Everything is Backwards

My wife and I have been scouting out neighborhoods in Cincinnati for church planting and we think we’ve found a neighborhood in the city that will work for us.

Oh yeah, and Planned Parenthood will be one of our neighbors.

Oh, and by the way, they’re “excited” to accept donations earmarked for the termination of African American women’s pregnancies.

Black Pastors complain about it here.

Further incriminating evidence can be viewed here.

Planned Parenthood has a history of racist policies concerning African-American abortions.

For Christians, abortion is about creation, the image of God, protecting the widows and orphans and not making more widows and orphans. It is about sanctity of life.

But make no mistake: for the abortion industry, it is all about money. What started out as an ideology of personal privacy and women’s health choices is now a billion dollar industry with no small amount coming from the federal government.

In the video above, a person posing as a racist wanting to help abort black babies because he’s tired of Affirmative Action offers a large donation to Planned Parenthood. He specifically says that he wants his money to go towards aborting black babies.

The woman’s voice on the line admits that she’s “excited” about this and wants to make sure she gets the donation information correct. It was all about money, not about women’s health as Planned Parenthood would have us believe.

Watch the video. You’ll want to throw something when its over.

The human body and brain is instinctively wired for survival. God has even equipped us with powerful brain functions that tell our heart to pump blood and our lungs to breath air. You don’t even have to think about it.

And we can’t do anything to stop it either. Have you tried telling your heart to stop pumping blood? Even if you tried to consciously hold your breath until you died, you would faint so that your brain’s subconscious survival instinct would take over to resume breathing.

You can’t stop it. Our entire bodies are living machines that cannot stop trying to survive.

As sinful human beings, we are also wired for what we think is survival: trust our own religious efforts to attain the good life. In Buddhism, you must follow the 8-fold path to achieve enlightenment. For Jews, the 10 Commandments. In Islam, you have the 4 Pillars. Every religion offers some path that human beings must follow to ensure spiritual survival.

People will go to great lengths to obey them also. They will subject themselves to the rigors of religious life and duty because they either fear divine reprisal for disobedience or await divine reward for obedience, or both.

But Jesus says this:

“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.” Luke 9:23-24

The self-righteous mind will see this as some requirement that s/he must achieve to receive Christian blessing.

But that’s dead wrong.

Saving your life is self-righteous Phariseeism. Losing your life is truly Christian.

The blessing of Christ is only achieved through dying to ourselves. What does this mean? Stop trying! Religious effort is self-focused; denying oneself and losing one’s life is Christ-focused.

When we are no longer trying to achieve life for ourselves, we rest in Christ and follow him. When we follow him, radical discipleship and obedience is possible because we are freed from self-effort.

Stop Surviving!

The advice of this series is intended to make leading worship a joy. Once you come to the Sunday morning (or whenever you meet) worship service, you should be confident and well prepared spiritually and musically.

A worship leader needs to be able to think of a lot of things all at the same time: playing the right chords and rhythms, singing the right notes and words, upcoming changes and dynamics, transitions, reading the response of the congregation, and giving yourself the freedom and flexibility to make changes on the fly as the situation warrants.

Oh yeah, and you need to attuned to the Spirit of God and the meaning of the songs you are leading!

This is a lot to keep track of at the same time, but being organized and having a plan can make a big difference.

There are a few other random notes I want to squeeze in here at the end, since they don’t really fit anywhere else.

1. Your voice is an instrument. Self-centered worship leaders want to lead worship in ways that best suit their own musical preferences. If you’re a gifted vocalist, then you’ll be constantly faced with the temptation to throw in your own pop-inspired ad-libs and runs.

If you try to do some acrobatic vocal tricks in the microphone, then the congregation will probably just drop out, stop participating and start watching you. This is an eclipse of God’s glory, because their gaze is directed towards the skillful musician rather than the God who gave him that skill.

Stick to the simple melody, and you’ll be a better worship leader.

2. Check the PowerPoint.

One obvious facet of worship leading that I have not addressed here, is the fact that one of the worship leader’s biggest responsibilities is to make sure that the words to the songs are reproduced in PowerPoint.

I recently led a new song for three weeks in a row when I was finally told that the words were wrong on the screen. For 3 weeks! I dropped the ball here. If the words on the screen are wrong, then all your hard work in practice goes down the drain.

3. Scripture during musical breaks.

I’m not a fan of musical breaks or guitar solos during worship. It shines the spotlight of the congregation’s attention on something other than God. But some songs need a break because it makes sense musically.

I suggest a compromise, which has worked very well in our church. During musical breaks, have a scripture reading that fits the worship theme to display. This keeps the congregation’s focus in the right place but allows you to keep the musical break.

4. Always be prepared to break a guitar string.

I always break my G-string.

[I'll pause while you finish giggling like a 3rd grader]

If you always break the same string, like I do, then try this. Take a used, unbroken string off your guitar that you normally break, and keep it in your guitar case. When you lead worship, have this string in your back pocket. If you break a string, then you will have a pre-stretched string that you can put on quickly.

If you break a lot of strings, practice changing it while standing up and see how fast you can do it.

Also, it may help to have an in-case-of-emergency backup plan. Have the band learn a 2 minute, instrumental song that can be played on a moment’s notice without you. If you break a string, ask the congregation to continue in prayer or reflection for a moment while you change the string (with the one in your pocket) and the band plays softly. This will be a lot less awkward than you abruptly stopping the service.

5. Conclude the set with a meaningful prayer.

This signals to the congregation that the musical set is over and you’re moving to the next element in the worship service. When you do this, talk to God like a man. You don’t want to sound like the guy who is more comfortable singing to God than talking to God.

If you have to, write out a prayer that captures your desire for the worship service and pray that. Public prayers are different from private prayers. You don’t want to nervously ramble on about whatever pops into your head on the spur of the moment. Save that for your devotion time.

Prepared prayers are no less spiritual than impromptu prayers.

God bless, and to God be all the glory!

I just finished reading through the book of Luke and I’ve made a note of many backwards verses.

The beatitudes in Luke are direct and hard hitting.

These six verses are the mea culpa of the Bible’s backwards theology. Jesus announces that the kingdom is near, and then proceeds to describe it for us. All of the characteristics that are considered blessed are things that we do not value on earth: poverty, hunger, weeping, persecution. The things that we enjoy and prize on earth are disdained in Jesus’ values: wealth, being “full”, laughter, being honored by others.

“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.

²¹ “Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied.

“Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.

²² “Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! ²³ Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.

²⁴ “But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.

²⁵ “Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry.

“Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.

²⁶ “Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.

The interpretation of these verses (and much of Jesus’ teaching) is a fraught with Biblical land-mines and it would be easy to misinterpret these. Jesus is not giving us a list of good things that he likes and bad things that he doesn’t like. Rather, he is painting a picture of two kinds of people.

The first person is poor and hungry, weeping and persecuted. This person finds no joy in what the world offers and will be receptive to the hopeful message of the gospel. The second person is wealthy and satisfied, laughing and well thought of. What hope will he find in the gospel? Little if any, because his hope is in earthly things.

In other words, the kingdom’s message is a blessing to those who see their need for it. For those whose who find fulfillment of their needs in this world’s offerings, the gospel message will be as “foolishness.”

Barack Obama’s candidacy and his speech on race in America have brought America’s original sin and subsequent racial issues back to the front of our collective conscience.

This is good and healthy for America. Too many white Americans (myself included) have little idea of what is going on in the African American community, while assuming that since we in the Civil Rights Era there is no more work to do.

In the very near future, my family will be moving to Cincinnati to plant a new church. Our desire is to begin a church that will specifically embody the gospel in its racial makeup. Is this possible? “No, it isn’t,” I have been told recently, because I’m white. A white person told me this. I also spoke with an African American pastor in Cincinnati, who told me “Yes, it is possible.” His reasoning? Because I’m white.

How can my whiteness be a source of both credit and discredit to African Americans? This is just one example of the many inner struggles and complexities that the African American community faces. I cannot speak intelligently to these complexities because I’m just beginning to learn and listen. Any attempt to do so would further reveal my ignorance.

But I have provided a few highlights from Ta-Nehisi Coates’s recent article about Bill Cosby’s “black conservatism.” Coates clearly appreciates Cosby, but indicates that many African-Americans have mixed views about him. Some see him as a needed prophetic voice to blacks, others see him as a sell-out to whites. Cosby is popular with many whites because he is a black man criticizing the black community about things that whites are too afraid to say for fear of receiving the dreaded label, “racist.”

I have italicized key sections that I found interesting.

Cosby was an avowed race man, who, like much of his generation, had come to feel that black America had lost its way. The crisis of absentee fathers, the rise of black-on-black crime, and the spread of hip-hop all led Cosby to believe that, after the achievements of the 1960s, the black community was committing cultural suicide…

Black conservatives like Malcolm X and Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam, have at times allied themselves with black liberals. But in general, they have upheld a core of beliefs laid out by Garvey almost a century ago: a skepticism of (white) government as a mediating force in the “Negro problem,” a strong belief in the singular will of black people, and a fixation on a supposedly glorious black past…

…[P]olitical strategists argue that the Republican Party is missing a huge chance to court the black community… He votes Democratic, not out of any love for abortion rights or progressive taxation, but because he feels—in fact, he knows—that the modern-day GOP draws on the support of people who hate him. This is the audience that flocks to Cosby: culturally conservative black Americans who are convinced that integration, and to some extent the entire liberal dream, robbed them of their natural defenses…

Cosby argues, disadvantaged blacks should start by purging their own culture of noxious elements like gangsta rap, a favorite target. “What do record producers think when they churn out that gangsta rap with antisocial, women-hating messages?,” Cosby and Poussaint ask in their book. “Do they think that black male youth won’t act out what they have repeated since they were old enough to listen?” Cosby’s rhetoric on culture echoes—and amplifies—a swelling strain of black opinion: last November’s Pew study reported that 71 percent of blacks feel that rap is a bad influence…

I wished, then, that my 7-year-old son could have seen Cosby there, to take in the same basic message that I endeavor to serve him every day—that manhood means more than virility and strut, that it calls for discipline and dutiful stewardship. That the ultimate fate of black people lies in their own hands, not in the hands of their antagonists. That as an African American, he has a duty to his family, his community, and his ancestors…

As to the notion that Cosby is a privileged elitist who condescends on fellow African-Americans, Coates offers this:

Cosby was born into a troubled home. He was raised by his mother because his father, who joined the Navy, abandoned the family when Cosby was a child. Speaking to me of his youth, Cosby said, “People told me I was bright, but nobody stayed on me. My mother was too busy trying to feed and clothe us.” He was smart enough to be admitted to Central High School, a magnet school in Philadelphia, but transferred and then dropped out in 10th grade and followed his father into the service.

Man Candidate #2: The Euro-man

Specimen: David Beckham

His case:

1. He’s British, so he’s got a cooler accent than you.

2. He can “bend it.”

3. He sports the combo blow-hawk (bleached faux hawk).

4. He’s richer than you.

5. He plays football (in the USA, we refer to this as “soccer”). Euro-men prefer sports of sophistication and dignity. In other words, if its European, its cool.

Summary: David Beckham is the quintessential Hollywood image of pure and undefiled masculinity. This brand of manhood exudes a powerful image: money, sex, athletic prowess, European sophistication, style, and trans-Atlantic condescension. He gets paid $250 million dollars to show America how Euro-men roll.

No one seems to really know what a real man is anymore.

How many times have you seen this template for a commercial:

1. Man is inept and goofy

2. Wife/girlfriend is intelligent and articulate.

3. Man does something childish and stupid, gets himself into trouble.

4. Woman calmly resolves the situation while rolling her eyes at her man.

Men of passion, conviction, and integrity still grip us. Some of the most successful films of the past decade have been tales of men displaying uncompromising heroism. Young men are especially hungry for role models because the genuine article is so rare.

So I’ve decided to spotlight some role models in the coming weeks, both good and bad.

First at the plate: Jim Elliot.

Jim Elliot wrote this in his personal journal on March 22, 1947:

“I lack the fervency, vitality, life in prayer which I long for. I know that many consider it fanaticism when they hear anything which does not conform to the conventional, sleep-inducing eulogies so often rising from Laodicean lips; but I know too that these same people can acquiescently tolerate sin in their lives and in the church without so much as tilting one hair of their eyebrows. Cold prayers, like cold suitors, are seldom effective in their aims.”

Jim Elliot was a real man: confident, courageous, somewhat reckless, totally devoted to God. There is nothing timid or passive about his faith. Real men know what they want to do, and dedicate themselves towards that goal.

Many counterfeits abound, from the Marlboro man, to the macho jock, to the redneck gamesman. Masculinity is not defined by hobbies but by responsibility and devotion.

There are many Christians who are interested in recovering biblical masculinity, but so often they are merely thrill seekers with a verse. Just because someone likes to climb rocks and shop at Bass Pro Shops doesn’t make them a man.

True masculinity is defined by love of God and responsible leadership in the home and church. True men don’t need to kill animals or grow a beard or throw a 95 MPH fastball.

Jim Elliot exercised to keep his body in prime condition for service on the mission field.

On November 25th, he wrote this:

“What I will be doing one year from today is a complete mystery. Perhaps a sick bed or a coffin – glory! Either of these would be fine, but the latter would be immortality, a swallowing up by Life. For this I am most anxious.”

He was murdered on the mission field seven years later.

Let’s face it. The guys in your band are amateurs at best. What are you to do? How do you transform your ragtag group of musician wannabes to something inspiring and worshipful? Hopefully, you’ve picked up some tips along the way to avoid this, but the long term answer is having useful practices.

Here’s a process that will help you to put together a band.

1. Establish your direction. For the first several months of my church’s existence, our worship time was little better than a guitar guy playing solo coffeehouse style music, because I was all we had. But I knew from the beginning the direction I wanted to go, so I started recruiting early in the congregation for people who had interest. If you want to lead a contemporary band, start looking for the personnel who can accomplish that.

2. Be Patient. It may take you a long time to find the right people, but keep searching and recruiting. They don’t need to be incredible musicians right away. I looked for a percussionist with a good sense of rhythm; not necessarily the best technique. Technique can be taught, but a good sense of rhythm is pretty much something that you’re born with.

Once you find your musicians, take your time in developing the band. I started band practices for months before I actually brought them into a Sunday morning service. This gave me time to work through many of the songs on the set list and for us to get familiar with one another.

3. Pay Attention to Chemistry. Musicians are hyper-sensitive crybabies. I should know, because I am one. Playing an instrument is a very vulnerable form of self-expression, and so musicians need to be coddled a little bit. I always lace any critique with encouragement because I don’t want people to feel crushed and get discouraged.

“You’re playing the wrong chord, but I like your hair today.”

The band needs to be comfortable with one another’s personalities and musical contributions. This takes time, so its best to do it in a pressure-free environment where everyone can play and experiment without the stress of having to perfect it by Sunday. Take a couple of months to practice and have fun before throwing them under the Sunday morning worship bus.

4. Create Ownership. Smaller churches or church plants needs everyone to contribute a little more. I require all band members to maintain their own worship notebook.

Here’s how that works. First, I take all the songs on my set list and make sure that I have typed up lead sheets for all of them, complete with accurate lyrics and chord charts.

Second, I send these Word Documents to everyone to store on their own computers.

Third, on Wednesdays, I send everyone in the band a set list for the coming Sunday. If I needed to change the lead sheets for any songs or update chord charts, I attach the lead sheet for that song in the email. The band needs to make sure that they keep the most recently updated file in a folder on their computer. Make sure everyone assumes responsibility for this.

Fourth, during our Thursday night practices, everyone should have their set list with them and the appropriate songs pulled to practice that night. If someone isn’t prepared consistently, that needs to be addressed. Give them a Joel Osteen smile and tell them, “I really need you to own this and be prepared.”

Fifth, everyone should take detailed notes on their lead sheets. This will save you so many headaches down the road. The goal is to be able to have the notes detailed well enough that the next time you sing that song you don’t have to ask, “when did the bass come in?” or “do I sing harmonies here?” You will have it already written down.

5. Lead Practice with a Plan. A worship leader that knows what’s going on and has a plan will help set everyone at ease. Make sure you communicate your plan to them so there’s no ambiguity. It helps everyone to know that there’s a start time and stop time with some built in flexibility if you want to go long.

Since musicians are often undisciplined, you have to be organized.

Here’s how I structure our worship practices:

10-15 minutes for prayer and scripture reading. This is not a time for tuning or fiddling around with guitars. We will often use this time for prayer requests and general how-are-you-doing-today kind of stuff. We have often had many times where someone is having a problem at work or a medical concern with a family member. In such times, we always attend to the needs of the person before plowing into the practice time. We devote an extended time of prayer to make sure that everyone is spiritually as well as musically prepared to practice.

45-60 minutes for practicing music. Once the band knows the songs on the set list pretty well, it may not be necessary to go over each song. My band will often spend this time working on fine details of a song we particularly enjoy, writing new music, or working on and learning new songs for the future. If your band is taking detailed notes and managing their own worship notebooks, practicing already known songs should be minimal.

Close promptly. Many church musicians have families and other responsibilities, so I always end on time (or early) and clearly establish the fact that practice is over. But then, those who want to stick around and continue to jam and have fun can do so.

6. Set a High Musical Standard and Hold Everyone To it.

This is uncomfortable at times, but if you have good rapport and band chemistry you can do it. Everyone is responsible for his or her own instrument but the band leader is, in a sense, responsible for everyone’s instrument as well. If instruments are clashing or playing to “busy,” the band leader needs to recognize this and help everyone to make adjustments.

7. Lead the Purpose of Worship before leading the Practice of Music.

Worship leading is primarily spiritual before it is musical. It is music of a particular kind, with a particular purpose. For this reason, the worship leader needs to be mindful of the spiritual nature of worship while preparing, practicing, and leading. Worship leaders who are only mindful of the music are no different than pastors who merely prepare speeches. Worship is musical preaching; therefore, practice needs to be reverent and attuned to the fact that you are preparing to lead God’s people in worship.

Paul Peterson has compiled a list of new church plants in the Cincinnati area.

To see these other churches is very exciting and I can’t wait to meet all of them. The days of territorialism and competitiveness are dead, and I’m glad for it. Churches on mission need to work together to reach their respective communities.

Thanks, Paul.

In the book of Luke, Jesus says very little in the first few chapters. The first recorded words of Jesus is in chapter 2 where the boy Jesus found in the temple and his parents were looking for him. Jesus says nothing in chapter 3. He responds to Satan’s temptations with one sentence quotes from Deuteronomy. The first time Jesus speaks on his own accord and asserting something about his own ministry, he quotes Isaiah. Luke 4:18-19

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

because he has anointed me

to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives

and recovering of sight to the blind,

to set at liberty those who are oppressed,

¹⁹to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

Jesus is saying here that he has come to make everything backwards; he is going to reverse again the effects of the fall and to begin setting the universe back to its God intended design. No slavery, no blindness, no oppression, and the generous favor of God will be unleashed on earth.

The significance of this in Luke’s gospel is that this is the announcement of the kingdom. This isn’t merely one of the perks, this is a summary of the ministry of Jesus. Jesus is saying, “I’m going to take this busted up world of yours, and put everything back the way it was supposed to be.” This is a re-creation; he’s going to take chaos in the universe and fashion it into something beautiful and useful.

But when we see this take place, everything will seem backwards. Our way of doing things and our “normal” is backwards from Jesus.