Why is church so dull? A psychotherapist diagnoses the Sunday ritual. – By Stephen W. Simpson – Patrol Magazine

Posted using ShareThis

There is not a circumstance of our Lord’s history which is not another form or manifestation of love.

His incarnation is love stooping.
His sympathy is love weeping.
His compassion is love supporting.
His grace is love acting.
His teaching is the voice of love.
His silence is the repose of love.
His patience is the restraint of love.
His obedience is the labor of love.
His suffering is the travail of love.
His cross is the altar of love.
His death is the burnt offering of love.
His resurrection is the triumph of love.
His ascension into heaven is the enthronement of love.
His sitting down at the right hand of God is the intercession of love.

Such is the deep, the vast, the boundless ocean of Christ’s love!”

—Octavius Winslow, The Sympathy of Christ

John Newton reflects on why there is no such thing.
In my imagination, I sometimes fancy I could [create] a perfect minister. I take the eloquence of ______, the knowledge of ______, the zeal of ______, and the pastoral meekness, tenderness, and piety of ______. Then, putting them all together into one man, I say to myself, “This would be a perfect minister.”

Now there is One, who, if he chose to, could actually do this; but he never did it. He has seen fit to do otherwise, and to divide these gifts to every man severally as he will. (Richard Cecil, Memoirs of the Rev. John Newton, p. 107.)

I think it was in the summer of ‘73.  My old friends Colin and Dee were to be married in Sebeka and they asked me to come and sing.  I had written a tune now long forgotten (I know it was about the love of Jesus).  I showed up in the nick of time and opened my old banjo case.

Now this old tenor banjo was one that somebody had given me (I can’t remember who).  It was well worn to say the least.  The favorite chords of the original owner were easy to trace by the deep grooves in the fretboard which made it a little challenging to play in tune.

I opened the case and suddenly was reminded (I was a bit anxious about this) that one of the 4 strings on this old instrument was missing.  I was down to three strings.  Oh well…what do you do? The church was packed, the service had begun…there was nowhere to hide.  You go with what you’ve got.

So I played those three strings and sang the love of Jesus for all I was worth and as I did I felt something deep inside that I can’t describe.  Something like the pleasure of God…a kind of transcendent, shimmering  joy.  It was His pleasure on the occasion of these two (future missionaries)  coming together in a sacred bond, and yes…His pleasure in me and in that old three stringed banjo.

It was as if God was showing something back then.  “These are the kinds of instruments that I delight to use.”  Broken…grooved…imperfect…well worn…road weary instruments.

So now I open up the case (my life) to see myself. Much like that old banjo I’m old and grooved…broken…imperfect.  And I’m down to one string.  I’ve got a one string banjo now.  Its all very clear.  I’m down to the gospel.  Its where I belong.  Its who I am.  So I mean to play it and sing the Love of Jesus for all I’m worth. God help me sing!

Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy. He who goes out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with him.  Psalm 126:5-6

Political commentator Fred Barnes writing in the Wall Street Journal:

In 2007, my wife Barbara and I left The Falls Church, which we had happily attended from the time we became Christians a quarter-century ago. It’s a 277-year-old church in northern Virginia well-known for its popular preacher, the Rev. John Yates, its adherence to traditional biblical teachings and its withdrawal in 2005 from the national Episcopal church. Our three grown daughters and their families stayed behind at The Falls Church.

We didn’t leave in anger. We didn’t have political or theological anxieties. Rather, we left for a new church because our old church wanted us to. The Falls Church has become entrepreneurial as well as evangelical. It’s in the church-planting business. And we were encouraged by Mr. Yates to join Christ the King, the church “planted” near our home in Alexandria. We were a bit ambivalent about the move, but when Christ the King opened its doors in September 2007, we were there.

Read the whole thing

From “Between Two Worlds”

Check out Michael Spenser’s (The internet Monk) linked-up take on recent evidence of the decline of American Christianity here.  His summation and prescription is compelling.

If you are an evangelical and you aren’t enthusiastically supporting innovative, cross cultural, missional church planting, you might want to go pre-plan the funeral. The future isn’t the megachurch. The future is ACTS 29.

Its been a long time since I’ve listened to an entire album…  Andrew Petersen has just released a collection of tunes called “Resurrection Letters Vol. II” that’s worth listening to from front to back.  You can hear it streamed (for free!) here.  Do it.  I mean it