Jordan Rippy

I AM ACCESS – Week 4

Today was the last week of our I Am Access series. Last week we baptized several people in the YMCA pool just prior to our first service. This week we watched videos of them publicly professing Christ and then being baptized. It was definitely one of the best things that I’ve experienced at Access. Be sure to check out the videos for yourself. Below are some picture of the Night of Worship that we did at my house this week. I’m hoping to do that at least once a month or so. Nothing quite like a group of people really going after God.

Endlessly – Desperation Band
This Is Our God – Hillsong
Jesus Paid It All – Kristian Stanfill
Healer – Bethel Version
Rain Down – Delirious?

Kristin and I caught John Mayer live for the third time on Friday night. This was the best John Mayer show I’ve seen. The Battle Studies songs translated well in the live format and Steve Jordan was insane on the drums. Having him join the live line-up changes the entire feel of the band. If you have followed this blog for any length of time you know that Kristin and I love John Mayer. We saw him live right before we got married and again shortly after.

Bella loved the show. Anytime things got really loud she would kick like crazy. I can’t wait to meet her.

I AM ACCESS – Week 3

Your Love Never Fails – Jesus Culture
No Sweeter Name – Gateway Worship
Hosanna – Hillsong United
Beautiful – Aaron Spiro

Today was a great day at Access…We had several people baptized just prior to our first service. We’ll be telling their stories next week so make sure you come and hear how God has been working in and through the people of Access.

I also just want to say that we are blessed with an amazing tech team at Access. Today during our first service we experienced an equipment failure that produced some unwanted noise and ultimately forced us to cut worship a little bit short. It’s unfortunate that anytime something like this happens the tech guys generally get the brunt of the complaints and or nasty looks. It’s always good to remember that they are working with cables, computers, and electronics and sometimes those things just break. Our tech team is awesome. The end.

Finally, come to the night of worship at my house this Wednesday. You won’t regret it. Oh and Chris Scott wins the award for epic drink-spill of the day. Have a look.

In his book, Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Portman introduces the concept of the Information-Action Ratio. Portman’s ratio aimed to measure “the relationship between a piece of information and what action, if any, a consumer of that information might reasonably be expected to take once learning it.” In theory, a culture that had a low intake of information would have a high information-action ratio because they were more likely to act upon the small amount of information they received. Conversely, a culture that had access to enormous amounts of information would have a low-information action ratio. This is a result of being paralyzed by the enormous amounts of information and either not knowing where to begin or not knowing how to sort which pieces of information required action and which did not.

It goes without saying that humans today consume more information than at any other time in history. Between television, the Internet, and social networking, information is readily available at the click of a button. We can easily access news spanning the globe and get real-time updates on hundreds of friends in a matter of seconds. It would be impossible to act on all of the information one gathers in just a few minutes of surfing the internet. Thus, we live in an age of an extremely Low Information-Action Ratio (LIAR).

What does having a Low Information-Action Ratio mean for the church? For worship? If our technologically inclined culture trains us to merely consume information without acting on it, will we find ourselves complacent with not acting on the knowledge we receive of Jesus and His Gospel? If worship is a response to the revelation of who God is, will living with a Low Information-Action Ratio result apathetic worship?

First and foremost, it is important that the church resist the tendency to reduce the preaching of the Word to simply communicating information. Secondly, we must examine whether or not using overly familiar presentation methods (such as screens, media clips, etc.) actually makes it easier for people to ignore the content that they are being presented with.

I welcome and embrace many of the technologies I have alluded to in this post, but I think these are questions that are worth wrestling with. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

For further reading: Amusing Ourselves to Death, A Royal “Waste” of Time