The Big Diehl

I just finished choosing music for the summer choir last week. I am so excited! It’s going to rock! The first song we’re singing is “The Family Prayer Song,” which we’ll wind up singing on Father’s Day. It’s an awesome song about a Christian family: “as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” That song is sorta “soft rock” style. It’s typical to what our choir has done in the past. The second song we’re singing is A LOT different. It’s black gospel! We’ve never done anything like it before. It’s called “Hallelujah, Anyhow” by Joe Pace II. We’re also doing stuff from awesome songwriters like Tommy Walker and Lincoln Brewster. Oh my gosh, I’m pumped for this music! It starts next Tuesday! If you attend New Hope (or if you don’t attend any church but want to . . .), click here for more information.

This is gonna be sweet.

Argh! I just spent a hunk of time entering notes into the music notation software here at the church. I said to myself, “Adam, you should save your work in case your computer locks up.” I argued back, “Nah – I don’t need to save. This computer was just upgraded last fall, it’s not going to lock up.”

Well, it didn’t lock up. But the power went out. Everything just shut off for about one full second and came right back on. WEIRD!
When the power shut off I immediately knew that I hadn’t saved and that I had lost everything. After a few shouts at whoever caused the outage (I have no clue who or what caused it — but yelling at them seemed appropriate at the time – even if they couldn’t hear me) I got things fired back up. Calming down now.

Jesus saves. I guess I’m not as Christ-like as I thought I was.

A recent poll indicated that only around 10% of Christian church attenders tithe. That’s . . . sad.

Tithing is giving 10% of our increase to God (by giving to the local church). A Christian should (and often will song songs about) complete surrender to God. Everything we have ultimately belongs to God, but God says we need to give him 10% of it. Malachi 3 says that if you are not tithing, you are robbing God. I doubt any Christian church attender would even consider stealing something of value from another person — yet roughly 90% of them steal from God on a weekly basis.

“But I cannot afford to tithe!” Psh. You can’t afford not to. Malachi 3:10-12 says that when God’s people tithe, he will bless them! The inverse of that would be that if God’s people don’t tithe, he will not bless them. Do you trust God’s Word? If he says he’s going to bless you if you tithe — he will. You can take that to the bank.

If you are not giving 10% of your increase (i.e. your paycheck or allowance) to your local church – you are robbing God. Knock it off. Start giving to your local church. Like . . . now. God says so.

New Hope just introduced an online tithing program where you can electronically donate money to the church. If you consider New Hope your church home and you’re comfortable with “online payment” methods, I encourage you to check out New Hope’s Online Giving. It’s been tested for several months and it works great! I’ve used it myself and I’ve found it to be completely safe. Just visit NewHope.in and click on the Online Giving link in the bottom left corner.

As the Worship Arts pastor at New Hope, I have many tools I can use to help me with my job. Today I am sludging through hundreds of choral songs to choose music for the summer choir starting in a few weeks. It’s not easy to find songs that are both musically and thematically appropriate!

This task would be a huge pain if it weren’t for iTunes. iTunes is the free music player program from the Apple company, yet it runs on a Windows PC as well. It’s available at www.apple.com. Today, instead of searching for several CDs, I can simply search through the iTunes library and listen to all the choir sample CDs that publishing companies have sent in — many of these sample CDs are buried deep inside cabinets, but with iTunes I can access everything on my computer. iTunes is saving me a lot of time today, although I’m making up for that saved time by spending it writing a blog to tell you about it. lol.

In the words of Kip, “I love technology . . .”

God has a calling for each of us. We (Christians) are all called to share the message of Jesus with those around us. We are all called to show God’s love to those we come in contact with every single day. We are all called to help develop other Christ followers (a.k.a. make disciples). It’s God’s will for each of us to spend time with Him every day. God’s called each of us to live holy lives. There also may be specific callings — for example, God might have called you to lead “Bill Johnson” (insert any specific name) to Christ. Or He might have called you to serve in the choir at church (or some other specific ministry).

We always have an excuse to get out of some of these things:

But I’m too busy . . .

But I’m so tired. I don’t feel like it . . .

But I worked in the nursery this morning, why do I need to have “God time” today? . . .

But . . .
But . . .

We all have a big but! Quit scratching your “but” and do what God’s called you to do!

This past weekend at Church our youth pastor did a fantastic job sharing the message where he used the phrase “we all have a big butt” to illustrate this idea. I thought it was great so I stole it and adapted it for my blog.

BYOB = Bring your own BED!

And by “Adam’s House” I really do mean “ADAM’S House.” I have been in the process of getting a house for about 2 months – and I close on Wednesday! I get possession at closing (last I heard).

I have had a wonderful experience working with a very honest Christian mortage broker (one of the few good ones), a Christian realtor, and a Christian Insurance guy. When I have a business relationship with another Christian, I expect fair and honest treatment — not because I’m a Christian or because I work at a church — but because they are a Christian. Because of their faith in Christ I trust that they will treat me fairly — and if they don’t I know that God will clean their clock. Either way, I don’t need to worry. I can’t wait to have my house! I will be bringing my own bed.

-Adam Diehl

“Too many Christians use prayer as an excuse for inactivity.” 

I just love this book. Lately it’s words have really been more vibrant to me than usual. The Bible really is “God-Breathed” (2 Tim 3:16). Think about what that means – “God-breathed.” Adam was just a pile of dirt until God breathed into him. The Bible would be a just a bunch of words – but God breathed into it.

Last summer when I was in Oklahoma I went out and purchased a $40 metronome. It had some pretty cool features that I didn’t have on my other metronome that I had left back here in Indiana.

Now when I got back to Indiana the end of last summer, I brought this new metronome to the church office so I could utilize it to its fullness.

Then I dropped it.

Since then it just hasn’t worked like I wanted it to. It will be going along JUST FINE until you touch it . . . then the whole thing just shuts down. It’s so frustrating!

Yesterday I was working on the timing of this one song with my piece of crap metronome and of course it stopped working about halfway through the chorus. Then lighting struck my brain – CHECK THE BATTERIES!

I opened up the back case of the metronome to find the generic batteries that came with the metronome. I replaced them with top notch Duracell Procell batteries and now my metronome works like a $40 metronome ought to! I felt like an idiot.
-Adam Diehl

This is C.J. He played acoustic guitar during the Saturday night service last weekend. The story of how we got connected is totally a “God-thing” — so I must share it with you!

C.J. is from the South Bend, Indiana area — but last summer his church’s youth group went to a church’s youth camp in Colorado Springs. It was at this church camp that C.J. met my cousin Jeoffrey who lives in Colorado Springs. Jeoffrey and C.J. are both fantastic musicians. I had contacted Jeoffrey about possibly networking with me in a special musical missions project the end of this year and he suggested that C.J. come as well. I was open to that possibility, but of course I sure wanted to meet him first! His parents wanted to meet me as well.

Jeoffrey’s mother (my aunt) was here in Indiana to visit, and since she knows C.J.’s parents, she arranged for them to come out during our Saturday service so we could all meet. It just so happened that we were short an acoustic guitar player that evening so I offered the spot to C.J. as a guest musician. He jumped at the chance.

Now if that’s not a “divine connection” I’m not really sure what is!

C.J. is incredible. So is Jeoff. Their musical talent is outstanding and musical knowledge is through the roof – especially for their age and experience. Most importantly – they both have a fantastic attitude and they are truly willing to submit to God in their lives.

What happens when you get two amazingly talented Christians teens together in the same room? THIS happens. Everything you hear in that song was written, performed, recorded, and mastered by C.J. and Jeoff. That song, “Willing,” really ministers to me. Way to go guys!