Just a Note

I got all Facebooky on the other blogs...oh but not here! You have to work to find this place!

Some terrific blog entries on some of the Christian blogs that need at least comment, or practice comments put over here. One is on money using John Wesley as a spring point (Make all you can Save all you can Give all you can..yeah that guy) and the other is about trying to have the "Hippest church on the block, from a WSJ article. Good stuff.

I actually get to go to Step Study tomorrow...now where did I put that workbook?

Nice, But Not the Same (Especially on Communion Sunday)

I just missed church for the first time since I started going to COR. Sucks to make a living at a job that needs help seven days a week. (Last time that will happen, Lord willing. And leave my freaking Wednesday evenings alone too!) Well, I did attend online, via the webcast.

Unfortunately I missed all the music, my favorite part of worship. And the video kept pausing. (At least the audio flowed well after the first minute.)

Definitely not as good as being there.

It did dawn on me that sometimes I can go to church and not be greeted or spoken to by anyone who is not obligated to speak to me, and so sitting in a coffee shop surrounded by strangers was not all that different than sitting in a church sanctuary surrounded by strangers...

I did miss the whole visual, and auditory experience. And I definitely missed the bread and the cup.

Missing church sucks.

Born Again

First, lyrics, of this really neat new song by Newsboys. Again, thanks to our stingy friends at EMI, the embed function is disabled, so here is the link to the video on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuaavycxU1Q&ob=av2e

Found myself looking into the mirror
Knew I wasn't who I wanted to be
I was living like the way that I wanted
But my eyes reminded me I'm not free
Believe that I saw, everything that I know
Says I gotta go, tired of going solo
But I'm never gonna go there again

Chorus:
This is what it is
This is who I am
This is where I finally take my stand
I didn't want to fall, but I don't have to crawl
I met the one with two scarred hands
Givin' him the best of, everything that's left of
The life inside this man
I've been Born Again

I see you're walking like you're living in fear
Having trouble even looking at me
Wishing that they give you more than words
Sick of people telling how it should be (how it should be)
What's your download, where'd you get your info
Saw that I'm show, now you're in the in-load
I'm gonna tell you what I believe, OH

(Chorus)

We are the ones, he called by name
Never gonna look back
Let go, let go the guilt the shame
I said I'm never gonna look back
This is who I am

(Chorus 2x)

I am Born Again

Distinctive

I was reading a book from the $1 pile at Mardel's. You'd be surprised at what goodness can be snatched out of the remainder pile. The book is called Live to Tell by Brad J. Kallenberg. He's a professor at Dayton and works in campus Christian ministry. I'm not going to try to sum up the book, as I am still trying to "get it" but he had this fabulous quote. It's even more fabulous when seen through the prisms of these blog entries by John Meunier and Andrew Conard.

Thus the most liberal of churches appear able to maintain the best of relations with secular culture, but no longer have anything distinctive to say to it! Righteousness has been reduced to equality, agape has paled to fraternity, sin has been replaced with maladjustment, and salvation has become mere civility.

The failure of liberalism, then is not one of intent--Schleirmacher sincerely wished his friends to embrace Christianity--but one of strategy: by attempting to translated the gospel into terms understandable to the modern mind, the liberal wing of the church lost the farm. My fear is that the conservative wing of the church, for all its emphasis on missions, evangelism, and church growth, is simply reproducing an already deeply flawed strategy. (p. 52)

Often the liberal church has lost its distinctive. It's distinctive is God, in all His persons. I still look back to Paul telling the Corinthians--this is the second time I have found myself thinking of this Scripture--that preaching Christ was a stumbling block and an offense. Here's the passage, from 1 Corinthians 18-25.

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written:
"I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate."

Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength.

Not that we should be running around intentionally being offensive, but know that we preach Christ to sinful people who are not always ready to stop clinging to their sin, and they will throw up objections and be offended by the claims of Christ. This is all part of the process of evangelism. I have believed that evangelism is a process culminating in a crisis for a long time. Sometimes the process is short, and sometimes long. God is a patient God, not willing that any should perish, and He treats us like the individuals we are.

In the meantime, the church must never stop preaching the offense of God. We must keep our distinctive, otherwise the church becomes just another good civic organization. And we must keep up with our times, knowledgeable about the culture around us, but definitely different from it. Our biggest distinctive is love--the love of God that sent Christ to the Cross and empowers the Holy Spirit to guide and change lives. It must be shown to each other, as the Scripture instructs, and to the non believer.

Wesley Would Have Blogged and Tweeted

There is no doubt in my mind that John Wesley would have a blog, a Twitter account and a Facebook page, don't you think? But I also think that Wesley would have insisted that everyone come together face to face too. He would have used the social media as a tool, the same way he saw his field preaching back in the day, but never as a substitute for the community of the small groups that he and Charles formed.

There truly is no other way to reach maturity in Christ and aspire to Christian perfection without others encouraging, loving, rebuking, and praying for you along the way.

But Wesley would have been happy to use the social media to introduce you to the living Christ and the powerful Holy Spirit.

Inside

A great song and a great video. Check it, Inside, by Jared Anderson.

The Motions

There hasn't been near enough music around here lately...this song so speaks to me. Part of me wants to do the ultimate video, the other part of me wants to sing it loud from the stage. If I could get through it without crying...

Not the official video, as EMI disabled the embed (again :-P) but pretty darn good work by the poster.

Here are the lyrics:

This might hurt
It’s not safe
But I know that I’ve gotta make a change
I don’t care
If I break
At least I’ll be feeling something
‘Cause just ok
Is not enough
Help me fight through the nothingness of life

I don’t wanna go through the motions
I don’t wanna go one more day
Without Your all consuming passion inside of me
I don’t wanna spend my whole life asking
What if I had given everything?
Instead of going through the motions

No regrets
Not this time
I’m gonna let my heart defeat my mind
Let Your love
Make me whole
I think I’m finally feeling something

Take me all the way
Take me all the way
Take me all the way