Preaching and stand-up comedy...

Churches that are really successful usually seem to have a common attribute in the pulpit. It is that of speaking into the culture and answering the heart cries of the people, the core questions that underlie everyone’s lives and ambitions. One example is in Seattle, where Mark Driscoll preaches to the un-churched, those that in our day and age are greatly spiritual (in that they believe in some sort of transcendent nature of the universe), but also greatly lacking truth. So he preaches hard the truth of Scripture and the exaltation of Jesus to ground all worldviews and to funnel them into the core of God’s truth. Another example is in Dallas, where Matt Chandler preaches in one of the centers of the Bible belt, where everyone has heard a lot about Jesus, but there is rampant false teaching, empty Christian platitudes, dangerous theological pitfalls, and straight-up non-sense everywhere you look. As 2 Corinthians 11 puts it, there are many “different Jesuses”. So he preaches against pop-Christianity and easy-believism, those that seek to make being a Christian just another activity you do on the weekends and pronounces the truth and the reality of Christian life according to the Scriptures in the midst of the mess. He preaches with alarming honesty about his own depravity and shortcomings, and invites all to be honest with God and themselves and stop hiding behind the façade of religion and Christian cliché, to simultaneously cut to the heart of Jesus’ humanity and exalt his deity, and to offer healing to the broken spirits of those that have been picking at the rotting meat of false piety and deprived the fresh meat that Christ offers in himself.

No other profession or job seems to be so dependent on relevant and constantly updating evaluation of current times and thinking than that of preacher. Mark Driscoll makes the comparison that the only job today similar to preaching is that of the stand-up comedian:

Stand-up comedy and preaching are the only two mediums I can think of in which someone walks onto a stage to talk for a long time to a large crowd. Dave Chappelle, Carlos Mencia, and Chris Rock are genius at capturing an audience using irony and sarcasm.

And this is pretty true. I can’t think of another job like that. But, they are drastically different on one point: the comedian performs the same material hundreds of times and only has to come up with a new act every once in a while so he can sell more tickets and more CDs of his material. A preacher must week-in, week-out come up with “new material” for his next sermon. Not to say the preacher deviates from preaching boldly the Gospel every time (which he should), but this puts a much higher demand on the preacher than on the stand-up comedian, and the burden of hard work bears much heavier on the preacher to fire an arrow to the heart of the culture and its thinking every time he stands up to speak. Not to mention the temptation I’m sure exists to water down the message and just try and appeal to the audience that is listening and make them laugh or feel warm and cozy inside, despite the wicked hearts that constantly beat in the chests of the community.

All that to say that preaching 200 years ago is drastically different than it is now. Even 50 years ago, or last decade sees vast swings in the methods of preaching and the sins and erroneous philosophy of the given time period it is given in. Read Wesley’s sermons, Spurgeon’s sermons, Paul’s letters, and then listen to those of Billy Graham, or Mark Driscoll, or Matt Chandler. There are drastic differences in the people that are being preached to in these times and places, and the sins and certain types of foolish thinking that is espoused in each of these periods that requires loving correction. 18th Century Britain is far different than 21st Century America, and people think differently all over the world. In every instant of time some new ism or heresy is being promoted that the entire community seems to grasp onto. Successful preachers throughout history recognize this, and aim their guns, so to speak, at these targets in an attempt to correct the wisdom of the world. This doesn’t mean that the Gospel is substituted by human philosophy or likewise, but it does mean that people need to be communicated to in their own culture, time period, epistemology, and vernacular. This I believe is part of what Paul meant when he wrote:

I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.

(1 Cor. 9:22-23)

Now I am obviously no preacher, but I do enjoy listening to preachers and the method in which they perform their craft, though this is not my only reason for doing so. God forbid I just aim to criticize and pick apart the hard work of men God has called to proclaim the word of God, though I could raise many an issue with Joel Osteen’s preaching, and much of the silliness that is broadcasted on Christian television.

But my point is that I think it wise to seek a church and a preacher that speaks into the culture in which you are, and that it should be a high priority (if not the highest) to any Christian looking for a church to attempt to find where the truth of Jesus and his Gospel are emanating into the surrounding community from the pulpit, and where lives are being transformed by its power that only it possesses. It is something surprisingly difficult to find done well, but I hope we are ever-mindful of its importance.

p.s. speaking of Joel Osteen, below is a humorous and deadly accurate video by Mark Driscoll on this topic...enjoy.

On Blogging...

There is a funny sort of thing about Christian bloggers, or really anyone who writes, or even every person in general. We think we’re important and we assume that simply because we say/write something that seems right or insightful, or something that we saw on a bumper sticker or a random quote we read on Wikipedia that may or not may be right, that we are somehow tapping into the grand truth of the universe. Like we all suddenly become Mark Twain just because we can regurgitate cheesy and/or stupid theological musings simply because they are pithy and sound nice and neat to our ears

i.e. "Hate the sin; love the sinner."

Actually Gandhi said that, and it's not exactly Biblical. Or, some people say really stupid stuff that has no bearing on reality and in the end are just words. Or, there is just flat-out horrible Bible teaching, even in the idle words of obscure middle-school girls’ websites. Consider the following that I made up (though it’s loosely based on some of the non-sense I’ve read, and exaggerated a little for effect):

“Bible study was so fun and Bobby told Suzie that he likes her…somebody tore my Jesus fish off my car, must have been what it was like for the early Christians when they were persecuted for their beliefs…God is loving, and he/she loves us so much and I just know that he/she is behind me and supports my alternative lifestyle and I just hate all these fundamentalists always talking about God’s wrath…the cross is like investment banking, because God saw how valuable we could be, and he chose to invest in us to show forth all of our potential”.

It’s very tricky sometimes, because I find that clicking through friends’ blogs and the links they provide to other blogs, and reading snippets of some of these dumb blogs (just because I get bored sometimes), that often this type of language is, to make a gross understatement, sourced from people without much theological clout. Meaning that there is a certain type of person that just says “God” or “Jesus”, or any number of Christian terms and clichés that no one knows what they mean, every now and then and we assume that they are great saints of the pen among Augustine and Luther and that they deserve to be read and given a chance to voice their opinions.

Part of this frustration of mine is due to the perversion of technology that is our world today. Everyone has a blog, everyone has a website, and everyone has a little podium to stand on to voice their retarded agenda. And while this is an amazing breakthrough for technology and revolutionary for those that would use it for the benefit of humanity and the advancement of the Gospel, it also opens the door for any wing-nut that wants to say something. Sometimes it seems like going back to the days before the internet and the printing press may be a good idea, since with new opportunity for good thought and dispersal of good material, comes the same opportunities for evil discussion and pointless words being written. And while I do not condemn the open forum that the internet provides for people to voice what they think, this does not mean that everyone should speak and it does not mean that everyone is qualified to write about Jesus or anything of importance. Mostly, blogs are just little nuggets about what you did that day, how your job is going, or about spilling your fears and emotions, or about spreading gossip and rumors. While there may be some good that can come from some parts of that, I think the majority of it no one would miss if the plug was pulled (certainly my own crappy writing). There is also a certain corner of the blogosphere (what a nerd I am for using that word) that is greatly beneficial, guys such as Tim Challies and Justin Taylor, who are involved in the evangelical world of theological instruction and apologetics. But I also find the blogs of high-school/college-age dudes and girls that want to gush about their boyfriends or their iPods and throw in two words about God every now and then for good measure. Not to sound melodramatic, but I think this just may really show the condition of the fallen human heart, or it may just be a blog about girly emotion and crying, or perhaps both. But that’s not really my point, though it gets on my nerves. My point is that I find it a bit annoying, just enough that it gets under my skin, that anyone can log on, and post anything, good or bad, clever insight or repugnant tripe, or some devilish mixing of the two. (I realize that this is immediately hypocritical since this is all written in one of these blogs, but I still feel it is a valid point to be made. But of course this blog, like so many blogs should just be deleted and forgotten about, so whoa on me for even bringing it up. I fear I condemn the very thing I am doing, but there’s irony for you.)

But perhaps most annoying is people that throw in grand evangelical and biblical truths, or some romanticized twisting of a profound reality like “God loves us so much”, at the ends of posts with no explanation of what this means. Do we really comprehend the gravity of what God loving us really means? Is it because we’re such winsome and lovable people, or solely because God is holy and separate from us, and loves us despite of us spitting him in the face and crucifying him on a Roman cross? I would suggest that the majority of random “Christian” blogs (perhaps even this one), belonging to rich, whiny college kids with no jobs would show forth the former.

But do not misunderstand what I’m saying. I am not suggesting that I am somehow above the mess of common Christian blogging. No, I grudgingly realize I’m often somewhere in this pile of rubbish of non-important people with stupid opinions. I whine about stupid crap all the time. I am lazy, and I’ll be the first to speak ill of myself to reveal my sins, but I think I do however have the insight to recognize what I am and my great deficiency in knowing God and loving Him and having any right to voice anything, and hopefully having the wherewithal to try to get better by God’s power, to rise out of the trash heap of foolish human thinking and speculation and perhaps touch a lowly-dangling truth of God. Rarely have I done so, but I am optimistic for the future because God is great and can do anything even with a fool such as myself. And I would not dream of attempting to be so bold as to say that any of these people I don’t know are not truly followers of Christ. I merely make the point that most of this mess of today’s blog-technology-culture is done out of some peculiar, humanly attempt to show forth our own glory or some sick desire to get people to read it and say “wow, I wish I were that person.” And I realize that people are always in the process of growing and getting better and learning new things from God, and that at times we can really make fools of ourselves in what we write and say. We need correction from God and to be spoken to on the level we are at to exhort us to step up to the next. That’s the most amazing thing about God I find, and it’s really the heart of the incarnation of Christ, that God would actually stoop down and speak to us as His children, something John Calvin referred to as God’s “baby talk” to us. Please note that you now know I’m a strong Christian because I just referenced John Calvin, from a work I’ve never read and most likely will attempt to read and somewhere in the middle get so overwhelmed and lost in the sea of archaic language that I will put it back on my shelf and say something stupid like “I just don’t have time to read it right now, I’ll get back to it later when I can really focus,” as if my life is really that packed with important agendas (maybe they will be soon). But meanwhile I can put it on my blog and act as if I really have studied it deeply and therefore am some super Christian and impress everyone rather than just referencing what I’ve heard someone else say. Perhaps this is precisely what I am talking about. Funny how that worked out in the end.

Men and Worship

I don’t think we ever really grasp the weight of what we claim to believe as Christians. We make statements routinely like “God loves me,” or “Jesus rose from the dead,” or “God will judge sinners in the end,” as if they are old hat and just commonplace to say these things. Now they may be commonplace in a culture such as ours that has been so profoundly influenced by Christianity, in our little church world that we live in. When we make off-hand comments like “let’s go worship God in the church building,” there’s a lot that we take for granted and that we subconsciously downplay I think. Do we really understand what it means that we worship the King of the universe? Would this change how we worship? Can we imagine physically standing in the presence of Christ and still mumbling the words to the songs we sing and the prayers we recite with little to no emotion? I can’t, and yet I still fall prey to this often. I’m as conservative theologically as anyone, but most of these kinds of churches can generally tend to be pretty dull. This goes for all aspects of worship, not just music. It’s really confronting at my church since it’s not huge and we meet in a recreation center gym. It is tempting to just try and be silent and not stand out, and just sort of go through the motions without getting too excited or involved. It would seem a little startling and tacitly unthinkable to yell out “Amen!” to the preacher, and I think he senses this also in the congregation. But Bill made a comment last time I was there that caught my notice and made me think of a verse in 1 Timothy where Paul expresses:

I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling.

(2:8)

This verse is in the context of praying and giving thanks for all people, even those in high positions that have God-given authority over you (2:2), even those that are false teachers (1:3), even blasphemers (2:13, 20), persecutors (2:13), and insolent opponents (2:13), all of which Paul formerly was but was delivered by His mercy and grace (2:13-14); and certainly the women (wives, mothers, children, etc.) in the church (2:9-15), of whom God has made men stewards and leaders. This letter is written specifically to the church in Ephesus, of which Timothy was a pastor, and Paul commanded that men raise hands to the Lord Jesus, the mediator between God and all men. So Paul was commanding that men take the lead in the church, to initiate a worshipful response to God and in so doing encourage the women to follow likewise, not adorning themselves in trashy and inappropriate apparel and thereby dishonoring Christ and the appointed stewardship and leadership of godly men in the church, but

in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire, but with what is proper for women who profess godliness—with good works.

(2:9-10)

It is not my intention to get into the issue that vs. 2:9-15 bring up, which is that of women in the highest position of authority in the church (pastor, teacher, elder, etc.), but suffice it to say that women are repeatedly told to respect the authority put over them in the church. So is the command to men in the same passage, to make intercession and prayer for those in authority over them and to lead well their wives and families by looking to Jesus, the mediator between us all and God the Father. This is why Paul planted all of his churches, including the one at Ephesus, and why he was appointed by Christ

a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.

(2:7)

Paul did this to instill in men leadership and a sense of responsibility for the direction and well-being of the church, including the office of overseer (3:1) and teacher (3:2) of the family of God. Women are likewise told to submit themselves to this and to learn quietly (2:11) in this context. Obviously this is one of the most hotly debated verses in all of Scripture, but again it is not my intention to get into that here (perhaps another post).

My point is that what Pastor Bill commented on briefly brought this to mind, and convicted me that I and fellow guys do need to feel a sense of responsibility for how the church responds in worship. In most “conservative” churches, where generally the Bible is taught well, there is not much liveliness in the congregation on Sunday. People tend to try and stay quiet and unnoticed, presumably from a desire to not stand out and to not draw attention away from the worship of God in the sanctuary. But I would submit that this is not necessarily the right way to go (even though I am grossly aware of my rampant failure here). What does it say about us as worshippers of Jesus that it often seems lifeless during what is supposed to be our celebration and heartfelt thanksgiving to our great God and King? Do we fully grasp what the redemption of our souls implicates? When we stand with our hands in our pockets, mumbling words to songs, checking our watches because God forbid the service goes long, and having a general attitude of complacency, do we equate this to actual knee-bending, on-your-face worship to the exalted Lord of Heaven, or is it just a “worship service” with neat and/or cheesy guitar songs, a few pithy statements made about God’s love, some prayers scattered throughout, and a cheap and inaccurate imitation of what the Reformers had in mind for the worship of God? Do we really worship during “worship”, or is it just another day of complacency that we call the Holy Sabbath?

Are we really interceding for others, offering prayers of thanksgiving for God’s blessings and appointed leaders, and are the men in the church really leading their churches and their families and their wives, pointing always to the great Mediator and lifting holy hands to Christ to intercede for this broken and desperately needy world? I haven’t been. Lord God help me repent and to follow the leadership appointed above me and those that would be entrusted to me, to always look to the Mediator in prayer for all people, without resisting or getting angry about it (2:8), but sensing the need and putting the joyful burden of responsibility on myself. I pray others would do likewise. Amen.

Dead man

Two days in a row! I don’t know if that’s ever happened. But I guess I just wanted to add a little more to what I wrote yesterday. I want to try and expound on why I think I feel this way sometimes.

I think the main reason, if there be no other, is the presence of sin in my life. I notice that when sin flares up a little more than usual in my life, that I consequently notice that I feel more distant from God and/or God feels more distant from me. But I think it’s more of the former than the latter—I AM more distant from God when I sin. I hate it. I don’t know why I do it. I don’t know why I can say in my mind, “don’t get pissed off in traffic, there’s nothing you can do about it, just take it easy and drive,” and then almost immediately fly off the handle and want intensely to kill the dude going 30 in the fast lane with his blinker on and no intention to change lanes. I store up this hatred inside me when I get where I’m going, and it just kind of eats away at me slowly until I get to where I am, where I just feel lost and without direction.

But God is always there, faithful to the end. Scripture says that even when we are faithless, God is faithful (2 Tim. 2:13). How true it is! God promises to finish that which he began (Phil. 1:6), and no one—not even us—can snatch us from the hand of God (Jn. 10:29), for salvation belongs to the Lord (Ps. 3:8), not to us. Now that’s some rapid fire doctrine right there. I can’t explain how mysteriously sometimes the grace just hits me and I come to my senses and I praise God for what he’s done for me in Christ. He leads me back to the path of righteousness, and I find true joy and rest in him.

Why I do not live daily and hourly in this joy, I cannot really comprehend. I don’t know why I stray and sin and think that I am somehow finding happiness in disobedience, when all it brings is empty despair. I don’t know when I will learn to stop trying to feed the old dead man, and start feeding the new living man (Eph. 4:22-24). It makes no sense to try and revive the dead man, because he will never get up and walk anywhere. But in my foolish mind, I think I can somehow put him on my back and make him dance like a puppet, when all that happens is that he becomes exceedingly heavy and burdensome and I can’t take the weight any longer, so I eventually stumble and fall. He’s not alive, he’s dead, and you can’t make a dead man dance with any amount of willpower. I don’t know why I am blind sometimes to the freedom and life that Christ offers. I wish it were easier to live as the man God made me to be, but it’s a constant struggle with this freakin’ dead man I am morbidly obsessed with on my back. God give me, and others that may struggle with the same, the faith, strength, and courage to throw him off and bury him a thousand feet deep in the Earth so that we may not continue to stumble but be renewed to press onward to the path of righteousness.

It's been a while...

I can think of so many things I could write about since I've taken such an extreme sabbatical from writing anything in this blog, which most people rarely do very consistently I've noticed. I could talk about the past year of my life and the dramatic and drastic turns it has taken. I could talk about some random theological topic. I could talk about some Bible verse that spoke to me this week. I could talk about some sermon I heard that made me break down and cry because it so resonated with my soul. But I’ll just try and convey what my current state is, perhaps just in the past few minutes.

I’m just really tired. Sometimes I just get really tired—tired of nothing. Sometimes I just get tired of feeling like there is nothing to plan, to think about, to write. Sometimes I feel like God is just silent in my life. Sometimes I feel like I have absolutely no plan in life, like my life is going nowhere. But they’re really just feelings, because my life is going somewhere currently. I’m getting married pretty soon (in February), and I am intensely excited about it. I know it’s God’s blessing in my life, and I thank him all the time for Emily. But sometimes, intellectual knowledge just doesn’t seem to be enough for me. I currently live away from her, and so much of my time is spent on the phone or writing instant messages and emails to her. It’s like I have a relationship with computers and phones. I’m really tired of it. But I don’t want to sound like I’m just finding things to whine about, since perhaps so many wish they had what I have, a beautiful woman to anticipate being with. But no sane person would ever aspire to a long-distance relationship. No one would ever aspire to a weekend emotional rollercoaster from the mountain of initial giddiness of seeing her on Friday night to the leveling off of Saturday afternoon routine, to the valley of Sunday sorrow upon leaving her or watching her drive away. It’s taking a toll on me, and my soul is worn-out.

But this isn’t really what I wanted to talk about. What I wanted to talk about is…I’m tired of feeling like my life is in limbo, in a sort of constant pause-mode. Not only is this illustrated by the intangible space I live in of engagement to marriage, it’s indicative of the intangibility I feel oftentimes in the life of my soul. Sometimes I feel like my soul has no solid ground to stand on, like I’m just a mind floating around in the space of human philosophy, where I have to lean on my own understanding of this world and just “do the best I can” with my mind and wading through the ever-deepening ocean of humanity’s agenda, through the filth and temptation, through the religion and speculation. I’m sick of this feeling. It feels like God is absent, like I’m a blind man trying to find a jungle path with no one to guide me but other blind men. And the memories in my life where I know I’ve felt the hand of God leading me are wonderful to think upon, but for some reason are no help to me when I get lost again. They can’t comfort my broken spirit because they are just memories. And cognitively I know that others feel this all the time, but for some reason intellectual knowledge doesn’t really help me much. Theology sometimes irritates me more when I itch from frustration, because I know only God can sooth. Only God can satisfy and fill the vacuum in my heart, as Blaise Pascal would say.

And it may be nice to hear affirmation and consolation from others, but it doesn’t help me find that distant hand of God. At least it doesn’t seem that way.

So this really has no point, other than to complain about being unsatisfied with life apart from God. And also to say that there is really never an end to the majesty of Jesus and his ever-deepening presence and influence in the life of a saint. We never reach the end of Him and say, “well I’m satisfied, I can move on to other things now.” God is eternal, and 5 years ago I could never imagine I’d be where I am today. And I’m sure 5 years from now I’ll look back and say, “wow, God has made a lot of progress with me.” But on this page of my life, it’s difficult to take my eyes off this line and out of the book and see the bigger story. It’s difficult to know God is there sometimes, that he is Emmanuel, God with us.

But he is, if we believe his promise. But that’s probably the most difficult thing in this world—to live with faith in God’s promise is something every Christian is challenged with as a corequisite to being on Earth. Abraham did it, but he also failed miserably at times. As did Jacob, and pretty much everyone in the Hall of Faith chapter of the book of Hebrews (11). Read Genesis and you’ll realize that these heroes of our faith were normal everyday people like all of us, but God is the one who did mighty things through them. Perhaps this is my consolation, that God will finish the work he began, and that he will make good on his promises to me, and to all of us that know him. But between the realm of heaven and the dust of Earth is a grand chasm only crossed by faith. Believing and residing in the chasm is a difficult and painful way of life. I currently feel defeated, but I know that feelings are fleeting, so I don’t put much stock in them. But thanks for listening anyhow.