The Blue Parakeet: How We Read the Bible

Posted on February 23, 2009 by Jay F Guin

parakeet Good morning.

Well, the Ray Vander Laan series is over for now. And I know you’d rather hear him than me! I would, too. But we’ve decide to take a break and continue the series in the fall. (We were about to forget how to prepare a normal teacher-taught lesson!)

This quarter we’ll talk about how to understand the Bible. It’s hard to imagine a more important topic to a Christian. And it’s important for lots of reasons.

Continue reading →

Posted in Blue Parakeet, The Blue Parakeet, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Merry Christmas! Happy New Year’s! Happy Valentine’s Day! Happy President’s Day! Happy Mardi Gras! letter

Posted on February 22, 2009 by Jay F Guin

Some bloggers report every hiccup and earache their family has. It’s boring. And I think my family is likely pretty boring to other people, too.

But one of my cousins has insisted that I write up the state of my family, and so I figure I’d may as well post something as some people may actually want to know. I promise not to do it often.

It just happens that I’ve working on one of those Christmas letters — you know, the mimeographed flotsam people insert with their Christmas cards. But I can never get those things right, you know. Either they’re just insufferably braggy or they’re cloying, feigned humility or they’re filled with really bad jokes.

But as this cousin of mine has insisted, here’s the rough draft as it stands. Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | 3 Comments

The Blue Parakeet: Introduction for Teachers

Posted on February 22, 2009 by Jay F Guin

parakeet Not long ago at all, I posted a series of articles on Scot McKnight’s book The Blue Parakeet, dealing with hermeneutics. We’re now starting a series of lessons at my church on the same material, and so I’ll be posting a series of posts designed as lesson outlines for the teachers of the adult Bible classes.

The way I do this is teach the adult teachers on Wednesday night, to prepare us all for Sunday morning. However, in teaching the class on Wednesday night I generally find myself rewriting the notes. And so I’ll post the notes on Wednesday, or earlier, and then I often amend them as I have opportunity during the week. Continue reading →

Posted in Blue Parakeet, The Blue Parakeet, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Renewing Our Worship: Iconography, Part 2 of 3

Posted on February 22, 2009 by Jay F Guin

After the last post, you’re probably thinking I’m some sort of closet Catholic or Eastern Orthodox or some such thing. But I’m really not. I just think the creative arts need to be redeemed for Jesus. I mean, do we really want the atheists to dominate the arts?

Let me give you a little background on part of what drives my thinking.

Some years ago, our ministerial staff approached us elders suggesting that we start a seeker service on Wednesday nights, once a month. Well, we were glad to give it a shot.

The first few efforts were designed pretty much like Sunday morning. The preacher used some of his “A” material, the praise team sang with gusto, and it was nice. But it was Sunday morning done on Wednesday night. It was done well, but it didn’t work. Continue reading →

Posted in Renewing Our Worship, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Renewing Our Worship: Iconography, Part 1 of 3

Posted on February 21, 2009 by Jay F Guin

Over at Monday Morning Insight, I was reading an article about megachurches. A photographer had toured the country taking pictures of their buildings. He commented,

It was physical and wholly alien from what my idea of organized worship had been. Christian iconography was either stylized into abstract obscurity or altogether absent. The subject had tension. It was visual, topical, and coolly secular.

I thought to myself, “How ridiculous! Why purposefully strip worship spaces of all religious symbols? How can that encourage worship of God?” And then I realized, “Oh, yeah, I’m a member of the Church of Christ … and that’s how we do it!” Continue reading →

Posted in Renewing Our Worship, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Renewing Our Worship: Entertainment, Applause & Worship

Posted on February 20, 2009 by Jay F Guin

Recently, we received a complaint that something we were experimenting with at church is wrong because it’s “entertainment.” This is not surprising. Many Church periodicals have taken to condemning various practices on the grounds that the practice is entertainment, as though the Bible somewhere makes entertainment a sin.

I suppose you can’t sell magazines unless you have something to harp on. Surely, though, we could find something to write about that’s actually in the Bible.

One Church of Christ web site declares,

We do not use entertainment as a means of drawing people to Christ–we believe the drawing power of the gospel is sufficient. The entertainment of young people is a duty of the home, not the church.

Hmm. When the preacher is boring, we fire him. But if he blends his lessons with a little humor, some nice illustrations, a story or two, then we give him a raise. After all, it helps if the sermon is a little enterta … (oops), I mean, engaging. Continue reading →

Posted in Renewing Our Worship, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 11 Comments

Renewing Our Worship: Clothing

Posted on February 19, 2009 by Jay F Guin

Good morning, class. Today I’m going to test your knowledge of the Bible.

The teacher, only about 30 years old, was leading a class of 50- and 60-year old members.

Who can think of a passage that talks about what God says about clothing?

The class was filled with men and women who’d been Christians many years, and the answers came quickly.

“‘Consider the lilies of the field …'”

“James said not to judge someone by his clothes …”

One wag in the back said, “Adam and Eve were created naked. Does that count?” Continue reading →

Posted in Renewing Our Worship, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 10 Comments

Faith Lessons by Ray Vander Laan: The Weight of the World

Posted on February 18, 2009 by Jay F Guin

“Gethsemane” means olive press. The film shows an image of an ancient olive press at Capernaum. The olive press symbolizes the crucifixion. Continue reading →

Posted in Faith Lessons by Ray Vander Laan, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Faith Lessons by Ray Vander Laan: The Lamb of God

Posted on February 18, 2009 by Jay F Guin

The film in shot on the road that Jesus would have followed to go to Jerusalem. On the way to Jerusalem, he would have traveled in the same area where he’d been tempted by Satan at the beginning of this ministry. All three temptations were to follow the wrong battleplan. Now Jesus was following the only battleplan. Continue reading →

Posted in Faith Lessons by Ray Vander Laan, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Renewing Our Worship: The Sermon

Posted on February 17, 2009 by Jay F Guin

The sermon is so central to the Church of Christ assembly that I suppose I need to say something about how to do it better. But in my experience, among the more progressive congregations, our preaching tends to be quite good, even excellent.

Interestingly, while Abilene Christian University and others were working with many in the independent Christian Churches toward a re-unification, the Christian Church leadership found themselves praising the quality of our preaching and our universities. We are truly blessed.

Therefore, I have only a few nits to pick (these are not in order of importance). Continue reading →

Posted in Renewing Our Worship, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 11 Comments