New Christian music is BLASPHEMOUS!

“There are several reasons for opposing it. One, it’s too new. Two, it’s often worldly, even blasphemous. The new Christian music is not as pleasant as the established style. Because there are so many new songs you can’t learn them all. It puts too much emphasis on instrumental music rather than Godly lyrics. This new music creates disturbances; people act indecently and disorderly. The preceding generation got along without it. It’s a money making scene and some of these new music upstarts are lewd and loose.”

How many of you agree? How many hearty "Amens"?

The author of these words is an Anglican Pastor named William Romaine and his critique was featured in An Essay on Psalmody. It was written in 1723. The “new music” he was referring to? The hymns of Isaac Watts.

It’s really easy to criticize new music, idolize old music, and demonize what you don’t like.

This was totally stolen from this blog

Cheers

Dan

I Stand By The Door

I mined yet another nugget of deep truth from my book of devotions "A guide to prayer for ministers and other servants" which I really cannot recommend highly enough. This nugget is entitled "I stand by the door" and is written by Samuel Shoemaker, who was one of the men who helped draft the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. Why I'm blogging this poem is because it causes something deep within myself to long to occupy that place at the door:

I STAND BY THE DOOR
Samuel Shoemaker

I stand by the door.
I neither go too far in, nor stay too far out,
The door is the most important door in the world-
It is the door through which people walk when they find God.
There's no use my going way inside, and staying there,
When so many are still outside and they, as much as I,
Crave to know where the door is.
And all that so many ever find
Is only the wall where a door ought to be.
They creep along the wall like blind people,
With outstretched, groping hands.
Feeling for a door, knowing there must be a door,
Yet they never find it ...
So I stand by the door.

The most tremendous thing in the world
Is for people to find that door--the door to God.
The most important thing any person can do
Is to take hold of one of those blind, groping hands,
And put it on the latch--the latch that only clicks
And opens to the person's own touch.
People die outside that door, as starving beggars die
On cold nights in cruel cities in the dead of winter—
Die for want of what is within their grasp.
They live, on the other side of it--live because they have not found it.
Nothing else matters compared to helping them find it,
And open it, and walk in, and find Him ...
So I stand by the door.

Go in, great saints, go all the way in--
Go way down into the cavernous cellars,
And way up into the spacious attics--
It is a vast roomy house, this house where God is.
Go into the deepest of hidden casements,
Of withdrawal, of silence, of sainthood.
Some must inhabit those inner rooms.
And know the depths and heights of God,
And call outside to the rest of us how wonderful it is.
Sometimes I take a deeper look in,
Sometimes venture in a little farther;
But my place seems closer to the opening ...
So I stand by the door.

There is another reason why I stand there.
Some people get part way in and become afraid
Lest God and the zeal of His house devour them
For God is so very great, and asks all of us.
And these people feel a cosmic claustrophobia,
And want to get out. "Let me out!" they cry,
And the people way inside only terrify, them more.
Somebody must be by the door to tell them that they are spoiled
For the old life, they have seen too much:
Once taste God, and nothing but God will do any more.
Somebody must be watching for the frightened
Who seek to sneak out just where they came in,
To tell them how much better it is inside.
The people too far in do not see how near these are
To leaving--preoccupied with the wonder of it all.
Somebody must watch for those who have entered the door,
But would like to run away. So for them, too,
I stand by the door.

I admire the people who go way in.
But I wish they would not forget how it was
Before they got in. Then they would be able to help
The people who have not, yet even found the door,
Or the people who want to run away again from God,
You can go in too deeply, and stay in too long,
And forget the people outside the door.
As for me, I shall take my old accustomed place,
Near enough to God to hear Him, and know He is there,
But not so far from people as not to hear them,
And remember they are there, too.
Where? Outside the door--
Thousands of them, millions of them.
But--more important for me--
One of them, two of them, ten of them,
Whose hands I am intended to put on the latch.
So I shall stand by the door and wait
For those who seek it.
"I had rather be a door-keeper ..."
So I stand by the door.

Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked. (Psalm 84:10)

Essential Church?

I've started reading a book called "Essential Church? (Reclaiming a generation of dropouts)"
It's to do with the North American exodus of young adults from the church. Over the past couple of weeks, this is something that's been brought to my attention. I think perhaps it's God. I say this because I got an email in the same week I first had these thoughts and got hold of the book (but not because I was looking for it). The email was worded as follows:

"... the eAdvising/Development…it is basically a cost effective way in providing consulting, advising, and developing as it relates to Young Adult/20-30’s Ministry. Each session will be done via conference call and the web. The purpose is to assist and equip churches in finding ways that they can “retain” the 20s-30s in their local churches and “reach” them in their communities. We will look at context and culture, both within the local church and their community. Each church has it’s DNA, and we want to find out how they can uniquely reach this emerging generation for Christ!

I've suddenly started to notice and care that there seems to be something lacking between youth age and fully-fledged adulthood...namely the lack of community for young adults - the 18-30 age group. I guess I've noticed for longer than a couple of weeks - but it's crystallized in my mind just recently. I'm not talking about creating a program, but I am talking about some kind of community for the young adults who are going through so many life-changes with little or no community-base on which to anchor.

Let me just share a couple of points from the book, so you'll know where my head is right now (where it says "America / Americans", feel free to read "Canada / Canadians")

"Why do more than two-thirds of churchgoing young adults Americans leave the church? Or to ask the question positively, why do one-third of churchgoing young adult Americans stay in the church? The answer to the latter questions emerged from several years of research. Young adults are likely to stay in the church if they see church as essential to their lives. But the reality is that most churches in America are doing little to become essential to the lives of their members" (page 5 of "Essential Church")

The authors then going on to set the following structure for the rest of the book:
"Church members (of essential churches) see the local congregation as a biblical fellowship that they deem critical for their lives. The essential church has four major components.
1) The church has learned to simplify. Too many churches are filled with activities that have little coherent purpose.
2) The church moves its members to deepen their knowledge of God's word and His truths.
3) The church has high expectations of its members. When expectations are low, commitment is low.
4) An essential church is committed to helping its members multiply spiritually. Evangelism is part of the heartbeat of the church.

Taken from "Essential Church?" (Reclaiming a generation of dropouts). Written by Thom S. Rainer and Sam S. Rainer III. Published by B&H Publishing Group.

Cheers
Dan

Men, men, men, men, manly, men, men, men

Making the theme tune for "Two and a half men" the title for this blog in no way means I endorse the show (except as a hearty "How NOT to be a good example in life, love and relationships for the young men in your life who are looking to you as example and mentor").

But I do want to discuss manly men (and I think the intro to this show is pretty cool and brings a smile to my face...watch it here)...

The Background

Last week I went to a FLAME course in Denton, Maryland to study two courses towards ordination - after I complete all the course work for these two, I only have 5 left to do!! As much as FLAME is an academic venture, it is also a spiritual retreat - a chance to meet, fellowship, worship and pray with my fellow FLAMIN' brothers and sisters. In my 5 days there, I think I saw more men tear up or openly cry than I've seen for ages. And these are manly men; men, in my mind who are manly enough to cry - to overcome the barrier that so many men, including myself, encounter - the desire to appear to have it all together...the need to seem unmoved.

Men crying

I saw men cry as we heard about a school in which 300 children got swine flu and one died. One of the pastors had to go home to attend to this huge need. I saw a man cry as he shared with me that God so powerfully spoke to him through a song he was listening to on his mp3 player that he had to leave the communal room in which he was sitting to spent time crying to God in an empty adjacent room. I saw my lecturer tear up as he recounted circumstances in his life in which only God intervening could make any difference. I saw a new friend of mine tear up as he shared about God using him powerfully in evangelism. Manly men.

One evening, I sat round the supper table with some of my fellow FLAMERS and we shared with each other instances in our lives that God had made himself so real and so apparent through circumstances that reached beyond coincidence. Only God moving in a miraculous way could explain it. And guess what? Men were tearing up. Manly men.

I'm so glad you're here

One guy, who was serving so humbly in the kitchen came up to me virtually every day, put his arm around my shoulder and said “I’m so glad you’re here”. Did I know him? No. Did I feel uncomfortable because I didn’t know him? Strangely, no. I can smell insincerity a mile off, as can most of us, but there was none of that in this manly man. There was a genuine power in this man that reached across to me through his side hugs and sincere “I’m so glad you’re here”. Manly men.

My last day, my prayer group (made up of manly men) moved beyond the standing in a circle, arms by our sides to getting into a ‘rugby huddle’ and leaning into each other as we prayed. Why? Because a manly man, tears in his eyes, suggested it. Manly men.

Refreshingly manly

Am I saying that in order for us to be manly men, we need to cry? No. Am I saying that I’m going to start crying now on a regular basis? No. That’s not who I am (at least for now!)

But what I am saying is that there is something refreshingly manly about men who get beyond the usual strictures that society (or they) place on themselves (to be strong, slightly aloof, together, in check, unemotional) by allowing the Spirit of God to move them emotionally. We were not created to be Marlboro Men: solitary, alone, independent, chiseled out out of granite.

As one manly man, Paul wrote:

For I wrote you out of great distress and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to grieve you but to let you know the depth of my love for you. (2 Cor. 2:3)

Or how about another manly man?

My intercessor is my friend as my eyes pour out tears to God; on behalf of a man he pleads with God as a man pleads for his friend. (Job 16:20-21)

Men, men, men, men, manly, men, men, men!

Pray for our youth

This one won't be long.

09.09.09. Remember this date (it's not hard). This is our youth kick-off - "Gower Wars (Return of the Tribes)" - an evening of dressing up as a school tribe you're not usually part of, and generally having fun. This event needs to be covered with prayer...that our Sovereign God would lead the teens who are hungry and thirsty for truth and relationship to this event. That the Holy Spirit would be present and moving throughout this event.
16.09.09. The beginning of youth (proper). We're starting a series called "Surviving School" but of course the whole point is to MORE than survive - through encountering Christ and His life-changing message of sins forgiven and our relationship restored with God through the cross. Please pray that this isn't about making "good non-Christians" but about God raising up youth who are passionate for Him and passionate about taking up their cross everyday. Good non-Christians are still going to hell.

In addition:
Please pray for who the youth leadership team is going to be this fall. God knows and God will bring the right people on board. Pray for our current youth leaders and the ones to become youth leaders. Pray for a God-sized vision for them for Unashamed Youth and their role in this kingdom ministry.

Lastly, please pray for me. Why? Because my default mode is to run a youth program. Any monkey can do that. Pray that God keeps me FAR from default, far from the land of SAME-OLD, SAME-OLD, far from STATUS QUO, and that He keeps on instilling in me a) my sufficiency in Him and b) his vision for the youth of North Gower and surrounding area.

Nothing less will do. Because "nothing less" revolves around me. I need your prayers. Unashamed Youth needs your prayers.

• If you want to get on board as part of the weekly prayer team, let me know.
• If you want to get on board by lending us your van every once in a while, let me know.
• If you want to get on board by giving of yourself as a youth leader, let me know.

The teens don't need empty religion. They need a butt-kicking, self-denying, Satan-confronting, soul-loving, in-world but not of-world, divine relationship.

Cheers
Dan

Gays, Good Christians and a Great Big God

A Little Background
I've just been reading about the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America's decision to "allowing practicing homosexuals, in committed relationships, to hold positions of authority within the denomination" (see here for the original article). This voted decision on Friday 21st August (just last Friday) has caused a huge internet response with blogs and comments as well as an apparent schism within the Lutheran church.

Can't I just take Romans 1 out of the Bible?
It's a toughie - to be honest, I wish I could say that homosexuality wasn't an issue. I sincerely wish that God hadn't written about it. I mean, couldn't we just take Romans 1 out of the Bible? I love people who are homosexual, it doesn't make me feel repugnant. I don't view it as a disease to avoid, just as I don't view liars as someone to avoid (just in case the lying rubs off on me?) After all, Jesus made a point of hanging out with who the religious establishment would view as morally reprehensible. How can we call ourselves "little Christs", and not do likewise? Besides, I think we as the church have a lot to learn about solidarity, unity, acceptance and community from the gay community. When was the last time I was "loud and proud" about my faith?

An Incomplete Church?
I've had friends who have come out and then left the church due to the lack of love they've received (one friend, in particular, I'm thinking of). I could see the pain in his life - that in pursuing what he felt was true for him meant being abandoned by the church (and this should never be - after all, in him leaving the church, did the church in fact become less complete - because we'd just lost a vital limb? - see Romans 12:5). This is the tension I find in being a pastor. I wish that Romans 1:26-27 wasn't in the Bible. Yet it is, and this is something I have to wrestle with. But it is interesting to note that in the same breathe as practicing homosexuals, Paul lists the envious, the slanderers (saying something untrue about someone to harm their reputation), the deceitful, the insolent, the arrogant, the boastful. Hmmm...perhaps it's too easy to point out one sin and underscore it / highlight it / capitalize it, and in doing so miss the rest (plankeye, anyone?).


So You're Not Gay. But Do You Gossip?
Besides, and I'm just thinking here, what if Romans 1:24:-32 is actually a crescendo passage? What if the list is ordered in 'levels' of what breaks God's heart. That is, as you read along, it's actually getting worse. It starts of with homosexual practice but then goes to envy, murder, strife, deceit and... MALICE (you can hear the audience gasp). No wait, but there's more...gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful (someone faints in the audience); they invent ways of doing evil; they... disobey...their...parents (a woman screams); they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. When is the last time you saw a placard saying "God's HATES those who disobey their parents!!"? Or "God hates the insolent"? Do we even blink an eye when we see the banner "God hates fags"?

One Finger Pointing At You. Three Pointing Back At Me
What if we're focusing on the sin of the day, homosexuality, while God is looking at me, at you, asking "Do you hide malice in your heart? Do you gossip? Do you boast about yourself and your achievement? Do you angle conversations so people will praise you? Do you name drop? Do you make sure people know how many hours you work? Do you disobey your parents?" You know, the old "one finger pointing at you; three fingers pointing back at me" scenario.

The Behaviour Has Changed. The Life Has Not.
You see, whenever we, the Church, tries to force the world into behavioural modification (without the prerequisite life change first), I feel God is speaking to each of us and whispering "Yeah, but what about you?". Christ was never about behavioural modification or just 'being good'. In fact, being good, being nice, being lukewarm, makes God want to throw up (see here). Many of the darkest chapters of church history involvde often well-meaning good Christian people going into another culture and forcing values / moral codes on the indigenous people groups. Instead of teaching them about Christ's sacrifice and intense love for them, they clothed them in good, stout clothes to hide their nakedness and made them speak English (Spanish, Portuguese...) - I know I'm irresponsibly simplifying some complicated and nuanced history here - I apologize. But you know what I mean.

What does God want?

Read Amos 5:21-24 (read the whole chapter for context)

But let justice roll on like a river,
righteousness like a never-failing stream!

Our worship is meaningless to Him unless we are being agents of His righteousness and His justice in our world. Why? Because that IS our worship? What would it mean for you or I to stand up for the civil rights of a homosexual colleague who was being poorly treated or a gay friend at school who was being picked on? How the justice would roll! How the righteousness would never fail! THIS is worship!

Absolute Truth And Unconditional Grace
However, God does speak out against practicing homosexuality. Paul, in Romans 1, does deal with sin and the consequences of sin, of that there can be no doubt. It does become difficult when Church-wide theological doctrines and an individuals freedom of choice and freewill collide. After all, we're not just talking about an obscure line written in a dusty book somewhere - we're talking about real relationships, real lives, real love, real people who are attempting to navigate their way through life. And this is one of those cases. God intended for there to be a moral value espoused by the church (and especially it's leadership) even as He intended there to be utter grace and pure love given to each individual in the church and for whom the church exists (i.e. those not yet in the church). After all isn't that what He's shown us?

Inalienable Human Rights For Gays
I would love to see gay relationships have the same legal protection as heterosexual marriages. Does this mean that I espouse the practicing homosexual lifestyle? No. But I believe that their human dignity demands this. After all, forcing a non-Christian gay person to abandon their sexual practices in the name of faith is a huge misuse of power - we cannot legislate morality. Real life change can only come through a saving relationship with Christ (please don't read life change as "becoming un-homosexual" - I know homosexuals for whom attraction to the same sex did not abate after becoming a believer, but that God gave them the grace to live a life of celibacy...even to enter a loving same sex marriage; whilst for others, they struggle with it their whole life, just as others struggle with eating disorders or anger or lust their whole life). Real life is not becoming straight. I know many straight people who are just existing, just scraping through, just living for the weekend, just living for retirement. Sexuality is not the issue here. The Lordship of Christ is the issue here.

The Need To Enter Into Discussion
I do believe that we, the Wesleyan Church, need to be discussing this and issues like this now. Because if it's not an issue now, it will be soon, and we can't wait until the moment of decision to decide. We can't put our hands in front of our eyes and hope the issue will somehow pass us by. For the Lutheran church it already is an issue. Practicing homosexuals can hold places of authority in the Lutheran church. This is how it is. It is a present reality.

What I Do Believe (a disclaimer of sorts)
Finally, I believe in God, I believe Jesus (one person of the Trinity) came to save us and redeem us through His death on the cross after being born miraculously to the virgin Mary. I believe that there is such a thing as moral right and moral wrong and that we, as humans, are incapable of creating a moral rule for ourselves (even though we keep trying). Only God, as Creator, has the right and authority to deem what is acceptable and what is not. Any time we seek to do that, we are exceeding our boundaries as created beings and, in effect, telling God "I know best". I believe that we, as humans, as believers in Jesus Christ, have a fantastic talent for turning away from sound doctrine and, instead, gathering around ourselves a great number of teachers to tell us what we want to hear (see here). We like to invent truth. We like to invent morality. We like to turn away from doctrine and instead embrace what feels good or doesn't make us too uncomfortable. We are a product of post-modernism. What if, instead of trying to interpret scripture to suit our view of God, we allowed scripture to determine our view of God. After all, I think is was CS Lewis who said that if we're worshiping a God we've invented, are we really worshiping God at all? (Horrible paraphrase, but it was something like that).

Sripture Is Clear (1)
God clearly says in scripture that practicing homosexuality in counter to his desire for humanity, for his best plans for us. Just as he said lying is counter to his desire for humanity, and cheating is counter to his desire, and lusting after someone who is not my wife is counter to his desire. I do not understand all the medical science behind homosexuality, and I will not pretend that making Jesus your Lord will simply "make if all go away". Life is messy and God promises to meet us in the midst of our messy lives being lived in a messy world (that's my paraphrase!)

I do believe that there are many gay people who have been hurt by the church (sometimes well-meaning and sometimes being hateful). I do believe that taking a position of "us vs them" is harmful, and that a Christian hating homosexuals or being disgusted by them is doing (sometimes) irreparable damage in the lives of people for whom God is at best merely a distant being, irrelevant and detached (or non-existent) and at worst a malevolent God who is motivated by anger and has it out for the gays (or whoever the "sinners du jour" are).

Scripture Is Clear (2)
God calls us to love unconditionally, just as He loved us unconditionally and gave Himself for us, while we were yet sinners.

You Might Want To Watch This
An interesting DVD you might want to borrow and watch from the library (Ottawa Library) is "One Punk Under God" - a documentary on Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker's son, Jay and his church called "Revolution". In episode 2 and 3 the process of deciding whether to accept same-sex unions on the same level and without reservation as heterosexual marriage is discussed. I'd highly recommend it - not because I agree with everything Jay puts forward (in fact I heartily disagree with some things), but because it stimulates honest and debate and it shows in stark reality the decisions with Church leaders are finding themselves having to make. By the way, they do accept same-sex unions in the end. Crap! I just ruined it for you, eh?


Hate The Sin, Love The Sinner
But I totally agree with the statement "it would be lovely to hear instead of "Love the sinner - hate the sin", someone preach "Just Love". Why I agree with this is that many people (including myself) cannot divorce themselves from what they do. After all, gay people don't call themselves "people who engage in homosexual practice"; no, they call themselves "homosexuals". When I'm dealing with my sin, I can't objectively stand outside myself and say "I'm Dan, a sinner saved by grace, who's currently struggling with sin". No, I feel "I'm a worm, I'm useless, I suck...how could I have done this to you again, Lord?". I feel that I am my sin, my failure. Christians make the mistake of thinking that sin can be thought of objectively, outside of the person. But I know experientally that that's not true. So when someone hears the church say "Hate the homosexuality, love the homosexual", all the gay person hears is "Hate...the homosexual" because to a huge extent we are what we do (or at least we feel like that). We view this throwaway statement as an attack on our very humanity (rights and dignity) especially if we don't view our current action as a sin, or we do not have a new identity in Christ, and believe that the church is trying to force us into its moral mold through behaviour modification.

The greatest sin (there I go again, rating sin!) would be for the Church to turn away those who need to hear the message of the gospel, through polemic rhetoric and reactionary bigotry.

Time To Pull Our Heads Out Of The Sand
This isn't a simple issue and it's not one that will go away. But the Church has a responsibility to wrestle with this, to be true to the Bible and to church history, whilst somehow in this crazy balancing act, erring on the side of grace and absolute unconditional love.

Have fun figuring that one out!

Cheers
Dan

God ignited a spark on Sunday

Sundays for me mean leading worship. I recall reading in "Worship Matters" by Bob Kauflin that someone once commented that leading worship week in week out seems boring. And Bob responded that, without God, it would be! That's me at the moment. On a human level, what we're doing doesn't seem to make much sense - gathering, singing, reading a book, praying, sitting, listening.
But when you look deeper, see what's really going on - it's profound. It's about pathetic human beings reaching out to touch the Divine and being touched in return.

Take for example Sunday - we'd sung some songs, prayed for the VBS this week, listened to the message about Christ's forgiveness and reinstatement of Peter in John 21 and then the music band got back up to sing a couple more songs - "From the Inside Out" and "Mighty to Save". During "Inside Out", I noticed some movement going on to my left - Marcia, one of the worship team had stopped singing, overcome with the reality of what she was singing:

"And the cry of my heart is to bring you praise
From the inside out, Lord my soul cries out"

I didn't look over and see, but I remember seeing from the corner of my eye that something was going on. Marcia had put down her mic. We sang the song "Inside out" with passion and a painful desire for God. It was then that the Holy Spirit gave me a prayer to pray. A pray I would not have prayed on my own; a stutter-free prayer of power and truth. It was a prayer focused on the finished work of the cross, and what this means to our day to day lives. When Christ said "It is finished", He meant "It is finished". I prayed the prayer, but the Holy Spirit prayed the prayer to me. I was the utterer of the prayer. I was the recipient of the prayer. God was speaking through me to me (OK, He was speaking to other people too!). Even during the sermon, God had placed a deep desire in my heart for people to get, really get that all that is good about God and all that is broken about us meets at the cross. The cross is the centre, the flashpoint, what it's all about. And then God gave me that prayer.

It's funny how leading public worship can sometimes be an intensely private affair as if it is just "me and God", so sweet and so intense is the experience. There's no need to rush - we just want to linger. I know that public worship is public worship and the entire local church body joins in. Yet so real is the encounter, during times like this past Sunday, that the refrain "Mine, mine, mine, I know Thou art mine. Saviour, dear Saviour, I know Thou are mine" does not seem remiss. It captures the moment. It is US and God. It's also me and God.

It was as if God-touching-Marcia was the spark and then the fire spread in a wave. This isn't about lifting any individual up, but it is about noticing the mystery and wonder of how God moves.

Then, as the cherry on top of the dessert, we were able to finish off with "Mighty to Save" - what powerful lyrics; what a powerful song.

My last observation, and this highlights the grace of God is this: I had had an earthy week - not much time spent in the heavenlies - faced with my weakness and sin, I came in on Sunday more aware of this clay than all your power within, as Paul Oakley puts it in his song "I need you now".

It made me realize that God desires to bless us. Yes, He wants a holy people (yet how much of my holiness is true holiness and how much is legalism...just trying to win God's favour?) Yet God, in His sovereign grace chose to minister to me and through me as He prayed through me and to me.

And I thank Him for that.

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. (2 Corinthians 4:7)