The Rosary

 

 

I’m not Catholic.  Well, not in the strictest sense.  In the sense that Catholic means “universal,” I am quite Catholic.  Just not… you know… Catholic. 

But I love the Catholic Church.  I am deeply in love with traditional liturgy anywhere it may be found, whether that may be Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Anglican, Presbyterian, Methodist, etc.  I love the liturgy.

Years ago I considered converting to Catholicism.  I probably would have, but I went through that RCIA or something like that, and just never got in.  I didn’t enter at the right time or something, and to become Catholic, I would have had to wait another year before I could become a member of the church and be able to participate in the Eucharist.  So I just started going to a Lutheran church.  They let me in right away.

Anyway, while I was considering Catholocism, I bought a rosary from Italy.  Haven’t done much with it since, but Marcus and i were at the bookstore tonight with our special lady friends, and I bought a book on the rosary. 

I respect religious traditions and (gasp!) rituals a whole lot. And I really want to discipline my prayer life (prayer being communion with the Mystery we call God). 

So I’m feeling good about this purchase.  I’m feeling good about grabbing that dust laden cloth pouch with my rosary in it, and seeing what happens.

I’m not Catholic. 

But I’m down with the rosary.

Christian

What does it mean to be a Christian?  If someone were to walk up to you today, and ask you, “What is a Christian?”,  what would your answer be?

Let me know.

This About Sums It Up

I’m reading “A Purple State of Mind,” by Craig Detweiler. In the first chapter, he quotes Fight Club, and it really struck a chord with me. It perfectly defines what we’re going through today. It defines the zeitgeist, the moral sense of life, that we as Christians have to face head-on and address.

Here’s the quote:

“Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don’t need. We’re the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War’s a spiritual war… Our Great Depression is our lives. We’ve all been raised on television to believe that one day we’d all be millionaires and movie gods and rock stars. But we won’t. And we’re slowly learning that fact. And we’re very, very pissed off.”

Welcome to the world, folks.

What does the gospel have to offer in the face of this? Church on Sunday, then a nice dinner, then back off to work for another week? What sort of radical life is Christ calling us to? What alternative does he hold in his hands?

The world is dying, literally dying, to hear the gospel.

We just need to make sure we’re getting the message across.

And, truthfully, I’m still kind of in the process of finding out what that message is.

What is it, people? What can we, as Christ followers, offer a dying world, enslaved to consumerism and self-worship?

What can we do?

The National “Worship Leader” Conference

I was in Texas for a week.

The first night I was a bit disoriented, I think from the long flight and having to go straight to the conference without any downtime.  Matt Redman played that night, and Skip Heitzig spoke.  I think that’s how you spell it.  But I was not vibing with the conference that night, and thought to myself that if this was how it was going to go, it was going to be a bad week. 

Luckily, things sweetened up.

The next morning I heard Leonard Sweet give a talk on metaphor in the church.  I had never heard of him.  They had his books there, and I bought “The Gospel According to Starbucks.”  I also went to his seminar “Summoned to Lead.” It was a great privilege to meet him. 

Then I went to the “Pastor as Storyteller” seminar, taught by Bishop Joseph Garlington, which was also a complete blessing, as well as “Into The Dark,” a seminar by Craig Detweiler.  

Needless to say, I came home with a lot of books.

Two things going on today that were featured at this conference are the Odes of Solomon and The Voice.

The Odes are early Christian hymns put to music, and I think they’re beautiful, and the Voice is a new “translation” of the scriptures, which I’m really excited about.  I got to meet Greg Garrett, the reteller of the gospel of Mark.  I think The Voice is going to be a great contribution to the church.

My time in Texas really did a lot to dig out some entrenched, judgmental attitudes and gave me the opportunity to meet really amazing followers of Jesus.

Things of note to sum up:

Riverbend Church: location of the conference, was quite an architectural feat.
Odes of Solomon: excellent tunes you need to check out.
Leonard Sweet: Cool dude, has things to say that the church needs to hear.
Craig Detweiler: Look into his film and books to see how the church can relate to the culture.
Joseph Garlington: Great speaker and teacher.
The Voice: New retelling of the Scriptures that you should definitely look into.
Lincoln Brewster, Tommy Walker:  Two cool musicians.

Dig it.

CvC Season 3

Are you ready? 

Season 3 of Culture vs. Christian is getting ready to hit the streets.  We’re single-handedly taking on the emergent church and declaring ourselves post-emergent, we’re thinking about bringing back the prophet beards, we’re less bitter, yet filling…..

It’s all happening!

Justice at “The Border”

From my friends at the Bridge:

Friends,

Most of you have surely heard of the tragic shooting of the young mother at our local Taco Bell Restaurant on Patrick Street this past Saturday.

Taco Bell management has allowed the store to remain closed until tomorrow, Thursday, at 10AM, in the interest of their employees.

Management invited several local pastors and counselors to meet with all of their employees yesterday. We spent much of the time with them as a group and also broke up for individual ministry. It was a powerful time that surely will aid the healing process in their lives.

The Patrick Street Taco Bell is going to contribute the total proceeds of Thursday’s sales toward the needs of the family of the young woman.

We are encouraging all who read this e-mail to purchase at least one meal there tomorrow, Thursday, July 10, 2008.

Please forward this message on to your local contacts and make a point to visit this restaurant tomorrow, even if you only buy a coke.

The management is to be commended for their interest in doing justice for their employees and for the family of the young woman.

Emerging?

I don’t want anyone to get the idea that I’m “emerging.”  In my previous blog, I talked about the term “christfollower.”  I don’t want to replace “christian” with that.  I’m just saying I happen to like the term “christfollower.”  I think a lot is implied in that term, like a person’s commitment to be a disciple of Jesus, not just to believe in because of some eternal reward, but to attempt to model your life after his every day – to take his teachings to heart, and walk in his footsteps.  To be a “little Christ.”

It’s up to each and every one of us to be the reflection of the Light that lights the world.  We are like the moon, the lesser light, which shines in the night and reflects the glory of the sun. 

I think “christfollower” implies that very well.

As for the “emergent” movement, I still don’t really like it.  I watched some youtube videos of the church village roadshow or whatever, and it still seems off key to me – not the singing, but just the general mood of the whole deal.  Doug Pagitt unnerves me.  And I watched Tony Jones’ responses to prior critical videos, and he was singing that song on every one.  I get the humor behind it.  And what he’s saying.  But it’s still off-key to me. 

Really, the only thing the emergent folks encourage me to do is to watch my tone, and the way I talk about people.  Jones’ response videos are, to me, disrespectful of the argument.  It is far from “rising above it.”  If people have genuine criticisms and concerns, how is it respecting them just to sing an old-timey song? 

But all emergent-types do encourage me to be more honest, sincere, and authentic in my own life.  Which can’t be a bad thing.

So blessings on us all, then.

I spent the evening on the patio of our local Panera Bread.  The restaurant had closed, so there was no one else there, and a nice breeze was blowing.  We sat discussing religion, and I was able to vent some frustrations about our modern conception of church, some of which were explored in Dialogue 1.

But we also talked about how us followers of Jesus were supposed to be the Light of the world; ambassadors of his kingdom.  What does that mean?  What does that look like?

I think it’s pretty heavy to dwell on.

One thing that being a disciple involves is being brutally honest: with yourself, about yourself, and to yourself.  With others, about others, and to others.

Honesty.

Being honest that you’re nowhere near where you should be.  And honestly admitting that you actually do need to be somewhere.

Jesus called us to conform to a certain image – to a certain way of life.

I’m not quite sure what all that entails yet.

But I’m hoping we get there together.

Dialogues

I’m going to start writing a series of dialogues between who I call the “christfollower” and various people that he comes into contact with.  The first dialogue featured a Baptist.  This was in no way a direct hit against the Baptist denomination.  The love of my life, in fact, belongs to this denomination.  And a future dialogue will no doubt involve a Lutheran, the denomination with which I am now affiliated.

So I don’t want anyone to get the wrong idea that I’m out to attack certain denominations and leave others untouched.  Rather, I want to take a scrutinizing look at all aspects of theology and the church through these dialogues, for I’ve found that they allow me a unique way of exploring my own questions and theories.

Now I see why the Greeks were so fond of them. . .

Dialogue #1

Dialogue

Between a Baptist  and a Christfollower

 

Baptist: I didn’t see you at Church, yesterday.

Christfollower: Yeah, I just needed a day to myself. Just to relax. 

B: ::sigh:: There’s really no excuse, you know, for missing.  Why didn’t you go?

CF: I don’t know.  I just… didn’t feel like it.

B: There’s got to be a reason.

CF: I just told you the reason.

B: Well, that’s not an acceptable excuse.

CF: Why is that unacceptable?  I mean, the way I see it, what you call “church” is basically just a gathering of Christians, right?  A get-together of the disciples of Jesus, right?  Well, that happens every time two or three of us get together.  I mean, aren’t we at “church” right now?

B: There’s a difference between Christian fellowship and the instituted worship of God’s people.  We assemble for worship once a week.  That’s a little different than hanging out with your Christian buddies. 

CF:  What if my Christian buddies get together and talk about our faith, and read the Bible, or other books, and even take communion? 

B: It’s still different.

CF: And what if we don’t do any of that?  What if we just get together and enjoy life?  Isn’t that in itself glorifying God?  St. Paul said we could glorify God in all we do.  So what’s it matter if I don’t go to this building every Sunday?  I just don’t see how that’s so important.

B: It’s important because you need the Lord in your life.

CF: The Lord is in my life. I find it odd that you seem to question that just because I don’t put a suit on and show up at church every Sunday.

B: Now you’re just being…

CF: No, hear me out.  I’m not trying to judge “church.”  I’m just saying that we’ve reached a point in our conversation where I constantly have to say “church” in a different tone of voice, because we have different ideas about what that word means.  To me, going to church is a valuable thing, and I’m not discrediting that in the least.  All I’m saying is, I think we’ve made it out to be more than a gathering of Christians.  We’ve turned it into a commandment.  You’ve just implied that when you told me I needed a very good reason to miss church.  I thought being a Christian was about celebrating God’s grace in your life, His love, and His mercy stretched out over a very imperfect humanity.  It’s not about showing up at a certain place, doing a certain thing, dressing a certain way. 

B: It is about God’s grace, love and mercy.  But it’s also about worshiping God.  That’s a commandment.  “Do not forsake the assembling of the saints.” 

CF: I’m not forsaking the assembly of the saints.  In fact, I’m encouraging a never-ending assembly! But, boiling it down to the Bible for now, when does any book in the New Testament tell us to come to “church” every Sunday?

B: I can’t think of an explicit command. But that doesn’t mean it’s not there.  Also, tradition confirms that the Christians did meet on the first day of the week.  It’s what’s always been done.

CF: True.  I agree that Christians have always had a set meeting.  But I just wanted you to acknowledge that most of your argument for regularly attending structured church meetings was grounded in tradition, not scripture. 

B: Absolutely.  The tradition of our elders is important.

CF: Yet you reject many aspects of this same tradition.  What are your grounds for rejecting some aspects of this tradition and keeping other aspects?  You say we have always gone to church.  True, we have always met together, it seems.  And that is good.  But, tradition also speaks of infant baptism, which you, as a Baptist, have rejected.  Restricting baptism to adults only, although logical, was not done until the Anabapist movement.  So tradition, in this case, is largely on the side of infant baptism, and the Bible, just like on the issue of church attendance, does not seem to say much one way or the other.  And tradition also favors liturgical worship, so even in worship, the Catholics have you beat when it comes to tradition.  Here is the heart of the issue:  You have turned church attendance into a commandment, into something that either gets you closer to the kingdom of God or not.  And that’s where I have to disagree with you.  See, as a follower of Jesus, I have seen that I am a child of God.  And as such, I’ll always seek out fellowship with others, and we’ll do our best to worship God in spirit and truth.  And that has nothing to do with dressing nice and singing along to hymns and, honestly, being bored and distracted much of the time.

B: See! That’s where you get hung up.  You’re not really concerned about worshiping God, you’re concerned about whether you’re being entertained or not.

CF: That’s not it at all.  I’m quite assured when it comes to the validity of my faith: I am a follower of Jesus.  So worship will never be boring, dull, or uninteresting.  If I am in a situation where it is; if I am in a situation where I’m thinking about what movies are out instead of “worship,” then I am not worshiping God.  So what good would it do me to sit in church?  I am not worshiping God there.  I am hanging out with fellow Christians, and that’s cool: that has value.  But let’s call it what it is.  And, really, maybe everything we do is worship, anyway.

B: Well, all I’m saying is, we’re gonna have to disagree on what church is.

CF: That’s what I’ve been saying all along, brother.