Good Friday and Easter at Buckhead Church

These are my experiences from this weekend:

Friday:

We left at 5:30 because we thought traffic would be really bad... it wasn't. We got there at 5:50. We were so early the parking lot hadn't even opened. After sitting in Michael's car and watching videos on his iPhone, we went inside a little after 6. Once inside, we got our picture taken with a Polaroid camera... how cool is that? After standing around for a little over 30 minutes (hey, im tired after a long school day...) the doors finally opened. We calmly walked in and started looking for seats (i dont like those people who rush in so they can sit really close to the band/speaker). Suprisingly nobody was sitting on the front row... there were paper signs in the chairs saying:

"Because of the intensity of today's service, this row may not be suitable for those affected by sudden noises or those who are sensitive to dust."

Thank you

Oddly enough, on the front row in the center, it was us and an elderly couple (80+)... everyone else was in the 2nd row or farther back... Then the service started... 5 minutes into it, the power goes out... things start humming. Fortunately power comes back on. It took a while for all of the intelligent lights to warm up, but everything went back to normal. The worship was great, Casey Darnell is an amazing worship leader, and the guitarists were great.

I only had one problem: no words on the screen... I'm not a Super Christian... I don't know all of the church etiquette rules: Should I should sing/stand or sit/watch. Some of the songs I didn't know... I'm sitting in the front, so if I stand I block 10+ people's views... things like that.

The guitarists were different which made it even better. The guy on the left played some sort of vintage telecaster in a grey/arctic white. I got a glimpse of his pedalboard when I went to take communion (it wasnt sacrilegious, just a peek...) he had some classic analogue pedals. He also had a Les Paul goldtop with humbuckers. The guy on the right played a Gibson Les Paul (except for Phil Wickham's True Love, he played a telecaster). I didnt see his board, but I imagine it was more modern/digital. They both have amp heads on stage that are probably boosted to isolated cabinets.

Throughout the service, this girl painted Jesus on a large canvas in the middle of the stage. The service started with Creation and ended with the ressurection... and all in the space of ~20mins. At the end, they faded the lights until only the face of Jesus was lit. Then, 5 drummers (not including the kit) started playing a tom/snare combo, strobe lights flashed, and a couple guys violently destroyed the picture of Jesus... revealing a cross... with our pictures on it... my picture. Then they went into a haunting beat that started Phil Wickham's "True Love." 6 drummers, 2 electric, 1 acoustic 1 piano/synth/synth 1-2 backup singers all singing... it was incredible. here's a video made by Carlos Whittaker (Buckhead worship team leader):


Good Friday 2009 - Ending from buckheadchurch on Vimeo.

Sunday...

Sunday we got there at about 10:40 and the traffic was terrible after getting off GA 400. Fortunately we got a parking place... The greeting/service people were amazing as usual (didnt see the little kid though...) We got good seats in the balcony ( we normally sit in the balcony to sometimes watch the audio people work) The service started with Casey singing "True Love" again (yet again, no words = nobody (except me and Michael) singing or standing). We got Andy on the screen (as usual). When he mentioned scripture I looked it up in my bible and definitely "bible" pressured the girl next to me (she got hers out right after I did) she was pretty though... I lug my NLT study bible purely for context notes/cross reference stuff... At the end, Andy had a Prayer/Call and Response time. He then asked people to stand if they prayed the prayer. Unfortunately some guys thought they would beat the traffic, so they stood up and left. This kinda made it awkward when people clapped for them leaving. Fortunately several others stood which was amazing. I love Buckhead...

Then we ate at La Parilla...

Mark Driscoll

For my birthday I several Mark Driscoll books, including Vintage Church and Vintage Jesus and his "Books You'll Actually Read" series

Here's him on ABC's Nightline discussing the existance of Satan:

Nightline

Here's some notes from another blogger about the event: notes

Unfortunately, Mark Driscoll carries alot of criticism with him. I personally disagree with alot of it, but Im going to link to it in fairness... criticism

Faith and Perseverence

This monday was gonna be really cool for my freshman city group. we were supposed to get together and come up with discussion/conversation starters about faith and perseverance. unfortunately i didnt try... i put the entire email off until tonight, and now its too late to group up. so im gonna come up with stuff on my own (and hopefully bring something to the table) Ive decided to focus on people who are considered "great" christians, but have some sort of huge failure in your life. so now im gonna make a list:


People who are (preferable in the hall of faith Hebrews 11) great Christians:

1. Paul - persecuted Christians (acts 9)
2. Abraham - had Ishmael with Hagar (genesis 16) but had faith with Isaac (genesis 22)
   
3. Jacob - stole the birthright from Esau (genesis 25)
4. Moses - struck the rock without giving credit to God (numbers 20) but had faith to lead the Israelites out (Hebrews 11:24-29)
5. David - slept with Bathesheba and killed her husband (2 samuel 11) but was "a man after God's own heart" (acts 13:22)
6. Samson - let lust and pride destroy him (judges 16) but destroyed the philistines (judges 14-16)
7. Peter - denied Christ (luke 22) but is the rock of the church (matthew 16)

(sevens a good number...)

great in the fact that they made a difference but others remembered them for what they did for the kindom and not for their sins

freedom

in my lifelong struggle to live as Christ, I came across this verse:

"For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love." Galations 5:13

i think we would become more complete Christians if we could only grasp or imagine just what it means to be free in Christ. and to serve... in love...

how often do we selfishly do things for ourselves, for our benefit, at the expense of others? how does competition play into this? do we even know we're doing it?

Love all the time

So I sometimes get these ideas when I'm going to bed and listening to God....

Ive always been fascinated with the difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament. In the Old Testament, God lists ten explicit rules to follow: The Ten Commandments. But, in the New Testament, it is replaced by two simple commands: Love God, Love others. I am guilty of trying to obey every rule and avoiding the "dont's" instead of simply loving. Sometimes we can manipulate the definition of "love" to fit our needs.

Love is (1 Corinthians 13):

1. Patient
2. Kind
3. not Envious
   
4. not Boastful
5. not Proud
6. not Rude
7. not Self-seeking
8. not easily angered
9. Keeps no record of wrongs
10. Does not delight in Evil
11. Rejoices with truth
12. Trusts
13. Hopes
14. Perseveres
15. Always...

There's so much detail in the simple verses, but its really thought provoking because for us to love, we must accept every single one. all the time... even when we're hurt, or abandoned... or wronged... when we get too busy to love... when its embarrassing/uncool to love.... when we're prideful about our achievements and accomplishments... "keeps no record of wrongs" is a hard one to follow.

or self seeking...

Bias in Life...

I read an interesting article yesterday about media bias and censorship in the upcoming election. It talked about how the media only chooses certain events to show and how it moulds its coverage to fit their views...

Do we as Christians take parts of the Bible and just ignore it or "interpret" it the way we see fit?
Examples:

1. Do we ignore the fact that God ordered the Israelites to wipe out entire populations? Geonocide? How does this affect our definition of love?
   
2. Read Numbers chp 31
3. What about Salvation? How do works play into it? Should we "work" out our salvation?
   
4. Corinthians is filled with verses dealing with women, have we changed that for a reason?
   
5. Jesus came with a radically different plan, are we really radically different?
6. Is it actually noticable to others? All the time?