Just Another Day

Last night we slept with the windows open, and at various intervals this morning (6:30, 6:50, 7:00, 7:20) I was aware of car doors closing, engines starting and people driving away, many of whom I believe were heading to work.

Sunday has become, in many respects, just another day. I remember the first time I walked into a grocery store on a Sunday, and the first time in a department store. It was a strange feeling; like I shouldn’t be here, and neither should anyone else. The stores were not particularly busy and the argument was made that they wouldn’t do any more business than they might have in six days.

Growing up in Canada, I often heard older people speak of The Lord’s Day Alliance Act. Wikipedia explains:

In 1888, the Lord’s Day Alliance came into existence as the result mainly of Presbyterian and Methodist interests. Leading up to 1906, the Lord’s Day Alliance advocated the national Lord’s Day Bill. They were opposed by Roman Catholics and Anglicans.

The Lord’s Day Act, which since 1906 had prohibited business transactions from taking place on Sundays, was struck down as unconstitutional in the 1985 case R. v. Big M Drug Mart Ltd. Calgary police officers witnessed several transactions at the Big M Drug Mart, all of which occurred on a Sunday. Big M was charged with a violation of the Lord’s Day Act. A provincial court ruled that the Lord’s Day Act was unconstitutional, but the Crown proceeded to appeal all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada. In a unanimous 6-0 decision, the Lord’s Day Act was ruled an infringement of the freedom of conscience and religion defined in section 2(a) of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

I remember hearing stories of the major stores in downtown Toronto actually covering up their window displays from Saturday night until Monday morning in what might have been strict adherence to the act or personal convictions.

But today it’s hard to tell the difference between Sunday and any other day. In Canada, I think that’s due to a mixture of religious pluralism (partly because of immigration and partly owing to general secularization) and business owners who lack conviction on the matter. I wonder what they’d think of Chick-fil-A in this country?

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Here’s a classic from Evie about “walkin’ to church on a Sunday morning…”

…and from the a classic gospel music-themed song from Neil Diamond

Wednesday Link List

 

We continue our scintillating series of Christian author photos with this dinnerware shot by Matthew Paul Turner

Welcome back to classic format Wednesday Link List…

• Recalling 25 years ago, “that most wonderful night when people who had been divided for decades were suddenly reunited, and thousands danced on the symbolic grave of separation, celebrating the death of division.” The Berlin Wall falls down “and one of the most remarkable nights of the 20th century happened with a completely non-violent revolution.”
• Author Ann Voskamp, Ambrose University’s Mark Buchanan, and Regent University’s Bruce Hindmarsh discuss the subject of elevating the idea of sabbath in a busy, stressful world. The link is to a 55 minute video.
• Pope Francis is driving the money changers out of the temple. The move to stop selling Papal blessings is based on a 2010 decision, but could cost up to 500 jobs.
• The blog A Life Overseas deals with many behind-the-scenes aspect of mission work that many of us might not consider. For example, a recent post dealt with the challenge for both single and married people in maintaining long distance relationships while on the field.
• The Proverbs 31 Woman: She considereth a tattoo and she getteth it. Actually, there’s a bit more to the story.
• A statistical analysis of the human verbs used in hymns versus choruses reflects changes taking place in the lyrical composition of Christian worship in the last 150 years.
  
• Jean Vanier received an international award two weeks ago in recognition of his work with L’Arche, a community founded to assist disabled, disadvantaged and challenged adults. Many people know the community more for one of its members, Henri Nouwen.
• Well, that didn’t take long. Mark Driscoll is considering returning to ministry. (What’s it been…a week?)
• After over 100 years, the Assemblies of God denom is scrapping the print edition of their Pentecostal Evangel magazine in favor of digital delivery. At the same time they’re introducing Vital, a new publication
• I hope I’m proved wrong on this one by the morning, but has CNN stopped posting to its Religion page, Belief Blog? The last thing posted as of last night was October 22nd.
• At C201 last week, an A. W. Tozer excerpt on which part of the Trinity is responsible for what, followed by links to 9 other Tozer things we’ve run on the blog. Tozer would have loved blogging and social media in general. On the other hand, he might think it a waste of time. Either/or.
• Though he won’t be part of the actual performances, Gospel artists CeCe Winans, Marvin Winans, Israel Houghton, Rance Allen and jazz artist Gerald Albright will pay tribute to music legend Andraé Crouch in the forthcoming Let The Church Say Amen tour.
• What they’re looking for in a church: The latest Barna Research study had people looking at pictures of seating, windows and altars. Millennials want a quiet, not loud, service. 
• Essay of the Week: From a quiet suburban street, Tim Challies contemplates a rather wacky neighbor.
  
• Justin Bieber on Saturday night attended Bible study with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
• Two roads diverged: Brett and Alex, the twin younger brothers of Joshua Harris seemed to be following a similar education and career track, but today find themselves in strikingly different circumstances.
• A search engine analysis of the term “Youth Pastor” during the month of October turned up some disturbing results. This is not how you want your church to make the news.
• A street preacher gets only a small fine after crashing the largest annual parade in Calgary, Canada in 2012.
• Podcast of the Week: Actually, we kept listening and it wasn’t all that good. No link!
• Western society is now divided over the value of getting married and having kids…
• …Try before you buy: Increasingly, marriage is not the dominant operating system.
• People wanting to share their faith have not necessarily moved to the comfort of doing so online. Face-to-face interaction is alive and well, and Roman Catholics score surprising high.
• First Impressions: Making the first eleven minutes of arrival at your church more welcoming using seven checkpoints.  (First…eleven…seven… got it!)
• ‘I’m not only the company president, I’m also a customer.’ Okay he didn’t use that line, but Mark Altrogge doesn’t like to be called ‘Pastor Mark.’
• Wacky Website of the Week: There’s something unsettling about the name, WordPress Ministries.
• Another Young Influencers list. 
• Does your church budget have a line, distinct from conferences, for coaching?
  
• Many denominations have peaked or are in rapid decline. A look at the contrasting growth of Pentecostalism.
  
• Shhhhh! [whispers] The next Secret Church simulcast with David Platt is April 15th.
• Groundwire, the company responsible for those short think pieces on Christian radio stations is getting ready for the Jesus Cares campaign targeting Colorado Springs with billboards and “non-traditional media.”
• Sometimes on my own blog, we get an inexplicable stats burst for an old post and aren’t sure why. Like on the weekend with The Congregation as Seen By The Worship Leader (which was re-posted here two days ago).
• Twitterites: If you’re not already tuned in and don’t mind a little poking fun at the Calvinistas, check out The Gospel Corp.
• No end of praise for Matthew Paul Turner’s book, God Made Light in the Christian blogosphere. “I love how it’s like Dr. Seuss meets Genesis,” says this reviewer. Wonder if the publishers who turned it down have regrets?

Here’s a cartoon left over from our weekend look at Beetle Bailey:

Wednesday Link List

From DailyEncouragement.net — “…It is a camp for displaced Christian refugees in Iraq (Click to enlarge). Note the English writing on the center tent proclaiming in a very dark place, ‘Jesus Is The Light Of The World’.”

This week we celebrate the ellipsis, its utility as connective device, and its overuse. In other words, many of this week’s links were related.

• In the wake of Robin Williams’ death, enumerating various suicide-related issues that clergy will face.
• From either a conservative or orthodox perspective, Gungor keeps digging the hole deeper.
• Essay of the Week: Honestly, I wondered when someone would do a comparison between Mars Hill Grand Rapids and Mars Hill Seattle…
• …Another I’d like to read would be a comparison of two men who were upfront about their faith while selling fried chicken, KFC’s Colonel Harland Sanders and Truett Cathy. The latter, founder of Chick-fil-A passed away on Monday at age 93.
• Persecution: It took a New York Times columnist to say this.
• Perspective: Your weekend worship environment may not be a physical building in Ethiopia; it might involve having a service under a tree…
• …But perhaps many of us put too much emphasis on having a church building.
• I’m surprised we don’t hear more about this August story about 1,400 children being raped and trafficked.
• Just as I have to pick and choose what gets in this list, a popular Christian news site defends their story choices.
• Preaching: “There has been a natural disaster of extraordinary proportions in a nation whose sinfulness is well known. Do you stand up Sunday morning and declare that God has divinely judged that nation?”
• Youth Ministry: Five ways to make sure they hear your message…
• … which was written by a recently displaced Mars Hill pastor whose work visa is now voided, which means leaving the country…
• …while at GoFundMe, people are donating to three other displaced MH staffers.
• Time Travel (1): A 1,500 year-old document that was holed up in a university library references the Last Supper and manna from heaven…
• Time Travel (2): Imagine attending a Puritan worship service. “…the shuffling of the congregation as they settle down to listen comfortably to a lengthy sermon, while the minister adjusted the hour-glass.”
• Sabbath on Steroids: Every seven weeks this Prince Edward Island church basically shuts down all programming…
• …Meanwhile, on Canada’s opposite coast, a church’s annual report includes a page at the end for you to write your own story. (Opens a 40-page .pdf file)
• Two high-profile U.S. missionaries survived Ebola, but the disease has taken four national pastors in the Assemblies of God denomination alone.
• Ann Voskamp tells the kids why they should wait: “Your naked body deserves the honor of being shared only with someone who is covenanted to never stop loving your naked soul.” …
• …On the other hand, when the wedding date is set, should a Christian sign a prenup? Sample: “…a prenup is a bad indicator that not everything is being relinquished for the sake of this marriage.” …
• …Or a girl’s father could just start early on in the relationship asking the guy these twelve questions.
• Tomorrow (9/11) night, Trinity Broadcasting Network unveils its new Chicago studio with an open house…
• …Also in the windy city, a local church’s use of social media has caught some mainstream media attention.
• Last week’s Happy Rant Podcast got our family talking about chewing tobacco to the glory of God.
• A Lutheran mobile ministry is half church, half food truck.
• Sadly, there’s no such thing as “a good divorce.”
• A second Essay of the Week: Save those church bulletins. They might end up in a museum somewhere as artifacts of 20th Century church culture.
• Worship Leaders’ Corner: Five tips for those times you’re working without the band.
• Victoria Osteen stands by her words. Well, sort of. Sample: “Every Lakewood member knows what I was talking about…”  Membership has its privileges…
• …to which the Rev. Dr. Albert Mohler, Jr. replies, “America deserves the Osteens…”
• …Meanwhile, hubby Joel announces Joel Osteen Radio, broadcasting 24/7 on SiriusXM.
• Gladys Knight (sans Pips) released a gospel album yesterday. (Be sure to click through to hear the song.)
• Jamie the Very Worst Email Responder recently deleted her inbox, and thinks you should, too.
• A well known Jewish charity is nominating Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper for a Nobel Peace Prize for his support of Israel.
• A video link for the tweens and teens at your house.
• Finally, across the pond, a man who volunteers his services to umpire an interdenominational cricket match is disqualified because he is not “theologically neutral.“

Each week we scour the web for stories of interest to Leadership Journal readers, however several of our “usual suspects” have put up pay-walls or added pop-ups that can only be described as obnoxious. The goal is to deliver news and opinion pieces with a minimum of interruption and solicitation. Suggestions are always welcomed, you can contact me on Twitter, or at Thinking Out Loud before 6 PM EST Mondays.

Paul Wilkinson is considered Canada’s foremost authority on writing a Wednesday Link List, and he doesn’t just say that because he writes his own footer for this weekly piece.

From theologygrams.wordpress.com, a site I suspect we’ll be visiting many times in the future

Wednesday Link List

Here in the frozen north, Thanksgiving has already come and gone, but that didn’t stop temperatures from reaching 30 degrees Celsius on the weekend (mid 80s Fahrenheit) for three straight days which made link-catching less appealing than suntanning.

• For you worship-leader types, here’s one of the most comprehensive articles you’ll see on the “worship wars” discussed entirely in terms of church architecture.
  
• Just nine more days to another Harold Camping end-of-life-as-we-know-it date.
  
• If you don’t know what I mean when I say, “Stethoscope Video” then you haven’t seen it.  Take 2 1/2 minutes and enjoy.
• It’s official: Mitt Romney tells Dallas Pastor Robert Jeffress that he thinks that Baptists are a cult.  …Okay, not really, but maybe he should have.  Here’s the original story,  a response from Robert Mouw, and a sample of comments; all from CNN.
• You’ll want to read the comments to find more links to get the full 411 on this story, but the blogger Tulip Girl has a blog post implying that another child death may be linked to the controversial book, To Train Up A Child by Michael and Debi Pearl.
  
• No, what follows is not a typo: Is it possible to hate Jesus but love Christianity?  David Paul Dorr looks at that here and here [part two link to follow!]
  
• Are you “crazy busy” all the time?  Pete Wilson hints you may need to invest in the concept of sabbath.
  
• This isn’t new, but… here’s one of those church video clips from Igniter media that uses a Facebook theme; naturally, this one’s titled Follow.
  
• Canadian Anglican Pastor Leonard Griffith is now 90 and just keeps on going.
  
• More from James MacDonald on the decision to invite T. D. Jakes to a forthcoming seminar, aka The Elephant Room controversy.
  
• Hey kids!  Wanna learn Biblical Hebrew in just three easy lessons?  Well, you can’t.  But maybe 40 moderately challenging lessons from Charles Grebe at Briercrest College and Seminary. Learn more about Charles at AnimatedHebrew.com starting with the Hebrew alphabet. Shalom!
  
• The Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) celebrated a 50-year anniversary earlier this month.
  
• In a culture focused on the excitement of church planting, we never think about the sadness of church closings that are constantly taking place at the same time.
  
• Natalie Grant adds “actor” to her list of accomplishments with a feature role in the movie Decision.
  
• From Internet Monk writer Jeff Dunn

There is a story told of an old woman who claimed she and God talked on a regular basis. Her bishop was doubtful of her claims to hear from God. After all, he prayed on a regular basis, but the Lord never spoke back to him. So he decided to put this woman to the test in order to reveal her for either a misguided soul or a fraud. He went to her and said, “The next time you are talking with God, ask him to tell you what my most grievous sin was.” The woman agreed to do so.

A week later the bishop returned and asked, “Did you ask God to reveal to you my worst sin?”

“Yes,” said the woman. “I did ask him.”

“Well,” said the bishop, “what did he say?”

The woman said simply, “He says he forgets.”

Sunday Isn’t Another Saturday

If we would stop treating Sunday as a second Saturday, one more day to run to Home Depot, one more day for the kids’ soccer games, another day for getting ready for Monday, if we would rediscover Sunday as The Lord’s Day, focusing on him for just one day each week, what would be the immediate impact between today and one year from today?

By one year from today, we will have spent 52 whole days given over to Jesus.  Seven and a half weeks of paid vacation with Jesus.

He’s a good King.  Maybe we should put him first in our weekly schedules.  Not fit him into the margins of our busy weekends, but build our whole weekly routine around him.

Just a thought.

~Ray Ortlund

Toiling on the Sabbath

We have a washing machine but not a dryer.   We’ve never owned one.  My parents never owned one.

So on days like this where it’s too warm to turn on the radiators — we don’t have a furnace, either — but too cool and overcast most days to hang laundry outside, wash days have to be chosen carefully.

So one load got done yesterday, but two loads needed to be done today.  We hung one out before leaving for church, and did the other one after lunch.

However, my youngest decided that the dust in his room is what’s bothering his allergies and embarked on an all day cleanup that involved removing great amounts of fabric-bearing furniture to the outdoors, and then hauling out the central vacuum, which I thought we were done with yesterday.   But since it was out already, I figured I might as well touch up a few things that got missed the day before.

My oldest decided to do some cleaning in his room as well.   My wife’s transgression of the sabbath was limited to working on her newest cross-stitch.

I did observe my computer sabbath until around 5:00 PM, when the first e-mail that greeted me was work-related.    And then, because we’re flat broke, we spent about a half-hour rolling coins;  quarters, nickels, dimes and pennies that were accumulating around the house, which is strange because we pay for everything using plastic.

At one earlier point I did manage to take 30 minutes to crash out in a garden chair, and stripped to nothing but shorts, soak in the last of the sun’s warm rays before the snow starts flying in a few weeks.   I tilted my head to the sun, closed my eyes, and prayed:  “Okay, God; what exactly did you have in mind for this day to be set apart for you?”

I’m sure he meant more than the 90 minute church service we attended.   Last week at this time I had some books to review, but today my reading consisted of catching up on a week’s worth of newspapers.    Other than the phone not ringing so much, this day isn’t much different than all the others.

I believe strongly that a day set apart for the worship of God should consist of more than simply not working. There ought to be a positive that balances out the negative; a commission that balances out the omission.

Any thoughts?

# # #

Prayer request:  Pray for J. and B.   J. is on her way to the hospital to deliver the baby who apparently no longer is showing vital signs.   I can’t imagine the emotions that would go with that.

Trying to Keep Sundays Set Apart

I grew up with a friend who wasn’t allowed to listen to the radio on Sunday.   Of all things I wasn’t allowed — or didn’t have time to do on the Lord’s Day — radio restrictions were not one of them.    Being part of a family means you often find strange what is done by those not part of your tribe.

But as a parent, I decided there should be something that we could do to make Sundays special.  To show to ourselves and to God that we were willing to somehow sanctify — or set apart — this day.   Television isn’t fair, because some programs don’t repeat if you miss them.   The computer seemed an easy target, and except on days when the boys have some school assignment due, we’ve managed to invoke a ‘computer sabbath’ for about 13 years now.

The problem is this blog.   I vowed early on that I wasn’t going to be one of those bloggers who starts one and then abandons it; and I also promised myself I would post something fresh every day, even it was a reprint or a remix of a previous post.    As someone who has worked as a paid writer, this means working on the sabbath.   As someone who has been a paid church staff member, I know that the heaviest workday is Sunday.   So I am capable of seeing this both ways.

So, I thought I would ramble about that for three paragraphs and fulfill my duty to an ever-growing readership, and the promises I made to myself.   The biggest problem came when I went to add a picture.   As any good journalist knows, the story isn’t complete until the photo editor has added something illustrative.   Many of the most successful bloggers insert a picture or graphic with each post to draw readers in and make the entire blog look visually appealing.

So I tried Googling (and All-The-Webbing) the phrase, “Closed Sundays.”   I had great luck a few months ago when I needed a graphic for work that said “Terrific Tuesday;” so I figured if I could find something that obscure, this one ought to be a cakewalk.   But the internet would not yield such a graphic; at least not today.

The reason is obvious.   In Western culture, nothing is closed on Sundays anymore.   Sad, in some respects.   It also makes me more determined that we hold on to our computer sabbath as long as possible.  (He said while staring at the monitor and typing…)

So what about at your house?   Anything you do to make Sunday special?   Any stories you want to tell about growing up in stricter times?