Lately Listening to…

This weekend I went to a concert Friday and Saturday night.  Thanks goes to WKNC for my attending The Old Ceremony @ The Pour House on Friday.  It was my fist concert of theirs, and I am now a new fan.  Their music is a bit all over the place, but always good.  They’re a bit quirky at times, but fun.  Saturday night, I saw Carbon Leaf at Cat’s Cradle.  This was, I believe, my eighth time seeing them live.  They always have a good energy and put on a great show.  This one was a typical show and nothing like their Night of the Living Dead show back in October at Lincoln Theater which was a night of freakshows and music. 

Today, I purchased The Crane Wife by The Decembrists.  So far it is going well with a windy & warm February day.  It takes you to an earlier time when things were much different and yet exactly as they are today.

On Being Baptist Part III

On of my first memories of my freshman year at Campbell University was my first Baptist Student Union meeting.  Michael Goodman, a leader in the group, prayed the invocation.  He prayed to “Mother God.”  I don’t remember being upset by his prayer, but I imagine it was unsettling for some freshmen.  I asked my roommate Shaun Price, a Junior at the time, why Michael prayed to “Mother God.”  “Probably to challenge people’s ideas of God and get them thinking” was his reply.  I don’t remember struggling with the concept that God was spirit and not gender specific, but I do remember the comment sparking some questions about my own concept of God and the language I use.  It got me questioning my own faith and connecting my intellectual gifts with my heartfelt faith in God.  My faith deepened and I spent a good bit of my freshman year very passionate about overseas missions.  I read Jim Elliot’s biography and was convinced the life I was living was not the life I was called to live.  I was ready to give away all that had and travel to some distant land to share the Gospel.  In my Sophomore year, Bart Campolo almost convinced me to spend a year living with the poor.  Katherine, my then-girlfriend (now my wife) was a bit more grounded and not really ready for such a change.  After some conversations, I decided I should stay at Campbell and keep serving a small Baptist church as their Youth Minister.

The way I viewed life in general also began to change throughout my time at Campbell.  I stopped supporting certain political leaders.  When riding in my car I was more likely to be listening to NPR rather than a contemporary Christian CD.  I knew much more about the Bible and church history.  Being Baptist meant I believed in believer’s baptism, priesthood of all believers, freedom of religion (including separation of church and state), and autonomy of the local church.

Worst Article Related to NBC

I must say that this article about Young Baptists going green is ridiculous and portrays young Baptists in a way which I am not comfortable.   Perhaps the media preyed on the younger Baptists to get stupid quotes like Sara McCoy’s description of global warming as a “burr in my butt.”Here is the worst quote:

“The environment is the No. 1 issue in terms of how we are putting hands and feet to the call of Christ — not just saying but doing,” said Bailey Edwards Nelson, a 24-year-old divinity school student at Mercer University’s McAfee School of Theology in Atlanta.

I cannot even begin to understand exactly what this girl was thinking when she decided that the environment is the #1 issue facing Christians as putting hands and feet to the call of Christ.  Caring for our environment is part of the Christian faith, but the calling to care for our environment needs to be put in perspective.  For more on my thoughts about this see my previous post.  Fundamentalist conservatives like to claim that moderate to liberal Christians are abandoning any sort of evangelism or sharing of their faith and taking up the call of environmentalism instead.   In this move, they claim those Christians have placed creation above humanity and its need for salvation.   I believe (as I said in my previous post) that sharing our faith is just as much a part of the gospel as caring and sharing our resources to participate in the redemption of creation. I did not attend the Al Gore luncheon at the New Baptist Covenant.  For the $35 the luncheon cost, I could have purchased An Inconvenient Truth and bought some more of those expensive lightbulbs from Target to save more money by using less electricity.  I also heard from a reliable source that the amount of celebrity and applause received by Gore was far greater than all the other speakers at the plenary sessions.  If we are to give celebrity status to any person for their hard work, it should have been William Shaw.  He delivered an amazing sermon that I am planning on watching again on the website. 

 As part of the NBC class at Campbell, I will continue writing and will hope for some comments and discussion on the meeting from my friends that might actually read this.

On Being Baptist Part II

After losing access to my blog for a bit, I am now once again able to continue with my posts on being Baptist. 

At the age of twelve I was baptized.  My baptism came not with my first profession of faith, but with my second.  While in New Mexico, I attended a Vacation Bible School.  When the leader asked if anyone had not accepted Jesus and wanted to, I raised my hand.  Beyond raising my hand, I don’t remember much action on my part until I walked down the aisle of Cashie Baptist Church four years later.  My parents were never baptized.  I was the only one in my family baptized in a Baptist Church.  We were Baptists, but for my family, this simply signified which church they attended.  It meant the same for me for several more years of my life.  During High School being Baptist meant I didn’t speak in tongues like my friends at the Assemblies of God church.  (I do remember doing so while on a retreat as a young Royal Ranger with the Assembly of God church.  I dabbled in charismatic ways early on.)  It also meant we attended Passport Camps during the summer.  This camp was my first experience with Baptists that represented less of the conservative archetype to which I was well exposed.  It was at these camps that my faith was challenged and began to grow each summer.  Being Baptist began to take on new shades of color.

When considering college and seeking to prepare for vocational ministry, being Baptist meant going to Campbell University and majoring in Religion and Christian Ministries.  It was during this period of my life that being Baptist began taking deeper meaning

On Being Baptist

I am attending the New Baptist Covenant and as many others my age attending are blogging about what it means to be Baptist, I will try and write serveral posts about my own experience in the Baptist life.

We’re Middle Class…

I never attended a Baptist church until I was ten years old.  My father was in the Air Force and my parents drug us to serveral churches throughout our childhood.  I remember attending an Assemblies of God Church on many occassions and some non-denominational churches that my mother liked.  When my father left the military and moved our family to North Carolina, we moved into main street, small town, NC.  Quite the change from our life in New Mexico.  I guess my father felt the Episcopal Church was a bit too upper class for us, and the Assemblies of God Church didn’t fit us; so we settled on the Baptist Church.  (I do remember a snowy winters day when my father was treated to screwdrivers and oysters by some members of the Episcopal Church while I was treated to sledding down the biggest hill in town.  He said something along the lines of “you people know how to have fun… I need to go to your church.”  It never happened.)   So we were Baptists. 

Advent

Each Advent season Zebulon Baptist Church prepares a devotional guide for members to use.  The following is the devotional I wrote for last year’s guide.

Romans 12:2

I have been known to tell a long joke titled African Peach Pie.  This joke works best on long trips such as a trip to King’s Dominion or a long ride to Florida for a week long camp.  I did not come up with this joke, but it was passed down to me by my former youth minister.  The joke tells the story of a man that flies to Africa only to crash his plane in a desert.  After walking across the desert the man finally finds refuge at a wonderful restaurant where he tries African peach pie.  The man makes several trips to Africa throughout the story.  The whole point of the joke is to make it as intricate and verbose as possible.  It usually runs about 30 to 45 minutes to tell.  Some students often stop listening before the joke ends because the man flying to Africa makes several trips and the joke repeats itself.  Whenever we hear something we have heard over and over again, it is easy to lose interest.  The same thing can happen during the Advent season.

            In Paul’s letter to the Romans, he urges the early Christians not to become conformed to this world.  With the routine of daily living, the things we do tend toward losing our interest and losing meaning.  When something is new, we tend to view it with excitement and wonder.  When that thing becomes commonplace we view it as dull and boring.  The day you get a new car or a new house, you are very excited about it.  Many years later you may look back and want a new car or a news house because the one you have now has become too boring.  This world tends toward making something of worth become worthless.  And in the case of Advent, this world tends toward making something of infinite worth seem worthless.  I am new to Zebulon Baptist Church, so I will find it pretty easy to search for meaning behind the various symbols and rituals at this church.  May this Advent season of waiting for Christ be one that we seek to be transformed from this world’s thought that we might discern the goodness and infinite worth of Jesus Christ.

Semester’s Close

is coming quickly. 

It has been way too long since a last post and even longer since a post of substance.  I am a long way away from being a true blogger, but I don’t think I really have many people reading anyways.  Church work, writing papers, and travel have taken my time lately.  However, I do have alot of interesting ideas floating around in my head lately that I hope to write about in the future.  At the moment I am working on a paper discussing various “directions” of congregational leadership.  I am focusing on emergent churches and using alot of material from Bob Whitesel’s Inside the Organic Church, Roxburgh & Romanuk’s The Missional Leader, Tim Conder’s The Church in Transition, The Emergent Manifesto of Hope, along with several others.

 While in Charlotte over Thanksgiving break, I decided that my generation (23-31 year old late Gen X-ers) never really had a coming of age film.  (Perhaps as a result of delayed adulthood?)  But maybe Garden State, although not a typical “coming of age” film, might represent one for us.  Maybe I’ll buy the movie and make some comparisons with past coming of age films.  Here’s to shouting at the infinite abyss!

City of Oaks Marathon

After four months of training, I finished my first marathon yesterday in 4 hrs. 6 min. and 51 secs.  I was 302 out of 1051 registered marathon runners, 8th out of 18 in my division, and 219 out of 533 males.  But since this was my first marathon, the most important thing is I finished.  I went in worried about how hard and painful the final miles would be, so I did a good job pacing myself in the first half.  My pace time for the second half was only 12 seconds slower than the first.  It felt great finishing and even better knowing I did it faster than I had expected. 

The marathon was won by Tim Surface, a 29 year old male from Raleigh, NC with the time of 2:35:24.7.  

The most inspiring to me is Iris Vinegar,  81 from Raleigh finished the race.

The first few miles of the run were very odd.  Running with thousands of people as the sun was rising over a sleeping city was a weird but great experience.  I must also say that the encouragement I received from many of the experienced runners was great.  I talked to several on my run and they were all kind and helped me along. 

 I have also decided that the best flavor of GU is espresso. 

So will I run another marathon?  I am looking at next year.  With such a great experience for my first one, I don’t see how I couldn’t do it again and easily get under the 4 hr mark.

Here are some pictures: 

 

odd weather/creation/manbearpig

 Much of North Carolina is experiencing its third straight day of rain after a prolonged drought.  Wednesday morning, I got caught in a thunderstorm on a 12 mile run that was cut short by the lightening.  I waited under the shelter of an apartment complex mail area for about an hour.   The thunderstorms and wind just kept coming.  While I waited I thought about families in California choosing what items to take with them as they left their home to the California flames.  I thought about how for many countries droughts are the rule rather than the exception.  And they are often accompanied with famine.  Is this God’s plan?  Does God want certain nations and people to succeed?  After all, you’ve heard it said ”God is in control of it all.  Everything happens for a reason.”

Are these meterological catastrophes the result of a world that is just going the course that was set out from the beginning?  Global warming (manbearpig) we’re told is real, but the extent that humanity is causing or helping it along is still a hotly debated issue.  Are these things the result of humanity failing to do its part to leave a smaller “footprint?” 

Al Mohler has said he believes liberal Christians have taken up environmentalism and allowed this to replace good Christian evangelism.  I don’t see that happening.  If anything, the moderate to liberal Christians I know are finding a new interest in understanding how we share our faith in these post-everything times.  Sharing of the gospel is just as much related to the way we share our resources and seek to participate in the redemption of creation as it is related to our participation in the redemption of individual souls.  Why should we pretend they aren’t part of the same act of redemption.

Somebody’s Coming

Todd Snider is a musician I recently heard on 88.1 WKNC here in Raleigh.  After looking into his music, the song “Somebody’s Coming” sparked my interest.  Although I have just stumbled across Snider, he is certainly not a burgeoning artist.  This Song was recorded in 1994.   I think its an awesome song.  Here are the lyrics:

Tell anybody that ain’t got nobody
Somebody’s coming
Tell all these people who think they need money
Somebody’s coming
Tell everybody walkin’ tall and proud
That their money talks, but it talks so loud
That there’s somebody coming
That’s gonna change everything

Tell all these people makin’ all these decisions
Somebody’s coming
Tell all these people with their hateful opinions
Somebody’s coming
Tell everybody in the KKK, in the FBI, in the CIA
That there’s somebody coming
That’s gonna change everything
Somebody’s coming to change your mind
Sneak up on all you believe from behind
Somebody’s coming who won’t let you down
Who’ll turn everything you thought was right around
Well somebody’s coming
That’s gonna change everything

Tell all these people at the end of the line
Somebody’s coming
Tell all these people holding “I’ll work for food” signs
Somebody’s coming
Somebody’s coming, been here before
If you think you’re outta chances, well you’ve got one more
‘Cause somebody’s coming
That’s gonna change everything
Somebody’s coming that don’t need your vote
Gonna rattle your cage and rock your boat
Somebody’ coming like a thief in the night
Gonna stand by his people when we’re took weak to fightWell somebody’s coming
It’s gonna change everything
Somebody’s coming
Somebody’s coming
Look out!
Somebody’s coming
Yes it’s somebody coming
That’s gonna to change everything

Somebody is coming.
But if we are to tell folks that somebody is coming to change the structures of this world that keep people poor, hurting, desperate, and fearful, we must be willing to do something as well as speak about that change.  It is my prayer that I tell nobody about the coming of a saviour until I am ready to begin that work by walking along side that person as they begin to experience Jesus sneaking up behind them and changing the way they see the world.

This song speaks much better to the church than it does to individuals.  I don’t believe any of us are called to “tell everybody” about Jesus.  Sharing faith should be done in close relationships that are safe and established, rather than by a rally or crusade.  I can accept this song’s call to “tell everybody” much easier when it is sung to the church as a whole.  Everyone must be told through the personal relationships of individual members of the body.  Its about the relationships, not pronouncements of Truth shouted in monologue or truth “gripped tightly in fists” (thanks Tripp) .  Unfortunately, I don’t believe many within the church are listening to music from guys like Todd Snider.  And too many Christians interpret “telling everybody” as inviting people to a concert so somebody else can tell them about a savior that has come to condemn them to hell unless they mentally affirm a list of anywhere from 3 to 300 facts.  Maybe those Christians need to hear that somebody’s coming to turn everything they thought was right around.  Maybe I need to tell them. 

Only if I am willing to walk with them.