I’ve said it plenty of times…social media has a lot of power and a lot of positives. I referred to some of the positives in this post a few months ago.

With all the power for positives in social media, there is an equal and maybe greater power for negative influence. I saw a couple things happen in the past weeks that have reminded me of this in a huge way.

You never know when something you say over Facebook, Twitter, or a blog will come back to bite you. Just ask Larry Johnson, the now former running back for the Kansas City Chiefs. He bashed his coach over Twitter and called a fan a “fag” several times on Twitter as well (no I’m not making this up). Yesterday he was released from the team after having been previously suspended by the team. It is likely he’ll be playing for another team by next Sunday, but he has tarnished his image. Read that story here.

Over the weekend John Piper had this to say on Twitter:

And then yesterday he had this “insight” on elders and porn:

Let me say this. I have no reason not to respect John Piper. He has served Jesus faithfully and never, ever compromised preaching the gospel during his service as a pastor and author. He is a man I look up to and learn from quite often.

I would summarize my thoughts on Piper’s two tweets with this one word: curious. If it isn’t curious, then maybe confusing. I don’t really understand what he is saying, but if you take them at face value he has done a horrible job of referencing Scripture with context (Ez. 8:12) and he has completely offended those who do feel addicted to porn.

The bad part of all this with Piper is that he has absolutely no idea people have been offended or confused by his tweets on porn. He obviously doesn’t check his @ replies because he has never replied to anyone on Twitter, nor has he responded with any sort of follow up after those 2 note worthy statements. So not only has he turned many on Twitter against him, he is not engaging with them in any way. 2 strikes.

I know a lot of people who are truly offended by Piper’s remarks and my only hope is that they continue to be rooted in grace as they reference him (here is a response to Piper that goes too far for me).

I’ve even been guilty of stupid statements on social media myself plenty of times. I said this on Twitter last week:

I meant nothing racial about it. Just about every winner of every major marathon has been from Kenya or Ethiopia in the past 20 years. BUT several people wrote me a message on Twitter warning me that I was dangerously close to offending many with my statement, because it was a stupid thing to say. I apologized to all of those people and kept the lesson learned in my memory bank.

This is just one example when I’ve done something completely stupid on Twitter or this blog. I could name plenty of other examples.

Too often we flippantly say whatever random thought passes through our brains without thinking of the repercussions.

Have you seen the power of social media turn on you in a negative way?

As I mentioned last week, I’ve been thinking a lot about hierarchical leadership in the church and the need for the church to move toward a shared leadership model.

Here are some things I’ve read that have stood out to me:

“A leader who leverages power is illegitimate. A leader who relies only on authority will never lead change; at the best, he will be a competent manager proficient in technical strategies” (Kevin Ford).

“Nothing distinguishes kingdoms of man from the kingdom of God more than their diametrically opposed views of the exercise of power. One seeks to control people, the other to serve people; one promotes self, the other prostrates self; one seeks prestige and position, the other lifts up the lowly and despised” (Chuck Colson).

“Authoritarianism is evil, anti-social, anti-human, and ultimately anti-God (for self-deifying pride is at its heart), and I have nothing to say in its favor” (J.I. Packer).

I’d prefer not to argue about what structure of church leadership is best or most biblical. I do that enough in my seminary classes. But I am curious what your thoughts are on one thing:

Why are most churches run the same way as most large organizations and businesses?

(If that confuses you, let me explain a bit more…Most large organizations have a CEO and a few people with power, though less power, who also play key roles. All of those leaders are superseded by some sort of a board that usually amounts to a group who do whatever the key leaders think should happen. Switch out the titles and you have how most churches are run.)

I got up way too early yesterday so I could be sure to get my hands on the Droid that came out for Verizon. I’ve never had a phone that had apps or could check email or could use the internet. It is a really weird shift to be able to do all those things all the time, whenever I want. The phone change also reminds of the need for boundaries in internet usage. Anyone else get a Droid or going to get one? So far I’ve been really pleased.

Watch out for Nebraska to pull an upset on Oklahoma tonight….or not.

Blogs

1. Interesting article titled, “Is the Bible actually true?”
2. Incredible story of a former KKK leader who learned to love those he previously hated. Hated is probably a kind word compared to what it truly was.
3. Jason Boyett wrote a thought-provoking post on the ways he is annoyed during times of “worship.”
4. How you can “dislike” items on Facebook using Firefox.
5. Check out some of what Eugene and One Days Wages is up to.
6. How biking is shaping the upcoming culture in Portland. Does any church in Portland understand this?

News

• A church in Dallas has announced plans for building a $130 million campus downtown. Yes…you read that correctly. And no, I don’t think that is cool.
• Looks like Google might be making a play to get into the music business.
• Listen to the new album by The Swell Season once through for free. Definitely worth a listen.
• I could think of better places to crash land a plane.

Blessings to you.

This will be the last post in this series you can catch out the other posts if you want:

Part One // Part Two // Part Three

A Theology.

At this point it would be good to examine two different types of worship that James Torrance labels “Unitarian worship” and “Trinitarian worship.” At face value Unitarian worship is about worshiping God the Father and about us bringing a sacrifice to him. The problem with Unitarian worship comes when this question is posed: what, in and of ourselves, do we have to offer God that would be pleasing to him? The only answer is: nothing, absolutely nothing. Trinitarian worship is a bit more complex; through the power of the Holy Spirit we are connected with the Son in his worship of the Father. In his book, Experiencing the Trinity, Darrell Johnson offers the following:

“I am often asked to identify myself using one of the theological or ecclesiastical labels of our time. Am I Evangelical? Conservative? Reformed? Charismatic? If I must identify myself, I prefer the label ‘Christo-centric Trinitarian.’ For as I love and worship and obey Jesus Christ, I keep ending up at the feet of the Triune God. And then, all I want is all that the Father is, and wants to give me, and all that the Son is, and wants to give me, and all that the Spirit is, and wants to give me. What I want is to be alive in the intimacy at the center of the universe.”

This understanding of worship being an encounter with the Trinity has plenty of Biblical support, none bigger than in Ephesians 2:18, “For through him (Christ) we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.”

As I think through my previous times of leading worship (we can discuss the validity of that title another time) my worship was often more Unitarian, or at best, semi-trinitarian. Neither of which provide a full understand of how we ought to worship God.

My times of singing and playing music and bringing the congregation into God’s presence often become about me isolating one part of the Trinity to focus on, and then I do my best to pull off a music set with excellence. All this is done with a heart that is pure, but I often become what Robb Redman would call, “a producer of the sacred.”

My focus on providing a sacrifice of excellence often trumps my reliance on the Spirit to connect me with the Son. If worship is truly not about us, then my focus on excellence has got in the way of a truly worshipful connection with God. If excellence, from a human standpoint, has a limited role in worship then it should also be said that our disagreements over style, song choice, and volume have absolutely no role either.

If worship is truly not about us, then it provides us with an opportunity to join in a subversive act. This subversion is the shift we need in today’s worship understanding. I love how Marva Dawn talks about this:

“The focus (during worship) was on us, instead of on God and what he reveals. Such worship fosters the basic perspective that faith depends on how well we notice God’s glory, rather than on the gift of God’s revelation that God’s grace enables us to receive.”

The pragmatic side of me looks at this idea of Trinitarian worship being a subversive act and I wonder how that plays out in our churches. I don’t think it changes much of what we specifically do during our weekend gatherings, but it does provide a context in which worship can truly be an interaction with Christ, to the Father, by the Spirit. In this context the song, the style, the volume, the clothes, the people on stage, .etc; none of it matters in the least.

This is the way it should be because worship is not about us it is about Him.

Thinking through a normal week of my job, this seems unattainable, but it sure would be wonderful. Today’s church needs this in a big way. The weird thing is that it isn’t anything they can do.

What is your theology of worship?

I’ve written a couple of guests post that went up this week that I thought I’d share with you. Both are written on the topic of shared leadership but come at the topic from different angles.

I figured all of you would enjoy reading some of those posts and joining in the conversation that is going on already with those posts.

• The first post is part of LeadershipWeek on Ben Davis’ blog. You can read it by going here. Ben has a cool series going on with a lot of different people writing on the topic of leadership in the church. I was really honored to be a part of that.
• The second post is for a print and online magazine based out of Salem, Oregon named ReThink Monthly Magazine. You can read that post here. Make sure to check out the other great articles they have online as well. Rethink has a great thing going and they haven’t even been around that long.

I’m going to close the comments on this post to encourage you to comment over on these posts. If you have any questions for me about the posts just use the contact page (up and to the right, on the main tab bar) to send me an email.

I currently read 90 blogs.

I read about 40 blogs of friends and family and then 50 other blogs of people I enjoy reading and learning from.

I know…you are thinking I’m crazy to be reading all of those blogs.

The honest truth is that it isn’t that hard.

I use Google Reader and it takes care of most of the work for me.

If you read this blog and aren’t using a feed reader (Google Reader is a feed reader) then you really should be. In fact, if you read blogs at all and you aren’t using Google Reader you are spending a lot more time than you could be if you used it.

Watch this video on how to best use Google Reader and then be kind and subscribe to this blog on it. If you would rather read posts over email, you can get my posts over email by going here.

(If you can’t see the video go here)

I want to thank each and every one of you who comes by the site. To those of you who already are subscribed to this blog, thank you very much. I’m grateful for your willingness to read all of my posts and engage in the comments as well.

Part Two

Worship in the New Testament.

If I could summarize the shift in how worship is presented in the New Testament from the Old Testament it would be with this: Jesus.

The book of Hebrews provides a beneficial outline for coming to this conclusion. The Old Testament placed great value in worship through the priesthood, sanctuary, sacrifice, and covenant, while in Hebrews Christ is presented as superior in all those areas.

Our main role in worship is to respond to this superiority of Christ (Hebrews 10-12). Many will say that the Old Testament valued external worship and the New Testament placed great value on internal (heart) worship. This, however, presents a great problem for the believer.

The Bible presents one God and therefore one holistic way of worship, not a worship that changes as the book continues. Rick Muchow connects this well,

“Jesus understood that worship includes living a life that honors God, the way you respond to temptation has a profound impact on your worship. When the devil confronted him in the wilderness, Jesus responded by talking about worship: ‘You must worship the Lord your God, serve only him.’”

Worship in the New Testament places great value on not only a heartfelt connection with God, but also on obedient living.

Many will also say that the Old Testament was merely a foreshadowing of the worship we are able to engage in today. James Torrance seems to echo that sort of statement as he connects the dots in how the priesthood is viewed in the Old and New Testaments. He says,

“The New Testament writers saw this as a foreshadowing of the mediatorial ministry of Christ. Firstly, he comes from the Father to be the true priest, bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh…Secondly, he consecrates himself for this ministry of leading us into the presence of the Father.”

What we must do now is unpack the implications of Christ’s role in our worship and in turn, the role of the Trinity in our worship and how that should affect our theology of worship.

So for those of you dressing up…..what/who are you dressing up as?

Rose and I have had 3 people back out last minute for taking over our lease. We would really appreciate your prayer that it would work out for someone to do so very soon.

Blogs

1. “My concern resides in our age old tendency to reshape the gospel so that it matches our own personal ideals and passions, with the result that we create a mythical moral high ground to stand on, and thus stop growing” (read the full article here).
2. Confronting urban violence with Jesus’ non-violence.
3. Should the goal of Christians be to convert others to their faith?
4. How not to blog.
5. How not to tweet.
6. Interesting book on how to live life without having a car. I used my dad’s car for this past week while he was in California, but I think I enjoy a lot of aspects of being carless.
7. Have you heard of Foursquare? I’ll be the first to say that I don’t think it is all it is being cracked up to be, but here is a good post on why it just might be.

News

• For those of you who live in the Bay Area…it must really be a hassle to have the Bay Bridge closed until Monday now.
• How can an independent bookstore like Powell’s keep up with the online price war going on in the book sales industry.
• Veteran White House press reporter has 5 lessons for Obama.
• Too much sleep might be making you groggy.

Happy Reformation Day!

I’ve never been a big fan of Halloween. Growing up, sure, I loved it. What kid didn’t?

But ever since high school or so I’ve always hated the dark side of Halloween and how its promotes evil things as ok if only for a day.

So this year I’m going to focus my attention on something else.

Something far more deserving of being recognized as any kind of holiday or event.

Reformation Day. Or what I would call Martin Luther Day.

On October 31st, 1517 Martin Luther mailed an essay to a leader in the Catholic church and nailed the same document to the door of a Catholic church in Germany. This is commonly referred to as Luther’s 95 Theses.

What followed changed the course of Christianity.

It was  the most significant day in Christian history since the times written about in the Bible.

Protestants, Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists, Quakers, Lutherans, Episcopalians…they all have October 31st, 1517 to thank for their existence.

We get to hear English during our church services instead of Latin thanks to Luther.

For Halloween am I choosing to focus on the Reformation (started by Luther) and the many positive things that have come about for the Christian faith from it.

They are much more worthy than costumes, pranks, and jack o’ laterns.

Part One

Worship in the Old Testament.

Before we can come up with a theology of worship we must begin by looking at the subject from a biblical standpoint.

In the Bible the English word “worship” is derived from four different Hebrew words and six different Greek words (in the NIV). A quick study of these words provides a basic definition of “prostration, paying of homage to, service, and showing of reverence.” We can now see the word “worship” as being something of an attitude, a posture, and of lifestyle as well.

This is played out well within the Old Testament as we see plenty of evidence of altar worship in Genesis through Noah, Abraham, and Jacob (Genesis 8, 22, 28). This could be thought of as worship as a sacrifice.

Into Exodus, worship is presented within the confines of a building structure, where people are able to worship God in the way they build a place to meet and engage with him. Examples of this are found within a good majority of the Old Testament through building specifications for both the tabernacle and later, the temple.

Israel worshiped God within the four festivals that were celebrated consistently (Sabbath-Ex. 31, Passover/Unleavened Bread-Ex. 12, Num. 28, Pentecost-Lev. 23, and Tabernacles-Deut. 16).

One of the most important verses on worship in the Old Testament is found in Deuteronomy 12:4: “You must not worship the Lord your God in their way.” This verse provides a foundation for how to observe what can be confusing ways of worship to our modern times. Worship is absolutely something done in God’s way not the way of the world around us, and it clearly involves sacrifice.

David Peterson would even go as far as to say,

“Decisive for understanding the Old Testament view of worship is the idea that the God of heaven and earth had taken the initiative in making himself known.”

Worship is not only something done God’s way, but it was something put into place by him as well. As the Old Testament moves into the books of the prophets, God uses men to rebuke and correct the worship of his people going awry through their incorrect living. James Torrance summarizes this well:

“They (the prophets) exposed the paganism of the rituals and the legalism of their belief that their sacrifices were efficacious in themselves. So God can say to them, through Amos: ‘I hate, I despise your religious feasts; I cannot stand your assemblies…But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream.’ In other words, worship is no longer seen as an ordinance of and an obedient response to grace, it has become false worship-an abomination to God who says ‘Take it away!’”

This is the perfect foundation as we move into worship as it is shown to us in the New Testament.