Monthly Archives: November 2009

The Twitter Gospel

Philip Yancey will usually make me mad and glad all in one column. He does it again in his last CT column. (He says he’s taking a break.)

He adds some thoughts and cautions we REALLY need to hear! (I don’t think we will, but I can only echo his strong voice.)

Although I admire the innovation, I would caution that mimicking cultural trends has a downside. At a recent youth workers conference I attended, worship meant a DJ playing techno music at jet-engine volume while a sweaty audience crowded the stage, jumping up and down while shouting spiritual one-liners. At the risk of sounding old-fashioned, I couldn’t help questioning the depth of worship. Seminaries now recommend 15-minute sermons in light of shorter attention spans. Publishers want slimmer books, with simpler words and concepts. Will we soon have a 140-character Twitter gospel?

I truly get upset when some church does something like playing music at jet-engine volume and calling themselves cutting edge. Somehow equating volume or other mimicks of this world with true spirituality or “real gospel” misses the point. What are we doing? We’re reduced to bumper sticker Christianity without the bumper stickers.

We have SO MUCH NOISE! Why not have something that offered silence?

We already buy too much stuff, why do we keep marketing CDs and T-shirts? We want to confront consumerism, so we’ll make a radical T-shirt and sell it? What’s that all about?

In the name of all that is holy, will someone please stand up and say that being “counter-cultural” doesn’t mean looking like the prevailing culture? Will someone finally confront these goofy ideas and say, “The only thing ‘counter-cultural’ about you is it’s not like some other CHURCH SERVICE… BIG DEAL!!!!”  Could we please get some guts back in our Christianity?

We need to hear a clear call concerning the gospel of Jesus Christ. Trouble is, we get into arguments about WHAT the gospel really is! Which is probably what makes us evangelical. Too bad.

Thoughts About “Icons”

Recent blog activity has been caught up in a discussion over the Manhattan Declaration. This is a statement coming from Catholics, Orthodox, and Evangelicals concerning three major points about our current culture in America. The debate is over whether this is just some right wing political move or it’s legitimate.

Some of the disagreement comes down to theology. How can an evangelical stand alongside a Catholic? Some objections (like from John MacArthur) raise up old lines of division that show the Body of Christ really has a hard time standing together for just about ANYTHING without an argument breaking out. (There’s a reason it’s called the “family” of God, I suppose.)

Some objections raised would be Catholics and Orthodox theology. Perhaps it’s also the veneration of saints and icons. There are fundamentalists and Evangelicals who have a serious problem with the saints and icons of the Catholic and Orthodox traditions.

This stirred my thoughts. In my own sordid sense of humor, I would present the idea that while we don’t have “icons” in the sense of the Orthodox Church, Evangelicals, Pentecostals, Charismatics, Reformed and other Protestants do have our own versions. We take the “high” road and say it’s not worship. But I would argue there are times we fall into celebrity cults in the Church.

It’s a serious issue I’ve seen raised since the days of Jimmy Swaggart and Jim Bakker. Now, it’s even hit the Reformed movement. The likes of Mark Driscoll and others raise serious questions about our tendency to celebrate certain people. I am NOT saying Driscoll and others seek worship! I am saying we tend to set these guys up in places they do not belong.

I would offer (in a sense of humor kind of way) some of our Protestant “icons” through the centuries.

Luther

 

 

 

 

 

 

Calvin

 

 

 

 

Graham

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hinn

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Driscoll

Piper

Thankful

This has been one amazing year. I have faced financial ruin, watched things go to the very brink of disaster in many ways, yet I find myself more thankful this year than ever. The presence of Jesus is real. In the midst of turmoil I have found his steady hand. In the midst of darkness I have held close to him. This has been a year of growing faith. It’s not a time to give up.

For what I am truly grateful for this year, please read my post from earlier this week on “Carl and Ellie.”

I am thankful for the nation in which I live. While it is obvious I have deep concerns about the issues, I remain grateful for our nation. More than that, I remain grateful for the Church. Back in 2001, after 9/11, I felt the Lord was going to teach the Church in America how to truly be the Church. We have not learned that lesson very well. The days ahead will teach us more lessons. Yet, we will find our way as the TRUE body of Christ. We need this time to understand who we truly are in Christ. For that, I am grateful.

Giving thanks on this day… and truly every day… Many Blessings!

The Healing Presence of Jesus

The Church should be about the healing presence of Jesus. My wife told me about a dream she had, and then I was reminded of two incredible stories in Acts. In Acts 5 it was Peter walking down a street and people could be healed by Peter’s shadow touching them. In Acts 19 it was Paul working at his trade. People would take work items from him and bring them to the sick and demon possessed… and they were healed.

It wasn’t Peter. It wasn’t Paul. It was the healing presence of Jesus. That should be the Church. We are to be so saturated with the Spirit that at any time the presence of Jesus touches infirmities and healing can flow. All kinds of healing. Not just physical healing. The Church is to bring the healing balm to the nations. We are to be the place of peace. Come around the Church and you find wholeness and healing.

We need that healing presence of Jesus flowing from us!

Carl and Ellie

Disney’s movie, “UP”, is one I cherish. The first time I saw it was in 3D at the movies with my oldest son. Once the movie moved from the early montage to the storyline, we laughed so hard we cried.

Yet, it was that first montage that held me. This was why this movie would mean so much to me. The movie begins with Carl as a young boy. He is shy and awkward. (I have an immediate affinity for this kid.) He adores an adventurer he sees on the movie reels at the theater. (This is set in the early 20th Century to begin.) Carl then meets a young girl who truly loves adventure. The montage tells of their growing old together. It is incredibly touching. You see the joy of getting married, then wanting to save money to make that big adventure to South America, and needing to dip into that savings to take care of things in life.

You also witness the sorrow of their inability to have children, yet their joy in cherishing each other. As a young girl Ellie had started a scrapbook about the adventures she would take. She had left a section blank to document the eventual big trip they would take to South America. In their senior years Carl decides to go all out and buy two plane tickets for South America. Right after that Ellie gets sick. She never makes the trip. Before she dies, she gives Carl the scrapbook.

The real adventure happens when Carl is forced to go to a nursing home, but the morning he is to leave his house, he floats it away with a million helium balloons. He then discovers a stowaway and the fun is on.

It’s a great movie, but watching it again last night I am left with deep emotions over the journey of life. Carl felt he had disappointed Ellie because he never got her to South America. He had never looked at the scrapbook after Ellie had passed away. His love for her was so deep, but he felt he had disappointed her. Her life had not turned out like she wanted. Or, so he thought.

My greatest adventures are with the one God gave me as my spouse. I have disappointed her. When we married, there was a journey we thought we would take together and it has not happened. It may never happen. It’s possible that one day we could visit a place we have dreamed of living in as missionaries, but outside of that, I have not been able to help fulfill that dream. But what I have found as we have journeyed together is the disappointment is with myself. She has taken this journey with me and has filled the pages of that scrapbook with new things. (Carl finds Ellie did the same thing. Her great adventure was the journey with Carl.)

In these 21 years of marriage we have witnessed so many ups and downs. We have lived with laughter and sorrow. But the journey has been together and I cannot imagine life without her. I am the bumbling Carl in many ways. What I want to be all through my life is that Carl that loved deeply. The Lord has so gifted me with a precious wife and this Thanksgiving, I am thankful above all for his great grace that brought her to me.

Formatting WordPress

I am looking into different themes, as well as other fellow bloggers. I really liked the last one I tried, but noticed it didn’t include my blogroll. I couldn’t find how to get it into the layout, so I switched yet again. Now, I notice other things that are not included. GRRR

News Round Up

We get the doomsday forecasts so we are ready for self-preservation.

We get the middle of the night votes from the Senate. No biggie there. The House did it a couple of weeks ago. Will anyone EVER read those monstrous bills? I bet the good senator from Louisiana may not read all of it, but she has a few paragraphs she probably likes. (As do a lot of other senators who will get a few million for their states in exchange for their quiet submission.) My only regret is that my Minnesota senators will already vote YES on this healthcare “reform” package, so the state will get nothing new in the way of dollars.

I need to get this all out before it becomes illegal to complain.

Life may hand us tough things. Life can be crazy. This I know (without wanting to be trite in saying it): God is good… ALL… THE… TIME.

Developing Thoughts

Following up on my earlier thoughts about Acts 19, I have some other thoughts I want to put down and see if they can be developed. I would LOVE a conversation developed as well.

My thoughts come from Acts 19 and then Ephesians 3:2-13. Both deal with the Ephesian church, ironically. In Ephesians 3 there is the powerful knowledge that the mystery of Christ is revealed in the Church. The message of reconciliation is the powerful demonstration of the gospel to this world. When rich and poor, young and old, slave and free, Jew and Gentile worship together, it’s a HUGE mystery to this world.

Here is my thought: Today’s culture in America is so cynical, it seems we are having too much fun poking a stick AT the Church, so we are less willing and able to actually BE the Church and take on the real enemy.