Thoughts on Life and Worship

I’ve been a teacher all of my adult life.   I love to learn; I love to teach.   One of the questions that good teachers always ask themselves is whether or not the student has really learned.   “If no one has learned, have you really taught anything?” There are some really smart people who never spent a day in a college classroom.   And, believe it or not, there are plenty of folks with graduate degrees who can’t do some of the simplest things.   http://www.condenaststore.com/-sp/I-know-so-much-that-I-don-t-know-where-to-begin-New-Yorker-Cartoon-Prints_i8542672_.htm One of my most challenging assignments as a college professor was to teach a class on worship technology.   Anyone who knows me well knows that I’m not a techie.   Don’t let the PowerPoint presentations fool you.   I know just enough to be dangerous.   Ask me to teach piano improvisation from chord sheets and I’m your guy.   Teaching students to conceptualize and ...

Adapted from my sermon on Labor Day weekend, 2012.   Thematic influence from Eugene Peterson in Practice Resurrection . Introduction When I was a kid, there would be a good chance that my family would be in church on Labor Day weekend.   You could probably label me, “a child of the church.”   If the doors were open, we were probably there.   There wasn’t any question whether or not we would be going to church on Sunday.   We always did.   Pretty remarkable for two parents who didn’t come from Christian homes.   I’ve got a hunch that since this is Labor Day weekend and you are here that a good lot of you grew up the same way.   But it’s not that way with everyone.   In fact, more and more so-called Christians are distancing themselves from the institutional church.   In the surprising blockbuster book, The Shack, the Christ character declares that he doesn’t really like religion and he didn’t create an institution.   J...

Those who theologize as they are reading the Scriptures (we all do, as a matter of fact) sometimes stumble as they encounter a seeming contradiction between Paul and James.   Paul: What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, discovered in this matter?   If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about—but not before God. What does Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation. However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness (Romans 4:1-5). James: What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them?   Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food.   If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but do...

One of the themes that run throughout the New Testament is our union by faith with Christ in his death and resurrection.   It is this reality that is at the core of us having everything that we need for life and godliness (II Peter 1:3).   Paul prays that the Ephesian believers would grasp the fullness of this truth: I pray that you will begin to understand the incredible greatness of his power for us who believe him.   This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms   (Ephesians 1:19-20 NLT). Paul elaborates further in 2:6   For he raised us from the dead along with Christ, and we are seated with him in the heavenly realms – all because we are one with Christ Jesus. While I was preparing to deliver a sermon on this theme, I encountered Christ’s words John 10:18: No one can take my life from me.   I lay down my life voluntarily.   For I ...

Yes… and no. Early this morning, I finished reading John D. Witvliet’s essay, Theological Models for the Relationship between Liturgy and Culture in his excellent collection, Worship Seeking Understanding   (Baker, 2003).   Heady and academic stuff, as the title demonstrates.   But the concepts that he unpacks are important for every pastor and worship leader to encounter and grasp. There are some groups who resist the surrounding culture at all costs.   The Orthodox Church, along with certain Anabaptist sects (such as the Amish) are probably the most radical in this regard.   But there are other traditional groups who avoid cultural infiltration like it was the plague.   On the other side of the spectrum are evangelicals who will do most anything and everything in order to satisfy the god of relevance.   Neither pole on the spectrum is to be desired. Cultural influence, or inculturation, in corporate worship is unavoidable and should be, in so...