An Audience of One (Kenny Lamm)

Last week I quoted considerable content from this blog by my friend Kenny Lamm.

http://blog.ncbaptist.org/renewingworship/2010/09/09/an-audience-of-one


That's enough to think about for now.  The peace of Christ to you.

Why Can't We Be Friends

You’ve probably seen this commercial on television several times by now. The opening scene shows a little roadside diner out in the middle of nowhere. A Coca-Cola truck is already parked there as the Pepsi truck pulls to a stop. Inside the diner we see a slightly chunky Coca-Cola guy already sitting at the counter with his half-eaten lunch and a Coke Zero as the slimmer Pepsi guy takes a seat at the counter a couple of seats away. Pepsi guy orders his meal (the special and a Pepsi Max) as he sits down and gives a friendly smile to Coca-Cola guy, who responds with a suspicious nod, chewing and swallowing his most recent bite.

As the music moves from the background to the foreground we recognize it as “Why Can’t We Be Friends” by the ’70’s rock-funk-jazz fusion band WAR. Coca-Cola guy, eyes front makes the first move to break the tension. “Good song,” he says. Pepsi guy, eyes still front agrees: “Great song.” As they make eye contact again … friendlier this time, Pepsi guy gets up, moves toward Coca-Cola guy with a hearty, good-to-know-you handshake, and takes the seat right next to him. A brief conversation about Pepsi Max leads to Coca-Cola guy trying Pepsi Max. As he follows his first sip with a deep draught, the cook behind the counter comments to the waitress, “I think he likes it.”

The ice is completely broken now and everybody is all smiles until Pepsi guy pulls out his smart phone and takes a video of Coca-Cola guy drinking the Pepsi Max. “What are you doing?” Coca-Cola guy asks. “YouTube,” he says, showing him the video he has just uploaded from his phone. It takes only a moment for Coca-Cola guy to realize what has just happened, and his countenance changes. In the final scene we see the Pepsi guy being thrown through the front window from the inside.

What in the world does that silly commercial have to do with anything? It’s a good analogy for how we tend to respond to our preferences for different styles of worship [music]. Pepsi Max and Coke Zero are on the market for the same reason, and if you’re really thirsty for a diet soft drink, either will probably fill the bill adequately. They would for me.

Pepsi and Coke are competing for market share, but our two worship services are not. Worship is not about market share, and we don’t compare our two services. Nor do we compare ourselves with other churches in our community. Our competition is not other churches, but anything people would do on Sunday morning OTHER than worship.

That’s enough to think about for now. The peace of Christ to you.

Further thoughts addendum:
As I have thought through the concept further after I wrote the above (9/7/10), it has become clearer to me that there is culpability on both sides of the issue. The more recent commercial begins with the tension and moves through an attempted resolution. While the Coca-cola guy threw the Pepsi guy out the window ... the Pepsi guy antagonized the Coca-cola guy by posting an embarrassing video on youTube. You'd better believe he knew what he was doing.

I'm also wondering if some of my writings on the Worship Wars actually perpetuate some of the animosity that style fundamentalists (of any stripe, whether "traditional," "contemporary," "blended," or any other label we might attach) tend to have toward one another. My heart's desire is that we let go of our prejudices and simply seek to encounter God. I have been fussed at by both (and more) "sides" of the issue for doing things that don't fit within sets of parameters of expectations that are far too narrowly defined to be reasonable. And most of my colleagues have as well. Maybe if we stop talking about unreasonably rigid opinions about worship and concentrate more on pointing our people toward Christ (in any and every "style") the issue will fade more into the background. I'm no so naive as to think it will go away completely. There is too much evidence that tension over worship style has been going on at least for the past 400 years for me to think that it's not always going to be a part of the landscape. One may easily interpret the conversation Jesus had with the woman at the well to include questions of worship style.

Since writing the above I have also seen the original commercial upon which this one was based. In the original, it's a snowy night outside the diner and the two guys commiserate about having to work Christmas eve and be away from family. In a gesture of good will (peace on earth???) the Coca-cola guy and the Pepsi guy trade cans. The Pepsi guy wants his back, the Coca-cola guy refuses and it is implied that it is he who gets thrown through the window by the Pepsi guy.

Art imitates life imitates art: There is also a news story from a few years ago about delivery drivers for Coca-cola and Pepsi getting into a very public fight outside a Wal-Mart in White Township, PA.

OK ... so that really should be enough to think about for now.

The peace of Christ to all.

Jesus Didn't Take the Wheel for Me

Those who have known me for long know that I have some easily identifiable personality flaws. Lest one think that I’m proud of them, let me assure you that when it is brought to my attention that I am exhibiting one (or more) of these flaws I am most likely at least as frustrated by them as anyone else is. Up until my pastor's recent series on the Spiritual Gifts (from the list in Romans 12), I saw one of my personality traits as a flaw — OK … taken to an unhealthy extreme it IS a flaw — but have learned that it may be just how God wired me. Tempered and refined by the Holy Spirit, it is a manifestation of the gift of teaching.

I remember some of my kindergarten classmates thinking that when they squeezed the sides of their little paper cups that the rise of the level of liquid in the cup actually increased the volume of the liquid. “Do this.  It makes it more,” they would say. I remember knowing that it wasn’t so and trying to tell them. I still do that kind of thing and it really annoys my family. It bothered me,though, that they thought something that wasn’t true ... not because I wanted to prove myself right (which is an unhealthy expression of the gift), but because I didn't want them going through life being wrong.  Being wrong about some things can have disastrous consequences.

While it bothers me when people think things that aren’t true about life in general, it really bothers me when people think things that aren’t true about other people because those assumptions tend to destroy relationships. And if those assumptions get voiced and shared, before you know it a lot of people end up thinking things about someone that are not true.

It really, really bothers me when people think things about spiritual matters that are not true. One misconception that has persisted throughout human history is the idea that God shows earthly, material favor to the righteous. Biblical scholars call it the Deuteronomic Formula, and it goes something like this: If you do good, God will bless; if you do bad, God will curse. And blessing means health and wealth.  That's one thing that keeps "Facing the Giants" from being a really good movie in my opinion.  At the end of the movie, everything goes "right" for everyone who is seeking to follow God.  The coach finally gets his spiritual priorities in order and his team starts winning.  I don't have a problem with that, but it would have been truer to life if the infertility issue remained and he had to demonstrate faithfulness to God in the face of unresolved issues.

Taking my son back to college in Pennsylvania last Thursday, I had a minor fender-bender in Statesville, NC … driving his car. I was telling a friend about it Tuesday night when a reference to a song I have always hated came out of my mouth, “Jesus didn’t take the wheel.”  Much as I would like for Him to have done this for me (and for the driver of the other car - a woman on disability following back surgery), He didn’t. OK, so I understand the metaphor in the song.  I know what it means, and I’m all about people giving control of their lives over to the Lord (I'm in the ministry, for crying out loud). But sometimes accidents (and illness) just happen … even to followers of Christ.  It's not "Love the Lord and everything in your life will fall into place."  It's "Love the Lord and He will give you peace to deal with the things in your life that refuse to fall into place."  And sometimes that peace is harder to come by than others.

Donald Miller does a much better job of unpacking this truth in his book:  A Million Miles in a Thousand Years..Highly recommended reading.

That’s enough to think about for now. The peace of Christ to you.

Gifts Assessment

Our senior pastor just finished a 7-part series on the Spiritual Gifts (as listed in Romans 12).  I wish I had remembered the cartoon I shared with my choir members during the series ... but it was soon enough after for it to connect well with them.  Since I don't have the rights to post it on my blog, I'll have to describe it to you.  It’s not profound, but it will make you laugh (if you have a sense of humor).

There are a couple of guys sitting in what look to be living-room type chairs.  The caption reads, “Mr. Norlander, as your gift assessment consultant, I have the task of connecting you with the ministry you have tested most gifted to perform.  After much deliberation, it is my conviction that you’d serve the church best as a pew sitter."

That's enough to think about for now.