Madeleine L'Engle says it best:

"The only reason I can find for all the shouting about how God created is that it allows some people to stop thinking, to settle back into the safety of their rut, to stop thinking about what it is really all about.
What it is really about is that creation is God's. It is el who has made us, and not we ourselves. To argue about how God made us is to argue about non-essentials. AS far as I am concerned, it doesn't matter a whit how God created. The important thing is that creation is God's, and that we are part of it, and being part of creation is for us to be co-creators with el in the continuing joy of new creation.
That is a great calling, and when we argue about how God created us, we forget our vocation, and the tempter rejoices. I'm all for genuine scientific research, but when we argue about how rather than if or why, we miss the point. In a world where fewer and fewer people believe in God at all, where life is for so many an unimportant accident with no meaning, where we are born only to slip back into annihilation, we need to stop arguing and affirm the goodness of creation, and the power of love which holds us all."

We are called to be co-creators with the Creator himself. We are all creative, whether your creative senses are awakened by oils on a canvas, a beautiful Wagner piece, numbers on a spreadsheet, or thinking of new business strategies or architectural structures that are both ascetically pleasing and energy efficient.
What this means is that in God's "common grace" (which isn't so common after all. It is amazing in and of itself!), all of humanity (and it can be argued that all of creation) was given the gift of creating, of working with SOMETHING to make it the best that they can make it. Every human being is endowed with the ability to create. It's not JUST something that the Church can do.

In fact, in the eyes of both Christians and non-Christians alike, it's strange to see that sometimes the most gifted and talented artists that are featured are non-Christians. Why is this? Why is talent and creativity stifled so that we can teach our children that only the Bible and Jesus and defending the Bible and Jesus are the things that matter? Did not the king give his servants talents so that they could grow them and expand them in the parable that Jesus spoke? Why is pleasure something from which we would rather run away?

Now you may tell me that there ARE Christian bands and artists who have succeeded in their talents. That is true. But the non-Christian world generally dictates how the art and the music look, and the Christian world (after debate) generally follows.

I'm not saying that Christians are of little value in this world. However, I AM saying that sometimes, to serve Christ effectively and to spread the truth effectively, we must culture creativity, encouraging children to be a co-creator in this world.

Encourage imagination. Christ valued the children, even told us that we should have a child-like faith.

"I'm not going to define the creative impulse. I don't think it's definable. There are educationalists who think it can be taught like the new math and who write learned treatises on methods of teaching it. The creative impulse can be killed, but it cannot be taught." - Madeleine L'Engle

"We will not have the courage...to keep our child's creativity, unless we are willing to be truly 'grownup.' Creativity opens us to revelation, and when our high creativity is lowered to two percent, so is our capacity to see angels, to walk on water, to talk with unicorns. In the act of creativity, the artist lets go the self-control which he normally clings to and is open to riding the wind. Something almost always happens to startle us during the act of creating, but not unless we let go our adult intellectual control and become as open as little children. This means not to set aside or discard the intellect but to understand that it is not to become a dictator, for when it does we are closed off from revelation." Madeleine L'Engle

All quotes taken from the book Herself, compiled by Carole F. Chase. Published by ShawBooks, Colorado Springs, CO. Copyright 2001.

Lament

In my Spiritual Writing class, we're wrestling with the ideas of lament in the Christian life. Unfortunately for many of us, we have been taught to be semi-stoics: being happy is great. Mourning is not allowed.

I realize that not long ago, I wrote a piece on worship for "real people," but hear me out:

In worship, we NEED to have time for lament. If we refuse to grieve and mourn, we refuse to meet pepole where they are truly at. We refuse to enter into life with those who are in pain and with those who cannot help but mourn.

We don't like looking at our own pain. For most of us, lamenting seems like it's simply opening a wound that we had hurredly shut so that we could heal faster and "get over it." But there is beauty found in that pain. Christ is found in that pain. As Nicholas Wolterstorff says, "God is not simply the God of the sufferers, he is the God who suffers." To love is to suffer; those who love much, suffer much. C.S. Lewis echos those sentiments in, The Four Loves when he says this:

To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket- safe, dark, motionless, airless--it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.

If we refuse to grieve, we are, in essence, refusing to love. The Christian is called to love everyone - even their enemies. We are to lament every death because we are to love every person. We are to mourn the loss of loved ones AND enemies; of heroes and terrorists. Why? Because we're not called to live comfortable lives. Mourning, grieving, lamenting - it's uncomfortable. If Christianity is practiced the way it is preached in the Gospel, it is uncomfortable.

It's easy to cheer when it seems as if the "good guys" have won. John Donne puts it this way:

No man is an island entire of itself; every man
is a piece of the continent, a part of the main;
if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe
is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as
well as a manor of thy friends or of thine
own were; any man's death diminishes me,
because I am involved in mankind.
And therefore never send to know for whom
the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

Lament. Face your own lamentations. Find out where you still grieve and allow yourself to grieve. We are called to mourn with those who mourn, but we can only do so if we ourselves know what mourning truly is.

Thunder storms

I was tired last night. However, I couldn't sleep. The thunderstorm was crazy last night, and after a winter of no thunder storms, I get excited as soon as lightning flashes across the sky and thunder rolls. So I sat in the love seat that is right under our window (much to the chagrin of parents who always tell their children never to be by windows/doors when a thunderstorm is rollin), threw on some Latin choral music that dealt with the Savior's death, and allowed myself to be almost in a trance. The music fit the storm; the storm fit the music; and both fit my mood.

O vos omnes, o vos omnes qui transitis per viam
attendite, attendite, attendite et videte:
si est dolor sicut dolor meus,
O vos omnes, o vos omnes qui transitis per viam.

From Lamentations 1:12 -
All you people who pass by
Look and see if there is any sorrow like unto my sorrow.

Matthew 27 -

From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land. ⁴⁶ About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).
 ⁴⁷ When some of those standing there heard this, they said, “He’s calling Elijah.”
 ⁴⁸ Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink. ⁴⁹ The rest said, “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to save him.”
 ⁵⁰ And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.
 ⁵¹ At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split ⁵² and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. ⁵³ They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people.
 ⁵⁴ When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!”

Now, we wait.

It is wonderful to look back and know that He doesn't stay in the tomb. It's wonderful to realize that death has NO hold on Him because He never sinned and died in the place of those who did. But let us not take these days any less seriously because we know this. Remember that you, too, had a hand in His death. That, before the foundation of the world, God knew the plan to atone for your sin. And it included the death of the Son.

Crucifixus etiam pro nobis sub Pontio Pilato passus, et sepultus est.

He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, He suffered and died.

They Hung Him on A Tree

I went to the mall today; I would have rather been in a church. However, by the time I thought about it, it was too late. Something just didn't seem right - studying and shopping on Good Friday, while myriads of storefront associates greeted me and then waved at me while I walked out the doors saying, "Happy Easter!"

Why is it that when Christmas comes around, they have to say, "Happy holidays!", but when Easter comes around, it's no problem to say, "Happy Easter!"? I realize that "Christmas" has the word "Christ" in it, but generally the same people who balk at the word "Christmas" have no problems using Christ's name as a curse word. Is it that Easter is just another holiday to buy lots of chocolate and wear bunny ears that we've forgotten that the implications of the celebration of this day are forgotten?

Family of God - the implications should never be forgotten.

From Maundy Thursday to Good Friday to the Easter Vigil on Saturday to Resurrection Sunday, we should continually be remembering that our sins nailed the Son of God to a tree for our righteousness.

Especially today, as Good Friday, remember this.

Today He who hung the earth upon the waters is hung on the tree,
The King of the angels is decked with a crown of thorns.
He who wraps the heavens in clouds is wrapped in the purple of mockery.
He who freed Adam in the Jordan is slapped on the face. The bridegoom of the Church

is affixed to the cross with nails.

The Son of the Virgin 

is pierced with spears.

We worship thy passion oh Christ

We worship thy passion oh Christ

We worship thy passion oh Christ

Show us also thy glorious Resurrection

 

Unseen Attacks

I have recently begun reading, once again, the works of C.S. Lewis. I'm a BIG C.S. Lewis fan - he's made such an impact on my life that I joke that when I get to Heaven, I'm hugging Jesus, Peter, and then making a beeline over to hug C.S. Lewis (the jury is still out on whether I'll call him "Clive" or "Mr. Lewis" yet...). In this re-reading of his work, I have recently re-picked up The Screwtape Letters. Now, if you're not a Lewis-head like myself, you may not know what the Screwtape Letters are. If not, here's a plug: READ THEM.
Screwtape is an evil spirit, writing to his nephew, Wormwood, who has been sent for "training" on a mission to live in the life of an unnamed man, also known as "your patient" in the letters. He is supposed to keep in correspondence through letter writing to make sure that Wormwood is doing the correct things in keeping his patient from becoming a Christian (or, later, staying one), and in the process of these letters, we soon start realizing that the enemy tempts humanity in more than one way. In these letters, everything is from the viewpoint of a demon/evil spirit; therefore, whenever God is referenced, he is called "the Enemy." This can lead to confusing reading at points when we're so used to the enemy being Satan; but, seeing as we're reading it from the viewpoint of a spirit who sees Satan as "our Father", having God be "the Enemy" is only natural. Lewis notes in the foreword that, "Readers are advised to remember that the devil is a liar. Not everything that Screwtape says should be assumed to be true even from his own angle...There is wishful thinking in Hell as well as on  Earth" (Lewis 125). With that short foreword to this blog, let me commence.

Often times we think that when we're in the Church we are safe. We are surrounded by praying people, we are led by someone that (we hope) is grounded in the Word, and being part of the body means being equipped with armor. We say nasty words to our families in the car before coming to church and then once we're in the building, we magically become one body that, at the end of the service, dismembers itself and we become who we want to be on the weekdays. This is the sad state of our churches today. Let me propose this -

When we are together on Sunday mornings, we are more prone to attack.

Sure, the devil attacks us on weekdays (if you want to get a better picture of this, please read The Screwtape Letters. It opened my eyes to new arenas of spiritual warfare.)  But what he hates a LOT is when we worship. He wants to be the focal point of worship, and if we go in asking, "What can be done for me today?" forgetting to ask how we can help each other, essentially, we will be worshiping him. The devil is the epitome of selfishness; he wanted to be God. You may know the phrase: "Better to be a god in hell..." yeah. What else is that other than selfishness?

Lewis puts it this way:

One of our great allies at present is the Church itself. Do not misunderstand me. I do not mean the Church as we see her spread out through all time and space and rooted in eternity, terrible as an army with banners. That, I confess, is a spectacle which makes our boldest tempters uneasy. But fortunately it is quite invisible to these humans. All your patient sees is the half-finished, sham Gothic erection on the new building estate. When he goes inside, he sees the local grocer with rather an oily expression on his face bustling up to offer him one shiny little book containing a liturgy which neither of them understands, and one shabby little book containing corrupt texts of a number of religious lyrics, mostly bad, and in very small print. When he gets to his pew and looks round him he sees just that selection of his neighbours whom he has hitherto avoided. You want to lean pretty heavily on those neighbours. Make his mind flit to and fro between an expression like 'the body of Christ' and the actual faces in the next pew . . . Provided that any of those neighbours sing out of tune, or have boots that squeak, or double chins, or odd clothes, the patient will quite easily believe that their religion must therefore be somehow ridiculous . . . What he says, even on his knees, about his own sinfulness is all parrot talk. At bottom, he still believes he has run up a very favourable credit-balancei n the Enemy's ledger by allowing himself to be converted, and thinks that he is showing great humility and condescension in going to church with these 'smug', commonplace neighbours at all. Keep him in that state of mind as long as you can. (129-30)

False humility is as much of a vice of Satan as is sexual sin, lying, etc. False humility is pride, and we so often get caught up in it, thinking that we deserve God more than the person next to us who didn't put as much in the offering plate as we did, even though we know that they make more money than we do. We then put ourselves in the place of God. It's idolatry at its finest - not only do we craft idols for ourselves, we become our own idols. We've conjured up thoughts of ourselves that are so lofty that we take the place of God.

This is not only deadly for the individual, it will also hurt the Church. If we are going to go on the body imagery of the Church, then think of it this way. When people put themselves in the place of God, they become dead cells. Dead cells quickly turn into tumors. Before long, the body needs to go under surgery to rid itself of the tumor - but the body will never be the same. Other parts of the body will feel the pain of the incision, the tug of the sutures, the healing of the place where the tumor was removed. Things will be healed, but they are awfully painful at the moment.

Our mindset as we enter worship changes worship for the entire Body of Christ. Our treatment of our fellow Body-members changes the way worship looks.

We desperately need humility in the Church.

So what does humility look like for you?

All text taken from : Lewis, C.S (Clive Staples). "The Screwtape Letters". The Complete C.S. Lewis Signature Classics. HarperSanFrancisco: SanFrancisco, 2002.

Good morning, world. It's April 18, 9:28 AM, and it's a beautiful day with....snow?!

I opened my bleary eyes this morning, and looked past the half-opened curtain. I couldn't believe my eyes. My thoughts were interrupted from "Oh look. Fog" and "Good morning, God." by disbelief, and, to my dismay - anger. "God?" I said. "You're a little late on your April fools joke this year. Snow? It's the middle of April! Last week, I got sunburned! and now...this? Really, God? Really?"

Most of me WANTS to have good intentions. I'm just angry on behalf of the farmers. Or maybe, "But the buds? What about the buds? What about the trees?" But the realist side of me that has no good intentions whatsoever is just shouting, "GET ME WARM NOW! THIS IS NOT FAIR, GOD!"

How foolish of me. And yet, I don't give up on my tirade. I feel I have something to contribute to the rest of West Michigan who are probably all yelling the same thing. Alas, I don't.

Welcome to Holy Week. In some ways, this is really symbolic. This is the week in which we look forward towards the ULTIMATE new life. We look forward to Resurrection Sunday, also known as Easter. We look forward. But at the same time, we remember - during this week, we suddenly see ourselves nailing the Savior on the cross to take our blame. Many times we celebrate that it is only by the blood of the Lamb that we are saved. Hallelujah!  But we forget the first part of the Romans 6:8-9, "Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.  For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him."
We LOVE thinking about the fact that Christ was raised (Hallelujah! Praise be to God Almighty!) for that means that we get to live forever too! We HATE thinking about the fact that Christ died. We tend to gloss over that fact. If we were going to put this verse in the way we'd speak, it would be this: "NowifwediedwithChrist we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised fromthedead he cannot die again; death has no mastery over him!."
Do you catch my drift?
To put in other terms: Why are Maundy Thursday/Good Friday services sparsely attended while Easter morning, church walls can hardly contain the people who have come? It's because we want to think happy thoughts! We want to celebrate! Death is uncomfortable to think about, especially because each and every single one of us are murderers. We don't want death to hit us. We don't mind being emotional in church as long as it doesn't include feeling exceptionally sorry for our sins. We don't mind emotions in church as long as they make us "feel good." 

Before we get to Easter, we MUST pass through Maundy Thursday/Good Friday. There's no other way. We must deal with the fact that Christ was nailed upon a tree (and according to Deuteronomical Law, cursed is anyone who hangs on a tree), shed blood for us, was whipped and lashed far too severely for his conviction, and died so that we don't have to. The Son of God died on our behalf.

The Son of God was murdered for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities. The weight of sin was upon him.

Yes. It is uncomfortable to think about this. Rightfully so. But we cannot get the full essence of the gospel without realizing that Christ died for us. We cannot simply attach ourselves to the spirit of postmodernism where we talk about only things that make us "feel good". 

This snow represents death. Remind yourself this day that to get to spring, one must go through winter. To gt to Easter, one must go through Maundy Thursday/Good Friday.

Don't JUST invite your friends who don't know about Christ to the Easter Service.  Invite them to Maundy Thursday/Good Friday services, and THEN invite them to the Easter service. They need the full extent of the Gospel; so do you. 

Worship for "Real People"

I remember it well. It was the first assignment due in my Designing/Leading Worship class, Winter semester of 2010. I was overwhelmed when my professor told us what kind of worship service we needed to plan: Worship for "Real people". Now, in my years of experience, helping my mom plan worship at my home church and planning chapel services for the Kuyper College community, not once did I ever think to myself, "Hey, let's plan a worship service for fake people today!" So, when Carol said, "Real people" the first thing that popped into my mind was Pinnochio, jumping up and saying, "I'm a REAL boy!"

Carol didn't mean for us to plan a worship service for a group of Pinnochio's, did she?

(Answer: no. She didn't)

What she DID mean was that there are people in the church that are hurting, that are trying to make it day by day. Some people in the church are living paycheck-to-paycheck; others don't know how they're going to pay off student loans; others may have just lost a loved one; and still others may be troubled due to stresses at work, abuse at home, or a desparing sense of loneliness. How do we plan worship accordingly? How can we tell people to "rejoice in the LORD always when worship seems to be just another thing they have to check off an extensive to-do list?

I planned my service. I incorporated a time to lay burdens down at the altar, a time to be prayed over, and songs that dealt with how we will go through pain. One of my favorite songs dealing with this is "Lay 'Em Down" by Needtobreathe. For your listening pleasure, here is a video of it.

However wonderful that song is, I've recently started realizing what it is like to worship as a REAL person. I'm wonderful at making myself put on a mask when I enter into a worship service - everything is hunky-dory. Life is good. God is good (all the time; all the time, God is good). I can speak Christianese like it is a second language. But this past week, I got the challenge to plan the music for a sermon that will be on Hosea. If you've never read the book of Hosea, let me break it down for you:
God calls to a man named Hosea and says, "I want you to marry a prostitute. She will be unfaithful to you. She will hurt you. But you must love her. You must raise her children." So Hosea does. Through this, Hosea is reflecting to Israel the relationship between Israel and God. God is faithful to an adulterous nation. Hosea and Gomer (his wife) have 3 kids, named Jezereel - fortelling the destruction of Israel at Jezereel; Lo-Ruhamah, meaning "not loved"; and Lo-Ammi, meaning "not my people." If you know anything about the naming of children in the Middle Eastern culture, their names are who they are. Imagine yourself with the name "not loved." Ouch. So Gomer goes out and prostitutes herself, ending up living with a man who is not Hosea. Hosea is called to woo her back to himself. After a long and hard marriage, he gets his wife back - no. He BUYS his wife back. He will not leave her in sin; he will protect her and carry her back to himself, even though she is sinful and unrepentant.
God's never-ending love is enough to bring anyone to their knees - let alone the idolater, the lonely, the adulterer, the broken.

I have had the first line of "He Loves Us" by Kim Walker stuck in my mind for most of the day - "He is jealous for me." For the past two weeks I have been bombarded by papers, tests, and projects. For some odd reason, all of my classes had papers or projects due within the same time frame, and all of them are difficult. They are time consuming. They have driven me to the point of tears more than once in the past week. I have made an idol out of schoolwork; I have made an idol out of my life. I have let myself be so consumed with myself that it broke me multiple times in one week. I forgot to learn about that which I was writing.

Ironically, I was writing about headship and submission as gender roles within marriage. That is too big of a topic to tackle here (if you would like to read my 18 page discourse on it, ask me and I'll give you a copy), but one of the things that drew my attention was that in creation, humanity was allowed in what Timothy Keller in his book Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism calls the "dance of the Trinity." Early Church fathers called this dance "perichoresis" (which just so happens to be one of my favorite Greek words ever. Just say it... pear - ee - core - ee - sis) and it describes the mutually self-giving motion of the Trinity. Each person revolves around the other two, glorifying them and honoring them. "God is love," Christ statess, and He is love because He is always giving of Himself. He is constantly outporing, as Harold Best puts it. He knows nothing more than to pour out of Himself and into His Selves. When humanity walked with God in the Garden of Eden, we were invited into that dance. And we bowed out far too early. When we stopped dancing with God, however, we stopped dancing with each other. We became static, self-serving. We wished to dance only if others would orbit around ourselves - and if everybody is waiting for others to orbit around them, no one will dance.

Christ came to save us from the sin that has our feet bound and commanded us to move. By his death on the cross, we are able to not only be in the presence of God, but the Holy Spirit dwells within us. The Holy Spirit is constantly moving in our lives, making us turn outward to others - or it should be. We should be continually looking out of ourselves and looking out for the interests of others. Our minds should be the same as that of Christ Jesus, who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death - even death on a cross! (Philippians 2:5-9)

What does worship for REAL people look like? It acknowledges the pain of living in a world that is still filed with sin, but looks toward the cross. It acknowledges that people are coming in from all areas of life and continually preaches the Gospel. It looks to glorify God in the presence of pain. It looks to remind people of Christ's words, "Come, all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me; for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

Worship should ALWAYS be cross-centered; it should always have its foundation on the one who bore our sins and took them to the cross. It should always glorify the only One who deserves praise and adoration -God. One of my friends told me a story when she was in a worship service and she said that the music just wasn't touching, the sermon seemed non-applicable and she complained to someone, "I didn't get anything out of the service today." The person she was talking to replied with these words: "Good, because it wasn't for you."

Worship should preach the Gospel from the beginning to the end. That is what worship for "real people" looks like.

Edification of the body; Edification of the Body.

Tonight's post won't be terribly long because I think it's fairly self-explanatory.

If you are reading this, you have a body. Congratulations. As of today, mine has gotten me through 22 years of life, even though I haven't been terribly kind to it. God is gracious, however, and will even use my folly and sin to make something beautiful come out of my life. Sometimes I'm not sure why I'm alive, why I'm doing what I'm doing. I could be somewhere completely different by now. In 10 days, I'll be celebrating my third year clean from eating disorders. I had them for seven years - and for most people, the 7 year mark is where all the major health complications kick in. Again, God is good and has allowed me to live. I've made it this far for a reason.

So you have a body too. Chances are you do SOME things to keep your body working, right? You eat, you sleep, you go to the doctor every now and then, you drink water, etc. Everything that you do for your body may be good or bad - and you know when you've done something bad. Your body tells you right away. As soon as you've exercised too much (or not enough) your muscles will tell you. Your immune system is so wonderfully wired that as soon as you eat something that your body doesn't like, it will compensate to get rid of the allergen (and sometimes, that compensation is deathly). Your mental health is tied to your physical health is tied to your emotional health is tied to your spiritual health. When you get a fever, your body is trying to rid itself of viruses or things that are in your body that should not be in your body. If you eat fruits and vegetables, you edify your body. If one part of your body hurts, generally it has an effect on the rest of your body.

The same goes for both your church and The Church. I'm sure you've heard this millions of times, but let me say it again. In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul likens The Church to a body -

 ¹² Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. ¹³ For we were all baptized by^[c] one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. ¹⁴ Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.
 ¹⁵ Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. ¹⁶ And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. ¹⁷ If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? ¹⁸ But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. ¹⁹ If they were all one part, where would the body be? ²⁰ As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
 ²¹ The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” ²² On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, ²³ and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, ²⁴ while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, ²⁵ so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. ²⁶ If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.
 ²⁷ Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. ²⁸ And God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues. ²⁹ Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? ³⁰ Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues^[d]? Do all interpret? ³¹ Now eagerly desire the greater gifts.

We are part of a larger body, and that body is part of a larger Body. Paul encourages us to use our gifts for the edification of the body. Yup. Do it.

But we're so comfortable in our pews/chairs in church. We're so comfortable with making church be just one more thing to cross off our list of things to do for the week. We can sit back, listen to some good (or not so good) music, listen to someone speak about the Bible, and leave.

I want to challenge you - that's not at ALL what it means to be a part of the Church...or your church. In our bodies, there are NO parts that get to say, "Oh, well, since I'm along for the ride of life, I'll just sit back and let the other parts work for me." Cells are constantly multiplying and dying and things are moving. Even when we rest at night, things happen in our bodies that we have no control over. Blood still pumps. We still breathe. Hair still grows.

Being a part of the body of Christ means that you've been given a task in the form of a gift. Look at your life. How are you gifted? Are you musically talented? If so, why hesitate in joining praise teams or choir? Are you artistically gifted in that you can paint/draw/take photographs/etc? Have you asked your pastor how you can use that for the edification of the body? Are you a gifted writer? Have you considered writing liturgies or songs? Are you a teacher? Have you thought about Sunday school or starting a class in something about which you are passionate?

Where do your gifts lie?
How can you use them to grow your body?

Pastors - How is your church gifted? How can it edify the other parts of the Body in the area?

Post your replies. Please :)

-Lisa

Worship and the Artist

Week three is here. Fortunately for you, I have a lot to say this week. I've just come off of Spring Break, I officially have 7 more weeks until I graduate, and I'm up to my EYEBALLS in things to do. But it's the home stretch, and I know I cannot give up now; therefore, I'm pushing myself harder, digging deeper, and writing more fervently.

Did you know that you're an artist? Think about it. You are gifted in some way, shape or form. You are creative, for you were created by the ultimate Creator. Maybe you have a way with words. Maybe you have a way with numbers (and God knows that all of us out there that don't have a way with numbers need you desperately). Maybe you can sing -- maybe all you can do is make some form of joyful noise. But the fact remains - you were created creative.

Early in the Reformation, the Protestants took up issue with arts in the Church. Far earlier than that, the Roman Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox churches split over a controversy regarding art. In Calvin's Geneva, churches were sparse - whitewashed walls, pews with backs that were straight up, uncomfortable enough to MAKE you listen. Many Reformed churches in Europe remain that way today, actually. They're impressive from the outside. On the inside, however, you don't remember why you brought your camera inside. There's not much to look at. Now, Calvin did NOT believe that the arts were inherently bad. He encouraged study of the arts and the sciences. But stained glass windows were too reminiscent of Catholic churches, where people received the Word by looking at it - and, in some cases, ended up worshiping the pictures. That's what they wanted to avoid - idolatry. (Calvin DID, however, ban anyone from making any images of God, saying it was in direct offense to the second commandment.) Calvin wanted to avoid worshiping created things instead of a Creator God.

That makes sense.

When we walk into the sanctuary every Sunday morning, you may be struck by the visuals. Maybe a particular background to a slideshow fit well. Maybe there is a dancer on stage and you are captured by the beauty of it. Maybe the lighting is just right, someone did an exceptional job on the banners, etc. We don't worship the visuals (or rather, we shouldn't), but we appreciate what they do to the service. A good visual aid will help the worship rather than hinder it. A good visual will help you remember the service long after it's done.

Ultimately, we worship a Triune God - Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We don't come to worship to "get something" from it, we come to give something TO God. We shouldn't walk in and say, "If the music isn't right this week, I'm really going to have a hard time worshiping." Chances are, something WILL go wrong. Let's face it - we live in a sin filled world where NOTHING goes perfectly. And yet, as worshipers, we always find ways to nitpick - something could ALWAYS be better. It's true. There are always going to be areas of improvement - and I guarantee you that even the "best" churches out there will find ways to improve. If you go into a worship service hoping that it serves you, you will be left dry and empty by the end. If you go into a worship service expecting God to move in big ways, you will leave with a sense that God moved. If you go into a worship service and truly offer to God everything that you have within you, you will NOT leave empty handed.

Worship is not about US. We are called to worship - true. But even if we don't worship, the rest of creation will. The Psalmist talks about the heavens declaring the glory of God, day and night they pour forth speech. Christ said that if we do not praise, the stones will cry out. The STONES. God does not NEED our praise. It wasn't as if God was not fully God when humans weren't there to praise him. God, in the best God-way possible, in and of himself is self-glorifying. He's GOD.  And what are we? Who do we think we are that if we stop praising God, He'll get His feelings hurt? Who do we think God is that if we stop praising God, He'll get His feelings hurt? Going into a worship service, wondering what we're going to get from it is just one way that we elevate ourselves to the place of God.

Worship is not FOR us. Worship is FOR God. Worship is a response to the grace of God. On our own, we can't worship God. It is impossible for us to choose to worship God. It is the work of the Spirit within us, pulling us to the call of the Father, covered by the blood of Jesus. It is then and ONLY then that we can worship God. Worship is not to "make me happy." You'll never be happy if you choose to make worship for yourself. Why? Because we cannot fill ourselves. We are lost without God. We like to think we're autonomous, but we're not. Every breath is ordained. Every heartbeat is a work of God. Every morning is the grace of God, once again waking us up to do His will.

Still, we end up worshiping the created things instead of the creator. We worship the music, thinking that our preferences should determine what the church service is like. Rory Noland, in his book The Heart of the Artist puts it this way:

I spent a great deal of time earlier in this book touting the virtues of using your talents in your local church. What if that turns out to be a very disappointing experience also? What should you do if you experience rejection in the church? .... I know that the church doesn't exist solely for the sake of the arts. It has a higher calling, and it is not a performing arts organization. But as a music director at a church, I still agonize over situations like the ones I just described. I've come to realize that every church has a narrow scope of musical style compared with the full range of styles available to us today. In other words, every church can't possibly accommodate all the different styles of music and art that exist. P.217 (Emphasis mine).

 You may feel this way, even if you're not the music director. You may think that there's too much of one genre of music and not enough of the others. Practically speaking, this is true. But if we were to do every genre of music that every church member wanted, the arts would then be serving the congregation instead of God. The arts exist to serve God, to glorify Him.

We will ALWAYS have preferences. But our preferences should not hinder us from truly worshiping. Now, if you're going to a heavy metal church and you like classical music and string quartets, you can't understand the words that are being screamed over the distorted guitars and the booming bass lines, I might suggest finding another church. But if you think that there are too many hymns, or not enough hymns, etc., to the point where you end up standing with your arms folded every Sunday morning, scowl lines practically painted on your face, might I suggest examining yourself and your own motives for worship? Dig deeper than, "We've always sung hymns." If you want to go that way, then let's go back to using the Mass in worship - for that was around FAR longer than "A Mighty Fortress." Or we could all sing in unison a capella straight from the Genevan Psalter. Do you understand where this is coming from? If we always do what we've "always done," there is no room for change or contextualization. There's no room for creativity. The pastor should only then preach a certain way.

When it comes to art in worship, yes, things could ALWAYS be better. However, we must remember that we have the Holy Spirit on our side, sanctifying our worship through the blood of Christ to bring it to the Father. And THAT is ultimately who our worship should be directed toward. Don't worship the created things - music, visual arts, dances, dramas - but worship the Creator.

World, It's Monday.

This means post # 2 is now available to the community.

Unfortunately, this will be a rather short post - I'm in Houston at the moment, going up to Oklahoma as soon as my boyfriend gets ready. However, I can share a little bit about yesterday and talk for a bit.

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of going to a different church. I mean, yes, I'm in Houston; therefore, it makes sense that I wasn't at Sunshine. However, this church was different in more than one way - it was a different denomination.
I count myself a "Reformed floater" of sorts. I've gone to Reformed Baptist churches, Presbyterian churches, RCA, CRC, even a URC. But I stay basically in the same bubble. When I went to my first college, I went to a non-denominational Free Methodist church (and yes, if that sounds like an oxymoron, it was/is). But, I had a job interview yesterday to work in this church after I graduate, so I decided to go.

I love Texans. The lot of them are welcoming and warm. And I started realizing what it means to be a community of believers from all different backgrounds. This United Methodist Church had a Methodist pastor, but a whole staff of people from different denominations. But they worked together for the common good of the church - and it worked. This church is HUGE. The pastor stays grounded in Methodism and the staff supports him.

When I was being interviewed, the woman interviewing me said, "It was different, wasn't it? The worship was different?"
Not really, actually. All the songs we sang during the music portion of it I've sung in many different Reformed churches. The main difference was the fact that there was a prayer bench up front for those who felt the calling of the Spirit after the sermon - and even at Sunshine, there's always a chance to pray up front with people after the service. It wasn't an "anxious seat" as some of us Reformed folk would think of. It wasn't an altar call. But it was cool that they offered it, making open the opportunity to pray THROUGH the sermon using sermon notes/application points.
The pastor did preach perfectionism - not in the bad sense. He made it VERY well known that we cannot be perfect by ourselves. We cannot reach holiness by our own means. It's impossible for us to be perfect on our own terms. So even on the pastor's points of doctrine that Reformed folk would contend with, there really wasn't contention. The Gospel was preached and it was preached well.

It was community, living and working in diversity. And for the first time, stepping out of the Reformed bubble, I felt safe. I felt like this was a community that had safety nets for first-timers like myself. It relied on the moving of the Holy Spirit and was steeped in prayer.

Long story short: I turned the job down. It didn't turn out to be what they had told me it was going to be, and they wanted me to stay there forever being a Children's Pastor one day. I couldn't make a commitment like that, both for my own good and the good of the church. The right person is out there - it's just not me. But it was good experience, for sure. It was interesting how well the doctrine classes prepared me to answer questions like, "Where do you land on the election/free will scale? And explain." From the look on this woman's face, she had never heard election the way I presented it (which, I'm finding, happens more and more in the world outside of the Reformed bubble.). She was intrigued by the fact that election doesn't mean I don't go out and share the gospel, nor does it mean that I become egotistical about my salvation. It isn't election based on what I did or who I am, because I am a wretched sinner who desperately needs irresistible grace to choose God. Her jaw kind of dropped when I told her that election doesn't make us robots in that we always do the will of God all the time - or that we're puppets in the hands of a master puppeteer.

Always be prepared to give an answer for what you believe - but do all things in love. "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am but a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal." - 1 Corinthians 13:1
"Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free [Reformed or Methodist or Catholic or Pentecostal...]—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many." 1 Corinthians 12:12-14 (bracketed parts mine).

FIRST POST!

It is, officially, the first week of March. This month always makes me happy, for it holds hope and promise, a renewed remembrance that although life seems dead at the moment, life is coming soon. With life comes color, warmth, and a new form of beauty. Now I will honestly tell you that I am not a fan of winter. In my opinion, there's nothing worse than continual sickness, lack of vitamin D and no sunshine. My two favorite colors are teal and yellow - both scream "LIFE! SUMMER!" to me. And as soon as November hits, I see nothing but gray, white and brown. Even clothing styles and colors reflect the winter blues. Blacks, browns, greys, whites, dark reds, dark greens, dark blues - it makes me depressed. There's not much I like more in the winter than seeing people going against fashion and wearing bright colors. It makes me feel as though they're going against what nature says and choosing to be alive and colorful.

So when March 1 hits, although I know fully that Spring won't actually hit until April, I get excited. The possibility of life is in the air. I start waking up to sunshine and blue skies instead of the ever-present grey of winter. I become productive once again, for life is coming! My creative juices become thawed and start flowing again. The world becomes a place of opportunity, of dreams larger than life, of hope.

That's a small intro into who I am and what I like. I know I've been at Sunshine as an intern since September, and I haven't had the chance to get to know about 98% of you. But I desire to let you in on a little bit of who I am and what I hope to do through this blog. I hope to get to know some of you through comments. I urge you to read carefully, to respond honestly. I hope to provoke discussion. I hope to provoke thought.

I am a senior at the college across the street - Kuyper. I am a Music and Worship Studies major, hoping someday to go into ministry somewhere. Where God will lead me after I'm done here - who knows? I'm putting in resumes and applications all over the place, hoping that I can walk through some open door somewhere and start paying off the debt in which I've placed myself in getting an education. If you haven't been to church in a while, I play the piano and I sing. Little known fact - I'm teaching myself guitar, and it's taken me about two years to be able to do anything. I'm 21 - 22 on March 21st - and I don't like even numbers. I'm a fan of odd numbers - even more so, prime numbers. I can't wait to turn 23 because 23 is a prime number. My favorite numbers are 7, 13 and 21. I'm not sure why, they just are. I'm a poet, a lover of music (especially good music), a writer, a laugher, a lover. I'm crazy, spontaneous, and yet I love to plan things out and if something isn't planned, I get stressed. My philosophy is to plan for the future but to embrace the "now" moments for all they're worth.

This blog is to encompass a lot of things. I hope to promote discussion. I hope to learn. I hope to teach. I've learned a lot of things in my 3 years at Kuyper, and I want to teach you what I have learned. I hope to learn from different people who I hope to have also contribute to this blog. I hope to incorporate viewpoints from worship leaders, pastors, and artists about what worship is, who we worship, and why we worship, along with what role the arts play in worship.
In the course of 8 weeks, we will cover:

• Visual Art (photography, painting, drawing, etc)
• Drama
• Music
• Poetry as Liturgy
• AND MORE!!!

 This blog will DEFINITELY be updated every Monday from now until April 25; HOWEVER, it may be updated more than once a week. Keep your eye out!
Even if you do not have a blogger account, I would LOVE your comments, and it is possible for you to comment! I have opened this up not only to the Sunshine world, but also to the World. Let me know your thoughts/opinions. We can learn from each other.

Happy reading!

-TheIntern, aka, Lisa.