BST's Blog

There was a buzz in the air last night. About every 15 minutes a new group of wide eyed Otter Creekers walked into the sanctuary and we stopped to dream together about what might happen in that space. Here's some of what I said...


Welcome to our new SANCTUARY! The best way to begin talking about this space is to piggy back on Bernie Arnold from this morning's DVD. She talked about how we'd been surrounded over the last 55 years at the Granny White property by such a great cloud of witnesses but that this move allows us a unique chance to teach (insert kids' names in the room at the time) to be the great cloud of witnesses for a generation yet unborn. The Psalms speak of this saying-- generations yet unborn will speak your praise, O Lord. What an AMAZING opportunity!

The vision for this space includes DYNAMIC teaching/preaching, DYNAMIC worship, and DYNAMIC family life experiences. Because this is Nashville you can see a good performance about any day of the week. You can go, be moved, and leave saying--WOW that was awesome! The difference in that and what I'm talking about is YOU. The way we will move and impact this community and our world is not so much what will be happening on "stage", although we will continue to strive for excellence and even more creativity there. The way we will most affect change is by what's happening out in the pews. If we are a worshipping church, if we allow ourselves to be engaged in every part of our corporate experience together--then guests will come in and say, "Surely the spirit of God is in this place!" Face it, when guests come in, they expect that what's happening up here (on stage) will be professional--or at least a good effort. And it will be. What will really impact them though is what they feel from the living organism that is the Church at Otter Creek. If we are worshipping and praying and studying with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, it will impact people. We want this to be a safe and spiritually challenging place for guests.

Do you know there is no such thing as "armchair" or "spectator" worship? We are called to dive in! Some of us come on Sundays and sit back and watch the "show". Now is the time to make a change. There will be an expectation of all of us to be a full part of what we're doing in here corporately. This will not be a production--it must be an interactive worship experience!!

This move affords us a unique opportunity in our history to shake the dust off, to re-evaluate, to re-prioritize, and to renew our minds when it comes to our corporate worship experience. Please be in prayer about this and take it personally.

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working on Fresno and preparing to leave on Thursday. Rehearsal tonight with ZOE. Have a great day and PRAY that Stephen and Stephanie Bailey have that BABY today!!!!!

Also, I'd appreciate your prayers for a dear friend who went all the way through school with me--Shannon Crowe Zachary. Over Christmas they discovered she had cancer. She's having surgery tomorrow. Pray for her husband, Mark, and her sweet children (2 of them). She believes in prayer and I know many of you will lift her up.