get schooled…

so tonight is the hillsong united concert at wave church in virginia beach, va. Jayla and I are going with Aaron and his youth bunch to the concert. I’m really excited about it, but thinking about the concert made me start reflecting on the history of me listening to hillsong, so i thought i would share with all of my followers (yea you know, like all 3 of you!!). for a brief time jayla and i went to wave church and we were introduced to hillsong. Around the same time, Aaron was starting a wednesday youth worship service and I felt that I needed to share the music with Aaron so he could share it with his youth and we have been listening to their music ever since. For me, Hillsong has been a big influence on my adult relationship with God. My passion in life is worshipping God and being in his presense and listening to Hillsong has been a big influence in that because of their music and their delivery. This may sound corny to some people, but they have really impacted me spiritually and just wanted to share that!! Have an awesome day and I will be back to tell you about the concert!!! (a side note: I challenge everyone reading this, be ready to ecounter God in your life!! He wants in and he wants control of you. LET HIM IN!!!!)

- Caleb

he put a song of praise in this heart of mine!! this is a pleasant post. i just want to bring all glory and honor to God this morning. He has been working HARD in my life and it’s paying off. I feel the change that i was asking for a couple of days ago. i just want to thank you if you have been praying for me because this couldn’t have happened without you! I don’t plan on going back, this is my life now…i have a passion to serve him and learn more about his awesomeness!! I hope God is working in your heart today and always…soak in his glory!!

-Caleb

I see I might have perked some people’s ears with my latest post about worship, so here is another one…I heard my brother talk about different types of ways to worship in his mini-sermon about tything and i want to take it a bit further than that. Worship is fellowship. Fellowship is so hard for young adults. when you grow up getting friends is relatively easy, but it seems to get harder as you get older. this is no different in church fellowship. My wife and I have had a very hard time finding that “place” that takes us in as their own. the closest thing was OVBC, but we stopped going there for some different reasons. we are going to TAB church in Norfolk, but its not really doing anything for either one of us…the service is okay, but sunday school class doesn’t really do it for us. there nice people, but there is no real connection. I guess i’m having a hard time with fellowship. At ovbc, people seemed to be okay with me, but jayla never really fit in. not many people reached out to her for fellowship and if they did she was caleb’s wife who is aaron’s little brother…while i love being aaron’s brother and i’m proud of that “title” it still was hard to find our own niche. What is expected of church? how should church members act towards “new” people? What should new people expect from church? btw justin said something about young adults and their attendence and excuses (read the comments on my last post) and he is 100% right. people do make as many excuses as they can to not come, but its our jobs to keep them from wanting to make those excuses. Why do people get discouraged from church? what we do as YAMs (can i say that?) to make them WANT to come back? Worship is everywhere and everything and I’m starting to take part in a lot more of it!! Keep Jay and I in your prayers, we need God’s guidance right now. Thanks for reading y’all…more comments please!!!!

So i was sitting at OVBC helping my big bro out last night and something came up with boo boo that struck a chord with me. Wanna know what it was, well i’ll tell you…we were talking about worship and what’s acceptable. maybe i’m wrong, but i thought worship was for God, not worship leaders. we were talking about how some worship leaders think they have to “hymn” up songs so they don’t seem like a “performance” on stage?! Really? i could have sworn worship was for God’s eyes, not the people. Why do we HAVE to worship a certain way? Why isn’t okay to dive around on stage, in the pews, in the balcony? Worship is anything that gives praise to God. Worship is NOT singing empty hymns so we look like a good, traditional worship service/church. What message are we sending to the young people who are passionate? “you can’t worship that way here…” there’s a reason young people aren’t in the pews on sundays, and its not because they were falling out of their chairs on saturday night, its because they have no place they are “aloud” to wholly worship their saviour and king. take this from a young adult who has struggled with this for 5 years or so, this is what’s occurring, i promise!! you can twist it however you want, but alot of churches are stifling to some young worshipers and some great young minds. One last thing, stop trying to “mold” new Christians. allow them to grow in faith and on God’s strength. i’ve seen this over and over with “new” Christians, they are on fire for God and then they get looked at “differently” by other Christians (yeah i said other Christians!!!!!!!!) for the way they worship or how they live and they get turned off by this whole thing called Church and they stop going!! Again been there, trust me. sorry these were kind of mean words, but i needed to get it out. if you don’t like what i have to say, please tell me your opinion!! I want this to lead to good discussion, not bashing, but discussion. Thanks for reading!!