What are we to make of this?
I grew up in a reformed charismatic church. I pastor a reformed charismatic church. I’ve seen some crazy things. A lot of what I see here, I can completely relate to and affirm. Laying on of hands, speaking on tongues, joy in worship, etc. I get it, and I see Biblical precedent for it as well.
But the Hokey Pokey? It’s hard to know what to say, isn’t it?
I’ve written a lot about the importance of excellence in the Church on this blog before. I believe it’s important to do things in a way that communicates that we value what we are doing, we value those we are ministering to, and most of all we value the God we are worshiping. However, I also believe that there is a higher ideal that we must pursue without forsaking excellence.
Authenticity.
I had a peculiar experience today in a worship service. First, there was a normal worship set with music played by a competent band with a competent worship leader through a more than competent audio system into a room with competent acoustics. The music was “right”. The sound was “right”. The lighting was “right”. The worship leader led strongly without getting in the way. Nobody in the band seemed overly concerned with performing but genuinely wanted to help aid us in worshiping Jesus. I have no criticisms at all.
What was peculiar to me was what happened at the end. The set ended, the lights went out, the band mostly left the stage, and a large group of men came up on the stage. It was a choir made up of about 15 or so men from a local Teen Challenge camp. In case you don’t know, Teen Challenge is a Christ-centered drug rehab program begun by David Wilkerson many years ago. This choir was primarily made up of men who are former drug addicts.
I discovered a cool new blog today, and consequently this TED Talks video. This is author Elizabeth Gilbert talking about the source of our creativity, that denying that there is a “divine source” to our creativity actually stifles the creative mind of the artist and may be at the heart of why so many of our most talented artists have self-destructed.
Obviously, this is not coming from anywhere close to a Biblical world view. However, I think the application here is obvious.
I loved what she said at the end about the performer who “transcends” in the moment as though there is something (Someone…) divine being displayed through that person. My opinion: Art for the Christian ultimately is about uncovering the image of God in us, and then displaying it in such a way that God is glorified and the artist is all but unnoticed. The artist (Christian or otherwise) feels angst when he/she gets confused about who gets glory.
We got a last minute opportunity to play at the annual outdoor festival in Kernersville called “Spring Folly”. I took a quick video from my camera. I was trying to keep track of my 3 kids at the same time (Heather was singing) so the video is cut short and the quality isn’t as good as what you’d get with a video camera.
Next year we’ll get a proper video camera out there, but this will give you a taste.
I’m just so proud of our band that I wanted to share the love. Thanks to Jessica Cotten and the band for pulling it together on such short notice and managing to be yourselves up there.
Rock on. Love you guys.
