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Music

Music is loved by all because the notes and lyrics meet the need for order in our life. When your life is chaotic a song can often help you regain the order you need. Music is very subjective but I can't imagine anyone not enjoying the words to the Casting Crowns song, "Praise You In The Storm".

Praise You in This Storm

Casting Crowns
words by Mark Hall/music by Mark Hall and Bernie Herms

I was sure by now,God, that You would have reached down 
and wiped our tears away, 
stepped in and saved the day. 
But once again, I say amen 
and it's still raining 
as the thunder rolls 
I barely hear You whisper through the rain, 
"I'm with you"
and as Your mercy falls 
I raise my hands and praise 
the God who gives and takes away. 

Chorus: 
And I'll praise you in this storm 
and I will lift my hands 
for You are who You are 
no matter where I am 
and every tear I've cried 
You hold in your hand 
You never left my side 
and though my heart is torn 
I will praise You in this storm 

I remember when I stumbled in the wind 
You heard my cry to You
and raised me up again 
my strength is almost gone how can I carry on 
if I can't find You 
and as the thunder rolls 
I barely hear You whisper through the rain 
"I'm with you"
and as Your mercy falls 
I raise my hands and praise 
the God who gives and takes away 

Chorus 

I lift my eyes onto the hills 
where does my help come from? 
My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth 
I lift my eyes onto the hills 
where does my help come from? 
My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth 

Disruptive Innovation

Disruptive Innovation

The term disruptive innovation as we know it today first appeared in the 1997 best-sellerThe Innovator’s Dilemma by Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen.  Disruptive innovation is a new technology or innovation that displaces a sustaining technology or innovation. Most of the time, it is radically different from the technology it displaces, and often is a poorer performer. Although the latter may be counterintuitive at first, the disruptive technology usually captures the imagination of the market because it brings with it a twist not provided by the sustaining technology. It meets an unserved need for some unserved segment of the market. Digital cameras, for example, were a disruptive technology. Although the initial products created pictures that were far lower in quality than a traditional film-based camera, and they were fairly expensive, they permitted users to take, examine, and delete unwanted pictures without the need to pay to have them developed. 

Christensen points out the displacing technology is often a poorer performer and the reason it is successful is because it meets an unserved need for some unserved segment of the market. 

Consider Bible Study, Worship and Love for the sake of this conversation as technology for a moment. We can hit a home run in the quality of our worship and the style of our teaching and fail to love and lose the opportunity to minister to families. If love is an unserved need for an unserved segment of the market people will often, if not always, choose authenticity demonstrated by love over a well designed worship service or well presented lesson. 

Fortunately, we, church members, don't have to choose between quality and love; actually, true quality would be the result of modeling the love of Jesus. The point here is actually simple. Don't get so caught up in excellence, presentation and style that you forget to love. If the unserved segment of our population is folks that don't feel loved we might need to take a step back to the ole proverbial drawing board. On second thought run back to the drawing board you missed the Biblical mark entirely. 

Disruption, often referred to as change, is usually an unwelcome intruder we want to keep at bay. However, disruption is what brings about great ideas. Maybe you have heard the old saying, "Necessity is the mother of invention". When we become uncomfortable we begin to strategize, think outside the box, develop new ideas or solutions. If you hear folks making suggestions consider yourself lucky and listen to what they are saying. If you hear people complaining they might just feel unloved. If you have people leaving you missed the smoke signals and you better come to grips with the fact that you have an unserved segment of the population in your class or church. 

Hurricanes

Tropical Storm Eduardo is headed our way! The weather station is predicting it could reach a Level 1 Hurricane. Yesterday I was in Walmart and all of the bottled water is gone. Folks are standing in line buying flashlights and batteries. The prediction that a bad storm could cross your path and last as much as a twenty-four hour span has people moving to get prepared, interesting!

Hebrews 9:27 tells us,  "And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment." (NASB) Death is a certainty. I don't personally know anyone living who is over one hundred, very few in their nineties. 

You have to ask yourself if it makes more sense to prepare for the storm or eternity. Now I have to admit I think you should prepare for a hurricane but it makes little sense to prepare for such a temporal event and ignore eternity. 

As it turns out Eduardo fizzled out and didn't amount to much of a storm. However, we can be confident God's Word will stand forever.