Yearly Archives:

2010

faith

Changes In Latitudes, Changes In Attitudes

For some reason recently, while typing my Friday posts, I have a song in my head.  Two weeks ago, I blogged about Bruce Springsteen.  Today, I thinking about Jimmy Buffett and a great song he wrote in 1977 that still gets radio play and is a popular song at his concerts: “Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes.”

Over the years, I have learned a lot from Buffett’s music concerning life, success, disappointment, happiness, and hard times. During the moments where I am too serious or too uptight, I often return to Buffett’s music when I need a change of perspective.  “Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes” is the perfect song during those moments of change or difficulty in life.  When changes pop up in our lives it is often at unexpected times.

The chorus from “Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes” is particularly helpful: Continue Reading…

spirituality

So you want to be spiritual? Try this:

With so many Americans calling themselves “spiritual” rather than religious, many in the Christian community have asked, “How can we make Christianity more spiritual?”  That is a laughable question because Christianity is inherently spiritual.  Prayer, baptism, worship, singing, communion, fellowship, reading scripture, and the list can go on.  Sure, Christianity does not have rocks, stones, and other “new age” objects or artifacts, but there is a steady diet of spiritual things in Christianity.

For hundreds of years mystic, monastic, and ascetic Christians have sought to have a deeper connection with God. St. John of the Cross, Francis of Assisi, Julian of Norwich, and Thomas Merton are a few names that Christians may have heard before.  Sometimes their stories are bizarre, but often many mystics simply wanted a prayerful spiritual life.

Some Christians may run the other way when they hear the word “mystical”, but believe it or not every time we pray we are being mystical.  When we pray, we are praying to a transcendent God to ask or praise him for supernatural works.  When we Christians use the word “mystical” we are talking about the  spiritual life and we do not have to speak in tongues to be spiritual either.

One the most transformational components of the spiritual life is reading scripture.  However, many find the Bible boring and need a guide when reading.  One the most spiritual things we can do when we read scripture is to participate in lectio divina.  What the heck is that?

Continue Reading…

Jesus

Americans Feel Connected to Jesus

With the “fall of Christianity” threatening to end the faith as we know it (yeah right), The Barna Group conducted a study of 1,002 U.S. adults, discovered:

  • Two out of every three adults (67%) claimed to have a “personal relationship” with Jesus that is currently active and that influences their life.
  • While a majority of most demographic segments said they had such an active and personal relationship with Jesus, some segments were more likely than others to claim such a connection.
  • Women (72%) were more likely than men (62%) to do so.
  • Protestants were more likely than Catholics to cite such a relationship (82% versus 72%).
  • People who describe themselves as mostly conservative on social and political matters were far more likely than those who see themselves as liberal on such issues to connect with Jesus (79% compared to 48%).
  • And one of the most instructive findings was that the younger a person was, the less likely they were to claim to have an active and influential bond with Jesus. Specifically, while 72% of adults 65 or older and 70% of Boomers (i.e., ages 46 to 64) had such a relationship in place, 65% of Busters (i.e., ages 27 to 45) and only 52% of Mosaics (ages 18 to 26) did, as well.
  • A large majority of Americans (59%) also believes that Jesus gets personal in their lives, going so far as to feel their pain and share in their suffering.

via The Barna Group – Americans Feel Connected to Jesus.

missionaries

Missionary Skype Call Sunday

Sunday, April 25 we will have an online video web conference with Wayne and Katherine Niles.

The Niles are missionaries with International Ministries of the American Baptist Churches U.S.A.

Katherine and Wayne serve as seconded missionaries to Interchurch Medical Assistance in Democratic Republic of Congo. They are involved in full-time service with IMA/ECC affiliated health and development activities in Congo. They both serve as liaison officers for IMA in matters related to HIV/AIDS and Maternal Health projects throughout the Africa continent.

Wayne serves as the in-country liaison officer with IMA for financial and accounting matters. Additionally, Wayne has been helping Congolese people through a development project to grow more food. Among other activities, the project distributes new seeds, disease resistant varieties of crops, and offers women’s groups small loans to purchase machines for hulling, milling, and producing oil.

Katherine is working with a group of Congolese Christian professionals in training community leaders, urban and rural, to be promoters of health in their communities. The staff of a church-related health center in Kinshasa is also using her expertise to make their medical ministry more holistic as they care for urban poor people.

See you this Sunday @ 10:15 a.m. for worship and for our web chat with the Niles!

blog

On the Bema has a New Look

On the Bema just received a new look!   The new look is geared towards making tags, categories, and posts more accessible with a sleeker look. What do you think?

blog, Evangelism

Blinded By The Light

I will never forget working at a popular clothing store in college (okay, it was Abercrombie and Fitch, I admit it) and constantly hearing a song playing over and over.  The song’s refrain or chorus went, “Blinded by the light…”  The next part of the song could never be understood fully because the singer had horrible articulation. Since we had one CD playing constantly in the store, I heard that song about 50-60 times a month for two months.  I never got the song lyric out of my head.  To this day you might hear me singing it doing some mundane task.

Years later, I found out that the song, “Blinded by the Light”  was originally preformed by The Boss man himself, Bruce Springsteen.  “Blinded by the Light” was from Springsteen’s 1973 album Greetings from Asbury Park N.J. (Before I was born, I know, I’m young.  I hear it everyday.) The song really did not catch on until Manfred Mann’s Earth Band released their version of the song on their album.  Earth Band’s version  reached #1 on both Billboard‘s chart 1977.  It was Earth Band’s rendition that I heard working at A&F.

Anyway, part of the song goes like this:

Continue Reading…

blog

Lady Gaga makes chastity cool?

Check out my Times Union Blog Post, “Lady Gaga makes chastity cool?

Pop singer Lady Gaga, known for her racy lyrics, suggestive dress, and public sexuality has dropped some surprising news:

‘and I can’t believe I’m saying this – don’t have sex. I’m single right now and I’ve chosen to be single because I don’t have the time to get to know anybody. So it’s OK not to have sex, it’s OK to get to know people. I’m celibate, celibacy’s fine.’

Read the rest here.

worship

Is it wrong to clap in worship?


 clapping

Do you have associate or assistant ministers in your church? Are you an associate pastor? Get a copy of my book, The Work of the Associate Pastor. This valuable resource will set associates and churches up for success.

The 1970’s rapper, Big Bank Hank from the Sugar Hill Gang, encouraged everyone to join with him in the song 8th Wonder:

“Clap your hands everybody. And everybody just clap your hands.”

Sometimes, in church.  Christians do not want to join in with clapping.

Here at First Baptist Church, we are blessed with many talented musicians, singers, liturgists, and worship leaders.  Often, when one of these types of people, most often singers or musicians, gives worshipful God given talent (a solo for instance) many people want to applaud.  Sometimes, when I speak to congregants about a particular musical performance, a few are weary of the practice of clapping for people.  Those who are fearful of clapping in worship say, “I don’t like to praise a singer with clapping.  We praise God in worship.”

While I can understand the objection, I would encourage those to think more deeply about what is happening in worship.  When someone gives a solo, it is a worshipful act that is lifted up to God in praise.  When people are moved by a soloist’s song, there is something that is stirring inside of them that has moved them.  Their spirit is spoken to because they know that God was worshiped in a beautiful way.  They want to say, “Amen!” or they may want to clap, to express their appreciation to God for such a worshipful moment of praise (to God).

Some might say, “Clapping during worship is not biblical!”  Hold on there, yes it is.  Check out these scriptures where clapping and worship went “hand and hand” (pun intended):

Continue Reading…

faith

Doubts, Faith, & Belief

The Barna Group, an evangelical research organization has yielded some surprising findings about America’s Christian and spiritual beliefs:

  • Half of all adults firmly believe that the Bible is accurate in all the principles it teaches. That proportion includes the four-fifths of born again adults (79%) who concur.
  • Just one-quarter of adults (27%) are convinced that Satan is a real force. Even a minority of born again adults (40%) adopt that perspective.
  • Similarly, only one-quarter of adults (28%) believe that it is impossible for someone to earn their way into Heaven through good behavior. Not quite half of all born again Christians (47%) strongly reject the notion of earning salvation through their deeds.
  • A minority of American adults (40%) are persuaded that Jesus Christ lived a sinless life while He was on earth. Slightly less than two-thirds of the born again segment (62%) strongly believes that He was sinless.
  • Seven out of ten adults (70%) say that God is the all-powerful, all-knowing creator of the universe who still rules it today. That includes the 93% of born again adults who hold that conviction.

If the majority of Americans claim to be Christian, then this study brings to light about the faith of most Christians in America.  In our Gospel text for this Sunday, we will examine the faith in the disciples who saw Jesus.

We find our disciples, who are living in fear of the Jews coming to finish off Jesus’ followers, living in a house on a Sunday. The doors are locked and as they are living in a cowardly state Jesus appears in the house.

Continue Reading…

blog, twitter

"Twitter Storms" & Haikus Attack Glenn Beck

If a tree falls during a  “twitter storm” and no one is around, does it make a sound?

That is what I asked myself when I stumbled upon this morning’s Washington Post “On Faith” section that caught my attention: Protests on Twitter against Glenn Beck.  That’s right, cyberspace protesting using Twitter: a Twitter storm.  Apparently, this is the first such known protest on Twitter.

You may remember Glenn Beck pleading his listeners to flee their churches if their priest or pastor preached “social justice” because those are code words for “socialism.”  You can read my blog post about this at my Times Union Newspaper blog here and here.

These protests consist of “twitter storming” or “tweet storming” Beck.  Apparently, a “tweetstorm” occurs when users on Twitter inundate a user’s account with thousands of messages, mentions, and replies that use the user’s @ username.  The very interesting and funny website Haik U Glenn Beck has thousands of haikus that speak to our “inner zen” of poetry. The idea is to use these haikus to send to Beck’s twitter account — one a minute till they run out.

Some of the haikus that stuck out on the website are:

Continue Reading…

blog

Get On the Bema via Email

Check out a new plug in for On the Bema: subscribe via email to my blog.  Look to the right of your screen, in the fourth box down: “Subscribe to On the Bema” and enter your email address.  Now, you will be send blog posts via email and you can be updated on the latest.  Do it!

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