I Am Hurt By Christians – World Vision Aftermath

The events of this week have left me nearly speechless. I’m just now trying to figure out what to possibly say. I have a couple of main thoughts. First, I’m hurt by how Christians have been acting. Granted, the behavior is nothing new. But it has been brought poignantly into focus this past week. The actions which Christians have taken seems wrong to me in a way that deeply disturbs me. The second thought I have in mind is respect for those whom I disagree. In my hurt and anger I want to respond by criticizing and condemning. Yet I know there are many respectable people who disagree with me. There are some who are sincerely trying to follow Christ who will land on the other side of this. So I want to be careful in any critique I Continue reading →

I’m With Don – Thoughts on Worship Services Part 4

Music in Worship Services: Divisiveness of Worship Music?

In part 3, as I was considering the genres of music used in worship services, I an idea occurred to me. This may be a bit tangential to our discussion, but it’s certainly related.

It’s been said that Sunday morning (when people go to church) is the most segregated time of the week in America. I suspect many of us have a hunch this isn’t a good thing but have little idea why or what to do about it. I believe the main reason for this is that people are looking for something which matches their own culture. Preaching style and theology reflect culture to a certain degree, but I think music is the most obvious and central piece of culture in most protestant worship Continue reading →

I’m With Don – Thoughts on Worship Services Part 3

Music in Worship Services: What Genre?

The last point I made in part 2 brings me to the next. If God wants us to worship him in a way that we enjoy, then when we use music to worship it makes sense for us to use music which we like. But… not everyone listens to or likes the same music, right? In our culture today, there are more options and a wider array of genres than ever—virtually anything conceivable. In a traditional church setting, where there is often anywhere from 50 to 5000 people, not every musical style can be represented. You can’t even come close to representing the breadth of music in our culture. So what is a church to do? I don’t know that most have even considered the question, they are simply moving along with the Continue reading →

I’m With Don – Thoughts on Worship Services Part 2

(Note: this is part 2 of a post I started here.)

Now that I’ve talked about church, I want to begin looking at the worship service. There are typically two main parts to evangelical worship services: singing and a sermon. I’ll talk a bit about each.

Music in Worship Services: Worship or Concert?

Mention the term “worship” and the first thing many people will think of is music. In fact, the phrase “worship music” is used often. However, this phrase is a bit frustrating to me because typically what people are referring to is what could be called “praise music”. Hymns can offer more depth, but what is most popular today (after the “worship wars” circa the turn of the millennium) is contemporary praise choruses. (Older people often Continue reading →

I’m With Don – Thoughts on Worship Services Part 1

Okay. I know this happened a few weeks ago, which at the pace things seem to go on the internet, is apparently a really long time. But I trust it’s not too late to join the conversation. I actually heard about Donald Miller’s blog post before I had caught up to it (his is one I subscribe to but I’ve been behind on my blog reading) and read it myself. He says “I’m nearly alone in this”. Whether that’s true or not, I certainly identified. So I want to stand up and say that I’m with you Don. This is also a good catalyst for me to share some of my thoughts on worship services.

Church

Before I go any further, we need to discuss church. Because when people talk about this subject, they tend to do so in terms of whether one should or Continue reading →

The Cross and Christian Community

Frank Viola recently shared an article and an audio message on the same subject. I believe the material is excellent and needed, so I wanted to highlight it here. Viola talks about the key role the cross plays in the development of Christian community. I’d recommend checking out both resources (linked above), though if I had to pick one, I’d slightly favor the audio. In either case I highly recommend checking out at least one or the other.

photo credit: nathangibbs via photopin cc

Course Review: Living by the Indwelling Life of Christ

Last fall Frank Viola released a course entitled “Living by the Indwelling Life of Christ”. It contains nine audio messages (with an additional introduction) and an accompanying PDF workbook. The workbook doesn’t contribute greatly in my opinion. The contents of four of the chapters only take up a page each, and three additional chapters only have two to three pages of material. The material which is in the workbook largely just restates parts of what Viola says in the audio recording. So the remainder of my review will focus on the contents of the audio messages.

I’m finding it difficult to evaluate this course on its own because I have been learning similar things from several sources simultaneously. That said, Viola does teach some Continue reading →

Book Review: Letters to the House Church Movement

I recently finished reading “Letters the the House Church Movement” by Rad Zdero. This is the first book authored by Zdero which I’ve read. To be honest, I was disappointed in this book. First, the book feels like a collection of disjointed fragments. Due to the nature of the material (a collection of letters), this shouldn’t be surprising I suppose. However this feeling existed even within many chapters.

The most worth while chapters in the book are the ones which only contain a single letter on one topic, such as what house churches do, apostles, and women in church. In effect, these function more like articles on their respective subjects than as letters. There is some good material in this book. Nevertheless, there are better Continue reading →

Ragamuffin: Rich Mullins, Fame, Humanity, and God’s Love

Last Thursday I had the opportunity to see Ragamuffin, a movie about “the true story of Rich Mullins”. Wow. I did not know much about Rich’s story going into this movie (I’m not a fan of that genre of music). So I was surprised—in a good way—by how deep the film was. It’s incredibly deep… I felt on the edge of crying through most of the movie…

Before I go any further however, I want to address fame. Readers of my blog may not be aware that I do some audio production. Through this I’ve toured with “Christian” bands, I’ve been on the field for an NFL game, and I was on stage for every act which performed in the Super Bowl Village here in Indianapolis a couple of years ago. I mention these only to share that I have a certain Continue reading →

Is the Emphasis on Creationism Harmful to Christianity?

The creation-evolution debate is back in the news this week as Ken Ham held a public debate with Bill Nye. Ken Ham’s organization, Answers in Genesis, is representative of a certain segment of Christianity (primarily in the U.S. I believe). They believe and promote the idea that the Bible and specifically Genesis are inerrant, factual, and to be taken literally. If people choose to believe this, that is their choice. What bothers me is how this is often viewed by both sides as the Christian view. In other words, it is the orthodox view held by true believers. Yet I think it is essentially a fundamentalist viewpoint (though conservative evangelicals have been quite influenced by fundamentalism).

I wanted to groan when I started seeing Continue reading →