Change Your Mind

Urban Ministry 4

To every task we bring our preconceptions. When I came to Chicago thirteen years ago I brought mine with me. Some were woven through me tightly, an essential part of who I was. Some were carried about me loosely, carelessly picked up here and there with little thought. Chicago challenged them all. Immediately. Ceaselessly. Remorselessly.

All men are ignorant about something. Most men are secure in that ignorance, denying that it is ignorance, and angry with you when you try to make them think. Every preacher, teacher, parent, and teenager reading this post understands this full well. Sometimes, however, it is not an individual that brings you cause to stop and actually think about something; sometimes it is an event, a circumstance, or a change in environment. I fall under the category of the latter.

What presses most in upon me in this context is the idea of ethnicity. I view it differently than I used to. And, believe it or not, this is not easy for me to communicate. Five times in the last two weeks I have sat down at this screen to write this post only to write, delete, re-write, and delete again. I do not want to be misunderstood, nor do I want to hurt my friends with carelessly formed thoughts. Bear with me, please, as I share my heart and my mind on this sensitive subject.

When I arrived on this corner at the age of 30 I was not a racist. I firmly believed that the Gospel should go to all men. God had created all of us in His image and so every human being is of equal value. Jesus had died on the cross for the entire world. No, I was not racist, but I was basically separatist and rather comfortist.

What do I mean by that? Let us take separatist first. My home church was mostly one ethnicity, but my training ground for the ministry took place in a big church. That church modeled a separated system for reaching various people groups. There was a Spanish church for Latino people. There were entire Sunday Schools devoted solely to black children from the projects. My specific bus route was not allowed to bring in more than 5% African Americans.

I have written in more detail about how this separatist concept arrived in fundamentalism in my book Schizophrenic and I am not going to re-hash it here. Suffice it to say that the result – a set of services for one class of people here and a different set of services for a different class of people there – was elitist at best and borderline racist. And it completely violates Paul's instructions to the church about race relations in Ephesians.

I did not understand that when I arrived here, and one of my first decisions was to move our (basically) all black bus route to a different arrival time on Sunday morning and give it its own Sunday School department. My intentions were good. I felt that they had different needs than the regular Sunday School, and that I could address those better on their own. At the same time I also feared that if I reached middle class people they would not want to put their children into a Sunday School crammed full of kids from the projects.

What I failed to understand is how that would make these people feel. I was sincerely trying to help them, but that sincerity on some level came across as patronizing. I had segregated them from the rest of the church as if they were not good enough for us. It was, in their view, nothing more than a well-intentioned insult.

Chicago's ethnic diversity is deep and wide. I read somewhere a statistic that if you choose two people at random off of any Chicago street there is a 68% chance they will not be the same ethnicity. The denizens of the inner city were used to living their lives around all kinds of ethnicities. I was not. And it was my approach that needed to change, not theirs.

This is where my badly coined term comfortist comes in. I was culturally comfortable when surrounded by white people. It is how I grew up. The people on my street, in the stores, in our church, in our school, and in my life were mostly white. I knew how they worked, and what our Midwestern white bread culture was supposed to be, for good and for ill.

my son's entire class; Jack is top left, back row

When I came here I was immediately uncomfortable for one very noticeable reason: for the first time in my life I was in the minority. I remember taking a walk around my neighborhood (I live right next door to the church I pastor) the first summer I was here. I had my then two year old son with me. One lady sitting on her stoop looked at my son and said, "Hey, little white man." Which is exactly what he was. He stuck out like a sore thumb. He was the white baby on our street. That same son now has a black belt in taekwondo and at his dojoang (which is three blocks from our house) he is still the only white kid that is not a first generation émigré from Poland or the Ukraine. The stores I shop in routinely post signs in Spanish, English, and Polish. To be greeted by a clerk or waiter who does not speak much English is a regular occurrence in the mom and pop places in this neighborhood. The super majority of children in this zip code do not speak English as a first language in the home. In other words, my daily life is immersed in a culture that is most definitely not the same as the Midwestern white American culture in which I grew up.

I do not mean to be conflating ethnicity and culture, but there are certainly strong links between the two. And over time my constant immersion in this ethnically diverse, immigrant flavored, big city culture has changed my mind about how I view both ethnicity and culture.

This is a blog series on urban ministry. I do not want to lecture but I believe strongly that if I am going to effectively minister in this urban environment I must leave behind my preference for and comfort level in the mostly white and highly Americanized culture in which I grew up. In a very real sense, I have to become exactly like the missionaries we support. I must embrace (within reason) the world I now live in. I must become comfortable being in the minority. I must learn to value and enjoy the differences that surround me. I must drop the baggage of my mental insistence that my church and my ministry must be comfortable for me. I must bloom where I am planted, nurtured by the grace of God and the power of Holy Spirit, but rooted in this environment.

This changes so much, and is almost certainly beyond the scope of one blog post. It changes how I view America. It changes how I view immigration. It changes how I view the exclusively white independent Baptist churches I visit while I am on vacation. It even changes how I view Christianity itself.

A random shot on my bus ride four days ago

If you are reading this in red-state America and muttering at how silly I am, or how I have been corrupted by my environment I understand. I am not calling you racist because you disagree with me, nor am I saying that God cannot and is not using you where you are. I am saying that if you come from there, and you want to be effective in urban ministry you are going to have to change your mind. Mental flexibility, including over a range of unconsciously (or consciously) and deeply held prejudices, will have to become part and parcel of who you are.

I suspect, if you last for the long term in urban ministry, it will.

Change your mind. It is the only way people will allow you into their lives to change them.

A Black Fundamentalist’s Viewpoint

Urban Ministry 3

NOTE: Today’s blog is a guest post from Pastor Courtney Lewis of the Cornerstone Baptist Church here in Chicago. In my 13 years in the city he is the only independent Baptist church planter to successfully plant a church in Chicago’s inner city. His perspective on urban ministry is worth your attention. 

And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth(Chicago; other urban areas)? Philip saith unto him, Come and see.  John 1:45

The Courtney Lewis Family

I was born and raised in the city of Chicago, and lived the majority of my childhood in one of the roughest housing projects in the city. About the only thing I know for certain about my father is his name.  If I saw him in Walmart tonight I would not recognize him. He met my mother while he worked as a security guard at the old Chicago Stadium where Michael Jordan made his NBA debut.  When I came along they were in the process of ending their relationship for good.  We had a phone number for him, but rarely did my mom use it.  She dialed the number for me on my 6^th birthday, and when my father answered I told him who it was and that it was my birthday---click!  I was hung up on by my father. 

That occurrence grew into a deep seeded anger. I gained an unquenchable desire to grow up and kill the man that forsook me. Reader, I can promise you that was my plan.  Although he had apartment buildings all around the city, and was seen as he collected rent and drove very fancy cars, he did nothing to assist with my support. My mother took him to court and we had to take a blood test.  The courts discovered that day that Herman Johnson was my father.  For his day in court, my father purposely wore dirty, old, tattered clothes—convincing the authorities that he had nothing. The judge literally told my mom “if he ever wins the lottery, we will let you know." That was the last time I saw my father.

Hence, I understand the fatherless generation well.  For me, it is not a movie or sitcom, but reality. Fathers today in the inner-city are better escape artists than Harry Houdini ever was.  Statistics can be wearisome to the eye and ear, but nonetheless, 63% of youth suicides are from fatherless homes, 90% of all homeless and runaway children are from fatherless homes, 80% of rapes motivated by displaced anger come from fatherless homes, 71% of all high school dropouts come from fatherless homes, and 85% of all youths sitting in prisons grew up in a fatherless home. 

My father destroyed my future in a human sense. That should have been the end of my story right there. I didn’t ask to be born. I craved a father and without one I was becoming a monstrosity. The plight of paternal absenteeism is crippling, and Jesse Jackson did not come to my rescue. How many of our Bible hero’s have deadbeat dads?  Not too many great men in history had deadbeat dads.  Before I could walk, I was half an orphan.
The anger against my father fostered greatly. My mother determined to raise me to the best of her ability, but I seriously lacked the male influence that every child so desperately needs. As a direct result of this lacking, coupled with my own sinful heart, I found myself expelled from 5^th grade at Hearst Elementary for fighting and disrespect to authority.  I was sent to Edwards School and expelled again for the same reasons.  I was sent to Mark Twain Elementary School and was soon expelled again. The school officials spoke to my mother and told her that I was suffering from a so called “behavior disorder.” I was then sent as a last resort to a special school for juvenile delinquents.

The mercy of God followed me as I in ignorance followed my sin. It was there at St. Joseph’s Corondelet Child Center that I rode the "short yellow bus" with a student who was a Christian and happened to belong to a Bible-believing Independent Baptist church.  The student was persistent in inviting me to attend his church. I was equally persistent in saying "no". He invited us all to his house for a birthday party, and the bus driver just dropped the entire route off at his house. After the cake and ice cream, the boy’s mother got us all together and said, “Our church is having VBS, and you are all welcome to come; call your parents and get permission.” My teacher during that Vacation Bible School was the assistant pastor of Garfield Ridge Baptist Church in Chicago, and a Fairhaven Baptist College graduate. I even managed to get tossed out of class on my first visit to the Vacation Bible School! Pastor Gary Zdziarski literally invested thousands of hours of his time into my life as I rode the bus to church each week.

In 1993 I had been attending church there for 2 1/2 years, only missing one Sunday, and although it was good to be in church, I was not yet in Christ.  What I wanted was assurance that if I were to die, I would be in Heaven. On April 22, 1993, I settled all my doubts and received Jesus Christ as my own personal Savior. On that day, I literally felt the burden of my sin lifted off my chest, and I've known no other peace like the peace I knew that day. 

I soon followed the Lord in Believer’s baptism.  God began to work on my heart about preaching.  It was nothing short of a Divine call to the ministry. My mother Lois was the daughter of Mississippi sharecroppers and came to Chicago during the great migration. My mother loved me. She read me Bible stories, sang to me the songs of the south, and tried to take up the slack.  Because I was her baby boy she defended me too much. I saw her faults, but she allowed me to ride the bus every Sunday with a white man to a white church where I got saved!  Who cares what color the people are if they can keep you out of hell and off the streets!  My mother supported my desire to go to a Christian school. For this endeavor she paid $75 a month and I sold candy bars for the rest. 

My junior year in high school she developed cancer.  At the end of my senior year she died. Still a minor at age 17, I was now full-fledged orphan. The closest bonds of earthly authority were removed.  Three months later, I graduated from Southside Baptist School in Oak Lawn, Illinois, and moved that very night into the dorm at Fairhaven Baptist College to prepare for my freshman year of training. Praise God for an urban church that ran a bus to pick me up in the projects!!! This was not a church in the suburbs sending a bus into the city to give me a hot dog, baptize me without my mother's permission, brag on numbers, and disappear for 12 months until the next big promotion.  This was a city church reaching rejects like me.

I graduated four years later and decided to stay for the Master’s program offered by Fairhaven.  My wife Portia was also a bus kid from Oceanside, California.  We met there at Fairhaven and were married in 2004. 

Cornerstone Baptist Church, Chicago

God called me to go back to Chicago to start a church!  I am thrilled because I can say with full assurance that God called us to start an independent Baptist church on the south side of the city.  During my early days of Bible college God made it crystal clear to me that I should serve Him full-time in inner city work.   He led me to start in an area known as the Kenwood/Hyde Park neighborhood.  The vicinity is filled with blue collar workers who live just north of the University of Chicago. 

We started the church in March, 2008. The faithful financial support from other independent Baptist churches has allowed us to plant a growing church for Christ in one of the nation’s most troubled cities and in what is, perhaps, its hardest neighborhood.
After much prayer, we have come to the place where we feel it is God’s timing for Cornerstone Baptist Church to become financially independent.  This transition from missionary support to salaried pastor will begin in February 2017.  We are not busting at the seams as a church.  Currently, we are averaging 120 on Sunday mornings.  As you can imagine, this is a huge step for a young inner-city work, but God has blessed us with a good group of members that agree with this monumental decision. The church plans to give me a considerable raise equal to the amount of support we currently receive. This is a step of faith, and we ask you to pray that God would provide what is needed for us to continue ministering in Chicago.

Friend, we must not neglect the cities in our church planting endeavors.  There are others like me in the "hood" that need a gospel preaching church.  Where would I be if not for a church in the city?  I read in a periodical that every day IN AMERICA 11 Baptist church close their doors permanently, 3 Baptist preachers quit the ministry, 6 teens commit suicide, and over 1,100 girls have an abortion. If we don’t start churches here, who will we have to send to Africa, China?  Actually, the Free Presbyterians (once led by Ian Paisley) are sending missionaries to reach America! 

While I do not claim to be an expert, I do have a burden to see new Independent, fundamental, Baptist, separated, soul winning churches started in America, particularly in urban  areas.  If your church has this interest and vision, I would be honored to share some methods and experiences.

How Not to Reach the City

Urban Ministry 2

The corner where I live my life

There are some things only living here can teach you. Day after day, week after week, month after month, season after season, year after year my vineyard has been this city. I know the rhythms of city life. I know what side streets to take to avoid traffic. I know that a high temperature, a summer night, and a holiday weekend all tell me to keep my kids inside so they do not get shot. I know which hotdog stand in my neighborhood has the best Maxwell Street Polish, and which one has the best french fries. I know to do all my errands between 9 AM and noon. I know to put axle grease on top my shed periodically to keep young people from scrambling onto it via my alley garbage cans. I know where to find excellent pierogis within less than a mile. I know that when I call 911 I should leave anonymous tips. I know what it is like to lock and unlock the same door ten times in ten minutes because you have to keep going in and out but you dare not leave it unlocked. I know which streets around our church to send people to soul winning in the summer and which streets to save for the winter. Speaking of winter, I know what dibs is, and what time all my sidewalks have to be shoveled by in the morning. I know that the Loop and the Magnificent Mile (where you come when you visit here) are an entirely different Chicago than the one in which I live. I know not to give to drunks begging for change under the Kennedy expressway. I know not to leave the doors of our church unlocked after the service has started. I know how to make guacamole and Puerto Rican rice like a native. I know that most of the people in my neighborhood do not speak English at home, and many of them speak very little of it in public. I know to use the alderman as a resource for almost every request I have for the city. I know when to slow down for speed bumps that outsiders never see until it is too late. I know which libraries close to me are open in the morning and which are open in the afternoon. I know how to park in tiny spaces. I know where to find good baklava, what egg lemon soup tastes like, and that I am not supposed to ever put ketchup on a hot dog. I know which sirens to notice and which to ignore. I know what time at night I can call the police about my neighbor's loud party. I know that if I do not confront teenagers hanging out on my corner the gangs will eventually take ownership of this real estate. I know which graffiti in my neighborhood is new since yesterday. I know why anti-violence marches are a good thing. I know that thousands of people without Christ walk and drive past my church building seven days a week. I know that the vast majority of them have a worldview very different than the typical American in flyover country.

Along with all of that, through the years I have also learned a couple approaches that will not reach this city. Each of these approaches has much to recommend it. Each of them are performed diligently by sincere men and women who want to reach people for Christ. Each of them largely fail at reaching the men and women of this city.

First, you will not reach America's big cities by moving your church out of the city to the suburbs. In the 1970s a demographic shift and a crime wave pushed hundreds of independent Baptist churches all across America out of the city toward a better neighborhood in the suburbs. I understand it. I really do. The folks of that generation thought they could not continue to keep their churches afloat in neighborhoods that were no longer the same majority ethnicity as the church. Not to mention, of course, that it is difficult to get middle class white people to attend a church in a bad neighborhood.

Their chosen solution, however, left much to be desired. One of the scriptural definitions of a church is the body of Christ. Shortly after my arrival in Chicago I was feeling overwhelmed. I explained a bit about our church's situation to Clarence Sexton and asked for his advice. (He had previously pastored in an urban environment in New Jersey.) He looked at me and said simply, "Go be Jesus in your neighborhood." That statement has helped me numerous times. In this context I propose a question: would Jesus move out of a decaying inner city environment in order to be more comfortable? The answer surely is a resounding, "No." Then why do churches do it? See, the answer is not for a church to run for the closest city border; the answer is for the church to meet the shifting needs of the shifting neighborhood around it. Such a church will not stay predominantly white, but why should it? When neighborhoods change churches should not flee; if they instead focus on effective ministry they will find they will change to reflect the neighborhood around them.

In short, don't run; minister where you are. Stars shine constantly but we see them much better when the sky is dark. Your church has a chance to stand out, to be unique, to be what Jesus would be and to do what Jesus would do in your neighborhood. At the very least, if you feel you must move your church, keep your old building in the old neighborhood and immediately restart another independent Baptist church in it. Do not abandon the neighborhood because it has changed; such neighborhoods need Jesus more than ever.

Secondly, you will not reach the great American cities with the bus ministry. I must stress here that I am not against the bus ministry; I am for it. I worked in it in one capacity or another for fifteen years. I have nothing but respect for those who put in long hours on Saturday visiting, and who faithfully pick children up every week. The churches that have bus ministries are warm churches, compassionate churches, dedicated to reaching people no one else wants.
All of this is good but one stubborn fact remains: you will not reach a large urban center with a bus ministry. I know; I live in the city that has had more church buses run in it than any other city in America. And it is not reached.

The fathers in our church singing on Father's Day

Here's why: a bus ministry does a wonderful job reaching children with the Gospel, but it does a lousy job reaching adults. And if you do not reach adults it is practically impossible to permanently and deeply change the culture of a family. I cannot count the number of adults I have talked to out soul winning – has to be hundreds and hundreds of them – that used to ride a bus to an independent Baptist church as a child. But as adults they will not go in any substantial numbers. Call it carnality, call it laziness, call it lack of dedication, call it ingratitude, call it whatever you want but at least recognize the facts. To reach a father and mother, and thus draw the entire family under the permanent influence of the Word of God takes a church in their neighborhood. A bus will not work in the long term. They desperately need a good church around the corner.

God's plan is always best, and God's plan for the evangelization and edification of humanity is the local church. Occasionally I hear of some church that takes a missions trip to some big city, spends a few days passing out thousands of tracts, and packs up and goes home. That is a good thing; I am glad they do it. But if they want to reach the city they need to partner with someone in planting a church there.

I know my city. I am grateful for every church who does any kind of temporary, short term evangelism in the city, especially on a regular basis. But such things leave no more long term effect than poking your finger into a glass of water and then pulling it out. If you were to send me fifty church planters into my city I could find a reasonable spot for each of them where they would not trip over each other. And you would do more good over the long term by this route than any other ministry you can contemplate.

Beloved, go cry to the city. But do not do it from the outside shouting in. Plant yourself inside, start a church, and grub out a work for God.

Go Cry to the City

Urban Ministry 1

 
The phrase that best sums up the book of Micah is the Lord's controversy. (Micah 6.2) God's people were deeply disobedient, and thus the Lord hath a controversy with his people. (Micah 6.2) But where was the center of that controversy? Every movement has an organizational and motivational center. Every movement has a heart. The great sin that caused the Lord's controversy with Israel was no different. Where was the center of the rebellion against God? Where was its heart? …in the large cities.

Micah 1:1 The word of the LORD that came to Micah the Morasthite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.

Micah 1:5 For the transgression of Jacob is all this, and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob? is it not Samaria? and what are the high places of Judah? are they not Jerusalem?

Large urban centers are the primary influence in setting the direction of a society.

Scripture shows us this. Every Sunday School child has learned the story of the Tower of Babel. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower. (Genesis 11.4) That city and the culture which flowed from it so influenced society in the wrong direction that God had to break it up. God, who originally put man in a garden, had Israel build His Temple in the highest spot of the greatest city in the land. Why? …because influence flows from cities. Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. (Matthew 5.14) When Israel was re-founded as a country after the Babylonian Captivity where did they focus? Jerusalem. It was the center of re-settlement, of government, of religion, of security, and of revival.

Observation shows us this. Wars almost always target the enemy's chief population centers for conquest. A hundred and fifty years ago the American economy was driven by the family farm. It has long since transitioned to be driven by the manufacturing and consumption in urban areas. In our day the media which so influences our American culture is driven essentially by three major cities – New York City, Los Angeles, and Washington, D. C. The large urban centers of America almost entirely set the tone for our country. We are politically liberal because the cities are. (A quick glance at a map of the United States broken down by county vote shows the entire country is Republican. The cities are Democratic and the cities constantly win.) We are ethnically diverse because the cities are. We are culturally filthy because the cities are. Large cities set the tone for America just like they did in Bible times.

This is why there is a clear and continuous pattern in Scripture emphasizing preaching in cities. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Amos, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, and Zechariah essentially address God's people by addressing their chief cities. God sent Jonah explicitly to a large city. Arise, go to Ninevah, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me. (Jonah 1.2) Have you ever studied the geography of Paul's missionary journeys? All of the places he went were then major cities. Even Paul's epistles, other than Galatians and those to individuals, were all written to churches in major cities: Romans, I and II Corinthians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and I and II Thessalonians. John's letters to specific churches in Revelation? Yep, all to what were then major cities: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.

Failing to understand this, sound Christianity has increasingly abandoned large American cities and consequently is struggling.

I think this jumps out at me especially because my perspective is relatively unique. I grew up in a small Midwestern village of 4,000 people. For nearly seven years I pastored my first church in an even smaller town of 1,200 people. Now for almost thirteen years I have labored smack dab in the heart of one of America's great cities, Chicago. The difference in worldview, parenting, education, entertainment, crime, leisure, and religion is startling.

This difference, however, was not so startling at the turn of the twentieth century. Back then, as fundamentalism was birthed, it was noticeably led almost entirely by strong men who led strong ministries in big cities. R. A. Torrey led the Bible Institute of Los Angeles after years serving at the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. James M. Gray pastored Moody Church here in Chicago. A. C. Dixon had pastored in Chicago, Boston, London, and Baltimore. A. T. Pierson pastored Spurgeon's Metropolitan Tabernacle in London. W. B. Riley led Minneapolis' grand First Baptist Church. J. Frank Norris pastored just outside of Dallas. T. T. Shields pastored Toronto's Jarvis Street Baptist Church. T. Dewitt Talmage preached at Brooklyn's Central Presbyterian Church. Lewis Sperry Chafer taught at Dallas Theological Seminary. The foundational meetings around which the American fundamental movement was born were held in places like Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington, D. C., New York City, Atlanta, Dallas, Indianapolis, Seattle, and Los Angeles.

Now, just over a century later, the largest fundamentalist meetings take place in country towns in North Carolina, Indiana, Illinois, or Michigan perhaps, and in mid-size cities such as Lancaster, Lexington, Elgin, Powell, and Hammond. There are no more influential fundamentalist Presbyterian churches or leaders, and with a couple exceptions (Oklahoma City, San Jose) the influential independent Baptist ones are not in major cities. In my city alone – formerly the home of D. L. Moody, R. A. Torrey, James M. Gray, Paul Rader, Billy Sunday, Harry Ironside, and A. W. Tozer – the largest fundamental church runs maybe 200 in Sunday School. To the best of my knowledge there are no more than five good independent Baptist churches left in Chicago, one for every 540,000 people, and only two of these are growing churches. No, we are not the only ones preaching the Gospel in this city or in yours, but our doctrinal understanding and practice goes much deeper than the surface religion that represents so much of contemporary American Christianity. We are independent, fundamental Baptists for very good reasons. You can swing a dead cat and hit a dozen such churches in Greenville, South Carolina (population 61,000) but you will search high and low to find them in the inner cities of Houston, New Orleans, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Los Angeles, Seattle, Detroit, San Francisco, Washington, D. C., or St. Louis.

I am not at all sure I have all the answers, but I do know my perspective has changed in the thirteen years I have pastored in an inner city. Perhaps I should say I have received an education that I neither sought nor wanted but was crammed down my throat. For the next couple of months on this blog I am going to discuss urban ministry, the need for it, how and how not to do it, what you need to change your mind about to do it effectively, and what its obstacles and opportunities are.

Scripture and observation tell us that a nation is influenced through its large cities. We routinely cry and moan about the condition of America these days but if we actually want to change it we must return in large numbers to the cities. We must motivate, finance, educate, promote, and pray young men into the inner cities to plant churches. We cannot change America in any real way absent this.

Micah was specifically sent with his message to the major cities of his day because that is where the decision for national repentance had to be made. It is the same in our day. We must bring our great message back to the urban centers if the country at large is to hear and heed it. If we are going to fix what is wrong it will not be done by tinkering around the edges; we must go to the center and attack there. We must go and cry to the city.

The Lord's voice crieth unto the city. (Micah 6.9)

Five Final Thoughts About Music in Church

Music 29

I have chosen to end this series with a few final thoughts. They sum up what I believe is the proper approach to music in church. They are largely drawn from all that has gone before. As always, I hope they are helpful.

First, we must make sure that the lyrics to any music that is sung or played in church are scriptural lyrics. In specific reference to music in the church Paul said, Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. (Colossians 3.16) The safest way to do this is to sing songs that are composed of actual Scripture such as psalms, etc. But it is also true that Paul said in Colossians 3 that other types of lyrics are permissible assuming they are scriptural in their content.

If the song is a doctrinal song is it fundamentally orthodox? Does it line up with our distinctives? Is it Baptistic? Is it correct in its proclamation of eschatology, ecclesiology, etc.? If the song is speaking about God is it a scriptural concept of God, or is it JIMBY (Jesus-is-my-boyfriend) music? Does it present a God high, and holy, and lifted up? Is it loyal to the Word of God? Is its emotional content rooted in Scripture?

Second, the instrumental accompaniment should contain flowing melodies and harmonies versus those that emphasize a driving rhythm. I have already spent much time here in this blog series so I will not belabor the point. I do realize that sometimes it can be hard to draw the line here. In my opinion, we ought to be charitable toward others choices in this area, and seek to err on the side of safety in our own choices.

Third, we must avoid emotional manipulation. And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. (John 16.8) It is the Holy Spirit's job – not the music's – to bring about a change in people's minds and actions. Granted, there is a fine line here for the Holy Spirit can certainly use the scriptural content of church music to speak, and music is an emotional language so in this context His voice will have emotional overtones. But we must avoid striving to purposely evoke a certain mental or emotional reaction solely through the use of music. Remember, we are not simply trying to change their emotional state temporarily; we are trying to edify them. Edification often includes emotion but it always includes more than that. And in any case, we should not seek to manipulate anybody into a spiritual frame of mind or into a spiritual decision.

Fourth, we must do everything possible to prevent the message being eclipsed by the messenger. In a different context but with some valid application to all of the Christian life, John said, He must increase, but I must decrease. (John 3.30) We must not value performance but rather value content. Passionate people put themselves fully and emotionally into the music they perform, and there is nothing wrong with that. (Ecclesiastes 9.10) But there is a line that is crossed when the musical gift we exercise becomes a display of ourselves rather than of the Holy Spirit. (I Corinthians 12.7) Some churches do this by refusing to allow singers to hold microphones. Other churches prefer groups of singers rather than solos. But however you choose to apply this or to draw the line the point is that there must be a line drawn here. It cannot be about me; I am just the way the music gets heard. (This entire paragraph is just as applicable to the preaching, too, by the way.)

Lastly, let us take care to emphasize music without letting it replace the primacy of preaching. It is preaching which is the power of God; it is preaching that God uses to save those that believe. (I Corinthians 1.18-21) To this end there are some churches that refuse to have any service that does not include a lengthy sermon. I do not go that far in my mind but I can appreciate their point. I have worked hard to expand the emphasis on music in our church services without at the same time de-emphasizing preaching because I believe this is right. The danger in over-emphasizing music is that music often makes people feel good while preaching often makes them feel bad. But if our people do not feel bad when they should feel bad then they will not act right when they should act right. By and large, music edifies, but preaching is the tool that produces real and lasting change in a congregation.


Well, it has been quite a journey, hasn't it? From the first post on music last November to the concluding post of this series today it has been interesting. I appreciate each of you who have read, commented, questioned, criticized, complained, shared, and amened me along the way. I hope somewhere in these 42,000 words you have come across something that has caused you to examine your own position on music in order to ensure that it is loyal to Scripture.

Someday, brother in Christ, we will stand together in that vast assemblage of millions on the glassy sea around the Throne in Heaven. And we will sing the greatest song that has ever been sung. I look forward to joining you there. Until that great day may the Lord lead us to use Heaven's music as well as we know how down here.

Sing forth the honour of his name: Make his praise glorious. (Psalm 66.2)

Five Steps to Improve Your Church Music

Music 28

 
I have been clear that I do not believe a church needs to embrace CCM in order to sing well. (In fact, I think it eventually makes them sing worse, but that is another discussion altogether.) The churches that have swallowed the rationale that contemporary music will liven up what is otherwise a dead service are taking a spiritual shortcut. Enthusiastic, skillful, scriptural church music is within the realm of possibility for every church provided we embrace five scriptural concepts related to singing.

First and foremost, we must emphasize participation. Everybody ought to join in with the congregational singing. I realize not every person is musically gifted, but a lack of musical ability does not justify any person sitting there like a bump on a log during corporate singing. The psalmist said, All the earth shall worship thee, and shall sing unto thee; they shall sing to thy name. (Psalm 66.4) Elsewhere David sang, All the earth shall worship, and shall sing unto thee. (I Chronicles 16.23) I realize these are Old Testament passages and so do not reflect directly on the New Testament church service but I think there is a principle established here that carries through: all of us owe God praise, thanks, and worship so all of us should sing. Additionally, it could be argued that the two primary passages regarding music in the church (Ephesians 5.19 and Colossians 3.16) are broad instructions clearly aimed at the entire church. In other words, no one is exempt from singing in church any more than they are exempt from other instructions given in these epistles.

Having established this the practical question that then follows is how do you do this? How do you emphasize wide participation in corporate singing in a culture that increasingly wants to watch music being performed but does little corporate singing at all anymore? Part of the answer has to be that you need to sing out boldly yourself. Doing so put others around you more at ease about singing. Sunday School teachers can get their entire class to sit together periodically in the main service and then give a prize to the child who sings the best. Song leaders, rather than paying attention to giftedness, can and should emphasize widespread participation. Parents can actually require it of their children once they reach a certain age. Shy individuals can be encouraged to sit with someone who is not shy about singing out. The choir special can be moved to the beginning of the service so that choir members can then go sit among the crowd for the balance of the service and so encourage participation around them.

When I moved to our church thirteen years ago the congregational singing was not, well, what should I say here… It was not inspiring. I have done all of these things and others, and over time our church has come to embrace corporate singing with enthusiasm.

Second, let us emphasize singing with joy. Let us lead people to sing with genuine emotion. I realize some hymns are solemn or reflective, but most are not, and even in those that are there is a deep inner joy therein if you are close to Him.

This is how God Himself sings. The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing. (Zephaniah 3.17) This is how we will all sing in the Millennium. Therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head; they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away. (Isaiah 51.11) Indeed, we see the importance of singing with a genuine and deep emotional joy all through the Psalms. (Psalm 9.2, 43.4, 71.23, 81.1, 95.1, 95.2, 98.6, 100.1, 100.2)

Each Wednesday night I open the service by bringing our Patch Club children to the platform and singing along with them. Often, as they ascend the steps I will put a big grin on my face and issue them one instruction, "Big smiles, everybody." It is my considered opinion that people sing better when they physically form their mouth into a smile. And even if that emotion of joy is only attempted at the beginning before a person gets to the second verse they will find their attitude genuinely changing.

Third, we should emphasize volume. The Levites sang with a loud voice. (II Chronicles 20.19) The priests sang with loud instruments unto the Lord. (II Chronicles 30.21) The services Nehemiah led included singers who sang loud. (Nehemiah 12.42) Isaiah called for people to lift up their voice as they sing to the Lord, to cry aloud. (Isaiah 24.14) Not to be outdone the psalmist paid his respects to the importance of volume in singing numerous times. (Psalm 51.14, 59.16, 98.4, 149.5, 150.5)

When I sing during a church service I belt it out. The level of volume is not my attempt to impress people with a performance any more than volume in preaching is. It is simply the result of genuine joy accompanied with a desire to share that joy with others. When the pastor sings this way, and the deacons sing this way, and the Sunday School teachers sing this way, and the choir members sing this way while they are interspersed with the crowd it becomes infectious. The entire church begins to sing louder. And that is a wonderful thing.

Fourth, we should seek to develop skill in our church music program. Sing unto him a new song; play skillfully with a loud noise. (Psalm 33.3) There is a gigantic place in church music for everybody to participate regardless of skill level. There is also a place reserved for those who have talent, and who have sought to develop that talent with diligence. This would be those who are leading, those who sing apart from the entire congregation, and those who accompany instrumentally. Like any other gift, such people should not attempt to skate by on talent. They should be encouraged and helped to actively and diligently and painstakingly develop that talent. They should be taught not to bristle at practice, but to embrace it. There ought to be in the area of music as in all other areas a ceaseless striving for excellence.

Lastly, there should be an emphasis among us on teaching music to the younger generation. And Chenaniah, chief of the Levites, was for song: he instructed about the song, because he was skilful. (I Chronicles 15.22) So the number of them, with their brethren that were instructed in the songs of the Lord, even all that were cunning, was two hundred fourscore and eight. (I Chronicles 25.7)

The average musically inclined person in American Christianity leading, performing, or ministering with music received their musical instruction from the world. These worldly influences (musicians, styles, modes of performance) show up far too often in the American church. The solution to this is to ensure that those who lead, perform, or minister with music in the church are influenced as much as possible by those with great experience in church music.

One way to do this is to enroll in music classes at a Bible college but that is not feasible for most people. Thus, in reality, the responsibility for teaching the philosophies necessary for church music fall squarely on those who lead in a musical capacity in the local church. You do not have to be arrogant to accomplish this. You do not have to step into someone else's area. You do not have to go beyond your expertise. But you do need to teach somebody else what you know about church music.

With this approach there is no reason for a church to ever be without an instrumentalist, without a song leader, or without a choir that knows how to sing four part harmony. There is no reason a church should have to hire intermittent music help, or embrace a carnal, worldly Christian man or woman simply because they are desperate for musical talent. The musically gifted people your church has now ought to be constantly teaching other people music, and doing so specifically as it relates to church.

Participate. With Joy. With volume. With skill. And if you lead teach somebody else how to replace you. Emphasize those five things and over time your church's music will blossom.

Three Things I Like About Contemporary Music

Music 27

For the past two months I have been unsparing in my attack on CCM. I do not apologize for that a whit. It is hollowing out the core of the modern American church, weakening it just as the storm clouds of persecution begin to gather on the far horizon. Having said that, it is also worth noting that I do not believe that my brethren in Christ who genuinely preach Jesus are entirely wrong. Such a position is held by some I know but I find such total rejection to be undiscerning, uncharitable, needlessly harsh, and arrogant. In due course, I feel it is necessary to publicly say that I do find some redeeming value in the contemporary American Christian music scene, specifically in three areas.

First, I have a great appreciation for the genuine emotional passion that so many CCM artists bring to their music. For the life of me I do not understand how a person can sing about the grace of God, about Jesus, about Calvary, about Heaven, or any of a myriad of other scriptural themes with all the enthusiasm of a cigar store Indian. Music is an emotional language. I am a Baptist not a charismatic. But just because I will not allow emotions to rule me does not mean I think emoting during a church service is wrong. No, beloved, I believe there is everything right with it. God made us in His own image. He made us emotional creatures because He is an emotional God. He rejoices; so should we. He weeps; so should we. He loves fiercely and passionately; so should we. Fraudulent emotion while singing in church is ever inappropriate, but so is no emotion. Blank faces, monotone mumblings, bored body language – I have seen them all far too often in the thousands of church services I have attended. Some of our people would do well to take a page from CCM's approach in this department. Billy Sunday used to say that if you are saved you should tell your face. I also think you should tell your voice. The great themes of Scripture and the great God Who is therein revealed are worth being passionate about in a church service setting. Sing aloud unto God our strength: Make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob. (Psalm 81.1)

Second, I commend modern American Christianity for its desire to write new music. I confess I like old music best. By that I mean both my taste and my heart are drawn to songs that have meant something to me for a long time. There is a sweetness in such old music. There is a sense of place, of stability, of a precious solidity. But having said that I am bound to admit that Scripture clearly encourages God's people to sing unto him a new song, which phrase is repeated almost word for word nine times in the Bible. I have heard some on my side of the aisle say that "new" here means "different." In other words, God's people should embrace a new kind of music after salvation, different than their old kind of music. I obviously agree with that but I do not think this is the proper interpretation of those scriptural admonitions. Revelation twice points out that new songs are sung in Heaven constantly and the context certainly is not of a lost man becoming saved, rather it is of new music as in newly written and composed music. New songs should be written for each generation just like new sermons should be preached for each generation. Our religion needs to be fresh. Contemporary Christianity is constantly writing new music, and its churches and musicians welcome such songs readily. Assuming such songs are scriptural in their content I think that is a genuine strength, and one our side could do well to learn from.

Third, and most importantly, contemporary Christian music carries within its DNA a never failing emphasis on praising the Lord. This is true to such an extent that their own self-chosen moniker – praise and worship – includes this. To me, this is absolutely excellent. Praising the Lord is something that is emphasized hundreds of times in Scripture and yet far too often in our circles it is only paid lip service. Contemporary Christianity has more than its share of flaws but this is not one of them. Passionately, repeatedly, loudly, and often they sing their praise to the Lord that bought them. Our kind of churches, however, whether out of a fear of emotionalism or a lack of teaching, assumes a hasty "Praise the Lord" every now and again covers its responsibility. Nothing could be further from the truth. Praising the Lord is not a phrase you recite occasionally; it is rather detailed and emotional chunks of time set purposely aside to tell God how amazing He is in a large variety of ways.

Some will no doubt read today's post and misunderstand. They will shake their head and say, "If you like CCM so much why in the world have you skewered it so loudly and often in this series." The simple answer is that CCM needs skewered, for the most part. Does it have some good elements? Yes – and so do my alley trash cans but I would be unwise in the extreme to eat from them. Not only that, but these good elements in CCM that I have spoken of today can readily be incorporated in traditional church music without swallowing the massive amounts of damaging philosophy and practice that CCM thrives upon. We do not need a driving rock beat to passionately sing new music that praises the Lord. Neither do they, and I feel sorry for them that they do not see this.

Indeed, I hurt much for my generation of American Christianity. It has swallowed the hook of the world's system because that hook was covered in the lure of church growth. And then it reacts in puzzlement when the devil yanks it further and further away from the Word of God. Go ahead. Swallow that hook. Pat the traditional church on the head, and sigh over our thick-headed intransigence. We are glad that you preach Christ but know this: we have thought our position through. We have examined the Word of God. We have studied sociology, history, and music. We see where you are going even when you do not; we know we do not want to go there. We are where we are and not where you are for a whole bunch of very good reasons. And we plan to keep standing right here on the Word of God regardless of popularity, relevance, size, success or trends. Our audience is not the world; it is Him. He is the one we aim to please.

May God grant that He finds us faithful when He comes. In the meantime may we pray for and love our brethren in Christ who have been so deceived by the contemporary American music movement.

Music 26 - Contemporary Music’s Five Inept Justifications

In the last post we discussed the largest justification that pastors and worship leaders use to lead their churches away from traditional music, the amorality of instrumental music. However, there are others they routinely offer. In today's blog post I offer you five with a relatively quick deconstruction of each one.

First, they will say that CCM rescues church services from being dry, dull, and boring. Larry Norman, one of the early Christian rock pioneers, expressed this in his 1972 hit, "Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music?":


I want the people to know that He saved my soul
But I still like to listen to the radio,
They say that "Rock 'n roll is wrong, give you one more chance"
I said "I Feel so good, I gotta get up and dance"
I know what's right, I know what's wrong, I don't confuse it
Well, all I'm really tryin' to say is
Why should the devil have all the good music?
They say to cut my hair, they're drivin' me insane
I grew it out long to make room for my brain
But sometimes people don't understand
What's a good boy doin' in a rock n' roll band
There's nothin' wrong with playin' blues licks
If you've got a reason, tell me to my face
Why should the devil have all the good music?
There's nothing wrong with what we play
'Cause Jesus is the rock and He rolled my blues away
I ain't knockin' the hymns, just give me a song that has a beat
I ain't knockin' the hymns, give me a song that moves my feet

Now I am the first one to admit that I've attended a whole bunch of boring church services. I will not admit, however, that the cure is a driving rock beat added to the music. The cure for a boring service is to develop a real and vital relationship with Jesus. If you do that it does not really matter what the service is like. To you, it will be the equivalent of a cool, refreshing drink after wandering around in the Sahara.

My father pastored for 38 years. I grew up listening to him drone on and on world without end. Something funny happened, though, as I got older. I got serious about the Lord and gradually those dry, boring sermons became mighty interesting. The same old hymns that had become background static to me came alive.

See, genuine Scriptural content is only boring to people similar to those Jesus described in Matthew 13.15. For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.

The solution here is not to shake up the church service by turning it into the Christian equivalent of a nightclub. The solution is to build in the people a genuine hunger for God. You do that and nothing scriptural is ever boring again.

Second, CCM's proponents will say that their music gets a lot of people saved. They reason that their kind of atmosphere is more comfortable for the lost man, and that after drawing him in this way he is easier to lead to Christ.

My response to this is two-fold. First, there is zero indication given in the New Testament that corporate music is to be used as a tool to reach the lost. There are two specific passages that indicate the purpose of music in the church service and both of them say that it is given to edify God's people.

Second, I am not willing to concede that CCM types of churches actually do get more people saved. I think they get more people into a room but that is not nearly the same thing. Granger Community Church is a massive church based in Muncie, Indiana. It is fair to say it typifies the contemporary evangelical approach to church that I find so deeply troubling. Each week they gather a crowd of thousands but interestingly enough, by their own self-confessed account, most of them are not saved. In 2008 they surveyed an ordinary Sunday crowd and discovered to their horror that 47% did not believe in salvation by grace and that 56% did not believe Jesus is the only way to Heaven. I personally watched their pastor Mark Beeson roll those numbers out on their own church website during a discussion several years ago. Now I full well realize that even in my church each week there are a small percentage of unsaved people in attendance. But half? More than half? See, I am just not convinced at all that the modern contemporary movement is reaching people for Jesus. Not at all. They are reaching people, all right, but not to Jesus.

Next, CCM advocates will defend their use of such music by asserting it is their personal preference. They are simply exercising Christian liberty. They do not mind if I prefer to sing the old hymns, and they ask that I honor their preference to do the opposite.
Such a position assumes that music in the Christian's life and in the church service is simply a matter of personal preference and style. It assumes that God does not give us any musically related principles in the Scripture. Such an assumption is wildly incorrect. In other words, this justification rests on the premise that God does not express His thoughts about good and bad music in the Bible, and that is a faulty premise. Men and women have been using the concept of Christian liberty to shield their fleshly desires for millennia. (Galatians 5.13) Just because you label your choice such in no way removes from me the responsibility to express biblical truth regarding your inept justification.

Fourth, they will say loudly and often that CCM is just a new method, and that all methods used in church were new at some point. "Hey, fundamentalist Bible thumper man, you used a microphone in your church yesterday, didn't ya'? You had electric lights didn't ya?" Such a position seeks to paint the conservative as hypocritical in using things in church that were once contemporary themselves.

Agreed. Guilty as charged. Yet… a PA system simply increases the volume; it does not change the fabric of the church service. Electric lights simply let you see what you used to need candles to see; they do not change the character of the church service, let alone the underlying philosophical approach of a church entirely. And this is why CCM is entirely different. It is not just a new method; it dramatically alters the philosophy and practice of the church entire. I am not being hypocritical. You are comparing tangelos to elephants.

Lastly, CCM points to the Bible and says that the instruments it chooses to use are nowhere forbidden in Scripture. They are correct. Scripture mentions in a positive sense string, brass, wind, and percussion instruments being used in God's service. Which changes nothing. The problem I and so many other conservative Christians have with CCM is not the instruments themselves; it is with how those instruments are played. In fact, in addition to a piano and organ we use a guitar for musical accompaniment in every church service. But is certainly is not played in a rock style. To me, scriptural teaching is clear: an over emphasis on rhythm in music produces bad effects in both the musician and the listener. In other words, it is not the instruments of CCM themselves that are wrong; it is the manner in which they are played that is wrong.

Next week, believe it or not, I am going to discuss three things I like about contemporary music. My opponents and supporters may find themselves switching sides for a week. Stay tuned…