The audio is now available for Wednesday night’s Q&A with DSC’s elders. If you weren’t there, give it a listen, and stop by DSC’s Leadership Page to get the faces and stories of the men who serve us as elders.

Next week we will post a blog with audio to specific questions and links to related resources. For now, here is a list of the major categories of questions addressed by the elders, with links to related pages around DSC’s website.

• Church Planting (Church Planting Page)
• DSC Finances (Finances Page)
• DSC’s Affiliations and Accountability (The Gospel Coalition)
• Shepherding
• Church Membership
• Community Groups (Community Groups Page)
• Adoption Ministry (Adoption Ministry Page)
• Schooling Approaches
• Global Church Planting (Global Missions Page, Church Planting Page)

We hope the Q&A and these follow-up posts serve to unite our body in the “unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:1).

Many of you have iPhones. Many of you who don’t have an iPhone will get an iPhone. Many of you who don’t have an iPhone and don’t plan to get an iPhone probably have some roughly equivalent device to help you with life, play, communication, and work. Some of you will be offended that I said, “rough equivalent.” And, of course, some of you don’t care. All of us, though, leverage multiple technologies in a given day to do whatever we do.

Ten years ago our cell phones allowed us to talk. Then they allowed us to text. Now, if you can think it up, there’s probably an app for that. As Christians, we want to think christianly about all of life, including the tools we use to go about doing life.

Mike Cosper, Pastor of Worship and Arts at Sojourn Community Church in Louisville, KY, has written a nice reflection on the meaning of technology over at The Gospel Coalition Blog in his article, “The iPhone as Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe.” Cosper’s closing paragraph sums up his reflection well:

Sometimes, Christians with a sympathetic view of culture (like myself) have a tendency to treat it all—including technology—as though it were neutral, but this isn’t the case. Like all of creation, the technological world bears witness to God’s glory and goodness with its undoubted helpfulness, its moments of beauty, and its occasional ability to inspire awe. But also like all of creation, it bears the stain and destructive power of sin, introducing us to whole new ways to destroy relationships, disrupt our lives, and distract from the glory we were created to behold.

Mike does a good job of helping us consider how the Christian worldview intersects with a part of life whose positive and negative effects are difficulty to discern or taken for granted.

Read the rest of Cosper’s article here.

Last week, we wrote about our upcoming Elders Q&A, taking place this coming Wednesday night, October 26, at 6:30 PM.

If you have any questions for DSC’s elders, this is a great time to submit them. If you don’t have any questions for our elders, this is a great time to think one or a few up. During this service, our elders will answer questions concerning a range of subjects: our operations, ministries, vision, church planting, and whatever else you come up with.

You can submit questions through the Communication Card on Sunday morning and drop them in an Offering Box, or email your questions to info@desertspringschurch.org.

Also, you may wonder why we collect questions in advanced instead of going with an open-mic approach. The elders collect questions in advanced to ensure coverage of issues in proportion to the church’s interest. This helps us make the most of our time. Often, there are recurring themes, and we want to make sure those are addressed thoughtfully and clearly. Any questions that are not addressed at the Q&A will be answered through the DSC Blog or email.

By way of reminder, the Elders Q&A is taking place on the evening when we would normally have our Lord’s Supper. Plan to come early, as DSC’s youth will still be serving our regular church-wide dinner at 5:30 PM. October’s Lord’s Supper will take place in both Sunday services on October 30.

Many of you will remember Zach Nielsen, who served as DSC’s Minister of Music for a number of years, leaving in 2010 to help plant The Vine Church in Madison, WI. Zach preached on a number of occasions during his time here, and this Sunday he will be back at DSC and will preach in both services.

As you may know, Zach blogs regularly at Take Your Vitamin Z. Zach is also a talented jazz pianist and performs around Madison with his group, The Nielsen Trio. Zach is married to Kim and they have four children; Taylor, Autumn, Emery, and Mya.

Come on Sunday and bring a friend to hear faithful preaching from this much loved former DSC leader.

A few weeks ago we published a blog announcing and introducing this year’s Cause for Praise concert. Ahead of the event, which is this Friday at 7:00 PM, I asked Drew Hodge, our music leader, to answer a number of questions about this year’s concert.

1) Briefly, what is “Cause for Praise”?

Cause for Praise is an annual night of worship through song. This year is our second year and we hope to continue hosting the event every fall. Our desire for the event is to have people from all over Albuquerque come and sing, fellowship, and worship our great God in a way that’s a little different from a usual Sunday morning service. This year will be special in that we are doing a living room, unplugged kind of set. The musicians will all be on the floor for a close, family-like environment. Our prayer is that people come in and feel at home.

2) We know that DSC is releasing an album at this year’s Cause for Praise of songs based on various Psalms. What’s the story behind this album?

Yes! We are releasing Psalterium, Vol. 1, an EP (Extended Play) with five Psalms that we have put to music. Psalterium is Latin for Psalter which is a collection of Psalms, and this is Vol. 1 of what we hope to be a series of volumes, Lord willing. The songs came from our songwriting community that we call the Writers Guild. It’s a group our DSC writers that meet once a month and share music that we have been writing and receive encouragement and critique. Earlier this year I challenged the group to take the Psalm that is the same number as the day they were born and put it to music. My desire was to have more Psalm songs to sing with the church. Psalterium was recorded here at DSC and is the result of that effort.

3) What was the song writing approach for this album, in working from the text of a Psalm to lyrics for a song?

I told the writers to stay as close to the text as possible while taking some liberty with the text to adjust for rhyme and phrasing, changing a word here and there, or taking out a word or two to make it flow with the music. What we didn’t want was a song based on a Psalm. We wanted to sing the Psalm as closely as we could while still making it musically accessible.

4) Last year’s Cause for Praise was later released as a live recording. Will there be a live recording and follow-up album this year as well?

We will be recording this year’s Cause for Praise just like last year, but this year we will be releasing the songs one at a time in the coming months, instead of making a live record. That will give us more time to work on each song, and they will be available through the DSC website in the months ahead.

Admission is free and open to anyone, so plan to come, and bring a friend. Of course, be mindful that this is a live recording if you are including your children and, as always, don’t forget to silence your cell phones. We hope to see you Friday night!