When it does matter

"What if, instead of adopting the division of history into modern and postmodern, we followed the New Testament distinction between 'this present evil age' and 'the age to come,' the reality of life 'in the flesh' versus 'life in the Spirit'? (GPTG, pg. 444)

I very much enjoy this perspective that Horton is putting forward. It seems that often so much is emphasis is placed on "the new challenges of this generation" as opposed to "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God". Yet Horton himself admits, "For mission, at least, it just does not matter" (pg. 445). By adding the phrase "at least", he is indicating that there are some areas in church life in which the peculiarities of a given culture and generation do matter.

My question is this: First, what are those areas in church life where cultural and generation differences matter? Second, how does one go about being careful in remaining completely true to the timeless proclamation of the gospel while simultaneously adjusting to meet the aforementioned differences (especially since we have already learned that means are not neutral).

Seperation

In this week's reading of Give Praise to God we are told that there does not need to be a dichotomy between driving for dominance and holding onto purity (341). For the most part, I agree, but I wander if there are areas where we need to have absolute, permanent separation. My original feeling is, yes there must be, but what are they? Are there activities that we can never approach? Are there locations that we should never visit?

Sinner's Prayer

I was really encouraged from the Burroughs' reading for this week. He uses Scripture to answer questions about how one can pray despite having sins that seemingly hinder. I can understand this: so many times I either don't want to pray or feel helpless when I do pray because of sin. The promise that God hears is so comforting. How can we encourage and remind ourselves of this when we pray?

New Lyrics and an Old Warning

A witty friend emailed me these lyrics. I suspect we may appreciate some interaction with them in this class.


Like You

Lord, You are beautiful, You are majestic
Lord, You are the most High God, You dwell above the stars
You have called us to be like You
You have called us to be like You
So to You I declare

I will ascend into heaven
I will exalt above the stars of God
I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds
I will be like the most High God
I will be like You

(REPEAT as often as you like)

Are we doing anything right?

Although this question is not directly taken from any of the three books we have been reading as a class, it is definitely relevant to many of the conversations we have had concerning worship and the church. We have often talked about the prevalence of hedonism, narcissism, relativism and general worldliness in the church today. Unfortunately, these false doctrines have become confused with the true identity of the body of Christ.

Based on these regrettable characteristics, I have been wondering: Is there anything about worship in the church today that we can safely say we are doing according to Scripture?

The meat and the dessert of spiritual worship

This question is for Doc. I have heard you say in the past that it is important to include both the meat in our worship and to add some dessert to the menu of corporate worship as well. My question here is three-fold, for the record how would you define "meat" and "dessert" and how would these two ideas be implemented into a corporate worship service?

Balance

As talked about in GPTG and as we have talked about in class and/or out of class, we all notice that there is too much placed on emotion/feelings in much of the general American church today. I believe that our tendency when we see an issue is to go to the complete opposite spectrum. In this case, doing the completely opposite (I think) would be to have a completely theological/mental worship of God. It would be easy to appeal only to the mind in fear of emotion taking over our worship of God. We will all agree that emotion-filled worship is filled with no depth, floating like a cloud. But to answer this over-emotionalized worship by completely ignore that emotional side would not be right nor biblical.

As we looked at earlier, emotion is one of the parts of our being. Our greatest example of songs in the Bible (at least by numbers) would be the Psalms which are undeniably filled with emotion. Our emotions are very tricky things and I don't think we understand them. This is another reason why I think we fear them.

So my question is: how can we have balance between mind and emotion? Can we make emotion a positive part of our worship? Sure we don't want to manipulate by use of emotion, but can we come to a place where we do not fear emotion, where the mind and the affections work together so that our whole being praises God?