mars hill evening service

last night, some buddies and i went up to mars hill to experience their evening service. what a great decision.

their worship space is set up in the round, and in the middle, on the stage is the band. each of the band faces inward, looking at the screens that you are looking at. it hit me during worship, they're taking the posture of worshiping with us. of actually leading us into worship. they are not leading to us. they are leading with us. the song selection was as follows:

Come Thou Fount
Ancient of Days
Maker of All (song taken from the Nicene Creed)
For the Beauty of the Earth
Blessed be Your Name

Benediction: Blessed (taken from Numbers 6:24-26)

rob bell did not teach. ed dobson did. he was the senior pastor at Calvary Church when Mars Hill was planted from there around 7 or 8 years ago. He spoke on the story of Zaccheus, which is recorded in Luke 18 right before Jesus goes into Jerusalem in a procession of palm branches.

the message was great. i won't get into it much. if you want to hear it, download it from itunes podcast or from their website(again, click on the title for the link).

what struck me was that he was diagnosed with ALS 7 years ago. and the man looks just like tommy paino. hair, beard, body, his voice even. he talked about greed and how he wants 7 more years. how we're all greedy. how we all want more.

the beauty is that he recognizes how blessed he is to be standing at Mars Hill 7 years later teaching.

the beauty is in the tension.

be good to each other. look at Christ. peace.