Size Matters, Church Wise

Michael Bell, occasional contributor to the Internet Monk blog, has a fascinating statistical analysis of church sizes. Be prepared to do the math. It's worth the read.

Friday Night Potpourri

Junk and stuff for a Friday night with good weather:

• I watched Johnathan Sanchez of the San Francisco Giants pitch a no-hitter on TV tonight. I had a ticket for last night, and my family has tickets for tomorrow night. Not the best part of a sandwich to not eat. Congratulations anyway!
  
• I had a business call with somebody from North Carolina tonight. He asked about our rainfall here in California. Uhhhm, we don't have any from May to October, I told him. Or very little. He said he visited the East Bay (Oakland area) several years ago, and it was cold, so he had to wear a jacket in summer. Uh, yes to that, too. Living here is weird because San Francisco is famous for its fog and cold evenings, yet California is famous for sunshine and hot weather. Outsiders can't figure it out.
• I understand that it was the 500th birthday of John Calvin. I'm unemployed so I can't even afford that many candles.
• I've written several posts on this blog about the dog doo on my front lawn. I figured out it's really cats.
• Do a Google Maps view of your neighborhood, then type in "church" in the search box. Interesting.
• For Father's Day I recieved some CD's: Foreigner's Double Vision, The Who's The Who By Numbers and UFO's Strangers In The Night. Excellent all.
• More pages are falling out of my bible than ever. I've had it for almost 30 years. Time for a new one?
  

Scripture, American Style (5)

What do you think? If any man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountain and go and search for the one that is straying? tell the ninety-nine, "He went out from us, but he was not really of us; for if he had been of us, he would have remained with us; but he went out, in order that it might be shown that he was not of us." (Matthew 18:12, ref. 1 John 2:19)

Read an explanation of Scripture, American Style here.

Read entire series here.

Strikethrough and red letter text technique courtesy of Alan Knox's "Scripture...As We Live It" series.

Mark Dever: Infant Baptism Is Sin - Baptism: A Third View (Part 8)

Read all posts in this series here.

I came across in the blog archives of an old friend of mine, Alex Chediak, a post dealing with comments made Mark Dever of 9Marks, stating that as a pastor, infant baptism was one of the things (see #11) that he could not live with. He both in this post and in a further clarification, calls both the theology and practice of infant baptism a sin, although an "unintentional" one. Quoting:

I certainly do not think my paedobaptist brethren are intentionally sinning in this. In fact, they even think that they are obeying God so, short of them changing their understanding of the Bible's teaching on this, I can't expect any "repentance," because they lovingly but firmly disagree with the Baptist understanding of this.

The curious point for me is that Dever "can't expect" any repentance from paedobaptists. Huh? One of the nine marks of Dever's group is the practice of church discipline. I'm curious to know if, as a pastor, Dever is consistent with people in his own congregation in this same expectation of repentance over things which they may disagree with their church doctrines. Could an "unrepentant" paedobaptist fellowship at Dever's church? Let's say a Presbyterian goes there only because it may be the only good church in the area, specific doctrine of baptism aside. Fellowship? Membership? Partaking in the Lord's table? Why? Why not? Somebody who was baptized as an infant wasn't baptized correctly, therefore wasn't baptized at all, therefore can't take the Lord's table, therefore he who doesn't eat My flesh and drink My blood has no part in Me, therefore isn't a real Christian, therefore...

Some of the comments in all these posts really show how divided the body is over such things, and how easily some people are really willing to anathematize over it. I've already pointed this out in previous parts in this series. And people like Dever paint themselves into a corner with their reluctance to take their presuppositions to their logical conclusions.

Blogroll Disclaimer

Blogroll Disclaimer:

All the sites that are linked to in my left margin under "BLOGROLL" and "OTHER LINKS" are there because I want them to be there. They don't necessarily reflect my views or opinions, but then of course I give you as my readers the intellectual credit for already knowing that. I don't often receive guilt-by-association accusations from my readers, and unless I get really big like iMonk or Team Pyro, I don't expect that to start soon. Some of those linked I agree with to a good degree, some I used to agree with them but no longer do. Some of them I even have there as somebody I disagree with that I like to write about disagreeing with them. A few I no longer read but am too lazy to delete the link.

Blogroll Disclaimer Disclaimer:

The fact that I have a blogroll disclaimer in no way as much as implies that I need a blogroll disclaimer. I have one simply because I sat down in my chair I got from a Home Express closeout sale - one with a cheap yellow cushion - and wrote it. In an effort to keep from writing a blogroll disclaimer disclaimer disclaimer, I simply note that bandwidth and time considerations are helpful in avoiding this. Please read my blog often, and if you want to send money, please email me first. If you give enough, I might add a PayPal widget or something. Thank you.

Got Funeral Tickets?

The Young Man No Church Wants

Shortly after attending my first church, I met a young man in a bible study. I figured he was new, and remembering how somebody befriended me when I first showed up, I decided to forward the favor to the new guy. Little did I know what he would be like, but it's safe to say that had I known from the beginning, I wouldn't have taken the time. That's really too bad, but I'm glad I knew nothing, as that gave him a chance and changed me as well. You see, he's one of those people that had a problem with church people caring about him. The following is only what I remember about him from my environment back then.

He was in his mid-20's when I met him, and he had a rough upbringing. His dad split when he was a kid, and his unskilled housewife mom taught the kids to steal, lie, cheat and any other thing to be able to live. He eventually found himself into new age spirituality and psychedelic drugs. He drank and smoked. He became a gay prostitute. He had a fetish for older women, and married a woman over 30 years his elder. He worked a night job with no public contact, and his wardrobe consisted mainly of alcohol and cigarette t-shirts he accumulated from gathering product coupons from his vices.

Then something big happened. He and his wife heard the gospel and converted to Christianity. They were told to attend a church. They did, Marlboro and Budweiser t-shirts and all. But rather than help them with their new faith, the church concentrated on the oddities and outward appearances in their lives. They were told to divorce immediately because of the difference in their ages, that their marriage was a terrible sin. They were so overwhelmed with dictations about societal norms that they left for another church. Same thing happened there. And so it was at a number of other churches. By the time I met him, his wife had left him for somebody else and he was church hopping by himself.

He was a peculiar character to me, for sure. He had different ideas about many things. As I got to know him over the span of a few weeks, I learned much about his oddities. I was too afraid to "confront" him on the same issues that others had, myself being afraid of confrontation. I'm glad I had that fear because it might have pushed him away instead of helping him out. I only knew him for a short time, and not too long after telling me he was looking for a new apartment, I called him only to find out his number was no longer in service. He stopped going to that church and I never saw him again.

I occasionally wonder where he is and if he's still in the faith. I may never find out, but knowing him taught me that there are good and bad ways to treat people based on the little things. Did the way that all those church people treated him make a difference?

Infantile Trust In God

Occasionally I hear trust in God compared to an infant who is in complete reliance upon its caretaker. An infant cannot do anything for itself, but receives everything from others. This trust, though, is completely passive. Is this real faith?

I've also heard numerous times within Protestantism that failure to "pray without ceasing", as in every minute of the day, or failure to be continually in a state of giving thanks is tantamount to practical atheism.

What, then, could be said about an infantile trust? Can there be anything said for a passive, non-conscious, non-active trust in God? When we seem to have no faith, is there a faith behind the faith? If yesterday I trusted God for salvation in an eternal sense, yet go most of today without even thinking about God, could I not realize tomorrow that even my inaction is a form of faith? After all, yesterday I trusted that I would still have faith tomorrow. And I found that yesterday's faith carried me through today.

Hypocrisy and Self-Control

Do you use words that you don't allow your kids to use? Do you drink, but not allow your kids to do the same? Any number of other things? Are you a hypocrite for such double standards? I occasionally hear this from people.

But this is not necessarily hypocrisy. I drive a car, but don't let my kids do the same. I use power tools, knives, chemicals, etc. I also use words that my kids can't. It's not hypocrisy when the use of things have to do with the varied levels of self-control possessed by the different people in view. There are certain words I don't let my kids use, not because the words are bad in and of themselves, but because of kids' tendencies to abuse them. I know a number of families that shun their kids' use of words like "stupid," "hate," "idiot" and others like them. Most often it seems, the kids use them to attack other people (i.e. "you're so stupid!"), whereas adults tend to use them more appropriately (i.e. "I did stupid things when I was younger.") Some words and acts require a great deal of tact and self-control in using them, and exercising self-control in the right situation is hardly wrong.

A Peek Inside A Church

I've been reading Alan Knox's The Assembling of the Church blog for a while now, and have been impressed with his handling of 1 Corinthians 11-14 and Hebrews 10:25 in his ecclesiology. He contends that the church meeting should be open for input from all those in attendance for the edification of all. I've always wondered what such a church meeting would look like, how it would feel, what it could accomplish.

In a related topic about my posts on sermon-centered church living, Cathy noted in her comment, "And, we all know what happens when the floor is opened for sharing--oftentimes, one person monopolizes it, or the topics are so off-topic that it becomes laughable, etc." This has been my experience, too, but I've always wondered why this couldn't be kept decently and in order.

Well, Alan posted earlier today a letter from somebody who visited their church explaining in their own words the experience at that church. It doesn't appear to have the monopolizing or the off-topic rants. Read about the church Alan assembles with by clicking here.

God and His People: Limiting the Use of Biblical Metaphors

The bible uses quite a number of metaphors to describe the relationship between God (and/or Christ) and His people. This is because the relationship is complex. Many metaphors are used, as analogies, simply because this relationship can't be described in its fullness. Every analogy fails at some point, so each metaphor has its limitations.

So when we restrict the number of metaphors used in describing this relationship, we do violence to this relationship. Off the top of my head, here are some metaphors describing our relationship to God:

God is our God, we are His people. God is a Father, we are His children. Christ is the vine, we are the branches. God/Christ is the Lord/King, we are His subjects. Jesus is the Master, we are His disciples. Jesus is Master, we are servants. Christ is the head, the church is the body, with individuals being members of the body. Christ is the bridegroom, the church is the bride. Christ is the heir, we are co-heirs. We are brethren, Christ is our elder brother. Christ is the temple, we are the stones. We are the temple, the apostles are the foundation, and Christ is the cornerstone. Christ is the shepherd, we are the sheep (individuality) and Christ is the shepherd, we are the flock (community).

Some, like the high-church types, limit our relationship to maybe a few of these metaphors. Others, to quote a pastor friend of mine, "like Rome, almost drop the metaphor completely and assume a genuine ontological reality - the most obvious example is what they do with the 'body of Christ.' It's a metaphor, not an ontological statement about the extension of Jesus' incarnation!" Much of what goes on in Protestant theology, as well, limits our existence to the confines of the church, and its few metaphors, when the greater applications of metaphors suggest that the kingdom, and our relationship to God in it, is far greater than the church.

Re-posted from original, dated May 20, 2007

Scripture, American Style (4)

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. (John 3:16) (Genesis 1:1)

Read an explanation of Scripture, American Style here.

Read entire series here.

Strikethrough and red letter text technique courtesy of Alan Knox's "Scripture...As We Live It."

Life Happens

...time and chance happeneth to them all. Ecclesiastes 9:11 KJV

I had a conversation with a friend the other day, and we talked about how life progresses. We both are in our mid 40's, and have each discovered things about life now, and how we have passions for those things that probably wouldn't have been as pronounced when we were younger. Things can happen at a place earlier in life that are changed by a big event. We wondered why some things take place that seem so irrelevant to later things, yet those things delay the others.

Life happens.

That's what. We simply have no other way to describe these things. Why God throws us a curve or forces us to change tracks against the red switching light, nobody here knows. Why did I sit at that pizza parlor (that doesn't exist anymore) with those people (who I haven't seen in 20 years, and likely never will again) for several years without any record existing of our time there? What did it prove? It seems to be a waste of time for what I'm doing now. What will come of it?

Who knows. Such are the mysteries of life.

The Sermon-Centered Life - My Comments

I received by far the most concentrated grouping of comments here on this blog on my last post, The Sermon-Centered Life. Thanks to all who commented.

One comment in particular struck me as telling of my overall experience in the Reformed circles of Christianity. Scott wrote in his comment, "I have issues with people saying things like 'the pulpit is sacred' because the pulpit's not in the bible." It is at this point that I'd like to suggest that the pulpit, the sermon, Sunday school, bible studies, men's breakfasts, and the like, are traditions well established in American religion. Many who are well versed in Reformation theology use the term, "Word and Sacraments" as what much focus should be in our churches. I take "Word" to mean "sermon" in general, because that's the medium we have most accepted for the preaching of Scripture, and its context is usually given in terms of the Sunday church meeting. Limiting the meaning of these terms to how they are practiced in the church as we know it poses a danger to our ability to confirm what is good. Anything outside of this meaning and we create an environment ripe for judgment of others simply because they haven't come to the same conclusions about religious life as we have.

In closing, I have a certain respect for tradition, and don't exclude it's place in our lives. Everything we do more than once is tradition. It is inescapable. But it's when we place this tradition in a position of exclusivity, we have a problem.

The Sermon-Centered Life

Over the last so many years I've tried to look at how we do religion and compare it with what the bible says. After all, as a Protestant I'm supposed to believe in Sola Scriptura and also in the Berean Spirit, where everything is searched in the Scriptures to see if it is so. So, here's my question: How did the Sunday sermon become so central to many of our religious lives?

In the Protestant Reformation, the reformers promoted the preaching of the word. Many of the Puritans placed their pulpits up on the wall, above the congregation, to emphasize the importance of preaching. This spirit has continued down to today when the sermon is still held in high regard. Okay, this is fine.

Now if I want to be really honest here, I don't see the doctrine of the pulpit in Scripture, nor do I see the centrality of the sermon. Off the top of my head, and without having read the entire New Testament in one sitting prior to this post, most instances of preaching are to unbelievers, whether to unbelieving Jews or to Gentiles. Yes, Paul talks about preaching and Timothy is instructed to preach the word in season and out of season. But of the four things the early church devoted itself to that many of today's pastors use as a basis for church essentials, namely the apostles' teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread and prayer (Acts 2:42), preaching isn't one of them. The church meeting shown in 1 Corinthians 12-14 doesn't include a sermon.

Don't get me wrong here. Preaching is scriptural. The sermon may have developed more as a tradition than not, but a tradition that isn't forbidden is fine. I'm fine with sermons and preaching. But what I'm trying to get at is why it's often so central, so much more important than all other things in the church, so often exclusionary of other things. Many times I have found myself thinking, "Gee, I'm a bit late to church for whatever reason, but at least I didn't miss the sermon." If the sermon goes late, sometimes other activities can be cut short for the sake of preaching. People don't often ask how the praying or singing or offering went, they ask how the sermon went. We often make recordings of only the sermon. To many, the sermon is the most important thing in church, and even the thing around which all other Christian life is lived. It can solve our problems like nothing else. It can make or break the reputation of a pastor.

Years ago I spent time in several circles where the most spiritual among us passed boxes of sermon tapes around. Sermons were everywhere. Listen to one on the way to work, one at lunch, one on the way home. There are serious sermon junkies out there. Now with .mp3 files and on-line listening available, we can listen to anybody anytime. I've known people who went to churches that the only thing going for it was the preaching. In looking for churches, some will put the preaching as foremost in making a decision which to attend.

So again, how did the Sunday sermon become so central to many of our religious lives? Anybody else wonder this?

Scripture, American Style (3)

Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself be examined thoroughly by the elders in accordance with the church's doctrinal statement and by-laws, and if he measures up, so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. (1 Corinthians 11:27-28)

Read an explanation of Scripture, American Style here.

Read entire series here.

Strikethrough and red letter text technique courtesy of Alan Knox's "Scripture...As We Live It."

Re-Thinking Church Membership (Part 27) - A Sermon On Membership In The Church - by Kevin Johnson

Kevin Johnson at Prophezei, puts an mp3 of one of his sermons in a blog post. (Listen to the actual sermon here. He also prints a disclaimer: "Warning: Listen at your own risk.") He preaches on what makes one a member of a church - being there and participating. Simply being a functional Christian implies that one is already a member of that church. He also explains how his church creates their membership roll:

We recognize you for who you are in Christ. You want to be a member of our church? Come. Take communion. Sing the hymns. Pray with us. Live with us. Do it on a regular basis. And we will consider you a member. We will recognize you as a member. And we'll even do it whether you agree with that or not. Because this is not about an individual decision to join the church. This is about the church being the church. So, if you come, and you take communion, and you do it on a regular basis, and you give to the church, and you worship...I'm sorry, you're gonna be put on the membership list.

Pretty simple, huh? He also gives a challenge to those who believe in Sola Scriptura: Where in the bible does it say to require an additional oath to become a member of the church? The sermon is average sermon length, I'm guessing 30-40 minutes.

Read parts 1-10 here, parts 11-20 here, and parts 21-30 here.

Blogging Update And Other Personal News

I haven't been able to give blogging the attention I desire lately. Many things are going on right now, like looking for work and some larger life issues. I also just came in to sweep the dining room floor and Mrs. Scott said I might find the broom and dustpan on the back lawn. Well, the broom anyway. Small kids, you know.

Some of the larger life issues I'm not going to explain until they work themselves out. One really cool thing today was I got a complimentary bamboo back scratcher from a manufacturer's booth at the Pacific Coast Builders Conference, in San Francisco, to replace the one that one of my kids broke a couple of years ago. It wasn't quite the highlight of my day, but close.

Announcing A New Children's Study Bible

Announcement:

New from Maranathema Press: The New Children's Instant Obedience Study Bible

This revolutionary bible for children is every parent's dream come true. It addresses the core need behind every child's struggle with obedience: authority. While every other so-called Christian child rearing strategy proposes man-centered techniques, implemented ad nauseum, to deal with children's behavior, this study bible uses a sure fire source of admonition: Scripture itself.

The secret? The New Children's Instant Obedience Study Bible replaces every occurrence of "Thus saith the Lord" with "Simon says." Buy this bible and your home will be turned from a place of grinding drudgery to one of blissful joy! It is guaranteed to place at number one on the New York Times bestseller list. Buy your copy today!

Guilty Until Proven Innocent: Real Life Living In Big Brother's Lens

I received a letter in the mail today. Yes, that letter. The letter we feared. After Mrs. Scott opened it, she showed it to me. At the top of the letter was a 4"x1" b&w photo of our mini-van's license plate with the underlying caption, in all caps, "NOTICE OF TOLL EVASION." Then, "Our records indicate that on the date blah, blah, blah, did not pay the proper toll, blah, blah, blah." Violation. Penalties. Amount due. Payment deadline. Payment options. All automated, all computer, all formalized. Not a touch of humanity on this piece of paper.

Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. Exodus 20:16

We live in a culture that trivializes blatant violations of the most basic of God's commands, then tolerates them without a second thought. Especially when committed by the government. Yawn. That's just the problem. That they are trivialized makes it that much more easy for the government to get away with it. Toll evasion? Hardly. Why even consider the truth when you can penalize without a conscience?

Mrs. Scott bought, prepared and delivered dinner for a family in our church whose mother is suffering from cancer. Not merely a nice gesture. She got in the car at rush hour, with her family, and hit the bottlenecked freeway and had to cross the bridge. She realized that she didn't have the four dollars for the bridge toll, but then it occurred to her that with the family in the car, she could get across the bridge free because the carpool lane has free passage during the commute hours. She had more than the required number of passengers.

One small problem. We live at the last on ramp before the bridge, and the carpool lane is all the way over to the left after a recently completed bridge approach construction project that radically reconfigured everything. So she crossed as many lanes in the bumper to bumper traffic as possible, but hit the FasTrak lane in the middle, which runs faster than the others. In the San Francisco Bay Area, we have the "privilege" of buying our way out of traffic congestion at all the bridges with the purchase of an electronic transponder that, when detected driving through an unmanned toll booth lane, automatically deducts the toll from a pre-paid account. "Violators" are photographed and fined. Clever. The government purposefully creates traffic jams of biblical proportions by causing every car to stop in the middle of the freeway at rush hour to be charged money, then offers a buyout to avoid the traffic.

Because the FasTrak lane goes faster, Mrs. Scott would have had to make an unsafe lane change to continue over toward the carpool lane into a slower group of lanes. She had no choice but to continue through the FasTrak lane, with nobody to explain her case to. She was dejected in having to tell me when she got home.

Blessed are you when men revile you, and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely, on account of Me. Rejoice, and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Matthew 5:11-12

You might be laughing out loud at what appears to be an attempt to play the martyr card here. And that's precisely the point. A good deed in sacrificing for somebody stricken with cancer ends up being prosecuted by a government bureaucracy that created the "transgression" in the first place. The government didn't even know that it was a good deed done in the name of Christ, and willfully at that, yet pounces on an innocent doer of good by way of automated process. It doesn't care. And nobody else does either. It is built in to the system. A computer cannot discern motive. So we are robbed even of our ability to rejoice over such a thing. Our collective lives are made up of tiny assaults that all add up to a disabling disease. It's like tooth decay. You don't even know about it until you need a root canal.

So I called my father, a retired career Highway Patrol officer (highest seniority in the entire state upon his retirement), to ask advice on handling the situation. He has always hated these kinds of revenue schemes. "They're just wrong" he said on the phone tonight. A cop with a conscience who was consistently under his monthly quota. We have recourse, but we'll need to prove our innocence. We've already been declared guilty. The state needs no evidence. It has a photo of our license plate. Proof indeed. And with both of us being out of work without being able to find any, depleted bank accounts to boot, the last thing we need is an inhumane government revenue whore thumping his King James vehicle code on our door. I should charge the state time and materials in defending myself from them, but I'm sure that would fall upon deaf PO boxes somewhere. Such is life in the land of the free.

Scripture, American Style (2)

"Tell us therefore, what do You think? Is it lawful to give a poll-tax to Caesar, or not?" But Jesus perceived their malice, and said, "Why are you testing Me, you hypocrites? Show me the coin used for the poll-tax." And they brought him a denarius. And He said to them, "Whose likeness and inscription is this?" They said to Him, "Caesar's." Then He said to them, "Then render to Caesar the things that anything and everything that Ceasar has ever claimed are Ceasear's, regardless of whether they really are his; and to God the things that are God's personal quiet time and public school prayer." (Matthew 22:17-21)

Read an explanation of Scripture, American Style here.

Read entire series here.

Strikethrough and red letter text technique courtesy of Alan Knox's "Scripture...As We Live It."

From The Cross To The Microphone

Gene Redlin at Prophet Gene's Gleanings (also at Northern Gleaner) makes a brief point in his post entitled, "The Symbol of Ministry has become the Microphone instead of the Cross." He contrasts the proper use and need for the microphone with it being included in a majority of ministry website photos by people who are teaching or preaching.

Where are the pictures of these ministers ministering, laying hands on the sick, sitting with a lost soul, praying with someone, waiting on God even prostrate on the floor or quietly offering a word of prophecy to a hungry soul who needs a word from God?

This is a good question, and one that seeks to examine the sign of the times.

Friday Night Potpourri

Not-so-random thoughts this time on a Friday night:

• Tonight I watched my first full hockey game of the season. It was really exciting. Especially the last 4.2 seconds. I can't wait for the next game.
• My four year old son's favorite animal is the penguin.
• I have a friend originally from Pittsburgh whose wife comments on my blogs occasionally. I sent him a note tonight.
• Right after that I watched my favorite baseball accomplishment; a complete game shutout. "The Franchise" blanked the A's and had the game winning RBI.

Now for some random thoughts just a few minutes before midnight:

• Eclectic Blogroll additions here at From the Pew:
• Will Hapeman blogs at Willohroots
• Chemist and organic farmer Dr. Lenny and his alter ego Lemme Howdt blog about science, earth and poetry at The Zone.
• Dave Cuzner et al blog classic modern graphic design at grain edit.
• I went to high school with and bought my first guitar in 1979 from outstanding musician Rich Flynn. If you live in the Bay Area, go see him.

And, early Saturday morning is still Friday night:

• Michael Spencer, the Internet Monk, fishes up a post from his archives about how culturally atheistic Chinese nationalist students here in America see Christianity for the first time.
• My bible is almost 30 years old, and it looks like it. NASB hatchback.
• I'll be painting somebody's bedroom purple in the morning.

Scripture, American Style (1)

But seek first His kingdom our church and His righteousness serving in its ministries; and all these things shall be added to you, but only after you die and go to heaven, unless of course you are raptured first. (Matthew 6:33)

Read an explanation of Scripture, American Style here.

Read entire series here.

Strikethrough and red letter text technique courtesy of Alan Knox's "Scripture...As We Live It."

Coming Soon: "Scripture, American Style"

I'm going to start a new series soon called, "Scripture, American Style." This will be a take-off of Alan Knox's "Scripture...As We Live It" series on his blog The Assembling of the Church. Each post will be a Scripture quote, with Alan's technique of using the strikethrough to show the portion of the passage we Americans tend not to practice, while using red letter text to insert into the passage what we do tend to practice instead.

I will attempt to place a slight bit of humor into each post, and I won't claim to be exempt from it myself.

Survey Results: Changes In Faith

The week before last I took a survey of my readers called Changes In Faith. The results are in the comments section of that post.

Everybody that responded has changed their religious affiliation to some degree or other. Nobody has remained in the church grouping of their childhood, and several don't assemble with a church. This may have more to do with the content of my blog and what type of people read it than with a cross section of society. Even so, most people I know have changed affiliation. The Billy Goat asked if I've read James Fowler's Stages of Faith. I haven't, but here's the Wikipedia link. This book seems more like an age dependent psychological development than what I'm trying to get at. Even though I asked about the faith of one's childhood, that faith isn't childish because it is held by the adults around them.

I'm interested in what makes people change churches, denominations, traditions, etc. Why would somebody grow up Catholic and then change to Protestantism? Or vice versa? Were those decisions rational? Doctrinal? Convenient? Compromise for the sake of another? Outward conformance without inward conviction? Due to bad personal experiences?

Much of the change over time for me has been in large part due to the Protestant belief in "Sola Scriptura," or Scripture alone. Church groups have claimed the bible as their authority, yet when I check what they believe with what the bible says (or seems to say to me), even at their request, I find a difference. If enough differences add up to the extent that those differences prohibit basic fellowship, then I would consider leaving that group. Maybe I should also ask if people believe all the same teachings of their church. That would be interesting, too.

The Unwritten Rules of Legalism

Having attended two fairly legalistic churches in my past, I think I now know a bit about the true nature of legalism. The first, and easiest form of legalism to avoid, is the simpleton legalism. This is the type of legalism that is easy to spot because the rules are easy to remember. No drinking, smoking, dancing, FM radio, what have you. Wear your Sunday best and behave the rest of the week, too. The rules are proclaimed up front by the church, and are pounded by the preacher.

The other form of legalism is the kind where every aspect of life is hammered out, precept by precept by man's interpretation of a precept. Biblical principles are wrenched into college calculus equations, and extremely complex answers come out that pass for God's law. But all of this is done silently. The rules are unwritten, but at the same time they are expected of everybody. You are judged by others in silence because they're too shocked by your lack of discernment at applying God's infinitely complex principles to your infinitely complex life the same way they do. Couldn't you figure this out by yourself? You've had years of notes, sermons and the same logic that we do! You should have known that watching football players violate the Sabbath on the Sabbath is itself a violation of the Sabbath, but watching a video tape of football players violating the Sabbath on Monday is not, even though the VCR was set up to record on the Sabbath. What kind of Christian are you anyway?

Originally posted 04-21-07

Friday Night Potpourri

Random thoughts on a Friday evening:

• Curse the ice cream man. So wishes Mrs. Scott. He drives by just a few minutes before dinner and causes a stir among the neighborhood children. Discord in our house while dinner might get burnt...
• Chasing squirrels at the Berkeley marina was fun with our seven year old.
• With our new laptop I got to sit at a cafe and write a magazine article. Wow, a real writer. Now to get something published.
• An ad for an architectural job for which I'm neither over- or under-qualified. It actually looks pretty good. Let's see if I get an interview...these are pretty rare these days.
  
• Today with the kids was just one of those days. :(
• The plastic button on the kitchen sink sprayer broke and now turning on the water means it comes out of the sprayer. Any plumbers out there?
• Ceiling fans are wonderful in weather like this. Ahhh.
• There's a complete toy store inventory under our sofa.
  

When The Cell Door Slams

Father Ernesto Obregon, an Eastern Orthodox priest writing at OrthoCuban, did a recent series on his blog about the American penal system and the ideas that underlie it. Read his posts here, here, here, here and here. Our system is basically a system of injustice, not justice. We as Americans have been taught from childhood on up that the way things are in the criminal justice system are not as they should be, but should actually be more extreme than they are.

The bible has much to say about justice for crimes and sins committed by people, and the penalties for those crimes and sins. We Americans have perverted those ideals to the nth degree, and our churches say almost nothing outside of the status quo. It would be good for us to look at the actual biblical laws regarding crime and punishment, and be amazed at the mercy offered a godly society by God. We are simply destroying ourselves by our zealous pursuit being misinformed.

I encourage anybody, not simply somebody who has a natural interest in crime and punishment, to read Fr. Ernesto's posts, and think about what he says. Being salt and light, Christians have a great opportunity in front of us to change America for the better...if we'd listen to God instead of our culture.

Legalism of the Antinomians

I was talking this Sunday with Andrew Sandlin about legalism and antinomianism. An antinomian is one who is against law (anti = against, nomos = law), specifically God's law. A legalist is one who adds his own rules to God's law. But these two extremes actually go hand in hand. An antinomian dismisses God's law, but does so in order to add his own rules to it. A legalist adds his own rules to God's law, because he has already dismissed part of it. If God isn't God in a certain area, then somebody else has to be, and it might as well be me. Therefore, I'll make up the missing rules once I've deleted God's rules.

I'll admit that this is a difficult thing to get right. It's far easier to be guided by the teachings of men than to be led by the Holy Spirit, especially when teachers tell you that what they are teaching is what God really means. Putting on the right clothes on Sunday is easier than stooping to help wash the feet of a fellow sinner.

Stupid Questions About Christianity (3)

"It's not a religion, it's a relationship." - Anon

This is pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father, to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world. James 1:27.

Here's my stupid question. What about Christianity is not a religion? In doing a bible word search of both "religion" and "relationship" I got more results from "religion" than "relationship." Also, what kind of relationship to Jesus is Christianity all about? Is he my boyfriend? Or is he my Lord? If he's my boyfriend, maybe we can go to the beach boardwalk. He can win the stuffed teddy for me. If he's my Lord, maybe I should do what he says.

So, what kind of relationship is it?

The Selfishness of Singleness

People who put off marriage and having children mostly do so out of selfishness. They want to satisfy their own desires for a while instead of getting to the work that the Lord would have us do. And nothing, I mean nothing, will cure this selfishness like a spouse and some kids. Diapers, emergency room visits, bedwetting sheet changes in the middle of the night will show you just how selfish you were. Witnesses testified of this fact before I was married, and personal experience ratifies it.

Uhhhh...yeahokaywhatever.

This is a sentiment possessed to some degree by more than a handful of Christians I have known. Recently I had lunch with an old friend - single friend - of mine who has reached a point in his life where he's kind of tired of hearing these things. He's decided that between he and God that he's content being single, and in fact isn't sure he wants to get married. He has nephews and nieces to love, and has no problem loving them, but marriage and kids of his own just isn't on the wishlist.

He also noted something I had not considered before. Yes, I knew some people probably fell into this temptation, but in isolated cases that I never thought could be widespread. But people can be just as selfish in wanting and having children as they can in being single. Consider the pressure in conservative Christian circles. Being known as a bible family with lots of kids can be a temptation. The little pink house with a white picket fence and 2.3 kids too.

I know families with lots of kids who have made things work out quite well, and families that have gone through hell with just one. Mrs. Scott and I were talking about this today - in light of our own family trials - and have both come to realize that there are people who are made to handle certain family situations and some that are not. Let's let each one work out their own life before God. May God give them wisdom in doing so and us wisdom enough to know that God is giving them wisdom that doesn't need our superior attitude. Am I being a bit preachy here? Yeah, why not?

Friday Night Potpourri

Random thoughts on a Friday night:

• Man, it's dead out there in recessionland. No lines to park at the post office, or even to get into the parking lot. No teenagers at the mall at 3:30pm. Rush hour traffic jams are fewer and farther between. No wait times at restaurants. Baseball attendance down.
• I haven't read a book followed up by seeing the movie in a long time. Both me and the Mrs. have bookmarks in Richard Yates' Revolutionary Road and plan to see the movie - starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet - after we're done.
• Missed rock song sequel opportunities: Bruce Springsteen's 957 Channels and Nothing On; Sammy Hagar's I Can't Drive Sixty-Five; Prince's 2009.
• Our new laptop computer is really cool. Now to sit at a cafe and write some articles or a book...
• I walked around downtown San Francisco the other night. It's easy to spot the tourists. :)
• What did Jesus really do the first 30 years of his life?
• I'm wondering if putting together a list of things my ideal church would do or believe would be fruitful.
• Time to go to sleep.....

From the Pew Survey: Changes in Faith

Here's a question for my readers. What are your faith systems of 1) your childhood, and 2) today? How has your faith changed over your life? I want your answers to be as specific as possible, i.e. "I was raised without religion and now I'm a Baptist" or "I was born into a nominal Catholic family and now I'm an atheist." Feel free to add some steps if there are more, such as "I was Mormon, then Jehovah's Witness, then Reformed Baptist, then Lutheran, then I lived in a commune in Berkeley, and now I'm an Anglican priest."

For me, I was raised in a typical non-religious suburban American family that never went to church. I became a Christian at 30, and after brief stops at Harold Camping's church and a Reformed Baptist church, am in a non-denominational Christian church that generally considers itself evangelical, Protestant and Reformed.

How about you?

For God So Hated The World

“For God So Hated the World he sent His only Son to Beam Us Up Out of It…” found in the comment section of a post at Internet Monk by Headless Unicorn Guy (28 May 1:42pm)

I lifted this quote out of its context because it says something much more. It's a way many of us have come to look at life. It betrays an escapist mentality of sorts. This world sucks because of the devil and all the non-Christians. We want out of here, so our theology takes the form of a means to escape. We can imagine that God will rapture us away into another plane of existence or that we can retreat into isolation without being affected by the world out there. In short, God doesn't want the world to succeed.

But what if God does want the world to succeed? Doesn't a little leaven end up leavening the whole lump? Doesn't salt and light preserve and illuminate?

One of the hardest things to do with contemplating how we relate to the world is to see the larger picture. A snapshot or short video of American life over the past few decades says quite a bit - to us - but if we take things in terms of the entire world and the entire history of the world, we can make sense of things. And that's our problem. We don't know everything everywhere, and certainly don't know the future.

For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. 1 Corinthians 15:25

New enemies of God emerge all the time. Many are still around. They take a long time to be put under Christ's feet. I'm optimistic about the future of the world, but not necessarily for us in the near future. We're stuck here. On purpose. Jesus actually prayed in John 17 that he wasn't asking that the Father take us out of the world.

Escaping the world by ignoring it or retreating from it is like sticking our heads in the sand. And what is so Christian about that? God loves the world itself and wants it to be redeemed in the here and now. That's one reason Christ came.

Every Idle Word Blogged - And Read

But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. Matt 12:36 KJV

Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment. John 7:24 NASB

Occasionally I come across some righteous soul who has a great concern for what goes on out there in the blogging world. My blog brother's keeper. The eHeresy Hunter. He opines about all the evils of the blogoshpere, how men are want to slander and revile. How men are so careless as to their qwerty conduct. Every idle work spoken will gain God's wrath, he admonishes. And he judges with the exhortation of an exorcist.

A number of times I have been rebuked for typos, slammed for aberrant theology, dismissed for choosing the wrong word in a blog comment section. Don't get me wrong, I'm not taking the martyr's position here. I want to point out something not often noticed.

How we read and judge the writing of another is just as important as what is written. How often haste is overlooked so that being quick to speak and quick to anger is exalted. Everything has a context. Often, writing that is made public on the internet has a private context. Or a context that is developed over a long time by the writer. We might just be reading that "one side of a phone conversation." Yet we often judge as if we know the whole story, and leave our public judgments exempt from our own standards.

We should realize that a blog is a blog. It isn't a book that has been edited with a fine tooth comb by numerous eyes before publishing. Ever have a bright idea while brainstorming with friends, only to have it shot down in two seconds? Then you see the stupidity of your idea and laugh with your friends? Will God send you to hell for your indiscretion? Some people seem to demand so and see no problem with it.

Re-Thinking The Sunday Chruch Service (Part 14) - Drive-In Church

Read the entire series here.

In Part 13 I described a disjointed body. One where all the parts were arranged in their proper places, but were not connected.

A few years ago I remember reading about a church in Los Angeles in the early 70's that met in a drive-in movie theater. Cars would park and hang the speaker from the car door so that they could listen to the sermon, then easily leave when church was over. I don't remember reading if girls on roller skates would dispense the elements of the Lord's Supper, but it would be a good fit.

Most all of us would ridicule such a notion. Obvious criticisms would be: that American culture would be superimposed upon the church. Congregants would be far too lazy to get out of their cars. Only in California. Individualism reigned supreme. With each family or individual being in their own vehicle, a disconnection would occur and members would be forced further apart as church members.

Would such criticisms apply only to the drive-in church, but not to churches where members are sitting next to each other with the same disconnectedness? Is the problem with the drive-in church model, or is there some already existing problem that is simply taken to the next step? It seems to me that a church meeting where there is interaction between all the members would help prevent (but not necessarily eliminate) such strange church models.

Is Church Discipline Personal?

What is interesting to me about the passage in Matthew 18 that is so often referred to as "church discipline" is that the church isn't even involved until the third step. Even at that, I'm aware of many churches that interpret "church" to mean the elders/pastors, who will then decide whether a certain unrepented sin be brought before the entire church.

But Alan Knox at The Assembling of the Church posts a fascinating piece that claims that all the imperatives in the entire passage are in the second person singular. So, if the sinning believer refuses to listen to the church, only the one sinned against (who started the process by confronting the sinning believer) is to treat him like a Gentile and a tax collector.

This has big implications. It also opens up for me a question of the various translations and Greek manuscripts surrounding the phrase "against you." Some read "if your brother sins", while others read "if your brother sins against you." (See the passage in the NIV here, the NASV here and the KJV here) Is this personal or general?

Doing What You Desire In The Lord

I was reading a very short post on Pulpit Magazine by John MacArthur about the decision making process of the Christian. He boils it down to three factors. First, if it is prohibited by Scripture, don't do it. Second, you need wisdom. Third, consider your own desires.

In short, if it's okay to do, then do it if you desire. I agree with this, and don't think I hear it enough from conservative leaders that doing what you want, if it's not wrong, is what God uses to advance his kingdom. But in real life there's a catch...

What is prohibited by Scripture or dictated against by wisdom is a great debate within Christianity. Coming to your own conclusions may irk quite a few people and gain their judgment against you. Laundry lists of sins not actually prohibited by the bible make an impact upon people that can be very negative, and liberty is lost.

I've never heard a legalist describe himself as such, have you?

Time For New Wineskins?

And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled out, and the skins will be ruined. Luke 5:37

I've read much over the last few years about how the church in the West is in decline. Evangelicalism in America is losing ground. People are leaving churches, some abandoning the faith, some seeking new ways to live the Christian life. The church simply isn't the salt and light it is supposed to be. What is all this about?

I wonder whether our various systems of church and religious life are undergoing a shakedown by God. Things don't look good right now, but maybe he has a plan for something new, and the vehicle for his plan won't fit into our current reality. This means a need for new wineskins to hold the new wine.

I've been speculating here. Maybe this has been going on for quite some time and only now am I noticing. Either way, something is happening. Any thoughts?

A Few Homeschooling Thoughts

A while back I posted some thoughts on homeschooling that were triggered by an article by John MacArthur on homeschooling. I have found differing views on homeschooling within the Christian community. Many favor it. Many believe it is mandated by the bible. Some doubt it. Here in California, it is as common as water with people I know, and isn't only a Christian phenomenon. One family I know homeschooled their children here, then moved to a part of the Midwest where homeschooling was almost non-existent and seemed to be reserved for a cultist mentality.

One thing I've come to realize is that homeschooling is only as productive and valuable as the parents make it. Several of my friends are avid homeschoolers. For one family, it is a major part of life. They organize groups and go to conferences and promote curricula. Another has homeschooled all their children for decades now. You might call these people experts. Yet, one thing they have in common is that they believe there are many families that simply shouldn't be homeschooling. One says about a third of families shouldn't be, while the other has a laundry list of abuses and failures observed over the years.

Some families homeschool out of conviction. Others because they believe the public schools are lacking. Some believe the public schools indoctrinate children in false belief systems, while many of these same people believe the public schools are poor at educating children. If the public schools are so bad at educating, how come they are so good at indoctrinating? Popular songs by Alice Cooper and Pink Floyd make me wonder just how indoctrinated all the children really are. In any case, if homeschoolers can effectively make a difference in the world, then great. The foot is in the door in this country and hopefully the bad examples don't make it tough on the good ones.

About "From the Pew"

A number of people are new to this blog, so I thought I'd take a few minutes to explain a bit of what goes on here. First, my blog title and subtitle: From the Pew - Because for too long it has been coming from the Pulpits, Seminaries and Denominations.

I don't often make a clergy/laity distinction, but for those who are more comfortable with that language, From the Pew means that I write from a layman's perspective. I'm not a pastor or minister and I haven't gone to seminary. I was a part of a church leadership team for a while and served as a deacon for four years. But God gave all of us his word so that everybody, whether they know it or not, is a theologian at some level.

Because for too long it has been coming from the Pulpits, Seminaries and Denominations. I believe theology to be a community project. Nobody is too insignificant to contribute to the wealth of knowledge about God. A significant portion of Christian history has religious elites calling all the shots and dictating what the faith is to all those under them. Various groups of these leaders disagree with each other on all kinds of doctrine. It's my duty to search the Scriptures to see whether the things they say are so. When they aren't, I might say something. I have a significant part of my past that was subject to false teachings and legalism. Whack job, nut case kind of stuff even. I expose many of those teachings here. Most everything I critique, I used to believe.

I blog about theology, mostly, with a good percentage of writing having to do with the church and the Christian life. I also touch on civil government, economics, absurd things in our culture and a bit of fluff. I link quite a bit to others who are on my blogroll. Although I don't agree with everything I link to, most of these people are good writers who get their points across. They are Anglicans and anarchists, Baptists and Presbyterians, Catholics and Orthodox, liberals and conservatives and libertarians, friends and foes, beer drinkers and abstentionists, among others.

I love to write about things. This is therapy, an outlet, a place to formulate my thoughts, develop my theology, help my faith, broaden my horizon, make my wife laugh when she reads it. Some things are just off the top of my head, most are planned out to a small degree.

I don't write about my own church. No church is perfect, so some of the problems I write about on this blog also exist in my church, but are coincidental. Yes, my church leadership knows about my blog and many of them have read it on occasion. Should I be afraid? Or should they? (Okay, the last two questions are meant to be funny.)

Speaking of which, I have a dry, subtle sense of humor that permeates my writing. Watch out and don't take things too seriously. If you're not used to it, you might get a little hot at something that is merely satire. If a post is pure satire, I'll label it as such.

Mostly, I desire to enable people to think for themselves because they are the ones who God will use to advance his kingdom. Thank you for reading.

Off To The Redwoods

My family is off to the redwood forest near Santa Cruz, CA, for our church's family camp. My posts this weekend will have been written up front and pre-scheduled for posting. Enjoy.

We'll spend three days with a wonderful smell in the air, fresh ocean breeze, games, fun, and a guest speaker. Let's see how our four year old does at the softball game. He was a hit last year. Our oldest found a banana slug a few years ago, and is certain to discover something new. Our 22 month old will be aware of things like never before. And us older folks will enjoy relaxing.

On our way down, our family tradition is to stop at the beach for the afternoon before camp begins. The weather is supposed to be great. Looking forward to the drive through the mountains, too.

Re-Thinking The Sunday Church Service (Part 13) - A Disjointed Body

Read the entire series here.

In Part 7, I noted that the 1 Corinthians passage showed all the members of the assembly involved in edifying the whole body. In this passage Paul uses the analogy of a human body, with eyes, ears, hands, feet and a head. When members of a body don't interact with each other, the body is in a sense disjointed.

Imagine a body. Now imagine that each body part is severed from all the others, then put back together, but with a very small gap between them so that none of them are touching. The body would look just like a body, but wouldn't function properly, or at all, because none of the body parts have an opportunity to function with all the others. Or, imagine the same body with only a few parts connected to a few other parts. Or, all of the parts are only connected to one other part, yet not to each other. Each of these bodies would be seriously dysfunctional.

When our church bodies are disjointed, they are dysfunctional.

Alternate Miss USA Pageant Results

Here in the Food Network's test kitchen, we're trying out a new recipe. What happens when you add one part cranky gay activist, one part born-again lingerie model, one part pageant president/reality TV host, one part fundamentalist university, one part sensationalized media and one part cynical culture, then puree at 10,000 rpm and bake in a 450F culture war oven? Well, we know how one batch turned out. Now let's tinker with the ingredients slightly:

Alternative 1:
Perez Hilton: "Vermont recently became the fourth state to legalize same-sex marriage. Do you think every state should follow suit?"
Carrie Prejean: "I'm Miss California. It's none of my business to tell other states what to do. Imposing my beliefs on other people using laws with harsh punishments is against my religion."
PH: "But you're a right wing nut job. You're supposed to force your beliefs on others. I'll make sure you don't win this pageant, that's for sure."
Donald Trump: "Perez, you're fired. That's no way to treat a young, beautiful, intelligent woman in my pageant. However, both you and Carrie will be project managers in the next season of Celebrity Apprentice. Perez, I'm replacing you as judge #8 with Dennis Rodman."
Dennis Rodman: "Perez, man. No way to treat a hottie because of her religious beliefs. Especially after that swimsuit competition. Chill, dude."

Dennis Rodman's defense of Carrie is heralded as a heroic defense of religious freedom and a Christian America. Rodman is invited to speak at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University, on condition that he remove his piercings and cover his tattoos. The tattoo community reacts in outrage, and a two-hour special of Miami Ink is added on Thursday night. Gays everywhere get "Perez for Prez" tattoos. Rodman's Liberty speech is removed from YouTube after it is discovered he was an NBA bad boy. Meanwhile Carrie Prejean adopts eight kids and appears on Oprah. Religious fundamentalists and gay activists join forces and storm Trump's Apprentice boardroom, one group for allowing Perez on the show and the other for firing him as pageant judge.

Alternative 2:
Judge #7 is drawn to ask the final question.
J7: "What are your three top goals if you become Miss USA?"
Carrie Prejean: "World peace, a better environment, and feeding third world children."
Carrie wins the pageant without controversy. Nobody cares. Media ratings drop.

The Food Network's test kitchen decides to stick with the original recipe.

Now Contributing to iMonk Blog

Michael Spencer, aka the Internet Monk - or iMonk for short - has introduced me as an occasional contributor to his blog InternetMonk.com. Michael's blog is top rate and is one of the most read Christian blogs on the internet. He writes on very diverse and often controversial topics from a large expanse that he terms "the post-evangelical wilderness." His readers are even more diverse than his blog archives, as the comments sections attest.

It is both humbling and an honor to contribute to Michael's blog. If you're not already a regular reader of his, check him out more often.

Major Life Decisions

We've been in the major life decision/event mode recently. I haven't blogged in a few days, and the last week has been difficult putting material up. Sometimes one has to deal with things like finding a job, or changing a career, or whether to put the house up for sale, or where the kids will go to school, or buying a new computer, or several more that I'm not at liberty to say. Then sometimes one has to deal with all these things at the same time.

Friday Night Potpourri

Random and not so random thoughts on a Friday evening:

• Finally flattened the jungle in the back yard.
• Church camp in the redwoods next weekend. Love the smell.
• ...Complete with a trip to the beach.
• I've recently taken a liking to Frank Sinatra's music.
• Our family was slammed with bad colds this last week. Each of us have lost our voice.
• Tomorrow is Saturday. What a scheduling conflict. I'm sure it conflict's others as well! :-) Mom's day out....
  

Anaotomy of The Apostolic Body

I just read somewhere a question as to why Christ would choose Paul as an apostle, being an educated upper crust Hebrew, when the others were uneducated smelly fishermen and tax collectors. This is a good question, one for which I have an opinion.

"...but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong." 1 Corinthians 1:27

In Israel at the time of Christ, religious success was attained by the educated religious leaders. They controlled the religion of the Jews to a large degree. They set up the traditions and rules of men and the common people followed. Much of it was contrary to God's idea of righteousness. Uneducated men would be the perfect tools of God to confound the haughty leaders, but under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, who was a better teacher than all the teachers of Israel. When the common people saw what their peers did, it was easier for them to identify and to side with God.

Paul on the other hand, was an apostle to the Gentiles. They did not have God's law, not being Jews. What better tool of God than somebody who knew God's requirements for life in intimate detail. A Hebrew who was connected to the core of God's revelation in his law. Paul's task was to translate the Hebrew Scriptures into a language that theologically ignorant Gentile Christians could understand. The other apostles weren't initially as qualified as Paul for this task. His epistles are littered with OT quotes. The simplistic message of the cross and resurrection would confound the wisdom of Greek philosophy.

Re-Thinking The Sunday Church Service (Part 12) - Checking Your Problems At The Door

Read the entire series here.

Quite often in the typical church service we're admonished to check our worldly cares and problems at the door on Sunday morning. This is supposedly so we can worship God with more focus and purity. But more than this it guarantees that our cares and problems will greet us at the door on the way out unchanged.

Wouldn't it be great if there could be some measure of edification from other members of the body while the church meets that could be more tailored to people's needs?

Mourning and Dancing

...A time to mourn, and a time to dance. Ecclesiastes 3:4b

How often do these things alternate in life? It seems that most often they come in seasons. Seasons of mourning, seasons of dancing. Occasionally they come close to each other. I'm looking for some dancing. I already have my dance partner picked out. Maybe a week's work is necessary prior to a Friday night out.

Stunning Religious Art

Kevin Johnson at Prophezei has a series of rotating classic art pieces in his blog header. Every site visit or page hit reveals a new piece. Most seem to be from the medieval period of history. Each one depicts a different rendering of a biblical account - I don't know if I've seen one that wasn't a biblical theme. Kevin has actively searched for art for his blog, so new pieces appear from time to time. Even if art isn't your thing, check it out.

Spiritual Detox

But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. James 1:22

I've gone through a period of life where things have been very difficult. Many of my "spiritual disciplines" as some would call them (i.e. bible reading, praying, church attendance, etc.) have suffered as a result. Should I be concerned?

Recently in a small bible study that concentrated on reviewing the Sunday sermon, based on the passage above for that week, the question was asked what things can hinder us from being a doer of the word instead of merely hearers. One man answered that we can often read the word and substitute what we've been taught for what it actually says. We gloss over it because we "already know" what it says.

One thing I've found in recent times is that being disconnected from my disciplines has given me opportunity to read things afresh. I sometimes see what the bible actually says instead of what I've always assumed. I can then do what I now hear.

I don't really know what "God is doing in my life," but I'm wondering if I'm not going through a period of spiritual detox. Being cut off cold turkey from certain spiritual toxins. Can I then rejoice in my diminishing spiritual disciplines if the result is good? Should I be concerned? Should other people be concerned?

Battle of the Flus: Regular vs. Swine

Here's how the flu game is going here in America:

Regular flu: 30,000 deaths per year
Swine flu: one death so far

It's the bottom of the ninth, folks. Put your rally caps on. (hat tip: Vache Folle)

What I Used To Believe, What I Now Believe

Alan Knox at The Assembling of the Church continues a meme started by a friend of his named Lew at The Pursuit. The format of the meme is what one used to believe contrasted by what one believes now. Here is my list:

I used to believe that Romans 13 commanded believers to obey the state. Now I believe that it limits the state to punishing only a small number of sins that are also crimes, and that Paul cuts Caesar down to size (a common table waiter) rather than threaten believers who would dare drive 66 mph on the freeway.

I used to believe that one had to become a member of a church. I now believe that all baptized Christians are already members of a church simply by assembling with that church.

I used to believe in a pre-trib Rapture. Now I'm a postmillenialist who thinks that rapture theology is nonsense.

I used to believe that Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Arminians, charismatics and anybody attending a group listed in Walter Martin's Kingdom of the Cults couldn't possibly be a true Christian. Then I believed that people in these groups could be true Christians, but that their duty was to leave those groups. Now I believe that not only Catholics, Orthodox, charismatics and Arminians can be true Christians, but that the percentage of true Christians within Catholicism and Orthodoxy is probably the same as in Protestant churches.

I used to believe that one had to know the doctrine of justification by faith to be saved. I now believe that one is justified by faith regardless of whether one understands this to the same level I do.

I used to believe in Reformed theology. I now believe in reforming theology. [Clarification 05/06/09: I used to think of Reformed (past tense) theology as something already accomplished in the past by 400 year old dead guys. But, I've come to see a need for always reviewing old ways of thinking and doing things, and making changes where necessary.]

Come to think of it, most of my blog is about things I used to believe but now don't. Read on into my archives for the entire list.

Conservative Evangelicals Believe In Literal Interpretation and New Math

Two things conservative evangelicals are sticklers about - a literal interpretation of the bible and opposition to "new math" in public schools. But their real beliefs belie a flip-flop on the new math in their thinking process. How ironic.

Literal interpretation:

"Then God said, 'Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you'" Genesis 1:29 - "Every plant" according to a literal interpretation would include marijuana, cocoa and opium.

"You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you" Deuteronomy 4:2 - A literal interpretation would mean that not even the state can add laws to God's.

"Is it not lawful to do what I wish with what is my own?" Matthew 20:15 - A literal interpretation means that one can do with one's own property as one wishes.

"Thou shalt not steal." Exodus 20:15 - A literal interpretation would mean that we aren't supposed to take personal property from another.

New Math:

(Gen. 1:29) + (Deut. 4:2) + (Matt. 20:15) + (Ex. 20:15) = War on Drugs

Slight modification of a post on January 29, 2008.

Sorry To Disappoint You, But I'm Not A Very Good Evangelical

Maybe I should have said that I'm not very good at fitting into the evangelical subculture. And just why not?

• I don't have a "personal quiet time"
• I don't do a read-the-bible-in-a-year plan
• I'm not good at breaking up into small groups to pray for a few minutes
• I don't have pictures of missionaries on my fridge
• I don't have the "Footprints" devotional plaque hanging on my wall
• I don't have 1 Corinthians 13 (i.e. the love chapter) hanging in my bathroom
• I don't have a single Thomas Kinkade painting anywhere
• I don't own a study bible
• I don't have a bible carrying case
  
• I'm not very "transparent" with most people
• I don't shop at Christian bookstores
  
• I don't listen to CCM
• I don't listen to Christian radio stations
  
• I don't read books by John Piper
• Abortion and gay marriage aren't my top two hot button topics. Heck, they probably aren't even in my top 50
• I don't have any religious icons on or in my car, whether fish stickers, bumper stickers or license plate rings
• I've never had a religious theme for my desktop or screensaver
  
• I don't pass out tracts
  
• and last but not least, I'm not a Republican

That's why.

People Who Understand

I had lunch with an old friend the other day. Our lives have changed since we were in regular contact. We lost contact with each other because his life changed and I knew it. We were a bit cautious in our conversation at first because we knew things were different, but we didn't know what the differences were. As we talked, we became at ease with each other's different ways of living and viewing life.

It ended up all very refreshing because I discovered that he could understand my life as it exists now, but I am sure he would have had a problem had he not changed from all those years ago. He realized the same thing about me.

I've discovered that there are people who understand, and people who don't. The people who don't fall into two major categories, those who can't understand (a majority), and those who aren't willing to understand (a minority). There might be some variations of these in additional categories, but they are few.

It doesn't matter what the issues are that can or cannot be understood. They are probably there for all of us. Insert your own issues. Thank God for the people who can and do understand.

Re-Thinking The Sunday Church Service (Part 11)

Read the entire series here.

In Part 7, I noted that the 1 Corinthians passage showed all the members of the assembly involved in edifying the whole body. The typical American church model, though, has one person - or very few - doing all the work on Sunday. This is made odd when a good deal of preaching is in telling the church attenders that they are a bunch of pew sitters that don't do much, and should get involved in helping the body.

So, a very many church people are hindered from doing the work of building up the body, then condemned for not doing the work of building up the body. I can see why so many people want to leave church.

Re-Thinking The Sunday Church Service (Part 10) - Participatory Church Gatherings

Read the entire series here.

Alan Knox on his Assembling of the Church blog posts about a new website called Participatory Church Gatherings by Andrew Wilson (read the introduction here). Wilson quotes D. Martin Lloyd-Jones on questioning the sit-on-our-hands-while-two-or-three-people-do-everything model of church. I'll be following this site as it moves forward with its ideas.

Free Markets - Economic Power vs. Political Power

Ron McKenzie at Blessed Economist is doing a series on free markets. In this short post he looks at economic power in terms of political power. Here's a brief quote:

Many people claim that economic power must be controlled. There is a lot of confusion behind this belief.

The basic assumption is that political power is good and economic power is bad. This is just assumed [and] never proven. The reality is that political power has done terrible evil throughout history. There is no reason why political power should be trusted.

I'm going to take a different angle on his article. I think it shows that we don't really live in a free market.

Lack of Reality Behind Evangelical Facade

Over the last four years or so, I have developed a friendship with a man who is a former (i.e. retired) pastor with a background of extreme hyper-fundamentalism, Baptist variety. The kind of fundamentalism where women don't wear pant legs and the Beatles are devil music. Drinking a beer is worse than watching porn, as bad as watching porn is. Etc. Most of us have heard about such types of religious carryings on. But in the last so many years, he has discovered the emptiness and soul destroying nature of all that, and has written extensively about it. He has definitely changed as a result.

His name is Bruce and he recently wrote a post about the lack of reality in evangelicalism, how perception is more important than anything. I would encourage my regular readers to read it. I have struggled with that high standard of perception, and I was schooled in rigid outward appearances early on in my Christian career. Yes, I intended to use the word "career." It's such a work related term. I still struggle with such things. What I wear to church, what my kids wear, how our family is organized, bible reading, religious jargon, and all the trappings of religion.

One thing Bruce realized about his religious past is that the appearance game prevented him from really talking to anybody about his problems. In my own life, circumstances over the last several years have made it nearly impossible to engage in the "normal" workings of church. Bible studies, prayer meetings, etc. Not having anybody to talk with seemed to be a result of everybody's busyness and unwillingness to be there for somebody hurting. Stuck in a rut.

I've heard a number of other people's stories recently of similar things. People are hurting and have very difficult life circumstances. Nobody is there to listen or to help. It doesn't seem to matter if they call somebody for help, either. The more people I talk to, the more stories like these I hear. These stories aren't limited to average Joe types of Christians. Leadership, people in high places. I'm wondering what is really going on in American religion. Community is definitely lacking. Are we different from any other time and place in history? One thing is certain for me. I'm dead tired of the veneer and perception. I don't know what the cure is, or even where to go for a good band aid, if patching the symptom is merely what I'm looking for. If misery loves company, how come even that doesn't seem to be working? God help us.

John & Kate Make It

[Update 05-20-09: oops, it's Jon & Kate]

Our family often watches the reality TV show John & Kate Plus Eight. You know, that family that had twins, then sextuplets, then a TV show? It is very interesting to me how that show has evolved. Originally, the show was about the daily logistics of a family who suddenly had six more kids to deal with. Diapers, baths, meals, clipping coupons, storage space, doing laundry, kids drawing on the walls, how dad gets off to work, trips to the store. You know, the things we are all curious about. How do you deal with all that stuff and have time to do x, y and z?

But then, they developed a national following, with people sending them all kinds of stuff just because they're a family with eight kids and a TV show. Now the show is about the daily logistics of a family who suddenly has tons of expensive gifts that admirers give them and how to deal with all that. Trips to places, getting kids dressed for the beach, behavior in a luxury box at a ballgame with the team owner giving them all personal uniform jerseys, having solar panels installed on your roof by a host of another home remodeling TV show. You know, the stuff most of us never have to deal with.

I'm not judging their family. It's just another example of how "reality TV" isn't always so realistic. I remember the 70's show "Happy Days." Originally it was realistic enough in its portrayal of life in the 50's. Or at least it tried to be. Then in later seasons, Mr. C had a digital watch, Chachi had long hair and so did others. It lost its sense of reality.

We still watch John & Kate, but it has lost much of its original appeal.

Is The Christian Right Dead?

In two consecutive blog posts, John Armstrong asks and answers the question, "Is the Christian Right dead?" Read those articles here and here. One of the points that struck me most was this one:

3. The Christian right confused politics with the real work of city/community transformation, or the political realm was confused with the kingdom of God. (Christians can and should seek office and seek transformation!)

Using the power of the sword to advance the kingdom through politics instead of through living our lives according to the Holy Spirit is a major blunder of the Christian right. Legislating against sins that aren't crimes, making those sins into crimes will do it every time. If the Christian Right truly is dead, then I'm not too upset at all. The real work of God will continue with or without politicians or a voting booth. Loving our neighbors as ourselves is superior to being society's moralistic overlords.

Solomon and Luther: Don't Be Too Righteous

"Do not be excessively righteous, and do not be overly wise. Why should you ruin yourself?" -Ecclesiastes 7:16

Michael Spencer, the Internet Monk, writes a post around a quote of Martin Luther on the remedy for nagging legalisms that plague us. Luther's quote:

“Whenever the devil harasses you, seek the company of men or drink more, or joke and talk nonsense, or do some other merry thing. Sometimes we must drink more, sport, recreate ourselves, and even sin a little to spite the devil, so that we leave him no place for troubling our consciences with trifles. We are conquered if we try too conscientiously not to sin at all. So when the devil says to you: do not drink, answer him: I will drink, and right freely, just because you tell me not to.” -Martin Luther

Adding CS Lewis into the mix, iMonk continues:

"But Lewis (and Luther) were especially aware of the spiritual dangers of trying to not sin. Yes…trying to not sin. Since encouraging people to try and not sin is a major occupation of confused evangelicalism, Luther sounds strange."

Indeed.

Mis-Reading The Ninth Commandment

Re-Post: Originally posted December 27, 2006.

"Thou shalt not bear false witness" - The Ninth Commandment - Exodus 20:16

Many, many Christians would agree with the above statement. It is from God, after all, and should be obeyed. It is applied to life in so many different ways. It is used by preachers, teachers, parents, friends, authors, commentators and many Christians in general to remind us to always tell the truth. As Christians we should be truthful in our speech. In fact, it is sometimes used to tell us not to conceal part of the truth either.

But, do you see anything wrong with the above quote from Scripture? Astute grammarians might rightly note that I left out the period at the end of the quote. The quote above is a complete sentence after all. But I left out the period for a reason. The reason is because the above is only a part of the Ninth Commandment. It is a truncated version, and sadly, far too much of our popular theology comes from this taking away from God's Word. Taking away from God's Word is prohibited. So let me now quote the Ninth Commandment in its entirety:

"Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor."

Notice the difference? God does not give us a blanket prohibition of bearing false witness, merely the bearing of false witness against our neighbor to his harm. I've heard many debates amongst Christians as to whether it is ever okay for a Christian (or anybody for that matter) to ever utter something that isn't perfectly true. Even when instances of believers telling lies in the bible are brought up, then further backing that up with God's blessings upon them for lying as a part of faith, many Christians can't see the righteousness of the situation.

Rahab lied to save the skin of the spies, and is set forth as an example of faith. Yet many Christians, completely indoctrinated with a false view of the Ninth Commandment, still label her action as sin. Oh, yes, they say, God used her sin in accomplishing His purposes, but even that never grants us the authority to sin. The Hebrew midwives lied to the Egyptians to save the lives of newborn babies. God pronounced His blessings upon them! But why?

There's something our popular theology is missing. Let me ask this question: if somebody wants a piece of truthful information from us in order to commit an act of evil, is it our responsibility to give them that truth? Or what if not answering at all or giving wavering body language tips that person off to the answer? Is it still our responsibility to not lie? Well, of course not. If telling a lie or "untruth" thwarts evil intentions of others, have we sinned? If God's own words of blessings in the bible aren't enough to help us answer this question, nothing else will.

Then there are the things that are nobody else's business. Even close Christian friends, sometimes. We have no responsibility to inform anybody else of anything that will lead to evil. Jesus instructed us to be as wise as serpents and as harmless as doves, and there's a reason He chose to use the serpent in His instruction.

Guys: Avoid The Proverbs 31 Woman

She won't have any time left over for you.

That's right. Many people today make modern day applications to the woman described by King Lemuel's mother in the 31st chapter of Proverbs. A to-do list is created and the woman is burdened by a nagging, performance mentality. But it wasn't meant to be this way.

Twenty two verses (v. 10-31) are listed in this chapter. Each verse's first Hebrew letter corresponds to the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. So, Lemuel's mother gave him the literal ABC's - or Aleph, Beth, Gimel's - of what to look for in a woman. We English speakers have lost the meaning in the translation.

But, thankfully, these character traits are qualitative, not quantitative. Lemuel is given the "what to look for" in a woman "as she applies to you." Guys: find the lady that's right for you, not the one that's right for everybody at the same time. Gals: relax and do what you do best. Love your husband or husband to be, not your laundry list of modern accomplishments in order to gain or keep one. You'll end up being the true Proverbs 31 woman.

Ugly Death Leads to Resurrection

Andrew Sandlin argues that death must be viewed as an ugly thing in order to have a correct view of the Resurrection. He uses Grünewald's painting as an illustration. He links to Oscar Cullman's thought provoking piece "Immortality of the Soul or Resurrection of the Dead?" Cullman shows Christ's death was experienced with fully human fear and suffering. Not a piece for sensitive gnostics.

Three Reasons Why The State Doesn't Deal In Good Faith

It occurred to me recently that the state, in all its dealings, doesn't deal in good faith. So if you have any agreements, contracts or deals in which the state is even partially involved, watch out. Here are three reasons why the state doesn't deal in good faith. (I'm sure I could come up with more.)

First, it controls the money system. It purposely inflates the economy to devalue money. As a result people will generally have a more difficult time keeping their end of a bargain.

Second, the state's laws are coercive. They force people to do things other than what they would do without those laws. Sometimes people are even forced to do the wrong thing just to maintain the perception of legality. This skews the playing field for all parties involved, both directly and indirectly.

Third, the state's laws change in mid-contract. It changes the previously agreed upon rules as it goes. For example, if I agree to allow somebody I'm contracted with to engage in a particular behavior during the length of our contract, and the state changes the law regarding that behavior, I am forced by law to violate my end of the deal originally made under different rules.

I've decided that I will always give the benefit of the doubt to somebody dealing with the state rather than to the state itself. I will also view dealings with the state (such as a signature on a driver license) with a grain of salt because I've come to understand just how the state deals. Changing the rules mid-game is breach of contract, and voids any and all stipulations surrounding those rules. I will recognize this from now on.

Writing Blitz

I'm fully back from the Mt. Hermon Christian Writers Conference in the Santa Cruz redwoods. Four days of intense, all-day-long workshops, meetings and the like were exhausting, but wonderful. I left a day early due to previous engagements. This conference was a whirlwind discovery and getaway. Mrs. Scott found out about it on a blog she reads, Barbara Curtis' MommyLife blog, late Wednesday night with a Friday noontime start. Barbara was a speaker at the conference, and just the day before the discovery I submitted an article (our marriage story) for a book [update: oops, I forgot to mention that this submission was to a book, not magazine and was solicited through Barbara's blog]. Then at the conference of about 700 people, one dinner I sat next to her without knowing it was her until we introduced each other. We had a great chat at dinner.

I took a full conference session on writing for magazines, with a few others on freelancing and trend spotting. Very interesting material, and intensely practical. Few conferences in my life have been as helpful. The food was very good and so far above regular "camp food." It was actually good, instead of merely being good for camp food. The people were supportive and helpful, both the conference attendees and staff. So, now I'm ready to think about writing professionally. It should take a while to get things going, but I feel I have a great platform from which to start.

Opening Day!

Today is Opening Day for the San Francisco Giants! Baseball is back! Only one problem. It's raining hard and the game might be cancelled. I've always believed Opening Day should be a national holiday. Should a national holiday be rained out?

I'm Back

I'm back from the conference. It was very good. More later.

Wanna Be A Writer?

Okay, never mind the Beatles song. I will be attending the Christian Writers Conference the next few days at Mt. Hermon Conference Center located in the beautiful California redwoods close to Santa Cruz. I have developed an interest in writing over the last five years, and feel that such a conference might confirm for me if writing will be a big part of my future. I have blogged for this period of time and have thought of bigger and better things. I have a major book idea, and several smaller ones. I have thought about making use of my blog series for book ideas.

Being unemployed might just be the motivation for me now. The job search is bleak, with layoffs in the building industry continuing. Over the next four days, this blog will probably be re-posts from the past or scheduled postings written now. Stay tuned. If nothing new shows, it's because I've been too busy.

My 37-Hour Christian Day [Re-Post]

Originally posted May 21, 2006

When I add up all the hours in a day that I'm supposed to spend on the various areas of my Christian life, according to sermons, books and other sources by various "authorities," that number far exceeds 24.

For example, I've heard sermons where the preacher proclaimed that anybody who didn't spend at least three hours a day in prayer has no spiritual life to speak of. Reconstructionists belittle an 8 hour day and 40 hour week as modernist. One even claimed that a 40 hr work week was "for wussies." Some bible experts claim that a 12 hour day (six days per week) is closer to the Christian ideal. Christian education experts push for spending two hours per day reading to my children. Christian fitness experts recommend one hour of daily exercise, and health experts require 8 hours of sleep every night (yeah, right!). My employer's office policy book urges a full hour for lunch to avoid burnout, and many Christians agree that this time can be used for bible reading. At least one hour of bible reading is recommended by many. Several hours of family worship/devotion, too. A few hours at the dinner table where leisurely eating combined with family business discussion is also urged by some. I need to play with my kids. I already spend over an hour a day just commuting. I also have to eat breakfast, shower, personal stuff and the like before I even get in my car. Christian relationship experts suggest spending several hours of direct communication with a spouse. I need to attend church, prayer meeting, bible study, home group. An hour a day writing a journal before bed. Reading the newspaper and watching the news are quite necessary for any Christian to keep up on current events.

Okay, you get the idea.

Love of Labor (2)

I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and to do good in one's lifetime; moreover, that every man who eats and drinks sees good in all his labor - it is the gift of God. Ecclesiastes 3:12-13

In a previous post, I wrote about Solomon's observation that it was a blessing of God to eat, drink and enjoy his labor. Here again in Ecclesiastes chapter 3, he repeats something similar. As a basic theme in life, laboring that results in eating one's food and drinking one's wine is a gift from God. Not only this, but labor that can result in eating and drinking is a labor that is good. Solomon notes several times in Ecclesiastes that laboring only to have the product of one's labor go to others is a severe evil.

I desire to rejoice over eating and drinking from my labor. I am praying for this gift from God. To my readers: What about you? Do you ever pray for anything like this? Is this what Jesus means when He teaches us to pray, "give us this day our daily bread"? I'd like to hear your opinions.

The Wisdom of Solomon

For at the window of my house I looked out through my lattice, and I saw among the naive, I discerned among the youths, a young man lacking sense, passing through the street near her corner; and he takes the way to her house... Proverbs 7:6-8

It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, because that is the end of every man, and the living takes it to heart. Ecclesiastes 7:2

King Solomon wrote a good deal of wise things, and much of his writing found in the bible is found in what are considered the "wisdom books." Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon. In my estimation, I would say Solomon was a "people watcher." He watched other people's actions and lives. He took note of them. He saw patterns in living. He made special notes of cause and effect. He was informed. He knew God's precepts and the advantages and disadvantages of following them. He knew what blessings and curses were. He knew what certain life situations "felt" like to people; even to himself, and he knew these things aside from what God's word really meant.

If I could summarize Solomon's writing in a short quote I would say the following. "I spent a good part of my life acting like a fool, and all of my life watching others act like fools. I've learned my lessons, and I'm telling you about them so you don't have to suffer quite as many consequences. Everybody suffers simply from being human, but listen to God so that your suffering might be less."

Wisdom is applying knowledge to life. Solomon knew how to do that. We should listen to him.

Drinking Beer Is Twice As Bad As Watching Porn

Did I read that right? Drinking beer is twice as bad as watching porn? According to the demerit system listed in the Pensacola Christian College handbook as posted by my friend Bruce. Actually, one doesn't even have to drink a beer. Just holding one, or being friends with somebody who does seems to qualify just the same.

I've experienced some wacky legalism in my life, but not quite like this. I'm glad I went to college at Berkeley. The dorms had co-ed bathrooms (with the urinals next to the door), which was quite awkward, but not nearly the difficulty of living up to the PCC list.

The Real Reason Why There Are So Few Missionaries

Fr. Ernesto Obregon at OrthoCuban, writes a post on churches that support multiple missionaries - which is the same thing as missionaries that are supported by multiple churches. Sobering truth. I'm so happy about missions that I can hardly contain myself. Fr. Ernesto was so happy about "mission minded churches" too, that he followed it up with another post. I sometimes wonder whether it costs more to travel to a sponsoring church than the support they give. I'm happy as a pew sitter, myself.

PILGRIMS PUB: A Learner's Permit for Drinking

PILGRIMS PUB: A Learner's Permit for Drinking

Jason at Pilgrims Pub posts a letter from a high school student asking why there is no means for an adult to learn to drink responsibly, with practice and preparation, instead of suddenly being allowed by law one day.

In the eyes of the all-knowing state, we become adults when we turn 18, yet aren't allowed to drink until 21. I wonder if anybody else ever realizes that most of the problem drinking in our country is for those aged 18-21 (read: college underclassmen). Coincidence? Hardly.

Chip 'N' Dale Christianity

When I was growing up there was a cartoon with two chipmunks named Chip and Dale. These chipmunks would often be found frolicking in the forest, when suddenly a fox or other predator would come after them. They would run back to their hole, and when they got there they had a friendly debate about who should go first:

Chip: "After you."
Dale: "No, I insist, after you."
Chip: "No, I couldn't have it that way. You first."
Dale: "Don't speak of it."

On this went until the fox was upon them. They finally concluded, "Let's go together" and jumped into their hole together. Sometimes I feel this happens between people who insist on helping each other out. One insists on paying for something; the other insists that it is a gift. "How much do I owe you?" "Oh, I'm not going to charge you." "Yes, but you have a family to feed. I just wouldn't feel right." Etc.

In one case, the Apostle Paul said he ate no food from a church that he didn't pay for. In another case, Paul gladly accepted a gift from a church even though he didn't need it. I struggle sometimes with people who always do things to help, but never accept anything in return. Some would say it is a sign of humility to accept a gift. Yes, but sometimes, not most times, I just feel like it might be a battle of pride in showing the other that you are more giving. I try to let people do things for me when they offer and I need the help, and I've always offered reasonable amounts of help without charge. Some day I might get all this right.

Mt. Diablo

I grew up with a mountain in my backyard, Mt. Diablo (Devil's Mountain). Located 35 miles east of San Francisco on the edge of California's great Central Valley, this mountain stands a modest 3,849 feet above sea level. Yet, because of the valley and proximity to the ocean, in terms of viewable land area from its summit Mt. Diablo boasts the second grandest view on the entire face of the earth. Only Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa has a greater view.

The summit is accessible by road, and the views are spectacular. One can see over the Oakland Hills and view San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge and on a clear day, the Farallon Islands 35 miles out into the ocean. East, one can see Half Dome at Yosemite National Park and the Sierra Nevada mountains. North, one can see Lassen Peak, and each direction the views through the valley are extensive. The Sacramento river delta is easily seen, as are many cities and towns all over the area.

There are many hiking trails, and a museum on top of the peak. Hang gliders jump off the south ridge and out into the sky. I took my seven year old up there week before last. I hope to have more pictures soon.

127

"Now it took place in the days of Ahasuerus, the Ahasuerus who reigned from India to Ethiopia over 127 provinces..." Esther 1:1

Mrs. Scott was invited to a women's bible study by a friend, and they were reading the book of Esther. She commented that she wanted to read it. Yesterday we parked at the train station, where the stalls are numbered. I parked in stall 127. Numerology? Nah, I just wanted to have an easy way to remember where we parked.

Ecclesiastes Thread?

I'm reading Ecclesiastes right now, and it seems that a thread on Solomon's thinking is in the works on this blog. I don't think I'll make these posts into a series of connected ideas, but may just offer random comments on Solomon's observations.

Congress Should Go To Hell

Large US corporations imported toys from China with lead paint. The US Congress' solution was to destroy small businesses (single moms who work out of their garage, for example) that neither import toys nor use lead paint at all. Good people are being punished while evil people are rewarded by having their competition eliminated. James Leroy Wilson at Partial Observer thinks that the benefit of doubt given to Congress in having their intentions labeled as "good" should cease.

I personally think that the daily prayer before Congress starts business should be replaced with a reading from the bible of Matthew chapter 23. Today's politicians closely match the Pharisees of old in their hypocrisy, and should not be expected to escape the sentence of hell.

Love of Labor

There is nothing better for a man than to eat and drink and tell himself that his labor is good. This also I have seen, that it is from the hand of God. Ecclesiastes 2:24

I have been reading the book of Ecclesiastes lately, and have been pondering it for a while now. Being out of work and trying to decide what more to do in life, what to do next, why do it at all, I keep coming back to certain sayings in the book that have long given me a sense that there is something missing. There are several verses that say something similar to this one. These are Solomon's versions of Miller Time.

A day of labor, even if hard, can result in satisfaction. Taking joy in the labor of one's hands and marking the progress. Celebrating the accomplishment of labor with a cold beer with friends. The end of a day of labor can bring a sense of completion. I've lacked this in much of my professional life in the business world, but have found it in home projects, whether woodworking, consructing a patio, or a kitchen remodel. I always find it extremely difficult to relax in life. I'd like to get some kind of work that will allow me to do that.

Whatever I do next, I pray that I might be able to see the end of each day as a gift from God's hand. Am I dreaming or asking too much?

Division of Labor (2)

An anonymous commenter anonymously commented on my division of labor post:

"I wonder if this applies to "outta sight, outta mind"? The other problem I see/experience in this is if people can't afford it, it doesn't matter how good it is, if people can't afford it, they won't buy it."

Yes, I thought about this. So, maybe making yourself available/scarce is a double edged sword? I've probably thought about these things so many times, just not in certain terms.

Division of Labor: Excellence as Scarcity

Julie Neidlinger at Lone Prairie writes about scarcity. Excellence is a form of scarcity, as a book she's reading puts it. I've never thought of it in those terms, but I quickly identified it with the biblical concept (an economic one, too) of division of labor that Ron McKenzie is writing about at Blessed Economist. The concept of division of labor means that people can focus on things they are good at - becoming excellent in those things - and increase the overall standard of living in society.

Being scarce means that with you in low supply, the price fetched for your services can increase. If somebody has general knowledge and skill in a particular area, and you have specific knowledge, you demand a higher price. The buyer can pay one amount for an okay level of service, or a higher amount for excellence. With everybody making themselves more scarce, they can command greater prices, thus making more and being able to hire more people who specialize in more things. This can work with people relationships, too, as Julie points out when she says, "making oneself scarce is no foolish thing." Now, if I can apply this to looking for a job...

I'm Not Much of a Small Group Prayer Person

I was recently reminded that I'm not a very good break-up-into-small-groups-and-pray kind of person. Last week, I was in a very large group of people and we broke up into groups of about 8 or so. Often, I encounter this with as few as three in the small group. Often, there are several complete strangers in the group, and almost always people who are mere acquaintances. And, it is mostly the case that we are asked to pray about fairly personal matters, or how a certain topic just talked about affects personal matters.

I find these prayer groups awkward, because I certainly don't want to ask a complete stranger to pray for personal things. How these groups form is awkward, too, as I'm always the one trying to figure out which of the other groups that have already formed I should join. I don't want to gather with group A in front of me if it will offend somebody in group B behind me who thinks I am their friend who doesn't want to pray with them. I can't get to know anybody, either, as we're supposed to be praying. Usually, we run out of time to get all our prayer requests prayed for, and whoever is leading the larger meeting has to interrupt us for the sake of time. Interrupting prayer is rude, I believe. Somebody usually talks way too long in giving their prayer requests (it has been me at times), and "steals the show." The rest of the times, the group I'm in finishes praying early, and is left with that awkward time where none of us seems to know how to act, and just waits until the other groups are told to wrap up. This happened last week, and while I was feeling very awkward, somebody else I knew walked by and we started up a conversation about something completely different. I wonder if anybody in my group felt dissed because of this. I may never know.

I'm not sure what these groups accomplish, or what they are intended to accomplish, other than we are all so used to doing this that we do this because we are used to doing it. It just seems manufactured and artificial to me. If it helps anybody else, then great. Who thought this type of thing up, anyway?

Remember The Joy? What Happened to the Spark?

I've heard numerous times from people, and often from sermons, "Remember the joy you experienced upon your conversion to Christ? Remember how you could hardly contain yourself, and you had to go out and tell everybody you knew about your new faith? Remember how you witnessed the gospel to everybody? How you couldn't stop praising God? How you couldn't stop reading your bible? What happened since then? What happened to that spark? You need to have that spark renewed in your life."

It is amazing how many people take this view of converting to Christ. To them, it's as if this is the only way it does ever happen. But for me, it didn't happen anything like this at all. Far from it. My conversion was one of much confusion. Fear. I heard the gospel, yes, and realized the need to repent from my sins, but I saw God as a figure of terror, not so much as a loving Father. I was terrified to tell others about my experience. My first group of religious leaders were legalists and they really twisted the meaning of Christianity. I heard about Christianity for years, then my conversion didn't happen in a single moment, but somewhere within a period of eight or nine months.

One troublesome thing for me is in just how often people have a narrow idea of what Christianity, and all of its smaller pieces, looks like for other people. I think next time I hear something like this, I'll try to inform the one who is speaking that life isn't like his/her expectations.

Being Content With Abundance and Prosperity

"...I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need." Philippians 4:11-12

The apostle Paul learned how to be content with prosperity and abundance. I'd like to learn the same thing. It would be godly for me to be content with abundance, if I were to have it, so especially in these rough economic times, I'm praying that I may come to receive prosperity and to be content with it. I've never experienced it before.

Preaching To The Poor and Blind and Naked

"Because you say, 'I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,' and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire, that you may become rich, and white garments that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and eyesalve to anoint your eyes, that you may see." quote from The Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God - Revelation 3:17-18

I reflected on a conversation I had with a friend about something in my church past. I have rarely ever desired to be a preacher, but on those rare occasions, the above text might have been tempting.

Proper Church Authority and Submission To It

Ron McKenzie at Blessed Economist paints a portrait of pastoral authority in the church and what submission to that authority looks like. What Ron describes looks nothing like what most of the church today looks like. Quoting:

Christian submission is different from worldly submission, because its purpose is protection against error. Christians submit to an elder by giving the elder permission to speak in to their life. ... The elders will know the Christian well, so they will notice any mistakes. Elders have authority ask the tough questions, that no one else will ask. ... Elders must know their disciples well enough to see their hidden mistakes, and they must love them enough to challenge them, even at the risk of losing their friendship. Many Christians fall away when they make a bad decision or slip back into persistent sin. This often happens, because no one loves them enough to challenge them, at the time of their first mistake.

I constantly hear of people leaving churches in large numbers. What I never hear is how these people departed only after the shepherds left the other 99 sheep in the flock to pursue them. Either shepherds don't know their sheep or they know enough about how to control them with improper authority that they leave. I suspect both in today's evangelicalism.

Obama's Inheritance

Whilst walking through the room whilst the news was on, I saw a clip of a man - I have no clue who he was or what side he was on - defending President Obama against Republican criticism on his budget proposal. "Hey, he inherited this budget."

Yep. Some long-lost rich uncle died and left him some promising property, which, when he looked at it, found it to be in grave disrepair, infested with termites and drug addicts. Surprise!

Aside from the obvious hypocrisy of Bush era Republicans criticizing Obama on budget issues, I would like to point out that Obama certainly did not inherit the budget crisis. He wilfully and actively campaigned before the entirety of the American populace for an extended period during the election season, with full knowledge, to take ownership of the budget, all the while promising a solution. Mr. President, it's yours. Take it like a man, and tell your yahoos to shush. You own the house, Senate and White House. Things should be easy.

psssssst: we knew this would happen, but now we have somebody to blame... responsibility is a pregnant female canine, ain't it?

Link To: "Scripture... As We Live It"

I've decided to put a link in my blogroll directly to Alan Knox's "Scripture...As We Live It" thread at his The Assembling of the Church blog. He quotes passages of Scripture and uses strikethroughs and red lettering to show what Scripture says how we often really live.

Church Bill of Rights? (2)

Just some dude named reformedgeek (okay, he's a friend of mine and our kids sometimes try to beat each other up) left a comment on my Church Bill of Rights? post. He asks, "Free speech in the church? woah... Steve, are you saying that someone who is reading false doctrine, spreading gossip, or even dissension in the church should have the right to do so? And NOT be asked to stop?..." Well, not exactly. I thought I would clarify and expand on my thoughts and try to stay reasonably close to the intent of how I interpreted the original willohroots post.

Here in America, the idea of "free speech" conjures up images of confrontation between baton-wielding cops and determined, "disobedient" protesters, whether in Birmingham or Berkeley. We think of simple acts that violate a person's inner being, and such violations can be taken all the way to the Supreme Court, making national headlines the whole way.

But the whole idea of free speech comes with a complementary idea: the freedom to be corrected. If I never speak my mind as to what I believe - because I'm not allowed to by church leadership or some other man made, unwritten rules of church social norm - then just how am I supposed to grow? Iron sharpens iron because the rough edges grate against one another. Rough edges are necessary to sharpening. And this is a two way street. Church leaders should welcome people who disagree with them into their folds, because how are the church leaders supposed to grow?

Of course, gossip has no place in the church. But what of dissent? It should be noted that dissenting and the spread of dissent are two different animals altogether. I have no problem saying that I disagree with a number of things my church believes (I won't enumerate here in my blog), but those things are outside of the core essentials of the faith, and are secondary issues. I've told my church leaders about these things on occasion, and no church discipline process has started. The difference is that although I disagree on some things, I haven't started a rally to gather people to fight for "my cause" against those "nasty church leaders" and divide the flock. I don't desire that. Would we Reformers proclaim Martin Luther's 95 theses to the ends of the earth and yet not welcome him standing at our own church door? What of Semper Reformanda? And what of reading false doctrine? Well, that comes with the issue of discernment. Jesus said that we can drink any deadly poison and it will not harm us. I've read plenty of things that would horrify some church people, yet others would yawn.

Thomas doubted the very resurrection. Jesus lovingly allowed him to put his finger into the piercing. Yet how many smaller, insignificant things would we be willing to consign somebody to hell for? For how many of these things would we be willing to avoid association with those who hold them? Christians should be free to read the Da Vinci Code, to let their children read Harry Potter, to drink beer in a bar, to read Calvin or Wesley or the pope, go to an AC/DC concert, to hold to paedobaptism in a Baptist church (or vice versa), without fearing condemnation. To sum up, I'll give a quote from Will's original post: "This right does not preclude loving condemnation of the acts that seem biblically improper, it precludes the condemnation of the person."

Ice [Cream] Follies

NT WT ONE HALF GALLON (64 FL OZ) 1.89 L

So reads the lid of the Costco (Kirkland) brand vanilla ice cream in the freezer. Obviously whoever designed the packaging was suffering from ice cream brain freeze while at the drawing board. I should send them a resume and offer to proofread.

Mrs. Scott Solves Screen Resolution Issue

Mrs. Scott did some troubleshooting for me. The dropdown "view/text size" settings were somehow re-set to "largest" for many of the blogs I frequent. No wonder the text sizes were wacky. Thank you, Mrs. Scott!

Baseball On The Radio!

Today is a wonderful day on the calendar. It was the first game of the cactus league season for the Giants (spring training) and the first game broadcast on the radio. After an entire winter of silence, simply hearing a baseball game on the radio is the best music I can think of. I occasionally write here on this blog about my love for baseball (but my baseball blog, From the Bleachers is dedicated to baseball, and this piece is cross-posted there). I am a fan, and an avid fan at that.

But, my fandom does not mean that I hang on every pitch of a game and ignore all else. For me, listening to games on the radio is a daily event during baseball season, but I enjoy it at least as much as background music as I do paying attention to every pitch. It is soothing to the soul and easy upon the mind. That we are completely spoiled here in the Bay Area with wonderful announcers that communicate the game so beautifully makes me want to live here forever.

A Time To Tear Down

"...A time to tear down, ..." Ecclesiastes 3:3

With my recent layoff, I really sense a time of tearing down in my life. So many things have been torn down already; wacky evangelical beliefs and the like. Looking at the history of my blog, I find most everything I've ever written about in the negative (which are most things I've ever written) are things that I, myself, used to believe. Used to. Five years ago, I would hardly believe some of the things I do today. I like to think that I write about these things because I have taken the sequoia redwood out of my own eye after God has shown me the stupidity of believing a bunch of crap taught to me by other people who have been just as clueless. Blind leading the blind. Maybe, maybe not.

With my current economic situation, many more things will surely fall like dominoes, being torn down in rapid succession. I don't know in the least what to think of it all, and have no clue as to a solution or even as a stopgap. At this rate, I may be completely separated from the world's economic system in a few short months, or even seconds. Of course, if I get a job soon, things may not change a whole lot, but some major things are changing.

I have hope, though, that things will be rebuilt anew, built on REAL trust, real trustworthiness, pure motives, real friendships, real devotion to God instead of empty words, fake images, tired cliches, excuses, facade propping, power mongering and finger pointing from people who haven't a clue as to how the world really works. They just think they know. They don't. But there is hope.

What's Up With Blogger Screen Resolution?

[Update 02-25-09: problem solved, thanks to Mrs. Scott]

Last night, somtime in the middle of the night, all of my Blogger based sites on my blogroll had a screen resolution explosion (implosion?), so that now all non-toolbar space on the screen is hyper enlarged. One site, Gene's, is showing up with about 256 pt type. I can hardly read it, as even moderate length words in margins are displayed on several lines. Some sites have extreme text and photo overlap. Yahoo and Comcast home pages are also affected. Wordpress and several others don't seem to be affected.

One post title in Gene's right margin looks like this to me:

Dancing as
a Bride
with her
Bridegroo
m


I have a high resolution screen, the 1280 x 1024 max, but the non-toolbar spaces on these sites show up like some 800 x 640 kindergarten viewability. No, I'm not losing my eyesight.

My Blogger post editor has like 1/4" characters on my screen. All these things are screaming at my face. Any ideas out there?

CBS Sucks, Big Time

For several years now, Yahoo Launchcast has had pre-programmed radio stations of all genres available for listening. The best part about Launchcast was the ability to have one's own custom radio station, where play lists were heavily influenced by the user's tastes. I listened to my "own" radio station off and on for several years. I gave top ratings to songs that were unavailable to me or favorite songs from my younger days.

Well, last week, CBS took over Yahoo's Launchcast. Most things remained unchanged to a degree, except custom radio stations were given the ax. Mine included. You suck, CBS. No wonder your ratings suck, and suck more all the time. Sucking yourself out of existence, yep. Did I say that you suck?

Church Bill of Rights?

Will Hapeman blogs at Willohroots. Will and I have crossed each other's paths in the large comments section of the Internet Monk blog, and as a result now read each other's blogs. (This is a good tip of effective blogging, as I may write about in a future post.) Will, I believe(?), is a pastor in the Southern Baptist Convention.

Recently, Will brought up an interesting topic, church rights for members. He makes a comparison to constitutional rights for American citizens. While such an idea, in my experience, is completely scoffed at from almost every angle, Will proposes a bill of intellectual freedom rights in the church. Click through to read them for yourself. I'll simply clip a paragraph out to give the basic foundation to the flavor of his post:

Do we have rights in church? If the founding fathers gave credit to God for our rights within a secular community, should there not be rights for the people of God, in His House, in a Sacred community? Do church folk have a right to expect ….anything? In this country do we sign our rights away when we walk in the door of the church? Don’t think I am being silly, the first amendment guarantees free speech. How free is your speech in the average church? Can you disagree? Can you even question? Do you have rights if you are accused? Do pastors have rights? More rights? Less?

I think a plain and basic reading of the New Testament would allow for the things Will describes. Whether we call them "rights" is a subject for discussion. Often, I might call them "duties." But in any case, I've experienced church groups where any disagreement or dissent is strictly a no-no. I've also experienced groups where freedom of thinking and belief are "allowed", except for in the unwritten rules. But, I've never felt free to think for myself and hold my own beliefs in any church setting. Even if such a thing is officially okay, there are always individuals or groups of people that simply cannot grasp such a concept. You have the freedom of belief, as long as you believe in the truth; as defined by them, of course.

I've only recently felt comfortable in hashing out my own belief system, searching the Scriptures for myself to see if what I've always been taught is so. Now I need to feel comfortable to believe those things in the presence of others, no matter who those others are.

Stupid Questions About Christianity (2)

"My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by him." Hebrews 12:5

Okay, my stupid question is this: how do we know when the Lord is disciplining or reproving us? What does it look like? When I was a kid, my parents usually told me what I was doing wrong before disciplining me. I knew that the discipline was for the behavior I was engaging in.

I don't ever hear God telling me, "you did X, therefore I will discipline you with Y." So how do I really know?

On Losing A Job

I found out yesterday that pink slips aren't really pink. Fourteen years at the same firm all gone in a few hours. The writing has been on the wall for some time now. The building industry, including architecture, reflects the overall economy - just amplified several fold. Last year we saw 30% of our staff laid off, with the survivors receiving salary reductions. More yesterday. Probably more to come. Yet we are among the strongest of the bunch out there. (I just noticed that I'm still speaking in the first person plural even though I'm no longer there.) Many have already died.

The last two years for my family and me have been by far the most difficult of our lives. Or at least my life. I'm not sure what will happen in the next few months. I'm thankful that I have a small severance package to carry us over for a short period of time, but the outlook is bleak. There are certain sectors of society that have work available for somebody like me, it's just that I don't know if things will mesh. We're not close to starving to death, like people do in other parts of the history of the world, and I'm not ready to throw somebody under a bus for a piece of bread.

I'm not being very transparent in this post, as I'm not sure I can bear things out publicly, but suffice it to say that things suck. I've already done quite a bit of editing out of things before I hit "publish." Encouragement is welcome. Self-righteous, pietistic, cliched bullshit isn't. Thanks for your prayers.

Adding OrthoCuban

I am adding the OrthoCuban blog to my blogroll. This blog is owned by an Eastern Orthodox priest named Father Ernetso Obregon, who is Cuban born (pre-Castro) and came to the US in 1961. I found him through comments and sometimes invited contributions on the internetMonk blog. As with most Americans, I know little about the beliefs and practices of the Eastern Orthodox tradition. I find Fr. Ernesto's writing on Orthodox theology enlightening, and he relates it often to the American way of doing religion. I have found his blog to be a good read for a Protestant, especially of the Reformed Calvinist variety.

No Need For Micromanagement In The Kingdom of God

Kevin Johnson at Prophezei turns modern Protestantism upside down with his post about the micromanaging tendencies of church elders.

I’m not really concerned to maintain traditional polity so long as justice is exemplified and available in the covenant community and ideally among an associated group of covenant communities for really serious matters. The acting and ruling group however should be the congregation and not a body of ministers.

Kevin sets aside the authoritarian view of church government, in favor of one where elders teach, preach and lead by example. Congregations should learn what it means to individually be priests of God; and royal priests at that. He also notes that elders are completely absent from the Matthew 18 passage on church discipline. I agree with him.

I have read arguments over the years for a heavy involvement of elders in the whole church discipline process. One argument that is given is that if taking an issue of discipline before the entire congregation is left up to individual members, then damaging and dangerous gossip will surely result. While I don't disagree with them on this point, I view their argument as far more dangerous. If gossip would result, as they claim, then the question has to be asked: would this gossip be sin and subject to church discipline itself? Of course it would. Congregations would then very quickly learn to be very careful in taking accusations before the entire church. They would learn by getting their hands dirty and their elbows scuffed. The micromanagement model simply stunts the growth of congregations just like an overprotective mother leads to unwarranted handholding. It also keeps relegates gossip to its most poisonous place of damage: in secret. Elders have far more important things to concern themselves with anyway. I myself have abandoned the concept of "elder rule" in favor of what I think is a more biblical model, "Christ rule/elder servant." Micromanagement has no place in the Kingdom of God.

Friday Night Potpourri

Random thoughts on a Friday night:

• It was raining hard on my way home tonight. We're in a drought here in CA and need all the H2O we can get.
• We have a mountain here in the Bay Area, Mt. Diablo (Devil's Mountain), about 35 miles east of San Francisco (right in my back yard). Although only 3,849 ft. high, with California's vast valleys, etc., the viewable land area from its summit is the second grandest view on the face of the earth. Second only to Kilimanjaro in Africa. It really is a great view from up there. On a clear day one can see Half Dome in Yosemite National Park.
• Speaking of Mt. Diablo, it rained heavily last night, and the snow level was down to about 1,500 ft. This morning the upper half of the mountain was a brilliant white. By sundown, most of the snow had washed away, leaving only the top few hundred feet white.
• The Oscars are coming up, and that means I'll be an awards ceremony widower.
• No matter who you are, I caught you doing something very embarrassing on Google Street recently.
• Pitchers and catchers report tomorrow

Re-Thinking The Sunday Church Service (Part 9) - The Church Meeting Described In The Bible (4)

Read the entire series here.

In keeping with Part 8 where I was writing about all the members in the church service involved in edifying the whole body, Alan Knox at The Assembling of the Church posts about spiritual gifts in the assembled church. To quote:

Scripture only gives two requirements for someone to exercise their gift when the church is assembled: whatever they do must be motivated by love (1 Cor. 13) and must edify the church (1 Cor. 14:26). No gifts should be refused, and no gifts should be elevated above the others - as long as the gifts are used to edify other people. Similarly, the people should be given the opportunity to use their gifts when the church is assembled, and they should be reminded that God holds them responsible for this. In other words, if someone is in charge of the meeting time, that person should make sure that others are given opportunity to edify the church. And, the people gathered should be reminded that God wants them to participate and expects them to participate in building up the body.

Giving all the people an opportunity to edify others, in the context of the church meeting, when the entire church is together, is a good example of "power to the people." Leave it to God to design such a thing. Those who are "nobodies" in the eyes of the world can have great power in Christ's church. No wonder so many poor people throughout history have become Christians.

Good Economy, Bad Economy

Right now the economy is "bad." Really bad. Just a few years ago, it was "good." Really good. Now, things may be a bit different where you live, but in my experience, a "good" economy doesn't really mean that things are all that better. I work in the building industry, and as housing goes, so goes the economy. Our industry is a multiplier of the overall economy, so things are said to be feast or famine. Right now is "famine."

But, when the economy is "good", goodness is offset by other things bad. In my metro area, the San Francisco Bay Area, a good economy brings people in droves to Silicon Valley, where all the "good" jobs are, of course, so supply and demand means that the cost of everything shoots up dramatically. Rents and home prices skyrocket, forcing existing dwellers to move further out from the epicenter as newbies force their way in and veterans force their way up. So much economic activity occurs that there really isn't a "feast", but mostly working all the harder and faster to simply keep up with the work load. A feast also includes the free time necessary to enjoy the extra food, by the way. Clients are extra hard on you, cracking the whip in expectation of the impossible in ever tightening schedules. Then the extra work load becomes necessary to keep up with rising costs.

During an economic housing boom, everybody in the industry is employed, so bidding wars start and work shortages occur. Try to hire a contractor during a "good" economy. "We'll get back to you next May." Even if you have an agreement, if you are outbid by somebody else, you are left holding the bag.

Now as the economy is "bad", I'm hearing that many people are "going back to the basics; family, home cooked meals, staying in." During a "good" economy, meals are picked up "to go" from a restaurant so the worker can head back to the office to work late. During a "bad" economy, people stay home to eat with family, but the quality of food is not as great.

I'm not convinced that we are living in an age of prosperity, where things get slightly better all the time, but in an age of roller coasters and merry-go-rounds where things seem to get better, followed by a period where things seem to get worse. We seem to simply trade off catch-22 periods.

Favorite Movie Scene

My favorite movie scene of all time is from a comedy. It happens to be my favorite movie as well. In this scene, which is only about 3 minutes long, King Arthur argues with a peasant about systems of government. Classic.

Christians And The State

"The Bible is skeptical about states and rulers; Christians should be too." - James Leroy Wilson

In his weekly blog commentary, Partial Observer, Wilson questions why Christians would believe in democracy and have such a commitment to the state. He notes the lack of a biblical call for Christians to assume earthly political power over others, and when this happens, destruction follows.

But even in the Old Testament, God gave a Law, not a State. God left it up to the people to obey it and enforce it. Throughout the Book of Judges, when the people obeyed the Law, they fared pretty well even though there was no formal government in Israel. When the people demanded a King in 1 Samuel 8: 10-22, God predicts oppression and doom. The desire to form a State was just another form of idolatry...And what of the Christians who do get involved, and advocate prohibitions and punishments unheard of in the Bible? They, too, have fallen short of the glory of God; what credibility do they have in running other people's lives?

Martin Luther said that he would rather be ruled by a good Turk than a bad Christian. But why not rather be ruled by God, the giver of good and perfect gifts from above?

Church As Family

Gene Redlin at Northern Gleaner paints what I consider a powerful picture of church as family. And we commit child abuse. Churches don't treat their congregants as family, but rather as prospective members of a club who go through a hazing process to gain approval. But Christians are full members of the body of Christ simply by being Christians.

To quote Gene:

I see no evidence in the New Testament at all of "Membership Rituals" along with the accompanying hazing at all. If you can give any example I want to hear it. In the Old Testament there are examples of enrolling. That was for land ownership and priestly succession.

If you were born a Jew you were at once part of the Jewish Body.

That's as it should be, if you are born again, you are at once a full member of the Body of Christ.

Anything else is counterfeit and not scriptural.

Family.

Why From The Pew? (3) - Berean Spirit

Read the first two parts here and here.

The brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so. Acts 17:10-11.

Another reason for the From the Pew blog is that of the Berean spirit. I have heard many things in my Christian experience. Many things are repeated often, and to the point that many people believe them simply because they've been repeated so often. I've decided to take those things I've been taught and examine the Scriptures to see whether those things are so. Many times they are not so. If they aren't, I just might write about them. In looking back at the history of my blog, I find that the vast majority of things I don't agree with are things I did believe at one time. Blogging has forced me to come to terms with what I believe - and don't.

Stupid Questions About Christianity (1)

I've been a Christian for 15 years now, had my share of high level theology, and yet there are those questions that I've never had answered. You know, the stupid questions; the simple ones that the further along you go, the more afraid you are to ask. Maybe I'll start a minor series of these. Okay, here's the first one, based on a cliche from 1 Peter 4:11:

"Whoever speaks, is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God; whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen." 1 Peter 4:11 NASV

I always hear Christians talk about doing things in their own strength versus doing things in the strength of the Lord. "Oh, I've been trying to do that in my own strength instead of God's strength." Uhhhm, what does this mean? How would I know whose strength I'm trying to do something in? Does it mean I'm doing it in my strength if it fails, but God's if it succeeds? By what standard? Does it mean I'm doing it in my strength if I try, but God's if I don't try at all and it just happens? Should I stop trying to do anything at all and attribute all good things that happen to God's strength? Doesn't all strength come from God in the first place? How do you know when you're doing something in your own strength? Is this really a stupid question?

Why Housing Is So Expensive

"Did you know that in some communities, housing regulations and fees can account for up to a third of the cost of a new home? Overly restrictive regulations, zoning laws, and NIMBY sentiments are driving up the cost of housing."

Gee, I'd really, really, really love to give the source of this quote in this very blog post. But maybe I'll leave all of you to guess, then reveal it in another post. Wanna guess?

Having my career in the building industry, I see first hand every single day why housing is so expensive; why people can't afford a house; why simply being alive can constitute a lawsuit. I see first hand how government screws things up far beyond any ability for an average citizen to comprehend. People simply have no clue; or very little clue if any. Yet people cry bloody murder for the government to keep on doing the same things that screw up this country as solutions to the results of those same screw ups. For those interested, I've already written a series on zoning laws and how they screw up everything.

Divorce: The Unpardonable Sin (2)

Imagine your very best friend gets engaged, and he comes to you and says, "I would be honored if you were the best man in my wedding." Now imagine this same best friend has said to you that if you ever got married, not only would he not be your best man, he would not even attend your wedding. Your ex-wife left you before you even became a Christian, and for you to ever get married again would be to commit adultery. Attending a wedding that is an adulterous act would be to give a blessing to adultery, something a Christian cannot do in good conscience. Yes, this very thing happened to me. Imagine being told that even though you're divorced, you're still a married man, and as a married man, you should avoid any close fellowship with women, and that your area of ministry will be solely to men. Imagine that women in the church are told that you are a married man and to shy away.

Now imagine attending another church that believes that there are only a few scenarios where a divorced person is allowed to remarry, but you're one of them! Not only do they believe you are free to remarry, they take "It is not good for man to be alone" to an extreme and tell you to get out there and find a wife. Imagine the confusion in being held to mutually exclusive, extreme imperatives by two groups of people (still having friends from the old group) claiming to believe the same bible.

Now imagine thinking that you've come to a place of believing that you're okay to remarry, and that you're going to a church that believes the same. You find interest in a young woman, and everything is fine until her parents, who were raised in the first line of thinking, find out your ex-wife left you once upon a time, leaving you divorced. Your relationship is immediately shunned and you are banned from setting foot in their house. Actually, this one had a happy ending. No, I didn't marry the girl, but the gravity of the situation over time affected her family to the point of re-thinking their position. They sought out wisdom from others, studied it for themselves, and changed their minds.

I've also served as a deacon in a church. This required much agonizing before allowing the elders to lay hands on me. Our church sees situations where divorced people are able to remarry, but I had to have discussions with the pastor about potentially explosive situations caused by members who didn't believe in remarriage in my case or in allowing divorced people to serve. I know of a church that split over the discovery of a divorce in the past of one of its leaders.

Fun stuff, marriage, divorce and remarriage is. More to come...

Divorce - The Unpardonable Sin (1)

Okay, I'm about to drop a bombshell on the blogging world. I'm divorced. Or, maybe I should say, I was divorced at one time. Yep. Now that I've lost a percentage of my readers just on this bit of information alone...

I look back and laugh at it now, but there was a time early on in my Christian life that my pre-conversion divorce was a huge blot on my character. I was a divorcee. Okay, well actually, since the people I hung around with back then claimed that there's no such thing as divorce, that I'm still married to that other woman in God's eyes, now that I'm married again, I now have two wives, and am an adulterer, and probably not a true Christian because of it.

There's a line of thinking in some strains of fundamentalist Christianity, a foul smelling doctrine of marriage, divorce and remarriage that makes anybody who has ever been divorced - even if they were the unwilling innocent (and willing reconciling) party in a marriage that was broken by the other person - an equivalent of the disease leprosy. Toss every imaginable sock of sin into the washing machine with the bleach of Jesus' blood, and out come the socks of murder, lying, theft, abuse, drug addiction, harlotry, whoredom, profanity, all pure white. Yet the socks of divorce and being divorced remain soiled. For many in the church, divorce is treated quite literally as the unpardonable sin and a dead end roadblock to any advance whatsoever in the Christian life. Divorcees, no matter how innocent, have the scarlet letter "D" tattooed branded on them, and are banned from remarriage, fellowship, even simple conversation with members of the opposite gender.

I'll take a few posts in a short series to discuss how bad theology and a misunderstanding of biblical teaching can really screw up people's lives. First hand experience, here.

The Lost Book of Hezekiah

"[Insert totally stupid idea here]" - Hezekiah 3:16

I'd love to have the time to create a book of the bible, the long lost book of Hezekiah. It would be filled with bible verses that are twisted (a la Alan Knox's Scripture As We Live It), human sayings and urban legend proverbs turned into verses (i.e. "cleanliness is next to godliness"), and really dumb junk. Bizarre and outright false human ideas on religion, especially the so-called Christian ones, would hold valuable places in this text. Maybe Hezekiah 3:16 could be a wild-card catch-all verse for any absurd agenda. This could be really fun. Get your copy lying on the sidewalk outside a recently closed Christian super-mega bookstore. I'll autograph each one.

Re-Thinking Romans 13 (Part 19)

Read entire series here.

Vache Folle posts an interpretation of Romans 13 which is basically this: Paul is saying to the Roman believers, "don't stand out looking like a bunch of lawbreakers, and avoid trouble with the government as much as possible." My own pastor, who preached through Romans a few years ago, had the idea of maintaining a "posture" of humility in subjection to the government. I interpret his interpretation as even if the government is flat out false, chill a bit and act like you're complying. Of course this leaves it open to completely oppose the government, as long as you don't openly rebel.

Vache Folle also comes up with some good questions about authority and how to recognize when that authority changes:

What is meant by authority, anyway? If Caesar conquers my country by the sword and exercises power over me, does he likewise have authority as from God? If we are never to rebel against authority, was not the founding of the United States via treason and rebellion a sin? And what of the simple subject of the crown in that rebellion? With whom was he to side? At what point is he supposed to recognize a new authority even when it is conceived in rebellion? Were the conspirators in the Underground Railroad sinners against God? What happens when one authority opposes another as in a war? Is God fighting God? Were the martyrs of the early church defying God when they defied Caesar?

With either of these interpretations, the usual "obey the state" idea is set aside.

Adding Alan Knox Link

I'm adding a link to my blogroll. Through Abu Daoud's Islam and Christianity, I found Alan Knox's The Assembling of the Church. He assembles with a church that practices every-member participation, and his area of specialization is ecclesiology. He has many good points in why a lot of churches don't operate very well.

Evangelical Subculture Quote of the Year

In a reaction to the latest evangelical gimmick that solidifies the escapist mentality of the naval gazing Christian Ghetto (Rick Warren's Christianized version of Facebook), my friend Bruce takes swipe at its fear of the world around it by posting what has to be the evangelical subculture quote of the year:

I am needed much more in the world than in the Christian Ghetto. In the world I am accepted as one of the clan because I am a human being . In many Christian settings I often feel like I need to drop my pants and prove that I am not an uncircumcised Philistine.

As I have stated many times before, we need Christians who will get a bit dirty with the world, willing to be in the world but not of the world.

The last thing we need is another Christian Ghetto.

Re-Thinking The Sunday Church Service (Part 8) - The Church Meeting Described In The Bible (3)

Read the entire series here.

In Part 7, I noted that the 1 Corinthians passage showed all the members of the assembly involved in edifying the whole body. It would be interesting to know how many people were there in Corinth. Although I see no limit placed on the number of people in an assembly, I think it might be rather difficult to do this in the context of a 10,000 member mega-church. Does this say anything about the size of a church? Maybe it does. But there are successful large churches who claim to succeed by breaking down into much smaller groups at other times during the week for more personal interaction. Are large churches that don't break down into smaller groups as successful? Can edification take place in these smaller groups? Is there an advantage to doing things this way? Could we call these smaller groups "church"? Questions, questions, questions.

Scripture As It Is Really Lived

I came across a blog devoted to the topic of ecclesiology, the study of the church. Alan Knox at The Assembling of the Church has one series of posts where he takes familiar passages from Scripture and "re-mixes" them with strikethroughs and red lettering to tell the story of how we really live out what the bible says. Humorously sad and sadly humorous. He's up to 38. Read them here. (Hat tip: Abu Daoud)

When Victory Pays Less Than Keeping The Fight Going

I sometimes wonder about motives that are involved in a cause, and how those motives affect victory. I see in so many areas of struggle, whether cultural, religious, political, etc., that victory will leave the warriors with nothing to do. If one is paid to fight, there's nothing worse than losing one's job.

Take the fight against crime, for example. Let's say that tomorrow all crime stopped. Nobody committed a crime anymore. Not only that but nobody broke any laws anymore. What would be the result? Police, law enforcement workers from detectives to investigators to police car repairmen to janitors to judges to attorneys to bail bonds businesses to legal newspapers to stenographers to the FBI to legislators to any other job within law enforcement; all would lose their jobs overnight. How many of these people would be content with the end of crime? No wonder so many new laws are passed all the time. These people need income from fighting against all those who break those new laws.

Take abortion, for example. With the Republican Revolution in Congress - taking both houses - being capped off with the election of a pro-life president in Bush, Roe v. Wade could have been overturned and abortion could have been outlawed in, like, five minutes, just like they all claimed they wanted to happen. Did it happen? No? What does that say about those who claim to be against abortion? A whole lotta organizations that "fight against" abortion using large monetary donations would suddenly be outta money. Okay, you can turn this around and list any liberal cause, too.

How about the fight against horrible diseases like cancer, AIDS, heck, name any other? A cure for any one of these would mean the end of research money, political lobbying, etc. If I accidentally stumbled across a simple, no-cost cure for some disease while working on my car in the garage, you can bet that an organized effort to regulate, tax, suspend or outlaw my cure would commence immediately from people who would lose out on the deal. What if a 400 horse power muscle car could run on tap water with no emissions? Same with SUV's? Many an environmentalist would have nothing to piss and moan about. Oil companies would die.

This is of course not meant to offend anybody in particular who might be involved in such causes. But a question is in order. Would you sacrifice your cause, and the money it brought in, for victory?

In Praise Of Procrastination

I have a slightly different view of a topic blogged about by CJ Mahaney here and here, namely of procrastination. I am a procrastinator, and I have been for most of my life. Okay, yeah, procrastination can result in bad things, and may come about because of laziness or other sins of the flesh, but quite often I find that procrastination is the wise course.

I can't count how many times I've put things off until the last minute because if I tackled them early, I would have to redo them due to changing circumstances. This is especially true in the history of my work world. Clients always change things, and other consultants are often lax in their duties. If I know something will change because of somebody else's incompetence, then it is a waste of time to do things twice.

Also, I've found that with doing things at the last minute (if I've left myself enough time to finish a task), there is a kind of pressure that will put me in the mindset to get the job done. Work is more enjoyable when there is commitment, focus is increased, and reward is more satisfying. I'm learning to do more things early, if I can, or at least I think I am, so those things that can be easily swept to the side because they were easy can help out. Procrastination shouldn't be looked at in only one light.

Meet The New Boss, Same As The Old Boss

America is just a few hours away from having its first black president. Many people have offered their opinion that he was elected because of the color of his skin. Not that it didn't play a part in it, but I think a large percentage of the people who voted for Barack Obama did so because they also thought him a man of character. He believes many of the same things as they do. They trust him. If it were merely because of the color of his skin, Alan Keyes would already be a former president.

For me, tomorrow is just another day. Just another politician that I didn't vote for will take office to do just the same things that the rest of the presidents have done in the past. I really wish I could hold Obama in a higher light, to say he's above the other presidents to serve before him, but I can't. Not yet, anyway. No sooner than Obama made the campaign promise that he would stop the corporate welfare of giving billions of dollars to corporations and their CEO's, he supported the housing bailout that gives billions of dollars to corporate CEO's. Strike three, Mr. Obama. He's already set himself up as a promise breaker with all the impossible promises he gave along the way. He's just another politician, as breaking impossible promises is part of the definition of a politician, but somehow, I hope I'm wrong. One problem I see with his huge support is wondering just who it is that will be blamed if he is not successful. The deck is stacked against him.

Of all the presidents in my lifetime (my mother was six months pregnant when JFK was shot), only one have I had any respect for, and that was Ronald Reagan. I spent five of his eight years in Berkeley, California, so I know first hand what it's like to live in a society of venomously hateful people living in contempt of an individual who could piss them off simply by having his face appear on TV. Maybe it would be a good thing for me to review Reagan's record in light of what I believe now. In any case, I would like to have respect for Obama. I'm willing to give him a second chance. His second chance with me will start at, what, 12:01 Eastern time? Advice to Mr. Obama: don't be a politician and you'll be fine. Bless you.

Certainty

There's been quite a bit of arguing about the idea of certainty on a number of sites that I've frequented in the last few years. It is claimed that postmodernism abandons all forms of certainty, and those who don't have certainty in theological terms are postmodern and need a web logo to paint the picture. Many take the certainty issue down to epistemology (how we know what we believe), and fight the battles there. But I see a dividing line in the arguments on certainty. One can be certain about some (or all) of the essentials or core beliefs of Christianity without being certain of the details or secondary issues, regardless of how the certainty is arrived at.

But many believe that they need to have certainty on all issues in life, and aren't afraid to show their certainty. I lived in such a world; I interact with people who still do. Any question about life had a theological answer. For example, I could once tell your spiritual standing before God simply by knowing what make, model, year, color and accessories of the car you drove. The labels on your clothing and your family's clothing spoke volumes about your devotion to God. The type of bible you carried to church also said a lot, and so did letting your kids play video games. If you carried a red letter version of the bible, you were an idolater. I knew God's position on all the doctrines of the Christian faith. God, after all, had only one stance on each and every doctrinal issue, and I knew them to a tee. Whether you sprinkled infants or dunked adults made all the difference in the world. You were guilty of child abuse if you held the wrong view of baptism. The worst form of child abuse there is is to have the wrong view of baptism, because the wrong view of baptism could doom your children to an eternity in hell; and you were the guilty party in sending them there because you didn't discern the obvious reference to the appropriate covenant view of God's overall plan and how children fit into that obvious plan. I also knew God's position on all political issues. If you didn't hold to God's position, you were a heretic or a worldling.

Not only did I know all of God's positions, God's positions on everything were completely obvious just from reading the bible. Anybody who disagreed with me, disagreed with God, and were subject to His wrath. After all, I knew God's positions. Which approach to teaching algebra to home schooled kids below the 38th parallel could easily be deduced simply from a few verses of Proverbs combined with a paragraph that RJ Rushdoony wrote in 1958. If you don't believe me, you could look it up. You're only a click away from the truth. And I'm certain of that.

Survey: Have You Ever Left A Church?

Here's a question I'd like to ask my readers. Have you ever left a church? The reason doesn't matter. Whether you left on good terms with a letter of commendation from the leadership to another church, or whether you were excommunicated or just got fed up with something and left. Maybe you huffed off in self-righteousness and sin. Maybe you let everybody know, or maybe you just slipped out the door quietly.

Now, if you have left a church for reasons that didn't reflect the most ideal situation, did the shepherd(s) leave the other 99 to come after you, the straying sheep?

I've left two churches, and sadly, nobody ever called to find out why, nor did anybody in leadership have concern enough to ask why, much less come after me to restore me to the flock. Leave your answer, with any other relevant thoughts, in the comment section.

Friday Night Potpourri

Random thoughts on a Friday night:

• It's Friday night and unlike in my 20's, it's the night to stay home and rest.
• I don't do squash. I don't play squash, I don't eat squash. Any squash. In my last potpourri, I mentioned the winter beers I received for Christmas. One was a pumpkin ale. Eeeew. The other nine were great.
• Weekend ride home: the past four Friday nights I've left work for home have had stressful happenings. One, I was rear-ended a block from work. I heard the tires skid behind me, and I knew it was coming. The skid slowed the other car down so that the only "damage" was a transfer of license plate paint, but it was still a jolt. Two, I was the last one to leave work and saw as I drove away, but realized only later, that somebody left the Christmas lights on on our lobby tree, and I feared a fire that weekend. Three, just on the freeway from leaving work, I witnessed a small pickup roll over about 80 yards in front of me. Freeway speed, it bounced about 10 feet up in the air as it turned. It landed upside down with the driver hanging from the seat belt. I stopped about 50 feet short. Contents spewed all over the road. Minor injuries. Four, I came upon about a six car smash up on my way home tonight. I can't wait for next Friday.
• Mrs. Scott just bought 8 pairs of pants for me. One fit.

Why From The Pew ? (2)

In my first post on why I write the From the Pew blog, I listed the dominant influences of my current church circles. These influences are not particularly my influences, and I certainly have my disagreements with all of them, but influences on my environment. Other influences from my past include Harold Camping (my first), then a group of Sovereign Grace Baptist churches with Henry Mahan and Don Fortner. Then I attended a Reformed Baptist church (after leaving Camping's church), heavily influenced by Al Martin and Walter Chantry. I left there for my current church.

Back then, there were slightly different influences, and some other influences in the groups of Camping defectors. These influences included John Reisinger, a slightly different Sovereign Grace Baptist than the other group. Also, friends of mine were into Michael Horton and his associates. John Armstrong (now a friend of mine) was an early influence of my current church. I also listened to John MacArthur and Hank Hanegraaff quite a bit on the radio for several years. In the late 90's/early 00's, a friend turned me on to RJ Rushdoony and his group.

Through all these influences I had been exposed to quite an array of different views on theology. Rudhdoony was a breakthrough for me in that, while the others come across as ones who taught people what to believe, Rushdoony was instrumental in showing me how to think. Not that I agree with most of what Rushdoony did, or that I think just like he did or in the same way that he did (I did all these for a while), I learned mostly how to think for myself.

Having gained access to the internet in the late 90's, I was then able to explore a much wider range of theology at the touch of a few buttons. Thank God for search engines. I started reading blogs and personal websites in the early 00's, and finally started my own blogs in 2005. I have also developed a love for writing, and my blogs are a great outlet. Through blogging, I have expanded my influence to things I could never have believed possible just a few years ago. More to come in the next post on why...

Re-Thinking The Sunday Church Service (Part 7) - The Church Meeting Described In The Bible (2)

Read the entire series here.

In Part 6, I concluded that the passage found in 1 Corinthians 11:17 through chapter 14 was in the context of the church meeting. I also noted how many people were involved in the church meeting, and this can be seen by the following:

• "But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good" (12:7)
• "For to one is given...and to another... and to another...and to another...and to another...and to another...and to another...and to another...and to another..." (12:8-10)
• "...but that the members may have the same care one for another" (12:25)
• "...but if all prophesy..." (14:24)
• "...when you assemble, each one has a..." (14:26)
• "For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all may be exhorted;..." (14:31)

It seems here, whatever the interpretation of Paul's exhortation that the women shouldn't speak, that either all members of the assembly speak and contribute to the edification of all, or at the very least, all the men do this. All of the members are active in the edification of all the others? This isn't the modern American model at all.

This isn't, either, a primer for charismatic church services. If the biblical model has everybody doing the task of edification, and the sign gifts of tongues and prophesy (whatever that was in the NT era) have since ceased, then does that necessitate the complete abandonment of the "everybody involved" so that only the preacher and choir do edifying things? Wouldn't we still follow this model (even without tongues of prophesying) that includes everybody edifying everybody?

Congratulations Rickey Henderson

Congratulations to Rickey Henderson and Jim Rice for making Major League Baseball's Hall of Fame. I watched Rickey's career, much of it in my own backyard. Read about it at my baseball blog, From the Bleachers by clicking here.

Why From The Pew?

I want to write this as much for myself as for my readers. Why "From the Pew"? Why this blog? Why do I write? My first blog post ever (very short, read it here) says a bit, and a short post that tells why I changed my sub-title says some more.

In short, in the "Reformed" world view in which I live (and I place the word in qoutes), there is a tendency to place heavy emphasis on being "reformed" - in the past tense - as opposed to "reforming" - as an ongoing thing. Only five of the six great great statements of the Protestant Reformation are given attention. The five Solas are, but Semper Reformanda, or always reforming, is really not. Everything one needs to know has already been figured out by somebody else.

In a practical sense, the theological and ecclesiastical circles in which I live are dominated by certain evangelical personalities, many of which dominate in their own areas of emphasis. The pastors/preachers/leaders that dominate the landscape are John MacArthur, John Piper, RC Sproul, and others like them. Biblical counseling is dominated by Jay Adams and Wayne Mack. Child rearing experts are Paul and Tedd Tripp. A biblical wife is defined by Martha Peace. How to do church junk brings Tim Keller into the fray. Scholarly theology is mastered by DA Carson. Other names that circulate around the periphery are Joshua Harris (dating expert), CJ Mahaney, Michael Horton (to a lesser degree than in times past). Historical preachers emphasized are Charles Spurgeon, Martin Lloyd Jones, Baxter, Edwards. Other names that provide more minor influence are AW Pink, CS Lewis, AW Tozer. The Reformers and New En