Contemporary Worship?

Church praise singers often make me feel uncomfortable. It often looks like THEY are uncomfortable, especially when they’re in their 40’s and 50’s, dressed in kakis and singing songs they’re not totally familiar with. If a church is trying to appeal to people in their 20’s and 30’s (and younger), the praise band should be comprised of people in that age group. I always think those praise bands were formed by a church committee.

At Passion Church it seems like song-leader Chris Tomlin is making eye contact with everyone in the room. When the singing begins, at first I might not be completely focused on singing, or the words of the song. Then I look up and Tomlin appears to be looking at me, singing and smiling. And I’m sitting a third of the way back, on the side. After that I’m more focused on the worship.

I'm sure having familiar singers leading worship is a comfort for regular attenders. Some churches focus on visitors, and other churches focus on regular attenders. These days I'm more of a seeker church guy.

Pigs-in-blankets: they had them at the UAB reception Sunday afternoon at “The Club.” They were overcooked: the one I ate was tough. They also had other typical reception food: chicken nuggets, fried cheese balls, little pimento cheese sandwiches, fruit, cookies, and brownies. Coffee and lemonade to drink. I didn’t eat much, but others were loading up their plates.

On the drive home Sunday we listened to the end of the Pats game. Lang found a good article absolving the Ravens kicker from much blame, as the play clock was running down. Later it appeared on Yahoo. Watched the second half of the Giants/Niners. It was a great game. I was thinking it would take something dramatic, like a fumble, to win the game.

Monday Matthew had his first appointment with orthodontist Jerry Capps. Will and Matthew had practice: baseball and basketball. M’s team lost last Saturday. Ceil said Matthew played well…two shots rolled in, then out. M’s 12-14 year-old basketball practice: The star was checking his cell phone DURING the practice. Neither the coach or his dad said anything. Boys were bouncing and spinning balls while the coach was talking, obviously not paying attention. During the scrimmage the better players wouldn’t pass…they were doing things they’d never do in the game…fouling, illegally pressing in the backcourt, stepping out of bounds, etc. Then the coach gave them doughnuts after practice! Everyone took two, leaving none for the coach.

Hopefully in the long run Tech can get players to play hard against all teams, and not just Duke. Some of it is coaching, but you need players who want to play hard. Some college players seem to only play hard when they want. Kind of like on Matthew’s team.

Not much going on. Tuesday night I ran after work, stopped by Kroger, ate hot dogs, baked beans, and slaw. Watched some of Obama’s speech, then watched a good episode of White Collar.

Watched more of the Hawks Tuesday night than I have all year. Teague does seem to be the difference. Saturday Heinrich was swapping tweets with Lang, I noticed.