Author: Adam

Hey this is my personal info. My blog, at least right now, is intended for people who already know me, and they know that I am from Northeast Indiana, but for the summer of 2006 I'm chillin out in Tulsa, Oklahoma for an internship. So since everybody on this page probably already knows me I'm not going to waste extra time to say that I'm 22 and I just graduated with my music degree and I play the piano, and have felt called to ministry since I was in 3rd grade. Yea, I'm not going to say all that extra stuff.
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Don’t Be Such a Sissy.

I think Christians are a bunch of sissies. There are a few of us who fight against sin and spiritual darkness — but I’m under the impression that most Christians just feel bad about their habitual sin, they feel bad about those around them heading towards an eternity in hell, they feel bad that the United States is already viewed as a “post-religious” nation — but they don’t do anything about it.

That’s not the attitude that this scripture shows us. That passage talks about “taking a stand” against spiritual darkness (and it provides a battle plan to do so). James tells us in the Bible that faith without works is dead faith. That doesn’t sound to me like a Christian can afford to be a sissy. Christianity is not for wimps, yet too many Christians are sissies because they think its all about “being nice.” Let me tell you about a fighter.

I know one Christian teenager who was overcome by temptation and used his computer to access a pornographic website. He sinned. And he knew it. Most Christians would just feel bad but not do anything about it. Not this guy. He decided that he would not be sucked into such spiritual bondage. That same day, he un-installed the internet from his computer. Now he can only access anything on the internet through his parents’ computer (in a public room). Furthermore, the privacy in his own bedroom led to his struggle, so he got a screwdriver, and literally took his bedroom door off his hinges. His door is now sitting in his garage. He cannot even change his clothes in private. All because he didn’t want to sin.

This same Christian teenager realized he had become too lazy. So he fasted — from his bed. For 7 days straight he slept on his floor, rejecting the comfort of a bed. All because he wanted to be vigilant for God.

I’m not suggesting we all do these things. But I wanted to show us all that Christianity is not for sissies. We need to pick up our weapons and fight!

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One of a Kind. One of Many.

Leading the Worship Arts department at New Hope Christian Center would be impossible without the horde of Worship Arts volunteers, and to each of them I want to offer a great big THANK YOU!

One volunteer that I want to point out in particular is Luke. Luke is currently a middle school student who serves in a variety of behind the scenes ministries. Luke helps run sound for the youth group. He helps film and edit many of our video projects, which is extremely time consuming. Every one minute of video requires AT LEAST one hour of video editing — and Luke helps with this on a regular basis. Every single week Luke comes into the church’s media booth and artistically selects worshipful backgrounds for the songs we sing in worship. These backgrounds can help determine the environment of the room during the service, and Luke does a fantastic job with it.

All of these ministries are very behind the scenes, and Luke continues to serve faithfully. Luke is amiable, committed, respectful, reliable, dedicated, passionate, focused, creative, and inspires those he is around.

Luke is one of a kind, but at the same time he is one of many volunteers who consistently use their gifts to honor the One who gave them. Thanks for serving our Lord.

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Once Upon a Time at a Hotel.

I’m out of town right now for a convention and I’m staying in a hotel. You might recall a few days ago I made a blog mentioning that I liked using shampoo that smelled good.

I used the hotel’s shampoo last night and it didn’t smell very good. Now don’t get me wrong — it did smell — just not very good. It was sort of a “fruity pebbles” smell.

I also forgot to pack deodorant. Stay away from me today, folks. Stay away. Just kidding. There was a store right next to the hotel that I could buy some nice deodorant. The hotel probably had some free stuff, but with the shampoo smelling like fruity pebbles there was no telling what their deodorant would be like — so I went ahead and bought the good stuff.

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The Devil is Bad.

Last weekend was a little rough (hopefully nobody knew it). Mostly it was just Saturday night. I arrived early as usual to rehearse with the Saturday night worship team. Rehearsal went pretty good. After rehearsal I headed back to the office complex to pick up the service schedule and check with my pastor to see if there were any last minute adjustments that I needed to know about. He said, “Be prepared for some obstacles, Adam. Satan does not want this service to go well.” He went on to mention several problems that had occurred already.

The “pre-service” music sounded fine. But RIGHT AS WE BEGAN WORSHIP, one of the two FOH (front of house) speakers just stopped working. Our sanctuary is set up to be more wide than deep, so for one of the speakers to stop functioning is a huge deal. My sound guy wasn’t experienced enough to troubleshoot the problem. After the worship set I went back in the booth and began troubleshooting. Both sides of the amp were receiving signal, but only one side was outputting. It wasn’t easy to check, but one of the connections had come loose at the back of the amp. It just needed to be stuck back in and screwed into place. I thought about fixing it during service, but then I realized that if I touched the + and – at the same time, I’d suck in about 600W of electricity. No thanks. So we just waited until the end of service to fix things. It’s all good now, but a wise man was right when he said,

“The devil gets into sound systems.”

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Aslan is on the Move!


I took a walk yesterday and my dog came with me as usual. I live on a dirt road with very little traffic so I wasn’t concerned with a leash or anything. I was surprised to see my two cats come on the walk though. They just followed me everywhere I went a few feet behind mine. Sometimes they stopped to smell something, and then they had to work extra hard to catch up. I didn’t pay a lot of attention to them because I was on the move, but they were constantly following me. Were they expecting something? I don’t really think so. They followed after me because I was the Master and they didn’t want to miss what I was doing.

“Aslan is on the move!” This popular line comes from C.S. Lewis’ book The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. This fictional story is an allegory of the true story of our salvation through Jesus, represented in the story by Aslan the lion. In the story, the main characters are told that Aslan had been away for a long time, but he was coming again very shortly. Then came the noted phrase, “Aslan is on the move!”

I got some news, guys. “Aslan” is on the move again.

God is on the move!

Do you really believe that? Are you following Him as intensely as my cats followed me, simply because they didn’t want to miss something that their Master was going to do? If Jesus Christ were just outside your front door right now, would you pursue Him with the same intensity that you are pursuing Him right now?

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Faith.

I was at a prayer meeting recently and when we were praying for specific requests, someone asked God to reveal His will beyond a shadow of a doubt. We prayed for this person, but not until someone spoke up:

“For faith to exist, there must be a degree of uncertainty.”

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Consumerism.

Consumerism is a part of our society, and boy is it great! I love being able to walk into a store and buy shampoo that smells good. I enjoy the convenience of purchasing nearly all day-to-day items in a “Super-store” all-in-one format. I enjoy being able to walk into a burger joint, grab a Big Mac, and leave. I come in, I eat, I leave. The companies produce a product for me, the consumer. Many times I have a wide variety of types of product to choose from — which makes the “market” competitive. I don’t think there is anything wrong with that. This becomes a negative issue; however, when we apply this same concept to the church or worse yet – a Christian life.

To the Generalized American Church:
Stop treating the church like a burger joint. So many of you walk in, eat, and leave. Church is about community. Find your gift — the thing that God has “wired” you for — and use that thing for the Kingdom of God. In the end you’ll be “pumped up” for serving in your area of gifting. Don’t just eat and leave. That is disrespectful to the Word of God. Let your faith be living faith; faith without works is dead.

To Church Leaders:
Remember we only have one person to please – and that’s God. Don’t be swayed by the consumerism mindset of the generalized American Church. The weekend service is not a product.

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SpFx.com

This “plug” is for the techies (I know you’re out there). If you’re not a techie, you can stop reading this post.

Last weekend was Easter weekend and at my church we used confetti launchers disguised as plants during the service to help us celebrate the resurrection of our King. We rented this equipment from a company in Orlando called SpFx.com. From the looks of things, their equipment is typically used for gigantic events, but I was only renting 2 small confetti machines and I still feel like I received royal treatment. This is a plug for “SpFx.com” Every phone conversation was extremely professional and concise. The company is very “on the ball” and they even recognized my name when I called in with a question.

After receiving the rental product there was some confusion with the assembling of the confetti launchers. Specifically, we needed to tape a cap to the top of the canon to build pressure. This was not indicated in the instructions, which is no problem for someone who does this all the time — but this was the first time I ever used a confetti launcher and I didn’t know unless someone told me. The problem was solved with one extremely helpful and professional phone call. I suggest SpFx improve their directions so that the inexperienced would be able to assemble the product correctly the first time.

Overall, I was extremely impressed with spfx.com. They are prompt, polite, punctual, and professional. I intend to use them in the future.

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Christafari.

Earlier tonight I was helping a friend of mine with the final drafts of a song he had written. I wanted to show him an example of a specific keyboard sound I was suggesting he use. I searched through my music collection searching for a song that would have the sounds I wanted to hear when I came across some music I had forgotten I had . . . Christafari.

Christafari is a Christian Reggae group. The music is quite amazing; pretty different. But music aside, this is still an awesome group.

Christafari isn’t ashamed of their beliefs. They are reaching a group that (to my knowledge) no one else is reaching. Many people associate Reggae music with Bob Marley and marijuana. So the Christafari website has a section dedicated to discussing how Bob Marley became a Christian and how marijuana is wrong. How cool is that? Christafari is a “counter-cult, drug aversion ministry that uses the conscious sounds of reggae to bring the lost to the light.”

Check ’em out.