Worship & Production

Tuesdays with Angela

2012 Blog Updates

I hope that each of you were able to have a beautiful Christmas season!  The new year is upon us and I wanted to send out a few updates in regards to something new you can expect from our blog.

In 2012, we're changing up how our 'Inspired' content looks.  For those of you who don't know, each month, we create a printed booklet [the 'Inspired' booklet] containing articles written by our staffers and volunteers.  We've decided to make that content more readily available and easy to access.  So, each Wednesday on our blog will be now be 'Inspired Wednesday'.  That means the content that was previously printed in the booklet will now be on our blog!  Exciting, I know!

You might be asking... can I get these posts via email?  Why, yes you can!  As always, it's a good idea as a W&P member to subscribe to the blog, as it's is our primary location to post updates on All-Team gatherings, calendar updates, retreats, etc.  So, if you're subscribed, you'll be sure to get up to date info of what's happening in our ministry.

Oh, and Happy New Year!

Tuesdays with Angela

CHRISTMAS EVE SERVICES

Thanks, so much, to all of you who have been, and will be, putting in countless hours of work for our upcoming Christmas Eve services.  We're blessed to work together as a team and could not pull off these services without you!  I can't wait to hear the stories of what God will do through them!

Here's a link to PLC's Christmas page for a reminder of all our service times at each of our campuses: http://www.prairielakeschurch.org/with-us.aspx

What Happens When We Dream?

What would it be like if the church started dreaming again?

I'm not talking about any specific church, and I'm not talkning about new and new-fangled approaches to ministry or programming or family ministries or outreaches or the arts.  I think we've got plenty of that stuff to keep us busy for awhile.

But . . . what if the church that is made up of you and me started dreaming again?

What if I dreamt of really dying to myself?  What would it be like if the thing that gripped my heart in its deepest places was to surrender well to every moment spent in the will of God -- even (or especially) the most painful?  What might the world look like, what might the world begin to see in the church, if I could not ignore or escape from what he speaks to me in the quiet moments I spend with him?  What if I craved freedom from religion and sin?  What if I woke every morning and lived every day like an addict in search of my next fix -- but instead of a drug, what if what I couldn't do without was justice?  Or mercy?  Or the bringing of hope to a hopeless world?

What happens when we dream, not of bigger buildings or more people in our buildings, but of a world set on fire with His love?

What happens when we dream dreams like these?  What does the church -- the you-and-me-church -- look like to our neighbors, to our families, to our friends, to our co-workers, to our Savior when we discover within us a dream for the coming of the Kingdom to earth?  

What does it look like we uncover inside that fierce and pointed will that, like Jacob wrestling with his angel, knows that our options are either sell out or tap out -- and refuses to stop, to give in, to let go until we are irrevocably different?

What if the what if's we chose to wonder about weren't centered on regrets from the past but instead centered on our dreams for the future?

What would the world look like if the you and-me-church remembered how to dream?

What are your dreams for the you-and-me church?

Tuesdays with Angela

 
Jeremy Johnson and Steve Dunbar, Waterloo Campus Volunteers, enjoying the night...and the table decor!

CHRISTMAS PARTY WRAP-UP

As you know, we had our W&P All Campus Christmas Party this past Friday.  It was a fun night where we feasted on the delicious potluck offerings, gave and received 'fabulous' gifts in our white elephant gift exchange, worshiped together and enjoyed a special reading of the Christmas Story.  Best of all, we got to soak up some extra down time with one another. 

I don't know about you, but I sure enjoyed the night!  And, I'm truly grateful to serve alongside all of you in this ministry! 

Monday Soup

Happy Monday, friends!  Here are some of my lovelies from the last week:

• She Blogs About Music.  A blog about . . . music.  Some really great treasures here if you're brave enough to wade through some stuff yohttp://www.pomodorotechnique.com/u might not like.  If you like to discover new music before anyone else has heard it, this would be a lovely place for you to visit from time to time.
• I can't get enough of All Sons and Daughters these days, and their song "Reason to Sing" has a lovely, haunting quality to it. 
• Looking for a quirky, fun gift this Christmas season?  Check out the Church Marketing Sucks' Amazon store.  You know you've always wanted Tetris sticky notes!
• If you're anything like me, time-management can be a killer -- there are so many ways to end up distracted!  The Pomodoro Technique gives you 25 minutes of uninterrupted work time, with 5 minute breaks.  At the end of the 4th 25 minute segment, you have a 20 minute break.  I fully intend to try it -- who's with me?
• In order to make it easier, Focus Booster has a free, downloadable app that runs a timer on your screen.  You can also run their live version from the web.
• Geeky-techie gift shopping?  Check out Mashable's gift suggestions.  So great!

NOTE: Next Monday's Monday Soup will be links that come from all of you!  Share the coolest things you've seen, heard, or read in the comments below and come back next Monday to see if yours makes the cut!  

Merry Christmas!

Your PLC worship leaders and musical staff wish you a very Merry Christmas season!

Shakin' Things Up

I used to collect snow globes.  I had a shelf that ran around the top part of my room and I kept my collection there, where I could see them every day.  When I was really stressed I'd grab one, shake it up, and watch it until the snow settled.  It was a good way for a 15 year old girl to learn to manage her emotions!

I don't collect snow globes any more, but when I saw Matt Wertz has a new song out called, ironically, Snow Globe, I had to give it a listen. (I posted the video below.  It'll make you happy!)

 

I was watching the video yesterday, and a line from the song caught my attention.  In the chorus he sings, "And every single time that you shake it/You'll make it/So beautiful."

I have a poster of a Bible verse (Psalm 75:3) that hangs on my wall.  The verse says, "When the earth and all its people quake, it is I who hold its pillars firm.  Selah."  

We all know what it feels like when the earth shakes.

It is the shaking that makes us fear, that causes us pain and suffering.  It is the shaking that turns our worlds upside down and inside out.

We hear the words

cancer

divorce

murder

abuse

bankruptcy

heartbreak

and up we go, head over heels and spinning like a top, with no ability to right ourselves.  Sometimes we're shaken hard, sometimes we're hardly shaken but regardless, it is not an enjoyable position to be in.

But like a snow globe, sometimes the only way to see the beauty is to be shaken.

Theodore Roethke writes these lines in his poem, The Waking: "This shaking keeps me steady.  I should know.  . . . I learn by going where I have to go."

This shaking keeps me steady.  It keeps me clinging to the one stable thing in the world.  It keeps me running to him.  It keeps me humble and it keeps me honest and it keeps me running in the right direction.

Sometimes when he shakes us up, we receive the most mysterious kind of beauty.

When have you seen beauty in being shaken?

Monday Soup

Not a long list this week, but as Christmas approaches, we've all been caught up in preparing for the big holiday weekend.  Here are a few jewels for you, though.

• If you're a writer, or aspire to be a writer, or if you just want to brush up on some writing skills, check out The Write Practice.  A blog for writers, they offer tips, resources, and ideas.
• A post on Buzz Feed, these are hailed as "The 45 Most Powerful Images of 2011."  I don't know if I agree with all of them, but there are some astounding pictures and historical moments captured here.
• A fan of infographics?  Check out visual.ly.  This one is particularly informative and disturbing.
  
  

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What's new in your world, friends?