How do you respond to others when they insult you? Do the words of Jesus to “turn the other cheek,” Mat 5:39, come to mind? Or do you start plotting your revenge, even for what others would call a minor insult? Jesus was well aware that we have enemies. Long before He was flogged, He had no doubt felt the barbarity of Roman soldiers. If a Roman soldier was marching through your town, he could order you to carry his pack for a mile. It didn’t matter that you were on your way home after a long and tiring day. It didn’t matter if the interruption affected your time critical business deal. You still had to do it – i.e. just because the soldier ordered you to. If you refused, he could kill you; that was Roman law. Sometimes you don’t seem to have a choice; you have to endure the insults of others.

Jesus suggested a different response – i.e. out of grace. Let grace cover the insult. Let grace enable you to respond in a way other than what your instinct tells you. Jesus knew that there is spiritual power in responding out of grace to those who hurt you. He proved it on the cross. In doing so, you will experience grace anew and you will find joy.

So the next time the boss orders you to do something that feels like an insult, respond in grace. You will then find that the task will be a joy. And rather than doing the minimum to satisfy the demand, and that sloppily, do your best. In so doing, you will prove your excellence and professionalism. And the boss will take note of that.

With the emphasis these days on web 2.0, there are new opportunities for the Church. What if we used the web to create dialogue groups following worship? The congregation could join these groups and participate in a dialogue during the week after the worship service. These groups would focus on the sermon, discussing it together. A moderator would be needed to help keep the group on track. The preacher could participate if so inclined. The purpose of the group would be to reflect on and let the sermon sink in. It would not be an opportunity to put down the preacher or reject his message. The opportunity for people to deepen their faith is great. Would this work in your Church?

The technology for this already exists. It could be implemented as a blog or web log, whereby members could sign in and write their comments on each sermon. The main posting could be a summary of the sermon. By limiting comments to existing members and moderating the discussion, the spammers would be limited. It would also be helpful to come up with rules of etiquette for these discussion groups. The moderator could be a staff member if appropriate. The time frame for the comments would be the week after the sermon was preached. That would put a time box on the discussion, since a new sermon will come along after a week. The preacher could read these comments and gather feedback on the sermon that would take a 100 phone calls to elicit. So this becomes a win-win situation.

One recent development in worship lyrics uses a moving background. This departs from the previous technique, where you used a static image as the background for your worship slides. Now you can have a dynamic background for the song lyrics. You can even use live shots, but more often you want something that is simply a moving background. The movement helps keep the congregation’s attention.

So how do you pick a moving background? First of all, you should ensure that you maintain good contrast between the words and every frame of the moving background. Otherwise, people will have trouble reading the words while singing. For example, you should show white text on a dark color; or you could show dark text on a light color. Secondly, the moving background should be designed so that the words dominate. If someone glances briefly at the screen, the words should stand out in their mind’s eye. Thirdly, you should choose a moving background that matches the lyrics. For example, a song about creation could show a moving background that was a scene from nature, e.g. a babbling brook. A song about the God of the universe could show shots of the stars. By following these principles, you increase the interest of the congregation in watching the screens.

How does your church use moving backgrounds? Feel free to comment below.