Rethinking Worship

For those of you who have never done this, I highly recommend reading Nathan Lawrenson's blog series entitled "Rethinking Worship." These will make you think about the things that we so often do and say when it comes to church and worship, and they will help those of you who are non-NHC members to get a perspective of how things are viewed here at Nags Head Church.

Death to the Worship Service!

Burn the Sanctuary!

Terminate the Worship Team!

Fire the Worship Leader!

Gag the Worship Leader!

Rick, the Lead Pastor at NHC, also has a great perspective about worship on his blog.

It's All Worship

Take the time to read these 6 posts. I think they are very worth it.

Matt

Sunday FlashBlitz

In the spirit of being an NHC staff blogger, I have decided to do my own version of the Sunday Flashback/Sunday Blitz. Appropriately, it will be named Sunday FlashBlitz. Pretty original if I do say so myself.

This will be my write-up for this past Sunday, May 24, 2009.

• During the 9:00 am gathering, I worked with the 4-6 year olds in the Lil' K program. I was supposed to work with the 7-12 year olds in the Kidmo program, but I got moved due to the number of 4-6 year olds that showed up. I was told that 5 preschoolers actually got turned away because we ran out of room. (Just today, the church got permits approved to build a larger preschool area, so hopefully that will get done quickly.)

• Lil' K started with play time, and then moved into video time. The video was basically Christian Blues Clues. There was a guy that acted exactly like Steve, and a little K (i guess it was more like a "Lil' K") that hopped around and made funny noises. They searched for the secret item of the day, and sang a song about it while trying to figure out how it applied to today's lesson. I was honestly kind of annoyed by how directly it ripped off Blues Clues, but I guess it was okay since the kids enjoyed it.

• The lesson was about Jesus washing the feet of His disciples. The kids were learning that since Jesus served people, we should serve people too. I'm not sure how well they understood the feet washing part, but I tried to make sure they understood the importance of serving. I asked them how they were going to serve somebody when they got home, and they said they would share their goldfish crackers with their siblings. I'm cool with that.

• For the 11:00am gathering, I was in the main auditorium. I sat with some NHC college kids that I found.

• The Milepost13 Band was joined by the NHC Worship Choir for the first few songs. One of the songs they sang, My Deliverer, was a new one for me. I think it is already becoming one of my favorites. The words are very true, and it was presented extremely well by the band. They also sang Today is the Day, and Revelation Song.

• The teaching time was entitled Parting the Waters of the Impossible. It was part #14 of Rick's series through the Life of Moses. He went through the familiar story of the Israelites crossing the Red Sea. Here are some things that I took away from it:

• We all have something that God can use. Yes, I already knew this, but I like the way Rick put it. What did Moses have that God used? A stick. Thats it. In Exodus 14:16, God says to Moses "Lift up your staff, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground."(ESV) If God can use Moses' stick to part the Red Sea, then I think we have to admit that we must also have possessions that God can use.

• We have to be willing to let God use those things. Here is a thought for you. What if Moses' response to the above verse had been different? What if his response had been, "Yep thats pretty funny God. There's no way I'm dumb enough to fall for that one." If that had been the case, the Red Sea would not have been parted, and the Israelites would have been killed. Instead, he trusted God, and allowed God to use Him.

• The gathering ended with Bethany Dillon's song "Exodus" (a perfect song for the message) and "You are Good".

So that was my Sunday morning. That evening was my first NHC youth group, followed by a Memorial Day cookout on Monday evening. On Tuesday, I helped Andy with Children's ministry stuff. Today, I rode around with Rick in a U-Haul and helped him move stuff, followed by more Children's ministry back at the church. (Andy and I are putting together a cool new check-in station for Kid's Church that involves a touch screen and a barcode scanner. It's super awesome. Except for the fact that it is PC based. Thats lamo. But the rest is good.)

Matt

Weekend

This weekend has been great. It started for me on Thursday, when I left Northern Virginia, and made my way down to the OBX. This drive, which should take 4 1/2 hours, can often take up to 8 hours depending on traffic. Fortunately, it was completely clear for me and I made great time. I arrived at my tiny little host home where I will be staying for the summer with Les and Carol Petrie. Here's a picture:

Ok so maybe it's not that tiny. Anyways, Carol and Les and great people, and I am very excited about staying with them. Their kids are all grown and married, meaning they are both in grandparent mode, and that I am getting the grandkid treatment,which I am completely okay with. They are a very Godly couple, and I can tell that I am going to learn a lot from them. They will also be reading this, so I have to make sure that they sound good : )

Thursday afternoon, I headed to the church where I met with Nathan (creative arts director) and Andy (youth pastor) to discuss my role for the summer. I will be kept very busy working primarily with the youth and children's programs, as well as with aspects of the creative arts program. After that was band practice and a dinner at the church for the Nags Head lifeguards.

Friday, I went shooting at the Outer Banks Gun Club with Les and his friend Jerry. I had shot many .22 rifles and bb guns as a Boy Scout, but I had never shot a pistol before, so it was a fun experience. Saturday, we went for an 8.7 mile bike ride, which was nothing for Les and Carol, but was about as much as I could do as someone who was riding a bike for the first time in a few years. Other than that, I have mostly just been eating lots of delicious food and watching hockey games. And trust me, hockey games look pretty good when you watch them on the TV I've been watching.

So as you can tell, my internship has been full of intense work so far. Ok so maybe it has been more like a beach vacation. My real work starts on Tuesday, so I will have much more interesting things to write about then.

Matt

How I Got Here

Since I am interning at NHC this summer, I figured that I would explain the backstory on how I got here. Its a pretty simple story. You see, when a man and a woman love each other very much....

Oh wait, I guess I should be telling you how I got to NHC, not how I got to the world. My bad. Lets try this again.

I visited the OBX for a weekend in March with a big group of my friends. We wanted to go to church on Sunday, so we did a Google search for local churches. NHC was one of the many that we clicked on, and so after much prayer and fasting... Ok it was actually more like:

Me: "Hey this one says that they have contemporary music."

My friend: "Sweet lets go to that one."

Despite the super-unspiritualness of our decision, that Sunday morning ended up being a great experience (I would say life-changing, but that would be way too cliche). As soon as I walked in, I could tell that NHC was different (which is something that I have found out is very intentional). The people were just so friendly, and I felt very welcomed. Top that off with an excellent time of worship and teaching, and I walked away wishing that the gathering had lasted for another couple of hours.

After that, I kept thinking about the church. Finally, I got the idea that I wanted to intern at NHC for the summer so that I could learn what it is that makes them who they are. I emailed their Lead Pastor, Rick Lawrenson, with the proposal, and he emailed me back saying that I was crazy and that I should go find a real job.

Just Kidding. I found out that they had already been thinking about the idea of having an intern for the summer, and so he invited me down for a weekend visit. The weekend was great, and I came away being sure that I wanted to be at NHC this summer. I was lucky enough to stay with an awesome family, Randy and Ginny Holcombe. Randy has the same name as an NBA player, which is the reason he is awesome. And he is a super nice guy. Ginny has a store in Nags Head, so if you are ever in the area, check out Cloud Nine.

A week later, I got the word that everything worked out, and I could come on down. So now I am here, and I'm lovin it. Tomorrow I will post a review of my first couple of days.

Anyone else want to share their story about how they ended up at NHC?

Matt

Welcome

Welcome to my first blog. For those of you who don't know, here is a little bit about me:

• I am from Manassas, VA, where I have lived my whole life.
• I am a junior at Liberty University, where I am majoring in Worship and Music Studies.
• I am currently serving as an intern at Nags Head Church (NHC) in the Outer Banks of North Carolina

The goal of this blog will be to document my summer, as encouraged by the staff at NHC. I will try to write about pretty much everything important that happens, whether it be internship related or otherwise. Hopefully I will write things that are insightful and thought-provoking, but I can't make any promises.

To any NHC members who read this, feel free to leave a comment and introduce yourself (it will go a long way in helping me to remember your name).