Thoughts, Ideas, and Points of View
These are the things I have pondered today.
Part One: So-Called "Contemporary" Worship, and it's Effect on Worshippers.
I was standing in the shower, imagining some hypothetical situation wherein I was being questioned as to my church attendance. Specifically, the church staff was inquiring why I chose to attend the traditional service rather than the contemporary service to which I 'belong.' You know, us young kinds are expected to go to the young people service, especially now that it has turned into the "Everyone under 70 years old" service.
And so, being obligated to stick up for myself in this hypothetical situation, I constructed the following discourse:
The contemporary service is for families with cell phones; the kids sit in the balcony and make noise and wear short skirts and too much makeup, while the parents sit below and hardly move their lips during worship time.
It’s for people who want to feel like they’re a part of the "in" crowd. It’s for college students who want to beat the line to saga. It's for teens who want to be the clique.
It’s for people who don’t WANT to feel connected- the deep stuff in the old styles requires too much thought.
It’s part of the dumbing down of Christians that the Devil is doing in this country.
It’s for people who want to “feeeeeel the Lord moooooooving.” So we sing songs that are so shallow we have to sing the chorus four times in a row, so that we can really feeeeel Him moooooving.
Yet the hymns we sing in old people, fuddy-dud service make me cry and want to raise my hands. Not this shallow “You’re alive You’re alive You’re alive You’re alive You’re alive” crap.
Instead of allowing the church to meet the needs of the community (which occurred to an extent), the contemporary service seems to allow the community to selfishly meet the needs of... the community.
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Part two: Am I Taking the Easy Way Out?
Here's a follow up to something I have struggled with all week.
Was my decision taking the easy way out?
I want to write these things so that people can read them, but I have already decided to keep this one a secret (except from three trusted people). But I need to write it so that I can look at it.
Quattrocento sette dollari è più facili della mia intera vita.
I asked the other day if I had resigned to something. And the answer is... I'm not sure. But THIS... this could be bigger. More ominous. More threatening. In that decision, did I take myself out of the army? Am I OOC? Did I fall victim to a trick? Did Satan trick me?
I think the answer is that the potential was there, but NOW THAT I RECOGNIZE that it could be a huge mistake I am making, I can create a different mental attitude so that I do not commit that mistake. I can go forward, thankful for what happened, without sitting on the bench.
No, I am not out of God's army. I just don't know what position I am to take in it, that's all.
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Part Three: Dumb Preachers, and the Dumbing of their Congregations.
This dissertation does not apply to my own pastor. It applies to a pastor I used to deal with, and kinda thought I should suck up to, or at least, thought I should say good things about him to win the approval of people that "mattered." Run-on sentence? Sorry, Jacki.
I am really tired of preachers who preach sermons on the evils of men wearing earrings, of reading Harry Potter books to your children, or of girls wearing blue jeans.
Those sermons DON'T TEACH YOUR CONGREGATIONS ANYTHING, JERKS!
I mean, honestly. Look around. Your congregation is full of men who are even more conservative than you are (if that's possible). Do you really think they need to hear about how evil it is for men to pierce their ears? And the children... their parents are so cookie cutter and paranoid that they wouldn't let anything that can't be explained Biblically anywhere near the house. Finding Harry Potter books in these peoples' homes is about as likely as finding a copy of the Communist Manifesto. And the girls... you've got all of them in skirts so long they trip, and no makeup until they're 35, and practically wearing a veil, lest gentlemen discover they've got noses. Jeans? Not on your life.
Do you want to know what this type of sermon DOES accomplish?
It sets the congregation on a pedestal, in their own minds. And that's the worst place to be on a pedestal. If someone else places you on a pedestal, great- now give that glory to God. But to put yourself on one, shame, shame, shame.
It immediately sets these people into the mindset that "I am more worthy of God's grace than those freaks in the high schools and their parents."
And that couldn't be further from the truth.
Now how's about you shut up and tell your congregation how to keep their marriages together? Because many of them failed at that particular fundamental requirement of Christianity.
-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
Part Four: Alive? Duh!
To expand on something that I was thinking about earlier, that is, contemporary songs that repeat things like, "You're alive" over and over again.
The idea that God or Christ is alive is not profound, folks. God's been alive since, well, ever. Before ever. God was alive before ever had it's name. It's hardly worth singing four times over.
Now lemme tell you what IS profound. What's profound is that through Jesus' sacrifice, I am alive. I'm dead to sin, and alive in Christ. THAT is worth singing over and over until the end of ever. Hallelujah.
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Part Five: Jesus: King of Common Sense.
So I was listening today as Mark McMahon did Sunday school. Someone else pointed out the futility of the Law in the parable of the Good Samaritan. There was a guy dying alongside the road, but the pharisees/saducees passed him by, as the Law "says" not to do any work on the Sabbath. The Good Samaritan, however, helped the guy out.
While all of us today know that, at that time, the Law was being interpreted incorrectly, Jesus STILL makes a point. To devote your life to following the Law is to throw away devotion to the Author of that Law.
Jesus was, no IS, the ultimate possessor of common sense. His judgment and decision-making processes are not clouded by reckless emotion or by sin and selfishness as our judgment is. The only thing that Jesus really seems to allow to affect Him is compassion.
-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
Lord, in the coming week, bless me to be more compassionate, more sincere, less wasteful, more devoted, more sacrificing, more caring, better motivated, and less selfish that I was this week.
Bless my family to come to know Your perfect Way.
Restore righteousness to my nation.
In Jesus' Name,
Amen.
Part One: So-Called "Contemporary" Worship, and it's Effect on Worshippers.
I was standing in the shower, imagining some hypothetical situation wherein I was being questioned as to my church attendance. Specifically, the church staff was inquiring why I chose to attend the traditional service rather than the contemporary service to which I 'belong.' You know, us young kinds are expected to go to the young people service, especially now that it has turned into the "Everyone under 70 years old" service.
And so, being obligated to stick up for myself in this hypothetical situation, I constructed the following discourse:
The contemporary service is for families with cell phones; the kids sit in the balcony and make noise and wear short skirts and too much makeup, while the parents sit below and hardly move their lips during worship time.
It’s for people who want to feel like they’re a part of the "in" crowd. It’s for college students who want to beat the line to saga. It's for teens who want to be the clique.
It’s for people who don’t WANT to feel connected- the deep stuff in the old styles requires too much thought.
It’s part of the dumbing down of Christians that the Devil is doing in this country.
It’s for people who want to “feeeeeel the Lord moooooooving.” So we sing songs that are so shallow we have to sing the chorus four times in a row, so that we can really feeeeel Him moooooving.
Yet the hymns we sing in old people, fuddy-dud service make me cry and want to raise my hands. Not this shallow “You’re alive You’re alive You’re alive You’re alive You’re alive” crap.
Instead of allowing the church to meet the needs of the community (which occurred to an extent), the contemporary service seems to allow the community to selfishly meet the needs of... the community.
-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
Part two: Am I Taking the Easy Way Out?
Here's a follow up to something I have struggled with all week.
Was my decision taking the easy way out?
I want to write these things so that people can read them, but I have already decided to keep this one a secret (except from three trusted people). But I need to write it so that I can look at it.
Quattrocento sette dollari è più facili della mia intera vita.
I asked the other day if I had resigned to something. And the answer is... I'm not sure. But THIS... this could be bigger. More ominous. More threatening. In that decision, did I take myself out of the army? Am I OOC? Did I fall victim to a trick? Did Satan trick me?
I think the answer is that the potential was there, but NOW THAT I RECOGNIZE that it could be a huge mistake I am making, I can create a different mental attitude so that I do not commit that mistake. I can go forward, thankful for what happened, without sitting on the bench.
No, I am not out of God's army. I just don't know what position I am to take in it, that's all.
-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
Part Three: Dumb Preachers, and the Dumbing of their Congregations.
This dissertation does not apply to my own pastor. It applies to a pastor I used to deal with, and kinda thought I should suck up to, or at least, thought I should say good things about him to win the approval of people that "mattered." Run-on sentence? Sorry, Jacki.
I am really tired of preachers who preach sermons on the evils of men wearing earrings, of reading Harry Potter books to your children, or of girls wearing blue jeans.
Those sermons DON'T TEACH YOUR CONGREGATIONS ANYTHING, JERKS!
I mean, honestly. Look around. Your congregation is full of men who are even more conservative than you are (if that's possible). Do you really think they need to hear about how evil it is for men to pierce their ears? And the children... their parents are so cookie cutter and paranoid that they wouldn't let anything that can't be explained Biblically anywhere near the house. Finding Harry Potter books in these peoples' homes is about as likely as finding a copy of the Communist Manifesto. And the girls... you've got all of them in skirts so long they trip, and no makeup until they're 35, and practically wearing a veil, lest gentlemen discover they've got noses. Jeans? Not on your life.
Do you want to know what this type of sermon DOES accomplish?
It sets the congregation on a pedestal, in their own minds. And that's the worst place to be on a pedestal. If someone else places you on a pedestal, great- now give that glory to God. But to put yourself on one, shame, shame, shame.
It immediately sets these people into the mindset that "I am more worthy of God's grace than those freaks in the high schools and their parents."
And that couldn't be further from the truth.
Now how's about you shut up and tell your congregation how to keep their marriages together? Because many of them failed at that particular fundamental requirement of Christianity.
-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
Part Four: Alive? Duh!
To expand on something that I was thinking about earlier, that is, contemporary songs that repeat things like, "You're alive" over and over again.
The idea that God or Christ is alive is not profound, folks. God's been alive since, well, ever. Before ever. God was alive before ever had it's name. It's hardly worth singing four times over.
Now lemme tell you what IS profound. What's profound is that through Jesus' sacrifice, I am alive. I'm dead to sin, and alive in Christ. THAT is worth singing over and over until the end of ever. Hallelujah.
-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
Part Five: Jesus: King of Common Sense.
So I was listening today as Mark McMahon did Sunday school. Someone else pointed out the futility of the Law in the parable of the Good Samaritan. There was a guy dying alongside the road, but the pharisees/saducees passed him by, as the Law "says" not to do any work on the Sabbath. The Good Samaritan, however, helped the guy out.
While all of us today know that, at that time, the Law was being interpreted incorrectly, Jesus STILL makes a point. To devote your life to following the Law is to throw away devotion to the Author of that Law.
Jesus was, no IS, the ultimate possessor of common sense. His judgment and decision-making processes are not clouded by reckless emotion or by sin and selfishness as our judgment is. The only thing that Jesus really seems to allow to affect Him is compassion.
-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
Lord, in the coming week, bless me to be more compassionate, more sincere, less wasteful, more devoted, more sacrificing, more caring, better motivated, and less selfish that I was this week.
Bless my family to come to know Your perfect Way.
Restore righteousness to my nation.
In Jesus' Name,
Amen.
posted by Elmo at 4:36 PM
1 Comments:
mmm hmmm!
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