Has "Christ Follower" jumped the shark?

Once in a while in our mens bible study we manage to raise an eyebrow or two. I say an eyebrow or two because some of us only have one anyway . At Renaissance a mens bible study is made up of 6-8 guys who wrestle with scripture and try to help one another live what we have pinned down or what has pinned us down. Nothing flashy just speaking truth to one another and yes we even pray for one another. So what raised our eyebrows ( or monobrows ). The fact that the term Christ Follower has probably jumped the shark.*  

So here's what our group stumbled upon when looking at Mark 8's words: 
 " ³⁴ Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. ³⁵ For whoever wants to save their life^[b] will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. ³⁶ What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? ³⁷ Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? ³⁸ If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”

There seems to be a whole lot of submission involved in Jesus'  ideas about following (it's almost as if a follower is not really in charge of the direction things are taking). You see in the last few years it's become pretty hip to avoid all self identification that has any connection with any form of "institutional flavor" of Christian community ( I don't call myself a "Christian" or a "Baptist"  or a "Presbyterian", "I don't really follow any formal religion", I just consider myself a Christ Follower". 
It sounds pretty airtight and oh so "authentic" but in our conversations this week we made the observation that is is probably most often being used in some kind of "free agent" , "I reserve the right to do things my way when it comes to faith issues", attitude.  Not very Mark 8 follower like.
I'm not trying to establish some kind of infallibility to my own tribe within the varied flavors. But if you do think you are following Jesus on the highway of life ( probably the narrow lane actually) and when you look around and you are completely on your own most days you may want to run the plates on that car in front of you. There's a good chance that whoever is driving, it is pretty likely that Jesus did not "take the wheel"! * *

* For those of you who are too young to understand a Happy Days reference , or were busy being productive during the 70's the phrase is explained here.
** While I never really liked the song "Jesus take the Wheel" By Mrs Fisher I love the song/video " Cletus Take The Reel".

The gift of self doubt...

I was reading a small e-book by one of my favourite Profs from back in the day ( Douglas D Webster ) he drew my attention to a great quote by Chesterton I supposedly have read before but have no memory of ( story of my reading life!).
Good old GK wrote:
 “What we suffer from today, is humility in the wrong place.” Humility has moved from ambition to conviction. “A man was meant to be doubtful about himself, but undoubting about the truth; this has been exactly reversed. Nowadays the part of a man that a man does assert is exactly that part he ought not to assert—himself. The part he doubts is exactly the part he ought not to doubt—the Divine Reason.”*

Meant to be doubting about himself, but undoubting about the truth...I like that a lot, I see less and less of it all the time.

Two other books have me thinking along the same lines one being Tim Kellars e-book " The Freedom of Self -Forgetfulness" Which I just read Buy It Here) and Don Carsons book " Memoirs Of An Ordinary Pastor" about his late Father which I have on deck to read.
This excerpt from a review has motivated me to buy a copy this morning :
"Tom Carson never rose very far in denominational structures, but hundreds of people ... testify how much he loved them. He never wrote a book, but he loved the Book. He was never wealthy or powerful, but he kept growing as a Christian: yesterday's grace was never enough. He was not a far-sighted visionary, but he looked forward to eternity. He was not a gifted administrator, but there is no text that says "By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you are good administrators." His journals have many, many entries bathed in tears of contrition, but his children and grandchildren remember his laughter. Only rarely did he break through his pattern of reserve and speak deeply and intimately with his children, but he modeled Christian virtues to them. He much preferred to avoid controversy than to stir things up, but his own commitments to historic confessionalism were unyielding, and in ethics he was a man of principle. His own ecclesiastical circles were rather small and narrow, but his reading was correspondingly large and expansive. He was not very good at putting people down, except on his prayer lists.

"When he died, there were no crowds outside the hospital, no editorial comments in the papers, no announcements on the television, no mention in Parliament, no attention paid by the nation. In his hospital room there was no one by his bedside. There was only the quiet hiss of oxygen, vainly venting because he had stopped breathing and would never need it again.

But on the other side, all the trumpets sounded. Dad won entrance to the only throne-room that matters, not because he was a good man or a great man--he was, after all, a most ordinary pastor--but because he was a forgiven man. And he heard the voice of him whom he longed to hear saying, "Well done, good and faithful servant; enter into the joy of your Lord.""

Oh, that each ordinary pastor and each ordinary Christian may be so faithful and enter into that same reward. I can only hope that many young pastors will commit to reading this book. But it is not just they who can benefit. Any Christian will appreciate reading about this ordinary man who somehow seems so much like you and me. Though it is good to read about Calvin and Edwards and Whitefield, men who had extraordinary ministries and who continue to exert a worldwide impact through their writing and preaching and evangelistic efforts, it is good to see as well how God has more commonly used ordinary men to do His work. Tom Carson was an ordinary pastor, a man who struggled with depression and who saw his ministry bear visible little fruit, but he was a man who remained faithful and who served the Lord with all his heart. More aware of his faults than his strengths and more prone to humility than pride, there is much we can learn from this man. (From a Tim Challies Review On Amazon)

All in all this seems to have been one of those weeks when everything I am reading, conversations I have been having, all seem to be pointing toward the same conclusion.
I think this week that single idea may be a conclusion  that another famous Baptist named John came to a long time ago:

"He must increase, but I must decrease.”

John 3:30

English Standard Version (ESV)

*( G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (New York: Image Books, 1959), 31 Quoted In

Webster, Douglas D. (2012-07-16). An Interview with the Gospel Writers plus Heart-Scripted Theological Education (Kindle Location 624).  . Kindle Edition.

Update August 21st started reading the Memoirs book, it's all it was advertised to be. Not sure if it is helping me battle discouragement or making me feel bad that I'm not discouraged enough! It did remind me of an old favorite tune of mine from my former life as a Youth Pastor and could serve as a satirical soundtrack! Crank it up if you occasionally work for frustrated incorporated too!

  

Chasing Time

This Post is simply a link, as I added an album in the Mallonee section of my music collection (it's by far the largest section) I figured it was high time I passed on another article about my favourite singer songwriter in case anyone ever stumbles upon this blog by some strange accident.
http://mplayer.pastemagazine.com/issues/week-12/articles#article=/issues/week-12/articles/bill-mallonee-chasing-time

Children's Books And The Lords Prayer 
    It has long been considered true that if you want your kids to be readers, you need to read to them while they are young , before they can read. Apparently an even bigger factor has been discovered, which sounds far less warm and fuzzy, and it is to simply have books ready at hand. 
   My parents were not aware that this is what sociologists would discover decades later, but they did buy books. In the 1960's my mom probably caved in to one of those many book clubs where you could get 5 books for a ridiculously low price if you "joined the club". I assume this because I remember in my early elementary years, packages would come in the mail and they were books for me! ( This also may have created my future disposition for ebay shopping but more of that later).
    For at least 45 years now, I have once in a while tried to remember one book that I must have really liked, but for the life of me I couldn't remember it's title. When my three girls were toddlers I was at the children's library all the time bringing home books for the bed time ritual. I loved climbing in beside Justine on the bottom bunk with Jordy up on the top peering over the side, listening while we'd read of the "Clown Arounds" going on vacation or a grey haired granny who would take in just about any kind of animal but "No Elephants!". 
    Often as I'd scan the stacks upon stacks of kids books at the library, I would have a faint hope that some day I'd come across that one book. All I knew about it was that it's graphics had a blueish tinge and that one of the characters had a face that looked sort of like an axe. I seemed to believe he had the power to become an axe when he needed to.  Not much to go on for sure. No Title/ Author /ISBN. Just "maybe" a guy who could turn into an axe. I doubt I ever approached the children's librarian, not with such a lame description to go on. So I'd just move on , maybe it didn't exist anyway. 
    I had a flash yesterday. I don't know what caused me to think once again of the long lost book. I thought to myself: "With the way the internet has evolved over the past decade with billions of random questions posted and answered, that maybe, just maybe, some body has taken the time to answer another lost soul looking for a book with a guy who could "maybe" turn into an axe. Can you believe it? People like me (probably in their late 40's early 50's) were looking for just such a thing! 

    How excited I am, that a first edition copy of "The King With Six Friends" is on it's way to my mailbox. Now realize, I don't even know what the book is really about yet I am fascinated to see the actual illustration of the guy with he axe shaped face really looks like, compared to my murky memory about it. What are the ideas I was being guided to think about as a 5 - 7 year old and what was there about the story that resonated with me? Will they be ideas that I am still passionate about? Will it bring back a flood of other memories? 


Hold that thought.


 Imagine the angst that exists for a 25- 35 year old young adult who grew up fatherless. I realize biologically no one in the world is actually fatherless. I occasionally survey people at Renaissance on Fathers Day. I get them to raise their hands if they ever at one point in their existence, after conception, actually had a father. The numbers are consistently really, really high. 
We do however in a very non -humorous way, live in a time where what it really means to have a father, for many young adults is like a giant residual blurry memory without many more details than my description of a book, "perhaps with a guy who could turn into an axe". Concerning my beloved children's book, while I couldn't remember much about it I am pretty sure I really, really liked it (when I was very little). 
    Donald Miller ( The Blue Like Jazz Guy) wrote what I think is a pretty profound book " To Own A Dragon" which has been retitled and re-released as " Father Fiction". I think everyone who desires to gain some empathy for the millions of young adults our world keeps producing who have nothing but a faint memory of having a Father, could gain a lot from reading it. Imagine the impact when what is meant to be one of the most profound shaping relationships of their lives, pretty much never materialized, or was within their grasp for only a fleeting few months of early childhood.  People for whom having a Dad sounds like fun, you can imagine some parts of it, like owning your own pet dragon but it is about as fictional and blurry. It sounds like something you would really like, but you can barely remember enough of it to describe it. It just doesn't seem very real. 
As a messenger of the gospel I can spot a real opportunity if handled sensitively to declare some really good news. 
   This then, is how you should pray: "Our Father in Heaven,..." Matthew 6:9  
Jesus has made it possible to fill a hole much bigger than the one in the children's story section of your personal library , he has provided a way home to a perfect Father. A longing that you have, that you may have spent decades avoiding, because after all you have so little to go on and you will probably never find what you are looking for anyway. 
Don't give up looking. 

" So much of this life is lived in between,

between the now and the not yet, between arriving and departing,

between growing up and growing old, between questions and answers.

Lord, help us not to live for the distant day when the in-between will be no more,

but help us to have the courage to step into that sacred space of the  

in-between-

knowing that this is a place where life is transformed."

- Jim Branch   (Quoted in "Stuck " By Terry Walling p 1 

The Idol Of Power 

This has been a week of overloading the spell check capabilities of my computer as I try to carve a sermon for a series on The Problem With Idols using the stories of King Nebuchand...Nebachad ...you know,  the guy from the book of Daniel! I had a semi original idea this week while sermonizing on Neb-u-chad-nezz-ar (there I did it).

 Here’s my idea...the best advice the bible gives anyone in the universe is two words "Fear God" because no matter how big we may get, there will always and eternally be someone bigger. If we take God out of the equation all we are left with is fear. I believe that just keeps getting bigger. The people most driven to power and control are some of the most frightened people in the world. 
Now that I just read that I'm wishing my sermon were that clear, Oh bother,  there goes my Saturday afternoon. 

20 years ago this summer one of my all time favourite singer songwriter musicians died from complications due to a heart attack. I was on a plane between Sault Ste marie and Toronto when I read the news and I nearly fell out of my seat. I wanted to tell everyone on board the terrible news " Hey did you know Mark Heard is dead?" . I sadly realize that if I had done so the terrible connection between his name "Heard" and the sad fact that likely no one on the plane had ever " Heard" of him, would just make a sad event even sadder. Way back then he was 40 I was only 28 ...40 seemed a long way off , now it is nearly a decade in the past. In honour of the loss of someone I believe to be a truly great poet I will post an article that will do a better job than I can to explain what made him so great. The good news is you can now buy many of his great recordings on iTunes...his final three are truly masterpieces "Dry Bones Dance" "Second Hand" and "Satellite Sky" In fact I have been listening to them all day to day. 

ON THE TIP OF HIS TONGUE

The gifted and prolific songwriter-musician Mark Heard died in July of 1992 at the age of forty, following two heart attacks. Hailing originally from Macon, Georgia, but spending the majority of his writing career in the Los Angeles area, he left behind a musical legacy that is staggering in both length and substance. Heard's willingness to courageously face as a Christian the duality of our everyday existence - an existence being comprised of both good and evil - is what captured my attention some fifteen years ago. His heart broke over the grievous condition of modern man, and he was admittedly thirsty for eternal liberation from the ugly bondage of sin. Heard was a man of integrity who possessed a passionate motivation to address the plight of fallen man, along with an insatiable desire for eternal restoration, which is repeatedly reflected in his lyrics. Heard defined his "mission" as a poet clearly in the liner notes of his 1983 acoustic album, Eye of the Storm: "I prefer to see myself as a writer who is a Christian, and I prefer to let my faith flavor my observations rather than dictate them. I prefer for my pen to act as a nerve receptor and write about the world - the real one - that exists outside society's and Christian society's simplistic, plastic, media-fed notions of what life is and what is important." Heard concluded by emphasizing, "I prefer not to excommunicate myself from either the 'secular' world or the church, in favor of attempting to write in a way that is communicative to both but calculated towards neither." It is no surprise, but sad nonetheless, that Heard could never find a real "home" for his music. He was barely recognized by either Christian or secular markets, and this painful reality left him barely able to support his wife, Janet, and his young daughter, Rebecca. Early in his career he seemed able to look upon this dilemma with a bit of humor, but as time passed (and a major Christian label stole the rights to the majority of his records) it became quite clear that this took a great toll on him personally. On the 1990 acoustic tour-de-force release,Dry Bones Dance, Heard attests to this by confessing, I'm old enough to know That dreams are quickly spent Like a pouring rain on warm cement Or fingerprints in dust Nectar on the wind Save them for tomorrow and tomorrow lets you down again. (House Of Broken Dreams) Canadian singer-songwriter Bruce Cockburn, a man similarly caught between secular and Christian markets, heralded Mark Heard as his favorite songwriter. It's not surprising that Cockburn chose to perform one of Heard's favorite songs, "Strong Hand of Love," on the 1994 album of the same name, a tribute to Heard. The literary core of this song - and, it seems, of all Heard's music - is best illustrated in Paul's letter to the Romans: "For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God" (Romans 8:20-21). According to Dan Russell, Heard's friend and fellow partner in Fingerprint Records, "Mark saw the world as a whole. He didn't just look at the good. He looked at the good with the bad, and he came out of it with some hope." This was a major theme throughout his writings, as he laments on his 1985 rock & roll record, Mosaics: The tears still fall The birds still sing And life is bittersweet With a schizophrenic ring. The sun still shines The darkness still falls We must see both If we see them at all (Schizophrenia) Heard's overriding commitment to honestly confront this tension between good and evil had truly come of age upon his recording of Satellite Sky, which would prove to be his last album. On the first track of the record he pleads Knock the scales from my eyes Knock the words from my lungs I want to cry out It's on the tip of my tongue. I've seen through the walls of this kingdom of dust Felt the crucial revelation But the broad streets of the heart and the day-to-day meet at a blind intersection. I don't want to feel lonely, I don't want to feel pain I don't want to draw straws with the sons of Cain You can take it as a prayer if you'll remember my name You can take it as a penance of a profane saint. (Tip of My Tongue) Francis Schaeffer wrote, "From the Christian viewpoint, no man has ever been so naive, nor so ignorant of the universe, as twentieth-century man." This alarming statement penned in the early seventies was to be fully embraced by Mark Heard, who studied at Schaeffer's L'Abri school in Switzerland; indeed, Heard wove the sentiment into the fabric of his music material. On his 1984 record, Ashes and Light, he writes, "This album is dedicated to the memory of Francis A. Schaeffer, whose love for truth and whose understanding of the arts has helped me more than I can say, in my desire to interweave the two." Like Schaeffer, Heard was an astute observer of culture and a passionate student of the scriptures. He sings, onMosaics, From New York City to Babylon Like the tooth and the claw There's the law of the missile and gun. When Eden fell we gained our shame And from that age to this There has been no significant change. With Broken Wings we beat the air And as we plummet we pretend that we don't care. With broken wings we walk the earth And wonder how much is all of our recklessness worth. (With Broken Wings) Victims of the Age, released in 1982, stands alone as Heard's most articulate literary work concerning life in a postmodern, post-Christian society. Living in the Los Angeles area provided Mark the rich context for his piercing observations of our troubled society. The culture has mastered the art of postulating seductive lies concerning what truth is and what will bring deep, lasting solace to the human heart. It was clear that Heard saw through these "faint veils" and was angered that they continued to carry on in the name of normality. OnSatellite Sky he blasts out, Look up, look down, lookout somehow Look through the blindfold Shake your fist and bet your soul. You're in the way and the big wheels roll He says, "Damn the cool-headed and the setters of goals Who can feel no evil, no heat, no cold and who wouldn't know passion if it swallowed them whole." (The Big Wheels Roll) The diggers and the bankers and the architects and fools Got to work, and you can't stop them with bitter tears or golden rules It's a race to stay alive, baby, it's lawyers tax and steel 'Til the life that you are living is the thing you never feel. (Long Way Down) Heard was quite ruthless with himself as well, when it came to honest and forthright application of truth in the personal sphere. He invited his listeners into very private parts of his heart and mind, and there, as if sitting in his own family room, he confessed his own wrongdoings and shortcomings. Nowhere was he more honest about himself than on Satellite Sky: I have faltered in my strength I have wanted to do everything right I swallow hard while the second hand blinks Shut the back door to keep out the night. Is it just a game Is this a maze to lead me right back where I started from This will be a broken man come shattered from this marathon. (A Broken Man) An advantage that any skilled musician has is the ability to transport meaning in the form of sound and melody. On this particular record, Mark capitalizes on this concept through the use of his 1939 National Steel Mandolin, a rare and beautiful instrument that was to become one of his most prized tools. It provides the entire record with a richly sweet and, at times, haunting wail that beckons one to listen closely to the words and to his life. Considering the immense struggles this man faced in the music business, what kept him motivated to consistently produce the quality and quantity of work he did? Heard's friend, Tom Willet, said of him, "Motivating and informing this inexhaustible productivity was a deep sense of duty - to the truth as he knew it, to his gifts, to his family and to God." Mark was truly a questioning man who passionately sought after truth and had come to believe that the message of the Bible was the only source of hope for mankind. On Mosaics he writes, When the hand of man becomes inept And sketches the truth in silhouette All is not lost All is not lost. The hand of God has not worked in vain And this globe is fodder for the feeblest brain. All is not lost All is not lost Truth lives on Truth lives on Truth lives on. (All Is Not Lost) Heard chose to live and breathe in the center of the mysterious drama that exists between heaven and earth. Those who allow themselves to feel their part in this must admit that it seems a slow waiting game which, at times, bears no real evidence of ever ending. Heaven and earth seem to be stalled in time and space, both yearning for release. The following lyrics from Eye of the Stormpoignantly illustrate our blind struggle to survive in this world: We hide our pain We try to laugh Fools to think our tears Would provoke Holy wrath. We learn the protocol We bare our souls to none We praise our peers For the optimism shown. "Brave men don't cry," we say As we watch the world turn to dust The tears of God fall for us. (These Plastic Halos) These lyrics are what initially drew me, in the early eighties, to Heard's life and music, and gave some definition and hope to my sometimes weary soul. I listened to these words repeatedly and became aware that God was reaching out to me - that something important was happening deep within my soul. Many things have happened in my life's journey since those youthful days of the eighties, one of which has been having to face the pain of Mark's passing. The impact his death has had on my life has been profound, simply because his spiritual journey has, in many ways, paralleled my own. He and I have connected through the airwaves in ways that have served to deepen my belief in the essential life-giving connection of a brother and friend, to whom I am forever indebted. Since his death I have come to realize that the tears I have shed over him represent more than the pain felt from his untimely departure. His words and music have led me throughout the years into experiences of worship that remain fresh and alive in my soul. The backdrop of his love for God was an intense grief felt for a lost world, and it was that grief which, I believe, served to shorten his life. Mark painfully acknowledged on Satellite Sky: Why do I lie awake at night and think back just as far as I can To the sound of my Father's laugh outdoors To the thought of Sputnik in free-flight? Before I could fashion my poverty Before I distrusted the night I must've known something, I must've known something. Those were the times I live for tonight Why, Why, Why, I say Why, Mama, Why? Why can't I live in peace tonight underneath the satellite sky? (Satellite Sky) I am deeply comforted to know that Mark's wrestling is over and that he has found the Paradise that he so longed for. Those interested in finding out more about Mark Heard's life and music may write to Fingerprint Records Inc., P.O. Box 197, Merrimac, Massachusetts, 01860, or call (508) 346-4577. Doug Wheeler ( Mars Hill Review, Issue 6: pgs 112-117, Fall 1996 )

"This copyrighted article was originally published in Mars Hill Review, a 200-page journal of essays, studies and reminders of God. For more information, please visit www.marshillreview.com

http://youtu.be/-x8zBzxCwsM
Well it turns out that it may have been a typo after all. Cavalry in the update Calvary in the first release...would anyone be surprised if your Church community rode in to save the day?

I posted this video on my facebook wall a couple weeks ago when it first came out. Right away my eyes caught the lyric Calvary when it perhaps should have been Cavalry. Now I'm not so sure neither are folk in the blogosphere and review pages. What do you think? I believe we (the Church) do need to go a long way toward showing   up in a time of crisis from where we are now. It's sad to think that in such a great song we may rightly be painted like a Levite passing by on the other side or even worse not even arriving in the first place!