Praise Gathering

I am spending the week in Indy at Praise Gathering. Three days of Ministry Council meetings and two days of Praise Gathering makes a full week. It has been great to see Maria and Jonathan - they were out in California last week to visit with her family as her Dad was installed as the pastor of the Church of God in Long Beach, Ca. She is doing well but cannot return back to work for another week. Her sternum has to heal before she can return to the Coronary ICU unit. They will continue to struggle financially for quite a while. Anyone who would like to assist them in paying doctors bills, hospital bills, regular bills while Maria is out of work, etc., please let me know! Jonathan is doing well and continuing with his graduate education. They are both still in love and planning a wedding for the spring-summer time.
Last night I spent 3+ hours in a concert at Praise Gathering. Talk about diversity! From Randy Travis to the Katinas to Steven Curtis Chapman. Wow. I am continuing to learn that style of music is not commensurate with the act of worship. I am not a country western music fan but loved listening to the Isaacs blue grass and Randy Travis' music. Message means more to me than anything else and they all had a great message. I am not sure that it is even appropriate for a Christian to worry about the packaging of the message - I think it is only appropriate to evaluate the quality and truth of the message. The packaging always changes but the message does not. I remember the disciples telling Jesus that they stopped someone who was healing in the name of Jesus because they didn't know him. Jesus rebuked them because he was not concerned about the packaging but he was concerned with the message. We do not all praise God the same way. So what? We do not all hear the same way. So what? Let's concern ourselves with message, substance, and truth and not volume, style or beat. It will change the mood of the church and help us to live out the call of God.