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.