To all my readers:
I’ve moved! From now on, I will not be posting anymore articles on this site. I now have my own, http://thesoundofmadness.weebly.com/
Eventually, I’m going to get my own domain name bought, and make this thing truly official! Over the next couple days I’ll be moving the ‘Best Of’ blogs off of here onto the new site before starting to write new material.
I’m glad you’ve followed me thus far, and hope you continue to follow me in this new chapter of a wonderful journey
Dear brothers and sisters,
How I wish there was a broader platform for me to share this with you. This reminder, this call to return to the source, to come home to the Gospel, to reject your idols and functional saviors and ‘good works’ and return to grace and mercy and compassion. But this is my medium. Share it if you like. I accept some of you will not like what I have to say, and it would be shouted down in the vast majority of America’s churches, but it must be said. Let me start with this line: I hate your functional saviors!
Since when did a political candidate become ‘America’s best hope!?’ What happened to Jesus!? Is he not good enough anymore? Think of this; Every candidate you vote for is a flawed, fallen, imperfect, sinful human. They will let you down, they will fail, they will crumble, and you’ll be left shaking your fist crying ‘Why?’ You know why they fail? Because they’re not Jesus! You know why you get so upset? Because you’ve made an idol! The politician exists to point you to Jesus! To say ‘there stands Jesus! The better king, the better ruler, the better savior, the better hope!’ David was a man after God’s own heart, and he failed. But he points to Jesus as the perfect king through his failures! He points to the king who will one day reign and rule flawlessly.
Your legislation. Ugh. You make me sick. Like pro-life and anti-gay laws will ‘save America.’ America is lost with or without these laws! Making it illegal isn’t going to stop making people be pro-choice, or cause gays to go ‘might as well be straight again.’ Are you freaking kidding me!? Have you learned NOTHING from reading of the Pharisees!? Laws change nothing. Men’s hearts are changed by God and God alone. So unless the Gospel is going forth, being preached in power and authority, no amount of laws will change things. Even if abortion is never struck down, and gay marriage is made legal, the Gospel will march on! You think it will be defeated by laws? Never! The Gospel changes hearts. The Gospel changes minds. The Gospels saves men’s souls. NOT LAWS.
Here’s another thing: Pro-choice people don’t hate people! They love people! They love the poor girl who has been impregnated by rape, a vial, disgusting, violating, horrific act. But there love is the love of a sinner. Flawed, fallen. A love that says ‘everyone should look out for herself first and foremost.’ They think the best thing is to kill the baby for the sin of the father because they don’t want that girl to carry the shame, to deal with the ridicule that will come from culture and the church in equal, despicable measure for being a single mother. Heaven forbid we should at least attempt to love as Jesus loved, and accept and share and encourage without judgement or gossip! Maybe if we focused more on being the loving body, there wouldn’t be a need for abortion anymore, because these women would know exactly where they could go for help and love when everyone else has turned away!
Gays aren’t destroying your family! The lesbian couple won’t be responsible for destroying your little boys marriage one day, but his budding porn habit sure will, or the fact you didn’t bother to actually teach a biblical view of sex to your children. Blaming homosexuality is a sin that goes all the way back to the Garden when Adam blamed Eve and Eve blamed the Snake. It’s blame shifting because its convenient! And its keeps you from facing a shortcoming or a failure in your own life. Why repent when you can blame? Another shocker for you: gays aren’t trying to destroy your family. They’re trying to build their own sinful, fallen, flawed idea of a family as sinners do!
It’s just easier, isn’t it? It’s easier to be pro-life and anti-gay then share the Gospel. Admit it. It’s easier. More convenient. It costs less. But here’s the thing. When your functional saviors and idols fail, and your left fearing for your country and your family, you know what still stands firm? The Gospel and King Jesus! When all else crumbles, he is STILL ruling and reigning! You won’t find yourself fearing when the Gospel does it’s work, to salvation or condemnation, but you will find yourself rejoicing, eagerly awaiting a better country, a better kingdom, a better ruler.
Brothers and sister, abandon your functional saviors! Lets us do what we were saved to do! Go forth, preach the Gospel! Let God do his work in the hearts of men, laws and legislation’s be damned! The Gospel will be left standing in the end. What a pity, to vote the ‘right way’ every time but never see a man saved by the Gospel!
Answer your calling, church! Go forth is boldness! Don’t over-compensate for the siren calls of culture for choice and marriage equality by protesting and voting and denouncing, but go forth in love and mercy, armed with Gospel! Allow God to do His work. Don’t waste your life pushing Christian agenda at the sake of pronouncing Christ. How guilty we are of this! May God grant us the grace to repent and turn to our sure foundation, the Gospel of Jesus Christ
This subject is one that I greatly enjoy discussing. Mainly because it has so many varied opinions, and I love hearing and learning from other people’s opinions in order to grow and expand my own. I enjoy using ‘group think,’ so to speak. Them more intelligent opinions there are the better your own opinion will be. My opinion on this topic has been greatly expanded through this method.
You see, I use to think beautiful creative, artistic things have no place in the church. That it should bare and basic and minimum. Music should be basic, service should be basic, make it quick, make it clean. My how things change.
First, some background. I just finished a study of Exodus at church, where we looked at the Tabernacle and everything that went into it. If you haven’t read about the Tabernacle in Exodus, or the Temple in 2 Kings, I recommend you do. These were beautiful, creative, artistic buildings. Artists and craftsmen put lots of time into these structures.
Then we go to the New Testament. Specifically, Acts. Here we see simplicity. House churches, sharing things, having all things in common. The Spirit dwelling within us instead of a building. No mention of buildings, really.
This, I believe, is where we find the imbalance. People tend to see the New Testament and say ‘that’s the way. Look at those old, gaudy church buildings. This isn’t the way.’ There seems to be no balance. It’s all or nothing.
What gets lost in the shuffle is Heaven itself. It’s a beautiful place. Creative, made by God Himself. Artistic. I’m not saying we can match it, but there’s a lesson to be learned there. God is creative. He is artistic. He is beautiful. And he made all these things.
I think, like in most things here in this world, there is a balance. Simplicity is good. Simplicity and the minimum allow us to spend money on good things, on advancing the mission, making inroads for the Gospel at home and abroad.
But there is room for beauty. Beauty and creativity turn our minds towards God. They cause us to think and wonder. A well made building can help turn people’s minds and hearts towards the creator God. This is a very good thing.
Now, both of these things are good, but can also be bad. It all depends on the heart of man and their attitude towards God. Is your view of God small and view of self big? Not good. You can take pride in your creative, artistic, beautiful building. But you can also take pride in your simple, minimal building. Our hearts our sick. We can take pride in both our excess and our poverty. We must be careful. Our hearts are wicked above all things.
This is where balance comes in. When we, by God’s grace, get our hearts right and our view of God right, we can be simple or creative and be alright.
We are called to be salt. Salt preserves. We preserve by being simple and giving our time, talent, and possessions to advance the kingdom. We also preserve by getting involved in the arts on more then just the surface level, using our God given talents to fight the decay cause by sin in music, architecture, painting, etcetera.
Don’t squash creativity. If a guy in church can make a good light show and wants to use his gifts to glorify God during the service, let him. Watch his heart, not his craft. His motives, not his style. That is where it matters, the heart and motives.
Should we, the ones who have been set free from sin and opened to the reality of existence not be the most creative people on earth? There was a time when we were. When Christians advanced music, art, literature and science. We still can be. We can make great music. It doesn’t have to just be acoustic guitar and piano and simple structures and lots of spots with only vocals. Make good music. Be creative. Use electric guitars and synthesizers and xylophones and anything you can think. God made it all. So use it.
I’ll talk about my opinions on the church and worship in greater detail in a later post.
In short, find the balance. Be creative and generous. Be artistic and simple. Watch your heart and your motives. Do all things to the glory of God.
Look at the picture above you. Now back at the text. What do you see? Why, its a typical church auditorium, isn’t it? This picture, and the sanctuaries of so many churches I’ve been in have me thinking. Is it time to redesign church?
Now I’m not advocating a radical change in the way church is done. Nor am I the kind of guy who bucks tradition. I simply believe that every now and then, after doing something a certain way for a long period time, we need to examine why we’re doing it that way, and is there a better way to be doing things.
Church is a community. It is a gathering of people bonded by a common purpose. We’re supposed to want to be at church. Yet so many church buildings are stale, cut out of the same cloth. We should want to be at church. Yet more often then not, the building does really nothing to make you want to be there. (I am not saying the building is more important then the Gospel. Just keep that in mind)
Look at these pictures. They are all pictures of the interior of buildings for companies that I want to be in. I look at them and think, ‘I want to be there.’ The first one is Chipotle, then Panera, then Starbucks.
Don’t these places just look comfortable? Don’t they make you want to be there? How come our churches aren’t like that?
Its high time we consider why our churches all look the same. Why not some more comfortable chairs, instead of the cheap, uncomfortable ones we use? Why not cozy nooks and crannies with some tables? It would be nice to be able to take notes comfortably for a change. Why not more vibrant colors instead of drab, uniform, all around the room colors like white and beige?
I don’t know how I’m going to do it, but I want to change this. I want to help make the church a gathering place for the community, a nice place to be and even hang out at during the week. I want to help the church regain its place as the community center. Staying in the same style of the past hundred years doesn’t cut it.
Try it. Try brighter colors, better lights, more comfortable chairs. Have someone who knows what their doing redesign the interior. Just because you can make your living room look good doesn’t mean you can do the same for an entire church building. And having a design-ee frame of mind planted in the last decade would help, too.
Culture has changed. People have changed. Design taste has changed.
Maybe its time for the church to make a change.
Something has been on my mind lately. It vexes me and puzzles me and challenges me and inspires me. You guessed it. The church has been on my mind.
I love church. I love the community and friendships. The pitch in dinners and communion. The gospel preaching and worship. And it is this love that compels me to find a way to make church better. The best it can be.
I’m not talking water down the message or seeker sensitive stuff. I’m talking simpler stuff. Earthier stuff. Practical changes at the ground level.
You see, I read a book that made the point of treating your church experience as if you were a visitor. Imagine it from the outside looking in. Just imagine, if you can, what it would be like to walk into a church, your church, for the first time. Does it scare you? Probably not a good thing.
Before I delve deeper into my ideas for what I think might help churches out and make the experience better for everyone, I’ll come out and tell you exactly what companies, that’s right-secular companies, have inspired me the most. Starbucks and Chipotle. There atmosphere, service, look, design and music are spot on. They make you want to be there, to stay there, to keep coming back. To be a part of it all. I want to try and find a way to duplicate that in the church.
So its fall. And here at Grace Bible Church, we, the college aged young adults, are kicking into high gear to market our group, Come and See.
While marketing is something I enjoy learning about and doing, its surprisingly difficult. Ever notice how when you need ideas, you lose them all? That’s what keeps happening to me. Also a bummer when you have the design for business cards at your pc, and the cardstock and printer with toner are at the church, 20 miles away. Small problems.
It is still very exciting though. Logo’s, flyers, business cards, window displays, creative idea meetings/think tanks. Our budget (and town) may be small, but our vision is big. Like thy Kingdom come big. And fruit, it appears, may already be ripening.
So for those of you who may read this, please pray for Grace Bible Church in Mitchell, IN, as we try to help our community develop a passion for the glory of God. Especially among the youth. They need Christ. He is literally there only hope.
The Sound of Madness 