I admit it, I heart Facebook

I was a Facebook holdout for a long time.  I figured it would pretty much be an endless barage of updates like, “eating a hamburger now”, “sitting on the runway”, or “just got off the pot – do not go in there.”  And there is a lot of that.

But since becoming a convert, there is one aspect of Facebook that fascinates me.  People can choose to be as open or closed as they want to be, but whether you are a sharer or a lurker a lot of walls come down on Facebook.  Specifically I’m talking about our tendency in “real life” to compartmentalize our friends and acquaintances.  I have work friends, relatives, church friends, drinkin’ buddies, and people that I watch Illini games with, neighbors, and acquaintances.  Usually, our relationship is defined on what we have in common.  And that’s fine.

But on Facebook, friends are friends (even if they’re really acquaintances).  When I post my theological musings, my work friends and Illini buddies see that too.  When I post my beer geek stuff my church friends see that too.  If you want to share, you share with all.  You can’t really hide who you are unless you decide just not to post.

I for one think that’s great.  I know that I may post something that some (or most) of my friends will ignore.  I might post something that they don’t care about.  Maybe they just ignore me some or most of the time.  But if they choose to read it they know more about who I really am than they would otherwise.  Sure, there’s a risk that it may lead them to make unfair or incorrect assumptions about me.  But mostly I like the fact that they know more about where I’m coming from and vice versa.  They probably think I’m weirder than they used to, but that just means they know the truth.  And truth is good.

Think you know MLK?

I grew up, to a degree, in Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream.  I went to school with black kids and kids of other religions, and I never really thought that was weird.  I knew we looked different.  I picked up on cultural differences.  But we were friends and didn’t know much about the world that existed less than 20 years before us.

Every year we would hear a few snippets about MLK.  We would see clips of his, “I have a dream” speach.  He seemed pretty cool.

But we didn’t get it.

I have never heard a friend or acquaintance ridicule the vision of Martin Luther King, Jr.  But I have heard little whispers:  You know he was an adulturer, right?  He was associated with the Communists, wasn’t he?  He picked Jesse Jackson to succeed him… and so on.  No one is “against” MLK and his vision, but many today seem more intent on pointing out his flaws than on listening to what he really said.

And so, I invite you to do this little exercise:

Read this short letter, written to King on April 12, 1963 from some concerned white clergymen.

Then read his response, Letter from Birmingham Jail.

Sure, King had flaws, like we all do.  But he had a true vision for human dignity, and was equipped by the Gospel of Christ.  Read his words.  Get to know him a little better today.

Still a hypocrite

In theory, I…

…care about the homeless.

…think the Gospel is the remedy for those who are perishing and want it to be proclaimed.

…would love to spend time with elderly people in a nursing home.

…want to be a shoulder to cry on for the grieving.

…can’t wait to help you move that furniture.

…think it would be a valuable use of my time to hold the hand of an AIDS patient

…consider others better than myself.

In practice, I…

…will watch a game with you as long as you don’t block the TV and don’t root for the other team.

…would love to drink a beer with you as long as it’s not that American macro lager swill.

…want you to stop your jabbering about things that don’t interest me and pay attention to my eloquent thoughts.

…want to be fed and comfortable, and if you take care of those needs quickly I might consider tossing you a tip.

God, have mercy on me!!!

Are we saving the planet or worshipping it?

“Our Great Mother does not take sides; She protects only the balance of life.” – Quote from Avatar.

My wife and I recently went to see Avatar in 3D.  It was the first movie we’d been to in about 7 or 8 months, and it cost us $30.  But we got free babysitting, so we went.  The visuals were amazing and I’m glad I had the experience.  But I had a hard time ignoring the environmental propaganda rampant in the film.  The premise of the movie is that the Earth has been ravaged by humans, and in the pursuit of more precious resources the U.S. Marines are apparently traveling to another planet to take their natural resources by force.  “We have killed our Mother,” and our species is ready to kill another planet.  But fortunately we are foiled by a consortium of the planet’s natives (who love and worship their Mother) and some likeminded earthlings.

Listen, I am all for the three R’s (reduce, reuse, recycle). We are stewards of the planet God’s given us, and it makes no sense to waste our resources.  I support curbside recycling programs, and am a strong supporter of the glass recycling program started by some of the principals at Boulevard (Ripple Glass).  I’m not convinced that we are on the brink of losing countries to floodwaters, but I think moving away from fossil fuels as much as possible is a great thing.  So I am firmly in the camp of trying to avoid needless waste and harm in our environment.

But it seems to me that those who seem to have the biggest voice in the green movement aren’t coming at it from the mindset of being a steward of God-given resources.  Listening to some of the extreme voices, the view of our relationship with the earth more closely resembles a parasitic than a symbiotic one.  If all was as it should be we wouldn’t even be here – we are an accident of evolution and are in many respects simply a drain on the Earth.  Hence, we are Her subjects and should defer to Her in all instances.  That, my friends, is worship.  It is placing the Earth in a position of God, and it is idolatry.  It is in clear contrast with the God of the Bible who claims to have made us in His image.  The self-loathing put forward by the extreme elements of environmentalism is not healthy, and we need to recognize that it is being fed to us.  It was a little over the top in Avatar, but I see it more subtlely elsewhere.

I was watching an episode of Handy Manny on the Disney channel with my son the other day.  Manny was asked to build a bike path around a lake, and when he surveyed the land he was to build it on he saw a turtle digging a hole to lay its eggs.  Manny was concerned that when the eggs hatched the baby turtles wouldn’t be able to make it to the lake if the bike path was in the way.  Moving the path the other direction was out of the question, of course, because he would have to cut down a couple of trees, which would also be wrong.  So, they decided to build a bridge (over land) so that the turtles could reach the lake safely (and then promptly be eaten by predators, but that wasn’t addressed).  It’s a cute little story and no one wants to intentionally kill turtles (unless they’re making a tasty soup).  But in practicality a bridge would be a huge cost on the taxpayers for the sake of saving a few turtles.  Kids don’t know that, but when they have these nice little stories embedded in their brains over time, it’s not farfetched to see them strapping themselves to a tree at some point in the future.

I’m not banning Handy Manny or the Disney Channel.  I won’t refuse to see any more James Cameron movies.  I just think that as we consume media, we need to think about the implications.  The Earth needs our attention, but it doesn’t need our worship.

Save the Hymnals

I made a comment recently on Facebook based on our experience visiting churches and the way I said it in the limited text field there seemed to be misinterpreted.  So let me use a little more space to give some insight into my thoughts.

It seems that in the non-liturgical churches that we have been visiting,  the default mode of singing seems to be what is commonly classified as “Praise and Worship” songs.  This is nothing new – it’s been the trend for decades.  But the fact is that most of these songs are written by Pentacostals or some other breed of charismatics.  Nothing at all wrong with that.  The words they have penned fit well into a charismatic service or into an individual time of worship.  But I cannot bring myself to mouth words like “We lift up our hands” or “As I kneel before you” or “I dance before you now” when I am not doing it.  I pay attention to the words I am singing, and if I’m doing what we call “worship” and lying in the process, I personally feel disingenuous at the least.

Much of what is called “praise and worship” these days is filled with allusions to the singer’s present mental state, feelings, and actions.  I have no doubt the writer felt or was doing these things as the song was penned, but I just don’t feel it makes sense to use it in corporate worship unless the congregation is such that they are inclined to such feelings and actions, as you see in charismatic churches.

And when I survey the congregation, I see on other faces much of what I feel.  There is not much participation regardless the style of music.  So why are we spending 30-40 minutes standing up, a few people mouthing some words, while the band tries to get everyone into a certain frame of mind?  My theory is this – most people have at one time or another had experiences where they “feel” close to God or in what has been described a worshipful state.  Many people have them often, and that’s great.  When they are in that mindset, playing a praise song can further the experience, and there’s a desire to replicate that experience in church.  And there is a small minority that is brought to a sense of elation or a feeling of closeness to God on a regular basis during what has become the evangelical worship service.  They continue to tell the church and the worship leaders to bring it on and then some.  And the less vocal segment of the church population doesn’t complain – either out of a thought that they SHOULD be more engaged during the worship service or just a desire to not raise a fuss over nonessential issues.

But church, like Jesus Himself,  should be a place for people to come as they are.  Good mood, rotten mood, in love with God, angry with God, in a worshipful state or nursing a hangover and wondering who it was they woke up next to.   So the goal of any music that is used in the church, whether it’s acoustic guitar, or acapella, or old school organ, or rockabilly, or death metal should be to proclaim the greatness of God and the Gospel.  There should not be a pressure to be in a certain state of mind or to reach a certain state during the singing – just to adore Him.

If you look through the old hymnals that are mostly gathering dust, MOST (not all) of the songs fit this bill.  There’s a lot less said about what we’re doing or how we feel and a lot more said about who God is and what He’s done for us.  And you don’t have to use an organ to sing them – it doesn’t have to be dry and boring.

I don’t have anything against using a song written last week.  I’m not saying we should only be using ancient songs.  But I think those who choose the music for their church should spend a lot more time looking at the words to the songs they are having the congregation sing.  My litmus test would be to ask the question, “Are there statements in this song that refer to my actions or feelings and could not be stated in honesty by me on any given day?”  If the answer is yes, it’s not necessarily a bad song, but throw it out of your corporate worship.  And the sooner the better.

I hate all your show

Jon Foreman’s song about says it all, and it’s the reason we are very close to pulling the trigger on leaving our church.  The final straw came this week when, after a rousing rendition of “Living On a Prayer” our pastor asked us how many churches in Kansas City we thought started off the day with Bon Jovi.  I wanted to shout out, “Probably a lot, since singing formerly popular songs in church is the latest trend!”

Here’s the thing – I’m not prudish on music by a long shot.  I love rock and I find many “secular” songs to be more Jesus-centric than many “Christian” songs, so the use of any music that can help us glorify God in worship is alright by me.  What bothers me to no end is the fact that “worship” in most churches is truly a concert, with all eyes on a celebrity.  Our church of thousands spent almost TWO YEARS scouring the country for the “best” worship leader they could find.  The people who ably filled in during that time were obviously not quite good enough to cut the mustard long term.

Trust me, our dissent is not with the people or personalities involved.  It is the very soul of the church that is seeker and growth focused.  The trend is making our collective American church shallow and predictable – a regurgitation of our culture in the name of reaching others.  We’re done with it.  We know it’s going to be hard – we don’t want to flee back to tradition for tradition’s sake and start attending a church where families have their own pews.  But the church-growth paradigm has run its course in our family.  Please be praying for us as we make our slow transition.

Spokeswoman for the Far Right… Carrie Prejean

I read in the paper today that Ms. Carrie Prejean, ex- Miss California, will be speaking Sunday at First Family Church in Overland Park.  Full disclaimer – I have all sorts of issues with First Family Church, but this post is not about their congregation in particular.

The very idea that a woman who said in a beauty pageant that marriage should be between a man and a woman would become a Christian celebrity with a speaking tour is utterly laughable.  This is someone who had a conviction and spoke her mind.  Good for her.  But this is a person who, prior to being thrown a ridiculous question in a glorified swimsuit competition did not have any kind of platform from which to speak.  She’s no theologian or, more importantly, proclaimer of the Gospel.  She stumbled upon a role of being a mouthpiece for the Far Right.

Funny how most fundamentalist churches who are inviting her to speak would probably have been pointing a finger at her for being an object of lust parading around on national TV in a bikini prior to her revelation that she is against gay marriage.

The Church has one message.  It’s the Gospel.  I’m a screw-up, you’re a screw-up, and we can NEVER stop our sinning.   So to reconcile us to God because he loves all of us so much, Jesus paid for it.  Period.  That’s GOOD NEWS.  That’s the Gospel that the entire Bible points to.  Any time churches spend on dictating morality to the rest of the world is truly wasted time.

If you want to give your pulpit over to someone on a Sunday, give it to someone who’s serving the poor.  Give it to someone who’s loving gay people like brothers and sisters.  Don’t give it to someone who supposedly took a stand for morality by being against something.  Because we’ve had enough of the Law.  We need the remedy.