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the sport of one-upmanship

Upmanship. n., wən-ˈəp-mən-ˌship
The art or practice of outdoing or keeping one jump ahead of a friend or competitor.

You know the person. The one who is thinking of their next line to do one better than you.

“Hey, I just got the new Foo album off of iTunes.”

“Oh really. Well, I got the import last month from underground Japan. Oh yeah, it’s vinyl and has a never-before heard duet with Kurt and Dave from their Nirvana Days called ‘In the Future, Your Band Will Bite.’ AND if you play it backwards, it reveals who killed JFK. What were you saying?”

But here’s the thing we need to be honest about. We are that person. We can’t stand it when someone knows more than us, has done more than us, has something we want but don’t have. And we compensate by going to our bag of tricks to stay even with the Jones’.

What happened to a little humility? Listening to someone tell about their life without us jumping in with some seemingly far more interesting fact? What happened to being slow to speak? Just absorbing someone’s monologue without having to chime in that you already knew that – when maybe you didn’t?

I say if you can resist the temptation to one-up, you are becoming a little more like Christ. Swallow the pride. It comes before the fall…

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:

Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross!

Philippians 2:3-8

Check out these two examples of one-upmanship and find yourself in the satire. You are there…

one-up.gif


wasteland.jpg

Introduction

With the church attempting to respond to the lingering affects of modernism and the advent of postmodernism, new forms of church and worship have arisen. On the whole, the evangelical church, particularly the mega church, continues to increase their numbers and their budgets. But the undercurrent of truth about the decline of attendance, according to www.theamericanchurch.org (Barnes and Lowry, 2006), paints a different picture.

In his 1994 book, God in the Wastelands: The Reality of Truth in a World of Fading Dreams – a sequel to his volume, No Place for Truth: or, Whatever Happened to Evangelical Theology? – David F. Wells, Professor of Historical and Systematic Theology at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, speaks as a clarion to the evangelical camp that the West has lost its center; a center that once contained God and His truth but has been pushed out by the numbness of modernity. And though he rebukes much of Evangelicalism in his book, in the end, he develops what he sees as a beginning for the reconstitution of the evangelical faith.

Read the rest of this entry »


In preparation for the Abandoned: Worship as Life seminar this Saturday, September 29, I am going to be posting some interviews of the speakers throughout the week. Stay tuned…

Yesterday, I had the privilege to speak with Shaun Groves who will be with us on Saturday. As you will hear, Shaun is a great guy who is deeply insightful and hilarious to boot. I hope you’ll take the time to listen.


If you remember, back in July I told you about a great seminar on Gospel, Church, and Culture with Darrin Patrick of The Journey and Dr. Mark Devine of Midwestern Theological Seminary at the St. Louis Metro Baptist Association building. The notes from that are still forthcoming. I promise…

But one of the things I mentioned back in July was that during the seminar, Dr. Devine dropped that had been asked to contribute to a ‘defining,’ multi-author book on the emerging church. I said back then that if Dr. Devine’s talk was any indication of the strength of this book, the church world is in for a treat – and a some serious clarification to the ‘conversation.’

On Friday of this week, Ed Stetzer released more information about this book on his blog. If my impressions are right, the book is called, E3: Evangelicals Engaging Emergent.

Not crazy about the title. Even if they are using emergent – with a little ‘e’- and emerging interchangeably, there is too much negative connotation involved with Emergent – the more formal, Emergent Village folks, who also happened to be very liberal theologically. I guess E3: Evangelicals Engaging Emerging isn’t as catchy. It’s hard to engage a verb…

Irregardless, here is some more of the particulars from Stetzer:

E3: Evangelicals Engaging Emergent

Introduction

Bill Henard, Senior Pastor, Porter Memorial Baptist Church, Assistant Professor of Evangelism, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

“An Overview of Emergent/Emerging Church: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” — Mark DeVine, Associate Professor of Theology, Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary

“A History and Potential Futures of Emergent/Emerging Church” — Ed Stetzer, Director of LifeWay Research, Missiologist in Residence, LifeWay Christian Resources

Biblical Section

Chapter 1
“Biblical Authority and Inspiration according to Emergent/Emerging Church” — Norman Geisler, Chair of Apologetics, Co-Founder, Southern Evangelical Seminary

Chapter 2
“The Hermeneutics of Emergent/Emerging Church” — Doug Blount, Assistant Dean for Ethics and Philosophical Studies, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary

Chapter 3
“The Emergent/Emerging Church Concept of Truth” — Scott Smith, Associate Professor of Ethics and Christian Apologetics, Biola University

Theological Section
Chapter 4
“Jesus according to Emergent/Emerging Church” — Darrell Bock, Research Professor of New Testament Studies, Professor of Spiritual Development and Culture, Dallas Theological Seminary

Chapter 5
“Emergent/Emerging Church Salvation” — Russ Moore, Associate Professor of Christian Theology; Dean of the School of Theology; Senior Vice President for Academic Administration, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

Chapter 6
“The Church according to Emergent/Emerging Church” — John Hammett, Professor of Systematic Theology, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary

Practical Section

Chapter 7
“The Emerging Church and Ethical Choices: The Corinthian Matrix” — Danny Akin, President, Professor of Theology and Preaching, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary

Chapter 8
“Preaching according to Emergent/Emerging Church’ — Jim Shaddix, Senior Pastor, Riverside Baptist Church, Denver, Colorado

Chapter 9
“Emergent/Emerging Church Evangelism” — Chuck Lawless, Dean, William Walker Brookes Professor of Evangelism and Church Growth, Billy Graham School of Missions, Evangelism, and Church Growth, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

Conclusion

Adam Greenway, Director of Professional Doctoral Studies, Instructor of Evangelism and Applied Apologetics, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

Obviously, the work is heavily Southern Baptist and many in the emerging/emergent/Emergent movement will denounce it because of that. But I think we would do well to listen to what these men of God have to say and let our critique be done on individual issues, not our preconceptions.

One early critique – I would have liked to see conversation related to two specific topics [although some may touch on these]: contextualization and worship. Two issues Southern Baptists are consistently struggling with. But that’s being nit-picky…


Two parts of the Gospel, Church, and Culture leadership seminar with Darrin Patrick from The Journey and Dr. Mark Devine from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary has been made available in audio form on the St. Louis Metro Baptist Association website.

The first session available is Part 1 of Darrin’s talk on “What is the Gospel?” The second session available is Dr. Devine’s very insightful presentation on the emerging church.

Just for a quick nugget, Devine dropped that he has been asked by Lifeway, along with other folks like Ed Stetzer and Timothy George, to help write a multi-author ‘definitive’ book on the emerging church. And from what Devine talks about in his session, he very well may on to the best understanding of the movement. I know that is a bold statement but it is deserved. His comments seemed to already trump , yes, even Carson, Gibbs, Bolger, Kunkle and McKnight.

It looks like 2 more sessions – Part 2 of Darrin’s talk on “What is the Gospel?” and his talk “What is Contextualization?” – is forthcoming.

I still plan to do a cliff notes version of all of the sessions for those of you who don’t have time to listen, but if you do, I highly recommend you to take some time out and listen to the audio below. Press ‘play now’ for the session you want to hear.


The Sacraments: Constancy or Constantly? – Intro

The Sacraments: Constancy or Constantly? – Part 1

If you’ve been following this series, we are talking communion. I am focusing in on a specific aspect of communion: its frequency. How often should we observe this sacrament? Does the Bible prescribe a model or pattern?

In Part 1, we saw what sparked my letter to the Worship Leader forum from Ken Guidan. Today, you see my comments to that ‘spark.’ Here are my comments that were printed about a year ago in the March/April 2006 edition of Worship Leader magazine:

Communion Concern
In response to Ken Guidan of Palo Alto Church of Christ in the November/December 2005 “Worship Leader Forum,” he asks, “Why are we backing away from weekly communion during our worship services?”

Scripture clearly asserts that communion is one of the church’s ultimate duties. And in giving this sacrament prime importance, Scripture gives us an indication that it should be done recurrently. We must never lose the wonder and mystery of this ritual in a day of short sermons and pop religion [or humorous worship, as Ken says.]

But with any issue related to Christian practice in the context of corporate worship, we must let Scripture inform our traditions and not vice versa.

In short, the Bible does not dictate how often the Lord’s Supper should be observed; it just says is should be. My belief is that when the Bible does not mandate the frequency of a specific practice, there is freedom for the local church to determine its regularity.

I share Ken’s passion for communion, especially his concern with those who do not regularly observe it. I believe it should be a recurring part of corporate worship. But when he asks, “Why do so many of our churches celebrate communion less than weekly?” I hear “Why don’t all churches agree with our belief that communion should be observed weekly and no less?”

Communion is an essential in Christian worship, but its frequency is a non-essential issue. For me, I am more concerned that the Church embraces communion’s meaning and importance whenever it is observed, not how often its observed.

Later this week, we will look at the flurry of comments that found their way to future Worship Leader forums over the next few months related to this conversation. The mere quantity of interest in this issue showed me that communion is something we need to be talking about as worship pastors, local churches, and Christians as a whole…

At the end of this series, I’ll talk about why I responded the way I did. And you might even be surprised on my take of the issue at hand: frequency.


At the end of May ’07 on this blog, I wrote:

In the 2005 November/December edition of Worship Leader magazine, Ken Guidan, Worship Coordinator for Palo Alto Church of Christ in Palo Alto, California, wrote an interesting aside about Communion in the Worship Leader forum – a place for people to sound off about all things worship. For some reason it hit a nerve. And I responded. And Worship Leader printed my response. And then a flurry of responses came in. And they were printed as well. And to boot, Ken and I began further discussion offline.

Over the next weeks, I would like to unpack this for the relevintage readers. Some of this may not be revolutionary stuff, but it is interesting to observe real-life conversation about such an important thing for the church and church leadership, including worship pastors/leaders.

That brings us to part 1 of this series. To kick off this series, I am going to reprint Ken Guidan’s comments to set the groundwork for where we will be heading over the next few weeks. Here’s Ken:

Including Communion
I am wondering why we are backing away from weekly communion during our worship services? I have visited several worship services in several churches, and the praise team is exciting and encouraging, the songs uplifting and the message inspiring [and often humorous]. But Jesus said, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me” [Luke 22:19]. And in the Worship Leader Profiles, I cannot remember a time where the sample worship set included communion.

Although usually a solemn time during any worship service, this should be the pinnacle event of our worship. It is Jesus’ death and resurrection that gives us hope; it is why we are here.

It doesn’t make sense that we should skip it, or only do it once a month or twice a year. Why do so many of our churches celebrate communion less than weekly?

My response to Ken’s statements coming later this week…


the 7

I know its been a while since The 7 has graced relevintage [at least a month]. I think I should make it a rule not to worry too much about The 7 around the Easter season. It’s just too busy with ministry.

With that said, things are settling down so its good time to get back in the swing of things. Instead of going back through the last month, I’m going to go a different direction for this edition of The 7. Each week I highlight seven blog entries that stood out from the past week in the blogosphere, particularly for those who are ministering to the ‘younger evangelicals.’ Want to know where the moniker ‘younger evangelicals’ comes from? None other than the late champion of worship Robert Webber who passed this week.

So in honor of Webber, this week’s The 7 will be seven quotes that epitomize the prophet we knew as Bob. Enjoy…

The 7

1. “Worship old and new recognizes theology as a discipline that reflects on its experience, particularly the experience of worship. From a theological point of view, worship constitutes the gospel in motion. Worship celebrates God’s great acts of salvation.”

-from Webber’s book Worship Old and New

2. “…if we are ‘doing truth’ in our worship, then worship will be making the church alive and full of hope because it is the place where the truth about the world is lived out. But if worship is not a thankful journey into God’s story, replaced, say, with a journey into self, then worship is killing Christianity because it is killing the truth.”

-from the article “Is Our Worship Killing Christianity in America?” from the November/December 2005 edition of Worship Leader magazine

3. “…evangelicals will do well to affirm a Christianity that has a deep kinship with the faith of the early church… For here is a faith that, like a tapestry, weaves everything in and out of the main thread – Christ… Here I believe is a faith for our time, a faith that finds in the ancient Christian tradition a power to speak to the postmodern world.”

-from Webber’s book Ancient-Future Faith

4. “I suggest that songs preoccupied with ‘I’ and ‘me’ be dropped… I also suggest that we drop the ‘Hurrah for Jesus’ songs. Worship is not a pep rally for God or to be likened to the enthusiasm we exhibit at a football game. Worship, of course, needs to be passionate, but passion without truth is empty even as truth without passion is dry.”

-from the article “Worship Discipleship” from the September/October 2004 edition of Worship Leader magazine

5. “There is no finer definition of worship than Te Deum [latin for "You are God].”

-from Webber’s book Planning Blended Worship

6. “Worship and spirituality are both situated in God’s story… Worship, instead of being God’s story sung, proclaimed, and enacted, has been grounded in the self – what I do for God. And spirituality, instead of being an embodiment of God’s story in all of life, has turned inward into the journey of self. Only the recovery of God’s story as the source of both worship and spirituality can correct the dangerous trend of self-focused worship and spirituality.”

-from the article “What We’ve Learned Along the Way” from the September 2005 edition of Reformed Worship magazine

7. “I am confident that God sustained me today but I’m also painfully aware that I am ‘terminal’ at some point, in the larger sense of the word, as we all are. Thanks be to God that Jesus Christ has conquered sin and death and we all face a great future.”

-from Webber’s last Ancient-Future Talk e-letter, February 2007


Here is the fourth installment of my presentation on worship at Missouri Baptist University last month- Why Can’t We All Just Be Reconciliators: A Third Way. Here is Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

Here’s a rundown of where we’ve been. In Part 1, we looked at the preservationist and innovationist camps. In Part 2, we looked at the traditional, contemporary, and emerging church contexts. In Part 3, we looked at a biblical description of what being a reconciliationist looks like.

Today we look at the final part of my presentation in which I talk about what unites [or should unite] us in worship. I’ve also added some thoughts from John Piper along these same lines that I didn’t include in my presentation at the end of this entry.

What are the things that unite us in worship?

Gospel: It is the starting point for our worship; Christ initiating relationship with us through his death

Christology: “Christ is the crux of history and the focus of our worship” – Robert Webber

Mission/Missional: missionary used as an adjective; we as believers should function as missionaries as culture and true worship should propel us to be ‘missionaries’ in our communities and in the world

The heart of worship/transformation: “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18)

From John Piper’s article, “What is the Philosophy of Worship That Unites Us?”

God-centeredness: A high priority of the vertical focus of our Sunday morning service. The ultimate aim is to so experience God that he is glorified in our affections.

Expecting the powerful presence of God: We do not just direct ourselves toward him. We earnestly seek his drawing near according to the promise of James 4:8. We believe that in worship God draws near to us in power, and makes himself known and felt for our good and for the salvation of unbelievers in the midst.

Bible based and Bible saturated: The content of our singing and praying and welcoming and preaching and poetry will always conform to the truth of Scripture. The content of God’s Word will be woven through all we do in worship and will be the ground of all our appeal to authority.

Head and heart: Worship that aims at kindling and carrying deep, strong, real emotions toward God, but does not manipulate people’s emotions by failing to appeal to clear thinking about spiritual things based on shareable evidences outside ourselves.

Earnestness and intensity: Avoiding a trite, flippant, superficial, frivolous atmosphere, but instead setting an example of reverence and passion and wonder.

Authentic communication: The utter renunciation of all sham and deceit and hypocrisy and pretense and affectation and posturing. Not the atmosphere of artistic or oratorical performance but the atmosphere of a radically personal encounter with God truth..

The manifestation of God and the common good: We expect and hope and pray (according to 1 Cor. 12:7) that our focus on the manifesting of God is good for people and that therefore a spirit of love for each other is not incompatible with, but necessary to authentic worship.

Undistracting excellence: We will try to sing and play and pray and preach in such a way that people’s attention will not be diverted from the substance by shoddy ministry nor by excessive finesse, elegance or refinement. Natural, undistracting excellence will let the truth and beauty of God shine through.

The mingling of historic and contemporary music: And he said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old” (Matt. 13:52)

I have decided to extend this topic in the form of a book review. We will be looking at Terry York’s excellent book, America’s Worship Wars over the next few weeks. I hope this further stimulates thoughts about worship within evangelicalism today.


relevintage on esv bible blog

I guess this is how the blogosphere works.

You write [or cite] a blog entry that was not revolutionary and a fairly well-known blog picks it up. It hasn’t happened but one other time, so when it happens, it is fun…

Case in point. I wrote an article on the accessibility of worship lyrics last week and included some scripture references from the ESV Bible Blog.

The ESV Bible blog picked it up and ruminated further on how worship leaders and pastors are struggling with the accessibility of Bible translations within corporate worship as well. Good question [except the comments were closed...]

Just wanted to say thanks to the folks at the ESV Bible Blog!


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