Back in Nashville after a long flight yesterday. Flying back from the west coast is always brutal cause you lose two hours...or three if you're Jeff Walling! While long, it was still a blast. We all have so much fun being together.
It's so good to be home. It took everything I had not to go wake the girls up and hold them for a while. The reunion this morning was awesome.
The weekend went so well. As always, the Fresno Church was completely hospitable. Sandra's organization was impeccable, and the folks at the conference were so warm and felt like family. It was a wonderful weekend, even though Mike couldn't make it. We were so heavy in prayer for all of them.
I had such a great visit with Darrel Tippens. Darrel is now the provost of Pepperdine University in Malibu. He was one of my favorite Literature prof's at ACU. I love that man. It was fun to catch up and hear about his new adventures at Pepperdine.
I was thinking about some of our Elders at Otter Creek this morning. We have some really great men serving as Shepherds. I talked to someone from a very prominent church in California who was sharing with me that their eldership runs very much a like a board of directors (something many of us have experienced at different times). It made me so thankful for our guys and their commitment to Shepherding instead of being CEOs. Men like Fred Ewing, Steve Giddens, Jerry Franklin, Bill Reider, Ed Rucker, Jim Butler, Wayne Tomlinson, and so many more. We're very blessed to be under their leadership.
I am finishing John Grisham's The Last Juror. Last night on the plane I read the part about the main character visiting all the different types of churches in rural Mississippi. He included the CofC in there. The following is an excerpt from Grisham's novel. I thought it was so rich in seeing our churches through the eyes of someone on the outside.
"The denominations were varied and baffling--how could Protestants, all of whom claimed to follow the same basic tenets, get themselves so divided? They agreed basically that (1)Jesus was the only son of God; (2)he was born of a virgin; (3)lived a perfect life; (4)was persecuted by the Jews, arrested and crucified by the Romans; (5)that he arose on the third day and later ascended into heaven; (6)and some believed--though there were many variations--that one must follow Jesus in baptism and faith to make it to heaven.
The doctrine was fairly straightforward, but the devil was in the details."
Skipping down a bit...
"The Clanton Church of Christ had no musical instruments. The ban was based on scripture, it was later explained to me. There was a beautiful solo, which I wrote about at length. There was also no emotion whatsoever in the service."
Solo? Rural Mississippi? I doubt he did his homework. Kidding. Anyway--I thought that was interesting. I don't think it requires any commentary from me. I'd love to hear some from you though. Do we wear "no emotion" as a badge of honor? What's the deal? Does our salvation from hell and the incredible gift of mercy and grace given through the death of Jesus not evoke emotion? Ok--I said I'd be quiet.
Well, it's naptime for the girls and, hopefully, naptime for Mommy and Daddy as we try to catch up. Thanks to all you bloggers from the West Coast who I met this weekend. What a joy! Let us hear from you. I am thanking God for you today. It is so great to be family.
Have a great Monday!
Monday, January 24, 2005
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5 comments:
Greetings from Mississippi! We do have solos. Whenever we sing Angry Words. Aunt Gertrude is the only saprano. That new guy that leads singing stops and just lets her sing (some folks don't like this as it raises the question of is he or she leading). And for "Do we wear "no emotion" as a badge of honor? " You should know that showing of emotion runs the risk of commiting the sin of "showyness"! ;-)
And in a similar church setting, my mother had many alto lead solos, unintentionally. Never on the soprano, though -- Daddy would never have cut out for it to be women only. TCS is speaking the language of my youth. Visible emotion was generally frowned upon (which probably surprises anyone who knows ME.) Knowledge and compliance were much more important than emotion. I'm thankful to be in a place where the emotions God designed are allowed into the mix, because He gave me an extra helping of those.
I'm about 1/3 of the way through The Last Juror. I'll try to forgive you for the sneak peek.
I think that when compared to other denominations we have a very understated sense of emotion. I understand what Grisham meant. I don't believe that I saw or felt strong emotion in worship until my freshman year of college at an inner city church in Montgomery, AL ~ HELL~O emotion! After that, it wasn't until I went to "liberal" churches (w/ contemporary services) that I continuously experienced emotional worship ~ where there seemed to be more feelings of freedom of expression and unashamedly centering on God.
Until we came to OC, I thought all CofC's were like the one that Willie Traynor talked about in "The Last Juror." Great book, one of my favorites. Just finished "The Testament" and I highly recommend it.
Good day, my brother. Glad you had a safe trip. Thanks for being a part of worship renewal. Your ministry is so important to all of us. Stay where you are and impact our faith. Thanks to you, Sherly and Zoe for showing by example and heart that emotion is okay. Love you guys. See you at Pepperdine.
Sid
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