Haha, I wanted to write the most convoluted title I could.

I just got back from a men’s bible study I’ve been leading for the local InterVarsity chapter and it was a really great study. We went over Galatians 2:1-10, and specifically it was about Paul’s meeting with the church leaders in Jerusalem and the comparing of notes that they did.

The central theme of the passage was that of Unity amongst the denominations and how we have commonality in diversity which compels us to love each other and extend each other a ton of leeway in methodology.

For me, I realized that although I fancy myself willing to extend leeway to others in their practice, I still have a lot of people I lump into a ‘them’ camp that God really convicted me of; there’s alot of freedom in extending love and grace to someone else and appreciating the true diversity of the body.

There’s a post on the Emergent movement and worship and what might happen in 30 years when we’re all older and greyer and 20 somethings are complaining about our music on Margaret Feinberg’s blog today; will modern worship somehow take the place of being old and stogy and will something else be considered ‘hip’. My answer was Yes.

I have to say I’m not a fan of Philip Bliss and most of his contemporaries and their music. I find it too simplistic lyrically and musically, although catchy at times, lacks the density of some of the big daddies of hymn writers.

With that said, I have older friends in churches currently who are in a pitched battle with the younger generation who long to sing David Crowder, David Ruis, and Matt Redman. When I ask my older friends about it, they usually respond with an allusion to listening to music in the car and how you should get to listen to what you want to just because you’re driving. Their point is that they did their time and now it’s their turn at the wheel.

My worry is that we’re headed to this same argument in 2037 when the next big thing that is relevant and meaningful to the 20 somethings of the day usurps the place of David Crowder as being ‘relevant’. The grey haired people of the church will pine away about the time when music was ‘good’ and how the only music that speaks to them was written in the late nineties and the early part of the 21st century. We will, most likely, become what we rail against: a hegemony of worship style and music.
I think the call, given the passage tonight is to recognize the beauty of both David Crowder and Philip Bliss in that they speak to people’s thirst for God and assist them in worship and that is beautiful.

We need to get away from seeing non-essentials as ‘Right’ and ‘Wrong’ and simply appreciate them for what they are – broad, beautiful brush strokes of a God who loves diversity. Does that compel me to get a CD of Philip Bliss music for the car? Not likely. But before I tear a brother or sister down by chiding them for listening to bad music, I should love the fact that they are spoken to through it.

What do these two guys look like when they’re brought under the same roof? I’m not sure, but it’s a good thing that God gave that task to broken, imperfect people because it’s really beautiful when it happens; when we think less about ‘them’ and how ‘they’ are different and start looking at ‘them’ for who they really are: ‘Us’.

Hey all, just wanted to catch everyone up on a few topics.  It’s been busy around the Juvinall household:

 - Yesterday was technology day.  We ended up severing ties with our dear ‘friends’ Verizon; we switched to vonage.  Along with that, I followed the instructions on their site and made our house into a closed loop.  If you cut your physical connection to Verizon, you can plug your vonage router into a phone jack in your house and suddenly all of your phones are vonage phones; it’s very cool.  We also bought an iMac this year; yes, an iMac.  Last night, after some struggle, I finally finished configuring it (it always is a struggle in a paradigm shift). We are owners of a computer manufactured by Apple…wow, I said it. I hear admitting it is a first step.

 - Lord willing, we’ll have some big news to announce soon. Pray for us if you think about it, we’re trying to make something logistically work that will be…big.

 - Along with that, Sunday was one of those Spirit filled days at Church where God really affirmed alot of things in our hearts.  The talk is available here, and it was about God’s will for us, and death and doing your life well.  Great stuff; we sang ‘We Rest On Thee’ afterwards, which, if one could have them, is our theme song as a couple (like Over The Rhine’s music, that song factors in a couple of key moments for us in our marriage).  Anyway, couldn’t sing the second or third verse just for weeping; the Pastor led and I have to wonder what he was thinking. It’s a balm to have God really challenge, convict and encourage you all at the same time. 

We go in faith, our own great weakness feeling,
And needing more each day Thy grace to know:
Yet from our hearts a song of triumph pealing,
“We rest on Thee, and in Thy Name we go.”
Yet from our hearts a song of triumph pealing,
“We rest on Thee, and in Thy Name we go.”

“What’s so dangerous about the emerging church?”

This showed up in a ‘freebies’ section of slickdeals.net tonight; you fill out the form and they send you a copy. What makes me laugh is title’s like this because it’s a fake argument. The agenda of the book is obvious; it’s a book against the emergent church, but the title makes you think that it’s not and gives the people looking for some ammo the false sense that they are getting an objective look at things.

It’s humorous but also makes me a bit sad in that I’ve read or heard of far too many books like this that just ended up being divisive in the end; especially detailing churches that dear brothers and sisters are in. Instead of creating a conversation and seeking to understand, attack books like this one end up drawing people into an ‘us’ and a ‘them’ where I don’t think such a line exists or even should be drawn.

In the end I just don’t get it. The day is just too short and there are far too many real enemies out there for us to be drawing imaginary lines within our own house and selling it as Christian scholarship. We should be about the business of Jesus; about really becoming salt and light in the world and not arguing about the dangers of overconsumption of sodium. Are we really that way when our time is spent in lame attempts to discredit contexts where people are spoken to and meet God in a true way because it somehow looks different than the norm?

Disclaimer: I’m not in the emergent conversation but have tons of friends that are (and are blogging buddies with) and have a relative who recently came to know Jesus as a result of a church. I also have a passion for culturally relevant, high production quality worship – it ministers to my heart to see people care about how things look and to take care in making sure things are done with quality. Not for the sake of quality, but for a genuine desire to worship through their gifts; to see God in the details. I guess that is one of the reasons serving at Urbana 06 this year was an act of worship that I’m appreciative of the opportunity to be a part of…but I digress.

Further disclaimer: I’m always a bit gun shy writing pieces like this.

Today was, in no uncertain terms, hellish – divingly so.  MJ is sick.  Aidan is better and so am I, and Aidan is in the habbit of waking up way before dawn now.  First some highlights of today’s coversation with Aidan:

On getting a snack:

“I want Cereal!  That’s NOT Cereal, that’s Cherrios!”

On apologizing after getting in trouble:

“I’m sorry” 

“Why are you sorry Aidan?”

“I’m sorry because I want you to be happy.  I love you daddy!”

On What he wants to be when he grows up:

“I want to be an astronaut and play music.”

Today was a battle of inches.  It started around 5:50 this morning with Aidan getting up to go potty and wanting to wake up for the day.  Melissa is sick and so I flew solo for most of the day.  During the midst of the day there were a ton of time outs, a couple of spankings and a few stern talks; we’re firm believers in a strata of discipline.  Tonight, I may have bit off more than I could chew in starting to get rid of his pacificer by cutting the tip of it down.  Needless to say, he isn’t going to be right away and notices things are a bit different.

Tonight I also thought about how God sees us.  While I was sitting with him, weary and sinking into despair about the length of my day I thought about how God sees us and about how, as a perfect God, how much he may get frustrated at our behavior and yet still loves us.  How some days as we try and learn lessons changing us becomes a battle of inches.  For Aidan, my ultimate goal is an individual who loves and respects authority and who does things with integrity.  For God, the ultimate goal is fitting us for heaven, in technical terms to sanctify us. 

Along the way there are huges lessons that are learned – learning to go potty, eating solid food, learning to read – but there are also days that are battles that gain only inches on the way to adulthood; the only results of which are tears, disciplines and sorrow at the end of the day. In these days, it’s important to think about the final product.

Days like today make me look at my father and God with tons more respect that had before today started.

http://www.urbana.org/_articles.cfm?RecordId=1033 is an article I wrote for the website Urbana.org.  Check it!