“Educated Beyond Our Obedience”

I love that phrase.  A friend used it recently in a blog post about the ways he’s growing accustomed to “doing church” in a brand new way.  To paraphrase him, he wants to make sure that his and his family’s study is not aimed at only expanding their biblical education — not moving beyond a particular teaching until there is a plan and commitment to convert the teaching into obedience.

Reading about his experiences coincides with something I’ve been thinking about lately.

Every week we expect a preacher to deliver a multi-point sermon, we have Bible classes covering various topics or passages and then many people attend a small group that discusses another topic entirely.

Sermons, classes and groups may camp out for a while on a single theme by way of a series, but even then, by and large, week in and week out we’re hearing new material on several fronts.

Questions that come to mind:

• Is the volume of teaching hindering members from focusing long enough to plan for and practice obedience?
• What structures are in place that help members convert biblical teaching to obedience?
• Do we think we should have such structures, or should members be expected to do this on their own?
• Are we afraid focusing on one teaching for an extended period will be boring or beat a dead horse for some folks?  Is that justified?
• What is the church leadership’s role in this question?
• What is the membership’s role in this question?

Are we educating beyond our obedience?  I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Taming the Hive Tongue

I was reading James 3 last night, and for the first time noticed that the passage regarding taming the tongue is immediately preceded by a warning to teachers that they will be judged more harshly. It still seems the tongue passage is a general warning to everyone, teacher or not, but I think it’s no accident that the two are next to each other.

It’s interesting to think about the influence of “teachers” in our present context. A hundred years ago, the local preacher and perhaps some well-known traveling personalities were the de facto teachers and held tremendous sway in Christian thinking. Then came the editors of the newsletters (I’m speaking primarily of the Church of Christ fellowship), university lecture series, radio and eventually a few TV programs.

Today, many churches have multiple paid staff and a number of educated lay members who also teach. Add to that the sizable Christian publishing industry, the Christian music industry, entire TV networks and any yahoo who wants to start his own blog and holy mackerel. We’ve got bonfires of tongues.

With all the content, we’ve had to change the way we digest it — or skip it, for that matter. Ideas are tasted, rather than tested. There’s no time, because in the time I’ve taken to ponder your idea, six more have landed in my feed aggregator.

On one hand, bad teaching can’t corner the marketplace, because it’s just too big and busy. On the other hand, bad teaching may not get the thorough review it deserves because we’re swimming in all these ideas.

But I think it’s more complex. Send this tremendous volume of content into a postmodern environment, where bad teaching and ideas aren’t necessarily readily challenged because none of us are quite certain we’ve got the truth nailed down, and suddenly it’s even touchier. I don’t think uncertainty is necessarily all bad, just more complex.

Does life get more complicated through the ages, or do we just perceive it that way?

On the Absence of Dialogue

We need to talk.

But before we do that, we need to create safety.

In order to create safety, we need to not judge.

In order to not judge, we most often need to let go of the idea that “I” am right.  Or, in its subtler, nastier form that disguises itself as righteous thinking: that “I” know what the Bible says about xyz and most importantly, I know how God feels about xyz.

Yeah, that’s going to be tough.  But we really, really need to talk.  About many, many things.  And maybe in some cases, we need to stop talking.

This is assignment number one for the Virtual Qahal.  How do we break down the judgment reflex in our churches?  I think it has to be a process, more of an erosion brought on by experience than a Jericho-esque shakedown.  But what do you think?

And We’re Back!

Well, maybe.

It has been over thirteen months since this blog has seen any activity. I’d more or less forgotten about it, until I saw it on a friend’s blogroll. Gotta appreciate the loyalty and apparent faith of that particular friend.

I admittedly haven’t given a whole lot of thought to the return of this blog, but I have been thinking about what around here I refer to as the “qahal” lately. I think we Americans get church wrong more often than not. I’m not particularly interested in making this a place of negativity, but rather one of suggestion and experimentation.

So I think I’ll make a covenant right here. I’m not going to complain or judge without offering a constructive alternative. Additionally, any suggestions or alternatives to the status quo will be given a practical experiment whenever possible.

I started this blog out of hunger for community and communion, but I know how easy it is for me to slip into unproductive and often hurtful criticism. I’ve noticed I often try to get around that hurtful part by voicing opinions away from those that might be hurt by them, then developing resentment, negativity and unfair barriers in my relationships. A little confession, but I digress…

I guess I’m just saying, I hope this thing does some good. For me and anyone else out there who senses that your church doesn’t quite get it right. And that usually means I’m not getting it right, either. So let’s keep each other honest and loving, and ferret out the footholds that evil has found among us.

If you’re reading this, thanks for coming back, or dropping in.

More Hymn Theology

“This World Is Not My Home”

Do we turn our backs on the world when we sing this song? We tend to draw a line between this world and the next with no connection between the two. We are supposed to store up our treasures in Heaven, but do we do this by sticking our fingers in our ears and “la-la-la”ing when the world wants our attention?

At the beginning of Gladiator, Maximus says durnig his pre-battle speech, “What we do in this life echoes in eternity” (or something like that). If this life is spent focused on not doing something, on avoiding things, perhaps eternity will turn out to be a quiet place.

Or is it more like this: we store up treasure in Heaven by getting our hands, feet, and faces dirty in the alluvial mud pits of God’s redemptive work in the lives of people on Earth?

This world is not my home
I’m just a’passing through
But I’m going to get as filthy as possible
Before that happens

I don’t think that one will show up on an order of worship any time soon.

Theological Worldview Quiz

You scored as Emergent/Postmodern, You are Emergent/Postmodern in your theology. You feel alienated from older forms of church, you don’t think they connect to modern culture very well. No one knows the whole truth about God, and we have much to learn from each other, and so learning takes place in dialogue. Evangelism should take place in relationships rather than through crusades and altar-calls. People are interested in spirituality and want to ask questions, so the church should help them to do this. Emergent/Postmodern 86% Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 75% Classical Liberal 64% Neo orthodox 54% Charismatic/Pentecostal 46% Modern Liberal 39% Reformed Evangelical 36% Roman Catholic 36% Fundamentalist 14% What’s your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com

A Defense for Vocal Assemblies: Beyond the “Amen” Bass

I grew up in a pretty big church (500ish).  Two or three times per sermon, someone (always male, usually over 50) would give a powerful, bass tone “A-men!”  I used to think you had to be a bass to get away with it.  I still think it helps.

The church experiences I’ve had are sit-and-listen services.  If you’re not singing with the congregation, or standing in front of a microphone, you keep quiet.

I think that’s pretty stupid.

I think we can do better in creating opportunities for more people to share in the assembly.  I don’t think we need to be nearly as quiet as our moms’ pinchers taught us.  I’m not advocating interrupting the preacher (though I’ve sat through sermons that should have been interrupted).  Asking for personal insights, reflections, verses, or songs is a possibility.  Have you seen similar opportunities that function well?

The question, perhaps, is doing it well with clear intent, communication and order.  I’ve seen roving mics passed around with fairly decent results.  I’ve seen mics set up in aisles that people then queue up behind.  But I bet in a lot of places, you don’t need mics.  Probably wouldn’t where I go to church.

But without getting too fancy, can we start by letting the tenors say “A-men,” too?  Not to mention the altos and sopranos.

Tiny Churches

 Our Wednesday night class has been small for quite a while.  On a big night, we hit 12.  Last week, we had 6, then that became 5 at the halfway mark.  To give you some context, our Sunday morning attendance is usally 80-90.

 I grew up in churches that ran 500-700 on Sunday mornings.  But I’m finding that even 80-90 can be too many for a lot of things. 

 Back to our Wednesday night class.  We’d gotten to the point where we didn’t really sing on Wednesday nights anymore.  It just didn’t sound very good, and the requests were always for the “older” songs.  Two of our Wednesday night stalwarts are senior dames, lovers of the pre-War tunes.

 Last Wednesday night, I decided we would sing, just the six of us.  We did, and it made our dames quite happy.  Me, too.  We went on to have a great class discussion led by our fearless youth minister.  As I’ve thought more about it, those ladies are the core of my church experience.  Most of the folks who “go to church” there are Sunday mornings only.  And that just isn’t church for me.  The six of us got to connect, laugh, pray, sing and share last week.

 Part of me hopes no one new shows up this week.  Not really.  Actually, I hope some other folks get the chance to experience tiny church with us.  I’ve described myself, and been described by my wife, for several years now as being task-oriented, not people-oriented.  I’m just not wired that way, I’ve thought.

 With every small interaction, maybe I’m learning that the secret to being people-oriented is not a dramatic paradigm shift in my lifestyle or personality, but just relishing the moments spent with people and getting to know them better.  I think it’s more about values.  For me accomplishments are still high on the list, but maybe I’m rethinking the worth of just knowing other people. 

 Tiny church has helped.

Another one?

This is my third blog.  I guess that makes me a serial blogger.  I make meager attempts to give them all some attention, but I’ve been drawn more and more to topics that seem to center around the gathering of Christians for worship and what we tend to call “church” these days.  And my other two blogs don’t really care to have posts like that hanging around.  So, we’ll give them some space and see what happens.

 If you don’t care much for posts like the ones described above either, maybe you’d like to check out my other blogs on the right. 

 You can read the About Page for a little bit more info on the name of the blog.

Now that all that’s out of the way, here we go.