BabuLife

Foreverandever Vid

HT: Jeff

Goodbye Everyone.

Heading out with the wife for a couple of days.  Alone.  Yes. I said alone.  No kids.  No Dora.   No Curious George.  No Clifford the Big Red Dog.  We haven't done this since August of 2002.

So while I'm gone, please feel free to drop a comment and start a discussion here if you like (keep it clean please).  And head on over to some of the Gracer blogs or hit some of my faves below:

Tim
Tom
Rich
Pete
Bobby
Matt
Kristi
Real Media
Jeff
Norm
Neil

See you in a few!
-Babu

Receiving Compliments

Have you ever been complimented? Lately I've had a few thrown my way.  Like one of those "Man...you're awesome!"  or "Ben, you and the band just sounded amazing today!"  I've even had the ones like "Ben, you're voice today was so wonderful, I mean, it usually is, but today was extraordinarily unique".  Now you might be thinking to yourself, "Whatever, you're just puffed up and dwelling on the compliments". . . not so.

You see, I really do appreciate people encouraging and complimenting the worship music and it's sound, but one of the tough things about being a worship leader, or any role responsible for helping people connect with the Lord, is receiving those compliments.  I used to hate hearing the "Praise the Lord" response from musicians I would lavish attention on.  It used to make me feel "nonspiritual" for even noting and complimenting their abilities.  It sounded cliche to me.  I told myself I would never do that.  However, I find myself sometimes at the point of saying "Praise the Lord".

My response to folks who are so kind as to offer a word of gratitude and praise upon the work our team puts together each week is typically like this, "Thanks for the encouragement.  I thank God for the awesome team we have here at Grace.  God has blessed us with so many people with such great hearts and desires to serve the Lord in leading people to worship.  We are truly blessed." So I thank them for the encouragement, deflect the praise to include the team (because really it ain't just me), and direct the praise to God for making it all happen. Someone the other day told me someone should teach a class on "How Christians Should Take Compliments".

So...how do you take compliments?  Am I splitting hairs here, or should the worship leader's response (or any spiritual leader for that matter) be viewed as an opportunity to help teach people how and where praise should be directed?  I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Later,
-Babu

View From the Stage: 5/13/07

The final Sunday of our marriage and dating series "Let's Fall in Love" was closed out by Tim and Cathy Howey.  Great job and huge thanks to both of them for spending so much time on this message!

Music was cool.  We had two electric guitars this week (Great job Sam and Brad).  Here's the worshiplist:

• Filled With Your Glory - Starfield - Off of the album "Starfield"
• Let God Arise - Chris Tomlin - Off of the album "See the Morning"
• Everlasting God - Brenton Brown - Off of the album "Everlasting God"
• King - Tree62 Tree63- Off of the album "The Answer to the Question"
• Blessed Be your Name - Matt Redman - Off of the album "Where Angels Fear to Tread"

Great series.  I hope it was a blessing to your marriages!

Super Cool Person of the Week: Brad

One of the great joys of being in a band or playing on a worship team is the friendship and comraderie that naturally builds when you spend so much time working on music together.  Brad is one of those fellas I've had the privilege of ministering with over the past 7 years on our worship team.

I always hear folks tell me how much they enjoy seeing Brad worship onstage. His excitement and enjoyment of playing electric guitar in worship shows each week he's up there.  But even more than the cool licks and the shaking hips, Brad lives a life of worship off stage.  He's driven to please God in every decision he makes in every area of his life.  Brad has been a huge blessing to me through his help with harmonizing and helping vocalists find those harmonies that I can't hear.  He's also a great help with the audition process providing feedback.  In additon to running Real Media, Brad played professionally with a local band here in KC called The Clique for many years.  From time to time we get folks visiting Grace who will recognize him from his playing days.  And that's an open door for Brad to share his faith with others.

Brad has been a great friend and a HUGE part of the worship music transition from traditional to the current style here at Grace. He's endured the harsh ciriticisms from folks who just didn't "get it" but kept his chin up and eyes on the Lord through that time.  And he has become a great leader of worship for it. Thanks Brad for being a friend and for being a part of the team...through all the changes...I'm sure there will be more to come.

Be sure to tell Brad he's SUPER COOL!!!

A Helping Hand to Greensburg, KS

If you've been anywhere near a radio or T.V., you've heard about the tornado that destroyed 95% of a small Kansas town last week.  Greensburg, KS was flattened in a twister that was estimated to have been over a mile wide.  Check out photos here.

On Monday this week, I received a phone call from a long time church member who has some family history in Greensburg.  She was devastated.  We also have an attender who lost a great aunt and last I heard there was still a search for two other relatives. It's times like these where the body of Christ has the opportunity to shine best.

Grace Church has become a collection point for immediate needs. Our local outreach director contacted a local church down in the Greensburg area to find out what the needs are.  As you can imagine the initial needs are simple.  Diapers, detergent and new kids pajamas.  You can check out the Grace website to keep up with any additional needs that may be added as the situation changes.

Grace is also collecting financial contributions for the Red Cross.  Just designate on the offering envelope "Greensburg, KS" and Grace will send it to the Red Cross.

Drop off items anytime during the week at the info center located in the lobby.  Thanks!

Confessions of a Reformission Rev.

I picked up a new book yesterday.  Thanks to the Grace staff for my wonderful gift card to the local Christian book store.  I enjoyed the "Radical Reformission" so much by Mark Driscoll that I just went to the store looking for anything written by him.  And voila!  There on the shelf sat "Confessions of a Reformission Rev."

I just finished chapter 1 which was a good review of the prior book "Radical Reformission" and am looking forward to this read.  He goes through the life of his church "Mars Hill Church" in Seattle exploring the various successes and failures of the church.  So far it's pretty good.  As you may have seen from his video I posted here last week, he's not for the faint of heart.  You'll have to be able to take on tough church issues and be ready to wrestle with your heart.

Flipping through the book in the store I found the title of one of the chapters:

Jesus, Could You Please Rapture the Charismaniac Lady Who Brings Her Tambourine to Church?

I knew I had to get this one.  Check it out on Amazon here.

I Had a Makeover

About a month ago I picked up Dave Ramsey's book "The Total Money Makeover" when I was visiting my local Costco.  I'd heard his show on the radio and have read interviews and blogs ringing the Ramsey bell.  I am SOOOO enjoying this book.   Simple, basic, practical principles we all know but avoid/ignore.  It really boils down to this "If you cannot afford something...don't buy it."  Pretty easy right?  Sounds easy until that transmission goes out and you haven't been saving enough to handle an emergency expense like that.  Life happens, a storm will come...you just have to be prepared to handle it.

Saturday I had the opportunity to see Dave Ramsey in person here at the Kansas City Municipal Auditorium.  I don't know how anyone can stand there and speak about finances for five hours and make it interesting.  That's exactly what he did.  He's the real deal...geniune...caring...and he uses his platform to glorify Christ and encourage people to consider their spiritual state when dealing with finances.  Thanks to Tom for the invite!

At the start of the presentation, they showed this Saturday Night Live clip that pretty much boils down the whole Dave Ramsey strategy.  Check it out below:

Snl_dontbuystuff
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I HATE THIS CAPO

Don't get it.  Tried it this morning and it kept throwing my strings out of tune.  The Glider Capo in my opinion is trash.  See my earlier notes here.

Foundations Completed and Vader Cake

Back in February I dropped a post about our first Foundations class in our new facility. I had 8 join me on Wednesdays as we talked about essential doctrines that are the foundation for the Christian walk.  We have had, since February, approximately 20 people getting discipled in a classroom setting through Foundations.  That's just in a classroom.  There are also some small groups (including mine) going through these principles as well.  That's 20 plus people taking their next step in their spiritual walk with Christ learning the "sincere milk of the word". 

Our class came to a close on Wednesday, April 25. I'm actually a bit sad about not getting to enjoy seeing the people in the class along with hearing their stories of how God had transformed their lives.  I made some wonderful new friends in that class.  Thanks to all the Foundations folks for faithfully coming over those seven weeks.  I had a great time getting to know y'all! (If you'd like to enroll for an upcoming Foundations class, be sure to watch the Cross Training page of the Grace website here).

One of the folks in the class was so kind enough to make me a birthday cake after hearing about it.  She knew of my not so private hobby.  She asked what my favorite Star Wars characters were.  I told her, "Anything from the Dark Side of course".  Yes her worship pastor enjoys the evil side of Star Wars.  I want to give Kim McMahon some props for this awesome cake.  Now that most of the Star Wars hype has faded from the forefront, it's a little more difficult to just go to a store and get the moldings and what not to make a cake.  She pretty much did this from scratch.  Check out the vader image on the top.  "Impressive...most impressive".

Thank you Kim for my cake!  It was awesome!  My family devoured it over a three- four day period.  Be sure to check out Kim's Custom Cakes.