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April 9, 2008

 

 

 



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In this Edition:
Reading for Pastors
Featured Pastor: Chester Hitchcock
Resources & Ideas
Calendar of Events
Best Practices Sermon
Dwight Nelson
Best Practices Video
The Music of Easter

music of easter vid

To the Point:

A great many people think they are thinking when they are really rearranging their prejudices.
  - William James

"I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use."
  --  Galileo Galilei

Man is the only animal that can remain on friendly terms with the victims he intends to eat until he eats them.
  - Samuel Butler

"We teach what we know, we reproduce who we are."
 - Reggie McNeal

"[The book of Ecclesiastes] is to show that all affairs and pursuits of men are vain and useless, in order to lead us to the contemplation of heavenly things." 
 - Gregory Tuaumaturgus

The last rays of merciful light, the last message of mercy to be given to the world, is a revelation of His character of love.
 - EGW, Christ's Object Lessons, p.415

Got a favorite quote? Send it to [email protected]
Effective Worship:
The Andrews University Music and Worship Conference
by Best Practices Editor, Loren Seibold

A confession: so often, when I attend a continuing education event for pastors, I'm disappointed. Most of it doesn't quite connect with my situation. In the past year, though, I've found two that I like a lot and will attend again.

One I've already talked about here: the Vervent-sponsored Innovation Conference in Columbus, OH. The other I just discovered this past week: The Andrews University Music and Worship Conference. This conference was organized by Nicholas ZorkNick zork, a student of worship at Fuller Seminary, and already the golden boy of contemporary worship studies in our denomination. (In addition to Nick, his father Stephen, AU's vocal music director, and his brother Ben were also part of the mix--leading to the surprising spectacle of a formal choir and pipe organ joining in with drums, guitars, and bass in a praise service.)

Two things can go wrong with this kind of event: it can be all talk and theory, or it can be just performers showing off how cool they are. There was a touch of the latter, but for the most part the worship experiences the Zorks planned were exemplary, accessible and multicultural, and the workshops supportive of the examples.

I can't speak for all the workshops, but the ones Carmen and I attended (Roger Ryan on song-writing, Scott Reed on worship theory, Nick Zork and friends on arranging praise music for worship) were excellent. Jon Dybdahl began and ended the weekend by trying to sort out for us the Biblical from the cultural in worship. (I'll link to Dybdahl's presentation as soon as it is available on line.)

The highlight was Friday night's worship event, involving the University Singers, Nick and his worship team, and several other groups. They managed to keep it mostly sincere and God-directed, a big achievement given the enormous talent of the participants.

The conference came at worship mostly from the music direction; I would have liked to hear a bit more about preaching--not how to preach, but how to make the sermon part of the integrated worship event rather than a performance of its own.

This was an excellent event. Any of you who are struggling along with a mediocre praise team that isn't quite sure what its role is will find it especially helpful.


The next conference is already scheduled for
March 26-28, 2009. The featured speaker will be Roberta R. King, Associate Professor of Communication and Ethnomusicology in the School of Intercultural Studies, Fuller Theological Seminary. Check the AU Worship Conference Website for more information.
Reading for Pastors
by Best Practices Editor, Loren Seibold


chester Effective Outreach:
Chester Hitchcock, Medina, Ohio
Have you ever wanted to tell someone a familiar Bible story but couldn't remember where in the Bible it was found? This happened to me often enough that I thought others might have the same problem.

My response was to put together a Bible memory course-teaching people how to remember the location of Bible passages. The goal: to be able to begin at Matthew 1 and go to Revelation chapter 22 and say at least one thing about each chapter, in any order!

At first I used it with my church members. But before long I discovered that others in the community were interested. It's been a great community outreach. I've held the class in our Community Services Center. This increases the church's visibility in the community, and brings people to our location.

Our success with the Gospel Memory Course made us realize that people in the community will respond to short, non-threatening self-improvement seminars.  We're scheduling a number of others at our Community Services Center this year: a realtor on preventing foreclosure, a chiropractor on holistic health, and an attorney on getting back into the job market after a felony. 

Our goal is to offer new kinds of service at our Community Services Center, that goes beyond assistance to the financially needy. We hope these seminars will broaden our influence in the community, and increase the visibility of our church.

Chester has built his Gospel Memory Course into a ready-to use package. You can find an article about the course here. If you want more information, e-mail him at at [email protected].


Resources and Ideas
by Best Practices Editor, Loren Seibold

  • Just for fun: A minister was asked by a politician, "Name something the government can do to help the church." The minister replied, "Quit making one dollar bills."
  • Interestingly, the BRI (Biblical Research Institute) newsletter, Reflections, has been removed from the BRI website. Write [email protected] to get on the mailing list. Topics this month: "The Trinity in Adventism" and "Universal Legal Justification." (Why not open these studies up to everyone?)
Got a tool, resource, site, article, idea or seminar that you like a lot? Share it with us at [email protected].
NAD Events
Do you have an SDA-sponsored event that you'd like to invite NAD pastors to? Tell us about it at [email protected].
NAD Church RESOURCE Center
Best Practices is an e-publication of Vervent
NAD CHURCH RESOURCE CENTER
Editor: Loren Seibold
Senior Pastor, Worthington Ohio Seventh-day Adventist Church