The Greatest Coach Ever
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I can't remember the last time something on television captured my attention, and my heart, more than the show 'Friday Night Lights'. Maybe it's my Texas roots, my love for the game, or maybe it has something to do with the head coach who for three years has led the undersized, but never outhearted Dillon Panthers onto the field. I am obsessed with the leadership style and raw character of coach Eric Taylor. It's his poise under pressure, his ability to navigate conflict and motivate his team when everything is going against him, that keeps me glued to this story, even when the melodramatics of high school life get a little overplayed.
For the past three years, I have coached a local high school lacrosse team, and there are times when I find myself saying, "what would coach do?" It hardly ever works. And now, after last weeks episode, I'm wondering if I need to back off that question, unless I want to end up coaching East Wesminster's lax team…
Is ‘contemporary’ a four letter word?
Part of my job working at a church is leading something we call a contemporary worship service. The word contemporary refers to a certain genre of music, which, broadly defined, is anything NOT traditional. For many people, the word contemporary refers to the "Jesus is my boyfriend" rock ballads of the 1990s that captured the attention of middle-aged churchgoers that were falling asleep in hymn & organ driven mainline services.
The funny thing about the word contemporary, is that only traditional churches use it to define their worship. In other words, contemporary is only useful in reference to something that's not.
Moreover, the word conjures up all kinds of negative sentiments for many people who fear contemporary christian music like the plague.
I've struggled with dropping the word altogether, but have faced resistance in trying to use another equally nebulous term like, "modern", "alternative", or "emergent".
Plus, why do we feel the need to describe a worship environment based solely on the style of music?
If someone has a better idea, or thinks I'm over-analyzing this, I would welcome some insight. Otherwise, I might go with "Praise-byterian". Wait, it's already been used.
Why get another degree?
I’m starting another degree program. It’s called a Doctor of Ministry. I have friends with PhD’s that think the DMin is a fake doctorate for pastors who want to feel important. Now that I’m working toward one, I’m not sure I think that’s very funny.
So why am I getting another degree? Is it really that important?
A little over three years ago I graduated from seminary and began my ministry as an ordained pastor. I took courses on systematic theology, biblical studies, and pastoral theology, and was thrilled to put these ideas into practice. I quickly found that the practical expectations and realities of ministry in the church were leading me into very unfamiliar waters. Among the more pressing struggles has been this growing sense that my own mainline church is alarmed and perplexed by its increasing irrelevance in contemporary culture. As a result, many congregations like my own are motivated by survival and growth strategies that look less and less like kingdom people on a world-shaping mission.
In the last two years my church has entered into a season of wrestling about what we see when we look in the mirror. The catalyst for this reflection has been the missional church dialogue, and a growing community of Presbyterian churches that are asking similar questions, and finding similar problems. So, I guess my hope is that this time of study will enable me to speak prophetically into and on behalf of churches like this, communities that have the courage to engage in the missional conversation, and respond even at the cost of their own institutional legacy.
Funny Christian Jokes???
I was at a men’s breakfast at our church one morning this week, and the speaker told a joke that had people rolling. It goes something like this…
A little girl was talking to her teacher about whales.
The teacher said it was physically impossible for a whale to swallow a human because even though they were a very large mammal their throat was very small.
The little girl said, ‘Jonah was swallowed by a whale.’
The teacher reiterated, ‘a whale can’t swallow a human; it’s impossible.
The little girl said, “When I get to heaven I will ask Jonah.”
The teacher asked, “What if Jonah went to hell?”
The little girl replied, ‘Then you ask him.’
Funny joke. Apparently the girl knew that non-literalist Bible readers don’t get through the pearly gates. Does this kind of humor really help?
An Alien Faith
When I was in high school I did a term project on extra-terrestrial encounters. To get the research on this stuff, I attended a conference for people who had been abducted by UFO’s. Seriously. All day I tried to keep a straight face, as I was interviewing victims, hearing detailed accounts of portal traveling, alien interrogations, pretty much the craziest stuff you can think of.
Eat your heart out Trekkie fans, these guys were off the reservation. How do you make small talk with alien-abductees…You know, “tell me about your trip, what was the food like?” It was awkward. By the end of the day, I couldn’t keep my poker face anymore. I’m talking with people, and I’m like,
Seriously, do you really believe this stuff? I mean, really?
I’m all about the movies, go Sigourney Weaver, but you really believe this?
I mean, can’t we just go hang out with the stormtroopers at Dragon Con?
Buy some lightsabres on ebay, and have a party.
But seriously, aliens?
In a funny way, that experience proved to be kind of helpful.
Years later I moved to Vancouver, Canada, a postchristian city where 4% of the population goes to church.
It was a city where more people read Stephen hawking than St. Paul. And when people found out that I was studying to be a pastor, the response I’d often get was, “oh how cool…alright, seriously, you don’t really believe all that jazz do you? I mean the holy spirit thing, stuff raising from the dead, that’s just spooky!”
A lot of people that I met just thought I had chugged the koolaid. Faith was an outer space concept to them. I think that Christians need to be careful how they engage a culture that increasingly looks at them as an outsiders and aliens. Maybe rather than assume a place of privilege in the cultural conversation, we should consider ourselves like resident aliens, citizens of a different kind of kingdom. And maybe our story should be less about what we say and more about the way we serve, and respond to the broken places of our world.
