Church Music by DC*B, my review

After releasing a more simple yet power album (Remedy), The David Crowder*Band has gone back to reinventing their sound and the sound of church music. The album has 17 tracks and you would be hard-pressed to find one that should be cut. The album is meant to be played straight through in one listen and my recommended listening, no seriously if you can sit down and listen to the whole album at once and in order, especially for your first listen. The songs flow one into another for 72,3 minutes of pure rock, dance, and worship. The album opens with Phos Hilaron an ancient Christian hymn dating to the fourth century. The music progresses from there picking up more and more of a dance beat until the two covers, All Around Me (by Flyleaf) and How He Loves (by Mark McMilan) slow the pace (a needed break), however the album picks right back up until the dance beat comes front in center on Church Music - Dance [!]. The album then moves back towards the rock/eletronic style you may be use to from the DC*B. Songs to pay particular attention to: Eastern Hymn; The Veil; Shadows; Oh, Happiness; Phos Hilaron; How He Loves. 5 out of 5, currently fighting A Collision for my favorite DC*B album. Please add your thoughts in the comments section.

Self Righteousness Part Four: Tolerance

Tolerance, or more, lack of tolerance. Again this idea deals with attitude but I feel it needs to be singled out. We tend to be offended when people are not tolerate of our beliefs but when was the last time we were happy about others’ beliefs being tolerated, Muslims for example. Tolerance is a two way street if you want your views tolerated then you must tolerate everyone else’s. This is a tricky idea though because we have to be tolerant without necessarily equating it with support. This has been completely muddied in recent times. Today people seem to make tolerance equal to support. If you do not support this cause then you are not tolerant. This should not be the case. Would it be wrong for me (completely for example and discussion sake) for me to tolerate the homosexual movement? This has been a struggle for me to understand what my role should be. I am against their cause but does this mean I should protest their rallies? I think that I am called to voice my disapproval but not to protest their rallies because I need to love them as Christ loves me.

Self Righteousness Part Three: Hatred

Hatred, when attitude gets out of control this is the next step. I believe this actually does not effect us all, at least not consistently. However I am afraid many of us sit on the border of the line. Ask yourself what is your honest feeling about people who are homosexual or believe abortion is a viable option. Does your attitude bleed into hatred for them? It is okay hate the action or behavior but you still need to love the person. I see an unfortunate trend more and more towards hating the person and not the sin. Just look at the political situation in America now. Anything the opposite party of yours does is completely wrong and should be voice out in the most outrageous way possible. Why, why is this our attitude, an attitude of hate? Does this do us any good, does this bring about change? No, this brings disharmony and friction. We as Christians need to avoid this at all cost, for we a reconciled to God and through this we are to reconcile the world to God as He is reconciling Himself to the world. If we are hating our neighbor how are they, we, to be reconciled to each other? God?

Self Righteousness Part Two: Attitude

Attitude is not much different from pride. However you can have an attitude without being prideful (I think). You can believe you are better than someone and still have a low self esteem about yourself. Also attitude more than pride effects your treatment of others. You can be proud you are better than someone but still care to see them improve, however I do not find this to be the case most times. How many of us get just as angry or are just as impatient as everyone else. This is an attitude problem not a pride problem though both can be linked at times. Fairness may come in here a little bit. I am being treated unfairly by such and such so I am going to yell at such and such, or complain loudly in line, etc. This is an attitude problem, and as far as I know most of us suffer from this disease. It is our responsibility to be Christ to the world including attitude. If we have a bad attitude or we change our attitude back and forth what is this saying about Christ to the world. We are not our own but God’s and our attitude is not helping us live as a witness for God. We need to be more empathetic than the world, just as Christ was, which means an attitude change for us.

Sorry for this being so late.

Self Righteousness Part One: Pride

Self righteousness is a problem most if not all Christian struggle with, I would be lying if I said I did not. I believe self righteousness takes many forms, a few we are familiar with and others fail to see or we do not see the whole side of it. This week I will attempt to examine pride.

Pride, many of us have our pride. Proud that I am a Christian, proud that I will go to Heaven, proud that I am better than my neighbor who does not go to church. The list can go on and on. You may say I do not think this way, I ask you to take one minute to reevaluate, search your sub-conscience and then honestly ask if these ideas are not present. Still do not think you apply then you are on the right track in your relationship with God or really good at lying to yourself (I would examine the latter idea more fully before you believe the former.) Does pride lie within in our thinking of ourselves only or how we also think of others. For example, saying I am proud of..., does that differ from self pride? I lean toward is does not. How do we fix this? I think the answer lies in what Paul tells us, boast in Christ only. But what does this mean for us? Should we do away with our awards and honors? I honestly do not know. Is recognition of a person for some accomplishment a form of pride? I think these are many questions we need to explore. I do not pretend to have an answer. I am leaning toward thinking any type of recognition is a form of pride for the rewarded and rewarder. I do not know what this means for me and for all Christians. Please comment with thoughts on this. What is pride to you? How do you fight against it? Any other insights or questions you have.

America and Christians Part Five: Schools

Disclaimer: This are only my opinions, presented to generate discussion on the issue. It is completely fine if you disagree. I respect the fact you may have another opinion and ask you respect mine. Comment on any part of this, whether you agree or disagree. Again this is presented to generate discussion.

[Note: I am not currently a parent, this is based strictly on observation.] There seems to me to be a growing trend for Christian parents to move their children into private Christian schools. I do not think this to be a good move especially if the reasoning is: There are just no Christians in that school. We as Christians should be having our children exposed to and experience what the modern culture of today is. I think parents are shedding off their responsibilities to teach their children their Christian belief systems to schools (and the church, only). It is the parents responsibility to teach their children their value system, school and churches are only helplines not the main source. I realize we live in a more busy world and time seems to be tighter than ever before. Isn’t this all the more reason to be spending time with our children? I realize schools are tough today and many negative influences are present (as I was there not too many years ago and still remember the goings on). This is all the more reason for Christian children to be in the schools. Where else are these lost children going to hear and see other children acting in a Godly way? Also once grown these are the same people your children are going to be working and interacting with, how are they are going to do so effectively if they are not accustomed to the culture. While school sponsored prayer is illegal (as it should be) private gatherings for prayer are still technically allowed. I think the best thing is to find what other children attend the same school as your child that also attend your church or a similar church and have them form a club/prayer group. This will do two things, as your children are witnesses in school (as they should be taught to be) they can invite others to the group and they will have a support system in place when times are tough which they will be. Remember Jesus went to the people not to the side of them. (Two further notes, I have the same opinion of private schools in general [exclusion from general society = lack of ability to interact with society in general] and when I do have children [assuming I do] this prayerfully will be my attitude.)

America and Christians Part Four: The Bible

Disclaimer: This are only my opinions, presented to generate discussion on the issue. It is completely fine if you disagree. I respect the fact you may have another opinion and ask you respect mine. Comment on any part of this, whether you agree or disagree. Again this is presented to generate discussion.

This is probably my most controversial part of this series. This issue (among a few others) has split the SBC and is at times a hotly debated subject. I will attempt to leave most of that argument behind if at all possible and deal with the Bible in the state we currently have it. The unfortunate thing I see with the Bible in some circles is its treatment. Some people currently treat the Bible as if it is a god, whether they mean to or not. I believe this to be a very unhealthy view. Lets be honest with ourselves and everyone else. The version of the Bible we currently have is not perfect. Despite what you believe the original copies of each book to have been we do not have them or any copy that comes close to being a full copy. This is my biggest argument against calling the Bible inerrant, maybe it would have been if we had the originals, but we do not and we do not know exactly what they said. However, we several thousand copies from later dates that generally agree with one another. This is the information we should be promoting, we have more copies of the Bible from antiquity than we do of any other historical work. This fact alone should be proof enough for us. Debating over what the nature of the originals were only confuses our congregations. What comes out in the pew is that the English version in front of the congregant is an inerrant copy of the Bible. This is not the case and by throwing these terms around we are doing more damage than good. If the congregant believes his Bible in hand is inerrant then when presented with factual information to the contrary, what do you think happens to that person. I know of two scenarios that are likely, he boldly defends the Bible making him look the fool to others or he accepts the information and loses faith. Does it matter in the long run if the originals were inerrant, I do not think so. I do I believe the Bible to represent a divine communication, yes. Now you ask how do those two work together. Simple I believe the Bible to be a book about God’s relationship to man and vice versa. Godly men wrote their experiences of God and his relationship. These men are not perfect and their words not perfect either, however the message that radiates throughout the entire Bible is one of seeking a relationship with God (through Christ Jesus). Are there mistakes in the Bible, currently, yes, originally, who knows. Does it matter much, only if you are elevating the Bible to god status, in my opinion. Does my opinion matter much, probably not, does my view of the Bible as a purely relationship book between God and man and vice versa, I believe so. While many will quote 2 Timothy 3:16, “All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching...” however this only states it is inspired by God, man still wrote it. To me it is large leap to claim definitively that this proves the original copies to be perfect, does necessarily make it impossible, no, but neither does it prove it. We should quit worrying about the originals and deal with the version we do have, a truthful book that teaches how to have a relationship with the One True God. Does this view perfect everything, no. Does this view fight against scholarly criticism, yes. To me in our day and age scholarly criticism is a major danger facing Christians. It takes only one person to start pointing out problems in the Bible, it takes a large group to defend against these.

Next week is the current last part, Schools