Ashley pointed me to an interesting article in the USA Today this morning that discusses different stances and approaches to telling Biblical stories in the form of children’s books. The article was pretty well balanced (surprisingly) and I thought I would distill what was said and offer a view that wasn’t presented, that is, not to tell children these stories when they are small.
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I spent a great night in Indianapolis last Friday night in order to attend Rob Bell’s close-to-final-stop on his speaking tour, The Gods Aren’t Angry.
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Begrudgingly walking out of a mandatory chapel service today (during which I tuned out to some iPod and read) I was greeted by a zealous Gideon and a tiny green New Testament. Looking around, I realized this was happening to every student leaving chapel.
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FOXNews posted a news brief today that highlights a church in Detroit called Epic Church which is currently running a series on sexuality. This idea isn’t really brand new stuff as far as church news goes, but the interesting part is that the church is affiliated with The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod- for those that don’t have experience with that group, this is a pretty big step out there.
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I was wondering earlier today whether or not Christian radio is a good or a bad thing.
Seems odd, right? I’ve never been the biggest fan of stations like Star 88.3 or WBCL, but I’ve never been hostile toward them either. There’s just a part of me that says worship music shouldn’t be lowered to the level of music we listen to on a regular basis.
Here’s the quandry. It seems that there is something spiritual which is inherent to all music. Think about it. Where did music come from? Who invented it? The answer is it wasn’t invented. It was discovered. There is something natural and phenomenal and powerful about music, no matter the kind. Then again I would be eager to say there is a difference between the music we listen to on a regular basis and the music we use specifically to worship God.
But what if there isn’t a difference between the two kinds of music? What if there is no separation between the music we listen to everyday and the music we worship to? Is this a good or a bad thing?
Case in point: Granger Community Church. They regularly open their worship services with music from bands such as Green Day and the All American Rejects. Maybe I’m more conservative than I think (which could be very true) but there seems to be something wrong with that.
Tonight I enjoyed a Chris Tomlin / Matt Redman concert at the Grand Wayne Center in Fort Wayne. It was an excellent performance. It wasn’t until a few minutes into the concert that I remembered some of what I had been thinking throughout the day. So then I thought: What do I think of this? Do I like this?Clearly there is something foundationally wrong with asking those questions during a worship experience. But in relation to my earlier thoughts I think they have some relevance now. It appears to me that the very fact that people know Redman’s and Tomlin’s music is due to their being played on the radio regularly. If it wasn’t for worship music being a regular occasion a gathering like this would be near impossible – or at least more difficult. So the concert itself – which I was a part of, mind you – seems to support the the worship-radio world that I’m questioning.
But there’s still a part of me that says worship music should be reverent. It should be holy. I think of the treatment of worship in the Old Testament – was it treated with more reverence, more holiness? Was David treated the way Tomlin is treated now? Did the Hebrew people walk around humming Psalms all day?
Once again, I don’t have an answer, only thoughts.
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I caught wind of a scholar by the name of Ben Witherington and his recent posts concerning Rob Bell. One was a couple days ago concerning Rob’s stop in Lexington during week two of his Sex God tour.
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I caught this link from Nathan Colquhoun’s blog (which, by the way, is a great source of links to church-related articles – check him out) and it strung a cord with me.
There is a church without handles on their doors. Continue reading…
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My friends and I have been perpetually engaged in an ongoing discussion on this topic. We see examples all around us of places – institutions – claiming to be church; which is it?
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One of the questions asked at the Q+A the other night was “How can I be as knowledgeable as you are?” This is an interesting question in itself, but even better was the answer. Rob said to go to MarsHill.org and request his reading list using the contact form. You can do this yourself (I did last night when we got home!) or you just click below. I hope he doesn’t mind.
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I had the pleasure of traveling to the University of Michigan tonight and seeing Rob Bell (again!) during a Q+A and book signing for his new book Sex God. I found out through a good friend that Rob was touring for his new book (and still is) so I gathered together those interested and we took off. It was amazing. -
Ask and you shall receive. A couple of people have commented asking for my complete 43 (50 in pdf form, apprarently) pages of notes. I beseech thee to download and further thee…um, theeself?
Mars Hill Conference “Isn’t She Beautiful” Notes
A couple of notes on these, well, notes; first of all all of the highlighted portions are there because I used each of them in one of the blogs on Isn’t She Beautiful that I wrote. Each color refers to a different post as I went through each day…yeah, I’m a dork. Get over it. Secondly, there is a reason that the notes for the session on Narrative Theology and the session on elders is a bit short. The breakout sessions were poor.
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I had an interesting conversation earlier today with a friend of mine who is/was/has been skeptical of the idea and very existence of postmodernism. Although his reasoning is akin to those who would say things like “postmodernism is relativism” the conversation brought to light some ideas I’ve been mulling over for a while.
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