Fire On Your Head

I recorded this episode about 6 weeks ago and never got around to editing it and publishing it online. I shared from an article of Kris Vallatton's called 6 Reasons to Write and spent the second half of the show giving my personal Kindle and Audio book recommendations in relation to leaving your safety net and taking the leap, albeit my point of reference is obviously related to writing, but I am positive you will get stuff out of today's show with other entrepreneurial ideas or dreams you are sitting on.

Links of Kris Vallatton's that I mentioned helped kicked my writing and vision for this podcast into high gear back in 2010:

• Writing With the End in View
• Writing For a Legacy My personal Recommendations all links are to the audiobook version, as I listened to them that way and recommend it:
• Todd Henry Picks
  • Die Empty: Unleash Your Best Work Every Day
  • Louder Than Words: Harness the Power of Your Authentic Voice
  • The Accidental Creative: How To Be Brilliant at a Moment's Notice
• You Are a Writer (So Start Acting Like One) by Jeff Goins
• Stephen King’s Writing Memoir (I read the Kindle version of this)
• Seth Godin picks:
  • Poke the Box
  • The Icarus Deception, &
  • The Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
• The 4-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris (I read the Kindle version as opposed to listening to the audio version)
• Quitter by Jon Acuff

Join Audible for 30 days and get one free audiobook of your choice. Link: Audibletrial.com/Fireonyourhead

Scrivener Unleashed

This week on the podcast I have a very interesting conversation with Dan Dailey. As usually happens in internet land, I came across a blog post he wrote, wrote a response to it, he found it, and we became social media friends and eventually had a podcast conversation.

To bring yourself up to speed, he wrote a blog post called Regarding the Done with Church Buzz. A few months later when it was getting heavily shared on Facebook thanks to Wayne Jacobsen, I wrote my own Regarding the Done with Church Buzz in response to his.

Dan shares his background and how he wound up ‘leaving the institution’ and becoming a ‘done’. Practically born in a church pew, Dan comes from a long line of pastors and ministers on both sides of the family which takes us to about a year ago. By age 35, Dan doesn’t think he missed any two Sunday services in a row over a span of twenty years, and led worship and served as an elder, would preach in his fellowship on many occasions.

Going strong after the Lord, but no longer 'attending' and fellowship, how did he become one of the 35 million former church attenders who now identifies himself as a "done"? We explore his journey in today's episode.

Check out Dan's blog at danieldailey.wordpress.com

This week we have returning guest Stephen Crosby on the show mostly to discuss themes in his book, Praise, Worship, and the Presence of God: A Better Way to Worship — A New Covenant Perspective

Here are some bullet points to summarize each section of our conversation:

6:00 - The Worship leader — Access to God through Music?

Do they really take us into and out of the presence of God? Nope. No such thing exists. No brokers of His presence. Jesus has done it. We are in God’s presence because of what Jesus did on the cross, and not because of anything the worship leader does. The manifest presence of God is like oxygen in your lungs — it’s something you breathe.

16:05 - The recent history of contemporary worship music and practices ("Restoration of David’s Tent")

Have you ever wondered or been asked WHY we do things the way we do in our charismatic services when it comes to the music before the preaching? Chances are you have little idea and neither will the person you ask. We just do it. In 1948 a move of God is where it all changed. Prior to that, hymns were typical. Out of this movement came the “restoration of David’s tent” which spread a misinterpretaiton of Amos 9:11-15 through a lot of the church and evolved during the charismatic movement of the 60s and third wave of the 80s. We discuss the need to understand what we are doing and what our theology behind it is.

26:56 - No to apostles and prophets, but yes to a modern paid position that has no NT substantiation?

You can find more churches who will fight and split over modern-day apostles and prophets despite their repeated mention in the New Testament, but yet you can’t find the modern professional musician worship leader in the NT, yet it seems nobody questions that. Why on earth is that?

If we can have the presence of God without music, then we have to ask ourselves why are we bothering and what are we doing? On the other hand, just because we can’t find something in the New Testament doesn’t mean it’s forbidden or morally wrong, however, we should be carefully to not then elevate these things to a level of status and requirement.

43:00 — Swapping one high for another: when worshipping and sensing the anointing becomes addictive

We talk about how the look and feel of a lot of the “cutting edge” worship can take on a rock concert appearance and if you muted the volume you wouldn’t know the difference. The same way the Jews of Jesus’ day had built so much tradition on what was once originally pure law code, in a sense we’ve done the same thing with various traditions related to worshipping through music.

57:00 There are no second generation burning bushes

Dr Crosby explains how one of the ways we find ourselves in situations or methods and traditions is when one generation experiences God in a certain way, and when discipling the next one they are taught the “how tos” of the first generation’s experience, but without experiencing that same burning bush for themselves. One of two things happens:

1. We fake it because we want to experience it so bad, or
2. We go into despair because we not experiencing it like the previous generation did.

Likewise, David’s life is not our example. He merely is a type and shadow who pointed the way to the Messiah who came. The One greater than David has come, and He has united Himself in Spirit with us in the inner most being. If you’re going to create a template for worship and “pressing in” to His presence, do it based on Christ who is IN you and not old covenant modalities.

Deep down in our own souls, we struggle with needing to earn and be rewarded, rather than just accepting what’s been given and freely poured out on the cross at Calvary. Charismatics and Pentecostals who are thrill-addicted struggle to believe it can all really be that simple.

We close out the last half hour or so of the discussion sharing stories and experiences, for better or worse.

Visit Dr Crosby's site at www.stevecrosby.org

There's a video that's been making the rounds on social media lately of Shia Labeouf yelling various iterations of "just do it", followed by the customary parody videos the internet is making. This episode of the podcast is not meant to join in on the meme, but in a similar way, what's holding you back? JUST DO IT!

We talk about how the biggest reason a whole generation of Israel that left Egypt failed to enter the Promised Land, because they basically talked themselves out of it.

Ten people were able to ruin it for over 2 million people. A whole generation of Israel that missed their purpose, and made God wait for the next one to be raised up.

Many believers already know there are various levels on which Israel rebelled against the Lord, and various specifics could be pointed to in the wilderness narratives as the cause of their spending 40 years there instead of inheriting their promised land immediately after leaving Egypt. However, it is interesting to note how seriously this incident affected their destiny.

It is worth taking serious consideration for our own lives since 1 Cor 10:6 says these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire or crave evil as they did.

Give this a listen and ask yourself: who are you listening to? Whose opinion matters so much to you that, even though they mean well, you are listening to them instead of God and pursuing whatever He has put on your heart to pursue?

To subscribe to our podcast, visit this link for options: http://stevebremner.com/subscribe-to-podcast/

Enjoy!

This week's episode is my appearance on the Coffee and Conversations podcast, where Michael Clark and Christian Hardin discuss how relationships, faith, and leadership intersect in our everyday lives throughout our communities.

Check out my audiobooks playlist on Soundcloud and IF you're on there, make sure to follow me if you want to be notified of new samples and when new audiobooks I've narrated have been released as I always put clips there.

Also, make sure to get your copy of the new audiobook, Living Waters Guidebook: Restoring Relational Integrity through the Broken Body of Christ.

Reach out to me at https://www.stevebremner.com/write-your-book/ if you're ready to start your self-publishing journey