Here’s the deal…

I believe that men and women are created completely equal.
I believe that men and women are treated differently in our society.
I believe that needs to change, and I will speak up for the dis-advantaged party. In most cases this is the female of the species.

I hate the objectification of women as objects for male lust and female comparison.
I hate that women are paid less than men in many jobs.
I hate the lack of respect afforded women in many jobs.
I hate the patronisation of women in any situation.
I hate the lack of opportunities for women who are bringing up families to progress careers in the same way a man can.

I want my two daughters to live in a world where they need not fear sexual violence, disrespect, or comments on how they should or shouldn’t look. I want them to have opportunities to excel in whatever they put their hands to. I want them to get paid the same as someone with a penis. I want them to hold their own against those with differences of opinion and be able to articulate themselves without being judged on their looks or what they do or don’t do at home. I want them to be free to make a home on their own or in a relationship and not be expected to take on certain chores because they are female. I don’t want them to feel they have to conform to keeping up a certain appearance with cosmetics, certain fashion brands or ‘hip’ accessories. I do not want them to wait for a man to save them or ‘sweep them off their feet’ – only if that’s what they want for themselves. However, I will teach them that, contrary to what Disney tells them, they don’t need a prince to rescue them.

I believe, as a Christian, that women are just as capable of carrying the authority of the risen Christ as men are. Galatians 3 tells me that gender is irrelevant now; we are all ‘heirs to the promise’. Therefore, I strongly believe in female leadership in every area of life, home, church, work. I am not threatened by this as a man, I am just looking for excellence in leadership and want females to be afforded the same opportunities to shine as males. It’s frankly embarrassing how insecure some men can be about females in leadership. The whole headship thing from Ephesians – I believe the root word of ‘head’ in the Koine Greek is Kephalē which means ‘source’. We cannot build a whole doctrine of male ‘headship’ over one verse, which talks only about husbands being the sustainer and source of nurture of his wife.* And, it’s embarrassing how many men think women need our green light to excel and lead. Sadly, some women seem to waiting for men to give them permission to be awesome. I say, go for it! Don’t let anyone take your excellence away from you. I don’t think we need more women moaning about the lack of opportunities, rather we need more women who don’t give a crap and just blaze a trail anyway. If God is for you, and He is, then a way will be found. I’ve seen this in the life of my own wife.

So, am I a feminist? Whether you deem me as such or not, I will still hold these beliefs.

* More on Kephalē here…

http://newlife.id.au/equality-and-gender-issues/kephale-and-male-headship-in-pauls-letters/

No, it’s the slow but steady feeling that geographical, sociological and even denominational divides are being crossed, ignored and forgotten. Our generation is finding each other. We are familiarising ourselves with each others insights and perspectives. Sometimes we disagree, tear our hair out at our Christian clichés or splutter into our coffee when a taboo is broached. Sometimes we punch the air in victory that a subject close to our hearts is being addressed. We laugh at ourselves and foster empathy for each others situations. We are learning we are a diverse and beautiful spectrum of approaches to living for Jesus.

The beautiful thing is, is that we are connecting. Where there once was silence there is now chatter. Where there once was ignorance there is now
understanding.

Threads is more than just social media. It’s the next step into cyber-community because we are expanding past 144 characters or centralised Facebook Pages. There is a push and pull found within this community that means we are stronger as a family in Christ. We are learning and growing. I believe the strategic importance of a community such as Threads goes far beyond what we can visibly see at this point.

The coming months and years will see some very exciting times. I think everyone involved in Threads knows that we’re onto something significant, because God is massive and he is building his church. God is all about relationship – the more the better!

Let’s keep the connections coming and the community growing.

So, as Christians, who do we worship? To what do we give priority? To who or what do we give our attention, our thoughts, our time?

Could it be that we actually worship church? Worship Christianity? Do we worship…well, worship?

The amount of energy so many people, including myself, put into sustaining a cyclical pattern of meetings, worship sets and ultimately a wider ‘Christian culture’ is huge. I find myself looking at a lot of what I/we as Christians, continue to invest thousands of hours a year into and feeling; ‘I miss Jesus’.

All of us would probably agree that a core belief we hold as Christians is that Jesus is alive. Right now. Another is that he promised the Holy Spirit, who accordingly turned up and lives within us. Here with us, right now. These powerful factors should keep everything pretty fresh, right? So why do many people leave the church? Obviously there are myriad reasons, but I wonder if it’s partly because we talk more about church – in church, than about Jesus himself. Do we spend more head-space on creating, reading, buying, and attending resources to perfect the congregational worship experience than actually thinking about Jesus life and teaching? Do we have more meetings about the upkeep of various very well-meaning (and mostly genuinely important) functions of church, over learning more about the guy whose church it is?

I have met more Christians suffering from what I’ll call ‘church fatigue’ than I can remember. It’s that sort of weary despondency to any talk of church. In many cases it becomes downright cynicism and finally some of these folk abandon church altogether. Yet, I’d say a lot of these people have no essential problem with Jesus or his teaching. Doctrinally speaking, they are still believers and many would publicly state they have an allegiance to Jesus.

In John 4 we see Jesus chatting to the Samaritan women at the well. She asks about which mountain is right to bring proper worship to God from, as that was a big difference between Jews and Samaritans. In essence, she was talking about which religious ritual pleased God most. This is probably similar to many of the committee meetings that take place across the church; this colour carpet or that? Jesus replies to her with the famous line about the time coming when worshipers would worship God in Spirit and truth, and that living water was available right there and then; from him. In the following chapter, Jesus confronts the religious Jews and says ‘You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life’. Just as in those times, can we worship the book, rather than the one the book is about?

I think all this leads to a Christ-less experience of church. Like going to see your favourite singer, and only finding the backing band. You begin to yearn to hear the voice you’ve loved. The reason you bought the ticket to the concert, and bought the CDs was because the voice moved you, spoke to your heart and made life seem better. It resonated with you. So, when all you get at the place you expected to encounter them is a noisy room and no sign of the singer, you will be disappointed. There is no resonance. It’s an empty experience. Jesus said his sheep know his voice. Do I know his voice or have I drowned it out with all the worship music I’m so well-meaningly playing?

I wonder how many of our differences and struggles would seem insignificant if we spent more time at the feet of the master, listening to his instruction and enjoying his presence? He is alive, after-all. Like with Mary and Martha, Jesus will tell us what’s what – and then we can move on it. I wonder how many courses and meetings we would have to organise if we worshiped Jesus first, and waited on him to lead us through his word by his spirit? We wouldn’t have to brow-beat ourselves into ‘evangelistic missions’ if we were captivated by his person, message and presence; we’d carry them wherever we went. When Jesus is central, worship and mission will naturally happen.

I’m not saying all tradition is bad, and that there aren’t amazing resources out there to enrich our devotion. I am asking, who puts the Christ in Christian? Who should get the most attention, and how would things be different if he genuinely was the centre of my world?

I’m not trying to claim moral high-ground here. There is only one of those, and it is called Calvary. I am not practicing all of this myself, but I hope that, as these thoughts have agitated me into more focus on Jesus, they would do the same for others. Let’s give him the time, the energy, and the attention. We’ll watch as his church, her worship and the whole of our lives – in Christ – look ever-more like him.

So…

Have worship leaders become our modern-day high priests? Are they the ‘special ones’ who go through the veil into the holy of holies for us? Are they the ones to encounter God in the most intimate way, and relay the experience, second-hand, back to the congregation?

Sometimes I feel that this has become the case. Not just from regular leading in congregations varying from 20-odd to thousands of people, but from watching church culture with a beady-eye.

Let me explain further…

Most of us churchy-types are familiar with the Old Testament High Priests. These are the guys who looked after the temple of God for the rest of the Hebrew population. They served God and man by overseeing the offerings given by the people to atone for sins, and to worship God. This was the only way the nation of Israel had to access God and his presence. The Holy of Holies was where the Ark of the Covenant was kept (during the days of the ‘first temple’ or ‘Solomon’s Temple’ and the ‘third temple’), and this symbolised God’s very presence and holiness. Only the most extremely prepared Priest of the temple could enter that room where the Ark was, and that could only happen once a year on the Day of Atonement or Yom Kippur. The High Priests presided over all the religious activity and beliefs for the people, they were the ones that called the shots and people didn’t think they could even have access to God without them.

What I am wanting to draw is the parallels between the priestly functions in that time, and the priestly function we may have come to put on worship leaders today.

When Jesus gave up his spirit whilst bleeding on a cross on THE Day of Atonement – the day we call Good Friday – the veil to Holy of Holies in Jerusalem’s temple was torn in two. It was effectively ripped up by God the Father because the old covenant that the priests served under was completely fulfilled and therefore nullified in Jesus’ death. A new covenant had been made. Because the blood of Jesus was the final blood offering sprinkled on the mercy seat (which was symbolised on the Ark) before God, all who claim that blood could now enter the Holy of Holies. Because Jesus was perfectly clean and sinless before God, his offering was enough, once and for all, to grant access to God for all who trust in Jesus. All of this is laid out wonderfully in Hebrews 9 verses 1 – 28.

So, when we read in the New Testament about the church being a ‘royal priesthood’ (1 Peter 2 v 9), and that we are all granted access to the Father through Jesus, how should that affect out worship as His church?

I think the answer is in this truth that we are a ‘priesthood of all believers’. When Paul talks to the church in Ephesus he says ‘Instead, be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord,  always giving thanks…’. I am struck by the phrase ‘speaking to one another’. How often do we make our worship as church together that communal? How often is the ‘high priest’ at the front the only voice you can distinctively hear?

Have we got on our hands a reflection of our celebrity obsessed society in church culture? I am worried that we make celebrities out of worship leaders. We put them, either consciously or sub-consciously, on a higher spiritual plain than ourselves. We wait for them to get into ‘the zone’ and ‘the anointing’ whilst not searching for intimacy with God in our own hearts. We lap up their encounters rather than looking for our own. In the worst cases, we let them be the ones sprinkled by Jesus’ blood, and then claim their salvation as if it were ours. We sing their songs of freedom and intimacy instead of letting our own songs rise from our own love for the Lord.

Am I guilty of these things? Yes, I have been. I am on a journey with this myself.

It’s interesting to note that High Priests of old came from ‘priestly families’. I think in this country (the UK), we have two or three priestly families. These days they are record labels. If you aren’t connected to the priestly family, then you can’t seriously call yourself a priest, or worship leader. We have let an aspirational culture creep in where younger people in particular are desperate to achieve this ‘priestly’ status. What’s feeding this – in part – is all the well meaning schools of worship, which, whilst doing a good job of training, have become feeders into the record labels. Unless you are born into, or move into, the vicinity of a ‘priestly’ family, or pay for their courses and lap up their merchandise, you are doomed to not achieve the status that you shouldn’t even feel you have to achieve.

It’s all so tied up with Christian consumerism (see previous blog). We so often lose our own unique sense of identity and calling in the shadow of the almighty ‘priests’. We put them up there, so we may as well let them get on with it rather than realise that the veil was just as much torn for us. How long would we survive as individuals and church families without the merchandise, the CDs, and song-books? The festivals to go to, and the market places we find there? Have we lost the art of seeking the presence of God for ourselves and then sharing our own ‘psalms, hymns and spiritual songs’ as well as those found in scripture? I pray for a revelation and release of our own special, unique, valuable, beautiful expression of worship, in all the intimacy that Jesus has bought for us.

I am challenging myself, both as a worshiper of God, and as a songwriter, to not look at worship leaders as high priests. They are not holier than me. I am not holier than you. There is really no ‘us and them’ no matter how the room is arranged or high the stage. There is only a veil that has been shredded, and one high priest who holds the door open for all to come and be with the Father who loves us. Let’s just stop right here, and worship him right now.

Dave.

Recently I have become aware of a worrying tendency for this kind of message to come through the ‘Christian’ market place. I’m a musician by trade and I love what I do. However, more fundamentally, I am trying to follow Jesus. As I travel around attending various church events, and surf several Christian websites, I can’t help but perceive a growing influence from the world’s value system when it comes to marketing, promotion and consuming.

What I am talking about is perhaps most obvious in the Christian music scene, but it had also infiltrated the preaching/teaching ‘scene’ (for want of a better phrase). You know what I’m talking about; the shiny happy worship stars with brooding faraway looks in their eyes. The photo-shoots where they are wearing expensive looking threads and not a hair out of place or pimple to be seen. I am talking about the life-style type Christian magazines with the latest controversial preachers face looming large from the front cover. Even the Christian charities seem to be trying to have the bigger, better, glossier, more graphically eye-catching stands than each other in the festival market places. Christian bands are spending scary amounts of money on making videos with no actual message, aping rock stars with their indifferent facial expressions.

Have you noticed that in recent years many of us tend to cite who we agree with in the great book battles. It’s so trendy in our cosy Christian culture to have read the latest offering from those outspoken mega-church pastors with varying views on this or that. Have you noticed how we as the western church follow trends as if they were from high street fashions? All those bracelets, all those hats featuring hands with holes in (I mean come-on, that is SO 2003!!!). We go to our annual bible-week and/or festival and we are confronted with many £s worth of ‘essential’ merchandise. The programmes, the study guides, the songbook, this years ‘best’ worship songs, last years live worship album. Then there is the paralysing choice of consumer ideas. Maybe a t-shirt sporting a witty pun involving Jesus to proclaim your faith to the heathen population? Maybe a self-help style book that will lead you to being a great father in 30 seconds or maybe you’d like to get a book or cd signed by the person who made it?

Listen, I have no problem with good resources that encourage, equip, teach etc. In fact, I believe strongly in feeding your soul and learning more and more about our God. Let’s not be silly about this, there is a place for most of what I’ve talked about and more. There is nothing wrong with spending your money on these things per se. However, sometimes I wonder how many of us construct our Christianity out of what we buy? Has it got to the point where we rely on being fed through consumer products and following churchy trends like sheep rather than knowing how to feed ourselves from the word first and foremost. Are we so into the pattern of the usual bible weeks and events that we have stopped asking whether God wants us to do something else with our week off? Have we turned off our truth receptors that finds God in all of his earth, and his image in all of humanity and it’s art? Do we engage in seeking justice or just read about it and nod along out of a general sense of amen?

How much do we depend on all the ‘stuff’? Would you struggle if you didn’t buy a Christian book for a year, or a new worship CD, or go to a big event? Is it ok to consume our way to a spiritual sense of completion or have we stopped relying on the holy spirit to find God in everything, and everywhere?

The only reason I write all this is because I have found this attitude in my own heart. I have at times constructed my faith, and my sense of Gods reality through what I have bought for money. It’s a lazy way to be a follower of Jesus. It means other people can do all the thinking, praying, writing, worshiping, and then relay their experience to me. All of this didn’t satisfy me, it’s not actually my heart being connected to my God, but their heart to their God. At times, buying a new book was actually more of an expression of my doubt and my cold-heartedness than my faith. It meant I could feel ‘holy’ for a little while. No wonder I didn’t finish most of those books. My heart was only in it for me, not for the Lord I was really hungry for.

So, let’s be very aware our own habits and attitudes. Let’s not subscribe mindlessly to consuming to feel satisfied and like ‘good Christians’. Our culture is not like that in the kingdom of God. The real life is found in worshiping Jesus in the enabling power of the holy spirit in us, and in the truth if who we really are, and who he really is. The culture of the kingdom exalts God alone, it doesn’t place people on pedalstools, no matter how gifted or beautiful they are. Our culture is one where we are to be more generous than consumerist, one where we experience a freedom to be uniquely ourselves. We get to know a God that desires truth in our innermost parts. If our idea of being a successful saint is to be a ‘churchhold’ name, or to have read all of the latest books, to have every one of our favoured bible week live albums lined up in our cd collection, then something is wrong. If we are spending more money on books about the kingdom than on kingdom purposes, we are not living the gospel. What good is it to gain the whole world, but lose your soul? I am saying this to myself as much as anyone else.

So let us go back to Jesus. He is enough, and he will freely give us living water, that we won’t thirst again. Good news for us, and our wallets!

With more sessions to come both in writing and in recording, this is to be a real community thing. Fling wide the doors!

And here is a video… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdVtU_0JJRY

Tim Jupp, Mike Griffiths, Dave Griffiths, David Evans

I could try and think of really interesting ways to begin this blog, but I don’t want to be pretentious about this – there’s a danger of that with this sort of thing.

This blog will be the best way of keeping up-to-date with all things Chaos Curb. Some people have been asking me what Chaos Curb actually is, and it’s not an easy question to answer.

It’s basically an effort to explore and celebrate what is often described as The Kingdom of God or The Kingdom of Heaven. This is what life can look like when the God of the Bible has His way. It’s a creative, colourful and purposeful life. So, within Chaos Curb there will be expression through music, art, clothing, design and film. There will be tools to help explore what it means to ‘love your neighbor’ in an increasingly globalized world – striving to make ethical choices in lifestyle and seeking justice in many everyday ways (Just Life). There will be chances to gather both to worship in a church setting (Gatherings), and to celebrate all that is good, pure, true and beautiful outside of church walls (Positive Ambience).

So – does this make it any more clear? Maybe it’d be helpful to state what we’re not about…

We’re not about empire building – we’re about community and co-operation – inner beauty over snazzy branding. We’re not a band, a church, an exclusive club, an ivory tower. We’re welcoming to any who want to explore and celebrate all that Jesus Christ is about. His ways are what we are aiming for. His kingdom and it’s righteousness is what we are seeking.

I must admit that writing this isn’t easy. Perhaps it’s because of all the many thoughts I have in my head about what this thing is. However, I hope you find yourself feeling like you want to, and can, get involved in this journey.

In Him

Dave Griffiths