In Case You Had Not Noticed...

The Twenty Five Days of Christmas died. I had written more than half of my posts in advance, but I planned to write the other half as I went. But, finishing my degree at Criswell, and my brother returning home unexpectedly, combined to prevent me from being able to finish. So, next Christmas I will resume this chain of posts, and finish them this time.

Twenty Five Days of Christmas (4)

This article is actually somewhat of a sell for one of the future articles, because I am going to revisit the theological implications of this event later in the month. So, what was this event? The Christmas Truce in 1914.

Pope Benedict XV had urged for the warring nations to make peace for Christmas, but was refused (officially). However, there were widespread truces across the Western Front--the soldiers battling simply refused to fight each other. About one hundred thousand soldiers participated.

This story is well known, and frequently recounted in Christian circles about the power of Christmas. But, for the believer, this type of behavior should not just be restricted to one day of the year. To hear more, keep visiting, as I will deal with more issues, and get deeper in-depth as we get deeper into the month!

Twenty Five Days of Christmas (3)

It appears that the Christmas tree was first used at Christmas time in the mid 1400s. By the middle of the 16th century, there were several German churches that displayed Christmas trees, and by the 17th century, they were gaining widespread appeal. By the 19th century, the custom had spread across Europe, even going as far as Russia.

Why is the Christmas tree displayed at Christmas? Well, as with the Christmas lights, there are multiple reasons, none of them conclusive. The first, is that as an evergreen, the tree shows the continuation of life, or as a twist on that one: the tree shows the undying nature of God's love. Another suggestion is that the three corners of the tree represent the three persons of the Trinity. The final suggestion is that it was simply done because of the beauty and freshness of the tree, to cheer a house in the dead of winter.

Twenty Five Days of Christmas

This is one of my favorite Christmas carols. I think it captures the sense of anticipation among Israel while waiting for a savior. In addition, it is simply a beautiful melody. While you listen, consider what it must have felt like to be in bondage, but looking forward to a Hope.

Twenty Five Days of Christmas (2)

Christmas Lights

Why do we hang Christmas lights every year? I mean, I always get the warm and fuzzies when staring at a well lit house at Christmas--it is actually one of my favorite things to do during the Christmas season. But why do we do that?

The short answer to that is that we don't know. There are multiple theories: the fir tree was a sign of God; or, the lights were simply to light up gloomy houses; or, the lights were so that St. Nicholas could see his way into the house. But, all of these are just theories.

What we do know is that the tradition started in the 17th century, and was firmly taking grasp within a hundred years. At that time, the Christmas tree would be lit by candles. Around 1890 is when candleholders were first used to attach the candles to the tree (before this, they were melted onto the tree). The first building to be lit entirely by electricity was the Savoy Theatre in London in 1881. The first electrically lit Christmas was owned by Edward Johnson in 1882--he was Vice-President of the Edison Electric Light Company, so the newspapers ignored it, thinking it was a publicity stunt. After President Cleveland sponsored an electrically lit Christmas tree in 1895, Christmas lights started sweeping the nation, and by 1930, the lights had become affordable for most people. Over this time, they had slowly started being used to decorate more areas as the price dropped, leading to what we see today, such as this truck. Merry Christmas!

Twenty Five Days of Christmas

Merry Christmas! I know, it is not Christmas yet, but it is the First of December, which often signals the start of the Christmas season for many people (those who don’t start it the day after Thanksgiving). I love Christmas, it is my favorite season of year. And because of that, I am starting the Twenty Five Days of Christmas. Each day, I will put up a short blog on a topic that is related to Christmas. I will start with a few modern things, such as, “Why do we put up Christmas lights?” But as Christmas Day draws closer, I will shift into more serious discussion on some of the background of the world that Jesus was born into, and then some of the specific imagery that is used in the Birth Narratives. So, Merry Christmas, and I hope you enjoy the next few weeks.

The Rule of Law and the Role of Faith

            I recently read about an interview in which Herman Cain (candidate for President) said that communities could ban mosques from being constructed. I posted it on my Facebook, expecting everyone to realize that Cain was not a good candidate. However, there was a very vocal minority who agreed with him. As I read the comments on another article on this story (you can read the article and the comments here), I realized that the belief that we should be allowed to prevent mosques from building in our community is actually fairly widely held. I believe that position should be untenable by both Americans at-large, and by Christians.

            The Rule of Law

           

America is built upon the foundation of the rule of law. This is what we see as separating us from other nations that are ruled by dictators and do not grant basic freedoms to their people. Law is supposed to be just, and interpreted blindly with no prejudice or malice. Our laws and Constitution go beyond mere justice in that they establish freedom for all American citizens, regardless or race, sex or religion (in theory).

The problem comes when one group starts trying to eliminate the freedoms of another group, such as when some Americans want to eliminate another American’s freedom of religion. And if they succeeded, then they would establish the legal precedent that a religion could be discriminated against if enough people decided that they wanted to discriminate. Imagine with me, for a moment, a time when the ACLU has the legal grounds to not just attack a nativity on the courthouse lawn, but is legally allowed to ban churches themselves. That idea seriously concerns me.

This idea of banning mosques, because they are supposedly trying to take over America through the use of Shariah Law, tramples all over the Bill of Rights. The obvious violation that first comes to mind is a violation of the First Amendment, which is the right to practice your religion without any interference from the government (and remember, the law is blind, so what applies to one religion applies to another one, regardless of which one is true).

 Further, beyond the freedom of religion, it also violates their right to assembly. Any group can assemble, as long as they remain peaceful. And if they are not peaceful, then they will be punished for their crimes. For instance, criminal organizations are allowed to meet; there is nothing we can do about that, but as soon as they break a law, then they are arrested.

It also violates the Fifth Amendment, which states, “No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury…” Now, most would probably argue that that is referring to prison, but having your rights revoked definitely is being held to answer for an infamous crime. Americans are not allowed to pay the penalty for a crime when it cannot be proven they did the crime. Thus, you cannot ban a mosque based on suspicion that they are going to plot a crime.

The irony of this is that those who want to limit the freedoms of Muslims because they are trying to “take over our country”, or “infiltrate and kill us”, or “make us follow their laws and eliminate our freedom” are guilty of the exact same thing. Eliminating the freedom of others that you dislike is exactly what Muslims are accused of wanting to do. And, let us remember, the people who crafted these legal protections were guilty of taking over their country and rebelling against the government, but yet they still paved the way for future generations to have those freedoms. They knew how those could be used against their new government, but they decided that it was a risk worth taking.

The Role of Faith

The previous argument was for all Americans, but this one is solely for Christians. We have been called to suffer and die. We have been called to be the ones being persecuted, not the ones doing the persecution. Christ did not tell us to try and legislate away those who scare us, but rather to take up our cross and follow him. The significance of that statement often escapes us: Christ told us in no unspecific terms that following him would require us carrying out own tool of execution! To follow Jesus means that our own sacrificial death should always be looming in our minds as something that may soon happen. Thus, it does not matter if a group is trying to kill you, your job as a Christian is not to try and eliminate their freedom, nor even to try and defend yourself—rather, your job is to be a faithful witness to the love of God right up to your death.

While well-meaning people say that it is only right to stop the supposed evil, just remember what Christ himself said: “Do not resist the evil doer. But if anyone slaps you on your right cheek, turn to him your other also.”

The Use of Soap

Soap: it is something almost all of us use every day without a second thought. But the fact is that there are many in the world who cannot even afford soap. So, Derreck Kayongo is running an organization to help provide soap to those in impoverished countries who cannot afford it. How does he propose to do this? By recycling used hotel soaps that would be thrown away. So, instead of taking up room in a landfill, these bars are able to be used to prevent disease among some of the most needy people! I strongly encourage you to take a look at their site (http://www.globalsoap.org/) and see what you can do to help.

Folk Eschatology

At funerals, and at other times, I often hear people talk about others "Going to Heaven", or something along those lines, as the final state and what the believer is supposed to look forward to. However, the Biblical picture of hope for the believer is not that their disembodied spirit is floating in Heaven, but rather that they will be resurrected to new life upon Christ's return. So, when I saw this post, I was overjoyed! The author did a really good job with it, please go read it!

A Response to the Death of Osama Bin Laden

I wanted to wait for a little while before writing on the response that Christians should have when dealing with the death of Osama Bin Laden because in the initial frenzy everyone was talking and no one was listening. Most of you have already read some responses, and have seen that everyone has a verse. I think that both sides are pulling passages out of context, so I am going to approach this from a different angle.

            When I was a young child, I was frequently called a “tattle-tale” by my siblings. Why? Because, if they had wronged me, I would almost always go to my parents to get them in trouble instead of taking things into my own hands. Why did I do that? It is simple: I learned at a very young age that if I did something to get payback, not only would my siblings get in trouble for what they had done to me, but I also would get the exact same penalty as they did because I had exacted my own “justice”. They were guilty and deserved punishment, but I had to have an impartial person carry out that justice or else I received the same penalty.

            There is a difference between justice and revenge. Both appear justified because in both cases the guilty party is guilty (presumably) and is thus worthy of punishment. But we draw a distinction between that punishment being carried out by an impartial observer and that punishment being carried out by the victim. If a man’s wife is murdered, and he finds her murderer and kills him, most people would sympathize with him (so much so that he might even get a lighter sentence), but he would still go to prison for what he had done.

            No matter how much we, as Americans, would like to believe otherwise: America is not the sole arbiter of justice. Nor are we the Mighty Right Arm of God carrying out His Justice in the world. In the case of Osama Bin Laden and the attack on September 11, we were the victim! Thus, carrying out retaliation against the person who wronged us is not justice—it is revenge.

           

            Furthermore, the events surrounding OBL’s death are not the picture of justice. He was unarmed, and retreating, but he was shot twice in the head. That is not a self-defense shooting: that is an execution. On top of this, Osama had never been tried in a court, and the motto of the American legal system is “innocent until proven guilty”. Even if someone confesses to a murder, we still do not label them as guilty until a court has decided that.

            Did Osama Bin Laden deserve to die? Yes. However, the way in which he died is not a case of justice, but a case of revenge. It is the job of the Christian to call those who are unjust (such as carrying out revenge) to repentance, not to try and baptize their retaliation as true justice.

            (You can send any hate mail to jerusalemandrome@gmail.com)

Baseball and Christian Unity

            One of my main loves in life is baseball, specifically the Houston Astros. One of our star sluggers for over 10 years was Lance Berkman who played his entire career with Houston until he had a bad season last year and was traded away. So, this season, after Houston snubbed him again, he signed with their archrival: the St. Louis Cardinals. He has something to prove this year and has had one of the best season of his career—so far—being among the top 3 players in all offensive categories. This past week, he made his first return to Houston and had an incredible few games. As I was watching the video from his best game where he hit two homeruns, I realized something: the crowd was screaming for him! Now, baseball fans are usually pretty classy folks and will often applaud an opposing team for making a good play. But this was different. They were standing and cheering and screaming as if he were still an Astro, but he was the “enemy”! As I thought about this, it occurred to me: his entire career spent as an Astro made up for the fact that he was now wearing the opposing uniform—in their minds, it did not matter what uniform he was wearing, he was still an Astro!

            I could not help but immediately contrast this with the church. So often we approach issues in the church as trying to “win”. Who will serve on the church committee, was the preacher really correct today, and what color should the new carpet be? I have seen people leave churches because the pastor accidentally said something that offended them, or they didn’t get their way with something. We are all Christians and should have unity together like the world has never seen! Ephesians 2:11-21 is all about this! The church is to overcome every difference in the world, and serve as one for the advancement of the Gospel. Last night, twenty thousand fans cheered and screamed as Berkman defeated their team, with absolutely no prompting or leadership from anyone, but we often cannot get two hundred members of a church to overcome their desire to win in order to support Christ. I would encourage you to pray and think about how you can participate in the unity of Christ and overcome your differences with fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.

Unity on Greenville

This Sunday, I went to Unity on Greenville—a Unitarian “church”. Unlike all the other denominations, which all had a “churchy” feel to them, there was no such thing at Unity, even though it was held in a church building.

           

            The church service consisted of lots of recitations and readings from things that were not Scripture. They had positive affirmations, such as, “I am strong, powerful, and confident.” The lesson was about becoming more spiritual through showing love. And, the “pastor” commented that it was wrong to worship Jesus, since the “divine spark is within all of us.” Before prayer, the leader started the first couple steps of hypnosis, and actually mentioned that they needed to alter their state of consciousness, so they dimmed the lights, and started a few breathing exercises before they started praying.

            The service was full of interesting phrases that orthodox Christians would find discomfort with. For instance, during their greeting they said the Hindu word, namaste (the god in me blesses and honors the god in you), which they used to mean, “The Christ in me blesses and honors the Christ in you.” The phrase, “The Christ in you,” was used throughout—in fact, the bulletin says, “Unity sees the good in all people and blesses the Christ—the Spirit of God—in everyone.” There was a recitation that stated, “There is only on Presence and one Power active as the universe and as my life, God the Good.” The prayers were offered to Mother-Father god (lack of capitalization mine).

           

            The atmosphere was very New-Age feeling. Very inclusive. There were multiple gay couples in the sanctuary; some were discreet, some were more, shall we say, flamboyant? One person looked like she was an old hippie which fit with the general New Age/hippie feel.

            The visit was very informative, but Unity is definitely not the place for me. In fact, I don’t think I would even give them the right to be called a church.

Gratefulness and the Lack Thereof

I have been living without air-conditioning. In Texas. With heat in the 90's. Falling asleep sweating and waking up sweating, for almost a month now. But today my apartment finally fixed our air conditioner and got it blowing, which has proven to feel incredible! Nothing builds gratefulness like going without.

However, I got a true picture from my own example on how ungrateful people are, in general. When the air conditioning flipped on, I did not even realize it. I did not even realize that I had stopped sweating. When my roommate came home, he commented on how good it felt, and I went outside to find the notice posted on the bulletin board. Once I came back in, THEN I noticed the difference.

Similarly, how many people go through their lives complaining about how bad things are and never notice how God is slowly working in their life to improve things? Why do we never see the positives in our life that others see? When was the last time we thanked God for what we do have?

Take some time to consider what God has done for you. Be thankful.

The Adjustment Bureau

Last week I saw The Adjustment Bureau with Matt Damon (Potential spoiler alert!!). It was an interesting look at free will versus predestination/fate. The main character is a politician who just lost a race and due to a girl kissing him that motivates his concession speech he is now the frontrunner for the Senate race. Shortly after, he discovers the Adjustment Bureau, and they explain that the whole world has a plan, and that if people stray off plan, then it is their job to get those people back ON plan. A telling exchange: Damon—“But I have free will!” Adjustment Bureau Operative: “You have the appearance of free will.” Damon learns that he is not allowed that girl from the campaign, and sets out to beat the system.

           

            There were a lot of similarities to Christianity in the movie. The Adjustment Bureau was headed up by a single person, The Chairman, and all the operatives did his bidding. They even noted that they were called, “many different things in different cultures”. There was a worldwide plan.

Then came the jabs at Christianity. As it turns out, the plan was not perfect, and had in fact had a different version which is why they had trouble with the woman. The operatives started doubting whether it was just or not. They ruined some people’s lives just so that those people would promote other people who had been decided that they would succeed. And in relation to Damon’s character, The Chairman changed his mind and allowed Damon free will since he had risked everything by defying the system.

While it was not completely clear, the ending idea seemed to be that free will was a gift that needed to be earned. And, that we know what is best for our own lives—no one else should be allowed to make our life decisions for us.

(I am sorry if I did not do the movie, or the response, justice. I am working from memory, and am not terribly good at analyzing movies to start with.)

Islam Special

As I was checking the headlines at CNN this morning, I saw two articles on Islam that caught my eye, and I thought I would share with you.

The first one is about Muslims running for office in various races. Apparently this is the first organized drive in Illinois. It is always interesting to see various groups become politically active.

The second one is far more troubling. As part of a series on Islam, they are talking to a Christian, Mathew Miller, who converted to Islam. From what it seems, his family was very active in the church as he grew up. After his first prayer in a Muslim congregation, he said, “When I put my head on the ground with them, it felt like I could say anything to God, and what I was asking for at the time was guidance. I wanted to know whether what I was doing was the right thing to do.” Now, this is the question of our churches: if someone can go to those who do not have the truth, but yet they can convince him it is the truth, then why in the world are the guardians of The Truth squandering it?! I have seen this more commonly among people who switch denominations: they start asking questions, and the first people to answer them get the conversion (oftentimes, anyhow). Obviously our churches need to be better about explaining the Truth of the Gospel.

A Possible Future of the Middle East

With all of the turmoil in the Middle East a pastor in Houston, Dr. Randy White, has done a little hypothesizing as to how these events could connect to the return of Christ. It is quite interesting to read, I would suggest that you go read it here.

Among the highlights:
The Middle East is united through a charismatic leader. The new coalition manipulates the oil market into causing economic collapse in the U.S.  A united Middle East launches a war on Israel and is defeated. After the war, Islam declines and the way is paved for the "New Babylon", working closely with Europe. Out of Syria a new leader rises and takes the world stage, forming a powerful economic and political coalition that looks like it will dominate the earth for the next 100 years.


Go read the article and tell me what you think!

First United Lutheran Church

Next up on my tour of the various denominations was First United Lutheran Church, on Mockingbird. It was founded in the early 1900’s, and is a member of the ELCA. Their pastor, Dr. Russell Vardel, is professor of history at Paul Quinn College and dean of the Parish Lay Ministry Academy of the Northern Texas-Northern Louisiana Synod of the Evangelicl Lutheran Church in America. Mark Herbener was the assistant minister with the title of, “Theologian in Residence,” (which I thought is a good position for a church to have) and is a former bishop.

The first thing I noticed when I arrived was that 10 minutes before service time, the parking lot was nearly completely empty. After the service started, I realized why: there were 21 attendees, including myself and the two ministers. I spent my high school years in a church about that size so I was aware of their situation and immediate response to a visitor. They were very friendly and were interested to here about my exploration of Christendom.

The inside of the church was fairly plain. It had lots of woodwork that did not look like it had a finish. Interestingly was the “Sanctuary Lamp” which hung from the ceiling to symbolize God’s presence.

The liturgy was based around Communion as with the Catholic and Anglican churches. It was interesting to see the small church dynamic with a liturgy. For instance, when it was time to “spread peace”, instead of just saying, “Peace,” the congregation all took time to visit with each other, since they knew everyone there. Similarly, the pastor moved to the middle of the sanctuary with his homily, to try to be closer to everyone. Different from the other denominations was that they turned off the pastor’s microphone when they recited the creeds and Lord’s Prayer.

The homily was pretty good as far as homilies go. No real exegetical work done on the text, but a good application of the text nonetheless. I am coming to miss solid exegetical sermons.

Overall, the church was friendly and obviously meshed well together. I liked the “Theologian in Residence” staff position. Much like the Presbyterian and Methodist, I could not particularly tell any theological differences from the service.

The Solution to Illegal Immigration?

Kansas state Rep. Virgil Peck recently commented on a local radio show about the use of aerial gunman to shoot wild hogs. He then took that in an interesting direction (you can read about it here): "Looks like to me, if shooting these immigrating feral hogs works, maybe we have found a [solution] to our illegal immigration problem."

Now, I think most people, Republicans included, would say that that is wrong. However, I think Illegal Immigration is the new face of racism--just a more socially acceptable form. Defending himself, Peck said that his constituents are angry about illegal immigration and "I was just speaking like a southeast Kansas person."

A nation cannot stand firmly if their borders are under attack. But, the Christian is not called to primarily do what is best for their nation, but to primarily do what is best for the Gospel. We, as Christians, have been called to love everyone. The dividing wall between races has been broken down (Eph.2:14), praise God! We are now one humanity with our brother's and sister's in Christ, and are to bring all the people of the world into this new humanity. So, what if, instead of protesting these Illegal Immigrants (otherwise known as "people"), we showed God's love to them? What if instead of trying to check their id, we offered them shelter or a warm meal? Or, we could just shoot them from helicopters as they try to gain a better life.

In God We Trust Resolution

The House Judiciary Committee is considering a resolution to reaffirm the National Motto as, "In God We Trust". (If you are interested, you can read about it here.) So, this, of course, will be very important to social conservatives who will point to America as "One Nation Under God", and that this motto is a hill on which to die. However, I would argue that the statement is not true of the country. We trust in the dollar and our machine guns. Even in 1956, when that motto was created, I don't think it was necessarily true. They were certainly more religious than now, but is "White-only" drinking fountains really the mark of a society that trusts God?


What do you think?

Greg Boyd: Myth of a Christian Nation (1)

The kingdom of the world is intrinsically a tit-for-tat kingdom; its motto is "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." In this fallen world, no version of the kingdom of the world can survive for long by loving its enemies and blessing those who persecute it; it carries the sword, not the cross. But kingdom-of-God participants carry the cross, not the sword. We, thus, aren't ever to return evil with evil, violence with violence. We are rather to manifest the unique kingdom life of Christ by returning evil with good, turning the other cheek, going the second mile, loving, and praying for our enemies. (47-48)

Rebinding a Book: Part Two.

Well, sleep is avoiding me, do I will finish up my post on rebinding a book.

When I last left you, I had removed the sections, and tried to glue them into one cohesive section.

 

As you can see, it worked out fairly well in the goal of making one sections. Relatively smooth and even, especially compared to its older state.

After I finished this sections, I had to put the section into the book cover, and glue it together. I applied my webcam-clamp like before, and applied my own pressure. Here is the result!

The section I added was on the right hand side of the picture-you can see a line about halfway through the book which is where the section stops. The job wasn't perfect, but it did succeed in gaining a few extra serviceable years out of this book.

Rebinding a Book: Part One

So, a week ago, our library at Criswell was giving away some of their old dilapidated books for free. Among some of the books I picked up was Engaging the Powers by Walter Wink. After I took it home and started thumbing through it, the pages starting falling apart even worse. I tried just gluing what was visible but that did not work very well. So, I decided to just pull out the loose sections and try rebinding them in the book as one section. This is what it looked like after I got the sections together:

After this, I fitted the sections together and used that butter knife to spread blue over the back of the pages, to turn them into one solid section.

Check back tomorrow to see how it turned out!

Cathedral Santuario de Guadalupe

Read my disclaimer here.

The next church I visited was the Cathedral Santuario de Guadalupe (Cathedral Shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe). This is the cathedral for the Catholic Diocese of Dallas. This church was originally known as Sacred Heart Cathedral, but by the 60’s attendance had dwindled, and their bishop invited a local Hispanic congregation, Our Lady of Guadalupe, to combine with them. They have 5 services every morning, attended by 11,000 people.

           

The first thing I noticed was the overwhelming Hispanic presence in the service: it was roughly 90% Hispanic, 8% Caucasian, and just a few families that were Asian or Black. It was somewhat amusing to see the different socio-cultural background: most of the Hispanics sat very close together, but the whites all sat far apart from each other (myself included).

The leadership of the church reflected the Hispanic/Caucasian combination. The Rector was Hispanic, and spoke with such a thick accent that I only could understand perhaps one in five or ten words. He even pronounced “Jesus” as “Yaysoos Christ”. The Parochial Vicar was white and had an accent that sounded like he had come from the sticks of East Texas. They swapped back and forth while performing their duties, although the Rector was the one who performed the Mass.

The music at the service was distinctly Catholic sounding, but ironically was not as Gregorian sounding as the Episcopal music. This type of sound has started to appeal to me as I am becoming more used to. There is something very beautiful about it’s harmony and simplicity.

The homily was by no means an exegetical sermon, but was much closer than the Episcopal church’s was. It was over how to live out the Word in your daily life. It wasn’t half bad.

Overall, the service was very familiar to anyone who has been to Mass before. The architecture of the building was pretty, but the twenty million dollar belltower throws off the symmetry of the building. The one thing I really like about this church was the cross-racial-ness of it: I believe that this is what Christ had in mind for the church, especially if the racial ratio was a little bit more balanced.

Church Building Programs Part Three

I can see a need for buildings in the United States. In many people’s minds, the building IS the church. And buildings can serve very useful purposes, such as housing a food pantry or doubling as a seminary campus during the week. As brought up by Dr. Randy White of FBC Katy, a new sanctuary can also be an investment for the future (this was not an angle I had previously thought about, and it will require me to reconsider my position until I fully think it through).

However, I think that churches far too often use constructing a new building as a first resort rather than a last resort. Smaller churches could tag team in the same building like how Anchor conducted business instead of constructing their own buildings. Medium churches could add another service, operate a video service linked to a classroom or two, or some other method of taking care of the problem. And, large churches could actually—imagine this—peacefully separate, and form several smaller congregations that could potentially be more responsive to the actual day to day needs of the members.

I think the reason churches don’t think more outside the box is often a result of pride, convenience, security, or just genuinely not thinking through other options. I think one more option that many believe is that they are glorifying God. As a child I was told to be quiet inside the building because it was where God lived. God no more lives in a church building than he does in a believer’s home! After Christ died, God parted ways with the Temple, and never again dwelt in a building; instead He chose to indwell us! Praise God! I would much rather God live in believers instead of in an empty building! But, listen to what Dr. Jeffress said: “As I look around downtown Dallas, I see spectacular temples of commerce, of culture and of government - many new, some restored to former glory, and all intended to stand for generations. The Kingdom of God needs a home to equal them.” Of course. Because the Kingdom is contained inside the walls of First Baptist Dallas. Please. The God I serve is much larger than that and has much bigger plans for the world than a new auditorium!

Church Building Projects Part Two

My first encounter with a church building project was when I was five. Our church plant had outgrown the school that we met in, and a developer donated 10 acres to our church, so we built a modest building and settled in—nothing controversial.

My second encounter, and the first controversial circumstance, was when I was 12. I was a member of an Independent Fundamental Baptist church. Our pastor had been thinking about a new building for quite some time: When I was ten, our church reached capacity (a little over 200 seats), and he started talking about a new building, but a church split soon eliminated the need. After three years, the church had grown enough that we were again at capacity and about 20 people each week had to be in overflow in the fellowship hall, watching the service though a video screen. The pastor once again brought up a new building, that seemed a bit too grand for our congregation (The price tag was about 400,000 and the church budget every year was only 150,000). Some people mentioned other solutions such as adding a service, but the pastor would have none of that, and pushed through the building project. It passed, but almost a fifth of the congregation left. Seven years later, the new building is still not completed, and the church has continued shrinking, since every spare dollar goes to a new building instead of increased ministry.

Another major building project that comes to mind is at First Baptist Dallas. The church is pushing through a one hundred and fifteen million dollar new project. At one point, they were actually considering dissolving a ministry of the church that trained pastors—Criswell College—so that they could sell the property and KCBI to help fund the new project.

In contrast, when I was at Anchor, I saw a much more generous church with regards to its building. They owned a modest building, but there were actually four churches that met inside of it: Anchor, A Hispanic church (that met in the fellowship room), a Brazillian church (that met in the fellowship room before the Hispanics), and a Haitian church (that met in a classroom). The churches were each in their native language, and would usually meet every month or two to have a meal all together.

Church Building Projects Part One

I recently saw a free book at my school titled, Downtown Church: The Heart of the City by Howard Edington, which I thought was going to be a book on urban ministry and so I took it and brought it home. Once I started reading it, however, I soon realized that I was misguided. The book was instead on how the pastor had led the church to build a proposed 21 million dollar building project (30 million in today’s money, and it almost certainly cost more to actually finish) so that they could properly “do ministry” in the city. Here is an excellent quote that summarizes the book: “Here, then, is a cold, hard principle for the downtown church: secure enough property to make the church’s ministry viable. Beg or borrow the money. Spend whatever time it takes, but get your hands on the property you need.” This got me thinking about church building projects and how needed or useless they are. So, what do you think? Do you have to build a new church campus and buy a lot of property to carry out ministry? If so, then how did the early church carry out its ministry without owning property and buildings?

Church Building Projects: Introduction

That was the destruction of several buildings owned by First Baptist Dallas, to make way for their new building.

For the next few days, I will be writing about church building projects. This was prompted after my visit to First Baptist Dallas, and learning about their 115 million dollar new sanctuary. Please go here to watch the videos about the new project and see what it will be like.

First Presbyterian Church

(Read my disclaimer here.)

            The fourth church I visited was First Presbyterian Church. I immediately noticed that the people were quite friendly helping me find my way to the sanctuary, and making sure to introduce themselves when I asked for help. In fact, at the end of the service, one of the members actually recommended a Baptist church for me to try when she heard I was a Baptist.

           

            The building was Greco-Roman style and looked like it could have doubled as a county courthouse. Inside, it was much smaller than First Methodist or First Baptist; it could probably seat a maximum of 600 people, and it looked like there were only 300 or 400 people in it. The sanctuary was fairly plain, lacking the beauty of the other three sanctuaries. The audience was entirely Caucasian with not a single minority in the building. They also all appeared to be middle to upper class.

            The service was very much like the Methodist service, with a liturgical service that was not nearly as Catholic as the Episcopalian church was. They also had a choir and organ arrangement.

           

            The sermon was a little bit better than the other two (Jeffress still has been the best, sadly). It was over Exodus 17, and sought to answer the question, “Is God with us?” Apparently due to the lack of growth over the last few years some in the church had started to wonder about this. The pastor wrote the problem off by saying that urban churches have trouble growing, and pointed to things like their feeding ministry, The Stewpot, as proof that God is with them.

            The church has a serious ethnicity issue. In a majority-minority area a church that is 100% white will not, and cannot, grow. Their feeding ministry is great; I think that is something every church should try and do! The service was interesting, but not as moving as the Episcopalian while still having the same liberalism issues. If you are going “high church” you might as well go all out.

Church of the Incarnation

           (Read my disclaimer here.)

           My third visit took me to the Church of the Incarnation, which is Episcopal (Anglican). I walked into the building, which reminded me of a small cathedral on the inside. The ceiling was vaulted, and it had internal pillars as supporting walls. It had beautiful stained glass.

           

I arrived at the church twenty minutes early, so I found a seat in the church. The choir was still practicing, and I was immediately struck by their beauty. Their melody was classic sounding, performed perfectly and with incredible power. The entire sanctuary filled with their music. Combined with the architecture and the style of music, I immediately felt as if I were in a European cathedral.

            The service started with a procession led by the choir and concluded by the bishop, wearing his mitre. They went to the front and started moving through the liturgy. I felt out of place with the liturgy since it was so ritualized, and as a Baptist that is very different. The music was beautiful throughout, and the congregation (about 200 people—less than half of the seats were occupied) participated in ways that I rarely see Baptists participate.

            The “sermon” should not have been called that at all. The minister simply talked about keeping the heart warm in regards to loved ones, and not letting it grow cold. He gave some ideas about what made it go cold, and what warmed it up more. He never read any Scripture.

            When it came time to participate in Communion, I refrained, since I hold different beliefs on it from the Anglican church. They very orderly proceeded to the front as is common to anyone who has ever participated in the Mass.

            One of the strangest things was when I walked outside after the service. I looked over to where the chapel was, and saw the people exiting from the simultaneous contemporary service. On my left was the traditional service: most people were in suits and nice dresses, and the bishop was in his robes. On my right was the contemporary service: the worship leader had an unbuttoned collared shirt and blue jeans, and the congregants were all in blue jeans and t-shirts or open button down shirts. The contrast was remarkable!

           

The music was beautiful, the sermon was lacking, and I disagree with the church on numerous theological issues. But, there was something in me that connected with the ritual of it all. I also recognized that if I would have walked in from the street as a non-believer, I would not have found how to follow Christ in that service (I would think), although I would learn the Nicene Creed.

The End of an Era

            If you visited my blog today, compared to yesterday, you would have noticed an incredible shift. For starters, my URL eliminated the dash, so it is now "joshuahebert.blogspot.com". But, more noticeable is the new title, tagline, format, and look.

I once was heavily involved in politics and was a good social conservative. However, as I learned about the gospel and that there was an extreme political element in it I realized that what the gospel actually teaches is not what the Republican agenda, and in some places, it is quite different. To that end, I more or less let my blog die, just not feeling right about taking the role of “Republican Blogger in Exile”.

However, I recently started blogging again, and decided that I needed turn the page and to retool my blog to make it a closer reflection of what I want to spend the majority of my time talking about. My main topics will be Ecclesiology and Political Theology, although I imagine I will dabble in other topics as well. I will leave all the old political posts in the archives.

Over the next few weeks, I will continue modifying this site so that it has a little more information, and is more accessible to the visitor. Is it the end of an era for me? Yes. But, it is the beginning of an even brighter era!

First United Methodist Church

            (Read my disclaimer here.)

Next, I went to First United Methodist Church of Dallas. It was like stepping back in time. The plain wooden platform at the front. The stained glass windows. The old fashioned pews. I almost immediately realized that I was woefully underdressed: almost every single man in the sanctuary was wearing a coat and tie. Even quicker than that, I realized there were no trappings of many common Baptist churches: no screen, no baptistery, no praise band, in fact there was not even an orchestra.

Music was provided by a very large choir of 100-150 members. They were extremely talented and accompanied only by a sole pipe organ. The music was mostly unknown to me, but when they closed the service with, Be Thou My Vision, they sounded so good I quite literally got chills.

I witnessed an infant baptism for the first time. Their understanding of baptism is a promise by the parents and church to raise the child to be a part of the community—much like a baby dedication service in a Baptist church. I felt very uncomfortable watching.

The service was very orderly, with the congregation all standing at certain times, with no prompting from the bulletin or the minister of music, which made me feel very awkward since I did not know what I was supposed to do. They also all responded together with a call-and-response that was in the bulletin.

As the service progressed, I felt very restless, and it took me a minute to figure out why I was restless. Then it hit me: it was so quiet! There was a lot of talking, and very little music. The audience stayed almost completely silent except when they were supposed to say something.

The pastor, Dr. Fielder, read through the beatitudes, then left the text, and talked about the church receiving a new parking deal, and how if people are hospitable, and non violent, then God would reward them.

In short, I am not a Methodist, but there were definitely some elements from the service, such as the very traditional music that, that would be nice to see from time to time in a Baptist church.

First Baptist Church of Dallas

DISCLAIMER: I know that every church has its own weaknesses and strengths, and that every denomination has its own weaknesses and strengths. No one is perfect, neither is any church. I also know that most churches have ministries to the community that you cannot see from visiting, nor can you judge an entire denomination by one church. Furthermore, I am a Baptist, so I am approaching each of these churches with a Baptist’s belief system. I do not mean to attack anyone, just I have heard people ask me about my experiences and I wanted to write about them, positive and negative.

I moved into Dallas from my little suburb town and thus left my church that I had been a member of since I moved to the Metro-Plex, due to commute time and gas money. At the end of the semester, I had several preaching opportunities, as well as a couple times to lead worship through music ministry; this prevented me from church shopping, and then I went home for surgery followed by the holidays. After visiting a few Baptist congregations upon my return, I decided it would be insightful to spend a few weeks visiting other denominations, since I have only ever been in Baptist services (minus a few times when I went to Mass). I decided to use the “main” or preeminent church of each denomination as my destination of choice.

I started with the First Baptist Church of Dallas, pastored by Robert Jeffress. As I walked through the Criswell Center, I marveled at the size of the building. I found my way into the balcony of the historic sanctuary and spent ten minutes just enjoying the beautiful architecture inside. For how large the other buildings were, it shocked me how “small” the sanctuary was. I also noticed that seats seemed to be put in every possible place, and almost all of them were filled.

Once the service started, it immediately struck me as a grand production. Everything was perfectly orchestrated, even the singers in the praise chorus (which had separated from the choir) had tape marking off where they were supposed to stand.

The musicians were talented, but nothing to write home about. The Worship Pastor seemed to think his job title was “Lead Soloist”, by the way he sang—leaving the melody to go do his own thing. The talented orchestra added a lot. I could not really even tell there was a choir there, except that I could see them standing.

As an extra feature, they had a guest speaker—the colonel in charge of the capture of Saddam Hussein. I found problems with the church giving a standing ovation when talking about the harm his soldiers did to another human being, but that is a discussion for another time.

Robert Jeffress’ sermon was not the best. He preached from Ephesians on having your feet properly shod. He did go back to the historical use of Roman soldiers’ shoes, and how they had spikes to help them hold in place in battle. He had quite a bit of psychological aspects in the sermon—somewhat hard to describe.

At the invitation, a few people joined the church, which showed that people obviously enjoyed the service and preaching.
I honestly could not get over the 115 million dollar new buildings that are being constructed. They were a major place where attention was pointed in discussions, and in the large model of the new building, and the massive tv dedicated to only playing information on the new building. I could never be a part of this church simply because I can’t see any way to justify so much money on a building.

Poverty and Christianity

I am in poverty--as defined by the government, that is. I don't own a TV, I share a one bedroom apartment with a roommate, and I don't even own a suit. To many, this sounds pretty scant, but yet, as I sit in my heated room, surfing the internet, I realize that I would be considered a rich man in most of the world. Why? I have three meals a day, I have clean water, I have indoor plumbing, I can make my small apartment cool in the summer and warm in the winter, I have a car that allows me to travel in comfort. For much of the world, they could not even dream of having these kinds of possessions and options in life.

Almost 3 billion people in the world live on less than two dollars a day; for those of you doing the math at home, that is almost half of the world's population. Two dollars a day. That is less than most would spend making a trip to McDonald's, but 3 billion people survive on that. Here is another fact to chew on: 36 million people die every year from starvation. Statistically speaking, in the time it took me to type that sentence, 5 people starved to death. And not in the metaphorical sense that everybody uses to express that they are hungry. Five very real people died because they simply did not have enough food to survive any longer.

Enter the church. Poverty has been around a long time. During the time Jesus walked the earth somewhere between 90 and 95 percent of the population was in poverty, and the other 5-10% were extremely wealthy by their standards. On multiple occasions, Jesus fed massive crowds. In Matthew 18:16-22, he told the rich young man that to follow Him, the man would have to sell all his possessions and give the proceeds to the poor. Was this just a random saying that He told but didn't really mean? If we believe God is just, and we believe that Jesus is God, then we cannot say that He would randomly turn a man away to an eternity of punishment because of a random moment when He said something He did not really mean. That means that we have to seriously consider this command of Him. Even if Christ did not mean for everyone to sell their possessions, He made it clear that His followers were to help take care of the poor (Deut 15:7; Matt 25:35, etc). The church was never intended to cure poverty, as there simply are not enough Christians to go around, but one of its jobs IS to lessen poverty.

However, the church has by and large failed at this job. There are many people who do great things to try and ease poverty, but this is not the majority in the church. I frequently hear Christians complaining about how seemingly little they have, while not even considering the state of those 3 billion people who live each day on less that a cup of Starbucks coffee. I am as guilty of this as anyone. I have even heard of many Americans not really believing that there are people in true poverty and unhappy about being strapped for money when they have multiple cars, TVs, and other "essentials".

So, what does this all mean? Well, for one, I would encourage you to consider Christ in all things, and keep Him in mind and be in prayer with Him while thinking about this issue. Second, pray for those who are in true poverty. Third, be more grateful in your own position, and realize how good we have it. Fourth, consider ways to cut back your expenditures so that you can donate to churches or missionaries who are making a point to help out the poor. Fifth, volunteer your time to help with our own poor--while they may not live on two dollars, we have Americans who starve to death--go volunteer at a soup kitchen or a food pantry and help out others in need.

(Sobering reality: During the time it took to write this, nearly 3000 people died of starvation. Remember how Christ would have you treat these people.)