In Loving Memory of Whitney Cerak

In loving memory of Witney Cerak. I never knew her directly, but I know, love and respect her parents, Newell and Colleen Cerak. You could scour this earth and never find two nicer and more decent people.

Last night a truck crossed the median on I-69 in Indiana ripping in half the van containing college students from Taylor University.

The sadness emanating is beyond words. We are to bear one anothers burdens. In that light, I can only describe the overwhelming grief as God's call for us to hold up Colleen, Newell and Whitneys older sister's at this time.

Whitney- I know that you had a positive effect on so many if your life. It is a regret that I never got to know you personally. I am certain that you are now dancing in the arms of Jesus and waiting for you dear family to join you.

Darlene and I tearfully, send our sympathies to the family and close friends and lift them up in prayer at this time.

5 Politically Incorrect Thoughts

God is bigger than government.

Tobacco is a savory and magnificent gift of God, suitable for human consumption as chocolate.

Ken Burns is a smart and talented fruitcake.

Good programming on PBS does not justify forced excise against the American people.

Gaylord is an unfortunately named city and should be changed.

Michigan's Economy- What Could Have Been

Here is the legacy of the UAW over the last 40 years. This is my short summary of what has been written by George Reisman at the Ludwig von Mises Institute.

FIRST
The Big Three would have not made “Monday morning” automobiles. That is, poorly made cars due to a production date falling when too few workers showed up.

SECOND
Without the UAW, GM would have been free to produce in the most-efficient, lowest cost way and to introduce improvements in efficiency as rapidly as possible.

THIRD
Without the UAW, GM would have an average unit cost per automobile close to that of non-union Toyota. Toyota makes a profit of about $2,000 per vehicle, while GM suffers a loss of about $1,200 per vehicle, a difference of $3,200 per unit.

FOURTH
Without the UAW, the cost of employing a GM factory worker, including wages and fringes, would not be in excess of $72 per hour.

FIFTH
As a result of UAW coercion and extortion, GM has lost billions upon billions of dollars.

SIXTH
Without the UAW, GM would not now be in process of attempting to pay a ransom to its UAW workers of up to $140,000 per man, just to get them to quit and take their hands out of its pockets.

SEVENTH
Without the UAW, GM would not now have healthcare obligations that account for more than $1,600 of the cost of every vehicle it produces.

EIGHTH
Without the UAW, GM would not now have pension obligations which, if entered on its balance sheet in accordance with the rule now being proposed by the Financial Accounting Standards Board, will leave it with a net worth of minus $16 billion.

NINTH
Without the UAW tens of thousands of workers — its own members — would not now be faced with the loss of pension and healthcare benefits that it is impossible for GM or any of the other auto companies to provide, and never was possible for them to provide.

TENTH
Without the UAW and its fantasy-land mentality, autoworkers would have been motivated to save out of wages actually paid to them.

Instead, like small children, lured by the prospect of free candy from a stranger, they have been led to a very bad end. They thought they would receive endless free golden eggs from a goose they were doing everything possible to maim and finally kill, and now they're about to learn that the eggs just aren't there.

And the Big Three are complicit. They didn’t have to go along – but did.

Pay to Praise?

Keith Green led by example in his life. One of the more memorable things that he is did was his fight against the commercialization of Christian Contemporary Music (CCM). Specifically, he was distraught at CCM artists charging admission for their concerts. One artist who carries that banner today is Steve Camp. Here is his powerful opinion on charging admission for Christian concerts.

Keith Green’s method was to accept love offerings to finance his ministry. In this way, people were free to come to his concerts regardless of their ability to pay, thereby letting all who came to hear the gospel of Jesus. His example is rarely followed now except in rare circumstances.

I think money truly becomes a stumbling block with outrageous prices to "worship" concerts, namely, the ones I see advertised in our Michigan Christian concerts events magazines. Maybe some CCM artists and event promoters have become misguided in their pursuit of fame. Money really has become a distraction. We in evangelical society have come to accept the norms of secular entertainment into our “music ministries”. Where is our reliance upon God for “supplying all our needs”? Is our reliance on charging admission a way of taking God out of the process?

Climbing the Corporate Ladder

**WARNING** Do NOT look at this picture.

PIC

Doing It For the Kids

For all you public school teachers out there. Here are some of the salaries YOU are paying.

Gotta love it!

Response to comment on my former post - "Half True Praise Songs"

I received a very thoughtful comment on my previous post that I felt I should respond to and post here. I really appreciate being challenged on this topic and really enjoy the discussion. I also know that while my opinion are not always popular, I do think that iron sharpens iron and that I can learn from others views. As mentioned, my particular views on this subject are in the context of CORPORATE WORSHIP through song and somewhat reflected in the book mentioned by Nick Page.


(commentor says.....)

Regarding your "Half True Praise Songs" piece: You mentioned "shallow biblical truth" several times. I'd like to know: Which attributes of God do you consider to be "shallow"?

No biblical truth or attribute of God is shallow! Nor can we make it shallow by repetition. It can only become shallow or boring in our own minds. God's Word tells us to meditate day and night on His words, to ponder them, to think about them when we wake up, when we go to sleep...Doesn't he know that His truth will become shallow or boring to us if we do this though? See, the issue is the spirit with which we take in the truths of God. That will determine whether truth becomes boring and shallow or deep and sweet in our hearts.

There are no shallow attributes of God. In that sentence I could have used more precise language to say that there are some Biblical truths that are shallow in the context of a praise song when it comes to living the Christian life. I should have better written that sentence.

For instance, in Leviticus 3:17 it says “You must not eat any fat or any blood.” If we repeated that Biblical truth in a praise song – it would be shallow to living Christian life. If I were to sing a song with those words, they would have absolutely no meaning to me in living the Christian life. Repeating them would not help.

Unless, God made it a point that eating fat or blood was a spiritual issue and relevant to worship, then it would not have relevance for spiritual growth.

Maybe we could agree that your statement is "half true". :-)

I believe my statement is TOTALLY true. Unless, you are legalistic and abstinence of fat and blood – (i.e. steak) is a benefit to your Godliness. I’m sure I could find many more statements in the Bible that, while inspired and inerrant, would do very little or nothing for my spiritual life sung repeatedly in a praise song.

Secondly, I feel your pain in being "forced" to sing songs you don't like in church. But have you ever wondered what makes God upset about our worship?

I would suspect that God is upset about songs sung about Him in church that are not sincere worship. I also think that God hates being mocked (Galatians 6:7) and so songs sung with poorly constructed words and shoddy poetry make a mockery of our worship. Music just doesn’t fall out of our mouths in abstract ramblings on Sunday morning to find a cohesive organized sound for God almighty. There are musical forms that we as a culture have adopted to allow for the Holy Spirit to work as a church body.

Your idea that “as long as it is from the heart – it’s OK” philosophy is fine for singular worship, but does nothing for the church body (congregation) praising God with one voice.

I agree that some songs are poorly written. When they come on the radio, I turn the radio off. Can't do that in church, so I sing along. I focus on the truths of the song, and I worship. I think God probably chuckles often at our feeble attempts to express our love for Him through music poetry, dance, whatever... I don't think God ever chuckles though, at a spirit of cynicism or deriding the heartfelt worship of others. (Check out how God punished David's wife, Mical, for citicizing his worship!)

Again-you are not getting the point. The cynicism and criticism is not towards the “heartfelt worship of others” – it is of the poor way that some artists construct and some worship leaders execute praise and worship songs. The criticism is not of the person worshipping.

I’m sure that you could use a metal pot, some pans and begin screaming at the top of your lungs, some Biblical truth – and SOMEONE in the congregation can worship to that! But, a congregational whole in a blended church in 2006 cannot worship to that.

OK- let’s go where the rubber meets the road. A few Sundays ago. I know some wonderful and Godly people in the church who were totally worshipping God with music where cues were missed, slides were not being shown on the right verses and most people in the church had no idea how to sing many of the melodic intervals in the song. While they had no problem getting into it, many people did (all I had to do was look around). The dysfunction of the singing service led to a poor worship experience because I could not focus on the words and the spirit of the words.

So, are there many poorly written worship songs? Yes! Do they make for "bad" worship? No. As long as a song is true theologically, we can still worship in spirit and in truth. (I've sung Jesus Loves Me about a trillion times in my life...it's a song that lacks for creativity and depth, yet when I sing it with my daughter before she goes to sleep, it's pure and unadulterated worship!

Again- that is SINGULAR worship, not corporate worship. By the way, I disagree that "Jesus Loves Me" lacks creativity and depth, I think it is a deep spiritual truth that is set to music in a way that is simple and creative and is especially meaningful to kids.

So, as you suggest, does poor songwriting equate to "dumb worship"? I'll be generous and give you a "half truth" credit with the recognition that God desires our very best worship, and sometimes we offer Him only second best, and that's dumb.

Thirdly, you wrote, "I have a good friend that believes that there is no such thing as a bad praise song! He believes that if the song brings him or anyone closer to God in worship that the words simply don’t matter."

Wow, your friend sounds like he isn't very sharp, unless of course, that's not exactly what he said, making that statement at best, only "half true".

Hmm- the quote may not be word for word- but that was certainly, the spirit of what was conveyed to me. And if that spirit was conveyed, I think it is noble and understandable but misguided. I do think that corporately sung praise songs do depend on good poetry, syntax, flow, form, Biblical acuracy, meaningfulness to Christian living, cultural relatability and a broadly accepted style. And as Nick Page has so articulately written in his book, there are many poorly written praise songs. And I do agree.

Granted, this is just my opinion, and I love to get opinions and debate them in a spirit of grace and growth. But I do find that some people have a very difficult time in peacefully disagreeing or being challenged on Biblical topics. I have been wrong many times, but hopefully admitted it and been teachable.

So, maybe you should title this piece "Half True Statements About Worship" :-)

Thanks, but I will stick with the title as is. I believe that we have really dumbed down worship to God in many ways – and I, too, am guilty of letting it effect me. One thing I do pray is that I remain teachable and let myself “be wrong” – which is something I’ve had to learn to do over the years. My experience with some people, who dispense Biblical wisdom, is that they get hostile when being challenged.

Love ya, brother!

I love you,too, actually closer than a brother. Now it’s just showing it by my actions!

K

Half True Praise Songs

Originally written on 1/11/06

I recently bought a book recommended by Bob Kauflin (former Glad musician and current Worship Music Pastor somewhere in Maryland). The book is "And Now Let's Move into a Time of Nonsense: Why Worship Songs Are Failing the Church" by Nick Page. The book is very funny but embarassingly acurate. P.S. I also reviewed this book at the same link above.

Some modern praise songs are theologically rich and can express deep Biblical truth through a worshipful spirit. Others tend to focus on a single attribute of God by frequent repetition. Though Biblical, that truth can be shallow when it comes to living the Christian life.

For instance, it is true that Psalms 118:5 says the following:

“In my anguish I cried to the LORD, and he answered by setting me free.” NIV

But if we were to worship using a song that was written as follows:

I cried to the Lord and wept
The weeping of my eyes, tears for the Master
I felt the stirring of the Lord on my journey
Which kept me from disaster.

Oh Lord, my tears are for You
Oh Lord, my fears are for You
To seek you in the morning
To weep for you in the evening
Oh Lord, my tears are for You.

OK, I admit – poetry is not my thing. The point is that sometimes we take a shallow Biblical truth; build words around it, then make a song. This (bad) song above which I wrote in 24 seconds, is Biblically true but completely incomplete.

When our church worship music is dominated by these kinds of songs, we dumb down our worship.

Other songs twist Biblical truths to fit into a poetic schema the author wants. The words ‘sound’ Biblical and maybe even exude worshipful feelings, but are simply inaccurate.

This post is a direct result of my wife’s explanation of worship this past Sunday at church while I was away. The song was “This Is Your House” and the words are as follows:


As we gather in this place today; Holy Spirit come and have Your way
Have Your way; As we lay aside our own desires
Sweep across our hearts with holy fire; Have Your way

This is Your house Your home; We welcome You
Lord we welcome You; This is Your house Your home; We welcome You today

As we offer up our hearts and lives; Let them be a living sacrifice; Have Your way
Be glorified in ev'rything we do; Be glorified in ev'rything we say; Have Your way

As we pray (As we pray); O Lord draw near; It's Your voice (It's Your voice); We long to hear

This is Your house Your home; We welcome You
Lord we welcome You; This is Your house Your home
We welcome You today; This is Your house Your home
We welcome You; Lord we welcome You
This is Your house Your home; We welcome You today
We welcome You today; We welcome You today


There a few good lines in this song, but a vast majority of it are that “This is Your House, we welcome You today”.

Think about that line. I mean, besides the general feeling that it sounds Biblical, actually READ the line and find the paradox.

If it is HIS house, then why are we welcoming Him? If it is His house wouldn’t we be the ones who are visitors? Never once since I have been a homeowner have I ever had someone come to my house and said “welcome”.

The proper expression of this would be that HE welcomes us into His presence, not the other way around.

Many don’t care if the words don’t make sense. I have a good friend that believes that there is no such thing as a bad praise song! He believes that if the song brings him or anyone closer to God in worship that the words simply don’t matter.

I see his point that the ultimate objective is a personal connection to God, but if we lower our standards to the point that the words can loose their meaning, then why have words at all? What’s the point?

Here is another spontaneous composition to make my point:

The air, the grass, the sand the sea
The air, the grass, the sand the sea
The air, the grass, the sand the sea
The air, the grass, the sand the sea

It is so beautiful to me
The air, the grass, the sand the sea
Your majesty is what I give to you, not me
The air, the grass, the sand the sea

How is that for a 10 second composition with the help of ‘copy and paste’? You see my point? I know the words are poetically terrible, but do you see a theological inaccuracy here?

A Fine and Pleasant Youth Trip

Again I’m faced with the choice to write about a topic that puts me at risk in that people I know and love who know the situation will read it and vehemently disagree. It also can potentially be a very politically incorrect move. But again, in today’s world of blogging it is only natural that personal opinions can be public. Since I am neither running for church office or political office (and have no aspirations to), I feel free and even compelled to share my thoughts.

If you don’t want to hear my opinion – this is your chance to go read some meaningless pap – say the New York Times web site.

Once a year, our church has a youth trip to Florida during the week of spring break that transports about 70 high schoolers down to Florida to have fun and grow in Christ. Following the trip, the group takes a Sunday morning service to share their experiences and testimonies with the congregation at large. Today’s youth service was mediocre at best and too much of it was downright embarrassing. It took all of the worship hour then went into our communities’ hour (“Sunday School” for most of you) effectively taking the entire morning.

Community time was cancelled by default.

At risk of being perceived at being a curmudgeon I must say at the outset that there were at least two outstanding youth testimonies- the first being a young lady who spoke of being confident in Christ and the other was a young man who articulately read Bible verses that he lives by. The rest was either OK or a total waste of our church worship hour.

My problem is not with taking a Florida trip, it is solely with the content of the service. One hour of the two hour service was allocated to describing the fun and games. Dating games, shaving cream fights throwing girls in the ocean and ice cream parties- “it was all so much fun”. Literally, most of the congregation had to cringe through all this pap until we finally got to the spiritual part in the testimonies- an hour later.

The students did sing about 4 or 5 songs, and unfortunately the most memorable ones were, “Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything” from Veggie Tales and “I’m in the Lord’s Army” both popular songs for 5 and 6 year olds. Some thought it cute- I thought it was terribly embarrassing. My wife, especially, cringed thinking on how shallow youth activities have gotten since her Word of Life youth group days as a teenager.

I am generally irreverent and you may be surprised to hear my take on this – but I usually desire to be spiritually fed on Sunday morning, not entertained.

What is success in a youth spring break trip? From what I gathered, it was overwhelmingly the fact that everybody made it back safely and no one was seriously hurt. They were safe. Thank goodness. “Don’t worry, parents, we made sure that everybody was supervised and always safe.” Did I say that no one got hurt?

I remember a time when success was defined by the lives that were changed. Spiritually charged teens got up and gave voice to what God had done in their lives. Teens sang solo’s, played instruments, gave testimonies and challenged others to live for Christ. This used to be the predominate theme.

Spiritual growth did happen but it came across as the rare exception, not the rule.

Another unfortunate distraction of the youth service was the short (very short) skirt being worn by a very attractive tanned young lady in the front row of youth on stage. Did I mention her velvety skin and finally shaped body. My entire family noticed it, and I am willing to bet that every red-blooded American male in the service did, too.

But I know – I shouldn’t judge the length of skirts worn on the “stage” at church. I’m sorry for bringing it up. I guess I shouldn’t frown on lingerie, teddies and brass poles up there during testimony time, too. My bad.

“Discern not, lest ye be discerned.” Is that in the Bible?