The Great Dance

Hear the Voice of C.S. Lewis

2006-05-10T06:21:00.000-04:00

Ever wondered what C.S. Lewis actually sounded like on his legendary radio broadcasts that led to the publication of Mere Christianity? The BBC has put audio links on its web site here.

A Christianity Today article discussing it is here.

New York City House Church Network: An Invitation to Explore

2006-05-09T06:48:00.000-04:00

I am interested in exploring with others beginning or continuing one or more of the following in the New York City area:

1. A house church
2. A network of house churches
3. A church in which home groups are not just an option, but are considered important and foundational to the life of the church.

I will add to this post over time to elaborate on what I envision. And I will add other posts with more discussion on specific topics. But I wanted to get something up for now to see who else might be interested.

If you are interested in exploring this, you can email me at: andrew +at+ inbox *daht* com. You can figure out how to convert this email address from "spam-avoiding" format to normal format.

I would love to discuss ideas with anyone in the New York City area or anyone planning to come to the New York City area.

Here are some of the distinctives that I envision:

Worship Music

I would want to prioritize contemporary worship music that is deeply worshipful. By that I mean music that helps people enter into the presence of God, turn their focus to Him, give Him glory, and enjoy his love. The musicians and leaders should not be the focus or a distraction, but should seek to point those gathered towards God. I would want to incorporate quality music that avoids the cloying sweetness of some of contemporary Christian music, and would appeal to a New York gathering. I think that in choosing specific songs, we should seek input from each member, but yet maintain a consistant general style. I would want the volume of the music to be at a level that encourages participation through group singing, and does not create a performance dynamic. My personal preference for musical styles and influences would be in the direciton of Delirious?, Third Day, Sonic Flood, MercyMe, Chris Rice, U2.

Structure of Gatherings

I would want to emphasize every person ministry and participation by all, following the pattern of 1 Corinthians 14:26 and the other body life passages. I have no set idea for format or structure, except that there should be a good balance between order and freedom, as set forth in Scripture. I would want to find a framework that is most likely to edify those present, which is a big priority for Paul throughout his letters. At most meetings, there should be some reading of the Word, prayer, and singing. The details can be worked out in any number of ways.

I actually love both large group meetings and small group meetings, and I have nothing against traditional institutional churches per se. But I long to be in a church where there is a recognition that to be the church as we see in the Biblical pattern, there need to be gatherings in which people interact. It is important to me that there is a culture that recognizes that small group gatherings are just as much "church" as large meetings.

"Othercott" The Da Vinci Code?

2006-05-06T06:40:00.001-04:00

Barbara Nicolosi has an interesting proposal for how to deal with the movie The Da Vinci Code:

But I'd like to offer another option.

On DVC's opening weekend—May 19-21—you should go to the movies. Just go to another movie. That's your way of casting your vote, the only vote Hollywood recognizes: The power of cold hard cash laid down on a box office window on opening weekend.

Use your vote. Don't throw it away. Vote for a movie other than DVC. If enough people do it, the powers that be will notice.

The major studio movie scheduled for release against DVC is the DreamWorks animated feature Over the Hedge. The trailers look fun, and you can take your kids. And your friends. And their friends. In fact, let's all go see it.

Let's rock the box office in a way no one expects—without protests, without boycotts, without arguments, without rancor. Let's show up at the box office ballot box and cast our votes. And buy some popcorn, too.

I certainly agree that protests would be counterproductive. It is easy enough to stay home the opening weekend, at the least.

Tertullian and the Agape Feast: See How They Love One Another

2006-05-04T13:17:00.000-04:00

Here is an extended quotation from Tertullian's Apology, which I understand was written in the year 197. I was struck by his mention of the continued practice of the Agape Feast in the same chapter as the famous quote: "See, how they love one another." The paragraph breaks are mine, for ease of reading. I put the parts that I found especially noteworthy in bold.

CHAPTER 39

I shall at once go on, then, to exhibit the peculiarities of the Christian society, that, as I have refuted the evil charged against it, I may point out its positive good. We are a body knit together as such by a common religious profession, by unity of discipline, and by the bond of a common hope. We meet together as an assembly and congregation, that, offering up prayer to God as with united force, we may wrestle with Him in our supplications. This violence God delights in. We pray, too, for the emperors, for their ministers and for all in authority, for the welfare of the world, for the prevalence of peace, for the delay of the final consummation. We assemble to read our sacred writings, if any peculiarity of the times makes either forewarning or reminiscence needful. However it be in that respect, with the sacred words we nourish our faith, we animate our hope, we make our confidence more stedfast; and no less by inculcations of God's precepts we confirm good habits. In the same place also exhortations are made, rebukes and sacred censures are administered. For with a great gravity is the work of judging carried on among us, as befits those who feel assured that they are in the sight of God; and you have the most notable example of judgment to come when any one has sinned so grievously as to require his severance from us in prayer, in the congregation and in all sacred intercourse. The tried men of our elders preside over us, obtaining that honour not by purchase, but by established character. There is no buying and selling of any sort in the things of God. Though we have our treasure-chest, it is not made up of purchase-money, as of a religion that has its price. On the monthly day, if he likes, each puts in a small donation; but only if it be his pleasure, and only if he be able: for there is no compulsion; all is voluntary. These gifts are, as it were, piety's deposit fund. For they are not taken thence and spent on feasts, and drinking-bouts, and eating-houses, but to support and bury poor people, to supply the wants of boys and girls destitute of means and parents, and of old persons confined now to the house; such, too, as have suffered shipwreck; and if there happen to be any in the mines, or banished to the islands, or shut up in the prisons, for nothing but their fidelity to the cause of God's Church, they become the nurslings of their confession.

But it is mainly the deeds of a love so noble that lead many to put a brand upon us. See, they say, how they love one another, for themselves are animated by mutual hatred; how they are ready even to die for one another, for they themselves will sooner put to death. And they are wroth with us, too, because we call each other brethren; for no other reason, as I think, than because among themselves names of consanguinity are assumed in mere pretence of affection. But we are your brethren as well, by the law of I our common mother nature, though you are hardly men, because brothers so unkind. At the same time, how much more fittingly they are called and counted brothers who have been led to the knowledge of God as their common Father, who have drunk in one spirit of holiness, who from the same womb of a common ignorance have agonized into the same light of truth! But on this very account, perhaps, we are regarded as having less claim to be held true brothers, that no tragedy makes a noise about our brotherhood, or that the family possessions, which generally destroy brotherhood among you, create fraternal bonds among us.

One in mind and soul, we do not hesitate to share our earthly goods with one another. All things are common among us but our wives. We give up our community where it is practised alone by others, who not only take possession of the wives of their friends, but most tolerantly also accommodate their friends with theirs, following the example, I believe, of those wise men of ancient times, the Greek Socrates and the Roman Cato, who shared with their friends the wives whom they had married, it seems for the sake of progeny both to themselves and to others; whether in this acting against their partners' wishes, I am not able to say. Why should they have any care over their chastity, when their husbands so readily bestowed it away? O noble example of Attic wisdom, of Roman gravity-the philosopher and the censor playing pimps! What wonder if that great love of Christians towards one another is desecrated by you!

For you abuse also our humble feasts, on the ground that they are extravagant as well as infamously wicked. To us, it seems, applies the saying of Diogenes: "The people of Megara feast as though they were going to die on the morrow; they build as though they were never to die!" But one sees more readily the mote in another's eye than the beam in his own. Why, the very air is soured with the eructations of so many tribes, and curiµ, and decuriµ. The Salii cannot have their feast without going into debt; you must get the accountants to tell you what the tenths of Hercules and the sacrificial banquets cost; the choicest cook is appointed for the Apaturia, the Dionysia, the Attic mysteries; the smoke from the banquet of Serapis will call out the firemen.

Yet about the modest supper-room of the Christians alone a great ado is made. Our feast explains itself by its name The Greeks call it agape, i.e., affection. Whatever it costs, our outlay in the name of piety is gain, since with the good things of the feast we benefit the needy; not as it is with you, do parasites aspire to the glory of satisfying their licentious propensities, selling themselves for a belly-feast to all disgraceful treatment,-but as it is with God himself, a peculiar respect is shown to the lowly. If the object of our feast be good, in the light of that consider its further regulations. As it is an act of religious service, it permits no vileness or immodesty.

The participants, before reclining, taste first of prayer to God. As much is eaten as satisfies the cravings of hunger; as much is drunk as befits the chaste. They say it is enough, as those who remember that even during the night they have to worship God; they talk as those who know that the Lord is one of their auditors.

After manual ablution, and the bringing in of lights, each is asked to stand forth and sing, as he can, a hymn to God, either one from the holy Scriptures or one of his own composing,-a proof of the measure of our drinking. As the feast commenced with prayer, so with prayer it is closed. We go from it, not like troops of mischief-doers, nor bands of vagabonds, nor to break out into licentious acts, but to have as much care of our modesty and chastity as if we had been at a school of virtue rather than a banquet.

Give the congregation of the Christians its due, and hold it unlawful, if it is like assemblies of the illicit sort: by all means let it be condemned, if any complaint can be validly laid against it, such as lies against secret factions. But who has ever suffered harm from our assemblies? We are in our congregations just what we are when separated from each other; we are as a community what we are individuals; we injure nobody, we trouble nobody. When the upright, when the virtuous meet together, when the pious, when the pure assemble in congregation, you ought not to call that a faction, but a curia-[i.e., the court of God.]

You can find his entire Apology here and here.

Walter Rauschenbusch and the Social Gospel

2006-04-27T09:26:00.000-04:00

Scot McKnight gave a "who said this?" quiz over at Jesus Creed, and Walter Rauschenbusch was my fifth guess. In my comment here, I explained why he was 5th on my list. Scot's follow up post is here.

Until someone convinces me otherwise, I think Walter Rauschenbusch (WR) was a part of the problem, not part of the solution. The solution is a gospel message and Biblical teaching that embraces the whole person in holistic ministry. The problem is a Social Gospel only approach that ignores the spiritual side, or a Spiritual Gospel only approach that ignores physical needs.

The legacy of WR was a Social Gospel only approach.

Here is some of what George Marsden says in Fundamentalism and American Culture, pp. 91-92, which I highly recommend:

The necessary first step in the Christian's life was repentance for sin and total dependence on God's grace. Good works should follow. The only question was what form these should take-- individual or public, private or political.

The Social Gospel, however, put almost all the weight on the second half of the equation. Following the lead of philosophical pragmatism, proponents of the Social Gospel held that the only test of truth was action. "Religious morality," said Walter Rauschenbusch, is "the only thing God cares about." The implication was that theological doctrine and affirmation of faith in Christ and his deeds were irrelevant, except as an inspiration to moral action, more specifically social action. . . .

The threat that conservative evangelicals perceived in the Social Gospel was not that it endorsed social concern-- evangelicals themselves often made similar endorsements. It was rather that the Social Gospel emphasized social concern in an exclusivistic way which seemed to undercut the relevance of the message of eternal salvation through trust in Christ's atoning work.

It is important to look at the church in America before WR and after. Marsden suggests that the church was more holistic before WR, and that he helped cause the social/spiritual, Modernist/Fundamentalist split, which, I believe, hurt the church tremendously. I highly recommend pp. 80-93 in Marsden to get a sense of WR's overall impact.

You can read Marsden's whole discussion of WR on pp. 91-92 by going to the Amazon.com page for this book and then typing in "Rauschenbusch" in the "search inside this book" field.

Teaching Tongues?

2006-04-24T06:36:00.000-04:00

The summary of the article in the New York Times Magazine on pentecostals says this:

The Pentecostal Promise By BENJAMIN ANASTAS
A hundred years ago, a black evangelist in Los Angeles taught his congregants how to speak in tongues — and created America's distinct form of everyday supernaturalism.

Oh really? Did he really teach them how to do it? Nothing in the text of the article supports this assertion. In fact, the article says this:

On April 9, 1906, an itinerant black evangelist and the son of former slaves, William J. Seymour, watched as one of his followers was overcome with the Holy Spirit and started speaking in tongues — the gift known as "tongues-attested baptism."

Any worldview-based editorializing going on in the heading?

Time Magazine Article on House Churches

2006-04-20T06:25:00.000-04:00

This is old news, but this link takes you to the full article, or at least it did when I used it recently. Here is how it starts:

On a Sunday at their modest, gray ranch house in the Denver suburb of Englewood, Tim and Jeanine Pynes gather with four other Christians for an evening of fellowship, food and faith. Jeanine's spicy rigatoni precedes a yogurt-and-wafer confection by Ann Moore, none of the food violating the group's solemn commitment to Weight Watchers. The participants, who have pooled resources for baby sitting, discuss a planned missionary trip and sing along with a CD by the Christian crossover group Sixpence None the Richer. One of the lyrics, presumably written in Jesus' voice, runs, "I'm here, I'm closer than your breath/ I've conquered even death." That leads to earnest discussion of a friend's suicide, which flows into an exercise in which each participant brings something to the table--a personal issue, a faith question--and the group offers talk and prayer. Its members read from the New Testament's Epistle to the Hebrews, observe a mindful silence and share a hymn.

The meeting could be a sidebar gathering of almost any church in the country but for a ceramic vessel of red wine on the dinner table--offered in communion. Because the dinner, it turns out, is no mere Bible study, 12-step meeting or other pendant to Sunday service at a Denver megachurch. It is the service. There is no pastor, choir or sermon--just six believers and Jesus among them, closer than their breath. Or so thinks Jeanine, who two years ago abandoned a large congregation for the burgeoning movement known in evangelical circles as "house churching," "home churching" or "simple church." The week she left, she says, "I cried every day." But the home service flourished, grew to 40 people and then divided into five smaller groups. One participant at the Pyneses' house, a retired pastor named John White, also attends a conventional church, where he gives classes on how to found, or plant, the house variety. "Church," he says, "is not just about a meeting." Jeanine is a passionate convert: "I'd never go back to a traditional church. I love what we're doing."

Taking the Resurrection Straight Up

2006-04-19T06:10:00.000-04:00

This in the Washington Post:

Growing up in Fairfax County, Donita Dickerson and her family typically didn't attend church on Easter. She would dress up and go with her grandmother some years, but the holiday's central theme -- that Jesus rose from the dead -- was symbolic, not real.

"We were coming out of the 1960s, and everything was being challenged," she said. "My father was very into being against the establishment, and everything was about questioning everything."

Now 41 and the mother of two sons, Dickerson is in a study group at Floris United Methodist Church in Herndon that reads books such as the best-selling "The Case for Christ: A Journalist's Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus," which focuses on supporting the traditional Christian view that Jesus returned from the dead, an event commemorated today.

"As you mature in your faith, at some point you say, 'I'm just going to believe this,' " she said as the group of 10 women gathered recently for an Easter-themed discussion. Everyone else nodded as she said, "I still believe it. That's why they call it faith."

..........

In the past two decades, there has been a heightened scrutiny of Scripture, with basic Christian tenets such as the Resurrection challenged by biblical scholars and others in their search for historical facts about Jesus. But in recent years, there has been a rise in the popularity and stature of books that embrace Dickerson's traditional view of Easter, experts say.

Two books, "The Case for Christ" and "The Case for Easter: A Journalist Investigates the Evidence for the Resurrection," have sold a combined 4 million copies. Both were written by Lee Strobel, a former Chicago Tribune editor and atheist who became an evangelical pastor. Others include more than a dozen meant to rebut various themes in "The Da Vinci Code," the hit novel that centered on the idea that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene and that the truth of his life was suppressed by Christian officials.

The current No. 1 theology book for the Christian Booksellers Association -- which tracks books sold through Christian retail stores -- is "More Than a Carpenter" by Josh McDowell, which reiterates the orthodox view. New Testament scholars have been talking since 2003 about "The Resurrection of the Son of God" by N.T. Wright, a prominent biblical scholar and a bishop in the Church of England who says that Jesus likely rose in body from the dead.

......

"There seems to be in the past decade a move to embrace the traditional faith of the church, not really in a retrograde way, but in a 'let's take another look at what modernity may have too readily dismissed' sort of way," said Cynthia Lindner, director of ministry studies at the University of Chicago Divinity School.

Seems like this is just one more example of liberal/modernist churches shrinking, and churches adhering to historic Christianity growing. The last quote seems to indicate that even in the modernist camp, traditional views are coming back in favor.

The Great Dance

2006-04-11T22:50:00.000-04:00

From Perelandra, by C.S. Lewis:

In the plan of the Great Dance plans without number interlock, and each movement becomes in its season the breaking into flower of the whole design to which all else had been directed. Thus each is equally at the centre and none are there by being equals, but some by giving place and some by receiving it, the small things by their smallness and the great by their greatness, and all the patterns linked and looped together by the unions of a kneeling with a sceptred love. Blessed be He!