Thanksgiving Thoughts

As I noted in my last post, it's been a busy fall. Keeping up this blog has been one of the things that I've let fall to the wayside. But this, the first day of December, is the day of my return. I'm sure dozens of you will rejoice. 

In all seriousness, I thought I'd share an article I wrote for our local paper. It was our church's turn in their rotation to have a feature on the backpage. 

I knew this would run the week of Thanksgiving, so I offered this to them - and now to you. Some Thanksgiving Thoughts:

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Before we start decking the halls, stringing up lights, and putting Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas is You” on repeat, can we take some time to fully celebrate the current holiday?

While Thanksgiving may get overshadowed from the annual “Christmas Creep”, I’ll try to do my part with these reflections and share some of the things I am grateful for this year.

Let’s start at home. I am deeply thankful for my family. I am grateful for my wonderful wife who works as a counselor part-time, lives as a mom full-time, and has chosen to be a partner with me in our life’s journey. I am thankful for our two boys, nearly 4 and 6 respectively. They bring so much adventure, chaos, and fun into daily life. Parenting them is so exhausting but so rewarding.

I’m very grateful to serve as pastor at our church. We are a congregation that takes our calling seriously to impact our community. We are not necessary a real “young” group of people but God has blessed us with enough energy and vision to do what Christ wants us to do and be who he wants us to be.

I am especially thankful for the Milford community. And it is not just because of Harry’s Pork Tenderloin which is the best I’ve ever tasted. No, there’s more to it. We are a friendly town that is generally comprised of people who genuinely care about each other. I appreciate how local businesses and organizations partner together to organize community events and foster a caring spirit among our people. I don’t take it for granted either that two other churches (First Christian, Wawasee Bible) have consistently joined our weekly Prayer Tent endeavor. If you can use some encouragement, stop by on Thursday afternoons where we’re stationed next to the Housing Authority building.

Lastly, I need to mention just how grateful I am for God’s provision. As I take stock of 2023, I realize just how faithful he is. And not just generally. In our family, we had several significant unexpected medical bills – and God’s provided. The more I walk this Christian path, the more I see God showing up when I need him. He has done that ultimately with His Son Jesus – the greatest gift we could ever receive. But there I go, creeping into the Christmas season myself.

Hopefully these reflections can help you embrace this Thanksgiving for all it’s worth.

Wednesday Worship

As I wrote last week, there comes a point where I feel myself being drained by all the Christmas stuff that is going on. Certain Christmas things can be reenergizing though. Near the top of the list is the music. But not all Christmas music. I find a few specific selections tend to refuel my tank. 

Today's sample is a classic Christmas hymn that can send chills down your spine if a great vocalist is singing it (David Phelps and CeCe Winans are to recent examples). And yet the heart of this song is worship. Even more specifically, it's a call for people to worship together - corporate worship.

The best version to capture all of that is one I know I've featured here before. Chris Tomlin, from his Christmas album of ten years ago - "Glory in the Highest":

Thursday Thoughts

We are in the throes of the Christmas season it would seem. 

With all of the extra programs and specials and events that churches tend to have around Advent, it can be a tiresome stretch for pastors. My church doesn't have too many extra things going on typically. But even just adding in family plans can pile stress on top of stress.

Pretty much every year there comes a point where I feel myself being drained by it all. Certain Christmas things can be reenergizing though. Near the top of the list is the music. But not all Christmas music. I find a few specific selections tend to refuel my tank. I'll probably feature several over the next week and a half, but here's one I've always enjoyed, Breath of Heaven by Amy Grant. It's a beautiful, simple song entreating the Lord for his grace and presence.

Music Mondays: DOWN WITH THESE CHRISTMAS HYMNS!

Last week, I shared some secular Christmas songs I can't help but like. 

This week, I'm going the opposite direction. Here are a few classic Christian Christmas hymns that I do not at all enjoy. I will say this at the outset, there are plenty of renditions I don't like of songs I actually enjoy. Christmas hymns seem to uniquely appeal to artists' desire to show off (cough, Pentatonix, cough). 

Please, by all means sing "O Holy Night" but I want to walk away from your performance worshiping the Lord rather than impressed by how great a voice you have. 

Anyway, this list is not about those kinds of songs. This list is comprised of Christmas hymns I consider inadequate that are probably considered classics by most.

3. "Mary Did You Know?" - Mark Lowry

First of all, it is kind of incredible that Lowry, who made his name by being a Christian version of Weird Al Yankovich, penned this song. My issue with this song is that it fails a basic theological review. I'll give Lowry benefit of the doubt, he seems to have written this out of a sense of wonder and curiosity about the Christmas story. Yet reading the early chapters of Luke, it is clear Mary could emphatically answer "yes" to a number of the questions he poses in the song. I remember preaching on this subject a few years ago, and after close study, my conclusion was Mary didn't know everything about how Jesus' life and mission would play out. But she knew plenty. 

2. "The Christmas Shoes" - NewSong

I liken this song to the movie, Schindler's List. Both are meaningful pieces of art. Both tell important stories. But I only needed to watch Schindler's List once and I was good. You listen to this song the first time, you let your heart feel things and you can move on. Since radio and movies are different mediums, you don't always have a choice about listening to this song. It's a morbid song that has been widely criticized for what it seems to imply and for the way it uses Christmas to make us sad. Shouldn't Christmas be about the joy of the birth of our Savior?

And no, I have exactly zero desire to watch the movie based on the song. I'd rather watch Schindler's List again.

1. "The Little Drummer Boy" - every artist known to man (orig. Katherine Davis)

If I were to believe the best about this song, as I did with Lowry above, I can see that this song tries to express humility and service to Jesus. But how often has that gotten lost within the many many covers of the song since it was written in 1941? And what to do we remember when we think of this song, the "pa-rum-pa-pa-pums", right? 

Even good versions like the one above can't quite do it for me. Btw, what's up with that video? Did the birth of Christ happen during the American Revolution? Did they go through a time-portal that I completely missed? 

Maybe I'm just channeling my inner Scrooge with this and these other songs. But they always pull me away from truly "getting in the Christmas spirit."

Music Mondays: DOWN WITH SECULAR CHRISTMAS SONGS...EXCEPT THESE ONES

I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts - the Various and Sundry Pod from Dec. 1 to be specific - and Doc Harmon said something towards the end that really resonated with me, two things actually.

First, he described how he insisted on not allowing Christmas music to be played in his home until after Thanksgiving. I am all for this rule! We don't play much music in our house to be honest. But if I'm in the car and a station starts playing Christmas music before I've eaten my turkey and stuffing, the channel is getting changed for sure.

Second, he expressed his overall disdain for secular Christmas songs that have no connection to the birth of Jesus. I can get behind this too. Most of the time. It got me thinking how there are a few exceptions to this rule in my mind. 

So here's a Music Monday feature on three songs I can't help but like despite having no spiritual Christmas message.

3. "Rockin Around the Christmas Tree" - Brenda Lee

This Oldie Classic was recorded when Lee was only 13 years old (!) and didn't become a hit until she later became a pop star later on. Why do I like this particular song? Maybe it's the lyrical focus on the family and friends time we spend during the holiday. I think it's always stuck with me though because of it's inclusion in the original Home Alone movie. 

2. Underneath the Tree - Kelly Clarkson

My wife owns this album and a few years ago I stumbled upon this song - probably on a trip to her parents for Christmas. This peppy tune reminds me of my number one song (below). Between her vocals and the catchy beat, it just sticks in your head in a sort of happy, good way.

1. "All I Want For Christmas Is You" - Mariah Carey

Try as you might, I don't think you can hate this song. It's just too good. Too catchy, too sappy, too fun, too happy. Did you know last year, it hit #1 on Billboard, 25 years after it's release? Widely recognized as the best selling Christmas single of modern times, I for one can't not like it. 

Music Mondays

Our worship team led us in a song yesterday that made me go "oh, that's a Christmas song? That's a Christmas song."

It's one of those I've heard, but never really listened to or connected it to Christmas. 

If you don't believe me, try the lyric video.

We are unpacking Isaiah's prophecy of a coming King in 9:6-7 in our Advent sermon series, so even though it surprised me a bit, this song was very fitting. Jesus embodied each of Isaiah's royal titles in a unique way and he certainly continues to embody the king who reigns and will reign forevermore.

Music Mondays - Best Covers Ever #Christmas

We'll keep our feature of Best Covers Ever going for a few more weeks. 
Today, we'll feature some classic covers of Christmas songs - three in fact by three different artists.

We certainly could include choirs and larger ensembles, but I landed on three individual artists whose renditions of familiar carols stick out to me.

First up, Chris Tomlin and "O Holy Night".

I featured this over 5 years ago and everything I thought then still stands. This song has been done excellently by some great performers, but I absolutely LOVE how his rendition invites us to sing it as a song of praise, which is what it is.

Next, I'm going to break the rule I established for the song above. Beyonce's version of "Silent Night" is a performance. But it is a great one at that as she gives us a glimpse of her black-church-gospel-music roots with this version:

Finally, let's jump from "Queen B" to the CCM queen and queen of Christian Christmas music, Amy Grant. This version of "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" is a bit of a compromise between Tomlin's contemporary corporate worship and Beyonce's solo performance. A great version with enough newness to keep you from switching to auto-pilot while listening or singing along.

Music Mondays - Manufacturing Controversy Over a Terrible Thing Called "Joy"

"Joy to the World" is a song full of bad theology!!! 

Or so I was told.

I will admit, this one is a bit of a stretch and may only pertain to my experience. I grew up in a conservative non-denominational Christian church that embraced Dispensationalism. Specifically the idea that Christ wouBut it wasn't at church where I was warned about this popular Christian hymn. It was actually in college.

I went to a small Christian college (and seminary) that similarly held to Dispensationalism. And while there have been many developments in this particular theological system, there were enough "old-school" traditionalists still around in the early 2000's who more than once criticized this song.

The charges against were that Isaac Watts was an a-millenialist, or was it post-millenialist? I honestly don't remember. But you could read the lyrics and discover his erroneous theology in this beloved Christmas hymn. See one strong tenant of Dispensatoinalism is the premillenialism understanding that Christ will reign on earth for (a literal?) 1000 years before God establishes the final new heavens and new earth of Revelation 21-22. And any suggestion that the world would get better and better until Christ returned, or that he's reigning as King now - well that was close to heresy.

You can google those alternative millennial views and the various debates around them. What you will discover is that there are a lot of differing viewpoints each claiming significant biblical evidence for their view. And as a Progressive Dispensationalist, I see those old anti-Joy arguments to be needlessly nitpicky.

I see this song as anticipating Christ's second coming and describing the glory of His Kingdom as the Scripture that inspired it - Psalm 98 - does. The one thing about it is, somehow we've married it to the Christmas season when it is clearly pointing to the end times.

Again, maybe it's just me, but I've come to resolve this manufactured controversy for myself.

Music Monday - Merry Christmas!!!

I had a plan to offer up a video of our Christmas Eve morning service for this week's post.

I set it up to record on Facebook Live and thought it was all working out. But upon closer inspection afterwards, the video got messed up. I suspect that because it was on some sound equipment, it turned into a version of a messed-up-old-school Nintendo game. Oh well. Here are some pics of the action.

But what to do about a post? 

Skip it altogether? Find something else?

I found something else, thanks to my friends Dustin and Jamie White.

I don't think I can post the video, so you'll just have to check out the link. #technical issues

But what a fun little diddy - a little Elvis Costello + Isaac Watts.

Merry Christmas everyone!

"Has the pastor lost his mind?" - a sermon snippet

No Music Monday this week. Though if you want to scratch that itch and more, check out this article on U2. I'm a casual but ardent U2 fan and it was a lot of fun going through their catalog.

I did want to share another fun thing I'm indulging in, narrative sermons for our Christmas series. Thanks to my friend and author Amy Green, I have some really good scripts to 'act out' instead of preach this holiday season. 

I first learned of narrative sermons in seminary, but I had seen a few from my mentor, Pastor Ralph Porter, when he was at my home church during my college and seminary days. 

In our seminary preaching classes, they required us to preach one. The hardest part for me was the 'script'. Writing from the point of view of a character didn't come naturally to me. So last year, when I read through Amy's blog, I knew I had the basic content I needed to actually preach one well. 

So, on top of the excellent material I was beginning with, I added a few rhetorical nuggets, found some pretty good costumes in our church storage, and warned our people ahead of time that these Christmas sermons were about to get weird. 

Don't be fooled by these pictures, there were plenty of people in attendance. Few of our folks want to sit right up front is all. I will probably add some more later. And next week, I might even have some video and you can judge for yourself how good of an actor I am. For now, you can listen to our audio recording, and imagine me prancing around the front wearing some very interesting garb.

Music Mondays - Christmas Edition

This week's featured song is one I hesitated to pick at first.

Why? Well, while I knew it as a beautiful song, I didn't think it focused on the real Christmas story. 

Then I listened more carefully only to discover that the birth of Immanuel is in reality at the center of the song.

I grew up listening to a lot of Michael W. Smith's catalog. And this is when he's at his best. Arranging a gorgeous musical score and deftly adding in background vocals of choirs to add flourishes that make your hairs stand up on end.

I used to work with a classically trained musician/worship leader who once told me that Smith's scores hold up against anyone as far as their musical beauty and genius. This is one of those songs that makes me believe him. A great Christmas anthem extolling the warmth of the holiday but ultimately calling us to worship.

I like it so much, I'm adding a bonus video of a live performance:

 

Music Monday - Christmas Edition

Third Day is a band I grew up with as a teenager. I loved them, then just liked them, then got tired of them as contemporary Christian radio played them ad nauseum.

I really like this version of "What Child is This?" though. Mac Powell's powerful voice is tempered just enough to gently confront us with the convicting message of the song.

I have come to love this song because it doesn't keep Jesus in the manger. It speaks to the supernatural reality of this birth and the awe-inspiring plan of God that would unfold with this child. The complete version of the song points us to Calvary and the reason why Jesus became flesh in the first place.

Hail, Hail the Word made flesh
the Babe, the Son of Mary.

Music Mondays - Christmas Edition

"Joy to the World" is one of the most popular Christmas songs of all-time. I don't have any metrics or surveys to back that statement up, but I feel pretty same in making that point. 

Some in my particular camp of conservative evangelicalism have objected to it's theology, it's implicit theology. They disagreed with the theological point of view of the author and claimed that it's lyrics were not a true reflection of God's (dispensational) plan. I've always found those arguments wanting and I've become more and more perturbed that those leaders and scholars were nit-picking a beautiful song that extent. I'm all for good theology, but why make a mountain out of a mole-hill and why over-analyze poetry? They weren't the only ones or the first ones to do so as it turns out.

Anyway, I've fell in love with this song again, specifically to this particular modern version by Chris Tomlin:

It's all about JOY. The JOY that Christ's birth, life, death, resurrection, and rule bring. JOY! 

Bonus - here's the version you can hear on the radio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX8xxQX4-7I.

Music Mondays - Christmas Edition

I hate the "Christmas Creep" where stores and businesses begin hawking their Christmas products before the leaves have hit the ground.  I have a personal rule that I won't listen to Christmas music until after Thanksgiving. 

And while the calendar still says "November", we have made it through Thanksgiving and now I will allow myself to get in the holiday spirit. As part of this, I'll do my best to weekly feature some Christmas songs on Music Mondays. I'm not sure that there will be a theme, but these will be selections that just kind of speak to me. 

Today's feature is "Light of the World" by Lauren Daigle. 

It's a great worship offering honoring Christ and (in the Christmas tradition) inviting him to "O Come Emmanuel".

 

Music Mondays: Christmas Musical Edition

Our Kid's Choir performing their opening number last night.

Normally we don't have services on Sunday nights. But last night we made our annual exception. 

For several months, our Kid's Choir and Adult Helpers have been preparing diligently to put on their "Wrapping All the Way" Christmas musical. It was a program filled with creative songs that help share the true reason we celebrate this holiday.

There was a lot of plot drama, fun choreography, enthusiastic singing, 'rapping', puppetry, unplanned surprises, and even a couple of small confetti cannons that helped the play end with a literal 'bang'.

We capped the night off with a Christmas dessert in our gym featuring many delicious cookies and salty snacks. Our minds were filled with catchy songs and our bellies filled with tasty treats. All in all in was a great night.

You can Youtube "Wrapping All the Way musical" and find different interpretations of the same play. But for this video, I thought I would simply share a sampler of the songs that I found online.  I will warn you though, the songs got stuck in my head to the point that I found myself humming along twice this morning to two different selections.

 

Music Mondays

We tackled Isaiah 7 yesterday as continued to look at the clues or 'whispers of love' that God gave his people in the Old Testament about their coming Messiah. 

Isaiah 7 is one of the most scrutinized passages in all of Scripture, especially given it's 'fulfillment' in Matthew 1:18-25.

- Who is the virgin?
- Who was this child?
- Is it exclusively predicting Jesus' birth?  
- What bearing did it have on the original recipients, especially King Ahaz?

I'm not sure I handled it perfectly, but I am confident our people walked away with a better understanding of the original context and it's relevance to the Christmas story. Beyond that, I am also hopeful that they were able to wrap their arms around the important truth that God is with us. 

"Immanuel" was the name that predicted child was to be given. It literally means 'God with us' and I believe it had a symbolic meaning to the original context of Isaiah 7. But I also believe it was pointing ahead to that glorious day when "God became flesh and dwelt among us."

God being with us makes all the difference. When national and global chaos meet the reality that God is with us, we are given a sure hope of all things being worked out in God's plan. When personal troubles are confronted by God with us, we are given comfort and strength to persevere. When spiritual struggles collide with God with us, we are given a clean slate as well as the power of the Spirit to overcome our own frailties. 

Praise the Lord that God is with us!

Music Mondays

My wife and I are pretty proud of ourselves today. We took the time and effort to put up our Christmas tree yesterday, which for us is early. In fact, any time before Christmas Eve is early for us. Here's photographic proof: 

Despite the fact that my football game was on, I muted the TV and tried to give full attention to helping my better half decorate this tree. Also, I knew she'd appreciate putting in a Christmas CD while we worked on it. I found a Trans Siberian Orchestra album she hadn't even opened yet and it helped set the mood.

For this week's Music Monday, I can't think of a better option than one of the most enchanting T.S.O. songs that should put you in the mood for celebrating this wonderful holiday. Merry Christmas!

 

Music Mondays

As I shared in yesterday's sermon, I am a little OCD when it comes to the holidays. 

By that I mean that I get annoyed when stores stock their shelves with Christmas stuff in early November. I also quickly switch radio stations when I hear Christmas carols before Thanksgiving.

But now that we have enjoyed our turkey, stuffing, and the other elements of our large meals with families, we can look ahead to decorative trees, colorful lights, snowmen, gifts, and more large meals with our families. And of course I can now allow my OCD-self to enjoy  Christmas music. I do have to consciously 'flip the switch' in my mind in a way, but I also have to consciously guard against letting the trees, lights, gifts, and family get-togethers from getting in the way of the true meaning of this holiday.

Thankfully the best Christmas music makes this exercise a little easier. The best Christmas music is worshipful and Christ-focused. A new single out on  Chris Tomlin's Christmas Album is both of those things. It features new-ish artist Lauren Daigle absolutely nailing the uplifting vocals on this re-invented version of 'Noel'.

If that can't get you in the proper Christmas mood, there's something wrong with you.

Music Mondays - Christmas Edition

As the YouTube poster says in the description, this is really close to a perfect song. Especially for this Christmas season. 

Yesterday I preached on John 1 and the miracle of God taking on human flesh. This song contemplates that profound truth and responds in a beautiful and simple way. It expresses wonder at the birth but also looks ahead in awe at the Cross - as all our Christmas celebrations should.

"Welcome to our World" by Chris Rice