Ryan leaves

Leslie and I said goodbye to our 20 year old Son Tuesday as he left for the Army...

We stand in the cold a light drizzle and grey shy echoing our mood. Ryan steps through the door on his way to the waiting bus, proper and aloof like all the others newly sorn in recruits. There are other families there and together we watch as our sons and daughters step onto the bus. Tears come without warning.

Suddenly the bus door opens and Ryan emerges boldly walking towards us. What did he forget? He grabs me and hugs me then his mother. "I love you," he says quietly. "We love you," somehow squeeks out.

Before we can recover he turns and is gone...

Go with God My Son


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The Young Theologians

Today was our first meeting to begin discussing our reading material for the winter time we have together.

The first book by John Stott was, "Your mind matters" and it encouraged Christians to use their minds, to ask questions, to seek to apply Biblical knowledge to the world around them. In other words, thinking, using your mind involves asking questions.

When our fearless leader Paul Basden asked, "How were you raised to use your mind?" several of us replied, "To know what God said, and to obey. Questions were doubt, and doubt was wrong." For us, questions were a sign of doubt, not of critical thinking. It seems to me that I was always taught to use my mind, but I must admit that questions were frowned upon.

 Stott encourages Christians to have knowledge with zeal. Knowledge without zeal, or zeal without knowledge led to stifling the truth and hindering love. How do we grapple with keeping a balance between head knowledge and experience?

I am not completely sure of the answer but it makes me think of the difference between studying the facts and figures about the Grand Canyon without experiencing it, without standing on the rim as the sun rises, bathing the canyon walls in liquid light and actually standing there taking it all in with the wind in your face and the smell of pine, and dirt, and river in your nostrils. I don't really know how knowing all the facts and figures enhances the experience, or how the reality of the experience is enhanced by knowing facts and figures, but this I do know. When discussing the Grand Canyon with those who have seen it, and even with those who have not, the facts and figures are helpful. For one, as a reminder, a reinforcement of the splendor of the real thing. For the other, a promise of the majesty waiting.

In much the same way I cannot tell you how studying what the Bible reveals to us about God helps when we actually experience God, or how experiencing God is enhanced by knowing lots of things about God and his character. It seems to be most useful when sharing with others. I am content with this conclusion. I can talk about God, and what I learn about God, with those who are interested in God and have either experienced him or wish to. But the conversation dramatically changes once the experience occurs or we re-experience God's presence. It seems they are linked. One is not the product of the other, but is woven together like a tapestry, like the very layers in the wall of the Grand Canyon. Useless taken by itself, it is part of a whole that creates the splendor, the majesty.

The experience or knowledge of God, standing alone, are only a part of a much greater whole. True, experience reacts more powerfully on our heart and soul, but knowledge deepens our wonder, our understanding, and highlights what we have yet to comprehend. When combined, we can only stand in awe, lost in wonder and worship.

To experience God and to know him is to worship him.

Book List for Fall 2010 Young Theologians

Hey guys, here are links to the books on our reading list. Great prices and you can help out a brother by buying these from my blog!

DISCIPLESHIP OF THE MIND: LEARNING TO LOVE GOD IN THE WAYS WE THINK (sorry, no picture, just click on the link.)

Book Review - Fundamentalism

Ever since I announced publicly that I was writing a book on my spiritual journey from fundamentalism to grace I have received numerous suggestions on books to read and websites to visit. I have gladly accepted the input and checked out the books and websites offered.

What I found was both interesting and disturbing; enlightening and troublesome. For the most part, my recollections of my life as a fundamentalist were confirmed. I was not remembering wrongly. That was reassuring because I don't want to misrepresent my past.. But other information, mostly on the internet and blog sites, was difficult to read and showed me a new fundamentalism I found virulent, militant, and angry. I am happy to say that this book, Fundamentalism, by Fisher Humphreys and Philip Wise is a member of the former group. For anyone wanting to understand Christian Fundamentalism intellectually, this is an excellent book and should be in your library. It is well worth the money.

I appreciate that the authors try to define Fundamentalism and acknowledge that it is much more than religious in nature. They accurately identify the "attitudes" of fundamentalism and link them with "family characteristics" that are common to all forms of fundamentalism. Unfortunately they limit their discussion to religious fundamentalism, and Christian fundamentalism specifically. It appears to be written as a sort of study book for progressive Baptists wanting to better understand the influence Fundamentalism is having on the Southern Baptist Convention. From this standpoint the book is very successful.

I see only two flaws in this book. The first is a general assumption that fundamentalism is basically benign and although it uses military language and imagery, it is, fundamentally, lacking substantial power. Second, the authors appear to believe that fundamentalism is primarily countered with sound and rational thinking. Both flaws leave the reader of the book falsely secure in a general understanding of fundamentalism but lacking a grasp of its power and influence. How does one argue rationally with a person who is willing to blow themselves up in order to kill you? How does one engage in dialogue with someone who is seeking to kill an abortionist because to do so would "rescue" hundreds if not thousands of unborn children? Rational and sound thought has been left behind a long time ago. Emotion rules the day in fundamentalism. I don't think it was the author's intent o ignore the power of fundamentalism, but they do. Still, it remains an excellent read.

Reading all these books and articles has taught me one thing, and I think this is very important - the fundamentalism of my childhood may share "attitudes" and "beliefs" with modern expressions of fundamentalism, but they are not the same thing. The fundamentalism I grew up with was severed from the fundamentalism most Americans associate with that word when Billy Graham embarked on ecumenical evangelist crusades in the 1950's and Jerry Falwell created the Moral Majority in the 1970's. For us they were at best neo-fundamentalists and at worst, liberal evangelicals. Either way, fundamentalist belief in strict separation kept us aloof and apart from these developments in Christian fundamentalism. We denounced them as "apostate".

The original Christian fundamentalists were Calvinists, Presbyterians, and Northern Baptists. After only a decade they became Baptist and Arminian and pre-millennial dispensationalists. Free-will Baptists, Regular Baptists, Bible Baptists, and Independent Baptists took up the banner of fundamentalism incorporating a strong sense of separation of church and state into their general view of pious separation. Jerry Falwell, Billy Graham and others became a new breed of fundamentalists. That fundamentalism, politically active and advocates of a church-state model, are now taking over fundamentalism and returning to their roots - Calvinism.

The traits of fundamentalism as described by Humphreys and Wise which have an inherent bend toward confrontation and separation are intensified by Calvinism giving rise to a new "totalitarian" fundamentalism that does not work toward peaceful co-existence but toward control of not just religious beliefs, but society as a whole. Modern fundamentalism is coupling this totalitarian view toward society with a powerful "save " and "restore " America message spouted not only by preachers but politicians like Newt Gringrich. It is a strange marriage of religion and politics, at least to this ex-fundamentalist.

The authors of "Fundamentalism" underestimate the power of this new fundamentalism. It is not easily reasoned with, and it is not rational. It is emotional and powerful, tapping deep wells within people that long for stability, leadership, and power. It is the same well that drove the Israelite people to demand a King instead of being led by God. The new fundamentalists don't just want Christians to return to a more pure, Bible based faith. They want to return us to a church-state where the two are indistinguishable. And they are willing to fight for it!

An update of this book in light of these recent developments would be most helpful.

Getting it Right

Subconsciously I tend to assume that I have it “right” and therefore can clearly identify who has it wrong. As if I have been set up as the truth police! I can only see actions and not the heart, so I stand at a great disadvantage.

God can, and does see the heart and I must leave judging to him, trusting that Jesus’ blood covers a multitude of sins. Don’t we all have some little (or big) deviation from what is correct? I know I do, including this tendency to judge others. I need God’s mercy and grace every day.

Is it not true that the Almighty God remains bigger than what I say I know about him? True, I need to study what he has revealed about himself, but because he is Almighty and I am not it is safe to say I cannot bear the glory of a complete revelation of God any more than Moses could look at God’s face. He is knowable through Jesus, the very image of the Godhead.

But if that is not the case, if we finite human beings say that we have him figured out, then he no longer remains God. He becomes god, and we place him on a shelf in our home to be worshiped and dusted.

The error, at least for me in my past and to some degree my present, is to think that those who have been misled, or those who do not have a clear understanding of God in their minds are somehow not as enlightened as I. From study and good teaching I may very well know more ABOUT God and his revelation of himself. But that does not guarantee that I know HIM all that well. A misled person, a child holding a hate sign, is misguided for sure. But they may still have a heart for God. They may actually know him better than I. Unfortunately we can’t discern that.

I must leave that up to God who gave all judgement to Jesus.

Birthday Musings

I turned 52 today and I am not sure how I feel about it.

There is a very real part of me that has never been afraid to grow old embracing aging with the same gusto I embraced my youth. But there is also a very real part of me that, after watching my Father die, realizes I am the next generation to pass. That is sobering.

I suppose it is healthy and normal to ask one’s self, how am I doing? How have I done? Then again, maybe its not healthy or normal. Do we really know what’s normal anyway?

At this time of year I am susceptible to being down, something not generally part of my optimistic self. And I do tend to over analyze my own thoughts and actions even on good days. The combination can be a real downer.

But this year I feel quite different, and I am not sure why. I can feel the tug to slip into the bluer side of life, but I have yet to succumb. And it’s not because things are rosy. Last week Leslie decided to drop out of the dental hygiene program she had worked so hard to get into and stay on top of. Something is wrong in her brain that robs her of stereoscopic vision, critical to dental work. The news, and the realization that nothing short of a miracle could change her brain, was a blow, for both of us and everyone at her school. Now that we cannot depend on her earning the kind of income a registered dental hygienist would, the burden falls back on me to earn more income. Yet, we are not submitting to despair.

Don’t get me wrong, we sill ask God what is going on and did we miss something along the way? We don’t question his love for us, but rather our discernment of his will. It is all beyond us, so we must turn to the one thing we do know – God’s heart. He loves us and has our best intentions in mind. I don’t really believe that he led Leslie to join the Hygiene program only to yank it way from her when the finish line was in sight. That is a cruel and thoughtless interpretation of the Sovereignty of God. But he wasn’t caught by surprise. He has promised to turn everything, eventually, to good. I don’t want to sound trite or shallow, but I really believe that. Grief and pain can co-exist with hope and faith.

Perhaps this birthday will be remembered for the corner we turned, the beginning of something new we can’t see until we travel down the road a bit. It doesn’t matter. I was surrounded by the ones who love me and it was enough. That is the best birthday present I could ever get.

The Great Ommission

I wonder if evangelicals are getting it right, I mean, about evangelism. Several things I have read recently sadden me and make me wonder what we are doing wrong. Perhaps I am succumbing to the Autumn blues that strike me the time of year.  I dunno. But I am worried.

According to the Barna group (www.barna.org) in 2009-2010 28% of the adult population, roughly 65 million people, did not attend any church function in the last 6 months. Although this number is down from its high point in the last quarter century of 32% it seems like we should be making more progress. More disturbing is that it seems that many of these “un-churched” folks are self-proclaimed Christians. 61% of the un-churched say they are Christians. 37% say they avoid church because they have been hurt deeply by Christians or the church in the past.

Traditionally women seem to man the pews in greater numbers than men, something evangelicals have lamented over for years. And men do lead in the number of un-churched people in America. But women lead in the number of un-churched people who say they are Christians. Protestants outnumber Catholics. It might be time to ask ourselves, what is going on?

A great deal of effort has been spent by Churches to make services more “relevant” sermons more practical, the music more hip. I’m not saying that doing so is a bad thing. I firmly believe that each generation needs to recast eternal truth in modern day expressions. And it just might be, basedon the numbers, that it has helped. The numbers of un-churched are down. Or so it would seem.

Other research shows that the number of people “outside” the church grows with each new generation. Young people are becoming less and less churched. Only 40% of people in the 16-29 age group are outside the church compared to 27% in the 42-50 age group.

When young people were asked to identify their impressions of Christianity, one of the common themes was “Christianity is changed from what it used to be” and “Christianity in today’s society no longer looks like Jesus.” These comments were the most frequent unprompted images that young people called to mind, mentioned by one-quarter of both young non-Christians (23%) and born again Christians (22%). This is where the term “un-Christian” came from – both those inside the church and outside of it who said that something was broken in the present-day expression of Christianity.

So what’s wrong? What is broken? Aren’t the hip services working?

I know from my experience that is not Biblical teaching that will bring people back to church. They have to come back to God first. The Great Commission to take the gospel to the world has become the Great Omission. We are falling down on the task.

Some other data may help us find our way.

1. We aren’t reaching men. Women typically outnumber men in church (53%), bible studies (60%), Sunday school (59%), and volunteer work (57%). But men out number women in home churches (56%).

2. We aren’t reaching singles. 69% of church volunteers are married. Non married church attenders are the least reached, 1/5 of church attenders and volunteers are single.

3. We aren’t reaching the youth. Churches are filled with old people, most of them over the age of 45.  56% of the spiritually active in a church are 45+. Nationally, 52% of the population is 45+.

Other data provides hope.

Small groups encourage personal bible reading and study. Two-thirds of church attenders (67%) said they had read the Bible outside of church in the last week – whether their church was a conventional or house church. Small group attenders were more likely to read the Bible personally (84%) higher even than Sunday school attenders and volunteers (77%).

Maybe instead of making our churches more attractive we need to make a change altogether. Maybe our churches should be a spring board for neighborhood (and even global) ministries done by, suprise!, the people and not the clergy or paid staff. Maybe we are just training stations and an encouragement stop for those busy in the community.

You might be thinking to yourself, Isn’t that what bible believing, evangelical, solid Christian churches are already doing? We aren’t failing in our mission, people are just more secular and sinful. I don’t disagree that it”s not a new idea I am proposing. But so often in church we are kept way too busy to connect with our neighbors and friends.

Although there will be millions of people who abandon the entire faith community for the usual reasons -hurtful experiences in churches, lack of interest in spiritual matters, prioritizing other dimensions of their life – a growing percentage of church dropouts will be those who leave a local church in order to intentionally increase their focus on faith and to relate to God through different means. I don’t think that is a bad thing.

Christian Nation or State Religion?

While writing my book I decided to research modern fundamentalism. What I found surprised me. My early experience with fundamentalism which disdained involvement with politics had changed dramatically. In fact it seemed that a new fundamentalism had emerged. My fundamentalism was loosely based on the beliefs of Anabaptists. This new incarnation of fundamentalism was decidedly Reformed in its theology and in many cases hyper-Calvinistic. I found this change fascinating.I began collecting research that at first I thought would go in my book, I Respectfully Disagree, but there was just too much.


I have decided to post my findings on my blog. Perhaps it will become a book someday but that is not my goal. I just think that this is something that should be discussed.Gregory Boyd's book is still a good read on this topic.I encourage you to read his book.

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There is a movement in America to “return” to our Christian heritage, to “restore” our basic Christian beliefs as a nation, and to take “dominion” over the government. Such a movement terrifies liberals and some conservatives. They want the Bible to be the sole foundation of our society including the laws and regulations of the Old Testament. Some are progressive, others more “fundamentalist”, but all agree on one thing: America’s past is being re-written to remove our Christian Heritage, and it must be stopped.

It begs the question should we be a Christian Nation, and even more importantly, can a Nation be Christian? Various books and websites are available that stress that the religion of our founding Fathers was Christian. Each of us will have to decide this issue themselves. It is inescapable that our Nation was heavily influenced by the Christian religion, and it is also true that most or even all of the colonies were founded as little “Church States” where citizens were required to profess a particular form of Christianity, and leaders had to take an oath that they too were members of a particular denomination. Such exclusivity generated persecution (read terrorism) against those who did not agree or profess. Baptists were driven out of many colonies as were Jews and Catholics.

This form of “Christianity” is not the kingdom preached by Jesus and we need to understand the differences. It is some form of state or civic religion, but not the true gospel Church.

Over the years our National Religion has undergone decay, and it seems obvious that the current “Restore America” movement is striving to rebuild this religion. But I maintain that any state religion is just that, religion, and does not represent the true kingdom of Jesus. Soren Kierkegaard warned that the worst form of apostasy the Christian faith can undergo is for it to become simply an aspect of our culture.[1] I am convinced that this has happened and is the true cause of Christian apathy and weakness, not our refusal to seek power and dominion.

Before we can decide if America is, or was, a Christian Nation, we need to do our homework and understand the term and how it is being used.

Defining a Christian Nation

One of the new fundamentalist organizations, The Foundation Forum (www.thefoundationforum.com), says that a Christian Nation is not a theocracy, meaning it is not a nation in which the clergy who belong to the Christian denomination(s) essentially govern the nation through the government, such as the Roman government was after making Christianity the official religion of the empire. It also asserts that a Christian Nation is not a nation in which a Christian denomination(s) is the established religion of that nation. A good example of such a government would be the Massachusetts Bay Colony as it was under the strict rule of the Puritans, the Anglican Church, created by Henry VIII or the Church of Sweden, created by Gustav Vasa.

Instead, according to the Forum, a true Christian Nation is a nation where the basic principles of Christianity, found clearly written and promulgated in the Scriptures, are the foundation of government as well as contributing to the quality of society and culture. In this kind of Christian Nation no one is required to go to church or forbidden from smoking tobacco or drinking alcohol. Nor are they forbidden to fill their car with gas on Sunday. God does not desire that these be the unbreakable laws of the nation. He desires that men in governments and leaders in society should “do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly” (Micah 6:8) with Him. They assert that America is a “Christian nation” in this sense because our basic principles of government (rule of law as opposed to a rule of man, checks and balances, separation of powers, etc.) are grounded in the basic principles of Christianity. They did not expect that America would require any citizen to believe a particular form of Christianity, but that our nation embraced the “GENERAL PRINCIPLES”[2] of Christianity.

This is a strange assertion since Christianity asserts that the Law of Moses, the Old Covenant, has be superseded by a New Covenant, one that is superior in all ways, and the Old Covenant is obsolete.[3] It is little more than a resurrection of the type of church run government Calvin set up in Geneva. That government easily put to death Michael Servetus because he disagreed with Calvin’s doctrines, particularly pre-destination. Where did Jesus say that his kingdom would wield the sword?

The evidence for our country being anything more than a shadow of the way things were done in Europe since Rome made Christianity the office state religion begins with our own Constitution.

The Constitution does not even mention God let alone demand that our country “have no other Gods” instead of him. Neither does it forbid the making of graven images, or the worship of such graven images. It does not prohibit taking the name of the Lord in vain, or any other cursing. It doesn’t require us to keep the Sabbath Day Holy (nor does it try to clear up denominational disagreements over what is the true Sabbath Day). Furthermore, our Constitution does not have any penalties for lack of honor to our parents, or punishments for adultery, murder, stealing, lying, or coveting. Trying to say that our Constitution was based on Christian Principles is simply ludicrous. (For details, see Kramnick and Moore, The Godless Constitution: The Case Against Religious Correctness.) The Constitution is in fact the first significant governing charter in the history of mankind that does not invoke any deities, even impersonal ones, for support and this is why I believe our nation has been great; not because we were a supposedly Christian Nation.

Our laws perhaps look more like the Ten Commandments but only related to a few of the Ten: murder, stealing, and adultery. That’s only three out of ten. Other societies not familiar with the Judeo-Christian tradition have similar laws. They are not uniquely Christian.

Leaving out any reference to God or a deity is hardly a casual omission, and the opponents of the Constitution during the ratification process made much of this fact calling it “godless”. We all need to remember that the framers of our Constitution had many documents to model their work on, including many state constitutions and all of those state charters, plus many from other cultures explicitly invoked God and are well quoted by those fighting for a Christian America. Most were specifically Christian, some were explicitly Protestant, and some, like Massachusetts, established a specific church (the Congregationalists, descendants more or less of the Pilgrims) as the state church.[4]

Our Founding Fathers seemed intent on creating a government that embodied freedom for religion, and freedom from religion. Thomas Jefferson said it well, “I may grow rich by an art I am compelled to follow; I may recover health by medicines I am compelled to take against my own judgment; but I cannot be saved by a worship I disbelieve and abhor.”[5] Thomas Jefferson knew what many today fail to consider: love of God and obedience to him cannot be compelled by law. Worship cannot be legislated. If it does not come freely from the heart then it is invalid.

Of course, most of these arguments are rendered invalid when we understand the true nature of the Kingdom of Jesus (God).


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Next time...Defining the Kingdom of Jesus (God)

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[1] Soren Kierkegaard, Provocations: Spiritual Writings of Kierkegaard, ed. C. E. Moore (Farmington, Penn.: Plough, 1992), pp. 232.

[2] John Adams, The Work of John Adams, Boston, Little, Brown and Company, pp 45, 46, posted on the internet as a book: http://www.archive.org/stream/worksjohnadams10adamrich#page/n44/mode/2up

[3] Hebrews 18:13

[4] Ed Buckner, PhD, It’s a Free Country, Not a Christian Nation, http://www.stephenjaygould.org/ctrl/buckner_ncn.html

[5] Thomas Jefferson, notes for a speech, c. 1776. From Gorton Carruth and Eugene Ehrlich, eds., The Harper Book of American Quotations, New York: Harper & Row, 1988, p. 498.

The Myth of A Christian Nation - Book Review

The Myth of A Christian Nation by Gregory A. Boyd is a must read for Christians who are frustrated with the moral decline in America and are tempted to grab power to make things better. He carefully explores the scriptures to show that the idea of a Christian Nation is nothing more than our American version of a state religion. Although many of the people who founded our original colonies, and later helped to form our nation, we men and women of faith, in particular the Christian faith, the idea that a government could be "Christian" he explains is not in line with the teachings of Jesus.

Apart from the obvious Bible verses such as "my kingdom is not of this world" Boyd carefully looks at the essence of Christianity and shows how that essence is in stark contrast to the civic religion we call Christianity here in America. Returning to the notion of a Christian America would be the same as saying we want to return our country to England.

There are many "state" religions our there - Dutch Reformed, Anglican Church in England where the state and the church are not divided and I don't see a strong Christian Nation in those places. The Netherlands is overly tolerant, and England is in the same boat as America. Boyd explores these and many other notions surrounding the idea of a Christian Nation.

You may not agree with him but I challenge you to read his book.

Excerpt from my book, the last part of Chapter 6

When my friends were listening to Don McLean, Rod Stewart, The Who, Three Dog Night, and Jim Croce, I was listening to Beethoven, Bach and Ralph Carmichael. When I wasn’t listening to hymns or classical music, I loved Gospel Quartets like the Oak Ridge Boys and the Imperials, and singing groups like the Goodmans mostly because that is all I was allowed to listen to. Their concerts included rousing hand clapping and what could easily be called dancing. These groups did, after all, come from churches where they believed in dancing in the spirit. As rousing as Gospel Quartets could be, many struggled with incorporating drums into their bands since they believed the rock beat was secular and needed to be avoided. I decided to ask my new youth leader what he thought.

Bergie was a big man, at least big to a ninety-five pound weakling like me. Balding at a young age he let what little hair he had grow long. The one thing I remember most about Bergie was that he loved God and he loved kids. Not exactly fat but not muscle bound either, he was a one-time hockey player, a physical force to be reckoned with and he inspired all of us young men. Bergie was a stickler for fair play and included everyone, even this geeky kid. He would make me join in when we played street hockey in front of his house on Wednesday nights before youth group. He was constantly grabbing my hockey stick when I held it too high and shouting, “Hey, keep this thing under control before you hurt someone! High sticking is a foul.” He knew his way around the world and on the competitive field and I soon learned that he knew his way around the Bible too.

“Bergie,” I asked him after youth meeting one week, “is rock music bad?”

“Well, some people would consider it bad music based on the style of music they like,” he started. “Why do you ask?”

“Because at my Christian school I am told all music with a syncopated beat is the devil’s music. The beat drives people to dance and is probably full of demons.” At the word “demons” he raised an eyebrow so I continued quickly. “Or at least encourages demons to possess people.” I waited for the proof texts to come but they didn’t.

“Chris,” Bergie said, opening his Bible, “there are many things each of us have to decide for ourselves. They are not easily put into a category of good or bad or right or wrong.” He opened his Bible to Romans chapter 14 and began reading.

I know and am convinced in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself; but to him who thinks anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean.[1]

“Music by itself is not good or evil, very few things are. That is what this verse is saying. I believe that God created music and after he created it I am sure he called it good,” he explained. “Lyrics and just poorly played music can be bad, but music in and of it self is not bad.” He continued reading.

Therefore do not let what is for you a good thing be spoken of as evil; for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.[2]

“Even though things we do or music we listen to might be good, sometimes they create problems and we don’t want that. Here the Bible is teaching that Christianity is not about what we eat or don’t eat, or what kind of music we listen to or don’t listen to, but it is all about righteousness, peace and joy.” I knotted my brow, never having studied the Bible like this before. He continued reading.

So then we pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another. Do not tear down the work of God for the sake of food[3]. 

“Chris, we need to work for peace and the encouragement of each other. We should never tear down the work of God because of our personal preferences or our religious rules.” He smiled. “The advice goes both ways.”

“What do you mean?” I asked not sure I was following his thought.

“If you don’t like rock music you should not tear down those who are using it to build the kingdom of God. If you like rock music then you shouldn’t be condemning those who don’t.” That was news to me. He finished reading.

The faith which you have, have as your own conviction before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves[4].

“The bottom line Chris is that your convictions should be between you and God and you should not be using your liberty in Christ to hurt anyone else.” I sighed. This was a lot to process.

“Besides,” Bergie said, his smile growing larger. “The Bible is full of wild descriptions of worship that includes all kinds of musical instruments, drums and dancing. David danced before the Lord and Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, is clearly commanded.” His smile finally broke into a laugh. “Sounds like a rock concert to me!”

The Bible verses Bergie showed me convinced me that rock music wasn’t evil; it was just not to some people’s liking. Music was created by God and was good. Sometimes it could be used for evil purposes, but then the devil wasn’t good at creating new things. He can only corrupt what God had made. C.S. Lewis, in his fanciful Screwtape Letters has a senior demon, Uncle Screwtape, mentoring his nephew on this very topic.

Never forget that when we are dealing with any pleasure in its healthy and normal and satisfying form, we are, in a sense, on the Enemy's ground. I know we have won many a soul through pleasure. All the same, it is His invention, not ours. He made all the pleasures: all our research so far has not enabled us to produce one. All we can do is to encourage the humans to take pleasures which our Enemy has produced, at times, or in ways, or in degrees, which He has forbidden.[5]

My struggle to find a place for rock music met its first challenge at my Christian school. In the late spring of 1974 our church decided to help with the local Billy Graham crusade; something my school avoided, joining other fundamentalists in accusing Billy Graham of being liberal and neo-evangelical. You have to remember that back in the early seventies there were really only three clear options in Christianity – liberalism, orthodoxy (read “fundamentalism”), and the Charismatic movement. There were no seeker churches, no churches with contemporary singing. Today it is different; back then your options were limited. Billy Graham was creating what we now enjoy as sane, conservative Christianity. Back then it was just called liberal.

Singing in the Crusade choir was my way to be involved and I liked one of the songs so much I brought it to school to sing in our school chorus. Our music teacher took one look at the song and pronounced it “rock music” because it had a syncopated beat. No drums, no long haired hippie weirdo freaks singing, only a little syncopated beat. When asked where I had gotten the music I naively explained that it came from the Billy Graham Crusade. With one eye brow turned up in silent reprimand, I was sent to the principal’s office.

Trudging past the younger kids playing in the parking lot turned playground, I made my way to the office. Mrs. Perry, the school and church secretary, greeted me. At this time the pastor of the Church where the school met was also the Principal. Pastor Hickok knew me by name; in a small school the principal knows all the students by name.

Pastor Hickok was a short man with dark hair, thick glasses and a booming voice. He was dynamic as a preacher and had a strong radio listening audience. He terrified most of the students, including me. After waiting a few minutes in the church lobby I was ushered into the paneled Church study lined with books. I sat down and patiently waited for Pastor Hickok to explain my transgression. The sunlight streaming in the windows highlighted his jet black hair. We talked, meaning he did all the talking and I did all the listening.

He wasted no time getting right to the point.

 “Chris, Billy Graham is a liberal and liberals deny the basics of our faith,” he began. “I remember when Dr. Graham was a faithful fundamentalist Baptist but now he chooses to be unequally yoked with liberals in direct violation of the Scriptures.” He frowned. “Dr. Graham and his ecumenical crusades need to be avoided. Such actions are helping to usher in the antichrist and the One World Church.” As I listened to him I knew I didn’t dare disagree with him out loud. He was on a roll. 

Then he started in on rock music.

“Rock music’s syncopated beat appeals to the flesh making people want to dance, and dancing is bad,” he explained. “Wild worship led David to dance so hard he exposed himself shamefully and rock music and dancing is just simply sex while standing up.” He paused to take a breath. “Dance halls are full of cursers, adulterers, smokers, drinkers and all sorts of people in rebellion against God and his ways. They all go hand in hand. It is entirely of the devil and partaking in any of it will endanger your eternal soul.” Pausing for effect, he straightened his glasses. “You can’t lose your salvation Chris, but if you persist in listening to rock music, one can logically assume that since it is the music of the devil, and you like his music, then you are not a true child of God. What fellowship hath light with darkness?” he quoted.

Bergie’s talk came to my mind as I listened to Pastor Hickok. Their approaches to this subject were very different. Music was created by God as good, and even though it could be corrupted, I was sure rock music wasn’t a sin. It was a preference. As these thoughts swirled around in my head I suddenly heard myself interrupting.

“I disagree.”

Stopping mid sentence, Pastor Hickok leaned back in his chair, his thick black rimmed glasses turned toward me, reflecting the sunlight from the windows just enough so I could not see his eyes in that position. I was just as shocked as he looked. As I sat there in the awkward silence it slowly dawned on me I had challenged his authority, something that good fundamentalists were not supposed to do. Those God had placed over us were not to be questioned, but obeyed. To obey them was to obey God. Panic rose in my throat. Unable to look Pastor Hickok in the face I stared at the floor suppressing an overwhelming desire to run. I had committed the unpardonable sin.

It was several minutes before he spoke. Somewhere in the room I could hear a clock ticking and birds singing outside. Children were on the playground for recess, their sounds of play coming muffled through the windows. The beat of my heart pounded in my head. Eventually he broke the awkward silence.

“Your music teacher was trained at Bob Jones University and knows much more than you or I on this subject,” he explained tersely. “If he says it’s the devil’s music then it is.” He leaned forward in his chair, his black bushy eyebrows raised. “And I trust his judgment completely.”

That was that. There was no room for disagreement.

Finding a slip of paper on his desk he began writing. “As a result of your obvious love of the Devil’s music and your willingness to be associated with liberals, you are suspended from school tomorrow.” Without looking up from the note he was obviously making for Mrs. Perry, he ended our conversation. Taking another piece of paper he began writing down Bible passages. I waited patiently. “Take this time to think about being unequally yoked with unbelievers and the evils of rock music.” Handing the list to me he added to my sentence. “Read these verses before you return to school.”

He ushered me out of his office with a wave of his hand. I bolted from the office, happy to be free. Part of me was horrified that I had defied authority, and part of me was happy for the day off. Hadn’t I been taught that if you were doing the right thing you would be persecuted? Obviously I was on the right track.

Dutifully I looked up the verses Pastor Hickok had given me, but they were not convincing. Staring down at the list I had grown weary of proof texts. Rarely did they prove anything, and I suspected they were simply listed to make it look like there were Bible verses to support the doctrine being argued. I doubted that anyone ever read the proof texts anyway. A careful student of the Bible could come up with proof texts for practically anything. Truth, a most precious commodity, must be mined from the Bible even as gold is mined from the earth. It takes time, dedication, and a lot of work. Sure, there might be a proof text lying around somewhere just like there might be a gold nugget lying on the beach. But is it not the norm, rather the exception. If you want to know what the Bible teaches you have to study it for real.

My suspension made me somewhat notorious, a rebel to my class mates. Secretly I enjoyed the new distinction. This was decidedly strange since at my new church I was anything but a rebel. On the contrary, I was a religious nerd, a real Jesus geek living between two worlds. One world was fundamentalist where everything was neatly painted good or bad and protected by a strong wall of rules and regulations that protected from invasion by the evil secular world. In this world I was a rebel, bucking authority, swimming against the stream. On the other side was a world with many shades of grey and a blurring of the lines between secular and sacred. In that world I was a Jesus geek with short slicked back hair and a big King James Bible. I was finally learning to open that Bible and read it for myself.

---

[1] Romans 14:14 NASB

[2] Romans 14:16-17 NASB

[3] Romans 14:19, 20a NASB

[4] Romans 14:22 NASB

[5] C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, p 41-42

Traditional Funeral

Last night my wife Leslie and I went to a memorial service for a friend of her Mother. It was held at Christ Church, an American Anglican church in Plano. Many things reminded me of the Lutheran Church, and Anglican Churches I have visited in England.

We read from the Common Book of Prayer, recited both the Lord's Prayer and the Apostle's Creed, and we knelt to receive communion. The Christ candle was up front displaying the Alpha and Omega greek letters and a Cross. Candles were burning, and it was very hushed and reverent.

I don't find God missing in such services regardless of the repetition. In fact, so much Biblical truth is dispensed during a traditional service that the Homily (sermon) needs to be very good to impart something meaningful. Last night it was very good. I actually like traditional services and modern ones; God is in both because he promises to be wherever 2 or more are gathered in his name.

This morning I will get dressed and drive to my Church, a converted computer parts manufacturing building, to worship in a much more contemporary style, where the bulk of Biblical truth is dispensed in a sermon, not in a liturgy. Is this contemporary form of worship better? I don't think the question should revolve around a preconceived notion of spiritual quality. If it did, many of us would become Quality Assurance inspectors, placing our stamp of approval on services that meet our standards, rejecting those that don't.

God does not want us to be so narrow and limited. Think of Elisha who, after calling down fire from heaven to consume his sacrifice and winning a great victory over Idolatry, went into the wilderness to meet God. The Almighty did not meet him in the earthquake, nor in the mighty wind, nor in the fire, but in the still small voice. Elisha didn't met God at the temple that time, because God is not confined to the Jewish temple any more than he is confined to our places of worship.

So, let's practice finding him in the unlikely places.

What Church Tradition did you grow up in?

What kind of church did you grow up in? A high (formal) Church like Lutheran, Episcopal, or Catholic; or a low (informal) Church like Baptist or Bible Church?

Here is an excerpt from my Book describing when we changed from the Lutheran Church to a little GARB Baptist church. Please share your experience. Which one do you prefer, or do you think it doesn't matter?

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It didn’t take a genius to see that our new church was very different from the Lutheran churches I had grown up in. Too young to appreciate the theological nuances or glaring differences the clues I did pick up on were more subtle, but equally powerful. The lack of padded pews was the first clue and may have contributed to me pondering this more than I normally would. Those hard pews kept me awake during the much longer sermons that were common in our little Baptist church.

Churches even smell different. You know what I mean; they have a kind of smell, unlike any other building. Why they smell is a mystery, they just do. The more “other-worldly” they smell the more formal they are. At least I think so.

Our Lutheran church smelled of candles and red wine served with soft bread at the Eucharist. From a very early age I thought that all churches smelled like what stain glass windows would smell like if you could smell colors – rich, complex and vibrant. A Sunday morning at the Lutheran Church included the Lutheran prayer book, candles, and reciting in unison The Lord’s Prayer and the Apostle’s creed while the colors cast by the morning sun streaming through the windows danced across the sanctuary. The solemn chorus of voices in easy rhythm always seemed majestic and well, holy to me. The whole spectacle was fascinating and I never found it boring. Prim and proper was the order of the day; the pastor wore a majestic robe, and so did altar boys and the choir. Everything was so different from our everyday lives, almost other-worldly.

The arrangement at the front of the church, although not as complex as a Catholic Church, was robust and full of symbolism and mystery. There were two pulpits, one on the left and one on the right of the platform, where the scriptures would be read and we would be led to speak prayers and creeds in unison. In the middle was a big table on which sat a very big Bible. Banners often hung from the walls celebrating Easter or some other event on the Christian church calendar. Somewhere up front was the Christ Candle, a constant reminder that Christ was the focus. Sunday morning felt sacred, hushed and holy. The order, predictability, and majesty of the service awed and comforted me. The Lutheran church was a delight for the senses.

As rich, ornate and symbolic as the Lutheran church was, our little Baptist church was bleak and plain. The difference was like a Japanese Geisha girl in colorful silk robes standing next to an Amish school girl in button-less black and white. Plain was obviously a good thing here. Following that logic the walls inside our church were not painted any special color, and there were no stained glass windows. No banners, no decorations of any kind graced the sanctuary. The only splash of color was the red Baptist Hymnals. There were no candles, no long formal reading of the scriptures from both the Old and New Testaments, no creeds said in unison and few responsive readings. Like the building, the smell was completely different, as plain and simple as the walls enclosing us.

We dressed different too matching the plain and simple décor of our church. Modern fashion was kept at a distance in our new church. No hippies or long haired men with earrings and tattoos were allowed. Women wore their dresses to the middle of their knees and the men wore ties. No bell bottom or hip hugger pants, no shorts on women, no halter tops. Makeup was kept to a minimum with the admonition, “If the barn needs painting, then paint it.”

The focus of our service was not the Bible up front, or the Christ candle, or the readings from the Old and New Testaments. It was not stained glass, the altar or the baptistery. Instead, the focus was clearly on the preacher. In fact, everything in this little church emphasized an obsession with the preacher and his sermon. The pulpit was smack dab in the center, with a communion table in front. Nothing was allowed that would distract from the preacher and the sermon; except of course for the attendance board that informed us how many were in attendance last week. We obviously needed to know who was there or not. Christianity at our new church was stark; four walls and a sermon. 

An excerpt from my book: Chapter 5

School ended and summer came and went. My senior year began, and I knew it was going to be the best ever. We had a new principal who was not the Pastor, and I the first day of school I approached him with my latest idea – a student council. To my surprise he approved, probably to keep me and my radical ideas under constant supervision. Our first election ended with me as senior class president of our first student council. Still the geek I was trying to be a jock getting involved in varsity sports. Of course, at a small Christian school, everyone has to be involved or they don’t have enough payers for a team. My real love was writing and photography. Along with taking most of the pictures I was also editor of the Yearbook. My senior year started out very promising.

After my birthday in September, I turned sixteen. Old enough to have a full time job paying minimum wage I could earn money for gas and car insurance. My parents gave me a car so I could drive myself to school and I paid for my monthly tuition at my Christian School from my own wages. During the twenty five mile drive to school each day, alone with a radio, I began listening to the local top 40 station; nothing too hard or acid, only a blend of pop and classic rock. It didn’t matter what I listened to it was all fairly new to me. Sometimes I would switch over to the local Christian radio station when they were playing a music set instead of teaching. The words and music of contemporary Christian music appealed to me. Hard rock didn’t really appeal to me, but contemporary rock was something I really liked. My tastes were definitely James Taylor and Bread over Led Zepplin or Def Lepard.

One day, under her coat, a classmate smuggled a record by Larry Norman to school and began loaning this Christian hard rock contraband to others, including me. Today many consider Larry Norman to be the father of Christian Rock. At the time he was a liberal, long haired hippie Christian fake; at least to us fundamentalists. The album being passed around, Just Visiting This Planet, was released in 1974 and was much anticipated after the buzz created by his 1972 song, “Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music?” Some of the lyrics of this song were particularly offensive to Christian fundamentalists and conservatives. He almost started a Christian jihad single handedly. As I listened to this record my ears and cheeks burned.

They say rock ’n’ roll is wrong, we’ll give you a chance

I say I feel so good I gotta get up and dance.

There’s nothing wrong with what I play.

’Cause Jesus is the rock and he rolled my blues away.

Overt references to dancing, racism, poverty and sexually transmitted diseases guaranteed that his music would be rejected by most conservative Christians. If one listened to his lyrics much of what he was saying was not bad, but spoke in the language of the day. He was highly relevant to the drug and hippie culture and mainstream conservative Christians hated him. But he didn’t candy coat the social ills of the day. Speaking a challenge to his generation he proclaimed, “Why don’t you look into Jesus, he got the answer?” He was Billy Graham meets Mick Jagger.

For conservative Christians he was more Mick Jagger than Billy Graham. He violated all of the outward boundary markers but he remained difficult to label. His music was definitely Rock, but his lyrics had a strong, if sometimes crude message true to the gospel. He voiced agreement with all the tenets of the faith, but mingled easily with non-Christians. His first band was not a Christian Band per se, and they opened for big names such as the Grateful Dead, The Doors and the Byrds. These were not exactly gospel quartets or Christian choirs. They were a blatant mix of secular and Christian. For fundamentalists he was secular simply because of his music and lack of good Christian fashion and grooming. For young people there was something about his lyrics and the integrity of his spiritual and personal life that was compelling. He made a significant impact on me, fifteen years before the Jesus People movement brought Contemporary Christian Music to mainstream churches and Christian America.

Although most of his music was filled with conventional spiritual messages, his hippie-length hair, ragged jeans and radical social themes insured that his records would be kept off the racks of most Bible Book stores for most of his forty year career. In 1969 Larry gave an interview where he articulated an approach that would eventually shake modern day Christianity.

“I wanted to push aside the traditional gospel quartet music, break down the church doors and let the hippies and the prostitutes and other unwashed rabble into the sanctuary. I wanted to talk about feeding the poor, going into the world.... I wanted the church to get active and go out and do what Jesus told us to do. I felt that while the hymns had great theology soaked into their lyrics, that most of the modern music was anemic and needed a transfusion."

Most of his music I didn’t care for, it was a style that didn’t appeal to me at the time. But his lyrics spoke directly to my heart. One particular song became the cry of my heart, my true desire to be defined as the kind of Christian Jesus commanded us to be – lovers. Even today I can still quote and sing it totally from memory.

You can be a righteous rocker

Or a holy roller

You can be most anything

You can be a child of the slum

Or a skid-row bum

You can be an earthly king

But without lu-uv you ain’t nothin, without luu-uuv

Said without lu-uv you ain’t nothin without love

You didn’t hear that, but I was singing pretty well just now.

Whether you liked his music or not, or whether you tolerated his hair and clothes or not, many of us knew he was changing things. Conservative Evangelicals and fundamentalists are familiar with Larry Norman because his song, I Wish We’d All Been Ready, a ballad about the pre-tribulation rapture, was highlighted in a 1972 movie entitled, A Thief in the Night. It was produced by MARK IV Pictures, the Christian film distribution company of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. This movie was the first mainstream popularization of the dispensational view of the rapture and the end of the world, a view held dear by most fundamentalists.

Because of this, you would think that this movie would be welcomed by fundamentalists. It was not. It was banned by many churches including my Christian school. Not because the doctrine was bad, but because the song was written by a long haired, liberal so-called Christian, and produced by the liberal Billy Graham ministry. Making matters worse the movie was shown in local theaters not exclusively in churches. It blurred the lines between secular and Christian.

While Just Visiting This Planet made the rounds at my Christian school, I was emboldened to introduce some sedate Bill Gaither Trio music to the lunchroom at school. Their album, Alleluia! A Praise Gathering for Believers was a radical departure from their gospel quartet heritage. Following Larry Norman’s lead they decided to embrace drums and music with a beat. These Pentecostals would introduce contemporary Christian music to my parent’s generation. Thinking it would be a good foray into modern Christian music I got out a record player and plopped my vinyl disc on the turntable. A strong drum beat filled the room.

Again I found myself in the principal’s office. They would not let the devil’s music corrupt the students at their school. Secretly I smiled as I was told I was suspended for three days this time. It was Ok with me. Taking the fall, I became a martyr for my cause while Christian rocker Larry Norman was making the rounds right under their fundamentalist noses.