Clif McKinley Dot Com

After a 2 weeks in Windows hell (let’s be honest it has actually been 13 years), I have seen the light and am walking away from windows.  Halleluhah I have been set free.  A generious congregate is giving me a Mac Book.  My deliverance has come, Herb and John I coming to the promised land!!!!!!!!!!

• 6 were baptized today, that is awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!
• Changes are happening with the worship team, Lisa is stepping down to pursue other ministries, I will be leader  once a month, Ed will be leading twice a month and we are search of a 3rd leader.
• Today we rolled out the request for funds for the roof.  We have saved $8-10k and need another $20k plus and we are hoping it comes in by September.  Please pray and give as the Lord leads.
• The new Series kicked off today, “Experiencing God” loosely based off off the book of the same name.  The goal of this series to to move all of us closer to the Lord away from empty religion into passionate relationship.
• There is a buzz in the air at Lighthouse, tons of folks are stepping up and looking for ways to get involved THIS IS VERY EXCITING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
• We have been working toward church health for the last 5 years and it seems like we are finally getting there.  Glory to God.
• Be sure to get plugged into the Life Development Process, Class 101 & 201 are being offered again in July.  So get in on what God is doing.
• You guys Rock!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

• What a day, a long one, but a great one.
• I had the privilege of leading worship this morning, and it was a blast.
• We wrapped up the “Why?” series, next week we will kick off “Experiencing God”
• We had 13 people take Class 301 “Discovering My Ministry” tonight and I am looking forward to the interviews and getting these folks plugged into a ministry position.

• Happy Father’s Day all you Dads
• Let me just say that “I hate Microsoft” or at least I do right now, it has been helpful in the past but after this last update, my computer just isn’t working right as a result no visuals for the message, but hopefully people go the point.
• Attendance was down, but that happens every Father’s Day
• The Worship Team did great, “Sweetly Broken” was awesome.
• I was supposed to golf today but the weather just didn’t permit, but I live to golf another day.

Maybe it is just me, I admit it, it could just be me, but it seems like Christian Music is experiencing a major drought. Aside from the likes of Switchfoot & Relient K providing the much needed showers of relief, everything else seems weak. Now I am not talking about the Modern Worship segment of CCM, that is alive and kickin! David Crowder, Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman, Charle Hall, Hillsong’s United, etc are churing out great music. But on the rock side of things, it is still very dry.

Just a few years back the industry was banging. Audio A, Jars, Silage, Supertones, DC Talk, Third Day, Plankeye, Plumb, The Waiting, Big Tent Revival, Newsboys, PFR, and the like work cranking out amazing music and touring like crazy. Now it seems like there isn’t a whole lot going on. Or is it just me?

Maybe more bands are trying to make it in the secular market place, maybe the A&R guys have bad taste, maybe I am just jaded. Or maybe there hasn’t been a really great break out band in a long, long, long time.

Even bands like POD that had breakout albums like Fundamental Elements of South Town & great follow ups like Satellite, just dropped the ball and faded to the background.

Maybe there is just too much amazing music in the secular market place so nothing seems to measure up in sound or quality. Where is a Christian band that rocks like Nickelback or Staind? A band that thrashes like old school Metallica or Anthrax? A band that has hook laden anthems like Blink 182 or Greenday?

Granted there is some pretty amazing Christian Hardcore bands, but that just isn’t satisfy my longing. So I spend my time listen to my old CD hoping for something amazing to come along. But I don’t see anything on the horizon.

I find myself looking forward to upcoming releases from Metallica, Disturbed, Staind, and the like. Will the Great Chinese Democracy see the light of day before the next great Christian Rock act? I hope not, but there are days that I think that is the case. Lord please send the rain.

So ends the rank of this disgruntled CCM fan.

I don’t think anyone can disagree that “Pop Culture” is the language of the masses in America, and more importantly it is the language of the next generation!

No responsible missions sending organization would ever send a missionary to a country unless they understood the culture, could speak the language, & could clearly communicate the Gospel.

Statistic tell us that America is fast becoming one of the largest missions fields in the world.  That even the churches are readily available that are not connecting or making an impact.  Other countries such as Nigeria are currently sending  missionaries to America.  Ironic I know, but a fact none the less.

When a missionary enters the field they seek to build relational bridges with the natives.  They enter into a dialog hoping to find some common ground on which they can build their Gospel presentation.

Whether we realize it or not there is a dialog about Spiritual matter going on around us all the time.  But do we have eyes to see it?

Last Summer one of the biggest movies releases was “Spiderman 3″ and the whole theme of the movies was forgiveness & redemption.  Millions upon millions of people saw that filmed and dialogged about it at home & at work.  How many of us took the opportunity to point the conversation to Jesus?

With all the trauma & drama of young Hollywood, family values became a huge discussion.  When Brittney was dealing with drugs, alcohol, a divorce, & trying to be a parent everyone was talking about family values and what went wrong with this girl.  Again a great opportunity to point the conversation that is already going on toward Christ.

The supernatural is all over TV & Movies.  Most people believe that there is an unseen world, that their are angles and demons, that there must be something more.  People are searching for answers for what they cannot explain, and in the absence of truth any answer will do.

Consider how Paul handled this in Acts 17

22″So Paul, standing before the council, addressed them as follows: “Men of Athens, I notice that you are very religious in every way, 23 for as I was walking along I saw your many shrines. And one of your altars had this inscription on it: ‘To an Unknown God.’ This God, whom you worship without knowing, is the one I’m telling you about. 24 “He is the God who made the world and everything in it. Since he is Lord of heaven and earth, he doesn’t live in man-made temples, 25 and human hands can’t serve his needs—for he has no needs. He himself gives life and breath to everything, and he satisfies every need. 26 From one man he created all the nations throughout the whole earth. He decided beforehand when they should rise and fall, and he determined their boundaries. 27 “His purpose was for the nations to seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him—though he is not far from any one of us. 28 For in him we live and move and exist. As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ 29 And since this is true, we shouldn’t think of God as an idol designed by craftsmen from gold or silver or stone. 30 “God overlooked people’s ignorance about these things in earlier times, but now he commands everyone everywhere to repent of their sins and turn to him. 31 For he has set a day for judging the world with justice by the man he has appointed, and he proved to everyone who this is by raising him from the dead.”

Paul took the “Pop Culture” of the day, and the dialog that already existed and pointed it, leveraged it to lead them to the Truth that they needed.

Here is the challenge, look around you, instead of judging the culture, look for the opportunity to leverage culture toward Christ.

I know I will get blasted for this one, so let me have it.

David Cook “Always Be My Baby”

Keane “Everybody’s Changing”

All-American Rejects “It Ends Tonight” & “Move Along”

My Chemical Romance “Helena”

Unwritten Law “Seein Red”

Sixx Am “Life Is Beautiful”

Reliant K “I Need You”

Jars of Clay “Much Afraid” “Frail” “Worlds Apart”

David Crowder “Obsession” “I Need Words”

Jeremy Riddle “Sweetly Broken”

Silage “Yo Tengo”

Staind “Outside”

What is “Pop Culture?”

According Wikipedia, “Popular culture (also known as pop culture) deemed as what is popular within the social context — that of which is most strongly represented by what is perceived to be popularly accepted among society. Otherwise, popular culture is also suggested to be the widespread cultural elements in any given society that are perpetuated through that society’s vernacular language or lingua franca. It comprises the daily interactions, needs and desires and cultural ‘moments’ that make up the everyday lives of the mainstream. It can include any number of practices, including those pertaining to cooking, clothing, consumption, mass media and the many facets of entertainment such as sports and literature. (Compare meme.) Popular culture often contrasts with a more exclusive, even elitist “high culture,”^[1], that is, the culture of ruling social groups.^[2] The earliest use of “popular” in English was during the fifteenth century in law and politics, meaning “low”, “base”, “vulgar”, and “of the common people” ’til the late eighteenth century by which time it began to mean “widespread” and gain in positive connotation. (Williams 1985)

Pop culture finds its expression in the mass circulation of items from areas such as fashion, music, sport and film. The world of pop culture has had a particular influence on art from the early 1960s on, through Pop Art. When modern pop culture began during the early 1950s, it made it harder for adults to participate. Today, most adults, their kids and grandchildren “participate” in pop culture directly or indirectly.”

In short “Pop Culture” is the language of our country, whether we like it or not. Those outside the church & many of those inside the church communicate in the language of pop culture. They see the world through the filter of pop culture. Right or wrong, it is a fact.

If I mention the names Brittney or Paris, most people instantly think of Brittney Spears and Paris Hilton. Again right, wrong, or indifferent, we cannot ignore the fact that the lens that most people view the world through is that of pop culture. TV Guide, People, & Us Weekly are among the most widely read magazines in the country. The average American watches four plus hours of TV a day. The average kid plays two plus hours of video games per day. The average adult spends three hours a day on the internet. Bottom line we are saturated in the popular culture.

Sure you can argue that millions of people in this country have no use for pop culture and could care less and that is true, but the bulk of the country does care and they are the ones we are trying to connect with and reach.

So my question is can we as the church afford to ignore Pop Culture or must we understand it and learn to communicate through it?

All you creepers (you know who you are) now is the time to enter the dialog.

WOW, what a read!

I loved this book, it was a very honest account of Brian “Head” Welch’s journey of faith.  He shaded very candidly about his difficult childhood, his drug addiction, and what a bad husband & father he was.  He was on top of the world as a rockstar but his private life was in shambles.  He was try to clean up his act on his own and do well for a little while, but like all of us he would fall back into old patterns.  Over and over the pattern repeated itself.  Finally his wife left and he was left as a meth-head, single dad, rockstar.  Forced to bring his daughter on the road with band he came to the conclusion that this was no life for his daughter.  His whole life he had wrestled with depression and it got worse and worse which only forced him deeper into his addiction.  He literally spend every day high for two years straight.  A friend invited him to church and had an encounter with God.

What I like most about this book was that Brian shared very honestly about his struggles even after giving his heart to the Lord.  He talk openly about learning to forgive and let go of long held bitterness.  Through his radical conversion his daughter, parents, and many of his friends ended up giving their lives to Christ.

The Head confesses that the journey has not been easy and that God has already allowed him to go through some deep valleys but it has been worth it all.  Any music fan will enjoy this book for behind the sense look at Korn and their rise to fame.

Two thumbs up!

• It was a hot day, WOW summer is here.
• Great service today, the worship team was killer, great vibe, and Johnny still has not broken a string!!!!!!!
• Why? Part 2 – “why doesn’t Go answer my prayers?”  Tough to prepare and tough to deliver, but I think it really helped some folks.
• My stool was Utterly ridiculous
• “Stop collaborate and listen…”
• Great day!