Anchor Church » SteveDennie.com - Miscellaneous inconsequential musings from Steve Dennie

Supper with Santa at Anchor

Posted on December 13, 2009 by Steve
Posted in Anchor Church

Tonight, Anchor held its annual “Supper with Santa.” Tim Bauman, who used to be a Santa at Glenbrook Mall, and also moonlights as guitarist and lead singer on our worship team, always dresses in a Santa outfit, and families get their pictures taken with him. That’s me and Pam with Santa above.

And we have food, of course, this being a supper. I brought two crockpots of chili, others brought sloppy joes, macaroni, and spaghetti. We kept it simple and kid-friendly.

It was a fun night, as always, and a good chance to get acquainted with new people.

A lot of churches wouldn’t allow a Santa in the church, because they consider him sacrilegious. He’s not what Christmas is all about, they insist. I understand the concept, but think they need to chill out.

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Our Worship Team is Suck Proof

Posted on November 23, 2009 by Steve
Posted in Anchor Church

Yesterday in church, Carla gave her testimony as part of (or most of) the message. She did a great job, and it was very moving hearing her and Jose’s story. God has done great things in their lives.

But one part really cracked me up.

They first came to Anchor last spring. Carla kinda dragged Jose there, from what I remember; he wasn’t yet a Christian. The worship team did a song, and Carla looked over at Jose to get his reaction.

“They don’t suck,” Jose said.

I love that. Maybe our goal should be that the first impression of all visitors will be, “They don’t suck.” It’s a foundation you can build upon. Thanks, Jose, for what I consider to be a great compliment!

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A Church is More than Sunday Morning

Posted on November 9, 2009 by Steve
Posted in Anchor Church

Tim Stevens, executive pastor of Granger Community Church, wrote a blog post called “A Crowd is Not a Church.” It included this paragraph:

For some reason, people who have attended church for many years will come to a weekend service and believe they have visited our church. I tell people all the time: The weekend is not the church. It is a crowd. We are doing everything we can to draw the biggest crowd we can–and then turn it into a church.

It’s easy to pass quick judgments on a church. I do it when I visit a different church:

“They weren’t very friendly. Nobody talked to us.”
“I didn’t get much out of the message. It’s a superficial church.”

I suppose people do that with Anchor. Maybe they have an unusually good experience on that one visit. Or maybe it’s a disappointing (but not typical) experience, and they decide Anchor isn’t for them.

But as Stevens says, what happens on Sunday morning is only a glimpse. It’s a crowd, not the church. I’m glad that Anchor is a whole lot more than a weekly crowd.

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Musings on Setting a Worshipful Mood

Posted on November 1, 2009 by Steve
Posted in Anchor Church

When we do communion at Anchor, we usually have music playing underneath–sometimes the whole worship team, sometimes just a guitar or me at the piano. You know, setting a mood. Typically, we have people file to the front of the church to get the elements, so playing music works well.

Today, we did it differently, the way most [United Brethren] churches do it. The band played John Mark McMillan’s “How He Loves” while the ushers distributed the elements to people in their seats. Then the band stopped playing, and everyone took communion together. No music underneath.

As I stood on the platform, the bread and tiny plastic juice cup in my hand, I thought about the silence. It was…interesting.

I thought about that Last Supper. Did Jesus have someone in the corner strumming a guitar while he blessed the wine and bread? Was there nothing to set the proper mood? Nothing, that is, except the presence of Jesus?

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Enough with the New Visitors at Church!

Posted on September 21, 2009 by Steve
Posted in Anchor Church

I’ve been gone from Anchor the last two weeks. But this afternoon, I talked with one of my fellow parishioners, who filled me in on what’s been happening. And I must say, I’m alarmed.

He said we’ve been having way too many visitors–more than we need or can handle. An uncomfortably large number of unfamiliar faces are attending. At yesterday’s Grandparents’ Day potluck, one guy who came for only the second week brought a crockpot. How presumptive is that? Does he think after just two weeks, we’re his church home? I’m sorry, but it’ll take more than that to break through our cliques.

Apparently, some of our newer people are taking Pastor Tim’s sermon admonitions to heart. When he says to go talk to nonChristians and to invite people to church, they’re going out and actually doing it. As if we don’t have enough people already, they’re inviting more people.

It’s a sign of immaturity. Those of us who have been Christians for many years know that the pastor doesn’t actually expect us to follow his sermon directives. He’s just assembling a message which we’ll agree is biblical and challenging and interesting to listen to–not something we’ll actually put into practice. It’s a little dance we mature Christians play. We nod our affirmation to truths we already know, then ignore them.

But these newcomers–they just don’t get it. Their enthusiasm will make us seasoned churchgoers look bad. Who, then, will they look to for spiritual guidance and models?

We need to teach them that the goal is intellectual assent, not behavioral change. That like the poor, we’ll always have nonChristians around us, and we shouldn’t get too concerned about their eternal destiny. That when Tim tells us to do something, he doesn’t really mean it. He’s just saying what’s expected.

I’m confident that, over time, these newcomers will get with the program, if they just watch the rest of us closely.

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People of the Cross

Posted on September 9, 2009 by Steve
Posted in Anchor Church

At the back of the Anchor sanctuary, surrounding the entrance, are a whole bunch of paper crosses. Each bears the name of somebody who needs Christ.

On August 30, at the end of the service, Pastor Tim invited people to come to the front, take one of the paper crosses lying there, and write the name of somebody they were concerned about who was not yet a Christian. After writing the name, they went to the back of the sanctuary and taped the cross to the wall.

Some people wrote the first name of a person–Dan, Bobby, Sandy, Al, Rosa. Others referred to a person anonymously. Here are some of the “names” on those crosses.

Neighbor
My sons
Family
Me
Brother
Stranger
Son
Myself

Isn’t that cool? I was moved as I stood there and read the crosses, realizing the connections among our people with the lost, and recognizing that Anchor people really care.

It was also cool knowing that at least two persons in our midst realize they haven’t yet turned their lives over to Christ, and that they need to. Way too many churches don’t have people like that attending regularly. We have an atmosphere where it’s okay to not be a Christian, to still be on the journey toward Christ. To still be a seeker. I love it.

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Taking “Sell Your Possessions” Literally

Posted on August 17, 2009 by Steve
Posted in Anchor Church

Yesterday, Pastor Tim preached from Luke 12:33, “Sell your possessions and give to the poor.” The past several Sundays, he has basically given an extended children’s message as the day’s only message. The younger kids sit down at the front of the church and he speaks to them. Of course, we adults eavesdrop. I think Tim’s okay with that.

Tim emphasized the idea of selling possessions to give to the poor. Not just writing a check, or dipping into your piggy bank, but actually selling something you own. He gave the kids a project for the week: rummage through their toys, and pick out some toys they are willing to sell. Then bring them to church next Sunday. We’ll sell them, and give the money to the poor. We’ll do it through some micro-businesses opportunities in other countries. Depending on how much money we raise, we’ll be able to buy rabbits, pigs, or goats.

I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next Sunday, as kids bring toys to sell. It’s a great lesson for them…and for adults. How many of us have actually sold something we own, something we perhaps cherish, to raise money for other people?

Ten years ago, Pam and I bought an indoor basketball goal for the church’s youth center, which was just starting. We took it to the church to assemble. Mark and Tami Solak, heavily involved in the budding youth center, were there. Tami told us, “You don’t have to just give money. Why don’t you volunteer?”

It was a convicting point. And as a result, Pam and I gave up our Friday nights for several years so we could help staff the Friday night youth center. Buying the basketball goal was easy; it came out of our excess. Writing checks is easy, painless. But giving up one night a week, every week? Now that was costly. But we don’t regret it in the least.

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Attaboy and MercyMe

Posted on August 7, 2009 by Steve
Posted in Anchor Church

Just got back from a concert at Parkview Field, the new baseball stadium in downtown Fort Wayne, Ind. It was two groups: Attaboy, and MercyMe. Attaboy is a group sponsored by Huntington University which originated in Huntington, and went fulltime a couple years ago. They’re quite good. The lead singer, Amos Caley, is a UB preacher’s kid, son of Mike Caley, pastor of Banner of Christ church in the Grand Rapids, Mich., area. I used to work with Amos’s sister, Erinn, and now work with his aunt Jane.

I passed Mike coming out of the parking garage.

“I’ll bet I know why you’re here, and it’s not to see MercyMe.”

He smiled and said, “Yeah, but I’ll stick aorund to hear them, too.”

Attaboy did about 30 minutes of songs, and I was quite impressed with them, and would enjoy hearing them again. They probably don’t want to hear words like that coming from a 52-year-old, but there you go, I said it. Deal with it, Amos & Friends.

This was the first time I’ve heard MercyMe. They were great. A really authentic band, nothing phony. It was a night of worship, not a concert. They did all of their well-known songs, except for “Voice of Truth.” The encore was my favoritist of all, “God with Us.” We did that song at Anchor last Sunday. I absolutely love playing it on the grand, as opposed to my Roland. It’s a song I can really sink my teeth into.

Eight of us from the worship team went–me and Pam, Terry and Lisa Sutton, Tim Bauman, Terry Leatherman, and Aaron and Jenny Vergon. I really enjoy these people. We had a good time. Plus, it was Pam’s birthday.

Huntington University co-sponsored the event, and they got a lot of upfront time, especially from Nate Perry and John Paff. Lots of T-shirts were cannoned into the crowd (though nowhere near me). HU is partnering with one of the major Christian radio stations in Fort Wayne, and this was part of that. I think it was a good investment for them. Now that Taylor has exited Fort Wayne by closing its Fort Wayne campus, maybe HU can fill the void.

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Anchor Worship Team at Cherished Again

Posted on May 16, 2009 by Steve
Posted in Anchor Church

The Anchor worship team playing at Cherished Again. Jenny’s son, Jonathan, kept creeping close and closer until he was pretty much part of the band. We got a kick out of that.

Tonight, the Anchor worship team played for 40 minutes at Cherished Again, a Christian coffeehouse of sorts in Fort Wayne. I say “of sorts,” because it’s actually a used furniture store. They just do Christian music in a coffeehouse atmosphere every couple months.

The Anchor team has played there several times. This was only my second time with the team. It’s a fun place to play.

Jenny Vergon, the newest member of our team, sang with us for the first time outside of Anchor. It was nice having her.

I took my short Alesis keyboard, but left it in the car. Another gal, with an 88-key Roland, said I could play hers, which was already set. That was one fine keyboard. The one I play at church is an 88-key Roland RD600, an older model. I love the Roland touch.

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The Alley Cleanup

Posted on May 2, 2009 by Steve
Posted in Anchor Church

My very dirty shirt, proof that I was working (or else rolling around in mud).

About half of our group. Six persons weren’t here, and one (me) was taking the photo. Standing in front of the heaping full dumpster. L-r: Pam,Jeff Jacobs, Lisa Sutton, Terry Sutton, RJ, Tim Hallman.

This morning, about a dozen people from Anchor Church did something for the neighborhood: cleaned up the alley that runs behind the church (and a long ways in either direction). We took the part of the alley on our block, which is probably a quarter-mile long.

In three hours, we filled a whole dumpster with junk. Much of it was tree branches, victims of the ice storm earlier this year. But there was all kinds of other stuff, too.

After filling the dumpster, we drove a couple miles to a lady’s house and thoroughly raked her yard, filling a trailer with more wood and debris.

It was a great way to serve our neighborhood. And there were some neat God-moments as we interacted with our neighbors.

Tonight, Pam and I ache. We’ll sleep well.

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Category Archives: Anchor Church

Supper with Santa at Anchor

Our Worship Team is Suck Proof

A Church is More than Sunday Morning

Musings on Setting a Worshipful Mood

Enough with the New Visitors at Church!

People of the Cross

Taking “Sell Your Possessions” Literally

Attaboy and MercyMe

Anchor Worship Team at Cherished Again

The Alley Cleanup

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