation of your team to frequently stop and pray.  They will begin to think that their practice time doesn’t matter and they might assume you haven’t practiced or prayed about this at all yourself.  Teach them to rely on prayer in their own lives and model for them a desire to ask God to be glorified by everything you do.

 

Lead the way.  Everyone thought John the Baptist was a pretty big deal.  Maybe people will think the same of you.  But John pointed people to Jesus, and that is our primary responsibility.  

Do you have a personal philosophy of “excellence”?

Creative Space

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As artists we search out places, things, people, and environments that inspire us. It can often propel us to create better art. It can feed our creativity and I’m pretty sure it influences our frame of mind and might even help us be ready to be productive.

Over the past year I’ve been dreaming up ways to make my work space a little less office-y and a little more creative-y. When I moved into my new office this summer at First Alliance Church I saw an opportunity to make it into a creative space. I had gathered some ideas and come up with a few of my own that I was excited to act on.

It started with the large wall in my office. My hope was to fit a couch with two bookshelves on either side. I was able to snag a couple comfy chairs that I slid together to make my couch. It fit perfectly which was great news and so I went from there.

I had an idea for the shelves that I wanted to try. I had seen some backlit shelving on design-milk.com and I wanted to give that a shot in my own space. I chose to take the back panel off the shelves and replace it with transparent coroplast. To back light the coroplast I chose rope light. It’s not as bright as I would like and I wonder if I should have sprung for LED lights but alas, it’s still just a pastor’s office.

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As a music pastor I feel no need to show off my library so the books are scattered. I put some glass Ikea lights on the shelves placed between book clusters. There’s a scattering of small instruments and coffee cups on the shelves…you know, the important stuff.

The lighting in my space is fluorescent and ultra bright so I wanted to put in my own softer lighting. I found some cool colored light chords at Ikea and strung those up in a cluster in front of the shelf. there’s another white colored chord over the doorway and the glass lamps and rope light provide the rest of the lightI need.

I wanted a small desk as I don’t spend much time there. I found the perfect one at Ikea (love that place) and got a red chair to match my red folding table which acts as my laptop desk when I’m sitting on the couch.

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A small desk left my space for a coffee table. However, I needed to find a place to store 800 of my unsold CDs in my office. I found a spot for some on the shelves and the rest became my coffee table. The top of my “coffee table” is a kitchen cabinet door from the Ikea scrap pile. worked perfectly.

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I think my favorite part of the space are my framed paint color chips. I like color and so I figured I would just frame some color for my wall. It’s looking pretty good I think.

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There are a couple posters coming from society6.com and echohub.com and then I think it will be pretty much ready to go for now.

What’s your favorite place to be creative?