I am sorry that I haven't written for a while but... I didn't want to.
Now I do.
I have been thinking about what the church is about and what it hasn't been about. Redemption and worship.
The place that Jesus calls us to is redemption. The place that God, the creator calls us to is worship. And the Spirit leads us in both.
When the worship service is about self gratification and the kind of entertainment it has been about for the past 100 or more years it loses it depth. When what we do is reinforce the position and place of the institution and not the restore 'least of these' to their place in the Kingdom, we lose its heart.
"OK Tony, that is enough of the putting down of the church blogs! Can't you write about anything else?"
No, because that is what I do. You can go to any other blog on Blogger and find some better blogs, smarter blogs, historical blogs, prettier blogs, more porn blogs, etc...
This one is what I have been thinking about all summer. For what are we created? Genesis 2:15 says, "The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it." Place and purpose. That what we are about, place and purpose. In relationship, we are placed in a place to do God's purpose. Worship. Redemption.
That what the garden work is about. Working to keep its God purpose of life and restoring, or redeeming it, to continually bring people back into the place and purpose of the garden. It is more than being green..
Ok, but where does the church entertain? In its format. When the local church look to calls a pastor, they ask for his/her sermon tapes, look at the size of the church, go to the service. If they like the pastor, they call him/her. If they don't, on to the next. We look at the theology, style, haircut, robe, etc. John the Baptist would never make it today. Camel hair clothes? A diet of locust and honey? We are not inviting his wife to the potluck, that is for sure! But yet people came to see him to be redeemed. Is there a RQ (Redemption Quotient)? Not a saved quotient but a move from outside the relationship with God to a walking relationship? I like how Genesis 3 tells of the walks with God in the "cool of the day..." I see so many pictures in my mind of walking with God in conversation. It starts with wonder. We get the heart of the message as well as the message in those walks. More than just theme for the summer, but the focus of the day... of the life. This is greater that just a good theology, or academic understanding of God, but a deep intimacy. Intimacy fulfills the heart much more than entertainment. Entertainment takes up space, intimacy occupies the space. There is worship in intimacy, focus on the love of your life, soul, and heart.
Understanding the correlation between worship and redemption is huge. The Savior becomes a heart name more than just a lyric. When one is brought back into relationship with the Creator through the actions of the Savior, our heart is continually thankful, focused, unified. My dad's friend had an heart operation by a very skilled surgeon and it saved his life. In the conversation that I overheard as a child this man went on and on about this surgeon and how much he owed him everything. Is this how I feel about Jesus? I owe him everything? Or do I put my criteria on how I want to worship Him instead of lavishing my affections, trust, etc on Him.
This was a stream of consciousness and not a teaching...
7 comments:
Tony, I love you. You aggravate me and that’s one of the reasons why I love you. The reason why The Baptist “would never make it [in the church] today” is the same reason why you wouldn’t: like any prophet, he intentionally kept himself out of the religious institution because God had called him to speak to it.
I do read a lot of other blogs (sometimes it’s hard to get rolling on Mondays), but I come back here to have the core of who I am as a pastor questioned: am I enabling the followers of Christ walk intimately with God and truly celebrate the redemption they find in Him? Honestly, that is my constant, unwavering goal… yet not always the path I find myself on. Too often I find myself distracted by business or bogged down by sin. When it comes down to it, entertainment is easier than faithfulness. What stings me about this post is probably not that you fail to notice those times that Christ’s under-shepherds do it right, but that it hits me too close to home. I am on the same looping path of redemption and worship that all who strive for intimacy with Christ are on. Thanks for being that troubling voice that calls me back to it.
Brian, I think the place that frustrates me is not with pastors but with those of who keep the pews from floating away. We have set the criteria not the pastor. We have given you the sense that you are responsible and to a limited amount the pastor is. I have the utmost respect for those trying to lead others back to the conversations "in the cool of the day..." Peace
there has been many a good teaching that has come from stream of consciousness...Im just saying...
I love the words redemption and worship, but i also love the word Hope. Perhaps the issue that I have with this post is that I don't hear that. I know that it is in you, i have heard it in your voice and i have seen it in your eyes, but I didn't read it here. Would you show me where it is because I believe that worship and redemption are the messages of hope.
Janice, there were many words that I did not include, but hope is all over that post. Redemption is more than hope, it is a future. We can talk about hope but if we are not redeeming it is academic and empty rhetoric. Hope is in the old negro spiritual but redemption is in the underground railroad. Singing about justice does not remove the chains of oppression it only shines the metal. Redemption is more than feelings it is truth. It is living in truth that sets people free. But until we become implimentors of redemption there is not much hope seen in the institution.
Let me better explain what i mean when I say that I didn't read hope. I think that you are right that worship and redemption are words of hope. I wasn't waiting for you to use the vocabulary,but rather that we would trust that these messages of truth (worship and redemption) would penetrate into the structure. I am as great a cynic of the church as anyone else. I am the first to admit that I have been hurt over and over and those wounds go deep and I function out of that so much. It wasn't until recently that I saw the power of truth and worship. Now, I find that I have hope that truth and worship are powerful enough to reach all the way into the broken parts of the church. This is a huge step for me as I do not want to bring hope to the church because I would rather see it completely torn down and rebuilt, but I also don't believe that is what He is doing right now. He is into this redemption thing. So I take a look at the structure and the stupid entertainment and I pray for the breath of life. Redemption is a future...I pray that it's the church's future.
Tony,
I happened upon this blog by chance --I was actually googling Bill Paup as I went to college with him, and heard recently that he had died. Even this far away in time from when I knew him, I felt the hole in my heart. But, I am so glad I found your blog! It is as if you are speaking my language, my souls language. Thank you.
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