Christian Profession in Strange Places

I was pointed today to an article in World Magazine about an interview with Bono, the lead singer for the rock band U2. I don't know much about Bono, or U2, but I know in general that the rock culture is an unlikely place to find a Christian confession of Christ and grace. It is even more unlikely to find one as clear as Bono's. He says, in part,

... I'm holding out that Jesus took my sins onto the Cross, because I know who I am, and I hope I don't have to depend on my own religiosity."

Then the interviewer marvels, "The Son of God who takes away the sins of the world. I wish I could believe in that."

"The point of the death of Christ is that Christ took on the sins of the world, so that what we put out did not come back to us, and that our sinful nature does not reap the obvious death," replies Bono. "It's not our own good works that get us through the gates of Heaven."

Later, when questioned about who Christ was, Bono says,

"Look, the secular response to the Christ story always goes like this: He was a great prophet, obviously a very interesting guy, had a lot to say along the lines of other great prophets, be they Elijah, Muhammad, Buddha, or Confucius. But actually Christ doesn't allow you that. He doesn't let you off that hook. Christ says, No. I'm not saying I'm a teacher, don't call me teacher. I'm not saying I'm a prophet. I'm saying: 'I'm the Messiah.' I'm saying: 'I am God incarnate.' . . . So what you're left with is either Christ was who He said He was—the Messiah—or a complete nutcase. . . . The idea that the entire course of civilization for over half of the globe could have its fate changed and turned upside-down by a nutcase, for me that's farfetched."

This is a gospel that is more clear than what is heard in most churches on Sunday mornings, and it comes from a very strange source. I had heard rumors of Bono's Christian faith but always looked on it with great skepticism. I must confess my skepticism still exists, but far less than before.

This testimony gives one pause to wonder how Bono could continue in his lifestyle, given this clear testimony. It also gives one pause to wonder exactly what Paul meant when he said that such a confession can come only by the Holy Spirit.

It does remind us of the amazing grace so richly poured out through Christ, by the grace of a great God who works in various and sometimes mysterious ways in people's lives. I don't know whether Bono is truly saved, but I know that a good many church members could not explain their faith so well.

Moody Church

Whenever I am on vacation on a Sunday, I make it a practice to go to church. I have found that my practice is not popular among some, who consider vacation a time to skip church, but since I like to go to church, I go. I usually try to find an evangelical church that I might not otherwise attend, usually a church of some significance. In the past, I have visited Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church and Willow Creek Community Church. I do this to see how churches do things. I am fairly familiar with the fundamentalist way of "doing church," and so I like to broaden my horizons, learn what I can, see what makes me want to come back to a church, or not come back. In short, I am trying to see church from an outsider's perspective, in hopes of gleaning some information on how an newcomer to Grace might respond.

This past Sunday, while in the Chicago area, we visited Moody Memorial Church Sunday for their morning worship service. Moody Church is the church that grew out of the Sunday School started by Evangelist Dwight L. Moody in the 1860s. He also started a Bible College which still exists in downtown Chicago, though the church and school have no official connection. Another notable pastor of Moody Church in the 1900s was Dr. Harry A. Ironside, whose commentaries carry on his legacy of Bible teaching. The church is located on a city block in North Chicago, where North Avenue, Clark Street, and LaSalle Street meet. There is no on site parking, though there are various restaurants and lots that Moody apparently has an agreement with to park in. At the church entrance on LaSalle, there were people to help direct you to a place to park, and at the lot there were attendants to help you park. They did ask you to leave your keys in the car so they could move the car if necessary. The parking attendants were very friendly and helpful, though we had to walk about two blocks to get to the church. The auditorium was very beautiful, but the seats were very hard (think unpadded theatre seats).

The church service itself was a traditional service. They opened with some announcements, including a brief interview with some members of their college age class to promote the college ministry. The service was opened with a call to worship by Bradley Garvin, singing "The Lord Is My Light." Bradley is a bass with the New York Metropolitan Opera and has a wonderful voice. I picked up a CD that is very enjoyable. Later in the service he sang "I Walked Today Where Jesus Walked" and "I'd Rather Have Jesus." He was the only special music for the day and I assume that is not normal for the church.

The congregational singing was accompanied by the organ and an acoustic guitar. The organ was very loud, the guitar was very soft and almost unnoticeable. The familiar songs were easy to sing, but the song "The King of Love My Shepherd Is" was sung to a "traditional Irish Melody" which was unfamiliar to me, perhaps because I am not traditionally Irish. The organ was not easy to follow on the tune, and the worship leader playing his guitar was not mic'ed well enough to be heard. The last song before the message (The King of Love) was projected on screens on either side of the choir loft.

Pastor Erwin Lutzer preached from Psalm 23 under the title "When God Shows Himself - Part 2." It was a good message. As a preacher, I listen for how others do things. My thought was that he explained the text well and made good use of the image of sheep and shepherd. However, he made virtually no application until the very end when he tacked on "five very quick" points (as he called them). By that time, it was easy to lose the message and hard to keep up with the application. I would rather have heard the application throughout the message rather than at the end. Lutzer has a "preacher's voice." It is not so much a conversation with the audience as it is a oratorical lecture. That's not to say it was bad; it wasn't. It was a good message.

The church has apparently experienced a resurgence of sorts. I was told, prior to being there, that the church was previously forced to sell off a lot of the surrounding property to stay in existence. The audience was a mix of ages and ethnicities. It was probably tilted slightly towards an older population. Dress was mixed. Lutzer and those on the platform were in suits and ties, as were the ushers. Some of the ladies were in pants and some in dresses. The guy in front of me was wearing shorts, though I didn't see too much of that.

It is good to see the church growing in the city as a multi-racial body some one hundred and fifty years after its inception.

A Week of Rest

I am sitting tonight at my brother's house, mooching off his high speed wireless connection. We stopped by here (Crystal Lake, IL) for a couple of nights following our week of rest and relaxation.

Several months ago, through another pastor, I became aware of Deer Ridge Ministries. It is a ministry started by an pastor for the purpose of providing a free week of rest at a bed and breakfast in Illinois. I was skeptical, but finally emailed and got a reservation for this past week. We arrived Sunday night, and laying in bed trying to sleep, I was beginning to wish I had stayed home. But Monday, things were different. We spent the whole week with no phones, no TV, no internet connection, and no where to be except the 5:30 dinner. Breakfast and lunch were provided, but could be eaten at your own time. I spent most of the week reading (over 1000 pages), sleeping, meditating, praying, thinking, and breaking the 90+ degree heat in the swimming pool. The Mrs. and I spent a lot of time talking and doing nothing. (It always makes me laugh when I hear a pastor refer to his wife as "Mrs. So and so." Does he really not know her well enough to use her first name? Or at least call her "my wife." But that's a little off topic ... which may be why I preach so long.)

Deer Ridge brings in about four pastors and their spouses a week for 30 weeks a year. They provide everything and ask nothing in return. The other pastors there last week were all pastors in the Evangelical Free church. It was a great time of fellowship even though we would not see eye to eye on some things. They are not fundamentalists (if you don't know what that is, I will explain later ... as soon as I figure it out), but they are evangelical. The Deckers (who run the ministry) are evangelical United Methodists. The ministry is open to all people who sign their statement of faith. So if you go, it will not be a fundamentalist camp out, but will be worth your time.

Simply put, if you are a pastor and happen upon this blog, I would highly recommend the ministry of David and Louise Decker at Deer Ridge Ministries. Look at their website, and drop them an email. Feel free to mention my name. And I think they still have some space available this year.

I also found out that there are a lot of ministries that provide such retreats for pastors. And having experienced the rest and relaxation, I will certainly look forward to having another one.

When I am away on Sunday, I try to visit a church in the area with some significance. Tomorrow, we plan on attending Moody Church in downtown Chicago before leaving for the road trip back to Detroit. Perhaps I will offer some thoughts on Moody Church after our visit tomorrow.

Whose Fish?

My brother found this today (don't ask me how) and sent it to me today from Coudal Partners. I have no idea who they are or what they do, but I found this interesting and challenging. Try it out and see what you come up with. You can look at it on their page, and submit your answer. If you are right, you might be a lucky winner. If anyone actually reads this, and then figures it out, post your answer in the comments. My brother and I both came up with the same answer, which at least means we think alike ... even if we think wrong. If you want to try it, don't look at the comments until after you try it. It took me about forty-five minutes or so (unless you do it faster, in which case it took me less time).

Anyway, give it a shot ...

Whose Fish?

By Albert Einstein (maybe)

This brainteaser, reportedly written by Einstein is difficult and Einstein said that 98% of the people in the world could not figure it out. Which percentage are you in?

There are five houses in a row in different colors. In each house lives a person with a different nationality. The five owners drink a different drink, smoke a different brand of cigar and keep a different pet, one of which is a Walleye Pike.

The question is-- who owns the fish?

Hints:

1. The Brit lives in the red house.
2. The Swede keeps dogs as pets.
3. The Dane drinks tea.
4. The green house is on the left of the white house.
5. The green house owner drinks coffee.
6. The person who smokes Pall Malls keeps birds.
7. The owner of the yellow house smokes Dunhills.
8. The man living in the house right in the center drinks milk.
9. The man who smokes Blends lives next to the one who keeps cats.
10. The Norwegian lives in the first house.
11. The man who keeps horses lives next to the one who smokes Dunhills.
12. The owner who smokes Bluemasters drinks beer.
13. The German smokes Princes.
14. The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.
15. The man who smokes Blends has a neighbor who drinks water.

There are no tricks, pure logic will get you the correct answer. And yes, there is enough information to arrive at the one and only correct answer.

If you get the correct answer, congratulations, you are one of the exclusive group of 121,348,731 people in the world who can.

Stuff About LIttle Things - Addendum

This morning, while catching up on my email, I came across a timely article entitled LEADING YOURSELF. The concept in this article is not original to the author. I have seen it other places, in articles and in books, such as Courageous Leadership, by Bill Hybels. In light of last night's thoughts on "little things," I think this ties right in.

The point of the article is on self-leadership. The concept is that a good leader spends 50% of his leadership effort in leading himself. After all, if you can't lead yourself, how can you lead others. For men in pastoral ministry, this is especially important since the pastoral role is largely about modeling the Christian life. As the article points out, the qualifications of 1 Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:5-9 are, for the most part, qualifications about self-leadership—about controlling our desires and passionss, our habits and thoughts, our goals and motivations. Many are the pasto's who have fallen into disgrace because they let the "little things" go unmanaged in their life.

Which leads to another thought of mine—Biblical accountability. One of the glaring problems of modern ministry (and modern life in general) is that too few people have real accountability—a relationship with someone who they will allow to speak into their life about the tough stuff. I heard a pastor who is fairly well known in fundamentalist circles say at a conference that he needed accountability from God and his wife, and no one else. I was stunned. I heard another pastor say about a staff member who was fired for moral reasons that the staff member shouldn't have needed accountability. He should have been doing right all along. While these sentiments may be true about the "should"s, even the strongest believer has a heart that deceives (Jeremiah 17:9). A heart unstrengthened by biblical fellowship is a heart prone to wander and fall all too easily to the attractiveness of sin.

The Bible describes a biblical fellowship of sharing that includes the burdens and struggles of life in sin and temptation, as well in joy and sorrow. Many try to fight alone and give up the blessed fellowship of Christian unity in the body of Christ. With Christian pilgrims who are going our direction in life, we should join hands and say "As long as we are headed this way, let's do it together. In that relationship, the "little things" can be addressed in love and concern, rather than judgment and punishment.

Self-leadership becomes easy to put aside because we have learned how to "show up for the big stuff." Yet it is the little stuff that accountability is about. We too often let the "little things" go unaddressed until they are big, and then lives have been damaged and possibly even destroyed, all because we were too proud to accept or to ask for some accountability. In establishing a relationship of accountability with a trusted friend, you need to give permission, and even ask someone to ask you the tough questions about life, and thoughts, and sex and morality, and internet usage, and laziness, and relationship with wife and family. In short, in real accountability, the "little things" are the things that need addressing. Quite frankly, at the risk of TMI (too much information), I am far less concerned about my ability to preach on Sunday morning then I am about my ability to manage myself Monday-Saturday when no one is looking. Yet the real me is who I am when I am not preaching and teaching.

So I have to keep asking the question, If I can't lead me, how can I lead others?