This Really MUST Stop

1st Annual Evangelical Blog Awards

Time Magazine’s 25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America

Most Influential Christians in America

Ok, really. As nice as it is to see “your guy’s” name on the list, this is really quite ludicrous. Not to mention a highly “modern” thing to do…. the whole rating, categorization, who’s #1 thing. Do these people have tremendous influence in the church and society…. yeah, I suppose so (probably not as much as we’d like to imagine given the state of things). But strangely absent from such lists are WOMEN and Pop Stars (who seem to increasingly find benefit in naming the Name). Who do you think has more influence on a teen’s decision to have or not have premarital sex…. James Dobson? Or Britney Spears? Both claim Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior.

But aside from the bias of these lists, the thing that strikes me most is that it is such a supreme waste of time! What is really gained by such a thing. It makes a great “sound bite” (or “blog bite”), but how is the Kingdom advanced by such activity?

If we’re going to have Best Christian of the Year Awards, let’s atleast have a category for Worst Sinner. Then we may have something decent to talk about.

Job Update

I haven’t said much here, but over the last month and a half I’ve been interviewing for a position (director of) CityCURE. This has been quite the process.

Well, I didn’t get the job.

I’m disappointed and a bit discouraged. I understand that it was between me and 2 other final candidates. Apparently one of them matched what they were looking for better than I. But, in the wise words of a friend, “God will provide and it may be through a job.”

Not sure what God has in store for us next…..

Quotable

“What really makes an invention is that someone decides not to change the solution to a known problem, but to change the question”

~Dean Kamen – inventor of the Segway

Vineyard Central – Sustainable/stable Life-together

I woke up last night “composing” this in my head…. I was going to post it normal-like, but John Barrow and I were talking it through and well, I figured the IM conversation conveyed it real well. Here you go:

Aaron Klinefelter: i went to bed (and woke up in the middle of the night) thinking about VC and our structure/leadership…. i think I’m going to blog about it today. I’ll let you knwo if i do so you can read

Aaron Klinefelter: i think it ties in with all this and our last PC meeting

John Barrow: so what is the general jist of your blogger thoughts?

Aaron Klinefelter: we need a long-term, sustainable, stable rhythm to our life together as VC (that includes but is not limited to leadership…. our monthly allgroups play into this i think)

Aaron Klinefelter: i don’t know what that rhythm for our corporate life is… but i’m compelled by a few things:

Aaron Klinefelter: 1) that if we are going to continue to not have paid staff (which i think we should continue, btw). then we need to not try to be like a church with paid staff (this is a mindset change for people – myself included) … in other words our strucuture of how we live together should not be based on a traditional (paid) church leadership/life-together model….

John Barrow: oooh now you are talking my language.

Aaron Klinefelter: 2) sandie gave me a notebook last night from 1997 – a training notebook for VC leaders when we had “bands” the only poeple still around from the list of leaders are dave n, dave b, kevin, matt m.

Aaron Klinefelter: if one of our values stability (which it is and should be, i think) then we should look back on our leaders now in 5 years and see lots of similar faces …. or atleast they still be part of our fellowship.

John Barrow: I see it as a pew mindset

Aaron Klinefelter: 3) in the notebook were survey results from a ChurchSmart survey that VC did in 97 or 99…. (btw, looked good and would be good to do again – per our previous discussion)

John Barrow: I see a great connection between 1 & 3

Aaron Klinefelter: on the survey the weakest area was lay leadership empowerment and one of the pages of the notebook was about how to recruit, empower Interns

Aaron Klinefelter: the very same stuff we talked about at LeTreat

Aaron Klinefelter: we need (i think) to “change the game” as it were – or this will ALWAYS be the issue

John Barrow: you can’t really say lay leadership in our model

John Barrow: I think the idea “lay leadership” is really part of the problem

Aaron Klinefelter: right – exactly

John Barrow: “lay leadership” implys pew sitter. Implies one leader focus

Aaron Klinefelter: we HAVE to move from traditional leadership assumptions to a more sustainable/stable life-together thing

Aaron Klinefelter: IF we make that move…. then the training and empowering emerging leaders will happen like we wish it would. and we’ll move away from PC are the Pastors they just don’t get paid (but we still expect them to do the same stuff)

Aaron Klinefelter: I think ALL this ties directly in to D.Willard’s article/interview about the “crisis of followership” in churches

John Barrow: I have a lot of ideas on this issue because it is just about all I have been thinking about RE: leadership and HC for the last 9 months

Aaron Klinefelter: cool

John Barrow: yes, yes, yes

John Barrow: we are to make disciples of Christ

John Barrow: we are [currently] making discipes of each other

Aaron Klinefelter: seems like paul said something about that

Aaron Klinefelter: actually….

John Barrow: some follow paul some apollos?

Aaron Klinefelter: 1 Corinthians 1:10-18 – is the Epistle Lectionary reading for the week

Aaron Klinefelter: “For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there are quarrels among you, my brothers and sisters. What I mean is that each of you says, “I belong to Paul,” or “I belong to Apollos,” or “I belong to Cephas,” or “I belong to Christ.” Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one can say that you were baptized in my name. (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.) For Christ did not send me to baptize but to proclaim the gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its power. For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

John Barrow: exactly

John Barrow: also see 1st cor. 12 7-11

John Barrow: 7Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. 11All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.

John Barrow: notice the word EACH as you read this

John Barrow: I think this is the model for leadership that we should be following

John Barrow: so it isn’t even the mature or the “lay leadership” that manifest the spirit but each

John Barrow: the cart must be pulled by all

Aaron Klinefelter: amen brutha

Aaron Klinefelter: amen

Aaron Klinefelter: right.

John Barrow: This works into an idea I have for worship in the HC

John Barrow: another area were we have major pew issues

John Barrow: where Paul talks about singing and making melody in your heart and each (notice that word again) should bring a psalm a hymn or a spiritual song

John Barrow: I want to have a worship time where each has prepared ahead at least one of the above and is enjoined to share it in the worship time.

Aaron Klinefelter: that would be really cool

John Barrow: awkward at first I’m sure but with a little HS mixed in I think it could foster the mindset we are aiming at

John Barrow: maybe the next pc we can try it

John Barrow: also, making the “Each” language a part of our “creed” would also help us I think

John Barrow: Priesthood of all believers type of thing

Aaron Klinefelter: i like it

Aaron Klinefelter: i gotta go

Aaron Klinefelter: i may edit our conversation together for my post… if you’re cool with that

John Barrow: aok with it

Aaron Klinefelter: sweet

Aaron Klinefelter: lata

Session Close: Fri Jan 28 10:42:52 2005

iHurl

The 50 most Influential Christians in America – The Church Report. Loverly, just loverly. Naturally this is a good use of cyberspace for the Christian community. Next let’s make a list of 50 most horrid sinners in the USA, that would be productive.

(sarcasm)

Contextbound Links

Third Sunday after the Epiphany – I’m trying to use the weekly Lectionary Texts for personal reflection. Now that we’re out of the Brownhouse and in our own place I’m attempting to create a doable rhythm of prayer, study, and reflection – those personal spiritual disciplines. What I am attempting is meditating/reading/lectio on the texts nightly before bed. Then in the morning doing the morning prayer ala Phyllis Tickle. Two things that seems apparent to me are 1) this needs to be tied to my corporate disciplines (ala VC), we’re using the Lectionary texts at HC and the community houses use Phyllis Tickles stuff in the AM and 2) I need some one on one accountability (ala an LTG – life transformation group – John B. and I’ve been talking about this in connection with HCs). I have a friend in mind that I’ve been thinking about asking to start an LTG.

Speaking of Faith | Gay Marriage: Broken or Blessed? Two Evangelical Views – “Our culture’s acrimonious debate on the morality of gay marriage has been framed in religious — largely conservative Christian — terms. We go behind the rhetoric to explore the human confusion, hopes, and fears this subject arouses. We’ll name hard questions that these religious people on both sides of the issue are asking themselves, and that they would like to ask of others.” (Go to the link and listen to the radio show. Dr. Mouw and Virginia Ramey Mollenkott take two sides of the issue. Dr. Mouw is the prez of Fuller and a good guy. Advocating for conversation – never a bad thing)

Jacob’s Well – mp3s (I’m listening now to “Kingdom Family Values”, pretty good stuff… I like the titles. Good to have free mp3s out there for the emerging church). A quote: “The church has never been socially acceptable when it is virialently missional.”

Trillian Basic 3 – (cool, I just downloaded. If you have a PC you need this. IM has never been so good.)

Subversive Interview – Dallas Willard – good stuff from d.williard. This ties in with a lot of my thinking of lately. That we have a “crisis of ‘followership’” in the church.

Mac Mini — More Than Meets the Eye, By Michelle Delio

“Cute is not a word that should be used when describing a computer. Computers should be fast, capable and customizable. They should not be coupled with the sorts of words that you would use to describe a puppy. There’s no getting around it though — the Mac mini is adorable.” (yeah, I want one)

Contextbound Links

Beyond ‘Right Thinking’, Sojourners Magazine/February 2005: “Brian McLaren’s A Generous Orthodoxy begins to articulate a faith that values the core of a Christ-centered faith without falling into the dogmatism” (a good review of Brian’s book)

Cornell’s Minister of Technology, MIT’s Technology Review: “In the mid-1980s, before completing his PhD in electrical engineering at the University of Illinois, Fuchs (pronounced “fox”) earned a master’s degree at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, IL. While a professor at Illinois, he moonlighted as a minister. This unusual second job taught him that community-building and communication are just as important in the development of new technologies as they are to the health of religious congregations.” (unfortunate last name, compelling story, you may need to subscribe to read [free])

How are you engaging with Emerging Church? Jason Clark:



(good diagram, possible a good tool for critiquing an “emerging church”…. are you practicing [sociology] what your preach [theology] and visa versa)

Critique within the emerging church, Alan Hartung: “My biggest concern is that in the quest for relevance we lose too many distinctions. The established church has been mired with “in” rules which many of us now soundly reject. However, there is a danger that we will simply swing past balance to the next extreme. I’ve seen that in my own life.” (speaking of critiques of the emerging church)

Emergent is not the Emerging Church, Jason Clark: “Emergent is not the emerging church. The emerging church is much broader, bigger, than emergent will ever be. There are many people better connected, with a bigger perspective and probaly doing better things, but Emergent is not the emerging church. It think it would help to hear critiques of emerging church and not Emergent.” (good point)

Contextless Links, Jordan Cooper: (does this make them contextless still?)

February 18-20, 2005

Sojourners on the airwaves this week

Not sure how many of you get Sojourners email updates, but I thought this worth to pass on.  Thanks to the good people at BeanBooks.com I recently purchased Jim Wallis’ new book, God’s Politics.  It’s pretty good, though I’ve only just begun.  I didn’t get the email til this morning so I missed The Daily Show appearance (I don’t have cable anyway!), but hopefully I can catch it online.

————————-

In other news….

Good discussion below re: Worship.  I’ll probably jump in the comments to try to stir the pot a bit.  Worship matters.  It is foundational to what we do and how we are as Christians.  And like Peter said “worship is simply living, going to work, paying the bills on time, loving the spouse and kids, starting a conversation with your neighbor, keeping your word. We have the opportunity to worship in all of the banal, normal, ordinary everyday things in life we somehow forget God is a part of.  Worship is engaging life with every breath God gives us.”  Which, btw, doesn’t lower the bar for worship (well, I suppose it does in a sense), but it raises the bar.  If our daily mundanity (is that a word?) can be worship then that doesn’t make worship less essential but more…. our re-Storying, Allegiance-making, Body-building pervades every facet of our lives. 

I would commend that this should also not prevent us from meeting together to intently worship (ala a gathering of the saints… the local church).  Sarah and I were talking last night about how we live in a culture of disposable relationships.  Yesterday I got a hair-cut…. I didn’t even get the persons name who cut my hair!  I went to a place in Meijer and got a cheap, decent hair cut…. the person who did it might as well been a machine.  I don’t know her name, will likely never see her again, and that doesn’t really bother me (actually it does, but I think you get my point).  Dating, living-together, even marriage – can all be about disposable relationships.  Church often becomes disposable relationships….  This is truly and deeply sad. 

More on that later… for now, here’s the email from Sojourners:

Dear SojoMail reader,

We’re happy to announce that Jim Wallis’ new book, God’s Politics, launched today with a panel discussion on “Moral Values, Politics, and the Faith Factor” that was moderated by E.J. Dionne, Jr., a columnist for The Washington Post and co-editor of One Electorate Under God, at the Brookings Institution. Panelists included Jim Wallis, Marian Wright Edelman, president of the Children’s Defense Fund; Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission; and Bryan Hehir, professor at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. John Podesta, president and CEO of the Center for American Progress, gave an introduction before a standing-room-only audience. Read the transcript of the discussion.

Some of you may have seen Jim Wallis on The O’Reilly Factor last night or on C-SPAN this morning. You may also have read yesterday’s New York Times article, “Democrats Turn to Leader of Religious Left” . We also want to inform you of these confirmed media appearances this week:

• Tonight, January 18, Comedy Central’s The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, 11 p.m. EST
• January 19, XM Satellite Radio (XM Public Radio Channel 133, 8-8:30 a.m. EDT)
• January 19, NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross (check local listing)
• January 19, PBS’s Charlie Rose Show (check local listing)
• January 20, NBC’s Inauguration Coverage with Tim Russert (10:05-11:05 a.m. EDT)
• January 21, Air America’s Al Franken Show (check local listing)
• January 21, MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews, 7 and 11 p.m. EST

Jim Wallis’ book tour continues next week. Stops include New York City, Philadelphia, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Please visit www.sojo.net/godspolitics to find an event near you!

Finally, we wish to thank all of our loyal SojoMail readers who helped God’s Politics reach #2 on Amazon.com’s top-seller list! If you haven’t already done so, please join our grassroots campaign by visiting your local bookstore or ordering online. You’ll save 34% off the cover price, and a percentage of the sale will support the mission of Sojourners.

P.S. Don’t forget to watch Jim Wallis tonight at 11 p.m. on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show with Jon Stewart!

 

Worship Renaissance

Been thinking a bit lately about worship. What is it? Why is it important – individually/corporately?

I’m pretty convinced that we worship poorly. I know I’m not supposed to say those kind of things since I’m party of a Vineyard church. But nevertheless, I think it is true. I’m not just critiquing our particular church’s worship…. no, I’m painting with a broad brush and making gross over-generalizations that (you decide) may or may not be true. It’s what I do.

The usual critique of worship goes something like this: “Worship in the western.northamerican.usa church has all about the individual. The worship songs are shallow and sentimental, trite and simplistic. We have devulged into a “me and jesus” (and JUST me and jesus) theology (if you can even call that a theology).” I reckon that is still true and still an important critique. Unfortunately, it seems that the critique stops there with the enpassioned cry – “Worship is not all about ME and my needs, its about God”. I couldn’t agree more. But I want to push on that…. If worship is about God, then HOW is it about God? Surely this isn’t just about changing singular pronouns to plural (though that wouldn’t hurt). If our worship primarily and singularly is about God – his glory revealed…. a thin place where heaven and earth intersect, then what character should it have?

Here are three ideas:

1. Worship is about Story. Whatsmore it is about re-Story-ing ourselves. Worship is the great act of remembrance. Remembrance of Whose Story we are in and the nature, plot, flow, and dynamics of said Story. Last night Sarah and I visited the Identity HC. Jonathan Hicks said something along the lines of “every story needs a problem to be a good story”. Our worship both reminds us of the problem we have and resolution of it. Worship deals honestly with sin, but just as honestly with redemption. As such, worship Orients us. Like a compass in the wilderness, we are (re)oriented by worship. Too often we’ve devalued worship to “experiencing God”, and while this happens and is wonderful when it does, we have placed such weight on this that I fear it could be an idol. The experience of worship is (whether we “feel” it or not) the sense by which we are plucked up out of the small story we live in and re-inserted into the Big Story. We should leave worship changed – not merely because we have had (and even if we don’t) an ethereal moment – but because we re-Story ourselves…. or rather we are re-Storied by the Author. See Chris for more.

2. Worship is about Allegiance. In a similar way that we are re-Storied, our worship is a “pledge of allegiance” to Someone else (other than ourselves or our idols). Many others more competent than I have written and spoken on the sense in which the New Testament idea of “faith” or “believe” was allegiance to someone, so I’ll let you learn that from them. But I see worship as The Great Public Act of a Christian. Worship is justice. In as much as we are called to work for justice (and again, many have spoken much more eloquently than I on this – see Sojourners) our public display of allegiance – PDA, if you will – visibly proclaims the Kingdom. This Kingdom where lion and lamb go on sleepovers and rich and poor have pizza parties. We work, strive, endeavor for such equality and unity – but worship simply stands as a testament to it. Yes, we are flawed, broken, incompetent purveyors of this justice… that is exactly why our worship is so powerful. We stand and say, “we don’t do this Kingdom thing right, we miss it more than we care to admit, but still we stand and say this Kingdomland is our home and its King is our King”. When an unbelieving (“unAllegianced”) person sees our worship they are not, I submit, drawn by the depth of our passion, the quality of our singing, the profundity of our spirituality. They are drawn by the wonderous paradox that is the cross. That in dying we live. That we stand, pledge, and proclaim fealty to One that is worthy of such a thing. One that would die so that we might live.

3. Worship is about Community. Yeah, I know community-shoomunity. It’s all the rage. If worship is about being caught up in the Great Story and about pledging our Allegiance to the Great King, then it must also be about our Common-unity with others who do the same. For we can not do this alone. We need one another. In worship we connect backwards, upwards, outwards, and forwards. Backwards to the saints who have gone before. Upwards to our Trinitarian God (now there’s a community!). Outwards to our fellow Christians. Forwards to those saints who will stand on our shoulders. If being the Body of Christ means anything then our worship should be like water to a body. You’ve heard that our bodies are made of some crazy percentage – like 80%(?) – of water. Worship should be that for the Body of Christ. It makes everything work, lubricates the joints, delivers oxygen to parts, and all those other things that make me wish I’d paid more attention in biology. Our worship cannot exist in a vacuum. It must always be connected to the Body. And if worship doesn’t connect us more to one another (and not just God) then I would say that we have poor, inept, and inadequate worship. Perhaps that is harsh, but surely it is true – our allegiance to God and participation in his narrative is never a solo journey. So our worship should never be a solo event. Whatsmore (and now I get in trouble), I have a sneaking suspicsion that worship cannot fully live outside a local church. Oh, my. What about International House of Prayer, worship CDs played in cars, solitude retreats, etc… I’m not sure. I imagine that they have their place – but ONLY in connection to the local body of Christ (i.e. church). If someone only gets their “worship” from going to a mega-church worship service (where they don’t know anyone) or some annonymous prayer gathering then I submit that they do not worship. Note I said “ONLY”. I’ve been to these gatherings and have, I believe, experienced worship – but they are intermittent events within the context of an ongoing relationship with a known body of believers. If worship is not just about “me and Jesus” then we ought to act like it. We need to worship together.

Well, I give up. I submit this to blogland. These are things I’ve been thinking about. I believe that we need better worship in our churches. It is not about technique or affect – it is about deeper stuff.

We’re going to have a conversation about such things in a few weeks. My friend Eric will visit in Feb (17-19) for a conversation. The discussion will center around what it may mean to be a “Missional Worship Artist.”

The discussion will explore an aspect of worship leading beyond reminding believers Whom they worship and pose the question, “How might artists reveal the Kingdom of God to those who cannot see it?” (John

3:3) Come join us, it’ll be good.

Pax Christi