Living is easy with eyes closed...

Preparing for France

dgpogue — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 20:27:45 +0000

Dear Friends and Family,

As I look back on the past year of my life, I cannot help but give thanks to the Lord for His faithfulness to me. It seems hard to believe that it was only a year ago that my plans for a July wedding and move to Los Angeles completely fell apart. It is equally amazing to look back at how an ice storm left me without power for a week shortly after my world caved in, and left me isolated in a cold basement apartment in Louisville, Kentucky. It was in that week that I came to the realization that I had been putting off God’s call for me to attend Seminary. Following my graduating from Indiana University in May, I moved back to back to Highland Park, began serving on the worship team at Christ Church Lake Forest, and have just successfully finished my first semester of Seminary at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.

As part of my experience at Trinity, I am looking to not only establish and refine a Theology of Worship, but also to continue concentrating on my own spiritual formation. This spring, from March 4-14, I along with a group of six Trinity students will be making a Pilgrimage to the Taize prayer community in Taize, France. Taize is an international, ecumenical community where people travel to spend time together for community, Bible study, service, prayer, and worship. Each day will be filled with people from all over the world gathering together, singing praise in a variety of languages. If I am to be completely honest, I don’t know exactly what to expect on this trip. Most trips I have gone on in the past have had the luxury of a visual representation of what my time and efforts brought about. From houses in Mexico, to youth retreats in Costa Rica, it was easier to see God’s work when there was visual evidence. It is my prayer that God will use this experience to build my personal spiritual life, as well as to bring new approaches of worship to my future ministry as a worship pastor, so that in the long run the impact of this trip will have a spiritual impact on the lives I am called to serve in the future. I am writing to ask for your support in one or two ways:

Financial Sponsers: This is always the hardest thing to ask for, but any amount of help that you can give financially for this trip will help me immensely. This trip will cost me a total of $1600. If you would like to be a financial sponsor, please mail a check payable to Trinity International University and send it to TIU: Student Ministries Office, 2065 Half Day Rd., Deerfield, IL 60015. An envelope and the required reply card are enclosed for your convenience. If you make your check payable to Trinity, it will be tax-deductible. You must designate my name on the reply card but not on the check. Please do not write anything on the memo line.

Prayer Partners: Because I am approaching this trip with very few set expectations I would like to ask for your prayers that God would utilize this trip to enhance my knowledge of His word, to build in fellowship with my brothers and sisters throughout the world, and that God would use this prayer pilgrimage to in some great way prepare me for full-time pastoral ministry.

Thank you for your consideration of partnering with me along this pilgrimage. Any form of support you can give will be greatly appreciated. If you have any questions regarding the trip or any of the other events that have happened in my life in the past year, please do not hesitate to contact me.

In Him,

Devin Pogue

dgpogue@gmail.com

(847) 927-1732

Fearless…

dgpogue — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 06:54:54 +0000

Max Lucado’s newest book titled, Fearless, could not be hitting the shelves at a more appropriate time. To put it simply, we live in a world that is full of fear. Fear presents itself in many different ways and keeps us from living life the way God intended us as humans to live. Imagine a life where your faith overcomes your fear. In Fearless, Lucado tries to remind us of the simple fact that God is our provider and protector. And because of this love that God sends on us, we’ve got no reason to fear. While this all seems surface level, Lucado does a great job of addressing different fears that will affect a different set of people. The best moment for me, is when Lucado makes it personal, and shows a bit of his own vulnerability in his fear of being a father. Lucado doesn’t claim to have all the answers, and rightfully so. He shares with the reader his own fears, which ultimately is what make Fearless so approachable from the readers stand point. Lucado merely points us in the right direction reminding us that there is an answer to our daily fears. And through this answer we can begin to approach life knowing that God will contine to protect and provide.

Sunday Setlist: August 23, 2009

dgpogue — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 21:19:23 +0000

I was back on today for the 9:00 and 11:00 am sevices. We opened up the Service reading Psalm 103, which then led into a Hymn. Had a relatively shorter set today. In between services I was able to meet a couple of fellow first year MDiv students from TEDS (Trinity Evangelical Divinty School) who were checking out our church for the first time. Classes start up on Wednesday and I’m greatly looking forward to what the Lord has to reveal to me in my time of study. Anyways, on to the list!

Praise My Soul the King of Heaven-(A) (Hymn to the tune of Regent Square)

Holy is the Lord- (G) Tomlin

To The Ends of the Earth- (Em) Hillsong

Holiness (Take My Life)- (F) Underwood

No shyg tonight, so just going use the night to relax a bit. Spend some time reading the new Max Lucado book, Fearless, and just continue to prepare for school. Last day of Orientation is tomorrow!

This post is a part of the “Sunday Setlist” blog carnival at FredMcKinnon.com.

http://www.fredmckinnon.com/myblog/2009/08/23/sunday-setlists-57/

Sunday Setlist: August 16, 2009

dgpogue — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 16:10:34 +0000

Another Sunday morning where I did not play with the team. I love the rotation that our Church has that allows for a lot of involvement in the Worship team and allows for everyone to get a chance to sit with the Congregation in Worhip every now and then. Sunday Mornings list was pretty awesome and I from where I was sitting really connected the Congregation into a time of contemplative Worship.

O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing/Be Glorified- A great mix between the Classic Hymn and Contemporary praise song. Really seemed to fit well together.

How Great is our God-Tomlin

In Christ Alone

Mighty is the Power of the Cross-Tomlin…Every time this song is pulled out, I remember just how much I love this song.

-Following the Church Service, we had our Baptism Service on the beach on Lake Michigan. Weather was not our friend and we had to squeeze the service in between thunderstorms filled with some pretty significant downpours. But all in all, a great service in which we were able to see 50 people publicly declare Christ as their Savior!

From the Baptism service, I headed back to Church to rehearse for worship for our Senior High Youth Group (shyg) and for those of you who read my last post know that the last time shyg met, we had a less than stellar night. We had the full band back together, minus our drummer, so we went down from two electrics to one, and had one of our guys play drums and he did an absolutely awesome job. Worship went so well, and the Spirit’s prescence was definitely felt.

Your Grace Is Enough- Maher

Jesus is the Lord- Antioch Community Church

Be Thou My Vision

How He Loves Us- MacMillan

The Stand-Hillsong

Went with a slightly shorter set than usual, but we did a lot of instrumental breaks and really just allowed the dynamic of the room mold how long each song would last. So, it was really free flowing and open-ended as to how each song would end up. I don’t think any of them, outside of the opener went how we rehearsed it. Which I love. I love that the band members are able to feel that connection, and know where I am going with the song and are able to anticipate that. Really worked as a cohesive group last night, and man, I love when that happens!

This post is a part of the “Sunday Setlist” series, at Fred McKinnon’s blog, http://www.fredmckinnon.com/myblog/2009/08/16/sunday-setlists-56/

Sunday Setlist August 2, 2009

dgpogue — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 11:31:21 +0000

This Sunday was certainly an interesting one to say the least. Sunday mornings services went very well, Band was together, people were connected and enthusiastic towards hearing our guest speaker’s sermon on the beautiful Psalm 139.

God of Wonders

Creator King- Don Moen

Breathe on me, Breath of God- Hymn

-Sermon

Worthy is the Lamb- Hillsong

–Shorter music set than usual, but again everything seemed to flow well and the congregation was pretty enthused just from the change of routine, which provided for a bit more energy in their worship.

Sunday evening however, and leading worship at the Senior High Youth Group might have been the most disconnected worship experience I’ve had in my years of leading. The moment I arrived back at the church, anything that could have gone wrong, did. We had lighting issues, computer and video issues, couldn’t put the slide viewer together because the program was uninstalled and there were just so many things wrong that we couldn’t fix with just the couple of youth leaders we had last night. So, from there music started about a half hour later than usual, there were only about 25 kids, when usually there are around 100. And man, there was absolutely no connection to the music at all. It was so discouraging while I was up there that I literally felt like stopping mid set would have been more beneficial. However, I pulled through it and started to sense a few decent moments, but as a whole probably the most disconnect I’ve ever felt. Any others of you out there with these types of stories? How do you handle those moments where nothing seems to be working?

SET

Be Glorified- Tim Hughes

Lord Let Your Glory Fall- Matt Redman

Hosanna (Praise is Rising)-Brenton Brown

Grace Like Rain- Todd Agnew

Light of the World- Tim Hughes

Worship Confessional

dgpogue — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 16:24:33 +0000

This past Friday, I had the opportunity to lead a night of Prayer and Worship for the Senior High Youth Group at the church that I attend in Lake Forest, IL. I had just gotten back into town from Counseling at Rock River Bible Camp for Junior Highers on a week in which we focused on Purity of the mind, body, and heart. The theme of Purity and Surrender really shaped the way in which I approached this Friday night.

Set List

You Are Holy (Prince of Peace)- Marc Imboden

Mighty To Save- Hillsong

You are my King- Billy James Foote

Refiner’s Fire-Brian Doerksen

At this point we broke into Prayer, focusing on Thanks, Adoration, Surrender, and Prayer Requests.

Arms of Love- Vineyard

In Christ Alone- Keith Getty and Stuart Townsend

You Hold Me Now- Hillsong

How Great is our God- Chris Tomlin

What I really loved about this night was the band. When I normally lead for the High School group, I have a six to seven piece band. This night we had me on vox and acoustic, a female voice, and then a guy who played some hand drums and mandolin. The more acoustic approach allowed for a different type of intimate atmosphere, and really allowed us all to really think about the words we were singing.