The Warning Knock

Kings (NBC): Highly Recommended

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 15:00:00 +0000

So I’ve made no secret of my enthusiasm for Kings, the NBC television series, that, alas, was cancelled… nay, slaughtered in infancy by the mouth-breathing Herodian troglodytes that pass for execs at the dear network. Their philistinism, however, takes nothing away from the brilliantly conceived and executed single season that is Kings.

Kings is a complete modernization of the story of David and Saul from the Old Testament. It’s written with a nuance and complexity and dignity that is almost completely absent from American culture. Leading the cast is the brilliant Ian McShane. McShane’s Silas is a deep ocean breathing regal gravitas; with fatherly affection, royal generosity, fatal pride and understated whimsy occasionally emerging from the depths.

It’s available to watch online for free at NBC and Hulu until September 20. The DVD Kings – the Complete Seasonwill be released September 29.

Or you can purchase the entire season for $20.70 at Amazon Video on Demand… which is what I did.

Go here to watch the FREE 7 minute season preview at Amazon Video On Demand:

My message at Super Summer

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:42:00 +0000

I got to speak on Tuesday night at Super Summer this year. I've gotten lots of encouraging feedback on the talk, so thanks to everyone for their kind words.

Just for fun, I wordled the sermon manuscript, and here's the result:

Questions from a Thinking Person

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 15:22:00 +0000

At my church we just had a “Hard Questions” Panel. A friend of mine got some questions from her son, who lives in another state and is not a Christian, but is at some level curious or interested. We did not have the opportunity to answer these questions during the forum.

I thought they were pretty good questions, though, so I’m posting them and my attempts at answers to them here. Here’s the first one.

Question: Why does it seem that religious people are the first people to judge other people when Jesus said "Let he who is without sin throw the first stone"? Why don't Christians lead by example instead of telling people when they are wrong? I believe actions speak louder than words and when you point your finger at some one you should look at the three other fingers pointing back at you. Why don't we focus on what we can do better as people? Take for example the person who killed the abortion doctor the other day. If he would have looked at himself and focused on his faults instead of worrying about others he could have changed the world for the good instead of giving Christianity another bad name.

This is a fantastic question. Let me begin with the part about judgment.

When Jesus taught, “Judge not, lest ye be judged,” the typical reading is if we judged other people, then we will be judged by God. I think this is a misreading. I think it means if we judge others, then others will judge us. And I think it’s absolutely true. The fact that this guy has asked this question means that he has seen judgmental Christians and is (quite fairly) judging them right back, and asking why they don’t live up to their own principles. He deserves an answer.

Christians ARE judgmental, often much more so than unreligious people. I think this is true for a few reasons:

First, the Christian faith is based on believing certain things to be true—and not just any things, but absolute, transcendent truths that, if true, affect all people in all places. Firm faith in these truths (existence of God, deity of Christ, authority of the Bible, etc.) begins as conviction—which is a good thing—but easily slips into pridefulness and arrogance.

If I’m completely convinced of these truths and I see everything through the lens of them, then other people’s failure to live up to those truths will stand out to me.

If I’m young in my faith, spiritually immature, or frightened and uncertain, then I will use my “certainty” defensively, and point out or even lash out at things I see as offensive to God. I’ll also decide that things that offend God should offend me, too, and I will seek to fight God’s battles for him by opposing the “infidels.” Most perniciously, I’ll see myself as superior for having seen and recognized the truth, and be patronizing, condescending or mean to those who don’t agree.

Here’s an example. A Christian friend of mine knows a fellow from his work who is gay and has a live-in boyfriend. The gay guy was moving to another city, and it was his last day at work. There were two Christian ladies at his workplace who decided to get him a gift. They bought him a Bible—a nice one—and as a service to him, highlighted all the verses in the Bible that condemned homosexuality. This was their going away present.

That these ladies did not see how utterly rude, patronizing, condescending and plain old mean this was, is as astonishing as it is common.

By contrast, a mature approach to this would be to hold those truths with no less conviction, but not be intimidated when I find people who don’t agree, and live as if they don’t agree. Further, I will hold those convictions with humility, meaning that I’ll be the first to recognize that I have fallen short of God’s standard and in many ways still do.

A mature approach will recognize that everyone has the right to make their own choices and decisions, and will give them perfect freedom to do so, like Jesus did, and will not attempt to coerce or manipulate or guilt people into agreeing. This does not mean that they will not share with them or even try to persuade them, but they’ll do so without the need to hold others who continue to disagree at a distance or in contempt.

In my experience, it takes Christians many years to achieve this kind of maturity. Consequently, that leaves lots of zealous, immature Christians running around the world, reinforcing the judgmental image that we have unfortunately given to our faith.

The other dynamic at work here, I think, is that people can be threatened by those who don’t share their worldview. If I’m firmly convinced, for instance, that abortion is wrong, then if I meet an abortion doctor at a cocktail party, there is going to be instant, awkward tension between us. The same would be true if I was an animal rights activist, and I met a guy who runs a factory chicken farm. The person’s very presence somehow incarnates a challenge to my beliefs… or at least it feels that way.

That no doubt is what was at work in these ladies, who had this guy at work who fell into a prohibited category according to their worldview, and probably didn’t know what to do, but felt like they had to do something.

As far as Scott Roeder, the man who murdered the abortion doctor, he violated the tenets of his own faith while seeking to defend it. I think I can understand it: if you believe that unborn babies are human lives, made in the image of God, then the reality that there are 1.3 million aborted in this country every year is going to seriously burden you. It certainly burdens me. I mourn and lament it.

All of the prolife community’s efforts to address this problem through legal channels have paid off very scantily. They’ve worked hard with legislatures to pass some restrictions, and they are almost always slapped down by the courts, and every day, more and more babies are killed as birth control. It’s easy to see how that leaves a person with his convictions in a very frustrating position.

In every constituency and ideological group, you’re going to find emotionally disturbed or unstable people. So I’m not surprised when occasionally something like this happens. The details and thought processes differ, but this guy has company: the Unabomber, the 9-11 terrorists, the kids who shot up Columbine High School… each of them was serving an ideology which, mixed with their instability, was a recipe for tragedy.

In fact, I would say that the problem for both the Bible-giving ladies and Mr. Roeder was that they did not believe their faith enough. The ladies didn’t have confidence in gospel’s ability to change a person, so they resorted to the law. They believed that what he needed was to understand that homosexuality is a sin, but what he really needed was the same thing the ladies need: the grace of God in Christ forgiving their sin and enabling them to be better people. Mr. Roeder didn’t believe his faith enough, because he conveniently ignored the commandment “Thou shalt not kill.” There is no clause in the Bible that permits killing in defense of the faith. Vengeance belongs to the Lord, not to us.

At the end of the day, people can recognize the inconsistency between the example of Jesus—the prophet who hung out with prostitutes—and the judgmentalism of Christians.

In fact, the conclusion of the guy’s question, in my opinion, is right on: “If he [Mr. Roeder] would have looked at himself and focused on his faults instead of worrying about others he could have changed the world for the good instead of giving Christianity another bad name.”

Amen.

Let me conclude my response, however, with a caution. It’s easy to dismiss the teachings of Christ because some of his followers get all screwy. In the same way that it’s unfair to judge a teacher by his worst students, it’s unfair to judge Christianity by its worst adherents. If the students do things the teacher would never have agreed with and even condemned, it’s not really right to hold that against the teacher.

Fair judgment of a teacher involves looking at the full range of his students… but mostly at the teacher himself. So I would encourage you to first and foremost evaluate Christ himself as the best barometer of the worth and value of Christianity. If you don’t find him compelling, then you need not bother with anything else.

I'll try to address his other two questions soon.

Great Diving in Panama City with Wreck Raider!

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Thu, 21 May 2009 11:23:00 +0000

If you’re looking for a good dive operator in Panama City Beach, I’ve got a recommendation for you!

When I was planning my Panama City trip I knew I wanted to scuba dive while I was down there, but I knew nothing about the local dive charters. So I decided to do a test.

I sent emails to four of the dive operators I found online. My hunch was the way they handled my inquiry would tell me a lot about their character. I told them I was a novice diver, having just completed my open water certification in February. I got replies from three of them. One was a brush-off. The speediest reply, most helpful and honest, was from Captain Rod with Wreck Raider.net.

He set me up with a dive trip on Thursday. I wanted to do two days of diving, but wanted to see how Thursday went before I committed to another.

Rod has a fast and compact dive boat; six is about maximum occupancy, but that translates into having personal attention and not having to fight crowds. Other dive boats, I’m told, can be cattle calls, with up to 20 divers or more.

Thursday was awesome. Captain Rod is laid back and polite, a very likeable fellow. No bossy-ness or attitude, but still professional and confident. When I arrived, I found out there would only be three of us on the boat: me, Captain Rod, and the dive leader, Nick. Nick is 19 years old, but very experienced—he’s been diving since he was 12. He’s a scuba instructor and is attentive, observant and authoritative. He took fantastic care of me. I found out that he helps lead worship at his church, so we had that in common right away.

We dove two bridge spans on Thursday. When I first got in the water, my BC and weight belt needed adjustment, and I was trying to refresh myself on everything I had to remember. I got discombobulated a bit. Nick and Rod were very patient and helpful. They got me back aboard and properly adjusted. Once I got underwater, however, everything went really great, and I enjoyed myself immensely.

Highlight of Thursday was probably the 6-foot tiger shark that made an appearance at the end of our second dive.

So on the way back I asked about joining them on Friday. Rod had three spearfishermen to take out, but he said he’d accommodate me, and true to his word, he did.

I really enjoyed watching these guys spearfish. Nick served as my dive buddy (mainly to keep an eye on me), but I tagged along and watched his expertise at work.

On Friday, we dove hard bottom reefs in about 70-80 feet of water. On my first dive, Nick came upon a hole in the reef, laid aside his speargun and pulled two lobsters out of the hole. They were shovelnose lobsters, which are smallish—about the size of a big TV remote—and aren’t regulated: there’s no season or restrictions, except that you can’t take females with eggs. Nick hadn’t brought a stringer or a mesh bag or anything, so he stuffed them in his BC pockets. Then he reached back into the hole, and grabbed some more, and then more, and then more. When he ran out of room in his BC, I offered mine. He wound up getting eight lobsters out of one hole. And that was in the first five minutes of the dive!

So on the second dive, I borrowed a pair of reef gloves (I’ve since purchased my own), and once I knew what to look for, I went searching for them, and sure enough, scored one of my own. Lots of fun.

Captain Rod hooked me up with three lobster tails at the end of the dive, and also a nice filet from the 20 pound grouper that another diver had speared. We ate well that night!

All in all, I had a great experience, and I’m sure you will, too. Check out the website, www.wreckraider.net, or call Capt. Rod directly (850) 249-DIVE (3483).

Sunday's Sermon: Grace and the Prodigal

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 12:10:00 +0000

Here is my sermon from this past Sunday. I used the parable of the prodigal (Luke 15) to illustrate the idea of salvation by grace, not works.

You can stream it or download here:

You can also go to my church's sermon archive, which also has options for subscribing to our church's sermon podcast in iTunes.

Easter Set-up Time Lapse

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 01:57:00 +0000

Following is a sweet time-lapse of set-up for the Easter service in the CMS gym. Thanks to Jason the tech guru for having the idea and executing it!

More Easter pictures

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 19:22:00 +0000

Here are some more pictures from our Easter worship service.

Easter 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 14:43:00 +0000

We were once again at Columbia Middle School for one combined worship service.

Here’s the order:

Prelude: “He Lives” (Gloryland Band arr.) – FBC Wind Orchestra
“I Believe” – Children’s Choir
Christ the Lord is Risen Today (Nice pipe organ with this.)
Welcome
Testimony – Brett & Jennifer
“Jesus Saves” – FBC Choir & Wind Orchestra
Worthy is the Lamb
Message
Offering: Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone)
Days of Elijah

A few notes

A record crowd this year: 903. There were 40 at our sunrise service, for a total of 943.
Sound was surprisingly good. It’s a good environment for the Wind Orchestra, nice and resonant. The drums were bit over-resonant, but we survived it.
The gym environment makes it harder for people to focus on worship, I think. Too bright, too many people. As I looked around, it seemed like people were more distracted than normal. By the end, however, they had warmed up, and responded well to Days of Elijah.
Pastor’s sermon was on John 3:16. Simple and clear!
Volunteers make the world go round. Dianne, Dave M, Caitlin, Dave F, Stephanie, Mike, Terry, Tim, Ryan, Jordan… many thanks to all the folks who spent hours with us making it happen.
We blew our time estimate by 10 minutes. In an effort to be godlier, I'll not assign blame here.

For now, just a couple of pics from set-up time. I should get pics of the service later today.

Yesterday was a big day

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 16:47:00 +0000

Yesterday was a day I’d been looking forward to for many, many months. It marked 20 years since God in His mercy opened my eyes and I became a Christian.

Paul identifies himself in several of his letters in the New Testament as a slave (doulos) of Christ. Inspired by John MacArthur’s discussion of the term in the new edition of The Gospel According to Jesus (which, by the way, was one of the most influential books I read after I came to Christ), I preached a sermon last year on the whole idea of slavery to Christ, and how counter it is to our American sensibilities.

Here's the sermon:

Approaching the 20 year mark of following Christ, I also have been thinking about the passages in the Old Testament that address the manumission of slaves. Slaves were to be set free after 7 year, but there was a provision for them to serve for life if they so chose.

Here’s the passage:

If a fellow Hebrew, a man or a woman, sells himself to you and serves you six years, in the seventh year you must let him go free. And when you release him, do not send him away empty-handed. Supply him liberally from your flock, your threshing floor and your winepress. Give to him as the LORD your God has blessed you. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the LORD your God redeemed you. That is why I give you this command today.

But if your servant says to you, "I do not want to leave you," because he loves you and your family and is well off with you, then take an awl and push it through his ear lobe into the door, and he will become your servant for life.
Deuteronomy 15: 12-17

My heart resonates so much with verse 16. After 20 years of following Christ, I love my Master and his family, and I am well off with Him. I do not wish to leave.

One of the prayers I have been praying for myself for many years is that God will help me to endure to the end, to persevere, and to finish well.

So this idea of being marked for life really appealed to me. A friend of mine who was inspired by this passage had his ear pierced… but I didn’t want to do that. Jewelry… not really me.

So I started thinking about a tattoo. Those of you who know me well know I’m not a tattoo guy at all. In fact, I used to think they were silly. Any time I saw people with tattoos I wondered how silly they would look when they were 70 and all their skin sagged, etc. “My body is not a canvas,” and so on.

But being marked for life in this way is EXACTLY what I was going for. I wanted to be marked for life as a follower of Jesus… a doulos of Christ Jesus.

So last night, on the 20th anniversary of my conversion, I went down to the Loop to Enigma tattoo, and got myself a dang tattoo. No turning back. For your entertainment, here are pictures and a short video.

I hesitated briefly when I thought people would point out Leviticus 19:28 to me:

Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the LORD.

Yikes. But then I read the verse before it, and figured I’d be ok:

Do not cut the hair at the sides of your head or clip off the edges of your beard.

(We’ll save the discussion about the role of the Old Testament law in the Christian life for later.)

I’m still a little surprised I did it, and yes, it hurt.

False Conversion

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 15:02:00 +0000

I've had a handful of conversations in the last couple of weeks about false conversion--namely, when someone believes that they are in Christ when in fact they are not. I've visited with friends about how evangelistic methodology over the past 50 years has encouraged a culture of false conversion. A new member of my small group has a very clear testimony of being falsely converted, and later, truly converted, and articulates the difference pretty well.

Tim Brister has posted a discussion of false conversion on his blog. Here's an excerpt:

We can miss biblical conversion in any number of ways. If a person is converted only in the mind, he will substitute repentance and faith with mental assent and assume that the mere acquisition of more knowledge (intellectualism) will guarantee salvation. They will profess, “Lord, Lord” with great profundity for sure. If a person is converted only in the heart, he will substitute repentance and faith with emotional experience (experientialism) and assume that more mountaintop experiences (or rededications) will guarantee salvation (by “nailing it down”). They will profess, “Lord, Lord” with great passion no doubt. If a person is converted only in the will, he will substitute repentance and faith with determination and resolve to do better (legalism) and assume that self-improvement (self-righteousness) brings him acceptance before God. They will profess, “Lord, Lord” with great persistence as you could expect.

Contrary to all this, a truly converted sinner will be transformed by the Spirit of God with a change evidenced by turning from sin (repentance) and turning to God (faith) which encompasses their entire being–mind, heart, and will. In recent years, we have all but taken God out of the equation so that conversion is not the miraculous working of God but a mere decision by man. Now, certainly one has to “decide” and respond in faith and repentance, but if there is not a true understanding of the gospel and a true gracious working of regeneration in the heart of a sinner, then no trick, technique, or trend will be able to accomplish what God has determined Himself to do. Conversion is not merely “our part” or something we contribute in salvation apart from God’s sovereign work of effectually drawing and applying the new covenant promise of transforming our lives from within. Everyone to whom God begins the “good work” will bring it completion (Phil. 1:6), and there should be distinguishing marks of the saving, sanctifying, and persevering grace of God in the converted sinner being daily conformed into the image of Christ.

Remembering Fred Winters

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 00:30:00 +0000

Today one of my mentors, Fred Winters, was killed by a gunman in his church while he was preaching.

Good reporting on the tragedy here.

My pastor and I were part of a mentoring group with Pastor Fred a couple of years ago. It was like a spiritual book club; we would read one book per month about living as Christians and spiritual leaders. It was a really great time. I found Fred to be forthright, generous, and kind; a man deeply committed to the gospel and able to make tough decisions.

I was impressed by his testimony—he came to Christ out of a pretty dysfunctional and irreligious background, and his own life and love and faith were a testament to the kind of change God can make in a heart.

But more than that, his example of leadership was stirring and inspiring. Fred was certainly busy enough leading his own congregation; but part of his passion was building into other leaders, so he organized & led this group with several local pastors—just another example of his personal generosity and kingdom-focused mindset.

Please join me in praying for his beautiful wife and daughters, and for his church, FBC Maryville. Their worship pastor, Mark Jones, is a friend, and one of the most prayerful men I know, and as one of the most visible leaders for the church, will carry quite a burden.

Pascal on Spiritual Knowledge

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 15:33:00 +0000

Spurred by a conversation with my roommate last night, I revisited a portion of Pascal’s Pensees, in a marvelous edition edited with commentary by Peter Kreeft.

Pensee #816

“I should soon have given up a life of pleasure,” they say, “If I had faith.” But I tell you, “You would soon have faith if you gave up a life of pleasure. Now it is up to you to begin. If I could give you faith, I would. But I cannot, nor can I test the truth of what you say, but you can easily give up your pleasure and test whether I am telling the truth.”

Kreeft’s commentary:

Pascal, like any psychologist who ideas are based on experience rather than theory, is more of a voluntarist than an intellectualist; that is, he see that our moral choices have more causal power over our mental beliefs than our mental beliefs have over our moral choices…..

Voluntarism entails the conclusion that we begin the process of education by willing it.

So often, I see that people unwilling to surrender their pleasures never find faith in the Christ or experience the life-giving beauty of the gospel. Those who are willing, find it immediately.

My roommate, a Marine, has just come to Christ out of a typically hedonistic Marine Corps life (lots of women, lots of beer…). He walked away from that, and his faith in Christ has…, well, exploded.

We were talking about inviting others to faith in Christ. Inviting people to repent, to change their ways, seems fundamentalist, hackneyed and lame. Pascal, a realist and a pragmatist, shows us its hidden power and psychological sophistication. Curious people who lurk on the edge of faith often crave and even demand experiential proof of faith Christ before they commit to anything… but it is denied them. Those who are “dumb enough” to actually repent, however, discover it immediately. Obedience always precedes knowledge.

Unblogging

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 16:19:00 +0000

Without announcement or explanation several months ago, I drastically curtailed my blogging activity, both here and on Seminary Survival Guide.

I've since noticed some very active A-list bloggers doing the same thing--either dramatically curtailing their posting frequency, or taking blog-fasts for periods of time.

I think many early adopting blog-rats, after running the race for a while, come upon a point of exhaustion, and ask the question: is this effort really worth everything I'm putting into it?

After all, how many cute stories or videos can you link to? How many really original and worthwhile things can one person say? How many contributions can one person make to the success and enjoyment of others?

My conclusion: not that many.

I've wanted, esp at Seminary Survival Guide, to only say something when I have something worth saying. Here at The Warning Knock, I never felt that constraint... especially not at first. After a while, though, I discovered how many people were reading and being influenced by what I wrote, and felt the need to be more judicious in what I said.

Furthermore, I've developed a growing distaste for what I call "mediated relationships." These are online relationships you have at a distance from people, whom you keep up with only through blogs, texting, twitter, or facebook. Maybe I'm too old-fashioned in this, but I think humans were created to have real, live, in-person, face-to-face relationships. Distancing ourselves via technology from that impoverishes our experience of life.

I don't want to live an impoverished life, even if everyone else in the world is doing it.

So let me express my gratitude to all my readers for their interest in my blogging activity. No, this is not good-bye, just an explanation for where I've been. I plan to continue blogging--infrequently--but without any regard for my stats or who's reading or who's linking or whatever.

If you miss me, then call me up and let's have lunch.

Awesome 12 year old

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 21:53:00 +0000

HT: Chris

Simple Math

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 14:49:00 +0000

Came across this video illustration of the power of one-on-one discipleship. This goes along well with the direction our church is heading, trying to make a cultural change, so that this kind of personal investment part of our DNA, and happen spontaneously and organically.

Check it out.

HT: Brad

Lunch Reunion

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 18:28:00 +0000

I got to reunite with some old high school friends while I was in Florida. Leilani, who has been the best about keeping up with everyone, kindly put it together. I came in from St Louis, Erick drove up from Miami, and Rachel drove down from Sebastian. We had a fabulous time catching up.

I was struck by two things:

How similar everyone looked to how they did in high school. I know not everyone makes it 20 years without drastic appearance changes.
How relaxed we all seemed. I guess 20 years of living makes you comfortable in your own skin.

I'm hoping we can get together again soon.

Top Worship Songs of 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 16:54:00 +0000

By usage, here are our most frequently used worship songs of 2008.
(HT: Chris from Canada for the idea.)

FBC Columbia Top 30 Worship Songs of 2008

You Never Let Go
You Are My King
Hosanna
Your Name
Fire Fall Down
Jesus Paid It All
Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)
Before The Throne Of God Above
Here I Am To Worship
In Christ Alone
Just As I Am
How Deep The Father's Love For Us
Be The Center
Worthy Is The Lamb
Blessed Be Your Name
King Of Love
Mighty To Save
Agnus Dei
Shout To The Lord
Hear Our Praises
All Creatures Of Our God And King
Glory
Come Thou Fount Come Thou King
How Great Thou Art
Great Is Thy Faithfulness
'Tis So Sweet To Trust In Jesus
The Solid Rock
Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing
Blessed Assurance
There's A Stirring

Christmas Program Confessional

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 17:34:00 +0000

Our Christmas program this year was an incredible success. The people who helped make this happen did such a fantastic job, I want to give some kudos.

The production was called “The Talk of Columbia – Christmas Edition.” It was set up like a morning talk show doing a special Christmas music show. We had male and female hosts, four musical segments, a cooking segment, an interview with St Nick (The real St Nick – Nicholas of Myra), and some man on the street interviews asking “Who is St Nick?” to set up the interview.

In between segments we had commercials – audio only. We put color bars on the screen as the sign that we were at commercial, and played the commercials while we changed the set. They were pretty funny, poking fun at me, the pastor, Baptists in general, and Orville, who is the tootsie roll guy.

The Wind Orchestra functioned as the house band, playing Jazzy Christmas music for show openings and transitions.

St Nick shared the gospel towards the end of the interview. The host asked what’ the big deal about a baby in a manger two thousand years ago? Nick’s answer was in how he changes lives. Then we transitioned to choir and soloist singing Glory in the Highest (Tomlin), while our people shared cardboard testimonies (the idea proudly stolen from youtube).

After that, we had traditional carol singing with the congregation, and then concluded with Christmas Angels, a combined number with Choir, children, trio, and Wind Orchestra.

Here’s the program order:

Countdown to airtime

Show Opening (Live)
Mark, Kim, TOC Jazz Band

Commercial Break 1 (Audio)
Presslar’s Christmas Tree Farm
Peters’ Toupees and Implants

Musical Segment 1: Christmas Men’s Ensemble (Live)
Go Tell It On the Mountain
Away In a Manger

Commercial Break 2 (Audio)
The “Bapper”
Mark Warnock Institute for Intelligence

Cooking Segment: Frankie Stanley’s Sugar Cookies (Live)
Mark, Kim, Frankie, and assistants…

Commercial Break 3
Christmas Eve at FBC (Audio)
Around Columbia: Man on the Street, Part 1 (Video)

Musical Segment 2: Rockin’ for Jesus Children’s Choir (Live)
Do You Hear What I Hear?
What If?

Commercial Break 4
Fireproof DVD (Video)
Around Columbia: Man on the Street, Part 2 (Video)

Musical Segment 3: FBC Adult Choir (Live)
Christmas Is the Best Time of the Year
Home for the Holidays Medley

Interview Segment: St. Nick (Live)

Inspiration Segment: The Difference He Makes (Live)
Glory In the Highest

Musical Segment 4: Congregational Singing (Live)
Hark the Herald Angels Sing
Away in a Manger
Silent Night
Come All Ye Faithful

Finale: Christmas Angels (Live)
FBC Adult Choir, Trio, Children’s Choir

Show Closing (Live)

Kudos to:
Dianne, my producer, who helped handle an incredible load of details, coordinated the tech aspects, and led the program design. As always, joyful and indispensable.

Wind Orchestra, who worked very diligently to learn Christmas Angels, a piece that should have been much too hard for them. They rose to the occasion and knocked it out of the park.

All the Cardboard Testimony people, who were willing to share their stories. It was the most powerful moment of the night, and left everyone in tears.

Dick, one of our cardboard testimonies. Dick is deaf and has balance problems, but he agreed to be one of the testimonies. On the first night, he fell hard while trying to navigate the steps on his way in. Mercifully, he was ok, and showed up to do it on the second night without complaint. What a trooper. His testimony:

First side: Deaf for 20 years
Second side: But I can still hear God.

Awesome. Makes me cry.

Children's Choir. They looked good, and sounded great! They knew their songs really well, especially the slightly bewildering Christmas Angels, and belted it out with the best of them.

The Choir. We bought performance outfits for the first time (Thanks, Christy, for finding the bargain!), and they looked great. They sounded even better. Memorized they harmonically challenging jazz harmony, and just did an outstanding job.

Frankie and the cookie team. Mrs. Frankie has been making these sugar cookies for years, and she and Sherrie and their team made hundreds of these cookies. (Of course we had to serve one to everybody, just like on Oprah!!). And Frankie was a natural onstage, fussing and kidding with Mark and Kim. Lots of fun.

Kim, our female host, hasn’t done a lot of acting or theatre, but she did a very poised and relaxed job as a host.

Mark, who is a veteran actor, also hosted well, but was even more valuable as a writer for these silly commercials.

Here are the commercials:

Presslar’s Christmas Tree Farm

Peter’s Toupees and Implants (spoofing our pastor, Jonathan Peters, who is follicularly challenged)

The “Bapper”

Mark Warnock Institute for Intelligence

Tech crew, who did a great job handling a very busy script.

Our church, who invited their friends, and filled up both performances. We had a lot of guests who had a good time and were exposed to the genuine stories of lives changed by the power of Christ. One person helping us with the production saw the cardboard testimonies and said, “Those can’t be real. They made those up.” No, we didn’t. Every last one of them is true. Many of those stories I’ve been here and watched unfold as a pastor.

That’s the beauty: the gospel is real, and Jesus does change lives. Awesome.

Finally, kudos to our Lord Jesus, who came to rescue us from our sins, and will come again!

Worship Text-fessional 12.7.08

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 17:10:00 +0000

Haven't seen one of these lately, have you? I'm putting this up b/c I notice that many churches this seasons aren't really singing a lot of Christmas music. I've even read comments from some worship leaders who *dislike* Christmas music. Wow. Sorry, Ebenezer.

Anyway. My Pastor is preaching a series on missions called "A Church to Change the World", and it's really fantastic. You should check it out. This week the focus was on going to the ends of the earth.

Early Service:
Hark the Herald Angels Sing (arrangement that Brett and I wrote, with an extra chorus)
O Come O Come Emmanuel
Be the Center
To the Ends of the Earth (Hillsong)
Solo: Away in a Manger

Late Service:
Shout to the North
Hark the Herald Angels Sing
Offering (Baloche)
To the Ends of the Earth
Solo: Away in a Manger

(This post is part of Sunday Setlists.)

My Favorite Christmas Movie

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 16:14:00 +0000

There are lots of movies, new and classic, associated with Christmas. I know a lot of families who have traditions of watching "It's a Wonderful Life" (or some other movie) together every year.

My favorite Christmas movie is a bit off beat, as you might imagine. It's Millions (2005), a well-conceived story about a spiritual and imaginative boy who finds a large stash of money. He wants to give it to the poor, which turns out to be hard. His older brother is worldly wise and more materialistic. Great commentary on money, consumerism, and what's really important.

I really like this film. I spent several months raving about it to friends, who mostly rolled their eyes at me and refused to see it.

Sigh. I live among Philistines.

Anyway. What's YOUR favorite Christmas movie?

A Little Perspective

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 15:08:00 +0000

Hilarious clip, reminding us how stupid our impatience is. Life is good!

HT: Bobby

Sounds like a good idea to me

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 14:03:00 +0000

Especially this year, we need to re-think Christmas. Check it out.

(RSS readers: embedded video)

I read somewhere that there are three forces trying to take over the world:
Islam, Christianity, and Western consumerism. Hmmm.

Clash of the Nerds

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 21:08:00 +0000

I can't decide if loving this makes me more a music nerd or a Star Wars nerd.

You decide.

(RSS readers: embedded video)

I have a new president

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 14:29:00 +0000

Last night I watched the election returns, knowing in my gut that McCain, who I voted for, was not likely to win. Sure enough, Obama won handily.

Here are some factors that led to victory for Senator Obama, which I think have gone under-acknowledged:

Weather. In many critical states, the outcome hinged purely on turnout, which broke records all across the country. Yesterday most of the nation enjoyed beautiful, unseasonably mild weather—the kind where you could wait in a line outside for hours without being cold and miserable. If yesterday had been rainy and cold, the outcome would have been different.
Republican Demoralization. The truth is many Republicans are as dejected about President Bush as Democrats are disgusted with him. I voted twice for President Bush, but think that especially in his second term, his leadership has seriously faltered. Sure enough, Republican voter turnout was significantly down. As a Republican, I voted yesterday out of duty, not out of excitement.
Money. The Obama campaign out-spent McCain an incredible 3 to 1. Had Obama stuck to his promise to take public funding, the playing field would have been leveled, and the outcome may well have been different. McCain, a leading advocate of campaign finance reform, stuck to his principles, and it likely cost him the election.

The amount of support Senator McCain was able to garner was remarkable given the factors against him:

Economy. Economic cycles are no respecters of parties or election timing. According to long term forecasts, one of which I read all the way back in 1992, we are overdue for a major, 20 year-long period of economic and social turbulence. Had the economic slump been delayed a year, the outcome might have been different.
The 80% factor. According to polling data cited on the news last night, 80% of Americans think our country is headed in the wrong direction. For the candidate from the party in power to still garner 47% of the popular vote under those conditions is remarkable.

McCain did remarkably well given the strong headwinds he was facing. The selection of Governor Palin as running mate was brilliant, and gave incredible energy to a campaign that otherwise might have slumped months ago.

The tone of this campaign, and of these two men in particular, is greatly encouraging to me. Yes, in the last days, it was hard-fought, but did not become bitter. And last night’s speeches also reflected a nobility that has been long absent from American politics. McCain has always been a man of honor, and showed it with great dignity in his gracious concession last night. “Country First” is not a slogan for him; it’s his life. He showed us how to lose.

But President-elect Obama showed us how to win. There was no gloating in his acceptance, none of the gabby, Clinton-esque in-your-face meanness. Instead, there was humility in the face of history, sobriety about looming challenges, and an inviting, inspiring call to us to unite for the common good. And underneath, a genuine, unforced hopefulness about our future, even in the midst of great challenges. He seems to understand that despite winning handily, 47% of Americans were hoping for another outcome.

I think it’s one of the best political speeches I’ve ever heard. I found myself really hoping he means it.

This election feels very different to me. I don’t mind admitting that I held President Clinton in contempt. I thought he was a boor, a lout, a churl; a slick, lying conniver who would do anything to achieve or cling to power. And I was right about him. The Democratic party’s rejection of Hillary Clinton as their candidate is hopefully a turn away from this ugly brand of raw power and deception politics.

But even though I have great, fundamental differences with Obama on lots of issues, I find I really want him to succeed. He is the first of a new breed of politician: the first African-American, but who does not seem to wear his race as an identity or badge. The first post-Boomer president, who will hopefully reflect our generation’s best qualities: openness, adaptability, and resilience in the face of challenge. Most encouraging to me, he seems to embody a dignity and seriousness we’ve been missing for a long time. I doubt he’ll be jogging over to McDonald’s for super-size fries.

I have two concerns nagging me on the morning after:

First: Can he do it? Given Obama’s inexperience, it will fall to his natural gifts of leadership to guide our country well. Will he seek wise advisers, or assemble a group of yes-men like President Bush did?

Second: When will the “promise of America” extend to the most helpless among us, the unborn? Obama is the most pro-abortion candidate ever. He even refused to support the Born Alive act: he actually thinks that infants lucky enough to survive our attempts to kill them should not have the protection of the law, the simple right to live. Abortion on demand has been the law and practice of our land since I was three years old, and now, at 38, I still can’t believe that we do it.

Obama’s election drastically diminishes the possibility that Roe v. Wade, possibly the worst judicial decision ever made, will ever be repealed. Since that awful day, well nigh 50 million children in this country have been killed by their mothers in utero, before they ever saw light or took breath. It is the worst injustice the world has ever seen. Hitler’s camps and Stalin’s gulag on their tiptoes cannot rival it. The purges in China and Cambodia pale against it. That in this country, the most prosperous in the world, we cling so hard to that prosperity, that we’ll kill our children rather than endure economic hardship, is the moral black eye and deepest embarrassment of our country.

What, after all, would it take to care for these children? Surely with the trillions of dollars we spend on wars and social programs and research, our country could find the love and the means to care for these children, rather than consigning them to the trash. Why is this simple measure of compassion too hard for us?

Under President Obama, however, it appears there will be no relief. In my observation, his party has been more resolutely committed to preserving the right of slaughter than to any other objective, and given his record, I can only see that resolve crystallizing to diamond hardness under his leadership. May God have mercy on us.

But it’s a new day in America, and I have a new president. This time around, whatever our differences, I’ll give him my respect, my best wishes and support, and my earnest prayers for his wisdom in turbulent times.

God bless you, President-elect Obama. I’ll be praying for you.

Martin Luther at our church!

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 14:56:00 +0000

Showed up at church to observe "Trunk or Treat" with my new camera, just purchased to replace the one that fell out of my pocket in a cab in China.

I was surprised to see that the Wittenburg church moved to our parking lot, and dear old Martin himself was there.

I got to shake his hand!