I hate all your show

After being a fan of Switchfoot for a fair while I have been keen to hear Jon Foreman's [lead vocalist of Switchfoot, not pianist from Australian idol :) ] individual cd, 'Limbs and Branches'. Knowing though that it was a bit softer on the ear from what I was used to with Switchfoot I wasn't oozing with enthusiasm. A friend lent the cd to me a short time ago and I've been loving it. Not just because of his music though but because of Jon's heart and cutting lyrics, probably the foundational reason I have respected Switchfoot for so long.

The BIG song on the cd for me is 'I hate all your show'. It pretty much comes from the bible - Isaiah 1:11-17 but also has a bit in it from what seems like Jon's experience of Church (as an institution) and what the Church has or hasn't been to people.

The picture to me, of Church from the song and when thinking of the mainstream church through the eyes of the verses in Isaiah, is like a religious place where religious practices are organised but rarely do they make an impact on the majority of people living on this earth and rarely is it what God is looking for in His people. This is a generalistic comment but I think it would be reasonably fair to say that through what I have experienced, more time and resources have been spent on religious practices in the mainstream church than simply being a group of people eagerly attempting to be more like Jesus to the people around them & the world in need.

The contrast for me is that Jesus made an impact on people pretty much everywhere he traveled .

This has made me think long and hard about the impact I allow Jesus to have through me without leaning on the fact that I go to a church every Sunday and this being the facade that states I am a follower of Jesus.

Here's the lyrics:
I hate all your show and pretense
The hypocrisy of your praise
The hypocrisy of your festivals
I hate all your show

Away with your noisy worship
Away with your noisy hymns
I stop up my ears when you’re singing ‘em
I hate all your show

Instead let there be a flood of justice
An endless procession of righteous living, living
Instead let there be a flood of justice
Instead of a show

Your eyes are closed when you’re praying
You sing right along with the band
You shine up your shoes for services
There’s blood on your hands

You turned your back on the homeless
And the ones that don’t fit in your plan
Quit playing religion games
There’s blood on your hands

Instead let there be a flood of justice
An endless procession of righteous living, living
Instead let there be a flood of justice
Instead of a show
I hate all your show

Let’s argue this out
If your sins are blood red
Let’s argue this out
You’ll be one of the clouds
Let’s argue this out
Quit fooling around
Give love to the ones who can’t love at all
Give hope to the ones who got no hope at all
Stand up for the ones who can’t stand at all, all

I hate all your show
I hate all your show
I hate all your show
I hate all your show

Pagan Christianity; where it hits the road

Here's an excerpt from Pagan Christianity, I love it! I think it's the type of gathering when we meet together that we're discovering and want to pursue. See what you think. . . .

Pg 78 - "What I have written about open meetings under the headship of Christ is not fanciful theory. I have participated in such meetings for the last nineteen years.
Such meetings are marked by incredible variety. They are not bound to a one-man, pulpit-dominated pattern of worship. There is a great deal of spontaneity, creativity, and freshness. The overarching hallmark of these meetings is the visible headship of Christ and the free yet orderly functioning of the body of Christ. I was in such a meeting not too long ago. Let me describe it to you.
About thirty of us gathered together in a home and greeted one another. Some of us stepped into the center of the living room and began singing a capella. Quickly, the entire church was singing in unison, arms around one another. Someone else began another song, and we all joined in. Between each song, prayers were uttered by different people. Some of the songs had been written by the members themselves. We sang several of the songs several times. Some people turned the words of the songs into prayers. On several occasions, a few of the members exhorted the church in relation to what we had just sung.
After we sang, rejoiced, spontaneously prayed, and exhorted one another, we sat down. Then, very quickly, a woman stood and began explaining what the Lord had showed her during the week. She spoke for about three minutes. After she sat down, a man stood up and shared a portion of Scripture and exalted the Lord Jesus through it. Next another gentleman stood up to add a few very edifying words to what he said. A woman then broke into a new song that went right along with what the two men had just shared. The whole church sang with her. Another woman stood and read a poem that the Lord had given her during the week . . . and it meshed perfectly with what the others had shared up to that point.
One by one, brothers and sisters in Christ stood up to tell us what they had experienced in their relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ that week. Exhortations, teaching, encouragements, poems, songs, and testimonies all followed one right after the other. And a common theme, one that revealed the glories of Jesus Christ, emerged. Some of those gathered wept.
None of this was rehearsed, prescribed, or planned. Yet the meeting was electric. It was so rich, so glorious, and so edifying that it became evident to everyone that someone was indeed leading the meeting. But He was not visible. It was the Lord Jesus Christ! His headship was being made manifest among His people. We were reminded again that He in fact is alive … alive enough to direct His Church."

We experienced this on Sunday as God lead us in great discussion on community, on what it means to love each other, on being the parts of the body. It started with some delving into His word with simple application and then it was discussed and really struggled with for over an hour. What I loved most is that it really hit home what it means to be the body and we all went away very affected and challenged to the point that we can't not do something about it. That to me this is learning and teaching and I didn't have to just sit there in rows of seats listening to someone . . . .

Agree to Disagree??

I was reading Philippians 2 last night at our gathering and something jumped out at me that I hadn't really noticed before. In the NLT it reads in vs 2 "Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one heart and purpose."
Then the phrase came to me from times past 'it's ok to agree to disagree'. . . Paul, here in Philippians, was trying to get the people to unite and stop arguing, it displeased him and obviously it seems to not be the ideal reflection of the body of Christ. After all Jesus says in John 15 I think, something like, my desire is that they (the disciples / followers) would be one as we (Father, Son and Holy Spirit)are one. Because of this verse in Philippians i'm now questioning that phrase, agreeing to disagree, i think it may be a cop-out. I have seen the destruction of disagreeance and from that, disharmony and then the destruction of relationships. On the other hand I have seen what it is like to be a part of a community that agree with each other in heart and purpose. The harmony the relationship, the fact that you can move on as a group and not be just putting out spotfires of disagreeance etc. Does this mean that in everything about life the community need to agree? Well I reckon that could be boring, maybe robotic, maybe cultish. On the core parts of that community though, maybe to agree to disagree isn't good enough. Maybe it should be worked out until agreeance has been settled? Let's face it if this Tiger and this man can agree not to kill each other, maybe we could learn to try and agree on less important things and move forward in love and harmony?

Being a community of faith

In being a part of an institutional style of church for many years I have come to understand that for many who may attend on a Sunday the church is just that . . . Sunday. Unless of course there are meetings to attend beyond that day.
This makes me concerned about what it means to be a faith community or community of faith.
This of course is what many churches may have been called or known by but I would probably say that it isn't a very true reflection of what the church really is.
We talked about this on Sunday and discussed what our church community would look like if we all lived by faith in God everyday. What does that look like as a community of people? What would it mean to not just fit into the world but to live by faith in God that he is the provider and that he is the total leader. That we don't just do our work, go here, go there because we have always done it but we give our time to what / who God is leading us to. That we don't just spend our $ on whatever we normally may but that everything we had was considered as God's and for His purpose.
What sort of an impact would this type of community have on a broader community?

Transperancy and Analysis

If only Businesses, Churches, maybe even as people we had analysis like this! There is something about the honesty here and self evaluation that is really good. Some of us don't cope too well with being transperant and allowing others to help us to grow but it seems a footy club is heading in the right direction here. Makes me wonder if there are many things that could be adopted to church life and life in general.
Here's a snippet of what I'm talking about:
"We have a guy by the name of Tim Hart who is employed to sit in the box with the aim, purely, of improving us as coaches.

Before the game, Tim comes into the rooms and senses what the mood is like, how he feels the players are receiving what the coaches are saying and how the players are responding to it.

He listens to our communication in the box and looks at the rotations each coach calls. Tim also assesses how productive we are, how we use statistics and how reactive and clear in thought we are.
Full Article

Buildings and Wages in Western Church?

The Christian church has created a bit of an issue I believe and that is the drain that buildings and wages has on its purpose.
It's pretty much common knowledge in church circles that the larger percentage of a church's resources / funds, are spent on the inner goings on of church itself. When I was in a formal ministry role, something like 40% of all income was spent on the pastor's wages. It raises questions for me and the validity of paid pastors. What also is an issue is the dollars spent on buildings, maintenance, technology etc so that a church stays functional.
I have to question whether this money spent really fulfills the purpose of church. Is it not more like Jesus to give to the needy, use the funds for mission in some form, more than on the inner sanctum, more than the importance of the Sunday service?
I can't help but think of the church from the perspective of people on the outside looking in, especially here in Australia. What they see is sometimes a fairly well-to-do institution that can come across as judgmental and middle class. A fair target for an Aussie's tall poppy syndrome. Would it not be more effective if it was humble, generous, more concerned with the community around them and heavily grounded in reality, functioning for the purpose of people?
Where your heart is will probably determine where the $ are spent.