The Postmodern Pied Piper

The tune plays on, and on we whip and whirl down a road that leads to a place both "strange and new." On and on we go till we're hidden away like the rest behind the door of irrelevancy. Some laud it, some cheer it, others quietly accept it and others couldn't be bothered to notice it. We should - Christians should. I like a quote I heard once from ( I believe) a Dr. Thomas R. Schriener, though I confess the specific source escapes me at the moment. While probably misquoting him (which I hate doing) the general message was:
One cannot be postmodern and be Christian, you may very well be "postmodern" and hold to some confession of belief, but it cannot be a Christian confession.
And he's absolutely right. But convince the average mid-size (or larger) contemporary church of that. When I was doing my undergrad - Christian Ministry - we were encouraged to look to the culture to determine how best to form our approach to scripture, how to determine relevant truth, and base our scriptural conclusions on how the culture we're in is viewing things at the time. Now, before you agree... Did you hear that? Did you hear that? Instead of starting with the Bible, instead of starting at the sound doctrine of 2000 years of the objective view of truth and scripture - I should look to culture FIRST when determining "what is relevant truth" to a people! Now I'm not referring to exporting our American version of Christianity, I'm talking about what helps someone determine what is truth - and there are apparently many "scholarly" people out there bent on redefining what the ultimate source of truth is. That teaching is, and those that prescribe it are 'anaqema' - for those lest Greek inclined, it's accursed, damned, submitted to God for judgment. Anathema. Ouch! How can you say that Bob? We're not supposed to judge! " I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed! " -Galatians 1:6-9 Want Islam and Christianity to worship the same god? Sure! Want God to be no more knowledgeable, no more able than you? Okay! Want Salvation to be 50% willpower and 50% grace? Sure *cough - Pelagian - cough* Okay, enough dramatics. Church, ecclesia - You who have been called from darkness and transferred into light - you know well who you are. If you live in North America, this fight is certainly before you. The time for falling back on anecdotes and "nice and churchy" colloquialisms is over. I am ashamed there ever was a time that they were tolerated. I'm not a defeatist, and I am certainly no optimist either. I don't think we've got a mandate biblically to be either. What I do know - is that there are churches and seminaries, bible schools and bible studies, purpose books and prosperity preachers all more interested in topical, milky, exhortation light messages intent on having you continue to trot to the tune of the postmodern pied piper. "Don't confront! Don't upset! Don't rebuke and Don't you fret! Teach away your happy tales and leave alone the Word that impales!" The Gospel - the real one - is sharp. It rends, and cuts, and cleaves the people of God from the rest of the world. It is divisive, it is afflicting, and it's not meant to merely make us comfortable. The fact that the "church" largely seeks to find what is relevant from culture is a testament to the grim reality that indeed the tickling of the ear is more important that the piercing of the heart to many. So where is this going? I cannot really tell you, except that I pray earnestly that your heart is burdened for the Bride of Christ. We dine so often in this culture on a perceived "spiritual buffet." Some have actually spun that like it was good - a precarious tune to hear indeed. There's another word for it, if you ask me. Idolatry. May You cause our hearts to dwell richly in Your word. May You make us stay, and fight, and fight to be renewed by it!. Christ rend our hearts and expose the soft and painful parts. Pierce our minds and cleave away our thought that anything else than you can satisfy. Make us walk in a might that does not wait to be asked but that attacks things we know to be deception and vice. Align us to Your will, and as always make the Glory of Your Name be the obsession that moves us to really live! Give us fists to fight, and make us love Your word so that we've weapons forged for that very purpose. -For Your Glory, May it be so.

When the Grass Really Is Greener

Well, it has indeed been awhile, and much has transpired since my last report on this particular blog. I got accepted to Southern, and am now living in Louisville! And in brief, the grass really is greener up here. Of course I don't just mean that literally, as the grass can get quite brown in Texas this time of year, but as an analogy of life-change.

Lots of changes and lots of un-learning are to come. Expect more blogs to come!

Lord, Help Me Believe!

Now for some honesty. I am in the application process for entering The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary - and it's not an easy season for me. When I attended Hardin-Simmons for my undergrad, I had such high hopes for growing in theological education in general. Now if you didn't know, my opinion (shared by a larger community) is that HSU's Logsdon School of Theology is a very "freely academic" institution. The other word I would use less carefully is "liberal." In my time at HSU I had to battle Pelagianism, Humanism, Open-Theism, Relativism and Universalism (to name a few) submitted by Theology professors as acceptable belief and practice. It was frustrating, wasteful, woeful, and heartbreaking just about every day. By the way, to those who might come across this blog and beg to differ about those viewpoints with me, let me save you the energy of debate with a simple word on my perspective: No. To my shame, I honestly let it get to me. The first semester in wasn't so bad, but with each successive semester I became increasingly disgruntled and shortsighted. I argued with professors on previously universally accepted tenets of orthodoxy and biblical merit (like the foreknowledge of God) often. Classes were devoid of joy and edification, unless it was a negative reaction from the garbage that was being thrown out. To be fair, there were gems in that hard landscape - some things that I got out of that all that made it tolerable - but on the whole it was a very difficult place to want to grow in ministry. To compound this, I started having rather pervasive health issues - migraines, severe allergies, and all the associated complications. Throw in a absurdly trying relationship -that the Lord orchestrated - and you have a mixture for calamity when it comes to one's "Academic Performance." My grades dropped, I was exhausted constantly, and I was held over the precipice for what seemed like ages. It was the darkest, hardest, loneliest, most eroding best thing in my life. It was horrible, but it I can't honestly I could trade it for an easier path. came to adore scripture, rest in God's grace and ultimate control - and I learned to plead for Him. You know (or maybe not) those late nights where you just pound your fist against the floor and can't even fashion words more than "mercy... Oh please have mercy." There were a lot of nights like that. There's a line in the song "Table for Two" that says "... And You know the plans that you have for me; And You can't plan the ends and not plan the means." Another theological way of saying it is, "The heavy door swings on small hinges." For Job, it means "Naked I came from my mother's womb, And naked I shall return there. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD." For a psalmist it meant "Not to us, O LORD, not to us, But to Your name give glory Because of Your lovingkindness, because of Your truth. Why should the nations say, 'Where, now, is their God?' But our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases. " On and on it goes. For me it goes like this too. Sometimes brutal, sometimes gossamer; sometimes with dancing, sometimes with sobbing; always beautiful. Here's the honest part. I am once again confronted with the reality of present circumstances. Here I am, with a decidedly spotty academic record, waiting to be accepted into what can only be characterized as my dream school. It feels so right, so rich and promising. There is much that seems on the line, my relationship of 2 years, my heart, my further education, my career possibilities, many of my close friendships - the list is intimidating. It's hard to trust, make no mistake... It's very hard to believe when you've got a brain like mine that loves little details and is not given over easily to floating optimism. This quirk normally keeps me grounded, humble - but of late it's kept me kind of anxious. If I don't get in to Southern, it's fundamentally back to square one with much of my life. Relationship, future, place, friends, congregation, and home - a pretty "all in" bet if you're playing Texas Hold'Em. When my head pleads with my heart, "You know you live in the Father's House, trust!" and my heart shudders with wanderings like, "What if?" and "What about?" I have to go back to pleading, "I don't deserve it, I can't earn it, I can't control it, please... please do Your will and help me Love it." I am not often scared, but I think it's safe to say I am now. The other part of that is that my Theology would cover it, wouldn't it? Some of the more antagonistic would certainly use that as a weapon to attack. What can I say, understanding and practice are not often equally yoked. So in all of this, my confession of late has been pretty simple. I need grace to either believe He's have me at Southern, or I need the grace to trust Him in the event that 90% of my life's familiarities change right in front of me. Either way grace is what I desperately need, and either way I find myself in the same position as the father in Mark 9:22, who said to Jesus about his tormented son; "But if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!" The response is great. "And Jesus said to him, " 'If You can?' All things are possible to him who believes." Immediately the boy's father cried out and said, "I do believe; help my unbelief." I do believe Lord, Help my unbelief. That's pretty much it.

Fine Words From a Friend

I'm not normally one to plug bands and whatnot, but after borrowing my girlfriend's copy of "I See Things Upside Down" by Derek Webb - I've gotta pass some of it along. Those that know me are aware of some of my criticism of North American popular "Evangelicalism." So when a talented guy like Derek Webb comes along and expresses the same sentiment in a way I wouldn't be able to, it feels quite nice. So, since I am short on time, and the words are good - here's a little bit of lyrics from a song entitled "Ballad in Plain Red" from our friend Derek Webb.
ballad in plain red(words and music by derek webb)
i’m robbing peter, i’m paying paul \ i’m changing my name back to sau \ i got to them and you know i’ll get to you... i’m turning shepherds into sheepand \ leaders into celebrities \ it’s holy sabotage, just look around you...
chorus
‘cause everything’s for sale in the 21st century \ and the check is in the mail from the 21st century
don’t want the song i want a jingle \ i love you Lord but don’t hear a single \ and the truth is nearly impossible to rhyme... but i know the songs with all the hooks \ and i know some lies that will sell some books \ so grab ‘em fast, i’m running outta time... just keep selling truth in candy bars \ on billboards and backs of cars \ truth without context, my favorite of all my crimes...
chorus
bridge what works verses what's right / hey what's the difference tonight?
take out the sign, forget the meal \ we’ve got a gym and a farris wheel \ i swear it's just like the country club down the block... ‘cause you can make your life look good \ you can do what Jesus would \ but you’d be surprised what you can do with a hard heart...
chorustag
i think you’ve got trouble in the 21st century / so welcome to the struggle, it’s the 21st century / i never thought i’d make it to the 21st century / Lord, i love the 21st century
i write these words from the grave \ ‘cause it’s the only place that i’m safe \ and only the dead are permitted to speak the truth...
(Speaks for itself, doesn't it?)