Which Jesus do you like best? Do you prefer the Jesus that is like a Santa Claus that gives you whatever you ask for, only of course if your nice not naughty? Or do you prefer the Jesus that can give you 7 principles for being a better leader? What about the Jesus that promises to make you healthy and wealthy? Or do you like to picture your Jesus wearing a tuxedo t-shirt?
Archive - Theology
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Paul’s Journey To Damascus
The Apostle Paul is possibly one of the most influential people in the New Testament. What is remarkable about Paul is that he was not always passionate about spreading the message of Christ, but instead he zealously persecuted the early Christian Church in hopes of crushing the message they preached. It is this transformation that makes Paul’s journey so incredible.
The Road
Before Paul has his conversion experience, he is on a road to the city of Damascus. He has no idea that his life is about to forever change. Paul gets on the road as a person opposed to the way of Jesus, but by the end of his journey along this road he will leave as a person in passionate pursuit of Jesus. Who in your own life is currently walking along the road?
Called To Where You Already Are
When you were a little kid growing up, what did you want to be? I dreamed of playing baseball , which later became the dream of being in the NBA. Eventually these dreams disappeared and I found my way into youth ministry. When the topic of vocation comes up, we most often think in terms of a career, but vocation is much bigger than that. The word vocation literally means “a calling.” A person’s vocation is the place that God has called to, which can include but is not limited to a career.
In certain situations it is no surprise to hear words like calling used to described a career, such as when we are referring to pastors and church workers. But other times we rarely hear people referring to their jobs as where God has called them.
Wisdom from a Chipotle Burrito
Chipotle is one of my frequent visits for lunch; I cannot help but enjoy a delicious burrito bowl with some chips and guac. As with any organization that does things well, there are often great insights that we can learn about ourselves or specifically about working in ministry. Chipotle is no exception.
Do One Thing Well
If you want a lot of options for Mexican food, Chipotle isn’t the place to choose. But if you want an incredible burrito with some of the best ingredients, Chipotle will not leave you disappointed. What Chipotle has realized in the creation of their simple menu is that it is more important to worry about doing a few things exceptionally well than trying to meet every possible taste in the Mexican style of food.
Pre-Destination vs. Free Will Infographic
One of the most confusing theological discussions is often centered around the topics of pre-destination and free will. In order to help me better understand the complexities of something important throughout the Bible, I designed an infographic to help better explain what the Lutheran church teaches about this topic.
*Click image to downlaod full size infographic.
Standing Stones In Sedona
We’re on vacation near Sedona, Arizona which has some incredible scenery. One of the things that we’ve noticed as we’ve been hiking is that trails have stones stacked up everywhere. It seems that a few people decided to stack stones on top of each other as a way to mark trails so they knew they were headed in the right direction when coming back, but now they are just stacked up everywhere and in all kinds of unique places.
Seeing these stones stacked up, I couldn’t help but think of the instances that stones were stacked up throughout the Bible as a way of signifying the supernatural things that God has done. Anybody that traveled by these stones would know that something significant happened in that place.
“Joshua set up the twelve stones that had been in the middle of the Jordan at the spot where the priests who carried the ark of the covenant had stood. And they are there to this day.” – Joshua 4:9
My guess is that somebody just marked their path as they were hiking and other people wanted to do it too. But what if somebody put a marker there so that when people walked by they would wonder what happened here?
Martin Luther’s View on Music
As someone who is proudly Lutheran, it’s not a secret that I have an appreciation for the teaching of Martin Luther. In church history, there are many great theologions like Luther or Calvin that have shaped the church that we see today and a lot of times many of their insights have a lot of value for us today.
Martin Luther wrote the following regarding music:
I, Doctor Martin Luther, wish all lovers of the unshackled art of music grace and peace from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ! I truly desire that all Christians would love and regard as worthy the lovely gift of music, which is a precious, worthy, and costly treasure given to mankind by God. The riches of music are so excellent and so precious that words fail me whenever I attempt to discuss and describe them….
It’s not very often when I think about Luther, especially considering the theological library that he created, that I think of him as an artist. But Luther was an artist, a musician, writing songs that for hundreds of years would be passionately sung by worshippers in their congregations. I can just imagine the passion as Luther wrote these words; I think of the young worship leaders in our generation, passionately desiring that everyone will connect with this gift of music that God has given. And not only is that desire prevalent, but how often do these same passionate artists resonate with Luther, feeling that “words fail [them]” whenever they try to describe the gift of music.
In summa, next to the Word of God, the noble art of music is the greatest treasure in the world. It controls our thoughts, minds, hearts, and spirits…. Our dear fathers and prophets did not desire without reason that music be always used in the churches. Hence, we have so many songs and psalms. This precious gift has been given to man alone that he might thereby remind himself that God has created man for the express purpose of praising and extolling God.
In proper Luther fashion, it is pointed out that the art of music serves the Word and not the other way around. Don’t screw that up. We must be careful that we do not start worshipping music and forsake worshipping Christ. Luther also seems to have no problem celebrating the emotions that are stirred by music.
However, when man’s natural musical ability is whetted and polished to the extent that it becomes an art, then do we note with great surprise the great and perfect wisdom of God in music, which is, after all, His product and His gift; we marvel when we hear music in which one voice sings a simple melody, while three, four, or five other voices play and trip lustily around the voice that sings its simple melody and adorn this simple melody wonderfully with artistic musical effects, thus reminding us of a heavenly dance, where all meet in a spirit of friendliness, caress and embrace. A person who gives this some thought and yet does not regard music as a marvelous creation of God, must be a clodhopper indeed and does not deserve to be called a human being; he should be permitted to hear nothing but the braying of asses and the grunting of hogs.
Luther’s view of music in the Church was not a sentiment that was shared by all of the reformers. He celebrated the organ, while some opposed it. He celebrated using “artistic musical effects” while others felt it needed to be simplified. He wrote music, while some felt only songs found directly in scripture could be sung. Luther, because of his theology, didn’t see music as something bad to be avoided but as a part of the creation redeemed by Christ. And because of this view of creation, Luther celebrated the importance of music of all styles and it’s relation to the Word of God.
The quotes from this post all come from the Forward to Georg Rhau’s Symphoniae which was written by Martin Luther in 1538. Photos taken by Corey Grunewald.
Do Denominations Still Have Value?
In the current ministry environment, I’d be willing to argue that the concept of denominations is not only under-valued by the majority of Christians and churches, but there it is also something that many places view negatively. I’d like to challenge that idea because I believe that there is incredible value to denominations.
I don’t think denominations are without their flaws; in fact the fighting that happens within denominations is often the most brutal, unchristian behavior around. But even with the flaws, denominations are filled with a rich history of practices that have proven valuable for the leaders and members of them. Many of these things that I see as being valuable in denominations aren’t unique to only churches that have “Lutheran” or “Baptist” or something of that sort in the name. But I do believe that denominations have done many of these notably well.
Denominations Have a Built in Network of Churches
Imagine you have someone from your church moving to a new state for a new job. Hopefully after being a part of your congregation, they have a desire to also be connected to a new home church as they make their move. And finding a new church can be difficult – will be people be speaking in tongues? what do they believe about communion? do they care when I was baptized?
The beauty of denominations is that it provides a great network of churches that fall in line when it comes to core theological beliefs. Having a network of places that have the same view on the teachings of the Bible can be very beneficial when thinking about where to worship. Now despite this network of churches that share beliefs, that doesn’t guarantee that a church puts those beliefs into practice, that they have a good leader, or more simply that they are a healthy church. Denominations don’t eliminate these issues, but they absolute help.
What’s interesting is many churches have taken this concept and have even expanded it beyond having the same beliefs; there are many organizations that have partner/network churches that share beliefs, vision, and strategy. It’s in a sense a modern take on the traditional approach to what denominations have long done.
Denominations Don’t Hide Their Theological Leanings
One of my pet-peeves is when churches hide their theological leanings.
I really value when a church is clear about what they believe. When I listen to messages by Mark Driscoll or Matt Chandler, I greatly respect when leaders are unapologetic about how they interpret the scriptures. I don’t necessarily agree with what they may teach about subjects like baptism, but I can appreciate that they are very clear about what they believe and why they believe it. I think denominations do this well. In the Lutheran world, I think our denomination (LCMS) specifically does a great job of saying clearly what we believe about the Bible.
Now on the other hand, we also have to be careful to not be like the Pharisees who seem to always have it all figured out and get caught up in legalism and miss out on following Jesus. There is always a danger that we are only concerned with orthodoxy and have no concern of orthopraxy. But to truly have an understanding of the scriptures, we can’t have one without the other.
Denominations Have Systems of Training In Place
It seems like everyone these days gets ordained or is a pastor. Now absolutely we are all called to be pastors to each other as Christians. The biblical command to go and make disciples is not unique to church-workers and the idea of a full-time pastor isn’t exactly found in the Acts 2 church. But regardless of what the role of pastor looks like in a given day and age, the Bible always sets high standards for Pastors/Elders in churches.
The beauty of denominations is that they have built systems that hold their pastors accountable; they expect certain things to be learned and to be taught. It is very dangerous when anybody can throw together a band and a motivational message and start a church. This doesn’t mean that this can’t happen in contexts where there is no denominational structure; there are a lot of healthy churches that have set up systems of accountability for leaders.
Denominations Have an Ability to Support Church Planters
One of the things I’ve recently heard about our denomination is the desire to support church planters. Church planting is an incredibly important job today, but it’s extremely difficult. Imagine going out with no money, no building, no people, and trying to make something happen. And then couple that with the need to provide for your family, have a vision for what the church should look like, and work a full-time job to provide for your family.
In a denominational context, denominations have money to support church planters. A pastor can decide to plant a church and give his full time and attention to the reality of making it successful because his denomination is able to help financially. When denominations support church planters, the reality of being able to start new churches all over the world becomes just a little bit easier.
Photo Credit: Mindgraph
