Kerith Worship Academy

I'm still planning on writing a blog about encouragement at some point, but I'm struggling to find the time! Instead, I wanted to talk a little bit about Kerith Worship Academy.

I really want to encourage anyone reading this to consider taking part in one of the six Kerith Worship Academy courses that start in September 2011:

Level 1 (Beginner - years 5 to 8)

Keyboards in Worship

Drums in Worship

Electric Guitar in Worship

Level 2 (Intermediate/Advanced - years 7 to 11)

Vocals in Worship

Drums in Worship

Electric Worship

So what's the difference between Level 1 and Level 2?

Level 1 takes beginners and puts them into a position where they have all the skills to get through a basic worship set, as well as looking at the theology behind the songs that they are singing and provoking questions about their faith.

Level 2 is aimed at people who would already be at our youth band (Revolution) standard. This course teaches advanced skills and techniques that not only seeks to get them through a worship set comfortably, but also looks to give them the skills to improvise, write and arrange their own parts to any songs. There is also a much greater emphasis on theology - students from all disciplines come together for the final half hour, looking at what it means to be a Christian in the 21st century. In term 1, this is in the form of the Youth Alpha Course, which we will use as a foundation for development in terms 2 and 3.

We have already seen fantastic technical and spiritual growth in our youth band due in no small part to participants of the Kerith Worship Academy courses - my prayer is that within a few years, Kerith Worship Academy will have had a noticeable impact on our worship teams, not just at Kerith Community Church, but also in other churches around the area. For more information, why not have a look at the following links:

Kerith Worship Academy Website

Kerith Worship Academy on Facebook

Kerith Worship Academy on Twitter

Don't forget to also watch our promotional video too:

I'm really looking forward to seeing what God does in the next few years!

Mum/Mother/Mummy/Mom

Anna Louise Butler

Born 19th September 19(Censored)

Wife of Paul Butler

Mother of David Betts, Daniel Betts and Isabel Butler

Twenty two years (two months and two days ago to be exact), Anna Butler gave birth to twins; and in so doing earned herself the title of ‘mother’. As one of those twins, I’ve had the privilege of spending pretty near every day of my life with her and, despite (somewhat reluctantly at times) having to share her attention with my brother, been the recipient of an overwhelming amount of her time and energy. She’s phenomenal.

I find it a little daunting to think that at every single moment in my life...EVERY moment in my life...my mother has loved me unconditionally, worried about me (unconditionally!), thought about me, loved me and missed me unconditionally. My earliest memory involves me balancing precariously along a wooden beam at nursery - I love that my mother was there and can remember me at that age far more vividly than I can. Even at twenty two as I arrive home from work, my mother is there. How much more incredible is it that my mother is not just my mother; but that she managed to start at the deep end with two children at once, before adding a third later on?!

My mother lost her own mother at eighteen. I can’t imagine that. I’d be lost without mine. For me, that’s an even greater testament to the amazing woman that she is. For a while she was a single mother with twins. I can’t imagine that. I can barely look after myself, let alone myself and two small children as well. I have never gone without, never suffered, never felt any burden or strain. Yet, I am not spoilt. Thank you mum, I don’t know how you managed that!

I don’t want to ramble much more, as there is actually another point to this. I am very fortunate in that I able to work with, spend time with or lead a number of people at my church. I spend countless hours with the church community; something that couldn’t make me happier. I also have the privilege of being able to try and make some small impact on the people around me. The reality is that the majority of people that read this blog will be people that will know me rather than my mother, but don’t see or hear about the amazing woman that she is. However, if you have been impacted by me in any way, I want you to know that you have automatically been impacted by her. For example:

If I have taught you guitar: my mother (and fantastic step father) paid for my guitar lessons and encouraged me to practice.

If I have helped you revise: my mother was the person that helped me to learn to read and write - I wouldn’t have had the ability to help you with anything if it wasn’t for her.

If you have been impacted by a song I’ve written, or something I’ve said: my mother is responsible for the guitar lessons, the piano lessons, the singing lessons, the violin lessons, the music composition lessons and the freedom to read, write and learn about anything I want.

If I have given you a lift anywhere: my mother (and fantastic step father) paid for my driving lessons, and sat with me as I endangered their lives in the name of L plates!

If I have led you in any capacity: my mother (and fantastic step father again) ALWAYS provided (and still helps to provide) me with everything I needed to learn and grow; whether books, tuition or otherwise, my mum would provide it.

If you enjoy my company, if you are influenced by me in any way or if you have benefitted from something I have done in any way whatsoever: my mother is responsible for it. She is my biggest influence and my best mentor.

This is a bit of a long shot, but if I’ve made any difference to you, I’d really love you to thank Anna, my mum. Whether a comment on the inevitable Facebook link, or an email to davidcbetts@googlemail.com (I’ll forward them to her so I don’t

give away her email address...she'd kill me!), it would really mean a lot to me, because I know it will mean a lot to her. Don’t wait for someone else to do it. Whether you’re twelve or sixty, I would be extremely grateful for your input as with your help I can truly convey how thankful I am for my mother and all she’s done for me.

I appreciate that this whole thing might not be to your taste, but I really couldn’t care less. I think my next blog entry will be all about encouragement anyway - let’s not cheapen heartfelt encouragement just because it isn’t the norm!

(Definitely going to kill me for this pic!)

Boxes of Song Boxes

On another late night drive home, I put my music collection on shuffle. This is rare for me - I’m much more of a ‘one album at a time’ kind of person. However, one of the songs that played had quite a profound impact on me, but not for the reasons you might think. The song is called ‘Try’ by Nelly Furtado:

This happens to be one of my favourite songs ever, although not necessarily for the words or melody - though both are pretty good. Rather, what I realised was the amount of extra information connected to me that was stored deep in the recesses of that song. When that song plays, I find myself traveling back in time to a past reality. It’s almost like the song itself is simply an elaborate packaging for more information. For instance:

‘Try’ takes me back to 2004. Initially April 2004, to be exact. I remember the girl I was in a relationship with at the time sending it to me on the eve of a ski trip to Sunday River in the United States. I remember missing her way more than was appropriate at that age to - but I didn’t know any better at the time. I remember listening to the song on the American-styled school bus in Boston, on a Nokia N-Gage mobile phone with headphones that weren’t really worthy of their purpose. I can still picture the retail park we visited, as well as the cafe we mobbed as I watched my credit deplete faster than I could stand; delighted with the realisation that I actually had signal, and with it a means to communicate with life at home. I remember the mistakes I made that week, the lessons I learnt (briefly) following that week and the summer that soon proceeded it. It was during that year, and that song, that my obsession with tuna and sweetcorn became apparent. It was also the year and song that defined the trajectory that I’m currently on. The latter stages of that year were home to some of the largest struggles I’ve faced in my lifetime...and ‘Try’ by Nelly Furtado played repeatedly throughout. I would have been in an altogether different place without them. Lastly, it reminds me of friendships that were broken and never restored. Listening to this song reminds me of how such immense closeness can turn immensely sour. I remember how much I wish certain friendships had turned out differently.

Now, I would be shocked if you felt the same about this song when you heard it. But I wouldn’t be so shocked if you had similar memories attached to different songs. Today I’d like to put it to you that the power of music is not in its technicality or how beautiful a song sounds. That’s just music. Instead, I’d like to suggest that the power of music is in its storage capacity. We each carry 'song boxes', filled in varying amounts with memories, pictures, locations and people. In fact, our iPods and MP3 players are simply boxes of song boxes. Perhaps this is just me...and I’m really very happy for it to be just me...but I honestly do believe that the power of a song lies in its storage rather than its sound.

For example, some of my favourite songs are directly linked to some of my strongest memories:

“Say” - John Mayer

“Solution” - Hillsong United

“So Much Love” - The Rocket Summer

“The Little Things” - Colbie Caillat

“Zebra” - John Butler Trio

“Mighty To Save” - Hillsong

You may have heard of some of those songs. They may mean nothing to you. Maybe they do mean something to you. Either way, they aren’t just song titles to me; they are song boxes with a whole host of memories locked inside.

This is why I love music. This is why I couldn't imagine spending my life doing anything else. I'd rather dedicate it to reorganising, repacking and writing my own song boxes, because let's face it - I've got a while before I run out of memories to store!

Like Glass Buckets - Part 2

I am a glass bucket filled with sand.

Perhaps you haven’t read my previous blog entry. If not, I am fully aware that the above statement is a little out of the ordinary. Feel free to scroll down to the previous post first in order to shed some light on where we’re at.

So often we can hide who we really are, where we’re really at, or what’s really going through our head. What’s on the inside (our ‘sand’ in this analogy) becomes hidden beneath an artificial shell that portrays something that we determine more acceptable for others to see.

When we are our most real, our external selves are like glass buckets that reveal to others exactly who we are on the inside. These glass buckets display the sand and in turn, the sand reflects our true selves. However, there is a problem with glass.

It is not very strong.

When we present our real selves to the world around us, it is easy to become more fragile. Our harder shells could deflect and absorb personal attacks because, after all, it was only a representation of what we wanted to be rather than a direct reflection of who we were. However, when we become like glass buckets, criticisms can smash, crack and break us. We have to lower our defenses and hope for the best. When it’s put like that, it’s pretty hard to be real isn’t it? In Jesus’ day, a law-obsessed group of people called the Pharisees were so intent in looking like they had it together that they created shells that didn’t really reflect who they were on the inside. In Matthew 23:25-28, we read Jesus’ opinions on this:

25 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26 Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.

27 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. 28 In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

I am certainly guilty of being like a 'whitewashed tomb' sometimes. There are times where I'm so embarrassed of who I am and so petrified of the impact a few harsh words could have on me that I end up trying to be something I'm not. I'm realising more and more that the challenge of following Jesus isn't appearing to be doing the right things at the right times. That's easy. The challenge is doing the right things for the right reasons at ALL times and reflecting an authentic character from the inside out. God's sanctifying work in us is life-long, and He loves us regardless of our weaknesses. There is no need to find artificial strength in catering for the opinions of others. Similarly, there is no need to find strength in being artificial to find acceptance in the opinions of others. Our strength comes from God, and God alone, as the psalmists highlight quite nicely:

Psalm 28:6-8 (New International Version, ©2011)

6 Praise be to the LORD,

for he has heard my cry for mercy.

7 The LORD is my strength and my shield;

my heart trusts in him, and he helps me.

My heart leaps for joy,

and with my song I praise him.

8 The LORD is the strength of his people,

a fortress of salvation for his anointed one.

Psalm 118:13-15 (New International Version, ©2011)

13 I was pushed back and about to fall,

but the LORD helped me.

14 The LORD is my strength and my defense^[a^];

he has become my salvation.

Becoming like glass buckets filled with sand is dangerous. Presenting ourselves as we truly are will not always be pretty, and we will almost certainly get hurt when we rely on ourselves. With our own strength, we are fragile and weak, and can barely carry our own load. But God is our strength. He will carry us through the hard times, and the rewards for working on our character will be phenomenal!

Like Glass Buckets - Part 1

Whether you believe you have evolved from primates, been created by an all powerful God or whether you really don't know (or care) either way, there is no disputing that each of us have individual personalities, individual influences and individual capacities for good and evil. At our most real, we are like buckets made from glass, slowly filling with sand as each year of our lives passes us by. Our overall inner-disposition and character dictates the colour of the sand - for some of us, it may be one colour; for others, it may be a multitude of colours. The sand itself represents both our more likeable traits, and those that are altogether less...magnetic. For example, a few years ago, the sand in my bucket would have been almost purely green. My jealousy of the people around me was so pure that it clouded many of my decisions. Nowadays, there is still a hint of green, but a whole host of other colours have seeped through. When we are truly ourselves, our transparent bucket containers show everyone exactly what is inside. The good, the bad, the cliched ugly. I'd be a liar if I told you that I've never painted the outside of my bucket to portray something infinitely more pleasing than what was lurking on the inside. It can be so easy to do...especially when things aren't going the way you'd planned or when we don't have confidence in who we really are. Why would we want people to see our anger, our jealousy, our lack of self worth or our hatred anyway?

As far as my own beliefs go, I'd have to tick the 'been created by an all powerful God' box. And when that God created the first man and woman, I believe their buckets would have been spotless and shimmering with unobtainably (by human means) pure, white sand. The Bible says that they felt no shame; that means no shame about the way they looked, and no shame about the way they acted. There was nothing to be ashamed of. They were made in God's image! Until, that is, the serpent came to tempt Eve:

(Genesis 3:1-6)

1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”

4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

Here we see Adam and Eve fall from the purity that they were created with. The sand in their glass buckets was suddenly awash with dark colours; that awareness is something that has stuck with us ever since. We called it 'Original Sin'.

Over the many years since that moment, we have tried (and failed) to return our sand to it's purest white, settling merely for those warmer colours that pass as 'acceptable'. The Bible says that the only way to become our most pure is through God's only Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus came to the world as both fully man and fully God and died on a cross for us, so that we could be put right with God and receive eternal life. Through His crucifixion, he paid the price required for our sin - so that every grain of sand that isn't as white as it could possibly be, would be returned to its intended colour, and we would spend eternity in Heaven.

What do we need to do in return? The Bible says we need to believe in Jesus Christ. Then we need to scrub off the paint on the outside of our buckets, acknowledge the darkened, dirty mess that's on the inside and turn from it. At that point, God can begin the life-long cleaning process within you.

Hey people!

I'm just going to tell you that you let me down!! Thank you for all the private messages filling in the gaps of the last post, but you didn't write it on the blog! Ah well, audience participation for you...will try and write something meaningful soon. Just not today.

A Post-2010 Post

I've spent a long time trying to write a blog about 2010. Frankly, I'm sick of getting a paragraph in and deleting everything, so I'm going to try an experiment. I'm going to make a list of my highlights, and if you're reading this and were involved in a particular memory, I'd love it if you could comment, and tell me what you remember from it:

1. FP Training - Centreparcs

2. 21st Birthday

3. Sam and Dave's French Adventure

4. Avenue Q with Ellie

5. Poland with Ben D

6. FP Training - Oakwood

7. Ethos Does Albania 2

8. Willow Creek & Chicago, August

9. Chicago, November

10. France, August

11. Ethos @ LIFE'S 1st Birthday

12. Ethos @ Radioactive Radio

13. Ethos @ Reading Church Fun Day

14. The Cottees, Joneses, Findlays - their hospitality made my year

15. England Vs. Australia - RUGBY WIN!!

16. Church Picnic

17. First Revolution rehearsal of new academic year - learning 'the light' & hearing Emily K's song

18. HEAD SHAVE

19. Valentine's Day

20. Hillsong United live (twice!)

21. John Mayer live

Ok, I'm sure I've forgotten a whole load of unbelievable things that happened this year - if I did, let me know! Anyway, please comment away :)

Finally, I would portray 2010 incorrectly if I didn't mention the tremendous sadness that literally hundreds of people felt in July. There aren't really any words right now that could summarise one of the most upsetting periods I've ever experienced, both from personal sadness and from witnessing the immense sadness of many close friends. Instead, I've linked to my blog post, as well as many others that say things a million times better than I did, about the death of Annie Clague at the time. Annie won't be forgotten.

http://dave-betts.blogspot.com/2010/07/last-night-we-lost-treasured-member-of.html

http://ellieundone.blogspot.com/2010/07/grief.html

http://sophiebharris.blogspot.com/2010/07/angharad.html

http://outofafricalaura.blogspot.com/2010/07/annie.html

http://www.simonbenham.com/2010/07/angharad-clague.html

Thank you all for a fantastic year,

Dave