Billy Joel - She's Got A Way...my Desperado

Remember the Seinfeld episode where Elaine is dating a guy who would go into a trance whenever the song Desperado would go on? Yeah...this song is my Desperado. Found the live video...total magic.
http://www.mtv.com/videos/billy-joel/258169/shes-got-a-way.jhtml

Billy Joel - New Music - More Music Videos

Love and Vulnerability Quote by C.S. Lewis

I quoted part of this but just got the whole thing. WOW. So much my thoughts and struggles right now:

There is no safe investment. To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket — safe, dark, motionless, airless — it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell. I believe that the most lawless and inordinate loves are less contrary to God’s will than a self-invited and self-protective lovelessness…We shall draw nearer to God, not by trying to avoid the sufferings inherent in all loves, but by accepting them and offering them to Him; throwing away all defensive armour. If our hearts need to be broken, and if He chooses this as a way in which they should break, so be it. What I know about love and believe about love and giving ones heart began in this. (C.S. Lewis - The Four Loves)

Update 3.20.09

Been an interesting month. Here are the highlights:

• School is good. Pulled a 96% final grade in church planting. Maintaining about a 3.8 GPA. Hebrew is pulling me down and yet I love it! Sick I know. I just registered for fall. So far I have Hebrew Exegesis, Beginning Greek and OT Orientation. I need to add one or two more. I just want to get DONE.
  
• I just started listening to MacArthur's sermons on the five points of Calvinism. The man has brains oozing out his ears. Some very interesting points to consider.
• I led worship at Arbor Baptist Church this past Sunday. It's the first time I've led worship since I led my AMPED kiddies on January 13, 2007. It was pretty emotional for me. So many memories flooded my mind. I picked songs that explain where I am at and what I'm still going through.
• Southern Seminary is looking like the strongest candidate for me to do my PhD through. I wish I could do Gordon Conwell in Mass, but they have no PhD programs. So far I'm aiming for Church History and Historical Theology.
• Been obsessed with the show Gangland recently. It's fascinating when you get into the psychology and sociology of a gang. You see the same patterns, but the most important theme is loyalty. All members want to belong to something bigger than themselves.
  
• I'm checking out some potential short trips this summer. I'm hoping to hit my homecity in July and see friends, the Phillies and such. I miss that place so much. I miss the Jersey shore. I REALLY want to go to Lake Winnipesaukee this summer again. I love that place so much.
  
• Been listening to Dub Trio, Dashboard Confessional, and a ton of old stuff for memory's sake. The past is the past, but you can sense it all again when you listen to songs that remind you of where you've come from and what you are going through.
  

I've been thinking about vulnerability. Its something I tend to do to myself a lot. In order to love people, you have to make your heart vulnerable. It is based on trust and there is always that possibility that the friends and loved one are going to stomp on your heart. Why do you do it? Because it is a sign of your love for them. You submit the most tender part of your soul, your heart, to them in return for relationship and hopefully returned love. Vulnerability shows all of your weakness, all of your wounds, all your struggles. It's so beautiful when the favor is returned and all the people involved show their weakness to each other. It's a sign that we are all weak humans in need of each other. I hope I'm vulnerable with all, but I know I open myself up to the potential for wounding. It's a risk we all have to take for the purpose of fellowship and love. It also helps you hurt for others and understand where they are at.

As CS Lewis put it:

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket- safe, dark, motionless, airless--it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.”

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

To celebrate the Irish heritage, a few of my favorite tunes by Celtic bands. Solas is fantastic! Flogging is a blast. The Coors rock my world with this song.

New Calvinism Makes Time's List

Article

Interesting that this is one of the up and coming movements in the church and now its even gaining attention in a secular magazine as a movement. Reasons that I like this. One- the majority of neo-Reformed churches are committed to Scriptural teaching and the T word that most seeker-sensitive churches run from (..theology). They are committed less to the flashy service as much as they are basing their success of the Word of God. What a concept!!! Second, the conversion in a Reformed church is a big deal- not for the sake of a number, but for the sake of the commitment factor. If you're saved, its expected to show in your desire for growth. This has been treated as secondary by many megachurches. Third, a movement to this will make it more difficult to be a nominal or pretend Christian and hang around for years to be entertained. What I mean is the separation of wheat and tares and the purification of the church will become a bigger movement. Thank Goodness!

The only feelings I have that are to the negative. Some are based in the few areas I'm wrestling with theologically with predestination and limited atonement. Second, some, including my favorite Mark Driscoll, are buying into the satellite church deal. I really struggle with this as I've mentioned before due to it becoming the new face of denominations. Marketing needs to be kept in balance as well. It can't become the bigger emphasis over God doing his work. He doesn't need flashy posters and catch phrases to build his church. He's more than capable of building it on his own.

Driscoll has some additional thoughts on the article:
http://theresurgence.com/new_calvinism
http://theresurgence.com/time_magazine_new_reformed

The Coming Evangelical Collapse

Article

I have to admit that after reading this article, I was shaken. I had to remind myself that this is a prediction and predictions are prone to failure. The reason this was scary is some of it was things I've been thinking and saying and seeing on my own. It was weird to see someone else seeing the same things. I would like to comment on some of the observations that the author made.

"...they (Protestants) will soon be living in a very secular and religiously antagonistic 21st century."

It seems that polls on even the most conservative news sites are seeing the growing rise of secularism and the dropping numbers of those who claim a religion. The Catholic Church has been diving for years. The Southern Baptists have seen dropping numbers for the first time in their history. The reason could be one of a million different things. From the moral stands of religion, to the belief in absolute truth, to the scandals that rock the church. Most don't like being told that their opinions are wrong and in an era of political correctness, they don't want a church to tell them how to live.

Intolerance of Christianity will rise to levels many of us have not believed possible in our lifetimes, and public policy will become hostile toward evangelical Christianity, seeing it as the opponent of the common good.

This isn't the first time this has happened. In Ancient Rome, the Christians were seen as ones that were causing political problems with Roman leadership. They were accused of being cannibals, atheists and rebels. Also in the French Revolution, Christianity was seen as something that caused war and violence and led to the rise of secularism in response. Religion was the enemy of peace and logic. Both of these were overcome. There is no reason that this won't be overcome in time.

Millions of Evangelicals will quit. Thousands of ministries will end. Christian media will be reduced, if not eliminated. Many Christian schools will go into rapid decline.

The current economic decline is beginning to usher this in. There are calls for donations from Christian radio, churches, schools, seminaries, etc. Honestly, the modern church tends to be obsessed with building projects and top notch staff and technology. This may prove to be a good thing. Maybe the church will get back to the kingdom of God, not the kingdom of their church and megachurch.

Being against gay marriage and being rhetorically pro-life will not make up for the fact that massive majorities of Evangelicals can't articulate the Gospel with any coherence.

Wow! GREAT line. We've been so content putting on Sunday morning theater and doing feel-good talks that we have fled from discipleship and the majority of attendees in our churches don't know what they are supposed to believe. We have incredibly weak believers in our church because we've abandoned discipleship for "evangelism" and large membership. It's easier to win them than to commit to a life commitment of mentoring and discipleship.

Ironically, the billions of dollars we've spent on youth ministers, Christian music, publishing, and media has produced a culture of young Christians who know next to nothing about their own faith except how they feel about it.

Wow again! I'm a youth pastor. I've been too many youth pastor conferences and heard the latest ideas in youth ministry. What did I come away with? "We have to compete with MTV. Entertain first, relationships second, Jesus third." The worship explosion is evidence of the emotional based faith that is being taught. Our kids know more lyrics to worship songs than verses from the Word of God. As I've been writing previously, we DESPERATELY need to return to intense discipleship of students. Our numbers may drop because we aren't entertaining anymore. So be it.

...consumer-driven megachurches, dying churches, and new churches whose future is fragile. Denominations will shrink, even vanish, while fewer and fewer evangelical churches will survive and thrive.

I've been talking about my bane- the consumer driven church- for a year now. They will keep having to top themselves with entertainment and services to the point the message will be lost as to why we are doing it. I don't necessarily agree with the denomination going away. I think they will just look different. The satellite church and video venue church are the new denomination. They are church brands rather than doctrinal fellowships.

Despite some very successful developments in the past 25 years, Christian education has not produced a product that can withstand the rising tide of secularism.

AMEN. We stopped challenging our churches and pastors on THEOLOGY and replaced it with BUSINESS STRATEGY! Most of our pastors don't know how to think deeply. I am just getting better at this myself. We do not compete because we do not engage.

Charismatic-Pentecostal Christianity will become the majority report in evangelicalism. Can this community withstand heresy, relativism, and confusion? To do so, it must make a priority of biblical authority, responsible leadership, and a reemergence of orthodoxy.

As I've been reading in my Church Planting class, One of two groups that is still experiencing great success in church planting and evangelism is the Pentecostal movement. I can't really explain it other than their intentionality of planting churches. They are to be praised for this. Some of the newer movements have been the rise of the Charismatic Reformed movement (Mark Driscoll, Sovereign Grace). They are charismatic with a seat belt, and have a high emphasis on doctrine and theology. I am completely behind this movement even if I don't agree with every detail.

This article is scary and yet a wake up call for the church. Like it or not, some of this is already beginning to happen. The last election proves this. The church must get back to discipleship and get over the business/consumer church.

Flogging Molly Concert Review

They picked an interesting assortment of bands to play in one night. I arrived to see my fellow Irish about, including one that was wearing a kilt. I chose to sit in the balcony with the old people this time which turned out not to disappoint.

The opening band Dub Trio was SICK. No singer so no lyrics to anger me...all experimental guitar stuff. The crowd LOVED them. They rocked!


Next up was a ska band...I know...from experimental stuff to ska...we still had Celtic Rock to go. They were the Aggrolites from L.A. They were talented and sounded great. The keyboardist looked like one of the guys from the Latin Kings on Gangland. Good talented reggae/ska.

Flogging Molly started with a guy wearing an old English sea captain suit coming out on stage to the Ramones Blitzkrieg Bop...I'm still trying to figure that one out. The band came out and kicked off with 2 of my favorites right off the back- The Likes of You Again and Requiem for a Dying Song. They didn't let up most of the show. Their energy was fantastic! Dave King kept going and going. He is a true showman. The band was tight and the crowd was completely into the whole show. Some political rhetoric came out, but I stomached it. There is something about the atmosphere at shows like this. There is a unity and bond between everyone watching and the band. Its sad in a way because this is as close as the lost world gets to worship and fellowship. This was an Irish pride concert...from everyone wearing green to King talking about Irish culture (Catholics, the departed). It was unique and a blast. I would go again.

Update 3.5.09

Been awhile due to the level of insanity of my schedule. I have NO free time whatsoever with 15 hours of class and full time work. The brain is nearing capacity. Hebrew is a killer right now. First semester was a breeze. This one is killing me. Church History is being SERVED by me which gives me joy since its my hardest class.

Church planting was laughable. If I had a dime for every time a church growth book said "It's not about the numbers" and followed that up with tales of church plants that grew to the thousands. I took ample opportunity to unload on the discussion board. I said if we were to follow the example of having a church that has planting as their mindset, then we need to tell every small group that their goal should be to become their own church and plant more churches themselves. Many were frightened that this may take away from the church growing to a couple thousand...that was my point. If they were serious about planting, churches would rarely if ever reach a thousand because there would be a thousand churches with 100.

I'm crushed at the departure of Brian Dawkins from the Eagles. He was the heart and soul of the team and was the majority of Eagle fans favorite player. He understood the fans and the fans loved him because he brought 125% every game. He will be PAINFULLY missed.

My current music playlist:

• The Airborne Toxic Event- Sometime Around Midnight (new band, great song)
  
• Incubus- Love Hurts (old album, greater song)
  
• The Ting Tings -Great DJ (I LOVE this band...so catchy)
  
• Snow Patrol - Take Back the City (a decent sophmore album...best song on it)
  
• Rammstein - Morganstern (I don't know what he's singing in German, but they rock)
  
• Norma Jean - Vipers, Snakes and Actors (Love the new album)
  
• Flogging Molly - Punch Drunk Grinning Soul (I'll see them live next week!!!)
  
• Gaslight Anthem - The '59 Sound (Another new one with a Springstein-ish sound)
  
• Lamb of God - Laid To Rest (Thx Guitar Hero)
  
• Pink Floyd - The Wall Album (Kicking it old school!)
  
• Fred Hammond - No Weapon Formed Against Me (had to throw some gospel in there)