Public Service Announcement

Please don't stare.

For me, church at its best is when it's double the trouble.
Two churches, two services, one weekend.

It's good to hear two views, two sermons, two lessons, have two worship times, during a 24-hour sabbath time (except when every church in America is doing an unintelligent Da Vinci Code series- but that's another topic for another day).

At its very best, these two churches would be different- preferably one inter-generational and the other a nice mix of scenesters/hipsters and indie kids (that way, you can wear whatever you want, but the worship team knows how to rock).
The second church, being made up of my people, my worship, my (deep) sermons, is, of course, a little more little-fish-friendly. But the first is of equal importance. That is wehere families can sit together, pray togetehr, worship together. That's where we find mentors, where our parents teach us how to love Jesus, and just generally interact with people oever the age of 25 (gasp!).

But this Sunday, I realized that it might be just as uncomfortable for the old people to go to church with us as it is for us to go with them. As my precious friends sat a row in front of me, and I watched a parent-aged woman begin to stare at them with the "may God save your soul" look, I saw the younger couple through her eyes: the tattoos, piercings, unbrushed hair, unshaven face, pink leggings and vans. To her, they didn't spell "I love Jesus," they didn't convey the talented, blossoming tatto artist and hard-working graphic design major that they are. That lady just saw two hoodlums. And because she saw two of those for thirty minutes, she missed one sermon.

As the intergenerational church continues to decline, following the trend to home churches, and just more stylized churches in general (blame the terrible postmoderns for that, not me!), I have one request when we do show up: Please Don't Stare. We wouldn't come to your church if we didn't want to hang out with you, to soak in some of your life experience and wisdom. And besides, you might be too busy staring to say hello, and meet the future of your world and your church.

But Will You Wash the Dishes?

A few months ago, I read a news article concerning a movement among some conservative Christians to turn South Carolina into a modern promised land. Christians from all over the country are urged to emigrate to South Carolina in order to tip the scales of the state further to the right. It sounds like once they have completed their exodus from the other 49 states and driven the democrates out of S.C. they will secede from the union and set up their own country. So far, twenty people have moved there.

This news reminds me of the community living so many of us tried in the early 1970's. We knew that day to day living would be so much easier if we were sharing a house with other Christians. It was going to be our own protestant version of a Catholic monastary without the fancy robes or Latin chanting. Unfortunately, the downfall of many of those community living experiments was dirty dishes. It seemed that everyone wanted to eat, but no one wanted to wash the dishes. Arguments, stessful encounters, and many failed cleaning schedules resulted in strained relationships among Christians who previously really liked each other. Little Fish is going to share a house this fall with several other students. One of my prayers for her is that everyone enjoys washing dishes!

I'm not sure who is going to wash all the dishes in South Carolina, but if my reference to 1970's community living does not disuade anyone, try reading about John Calvin and Geneva. Talk about a failed experiment in Christian community living. If you don't learn from history, you are destined to repeat it. Besides, Jesus commanded Christians to go to the non-Christians, not huddle together with only the Republicans.

conspiracy theories

In visiting church plants, I encountered an old church dogma that I thought was long forgotton and yet has been revived by a new, contemporary church plant. It is the KJV Only dogma. In it's simple form, it is a church dogma that tries to convince people that the King James Bible is the only English translation that correctly communicates the truth of God to English speaking people. The KJV Only folks believe that any other English translation contains errors that lead to watered-down truth. I'm amazed this dogma has ever existed in the church, confounded that it continues to exist and perplexed that a contemporary church plant would voluntarily embrace and propogate this dogma.

The origin of this dogma seems to be the 1940's or 50's and some of the controversy around the publication of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible. The dogma re-surfaced in the 1070's with the publication of the New International Version. In some circles the dogma is very anti-Catholic.

The primary fruit I have observed from this dogma is it plants fear into a person's heart; fear that a person will miss the real truth of God if any version of the Bible is read but the KJV. A secondary fruit is it demeans the King James Version, turning it from a beautiful, though archaic English translation, into an object at the heart of a conspiracy theory.

Curb your dogma! If you enjoy the KJV, bless you as you read, study, memorize, and pray over God's word. If you enjoy other translations, bless you as you read, study, memorize, and pray over God's word. If you are really uncomfortable reading an English translation out of fear that God's word has been distorted in the translating process, you can take time to learn Ancient Hebrew & Koine Greek in order to read it in it's original languages. Of course, then you'll have to decide which version of the Hebrew & Greek texts to use...