FINDING THAT WHICH WAS LOST
There's something special about scoring a treasure you never expected like the lost and found passages of Luke 15. Well, this week I reckon I've found a treasure. This week I bought my first ever Christian music CD. Call me whatever you want but I find most Christian music CDs just too syrupy for me. I can't connect with the stuff they're singing about. Anyway, this week I went into our local Christian bookstore (something I don't often do for the same reason as the Christian CD issue - the books are a bit too syrupy for me) and bought a new Bible because mine had literally fallen apart and disintergrated (always a good look for a pasta!). While I was there I browsed through the CDs and the lady recommended a couple of bands to listen to after I told her of my dilemma with much Christian music. I listened to the ones she recommended to me through the store headphones and they didn't really ring my bells. When I put them back on the shelf I saw a CD by a band called The Normals. I thought "that's me, I'm pretty normal" I put the CD on the store CD player and just loved the music. Very U2 and Radioheadish. Not only were the tunes great but the lyrics were fantastic - they sung stuff that I connected with. Here's some of their lyrics:
Have you ever been scared? Everybody's been scared. I've been scared. God, I've been scared.
Have you ever felt pain? Everbody's felt pain. I've felt pain. God, I've felt pain.
Chorus
But I'm the King of the world today. I've got this whole dirty place wrapped around my finger and I think I'm finally on my way home.
Have you ever had doubt? Everybody's had doubt. I've had doubt. God, I've had doubt
But it will get better and it doesn't matter because I feel loved. Oh God, I feel loved.
Chorus
I'm the King of the world today. I've got this whole dirty place wrapped around my finger and I think I'm finally onmy way home.
This is where grace becomes my mother 'cause I can be one man today and tomorrow another...
Or another song called 'Innocence':
Innocence, you were taken so slowly. It hit us suddenly and now I can't leave my room 'cause the lights of the city are just hiding from the dark.
Innocence, we never got to say goodbye but the glory of redemption is the wisdom that we find has taken it's place...
Or 'Brittle Bone':
Down here the well has been poisened. Now everything's dying. Some sell forgiveness on Gospel TV shows and I wonder why anyone's buying? 'Cause the truth is a hard sell for it burns out the lies
Great stuff. I went to the band's website The Normals and found that they too didn't like too much modern Christian music. They found that record companies demanded that they have a high JPM (Jesus Per Minute) and sing about happy, sugary stuff instead of gritty life stuff so that they'd get good sales on the Christian consumer market. Another group called The Frantics tried to write some gritty lyrics. Annoyed at these issues in the Christian music industry they wrote these lyrics:
Everyone's already been bought and sold. Got to get ahead. To fill their luxurious homes. Where all their lies resound again and again”
At one point in the Nashville session, one of the label executives stopped the session, recalled Shandrow (the band leader). The executive said something wasn't clicking. He had Shandrow spend some time with a studio employee to make the song more Christian.
The Frantics then recorded it again. The executive, said Shandrow, exclaimed, "That's the God I serve! Yes!"
And Shandrow's thought on it: "That's the God they want to sell."
Go here to read the full story.
8:29 PM
Nice questions and thoughts Ali...cummon Pasta whocha say? (Actually i think the preaching IS starting to grapple with the gritty, and the hard stuff is frequently acknowledged. Sometimes the pasta doesn't have all the answers...that's ok, he's human too!)
9:49 AM
Hi Alister, I agree with you that Christian leaders need to try to love, feed and lead our people in such a way that they can follow Jesus through the grittiness of life. But, I think that what is truely gritty IS following Jesus rather than simply internet porn and loneliness. Certainly internet porn and loneliness is some of the gritty stuff some people face but I think we need to see internet porn etc through the lens of Jesus rather than Jesus through the lens of internet porn etc. What I mean is you could do lots of topical sermon series where gritty issues like internet porn and loneliness set the agenda for scripture and Jesus rather than focussing on scripture and allowing scripture and Jesus to set the agenda for internet porn etc. If we assume that people are on-to-it about the primary things (scripture and Jesus) and focus on the secondary things (internet porn, loneliness, or today's favourite for Christian leaders - pragmatic leadership (which a lot of churches tend to do)) then you run the risk of making the primary things (Jesus and scripture) secondary and the secondary things (internet pron etc) primary. I've been challenged recently by how common it is today to preach/teach the theraputic Jesus who fixes all our gritty issues. I think focussing on what is truely gritty - following Jesus - is the key and it's from this that we make sense of our gritty issues (I'm not suggesting you think anything different to this).
One of our congregants recently e-mailed me to say that rather than being pushed to the fringes of our church because of the the cognitive dissonance they had experienced they now feel they are being drawn in because church now connects for them. I don't get e-mails like this everyday but man does it thrill me when I do! I try my best to preach honestly and openly and to be a co-disciple/ fellow traveller with our people rather than pretending that I've arrived already. Preaching is a balance between being an act of love for God's people as well as needing to be prophetic - speaking clearly God's word into our lives. I certainly have no fear about preaching on internet porn because I think issues of sexuality are too often silenced in the church through our embarrassment about sex and sexuality and we leave our people to learn about sex from the rugby changing rooms and behind the bike sheds rather than learning a healthy view of sex from scripture. However, I wouldn't want to make porn etc primary.
11:43 AM
Hey Ali, I don' think I can offer a solution to the womble-ness - you probably caught it off me! I think we're saying the same things. Sometimes the 'Christian' response simply isn't Christian at all! I don't know the story of your friend but certainly know the harm that some 'well intentioned Christian' remarks can do. I frankly think that most people don't reflect on grit of scripture much at all. I've heard it said 'let's get back to the NT church' as if it was purer and better than today. Frankly after reading 1 Corinthians I would not want to be the pastor there! People having sex with their step-mother! What is the 'well intentioned Christian' advice for that one?
This Sunday's sermon passage is Proverbs 14:4 and is based on a sermon I heard from Derek Tidball (London Bible College principal) "Where there are no oxen the manger is empty; but from the strength of an ox comes an abundant harvest" Or it can be translated as 'where there are no oxen the stable is clean; but from the strength of an ox comes an abundant harvest' The image is if you want a clean stable, no mess, no muck, then don't put an ox in it. But if you don't put an ox in it you won't get a harvest either. If you want a harvest you need an ox and if you have an ox then the stable will be messy, smelly, dirty and mucky. I think this is an image for the church. If we want the stable (church) to be very clean, sterile and orderly then we have to face the reality of no church growth, no impact on the wider community, you keep the lid on everything. But to get an abundant harvest you need to put an ox in the stable and put up with the smell, mess and muck that comes with it! If we want church growth and to impact our communities for Christ we have to face the reality that it will be messy and mucky (even gritty!).
4:13 PM
Hello,
I am a musician who has been heavily influenced by Keith Green. I would be honored if you would check out my music. All music on my site is free for download.
I don't mean to be a pest, so if this message is an annoyance, please delete it and accept my humblest of apologies. I just want to share my music with people who love Jesus.
Thanks,
-Sean
______________
www.SeanDietrich.com
"All my music is free."
4:52 PM
Hi Sean, thanks for coming by! Wow! I read your bio and it melted my heart. I appreciate your humility very much and I don't think you're a pest at all. I'll write a post about you and provide a link for any readers of this blog (I have no idea how many people that is).
Cheers,
Andrew.
p.s. I hope you don't mind but I'm using your photo from your website.