Tyler Braun's Blog, page 8

Introducing The Way of the Cross by New Harvest Worship

Hey friends!

For the last 2 years I’ve been working with the worship team at my local church (New Harvest Church) to not only write and arrange some songs, but also to record them to put them onto our first ever album release.

It’s been an incredible amount of work, but I’m excited to announce that we’re releasing our first album in less than 2 weeks, titled The Way of the Cross!

If you live near Salem, Oregon come join us at New Harvest Church on Sunday night September 30th, at 630pm for an...

Fence vs. Table

Surrounding my house is a large wooden fence with gates to allow entry and exit outside of its boundary. The fence does a great job of keeping people out. The fence provides a sense of safety when my children are playing or when I am sleeping. All of my neighbors have fences too, but I’m not much a fence person.

Recently one of my neighbor’s dogs broke a section of our fence. Thankfully my neighbor fixed the problem, but not before I told him I didn’t care much whether it was fixed or not. I’...

Raising Kids as a Dad

Recently a well-meaning individual in my church said to me, “I find it so amazing that you were taking care of your children yesterday and shared the sermon with us at church today. You work so hard.” This person was referencing seeing me the previous day with my kids while my wife was working. Like anyone else, I’ll take a compliment, thank you very much! But that comment lingered with me for days as I wondered why me being a dad deserved praise as some kind of exemplary act.

While the ster...

I’ve Missed You!

A few weeks ago a couple came to my church who I hadn’t seen in a few months. Normally I would just say “hi, great to see you!” but lately I’ve been going at these conversations differently. I said, “I haven’t seen you in a few months and have really missed you being here. It’s great to see you.” Instead of just walking by, they stopped to catch me up on their lives. Though I said nearly the same thing as what I’ve typically done, confronting the idea of them being gone opened the door to som...

Transformed Through Practice

“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock” (Matthew 7:24-25, emphasis mine).

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In recent years I’ve been increasingly concerned that most churches are doing very little to help provide a Christ-centered foundation for the lives of their people. I grew up in a...

The Goal of a Wedding

I officiated over a small, private wedding ceremony recently, and will be attending several other wedding ceremonies in the coming months. While weddings are a significant spiritual event, fewer weddings are taking place inside a church sanctuary. Certainly, God’s presence can unite two to become one in any place, but I often worry that making weddings more about the spectacle causes us to miss what the goal of a wedding is.

With wedding season ramping up, I’ve had some time to reflect on wh...

The Best Quotes from A Failure of Nerve by Edwin Friedman

Although it was written in the 1990s, Edwin Friedman’s book A Failure of Nerve fits as well today as it ever has. In the book, Friedman outlines what kind of leadership is necessary in the age of quick fixes and anxiety. How can you operate as a non-anxious presence in an anxious environment? That’s a question I think he answers quite overwhelmingly.

This is not a Christian book. Friedman was a rabbi and family therapist. It may not be written by a Christian but it is a helpful book, becoming...

Called Out Episode 010: Barnabas Piper

 

One of the prevailing attitudes of our day is cynicism. This form of cynicism shows itself as a state of negativity and questioning where we can never believe anything at face value, and then we do our best to keep everything at arm’s length, rather than embracing it. You see this in the constant talk about fake news, because if some news is fake none of it should be believed, or so we think. We see this in relationships, because if one relationship or friendship fell apart, then none of t...

Reliving 90s Youth Group

While I did not graduate high school in the 1990s, I spent the majority of my church youth group years of middle and high school in the 90s.

If you haven’t noticed, nostalgia is all the rage. From Stranger Things to IT to 80s rock synth on every indie album, you can’t escape the push toward the past.

So with that in mind, I created a playlist of the best 90s youth group music. If you have Spotify you can find it directly here, or by listening below.

Enjoy some nostalgic bliss.

 

The Gift of Encouragement

A few weeks ago I preached on the section of Romans 12 where Paul mentions about spirituals gifts: “if it is to encourage, then give encouragement” (Romans 12:8). This verse has always stood out for me because in one of my first years of my seminary studies I had a professor say to me, “you don’t have the gift of encouragement do you?” It had never stood out me that I tended to be analytical and critical, but it’s never left my mind since then.

Ever since then I’ve believed (at least in part)...