Thinking Globally: Rick Warren Speaks To Both US Presidential Candidates

I was very interested in what might take place at this forum down at Saddleback church when I first heard about it on NPR. It would be the first time that both Barack Obama and John McCain were at the same place at the same time since becoming the presumptive presidential nominees.

I listened as political analysts broke down the situation, and tried to predict what kind of effect this event would have on their political standing. They seemed pretty receptive to the idea of this forum, and were especially pleased that Warren had stated that he intended to talk about a wider spectrum of topics than focusing on the conservative "hot-buttons" of abortion and same-sex marriage. This made me wonder if Warren was going to address these issues at all, and I was relieved to find out he did.

One of my favorite bloggers, Albert Mohler, recapped his impression of the forum HERE, and he mentioned that although he was skeptical at first, he makes note of some important developments.

With the press pushing the event as a "new face" for American evangelicals, I was not overly hopeful. Given the hype, I was positively unhopeful. But . . . the event turned to be quite worthwhile after all. I still have deep reservations about identifying the event so closely with a church, but the conversations really did get to urgently important and controversial issues, and Pastor Rick Warren handled the conversations with aplomb, demonstrating both civility and candor.

He asked about their greatest moral failure. Obama spoke of drug and alcohol use as a young person. McCain referred directly to the failure of his first marriage. When asked about the reality of evil, the two candidates revealed very different approaches. When asked about abortion and same-sex marriage, a great chasm appeared between the candidates. Obama declared his complete support for the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion on demand. When asked, "at what point does a baby get human rights?" Obama said that the question "is above my pay grade." That is a particularly evasive answer, because the President of the United States must frame policies that are predicated on some assumption of when a human being, born or unborn, deserves the full protection of the law.

He goes on to talk about how some in the secular world responded to the event, noting their intense desire to not only retain clear separation of church and state, but resist this "push for a theocratic presidency."

CNN.com also had a good review of the forum, and it posts many of the replies from both candidates. Check it out HERE.

While this post isn't focused on a different country, I still think we need to "think globally" inasmuch as the next president is going to have a profound impact on the world at large. On our own soil, we wait to see where many of the issues we hold dear will end up, even as we attempt to turn our eyes to other issues confronting the world such as world hunger, global warming, terrorism, and others.

Pray, pray, pray.

Enfield At Grace Community Church

Just wanted to let you all know that I'll be playing with Enfield (the worship band from the Resolved Conference that I played with back in June) this Sunday night at Grace Community Church's Sunday evening service.

It won't be a full concert or anything, probably a half an hour or so, but I know many of you had said you would have liked to go to the conference, so here's a little taste!

The service starts at 6:00 pm, and the church is down in Sun Valley, so allow at least a half an hour.

From Valencia, take the 5 South, to the 170 South. Exit Roscoe Blvd (it comes up right after you get on the 170, so keep your eyes open), and turn right. The church is at 13248 Roscoe, on the South side of the street. Parking is available behind the church building, or across the street.

Preparing For Worship August 17th, 2008

Hey everyone! I'm glad to be back with you this week!

Jess and I had a great time visiting family in Kentucky, and we got unseasonably nice weather, and a lot of time to rest and relax.

Thanks again to my brother, Donny, for leading worship for me last Sunday. He gets one Sunday off every month from playing the drums at his church, and he's always gracious enough to offer to help out with whatever I need (drums, bass, you-name-it).

This Sunday we take off into our study in the Sermon on the Mount from Matthew 5-7. Take some time to read through this important passage, and interact with your Bible as you do (take notes, circle, underline, whatever helps you!). It will make our corporate study all the more beneficial.

We're going to start the service with a set of songs that all have the word "how." In English, we use the word "how" in two ways:

One way is to start off a question, such as "How much is that Aston Martin DB9?"

The second is to reinforce, or declare something we already know to be true, such as "How expensive that Aston Martin DB9 is!"

We're going to sing songs that use "how" in that second sense; to reinforce and declare that which we already know to be true! In our case we will be declaring "How Good And Pleasant" it is when we dwell together in unity and praise the Lord! We'll also declare to God "How Great Thou Art," as we focus on his majesty in creation and the plan of the cross.

Next we'll learn a new song written by our own Linda Gray, and if you received a copy of her CD "Paradox of Power," then you already have it in your possession. It's called "[How] Fortunate" (the word "how" isn't actually in the title, but it worked so well with my theme!!), and you can find the lyrics, and download the song for free HERE if you don't already have it. Thanks Linda!

After we recount the many great blessings found in Linda's song, we'll take some time to respond to our greatest blessing: the Savior. We'll lay our hearts before the throne of God, and declare "Here I Am To Worship."

Darren Utley is preaching this Sunday, and he will then come and introduce us to the Sermon on the mount. He'll give us some important background and insight into what this "Sermon of sermons" is all about.

After this, we'll take some time to meditate on the high calling that Jesus places on us through the Sermon on the Mount. We'll recall that it's only by God's grace, and the power of the Holy Spirit, that we can live the kind of life Jesus talks about in this passage. "O Great God" is based on a Puritan prayer called "Regeneration" and it expresses this desire and dependence. We'll end acknowledging that all of our hope is indeed found "In Christ Alone" and his work on the cross.

Happy preparation!

Preparing For Worship: August 3rd, 2008

So this Sunday, I am going to try something that I've never tried before: leading worship from the drums. I don't know of any other worship leaders that have done it; and it might be for good reason that they haven't! But if a 10 year-old girl can do play and sing Phil Collins, and Phil Collins drummed and sang for Genesis, and Genesis is the first book of the Bible...there's gotta be some kind of connection there...I'll let you know when I figure it out!

Anyway, this Sunday is also our last community night of the summer featuring singer/songwriter Chad Long, so plan on joining us for great coffee, desserts, music, and fun on Sunday night. Chad will also be joining the worship team that morning, and giving us a special sneak preview of one of his songs in the service.

We'll start the service with a call to worship: "Stir In Me" which declares our dependence on the sovereignty of God, and on his Spirit to help us worship, and that as we sing, pray, give, study his word, and take communion together, that he would mold us into life worshipers.

Pastor Todd will share a few important announcements with us, and Kathleen Perdisatt will let us know of some ministry needs in our children's department; such a crucial ministry!

We'll continue singing as we continue to explore the depths of God's sovereignty in our lives, and how in times of joy, and in grief, we must make the choice in our heart to proclaim "Blessed Be Your Name." There is true freedom in this surrendering of our lives to God, and realize that it is not by our own power or by exhibiting the trappings of religion, but that in spite of our fears and failures, that God's mercy and grace triumphs over our sin, because God is "Mighty To Save."

By this time, we'll be prepared for Pastor Todd to bring us King Solomon's ultimate conclusion in Ecclesiastes 12: Fear God, and keep his commands. When we surrender to, and embrace, the sovereignty of God, we are able to trust him FULLY, in all of the things Solomon has addressed to this point:
-We can trust him to bring justice where there appears to be none;
-We can trust him to guide, direct, and help us to live life to the fullest when we live with wisdom;
-We can trust that when we invest our lives and our efforts in his work, that he will work his perfect plan and bring fruit from our work;

This would be a great time to reread the rest of Ecclesiastes as we draw our study to a close. Solomon has come a long way, and laid out the truth about life, and after he's seen and done it all, he decides that the end of the matter is to fear God! This book is worth reading frequently in your personal devotions to keep a right perspective on everything that goes on under the sun.

We'll have a time of corporate response as we share communion together after the sermon. Fearing God means having a healthy respect and reverence for him, and few things inspire this sort of fear than reflecting on the cross. We'll sing "At The Cross" together, and reflect on the substitutionary death Christ died for us, before closing our service with a call to worship in all of life with "To God Be The Glory."

I look forward to worshiping with each of you! Happy preparation.

From "Salt, Light, Conformity, and the iPod"

The following is from a weekly email I receive from Christianity Today, which is a music review email from their music department. It helps me stay aware of all the new music that is coming out, and gives me a chance to listen to some different styles that I might not normally spend a lot of time searching out. The editor brought up a very interesting point that I wanted to share with you... (Click HERE for the article in its original context)

Many of you with iPods and MP3 libraries may have noticed a little detail concerning MP3s and file management that, in my mind at least, creates a small, but interesting, dilemma. It all has to do with how music gets categorized.

For those unfamiliar with the process, it's common to rip/copy CDs to your computer and then transfer those music files to your MP3 player. There's a handy feature with the file management software that searches for album data on the Internet, automatically labeling your files with things like artist name, album title, year of release, and genre. Similarly, when you download music from sites like iTunes, the files are already labeled with that same information.

Right, now here's the dilemma. Like many of you, I listen to Christian music, as well as secular music. When you get the track information for secular artists, they're classified as pop, rock, hip-hop, classical … whatever the genre. All Christian music, however, is labeled as "Gospel & Religious." Well, to me, "Gospel & Religious" doesn't cut it. It defines the lyrical content; it doesn't define the music. What good is it to organize by genre if you can't discern the style? That's why whenever I upload music to my MP3 library, I change the genre to reflect the style, not the songwriting. Bebo Norman exists alongside Billy Joel on my iPod, as do Caedmon's Call and Coldplay.

Now I know that some of you only listen to Christian music, but in a way, that only magnifies the issue. Unless you've changed the genre yourself, every artist and song on your iPod is categorized as "Gospel & Religious." Pop, rock, hip-hop, gospel, folk, R&B, country—it's all classified the same. Doesn't make much sense, right?

Besides, consider how music is categorized at a Christian bookstore. Usually, it's by pop, rock, praise & worship, and such. It's when you go out "into the world" to Wal-Mart, Best Buy, and other mainstream retail stores, that all Christian music is lumped together into one category, separate from music that might otherwise sound similar.

Well, at least we have a choice with our individual music collections and MP3 libraries. I'm sure many of you hold firmly to the belief that Christian music shouldn't mix with secular music: "Be ye separate … Do not conform to the ways of this world … How can people know if it's Christian music unless you define it as such?"

For me, however, it's a practical reality of life to mix the two—and that's not an endorsement of secular music with bad content, mind you. I simply consider it a matter of "salt and light" when defining artists by their music, not their lyrical content. After all, the lyrical content speaks for itself by virtue of Matthew 5:16, and it's worth sprinkling the salt a little more broadly to get the messages and ideas across...

...Either way, I'm not trying to say there's one better way to organize music over another. But what I do find interesting is that a little thing like organizing our personal music can say so much about how we view art and the role of Christian music in the world around us.

It's amazing how something so small and simple reflects back to the way we view our Christianity. Is it something that we hold back from the rest of the world because we are afraid that the world will mess it up?

Interesting food for thought...

Thinking Globally: The African Church Reaching Out To Europe

Here's a great post on the Desiring God Blog about African missionaries planting churches in a highly "post-religion" Western Europe. It's amazing that as Europe has "outgrown" religion at large, the gospel is exploding in other parts of the world, and they become the new bases for global outreach.

Christianity has been under attack since its beginnings, and if it was just another folklore movement, we should have seen it die out numerous times; especially in such a crossroads of culture, such as Western Europe. The Holy Spirit is continually working to illuminate the truth of the gospel to different people groups all around the world, and it is truly a testament and affirmation to the power of God that Christianity continues to thrive and grow.

Preparing For Worship: July 27, 2008

Happy Friday!

We only have two more weeks in our study of Ecclesiastes, so don't miss!

This Sunday we're gonna start with "Be Glorified" as our call to worship. Then Pastor Todd will keep us up to speed on upcoming ministry/worship opportunities, and he will then introduce Erin Axline (who will give us a recap on her trip to Thailand), and Mallory Smith (who will give us some things to pray for as she heads to Germany).

We'll continue singing together, and focusing on the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ, by singing "That's Why We Praise Him," and remember the glorious wisdom of God who did not abandon us in our sin with "Be Unto Your Name."

Pastor Todd will then bring us his message from Ecclesiastes 11 called "What Are You Waiting For?" Be sure to read the passage!

After that, we get to respond to God's greatness and beauty with "I Stand In Awe" and then close the service and commit to living for God's greatness with "Everlasting God."

No new songs this week, so I'll expect your loudest singing voices! :-)

See you Sunday!