Confessions of a Futon Reformer

A Move for the Blog

2010-08-30T15:45:00.001-04:00

To all (or should I say both) of the people who read the musings on this site: I am moving my blog hosting over to wordpress. If you would like to continue reading my babblings, checkout the new stuff over at futonreformer.wordpress.com

Thanks!

A Few Words for Noah

2010-06-16T13:40:00.003-04:00

My wife's family has a tradition of putting a book together with memories and wisdom for each other as they graduate from high school. The following is what I wrote for my brother-in-law Noah (Pictured left)

Noah,

Best I can tell, and lets be honest counting and numbers aren’t my strong suit, I have known you since you were 9 years old. That means that I have known you for most of your life. You know, like more than half. Again, I’m not very good with numbers, but even if my math is wrong, it will be right in a few months time, anyway.

So what do nine years mean? And for that matter, what does it mean to graduate from high school? You won’t wake up and feel any different the morning after graduation. By the time it really sets in, you will be riding a lawnmower in the hot Hudson, FL sun. Then it’s too late to reflect on graduation, you are already in the throws of college life.

With all that in mind I have two things to tell you that you already know. It’s not very witty, but it’s probably true.

First, don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. Honestly, I have no idea who thought of that saying, because who would be so careless as to discard a child with dirty water. It just doesn’t make any sense. As you leave high school and home behind, you will want to stretch your wings, be your own person. That is not a bad thing; in fact it is a very good one. When you go to Hudson, you will be Noah Hartley, your sister’s legacies at Word of Life will be a distant memory and you will be your own man. Don’t forget what you have been taught. Your parents have instilled virtues and values in you that should not be discarded. At 3344 Verna, you have learned to be a Godly, kind, thoughtful, giving, and fun loving young man. Don’t forget those things. Don’t let college, even a Christian one, make you hard and cynical. It will be easy. Cynicism is the sport of college students, and Noah, don’t buy into it. Think through what you are learning, but don’t let it turn you into a critic.

Second, everything you need to know, you have known since you first began to talk. We often complicate things and seek spiritual formation from the newest things. This isn’t just true of your next year at Word of Life; it will be true of the rest of our lives. Remember what Paul says in his letter to the Galatians, if we started our relationship by God through faith, we will not be perfected by human effort. Or to put it another way, the best thing I can say to you has a catchy tune and goes something like this:

Jesus loves Noah, This I know
For the Bible tells him so.

Summer Reading

2010-06-03T14:46:00.003-04:00

This summer I have planned out an ambitious reading plan. In the midst of the studies I am teaching, summer camps, vacations, and (Lord willing) my ordination. With just those little things going on, here is my reading list for the summer: (See if you can pick up the theme)

~~Sabbath – Dan Allendar~~
This is not a theological look at the topic, rather a practical encouragement to practice the 4th Commandment.

War of Words – Tripp
This is part of a requirement for my job. It focuses on the power of words and how they affect all of our relationships

Spiritual Theology – Simon Chan
I read this book early in my time in seminary. It is a systematic approach to the Christian life.

The Way of the Heart – Nouwen
I read this during the “Summer that God-hated me” and it was immensely helpful. I am revisiting it this summer.

Christ Plays in 10,000 Places – Peterson
I love Peterson and he always makes me think.

The Moral Vision of the New Testament – Hays
I read a chapter out of this book for a class my first semester of seminary. It was written unlike any other chapter on ethics I had ever read. I am interested to see what the book as a whole is like.

After You Believe – N.T. Wright
With all the drama surrounding Wright’s theology, I am interested to see him practically spell out his theology of sanctification.

~~Ender in Exile – Orson Scott Card~~
I always keep a fiction book on my nightstand and this is my current read. It fills in the time between Ender’s Game and Speaker for the Dead in the Ender’s Game series.

Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy – Eric Metaxas
I know I just said I keep fiction on my nightstand, but this looks very interesting and its still narrative, so it will take Ender’s place on my nightstand.

As I finish a book, I will cross it off. Also, the theme is "Spiritual Formation"

Updated 6/16

Towards a Theology of Cultural Engagement

2009-11-12T11:32:00.002-05:00

The church has debated the relationship it should have with the world since the earliest times. Just over a century after the death of the Apostle’s, Tertullian mused, “What does Jerusalem have to do with Athens?” The heart of Tertullian’s question was, what relationship does Christianity have with culture. The church has debated this topic ever since.

In the 1950’s, Richard Niebuhr’s book Christ and Culture set the agenda for all discussions on the topic that would follow. Neibuhr classified five approaches to culture. First, Christ Above Culture. This carries the idea that Christ is so transcendent that he is separate from culture. Culture deals with daily human issues, Christ deals with the weightier issues of the soul. Next, we see Christ and Culture in Paradox. This view pits Christ against culture, not in a hostile way, but more in an indifferent way. Christ is over here, culture there, never the two shall meet. As we approach the more common views we find Christ Against Culture. This view posits that culture (both pop and high) if not done explicitly for the glory of God by Christians is by its very nature hostile to God and Christianity. This is the prevailing view of popular, American evangelicalism. It is what has created the Christian ghetto, sub-genrizing anything it can. Since the turn of the millennium, the view of Christ of Culture has picked up steam. The Anglican revival coupled with the rise of the Emerging church has given new life to this view, previously buried by the other views. This view says that culture flows from Christ. It is often critiqued because of its failure to distinguish carefully from what is God’s Word and what are the mutters of the culture. The final category that Neibuhr presented was Christ Transforming Culture. This view (held mostly by Reformed Christians) carries the idea that Christ is very present in this world and “He is making the Kingdom of this world to be the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ” (to borrow from Isaiah/Handel).

As Christ kingdom grows in its expression we find the Gospel in seed form in places where Christianity is unknown. There are numerous examples of this, but one in particular comes to mind. In Japan there is a folk-legend called Hanasakajijii. This legend tells the story of two neighbors in dispute over a magical dog. After a bit of intrigue, the dog is murdered and transported to the floating world. As the family mourns, they are comforted by the “man who makes dead trees bloom”. This man restores the land from a drought. This is an extremely poor retelling of the story, but as early missionaries arrived in Japan, this story quickly helped the Christians explain their faith in an intelligible way. It was a cultural point of entry where adherents to Japanese folk religion could be engaged and taught of the gospel.

Here it may be helpful to distinguish between cultural relevance and cultural engagement. Many who find themselves in the Christ against Culture camp still use culture for a number of purposes. Often the idea is simply to illustrate a point or in other cases simply to show that the speaker is not “afraid” of culture. These uses are typically guarded and sparse. The idea here is to garner attention or to prove a point. This differs greatly from cultural engagement. In cultural engagement a speaker/minister/whatever may reference a number of pieces of pop or high culture. The idea is not to garner cool points or even to simply illustrate a point. Here the goal is a bit broader, by incorporating pop culture, the speaker is modeling a lifestyle that engages the world around the hearers and cultivates the beauty from the ashes. It finds the cultural touch points that have been buried in the culture and excavates them, showing where Christ has gone before us. We participate in His redemption of the world by sifting the beauty away from the ashes. We can see the messianic beauty of Children of Men, the redemptive significance of The Matrix, the nature of narrative in Stranger than Fiction. Here the goal is not illustration, but the cultivation of a life that engages the world with our beliefs and seeks to understand how and where Christ is working.

In closing it may be helpful to give the Biblical rationale for this view. When Paul came to Athens, he found a culture inundated with views, opinions, beliefs, and idolatry. When he was invited to speak at the Areopagus, Paul preached (Acts 17) one of his most eloquent sermons. In this sermon he quoted Epimenides of Crete in verse 28. This is the same Epimenides who was responsible for one of the most popular accounts of the origins of the Greek gods. These Theogonies (accounts of the where the gods came from) were often graphic and read more like a soap-opera than a history. Paul however engages Epimenides and shows how he was (inadvertently) speaking the truth. He then quotes the poem Phanomena by Aratus. This poem is a praise song used to worship Zeus. Nevertheless, Paul culls the truth that we have our being in YHWH, not in Zeus. Paul quotes other works in his epistles as well. He even quotes Epimenides a second time in Titus. Paul engaged his culture, and I believe this should be normative for us as well.

A Bibliography for the Paper, Wright or Wrong

2009-09-28T23:14:00.001-04:00

For those who are interested in the bibliography for my recent paper Wright or Wrong, here it is:

Report of Ad Interim Study Committee on Federal Vision, New Perspective, and Auburn Avenue Theology. By Paul Fowler, chairman. Atlanta, GA: General Assembly of the PCA, 2007

Hill, Charles E. “N.T. Wright on Justification.” IIIM Magazine Online Vol. 3, #22 (May 28 – June 3 2001)

McCormack, Bruce, ed. Justification in Perspective. Grand Rapids: William B. Baker Academic, 2006.

Piper, John. The Future of Justification: A response to N.T. Wright. Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Books, 2007.

Sanders, E.P. Paul and Palestinian Judaism. Philidelphia: Fortress Press, 1977.

Stendahl, Krister. Paul among Jews and Gentiles. Philidelphia: Fortress Press, 1976.

Van Voorst, Robert E. Reading the New Testament Today. Belmont, California: Thompson-Wadsworth,2005.

Venema, Cornelis P. Getting the Gospel Right. Carlisle, Pennsylvania: Banner of Truth Trust, 2006

Wright, N.T. The Climax of the Covenant. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993.

___________. Justification. Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 2009.

___________. What Saint Paul Really Said. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing, 1997.

A Response to Worship and Theology, Post 6: Mediocrity is Not Sufficient

2009-09-10T10:19:00.001-04:00

Rich has posted the latest in our series on worship and theology over on his blog and here is a response to it:

Ahh, So I see the gloves have come off, eh?

I have some thoughts on your blog:

First, I think you miss read my post regarding U2. I was in no way holding them up as exemplary, especially for church music. Here is how the argument [was intended] to flow: We have lots of professional musicians in Christendom. Their music is extremely popular (I’ll address some thoughts on this in a bit). They are so popular they sound like arguably the most popular band in the world. (At this point I whole heartedly agree with your thoughts on the quality of U2, but that is exactly not the point I am making) As great as these bands seem to be, both commercially and otherwise, they are theologically vacant and therefore failing. Even if Handel recomposed the music to the songs I mention in my post, they would still be vacant. (The dichotomy issue will be addressed, wait for it.)

Second are the issues of popularity and portability. You make a number of statements elevating technically correct music as the ideal. You say people should work to understand worship in the paragraph concerning burgers and filets. There is an element of Christianity that has always been blue collar. The most powerful movements of the Spirit in history have almost always been born out of the marginalized. Christianity is a populist religion, not an elitist religion. (I am, by and by, fully aware of the irony of this statement given the fact that I work in one of the less populist denominations) I guess what I am saying is that if Stan the Roofer doesn’t understand the music being played at his church, have we over aristocri-sized the church? And this problem is exacerbated as we think of Christianity on a global scale. Should we expect excellence in worship (by the standards of your post) in a church plant in Papua New Guinea? We can and should expect theological excellence; after all they have the authoritative guide on worship, the scriptures. That is to say that theological excellence in worship is universally applicable, while musical excellence is, by its necessary cultural moorings, subjective. Musical excellence in aboriginal Africa will look incredibly different than in the West.

I guess this means I am copping out (at best) or perhaps engaging in lazy thinking (at worst)

Lastly, it may perhaps be helpful to revisit the categories of post 3. It seems that you are blurring the lines between services of worship and worshipful services. While our services of worship should be excellent musically, each Sunday does not need to be a Sistine Chapel. Kathy brings up the issue of Scientist and other professionals, which we need to remember fall into categories (at least for our purposes in this series) of worshipful services. When we begin to blur these lines, which may be helpful in terms of vocation, we obscure the issue at hand.

The 20 most imporant CD's

2009-09-05T20:42:00.002-04:00

I posted this elsewhere, but it may be interesting.

1. Weezer/The Blue Album – This was the first album I ever really loved. I learned to play every song on the guitar while spending my 8th grade summer at Matt Gilbert’s house.

2. Jimmy Eat World/Clarity – This is an incredible album that I bought my senior year on a whim from a mall CD store. It was this or Texas is the Reason. Boy, did I make the right decision. This is one of the best albums ever written and to top it off the final song is about my favorite novel. I have listened to “Goodbye Sky harbor” on the way to and from every graduation I have been a part of.

3. Juliana Theory/Understand This is a Dream – Wow. Wow. The album is incredible and the show at the State theory was one of the most memorable nights of my life.

4. Blink 182/Enema of the State – I don’t know what is more memorable here, the first time I heard this in high school or singing it at the top of my lungs at the old days of Hope Prevails.

5. 3rd Eye Blind/Self-titled – This was the album that got through my first break-up and the second hardest summer of my life. I can remember laying on the floor of Sean McLawhorn’s house listening to it as he talked to his girlfriend Francis on the phone.

6. Arcade Fire/Neon Bible – This was the album that helped get me through the “Summer that God Hated Me”. You know, the one where I lost my job, blew out 3 tires, my iPod died, I went over my cell phone bill $500 killing my chance for getting an iPhone, and I had to move out of the city I love. O yeah and the album is pure genius.

7. Ben Folds Five/Whatever and Ever Amen – A gift from Eddy and Natalie that I wore out my junior year

8. Dashboard Confessional – I will never forget listening to Brandston on a slurpee run my freshman year when John Thornley says, “You gotta check this out”. He was right. I think I memorized every word of the album within a week. It was just so catchy.

9. Get Up Kids/Something to Write Home About – O so good. I love almost any thing Matt Pryor has done. Conner’s first album will be the Terrible Two’s.

10. Derek Webb/She Must and Shall Go Free – This is all about the Abbey at Shawn’s. This album was so provocative in its time and so tied to my spiritual formation.

11. FiveIron Frenzy/Upbeats and Beatdowns – The show at the Cuban Club where everyone got crazy sick (Leila even lost her spleen) and we paid partially in old socks to get in. That night and that album were amazing.

12. Zwan/Mary Star of the Sea – I know it is low level sacrilege to leave the Pumpkins off this list, but this album (essentially Billy’s solo project) still gets much more play than Melancholy and the Infinite Sadness

13. U2/All That You Can’t Leave Behind – This is probably the best album by one of the best bands. EVER.

14. Sufjan Stevens/The Christmas EP’s – From Thanksgiving til New Years Day, this is just about all I listen to.

15. Radiohead – OK Computer – What an album. Everytime I listen to it I find new layers and nuances.

16. Deathcab for Cutie/Transatlanticism – This is another one of those front to back great albums

17. Pedro the Lion/Control – The night this CD came out, Matthew Leahy, Charlie Williams, and I sat and listened to it straight through. Twice. In a Winn Dixie parking lot in Hudson. It was the most memorable night that an album came out for me.

18. Manchester Orchestra/Mean Everything to Nothing – This is a new one, but man is it good. I don’t know if there has been a better album in the past few years.

19. Zao/When Blood and Fire Bring Rest – Though we didn’t sound like them, this always reminds me of my time with Left Shoe Untied. Luke and Kyle played it for me and I was hooked.

20. Anathallo/Sparrows – This is probably the full length album ever created, lyrically speaking, ever created.

The Hoodie, Kismet, and "What it can be"

2009-08-15T18:13:00.004-04:00

Though the summer is still hot, the calendar is approaching September and approaching the football season. This time of year, everyone is an optimist. Every team has a shot. My team, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, got rid of their coach, general manager, and just about every veteran on the team; but hey, there is still hope. Even with my ironclad devotion to the Tampa Bucs, I am also terribly fascinated by another character in the NFL. Bill Belichick. His sense of fashion is classic. He often wears a hoodie that he has cut the sleeves off of as he patrols the New England sidelines. This outfit is so closely tied to his persona that he is often referred to simply as “The Hoodie.” He is the only head coach not to be a part of the NFL Head Coaches Association. The only one. (Incidentally this is why his name doesn’t show up on Madden.) He is also famous for his clandestine demeanor. He has been proven to bend the rules (to say the least) and is often vague with his injury reports (Tom Brady showed up every week of 2007 with a phantom shoulder injury). Bet even more intriguing than all of this is his personal philosophy that works its way out in press conferences. When asked about Tom Brady’s injury, he gave a certain response. When his team won every regular season game, every playoff game and lost the Superbowl, he gave the same response.

It is what it is.

What an interesting phrase. It has become a pop-culture phenomenon. It rears its head in all kinds of places. Sports stars, starlets, and fortune cookies; the phrase has taken on a life of its own and has even been brought to life in Christian circles.

The problem with the phrase, especially as it applies to Christianity, is that it is patently anti-christian. It is fatalism. It is paganism. It shows itself in other religions. In Islam, it is Kismet. In traditional Japanese religion it is Shikata ga na. Douglas McCollam of Slate magazine sites the first western use of the phrase to John Locke in An Essay concerning Human Understanding. [On a tangent regarding John Locke the scarier character when compared to Ben. Conniving as Ben is, he is still haunted by his bad decisions. John is not. What is the difference? For John, “It is what it is”.]

As it relates to Christianity we are determinists, that is to say that we do believe that God has ordained all that has come to pass, but the beauty of the Gospel is that we are not fatalist. We can look in the face of both the concentration camps of the Nazis and the firebombing of Dresden by the allies and see evil. And though God has set those things in order, they are not ok. They are not permissible.

We have bought into a revisionist sovereignty. If it happens, God is ok with it. Just because God allows something, doesn't mean it pleases Him in a moral sense.

Too often we as Christians use “It is what it is” to justify things. It is a way of saying love it or leave it, but you can’t leave it. We use the phrase as a way to say go with the flow. This idea, this philosophy ignores the cross. The way things are are not how they are going to be. We live in a time, after the cross, where we can identify evil and even minor injustice and see Christ change them with the power of the cross. However if we simply allow them to be, they will continue

Instead of focusing on what is, we need to focus on what can be.

Worship & Theology, post 5: This thing is worse than Swine Flu!

2009-06-29T15:52:00.003-04:00

So having set the table, its time to dig into the steak.

Our services of worship have gone down hill. If we were to point fingers, and I don't intend to; we could point to Finney and Darby, but I won't. Suffice it to say that what passes as worship music today is failing.

And it is not that it is not good music. In fact the opposite is the case. Never have more people been in the full employment (or support) of the church in the area of music.

There are more professional and professional caliber musicians serving the church with less theological music being written. We have substituted musical excellence for excellent music.

What I mean by that is that we have sacrificed content for style. Our music is good. It is popular. There is little difference between U2 and some of our more popular worship groups. That is no slam on U2, it is a compliment.

The problem is that we have focused so hard on the style and attracting people to worship that we have abandoned that which is just outside our range of vision, God.

A few weeks ago, everyone was scarred that the half of the world's population was going to die of Swine Flu. Surgical masks in hand, people braved mass-transit. Armed with super-mega-antibiotics people took to the streets hoping not to be victimized by this pig-faced killer. But it was a lot of hype and not a lot of fall out. It was more bacon and less epidemic and apocalypse. Am I guilty of the same thing? Am I making a pandemic out of a minor issue? Is this Swine Flu or simply a strain of Flu called H1N1?

Lets take a look. The following are the top songs from the Christian section of iTunes by downloads. The first is "God in Me" by Mary Mary. Here are the lyrics:

- Mary Mary Lyrics

Seriously, I can't make this up. But lets be fair the next song was by famous worship leader David Crowder. It's called How He Loves.

Lyrics | David Crowder Lyrics | How He Loves Lyrics

This is much better, but there is still some significant problems. Did you catch the line about heaven meeting earth like a sloppy wet kiss. I'm sorry, is this the transcendent God of the universe or Brad Pitt in a romantic comedy?

The third most downloaded song is Matthew West's "The Motions":

Lyrics | Matthew West Lyrics | The Motions Lyrics

OK. At this point I need to stop.

I don't want to sound negative and like everything is awful and bad. I am not trying to say that everything that doesn't meet my select standard of theology fails.

What I do want to point out is the extreme lack of any kind of theology whatsoever. It is not as if I object to these songs out of my theological vantage point. They have no theological vantage point.

It is also not that I object to these songs because they sound too much like God is my girlfriend. There is theological justification of that style of worship as made clear in the book of Song of Songs.

Here is the point that I am making, and to be pointed that I am putting to you Rich: The music behind these songs is relatively good. The problem is theological. We have to abandon notions of musical excellence until we can recapture the transcendence and a healthy dose of the immanence of God.

We have sacrificed our theology on the altar of music.

Links to the conversation thus far:

1 2 3 4

Wal-Mart is Killing the Church

2009-06-23T11:55:00.003-04:00

Let me start by pointing out that Rich Van Voorst has posted the latest blog in our series on Worship and Theology over at his blog. This post is number 4. We will begin numbering our post so you can follow the flow better.

Ok, to my thoughts:

Wal-Mart killing the church. There, I said it.

Ok, So I don’t mean that Sam Walton is out to destroy Christianity. I am pretty sure he isn’t.

What I mean is the philosophy that drives Wal-Mart is bleeding into our concept of church in ways that are disconcerting.

When you go to Wal-Mart you are confronted with a dizzying array of choices. What kind of orange soda does my mother-in-law want? Shasta? Sunkist? Orange Crush? Fanta? Sam’s Choice? Nehi? Barrilitos? Even worse, what if she wants carbonated orange drink that isn’t soda; the choices increase exponentially.

So there I stand in the aisle dedicated to soda, reeling at my choices.

But I am not that worried. If I pick the wrong one and she wants another, though it will be a pain, all I have to is go back and get the right one.

We can have anything we want custom made. I presided over a weeding a few years ago where the bride and groom had M&M’s made with their names on them. How cool is that!

Unfortunately we have brought this mentality to church. Our commitment only runs as deep as the given churches commitment to make us happy. If anything changes that we don’t like, we quit and go somewhere that fits our needs.

If they serve Matza bread at communion, we leave for the Church of the Leavened Bread. If they don’t cater to our needs we find someone who will. This is what has created 27,647 distinct IRS recognized church divisions in the United states.

You could go to a different denomination once a day, everyday from the day you were born and would not finish visiting them all until you were 75!

We have got to commit to a church and believe that we are a part of that body. If we believe that the Bible is true, Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians that people to not join churches at random. They are created to be specific part of a body at a specific time. They are not created to endlessly seek what makes them happy.

It is not always easy, but we are created for a specific church and that church needs us, and we need them.

Worship and Theology: Boundaries and Fences; Staffs and Clefs (3)

2009-05-26T10:14:00.005-04:00

As we embark on this conversation, it may be helpful to be clear and narrow in our scope. When anyone brings up the topic of worship, hackles go up and some people immediately take a defensive position. Rich and I want this discussion to be specific rather than vague.

Scotty Smith, a Presbyterian pastor from Tennessee, spoke at a workshop at the Gospel Coalition Confrence this past April. He was careful to distinguish between “services of worship” and “worship services”. This was a helpful distinction, but still lacks a bit of clarity. For the purpose of these blogs and this one in particular, let us set the terms Services of Worship and Worshipful services. Services of Worship are the time we spend on Sunday morning gathered together with our local bodies to express our Worship to the Covenant Lord. Worshipful service is any good and profitable thing we do which brings glory to that same Lord. These themes flow from the pages of scripture from start to finish.

While in Eden our forefathers experienced both services of worship (when they walked with God in the cool of the day) and worshipful services as they carried out the commands of the Cultural Mandate (sometimes called the Covenant of Eden or Covenant of works). They were not simply prohibited from eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, but they were positively commanded to be fruitful and multiply and push the borders of the garden outwards (Gen 1:28-30).

Later as redemptive history moved on, we find Moses and the people of Israel at the foot of the mountain. Here they are given the Ten Commandments by Charlton Heston. These Ten Commandments deal essentially with services of worship and worshipful service. The first four commands instruct Israel in her behavior towards God (or her services of worship). The next six commands deal with the way the people are to treat one another in everything from sexuality to business. Here God is dealing with their worshipful services.

Later still, Christ meets a Samaritan woman by a well. After a lengthy discussion she tries to bait him into declaring one place of services of worship illegitimate and another approved. Jesus masterfully navigates this complex and culturally loaded issue and declares that a time is coming where worshipers will offer services of worship all over the world and offer them in “Spirit and Truth”.

Paul and the writer of Hebrews pick these themes up as well. Paul speaks of our worshipful services in Romans when he calls us to present our bodies as living sacrifices. The author of Hebrews weaves the tow themes together seamlessly. He speaks of the excellencies of coming to heavenly Jerusalem as opposed to Sinai then urges us to offer acceptable services of worship. (Hebrews 12:18-29) He then launches into a treatment of our worshipful service, tying them together in chapter 13:15-16.

The scriptures even give us a peak into the world that is to come. Revelation continues the dance between services of worship with worship service, giving us pictures of both celestial services of worship and new earthly worshipful service.

So where does that leave us, to be more specific, where does this leave this series of blogs. Rich and I will be focusing on services of worship. We both understand the importance and biblical significance of worshipful services, but are not seeking to address it here. We want to deal with those specific activities that are practiced on Sunday mornings, the world over. The Church has put an emphasis on these since the earliest times. From the Hebrews author urging members not to neglect coming together, to the significance of the mass in the middle ages to the importance the reformers put on the Sunday service to the very models of ministry taught and used today, Sunday morning services of worship are a centerpiece to modern Christianity and we are seeking to address what goes on in them.

(This post is part of an on going series. You can find the previous posts here and here.)

New Blog Series: Theology and Worship Music (1)

2009-05-13T15:51:00.005-04:00

As many of you may know, one of my closest friends is Rich Van Voorst. Rich has been an incredible friend to me since we met nearly 5 years ago. Rich is a Jazz composer and talented Saxophonist. He holds two masters degrees from USF (in Composition and Jazz preformance). On top of this he has an excellent mind for theology. He has often been my sparring partner on a number of theological issues. He reads and thinks through a ton of material.

Rich and I share a passion for our Reformed heritage and a desire to see our churches (both local and global) live out the mantra of the reformation, "Soli Deo Gloria". We both would like to turn our hearts toward improving the quality of worship on our communities.

That being said, we come from different vantage points. Over the next few weeks,we will be corresponding over our blogs. I will be taking the premise, Worship is first theology and second, music. Rich will be taking the position, Worship is equally theology and music.

We understand there is a lot of nuance in worship discussions and we are limiting ourselves to the idea of corporate, Sunday morning worship; specifically music.

In the mean time, check our Rich's blog at http://www.richvanvoorst.com/

Sermon on the Shrewd Manager

2009-05-04T10:30:00.003-04:00

Yesterday I had the privileged to preach for the first time since I have served at Surfside Presbyterian Church. We have been studying an excellent small group study called "Modern Parables" and the sermons have been following the same passages. As fate would have it, the passage that fell to me was the most difficult. I was assigned the parable of the Shrewd Manager.

This text is by far the most difficult sermon I have ever preached. The text was extremely difficult to fully wrap my head around and therefore, difficult to communicate. I would like to share a few thoughts before sharing the link to the sermon.

> This text is part of the same encounter with the Pharisees that began in ch. 15.

> This story is tied very closely to the story of the Prodigal Sons

> Though verses 10-13 are related, they are not a part of the parable. Instead they are a complex poem contrasting Mammon and the Kingdom.

> There are as many opinions on what this text means as there are commentators.

> I do disagree with the narrow application of this parable simply to finances.

So there are some of the complexities of this passage. Feel free to comment below.

Idolatry and the Aloft Hotel

2009-04-22T09:20:00.004-04:00

This week I have the privilege of being in Chicago for the Gospel Coalition Conference. It has been amazing. Yesterday I heard messages by Tim Keller, John Piper, Phillip Ryken, and Mark Driscoll. Far and away the one that struck me the most was Keller. Keller did a fairly typical "Keller-esque" message on idolatry of the heart. He artfully identified and tore down numerous God's that we as Christians bow down to.

This was an interesting contrast with the hotel we are staying at. The hotel is called "Aloft", but should, perhaps, be called "Aloof". I am grateful for the church providing a hotel near the conference center and grateful that I am staying here. Nevertheless the attention to detail in the hotel is astounding. The entire hotel seems to have been designed, decorated and furnished by Ikea.

Cool lamps

Cool staircases

Cool color schemes that bounce alternately from stark solids to vivid patterns.

Even the music in the elevator music is cool.

In fact the elevator is a great microcosm of the hotel as a whole. The elevator is brush finished stainless steel from top to bottom and from a crown near the ceiling, a soft and beautiful blue lights seeps out. Then from some unscene (sic) speakers, a barrage of hip European sounding techno lurches out.

I walked in the hotel and (at least in my mind) made a motion like a 5th grader. I pumped my fist and elbow by my side and said in a loud whisper, "Yessssssssss". Again, this is all going on in my head. I love cool. A lot. A whole lot.

In fact, I worship cool. I kneel at the altar of pop culture and drink deep of the swill-y Kool-aide.

God help us, because I have a feeling, I am not alone.

New Tape Letter #2

2009-03-18T15:24:00.001-04:00

After much delay, here is the second Screwtape Letter:

Dearest Wormwood,
Well done young one! You have fanned the flame of fanaticism into a full-blown wild fire! Before you get too pleased with yourself, however, we must now carefully direct this passion. The best course of action at this point is to direct your patient into a strong sense of escapism.
We all know that the Maker created these beings much differently than he created us. We, Wormwood, are celestial beings meant for the heavens. They are not. In fact, they were created for the hideous blue-green ball they call earth. If, using fanaticism and poor end-times theology, we can move the attention from this world to the world to come, we have won no small victory!
Perhaps a bit more specifics here may help you in your quest. I have noticed from your correspondence that your subject continues to paint. By focusing his attention on escaping from this world to another, his painting will take one of two directions. It will either devolve into an over-romanticised myopic of a past that never really existed ( a sort of Rockwell-Redux), or he will abandon the painting entirely. Either one of these is acceptable.
The first option is in vogue in many circles of the enemies followers. They have so trivialized art and aesthetics that they have created mountains of what we demons call, Jesus Junk. It is an incredible sight, they have created stores that are wall to wall with this hackneyed, trite art. We have successfully eradicated true beauty in the church since the 1800’s. It has been a beautiful time. Long ago, when you were still cleaning the smokestacks of hell, we had to fight against imaginations inflamed with the beauty of creation and the stories of scripture and history. The music of the enemy had the potential, along with their architecture, to transport the average churchman to another plain. We, by introducing this eschatology of escapism, have bled the church of this. We invented a phrase, “Polishing the Brass on the Titanic”. It has worked wonders in dissuading followers of the way from creating beauty and art.
Above all, just remember the idea is to pull his focus from this world and keep it on endless study on misinterpretations of the world to come. If you can keep him convinced that the future is a spiritual world, disconnected and disembodied from the physical, we will be just fine. Tell Nefarii I send my regards.

Smirking in anticipation of Demise,
Your Uncle, Newtape

New Tape Letter #1

2008-12-01T10:00:00.004-05:00

I am writing a series of mock Screwtape Letters for a class in Theology. The letters all have to focus on Eschatology (the end of the world). Also, I am in the process of uploading the videos of Conner's Baptism to youtube. I'll post'em here when they are done.

Dearest Wormwood,
It seems that your patient has become heavily involved with our Great Enemies organization. This is most disappointing, but it is not the end of the road for you. While we cannot take him away from the Good One, we can sidetrack him. One of the easiest areas to get the new convert distracted with is the “inevitable end”. I know you are trained not to think about this, but young Wormwood, desperate times call for desperate measures.

If you are to successfully derail the patient, there are two thankful options for this maneuver. One the one hand, you can make sure the patient steers completely clear of talking about the apocalypse. Convince him that John’s detestable metaphor is too difficult to understand. This apathy could easily spread to other areas. If the Revelation of John is too difficult, so is that detestable account by the tax collector. The publican often quotes Jesus and his sermons on the end and from there the apathy may be a foothold for doubt in general. Though we cannot completely take him from our enemy, we can render him useless with this tactic.

The other option, I have found, is even more powerful. Fanaticism can actually be an incredibly powerful tool in our hands. Mind yourself if you decide to pursue this course. It is terribly risky, but can be terribly rewarding. We in upper management have been working on this track for many years. We have planted seeds that have distracted His followers from many of the main points of His teaching. These seeds primarily result in endless searches of that evil book. The beauty of this is that the patients are not looking to experience that detestable Spirit, rather they are looking for proverbial bread crumbs to bolster a view that we have planted amongst the ranks of the so called faithful. Encourage you patient to read and be involved in endless speculation regarding the end of days. In doing so, he will become so engrossed in this study that he will never come out. We have promulgated much literature to this end in their bookstores. This endless (excuse my pun, nephew) study of the end times can actually cripple his development and be a great victory for you.

Above all, dear Wormwood, make this a cerebral exercise. Your patient must never begin to see that any of this information can affect his daily life. If you allow him to live out these nefarious truths the last state will be worse than the first. You must keep this on the level of unbridled, unthinking fanaticism, not on action. If you must allow for action, make sure is simply arguing with others on this topic. In fact, it may wise to consult our mutual friend, Absinthe. I believe he is working with a patient along this track. If they were to meet and strongly disagree, we may have a real plot! This could be the beginning of years of distraction for your subject, if you play your cards right.

Smirking in anticipation of Demise,
Your Uncle, Newtape

Spiritual Formation and Music

2008-11-21T10:39:00.002-05:00

My friend Phil encouraged a few friends to make a list of songs that have impacted our spiritual formation. I thought that this was a really interesting exercise.

Here's my list:

Just because You can't see... - Anathallo

Declared, Bannered - Anathallo

Intervention - Arcade Fire

(Antichrist Television Blues) - Arcade Fire

Jimmy Eat World - Goodbye Sky Harbor (for its meaning tied to Owen
Meany)

Priest and Paramedics - Pedro the Lion

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen - Pedro the Lion

Vito's Ordination Song - Sufjan Stevens

Come Thou Fount - Sufjan Stevens

Guerrilla Radio - Rage Against the Machine

All that You Can't Leave Behind - U2

Miracle Drug - U2

Fake Plastic Trees - Radiohead

God of Wine - Third Eye Blind

What songs would make your list?

Great New Music

2008-11-12T11:24:00.002-05:00

My good friend Ben Coy was kind enough to give me a pre-release of his album that is coming out next Tuesday. I have been listening to it all morning, and it is honestly one of the best albums start to finish I have heard all year. It is a collection of old hymns with rewritten tunes and new hymns that Ben wrote. This is a description of the album and one of the bluesier tunes.

If you like it, check out Ben's website for more info.

An Open Plea to Evangelicals for the discontinuation of the use of 2 Chronicles 7:14 in reference to America.

2008-10-20T17:34:00.002-04:00

As the election nears, it has become an important issue for the church. Folks on both sides of the aisle, both politically and religiously, have marshaled evidence on why their candidate is the Godly choice. This essay seeks to poignantly ignore all questions about the election and about any issues surrounding it. Rather, the intention of this essay is to carefully exegete a commonly (mis?)used passage with respect to America.

We have all seen pins, flags, banners, and other memorabilia emblazed with the following words: if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. These words come from 2 Chronicles 7:14 and in this case, the English Standard version. This verse is one of the most popular verses with regard to politics, it is even on the crest of the Presidential Prayer Team. Is this a proper use of this verse, or is it an example of eisogesis (reading our own views into a text)?

In the smallest of context, the verse comes as part of the Lord’s response to Solomon in a dream after he dedicates the Temple. The language of the passage is full of allusions to the Covenant nature of God’s relationship to His people. He has chosen to dwell in the Temple and has chosen to hear the prayers offered there. The passage requires a fundamental knowledge of two themes of the Old Testament that bear heavily on the interpretation of historical books.

Key to understanding the Old and New Testaments is the concept of Covenant. It is the overarching structure by which we see God operating toward mankind. Space does not allow a full exposition of Covenant theology here, but it is of note that it is the backdrop of all scripture. God made a series of Covenants in early Genesis leading toward the Abrahamic Covenant. In this covenant, God promised Abram a land, a seed (both singular and plural), and a blessing. Each of these became the backdrop for Israel’s concept of itself. They were the seed who was blessed by the gift of the land. Though each of these pointed the Christ – he was the seed of Abraham, the blessing to the nations and the inheritance of the elect – they also had near fulfillment in Israel. Israel, upon exiting Egypt marched (sometimes stumbled) towards the land where they would be blessed and have children.

As they move along this march again and again the theme of the “Land” is repeated. The generation who is charged with unbelief after the failure to have faith in the report of the 2 spies in Kadesh-Barnea are cursed how? By not being able to enter the land. When Moses sins, what is his punishment? He cannot enter the land. Once the people of God enter the land of milk and honey, God uses the land –which is to say the physical ground- to chastise his people. Again and again Israel’s disobedience is tied to the success of their crops. When Israel turned from Yahweh and went after the Baal’s and Astheroth, what were they doing? They were seeking better crops from the Canaanite god’s of rain and fertility, vital elements in an agrarian culture. God uses the land to bring them to repentance. The Hebrew word for this ground was c'(r>a; . This word was used for the dirt, not for the nation as a collective body.

Back to the verse at hand. When God responds to Solomon’s ritual dedication of the Temple, He renews the covenantal lease on the land of Israel. He says that when natural disaster strikes the physical land of Israel, if His people (the Jews) will rightly relate to Him, He will forgive them of their idolatry and restore the crops He has caused to cease.

So then how does this relate to us as Christians in America in 2008? First we must remember the way in which Old Testament promises come to us as believers.

God’s Covenant People (OT Israel) --------------> God’s Covenant People (NT Church)

he Elect of God (OT Circumcised of Heart) --------------> The Elect of God (NT Baptized in the Spirit)

We often times mistakenly draw the lines like this:

God’s Covenant People (OT Israel) --------------> God’s Covenant People (America)

he Elect of God (OT Circumcised of Heart) --------------> The Elect of God (NT Church)

If we properly bring this verse into the post-Cross era and listen to its words, it should sound more like this, “If my elect in the Church will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and repent of their sins, then I will hear from heaven and forgive their sins and heal the church.” This verse is so important to us as the shattered kingdom of God. We need God to heal the wounds of heresy, idolatry, and unbelief that riddle our churches. We need God to hear from heaven and put the gospel back at the center of churches.

2 Chronicles 7:14 has been misused by every political party and by the church at large. May we engage in careful exegesis of the Old Testament.

Fantasy Football

2008-08-25T10:24:00.003-04:00

Well, the first of my two drafts is over and here is how it shook out:

The 2008 Sabbath Breakers

QB: Matt Schaub, Aaron Rogers, and Jason Cambell

RB: Adrian Peterson (left), Marshawn Lynch, Laurence Maroney, Matt Forte, and Ray Rice

WR: Marques Colston, Chad Johnson, Calvin Johnson, and Lee Evans

TE: Antonio Gates, and Owen Daniels

IDP: Lofa Totupu

D/ST: Buccaneers

I am really exited about this team. This is for our churches 10 man ESPN league.

My other league drafts on Sunday night.

New Music

2008-08-07T15:23:00.002-04:00

I was looking around on myspace and came across a band that a buddy of mine from college is in. They are really good and have an ep coming out next week. You should check them out. They are called U.S. Royalty and this is a one of their songs.

The PCA no longer wants new Ministers

2008-07-29T23:07:00.002-04:00

In an interesting move, PCA general assembly headquarters in Atlanta released a statement today declaring, "They are no longer interested in ordaining new candidates". The move was unexpected and took a number of people by surprise.

One parishioner in rural Tennessee was overheard by a local pastor saying, "Good, all these kids going off to seminary wantin' to be changin' things won't be able to now".

A middle age pastor in Jackson, MS said to the local paper, "We have began implementing a policy that will make it next to impossible for anyone to get ordained. The only real chance you have is if you are transferring in from a sister denomination or have a rich father paying your way through seminary."

When an Atlanta official was asked about seminary, he said, "We will continue to operate our denominational seminary [Covenant] and encourage our churches to support local seminaries like RTS and CIU. The difference will be that these institutions will exist solely to make money and tease young men with the idea that they will be able to move towards ordination. They will be so heinously expensive, that we will really only cater to the rich."

It seems oligarchy was all the rage as established pastors throughout the denomination tipped back over-priced glasses of champagne with their wives; smiling and knowing they were on the inside.

All the fuss boils down to two policies: High seminary costs, and low support for seminarians.

A Prayer for the Stark Wedding

2008-07-26T13:11:00.001-04:00

Eternal God, creator and preserver of all life, author of  salvation, and giver of all grace: Look with favor upon the  world you have made, and for which your Son gave his life,  and especially upon Nathan and Julie whom you have now  made into one flesh in Holy Matrimony

Grant that their wills may be so knit together in your will,  and their spirits in your Spirit, that they may grow in love and peace with you and one another all the days of their life.

Make their life together a sign of Christ's love to this sinful  and broken world, that unity may overcome estrangement,  forgiveness heal guilt, and joy conquer despair

As we celebrate this beautiful union and mystical picture of your love for the church, may we, Nathan and Julie’s friends and family enjoy this good food and good drink which you have graciously provided for us.

We ask all this in the holy name of Jesus Christ.

GravesEnd Podcast #3: Playtime and the Kingdom

2008-07-03T14:10:00.002-04:00

The latest edition of the GravesEnd Podcast is up and you can listen to it by clicking here. In this episode Tim and I discuss the place of fun in the Christian mission and the way that the church has neutered the Kingdom's call to enjoying life.

Montana De Luz

2008-06-24T10:57:00.002-04:00

One of my good friends is a documentary film producer in Vancouver, B.C. He and his wife's latest film, Montana de Luz has been accepted into the Rhode Island International Film Festival.

"Montaña de Luz" trailer from matthew leahy on Vimeo.

Matthew and Elisa do incredible work and you should check out more of their films here.

Morning Devotion #5

2008-06-13T11:11:00.000-04:00

We often come back from camp feeling great. Like we could take on the whole world, but by the time school rolls around, it is back to business as usual, so on the ride home today, do something different.

Get in a group of 3 or 4 people, but at least one of them has to be someone who you wouldn’t normally be in a group with. Each of the following areas ask you to think outside the box. The idea is that you are going to do something radical, crazy even. The more outlandish and unexpected the idea is, the better. Remember, the jihad of love is all about surprise.

What are some of the ways that you, in this group, could uniquely and explosively love your school, neighborhood, or church? List 3 or 4 cool ideas for loving others...

What are some of the ways you could promote peace and reconciliation between cliques and groups at your school and church?

How can you be outrageously kind to those in your school and church? Who could you include that no one else will?

Morning Devotion #4

2008-06-13T10:49:00.000-04:00

Jesus gives us, not just a high calling to respond in radical kindness when others do us wrong, but also to those who we despise day in and day out.

Who is your Arch-nemesis? That one person who in every way possible drives you insane. Who do you hate more than anyone else?

Read Matthew 5:43-47

The Kingdom of Heaven is here and now, and we have been called to rip windows open between this world and the next. We are invited to tear the fabric between our world and the world that is to come. We do this in a fascinating way.

We do this through love.

We detonate charges of hope when we love others. In what ways have you shown love today?

Those acts of love are windows into the Kingdom. But when we only love those who love us, we aren’t even scratching the surface of what Christ is calling us to.

Jesus Kingdom is best shown in the extremely difficult act of loving our enemies. Think about your arch-nemesis. In what ways can you plot a random act of kindness towards your enemies?

How can you make moves that will create peace between you and your enemies?

How can you scheme to do something that shows that you love, not hate, your enemy?

Morning Devotions: Day 3

2008-06-04T16:47:00.000-04:00

So if Christ Kingdom is real, here and now, how are we supposed to act? Jesus actually lays out exactly the kind of Kingdom agents we are supposed to be. We are to be splinter cells of hope, anxiously awaiting our opportunity to throw kindness grenades and explosive love.

Read Matthew 5:38-42

What is your typical response to someone who wrongs you? When some mocks you, what do you do?

Do you respond by firing back? I know I do. But what does Jesus say in this passage?

This is one of the most difficult things that Jesus ever taught. EVER. Turn the other cheek. If someone asks for your lunch, give them your drink too. If someone wants to borrow your new CD, give them your iPod too.

Wait a minute. My iPod? Jesus doesn’t seriously want us to give away our iPods does he?

What would your school be like if you willingly gave away what people asked of you? The reason the idea of giving away your iPod (or whatever it is that is valuable to you) is so bothersome is because you are more concerned with that, than with living the way Jesus calls us too...

What things do you love more than your enemies?

Morning Devotions: Day 2

2008-06-03T19:14:00.001-04:00

Who is the greatest Greek who has ever lived? I’ll give you a hint, the word Great is in his name...

So the answer is Alexander the Great, if you didn’t know. He became the “great” by, well, killing a ton of people. He was a military beast. He marched from Greece to India and hit up Egypt on the way, conquering as he went.

The greatest Roman, Persian, or Viking was always measured by the military dominance you showed. Kingdoms were all about great military victories.

Jesus teaches us that His Kingdom is at hand, and His disciples take Him seriously. They take Him so seriously that they want to know who is going to be the Greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Read Matthew 18:1-4

At this point Jesus does something interesting, He calls a child into the gathering. The disciples are expecting Jesus to march to Jerusalem and kick some Roman hinny. They are expecting Him to violently overthrow Rome. Jesus does something totally radical, he calls a child up in front of the disciples. “You want to be great in the Kingdom of God? Be like this child.”

If Jesus is the King of a real Kingdom, and His Kingdom calls for our allegiance, what does he mean to have child like faith?

How do we, as Christians, place more value on the “Alexander” type of greatness and not the “Jesus” kind of greatness?

How would we as Christians act if we followed Christ in the way of weakness (the child), and not the way of strength (the soldier)?

Morning Devotions: Day 1

2008-06-03T11:25:00.001-04:00

Ok, lets start with an easy question (maybe)...Why did Jesus die?

Now, lets make this a bit tougher. Why was Jesus killed?

Do you see the difference in the questions. The first has to do with the reasons Jesus died, what those things mean to us. The second has to do with Jesus trial and the people who accused Jesus and sentenced him to die.

Read Luke 22:66-23:17

After reading that passage, look at your answer for the second question. Do they match? Probably not right? So why is this?

We often think of Jesus dieing for our sins. We think of His crucifixion as simply a means to get us in to heaven. Both of these things are true, but they only tell half of the story. Pilate and the crowds were not crying out, “This man needs to die for our sins, Crucify Him, CRUCIFY Him!” They were claiming Jesus committed an actual crime. A real crime that deserved the death penalty.

What was the crime? They said Jesus was making Himself out to be a King and opposing taxes. They claimed He was a revolutionary.

We have often thought of the charges brought against Jesus as fake, but these aren’t. Jesus did claim to be the Messiah. What does the Word Messiah make you think of?

When Jesus claimed to be the Messiah, people knew He was claiming to be a real king who was about to set up a real kingdom. He was starting a revolution unlike anything the world had ever seen. If Jesus did set up a real kingdom on this earth what would that mean for us?

Hauntingly Beautiful

2008-06-03T10:33:00.001-04:00

I found this over at my friend Rich's Blog...It is amazing.

Post Series: Morning Devotions

2008-06-02T15:12:00.002-04:00

This summer I have been asked to speak at a camp for High School students from the PCA in Florida. Part of what I have been asked to do is write the morning devotionals to accompany my morning messages. I will be speaking 3 times and writing 5 devotionals.

I was looking for some help in tweaking these devotions and making them better.

My general theme is going to be "Living in the Radical Kingdom of Christ". I plan to emphasize the way Jesus calls us to follow Him and His kingdom that exist on this planet, but is completely "other-worldly". I want the kids to walk away seeing the Kingdom as a place to "Plot Kindness, Wage Peace, and Scheme Love". Then show them what that means in high school.

If you could do me the favor of reading these devotionals as I write them and giving me some feedback, I would really appreciate it.

GravesEnd Podcast #2

2008-05-27T10:10:00.002-04:00

The GravesEnd Podcast has again. In this episode, find out how to get free money! Ok, no free money, but Dire Straits will make an appearance.

Click Here to listen online

Click Here to subscribe via iTunes (click the purple "subscribe" button on the linked page)

Viva La Vida

2008-05-27T09:55:00.003-04:00

I am such a consumer. I saw a commercial for a new Coldplay song and immediately downloaded the song to my phone. My guilt aside, this song is awesome. Here is a piece of the lyrics, enjoy.

I used to rule the world
Seas would rise when I gave the word
Now in the morning I sleep alone
Sweep the streets I used to own

I used to roll the dice
Feel the fear in my enemy's eyes
Listen as the crowd would sing:
"Now the old king is dead! Long live the king!"

One minute I held the key
Next the walls were closed on me
And I discovered that my castles stand
Upon pillars of salt and pillars of sand

I hear Jerusalem bells a ringing
Roman Cavalry choirs are singing
Be my mirror my sword and shield
My missionaries in a foreign field
For some reason I can't explain
I know St. Peter will call my name

GravesEnd Podcast

2008-05-11T19:45:00.002-04:00

Tim from Sacrosanct Gospel and I have started a podcast we hope to produce biweekly. It's called the GravesEnd Podcast and the first episode is up.

Listen Here

The Shallow Ocean

2008-04-29T09:35:00.003-04:00

Ankle deep in the cool waves of the northern Atlantic stood James Ward.

He was the foremost scientist of his generation. No one knew the seas like Ward. He had even gained notoriety with the publication of his cleverly alliterated book Ward's Wonderful World of Water.

The awkward piece of his life came not in his studies, but rather in the strange way in which he treated the ocean. Ward lived every day of his life teaching from the ocean itself; never more than knee deep. He would lecture to groups of marine biology students with a whiteboard anchored from the constant ebb of the waves. Shin-soaked he taught oceanographers of nuance in water temperature and its affect on the global climate. Yet, he never swam.

On particularly sunny days he had been know to pontificate from his aquatic pulpit on the long term health benefits of swimming. When a group returned from a study of the Marianas Trench, they went to Ward to speak of the beauty of the deep ocean. Ward was more than obliged to compare notes and nod sternly at the research. With furrowed brow he could be found starring at scuba equipment as divers used his makeshift classroom as a launch site for expedition.

Grimacing, James Ward stood ankle deep in the cool, relentless waves of the Atlantic.

Top 5 Rock Records of the 90's

2008-04-25T10:39:00.002-04:00

Oh, to fan the flames of overwrought controversy.

Here is the definitive list of the 5 best Rock Albums recorded in the 1990's. If you don't like it, comment and correct.

1. Weezer - Weezer (the Blue Album): Unbelievable hooks, catchy lyrics, and every song is amazing.

2. Counting Crows - August and Everything After: Beautiful from start to finish. The lyrics are cryptic and sometimes haunting.

3. Jimmy Eat World - Clarity: Though the album has a few songs that are not gems, the 14 song masterpiece is incredible. It also ends with a 14 minute tribute to A Prayer for Owen Meany (the greatest novel of the late 20th century)

4. Third Eye Blind - Third Eye Blind: Known mostly for the commercial success of Semi-Charmed life, this record is amazing from the word go. The album has the best final 5 songs of any album of the decade.

5. Ben Folds Five - Whatever and Ever Amen: The lyrics and the music on this quirky, sometimes sad jam are unbelievable.

All Apologies List: Nirvana - Nevermind, The Juliana Theory - Understand this is a Dream, Radiohead - OK Computer, Clueless - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, Blink 182 - Enema of the State.

Blackjack and Han Solo

2008-04-08T08:55:00.002-04:00

So a few weeks ago Angie and I went out on a Friday night. A nice dinner, a decent movie. We saw 21, the new Kevin Spacey flick. It couldn't go wrong with Spacey in it since he is the greatest actor. Ever. If you live in a cave and don't know what the movie is about, it is the story of a poor Harvard student who learns to count cards and becomes a Vegas legend. Predictable plot. Simple dialogue. Nevertheless, it was enjoyable.

The real problem I have with the movie is the effect it has on me.

Pause.

Restart.

So I was reading my friend's blog last week. He was talking about how we act like Batman as men. It was great. Check it out here. And it got me thinking...what mythical/comic book/fantasy hero am I? I tucked this away and thought about it for a while.

Here's where 21 comes in. I see movies about Havard or any other snooty Ivy league school and I think that is where I belong.

I have delusions of grandeur.

Just like Han Solo.

Han Solo thinks that he is the king of all Space Pirates. He has (supposedly) the fastest ship in the galaxy...in reality it is a thrown together, makeshift, pile of bolts in need of constant repair.

Han Solo portrays himself as the man, yet he deeply struggles with his own insecurities.

His actions often betray his self perception. He acts like he is leaving, then stays. He talks a big game, because he thinks he is big game.

But he isn't. He is just a dude. By in large he is simply above average. Maybe.

I am Han Solo. I think I'm a pretty big deal. But I'm not. I 'm just a dude.

I cover my insecurities with pride.

Less Futon, More Reform

2008-03-26T10:06:00.001-04:00

So there I sat in Good Friday service, Struck. As I heard the charges against Jesus read from Luke I was amazed at the idea of Jesus as a revolutionary.

They all asked, "Are you then the Son of God?" He replied, "You are right in saying I am." Then the whole assembly rose and led him off to Pilate. And they began to accuse him, saying, "We have found this man subverting our nation. He opposes payment of taxes to Caesar and claims to be Christ, a king." So Pilate asked Jesus, "Are you the king of the Jews?" "Yes, it is as you say," Jesus replied. Then Pilate announced to the chief priests and the crowd, "I find no basis for a charge against this man." But they insisted, "He stirs up the people all over Judea by his teaching. He started in Galilee and has come all the way here."

He was so vehemently flying in the face of the established Judaisms that they had to kill him. He was a radical. I was resolute. Upon returning home after my Easter vacation, I would be more subversive. More radical. More Christlike.

As soon as I got home, I went to my friend Shawn's blog and found this: The Pentecost Project.

I was struck. My wife and I had already decided to pay down some debt with the entirety of the money. But I think that we should do something more. What if we decided to give a percent as a community to one unified goal. What if everyone at my church gave 10% of their "Bush Bucks" to a single purpose. We would be easily giving nearly $10,000. What could this do for our community? Not just our church but Myrtle Beach as a whole.

I need to be involved in this.

We Need to be involved in this.

A Well Needed Self-Critique and Apology

2008-03-12T15:50:00.000-04:00

Let me begin by saying I don't think that anything said in a blog can be taken back. Once it is said, it is said.

That being said, I was a bit harsh in my critique of some of the groups in the emergent church in my last post. I was particularly unkind to Brian Mclaren's A Generous Orthodoxy. Though I am quite sure Brian will never read my blog, I offer a heartfelt apology for my unkind words. They were not the language of constructive conversation. I am sorry, I really am.

My intent in many areas of the blog was to be a bit more playful, but that did not come across affectively enough. I would probably be lumped in with many in the emerging church. I have dark rim glasses and strong opinions on church. in the minds of most, that puts me square in their ranks. I don't agree with many of the strands of emergent thought, but they are brothers.

The Five Types of the Emerging Church

2008-03-11T12:10:00.000-04:00

So in my continuing analysis of the Emerging Church, I have decided to assign scientific names to 5 different categories of the movement. I have heard that Mark Driscoll has done the same thing. I haven't heard his lecture on the subject, so anything found here is no reflection or purposeful subversion of his categories.

Type 1: Emergentus - Destructicus

This first genus-species of the emerging church is one of the earliest forms. This category includes the early emergent thinkers who first began to see the need for change. Many, if not most, of these thinkers have a decent knowledge of philosophy and began to apply the postmodern rubric to the then modern church. They looked around and said, "everything must change". Their early work was met with considerable hostility as they sought to take their congregations on a spiritual journey. Brian Mclaren is probably the prototype for this group. The previously reviewed ANKOC is their banner. On the positive side Emergentus Destructicae tend to emphasize the discontinuity between the American evangelical church and the church of the first and second century. The problem is that their solution is less than satisfying. The closest they have come to putting forth a theology is A Generous Orthodoxy which is in the end, gobbly-gook. It says nothing constructive and does not affectively push towards a solution. These are the nay-sayers, the doomsday prophets of the evangelical movement. This group sells unrest and mistrust in the system.

Type 2: Emergentus - Savvae

This second group is by far the savviest of the crowds. Included in this classification are the ermergent folks with good hair-cuts and decent theologies. This crowd tends to be at least a decade younger than Emergentus Destructicus and are far better looking. Rob Bell is the archetypical Savvae. The leaders of this crowd have a degree of education much like the Destructicae, but tend to spurn their degrees. Many of these pastors are seminary grads who were disenchanted by the process. They are the strongest theologians of the Emergentus genus. Their theology, though, tends to be deeply influenced by late 20th century post-liberal and post-conservative writers. There is a touch of N.T. Wright, Hauerwas, and even Jurgen Moltmann. They have a bit of the ideas of corporate justification and liberation theology. This causes them to be some of the most socially conscience of the Emergenticae. They combine style (of which they have a ton) with a skewed sense of substance. This substance is very fluid and can quickly devolve into relativism. It is difficult pin these leaders down. What would they die for? What would they change their haircut for? They tend to sell cool as well as an intellectualism that has difficulties at the core of their beliefs.

Type 3 Emergentus - Megas

This third group is an odd development. This group has taken all the trappings, theologies, and methodology of the mega church movement and given it cooler clothes. They have moved their service from Saturday night back to Sunday night. They still have the goal of getting as many people as possible into the doors of the meeting place. (They wouldn't like the word Sanctuary or even Worship Center). Dan Kimball is the clearest example of Megas. This group has style but is completely devoid of substance. They like to think of themselves as Savvae but are in fact poor parodies of the others. The focus is completely on the weekly worship service and nothing more. They sell cool and just cool.

Type 4 Emergentus - Shruggus

Next we have before us the least vocal and active of the Emergentae. This groups is part of non-emergent churches and is simply sympathetic to the plight of the rest of the genus. They read emergent books and still go to traditional or seeker churches. They would change churches, but don't really fell like. It as if they say, "But I'm le tired..." Donald Miller fits tis category nicely. They are taking the "We'll outlive the rest of our church, so lets just wait until then to do anything" approach. This group looks at the plight of evangelicism and shrugs. They sell a nonchalance and low level cool.

Type 5 Emergentus - Paedius

This last group is the scariest of the Emergentae. They are the children of the revolution. Many of the leaders of this crowd have no theological training or very little. They simply didn't like the church of their youth and wanted a cool church. These church are youth groups who have never grown up. They attempt to recreate the buzz of a youth group with all the feelings of a "big people" church. They completely lack depth but love the idea of depth. They are socially active, because they see their Savvae cousins are socially active. Everything they do is mimicking one of the other Emergentae. They are the little brothers trying dearly to fit in. Unfortunately for all involved this church causes the most danger. They lack theological training and accountability. They are a law unto themselves and are in danger of trampling the sacraments under foot. (I know I show a bit of my bias with that statement) They sell style above all, yet the lack the depth of Savvae and the thought-out shallowness of the Megas. I have purposefully omitted a picture here to avoid overly vilifying any one person or church.

Belize Blog

2008-02-27T18:13:00.000-05:00

As many of you know I am in the midst of travelling to Belize right now.

I found a computer and so I decided to give everyone who cares a quick update.

The first thing that struck me about Belize is that it is not Costa Rica. The airport is extremely small, dwarfing even the Myrtle Beach airport. There are a total of 4 incoming customs lines and the airport does not have A/C. Along side the stark poverty of teh country, there does not seem to be a culture of begging and panhandling as in other central american countries.

Today we have spent time with an American missionary who runs a seminary for nationals as well as a national pastor, both here in Belize City. I am most struck by the fact that this city reminds me more of Africa for some reason than it does

A Journey of UnEmergence: A Critique of A New Kind of Christian

2008-02-05T15:56:00.001-05:00

So this blog began as a defense of my characterization of a Tampa Church. It will not be that. To the proponents of that church, please, bear with me as I present the whole of my thoughts on the Emergent movement.

As mentioned before A New Kind of Christian has been an influential book on the Emergent culture as well as my own life. In fact, I was the lone defender of the book in a graduate school class filled with opponents of McLaren.

On the positive side ANKOC presents its case in a narrative form. This is incredibly appealing. It is engaging and easy to read. The other strength of the book is that it is more than skin deep. Its critique is not simply "Jesus is OK with Beer, so in your face Fundies!" It goes down to the root of why we think what we think. It rightfully roots out our dependence as Christians on enlightenment presuppositions. This is superb and a needed critique. As Neo (a character) dismantles Dan's (another character)world, I felt my own beliefs coming apart in a good way. I followed Dan on his journey as it mirrored my own. Many of the constructions that we have called church in the past 100 years don't reflect the biblical model very well. I am so with McLaren here.

The difficulty lies in what comes next for Dan (who receives no real resolution even in the series finale)and for us. Are we to chuck the entire denominational (or non-denominational) model? Where do we start new? If our presuppositions are flawed (and both Neo and I believe they are) who gets to call the shots? Is it everyman for themselves? If not, is it every church for itself? Who becomes the authority for doctrine and practice? Is anything out of bounds?

At the end of the day, my question for McLaren is this:

What constitutes Christianity?

And if I disagree with your answer, how do we know who is right?

It seems to me that ANKOC takes deconstruction to a point of no return.

But I could be wrong, I'll be the first to admit it.

A Journey of UnEmergence pt. 2: Lazy-boy on a La-Z-Boy

2008-02-04T13:56:00.000-05:00

So I wasn't familiar to any of the emergent literature during my time in Fundy bible colleges, but somehow, about the time I got married, I stumbled onto a copy of A New Kind of Christian (ANKOC). I put it aside in the hustle and bustle of getting married and starting a new job with Starbucks. About a month after I got married (this puts us in about February of '04) I picked the book up and started reading it on breaks at work. I was entranced. McLaren's writing style was hypnotique. Never before had I read theology in a narrative sense. On top of the style, the substance of his critique resonated deeply with me.

Perhaps a bit of autobiography is in line at this point. I had just spent two years at a Fundy bible school. I was a bit of a theological malcontent and a I had a bit of disdain for the rules and structure (especially in my second year); but I wasn't a "bad" kid per se. Nevertheless, I was asked never to set foot on the campus again due to "theological differences". In their minds, you could not separate theology from morality, and so my "bad" theology was the result of my poor morality.

This false idea of tying morality and theology together was a prime example of the things McLaren was writing against. Like a ugly kid who finally found a date, I embraced McLaren's way of thinking whole heartedly. The problem however was that the lifestyle that McLaren spoke of was by-in-large radically different than the way I was living. He really was advocating what seemed to me to be a new kind of Christianity.

I can vividly remember sitting in my green La-Z-Boy chair weeping and thinking, "O No, I am going to have to change my life. What if Ange doesn't like the changes I feel so false".

Well, luckily for me, ANKOC didn't cause a divorce, but it did cause me to begin to think in different directions. I immediately signed up for a budding new publication called Relevant Magazine. In fact, the first one I got looked like this.

I began to visit Mars Hill Church on vacation to Michigan. I started reading every piece of literature that the fledgling movement could produce. I began to explore the ideas of totally scrapping Christianity as I had come to know it. I questioned my ability to continue my job at a denominational church. I was on a mission. I had plans. I would work for Starbucks in management, and plant a church on the side.

The problem was, no matter how much I resonated with the movement, I was frustrated by its tone. It was all critique and no construction. I didn't know how to deal with this. And so, turned off by the strong negativity I kept searching, still holding on to the Emergent...

A Journey of UnEmergence pt. 1

2008-01-30T13:04:00.000-05:00

So the next few posts are going to deal with what has come to be known as the "Emergent" church. Since not every one is familiar with the term or the players in the movement, this first post will serve to set the table for the rest.

The "Emergent" church movement has grown out of the two major movements in late twentieth century evangelicism. The emergent church is self-conscientiously critical of both fundamentalism and seeker-sensitivism. The movement has reacted to both the moral legalism of fundamentalism and the showy/falseness of the seeker-sensitive movement. At first glance these critiques are valid and attractive. We will explore these deeper in the following posts, but for now, it will suffice to say that the movement reacts strongly to the church of the twentieth century. The movement also has some relationship to postmodernism, sometimes billing itself as postmodern Christianity.

The movement began in the late 90's with the founding of a number of churches. Churches like Mars Hill (Michigan), Vintage Faith, Watermark, Solomon's Porch, Imagio Dei, and Mars Hill (Washington)began to pop-up in major cities. These churches were a haven for disenfranchised 20-somethings who were largely ignored by mainstream Christianity. The churches often had no denominational ties and no authority structure beyond the Pastor/founder/planter/leader/whatever.

The movement began to gain a great deal of popularity with the publication of A New Kind of Christian by Brian Mclaren. The book picked up steam as the new century began. The fictional account of a Pastor struggling with his faith resonated with a large section of the population. This book lead to the success of Blue like Jazz and Searching for God Knows What by Donald Miller. After this the floodgates opened and everyone who was anyone in the budding movement was published.

As the movement grew, there was a natural fracturing and factioning of the congregations. There was a continuum of how much of the past we are to hold onto.

At the present time, the key players in the movement are Brian Mclaren a pastor turned lecturer and author. Rob Bell (pictured to the right), a pastor of a large church in west Michigan and the teacher in the Nooma films. Mark Driscoll, an interesting charcater since he is often lumped into the movement, but against his will.

The movement has birthed a magazine - Relevant, an imprint - Zondervan/Emergent YS, and a huge following among the internet generation.

About the Name of my Blog...

2008-01-21T16:32:00.000-05:00

The title and web address of my blog are admittedly odd and probably deserve a bit of an explanation. The title is a nod to a song written by a band called "the Weakerthans". The song is called "Confessions of a Futon Revolutionist" and is all about the nature of lazy idealism. The song writer has brilliant ideas, but is too lazy to really do anything about them. Mostly he just sits around on his futon. I think that imagery is awesome.

So I find myself thinking thoughts, then flipping on VH1 to watch 5 straight hours of the best songs of the 90's. Lots of ideas, but not a lot of follow thru. So here you will find a running tally of those thoughts and my lack of action.

Open For Business

2008-01-19T13:39:00.000-05:00

For all you rabid fans of the old "Musings from a Coffeeshop Wasteland" I am back in the Blogging business. This will be the new home for thoughts and ideas, so visit frequently as I plan to post frequently.