Don Ho
In case you were not around in the 1970’s or before, you likely don’t know who Don Ho is. Of course, you can Google him or search You Tube and find videos of him performing. Now the preliminaries are over…
I stopped my chores and made myself lunch. I turned on the Tv and, since there is nothing on the 400 channels I get during the day, I switched to the Internet channel I sometimes watch, Buzzr. Buzzr plays old game shows like Match Game and, at lunch time, Classic Concentration with Alex Trebek (before his Jeopardy fame). Anyway, a young lady (who by my guess is in her 70’s now), won and one of her prizes was a trip to Honolulu. They announced the airline and hotel she’d be staying at and added that the hotel was the home of Don Ho.
I started thinking how, back then, there were lots of well known and famous performers who left the road concert touring game and moved to a famous resort city (Honolulu and especially Las Vegas), to perform regular shows on a permanent basis. Don’t get me wrong, large resort cities have many show options but most are limited engagements (more like a brief respite from touring), or are less famous performers (Blue Man group is cool but it’s probably more lucrative to them to do daily shows in Los Vegas than to tour).
I started considering what changed the financial decision matrix and realized that today’s hot performers demand a higher income themselves and have layers of people to support to manage the sound and special effects (fireworks) and many other things. I guess a smaller venue like a resort in Las Vegas likely can’t support the artist’s need due to their smaller theater size (compared to a stadium for sure).
You guessed it, I’m ready to do a bait and switch. I’m talking about change.
Yesterday, at least in the early service, the service went straight from the praise music to Patrick’s sermon and so, communion was moved to the end of the service. A change from the “usual.” He did announce the change but I don’t remember him saying why or if this change was short term or long term.
I had to consider what I felt about this change. On one hand, for almost all of the elder messages, I get fed from them as I do from Patrick’s message. On the other hand, I am not so inflexible that if I found out there wasn’t going to be an elder message in the future, I would consider my worship options.
Change is a funny thing. Once you get used to doing things a certain way, the natural instinct is to view with apprehension and usually negativity any change. I remember warning the team I managed when I first moved to Topeka to expect me to ask why we did something the way we did it and the only unacceptable answer was “because we’ve always done it that way”. Since I ask a lot of questions and only got the unacceptable answer a couple of times, I’d say they believed me and responded accordingly.
“Now if perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), what further need would there have been for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek, rather than one named after the order of Aaron? For when there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law as well.” - Hebrews 7:11-12 ESV
“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” - Romans 12:1-2
Just this morning, part of my quiet time was studying Romans 5. In particular, this verse…
“Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” - Romans 5:2
My devotion focused on the three things Paul tells us are the fruit of of our justification - peace with God, access to his presence, and the hope of His glory. Change of the worship service components will not change that for me.
I guess time will tell if yesterday (for me) was a long term change or just something different for another reason. In fact, by the time you read this, you’ll likely know if it was a permanent or temporary change. I am sure I’ll be joyful either way.
