“I Love Jesus, But I Drink a Little”

Posted on February 7, 2009 by Jay F Guin
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | 1 Comment

Tithing Gets a Bad Rap

Posted on February 7, 2009 by Jay F Guin

It’s Saturday!

From 12Stone Church, thanks to Todd Rhoades at MMI.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | 6 Comments

Renewing Our Worship: Change

Posted on February 6, 2009 by Jay F Guin

First, a joke —

Q. How many Church of Christ members does it take to change a lightbulb?

A. Change???!!

If you graph the distribution of humans on just about any criteria, you get a bell curve. It’s true for height, weight, IQ, musical talent … just about anything you can think of.

And among those graphable characteristics is the desire for variety, that is, change. Continue reading →

Posted in Renewing Our Worship, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments

Renewing Our Worship: Frontier Revivalism and the Invitation

Posted on February 5, 2009 by Jay F Guin

I think it’s important as we consider our worship practices that we understand where they come from. Much of what we do has a clear, historical origin: the frontier revivalism of the early 19th Century.

Following the American Revolution, religion in the US had fallen on hard times. French Deism and the burden of overcoming the economic losses of the war weighed heavily on American churches. Many Americans had been part of the Church of England, and they weren’t feeling kindly to their old church, with an archbishop appointed by the king. And warfare has a way of bringing out the worst in men.

Meanwhile, Americans were pushing into the newly acquired frontier west of the Appalachians. The British had barred settlement there, but the war had freed up these lands, as had the Northwest Territories Act. Many of the churches in the 13 original colonies were state supported and had little interest in building churches in other states. And the many people pressing into the new territories were without churches.

Continue reading →

Posted in Renewing Our Worship, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 16 Comments

Faith Lessons by Ray Vander Laan: The Gates of Hell

Posted on February 4, 2009 by Jay F Guin

The lesson is taught at Caesarea Philippi, a city that was notorious for its evil.

The Jordan River begins with three springs at the foot of Mt. Hermon in the city.

In 2 BC, Herod Philip became tetrarch of this area and built Caesarea Philippi. But even earlier, the tribe of Dan relocated in the area from their original inheritance, the Philistines being too tough to root out. So they moved to this area and built the city of Dan. This is where Jeroboam built the golden calf. The “high place” where the calf was located is still there.

Dan was a religious center because of all the water coming out of the ground, as they worshipped fertility gods and the springs symbolized fertility. The Greeks had stopped infant sacrifice, but the locals continued to practice fertility rites, worshipping Pan, a Greek fertility god. At the time, a spring flowed from a cave, where Pan was worshipped through orgies and bestiality with goats. The source of the spring was known to the Greeks as the “gates of Hades,” that is, they believed the streams flowed from underground, the location of Hades. Continue reading →

Posted in Faith Lessons by Ray Vander Laan, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 14 Comments

Renewing Our Worship: Authority

Posted on February 3, 2009 by Jay F Guin

We have this false doctrine, this peculiar notion, that everything we do in church requires authority. We inherited this doctrine, known as the Regulative Principle, from (of all people) John Calvin. It’s amazing, you know, that we can be as staunchly anti-Calvinistic as we are and yet build our entire theology around a doctrine invented by Calvin.

I’ll not go into all the reasons that the authority argument is so wrong here. I’ve dealt with it here. In this post, I want to talk about what the real theology is.

We begin in 1 Cor 14 —

(1 Cor 14:2-5)  For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God. Indeed, no one understands him; he utters mysteries with his spirit. 3 But everyone who prophesies speaks to men for their strengthening, encouragement and comfort. 4 He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the church. 5 I would like every one of you to speak in tongues, but I would rather have you prophesy. He who prophesies is greater than one who speaks in tongues, unless he interprets, so that the church may be edified. Continue reading →

Posted in Renewing Our Worship, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 17 Comments

Renewing Our Worship: Announcements and Talking in the Aisles

Posted on February 2, 2009 by Jay F Guin

No, announcements aren’t in the five acts of worship. And, yes, people pretty much hate announcements. But your attitude toward announcements says a lot about your understanding of what the Bible really says about the assembly.

You see, as crazy as it sounds, I think announcements are at the heart of our worship. Miss the announcements and, well, you may as well have slept in.

Really? Yes, really.

We start in Hebrews —

(Heb 10:24-25)  And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. 25 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another–and all the more as you see the Day approaching. Continue reading →

Posted in Renewing Our Worship, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Renewing Our Worship: The 16 Acts of Worship

Posted on February 1, 2009 by Jay F Guin

Good morning, class. I think we’ve had some fabulous worship services these last few weeks, don’t you? The class nods vigorously. I mean, the worship committee has really some extra effort in these last several weeks, and I can really tell the difference.

Charles, one of the committee members, is on the front row and beaming. Worship committee members don’t usually get much praise.

I’d like to make a list of some of the exciting things that have been happening in our worship lately. The teacher walks to the board and picks up a marker.

One of the students in back joins in. “We had two couples place membership!”

That’s right. What else? Continue reading →

Posted in Renewing Our Worship, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 16 Comments

Renewing Our Worship: Attitudes

Posted on January 31, 2009 by Jay F Guin

The tension in the room was palpable. You could seemingly even smell it. Five elders sat on one end of the table, trying to act like shepherds, even though they didn’t feel like shepherds. You see, they were angry, although they knew they shouldn’t be.

On the other end of the table were a dozen or so older church members, obviously distressed. The elders hadn’t anticipated such a large delegation, and people were futzing about looking for chairs. It was very uncomfortable for everyone.

The chairman of the elders led a brief prayer — for wisdom and patience — and then the delegation’s leader spoke.

We asked for this meeting to talk about the song selection. We thought the elders had agreed many years ago to a blended worship service. Half traditional and half contemporary. But I think we’ve drifted more to 80% contemporary.

Continue reading →

Posted in Renewing Our Worship, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 20 Comments

Baba Yetu

Posted on January 31, 2009 by Jay F Guin

It’s Saturday! And that puts me in a “Baba Yetu” kind of mood.

“Baba Yetu” is the Lord’s Prayer in Swahili, composed by Christopher Tin. It was used as the theme music for the computer game Civilization IV.

This is an a cappella version from a Christian group at U Cal Berkeley, very nicely done. Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments