I link to Bob Kauflin somewhat regularly on this blog. Bob maintains the leading blog on worship issues in the blogosphere. Bob was recently interviewed on the New Attitude blog about media, music, and the Bible. You can go to the interview to see all the questions and Bob's answers. Here was one of the better snips...
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Na: Is music inherently good or bad? How does God's word see music?
Bob: Music is a language of emotion expressed in a cultural context. Because we always connect music to something it’s difficult to talk about the total neutrality of music. I think of it as morally relative. Relative to the person listening, the person making it, the culture that surrounds them, and what we associate it with. Music can be good or bad depending on why we listen to it, what we do when we listen to it, what is leads us to do, etc.
The Bible tells us that music is a gift from God given to us for our pleasure and his glory. The two shouldn’t be separated.
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(HT: Between Two Worlds)
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Thursday, March 15, 2007
How To Have A Successful And Enjoyable In-Ear Monitor Experience (From a Band Leader’s Perspective!)
As I have alluded to in previous posts on volume control, Parkview uses in-ear monitors (ear buds) to keep stage volume controlled and provide singers and musicians the ability to customize their mix (either from the board or personal via Aviom mixers). Parkview’s Instrumental Director, John Carlson has some excellent information in this post regarding how to set-up in-ear monitors for your band and vocals.
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Several things are key to a successful experience with in-ear monitors for your band & vocalists.
1.) If you’re just starting out, keep in mind that this will be a learning process for all involved – it will take time for people to adjust both physically and sonically, and for some musicians, the very idea of wearing in-ears can be a challenge in itself. In fact, things may even get worse in terms of the team’s experience before it gets better. Acknowledge this first thing up front to everyone involved and stress that you’re all in it together to make this work. Stress the advantages of this approach over your previous monitor set up. (Lower stage volume = better sound, better overall for your ears, etc.)
2.) Provide several different sizes and types of in-ear inserts. For example, with our Shure E2s, there are several options available: small, medium, and large clear silicone inserts, or the same sizes in a soft black pliable rubber that some people prefer over the silicone, which also have a slightly more ball-like shape. There are also the orange foam inserts in different sizes as well. They all feel, fit, and sound different, and everyone has different size ears. Give your teams a choice and they’ll certainly appreciate the chance to experiment. Remember you’re dealing with people’s hearing – it IS important. We organize our in-ears in a large multiple drawer organizer – the kind you’d use for screws and hardware items on a workbench. (See pictures at end of post) Each of our team members has their own drawer with their name labeled on it. They each have their own set of personally selected inserts that they use each time they’re up. They simply pick up a pair of in-ears from the separate drawer they’re contained in, and put on their own inserts, and remove them when they’re done. We also provide some disposable rubber medical type gloves and alcohol wipes to keep the inserts clean and sanitized.
3.) The first thing that will happen with use of in-ears is that people will tend to sing and play more quietly, as now they are hearing themselves so well and “in their face” so to speak. The trick to curing this is to help them establish a mix that has a fairly strong amount of backing instruments, and enough but not TOO much of themselves. For instance, I can usually tell when the drummer is hearing so much of himself over the band that he’s afraid to play out because his drums suddenly sound so loud to him in the in-ears compared to the other instruments. The second thing that everyone will notice is a marked lack of ambience or “room sound,” depending upon how live your room is to begin with, and how many other open mics there are. This will tend to make the team feel separated from the congregation, as if they’re “in a box.” I encourage you to do one or both of two things. First, try setting up some room mics to capture the natural ambience of the room. Position them within or towards the congregation, as this can also help the team to hear the congregation’s sound and singing. A little bit of that added to the Aviom mix will help a lot to put the team “in the room.” Secondly, a bit of a nice hall reverb--not too big, not too small--can help simulate the lost room ambience and make for a more pleasurable experience for the in-ears, although this of course will not help capture the sound of the congregation.
4.) A good stereo mix is imperative for the in-ears. If you have a monitor engineer mixing in-ears, it’s imperative that this person knows their way around a good mix. But more often these days, the band and vocals are mixing their own in-ears with Avioms or similar personal mixers. Teaching them a few simple principles of a good mix will truly help them to have a good in-ear experience. I’m often surprised when I look at or hear someone’s mix and realize that it’s very poorly set up or obvious that the person doesn’t understand a good mix set up. The most important aspect of this, next to individual levels of course, is what we call “Pan” or where the instrument or voice is placed in the stereo spectrum from left to right. I’ll tell you what my process is and how I generally set up my mix and hopefully that will give you an idea.
5.) Encourage your team to learn how to deal with volume levels of their mix. Everything can’t be the same generally. I like to start with bass and drums and get a good solid mix there, and then add the other instruments accordingly to my taste. Being an instrumentalist and band leader, I keep the vocals a little lower than you’d want to hear in a studio mix (sorry vocals!) but I keep the worship leader on top of that mix so I can hear his lead and directions. Also – if you’re having problems bringing your instrument or voice up (or another instrument), and everyone else seems to be fine and has plenty of what you don’t have, you probably have the general level of all the channels too loud. Before asking for more gain on the individual channel and throwing off everyone else’s good mix, try first turning everything DOWN except the signal you can’t hear well, and then turn your overall master volume up and see if that helps.
6.) Encourage everyone NOT to mute anyone else’s channel in their mix – unless it’s just so distracting that they can’t sing or play. First, it’s just wrong to mute a fellow teammate’s channel. That’s like saying “I don’t care what you have to add to the worship experience.” Second, it obviously puts you at a disadvantage not hearing all of what’s going on. If you’re a piano player and you mute the electric guitar, you’ll never hear crucial rhythms he’s playing, or fills, and generally you will tend to overplay yourself to compensate for what you’re not hearing. If you’re so good that you only need to hear yourself, then you need to be doing a solo gig, not playing on a worship team! If what someone else is doing is SO distracting that you need to mute it, have a talk with the worship leader or bandleader and find a way to express your concerns appropriately to solve the issue. If that’s truly the case, then you’re probably not the only one who is having difficulties.
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Several things are key to a successful experience with in-ear monitors for your band & vocalists.
1.) If you’re just starting out, keep in mind that this will be a learning process for all involved – it will take time for people to adjust both physically and sonically, and for some musicians, the very idea of wearing in-ears can be a challenge in itself. In fact, things may even get worse in terms of the team’s experience before it gets better. Acknowledge this first thing up front to everyone involved and stress that you’re all in it together to make this work. Stress the advantages of this approach over your previous monitor set up. (Lower stage volume = better sound, better overall for your ears, etc.)
2.) Provide several different sizes and types of in-ear inserts. For example, with our Shure E2s, there are several options available: small, medium, and large clear silicone inserts, or the same sizes in a soft black pliable rubber that some people prefer over the silicone, which also have a slightly more ball-like shape. There are also the orange foam inserts in different sizes as well. They all feel, fit, and sound different, and everyone has different size ears. Give your teams a choice and they’ll certainly appreciate the chance to experiment. Remember you’re dealing with people’s hearing – it IS important. We organize our in-ears in a large multiple drawer organizer – the kind you’d use for screws and hardware items on a workbench. (See pictures at end of post) Each of our team members has their own drawer with their name labeled on it. They each have their own set of personally selected inserts that they use each time they’re up. They simply pick up a pair of in-ears from the separate drawer they’re contained in, and put on their own inserts, and remove them when they’re done. We also provide some disposable rubber medical type gloves and alcohol wipes to keep the inserts clean and sanitized.
3.) The first thing that will happen with use of in-ears is that people will tend to sing and play more quietly, as now they are hearing themselves so well and “in their face” so to speak. The trick to curing this is to help them establish a mix that has a fairly strong amount of backing instruments, and enough but not TOO much of themselves. For instance, I can usually tell when the drummer is hearing so much of himself over the band that he’s afraid to play out because his drums suddenly sound so loud to him in the in-ears compared to the other instruments. The second thing that everyone will notice is a marked lack of ambience or “room sound,” depending upon how live your room is to begin with, and how many other open mics there are. This will tend to make the team feel separated from the congregation, as if they’re “in a box.” I encourage you to do one or both of two things. First, try setting up some room mics to capture the natural ambience of the room. Position them within or towards the congregation, as this can also help the team to hear the congregation’s sound and singing. A little bit of that added to the Aviom mix will help a lot to put the team “in the room.” Secondly, a bit of a nice hall reverb--not too big, not too small--can help simulate the lost room ambience and make for a more pleasurable experience for the in-ears, although this of course will not help capture the sound of the congregation.
4.) A good stereo mix is imperative for the in-ears. If you have a monitor engineer mixing in-ears, it’s imperative that this person knows their way around a good mix. But more often these days, the band and vocals are mixing their own in-ears with Avioms or similar personal mixers. Teaching them a few simple principles of a good mix will truly help them to have a good in-ear experience. I’m often surprised when I look at or hear someone’s mix and realize that it’s very poorly set up or obvious that the person doesn’t understand a good mix set up. The most important aspect of this, next to individual levels of course, is what we call “Pan” or where the instrument or voice is placed in the stereo spectrum from left to right. I’ll tell you what my process is and how I generally set up my mix and hopefully that will give you an idea.
- First we set the general volume level/gain structure of the signals for each channel going to the Avioms. I like to get enough of each instrument or vocal so I can make them TOO loud if I want to. Then I back them way off to about middle level and start my mix from there.
- The idea with panning is to spread everything out in a visual sense so that each voice or instrument has it’s own “space” as if standing in the room – and so that your entire mix is not all straight up the middle of the stereo field which is very unpleasant and hard to hear individual signals. Of course there are certain signals you will want in the middle, like lead vocals and usually the bass. Listen to recorded CDs in headphones or in-ears and identify how instruments are mixed. Where is the guitar? The keyboards? Percussion? Bass? Vocals? Here is what my mix looked like this past weekend for 16 channels of my Aviom mix:
1.) Worship Leader Vocal – panned middleNotice that certain like instruments, such as the electric guitars, I pan hard left and right and they sound GREAT that way. It leaves a lot of room for the other instruments and voices to have a place, and it spreads the guitars out into a wide stereo spectrum. This is common on recorded mixes. Encourage your teams to experiment and be creative with their mix. It’s often the difference between a miserable and discouraging experience, and a very satisfying one. And of course, the better your team can hear and sing, the more joyful that experience can be, and the better your team will sound and worship.
2.) Acoustic Guitar – panned slightly to the right of middle
3.) Jim’s lead Vocal (on one song) – panned middle
4.) Vox 1 – Soprano – panned middle
5.) Vox 2 – Alto – panned almost all the way hard left
6.) Vox 3 – Tenor – panned almost hard right
7.) Synth Left – panned hard left
8.) Synth Right – panned hard right
9.) Piano – panned slightly to the left of middle
10.) Jim’s Electric Guitar – panned hard right
11.) Dan’s Electric Guitar – panned hard left
12.) Bass – middle
13.) Drums Left – panned hard left
14.) Drums Right – panned hard right
15.) Loops/Click – middle
16.) Talk Back – I like to pan this right, but this is a personal preference to distinguish it from Scott’s talking as worship leader.
5.) Encourage your team to learn how to deal with volume levels of their mix. Everything can’t be the same generally. I like to start with bass and drums and get a good solid mix there, and then add the other instruments accordingly to my taste. Being an instrumentalist and band leader, I keep the vocals a little lower than you’d want to hear in a studio mix (sorry vocals!) but I keep the worship leader on top of that mix so I can hear his lead and directions. Also – if you’re having problems bringing your instrument or voice up (or another instrument), and everyone else seems to be fine and has plenty of what you don’t have, you probably have the general level of all the channels too loud. Before asking for more gain on the individual channel and throwing off everyone else’s good mix, try first turning everything DOWN except the signal you can’t hear well, and then turn your overall master volume up and see if that helps.
6.) Encourage everyone NOT to mute anyone else’s channel in their mix – unless it’s just so distracting that they can’t sing or play. First, it’s just wrong to mute a fellow teammate’s channel. That’s like saying “I don’t care what you have to add to the worship experience.” Second, it obviously puts you at a disadvantage not hearing all of what’s going on. If you’re a piano player and you mute the electric guitar, you’ll never hear crucial rhythms he’s playing, or fills, and generally you will tend to overplay yourself to compensate for what you’re not hearing. If you’re so good that you only need to hear yourself, then you need to be doing a solo gig, not playing on a worship team! If what someone else is doing is SO distracting that you need to mute it, have a talk with the worship leader or bandleader and find a way to express your concerns appropriately to solve the issue. If that’s truly the case, then you’re probably not the only one who is having difficulties.
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Church Video Ideas
Both Phil (our Interim Tech Director) and I have been enjoying reading Greg Atkinson's blog entitled Church Video Ideas. Greg has a lot of experience in technical ministry also participates in a regular podcast called Creative Synergy. Greg's blog does a good job keeping people up on new video releases and resources for churches.
Monday, March 12, 2007
Stage Volume and Your Sound Mix
This article is a continuation in my recent emphasis on sound and volume in worship services. Remember, I am not a professional sound technician, so these observations are made from the perspective of being an Arts Director and Worship leader for over 15 years; consequently, I will try to abstain from getting too technical in my observations.
Many churches are very poorly equipped to handle the musical nuances that come with a contemporary approach to musical worship for the following reasons. For one, in the last decade many churches have transitioned from more “traditional” to more “contemporary” musical paradigms; however, the majority of these churches are still worshiping in rooms designed for traditional music applications (choirs, organ, piano, etc…). Another reason churches struggle with sound issues is because, in the name of saving money, churches often put far too little money into acoustic and sound reinforcement design. Poor acoustics (rooms) and inadequate sound systems lay the foundation for a whole host of problems when mixing sound for the contemporary music service. So, what are the solutions? Of course, not every church can afford to scrap their present worship space and invest in state-of-the-art structures, sound, and acoustics; however, there is one relatively simple way to improve your mix even if you are vexed by a poor system and challenging acoustics. Namely, minimizing stage volume.
Since most of us do not have the luxury of worshiping in really large, acoustically dry, theatrical auditoriums, the sound created from the stage is often a major problem for creating a good room mix. The primary sources for high stage volume are stage monitors, drum sets, and electric guitar amps. The following are a few ideas about how one can deal with these challenges in order to reduce stage volume.
Many churches are very poorly equipped to handle the musical nuances that come with a contemporary approach to musical worship for the following reasons. For one, in the last decade many churches have transitioned from more “traditional” to more “contemporary” musical paradigms; however, the majority of these churches are still worshiping in rooms designed for traditional music applications (choirs, organ, piano, etc…). Another reason churches struggle with sound issues is because, in the name of saving money, churches often put far too little money into acoustic and sound reinforcement design. Poor acoustics (rooms) and inadequate sound systems lay the foundation for a whole host of problems when mixing sound for the contemporary music service. So, what are the solutions? Of course, not every church can afford to scrap their present worship space and invest in state-of-the-art structures, sound, and acoustics; however, there is one relatively simple way to improve your mix even if you are vexed by a poor system and challenging acoustics. Namely, minimizing stage volume.
Since most of us do not have the luxury of worshiping in really large, acoustically dry, theatrical auditoriums, the sound created from the stage is often a major problem for creating a good room mix. The primary sources for high stage volume are stage monitors, drum sets, and electric guitar amps. The following are a few ideas about how one can deal with these challenges in order to reduce stage volume.
STAGE MONITORS: Do whatever you can to eliminate the use of floor wedges. At Parkview we’ve gone almost entirely to Aviom personal mixers. Not only do these eliminate the stage volume issues, they give each musician and vocalist total control in creating and controlling their own personal sound mix. If you can’t afford Aviom, there are more affordably priced competitors worth considering. Don’t forget that every Aviom will need headphones or earbuds. At Parkview the instrumentalists use Etymotics ($165 @ Amazon), the vocalists use Shure E2’s and I use Ultimate Ears. The vocalists and worship leader often run their Avioms into a Sennheiser wireless transmitter in order to maintain mobility.Though lowering stage volume is only one element in creating a good sound mix, it is an important element in helping less than ideal rooms handle the musical challenges that come with the contemporary music style in worship.
DRUMS: Having worked with fine music directors over the years, I have quickly learned that using digital drums at Parkview is not an option. Why is this? Digital drums cannot produce the sound and offer the playing versatility that comes with an acoustic drum set. Not only do digital drums hinder the player’s ability to make good drum sounds, but they will ultimately serve as a “stay away” sign for prospective drummers who are interested in serving the Lord with musical excellence.
So, if we must have “real” drums, then how do we deal with stage volume? The answer is found in good drums, good mics, shielding, and baffling. Invest in a good drum set, get some good drum mics, and then shield the drum set with a plexiglass surround. If shielding doesn’t cut down the sound enough, then consider adding a sound absorbent roof and baffles behind and in front of the drum set. As a side note, I have seen churches build entire rooms for a drum set. In my opinion, this is a bit over the top. It may cut down on stage volume, but it also creates a harmful disconnect between the drummer and the band.
ELECTRIC GUITAR AMPS: Guitar amps must operate at a certain volume level in order to produce a good guitar tone. Though this volume level can create problems for the sound mix, good amps are a necessary component of a good guitar sound. Forcing your players to go direct into the system without their amp is not much different than making your drummers play digital drums. It may reduce volume, but it will also hinder good guitar tone and keep good players from wanting to serve in your ministry.
The few solutions I’ve seen to this problem are to point guitar amps away from walls or other reflective surfaces, use baffling behind amps in order to eliminate volume leaking from the back of the amp, or use guitar amp sound cabinets. Though I’ve never used an amp cabinet, I saw them when visiting North Point Church in Atlanta. There, the amp is placed within the cabinet off stage. Players turn up the amp to the optimum volume level, a mic is placed within the cabinet, and then the cabinet is closed. This allows the player to operate at optimum levels for tone, while also virtually eliminating any stage volume issues.
Thursday, March 08, 2007
Volume in Worship Services
Zach Nielsen (our former Instrumental Music Director) weighs in on volume in worship here. It looks like Z is feeling the brunt of anonymous comment cards.
Building Teams and Developing Leaders
Resurgence just posted a talk by Jeff Vanderstelt, the pastor at Soma Church in Tacoma, WA. Jeff is a former leader at Willow Creek Church and has some really cool insights about what it takes to build teams and develop leaders. I am in the process of listening to it right now. You can tell this guy really gets what it takes to be truly missional and incarnational in ministry. If you've wondered what missional ministry looks like, this talk will give you a good glimpse. Just go here and click on listen now. Also, check out the Soma Church website. Very creative and innovative.
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
How Many Americans Go to Church?
The quote below is from a recent post on Between Two Worlds. I found it interesting because, after years of aggressive growth, Parkview's attendance has settled in the last 1-2 years. I think there are numerous internal reasons this could have happened, but I also think we are reflecting a trend of what is happening in a lot of churches nationally.
Read the rather sobering statistics below...
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How many Americans go to church regularly?
If you listen to the answers provided by major opinion research firms, the answer usually hovers around 40%. (National Opinion Research Center: 38%; Institute for Social Research’s World Values: 44%; Barna: 41%; National Election Studies: 40%; Gallup: 41%.)
But in recent years this consensus has been challenged. It seems that it’s more accurate to say that 40% of Americans claim to attend church regularly.
In 1998, sociologist Stanley Presser at the University of Michigan—whose “research focuses on questionnaire design and testing, the accuracy of survey responses, and ethical issues stemming from the use of human subjects”—co-authored a study entitled: Data Collection Mode and Social Desirability Bias in Self-Reported Religious Attendance, American Sociological Review, v. 63 (1998): 137-145 (with L. Stinson). Comparing diaries with actual attendance, they made the estimate that the actual percentage of Americans attending church from the mid-1960’s to the 90’s was about 26%.
One of the problem comes in how the question is asked in a poll. Different questions yield different results. For example, in a survey you might ask, “What did you do last weekend?” listing for the person a number of possible activities, including church-going. This will yield a very different response than if you asked, “Did you attend church last Sunday?”
One factor is that people often answer according to what they think someone like them wants or ought to do. So people tend to overreport on the number of sexual partners they’ve had and how much money they give to charity, and tend to underreport on illegal drug use and the like. Hence, church attendance is often inflated.
In 1998 C. Kirk Hadaway and P.L. Marler published an article in the Christian Century entitled, Did You Really Go To Church This Week? Behind the Poll Data where they examine many of these factors. The authors focused on individual counties in the US and Canada, surveying actual church/synagogue attendance and comparing it with random surveys they were conducting. They found that actual church attendance was about half the rate indicated by national public opinion polls. Their estimate for US actual church attendance is around 20%.
Dave Olson, director of church planting for the Evangelical Covenant Church, surveying only Christian churches (i.e., evangelical, mainline, and Catholic) has come up with a similar number. The percentage of Americans regularly attending church is 18.7%.
Olson has collected his findings in an eye-opening slide-show entitled Twelve Surprising Facts about the US Church. The 12 points cannot be copied and pasted, so I’ve reprinted them below, along with links to his charts and maps.
- The percentage of people that attend a Christian church each weekend is far below what pollsters report. (US percentage of population in worship on any given weekend in 2000)
- The percentage of people attending a Christian church each weekend decreased significantly from 1990-2000. (US worship attendance in 1990 and 2000 by percentage of population)
- Christian church attendance is between 1 ½ and 2 times higher in the South and the Midwest than it is in the West and the Northeast. (Percentage of population attending a Christian church on any given weekend in 2000)
- Only one state [Hawaii] saw an increase in the percentage attending church from 1990-2000. [California, Connecticut, Georgia, and Washington were close to keeping up with population growth.] (Increase or decline in percentage of population attending a Christian church on any given weekend 1990–2000)
- The percentage that attends church on any given weekend is declining in over two thirds of the counties in the United States. [Among the states with the highest percentages of declining counties were Minnesota, Wisconsin, and South Carolina.] (US counties: Increase or decline in percentage of population attending a Christian church on any given weekend 1990–2000)
- Evangelicals, mainliners, and Catholics are strongest in very different regions of the country. (maps for Evangelicals, mainliners, and Catholics)
- Churches with 50–299 people in attendance are shrinking, while the smallest churches and larger churches are growing. (Decadal growth rate of churches by size category)
- Established churches, from 40–180 years old, on average decline in attendance. (Yearly attendance growth of existing churches by decade started)
- The increase in the number of churches is about one eighth of what is needed to keep up with population growth. (Net increase in number of churches in the US between 1990 and 2000)
- The church-planting rate has been declining throughout the history of our country. (Churches started per 1 million residents)
- Existing churches are plateauing and new church growth provides less than half of the growth necessary to keep up with population growth. (Attendance growth percentage of Protestant churches 1990–2000)
- If the present trends continue, the percentage of the population that attends church in 2050 will be almost half of what it is today. (Projected percentage of population attending church on any given weekend)
Equal Loudness Contours
This quote is from an article in Soundcheck Magazine called How Loud is Too Loud. I am not sure how many techs would agree with Curt Taipale but he does have an interesting take on how to mix sound levels due to the Equal Loudness Contours. In essence he says a mix should be established at 85 dB (average level I assume) and that this mix will then provide an excellent basis for either boosted or reduced master levels. Sorry if this is too technical for some of you to find interesting. (I also liked how he adjusted the EQ on softer ballads to compensate for ELC. Interesting.)
The Equal Loudness Contours reveal the average human hearing sensitivity at frequencies in the human hearing range over various listening volumes. They were determined something like this: The researchers would play a reference tone at, for example, 1 kHz, at a designated sound volume. They would then play a different frequency, adjust the volume and ask the listener to indicate when the new frequency sounded like it was at the same volume as the original frequency. They continued this process through several frequencies to come up with a "contour" of human hearing sensitivity at that one reference sound volume, say at 80 dB SPL. Next they would change to a reference volume of 85 dB, and repeat the process.
They averaged this data over several listeners to come up with their published Equal Loudness Contours. Part of what they discovered is that human hearing is most sensitive to sounds at around 3 kHz. At very soft listening levels, our hearing is least sensitive to very low frequency sounds, and slightly less sensitive to high frequency sounds. This is why there is a "Loudness" switch on your home stereo. You'll notice that when you switch it on, the sound gets a huge boost in the low frequencies, and also gets at little brighter. This is really just a special equalizer circuit tailored to counteract our hearing "deficiencies" at soft listening levels. At very loud listening levels, the contours start to flatten out, so the theory is that you would switch the Loudness circuit off when listening at elevated volumes. I know, I've turned it up loud with the loudness switch still turned on too.
Now, I figure that God didn't really build a deficiency into our hearing. I'm not really sure why it's that way. Maybe someday I will. But I do know that, when I'm trying to mix a "big" song at a soft volume, it helps the authority factor if, for example, I boost the bass guitar a little more than usual. Maybe I'll boost the kick drum slightly, or the low end piano mic. I would not go for the house system equalizer and offset it for this curve. That would cause more grief in other areas than it would help in this. But subtle adjustments to the mix of various instruments, or maybe a slight lift in the low frequency EQ on those channels, can provide a significant improvement to the sound. It won't solve everything. Louder will still sound bigger. But it may be the better compromise. If your sound system includes subwoofers, it can prove even easier to give your music that "authority".
Recording engineers have known about the equal loudness contours for years. Studies show that the average home stereo listening volume is 85 dB SPL. So the smart engineer will try to keep his mixing volume at around that volume. He will check it at very, very soft volumes, and he will turn it up loud and check it there as well. If the producer wants to hear it really loud, the really smart engineer will show the producer where the volume control is and leave the room. If this policy of mixing at 85 dB is followed, when you play it softer it should still sound fine. When it's played really loud, it should sound huge, bigger than life. If, on the other hand, the engineer mixes the songs at loud listening volumes, and then tries to listen to them at a soft volume, the resulting sound will not have the same punch. This isn't because of hearing fatigue. You'll still hear the same lackluster mix tomorrow after your ears have rested. Mixing at loud volumes alters both the EQ decisions as well as mix choices that the engineer makes. Those are based on what he's hearing at the time.
Volume in Worship
Last night at a congregational meeting a concern was voiced in regard to volume in worship services at Parkview. In response to this comment I felt it would be prudent to discuss the issue in a few posts over the next several weeks. One thing for sure, there are a lot of passionate and diverse opinions about what makes a good church sound mix. Usually when the issue is discussed among the average church atttender (i.e. non musician) the comments typically refer to volume. The unknown reality is that getting a pleasing and engaging sound mix is much more complex than simply managing volumes. Sometimes a louder decibel (sound intensity measurement) mix can sound very pleasing and warm. Other times a softer decibel mix can sound too loud and harsh. Though I am not a expert in this arena, I will address a few “less technical” issues that come into play when discussing the general issue of sound reinforcement in a church worship space. If any of you have links to relevant articles or posts from more technically qualified sources, please send them to me and I will consider linking to them.
It is helpful when discussing sound volume to understand how volume or loudness is measured. The term decibel is the scientific measurement for determining the loudness and softness of sound. Below are a few measurements I pulled from the Galen Carol Audio web site (I believe these are dB A scale measurements). You can see the complete list here.
Please check back for additional posts on this topic. Also, if you are leaving a comment, please observe the “comments policy” by keeping your comments respectful of the various opinions represented on this topic.
It is helpful when discussing sound volume to understand how volume or loudness is measured. The term decibel is the scientific measurement for determining the loudness and softness of sound. Below are a few measurements I pulled from the Galen Carol Audio web site (I believe these are dB A scale measurements). You can see the complete list here.
ENVIRONMENTAL NOISEAt Parkview we typically peak at around 90-92 dB (95 dB when we have a horn section). If any of you reading attend other churches, I’d be interested in knowing what is typical for your worship service.
Normal Conversation – 60-70 dB
City Traffic (inside car) – 80 dB
Train Whistle at 500’ – 90 dB
Power Mower – 107 dB
Pain Begins – 125 dB
Jet Engine at 100 feet – 140 dB
Loudest Sound Possible - 194 dB
SOUND LEVELS OF MUSIC
Normal Piano Practice – 60-70 dB
Loud Singer at 3’ – 70 dB
Chamber Music in Small Auditorium – 75-85 dB
Loud Piano – 84-103 dB
Symphonic Music Peak – 120-137 dB
Rock Music Peak – 150 dB
OSHA DAILY PERMISSIBLE STANDARDS
8 hours @ 90 dB
4 hours @ 95 dB
2 hours @ 100 dB
1 hour @ 105 dB
.25 or less hours @ 115 dB
Please check back for additional posts on this topic. Also, if you are leaving a comment, please observe the “comments policy” by keeping your comments respectful of the various opinions represented on this topic.
Monday, March 05, 2007
Contextualizing the Gospel
Recently in my Perspectives course we finished an emphasis focused upon how missionaries are to go about contextualizing the gospel for different cultures. It was an interesting and insightful section that helped me to put a familiar strategy into a different light. Let me explain…
I grew up as a Christian in the wake of the “seeker” movement in the United States. As a young Christian I remembered how the “big new idea” for churches was to become relevant and intentional with reaching the culture around us. As I think back on those days I can’t help but ask with a hint of sarcasm, “why was the concept of relevant ministry considered such a hip new thing?” Our need to contextualize (make relevant) the gospel message is not a new idea! It is a foundational concept in the book of Acts and most clearly stated by Paul in 1 Corinthians 9:22, “I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.” For centuries missionaries from Raymond Lull in the 13th century all the way to Hudson Taylor in the 19th century were doing it. Mission training goes to great length to help missionaries understand how to reach foreign cultures by contextualizing the gospel and doing it in such a way as to avoid syncretism (the improper convergence of Christianity with false belief) and other negative consequences that can come from ineffective contextualization.
So, why was such an old idea hailed as such a “new idea” in the last few decades? I think it is because Christians, if left unchallenged, will always evolve into self-centered, self-sustaining, closed communities that are more concerned with disciple maintenance and Christian fellowship than they are missional expansion; consequently, the “seeker movement” of the 80’s was the “new thing” because the church had allowed itself to become ingrown and ineffective at reaching lost people.
This is a passion of mine for two reasons. One, because any child finishing a Sunday School lesson on the great commission in Matthew 28:19 could tell you that Jesus final exhortation for believers was to GO and share the gospel! The missional purpose of the church is un-debatable and un-deniable; therefore, the cause of seeking and saving the lost must resonate deeply within every true Christian faith community. The second passion (maybe better stated, concern) I have is that today’s evangelical church must pay attention to the postmodern cultural shift that is taking place around us. If we take our eyes for one moment off of our missional calling, we risk not having the necessary fortitude to resist the colonizing and institutionalizing of our faith that often happens within a church where biblical mission is neglected. If we aren’t careful, we will become less and less effective at translating the timeless message of the gospel for new generations and we will once again need a “new and hip” way to do what we’ve been called to do since the beginning of the church age.
I grew up as a Christian in the wake of the “seeker” movement in the United States. As a young Christian I remembered how the “big new idea” for churches was to become relevant and intentional with reaching the culture around us. As I think back on those days I can’t help but ask with a hint of sarcasm, “why was the concept of relevant ministry considered such a hip new thing?” Our need to contextualize (make relevant) the gospel message is not a new idea! It is a foundational concept in the book of Acts and most clearly stated by Paul in 1 Corinthians 9:22, “I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.” For centuries missionaries from Raymond Lull in the 13th century all the way to Hudson Taylor in the 19th century were doing it. Mission training goes to great length to help missionaries understand how to reach foreign cultures by contextualizing the gospel and doing it in such a way as to avoid syncretism (the improper convergence of Christianity with false belief) and other negative consequences that can come from ineffective contextualization.
So, why was such an old idea hailed as such a “new idea” in the last few decades? I think it is because Christians, if left unchallenged, will always evolve into self-centered, self-sustaining, closed communities that are more concerned with disciple maintenance and Christian fellowship than they are missional expansion; consequently, the “seeker movement” of the 80’s was the “new thing” because the church had allowed itself to become ingrown and ineffective at reaching lost people.
This is a passion of mine for two reasons. One, because any child finishing a Sunday School lesson on the great commission in Matthew 28:19 could tell you that Jesus final exhortation for believers was to GO and share the gospel! The missional purpose of the church is un-debatable and un-deniable; therefore, the cause of seeking and saving the lost must resonate deeply within every true Christian faith community. The second passion (maybe better stated, concern) I have is that today’s evangelical church must pay attention to the postmodern cultural shift that is taking place around us. If we take our eyes for one moment off of our missional calling, we risk not having the necessary fortitude to resist the colonizing and institutionalizing of our faith that often happens within a church where biblical mission is neglected. If we aren’t careful, we will become less and less effective at translating the timeless message of the gospel for new generations and we will once again need a “new and hip” way to do what we’ve been called to do since the beginning of the church age.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Why Art Matters to God
Here is a clip from an article by T.M. Moore that first appeared in the June 2003 issue of BreakPoint WorldView magazine. It offers some interesting ideas about the value of art.
- - - -
Anyone who reads the Bible, paying careful attention not only to the words of the text but also the forms of God’s revelation, will be struck by the widespread and varied use of the arts for communicating God’s purposes and will. The Old and New Testaments alike make abundant use of the arts: visual arts (the Tabernacle and Temple and all their decorations, the pillar of memorial stones on the banks of the Jordan); musical arts (psalms and spiritual songs); literary arts (story-telling, poetry, perhaps even drama, all kinds of metaphors and images); and a wide variety of abstract and visionary art forms (the first chapters of Ezekiel and Revelation, for example).
All of which begs the question: Why does God consider art so important that He made such varied use of it for communicating His will to His people?
Many reasons come to mind: art’s ability to appeal to the imagination and engage the affections; its value as an aid to memory; the balance between form and freedom inherent in the arts, suggesting both parameters and liberties for our lives; the experience of delight and pleasure art can provide; the universal appeal of art; and so forth. Far from being a mere frill, art has always played a central role in human society. Their souls are impoverished, as is their experience of life, for whom art has little importance.
But by far the greatest value of the arts to the Christian is their ability to nurture the sense of beauty and, thus, to train our hearts and minds to know, enjoy, and relate better to Him who is the Perfection of Beauty. Modern and postmodern artists have so relativized the concept of beauty that even to discuss its role in the arts is to risk appearing passé or uninformed. But this is a strictly recent phenomenon. The history of art is replete with discussions of beauty and its importance in the arts, and, where Christians have entered those discussions, they have argued for the role of art in nurturing our sense of beauty and helping us to know and worship God, as, for example in this exhortation to poets by John Keble (1792-1866):
Art matters to God, as we see in His holy Word. For that reason alone, but also because of what we learn through the arts about beauty, art must be important for us as well.
- - - -
Anyone who reads the Bible, paying careful attention not only to the words of the text but also the forms of God’s revelation, will be struck by the widespread and varied use of the arts for communicating God’s purposes and will. The Old and New Testaments alike make abundant use of the arts: visual arts (the Tabernacle and Temple and all their decorations, the pillar of memorial stones on the banks of the Jordan); musical arts (psalms and spiritual songs); literary arts (story-telling, poetry, perhaps even drama, all kinds of metaphors and images); and a wide variety of abstract and visionary art forms (the first chapters of Ezekiel and Revelation, for example).
All of which begs the question: Why does God consider art so important that He made such varied use of it for communicating His will to His people?
Many reasons come to mind: art’s ability to appeal to the imagination and engage the affections; its value as an aid to memory; the balance between form and freedom inherent in the arts, suggesting both parameters and liberties for our lives; the experience of delight and pleasure art can provide; the universal appeal of art; and so forth. Far from being a mere frill, art has always played a central role in human society. Their souls are impoverished, as is their experience of life, for whom art has little importance.
But by far the greatest value of the arts to the Christian is their ability to nurture the sense of beauty and, thus, to train our hearts and minds to know, enjoy, and relate better to Him who is the Perfection of Beauty. Modern and postmodern artists have so relativized the concept of beauty that even to discuss its role in the arts is to risk appearing passé or uninformed. But this is a strictly recent phenomenon. The history of art is replete with discussions of beauty and its importance in the arts, and, where Christians have entered those discussions, they have argued for the role of art in nurturing our sense of beauty and helping us to know and worship God, as, for example in this exhortation to poets by John Keble (1792-1866):
Sovereign masters of all hearts!Even that which is ugly in the arts trains us for beauty by creating in our souls a sense of dissonance, loss, or absence, making us long for a resolution of form, theme, and artistic elements into something transcendent, something beautiful. By studying the various forms of art, seeking to discern the beauty in them, we are better able to appreciate and experience the wonder and diversity of God. His revelation in Scripture opens up in new, deeper, and more compelling ways when we can understand the artistry underlying its creation and informing its message. The experience of things beautiful—which God intended for us when He created trees “beautiful to look upon” in the garden (Genesis 2:9)—can shape our hearts and minds in ways more reflective of the purpose and pleasure of God.
Know ye who hath set your parts?
He, who gave you breath to sing,
By whose strength ye sweep the string,
He hath chosen you to lead
His hosannas here below . . .
Art matters to God, as we see in His holy Word. For that reason alone, but also because of what we learn through the arts about beauty, art must be important for us as well.
Monergism Upgrade
John Hendryx the webmaster for the Monergism website recently collaborated with Tim Challies to upgrade the sites structure and look. Here are some comments from Tim on the new site:
The main feature of the redesigned site is a completely new directory system (click the Directory button). It allows visitors to search and sort the links and even to rate them. Information is categorized much better and much more logically than in the past, meaning that it is far easier to find great resources through it. There are also now RSS feeds, email updates, better integration with the Monergismbooks bookstore and so on. The benefits go on and on. And what's more, the new design isn't too hard on the eyes.If you don’t know what this site is all about, you really should check it out. The Monergism site is a tremendous resource for finding articles that give theological perspectives on scores of topics. It’s a great study resource! You can check it out here.
(HT: Challies)
Sunday, February 25, 2007
A Few More Ice Pics
Here's some pics my friend John took of yesterday's ice storm. BTW: Our power came on around 8 am this morning. Unfortunately several are still without power in the area. Hundreds of powerlines went down from the weight of ice and falling tree branches.
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Iowa Ice Storm
Today eastern Iowa was hit by a day long ice storm that is turning to snow and may dump 6-12 inches by the end of the day tomorrow. Power has been out for much of the community since late afternoon. I managed to hook up my internet modem, wireless router, and laptop via my car AC transformer in order to check the weather. Thought I'd take a moment and share our little crisis with the world. My only concern now is that I can get up and in for services in the morning without getting stuck or crashing somewhere! Here's a few pics from my back yard. If you click on them you should be able to see them in a larger format.
Friday, February 23, 2007
Seth Godin on Why Blog?
Here's Seth Godin's thoughts on why YOU should consider having a blog.
What do most people get out of blogging? After all, most blogs are virtually unread by outsiders...The act of writing a blog changes people, especially business people. The first thing it does is change posture. Once you realize that no has HAS to read your blog, that you can't MAKE them read your blog, you approach writing with humility and view readers with gratitude. The second thing it does is force you to be clear. If you write something that's confusing or in shorthand, you fail.
Respectful and clear. That's a lot to get out of something that doesn't take much time.
Of course I don't approach my blog like a business person; however, I have found that blogging has forced me to think more about what I believe and why I believe it. It has also gotten me in the discipline of writing (communicating) more regularly, which is definitely a worthy exercise. Finally, it has made me a lot more attentive to what is going on in the world and Christian community. Even if none of you ever read what I write, these reasons alone would make it worth doing.
Upcoming Series
Here's the poster for the upcoming pre-Easter message series at Parkview (click the image to make it larger).
Movies that Make You Want to Read
The Desiring God blog recently featured this post about Michael Flaherty, the president of Walden Media, the production company for "Amazing Grace," which opens in theaters today. I am thankful for Walden Media's commitment to making good stories into good movies. In this speech Flaherty explains why his company makes the movies they do.
He began by noting the problem:
You are what you read. We are shaped and influenced by the books that we read. They prepare us for more than interesting conversations—they actually prepare us to face real crises that we encounter in life. Few people would dispute this simple statement, so let's ask a simple related question: What are we reading today?
The short answer is: Not much.
How can movies help?
Cultural restoration, Russell Kirk said, begins at home. Certainly the same is true of literacy. And in today's media saturated culture, I dare to say that it may also begin at the movie theater.
Walden Media was started several years ago by myself, Cary Granat, and Phil Anschutz. We wanted to create a company dedicated to recapturing imagination, rekindling curiosity, and demonstrating the rewards of knowledge and virtue. All of our films would be based on great books, great people, and great historical events. They would be made by the best talent in entertainment and they would all be linked to educational materials developed by some of the best talent in education.
And how do they decide what stories to turn into movies?
Rather than turn to the usual parade of agents and Hollywood producers, we launched an unusual campaign that continues to this day. We enrolled in as many educational conferences as we could find. We spoke to tens of thousands of teachers and librarians and asked them what books they most enjoyed teaching and recommending. After seven years, the only thing that seems odd about this strategy is the fact that our company is the only one doing it. After all, who knows stories better than teachers and librarians?
But how does watching a movie translate into wanting to read?
In conjunction with every film, we launch an ambitious educational campaign that places the book at its center. Since starting Walden, we have distributed hundreds of thousands of books, mostly to Title One Schools that are not able to afford them.
Finally, why did Walden Media make "Amazing Grace"?
Today we desperately need more leaders like William Wilberforce and the Kings and Queens of Narnia who will fight to make good laws, keep the peace, save good trees from being cut down, and encourage ordinary people who want to live and let live.
We are all familiar with the problems that good people face, both nationally and globally. In his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” Dr. Martin Luther King wrote that we have two options when faced with such problems. We can act like a thermometer and merely make a record. Or we can act like a thermostat and correct what is wrong.
HT: The Point
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Deconstructing Belief
Parkview friends! You are in for a treat as Josh Malone, the Pastor of Young Adults, and Nate Hobert, the College Pastor, team up on a four week pre-Easter series called Deconstructing Belief. In the series they will be dealing with several "defeaters" for today's culture in regard to the plausibility of Christianity. For those of you not in the Iowa City area, you'll be able to listen to the messages at our website. Here is the entire series:
DECONSTRUCTING BELIEF
Is Christianity Believable…
DECONSTRUCTING BELIEF
Is Christianity Believable…
- In Light of God’s Story? - March 10 & 11
- In A World of Many Faiths? - March 17 & 18
- When My Choice Matter’s Most? - March 24 & 25
- In A World of Evil and Suffering? - March 31 & April 1
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Jesus, That's My King
Here's John P. Kee, Billy Preston and VIP worshiping the Lord like few can. Talk about groove. Thanks for the link John. Make sure you watch it all the way into the B3 solo.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Monday, February 19, 2007
A Parable
Ron Man wrote this little parable about the worship wars that churches have often engaged in regarding various musical styles in worship. Ron illustrates that the real issue doesn’t lie with the style, but with the heart.
- - - -
And He also told this parable to certain ones who trusted in themselves that their worship style was the only acceptable form:
“Four men went up in to the temple to pray, two traditional music directors and two contemporary worship leaders. One of the music directors stood and was praying thus to himself, ‘God, I thank Thee that I am not like many other church musicians: untrained, unrefined, undignified, or even like these contemporary worship leaders. I program only the finest art music; I present only those works truly worthy of Thee.’ “One of the contemporary worship leaders was standing off to the other side, praying like this: ‘O Lord, I thank You that I am not like many other church musicians: stuffy, inhibited, stuck in a rut of boring and irrelevant music of the past. I present only the very latest songs and reach people where they’re at.’
“In another corner the other music director and the other contemporary worship leader were kneeling and praying together. The music director prayed: ‘Lord God, You know how easily the striving for artistic excellence can become idolatrous. When I use my gifts, may I always remember that they come from Your hand, and that You delight in all of the genuine gifts of worship which Your children bring, in all of their variety.’ The worship leader prayed: ‘God, I taught myself how to play the guitar and have not studied music in the academy; but I thank You for Your grace in allowing me to come near in worship, and for the privilege in leading others to Your throne. Thank You for all the different ways that Your people can praise You.’
“I tell you, these last two went away with their offerings of worship received by the Lord, rather than the others; for God is not so much concerned with the style of the musical gifts you bring, as He is with the humility of heart and genuineness of love with which you bring them.”
“The one who eats is not to regard with contempt the one who does not eat, and the one who does not eat is not to judge the one who eats, for God has accepted him.” (Romans 14:3)
- - - -
And He also told this parable to certain ones who trusted in themselves that their worship style was the only acceptable form:
“Four men went up in to the temple to pray, two traditional music directors and two contemporary worship leaders. One of the music directors stood and was praying thus to himself, ‘God, I thank Thee that I am not like many other church musicians: untrained, unrefined, undignified, or even like these contemporary worship leaders. I program only the finest art music; I present only those works truly worthy of Thee.’ “One of the contemporary worship leaders was standing off to the other side, praying like this: ‘O Lord, I thank You that I am not like many other church musicians: stuffy, inhibited, stuck in a rut of boring and irrelevant music of the past. I present only the very latest songs and reach people where they’re at.’
“In another corner the other music director and the other contemporary worship leader were kneeling and praying together. The music director prayed: ‘Lord God, You know how easily the striving for artistic excellence can become idolatrous. When I use my gifts, may I always remember that they come from Your hand, and that You delight in all of the genuine gifts of worship which Your children bring, in all of their variety.’ The worship leader prayed: ‘God, I taught myself how to play the guitar and have not studied music in the academy; but I thank You for Your grace in allowing me to come near in worship, and for the privilege in leading others to Your throne. Thank You for all the different ways that Your people can praise You.’
“I tell you, these last two went away with their offerings of worship received by the Lord, rather than the others; for God is not so much concerned with the style of the musical gifts you bring, as He is with the humility of heart and genuineness of love with which you bring them.”
“The one who eats is not to regard with contempt the one who does not eat, and the one who does not eat is not to judge the one who eats, for God has accepted him.” (Romans 14:3)
Prayer Experience
This evening (Sunday), following my Perpsectives class, I had the opportunity to join the 24-hour prayer experience that started at 8:00 pm in the church atrium. I found the time very meaningful and at the same time quite intriguing. When you enter the room you get a prayer booklet and are asked to remove your shoes. Once in the room you place your name on a prayer wall and then eventually move to a computer monitor where you are lead to meditate on passages from Exodus 33. From there you pray through an “alphabetic” list of names for God and then proceed to another wall where you write the name of God that represents how He is powerfully working in your life at this time. This experience is continued on in prayer stations focusing upon topics like confession, the Psalms, world missions, small group prayer, etc… There is even a crib in the room (as pictured above) where you pray about what it means to be a child of God. All throughout the time Greg Mazunik, our college ministry worship leader, was standing in a corner with his guitar leading those interested in singing prayers of praise, confession, and adoration.
Earlier in this post I described the time as intriguing. I used this word because, while I was orienting myself to the booklet’s directions, praying in various stations, and listening to the sound of praise and worship fill the room all around me, I remembered the prayer meetings I enjoyed as a college student. Though I am only 34 years old, I recall prayer meetings with carefully guided topics, timed themes, and prayers divided into large group, small group, and individual prayer segments. Some non-postmoderns will be tempted to leave this 24-hour prayer experience saying, “I just don’t get it.” I appeal to all of you that, before you rush to any hasty conclusions, you take a moment and look around you at the scores of tomorrow’s leaders crying out to God on behalf of their friends, praying for the gospel to go around the world, confessing their sins, and praising God with all their mind, soul, and strength. My point being that it is too easy for those of us beyond “young and single” to shy away from risky experiences that get us out of our comfort zone and position us to say to the Lord, “fill me, mold me, and use me!” God forbid when I allow myself to join the masses saying, “I prefer the way things used to be!” After all, where does the bible teach that being a Christ follower gives us the right to avoid the uncomfortable position of taking risks for the Lord?
I encourage those of you in the Iowa City area to join those praying in the Atrium at Parkview. I promise, you won’t regret it! The prayer experience will be going until 8:00 pm on Monday. Remember, an awakening within the people of our community, nation, and world depends upon the faithful prayers of the saints!
Friday, February 16, 2007
Olson on Folk Religion
I am going through “The Mosaic of Christian Belief” by Roger Olson with a small group. Last week in our first meeting we reviewed the introduction where Olson introduced the concept of folk religion. Folk religion focuses upon faith experience and rejects that there is necessity within Christians for an understanding of the basic beliefs or doctrines of the Christian faith. A common phrase of the folk religious is “doctrine divides, Jesus unites.” On the other side we have those who spend all their time and energy on developing their beliefs.
Regarding this dichotomy Olson explains that, “on the one hand, some evangelical ministers and teachers emphasize believing as if it were the be-all and the end-all of authentic Christianity. On the other hand, many more emphasize “experiencing God” or “doing what Jesus would do” as the be-all and end-all of authentic Christianity.” (P 20) Olson feels there is a middle ground that is both necessary and healthy for the today’s believing Christian because “folk religion is a poor substitute for historic Christianity” and “intellectual “head knowledge” is an equally poor substitute for personal transformation through a relationship with the triune God.” (P 20)
Olson’s primary agenda is to counter the present decline in awareness of basic Christian beliefs. I do think Olson’s points are very good and worth all of us pondering. Some of you are so busy “knowing God” that you take little time to enjoy a simple and intimate relationship with your Abba Father. Others of you are so focused on “just loving Jesus” that you are actually at risk of embracing an “odd eclecticism” of faith “in which completely incompatible notions are combined in a soup of experiential spirituality.” (P 19)
Regarding this dichotomy Olson explains that, “on the one hand, some evangelical ministers and teachers emphasize believing as if it were the be-all and the end-all of authentic Christianity. On the other hand, many more emphasize “experiencing God” or “doing what Jesus would do” as the be-all and end-all of authentic Christianity.” (P 20) Olson feels there is a middle ground that is both necessary and healthy for the today’s believing Christian because “folk religion is a poor substitute for historic Christianity” and “intellectual “head knowledge” is an equally poor substitute for personal transformation through a relationship with the triune God.” (P 20)
Olson’s primary agenda is to counter the present decline in awareness of basic Christian beliefs. I do think Olson’s points are very good and worth all of us pondering. Some of you are so busy “knowing God” that you take little time to enjoy a simple and intimate relationship with your Abba Father. Others of you are so focused on “just loving Jesus” that you are actually at risk of embracing an “odd eclecticism” of faith “in which completely incompatible notions are combined in a soup of experiential spirituality.” (P 19)
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Amazing Grace Reviewed
I have posted multiple times on this movie, but was so encouraged by this review I read on "Between Two Worlds" that I thought I would pass it on. I really enjoy seeing movies come out with redemptive value and a reasonable level of historic integrity. According to Witherington, this is a good one.
Ben Witherington reviews Amazing Grace. An excerpt:
I will tell you now it is one of the better films of historical interest that I have ever seen--- beautiful cinematography, powerful acting, carefully hewn plot line and scene development-- just right. While superficial comparisons could be made with Steven Spielberg's 'Amistad' of some years ago, this is a far more compelling story as it explains the philosophical and theological roots of the abolitionist movement in England.Here is the official movie website.
. . . "Amazing Grace" is a wonderful, poignant and compelling story of how to live out the social implications of one's faith. It reaches the theaters on Feb. 23rd of this month, the 200th anniversary of the date when the abolition act first passed the vote of Parliament. I would urge every Christian to see this movie, take their families, take their youth groups, take their churches to see it. We need to support this sort of high quality cinema which supports Christian values. I hope we will do so. In doing so we will be serving the One who called us to social justice and ministries of compassion saying "in as much as you have not done it unto the least of these, you have not done it unto me."
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Some Statistics from Malphurs
During our session with Aubrey Malphurs on Sunday and Monday, he shared some discouraging statistics about today’s culture that deserves our attention.
- Churches all across America are struggling. Approximately four out of five are at a plateau or declining.
- The number of people who have any kind of churched experience is declining (churched: meaning have attended a church within 6 months). Gallop said only 40 percent of Americans are churched. Another study said only 20 percent are churched and a more recent study by David Olson said in 2003 only 17.8 percent are churched.
- 72 percent of people born from 1964-1981 are not involved in a Christian community.
- The new upcoming generation is the most widely unchurched demographic in our nations history.
- According to Barna the following is the percentage of people who are churched or have a churched experience:
- Builders – born pre-1946 – 51 percent
- Boomers – born 1946-1964 – 51 percent
- Busters – born 1965-1979 – 34 percent
- Bridgers – born 1977-1994 – 29 percent
- As low as 8 percent of those under the age of 24 attend a church.
- 75-88 percent of students going through youth ministry now, will check out of church during their freshmen year of college.
- The Mormon church has tripled its population since 1965. Then it had 1,789,175 members and now it has 5,113,409.
- More Muslims attend a mosque in England than Anglicans attend a church.
- The Wiccan movement has grown 1,575% in the last decade.
Monday, February 12, 2007
Wiz-evangelism?
In a recent story by ABC news, we read that bars in New York will soon be fighting DWI with talking "motion activated soap-pucks" in all the urinals (Thanks for the link John). Read below...
When guys leave a bar, the bathroom is usually the first place they visit before they go to their cars. And now, when men step up to the urinal at participating pubs, they'll hear this public service announcement as they relieve themselves:So, here's my idea. Why not put these in church bathrooms across the nation. Perhaps they could quote scripture, or feature a sound bite from last weeks message. Better yet, you could use them like evangelism tracts and put them in public restrooms with a gospel challenge being delivered during each use. What do you think?
"Hey, you! Yeah, you! Having a few drinks? Then, listen up! Think you've had one too many? Maybe it's time to call a cab or call a sober friend for a ride home. It's sure safer and a hell of a lot cheaper than a DWI! Make the smart choice tonight. Don't drink and drive!"
Elder & Pastor Retreat
This morning the elders and pastors at Parkview completed a retreat time with Aubrey Malphurs, a church strategist from Dallas Seminary. One of our goals to was evaluate our mission, vision, and strategy as a church. It was a very encouraging time that challenged us and made us realize that we need to re-examine some of the core-values that drive our strategic decision making process.
As I expected, this retreat was not an end, but a beginning. The good news is that we are all unified and excited about what lies ahead. Thanks to all of you who were praying for this retreat. I now ask that you continue to pray as the process moves forward. Pray that the meetings continuing over the next several weeks would be fruitful in moving us forward, and that all our efforts will be lead by the Lord.
As I expected, this retreat was not an end, but a beginning. The good news is that we are all unified and excited about what lies ahead. Thanks to all of you who were praying for this retreat. I now ask that you continue to pray as the process moves forward. Pray that the meetings continuing over the next several weeks would be fruitful in moving us forward, and that all our efforts will be lead by the Lord.
Friday, February 09, 2007
Site Problems
If you are viewing my site via the web (versus an aggregate reader) then you'll notice that over the last few weeks some weird things have been happening to the look and formatting. I believe this is reflective of changes that are taking place or being worked on by blogger. This morning my side bars have disappeared??? I am going to give blogger a few days with the hopes that internal adjustments will fix the problems and then work on resolving it myself. I guess I just wanted you all to know why things have been looking funky on occation over the last few weeks.
Mark Driscoll on Multi-Site Church Strategy
In my continuing series on the multi-site church conference I recently attended, I would like to post a few reflections on Mark Driscoll’s presentation regarding his multi-site approach at Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Washington. Mark started his talk with his usual son of a drywaller, more dogs than people, opening statements (if you’ve heard Driscoll before, you know what I’m talking about). From his opening he progressed through a unique series of questions that were all the same question with added elements. For organizational purposes, I am simply going to give you a few highlights.
The fundamental question he posed was “Will your church have multiple services?” Here are some of his insights to this question… I will add my comments in parenthesis.
- - - -
A PLAN FOR REDUPLICATION
The fundamental question he posed was “Will your church have multiple services?” Here are some of his insights to this question… I will add my comments in parenthesis.
- - - -
A PLAN FOR REDUPLICATION
- The scope of your mission, not the size of the room, will dictate how your church is done. We must maintain the attitude that we are designed to reduplicate ourselves. You MUST have reproduction as part of your DNA.
- Prepare your church for reduplication! For example: When you start a new site, make the service time 10 and then when you split to grow you can do two services at 9 and 11. This will more evenly distribute your people and avoid making one less favorable service time.
- You need to ask questions about establishing different looks, styles, sizes, etc… We are in a culture with a bunch of different tribes (therefore customize). You will need high definition video for larger rooms. It is imperative you have a campus pastor. We call it a “face with a place.”
- At Mars Hill, morning services are rock based. In evenings they have much louder, heavier, music. Style is defined by the room, music, teaching tone, etc…
- Don’t just cater to the grumblers (referring to people who always want things how they like it). Be strategic. In Seattle the large room is strategic for anonymity, so we often try to go with larger rooms for our services. (Note: This contradicts what Larry Osborn said that leaders like it large, but people like it small)
- In your strategy you shouldn’t go only after families. 50 percent of Americans are unmarried singles.
- Driscoll argues against renting schools and theaters for your new sites. He says it is best to get your own building. Mars Hill goes after the dead and dying churches. He calls this facility evangelism. (chuckle) Mark went on to tell several stories about dying churches who simply gave their building to Mars Hill to take over and use.
- Consider converting your best room, best service, best time to video. Mark explained that for margin reasons, they converted their prime service on Sunday mornings to a video service. He said it affected attendance just a bit, but worked great and freed him up to go and preach at a site location that needed a boost.
- Driscoll argues against using multiple preachers at different church site locations. He believes it will feed a church split. Each campus, has a campus pastor and when Driscoll is out of the pulpit for vacation, the campus pastors preaches at their campus. Driscoll said that this could eventually lead that site to become a church plant, which he considers a favorable thing.
- Mark emphasized that each site is a new church, so it must have midweek programming. You need some campus specific staff, but in the same regard you should have departmental staff across all campuses. You need a centralized headquarters. (I believe this means small group management, caring ministries, etc.. is across campuses. They also have a shared elder board for all the church sites).
- There is no limit to where a church can go. Overseeing all of this is very important. Border controlling the theological views and other vision/management details are important. You (the Senior Pastor) can’t sit down with your staff and drive this strategy on your own. You need to get your three most progressive/innovative people in the church together and then sit down and make it happen (meaning develop innovative strategies that advance the mission).
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Dave Ferguson on Multi-Site Churches
I recently attended at a multi-site church conference. I found a session given in part by Dave Ferguson, the Lead Pastor at Community Christian Church in Chicago, Illinois, particularly helpful. During his portion he explained the seven moves they want to see happen before they launch another church site (they now have 8 operating in the Chicago area). These are good principles for adding venues, adding new sites, and planting churches. In my opinion, every church should be doing at least one of these in order to be biblically missional.
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THE SEVEN MOVES
1. A GOD THING
Be observant to where God is at work in the lives of your people and then join him there. If the “God thing” comes first, then that makes the vision compelling. One example of this is if you have a work that is particularly fruitful in a specific region of town (perhaps a free medical clinic, social program, or small group network) then that is where you should consider adding a new site.
2. VISION
Here are three ways to communicate vision to your people…
3. LEADER
Lyle Schaller says there are 2 questions every newcomer asks when attending a church:
4. TEAM
Don’t recreate your main campus team. Start with campus pastor and then add a specialist who can work with both locations (by this Dave means there will be a Campus Pastor specifically focused upon the site and then supporting staff (like a Small Groups Pastor) who would actually oversee small groups for both church locations).
We need spiritual entrepreneurs. We want 100 key volunteers to start a new location. We tell our people starting a new site, you’ve got to either lead or serve. You can’t just take-up a seat.
5. FINANCES
$150-200,000 to start a new location
6. ALIGNMENT
In Dave’s opinion, in the future there will be a lot of churches with 2 sites, a few with 3 sites, and an abundance of churches with 4 or more.
You may be asking the question, “How can multiple-site (and venue) churches stay unified as one church movement?” Here is Dave’s answer:
The Four 1st Are What Unite Your Multiple Sites:
CCC operates with the “Big Idea!” – This big idea guides thier teaching topics, small group focus, etc…
7. UNSTOPPABLE
Good to Great – is a good book. It teaches that Level 5 leaders are other centered and have an unwavering resolve to do whatever needs to be done. There will come a time when you say, maybe we shouldn’t have done this, but the Level 5 leader will press on.
- - - -
THE SEVEN MOVES
1. A GOD THING
Be observant to where God is at work in the lives of your people and then join him there. If the “God thing” comes first, then that makes the vision compelling. One example of this is if you have a work that is particularly fruitful in a specific region of town (perhaps a free medical clinic, social program, or small group network) then that is where you should consider adding a new site.
2. VISION
Here are three ways to communicate vision to your people…
- STORIES: Tell lots of stories about how God is at work
- SLOGANS: Their slogan is “Helping people find their way back to God.” Slogans like this unify and motivate people around a specific vision.
- STUMP SPEECH: When you are preparing to pitch a new site addition to your congregation, train your leaders to present a 2 minutes speech, which explains the vision behind adding this new site. This way all communication is unified and informed.
3. LEADER
Lyle Schaller says there are 2 questions every newcomer asks when attending a church:
- Whose in charge?
- Who can answer my questions?
4. TEAM
Don’t recreate your main campus team. Start with campus pastor and then add a specialist who can work with both locations (by this Dave means there will be a Campus Pastor specifically focused upon the site and then supporting staff (like a Small Groups Pastor) who would actually oversee small groups for both church locations).
We need spiritual entrepreneurs. We want 100 key volunteers to start a new location. We tell our people starting a new site, you’ve got to either lead or serve. You can’t just take-up a seat.
5. FINANCES
$150-200,000 to start a new location
6. ALIGNMENT
In Dave’s opinion, in the future there will be a lot of churches with 2 sites, a few with 3 sites, and an abundance of churches with 4 or more.
You may be asking the question, “How can multiple-site (and venue) churches stay unified as one church movement?” Here is Dave’s answer:
The Four 1st Are What Unite Your Multiple Sites:
- 1 Vision – shared mission, vision, slogan, purpose, DNA, etc..
- 1 Budget – oversee and maintain one church budget
- 1 Eldership – one elder board oversees the entire regional network
- 1 Staff – though there are some dedicated site staff, the teaching is the same (usually video from Senior Pastor), the small group oversight is the same, the worship/arts oversight is the same, etc…
CCC operates with the “Big Idea!” – This big idea guides thier teaching topics, small group focus, etc…
7. UNSTOPPABLE
Good to Great – is a good book. It teaches that Level 5 leaders are other centered and have an unwavering resolve to do whatever needs to be done. There will come a time when you say, maybe we shouldn’t have done this, but the Level 5 leader will press on.
Young Adult Round Table Discussion
Josh Malone at First Theology shares some notes from a round table discussion the young adults had with Pastor Jeff Gilmore and one of our elders last weekend. The goal was to give the young adult community an opportunity to share their thoughts about how things are going at Parkview Church. Here is Josh's post.
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
Larry Osborn on Multi-site Church Strategy
I recently had the opportunity to listen to a presentation from Larry Osborn, the Senior Pastor at North Coast Church in San Diego, California, about the multi-site church strategy. Larry is a very savvy with cultural analysis and church strategy. One of his more interesting cultural observations was regarding the success of the mega-church model over recent decades. He said that the big-box church is reflective of the big-box culture that is illustrated by big-box department stores, home improvement stores, malls, etc…. After making this point, he highlighted a specific example of what makes a big-box business successful.
His illustration involved Home Depot. He explained how he quit going to the neighborhood hardware store because the part he would need was seldom in stock and usually took a week to order. After walking into the Home Depot he was impressed by the fact that they had the part he needed and he could get it immediately. In other words Home Depot offered QUALITY service because he always knew he could find what he needed. The next thing he discovered was that Home Depot not only had the part he needed, but they had numerous brands and colors to choose from. In other words Home Depot offered OPTIONS that allowed him to find a part that could help him to customize according to his needs. Finally, because the Depot first opened when the construction industry was laying off a lot of workers, much of the help were former contractors. They not only could lead him to the part he needed, but they could explain how the part worked and teach him how to install it. This meant there was PERSONALIZATION represented by the helpful, informed, and caring service.
To Osborn this illustrates that culturally effective churches need to have…
Now, before any of you rip into Larry’s insights saying they are overly consumer driven, you need to understand that North Coast is committed to being uncompromised in their message; however, they are also fully committed to contextualizing the gospel in order to engage the culture. So, do you agree churches should have quality, options, and personalization?
His illustration involved Home Depot. He explained how he quit going to the neighborhood hardware store because the part he would need was seldom in stock and usually took a week to order. After walking into the Home Depot he was impressed by the fact that they had the part he needed and he could get it immediately. In other words Home Depot offered QUALITY service because he always knew he could find what he needed. The next thing he discovered was that Home Depot not only had the part he needed, but they had numerous brands and colors to choose from. In other words Home Depot offered OPTIONS that allowed him to find a part that could help him to customize according to his needs. Finally, because the Depot first opened when the construction industry was laying off a lot of workers, much of the help were former contractors. They not only could lead him to the part he needed, but they could explain how the part worked and teach him how to install it. This meant there was PERSONALIZATION represented by the helpful, informed, and caring service.
To Osborn this illustrates that culturally effective churches need to have…
- QUALITY – our services must be excellent in quality
- OPTIONS – we should offer options… this is the advantage of the multi-venue model with multiple styles, times, etc…
- PERSONALIZATION – people need to be personally connected in relationships… this is accomplished through smaller service venues and an aggressive small group strategy
Now, before any of you rip into Larry’s insights saying they are overly consumer driven, you need to understand that North Coast is committed to being uncompromised in their message; however, they are also fully committed to contextualizing the gospel in order to engage the culture. So, do you agree churches should have quality, options, and personalization?
Monday, February 05, 2007
Bradley Family Update
Those of you who've been at Parkview for a while, remember our dear friends Jesse and Lori Bradley (Jesse was formerly our Pastor of College Ministry). This photo was taken today with them and Nevin Suddarth, Parkview's Executive Pastor (please pardon my cell phones inability to take a crisp picture). The Lord is blessing Jesse and Lori's ministry at North Coast Church in San Diego, California and has most recently blessed them with the birth of their son Joel. He is healthy, happy, and looks a lot like his daddy. It's been great catching up with them and reminiscing about the old times at Parkview.
Florida Tornados
This letter is from our denominational head quarters regarding the Florida disaster. There are opportunities to get involved in helping with relief efforts. Read blow...
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In the early morning hours Friday, central Florida was devastated by a series of deadly tornados. The weather service's preliminary report stated that "five long tracked super cell thunderstorms" ripped through the area spawning deadly tornados and winds. One storm tracked for 70 miles. According to news reports, at least 20 people have been killed, and the search for survivors is currently ongoing.
EFCA TouchGlobal, through its crisis response ministry EFCA Crisis Response, is in the beginning stages of organizing a response. EFCA Crisis Response staff has contacted EFCA churches in the area to assess their needs and the damage in their communities. Mark Lewis, EFCA Crisis Response director, spoke with Pastor John Hurling of Faith Community Church in Leesburg, FL, and found that their area was particularly hard hit. Pastor Hurling said the tornados touched down in certain places in wide swath. Their church family is mourning the loss of the wife of an elderly couple who lived in a mobile home park. The winds toppled a tree on their trailer, crushing the bedroom of the mobile home as the couple slept. Pastor Hurling reported that the community is still assessing missing persons and trying to locate those unaccounted.
EFCA Crisis Response has dispatched staff to the area bringing immediate relief supplies and equipment, and is working with several EFCA churches in the region to assess ongoing needs and ministry opportunities. Relief efforts may include hosting teams to help the community clean-up and recover. Please check the TouchGlobal website (http://www.touchglobal.org) in the days ahead for more information regarding relief efforts. If you have immediate questions, contact EFCA Crisis Response Ministry at (985) 893-0218 ext. 321.
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EFCA Update Special Broadcast
February 3, 2007
February 3, 2007
FLORIDA TORNADO CRISIS RESPONSE
In the early morning hours Friday, central Florida was devastated by a series of deadly tornados. The weather service's preliminary report stated that "five long tracked super cell thunderstorms" ripped through the area spawning deadly tornados and winds. One storm tracked for 70 miles. According to news reports, at least 20 people have been killed, and the search for survivors is currently ongoing.
EFCA TouchGlobal, through its crisis response ministry EFCA Crisis Response, is in the beginning stages of organizing a response. EFCA Crisis Response staff has contacted EFCA churches in the area to assess their needs and the damage in their communities. Mark Lewis, EFCA Crisis Response director, spoke with Pastor John Hurling of Faith Community Church in Leesburg, FL, and found that their area was particularly hard hit. Pastor Hurling said the tornados touched down in certain places in wide swath. Their church family is mourning the loss of the wife of an elderly couple who lived in a mobile home park. The winds toppled a tree on their trailer, crushing the bedroom of the mobile home as the couple slept. Pastor Hurling reported that the community is still assessing missing persons and trying to locate those unaccounted.
EFCA Crisis Response has dispatched staff to the area bringing immediate relief supplies and equipment, and is working with several EFCA churches in the region to assess ongoing needs and ministry opportunities. Relief efforts may include hosting teams to help the community clean-up and recover. Please check the TouchGlobal website (http://www.touchglobal.org) in the days ahead for more information regarding relief efforts. If you have immediate questions, contact EFCA Crisis Response Ministry at (985) 893-0218 ext. 321.
Please pray for the church family and those impacted by the storms in Florida, and for the Church to show the love of Christ to those in need.
Also, please consider giving to help those impacted by the storms and the ongoing crisis response needs. To donate online using our secure server, go to:
https://fusion.efca.org/giving/?designation=Crisis%20Response%20Ministry%2021709-3928
You can also call our donor services team at (800) 745-2202 or mail in a donation. To mail in your donation, please make checks out to EFCA and send them to:
EFCA
Attn: Crisis Response Ministry #2021709-3928
901 East 78th Street
Minneapolis, MN 55420-1300
https://fusion.efca.org/giving/?designation=Crisis%20Response%20Ministry%2021709-3928
You can also call our donor services team at (800) 745-2202 or mail in a donation. To mail in your donation, please make checks out to EFCA and send them to:
EFCA
Attn: Crisis Response Ministry #2021709-3928
901 East 78th Street
Minneapolis, MN 55420-1300
Prayer Works
Yesterday I stumbled across my prayer journal from High School (pictured above). In it, I had about sixty names of classmates and acquaintances I was praying for at the time. Next to the name of each person was the word “lost.” When the person I was praying for came to Christ, “lost” was crossed off and the date they came to Christ was written down. It was very encouraging, as I flipped through the pages, to see that six of the sixty names were dated. I wondered briefly about how many more names would now have a date next to them if I could follow-up on each one.
I don’t share this information to brag about my faith because, quite honestly, this high school prayer journal was the most intentional prayer journal I’ve ever maintained. Lately God has used several influences to awaken me to the power of prayer in changing lives. The parable in Luke 18:1-8 illustrates for us how God answers persistent prayer. In it we see a widow persistently crying out to an unrighteous judge for a favorable ruling. The scripture says “for a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice.” (Vs. 4-5) The point being that God desires to work through persistent prayer! If this is the truth, then why don’t we pray as persistently as we talk? David Wells says that we don’t do it because “we don’t believe it will make any difference.” I hate to admit it, but I think Wells is exactly right. It’s embarrassing how my lack of prayer is often grounded in a faithless attitude toward God and His Word.
I don’t post this to give one more example of how you and I are failing at living the “perfect” life. Our motivation to pray should not be driven by guilt. If it is, then we have missed the point. God promises us that He will work through the persistent prayer of His people! This means the God of the universe give us the opportunity to be a key player in helping accomplish His agenda to transform lives through the power of prayer! What a privilege! How exciting! So, why are we not taking advantage of this amazing opportunity advance God’s mission through steadfast prayer? God asks us in verse 7, “will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night?” According to Luke 18, the answer is yes… so lets start praying!
Saturday, February 03, 2007
NFL Bans Super Bowl Parties
This is the new buzz of the blogosphere. Pretty crazy. Come on NFL... you gonna start suing churches??? From "Church Marketing Sucks" below...
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Tomorrow is the Super Bowl, in case you didn't know (I had to look it to be sure, so don't feel bad), and amid all the stories about commercials and the halftime show and, oh yeah, the game itself, is a little story about the National Football League shutting down local church Super Bowl parties (best headline? "Wrath of NFL Smites Parties at Churches").
It seems churches are running afoul of the NFL's broadcast copyrights, including the following limitations:
- No unauthorized use of the copyrighted terms (i.e., "Super Bowl") in promotions.
- No charging admission to watch the Super Bowl™.
- No public showings of the big game on TVs larger than 55 inches.
An exception is made for sports bars and other places that regularly show sporting events.
So what's a church to do?
(HT: Vitamin Z, Church Marketing Sucks)
Friday, February 02, 2007
Satan’s Reign on Earth
We all grew up with a certain perspective regarding the battle between good and evil. As children we played “cops and robbers” or watched movies like “Star Wars.” As adults we think in terms of athletic competitions or the hit television series “24.” We love to see the good guys win especially when the battle is between two evenly matched opponents or, better yet, when the victory is an upset against seemingly impossible odds. My question is how does this perception of “a good fight” calculate in the spiritual realm? Are God and Satan on an even playing field? Open theists like Gregory Boyd believe this to be true and, quite honestly, there are some bible passages that appear to confirm this perspective.
As I’ve posted earlier, I am presently in the Perspectives course here at Parkview. It is an outstanding course that I believe ever Christian should take. Last weekend in one of the lectures a “perspective” was shared regarding Gregory Boyd’s book “God At War.” After hearing this talk, which incorporated several quotes from Boyd’s book, I was troubled by the proposition that Satan’s reign on earth means he has, “all “authority” and “glory” of “all the kingdoms of the world”… because it all belongs to him.” (Boyd P. 80, Perspectives Reader) Is this really the intended assertion of Luke 4:5-6? If one only looks at a few bible passages regarding Satan’s influence it would be easy to accept Boyd’s opinion, however, if we really examine the scriptures we find scores of passages that give us an entirely different view on the authority of Satan’s reign on earth.
This is a link to a book review by D.A. Carson regarding Boyd’s book “God at War.” It is lengthy and academic, but if you skip to page 8, you will get his basic evaluation of the book. Here also is a link from a talk given by John Piper at the 2004 Desiring God conference regarding the “Ten Aspects of God’s Sovereignty Over Suffering and Satan’s Hand in It.” Both are good reads that responsibly unpack a proper view of Satan’s limited power on earth.
(Thanks for the Carson link Justin!)
As I’ve posted earlier, I am presently in the Perspectives course here at Parkview. It is an outstanding course that I believe ever Christian should take. Last weekend in one of the lectures a “perspective” was shared regarding Gregory Boyd’s book “God At War.” After hearing this talk, which incorporated several quotes from Boyd’s book, I was troubled by the proposition that Satan’s reign on earth means he has, “all “authority” and “glory” of “all the kingdoms of the world”… because it all belongs to him.” (Boyd P. 80, Perspectives Reader) Is this really the intended assertion of Luke 4:5-6? If one only looks at a few bible passages regarding Satan’s influence it would be easy to accept Boyd’s opinion, however, if we really examine the scriptures we find scores of passages that give us an entirely different view on the authority of Satan’s reign on earth.
Job 1:12 - And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand.” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.Certainly an empowered view of Satan creates a sense of urgency within the apathetic believer, but we must not forget that empowering Satan also demotes God and violates an accurate biblical picture of who He is.
Job 2:6 - And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, he is in your hand; only spare his life.”
Jude 1:6 - And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day.
James 4:7 - Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Isaiah 46:9-10 - Remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose.
Daniel 4:17 - The Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will.
Psalm 33:10-11 - The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; he frustrates the plans of the peoples. The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations.
This is a link to a book review by D.A. Carson regarding Boyd’s book “God at War.” It is lengthy and academic, but if you skip to page 8, you will get his basic evaluation of the book. Here also is a link from a talk given by John Piper at the 2004 Desiring God conference regarding the “Ten Aspects of God’s Sovereignty Over Suffering and Satan’s Hand in It.” Both are good reads that responsibly unpack a proper view of Satan’s limited power on earth.
(Thanks for the Carson link Justin!)
Thursday, February 01, 2007
Carlson in Press Citizen
Those of you who receive the Press Citizen have likely already seen the large spread on John Carlson, our Instrumental Music Director. The article features him as a finalist for IndieHeaven's "Best Christian Jazz Artist" category. To read the entire article go here. Way to go John!
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