In my recent post about how the common United States, Protestant worship service is ordered, I decried the focus on the sermon.
I do not suggest that the sermon be removed completely from the worship service. I believe it is important for the pastor as the lead visioner (new word?), or someone designated by the pastor, of the congregation to communicate with the congregation as a whole. The preaching/teaching aspect is important. I just think it has become overly central to the service itself.
A friend of mine told me recently that when people at his church know ahead of time that the Senior Pastor will not be preaching, the attendance drops drastically. In his words: "That's why they come, to hear him preach." This is the attitude with which I disagree. People should be coming to church primarily to experience worshiping God in a community environment. Second, people should be coming to church because they are encouraged by the fellowship with other believers. After these two more important reasons, I think it is acceptable for people to attend because they enjoy the pastor's preaching.
Thoughts on how I might re-arrange a Protestant church service in the United States - in response to my friend known as "puddles" - later...
Monday, June 25, 2007
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Hebrew Law
I'm in the beginning stages of developing a thesis or research focus for my intended near-future Ph.D. work.
Currently, I'm interested in Hebrew law. Specifically, I'm interested in how the law was originally codified through oral tradition. Then how it was arranged into a written form. How did this law affect the first generations of Hebrews? How did it affect the Hebrews at the time of Christ? How does it affect modern-day Jews? How should it affect modern-day Christians?
If you have any questions regarding the Hebrew laws, please post them. I do not suggest that I have all the answers. But your questions could give me starting points to begin to wrestle with this research area and help me whittle down my thesis.
I'll post any and all "findings" here.
Thanks.
Currently, I'm interested in Hebrew law. Specifically, I'm interested in how the law was originally codified through oral tradition. Then how it was arranged into a written form. How did this law affect the first generations of Hebrews? How did it affect the Hebrews at the time of Christ? How does it affect modern-day Jews? How should it affect modern-day Christians?
If you have any questions regarding the Hebrew laws, please post them. I do not suggest that I have all the answers. But your questions could give me starting points to begin to wrestle with this research area and help me whittle down my thesis.
I'll post any and all "findings" here.
Thanks.
Friday, June 22, 2007
A Church Service Today
Is it just me, or have we as a faith community lost focus?
I do not intend for this to sound like your everyday gripe against the Church. But I have done a lot of thinking, and I have come to the conclusion that many churches have lost focus in their worship services.
Should not a worship service be centered around the act of corporate worship? Sure, if you go to a United Methodist church you will recite the Apostle's or Nicene Creed. Sure you may say the Lord's Prayer together. You will certainly sing a few songs. But what is the penultimate movement of the average United States church service? The sermon.
In most churches, the sermon is the centerpiece of the "worship" experience. Certainly, I believe teaching/preaching/visioning from a shepherd of the flock is a vital part of the faith community's experience. But why does it consume the most time in the service? Each individual hymn, chorus or song takes from three to six minutes. But many sermons are twenty minutes, twenty-five minutes or even more.
We are supposed to gather for the chance to encourage each other, fellowship with one another and worship our God together. If this is the case, why do we focus our attention on a single woman or man for so long?
I do not intend for this to sound like your everyday gripe against the Church. But I have done a lot of thinking, and I have come to the conclusion that many churches have lost focus in their worship services.
Should not a worship service be centered around the act of corporate worship? Sure, if you go to a United Methodist church you will recite the Apostle's or Nicene Creed. Sure you may say the Lord's Prayer together. You will certainly sing a few songs. But what is the penultimate movement of the average United States church service? The sermon.
In most churches, the sermon is the centerpiece of the "worship" experience. Certainly, I believe teaching/preaching/visioning from a shepherd of the flock is a vital part of the faith community's experience. But why does it consume the most time in the service? Each individual hymn, chorus or song takes from three to six minutes. But many sermons are twenty minutes, twenty-five minutes or even more.
We are supposed to gather for the chance to encourage each other, fellowship with one another and worship our God together. If this is the case, why do we focus our attention on a single woman or man for so long?
Thursday, June 7, 2007
Annual Conference #2
Long post, my apologies…
The Annual Conferences of the United Methodist Church will be spending much of their time electing delegates, both Clergy and Laity, to represent them at General and Jurisdictional Conferences. This is a process that occurs every four years and is the most “political” of all UM political practices, from my point of view. Not that politics is a bad thing. I heard an interesting analogy at some point at Conference that went something like this:
“Ideas are arrows and Politics is the bow. Politics is the entity that gives flight and direction to Ideas. You can have all the arrows in the world, but without a bow they’re pretty ineffective.”
People often say they wish “we could just leave politics out of the Church.” Yeah, that would be nice, but what’s the alternative? Just hope that everyone will be attuned to God and agree on everything? Well, we’ve tried that before. Read Galatians chapter 2 and let me know what you think. If those two guys can’t agree I doubt we have much of a chance.
Kudos to the Laity of the NTAC, it only took us twelve ballots to elect twelve delegates and three alternates. The Clergy took twenty-four ballots to elect the same numbers. Here’s a break-down of how the Laity delegation turned out:
Age:
20’s – 1; 30’s – 1; 40’s – 3; 50’s – 4; 60’s – 5; 70’s – 1 - - average age = 51.9 years old
Ethnicity:
Caucasian/Anglo – 12; African-American – 3 - - 20% ethnic minority
Previous Elections:
0 – 4; 1 – 5; 2 – 1; 3 – 2; 4 – 2; 5 – 0; 6 – 0; 7 – 1; 8+ - 0 - - four first-time delegates
Districts:
DD = Dallas/Denton; DN = Dallas Northeast; DS = Dallas South; PS = Paris/Sulphur Springs; SM = Sherman/McKinney; WF = Wichita Falls
DD – 7; DN – 4; DS – 1; PS – 0; SM – 0; WF – 3
These numbers are rather interesting. It shows that we’re top-heavy in the age department. We are close to having good representation in the ethnicity department, though we lack anyone of Hispanic, Asian or American Indian descent. I’d say four first-time delegates is a good number, equaling about 27%. Any more than that and I think we’re getting into a harmful lack of experience. The largest district, DN, had a strong showing while the second largest district, DD, had an outstanding showing. The third largest district, DS, showed poorly while the smallest district, WF showed very well. There was no one elected from PS and no one from SM submitted material to be included in the voting guide.
Ultimately, I think we elected a very strong Laity Delegation. Electing a few more “young” delegates would be helpful, as would spreading out the district representation a bit. Two churches had two delegates elected, also a problem.
I don’t want this to sound like sour grapes. As some who read this know, I submitted myself as a candidate, but was not elected. Frankly, I didn’t expect to be elected. My understanding is first-time candidates are rarely elected. However, I’m glad I participated. Whether or not I’m ever elected in the future is of no immediate concern. Do I think I could help? Sure. Do I think they can be effective without me? Absolutely. I’m not so vain as to think I’m a savior for the Conference or the UMC as a whole. But I think I can help. If nothing else, maybe I can convince someone from Sherman to submit a profile…
The Annual Conferences of the United Methodist Church will be spending much of their time electing delegates, both Clergy and Laity, to represent them at General and Jurisdictional Conferences. This is a process that occurs every four years and is the most “political” of all UM political practices, from my point of view. Not that politics is a bad thing. I heard an interesting analogy at some point at Conference that went something like this:
“Ideas are arrows and Politics is the bow. Politics is the entity that gives flight and direction to Ideas. You can have all the arrows in the world, but without a bow they’re pretty ineffective.”
People often say they wish “we could just leave politics out of the Church.” Yeah, that would be nice, but what’s the alternative? Just hope that everyone will be attuned to God and agree on everything? Well, we’ve tried that before. Read Galatians chapter 2 and let me know what you think. If those two guys can’t agree I doubt we have much of a chance.
Kudos to the Laity of the NTAC, it only took us twelve ballots to elect twelve delegates and three alternates. The Clergy took twenty-four ballots to elect the same numbers. Here’s a break-down of how the Laity delegation turned out:
Age:
20’s – 1; 30’s – 1; 40’s – 3; 50’s – 4; 60’s – 5; 70’s – 1 - - average age = 51.9 years old
Ethnicity:
Caucasian/Anglo – 12; African-American – 3 - - 20% ethnic minority
Previous Elections:
0 – 4; 1 – 5; 2 – 1; 3 – 2; 4 – 2; 5 – 0; 6 – 0; 7 – 1; 8+ - 0 - - four first-time delegates
Districts:
DD = Dallas/Denton; DN = Dallas Northeast; DS = Dallas South; PS = Paris/Sulphur Springs; SM = Sherman/McKinney; WF = Wichita Falls
DD – 7; DN – 4; DS – 1; PS – 0; SM – 0; WF – 3
These numbers are rather interesting. It shows that we’re top-heavy in the age department. We are close to having good representation in the ethnicity department, though we lack anyone of Hispanic, Asian or American Indian descent. I’d say four first-time delegates is a good number, equaling about 27%. Any more than that and I think we’re getting into a harmful lack of experience. The largest district, DN, had a strong showing while the second largest district, DD, had an outstanding showing. The third largest district, DS, showed poorly while the smallest district, WF showed very well. There was no one elected from PS and no one from SM submitted material to be included in the voting guide.
Ultimately, I think we elected a very strong Laity Delegation. Electing a few more “young” delegates would be helpful, as would spreading out the district representation a bit. Two churches had two delegates elected, also a problem.
I don’t want this to sound like sour grapes. As some who read this know, I submitted myself as a candidate, but was not elected. Frankly, I didn’t expect to be elected. My understanding is first-time candidates are rarely elected. However, I’m glad I participated. Whether or not I’m ever elected in the future is of no immediate concern. Do I think I could help? Sure. Do I think they can be effective without me? Absolutely. I’m not so vain as to think I’m a savior for the Conference or the UMC as a whole. But I think I can help. If nothing else, maybe I can convince someone from Sherman to submit a profile…
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Annual Conference #1b
Well, after a 52 minute discussion on one piece of legislation and 25 Clergy ballots, Conference is over.
More thoughts to come.
More thoughts to come.
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Annual Conference #1
I've been attending North Texas Annual Conference (United Methodist Church) events for the past few days.
This is an "election year" - meaning, we are electing our delegations, both lay and clergy, to go to General Conference and Jurisdictional Conference.
A basic UM hierarchy:
Charge Conference (most often a single church, sometimes multiple church bodies linked together)
District Conference (a collection of Charge Conferences)
Annual Conference (covers from a region in a state to 1 or 2 states connected)
Jurisdictional Conference (1 of 5 existing in the United States)
Central Conference (equal in hierarchical order to the Jurisdictional Conference, but found outside the United States)
General Conference (the global United Methodist Church)
My church is located in the North Texas Annual Conference, which in turn is situated within the South-Central Jurisdiction.
Annual Conference ends tomorrow. More on the joys of Church Polity soon.
This is an "election year" - meaning, we are electing our delegations, both lay and clergy, to go to General Conference and Jurisdictional Conference.
A basic UM hierarchy:
Charge Conference (most often a single church, sometimes multiple church bodies linked together)
District Conference (a collection of Charge Conferences)
Annual Conference (covers from a region in a state to 1 or 2 states connected)
Jurisdictional Conference (1 of 5 existing in the United States)
Central Conference (equal in hierarchical order to the Jurisdictional Conference, but found outside the United States)
General Conference (the global United Methodist Church)
My church is located in the North Texas Annual Conference, which in turn is situated within the South-Central Jurisdiction.
Annual Conference ends tomorrow. More on the joys of Church Polity soon.
MP3 Player
Just got a new MP3 player in the mail today. Having finally gotten it to cooperate, this is the music progression I just heard:
"Stupify" by Disturbed
"Psalms of the City of the Dead" by Zao
"What I'm Fighting For" by Matisyahu
"Sam Hall" by Johnny Cash
"Open Skies" by David Crowder Band
Gotta love the shuffle function.
"Stupify" by Disturbed
"Psalms of the City of the Dead" by Zao
"What I'm Fighting For" by Matisyahu
"Sam Hall" by Johnny Cash
"Open Skies" by David Crowder Band
Gotta love the shuffle function.
Monday, June 4, 2007
New Beginnings
I'm new at this, so bear with me please.
Thoughts to come:
The Seminary Experience
The United Methodist Annual Conference Experience
Thoughts to come:
The Seminary Experience
The United Methodist Annual Conference Experience
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