Sweet Melissa

No, this isn't a blog post about an old girlfriend...

Last Friday night, we had dinner with some friends at one of our favorite local places, Twisted Oak. We were upstairs with the singer/guitar player. After freaking me out with his vocal harmonies (he was the only singer), I realized that he was using a voice box to add harmonies and effects. But that's not the point of this post.

He was playing the expected mix of folk, country, rock ballads, etc. when he started singing the worship song "I Could Sing of Your Love Forever". Initially, I appreciated him including a worship song in his set list, even if it is an ambiguous one like this one. Then the ambiguity reared it's ugly head. He made it into a medley with the Allman Brothers Band classic "Melissa"! At first, I thought it was just a transition that I missed, but then he recapped into "I Could Sing..." making the medley complete. It was horrible.

As I thought about it, it brought to mind a question that I have asked before: why do we worship women and sing sappy love songs to Jesus?

Church Planters can be wrong, too

Things They Tell Church Planters That Are Simply Wrong

I've read and listened too a lot of stuff related to church planting. I have also been a part of a couple of church plants. I thought it was weird that I really disagreed with some of what was stated or implied about the church planting process. It's nice to hear from an experienced planter that I might not have been too far off.

Consuming Church

Consuming Church by Margaret Manning

"If Jesus himself were here today preaching the gospel, how might we evaluate the packaging?"

In a personality profile I did about a year ago, the administrator said I should avoid retail. I'm not a salesman, I know that. I don't even like most salesmen I meet. My skin scrawls. Maybe that is why I find it hard to fit in to that thing we call 'ministry'. If my job as a minister is to 'sell Jesus', no wonder I'm no good at it. I hate selling things, even stuff I like.

Jesus didn't sell Himself, so why should I? Jesus gave Himself... I can do that.

New Type of Preacher

"If Christianity is to receive a rejuvenation it must be by other means than any now being used. If the church in the second half of [the twentieth] century is to recover from the injuries she suffered in the first half, there must appear a new type of preacher. The proper, ruler-of-the-synagogue type will never do. Neither will the priestly type of man who carries out his duties, takes his pay and asks no questions, nor the smooth-talking pastoral type who knows how to make the Christian religion acceptable to everyone. All these have been tried and found wanting. Another kind of religious leader must arise among us. He must be of the old prophet type, a man who has seen visions of God and has heard a voice from the Throne. When he comes (and I pray God there will not be one but many) he will stand in flat contradiction to everything our smirking, smooth civilization holds dear. He will contradict, denounce and protest in the name of God and will earn the hatred and opposition of a large segment of Christendom."
-A.W. Tozer, Twentieth-Century American Minister and Author

Draft a Pastor

Have you ever heard the saying that no one who wants to be president should be allowed to run? Some say that presidents should be drafted, because the people that would do a good job at it are smart enough not to do it.

Maybe the same should be said for ministers...