GlocalNet

Today has been a great day. We were going to see a movie - but everyone took a nap - I can’t sleep so thought I’d just jot down some quick thoughts. I’ve received Christmas greetings from all over the world today - from Vietnam to Israel, Nepal to Africa, diplomats to plumbers, preachers to engineers - you name it . . .

This year is going to be a blast - so much is coming together. Our new Worship Center will soon be complete. The chairs are inside of the new Worship Center now, and it looks like we enter January 27, 2008! We’ve never had a better staff and better morale than we have at this moment. I’m so pumped that we have a healthy DNA coming into our new worship center. I talk to lots of guys that grew their churches big and then have to go back and reengineer missional living - we’ll just be taking it to a new level. A long-time dream of establishing a connection center to help individuals and churches engage the world like we have at NorthWood is now becoming a reality--the whole glocal concept. The work in Vietnam is growing while we’re helping people to engage Nigeria, the Middle-East, and other parts of the world. I’m having to read more than I ever have before just to keep up and loving it. We’ve never had a better staff or a better Spirit at our church and we’ve never had more partners to come alongside us wanting to be a part. I’m pumped about our Dallas360 group coming together - churches and ministries are coming together to engage the city and start churches and serve the poor and everything else the church is supposed to be doing. There is so much to be excited about. Many of the children of NorthWood who grew up or were born here are now in the mid to early twenties and so many of them are doing some truly incredible things in business, technology, ministry, medical, poverty alleviation, worship, youth, and I could go on and on.

Last night we had 3 packed Christmas Eve services. Each one was worshipful, moving, at times funny, and at other times serious reflections. As we sat there, I began to think about Christian worship. No other religion varies the style of worship like Christianity. This is good - it means faith is reinvented for each generation. Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, animism - most forms of worship are still very similar to the way they worshipped when their religion began. Not Christians--it’s always changing, and hopefully always will. God, in a sense, is personalized when this happens, each generation has their own vocabulary, music, etc.

I looked out on our people last night and saw Catholics, Presbyerians, Charismatics, Baptists, Methodist, Anglicans - - - all of it. People were all ages, as well. Grandparents holding grandchildren--all crammed in happy to be there as families all singing the songs that invade every form of worship (contemporary, traditional, charismatic, mainline) - Christmas Carols. Age, church gathering places, and styles of worship were irrelevant - and as we spoke of the small drop of humanity mixed with Diety that was born in the manger I had a very strong sense of worship and of the presence of God. It hit me really hard--this is what heaven would be. There will be no worship wars or model wars--things that are so western and consumer driven--there will only be God and all of us from every tribe, tongue, nation, and family gathered as one body worshipping the Lion & Lamb of God.

As I thought about that, it hit me how worship to be real and comprehensive cannot be just for me - it must transcend me and my time and my tastes and opinions. This is value of other religions and their consistent form of worship - it is bigger than any era and style in history. So in Christianity we miss out on that some - HOWEVER - we must never forget that worship is the focus on a person/God Jesus Christ - and when the focus of our worship is on Him, any old song will do, any old instrument, any old person - because we are one body. If our worship is Jesus Christ - not the order of service - then it is consistent because He is the same “yesterday, today, forever.”