moving up out this place.

you can check out the new blog here.

hebrews is awesome

my friend Toni and I have started a bible study on the book of Hebrews. if you've never done a bible study on Hebrews, you should probably either join ours or do one with someone else who doesn't live and hour and a half away from you (that one was for my Greer readers).

I got the privilege of starting us out in chapter 1, and quite frankly, it blew my mind. introductions to books of the bible don't usually do that. for instance, the writer of Hebrews was more than likely a Jew. we don't know that for sure, but his tone and knowledge of the Old Covenant seems to hint that he might be. if that is true, he may have very will upset a great deal of the Jewish community by writing Hebrews. in short, the author of Hebrews takes verse after verse of the Old Testament and says "if you are reading this and not thinking it is talking about Jesus, you're wrong." he's a little nicer than that, but essentially that's it. that's quite a bold statement, as Will Ferrell would say.

another thing I would mention is that if you're studying Hebrews, don't use the NIV. nothing against it necessarily; it just doesn't quite do a lot of parts justice. for example, take my favorite part of chapter 1:

(vs. 3, NIV) The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.


Now, there's nothing really WRONG with this translation. but if you look up the Greek, it the word translated as "sustaining" is actually translated better "to carry; to carry some burden; to bear." I don't know about you, but the image of Christ sustaining all things and Christ bearing and carrying all things are two pretty different images.

and maybe this explains just why Jesus gets so mad at the Pharisees at one point for loading people down with burdens, and not "lifting even a finger" to help. maybe he is mad not because they aren't helping anyone but because they are painting the exact opposite picture that He came to paint. Jesus says he wants people to trade their burden for his, which is "light and easy to bear," while taking our personal burdens (assuming those are included in "all things") and bearing them himself.

so we need to be careful to help people carry their burdens, not just because Jesus said to help the needy, but because we shouldn't be painting the EXACT OPPOSITE picture of Christ to people. more on that next time. I'm late for class.

the most awesome two-person band ever

so here's some pictures from our show a few weeks ago, for those of you who didn't get to come. it would mainly be my fault if you didn't, considering I posted about it 5 hours before we went on. I'll get better at that, I promise.

laziness

do lazy people get on your nerves as bad as they get on mine? as you can probably tell, this blog is not gonna have an awful lot to do with Christ, but I really have to say this. And this comes from someone who has been, and sometimes still is lazy. I get on my own nerves. but I am thinking specifically of the kind of people who do absolutely nothing but take up space unless they are forced to move. the kind of people who you ask repeatedly to find time to go do something with you, that they have to be there for. then they tell you that they have a really busy couple of weeks coming up, tests and whatnot, and that they will do it when they get free time. you then find them sitting or sleeping literally EVERY TIME you see them. and if you happen to live with them (I am speaking hypothetically of course), you get to see first-hand just how "busy" they are. I am not expecting any of you to get anything out of this post, but just wanted to mention that. more meaningful and less griping posts are coming soon. sorry.

pray

just wanted to let you know that some people at my church back home need some prayer.

Donnie, one of the pastors at Freedom Fellowship in Greer, was hurried to the hospital this morning. He is currently waiting on a MRI to try and figure out what it is that is bothering him. That's all I can really say right now, but I'll try to keep everyone updated on what happens. Just please pray for Donnie and his family. thanks guys.

straight-up sweetness

so I've really been slacking on the posting lately. I'll work on that.

In the meantime, for those of you wondering about what visual communication (the new major) involves, check out this website:

Trollback & Company

Jakob Trollback is the guy's name, and he's a graphic designer who started a company in New York City. He was in Columbia last night for an AIGA meeting. Basically, Trollback and Company does about one-third of all of the ads, movie opening sequences, and network promos you see on TV. You may want to go ahead and have an hour or two of your day blocked out though. This stuff, like I said, is sweet.

shameless plug

so this is kinda late notice--but if you have nothing to do tonight you should probably come to The Channel in Greenville, even if it's not to see the two greatest musicians ever (namely myself and my friend Paige). We're opening for three bands: Austin Webb, Jethro's Advice, and Corey Crowder are also playing. (So you're bound to like something you hear.) The Channel is right across Orchard Park from Outback Steakhouse in Greenville, off of Haywood Road. Hope to see you there. Here's some links to the bands:

JETHRO'S ADVICE MYSPACE PAGE


COREY CROWDER MYSPACE PAGE


Hope to see ya there!

p.s.--We'll be playing lots of "Christian" music.

the verdict is in: I don't like Christian music

do I have your attention now? I don't mean for half of these posts to sound as derogatory as they end up sounding, but oh well--I think most of you get my point (which is the benefit of only people who know you well reading your blog).

So I was importing some CDs into my new Mac (sorry, I had to get one more plug in for the new toy). I am mostly just putting worship-esque stuff on this laptop, since my entire 3,000 song library is on my Dell, and there's really no use in taking up just as much room on this computer too. So I am listening to each of these CDs as they are scanning, and I come to a conclusion: I really don't like Christian music that much. Let me explain.

First of all, I just don't like the idea of "Christian" or "Gospel" as a genre. I think it's kind of ridiculous. When I look on MySpace, I see bands classified as "Christian/Pop/Rock." This seems strange for me. It's strange because Dave Matthews isn't labeled "Political/Pop/Rock." And Bob Marley isn't labeled "Love/Reggae/Marijuana." And Kenny Chesney isn't labled "Childhood Memories/College Good Times/Country." Am I making any sense? It just seems like mentioning God in songs should only be a natural outgrowth of a Christian writer/performer, not a classification of his or her music. Keep in mind what I'm talking about here is the music that talks about God, rather than simply praise songs meant for corporate worship.

It's not so much that I hate the music. It's more that if I'm just riding around listening to music, I generally won't choose Chris Tomlin, or something of the like. I just think that sometimes music that is labeled "Christian" can be fairly un-Christian in the sense that it doesn't reflect any of the creativity instilled by God in the artist who created it. I say this because I recently heard someone say, in so few words, that the "Christian" music market was wonderful because it is appealing to a bigger and bigger audience, all it takes is "limited musical ability." Anyone can be a "Christian" artist.

I enjoy the fact that many artists are bucking this trend. David Crowder Band, for instance, keeps their songs very accessible while integrating technology into them. Bands like The Glorious Unseen and Jeremy Riddle are showing that you can be "Christian," "Secular," accessible and innovative all at the same time. Amen.

it has arrived

well, my massive audience out there on the world wide web will be pleased to know that this is the inaugural post on the new MacBook.  This is how the delivery happened (dramatics have been added to enhance your experience):

7:56 a.m.: I awaken only to realize that my alarm set for 6:45 (in time to make it to my 8 a.m. class) never went off.  And considering it takes 10 minutes to drive to campus followed by 5 minutes to walk to the Coliseum, I started to do the math (not a pretty sight at 7:57 in the morning).  My calculations had me walking into class at 8:14--not too bad.  Then I remembered what that professor had said about showing up late.  I think it went something like this:

 

"If you're gonna be more than five or ten minutes late, just don't bother."

So I didn't.

8:01 a.m.: I start trying to go back to sleep.

8:09 a.m.: I stop trying to go back to sleep.  Useless.  Special thanks goes out to the Three Guys Lawn Service who have deemed it necessary to cut the grass at our apartment 3 times a week, starting each day just before the crack of dawn, and finishing up around 9 a.m.  

8:10 a.m.: I track my shipment online (this has been a frequent event over the past week).  Good news!  My package arrived in Columbia at 2:57 this morning, and is now "on vehicle for delivery."

8:13 a.m.: Not quite willing to give up on additional sleep or on being awake when my computer arrives, I bring my comforter into the living room and collapse onto the couch.

9:52 a.m.:  I must have fallen asleep.  A loud knock at the door.  My heart begins to pound with the same strength as the knock at the door.  Okay, that was a little much.  Sorry.  

I open the door.  There stands a parcel worker, complete in winter attire.  She drops my package on the ground.  I repeat: she DROPS my COMPUTER on the ground.  I get a little sick to my stomach.  

"How ya doin'?" she says.

"I was better when you were holding that package instead of dropping it."  Okay, so I didn't really say that.  But I thunk it.  I don't wanna badmouth this particular company, so we'll just call them "EdFex."

9:52:56 a.m.: I open the box.  Never to fear--no damage.  

10:32 a.m.: After installing a new operating system and sixteen updates, my machine is ready to go.  (I've just recently learned that most Mac people say "machines" instead of "computers."  

Long story short (or at least after I gave you the long version), this thing is awesome.  It's just so daggum easy to use (can I say daggum on a blog?).  I know that sounds strange coming from a college student who is supposed to know all about these things, but they just make it easy.  Stuff like telling you every time there's an update, not just on your operating system or main components, but on all your programs.  And other little things, like the power cord being magnetic so it doesn't mess anything up if someone steps on it.  Or having a battery with a battery life longer than 30 minutes, which has been my experience with some other laptops.  It's just really personal, which (I guess) is what I was going for.

So anyway, if you are thinking about buying one, I say go for it.  Tell them Kent sent you (yeah--I'm sure that'll do you a lot of good.)  And if you really wanna keep up with the times, get the new MacBook Air which, of course, came out the day after I bought mine.  Check it out:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=GBCfW9-hjKI

Or you can go to my cooler blog, and watch it.  The song in the ad, by the way is a girl named Regina Spektor (spelling??), and if you haven't checked out her music, you need to.

i've got the golden ticket

wow. charlie and the chocolate factory. good movie. good movie indeed. but if you're wondering, that's not what this post is about. me and a couple friends, through visits to some pretty "conservative" (this is one of those labels that I really don't think even has a logical meaning any more), have heard plenty of what we like to call "golden ticket" theology. I don't mean for this post to be denouncing anyone who subscribes to this kind of thinking, and to a certain degree I think most all christians adhere to this. what I want to call attention to is the importance of it only being a PART of our faith, as opposed to all of it.

the "golden ticket" belief basically stresses that the goal of becoming a Christian is to obtain a way off of this earth, into heaven (hence, "golden ticket.") this is important. our belief in heaven and in our eternal life there is vital to our faith. the problem i think, though, is when this becomes our only goal in being a follower of Christ. This is how I heard it put about a week ago, by a youth pastor:

"this is a nasty, liberal world. and as Christians the only place we can find hope is in knowing that one day this world will be destroyed and we will go to heaven to be with God."

While this strikes me as somewhat true, telling half the truth is still telling a lie in a lot of ways. I think perhaps a better assessment would be:

"there are ugly things happening in this world, because of us. It's not God's fault. The world, as he made it, was good. He said so. all of the nastiness, the brokenness, happens not because of God, but because of a decision Adam made, which is the same decision we continue to make, trying to 'one-up' God. our only hope is Christ. we can look forward to the day when suffering is over, and we are at peace with God, but until then we have some responsibilities. we should be doing everything in our power to see God's kingdom come 'on earth, as it is in heaven.' not just idly waiting for the day when we get to see it in heaven. that idleness accomplishes absolutely nothing except contributing to the nastiness that we are so very opposed to as Christians."

for all I know, the youth pastor I heard, could have meant the latter, but only had time to say the former. the "nasty, liberal" thing just didn't strike me as all that Christ-like, that's all. To me, it just seems like when you read all the accounts of Jesus' teaching, you find a lot less about going to heaven to be with God than you do about bringing the kingdom of God, to earth. (hint: kingdom of God is related to heaven, but "kingdom of God" and "heaven" meaning a place believers go after the die, are not the same thing.) let me try to paint a picture of just why this "golden ticket" idea, by itself, seems so screwed up to me.

meet Jim Bob. Jim Bob has just bought a one-way plane ticket to Jamaica. He's never coming back. He has just retired and he's going to live in Jamaica forever. He can't wait. While he sits in the boarding area, with all the big windows watching airplanes outside, an officer alerts Jim Bob that everyone outside in the landing/take-off area is being overcome with a deadly virus, a virus which Jim Bob has already had, is immune to, and can make others immune to simply by shaking their hand. Jim Bob, though, acknowledges the officer and remains in his chair, watching people die outside, where his plane will be landing. because, after all, he wouldn't want to miss that plane.

I realize that's a little morbid, but essentially that's the kind of behavior that exclusively "golden ticket" kind of thinking draws you to.

I once heard it put this way: if people continue to drown in the river, we can go downstream and pull all the people out, but that's not change. that's not justice. justice is when one of us says "I'm gonna go upstream and figure who's throwing everybody in the river."

welcome back, welcome back, welcome back

isn't it weird how certain songs (especially theme songs) enter your head at the most random times? even though most people my age probably have no clue why i said that, those of the slightly older generation hopefully know exactly what I mean. and I know what those people are thinking: "Kent, there's no way you're old enough to have watched Welcome Back Kotter." well thanks to the modern day time machine that is Nick at Nite, I have seen virtually every episode of Kotter, and will gladly take on any of you in Kotter trivia, so up your nose with a rubber hose!

(a very confused 20 year old would also like to ask the brains behind Nick at Nite about the sudden promotion of shows like Home Improvement and Fresh Prince of Bel-Air to classic status, while nearly an entire decade of much better quality television, namely The Cosby Show and Saved by the Bell seem to have been skipped. I am not happy about this decision and will fight to the death in order to see Zach and Slater grace the screen once again.)

Anyway, since I already told all you faithful readers about my favorite thing about Christmas (see previous two posts), I figured I would use this one to tell you about some of the "stuff" I got, which is much less important, but still exciting. so here goes:

• MacBook laptop. okay, so I don't technically have this one yet, but I got some money for a start towards it, and hopefully it will be in my hands in the next week or two. around the same time, I will return to a regular diet of ramen noodles and grilled cheeses, and go on dates with said laptop, instead of with girls, because the macbook will, in comparison, be already paid for. (all of these events occuring immediately after buying a laptop out of pocket is a complete coincidence, of course.) hey, why not do stupid stuff while you're still in college and have an excuse for being stupid, right??
• Everything Must Change. Brian McLaren, in this semi-sequel to The Secret Message of Jesus, writes about how the message of the kingdom of God can, in many ways, provide real solutions to fighting the world's major problems of hunger, prosperity gaps, and war--stuff like that. not light reading to say the least. I'm almost done with it, and if you want a book to make you feel really uneasy yet really motivated at the same time, I say go for it. seriously.
• Wide Open Spaces and Divine Nobodies. These are both by Jim Palmer. I haven't really dug into them that much yet, but I'm sure, if you're a regular reader here, you will hear about them in the near future. the cover illustrations look real pretty though.
• Royal Dansk Danish Butter Cookies. I think I got 5 cans total, and they're pretty much all gone. these can light up my Christmas more than a hundred dollar bill. (okay, maybe a fifty. or a twenty, or...)
• Barnes & Noble Gift Cards. Talk about a gift that keeps on giving.

Anyway, I'm headed to bed. feel free to post about anything you got. if you sincerely are bored enough to read through my entire list, I feel like I owe you at least a listen.

christmas part 2

salvation. in a lot of ways, to me, the books of Moses seem to capture people drifting away from God, and then God finding a way to bring them back. God uses several key people to do this. to me, this attitude God has of consistently pulling us out of our own mess is most accurately called "salvation." God also spends a lot of time in the Old Testament telling His people to stop trying to tame him. I love the line from Lewis's "Chronicles of Narnia," where the people are talking about the lion (who is meant to symbolize Jesus), and they say he is very good, but most definitely not safe.

rescue is coming. fast forward a little bit. in Isaiah, there is talk of a king who is coming to make things right again. at the time, though, the people are expecting a political king, a descendant of David, who will make things right the way all kings attempt to--by force and power. man, did they have a Surprise coming their way. God realizes that the only way he's gonna rescue His people out of their mess is to come down and become one of them.

a baby-seriously? so the night came. and let's get one thing straight. when people thought about the Messiah, they weren't thinking about a baby. yes, Isaiah did say that the Messiah would be born of a virgin (meaning he would have to be a baby), but when you think of a political leader, the first image that comes to mind probably isn't of a baby. my guess is they figured he would live a normal life, up until he was ready to become king, and then everything would start falling into place. maybe they thought he would just be a pretty normal guy, just born with a real gift for overthrowing stuff when he got older or something.

anyway, the time approaches, and i've got to think that if you were living back then, the story didn't really seem to play out the way you thought it would. i mean angels came and spoke to people, but they didn't really address a large audience of people. if you were outside of the loop of Mary, Joseph, and a select few others, you've gotta be thinking "this can't be. it should be more impressive than this." i mean for starters, for all you know, the mother who is carrying this "Messiah" seems like she is nothing more than an unfaithful fiance, right? Joseph was inches from leaving her because that's what he thought. then, the already off-kilter plan for Mary to give birth is thwarted when she, a very pregnant woman, has to hop onto a donkey and trek across miles and miles because of a census being taken. this has to look, from the outside, like the worst timing ever for having a baby. and to top it all off, he is born in a place where animals live, sleep, and poop. i mean i've met a lot of people who say they come from "humble beginnings," but I can think of about a million places I would rather my son be born than in a stable.

why. you've gotta think that there was a reason for all this irony though. i mean, if Jesus was born in a palace surrounded by gold and people catering to His every cry, there would be people all around saying, "well yeah, of course people love Him, he's rich." in order for the rescue to happen properly, God wanted to enter the world in the humblest possible position. so the whole least being the greatest concept held true from the very beginning. awesome. you know you've got to admit, even if you don't believe all or any of the Bible, you have to admit it's a pretty well put together story. i mean this story is simply loaded with metaphors, foreshadowing, all that good stuff I never paid attention to in school.

above and beyond. so God starts by living the perfect life as a human that Adam and Eve failed to do (rescue from sin). then He takes the beating and crucifixion that we deserve for our sin (rescue from death). and as if that just simply wasn't enough, he comes back to life (what I call rescue from the permanance of death). God has a lot of names, but sometimes I like to give him one of my own: the Persevering King. if there's ever an example of someone who refused to give up, it's God.

i realize none of this is new information to most of you, but I just really enjoy writing about it. I love the bibles that say on their cover, "the story of God." and maybe that's why I love writing about it, because I wish I could have written a story that good.

(CUE ORCHESTRA, OR CHEESY CHRISTMAS MUSIC, WHICHEVER YOU LIKE)

so whatever you do today, whether it be last-minute shopping, spending time with family, or singing carols, remember the awesomeness of the beautiful story of God.

the obligatory Christmas post

just kidding. i wanted to do this just because i wanted to tell everybody (or anybody bored enough to read this here blog during Christmas time) my favorite part about Christmas. this comes right before Royal Dansk cookies on the list of favorite Christmas things. if you're martha, cliff, rhett, jeanne, or blake, you'll understand that; if not, try harder to be on the inside loop with the cool people next time.

don't get me wrong. i absolutely love the story of the birth of Jesus. it's awesome. but what i love more is the bigger story that it fits into. the story of a persistent God. a God who refused to let His people mess His story up. a God so loving that he would go through trial after trial to ensure that we had a way to get back to Him, despite us screwing up many many times. to me, this story has several "layers," or "chapters" or something like that. i'm gonna try to capture each one, and maybe give a really snazzy name to all of them. and after listening to the new live hillsong united album, i'm gonna try to find lyrics that capture some of them. also, i think i'm gonna make this my first multi-part blog, just because i promised i was gonna start doing shorter posts, and i don't wanna lie to my millions of faithful readers. anyway, here we go.

the beginning. God makes everything. and man, did he set it up perfect. man had no reason not to be tight with God. he got to be in constant communication with his Father, and his Father had set it up so that there wouldn't be any pain, any problems. anyway, when he set them there in the garden, God provided at least two trees for them to eat from, the Tree of Life, and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. now, personally, given the choice between those two, i would choose the first one, just because it sounds prettier. i don't know how Adam and Eve felt about it, but they are eventually talked into eating from the other one after a serpent talks them into it. i think it's really interesting that the first sin ever committed had to do with pursuing wisdom. Adam and Eve really thought that they could be smarter if they ate from that tree. they could eat from a tree that would give them life, or a tree that would make them smarter and dead, and they chose the second one. that remind You of anything? i don't think we (myself included) are much different today. we pursue all kinds of things to make us smarter, richer, and happier, a million times before we take the life that God holds out for us. when God says, "who told you you were naked?", i used to think he was really mad, just screaming at the two who had just forsaken Him. but when I read the story closer, i wonder if He wasn't simply heartbroken. i wonder if the look in His eyes wasn't more like the look of a spouse who has just realized the other cheated on them. and i wonder if he doesn't have that look in His eyes every time we cheat on Him.

further and further away. so that's when things kinda started going sour. another way i used to think about this story is that God was mad, and that's why he left and disconnected Himself from Adam and Eve. and the truth is he was mad at times. but the Bible tells us that God cannot be in the presence of sin, or, maybe more appropriately, sin cannot be in the presence of God. so I wonder that moment wasn't more like that same heartbroken father leaving his children after a divorce, getting on his plane to leave while reaching his arms out and saying "I wish I could stay, I really do wish I could stay, but I can't. But you can talk to me whenever you want to. all you have to do is call, and i'll be there. i really really wanna help you through this minefield that is your life, and i will, but i just can't be right beside you all the time now." God tried his best, through providing prayer, to allow the people who screwed up His relationship with them to still communicate with Him.

okay, i've been waiting for this moment ever since blog day 1...

. . . to be continued . . . .

relevant pt. deux

so to no surprise, my slack attitude at cramming all my thoughts on one subject resulted in me very ambiguously commenting on the subject of relevance.

wow. that sentence should be in an english paper of mine sometime.

but i think i have come up with a clearer way of saying what i meant to say the first time around. when it comes to church, i don't think there is anything wrong with using ideas from other parts of culture. using video, cool projection stuff, mainstream music (i don't really like the idea of there even being "christian" music as opposed to "mainstream" music), different kinds of instruments, and using culturally-savvy illustrations during a sermon--those kind of things. especially me being someone who gets to help lead worship sometimes, i love technology and think it can definitely enhance at times, and distract at others. the kicker though, i think is this:

what happens when you strip all that stuff away? imagine for a second that you showed up at church one sunday, and the band wasn't there. it was one guy, with an acoustic guitar (or piano, for you pianists). the projector/projector screen is broke. no words. so needless, to say, the cool video you had planned is a goner. the pastor has forgotten his notes. he can't remember any of his cool analogies or bullet points, and is just gonna have to shoot from the hip. all the fluff of sunday is gone. is it still the same message? is the message you hope to convey every sunday that of "being a culturally relevant church/christian" or is it the importance of following Christ both when it seems relevant and convenient and when it's unpopular and inconvenient?

i just think too often when we are trying to be relevant, we end up doing what any other organization does when they try to be relevant, which is to package their product up in the most attractive way possible, and then put it out there, hoping people will consume it. and when church turns into the staff producing and the congregation consuming, it's not what God designed the church to be.

derek webb says it this way:

"the Truth is never sexy
so it's not an easy sell
you can dress Her like the culture
She'll shock 'em just the same"

i love the story behind the song "Heart of Worship." at worship leader matt redman's church, the pastor decided that their church had turned into just that: the congregation were becoming consumers as a result of them and the band both pursuing better and newer forms of worship music. so he stripped it all away. he took away the band and the sound system, and for several months, worship was just the congregations' voices. and at first it led to really awkward silence. but after a while, the people got it. we as followers are meant to be producers, not consumers. we are meant to bring everything we can do offer to God, to glorify Him--not to go to church and find what we can fit into our life, what is relevant to us, and then leave the rest there at church, because it doesn't fit.

so there. i guess if you're doing all that stuff, and you can be relevant all the time, go for it. anyway, it's more christmas shopping for me today. talk about trying to be relevant...

being relevant, being wordly

i had the opportunity of weighing in on a conversation about relevance the other day. relevance is an interesting thing, especially when it comes to being a christian. after the conversation, i was intrigued, so i journaled a little bit. here's what i came up with:

relevance is a pretty complex term. according to webster's, relevance is "bearing upon or connected with the matter in hand; pertinent." in this way, i guess i can't argue that christians and the church should be relevant. given that the "matter in hand" is God (and i sincerely hope it is), i guess there's no way around the idea that the church should be relevant.

yet whenever i hear a church calling themselves "relevant," i flinch a little bit. part of it i think is simply because i don't like the idea of marketing in church. it just seems out of place to me. it makes me feel like we're selling a product and we want people to come hear about our product. i guess it just seems like if we're marketing one church we should market all churches, since they're all striving for the same thing (or should be). what makes this person or this church "relevant," compared to that one over there?

but beyond that, maybe it's not relevance that bothers me. i think it's more the pursuit of relevance. kinda like in a lot of ways the bible separates "wisdom" from the "pursuit of wisdom"? i don't exactly know what i'm getting at here. i guess i just feel like saying we are relevant followers of Christ should be like saying the same thing twice. maybe the thing is that relevance is an effect, rather than a cause. yeah, that's it. maybe.

like shouldn't we be seen as relevant because we preach the truth of the gospel, and not try to be relevant so that we can reach people with the gospel? i think that might be what i'm trying to say. i think if we pursue relevance, it's gonna continue to blow up in our face every time. the world is filled with person after company after organization, all trying to be relevant, all just trying to keep up with the times. to me saying that i'm a relevant christian sounds like i'm saying, "well, i want to share with you an idea that isn't all that cool. the Bible I'm reading from isn't all that hip. so, instead, I'm gonna try my best to appeal to you. then, maybe you'll hear me out."

the mere fact that the Bible is still around tells me that it's been relevant for quite a while (not to mention it's breathed by God himself). i think if we pursue a book that is as relevant to generation after generation like it is, and pursue the things that it tells us are worth pursuing, it'd be awfully hard for relevance not to be a result. right?

leadership = discipleship?

i wanna throw something out there. its something i feel like i am somewhat in the dark about, so maybe someone reading will know more about it.

i look around online a lot for Christian books. and the more i look around lately, i begin to see a ridiculous amount of books on leadership. in fact, one website i was on the other day had their best seller list up, and 9 out of 10 of them were on leadership. and i am constantly hearing about churches having many different kinds of "leadership conferences." now i like the idea of leadership. romans even mentions leadership as being a spiritual gift of sorts. but has leadership become the "new discipleship"? i even heard a podcast the other day saying that in order to be a good disciple, you have to first be a good leader. this seemed kind of erroneous to me, seeing as how a big part of being a disciple is following. so you need to be able to lead so that you can follow??

and that's kind of the vibe i get from all these books and conferences i see everywhere: that leadership is just as important as (if not more important than) discipleship when it comes to being a follower.

am i missing something here?

glorious unseen

okay so this is the my last effort at procrastinating studying for exams, but y'all have got to hear this guy's music.

His name is Ben Crist and he's a worship leader from Nashville. His group is called the Glorious Unseen, and he's blown me away. If you're like me in that you enjoy worship music, but you get kind of bored with it sometimes, check them out. Go to myspace.com/thegloriousunseen and listen to the player with his songs in it, especially Hear Our Prayers and Forever Holy.

He's awesome.

Ha! short post number two. I'm loving this.

change

so here's the deal. I'm gonna start having some shorter posts. I was looking at my blog yesterday and realized that I have a tendency to really write too much.

Like, WAY too much. So there will still be some of that, but probably less.

Anyway, in other news, I changed my major. It was the result of a lot of prayer on my part and other people's parts (thanks to those guys and gals by the way), and a book I was reading-thanks to Cliff. A lot of you have probably heard of "In a Pit With a Lion..." I was refusing to climb in the pit because of what it might mean, and finally I just sucked it up and jumped in. And I'm winning, I think. Or maybe the lion just hasn't stepped it up and started fighting full force yet. Regardless, it helps that I feel like this was the pit God wanted me to jump in.

Also, I saw Derek Webb in concert last night. If any of you get the chance to go see him, I would do it. Don't go thinking you're gonna get your normal every day Christian music though. Don't get me wrong, I like that stuff too, but Derek Webb just isn't that. He says it this way:

"There's a lot of Christian music out there about the two percent of Christianity--those transcendent moments, those worshipful moments. There isn't a whole lot about the other 98 percent though. Songs about family, struggle, social issues, politics. I just wanna call attention to the other 98 percent sometimes."p

The other thing you need to know about Derek Webb: he's honest. And doesn't exactly hold back words. If you're looking for conservative, you probably shouldn't go. Which is cool, because from what I can tell, a guy named Jesus wasn't all that conservative either.

This is already too long. Sorry, I'll keep trying.

life-disrupting

Alright so this is something I almost posted at like 4 a.m. this morning because that's how late I was awake thinking about it, but I insisted on getting at least a little sleep, so now I'm at work blogging. I am "proforming data" as I speak, which basically means that every 10 minutes or so I click a button and let the thing run while I spend time blogging--pretty cool huh? One of those things I almost feel bad getting paid to do, but it's all he asked me to do, and I've already done all the possible straightening up around the office I can do, so that leaves me here with you, blogging. Man, I may have to join a bloggers anonymous class or something. This is pitiful. Do they have those?

So last night I was EXTREMELY tired. We have FCA on Tuesday nights, and very similarly to the way things are at Freedom back home, we load and unload tons of sound equipment for a full band set-up every Tuesday night. Also like Freedom, we've finally gotten pretty efficient at it--well, at least when everything goes smoothly. Last night was the opposite of smoothly. The group that uses the theater before us got out late, so we had about 30 minutes less than normal, our drummer didn't show up, and then after FCA, two of the five guys who usually do set-up/take-down with us had to leave immediately for school reasons, leaving us three to load back up all the sound equipment. Suffice it to say, when I finally got back to my apartment at midnight, I was worn slam out. I spent a lot of time on the way home and when I got home thinking about normal self-centered Kent things. Like how much more time I used to have before I was doing FCA and things of the like. I started thinking about how life-disrupting giving my time was. I am making it sound more selfish than it actually seemed at the time for a reason, but that's basically what I was saying. Giving time to God was disrupting my life.

So I get to my quiet time before I go to bed, and in my quiet time, I'm making my way through two books: Nehemiah and Matthew. I actually read very little at a time because this time around, I'm doing my research and trying to really get at the real meaning of these passages. Last night my reading put me at the Rich Young Ruler story in Matthew (starting at 19:16). This guy wants to be saved, so Jesus tells him to obey the commandments (I almost think this is Jesus' way of poking fun at the rulers' and lawmakers' ideas of that time, that following Him mainly just consisted of following rules, but anyway). Then he says he is already living by the commandments. At this point, I see Jesus stopping in his tracks and turning around thinking, 'okay, you have my attention.' Maybe Jesus is interested that someone, for once, understands there is more to it than following commandments. So Jesus gives it to him straight: "Sell your possessions, give to the poor, and follow me." And that's where it ends. The rich young ruler realizes that following Jesus is not just gonna be another event in his life, but instead is gonna be life-disrupting.

But to be honest, that idea didn't occur to me while reading the passage (I guess I'm just thick-brained.) But as I was going to sleep, I had iTunes on random shuffle (what I usually do as I go to sleep), and the second song to play was Derek Webb's "Rich Young Ruler." At this point even my thick-brained self says "Okay God, You have my attention. Really." So I listen:

We’re all living so good
that we moved out of Jesus’ neighborhood
where he’s hungry and not feeling so good
from going through our trash
He says, more than just your cash and coin
I want your time, I want your voice
I want the things you just can’t give me

Yeah, Derek doesn't exactly hold back words. These words, combined with the passage I had read earlier hit me like a brick in the face. A brick that said: "Following me is supposed to be life disrupting, Kent." This marked the beginning of a sleepless night. I started thinking about all the things on my plate: school, family, friends, writing music, FCA, my life group, and the ten million other things I try to do all at once. That's when I realized where I have gone wrong: God was just another thing on my plate. And when I say this, I am actually thinking of a literal plate. In my mind, I'm staring at a meat & four plate from Rock's (mmmm) and seeing my life in it. The mac & cheese is probably my music, because it's the vegggie that feels the best going down. Hanging out with my friends is probably most like fried okra, because there's some good in it, deep down at the core, but a lot of times I feel like I have to get through the batter (which is not so good for me) to get to the important stuff. School is probably most like broccoli. Okay, so I really don't eat broccoli, but if I did it would be like school. I absolutely despise eating it, but I know I need it--that kind of thing. FCA is good, but I think half of what makes it so good is that I get to help lead worship while doing it, and that's not good that I feel that way, but it's true sometimes. So FCA I guess is kinda like mashed potatoes: I love it, but only when that delicious brown gravy is on top. And I'm not saying this to brag at all, but right now I feel like God is the meat. He's the country-fried steak. And now that I think of it, there's probably an analogy there too. I'm not a huge steak guy. It's gotta have some special sauce or be prepared a different kind of way in order for me to enjoy it. And sometimes I think I do that to God. He has everything to offer me, but I have to receive Him a certain way in order to get what I want from him. Once again, a really selfish way of looking at it, but I do it sometimes.

If you wanna take a break and go eat lunch/dinner now that I went through all that, feel free. I'll wait here.

Okay, glad you came back. I'm almost done, I promise. So I say all of that to say this: the problem is when we look at God like he's just another item on our plate. Whether he is the largest item or the smallest that we don't quite get to because we're already full, He's still just an item. You see this when people try to make Jesus an advocate of them climbing the corporate ladder, or an supporter of their political view, or an admirer of their parenting style, or a champion of their American dream. The truth is, he's not. He doesn't want to compliment your life, he wants your life. He wants you to lay down your life, and follow him. How many times does Jesus say something to that effect in the bible? I was gonna go through and count them to prove my point, but I got tired of counting. It's a lot of times, trust me. Very few people in the bible just added God to their plate. Most of them, I would even say, let God disrupt, or straight up ruin, their life.

I think the truth is Jesus doesn't want to be something you simply add to your plate in hopes it will improve your life. Instead of putting him on our plate, I think he wants to be the one we give our plate to, saying, "here's my life Lord, use it. Rearrange everything on it, take things off of it, add things to it, make it healthier, use it to feed the poor, or, if you want, knock everything off of it like you knocked over the tables in the temple. Be my Life-Disrupter."

why God is like music (at least to me)

Those of you that know me are probably thinking "you would post about this." But I think I have something here. Or at least it makes sense to me, so feel free to stop reading at any time if it just becomes a bunch of jumble to you.

I am a huge fan of most any kind of music. I have my own opinions about certain kinds of country and rap, but I'll save that for another day. But perhaps even more than I like listening to music, I love playing music. There's just something about creating something that makes you feel a certain way that I love. My friends and I were talking about it, and I don't know if I would be the same person without music. I love listening to music when I'm happy, upset, pumped up, alone, with friends, ticked off, or just whenever. I have everything from Chris Tomlin to Slipknot in my CD collection, something for every mood. Wow, I just thought about Slipknot opening up for Chris Tomlin in concert. Quite a thought. ANYWAY--

There is one thing I've realized about playing music AND listening to it in that the more I know about the theory behind it, the less I like it. And by theory I don't mean the message they are trying to convey. I mean music theory. This is the reason I didn't major in music. I completely despise learning anything about music theory, and that may be the very reason my music never goes anywhere, but I just don't. I dislike it so much that I nearly quit taking guitar lessons in middle school because of everything I had to learn in band class to play the trumpet. I remember thinking "it can't be this complex and uninteresting." It's just not something I enjoy. To me, knowing every note you are playing and why you are playing it and in what octave you are playing it takes all of the feeling out of what you were doing. It's like you're taking something creative and beautiful and turning it into a science or a math. And I say that with all due respect. I love science and math--probably two of my favorite subjects, but they are very different than music for me.

Sometimes that's the way I feel about God. It's great to connect with God on a number of different levels, and if one of them happens to be intellectually, that is great. But to me it is not only impossible but exhausting to put reason to everything God is and does. And I get really tired of people who try to do this. I feel this way when I watch Christians on TV try to argue their beliefs with someone who believes in evolution or another similar theory. To me, the beautiful difference between God and science (which by the way, aren't meant to be in opposition to each other like they often are): the beauty is that in order to believe in something to do with science you need proof. You need a question, research, a hypothesis, experiment, analysis, and a conclusion (see, told you I listened in science class). With God, however, you just need faith. That's it. And the definition of faith, according to Webster's, is "belief without absolute proof." So when I see people on TV trying essentially to prove God the same way their opposition is trying to prove science, it really makes me wonder if they're missing the point.

Rob Bell makes an interesting point in "Velvet Elvis." He says this:

"What if tomorrow someone digs up definitive proof that Jesus had a real, earthly, biological father named Larry, and archeologists find Larry’s tomb and do DNA samples and prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the virgin birth was really just a bit of mythologizing the Gospel writers threw in to appeal to the followers of the Mithra and Dionysian religious cults that were hugely popular at the time of Jesus, whose gods had virgin births? But what if, as you study the origin of the word ‘virgin’ you discover that the word ‘virgin’ in the gospel of Matthew actually comes from the book of Isaiah, and then you find out that in the Hebrew language at that time, the word ‘virgin’ could mean several things. And what if you discover that in the first century being ‘born of a virgin’ also referred to a child whose mother became pregnant the first time she had intercourse? What if that spring were seriously questioned? Could a person keep on jumping? Could a person still love God? Could you still be a Christian? Is the way of Jesus still the best possible way to live? Or does the whole thing fall apart?…If the whole faith falls apart when we reexamine and rethink one spring, then it wasn’t that strong in the first place, was it?”

Now I realize this statement is very unorthodox and probably was intended to stir up some controversy (because Rob Bell enjoys doing that), but I think he is essentially saying this: do you believe in God because you have faith in God, or do you believe in God because you believe in a list of facts and statements, all of which in one way or another, "prove" God? Bell makes the statement later in the chapter that this situation hasn't occurred and will never occur, but maintains that we shouldn't believe in God like we believe in science. Science is only as strong as it's weakest opposing argument. Is that really what we want our faith to be like?

Anyway, back to the point. I'm basically just trying to say that if we are obsessed with understanding God like we understand things of this world, we will fail every time. I just really get the feeling that God is so far out of our league as far as intellect goes, that taking him and finding a nice neat box that we can put him in would be a lot like listening to the best jazz music you've ever heard (I guess if you don't like jazz, this analogy won't work), and going up to the saxophonist who taught himself to play by ear and saying "I really loved that music tonight. Can you please write it out for me?" More often than not, a jazz musician would look at you like you were just plain stupid. I get the feeling this is kinda how God felt when he was dealing with Job. Long story short, some really crappy stuff happens to Job. And when I say crappy, I mean like completely horrible stuff. Anyway, Job goes on this extremely lengthy rant, some of it he complains, some of it he questions God, and some of it--get this--he tries to put reason to why God has let these things happen to him and why God behaves the way he does. After this, God has straight up had it with Job. And I think no matter what translation you read of this passage, it's pretty obvious that God is pretty flippin' irritated with Job, and goes on his own rant:

"Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man; I will question you and you will answer me. Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone"

(God goes on like this for quite a while). So what is he trying to say? Essentially, I think he's telling Job this: "Don't try to put me in your box. I won't fit. My ways are higher than your ways, and you will never understand why I do some things, so stop trying."

And here's the other thing, God is way too beautiful to be trimmed down to a list of beliefs and rules, like we tend to do a lot of times. I find it interesting how every passage in the bible, no matter what its content or length, can always be slimmed down to exactly three bullet points in a sermon. I think the bible was meant to be a lot more poetic and artistic than that. There are times in Exodus and other parts of the bible where the authors run out of ways to write about God in prose, so they just bust right into poetry. Jesus spoke in parables and metaphors a great majority of the time, as did many of the apostles. All this makes me think that God intended for his Word to be a lot more than a "How to Comprehend God" manual.

So I think this post is getting pretty lengthy. In short, my advice from personal experience would be this: don't try to constantly understand God, because you're not gonna be able to. And it's kind of like music--if you ever did find a way to understand him all the time, you probably wouldn't like it as much.