Wein Worship Seminar

I had my worship seminar today with CIG church in Vienna. I have been having an on going email exchange with Mary Prokop who is working with the worship team people there at the church. Mary is the wife of Rob Prokop the lead pastor. When they are in the states they sometimes attend Mountain. And when Pam and I are in Austria Pam we attend CIG (which stands for Christian International Fellowship). We've been talking about me coming and doing this seminar for just about a year now, and we finally made it happen.

I drove about 20 K to SCS which is a very big shopping center just outside of Vienna. Rob and Mary picked me up at the Micky Dee's there and they drove me into Vienna. I can drive in New York City no problem, but I'm not ready to tackle Wien yet.

We started at about 10:00 this morning and went to after 2:00, with Lunch squeezed in the middle. As I was teaching the class you can tell that they knew why they were part of the worship team. It wasn't just because they knew how to sing, or play and instrument, or run the sound or even knew about the latest electronic gadget that could be used in worship, it was because of their heart for worship that they were in the worship ministry.

One of the sessions really went deep into personal heart issues and at the very end of that session one of the people asked if we could have a time of prayer, because what was just discussed needed to be thought about in a prayerful manner. It was a great time of worship!


There were several people there from the states and as we talked to each other we realized that we knew some of the same people back in the states. It's amazing how small the world is in Christ. Actually I'd like to change that saying. Louis Hall a wonderful brother in the Lord was talking to me just last Sunday when I used that phrase. He stopped and corrected me. He said It's not that it is a small world, but that the body of Christ is very large. Yes, I do believe that the body of Christ is huge! What a wonderful way of refreshing an old worn out saying.
What a wonderful day today was! Full of worship and new found friends, brothers and sisters in Christ.


Here are some pictures of today.
Michael, recording the seminar

Lunch time

Lunch time

Rob (far left) and Mary

See, I do teach!

Austria

Monday - Thursday
Monday May 26, well actually it’s Thursday now. We arrived on Tuesday, safely and about 15 minutes late. Not bad for an 8 hour trip that started 40 minutes late. Gail Oliver took us to the airport leaving her family behind, on Memorial Day no less. What a servant’s heart she has.

The plane ride was very uneventful and even quiet. Pam likes the aisle and I like a window, so we had an empty seat between us… for about 10 minutes. Then our seat neighbor arrived. I found out later in our conversations that he was from Kosovo but had moved here to the states about 15 years ago. Actually he said that he is Albanian, but had moved to Kosovo because of the war.
I broke out the world map that was in the airline magazine and ask him many questions about that area of the world. Someplace in my ancestry besides being Italian, I am also a little bit Albanian. So I pronounced the one word that my father had heard from his father and was told that it was a mix of Albanian and Italian. He then looked at me with a grin on his face and then pronounced something very similar and said that it was what a grandmother would say to a child when she wanted to scold him. Leave it to my grandparents to pass on a word like that!

Today is Thursday and it seems like we have been here awhile now, even though it’s only been two full days. We are staying in the Gate Haus. As you can see it’s not very big. It has a kitchen (rather small), full bath and living room downstairs, and a bedroom and half bath upstairs. The ceiling upstairs… well let’s put it this way, I can touch the ceiling. It’s like a big doll house. The Sattelbach is just on the other side of the road. We can hear it all the time.

Yesterday we had a cook out for anyone that wanted to. We met the new family here at TCMI, Justine and Beth Higgins. Beth’s parents, Jim and Peggy Conner were a part of the TCM family back in the 70’s-80’s. Jim was also on the TCM board and currently teaches for TCMI as an adjunct professor.

Saturday I go and teach a Worship Seminar for CIG, International Christian Fellowship. It’s the church Pam and I attend when we are over here. The lead pastor Rob Prokop and his wife Mary sometimes attend MCC when they are back in the states.

Well, that’s it for now. We are here safely. I’m reading and studying for the worship seminar and my first class in Belarus.
John
This is the front of the Gate Haus.

This is the side from the road


Sattelbach stream
across the road
from the gate haus. Stair case leading to the bedroom. I'm at the far wall.



As you can see, it's quite small, but it works for us!
jts

Mistakes 2

It happens. No matter how much we practice sometimes we make mistakes. It's not like we are professional musicians. I mean, they write their own songs, they arrange their own songs, they record their own songs, they sing their own songs, and then they go out and tour with the songs, they've written, arranged, and recorded. Mistakes? Probably not. But we continue to play and sing different songs each week. And when a new song is added how much time do we really have to practice it? Maybe two weeks if we are really lucky. We might even be able to practice along with an mp3 of the recording, as long as it's in the same key we want to sing it in. (Ever try singing all of Chris Tomlin's song in the original key?) A recording made with all professional musicians, rehearsed and then mushed through a whole series of recording effects before it is allowed to be released to the public.
However, I am not advocating that we not practice, that we not give the Lord our best; that we not work at improving the talent the Lord has given us. I'm just saying that sometimes mistakes happen. And when they do, we tend to beat ourselves down. Especially when it's a team that works hard at playing the best they can, and then one person makes a mistake. We can really feel down, and pretty bummed out. But it's not about us remember? It's not about our doing a great job that will make the people turn towards God. It's not about how well we played that helps people come closer to the Lord. It's about making room for the Holy Spirit to move and letting Him do the job He was sent to do.
Something like that happened here recently. We played our best, but there was a mistake. "What if that mistake made someone think less of our church and not want to come forward?" Right then and there I couldn't think of the answer to that question. (hey, it happens when you get old.) But one of the other players did have an answer for it right then. We have a time right after the service for people to come down to the front if they want to know more about Mountain, we call it MI5 (Mountain In 5 minutes) and other questions they may have about what we believe. We also have counselors up front for people who want to make a commitment to Christ. So he turned to the person posing the question and said, "Look at all the people who came up to MI5." The Holy Spirit was at work and will always be at work when we are presenting the gospel of Christ; when we are presenting this gospel from our hearts.
Mistakes? God knows, God forgives and anyway did He really even hear them?
John

Passion week 08

I'll start with the weekend and work backwards.
We just had 8 worship services over 6 different time slots. We started on Saturday and went 3, 5, and 7. Yes, it was just a bit early for Easter, but I think somewhere in the world it was already Easter morning. Then on Sunday we had another 3 services. The two we always have, 9 and 11 and then added another service at 1 PM. At the 9 and 11 we also held services in Cook auditorium like we normally do on Sunday mornings.
We used the theme of The Bridge. I think Willow did that several years ago. We did use the bridge concept, and the drama from Willow, but we changed the other elements and the sermon idea was just a little different.
But even as great as Sunday was, it was the elements and services leading up to Sunday that made this weekend great for me.
On Maunday Thursday we had Jews for Jesus here and were led through a Seder service. It was called Christ in the Passover. Stan Katz led us through the Passover section by section and explained how in each section of the the Passover service Christ can be seen, or the foreshadowing of Christ can be found. I've experienced this before and I still enjoyed it. Actually the next Passover service I'd like to see is what the Passover was like when Jesus had his finally Passover with his disciples. I've only been to one service like that and it was at least 30 years ago. I'd like to see it presented again.
Then on Friday night we had a self-guided tour of a Good Friday service. It started with Communion and then went through 11 of the Stations of the Cross. Each Station had it's own writings to read and to meditated on. And when you felt like it you moved on to the next station.
Thursday, Friday and then Saturday/Sunday. It was a terrible week, and at the same time it was a week of glorious hope and excitement. It ended with hearing the story once again, of the resurrected Savior. It ended with us singing, 'for the glory of the risen King!'
John

just plain mistakes

i just read an article in the magizine christian musician, by keith mohr. it was entitled 'the danger of mediocrity'. he started off by mentioning the gallo wine tag line from several years back, "we will sell no wine before it's time." technology has helped people with just a little talent produce a CD's. and they sound pretty much, well, mediocre. they believe they have enough talent that they head on out to what he calls ccm central, franklin, tennessee. then he talked about the many, many musicians moving to nashville with aspirations of stardom and fame.i think there is way too much grape juice out there and the little that does become wine all tastes the same. but enough about wine and ccm and nashville.what about the worship service as a platform for musicians with just a little talent? are they still grape juice? do you use them anyway because you have no one else? doctors have said that a little glass of red wine at night can be good for you because of the antioxidants found in it. they have also said that red grape juice has antioxidants in it too. Both as it turns out are good for you. How far can you take this analogy? probably not too far. but the heart is first on the list of important items that a leader of worship needs.i'm not going to take this any further. i believe you can figure out what you need to do in your situation. but i will ask one more question, 'when does just plain mistakes become mediocre?
jts

New building for North Shore Christian

Last Sunday, the North Shore christian church in Riverhead, Long Island, NY moved into their new facilities about 4 miles from where they were meeting in a school. They were using a cafe-a-gym-atorium. The new building was built as part of an industrial park. They have a lease on one section of it now.

144 people showed up for there for their opening service. And as near as I can tell only my parents, Pam, me and one other couple were the only people not from the area.

The church is just about 1 and 1/2 years old now. It really was exciting to see all the people. I know the tech people, and the set-up people are really happy that they have their own building now. No more "church in a box". No more... get the trailer, unload it, set up, worship service, tear down and put back into the trailer and move it. The worship team will now have a permanent place to practice also. That's a huge plus too.

Here are some pic's of us putting the last minute finishes to the place on Saturday, and then some Sunday pic's of everyone that was there.

These last four pictures were taken on Saturday when we were still putting the finishing touches on some things. We were still putting the main house speakers up and the projector besides cleaning up.

Κ Δ Π

Last past Sunday was the third sermon in a series we called Κ Δ Π. The subtitle of the series was God’s Frat Party. You could really go overboard with a title like that. K or Kappa was for Koinonia, fellowship. Δ. Delta was Doulos the idea of being a slave. This past week was Π, Pi for Proskuneo or worship. The word actually means more like bending low, or bowing the knee or even to kiss in a holy or reverent manner. It was a great series. One that I believe we should include at least once a year in some manner.
While the first two words are nouns, the last word Proskuneo is a verb. Worship is a verb. Now where have I heard that before? Oh yea, now I remember, it’s the title of a book by Robert Webber. If you are interested in worship in any way and you’ve not read any of Dr. Webber’s books or articles you just have to! We lost a great teacher recently, but we have the wealth of his knowledge contained in his books.
Even though Koinonia is a noun, you really can’t Koinonia without doing it in fellowship. Yes, you can have fellowship with God, one on one. Or should that be three on one? That’s your private Koinonia. That’s what you do in private during the week. There might even be Koinonia that happens with a small group sometime during the week. But then there is the Koinonia that happens on the weekends. Both of these happen when you are doing fellowship. You can’t fellowship by yourself.
The same with Doulos, it’s also a noun. But you can’t be a slave by yourself. Well, maybe you can. If you just do things for yourself and no one else. Then you become a slave to yourself. A term we have heard used about others, but never ourselves. Here again, you can’t Doulos without DOING Doulos, being a slave or serving someone else. In fact with this word you put yourself somewhat (really completely) in another persons control. Very few people really want to live a life like that. Well, I guess you can go off and live in some monastery somewhere and just live a life of solitude and work. But I’m not sure that is what Jesus really wants out of our lives. We need to be in the world, not of. By living in a monastery we take ourselves out of the world.
I’m going to chase a rabbit right now, so stay with me if you would. Take a step back right now. Take a bigger look at the world you live in, and the world you work in. What radio station do you listen to most of the day? What station is on in your car? What CD is in your CD player? What album is on your iPod, or mp3 player? Okay, I know I’m gonna get hammered on this next thought, but here it goes. They called it a Christian Book store. Next time you go in one, how many books are there compared to all the other stuff they sell. Can’t you buy mints in other stores? Well, maybe not Test-a-mints but a mint is a mint. “But it has a Bible verse on it”, you say. But it goes in your mouth, you might let it dissolve slowly, you might chew it up fast (depending how bad your breath is). It’s gone. It’s a mint! All the nick-naks, khochkies, the figurines, the jewelry, the music… Let’s face it we have created a Christian subculture. Our own little culture within a bigger culture. This exists so we can say, “we in the world but not of it.” Really? Is that really being ‘in’ the world? Okay, I’m gonna stop now.
Back to Κ Δ Π. For me, it kind of all fits together into what worship is. The fellowship, the serving, all of that, which happens during the week, all comes together on the weekend in one big Proskuneo, what we would call our worship service. Ben has said this about what we do on Sunday, worship is our “Cooperate celebration of what we are doing all week long.” I have been teaching this concept for about 7 years now. For me I have simplified this just a bit more, Worship is service is worship. The first worship and service is what happens during the week. The last worship is our cooperate worship. I just wish I could have understood this about 40 years ago! What I have learned in these past few years, is that in the different countries I have taught in, in Eastern Europe, not one of them translate the word Proskuneo like we do. In English we translate for the most part as worship. In Russian, Bulgarian, Estonian, Polish, Czech, Ukrainian, Hungarian and Romanian that word gets translated as bending the knee, or bowing down, or kissing. They understand these terms as worship, but not as our English word worship. We have translated several different Greek words into one our one word worship. Kerygma, Koinonia, and Leitourgia are three Greek terms that get translated worship in our bibles. No Greek lessons for now, sorry.
To bring this to a close.
During the week DO Koinonia, DO Doulos, DO Proskuneo. Let your next cooperate experience be a culmination of what you have been doing all week long. Give to the Lord this Sunday. Give without expecting and see what He will give back to you!
John