Dan in Jail?

Not really. But thanks to my friend Holly Bollinger for "improving" this profile picture of me!

Anybody up for some Texas Hold 'Em?

Here's Justin, his friend Chase, and me playing a little Texas Hold 'Em.

Cousins Camp 2007

Every year we have cousins camp here at the Stephens house. It's going on right now. Here's a picture of Justin and Faith's cousins, Hannah and Sarah. Faith and I are in the shot too. Justin was taking the picture.

The Village Church and Park Cities Baptist Church

I visited two very different churches on the weekend of June 9-10. On Saturday evening I went to the Village Church in the Highland Village area of northwest Dallas. Of course, I thought of Hilary's book "It Takes a Village." Anyway, the Village Church meets corporately every weekend, and in several small groups during the week.

During the sermon, Pastor Matt Chandler talked about a recent Denton Baptist Association meeting he attended. And then he chuckled when he said something like "some of you are finding out for the first time that we're a Baptist church!" I thought, "Wow." A lot of young families are coming to this church, and don't even realize that it's Baptist. This is not a bad thing, really, because the people seem to know what the church and the gospel is all about. Matt emphasized some mission activities they were involved in during the past week. So they are definitely displaying the love of Christ in their community.

The music was wonderful: The praise team started with a country set of a couple of standard hymns that most everyone knew. The education minister made a funny comment at welcome time: Talking to their worship leader, he said, "Hey, that was country. We're going to have a talk this week." Everyone had a good laugh. After the welcome and announcements, they sang some slower worshipful songs, much like the second slow music sets we have in our early service. Following that, the sermon on Matthew 25 had the theme of using our talents: how much are we using our talents (skills, etc.) for the Lord? No invitation was given, but the pastor closed in a benediction prayer.

Lots of young families and students were here, along with several in their 40s and 50s. After the service, we all exited and were served coffee and a bag of chips. This wasn't your typical church coffee. This stuff was really good!

The next day I went to Park Cities Baptist Church. This congregation has been around since 1939, and is a well-established church. It reminded me of First Presbyterian Church, San Antonio, in its magnificent architecture. Also like FPC San Antonio, they had more morning traditional services than contemporary. Park Cities BC has two morning traditional services, and one contemporary service, while FPC San Antonio has three traditional services and one contemporary on Sunday mornings.

Anyway, Park Cities contemporary service looked and sounded very professional. It was in the "Great Hall" of the church; maybe that's their big fellowship hall. I don't know. Senior Pastor Jim Denison preached at this service, although he doesn't do so normally. Next, I went to their traditional service. They had a choir of about 40 people, along with an orchestra of about 18, including strings. This service is one of those "if it ain't in the hymnal, we ain't singing it" kind of services. Their choir anthem was lively and enjoyable; but the congregational singing was pretty slow. Those who know me understand that I like the tempos to be lively in the first music set of our traditional service. The offering was taken at the end, in response to the worship that took place, with a classical trumpet duet, accompanied by their wonderful-sounding pipe organ. Then we were dismissed in prayer.

I am so thankful that my church allows me to visit these congregations. I'm learning a lot and it's refreshing to be a participant, rather than the one who plans the service. And I'm so thankful for all the fine people who are doing the things I normally do back at my home church, FBC Wimberley!

More Thoughts on Blended or Separate Services

If anyone didn't know how I felt about the issue of blended vs. separate a.m. services, I think they know now after reading the last blog entry. Nevertheless, however our church decides to go on this issue, I will put my support there. People are offering different opinions to our pastor. So I pray for him to be able to work through the issue. I'm confident that he will, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, lead our church to make the right decision regarding this issue.

I told someone today that people are concerned about keeping our two services separate because, when we move into our new auditorium, the sheer size of it will make our church look small if we keep meeting separately. So, to keep this from happening, it seems natural to join the two services, so that we have a good crowd that comes closer to filling up the auditorium. My friend offered a possible solution:

He said that we might think about roping off the back sections of the auditorium, and lighting only the front part that contains the people. This way people aren't spread all over the place. As we grow we can gradually remove the ropes, etc.

Another thing that might be good is actually joining the two services for a month, or so, just to celebrate the new facilities. Then we could go back to our normal schedule. Any other ideas? I invite them. Also, if anyone can think of a blended service of 600 to 1000 people that is working well, and is in Texas, let me know. The Directors of Mission that I talked to (check out my last entry) couldn't think of any. So if you can think of one, please let me know. I really want to keep an open mind about this.

Blended Worship or Separate Worship Services

I talked to two Baptist Directors of Mission today. I told them I would be in Dallas this weekend, and asked if they would recommend a church to visit that had a successful blended service, one that was running 600 to 1000 members, or slightly more, in worship. They could not think of a single one. They knew of some smaller congregations that were trying to do a blended service, but were not having much success.

Both of these men agreed that it would be a step backward to join our two a.m. services (traditional and contemporary) into one that is blended. They said our culture demands that we have choices. Ultimately, they thought that people would not be happy with that arrangement because of their varying musical preferences.

I have talked with members of our church who have different opinions as to whether we should try to put our two very different services together. Some say that because of our two Bible Studies that happen concurrently with these two services, our church actually feels like two churches meeting in the same location. These folks complain that they don't know everyone in the church anymore.

Then there are others who, like the directors of mission I mentioned above, say that it would be a mistake to join the two services, and that it would possibly stunt the growth of our church. At the same time, they emphasized that music style is just one component among others that have to work together, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to produce numerical growth.

I have tried to remain neutral on this subject, but it's becoming more difficult. Right now we have a 10:30 service that was very traditional at one time, but is slowly becoming more blended in style. We also offer a contemporary service. As far as the number of people who actually attend these a.m. services, they are about the same in each service. This arrangement seems to be working well at the present time.

As for wanting to know everyone in the church, one director of missions told me that studies have shown that you really can't get to know more than 30 or 40 people anyway. So if we want to grow, we need to stop being concerned about knowing everyone. And is that really a prerequisite of church life, that we all know each other? What is the largest Baptist church you can think of? Now is there any possible way the members could all know each other?

To address this concern, we should probably offer more opportunities for fellowship in which everyone can participate, while still maintaining separate services. Maybe a "dinner on the grounds" every now and then would be nice, or a picnic away from the church some Sunday. It would be interesting to see what happens. I'll bet that people in general would go to the people they already know; i.e. the people who attend their worship service! Oops. I probably should tone it down a bit.

A long time ago I came to the conclusion that people just have different musical tastes. This is not a bad thing at all. We should celebrate our diversity. But to blend traditional and contemporary music into one service, all the while expecting everyone to like the two different kinds of music may not be very realistic. Some seniors, long time members of our church, already feel our traditional service is getting too contemporary for their tastes. And someof those who attend our contemporary service probably wish it were more "edgy" in the music. So I have to ask, why in the world we would want to try and meld these groups together.

I love all of these people who prefer one musical style over another. And I don't think they're being narrow minded just because they don't like certain types of music. I simply recognize that they are individuals who are more comfortable in their worship of Almighty God when they are surrounded with music that moves them, be it contemporary, traditional, or any other style you could imagine.

Finally, let me say that we need to see ourselves as one local church, regardless of the different kinds of worship services we have. Second Baptist Church in Houston is huge, offering 4 or 5 different styles of worship, meeting on multiple sites, and no one thinks of them as being more than one church. Let us just be thankful that we have different kinds of people in our church, and that we have the ability to offer a "palate" of styles when it comes to worshiping the Lord through music.

So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:26-28, TNIV).

I would appreciate you comments, but you will have to set up a blogger account to be able to leave them. This doesn't mean you have to become a big time blogger; it just means you have to do a few keystrokes to be able to leave comments. You can also email at danstephensmm@yahoo.com. As always, thanks for reading!

Gateway Community Church, Austin, TX

That's where I was today. Gateway Community Church is a seeker church in Austin, Texas. I have a cousin that attends church here. He was raised in the baptist denomination, but enjoys going to church here because of the emphasis on authenticity he finds here. Their Sunday morning services are very intentional about reaching skeptics and seekers in the Austin area. You can tell in the music and the preaching, where the lyrics aren't very theologically deep, and the messages invite people to investigate the claims of Christ.

My cousin Robert told me about some of the changed lives who go to this church, including an atheist who came to know Christ as a result of people ministering to him from this church. The service began with a band singing 3 songs, leading the congregation in worship. It was a high energy experience with a lot of participation. Then the children's pastor shared some announcements, asking for 75 volunteers to help in children's activities this summer. Next, a guy shared a testimony about being real. This was from the heart. He asked some hard hitting questions about authenticity. Next was an offering, with the band playing "Welcome Back," from the 70s television hit "Welcome Back, Cotter." After this a soloist came to the mic and sang a song that led right into the message. The pastor, John Burke, even referenced the song at the end of the sermon.

Even though it was a seeker service, the pastor referenced several verses from the gospels. At the end of the service, there was no invitation, but the pastor closed in prayer. Oh, and I forgot to mention earlier, that announcements were displayed on the screen during the offertory - "Welcome Back." And as the children's pastor was sharing announcements even earlier in the service, specific slides would come up as he shared about the upcoming events.

The church has a great bookstore and coffee shop. This is a very inviting area, where people can visit before and after the service. Here's their weekly schedule:

Each Sunday:
•	Three identical services every Sunday at 9:30 a.m., 11:00 a.m., and 12:30 p.m. We have plenty of room at the 9:30 and 12:30 services.
•	Exciting age-appropriate kids programs available for children birth through grade 4 at all three services.
•	Junior High (6th - 8th grade) meets Sunday mornings at 12:30 p.m.
•	High School meets every Wednesday night at 7:15 p.m.
•	Deaf interpretation available during 9:30 a.m. service.

Another cool thing is the blog that people are invited to check out after the messages. At this blog, called "Second Helpings," is a list of discussion questions from the sermon. People can go over the questions by themselves, or in small groups. This particular day, the pastor was beginning a new series called "God in Sandals: What we know about the Heart of God from the life of Jesus." The church's website goes on to describe the series, even giving the titles to the upcoming messages:

Jesus lived among real people with real problems, just like you and me. We can learn much about who God is by looking at how Jesus interacted, responded and lived life among us. Over the next six weeks we’ll take a look at His wisdom, forgiveness, masculinity, creativity, friendship and truth-speaking.

Date	Message
June 3:	Wisdom - John Burke
June 10:	Forgiveness - John Burke
June 17:	Masculinity - John Burke
June 24:	Creativity - John Burke
July 1:	Friendship - Betty Blake Churchill
July 8:	Truth-Speaking - Rick Shurtz

It was a great day of worship. If you are in touch with a skeptic, this is a great church for them to visit. They come in contact with people just like them. The people in this congregation represent people who are at different stages in their walk with Christ, many who are just checking out Christianity for the first time, even those who are struggling with addictions. This church welcomes all kinds of people. Love and grace are felt here. The pastor's brand new book, "No Perfect People Allowed" could be the theme of this congregation.