West Cocoa Chat

As many of you know, our church has been on an interesting journey. That journey hasn't been without some lows which I have chronicled in the past. But as low as some of those lows have been the "highs" have been above and beyond anything I could have imagined or had been praying for with respect to a "Church of Christ" in Central Florida. I do not say that by the way to hold us up as some model to emulate or strive for, for our individual churches' journeys will be as they were in the First Century - flawed attempts to be the "Bride of Christ." I say flawed because of the evidence of Paul's corrective Epistles to churches to as he told the Ephesians, to get both feet back into Christ. Sometimes those folks as we do at times, were hanging on by one toe.

One of best "highs" we've experienced has been the freedom to allow those that are talented musically, to use those talents for the glory of God. I have spoken about the folks on our Praise Team and our Praise Band in the past. They put in countless hours of prayer, practice, and patience as they strive to do something that is so, so subjective. That is to worship themselves as they facilitate worship for the rest of us, to do it with excellence, and to do it so that it doesn't look self-serving or as we tend to say in our fellowship, "entertainment."

Sidebar - I must confess to you that I struggle with the "entertainment" label. If I take it to the "preaching arena," how do you determine if you think you need to, when "really good preaching" that is engaging, moving, and even funny at times, crosses some line into "entertainment?" I'll confess (looks like I've been listening to too much "Catholic Radio" :) )to you that I might not be the best guy to throw out the (this is for you Randy http://www.randywray.com/ :) ) "e-word" on someone or something. My default program tends to go to appreciation first when it comes to folks who put in hours at church either teaching, preaching, singing, or in our case now, playing. That's not to say I'm naive enough to not know there are times when you need to throw in a "positive sandwich" such as:

"I sure appreciate the way you played your guitar this morning.
You know I think you might want to tell the sound guy to turn your volume down just a bit.
Thank you for all that you're doing for our church."

How was that? That was one long sidebar!

A part of this special group of folks came up with a dream to have a Saturday Night Praise Service at our church. This would be tailored towards those of us (of which I are one) who like Contemporary Christian Music from "Mercy Me" to "Skillet." This is a dream in more ways than one.

As some of you know, my son did not make our local Community College Baseball Team. A part of his life that was so much him and to some degree us, has stopped. His music, our worship guy, Mike, and this Band has been a dream come true to him and us. He has taken the energy that he used to throw into batting practice and has now thrown himself into this band, his walk with the Lord, and our attempt at a Saturday Night Praise Service.

The other part of this dream aspect comes from an unexpected source - my wife. You see, my wife teaches Kindergarten, she is as Mike (http://preachermike.com/) Cope once blogged about, our church's "food lady," but she isn't one who dreams about bands and their names. That is, until a few weeks ago. Barb woke up one morning remembering a vivid dream about Steven, Mike, and their Praise Band. She said they called themselves, "The Pulse." In the dream there was a video playing of Jesus, his arms outstretched, blood pulsing out of his wrists but instead of it being red, it was the name of nations and people as if Jesus is the pulse (or should be) of the World. She said she could hear our drummer beating his drum in rhythm as a beating heart drives the pulse in our bodies. All of this from someone who does not dream about Contemporary Christian Rock Bands.

My wife sweet wife who doesn't have a demonstrative / aggressive bone in her being, felt compelled to tell Steven and Mike about her dream. If you knew her you might say that part of this story is a dream. Well, they heard her story and they adopted the name. So this coming Saturday night at 6:30 at what was once a very improbable place, our church, "The Pulse" will present a concert / service that they're calling "C4." C4 stands for the four "C's" in our name, "Central Church of Christ in Cocoa" and as I'm sure many of you know, "C4" is also explosive used by the military.

Isn't that what God's Word and putting on Christ in our lives acts like - explosive? Sometimes old things need to be "exploded" to allow the new and righteous to enter and take hold. The Pulse has already been an answer to prayer and in many ways, a dream that has come true. If you get a chance, pray for these guys. If you can, fly on down and hang out with us on Saturday.

God bless.