Feb
2
flotsam & jetsam (2.2.10)
Posted by Jon Trainer at 10:38 pmFiled Under blogdom
Just a couple quickies this evening. First, according to a recent survey here are the pastors/theologians/leaders most influencing this generation of pastors:
- Rounding out the top 10, after Billy Graham and Chuck Swindoll, are:
- Charles Stanley, senior pastor of First Baptist Church, Atlanta, and founder of In Touch Ministries.
- Rick Warren, senior pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., and author of the best-selling book, “The Purpose-Driven Life.”
- John MacArthur, pastor-teacher of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, Calif., and president and featured teacher of the Grace to You ministry.
- Barbara Brown Taylor, religion teacher at Piedmont College in northeast Georgia and author of 12 books including “An Altar in the World.”
- David Jeremiah, founder of Turning Point Radio and Television Ministries and senior pastor of Shadow Mountain Community Church in San Diego County, Calif.
- Max Lucado, minister of writing and preaching at the Oak Hills Church in San Antonio, Texas, and the recipient of three Christian Book of the Year awards.
- John Piper, pastor for preaching at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis and author of more than 30 books, including “Desiring God.”
- Andy Stanley, senior pastor of North Point Community Church, Buckhead Church, and Browns Bridge Community Church – all in the Atlanta area – and founder of North Point Ministries.
Not that we live in a personality-driven culture or anything like that.
And from Carl Stam’s weekly read this week comes the following:
What is the relationship between tradition and modern culture in your church’s worship gatherings? What is your posture towards old and new elements of Christian liturgy and music? Today’s worship quote is from a brand new book by Jim Belcher, Deep Church: A Third Way Beyond Emerging and Traditional.
What does worship look like for the deep church? And what guides us as we plan our worship events? It all starts with how we frame it. . . . We attempt to hold the Bible, the tradition and our cultural context in tension, allowing them to inform every part of our worship. Since the Bible does not give us enough information to construct a worship service, we must fill in the blanks. We are told in the Bible to sing songs, but we are not given the tunes, or told what kind of lyrics the songs should have or how emotionally intense the experience should be. When we are commanded to pray we are not told whether to use written prayers or extemporaneous prayers.
In order to be faithful we must draw on not only Scripture but tradition as well. But we also draw on our cultural sensitivities and our desire to “worship before the nations,” making sure that our worship is accessible to an outsider. Keeping all three ˜Bible, tradition and culture˜ in mind, we are able to craft a worship gathering that is neither irrelevant nor syncretistic. If any one of the triad is missing, we risk falling into one of these two extremes. Keeping them in tension we are able to maintain a powerful worship service that is simultaneously countercultural and culturally relevant. As Tim Keller [Redeemer Presbyterian Church, NYC] says so well, “I believe the solution to the problem of the ‘worship wars’ is neither to reject nor to enshrine historic tradition but to forge new forms of corporate worship that take seriously both our histories and contemporary realities, all within a framework of biblical theology.”
The author goes on to describe how deep worship incorporates seven priorities:
1. Ancient and new
2. Biblical drama
3. Joy and reverence
4. Priesthood of all believers
5. Profound but accessible sermons
6. Weekly Communion
7. Guest-friendly doxological evangelism
While I have not read the book, the balance and tension between text, tradition, and cultural context is appealing. The list, no doubt, is a discussion starter.