Everything is Backwards

Albert Mohler quotes Paul S. Jones, who surveys the contemporary church landscape. It is a hedonistic, narcissistic, relativistic, ‘me-focused’ age, though, is hardly one that should inform and define our approach to God. And yet, it does. We measure our success by numbers, our relevance by how technologically integrated and up-to-date we are, and our worship by how good it makes us feel. In the minds of contemporary saints, hymns clash with the spontaneity, simplicity, and style that have come to rule in the modern evangelical church.

I agree with this sentiment. Here’s a sampling from a recent Passion CD (Our Love is Loud) featuring Charlie Hall:

Suddenly I feel you holding me
Suddenly I feel you holding me
Suddenly I feel you holding me.
Suddenly I feel you holding me.

Sweep me away.
Sweep me away.
Sweep me away.
Sweep me away.

Suddenly I feel your hand in mine.
Suddenly I feel your hand in mine.
Suddenly I feel your hand in mine.
Suddenly I feel your hand in mine.

Sweep me away.
Sweep me away.
Sweep me away.
Sweep me away.

No kidding. These are the lyrics to this song that thousands of young people sang at the tops of their lungs with eyes closed, full of tears, and arms uplifted.

Or perhaps you’ll appreciate the timeless truths that edify God’s people such as this one by Chris Tomlin:

We’re gonna dance in the river. Yeah.
We’re gonna dance in the river. Yeah.
We’re gonna dance in the river. Yeah.
We’re gonna dance in the river. Yeah.
We’re gonna dance in the river. Yeah.
We’re gonna dance in the river. Yeah.
We’re gonna dance in the river. Yeah.
We’re gonna dance in the river. Yeah.
We’re gonna dance in the river. Yeah.
We’re gonna dance in the river. Yeah.
We’re gonna dance in the river. Yeah.
We’re gonna dance in the river. Yeah.
We’re gonna dance in the river. Yeah.
(are you ready?)
We’re gonna dance, dance, everybody dance.

Not exaggerating. Look it up.

This song is a zit on the nose of an otherwise brilliant songwriting career. I like Chris Tomlin. This song… not so much.

This blog has actually found the top 5 worst worship songs. I guarantee you’ve sang at least 3 of them.

That’s the extreme on one end. However, as noted in a previous post, these emotional excesses can lead to overreactions against them. Some contemporary churches have totally abandoned contemporary worship music and have gone all hymns, all the time. And then some are sarcastically calling for Psalm Chanting and no music in church for 10 years.

A healthy dose of balance is in order because great songs have been written throughout the ages of the church both ancient and modern. Great songs have been written in a diversity of styles. We don’t need to run screaming from a Passion conference, tear our robes, and swear to never sing contemporary music again. We do, however, need to exercise a little wisdom and balance in how worship is led. In our individualistic age, everyone has an opinion about music and the worship leader’s job is to help the whole body unite around a particular style of music.

This will be a long series, but here are the topics that I’ll be covering.

Part 2. Singing is commanded in scripture.
Part 3. Choose the right worship leader.
Part 4. The most important task for a worship leader: Song selection.
Part 5. The second most important task for a worship leader: Contextualization.
Part 6. Leading a contemporary worship band

Feel free to comment your favorite bad worship songs below.

Today, Al Mohler summarizes a new Forbes study which ranks US cities in terms of their sinfulness. Since I plan on planting a church in the Queen City this summer, I was interested to discover two areas where Cincinnati ranks as particularly transgressive.

In terms of murders, Cincinnati ranks #7, with 28.8 murders per 100,000 people. Certainly, this is no small contributing factor to the gentrification effort currently underway in Cincinnati’s most crime riddled neighborhood, Over the Rhine. In the last ten years or so, city planners have performed a major surgical strike in the downtown area by clearing out one of the country’s largest public housing projects and have replaced it with multi-income housing. Whether this is a good or bad thing remains to be seen, but that’s where I plan on living.

Cincinnati is also a steaming and sizzling lust engine, ranking #8 as the most lustful. Forbes analyzed the sales of contraceptives and other “sex items” and found that Cincinnatians do enjoy their sexual exploits and prove it financially.

My current city of residence, Louisville, KY, is the 6th most prideful, measured in terms of plastic surgery. It is also the 6th most lazy. That’s enough for now, I’m going back to bed.

This article on Chicago Tribune’s website (registration required) describes the ever-expanding pageantry of Christmas productions at the Savannah Christian (mega) Churches where attendees (at $5 a head) get to

take a boat ride across a massive lake into Bethlehem, where they mingle with the townspeople who greet them with fresh water, fruit and assorted cheeses. Roman soldiers on white horses lead them along a lighted path, where they encounter the Three Wise Men with a live camel resting at their side. They look on as the archangel Gabriel appears at the Virgin Mary’s home and tells her that she is carrying a child. They watch an evil King Herod, who plots to kill the newborn. Finally, they arrive at the manger, standing close enough to touch the crying baby Jesus.

Or try Willow Creek, for example:

The Cirque du Soleil-style production at Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington features live “angels” swinging from the ceiling like acrobats, a professional violist and a mist-filled stage. The “Imagine Christmas” program is expected to draw 95,000 people this year and is broadcast on a local television station on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

Perhaps I was too eager to praise Bill Hybels earlier this year. Honestly, when I read about this I wanted to [insert gross bodily function here]. I can more easily see Christ in Ty Pennington shouting “move that bus” than watching acrobatic “angels” hanging from the chandeliers.

If you were the pastor of a mega-mega-Willow-Back-Purpose-Driven-Saddle-Creek church, how would you spend the $1 million budget for Christmas this year? No question, these churches want to (1) offer a spiritually nourishing experience for the attendees, (2) increase their church’s exposure, and (3) cultivate goodwill in the community, so you’re idea would have to at least accomplish these three things.

Even with the above mentioned goals in mind, I humbly offer my own alternatives to the hollywood produced Christmas pageant.

Here’s my idea: Build ten $100,000 homes for needy families in the city while stipulating requirements and applications to determine the recipients. The goals? (1) church members are nourished spiritually by giving rather than receiving (Acts 20:35). (2) The church wouldn’t want to blow their own trumpet when helping the poor (Matthew 6:2), but these sorts of things, especially at Christmastime, have a way of getting noticed by the media without drawing the ire of the socially conscious. (3) Do I even need to explain the goodwill this would foster?

There’s my lame brained idea. You don’t have to be a genius to find a better way to drop a million and actually advance God’s kingdom.

What’s your idea? You’ve got $1 million, and an army of mega-churchers ready to follow your marching orders. How do you spend it?

I’ve had some interesting conversations lately about Christianity and racial unity. The first was a couple of months ago with a couple who have adopted a bi-racial child. They were part of a church who heavily emphasizes racial reconciliation and shows it with action. This has been a dream of mine, but honestly, until recently, it has seemed near impossible to accomplish.

The typical scenario is this: (1) White church wants to be more diverse. (2) They engage in tokenism by hiring a black person to either do music or be a community pastor with emphasis in reaching black folks and trying to get them to come to the white church. (3) He fails. (4) The church abandons the endeavor while patting themselves on the back for trying.

Laura and I visited Cincinnati today. I was there a week ago and really sensed a leading from the Lord to seriously pursue planting a church there in the urban downtown area. I blogged about it last week.

A wise friend told me recently that when you’re looking to plant a new church, you want to see some tangible evidence that God’s hand is in the project and He is working to pull things together. In light of my trip there today, here are some ways that I definitely see God working.

1. This church plant was being planned before I came along. I was fascinated to find out, while meeting the Cincinnati Baptist Association Director of Missions, that his association has determined inner-city Cincinnati as his top priority for this year. While I was thinking that I would have to come into a new city to start a new work, God showed me that I will be going into a new city to continue and reinforce the work that others have already begun.

I recently attended the Campus Crusade for Christ fall retreat for the University of Louisville ministry (where I am currently on staff). Our speaker was Dr. Bruce Ashford, who is a prof at SEBTS. He gave a great talk about how movies are made and what are some key things to look for when watching a movie. He specifically mentioned 9 characteristics that you’re sure to see when you watch any particular movie, because all stories tend to be told in similar fashion.

These 9 things are characteristics found in every movie, but could be expanded to common elements in any story that is well told, including biblical stories.

1. Every story has a point. If it doesn’t, its a lame story.

There are several streams of ministry desires that have been in my heart for some time. Some seemed more realistic than others. For example, Laura and I have a strong passion for racial reconciliation, but this problem seems so overwhelmingly difficult that I had relegated it to the “would be nice, but…” status. Essentially, the people that I have spoken with who understand this issue well told me that it would be very difficult for a white man to address the complex issues of black America with any degree of credibility.

The folks at Lifeway have done a very helpful survey of pastors, both Southern Baptist and non Southern Baptist, and protestant laity over the issue of alcohol. This was a scientific study (not a blog poll) where the issues are: do you think its a sin to drink? Do you personally drink? Do you think the consumption of alcohol will attract/detract a person from coming to Christ? I’m glad someone decided to do this study, if for no other reason than to get a good pulse on what the current church climate is.

Here’s some of their findings I find most interesting:

The word Contextualization will get you shot in some areas. “The gospel doesn’t need to be contextualized” is the mantra.

I definitely recognize the inherent feeling of uneasiness about it because it sure does seem like the gospel itself is somehow being modified to suit a particular audience. But that is not the heart behind proper contextualization.

To be simple and to the point: contextualization is best positioning the proclamation of Christ to gain a favorable reception without adding to or taking away from the basic content of it.

Here’s the kicker: everybody has a context. This is so obvious that its easy to overlook. Here are some traits of the modern evangelical context, and a brief challenge for each.

5. Pentecost triggers the redemption of language.

In Acts 2, we witness the great redemption of speech. The effects of Babylon are unraveled: what was scattered speech at Babel became unified speech in Acts. The Pentecost event signals that the Kingdom of God is advancing on enemy territory and the Gentiles will now be invited into the people of God. The final revelation of God, His highest form of communication has come in Jesus Christ. Thus, Pentecost triggers the Great Commission.