We're Not Dead Yet

No, the show hasn't launched and yes, October is essentially over. We've hit technical difficulties that are delaying the launch. But we met together yesterday to talk about solutions and to begin the process of lurching forward.

You might be happy to hear that we listened to the first show we recorded in August, and discovered it was awful. That's pretty disheartening, considering how excited we were and generally impressed with our theological acumen and comedic timing. It also seems like a natural analogy for the work of the Gospel, but I digress.

So, we are still working on this. We will do it. It will at the very least be better than it was in August, and we look forward to sharing it with you and pray it will be helpful for you and those in your lives.

How do you hear the Bible?

As we await the airing of our first show, I thought I would muse upon the theme of our first list and get a conversation started (is that even possible on a blog?) based on the first list. Please note: this is my first blog post ever and I am very nervous about my poor grammar, bad spelling, and over use of commas being exposed to the world. Have mercy upon me, dear reader, according to your love for blogs.

Our first list (without revealing the list itself) will be “The Top Three Things You Should Hear at Church.” So maybe in the comments below we could start discussing the following questions: What did you hear last Sunday? What was the content of the message? Was it from the Bible? Did it talk about Jesus? If so, what did the message say about Jesus? Was the service (that is, the songs, liturgy, prayers) based on Jesus’ work or your works? As we prepare to worship on Sunday mornings these are some questions we should be asking.

One thing I have been thinking about lately is the role of the Bible in our churches. I think (I mean, I hope and pray) we can all agree that if the Scriptures are not guiding our worship services, then whatever has taken their place is an idol. The Scriptures are the very Word of God recorded for us and therefore ought to guide and inform the entire worship service (not to mention the entire Christian life). Let’s assume we can all agree on that much. The thing I have been mulling over in my head is not IF we should be using the Scriptures in our services, but HOW are the Scriptures used?

Let me give you an example. I have recently heard (and I can’t recall where) that the Bible is a roadmap for living. It is a guide for us to teach us how to live according to God’s will. This kind of talk almost always reduces itself to some kind of moralism. Basically, when this is the way we view the Bible we are going to read it as if it were all about us and how we are to live. And, when the church uses it this way in worship services, our worship services become focused on us and not on Jesus. To be sure, since the Bible is open, we hear about what Jesus has done for us, but even then the story of salvation becomes a means to an end, the end being guidance on living a good, Christian (read: moral) life. It all becomes about the betterment of “me.” “Me” becomes the idol in the temple of the Lord!

The Bible certainly teaches morals and shows us how we are to live. But this is not the main focus of the Bible, not even close! I mean, if we are using the Bible simply to learn how to be better people, we are at best misunderstanding the intention of the Scriptures and at worst blaspheming the Holy Spirit. If in our worship services we only hear de-contextualized verses that are telling us what to do and how to act, and if every story we hear is somehow given a moral (You know, if you want to walk on water you have to get out of the boat!) then we are no longer faithfully reading the scriptures, but instead, using them to encourage our own moralistic narcissism, a very dangerous religion indeed!

Wow, this is quite a rant for my first blog (see, even I am caught up in moralistic narcissism, I just make mine sound pious!)! So, what are we to do? Hearing the Bible in worship is not enough. How should we be hearing the Scriptures? These are the Scriptures that make us wise unto salvation (2 Timothy 3:15)! And, salvation is found in Christ alone. Therefore, when we hear the Scriptures, we need to hear them, and read them, in such a way that they point us to Christ and His gracious, saving work on our behalf. They are not about us fixing our moral foibles. They are not even about us becoming better people. They are frankly not about us at all. They are about Jesus dying for our morality (sin) and rising to reign for our salvation. They are the story of Christ’s saving work for you and all of creation. They are the account of the triune God’s merciful activity towards rebellious, moral narcissists, or as Jesus calls us, white-washed tombs. They are the story of Jesus leaving all kinds of tombs behind (of both the white-washed and garden variety) and starting a whole new creation, a tombless resurrection life! AH! This Bible is so good precisely because it is about Jesus and not us! Be gone with these boring, moralistic readings! Hear the great promises given to you from the apostles and prophets! It is not enough to just hear the Bible read on Sundays. What should you hear should not be about you, it should be about Jesus for you! This is what should be heard every Sunday!

Well, enough of this blog/rant/sermon. As we begin our radio show (which will air soon, I hope) my prayer (and Paul’s as well, I’m sure) is that our show would focus on Jesus. If you consider listening, please pray that we don’t detour into moralism, but that we are saturated in the marvelous light of Christ’s gospel!

Back to the Drawing Board...Sort Of

I received initial feedback from Tom, the guy/owner/creator/? at The Crossroads Radio Network that I'm coordinating with for the launch of our show. He was very encouraging.

You guys sound like you're new at this. But that's ok, because you are new at this.

I think that's encouraging.

We have work to do - mostly in the realm of editing our existing stuff and tweaking our settings for future recordings so that the sound is a little better. Recording in a different room might help that somewhat, as might some logistics with distance between our mouths and the mics. But I suspect that a lot of it will revolve around learning how to adjust the settings on the mixer board. It's not anything Bob or I have experience with, but I'm sure we'll figure it out in time.

More pressing is the need to create both an 'intro' and an 'outro' - a snippet of music, generally with a voiceover including the title of the show. Again - never done this before. Once we get the intro and outro created, we have to patch it on to the beginning and end of the show, make sure we're under 29 minutes for the total length, and then re-upload the finished MP3 files to Tom's server.

Piece of cake, right? At least, that's what I hope! Any advice/suggestions/resource references - send 'em this way pronto!

Pre-Recording Done - I Think!

Yesterday Bob and I sat down to record our first four radio sessions. Fun, fun, fun! We had to do a fair amount of furniture moving, as it turns out that, unbeknownst to me, the exterior of our church was getting power-washed in anticipation of a complete exterior paint job. As such, the original room for the recording to take place was waaaaaaaaay noisy. Fortunately, the cry room on the other side of the building proved to be much quieter, and aside from Bob wanting to play with some of the toys in the room, it was a great recording 'studio'.

Now we're awaiting instructions. I want to get some feedback from the station manager/owner on what we've done, and hope to upload one of the files to him today. There's a slight chance that we didn't do things correctly and might need to re-record, but I'm praying that's not the case.

If all goes well, our show should debut in the next few weeks. We're planning to do some double-duty at an upcoming pastors conference where we could conceivably record our next four sessions. But we'll see how it goes. We both feel like there's a good chemistry, and thanks to Bob, we had no trouble filling up 29 minutes worth of air space. And then some!

Whatchoo Talkin' 'Bout?

It's looking as though one of our first shows is going to discuss the top three things you should hear from your pastor on Sunday morning. No, directions to the donuts and coffee didn't make the cut (those directions should be clearly printed in the bulletin, people!).

As such, I thought this article was interesting, picking up on the potential role of clergy in the event of a national emergency requiring the implementation of martial law. It's an older article (2007), and the web site definitely seems to be less than unbiased, but it brings up an interesting issue as to what the role of clergy is - what do we tell people, in other words? Who gets to dictate what we say?

The typical knee-jerk reaction might be to claim that nobody dictates what we say! But this isn't entirely true, because that would leave what your pastor says on Sunday morning solely to their own personal discretion. And while personal discretion comes in to play, so does the idea that pastors are not theological or liturgical free agents. What we say and do is dictated in great part by those who have come before us, and by the Word of God that informs and leads us.

Not that others wouldn't like the idea of co-opting the pulpit for personal motivations or even the public good. This article casts aspersions on the meaning of Romans 13, but it raises good, difficult questions for me. Would I preach to my people that they should accept anything the government dictates because of Romans 13? Would I preach pacifist messages based on Romans 13? Would I be able to reliably discern if a government program or mandate was in violation to the Word of God and therefore to be rejected?

These are important questions for pastors to ask themselves, as well as for parishioners to think through. It's clear we aren't exempt from suffering just because of our faith in Jesus Christ. Who gets to determine when that suffering is justified or necessary? That's a harder issue to sort out.

We're Gonna Have a Radio Show!

Thanks for coming by. We know you have a choice when deciding what blog to read. In this case, the choice was probably between this blog and an infomercial at 2:47 am for Buns of Steel. I'd congratulate you on choosing wisely, but man, I'd kill for buns of steel - dangers notwithstanding.

This blog will be a breeding ground for whatever sorts of mental meanderings Bob and I see fit to post about. Some will be related to the online radio show we hope to be launching shortly at thecrossroadsradio.com. That show will be called "The List", and each week we'll spend roughly 29 minutes talking about important things you should think about or consider, primarily in the arena of living theologically. We may also post on tangential topics, ideas that never make it into an actual show, and things that you would like us to talk about.

What should you know about The Crossroads Radio Network, other than that they apparently have extremely low standards for who they'll broadcast? It's an online radio network that reaches hundreds of people already all over the world. Their programming is aimed at exploring what it means to live as a Christian in today's world. Primarily because dead people don't listen to the radio and living in a world in any other era than today isn't possible yet without an awesome hot tub.

Who are we, the authors and hosts? You'll figure that out all too soon, I'm afraid, and I'm in no hurry to speed along that frightening process of realization. Maybe I'll leave that to Bob. It will give him something to talk about and encourage him to post soon before I change my mind and start posting junior high pictures of him.

In the meantime, sit back, relax, and hopefully begin engaging. We look forward to coming by some time and crashing on your couch for 30 minutes each week. Don't mind us - we'll find the fridge on our own!