Summertime television has been historically known as weak at best and unwatchable at worst. For many years, there was no original programming on any network and the only thing that you could look forward to was every four years having the Summer Olympics. The past decade has seen a vast reversal of this trend, and it seems almost every network has some good summertime programming. One of these shows that has wound up becoming an automatic on my TiVo is FOX's "Don't Forget the Lyrics." Everyday people are invited to come on and sing along with the studio band, singing various songs from different categories, with the lyrics on the big screen - karaoke-style. Then at some point during the song, the words on the big screen are replaced by blanks, and the contestant has to continue singing the right words from memory. I cannot explain why I am finding this show so hilarious - but I find myself laughing out loud pretty much every time.
Last night when I got home from VBS, we started watching the most recent episode, and I was incredulous at how easy some of these songs were - when the two selections for each round would come up, and the contestant had to pick one, I was thinking, 'man, he can't go wrong with either of these, for EVERYONE knows these songs.' In the immortal words of Lee Corso of ESPN, 'not so fast, my friend'. This ol' boy last night chose Fleetwood Mac's 'Don't Stop' as his next song. Now, you need to understand that Fleetwood Mac is one of my favorite groups, and I have all their stuff on my iPod. 'Don't Stop' is one of their signature songs. The contestant just blanked out when it came time for him to complete the line - and, much to my surprise, I forgot them as well. This is a song that I have listened to on a regular basis for well over 10 years, and I didn't know it nearly as well as I thought, which got me thinking...
I wonder if part of what the church faces from time to time is the reality of going on auto-pilot and assuming we know everything we need to know? Kinda like someone who listens to the same artist for a number of years, only to discover that they didn't know the artists songs nearly as well as they thought. Your Long-Range Planning Committee will be recommending that we spend the better part of the fall and spring returning to the basics of what it means to be a church - and the more I think about it, I think they are very wise. It can become very easy for a church to just assume that we know the basics of being a church - but if we don't spend time revisiting those every so often, they can often get away from us. When we allow ourselves to lose sight of the basics of the faith and allow our conversations and actions to drift from the essentials to the superfluous, we can wind up like so many churches do (including this one) at some point - talking a great deal about very little that has to do with fulfilling the great commission.
I invite you to join me as we consider the implications of forgetting basic lyrics to a song we think we know well - the life of a Christian community that has Christ at the center, empowered by the Holy Spirit, living for nothing more and nothing less than the will of God to be done in all things.
See you Sunday!
Lamar
Last night when I got home from VBS, we started watching the most recent episode, and I was incredulous at how easy some of these songs were - when the two selections for each round would come up, and the contestant had to pick one, I was thinking, 'man, he can't go wrong with either of these, for EVERYONE knows these songs.' In the immortal words of Lee Corso of ESPN, 'not so fast, my friend'. This ol' boy last night chose Fleetwood Mac's 'Don't Stop' as his next song. Now, you need to understand that Fleetwood Mac is one of my favorite groups, and I have all their stuff on my iPod. 'Don't Stop' is one of their signature songs. The contestant just blanked out when it came time for him to complete the line - and, much to my surprise, I forgot them as well. This is a song that I have listened to on a regular basis for well over 10 years, and I didn't know it nearly as well as I thought, which got me thinking...
I wonder if part of what the church faces from time to time is the reality of going on auto-pilot and assuming we know everything we need to know? Kinda like someone who listens to the same artist for a number of years, only to discover that they didn't know the artists songs nearly as well as they thought. Your Long-Range Planning Committee will be recommending that we spend the better part of the fall and spring returning to the basics of what it means to be a church - and the more I think about it, I think they are very wise. It can become very easy for a church to just assume that we know the basics of being a church - but if we don't spend time revisiting those every so often, they can often get away from us. When we allow ourselves to lose sight of the basics of the faith and allow our conversations and actions to drift from the essentials to the superfluous, we can wind up like so many churches do (including this one) at some point - talking a great deal about very little that has to do with fulfilling the great commission.
I invite you to join me as we consider the implications of forgetting basic lyrics to a song we think we know well - the life of a Christian community that has Christ at the center, empowered by the Holy Spirit, living for nothing more and nothing less than the will of God to be done in all things.
See you Sunday!
Lamar
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