American Christianity: All about me and the Bible on the floor

Through out my life in the Church, I have been involved with music. I was part of the music team, or I was singing with the congregation. Most people would be able to relate with this because if you go to church, you take part in singing with the congregation every Sunday morning. I love being able to praise and worship God through music, especially playing bass guitar on the music team. But are we singing more about ourselves? To be honest, more and more of the top “worship” songs that come out seem to be more focused on me, myself, and I. If we are singing songs in a congregation setting, shouldn’t it be more about us, and we? Even, less about us would be a good step to take! Some songs don’t even mention God by name! I know America is defined by individualism, but this is an area that we are letting it slip into our churches and subtle into how we think about Christianity in general. Is this a major issue? It could become that. But for now, it’s just something that has become accepted into our Christian world. But have we lost community thinking in our churches? Year by year there has been a slow decay of this thinking to the point where I believe, it has become a foreign and almost look down upon thought.

There is a solution! I know of a Church that is aware of this issue, and has been substituting individualistic words with community words such as “we” and “us”. This could possibly be the best way of changing people’s mind about community. Company’s do it all the time, and it works all the time. What other ways would we be able to change our thinking to a more of community thinking?

What do you think about placing the Bible on the floor? For some reason every time I see a Bible on the floor, it erks me in a way that I never feel with anything else. Could this be a possible be description of the church in North America today?

If the church is supposed to be a place of community, what is subtle coming into your church to spread more of an individualistic thinking?

Does the “Bible on the floor” description describe the way you and I treat the Word of God?

More outside evidence that people are concerned on what is going on with James MacDonald.

The Invisible Christian Standard

Do you know there is a invisible unspoken Christian standard?

I am not talking about the standard in the Bible, but the standard that we Christians have made here in North America. If you do not belong to the standard you are either, to much of a “sinner” or you are too spiritual. There is  a certain standard that I think all Christians hold to in one way or another. Even myself, I find I start to despise people that might not be able to handle certain things or when they call me out on it. My first reaction is, who do they think they are? There are certain levels of profanity or sexuality or worldliness that you have to stay on to be able to be accepted in Christian circles. We, as Christians, will watch things that are on these levels, but as soon as a movie might not hit those levels, we tear it apart and label it cheesy! We justify so many things we watch that it almost makes, American Pie or Saw, seem like good family movies! Instead of justifying it, why don’t we just admit it? Oh because it might be sinful, and we might disappoint people.

Should sin really be a surprise to people, especially Christians? It is a surprise to many because we have this invisible unspoken Christian standard that we expect everyone that call’s themselves a Christian should hold to. What has happen to confessing our sins to one another? Each and everyone of us are capable to carry out what happened in Connecticut, if not worse. We think the Holocaust was bad, which it was, but to be honest, we are much more capable of doing worse, much worse. We have become naive in our “Christian” thinking. If we were to have a camera follow us around everyday, 24/7, we would really see how complacent, naive, and sinful we have really become. It makes you understand what famous people go through. We don’t have to worry about something we do be splattered across the next’s morning head lines. We so easily become righteous, when someone else’s sin is exposed.

People in the Christian world expect you to be the same, as when you left. You go away to college or a couple years, faithfully learning more about God and growing in your relationship with Christ, but yet people still expect you to be the same person as when you left. And when they find out you are not the same person, they become dissatisfied or distant.

What are these Christian standards? Take a look around your life and examine what people describe as good, fun, interesting, or what they just can’t miss! Then, you will find that standard. Not God’s standard, but sadly, the “Christian” standard.

 

 

 

Parents and Bible School

After spending a year of my life working for a Bible school recruiting teens to attend Bible school, I have come across some interesting but difficult reason why a lot of teens don’t go to Bible School.

This difficult reason is there parents. For some reason our Christian parents are becoming the biggest obstacle for teens to attend Bible school. It is not money, it is the parental unit responsible for the teen. I am not saying they are the reason all the time, but most of the time the teens I talked to were either scared of what there parents will do or say, or their parents were the reason they had decided not to go to Bible school all together. For Christian teens Bible school is not even an option among the top schools of the province or state, because their Christian parents, for the majority, think it is a waste of time and do not mention it as a option to begin with.

I can never understand Christian parents that are against Bible school. They are saying,

“I do not want them to study more about the Bible and the God that sent His only Son to die on the cross for them. I want them to study something that won’t matter in eternity anyway, because I want them to have the American dream, and with them going to Bible school, that will never happen.”

There are some parents that would die for there teens to attend at least one year of Bible school. There also is the proud parent excuse,

“I taught them everything they need about the Bible and God.”

Yes, you might of the been the very best Christian parents, but no you didn’t and you can’t. Growing up I had some of the godliest solid parents around, and yet I could of not learned what I learned at Bible school, under my parents, on my own, or under the Church. Sorry, but come back and live in reality, the reality of life. You do not spend hours on end studying Theology, like my Theology prof, or studying the Bible to prepare for Bible Survey, like my Bible survey teacher.

“But my teen can go do what they want after they get a degree in something that will provide for them.”

Parents if you are standing in the way of your teen attending Bible school, you have some serious self examination, because I personally would not want to be between the God I serve, and someone trying to learn more about Him. The chance that your teen is even thinking about going to a year of Bible school after 4 to 6 years of school is slim to none.

Bible school prepares you for the onslaught of the World. Our World is not getting better in anyway. We are getting worse every single day. When they walk into there dorm, and there roommate is a devout Muslim or Buddhist or even a Catholic, what then? Will the be able to defend there faith with the knowledge they gain from going to Sunday School, Church, and Youth Group? Will they be able to explain how Christianity is different and why it is the truth? To be honest, your teen was finished before they even got on campus.

Its not that going to college will make them walk away, but it’s the fact that we have poorly prepared our teens for life beyond the Youth Group. As parents, you send your teen off to battle without giving him anything to battle with! It’s like playing in the NFL without any equipment. That’s suicide! But yet we send our teens onto spiritual “suicide” every year.

 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around                                                                                                                        like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 1 Peter  5:8

So parents, are you the obstacle that stands between your teen going to Bible school? Are you even talking or thinking about it? Are you concerned what the World will or has thrown at them and there thinking?

So teens, are you listening to a parent that is for Bible school? Do you have a openness of learning more about God? Do you think this is something that would only help you in you future year of College? Maybe a true conversion needs to take place?

Are we preparing our teens to be apart of the Church, and be able to fight against what the World will throw at them? Or is Christianity an add on, where you pick and choose what you want?