Day 12: Preferences

    Why preferences for a title? Because I attended a pentecostal church today to help out a Christian brother on the worship team.

  

Why preferences for a title? Because I am from the Reformed camp, theologically speaking and am a member of a Southern Baptist church.
Ok.... I can hear the thoughts.... WHY PREFERENCES FOR A TITLE!!!!!!!!
Wow - so pushy.

AllllRIGHTY then - follow me on this.

    My theological bent is towards the Reformed (think Presbyterian/Calvinist) side of the house. I am Reformed in my theology by conviction. That simply means I researched, I studied, and I believe I am right. ;-) As a result, my preferences for the kind of Bible I use (Reformed study Bible), the kind of teachers I usually listen to (RC Sproul for example) and USUALLY the churches I attend (think PCA Presbyterian) are determined as a result of my decision to embrace the Reformed system of thought. These are my PREFERENCES.

     So how is it that I am a member of a Southern Baptist church (not Reformed) and how is it that today I attended a Pentecostal church to play in a decidedly NOT PRESBYTERIAN worship service? Simple. My preferences are not chains. When you have decided, through study, prayer and meditation, the church you prefer and the theological stance you will operate out of (and EVERYONE has a theological stance), two paths lay in front of you.
1. You can religiously barricade yourself behind the wall of your preferences and never venture out into a different church/denomination or a different preaching/teaching style.
2.  You can occasionally go to other churches, listen to other preachers and hear a different facet of God's voice.

     Don't hear what I'm NOT saying... I am not saying to rush out and start running around to every church, or start listening to every teacher under the sun. You have your preferences for a reason - hopefully, a well thought-out reason. What I AM saying is that as you walk through life, do not put blinders on and shut out what someone is saying or preaching, because they are "Pentecostal" or "Episcopalian" or... fill in the blank. Don't be averse to attending  a "high church" worship service (think traditional Catholic, or Lutheran or Episcopalian), because your preference is something else. Two of the most powerful worship experiences in my 35 years of being a believer happened in a Lutheran church service and a Catholic worship service, neither of which are my "preference".

      So - for this season of our lives, my wife and I are members of a Southern Baptist church. The pastor preaches topically, and is very much enamored with teaching a "real-life-rubber-meets-the-road" Christian lifestyle. Personally, I like this. Not Presbyterian - but we are serving there, and touching peoples lives there and sitting under some of the most balanced teaching around. I have no problems here. Should they start to handle snakes... well.... (Just Kidding!!!!!!!!! They don't do snakes here...)

     And today, I helped a brother out at a Pentecostal worship service. You would think that would be a wee bit uncomfortable for this closet Presbyterian. But the people were wonderful. The music was liberating, and the pastor?  I loved what I heard him say. The pastor does not know it, but God used him to give me a very specific word today. What was it? Won't tell you... yet. Still mulling it over. But had I let my "preferences" bind me to the point where I wouldn't even consider going to a Pentecostal church, who knows - would I have missed this word from my King to me? Well - as I don't really deal with woulda-coulda-shoulda scenarios, I won't even try to think that one through.

    But I know what I believe and why I believe it. I am not afraid of someone who disagrees with me, and I am not afraid of a different worship style. I generally live within the confines of my preferences, but when God directs me through circumstances to a place outside of my preferences I am not afraid. God is nurturing this Reformed Christian from within a Southern Baptist church and today He spoke to me through a Pentecostal preacher. Personally - I am digging it. I won't be attending there regularly - God has me somewhere else, and my preferences being what they are, I do not see myself being a member of a Pentecostal church. But I am NOT chained. I am NOT a prisoner of my preferences. I am a child of the King - and I am free to enjoy the company of those brothers and sisters who think differently than I. Wow... what an incredible, diverse body this universal church is. Today was a GREAT day. I heard God whisper something into my soul.

    Lord- thank You for giving me a hedge of protection in my life called my "preferences". But thank You for the neighbors I have who live outside of my hedge. I look forward to the day when all hedges are removed, and we all know ALL of the truth. But until then - You blessed me today in a church I wouldn't normally attend, through a servant of Yours that I have never heard before.
MR G out.

Day 11B: Handel and Secular Christian Musicians

Hey! A bonus post!!! As I consider myself a Christian secular musician, I find myself sometimes (tho not often) misunderstood by fellow believers who have trouble seeing how I can be a believer-musician in a secular marketplace. I record secular tunes, I have written secular tunes, and I have performed in clubs and other secular venues.I am so in love with music, that I want to play anywhere I can. I am like that Scottish runner in the movie "chariots of fire" who declared that God made him to run fast and he felt God's pleasure when he ran. That's me and music. I used to be in love with playing the guitar, then in love with playing the bass, then back in love with playing the guitar again.... but the truth is, I am falling love with music, period. 

As I have been preparing for this school years classes, I have been reading about Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, an Bach. I have discovered things about each of them that makes me feel almost like they are old friends. When I discovered that Handel was persecuted by the "mega-church" of his day (the Church of England) for composing operas and Oratorios concerning Biblical settings and putting them in the secular arena, I am so amazed. Especially when I read that one of his more ardent foes was non other than the author of "Amazing Grace", John Newton, a clergyman in the Church of England. Isn't it odd that one of history's greatest Christian musicians was attacked by the church? Christian musicians who have occupied their talent in the mostly secular arena have always been misunderstood and sometime even attacked by the one institution that you would THINK would have their back. Handel is even more a hero to me now - not because he wrote incredible music - but because he was comfortable with who he was as a Christian - and he expressed his Christianity by writing music.... all kinds of music. Not just music for the church. He just did what he was wired by God to do. He wrote music. Handel was the quintessential Christian secular musician.... and he is my hero.

Day 11: cranked!

Cranked? You bet! A great day of teaching, seeing great progress from my students and then over to the house of a new friend, a worship leader for a church near me. He asked me to sit in with their band this Sunday, so I went to his house today to practice and get ready. Personally, I think it was a big chance he took, committing to let me play when he had hardly heard me, only talked to me twice on the phone so far. Unlike Nigel Tufton of Spinal Tap, I am NOT known for my soloing... Don't get me wrong - I can do it, and I have done it, but people almost always hire me or ask me to play bass. But God has me in a place right now where I am falling in love with the guitar like I did when I was a teenager... Just after the cretaceous period. It is such an incredible instrument and I am every day pinching myself because I get to play guitar....every day. So I am cranked. Tomorrow I get to play guitar with some great musicians in a great church. Did I mention I was cranked? Pretty sure I did.

Gonna be great tomorrow ... I can feel it. Lesson from God in all of this? Perhaps it's all about God opening doors of opportunity to allow me to use my gifts and abilities. It might just be because God loves me and delights in me being...well...cranked. Either way, tomorrow I get to play my guitar for the King. And I am cranked.

Mr G

Day 10: Adding it all up

Well here it is - day 10 of blogging. If you knew me at all, you would really be scratching your head, because you... well, you KNEW me. No New Years resolution has ever made it this far for me. That's why I didn't make this a New Years resolution, so since it isn't a resolution, I'm still here. Kinda like the improbability drive for Ford Prefect's space ship in Hitchikers guide to the Galaxy... it calculated the odds AGAINST you getting where you wanted to go, and the greater the odds against you getting anywhere were, the quicker you got there. Yeah, kinda stupid... especially if you've never read Hitchikers Guide before. If that's the case, I just wasted approximately 10.385 seconds of your life. I'd like to apologize. I'm not going to, you understand - I just wanted you to know I'd like to.

Anyway - back to adding things up. My purpose for starting this blog was not to entertain, not to look for those funny spiffy little moments to amuse all who read it. I really DID want to force myself to intentionally LOOK for something God was doing or telling me each day. And so I have. So now I am adding it up to see what God has told me this last 10 days.
Here it is.

1. I am where I am supposed to be, doing what I am supposed to be doing. I am a teacher, one of the proud members of a great anonymous group of people who intentionally insert themselves into the lives of students, hoping to do more than just get them to remember that "In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue". Almost every week, a different student will tell me that I am important to them, and sometimes they will even tell me why.
2. The pre-teen and teenagers I teach are really smart. I can learn so much from them. They still have all the teenage angst going on - every generation suffers thru that... no way around it - but there have been times when I will be talking to one of them about something and they will offer up an insight so profound that it almost takes my breath away.
3. I need to get out of the way and let the kids create. That's the big difference between this year and last. Last year, I ran rehearsals, directed each group. This year I told the groups... make it happen, make it good. And they are magnificent.

Well - that's the scoop so far. I have a feeling this year is going to be a blockbuster for me, because after only 10 days in, I am so overwhelmed with what I have seen God tell me so far. Kinda like this is the previews of coming attractions, like what we see at the movies.
Blessings!
Mr G

Day 9: Behold - I am a Platypus

      I love Wednesdays. I get to teach music at a small fine arts academy in Woodstock, Georgia called the Masters Academy of Fine Arts. I teach composition, music appreciation, and ensemble. The theme this year in all of my music classes is the motif - a small musical phrase. The best example are the motifs used by Prokofiev in "Peter and the Wolf" where there are instruments of the orchestra assigned to specific characters in the story and even special little melodic phrases that are identified with each character of the story (these are motifs). My music appreciation class, after listening to Peter and the Wolf have decided they would like to write a small story like Peter and the Wolf. Only they want to have animals represent their teachers and write motifs for each one. One group wanted me to be a beaver- "Mr G - it's because you are steady, round and furry!" Hmmmmm.... ok. It's an apt description... but they finally decided I was to be a Platypus. An odd assortment of pieces put together to form a really unique member of the animal kingdom. 

       So I am a Platypus. All kidding aside, I am taking this description as what it is - a glimpse into the souls of kids I am tasked with mentoring. It was given in love, and I fully accept it and all it represents. Apparently I remind them of a warmblooded creature that lays eggs, has a beaver-like tail and a ducks bill.... I am Darwin's nightmare!

Some kids thought I met get upset.... but I just started laughing - these kids put some serious thought into this, and after thinking about me, they deemed me worthy of being a platypus. And I gratefully accepted.

All hail the mighty Platypus... for apparently he is me.

You learn so much when you teach kids.

Mr G

Day 8: Tired

Whew! Long day today. A longer one tomorrow. I love teaching, though and it is really no burden. This is a good kind of tired. I learned stuff today... like how to work my iPad (Lindsey W showed me how to do snapshots of screens on my iPad. I love teenagers. They know so much about gadgets and technology!). I heard a teacher in chapel today stand up and tell the students "You need to listen to us grownups sometimes... we actually know stuff!" (amen, Mrs Bradshaw - preach it!).  My 7th grade class assigned animals to each of their teachers. Apparently I am Garfield the cat.... go figure.

I went to Bluegrass rehearsal after school today, and was reminded how much I love my friends and how much I love playing music with them.

But now I am home, under my comforter, happy that I got the gift of today. It was a great day. Now I am going to lay me down to sleep, and know the Lord my soul will keep... after all that's His job. I won't finish that childhood prayer, as it is a bit macabre. It's enough to know that I blessed kids and was mightily blessed in turn. I am tired... but happy.
Mr G

Day 7: Contented

Sunday...
          A day of rest - that slow, relaxing, teeshirt, jeans and no socks kind of restful day. There's a reason we need it.
           I didn't always treat Sundays as a rest day. I would use it as a catch up day, because as a self-employed musician there is almost always something that's been forgotten that has to be done; and then there's church. For me, church days were almost always the busiest day of the week. For years, I was a guitarist or bassist for whatever church I was attending at the time. I would have to get there way early, and in the bigger churches, sometimes play three services, then go home and plan my following week out. It would be 10 pm before I knew it, and  I would be exhausted and beginning to fret about the next weeks activities.
        This went on for years. It hurt my marriage, my relationship with my kids - everything. Everybody but my family got pieces of me on every day of the week - even on that sacred "day of rest".

       Not any more. Today rest is in order. Here is what it looks like at my house. As I type this, my bride is sleeping upstairs. The house is quiet - no TV, soft music (Carrie Underwood) playing in the background of my man cave. When Glenda wakes up, she is going to discover the dishes are done and the kitchen cleaned. Why? Because she feels restful when she sees a clean kitchen. Ladies that I know say this is a big deal. So I am going to score a few points with the wife and do the dishes. We will watch a movie, eat something easy to fix, get to bed early and wake up tomorrow ready to roar through another week.

God knew what He was doing when He declared a Sabbath rest. I really needed today.    

Mr G