shaken from my cultural slumber

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: church, editorial, news, world issues
• Date: Mar 23,2007

You’ve heard the story. 107 Russian miners killed from an explosion. You’ve probably already forgotten it. I know I had. Until I was shaken from my slumber a few minutes ago. Via Anthony Bradley:

(1) We don’t really think about coal miners much do we? I’ve never heard of anyone every wanting to plant a church in a coal mining community anywhere in the world. Why is this? Does Jesus care about this? This Sunday, NO CHURCH any of you go to will likely pray about this. If you’re in a college ministry, fellas, your campus leader/pastor-dude probably never mentions stuff like this anyway (unless you’re in InterVarsity) ’cause it’s not about evangelism or doctrinal information(I forgot that redemption’s only about those things, excuse me). Fellas, 107 dead; 107 families. This effects thousands of people. You will, however, hear lots of prayers thanking God that “we” aren’t going to hell, and how we should stop sinning, God’s enabling us to not sin so we can be nice people and avoid bad people and TV. (Calm down, you’re not 8-years-old, I’m not saying that all of that’s bad).

(2) Yesterday on NPR, I heard a story of a 27-year-old guy who had recently told his Mom not to worry about the dangers because the mine was safe. He’s dead. I nearly cried at 6:30 am.

(3) America’s college students and college grads (the elites) complain about not having WiFi everywhere, their classes being boring, having to work at a cubicle instead of an office, actually having to read for class instead of treating class like they’re at a movie, only getting 3 weeks vacation, or, even worse, some college guys will actually choose a career only for the money which is sick and pathetic (Protestants do all these things). . .so I thought about all the guys my age who died (or the ones currently working) who never did, nor never will, get the chance to complain about things like that.

dearly beloved, the bar has been destroyed

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: editorial, media, music, television, the art of...
• Date: Feb 5,2007

If ever that was a bar, it has been raised and annihilated. Time of death: 7:00 p.m. CST. Place: Halftime show of Super Bowl XLI.

Who is the culprit? Try the new king, or ‘prince’ of pop [sorry, MJ]: The Artist.

The reviews have been glowing:
Prince Reigns with Stellar Halftime Show (Detroit News)
“His performance at Super Bowl XLI will surely go down as one of the most thrilling halftime shows ever.” (New York Times)
“the entertainment triumph of the evening.” (The State)
“He delivered one of the best Super Bowl halftime shows — ever. (Associated Press)

In a day where we all are waiting to name things ‘the best ever’ with our top 10 lists, I think this transcends any list that could be made. This was and is one of the quintessential live performance of all time.

Here is when the magic set in: A gigantic sheet that was attached at the bottom [not the top] was ‘thrown’ up into the air and as it was flowing, they lit Prince from behind and his shadow became larger than life as he shredded on his “Artist Formerly Known as Prince” symbol guitar. [Was it just me or did his guitars sound GREAT last night?].

And of course, how perfect was it that he closed with “Purple Rain” in the rain. Amazing…

As a side note, I though the Piano Man’s version of “The Star-Spangled Banner” was understated and classy. Billy, you are still relevant!

Before I could flesh out all of my thoughts on the Prince performance, as it typically happens, someone encapsulates them better than I could have. So here is Bob Lefsetz of the infamous “Lefsetz Letter” in all of his brilliance, seriously:

Hey, look me over
Tell me do you like what you see
Hey, I ain’t got no money
But I’m RICH on PERSONALITY!

If you didn’t come to party, don’t bother reading this.

Tonight we partied like it was 1999. And we didn’t even EXPECT IT!

… While we were reveling in the best Super Bowl in years, because of the weather, Prince took the musical slot, which was previously fumbled by everybody from Aerosmith to the Stones, to the point where it’s become a joke, and made the game IRRELEVANT!

Oh, U2 did a good job. But they’re from IRELAND! … And they’re supposedly credible. It’s not about show, but meaning…

I’m categorically against playing the Super Bowl. It makes you small. You appear desperate. But I guess rules are made to be broken, because the execution in this performance evidenced all the rock, all the roll, all of the soul absent from music today. Fusing the opposing colors of the human spectrum in a way that Michael Jackson tried to but never could, Prince united us, showed us it was all about the joy, the feeling, the rush, that we’re all in it together. That we want and need leaders, but they’ve got to have charisma, we’ve got to believe in them. And we believe in Prince.

Oh, he hasn’t had a hit in eons.

But he looks just the same.

And the do-rag seemed affected. But the choice of material excused the headgear.

“Proud Mary”? “All Along The Watchtower”? Without all the stunting we usually see at an event like this, no appearance by Tina Turner or John Fogerty? … Prince suddenly gives narcissism a good name.

Yes, it’s all about Prince, but he’s doing it for us, to entertain us, to blow us away.

“Let’s Go Crazy”?? Could there be a better opening number?

And you KNEW he was gonna close with “Purple Rain”. It just FIT!

But the inclusion of the covers, and the album track “Baby I’m A Star”, those were unexpected, those touched our hearts, reminded us of when music still counted, brought us right back to the advent, the HEYDAY, of MTV.

The Stones? They’ve got no excuse. As Jake says, that’s where they USUALLY play, STADIUMS! How could they be so bad? Hell, they couldn’t even nail SATISFACTION!

… And just when we’ve given up, a saviour comes in to rescue us.

The game is now unimportant.

… But today we learned, it was proven, that NOTHING compares with music. No sport, no video game. There IS no competition for the entertainment dollar when music is done right.

It hasn’t been done right in a long time.

But it was done right tonight. The choice of material, the turquoise outfit, even down to the shoes, and the orange shirt. The ripping guitar solos. The vocals. It was the complete package.

I don’t know who should be ashamed more. The labels or the public. For straying so far from the essence, for losing the magic touch.

Prince was an inspiration. He took all the spectacle of the Super Bowl, all the glitz and the glamour, and RAISED THE BAR!

The marching band, the explosions, the stage, it was PERFECT, and it was all in service to the man. Who was in service to the music.

Shall it live forever on YouTube. Shall you buy tickets and experience the essence. Shall you be overjoyed by the power of music.

Inspiration not manipulation. Prince didn’t cowrite with Diane Warren. No exec told him what to record. None could contribute to the plan in his head, which he executed so perfectly tonight.

Shall artistry, and rock and roll, rule FOREVER!

Bob, the bar was destroyed, not raised. Wouldn’t you agree?

the rearview mirror v

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: art, church, editorial, media, music, news, pastoring, politics, technology, video, web
• Date: Jan 29,2007

1. The Pope is at it again. This time he says, “more fine art, less Paste.” I will say this was a bit more balanced than his music style talk last year. See my post about it here.

2. David Fitch waxes about the danger of mission statements and why he believes ‘value’ adjectives better serve the mission of God through the local church.

3. Some keen observations from the JollyBlogger himself, David Wayne, on the underlying communication brilliance the Hillary camp used in officially entering the presidential race for 2008 last week.

4. Speaking of Hillary, someone get her some voice lessons. Ouch!

5. Max Hsu, ‘off the hook’ photographer/artist, shows us the difference between creating and doing art by reminding us of Scooby Doo.

6. Pinch me. According to Pitchfork, The Police and The Smashing Pumpkins to reunite for appearances in upcoming months. In other news, the David Lee Roth version of Van Halen to reunite. Sorry Dave, no one cares.

7. Speaking of The Police and Van Halen, Dan Kimball debates who is the more exciting reunion of 2007. Come on, Dan, remember the reggae…

8. Interesting news item lost in the shuffle last week: Mike Jones, the male prostitute whose accusations against New Life Church founder Ted Haggard led to Haggard’s dismissal as pastor visits Haggard’s old church, …to “get some perpective” and to research a project on evangelicals with a New York-based theater troupe.

9. Ron Martoia reminds us of the importance of the catalyzing question. Isn’t that WJDid?

10. Nashville’s Tennessean reports piracy to blame for recent job cuts at Brentwood-based EMI Christian Music Group. But is piracy to blame for the downturn in CD sales in all genres? Felix Oberholzer-Gee of Harvard Business School in Massachusetts and Koleman Strumpf of the University of North Carolina don’t think so.

11. Can the E-word be saved? USA today looks at the ‘misunderstood, misappropriated and maligned’ term, evangelical, and if it can regain its ground as label of choice for Christians.

the gift of the non-payoff: part 1

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: editorial, social justice
• Date: Jan 29,2007

December 2006.

I overheard Holly in the next room talking to her mom. I could hear in her voice there was a problem. Not the kind of problem that was familial, but a problem nonetheless.

I peeked in on her and could tell her heart was heavy. She was talking about clothes sizes and where their Dad was. It was only a week until Christmas.

I waited for Holly to get off the phone and when she did, I met her in the hallway. She had that look. She was disconcerted. And she needed to talk. Now. “I was just talking to Mom…” she said.

Holly’s mother had ran into a teacher from her rural hometown at the local Wal-Mart. She described a 11 year-old autistic boy in her special education class who wore the same clothes almost everyday. And on top of that, the clothes he wore were acutely sensitive to his skin.

This boy’s father had just left his mother and taken the healthy, mentally capable oldest sibling, leaving him and his 4-month old infant sister. His mother had a job but after the dad left, finding money to pay for rent and other expenses were almost impossible to scrounge up.

One of the hardest decisions we have made as parents is how we are going to approach times of the year that get hijacked by materialism. Particularly birthdays and holidays.

Also, my wife and I have felt a shift in our souls in the last few years for the oppressed. We have grown increasingly convicted of Matthew 25:42-45 and of Deuteronomy’s talk of meeting the needs of the widow, the orphan, and the foreigner.

But how do you teach your children the concept of social justice? For some reason, since the opressed party revolved around another child, it seemed to follow that we should include our children in this conversation.

Sure, we knew what we had to do, but how would we help our children understand the blessing of our fortune and how to pay forward that blessing to the misfortunate?

To be continued…

the rearview mirror iv

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: church, culture, editorial, humor, music, news, sports, technology, the 7, video, worship
• Date: Jan 22,2007

1. Alan Hirsch says it is futile trying to revitalize the church, or a denomination, without first changing the system. And that system should be organic…

2. The president of the university I graduated from-Missouri Baptist University-reflects on how the recent Missouri ice storm affected him and how cavalier the unaffected can be when the roles are reversed.

3. Say what? Jimmy Swaggart, yes that Jimmy Swaggart, says God won’t be displeased to see the Saints win the Super Bowl [via the Bible Belt Blogger]. Yesterday’s score: Chicago 39, New Orleans 19. Sorry Jimmy…

4. The Klouda debacle rages on the blogosphere here, here, here, here, and here.

5. Are we lying to God when our heart doesn’t line up with the lyrics we are singing? Bob Kauflin weighs in…

6. Was it just me or was this a weird post from Challies, our friend up north? I couldn’t figure out if he was just joking or sarcastically serious…

7. Underage drinking and communion. Sign of the times example #1.

8. If these walls could speak… Church advertising, literally. Sign of the times example #2.

9. Blinging Tim Hughes. Sign of the times example #3.

10. The new trend in the technological church…the internet church. Will it catch on?

11. At a comedy club near you, Jerry Seinfeld says: What’s up with real estate agents who won’t work on the Sabbath?

12. Ellen Laverty waxes philosophic on the ‘Midworst’ American Idol auditions and America’s addiction to schadenfreude. Great article!

13. When does conversation cease to become conversation? Thoughs from Dr. McKnight.

14. Dan Kimball takes us a deeper level and turns our thoughts on church models on its head when he looks at the Chinese Christian culture.

15. The laugh-out-loud video of the week: Conan’s iPhone commercial.

pat, please be quiet

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: editorial, media, news
• Date: Jan 3,2007

From FoxNews.com:

VIRGINIA BEACH, Virginia — Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson predicted Tuesday a horrific terrorist act on the United States that will result in “mass killing” late in 2007.

“I’m not necessarily saying it’s going to be nuclear,” he said during his news-and-talk television show “The 700 Club” on the Christian Broadcasting Network. “The Lord didn’t say nuclear. But I do believe it will be something like that.”

Robertson said God told him during a recent prayer retreat that major cities and possibly millions of people will be affected by the attack, which should take place sometime after September.”

And commentary from Melinda Penner from the Stand to Reason blog:

He’s at it again. Pat Robertson is making his prophetic predictions that he claims God has told him. I’ve written before that Pat Robertson speaking for God is actually taking God’s name in vain. He’s speaking in God’s stead without adequate justification for why we should believe he is. Sure, there were and might still be prophets. Prophets speak for God and the standard in the Old Testament was so high for those who claimed to speak for God that the penalty for a false prophet was the death penalty. It’s a serious thing to speak for God, in His name, because it either carries enormous authority that people should pay attention to or it brings shame on God’s reputation among men.

The issue with Robertson is not whether he’s convinced he’s heard form God. I’m sure he is confident of that. The Biblical standard is whether we, the church, have any reason to believe he is a prophet speaking for God. Robertson has given us no reason to believe that he is – especially given the poor track record of his past prophetic utterances.

Many Christians do this kind of thing in their own arenas. They claim God has spoken to them. The sorry and shameful fact is that many times, as in Robertson’s case, what results is ridicule – not of the person themself, but of God. That is why it’s a serious thing to speak for God and take His name in vain.

The Old Testament doesn’t even use God’s name because Israel felt it was a very serious thing to use His name. Perhaps that’s a legalistic rule we’ve grown beyond because we know also that God is our father we can approach. But very often I think modern Christians have moved to the opposite extreme, blithely claiming God’s authority, which is what His name represents, with no good reason for the rest of us to take their claim seriously.

When we use God’s name, we should evaluate whether it will bring God honor or ridicule, whether we have the proper authority to use it.

a question of accessibility

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: church, editorial, music, planning, theology, worship
• Date: Jan 2,2007

Back in Nov., I got an insightful email from a congregant about a phrase we sang in a song during our weekend church services. The song was “Give Us Clean Hands” by Charlie Hall.

See if you kind find the phrase in question. Here are the lyrics:

Give Us Clean Hands
Charlie Hall

Verse
We bow our hearts we bend our knees
Oh Spirit come make us humble
We turn our eyes from evil things
Oh Lord we cast down our idols

Chorus
Give us clean hands give us pure hearts
Let us not lift our souls to another
Give us clean hands give us pure hearts
Let us not lift our souls to another
And oh God let us be a generation that seeks
That seeks Your face oh God of Jacob
And oh God let us be a generation that seeks
That seeks Your face oh God of Jacob

©2000 worshiptogether.com songs (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing); sixsteps Music (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing)

What was the phrase in question?

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under the tutelage of bono

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: church, editorial, missiology, music, planning, social justice, worship
• Date: Sep 28,2006

Dusting off an oldie, at least in internet time…

Steve Taylor of emergingkiwi.org.nz and resident New Zealand emerging church guru, pastor and author wrote a masterful entry entitled, “7 things I learnt from Bono about worship leading’ back in March ’06. His inspiriation: U2, the Vertigo Tour Live DVD.

Now what could Steve have learned from Bono and his compatriots? Well, I’ve posted below [with my comments in italics] and you’ll see, it is rich with metaphors for the contemporary worship leader.

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salvation’s instrument

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: 'holy'days, Christian season, editorial
• Date: Sep 16,2006

In the Christian liturgical calendar, there are several different feasts known as Feasts of the Cross, all of which commemorate the cross used in the crucifixion of Jesus.

Traditionally, on September 14, the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross is observed. On the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross (or Triumph of the Cross) we honor the cross by which Christ redeemed the world.

In short, Christians “exalt” the Cross of Christ as the instrument of our salvation. Adoration of the Cross is, thus, adoration of Jesus Christ, the God Man, who suffered and died on this Roman instrument of torture for our redemption from sin and death.

The cross represents the One Sacrifice by which Jesus, obedient even unto death, accomplished our salvation. The cross is a symbolic summary of the Passion, Crucifixion and Resurrection of Christ — all in one image.

Though it’s a bit belated, may we remember salvation’s instrument today…

sticky perfection

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: church, culture, editorial
• Date: Sep 6,2006

Everyone once and a while, an editorial is so smart, biting, and right on that I read it and think, “That pretty much sums up issue ‘x’.”

Cameron Strang, editor-in-chief of Relevant Magazine, nails the superiority complex those of the younger generations suffer from. And we do. I can say this; I’m one of them [I'm getting counseling though].

Please find that I’ve reprinted it for your [and my] ‘edification’. [Adapted from Strang's "The First Word"-July/August 2006 Relevant Magazine]

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