Wednesday Link List

Welcome to yet another installment of “Let’s see what everybody else is doing online.” Actually there are some really strong links here this week, you won’t be disappointed, but I think both guys in the above cartoon are going to be.

• Our lead link this week isn’t lighter fare. The Dictionary of Christianese worked hard to provide you with the meaning of all things kairos, such as kairos time, kairos season, kairos opportunity and kairos moment.
• Todd Rhoades invites you to play: Who Said It? Oprah or Osteen? Before peeking at the answers, why not phone a friend or use this as a small group icebreaker.
• Jamie the Very Worst Fundraiser admits that some of the pictures — and descriptive language — you see in missionary letters may not be entirely representative of what is taking place on the mission field. Partner with someone to read this. 
• The church once known as the Crystal Cathedral will be renamed Christ Cathedral, while the people who once worshiped at the Crystal Cathedral will gather under the name Shepherd’s Grove.
• The Christian teen whose song Clouds recently reached 3 million YouTube views, Zach Sobiech, died Monday surrounded by family at his home in Lakeland, Minnesota. He was 18.  
• As of last night, Oklahoma pastor Craig Groeschel reported that 71 families from Lifechurch had lost their homes.
  
• At Parchment and Pen, perhaps the reason many adolescents and young adults have faith collapses is because they aren’t properly conditioned on dealing with doubts. Must reading for Christian parents. 
• Also for parents: If you’re wondering what to do with your teens (or tweens) over the summer, you won’t be after reading this list.
  
• Catholic readers should note that there are some rosaries on the market that aren’t exactly kosher.  William Tapley guides you to spotting the iffy prayer beads.
• This just in: “No man whose testicles have been crushed or whose penis has been cut off may enter the Lord’s assembly.” Actually, it’s in Deuteronomy. A must-read for guys.
  
• A music therapist at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital in Nashville gets kids to write songs, and then gets the songs recorded by the city’s best. A seven minute documentary; keep the tissues handy. (Love what the kid said who had a song covered by Amy Grant!)
• Pastors’ Corner: What if your weekend sermon was more like a TED Talk? Could you deliver the same content in 18 minutes or less? 
• So in a debate of house churches over traditional churches who wins?  This article includes discussion of The Meeting House in Canada which reflects the best of both.  (Be sure to continue to page two.)
  
• Graphic of he week: A conversation at the atheist’s car garage.
• Top selling Christian music in the UK this week is the band Rend Collective Experiment, according to a new music chart service there.
  
• …And graphics for your Facebook or Tumblr each week at Happy Monday at The Master’s Table.
• The subject of the Soul Surfer book and movie after losing an arm to a shark while surfing, Bethany Hamilton is getting married.
  
• My video upload this week for Searchlight Books — sponsor of our Christian classics collection — was a scratchy 45-rpm single of Roger McDuff (the gospel music guy) doing Jesus is a Soul Man circa 1969. To get on this YouTube channel, the songs have to not be previously uploaded.
  
• Baptist book publisher Broadman and Holman aka B&H wants to stop publishing fiction in 2014 unless the book in question can have a tie-in with Lifeway curriculum product or other brand merchandise.
  
• Ron Fournier aka Tehophilus Monk has a short excerpt from the book Why Priests? by Gary Wills which calls into question the entire concept of priests in the ecclesiastic hierarchy.
• We can’t do it by ourselves. Sometimes we need Outside Help. Classic pop/rock some of you might remember from Johnny Rivers.
  
• Not enough links for ya this week? Dave Dunham’s got another 15 for you at Pastor Dave Online. 
• During the week between link lists, I invite you to join my somewhat miniscule band of Twitter followers.
  
• The lower graphic this week is from an article at the youth ministry blog Learning My Lines.
  

Wednesday Link List

Wednesday List Lynx

Insert skillfully written intro here.

• Kickin’ it off with a strange report that — literally — gets under the skin of atheists and reveals the potential, no make that the probability for beliefs in God they would never acknowledge.
• “…no one had ever done research to determine if international child sponsorship really works…” Well, now they have, and it looks good on Compassion International.
  
• Add Marcus Mumford of the band Mumford and Sons to the “They like Jesus but not Christianity” list, at least that’s what he told Rolling Stone.
  
• The petition calling for the release of Saeed Abedini, imprisoned in Iran is nearing 500,000 signatures. 
• What happens when creative worship-leader types lock horns with linear-thinking pastor types? Innovative ideas are often given the “no” treatment. Why can’t we all just get along?
  
• Got Roman Catholic friends who believe the wafer and the wine actually become the body and blood of Christ? Here are some reasons for rejecting transubstantiation.
  
• Now you can get a personalized Bible with your name inserted in 7,000 different places. Will you accept the Personal Promise edition as your personal Bible?
• Know a teen dealing with self-image issues or some kind of physical trait that erodes self confidence? Check out the story of 19-year old country music singer Chelsea Musick.
• On a similar theme: Here’s a refreshing post from an 11-year old blogger who reminds us that God made us just as we are.
• 

  Click the cover for Time’s feature story

  600,000 Americans have a 90 minute commute time … to church!  Is there nothing good closer to home?
  
• Some of Garry Wills best friends are priests. So it’s a bit of surprise that his new book is titled Why Priests? A Failed Tradition. 
• An article reflecting on Chuck Fromm’s writing in Worship Leader magazine parallels the new technology to the elevation of worship leaders in the ecclesiastic hierarchy.
  
• Are you a church mutt? These days many of us borrow what we consider to be the best elements from a variety of denominational streams.  A classic post from 2010.
  
• There is now some finality to the Canadian side of the story involving the then co-hosts of Canada’s national daily Christian talk show and money investors lost in a Ponzi scheme, in the form of a March 15th ruling by the Ontario Securities Commission.
  
• Really got into this song this week, though I first heard it a year ago: The Altar by Tricia Brock.
• Or for something more recent, here’s another new song by Josh Garrels.
  
• When the number crunching at your annual church business meeting is over, be sure to close with a hymn.
• Do we too many music links? Maybe it’s because I haven’t heard quartet music in a long time, but this two-verse hymn seems to have a barbershop harmony quality.
  
• Find yourself potentially engaging a controversy? Here’s ten questions to check yourself before you dive in. Or don’t. 
• In the weeks leading up to Easter, BBC’s Radio 4 series, “Lent Talk,” is broadcasting six lectures on abandonment, in which a journalist compares the gay community’s experience to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
• No, President Obama is not Satan, but in the Bible mini-series, there is a physical resemblance. 
• Remember to have your link list suggestions in by Monday evening
  

Festival Attending in a Security Obsessed World

So yesterday we remembered the Cornerstone Festival; part of the carefree days in the ’70s and ’80s when Christian music festivals sprang up in Midwest parks and Pennsylvania dairy farms. Ahh… simpler times.

Things have changed. I’ve never been to Kingdom Bound, a bit of trivia which my closer friends find amazing given my history with CCM (Contemporary Christian Music) mostly because the idea of a Christian festival in a theme park seems somewhat contradictory.  Two hot elements competing with each other: The bands and the rides.

But then there’s another issue. Back in the day — and you know you’re getting older when you start talking about ‘back in the day’ — the speakers and the musicians shared a somewhat equal billing. Even the most star-struck music fan could tell you about things the speakers said in the tents. At some festivals today, you’re lucky to get three speakers for every twenty music acts. Or less.

Which brings us to The Beruna Festival being held in July (19-20) on “The Flats at Molson Amphitheatre” in downtown Toronto; the first multi-day Christian event to be held there.  Well, almost downtown; the picture makes it look like the CN Tower and Air Canada Centre are directly in the background, when in fact they are a few miles further down the road. But you wouldn’t want the sound echoing off the high rise buildings anyway, nor the complaints from the condo owners.

Having nothing better to do on Tuesday night, I went poking around their website. The lineup is certainly good.  The pricing is probably somewhat normal for this type of event. The sponsors and event organizers are well respected.

But buried away on a FAQ page, you’re reminded that this is a venue used for general market events not Christian events; that this is 2013, not 1983. So no backpacks. No rigid liquid containers. No beach balls. Really? From all the outdoor concerts I’ve seen, I thought beach balls were required.

And then the one that broke the proverbial camel’s back. No SLR cameras.

What the festival is up with that?

My wife has been talking about getting a Canon SLR camera for some time now. But if we decided to attend this event in July — and we’re free that week and greatly admire some of the 22 bands and both of the speakers — she would be denied admittance.

“You mean I can’t take a SLR camera to the event?  Seriously?”

A camera with a removable lens is considered a professional camera, and professional cameras are not allowed. You might intimidate the people with smaller cameras.

And I’m sorry to say this, and perhaps it sounds rather petty, but with that, they lost me…

…

…Working with concert promoters for many years before I got married, the management and operating staff of the various venues we used were always impressed with the good behavior of the people who attended Christian events. In two words, they liked that there was “no trouble.” Over the years the promoters built up credibility equity, which meant they were afforded some grace, which they were then able to pass along to ticket buyers. (Neither grace nor customization of the rental package here; the beer vendors will be open though probably not quite doing business as usual.)

In a post-911 world, security at mass gatherings is essential. Purses and satchels do need to be checked. And refreshment vendors are counting on the dehydration of young people spending 12-hour days in the hot sun. And yes, it only takes one person to ruin it for everyone.

And I know that those in youth ministry see the value of these events for their students, and really want these events to be there as an option for the youth they work with.

But in the contract negotiations, I would be crusading hard against a one-size-fits-all approach which, for example, bans beach balls.  (Headline: Beach Ball Ban Baffles Blogger) Or a camera easily picked up for free with Sears points. If it’s that uptight an environment, it’s just too easy to lose the heart of the event. What’s next? Security staff at the megachurch? Oops! Too late. Maybe this is what happens when we get too big.

In a world of liability litigation, environmental impacts, and stricter safety standards for staging (Headline: Staging Safety Standards Set Stricter), it’s not as easy to find a Pennsylvania dairy farm willing to host tens of thousands of teens and twenty-somethings; but make no mistake; those dairy farms do exist and some of those dairy farmers are willing to give it a try.

Anytime soon would be good.

Happy Father’s Day

…to all our readers in Australia and New Zealand

So perhaps that should read:

No, that doesn’t work.  How about:

Either way, it’s appropriate because today I want to post a blast from the past, a song that I sung at the dedication of our oldest; which is also appropriate today because this week both boys are off to university. [Grab box of tissue here.] Where did those years go?

The artist is Mike Johnson, and the album is The Artist/The Riddle on NewPax Records from 1976. It’s an old song. But I still love what this has to say, and I’m proud to pass it on to a new generation of fathers, both “down under” and “up over.”

Here are the lyrics (the lyric sheet has been chewed by mice; seriously!)

When you grow up
What will you remember
Daddy had time to show his love
When you were needing
His love and affection
Daddy made sure you had enough

Little boy, Jesus loves you
More than I am able to
I am learning to be a father
By my love show that He loves you

Will you remember
Daddy took you fishing
Having fun, sharing candy bars
Reading you words of love from the Bible
Telling you about
The one who made the stars

Little boy, Jesus loves you
More than I am able to
I am learning to be a father
By my love show that He loves you

When your mommy
And daddy did argue
Did you see that we had learned to forgive
Or did our words simply confuse you
Did you see the truth
By the lives that we lived

Little boy, Jesus loves you
More than I am able to
I am learning to be a father
By my love show that He loves you

Little boy, speak the truth of Jesus
Speak His words until He comes
We have learned by our little family
What it is to be called God’s sons

Little boy, Jesus loves you
More than I am able to
I am learning to be a father
By my love show that He loves you

Let My Life Be the Proof of Your Love

I don’t post many contemporary music songs here, so you know I’m quite taken with this one.  The band calls themselves For King and Country.  Full lyrics available by clicking through to the video and expanding the description. Enjoy and be challenged to let your life be the evidence of a changed life.  (Special thanks to Laurie at K-LOVE !)

My Favorite Praise Song

The blue Pacific on a summer’s day
Rushing in to meet the yellow sand
The view’s terrific I see Monterrey
Lookin’ mighty fine from where I stand
The water dances in the sun’s reflection
A thousand silver birds fly in my direction
Now isn’t it beauty, isn’t it sweet perfection?

If someone were to ask me my favorite worship song, I suppose I could easily think of songs like “Shout to the Lord,” “Majesty,” “How Great Is Our God,” “Revelation Song,” and a number of hymns including “Our Great Savior,” which you may or may not know.

But not every praise song is meant to be sung congregationally, and we do ourselves a disservice when we try to take every great worship chorus and force congregations to sing songs that perhaps don’t match up with their personal expression of adoration to God. Sometimes we’re just meant to listen to someone else’s thoughts.

The song embedded below is an example of that. The late Tom Howard wrote “One More Reason” with a first verse that expresses the beauty of God in creation that he is familiar with growing up in California, with its references to the Pacific Ocean and Monterrey; the spirit of which was captured by the person who made the tribute video. To sing this in our church, the first thing I would want to do is make that verse more generic, but I’ve never got around to writing different lyrics because I rather enjoy the song just the way he wrote it.

The sky is singing, the earth proclaims
Always one more reason to praise Your name.

This History of Contemporary Christian Music

Most the “histories” you hear on Christian radio only involve material the production staff were able to source on CD, and of those, some are limited to items still available for purchase on collections, since record companies are actively involved in “helping” the radio guys create these specials.

My purpose at the YouTube collection I created for the SearchlightBooks YouTube account — our sponsor, so to speak — was to find things that nobody had posted on YouTube to date, or possibly any other video service, either…

The Mass for Peace was originally written in Italian in 1963, so if you think Jesus Music began with Larry Norman or the Calvary Chapel concerts around 1969 and following, forget it; the Catholic folk masses really got there first. This one got translated into English in 1967.

The Christian festival scene began with Explo ’72 in Dallas, but was refined by a series of different events in rural Pennsylvania, including Jesus ’75 and ’76 which took place on a diary farm in the western part of the state.  Regulars at this event were the group Hope of Glory, and this 1975 song took it’s cue from a Hallmark Cards advertisement, “When you care enough to send the very best.”

No history of CCM’s early years would be complete without mentioning The Archers. (No, you’re thinking of the Archies…) Tom, Steve and Janice Archers recorded this song later in the career for a concept album by Dony McGuire and Reba Rambo based on the Lord’s prayer.

Contemporary Christian radio took a different form back in the day. There were a few dedicated stations, but many organizations had to settle for purchasing block airtime on secular stations on the weekend, or providing free programming features for use during the week, or even public service announcements like this one. Long before there was Lifeline Productions, there was Chuck Blore Creative Services.

Some people say that today’s modern worship grew out of CCM, while others argue that with groups like New Zealand’s Scripture in Song, the two movements were set on a parallel track and modern worship simply overtook CCM and became the more dominant genre. Here’s an independent recording by Tom & Candy Green that is typical of things people were recording way back when.

We’ll do more of these, or you can visit the YouTube page and see more, but I need to warn ya, it’s an extremely eclectic collection. I have a couple of thousand albums I can access for this, and I’m willing to look at requests for songs not online, but the material has to be both (a) old and of historical interest, and (b) not on a label which may have renewed the copyright.

Keeping Discernment Ministry People Off The Streets

I’m a huge fan of discernment.  I believe that, moving forward, it’s the supernatural gift to be praying for.  But regular readers know I’m not a fan of those who feel that God specifically called them to a ministry of critiquing and nit-picking their fellow believers.  However, if they feel they must, here are some things to keep them busy; some term paper assignments I would hand out if I had the opportunity to keep them off the streets internet for awhile.  This first appeared here exactly two years plus a day here on November 30, 2009.

Wow! The first semester of college is ending sooner than it began, so it’s time to hand out the topics for your term paper assignments. You’ve proved yourself more than adept at finding fault with Rob Bell, The Shack, Dan Kimball, Brian McLaren, “New Monasticism,” Rick Warren, “Emergent Church,” anything Willow Creek-related, “spiritual formation,” Donald Miller, and hundreds of others. (But never Joyce Meyer… that’s odd… ) But the topics listed below are things which, strangely, you never cover, even though their impact on Christian culture is huge.

You guys at CRI did really good term work so you’re exempt from the final essay. For the rest of you…

You say you’re a discernment ministry so let’s see some discerning; only let’s give all your existing targets a rest. Choose your topic:

1. Twenty years ago your equivalents would be railing against Christian rock music. So let’s take a run at it, 2011-style. Check out the latest stuff and the complete back catalog from Switchfoot, Skillet, Hawk Nelson, TobyMac, Tenth Avenue North and Kutless and apply the same critical faculties you use with modern preachers and authors to some in-depth analysis of the lyrics Christian youth are listening to. To avoid distraction, use headphones and turn the volume really, really loud so you don’t miss any backward masking. Bonus marks for dissecting the worship songs of Matt Redman, Chris Tomlin, David Crowder and Hillsong United.
2. You’re concerned about a whole new generation of authors and speakers who are speaking into the lives of Christians, but completely ignoring a huge genre. Pour yourself a chai and curl up on the divan with the complete works of Karen Kingsbury, Beverly Lewis, Randy Singer, Randy Alcorn (fiction only), Melody Carlson, Lynn Austin and of course, Ted Dekker. Don’t skip a single page. Bonus marks for a study of the Max Lucado Wemmicks series and all the Steeple Hill/Love Inspired pocket books released since 2006. Remember, it says ‘complete works.’ Let us know what you find.
3. Every Evangelical will tell you that the deuterocanonical books don’t belong in the Bible, but how we do know this for sure? Without resorting to the historical decisions that led to their inclusion or exclusion from the Bibles of different faith groups, and relying entirely on the text and related commentaries, explore the Apocryphal books verse by verse highlighting such things as the possible inherent dangers in Methodists reading Bel and the Dragon. Be sure to spend at least a month on this, doing no other writing nor taking any phone calls during this period of intense study.
   
4. What are we really teaching our children? Not one of the discernment ministries with any profile has noted any examination of what’s really being conveyed through the curriculum of Gospel Light, Scripture Press, David C. Cook, Standard Publishing, Regular Baptist Press, and Augsburg Fortress. Part one of this involves study of the publishers listed above; part two involves a more intense study of Group’s Hands-On Active Bible Curriculum by actually teaching a Sunday School class of elementary grade children for the next six weeks. After all, who better to teach kids than the head of a ministry that encourages kids to study God’s Word. (Note: With the kids, you must stick to the curriculum itself; your paper will be disqualified if you get into a rant with the Grade 3 class about Benny Hinn or Joel Osteen.) Bonus marks for all the theological errors you can uncover in the Veggie Tales series.
   
5. The “study abroad” question: You’ll purchase airplane tickets to connect you with about fifty different venues between now and Christmas to study what’s really going on with Christian comedy. The comedians themselves are quite accustomed to having hecklers in the audience, so they won’t mind a few discernment ministry folk sitting in the front row shouting out, “I think that last joke was built on a flawed doctrinal premise.” A few of our Christian brothers do their comedy shtick in clubs with liquor licenses, so to not miss the ambiance of the whole show, be sure to order a drink or two before the first set. If you’re Baptist and haven’t touched alcohol before in your life, just give the bartender that information with the coded signal, “Make it a double.” Compare and contrast male and female comedians, and those working within the youth ministry paradigm. Just think Mr. Discernment Minister, you might be a redneck!
   

Your finished paper should be 650,000 words or more. That should keep you off the streets, and more importantly, off the airwaves and off the internet for at least 30 days. This is the kind of hard-hitting analysis you were born for.

Wednesday Link List

Wednesday List Links

Welcome back to another list…

• Shaun Groves is getting ready to release a new album, Third World Symphony, and Journey of Worship caught up with him for an interview.  And speaking of CCM artists…
  
• Here’s what Joy Williams has been up to lately, as half of the duo The Civil Wars  [video] which I was reminded of while reading this…
  
• Jason Adkins digs deep into the grammar of CCM: “Prepositional Phrases Are the Artistic Expression Du Jour.  Whether it’s Chris Tomlin (And If Our God Is For Us…), Blindside (With Shivering Hearts We Wait), or the continuance-to-a-specified-time tendencies of Casting Crowns (Until the Whole World Hears) and Red (Until We Have Faces), the prepositional phrase is challenging the terse one-word album title as the dominate naming convention in Christian music.” Read The State of the Art Address.
  
• Missy gets into the subject of designer babies and gender selection at It’s Almost Naptime, a popular parenting blog for women.
  
• Popular author and theologian N. T. Wright is releasing the New Testament edition of his own Bible translation, The Kingdom New Testament.  More advance info at Zondervan.
  
• Canada’s largest multi-site church, The Meeting House is doing something very different for the summer.  For 12 weeks, they’ve invited leaders from other denominations to share the pulpit with TMH teaching pastor Bruxy Cavey.  (Plus a visit from Philip Yancey!) So far we’ve enjoyed all of them, available on both video and audio.
  
• Mickey Maudlin, Senior Vice President and Executive Editor at HarperOne (HarperCollins’ religious imprint) reflects on the reaction to their publication of Rob Bell‘s Love Wins.  Sample: “As a young evangelical, I was socialized to see the biggest threat to the church as theological liberalism. But now I think the biggest threat is Christian tribalism…”
  
• Last week I linked to some pictures of the event, this week a visit to Julie Clawson’s impressions of the Wild Goose Festival.
  
• Mark Dever looks at what’s wrong with pastoral search committees (#6 of 9: “A beauty pageant mentality”) and then, in part two of the same article suggests that this is actually the responsibility of the church elders.  
• B. J. Stockman looks at the gospel at Resurgence blog.  This is a longer piece but in section three, check out the gospel as reflected in Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Leviticus.
• Lifeshapes author Mike Breen sees celebrity, consumerism, and competition as the key elements that are writing the obituary of the Amercian Church.
• Also for our American readers, here’s a breakdown of the faith demographics on a state by state basis.  Just hover your mouse over the state for info.
  
• Sovereign Grace Ministries leader C. J. Mahaney is stepping away from ministry for an unspecified time.
  
• Here’s the video where the deer got loose in Colonial Hills Baptist Church and was captured by security cameras.  Easy to miss in this is the observation of the vast number of security cameras this church actually needs.
  
• It’s “Sex Week” at Stuff Fundies Like.  Can’t wait to see how sex and fundamentalism mix.
  
• Last month I introduced you to Searching for Grace, a new cartoon by Mike Mooney.  Here’s a very recent panel, giving you the kind of thing you can expect at his website.

Christian Jazz Violinist Trevor Dick

This video is for a song simply called Yahweh; it’s the title song from his sixth album and is taken from Canadian violinist Trevor Dick’s Flying Bow YouTube channel.   You might even recognize a melody somewhere in this.

One of this blog’s distinctives was not doing the video embed thing, in deference to people on rural dial-up services.  But when that changed in the late winter, I vowed not to be one of those bloggers who falls back on esoteric music to come up with a daily post.  But then I saw the stats on this one.  Less than 300?  How can that possibly be?  I decided today this video is going to get seen by more people, even if I have to drive over to where you live and click the play button.  Definitely worth sharing.

Link to Trevor’s bio, or read Trevor’s blog.