It seems a very nice young couple recently reserved the local church they attend for their wedding rehearsal. They made this arrangement several months in advance. It turns out their “reservation” was withdrawn at the last minute so a local community college could rent out the church for some type of ceremony they were holding.

Would you care to guess the reason, or should I say lame excuse they were given as to why the promise made to them to was rescinded without so much as a notice, much less without getting their approval?

“We hadn’t heard anything from you the last few weeks so we just assumed you didn’t want it anymore.” How’s that for an excuse? It sounds like a cop out to me.

My first thought was to question why someone from the church did not call them to make sure of their plans before just pulling the rug out from under them. Is this the only church in North America without a phone? Somehow, it wouldn’t surprise me if that was their first thought also. They chose to be gracious and not make an issue of it when they would have been justified if they had.

My concern is what kind of example this sits for these young people about to start their life together. I can’t speak for them. I don’t know what they are thinking. However, I can tell you what I would be thinking in their shoes.

I would wonder why the commitment my church and those running it made to me suddenly couldn’t be honored when money got involved in the situation. I would be giving serious consideration to finding a church that cared a little more about me.

Am I being too critical? Or does this whole situation turn your stomach too?

Let me start by apologizing to anyone who may be offended by reading this post.

In the church I used to attend there is a lady that I have spent more time than I should have spent trying to figure out her ’style of worship’. That is the nice way of putting it.

Let me describe her worship in the most blunt way I can. She wails. I don’t mean one of those quiet cryers either. The best analogy I can think of is to imagine what it would sound like if the siren on an emergency vehicle got stuck. Yes, it is one long monotonous shrill moan that only stops long enough for her to draw a breath and start again. Although the length of times she can go in between breaths in staggering. Her lungs must be HUGE.

The volume of her wail would put any siren to shame. I knew a rocker type guy that had one of those shirts that said “If it’s too loud, you’re too old”. After sitting in front of her one Sunday morning he went home and burned it. True story. OK, not it’s not, but it makes the point about how loud she wails.

I can attest from personal experience that sitting near this woman is a guarantee that you will leave church with a headache. Many people have simply moved, usually across the church from her. Some people have actually got up and walked out. Once or twice people have even asked her to tone it down. Nearly every time a baby is anywhere close they too begin to wail. I’m pretty sure they hear her and believe she is issuing them a personal challenge.

It also helps to understand when she wails. During the whole song service . . . she wails. While the rest of the congregation is singing words to all the songs she on the other hand is wailing her megadecibel monotone shrill noise. During times of prayer . . . she wails. If it is corporate prayer the wailing is at full volume. If the pastor is leading a prayer while everyone else is silently praying she wails at a volume only slightly louder than that of the pastor. During the altar call . . . she wails.

I hope you can imagine this. If you find yourself thinking it can’t be as bad as you are imagining it I can tell you that it really is. This has all led to some questions that I would love to get some opinions on from anyone who reads this.

1) Is this a legitimate form of worship?

2) Can anything which is a distraction to everyone else around you really even be considered worship?

3)Should the leadership of the church put a stop to this? (they seem to be hesitant to do so)

4) Couldn’t something that causes this much confusion, discomfort, and even pain actually be classified as the opposite of worship?

Over on the Free Believers Network there is a blog post entitled Freedom From The Tree.  This is one of the best pieces I have read about the real freedom that we have in Christ.  It is a little lengthy, but I guarantee it is worth your time.   Click the post title above and read it now.

Sinners - those people that should be avoided at all cost so that our church friends won’t think we hang out with the wrong crowd, besides Jesus would never hang out with sinners, right?

Witnessing. Three verses in the Bible that say a lot to me on the topic are listed below. The first one everyone uses to witness. It is the most well known verse in the whole Bible. I believe the two verses that follow should mold and shape the way we witness to others.

“ 16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
18 He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
- John 3: 16-18 New King James Version

Thank God for the grace to allows us to have eternal life. Did you catch the other parts though? The part about God making salvation possible because of his love for each of us. What about the part about salvation coming from belief in Jesus? It isn’t through condemnation of our sins or imperfections. It is through belief in Jesus brought about by God’s love.

What does this say about the way we should witness? If Jesus came to bring salvation through love and not condemnation shouldn’t our witness follow that example? Yet, how often do we use condemnation of someone’s sins as a starting point for our witness? Every time you start pointing out what you perceive as someone’s sins you are taking part in condemnation. Verse 18 tells us that not believing in Jesus is condemnation all by itself. In other words we could be sinless and still be condemned if we don’t believe in Jesus. So it is pointless to tell a non-Christian about all the sins they are committing. Allow the Holy Spirit to bring about conviction. That’s his job. Your job as a witness is to show them the way to salvation so they can understand God’s love. The Holy Spirit can convict and condemn much more loving than you ever could anyway. If you really feel the need to point out to someone that they are a sinner just show them that in Romans 5:8 it says Christ died for us while we were yet sinners. At least then you put a positive spin on things.

Why do you think it is important that John 3:17 pointed out that salvation does not come through condemnation? Think about it. I’ll use a over the top example as illustration. Imagine you are introduced to two people. One of them immediately starts pointing out everything they perceive to be your faults and wrongdoings. The other accepts you and loves you despite your shortcomings. You then find out they are both part of differing clubs. They are each representative of the people in their particular club. Both have asked you to join. Which one would you join? We would all join the club with the person that loves and respects us no matter what. You wouldn’t want to be like the obnoxious people in the first group that expect you to make multiple changes before they accept you, right? The same thing applies to your witness. If your witness makes Christianity look like a stuck-up country club I can promise that you are pushing people away.

In my experience the most important part of witnessing is timing. Are you one of those Christians that anytime you are around a non-Christian you think you must be witnessing to them? There are times people simply are not going to be receptive to any witness. Maybe they have so much on their mind at that moment that not only do they not want something else to think, but they simply couldn’t process it at that time anyway. Maybe they are just in a bad mood. The best witness in these situations might simply be to show them God’s love instead of telling them about it. Your actions can be much stronger than your words. God made every person different. That means you can’t use a cookie-cutter approach to witnessing. What works for one person may not work for everyone. So you have to let the Holy Spirit lead you. There are times when you will be prompted to speak about Jesus and salvation. There will be times when you are prompted to simply take action to help or love someone. There will even be times when your witness would be best served to set back, shut your mouth and give someone the time and space they need at that moment.

If you never give a spoken witness shame on you. God has not called any of us to silence when it comes to telling others about him. There is a flip side of this coin though. If you always give a spoken witness to everyone there is a good chance you have pushed people in the wrong direction. Because a word spoken at the wrong time no matter how well intended can have disastrous results. So, yes timing is important.

When the chance to tell someone about Jesus and the salvation he offers presents itself don’t overdo it. It’s a fairly simple message. Adding extra to it doesn’t help get the message across. You may even find you have added something that causes a problem for the person you are witnessing to. You should make it seem simple, because it is. This is definitely a situation where less is more. As you go about your witnessing from now on remember one thing. By witnessing to someone you are presenting yourself as an example of Jesus to that person. If you are going to be someone’s example of Jesus it better be loving.

19 Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. - New Living Translation

19 Therefore, stay put in your churches and pray that people will walk through your doors. In this way your pastor can preach to them so that they will become disciples. Baptize the rare convert that walks through your door in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Choose a method and ritual for your baptisms. Ensure that you criticize those whose method differs from yours. You may even choose to question the salvation of those that were not baptized by your preferred method. - Modern Church Translation

Jonathan Brink at Missio Dei has a great post today titled “Guy Walks Into A Bar“. Read it below.

Guy walks into a bar and sees three guys engaging a passionate conversation about something. Curious that he is, he walks up to them and asks, “What’s the ruckus?”
“We’re trying to figure out what kind of beer this is,” the first guy says, a little taken aback by the interruption, but immediately turning back to his two friends. “It’s amber color reveals the rich texture of an bass pale ale.”
“I would say it’s a porter,” the second man says. “I’ve had porters before and they look just like that. I’ve even made porter’s. I used to make them in my house.”
I know it’s a dark lager,” the third man says. “The rich color is closer to a darker amber color. The rich pigmentation from the darker malts does that to it.”
“No it’s not,” the first man said, his voice rising in temperament. “Dark lager is darker than that.”
“A bass pale ale doesn’t sit in the glass like that,” the third man said, exhausting his disgust as he pointed to the pint.
“What’s that supposed to mean,” the first man said, throwing out a guffaw in furious passion.
“What do you think?” the second man said, looking at the guy who was still watching the conversation. All attention was turned on him.
The guy looked at the beer, picked it up and drank it. Set it down on the bar and said, “It’s good.”
————————————————————–
I want to be the guy who drinks the beer in life.

That says a lot. I know I have been guilty myself of trying so hard to debate and classify something that I should have just be enjoying.

I started a new blog.  Modern Church Translations.  Check it out.  It’s fun.

I was reading the story of Jonah and it struck me that the whole culture of modern Christianity has very much the same attitude. When God called Jonah to go to Nineveh he didn’t want to go. He took it much further than that though. He ran the oppopsite direction of Nineveh. He went to the port city of Joppa and found a boat to take him to Tarshish.

Jonah was willing to let the people of Nineveh suffer. He was willing to let them go without hearing the message that God had for them. He did not want to be around the people from Nineveh. He was scared and repulsed by these people.

Look at what is happening with todays’ Christian culture. As followers of Christ we are called to be his witnesses. Just as Jonah was. It would be great if the similarity ended there, but it doesn’t. Christians today are doing very much the same thing as Jonah. They are actively running away from the world they are called to minister to. Christian culture today has surrounded itself with everything Christian. Chuch, Christian music, Christian schools, Christian clothing, special events at our churches on all the holidays, and whatever other stuff carrying a Christian label we can possible cram in to our lives.

It is taboo to hang out with the “secular world”. Somehow, those who need Jesus have become as repulsive to modern Christianity as the Ninevites were to Jonah. Christians have found their own port of Joppa in their church buildings. They have found their transport to Tarshish in all the various “Christian” activites they surround themselves with to keep out the secular.

Just like Jonah the culture of modern Christianity is willing to let the “secular world” suffer. The majority of Christians don’t care who is going to take the message of God to those who need it. As long as it isn’t them. The acceptable culture in the Christian world is so scared and repulsed of anything un-Christian it even applauds those who are the most successful at keeping from spreading the good news of Jesus to those who need it.

Who is going to take the message of Christ to those who need it if Christians are going to hide it from them? Preachers? Evangelists? Radio and TV programming? Most non-Christians pay little to no attention to those things, and when they do all they usually see are the charlatans and shams begging for their money. The best witness is for them to see Christ alive and well through our lives. When they see it lived out each and every day in the lives of the Christians around them maybe we will start reaching the world for Jesus. They aren’t going to see Jesus when we act scared and disgusted of them because they are “sinners”.

It’s time for each and every Christian to quit running to their own personal Joppas trying to reach Tarshish. It’s time to go back to the Ninevehs in our own lives, and then let our actions show Jesus to those who need so desperately to see him.

Is it gonna take God throwing all the Christians in the belly of a big fish to shake things up enough that we are willing to take his message to those who need it?