Drunken Mystic

I’ve been using the term “neo-traditional” a lot in my writings lately, and since someone was curious what it meant and I just wrote a post about not using labels or terms to keep people from understanding, I thought I’d quickly explain it.

“Neo-traditional” is not a term originated by me.  I heard it used by Larry Trammell, and I always liked it.  As far as I know, he came up with it, but he might have gotten it from somewhere else.

There is a basic evangelical/Protestant traditional system that manny assume to be biblical and therefore inherently Christian.  Much of it, however, is not biblical and therefore not the traditions handed down by Christ and the apostles.  These are “new” traditions from various sources.

Specifically, “neo-traditional” includes, but not necessarily limited to, most of the following practices or structures, if not all of them:

1.  Focus on a separate and dedicated building for corporate worship.

2.  Structured worship time (singing praises followed by a teaching/sermon)

3.  Tithing

4.  A focus on theological or intellectual belief in systematic doctrine over righteous living.

5.  A priest/laity division (usually expressed in a professional single pastor)

Although commonly found today, these were not practices or traditions of the early church during the time the letters of Paul, Peter, James, John, and others were written and circulated.  Therefore, they are not biblical or early apostolic traditions but were later added or changed and are “new.”

That is what I mean by “neo-traditional”.

Peace.

First the recommendation:

One of our group, Jason H., is a gifted musician and songwriter.  He’s recording some stuff in Memphis right now.  You can check out his stuff on myspace here.

It’s all good, but “The Company I Keep” is a recent fav of mine.

A slight warning … his lyrics and music are very honest and real about struggles.  Christians sometimes don’t like the depth of honesty, but I like it.

Okay, and an answer.

Steve F. left a question on comments in the last post.  Some may wonder why I answer these questions in another post, but it is usually for two reasons.  I don’t usually read comments after I leave one, so that’s a little egocentric of me.  Second, my answers are so stupid long I might as well just post it.

So read the comment if you want and I’ll answer here …

There is something manly to me about risk taking.  Now, that doesn’t mean that all risk taking is healthy or even right, but laying it all out on the line, things you talk about that deal with total commitment, is something that should define us.

Even the basic principle of following Christ is as extreme as you can get.  That is why I love the T-shirt you guys came up with in Korea, “Jesus first, safety second.”  That is the best motto to go by in any and every situation.  It will serve you well now and in eternity.

So let me encourage you that risk-taking, extreme ventures are good, right, and healthy when done in the right context.  Following Christ and being holy falls under this, so is being a good husband and father and loving the Body of Christ with your whole heart.  This all takes total commitment and ultimate sacrifice, as you well know.

When we get into other things, I think they are valid, as well, but “living on the edge” must be tempered with discernment.

I’m going to take Peter as an example.  It was his willingness to do whatever he had to do that made him get out of that boat and walk towards Jesus on the water.  It was also his extreme personality that cut off an ear and got rebuked.

But I think God is okay with that.  Didn’t he give Peter the keys to the kingdom?  I don’t mean he made him a pope type person, but it was Peter that was charged with “feeding my sheep” and then was an instrumental leader in the early Church.

People who are willing to do what no one else will do are capable of seeing what no one else will see.

Not that God is okay with disobedience.  He’s not.  It’s just that the Kingdom of God is a narrow road specifically because of how difficult it is, not because there are theologies or doctrines unlearned but because of personal conveniences and selfish motives people aren’t willing to lay down.

Risk takers are in a prime position to be tempered and led to great heights.  The tempering is never meant to completely domesticate us, however, only to get us in a position where we are laying it all down in obedience to him and his voice, not anything else, not a paradigm, not a structure, not an organization, not another man’s teaching, nothing else.

I believe all true followers of Christ are, by nature, maladjusted.  They just don’t fit in this world.  ML King had a great article about being “maladjusted” to racism.  I’m speaking of this world and the flesh.  Those who are born of the Spirit are “like the wind, no one knows where they come from or where they are going”.  They seem unstable and even misdirected at times, but with confidence in Christ you don’t need formulas and safe paradigms to prove you are on the right track.

In the context of physical exremes, like mountain biking or bungee jumping (yeah, baby), I think these things can be very healthy outlets for manly men and a great opportunity for men to get and stay connected.  I’m more of a sports type (like basketball) than outdoorsy, but there is something in it about men doing these things together that bond them as brothers.  And there’s nothing wrong with it.  The only problem I could see is if your fellowship with others is based on a preference for type of physical activity than just loving the fellowship itself.

For example, I’d rather go on a hike or camp with the guys (or others) so we can fellowship, love on one another, and enjoy one another, than not do it just because it’s “not my thing.”  I’m not big in that kind of stuff, but if it is with the Body of Christ and focused on becoming more intimate with them, I never regret it.

Also, so much of our lives are sedentary and inactive, that physical labor or activity is good for the body, mind, and yes, I think the spirit as well.  Jesus wasn’t an intellectual.  He was a carpenter.  David, Moses, and Abraham were shepherds.  I’m not saying this is perfectly clear or laid out as a specific teaching in scripture, but I feel there is some truth to it.

Having a wife that supports you and your “extremes” is a treasure beyond measure.  I know because I have one, too.  Having a fellowship of believers that calls you to extremes of loving God and loving one another is a blessing that you should thank God for every day.  Many on your path have neither of them, but they are invaluable.

So now that I’ve rambled a while, I’ll share a couple things with you personally, Steve, in the hopes that it encourages others as well.  Most of this you know, but I’ll repeat it to you anyway.

Life is about seasons.  God is tempering you, like I said.  I’ve been there.  You know how similar we are.  It is the most frustrating thing in the world.  But on the other side of this tempering is a man who will lay it all down and speak the truth in fire and obey the very heart of God.  You will still go to the extremes but it won’t be for the rush, it will be in obedience.  You will still say shocking and deeply true things, but it will have an authority on it that wasn’t there before.

Don’t take God’s discipline as a condemnation but a commendation.  He’s not putting you through it to be mean or because he doesn’t like you.  You’re farther along than you think.  Not many could handle it.  You are a blessing to me, and always have been.  And I look forward to the even greater blessing you will be in the future because you’re in God’s hands.

And know you always have a home with us.

If there is something specific you feel you need to “go for”, then by all means, go for it!  Let me recommend a great little book called The Barbarian Way by McManus.  I loved it.  It inspired me to “make my calling and election sure.”

Peace.

So we read Bible stories and Where the Wild Things Are every night … I’m waiting for him to get tired of Where the Wild Things Are … hasn’t happened yet.

We get through a couple Bible stories and often Micah asks for David and Goliath.

We get to the end of the story, where the story says that David hit Goliath with a stone from his slingshot and Goliath fell down dead … “and David won a great victory for Israel that day.”

Micah adds, with much enthusiasm almost every time, “and he cut off his head!”

Hmnn … getting excited about violence is okay if it’s in the Bible, right?  Must be spiritual then …

Uh, peace.

Not that I ever thought Playboy was real journalism anyway, no matter how some people say they just read the articles …

I could only find this video on facebook …

Question is, why isn’t this everywhere?  If a conservative had given a list of liberal celebrities as people he wanted to have “hate sex” with, it would be on the front page of every newspaper, news website, and liberal groups would be calling for his head, quite literally.  I had to see this on facebook.

Peace.

Dr. George Tiller, a man who was a spokesman for abortion and performed many late term abortions himself, was shot and killed while serving in his church building today.

It was all over CNN in the McDonald’s as we were driving back from Florida today.  I sadly mentioned it to Becca, at which point she said, “Well, that’s the answer.”  I can’t really type in her sarcastic tone, but it was there.

Hopefully they catch the guy who did this and put him away for a long time.  What he did is as much murder, and sin, as the thousands of abortions Dr. Tiller performed.  Like my mom used to say, “Two wrongs don’t make a right.”

I’m not gonna speculate on the perpetrator’s heart or motives, other than that they were seriously misguided, which is a mild statement compared to the truth.

Like I said last week, the true path to humility is realizing that Dr. Tiller, while a murderer himself, was capable of being redeemed by the same Jesus who gave us grace and saved us from certain spiritual and eternal death.  It is unfortunate that Dr. Tiller was physically attacked by “pro-life” activists, and that is what will make the news, even more unfortunate that Dr. Tiller was not given more time, patience, and “long-suffering” to repent.

Many, probably thousands of true pro-life activists prayed for the man, of that I am sure.  CNN just doesn’t happen to report on that.

Peace.

I’m not all for special days celebrating things on one day that you should honor all the time … like your mom, your dad, the death and resurrection of Christ … and prayer.

But I also try not to let my idealism get in the way of a good opportunity, and if this brings people together to seek God across denominational lines for common purposes, then that’s kinda cool.

And getting together to pray is way better than protesting something, even if that thing deserves to be protested against.  God is better able to change things than my political voice, or even our collective political voice.

The New Age type stuff that comes out of the day of prayer, even somewhat encouraged by the most recent Bush administration, doesn’t appeal to me, and is more dangerous than healthy.  Although I’m also not sure it is a good example by the current administration to just not celebrate it at all.

So my encouragement is, yes, get together to pray.  All the time.  With those who truly seek Christ out of a genuine heart of repentance, despite their denominational background. 

Peace.

Reading an AP article the other day where Obama announced he was going to take over student loans from banks.  And they wouldn’t be loans anymore … they’d be funds given to individuals to go to college.

His reasons?  Well, number 1 was the one that got me.  Banks were the “middle man” and “inefficient.”

The “inefficient” comment got me.  Sorry.  Laughed out loud.  Because we all know that the governmnet is SO efficient.  (more of that Irish sarcasm)

Oh, and viewing banks that make amazingly available low-interest loans as “middle man” shows Obama’s fundamental viewpoint.  What are the banks getting “in the middle” of?

The government providing free education for all, that’s what.  Let’s follow the line here and see where it takes us.

Educationally, if everyone gets a college degree, it no longer becomes an indicator of success.  Extending the American public school system into the collegiate level on a broad scale (we’re really close now, anyway) only makes the college degree the new high school degree.

To look at the cost of this will be astounding.  As the government fully pays for college education, what will happen to the cost of education?  It will go up … which will create more people in need of assistance, and the monopoly on education will make the cost so bloated as to be even more ridiculous than it is now.

While some might validly criticize student loans and banks for inflating the cost of education, as insurance companies have surely done the same with health care, do we expect the gubmint to do a better job?  The government never controls and cuts costs when they take something over.  The budget always inflates.

All of this on taxpayer money.

Which brings me to Obama’s 2nd reason.  He says a college education is the only hope for a higher standard of living in today’s economy.

While I have nothing against college education, this is propaganda and flatly untrue.

First of all, most of the “poor” in our nation have a standard of living that would be the envy of 95% of the world NOW, not to mention the history of the world. 

Second, statistics show that the average income levels of college graduates and non-college graduates shows little difference.  Now, this is an average, which is due to college graduates initially getting a better paying job, but their upward mobility is naturally capped by pyramid-style bureacracies and their own safe and institutionalized thinking.  They get “good” jobs but take less risks.

Non-college graduates have not been institutionalized.  They start their own businesses more, work as actual producers instead of service oriented jobs that produce little (many of which have to generate propaganda of their own to justify their continued existence and growth).  Non-grads start on a lower tier, but there is essentially no ceiling for the guy that starts his own business out of recognizing actual demand, responsibly manages it and takes the necessary risks for something greater than he has now.  He might even feel bad for the college grad and give him a job … fixing his computer.

An example?  Bill Gates is an extreme, but he had to drop out of colelge to acquire the gobs of money and ride an economic revolution to great wealth.  Obama, and many in the public school system today, would have told him he was making a big mistake.  And Bill Gates is not alone or unique.  Many business owners don’t have a degree from a college or university.  And they are doing fine.

But if you’re someone who believes the government is the answer to EVERYTHING, as the current power party and administration is, then institutionalization makes sense, and institutionalized minds are necessary.  Which is why Lenin and Stalin poured untold resources into the Soviet educational system.

I lived in Korea for four years, and they highly value education.  A college degree is seen as the way to success, and is therefore very common.  So is unemployment for these college grads.  In fact, at one point, the hightest instance of unemployment in Korea was among those educated in universities.  Why?  There weren’t enough jobs according to their degrees, and they were overqualified for the jobs that opened up.

Guess what?  We need ditch diggers, farmers, construction workers, mechanics, factory workers, and other skilled labor.  The whole world needs these things.  It is a very lofty, Ivory-Tower view of the world to think that “success” must come from greater education.  Why not, instead, change our view of success from being college educated and working in a service oriented job to finding honest work that provides enough to meet your needs?

Oh, wait, that’s my true Christianity getting in the way again.

Peace.

Here goes another post on Rose Creek Village.  I’ll have to just wait for the negative google-ers to find the article and comment … should be interesting.

I’ve been meaning to write this for some time … just way busy with music and spring break and everything … but here it is.

A couple weekends ago, Becca and I and the kids were going to a wedding in Memphis to see an old friend from Korea get married.  Rose Creek Village is about an hour away … maybe more.  So we thought we might be able to spend some of the weekend there.  They gave us a room and we stayed there Friday night and Saturday night, spending time with villagers on Friday night, Saturday morning, and Sunday morning.

On Friday evening, when we arrived in the village, we were escorted to the house we were staying at, and there were children playing outside.  Micah got out of the car and, without a word, walked right up to the kids and started playing.  They were sweet to him and they had fun while we went inside and got settled.

Becca and I have been doing the “living with other believers” thing for almost two years now.  It has been awesome.  But we’ve had our struggles, as well, especially some things recently.  So we had an agenda in going to Rose Creek, to ask those experienced in living with other believers some honest questions.  And knowing Rose Creek as I do, we got honest answers, some of which encouraged us, many answers challenged us.

Micah fell in love with the kids there.  Jaron and Tristan and others.  He didn’t want to leave one house … but then loved the next one and didn’t want to leave there, either, as we visited around the village.

One of the main things I appreciate about Rose Creek is their willingness (humility?) to admit their mistakes, both present and past.  But they are also courageous and willing to try things most people wouldn’t even consider.  That being said, they’ve learned a lot, and they are still learning and experimenting and trying to get out of their own boxes.

This shows a lot of wisdom to me.  First that they’ve struggled through things and found much that is good and pure, and second that they are still struggling through things, new things.  It is organic.  It is life.

I love kids anyway, but I love how the kids are in Rose Creek.  Oh, not that they are perfect kids (we were privy to a little child discipline while there …), but that they are conditioned to share, not to take.

When we were leaving on Sunday morning, packing up, Micah said, “I want to take my cars with me.”  I looked, and he had a matchbox car carrying case with some play cars in it.  This was at the house when we arrived a day or two before and Micah loved playing with it.  I told him, “that’s not yours, buddy.  You’ve got your own cars.”  So he left them at my behest … which I must say was quite impressive.  Then as we were driving out of the village, we passed a couple men and their boys on their way in … people whose house we were staying in.  One of the boys asked, “Did Micah get the cars I gave him?”

I felt like a heel.  Of course, Micah didn’t need any more cars … he has plenty and we need to get rid of the blob of toys accumulating in our house … but the fact that Micah was right.  They were his cars.  And even more important that the other boy wanted to give Micah something that Micah enjoyed.

As we got home, I got a message from Shammah (one of the leaders there at Rose Creek whom I have met, email and read his blog) that he would be in the ATL for a high school reunion the very next weekend.  He and his wife, Hannah, stayed downtown at a hotel but visited with us Saturday lunch and Sunday morning.  We had such a good time just getting to know them better … and being their host, as well.

(As a side note: the wedding was awesome, too!  It was great to see some of the old crew on Saturday.)

Overall, we really appreciated the encouragement and the wisdom and the challenges shared by those at Rose Creek.  To those we spoke with, Ben, Beth, Gideon, David, Ariel, Shammah, Asher, Nathaniel, and a host of others … we thank you.  There aren’t many around us trying to do what we are doing, living closer with the Body of Christ, even in the same home.  It was good to hear from those who won’t tell us to just move out when we get frustrated or struggle with something.

So often when people think of more community, they either focus on the advantages (with the resulting, “that would be awesome!”) or the challenges (with the resulting, “I could never do that.”)  Honestly, it is both.  There are amazing times of joy and family with the Body of Christ … and you also experience a dying to yourself to live with other people with different views on dumb things like where to put the paper towel roll or what kind to get or even if we should use paper towels at all because of the environment.  But we, as humans, in our flesh, find these things very important and it is how we deal with these issues that show character … and expose things we’d rather just not want exposed.

This isn’t even getting into more weighty matters of how we discipline children or how marriages work (or don’t work) or a host of other very personal, way more important matters.  But if we’ll allow the balance of community to have its work, we will become better husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, etc.  Someone might actually have some wisdom that helps us.

Rose Creek has been through all of this.  At times it was wonderful.  At times it was very difficult.  And those times still exist for them.  Which, in a way, encourages me.  Feels real.

And if anyone ever wants to visit Rose Creek, just find them on the internet and contact them and go visit.

Peace.