Is the Era of Age Segmentation Over? | Out of Ur | Conversations for Ministry Leaders

I had to share this, because I had an opinion (surprise surprise) that I felt worth adding.

Is the Era of Age Segmentation Over? | Out of Ur | Conversations for Ministry Leaders

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One thing I observed about youth groups, especially the past couple of years, is how they feed compartmentalization. Let's watch a movie for two hours, read the Bible for ten minutes, then play a game for five minutes. There's no apparent connection between them. (That's the inherent attitude, not my personal opinion.) Actually, we never outgrow that and guess what? The "falling away" isn't just among the youth. Is this really about the "kid's table", or are more people just deciding a faith that has no practical value (makes no difference) isn't worth having?

What do you think?

Christianizing Scripture

I either haven't made this disclaimer or it's been a while since I have, so here goes. This blog is NOT about criticism of individuals. I'll take issue with or shots at philosophies I find dangerous, but that's where it ends. For whatever reason I feel the ideas (and just the ideas) deserve a good kick to the curb, and maybe a sucker punch or two when the ref isn't looking. This brings me to this post's topic.

I recently attended a Bible Study exploring the first chapter of Ecclesiastes. As I've mentioned before, this is one of my favorite books. Yes, I'm that weird.

The leader of our study read from chapter one (____ is meaningless, _____ meaning pretty much anything) then used an excerpt from an author and some NT verses to say the exact opposite. Basically, it was using Scripture to argue with Scripture. I found this a bit disturbing, but it happens quite a bit. We don't like what something says, so we proof text our way out of it. There's a dangerous pattern to this.

I guess what surprises me the most is people who do this are the same who argue for taking other difficult passages literally, like "wives, submit to your husbands" and "if a man doesn't work, neither should he eat." I guess as long as it's not uncomfortable for you personally it's okay.

Ecclesiastes, like other OT books, has a lot of uncertainty at times. This makes the reader uncomfortable, which I'll argue is good. Sometimes people need that, or we'll feel too sure of ourselves. Try most of the time.

In these passages, the authors always come to a point of faith. Not certainty, such as "I can argue my way out of this" or really "I can" anything for that matter (unless it's through God). It ends with faith in One who is greater, One we could never fully understand. We can know Him, but we won't figure Him out. May He forgive us for suggesting we can.

Happy Labor Day

There's no way I could have put this better. Happy Labor Day.

http://falsani.blogspot.com/

To quote Shrek, "Stop singing!"

I went and listened to some of them pod casts again. One in particular came, in my opinion, one year too late. Better late than never, I guess.

Some of my earlier posts on this blog concerned my frustrations with music. Singing "church songs" for me just didn't feel like worship. I compromised and decided to silently focus on the words if I wasn't going to sing out of sincerity. It evened out to fifty percent of the time.

Earlier this year, I learned that was having a negative affect on those closest to me. So, like it or not, I decided that I'd sing. And to be honest, it hadn't felt obligatory since.

Obligatory. That's what I'm struggling with nowadays, the flawed assumption that following Christ is one uncomfortable obligation after another. What about the freedom of becoming more of who you were meant to be? Shouldn't you be, in a sense, more yourself? This is the struggle, and I'm slowly coming through it. This brings me to the podcast.

The message, a summary of which I'm pasting a link to below, springboards off of some Psalms and articulates what I needed to hear. I appreciate most what it has to say about being reminded of More and the subversive act of submission. If done right, it's not about performance.

http://www.marshill.org/userfiles/Why%20To%20Sing.pdf

A couple of important points were not covered in the summary.

1. Music used to be about participation, but in recent years, it became a product. Now it's all about performance and recognizing the one on stage. "Maybe singing feels weird to us because we are out of practice."
2. The band leading the music takes a back seat. It should sound incomplete until the entire congregation joins in. The worship experience isn't mine, it's ours.

I'm not saying I agree with everything preached in Mars Hill messages, even though I find something good in them ninety percent of the time. Still, this is the first time I heard more than just "do it because you have to". I'm just glad I know that now. Besides, if the word "subversive" is attached, I'm so in.