Never Alone

Ascension from the Rabbula Gospels.
Source: http://gnccne.ws/JZhWU1

What can you say when

There's much too much to be said;

Verbosity stinks.

--My haiku on having to give a blog update after too long of a gap

Since the last time one of us wrote, I have since traveled to Florida for school, together we went to Indiana for vacation, and now we are in the throes of change. These things are all happening simultaneously:

• Our close friend and compatriot Jon is moving out of Okoboji to Wyoming (which might as well be Mars, in our mind). Which means goodbyes. Which means tears.
• We are moving out of our current condo and going to be renting a house about 4 miles north of us. Which means packing. And taking down wallpaper and painting at the new place. And then taking what we've packed out of one upstairs-and-up-a-winding-staircase location into a much-easier-to-move-into location. (Who wants to help?!)
• I am wrapping up my second semester of grad school. Which means papers and final exams.
• We are moving our church's worship location from our Julia campus to the Tabernacle for the summer. Which means long work weeks, lots of untangling of XLR cables, and the annual experience of discovering the ghosts in the system.
• We are launching our Pilot Missional Community, which means organizing a gathering of 35 adults and 18 children into meaningful gathering of worship, learning, fellowship, and mission.

As I compile these things into a list, it can seem a little daunting. Not to mention, it can make you want to shake your first at...whatever it is you like to shake your fist at. Because why on earth do all these things need to happen in the same 31 day period?

__________

I've been considering the Ascension of Jesus recently. It is celebrated 40 days after Easter,  so this year it will be Thursday, May 17 (and/or the Sunday of May 20). It is a time to meditate on Christ's final instructions to the church, the (delivered) promise of the Holy Spirit, as well as the promise of Jesus' return.

What I'm thinking about currently is Jesus' promise, "I am with you always, even the end of the age," (Matthew 28:20). The thought that we are never alone, never left by ourselves to deal with the up's and down's of life is (here comes an understatement) encouraging. Downright uplifting. Jesus' presence is with us; the Holy Spirit of God makes us His tabernacle, and the whole earth is filled with God's glory (Isaiah 6).

But in yet another stroke of genius, Christ is with us in another way than a spiritual sense. Jesus setup His church to act as His presence on this earth. In fact, the church is meant to be the very body of Christ. When people ask, "Where is God?" in fact they are asking perhaps the harder-to-answer question, "Where was God's church?" But on the flip-side, when we are looking for God's presence, protection, and love we need look no further than the Bride, the Church itself.

So when I think of us moving, us saying goodbye to a dear friend, us launching a fresh, never-done-before ministry at our church, we take heart in the fact that we are not alone. We never were and we never have to be. The very Body of Christ, His presence, manifest in the church (local and universal) is here with, strengthening, bolstering, and helping us.

And that (here comes an understatement) is encouraging.

Welcome 2012!

I suppose I should call this blog post the perfunctory New Years post. Though it may be cliche, there’s really nothing wrong to take the time to reflect on the past and dream about the future. In fact, a good reflection is probably needed more than once a year. We can’t really know where we’re going without knowing where we’ve been or how we got there.

All this to say that 2011 has been a good year for the Parrott household.

It’s been a year of travel (Hawaii, Switzerland, Italy, Grand Rapids, Minneapolis, etc). It’s been a year of new experiences (concerts, grad school, church planting, etc). It’s also been a year of settling. We’re coming up on two years as residents of Okoboji, IA, and it’s been a wonderful two years. We now feel very much at home here in this little corner of the Midwest. We’ve adjusted to our jobs, made friends, and probably can’t use the excuse, “we’re new here!” any more.

This idea of settling in has really got me thinking as I’ve been reflecting on the past year. Up until this point in our lives, neither Anthony nor I could really tell you what settling in somewhere meant. We’ve gone from school, to graduating, to getting married, to job hunting, and now are finally here. Up until this point, we hadn’t had a job longer than a year (not a real job, anyways)... we had never lived in a home longer than a year (unless you count growing up with our parents!). So now we find ourselves in this whole new realm of life. We’re past college. Past some of the uncertainties of life. And we’re here. At least for now.

All of this has really made me adjust my prayer life and desires for the next year. I can see how easy it can be to let apathy creep in once one is settled in somewhere. How easy it can be to become comfortable. And how easy it can be to let that comfort dictate our lives. My prayer for this next year is that Anthony and I live intentional lives. That we be intentional with our time, with our love, with our money. My prayer is that we would seek God’s desires above all else and follow them even when it doesn’t make sense. Even when it seems “weird.” Even when (and especially when) it pulls us away from being comfortable. I never want to lose that desire from God that love and grace really can change the world.

So hopefully our lives can reflect this in the year 2012. Hopefully we can continue to learn to hear His voice and let that guide us. That is my prayer for us, and it shall be my prayer for you as well!

Happy New Year!

Autumn for the Parrotts

There's nothing I loathe more than writing a blog entry after it's been dormant for a while. (obviously, this is an exaggeration because there are a lot of things I loathe more than this, but stay with me). I've been thinking about writing something for a couple weeks now, but every time I've moved to write, I freeze up. Do I just ignore the past couple months of silence and pretend like it never happened? Or do I clumsily attempt to fill the reader in on what's been happening and then go ahead and write about what I originally wanted to write about?

Well, I guess the good thing is that I didn't have a specific topic in mind for today, so you get a little of everything!

This fall has been full of work, church, and school for us! Anthony is almost finished with his first semester of grad school. The homework thing has been an adjustment (for both of us), and it's been busy, but he has been doing well and is excited for the semester to be over. Here are some highlights from the past few months:

* In September, we had a wonderful 2 day visit from the Boards, who were in the process of moving back to the States from teaching in South Korea. It happened to fall over my birthday, which made it extra special! We reintroduced them to American culture with the Clay County Fair and lots of fried food :)

* The first weekend in October, I traveled to Michigan City, IN for a girls reunion weekend! There were 8 of us who got together over the course of the weekend, and words can't express how wonderful it was to see my lovely roomies from college.

* Also in October, Anthony I and traveled to Minneapolis with 10 other members of the worship team at Good News for a David Crowder* Band Concert. It was his last tour with the band, and it was a fantastic concert! And with Gungor opening the concert, it's hard to go wrong.

* We celebrated 1,000 days of marriage on October 7th! Gotta love reasons to celebrate!

* Towards the end of October, Anthony and I made a trip up to Minneapolis again. This time to visit with some family! Anthony's sister lives near Minneapolis and his other sister and bro-in-law were in town for a conference. We seized the opportunity to eat at Benihana's and talk the night away. It was a good, though brief, visit.

* This fall we also participated in a Spiritual Retreat in Sioux Falls, SD. This was part of a class that Anthony and I are taking at church. The retreat was just a day long, but oh-so-beneficial. To set aside a day to rest in the Lord was very refreshing and much needed.

* In November, we found our traveling once again to Minneapolis with about a dozen members of the worship team. This time, it was for a Hillsong LIVE concert. Yes, it was 2 concerts in 2 months, but can you really pass up the chance to see David Crowder or Hillsong? I think not. The Hillsong concert was a wonderful night of worship. As Anthony said, it was nice to go to a worship night and not be the one planning it or facilitating it. We both thoroughly enjoyed the concert.

* Sometime this fall, Anthony made the tough decision to change schools. Originally registered at Fuller Theological Seminary, he discovered that their distance program was not what he thought it would be. They offer limited classes online and are limited in the intensives he would need to take at the school. So in January, he will officially be a distance student at Asbury Theological Seminary (based in Kentucky). His classes will transfer, and at Asbury, he will be able to complete a Master's of Divinity in less time than it would have taken him to complete a Master's in Theology. They have a much better program for distance students and have been much better to work with.

* And that brings us to Thanksgiving! Holidays are difficult for us to get away, so this year my parents came here! They were able to make it in time for our Thanksgiving Eve service that we do with the Presbyterian Church. We had a great time of visiting and eating and relaxing. Luckily, the turkey and meal we made turned out well :) I also took advantage of the extra hands and we decorated for Christmas the Saturday after Thanksgiving. We cut down a tree at the local Christmas tree farm, and spent most of Saturday trying to fit it in the tree stand. Word to the wise, don't buy a tree with a crooked stump - it's not worth it!

Well if you've stuck with the blog this far, then BRAVO! You are now up-to-date on our lives! This next month looks to be just as busy: it's advent, we have a wedding in Michigan (yay Brett and Anne!), and Anthony will be taking finals. But we are excited about it all (except for maybe the school work). We will try to be better about writing (don't we always say that?). More to come later. We love you all... thank you for staying with us and supporting us!

Emily

Living Out Your Giftedness

 A few days ago I got an email advertising a sermon resource website. For a monthly subscription you would be able to download sermon outlines, media, and even entire sermon texts for you to use on your congregation. Now, I understand the need for resource websites. They’re helpful, they spark ideas, and they can come through for you in a pinch.

But the idea of a monthly subscription to this website just made me sad. It made me think of the many pastors out there who feel obligated to use this website, finding themselves called to ministry and yet not gifted in teaching and preaching. It has to be a scary place to be. And I can’t imagine that it feels very good to head to a sermon resource website each week when you’re probably thinking to yourself, Why am I not able to do this on my own!

So what causes this situation, that we have people called to ministry doing things that they don’t feel equipped for? Have we forced our pastors - and ourselves - into doing things that they’ve never been equipped for (either by natural talent, education, or the gifting of the Holy Spirit) because the rest of us, as the church, are not living out the things that we are equipped for.

I think many of us, way too early on in our lives, get pigeon-holed into a certain role or position we believe we must play. Much of our education system is based on the premise that you must pick one thing to major in and then do that one thing as a career the rest of your life. Can that really be healthy? Should our complex personalities, talents, and gifts we whittled down to a word or two?

Sometimes we get pigeon-holed into things we’re not even good at (like the person called to pastoral counseling, but finds themselves having to preach - and hit up sermon resource websites - 52 times a year). Sometimes we are pigeon-holed into something we are good at (like playing piano) and use it as our safe-place, never venturing to discover whether or not we’re good at anything else.

Is it possible that we have churches filled with folks who are simply unaware of their own giftedness? Many times it’s easy to get frustrated because of a lack of volunteers in a particular ministry. But do we simply live in a culture that constantly affirms this lie that you’re good only at what you’re most familiar with?

Now, don’t get me wrong. We can’t be faux-idealists and sit around only doing what we feel “called” to do. As a good friend of mine has said, “Do something you’re not passionate about.” And he’s right. Too many of us are waiting around for the “perfect” opportunity to get involved in something, but - gee whiz - that perfect opportunity just never seems to find us. So, on the one hand, I want to affirm that it’s okay to be involved not only in things you’re good at, but also in things that are just simply good. You may be uncomfortable changing a baby’s diaper, but sometimes they just need to be changed. Everytime you hear an opportunity to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, or help the poor, you can’t just claim, “I just didn’t feel ‘led.’” In the words of James, “If you know the good you ought to do, and do not do it, to you it is sin” (James 4:17).

But, on the other hand, what would happen in our churches - in our lives - if all of us began to seek out the rest of our giftedness? Could the woman who really doesn’t like children (God forbid) be allowed to leave the nursery and start some coffeehouse evangelism? Or the man who really doesn’t like handywork be allowed to pursue photography?

Most recently, I have been struggling under the weight of feeling unequipped to plant a new congregation. I’m fairly introverted, I’ve only led one person to Christ (and that was because I told him I would let him be my friend if he became a Christian. It was sixth grade), and I’m pretty comfortable doing the whole lead worshiper thing.

And then our denomination had me take a personality/giftedness test based on the “five offices” of Ephesians 4 (Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Shepherd, Teacher). Go figure, it came back saying I was an apostolic evangelist (apostle meaning “sent out”).

Perhaps there’s more to me than I’ve ever considered.

Perhaps there’s more to you than you’ve ever considered.

And maybe - just maybe - if we began to live out all of our calling, we would stop forcing people to do things they were really never meant to do.

The Spiritual Discipline of Worship

Yesterday, I ran slides for church. It’s one of the “perks” of being married to the Worship Director- I automatically get roped into volunteering in nearly every capacity. But I don’t mind this... it allows me to serve the church and be connected with Anthony’s ministry. However, yesterday was an early morning. The typical Wednesday evening rehearsal had been canceled, so the band was meeting extra early on Sunday morning to practice. As I sat behind the computer clicking sides, the sound man Chris made an observation. He said to me, “Do you think we really mean the words we sing about?” At that moment, the band was rehearsing a modern version of the hymn, “Take My Life.” Do we really want God to take control when we sing these lyrics? We mused for a few moments about what it means to truly desire God to take our lives, but then duty called and we were quickly pulled back to our respective jobs.

I found myself, however, mulling over this idea all afternoon. What does it mean to truly worship*? Why don’t more people actually bow down when we sing the lyrics “We fall down, we lay our crowns, at the feet of Jesus?” Why don’t more people lift their hands in worship when we sing “We come and lift up our hands, for the joy of the Lord is our strength?” I realize part of this is due to culture and comfort levels. But I found myself reflecting on my own history with worship. And it dawned on me that it takes me much longer to enter into authentic worship than it used to. So naturally I began to try and analyze why this is so. Back in college, it was easy for me to enter into worship without worrying about what people thought or without evaluating the band or my surroundings. But I think a large contributor to this fact was that I was attending chapel 3 times a week, church twice a week, and worshipping on a regular basis with wonderful communities and an amazing band. It was a constant part of my life.

On a bit of a different track, I have also been thinking a lot lately about spiritual formation and spiritual disciplines. I am working on choosing a book for our church’s women’s ministry small groups to study this fall, and the book I am looking seriously at is all about spiritual formation and discipline. It has been a great reminder that much of our faith is about training ourselves to become more like Christ. We don’t easily and naturally sit down and pray for 5 hours. Well, at least I don’t. But through discipline and training, this can become possible. In some ways, I think the same is true about worship. I believe in order to authentically and genuinely worship, it takes practice. It takes practice to shut out the nagging thoughts about the day’s schedule. It takes practice to turn your thoughts fully on God. And it takes practice to not think about how your voice sounds, how the band sounds, or how your neighbor sounds. Perhaps this is too harsh a way to think about worship. But I think we have to admit that there is a ring of truth to it. If our only time of worship is on Sunday mornings from 9:30-10:00am, then we don’t get much practice, do we? It’s difficult for your heart to be focused on worship. But if it’s a discipline that we focus on throughout the week, we learn to be better and more authentic worshippers. And not just alone, but together in church, in our small groups, at MOPS, wherever we gather. For me, I have been challenged to try and be more disciplined in my worship experiences throughout the week. I want worship to become a natural part of my life and who I am, and not just be a Sunday morning at 9:30 thing.

Do you ever feel out of practice with worship? What are some ways that you incorporate worship throughout the week?

*for the context of this post, worship is referring to singing worship songs. I realize that worship is so much more than song, but for simplicity’s sake I will use the term worship for music.