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Quotes and Comments

A Leader is an Ordinary Person

“A leader is an ordinary person who has understood that they are grasped by God for a purpose. That sounds like anyone who responds to the call to ‘follow Me.’ These days I see leadership development as following immediately after the basics of the Gospel are grasped in both heart and mind.

After a basic level of healing and faith, all followers of Jesus should be on a richer track of growth and understanding. We all need to be equipped for priestly service in the world, for missional life wherever we are located in the world of culture.”

- Leonard Hjalmarson (NextReformation)

“The Only Christian Work is Good Work Well Done”

Not long ago, when I was being awakened to my calling as a Pastor, I was so excited by this awakening that I sometimes mistakenly saw the same thing in others. Because of this, when I would see similar qualities in a friend or co-worker, I would often interpret it as a sign that they too had been called to pastoral ministry.

I no longer believe that every one of them is so called (although I do still believe that some of them are). My friend Kevin Abell was instrumental in this realization. In his journey of discovery, as far as he can tell, he is called to live as Christ and to write about him while being the best auto mechanic in town. That more people are called to the same than are called to pastoral ministry is likely closer to the truth.

Today I came across this quote (via JT) that expresses the same:

From Dorothy Sayers’s essay, “Why Work?” in  Creed or Chaos (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1949):

The Church’s approach to an intelligent carpenter is usually confined to exhorting him not to be drunk and disorderly in his leisure hours, and to come to church on Sundays. What the Church should be telling him is this: that the very first demand that his religion makes upon him is that he should make good tables.

. . . Let the Church remember this: that every maker and worker is called to serve God in his profession or trade—not outside of it. The Apostles complained rightly when they said it was not meant they should leave the word of God and serve tables; their vocation was to preach the word. But the person whose vocation it is to prepare the meals beautifully might with equal justice protest: It is not meant for us to leave the service of our tables to preach the word.

The official Church wastes time and energy, and moreover, commits sacrilege, in demanding that secular workers should neglect their proper vocation in order to do Christian work—by which she means ecclesiastical work. The only Christian work is good work well done. Let the Church see to it that the workers are Christian people and do their work well, as to God: then all the work will be Christian work, whether it is Church embroidery or sewage-farming.

We are not all called to work in a vocational capacity within the church, be we are all called to work as the church. We are all called to minister.

“That’s what she said…”

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n254/faustus777/TheOffice-ThatsWhatSheSaid-Michael.jpgJesus speaks of the words and ideas we accumulate in our hearts as treasures. Whichever treasure is dominant in our hearts, be it evil or good, will make its way out of our hearts, through our mouths and into the world revealing exactly what kind of treasure we’re accumulating.

Without the active intervention of my will, the types of things my heart most easily treasures are funny quotes. More specifically, funny quotes that have double meanings. Even more specifically, double meanings that are often far from innocent in nature.

I find a show like The Office very appealing to my treasure-seeking senses.  At the same time, I know that when I watch it I am storing up the wrong kind of treasure in my heart and that this treasure will work its way out of my heart, revealing to those around me exactly what I’m storing up in there.

Dropping “That’s what she said…” into a conversation at opportune times – of which there seem to be an abundance – is hilarious, yes, but what does it reveal about what I’m storing up in my heart? In Matthew 12:34 Jesus says that the mouth finds things to say out of what is most dominant or most treasured in our hearts. Sometimes the dominant treasure in my heart is all too easy to see.

It’s almost like my brain has a checklist it goes through before responding to a statement or question:
* First Option: Is there even a remote chance that replying, “That’s what she said…” will make sense as a reply and turn an innocent statement or question into an opportunity for a laugh? If yes, reply. If no…
* Second Option: Can I reply with something else that will get a laugh? If yes, reply. If no…
* Third Option: Answer the person’s question or statement directly.

That’s really quite pitiful and reveals more about my heart than I wanted to know. Chances are you haven’t heard me reply to a question this way because I only really do it when conversing with another person I know is familiar with The Office and is in on the “That’s what she said…” game.

But this is one of the many ways scripture serves us: written thousands of years ago, it comforts us in current afflictions, gives light to current events, and yes it even convicts us about current TV shows that it would probably be better for our souls not to watch.

Read Matthew 12:33-37 and tell me what it says to you. These words from that passage are ringing very loudly in my ears right now: “On the day of judgment people will give account of every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

“That’s what He said…” and it should probably scare us a little bit.

John Stott Endorses Twitter (kind of…)

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Consider this quote from his masterpiece on preaching, “Between Two Worlds: The Challenge of Preaching Today“:

“Consider the time and trouble we give to composing a message we want to send by cable [read: "Twitter"]: because the number of words is severely limited, we go over it again and again, changing a word here, adding or deleting a word there, until we are sure not only that we shall be understood, but also that we shall not be misunderstood. The same should be true of sermons.”

Michael Spencer: “The Big Worship Goof”

http://www.tsaproductions.net/concerts/01.jpgMichael Spencer, who is a Protestant but blogs under the name The Internet Monk, wrote an excellent piece on worship a few days ago. I will print some of the highlights here followed by a few personal comments. If you want to see the entire article and read the comments on his blog (of which there are 173 at the moment) go here.

Here are the highlights:

- We have, within a matter of 50 years, completely changed the entire concept of what a worship service is. We’ve adopted an approach that demands ridiculous levels of musical, technical and financial commitment and resources.

- We have tied ourselves to the Christian music industry and its endless appetite for change and profit. We have accepted that all of our worship leaders are going to be very, very young people. Traditional worship  is on the verge of becoming a museum piece.

- Diversity, generational compatibility, even simplicity are all being blown up. Worship is now a major audience event, led by skilled entertainers, aimed at a demographic and judged by the audience reaction.

- Worship has now become a musical term. Praise and worship means music. Let’s worship means the band will play.

- Even singing is getting lost in this. As the volume and the performance level goes up, who knows who is singing?

- We have a lot of happy people right now. They have no idea what Biblical worship is outside of the context of their favorite songs played by a kickin’ band. They have little idea of worship in vocation, in family, in ordinary work or in silence. They credit their favorite songs as major spiritual events.

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There are a number of things I want to comment on here, and I make these comments as a musician and Pastor of Worship who is training people to be part of, as Spencer calls it, “a kickin’ band”. But I am also one who believes that music is only a small part of worship which, although powerful, cannot be allowed to become what is seen as the only form of worship. I explored that idea a while ago in a post call “What Is Worship?

1. Spencer claims that singing is getting lost in all this. I agree. I have noticed this in my own church, having grown up there and now returning to it as a pastor, the singing is not as vigorous as it once was. It seems to me that people once sang much louder, that they filled room with song – not with pitch perfect delivery, but with enthusiasm and confidence. Too many people have forgotten how to express themselves in song. People no longer sing because the room is too loud for them to hear themselves or anyone else around them.

2. Some of this is certainly my generation’s fault. In some cases we’ve pushed too hard for modern songs and styles at the expense of the old. We want what the world has: a loud band to perform for us while we consume the experience of their performance. In a lot of cases the older generation, wanting to keep us around, has acquiesced. We, like over ambitious high school athletes, have taken the ball, run past the goal line, and kept right on running right out of the stadium. (Need a visual on that statement? Watch 4:10 to 5:04 of this video) We now have not only modern instrumentation but all the look and feel of a modern rock concert. Like a rock concert, the privileged few create the experience and the rest of us consume.

3. I’m not unhappy at all with having what some oldtimers call “Rock and Roll” in our church. It has a time and place when it is effective – but that time and place is not always and everywhere.

4. I am committed to addressing these issues and as I figure out how to do that I’ll try to keep you posted on this blog.

Francis Schaeffer: “Aping the world’s wisdom…”

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_P8QVEpbcBTg/Ry4YTJes2GI/AAAAAAAAAVE/k4-xKGN6QRo/s400/fs.bmpFrom a recent Crossway Books blog post:

Schaeffer’s following summary paragraph has been especially important (and convicting) to me and something that I pray will always be foundational to the work we do at Crossway.

“Is it not amazing,” Schaeffer writes, “though we know the power of the Holy Spirit can be ours, we still ape the world’s wisdom, trust its form of publicity, its noise, and imitate its ways in manipulating men! If we try to influence the world by using its methods, we are doing the Lord’s work in the flesh. . . . The key question is this: as we work for God in this fallen world, what are we trusting in? To trust in particular methods is to copy the world and to remove ourselves from the tremendous promise that we have something different — the power of the Holy Spirit rather than the power of human technique.”

Our Destiny is Certain and Secure

“There is nothing that is so calculated to promote holiness as the realization that we are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, that our destiny is certain and secure, that nothing can prevent it. Realizing that, we purify ourselves even as He is pure, and we feel that there is no time to waste. That is the way to live the Christian life!

Do not turn it into a law, but realize that you have received the Holy Spirit. Then work out this theme. Your Father is watching over you. He is looking after you – yes, let ms use scriptural language – He is jealous concerning you because you belong to Him. You belong to Christ, you are His brother. The Holy Spirit is dwelling in your very body and you are destined for glory.”

- Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Spiritual Depression (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdman’s Publishing Co., 2002), 174.

Rob Bell – “Jesus Wants to Save Christians”

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To be honest, I have tried to like Rob Bell’s work many times without much luck.  That’s probably a bad way to start a review.

I’m not a Bell-basher, but I’m not a fan either; I understand his appeal, but it doesn’t appeal to me; I have been to his church, I know some people there, and I like them and have enjoyed worshiping at Mars Hill.

Many who haven’t read Rob Bell’s books are at least familiar with the phenomenally successful series of short films called Nooma (which are quite good). Jesus Wants to Save Christians: A Manifesto for the Church in Exile is the third of his provocatively titled books – the previous two being Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith (my review) and Sex God: Exploring the Endless Connections between Sexuality and Spirituality.

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If you’ve ever heard Bell speak, it’s easy to hear his voice when you read his books – his pacing, pauses, and emphases are communicated well by the format of the text. The size and outside cover designs are clever and appealing, making them nice books to be seen with.

In Jesus Wants to Save Christians Bell uses the motif of exile to illustrate the condition of God’s people at present and in times past, drawing parallels between the two. Exile, by Bell’s definition, is “when you fail to convert your blessings into blessings for others… [and] when you find yourself a stranger to the purposes of God.”

Bell wisely recommends that, “a Christian should get very nervous when the flag and the Bible start holding hands. This is not a romance we want to encourage.”  And adds: “For a growing number of people in our world, it appears that many Christians support some of the very things Jesus came to set people free from.”

He does excel at delivering a concise synopsis of Old Testament Biblical events, but beyond that and into his interpretation of the events, I found little of value.  The book does not deliver on it’s promise.

In describing the new covenant Bell says: “No more fear, no more terror, no more thunder. That was the old way, the former thing, the first covenant.” In this new covenant, “the truth will be so deeply etched into people’s consciousness that they will naturally do the right thing.” There is a common thread in Bell’s work, one that is the cause of some accusations that he favors Universalism. There are certainly overtones of that soteriological view and it would be nice to hear Bell explain his thinking on the matter a bit more.

By challenging Bell’s allusions to Universalism, one is put into the position of having to answer questions like “Are you saying you DON’T want everyone to be saved?” That is not the point here. Of course everyone (except the most extreme hyper-Calvinist) DOES hope that all will be saved, but the likelihood of this goes against numerous passages of scripture.  Some will spend eternity separated from God; Bell would do well to mention this more often in his teaching – not as a gleeful condemnation, but as a plea for repentance.rob-bell_don-golden.jpg

The text on the back cover says the following:

“There is a church in our area that recently added an addition to their building which cost more than $20 million. Our local newspaper ran a front-page story not too long ago revealing that one in five people in our city lives in poverty. This is a book about those two numbers.”

That claim is not substantiated in the pages of JWTSC; it would have been a much better book if it had.

The tone and scope of JWTSC reminds me of two other titles I read. Neither one sold me completely on its thesis and both are secular in orientation, but they challenged my preconceptions more effectively. So if a vibrant screed against the culture of excessive consumption and affluence is what you’re after, you’re more likely to be inspired by reading Naomi Klein’s No Logo or Kalle Lasn’s Culture Jam: How to Reverse America’s Suicidal Consumer Binge–And Why We Must.

Rick McKinley’s “Reflections on Ministry”

Rick McKinley (Imago Dei – Portland) doesn’t blog much, but if this post is any indication he should make an effort more often. A summary of his six points in this post:

1. The subversiveness of love is the primary work of the pastor.

2. There is disaster awaiting the one who gets bogged down with doing good, and not dwelling in the excellent. It is our job to pay attention to God and life and to help  others to do the same, this is the heart of the work as pastor… many times we exchange important things for urgent things and the important things never get addressed.

3. Theological and biblical inquiry is essential to discovering the depth and Glory of Jesus.

4. Though the experiences of Christ and the Spirit may be ever satisfying, and the word be life giving, the blessings of family and the fruit of ministry be ever present, the longing for heaven and the violent reality of its absence will leave you with a broken heart that will express itself in and empty and sour stomach feeling… It is this knot in our stomach that will keep you an honest preacher in a sea of compromised men.

5. If you want to be a pastor you must learn obedience through suffering just as Jesus did, (Heb 2:10-18, 5:8-10).

6. It is the primary objective of my faith and ministry to apprehend such a vision and faith in Jesus, as revealed by his Spirit through the Scripture, that I would follow him not only in his life but also in his death…  I aim to believe this with such conviction that I could encourage and lead my people in such a faith for their day when they will suffer their own death and by grace do so in faith.

Full post here.

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Or if you’d like to read one of his books click here, click on the image at left or follow the link

This Beautiful Mess: Practicing the Presence of the Kingdom of God

Ryan Adams on Songwriting

What I do and what all musicians do is easy. All we have to do is sit down for a couple hours a week and write a song or two. That simple task is all the world asks of me, so I do it. The other musicians who don’t are just lazy, because again, we aren’t being asked to tar rooftops or clean out dumpsters. We just have to write a couple songs!

Ryan Adams ( websiteAmazon )