Today's Blog Title

As I was driving to work today, I began to think about an upcoming sermon I've been asked to share.  My mind was wandering to the proposed title that I gave the sermon and I'm wondering if I've handcuffed myself with the title.  Now with a long-ish drive and the mind exploring the wilderness inside my head I began to wonder the appropriate place of the sermon title.

I work with a pastor who has very strong opinions about signs in front of churches and the people who pat themselves on the back for their own cleverness.  While I can understand the distaste for bad signage, are we doing the same thing for people on Sunday morning?  Only are we displaying our cleverness for the lucky few who enter the building by offering witty sermon titles?

Knowing your context, how would the congregation respond if there were no sermon title?  Would there be panic; I'm pretty sure not.  But I'm curious to know if the absence of a title could/would draw people deeper into the message.  (Or would this become just another "marketing tool" to grab people?)

I suppose someone knows how this all came about.  I'd like to think it had something to do with the passage titles found in some translations.  Someone thought it necessary to give us a taste of what's to come.  Maybe pastors thought this was a good idea; and then the good idea became a cute idea and now we have books on "effective sermon titles".

Any which way, I'm now at work and trying to get my mind back to the tasks at hand.  First order of business, create a slogan for our Student Ministries.

All Things

This past Sunday, I heard a Sunday that used 1 Corithinans 9:16-23 as one of the texts.  The driving force of this passage is Paul's insistence on becoming all things to all people so that he can win some for Christ.  

As I've been reflecting on the sermon and passage, something began to jump out to me.  All of the things Paul is talking about becoming, slave/free/man/woman/Jew/Greek/weak, are all acceptable.  Even when Paul talks about the Law, he never acts in contradiction to the law, he only operates outside of its boundaries.

What implications does this have for us, then?  What does it look like to go outside of the "rules" and still follow them?  I suppose if I had the answer to this question I'd be awesome (or famous).  But I'm sure that walking in Paul's shoes requires that we begin to understand the heart of Christ with more clarity.

This means loving first and asking questions second.  It means we put our agenda on the back burner and listen to the stories of others.  And it requires much from us; we must be so in love with Jesus that we are not seduced into the lifestyle of those we are loving.

Dynamic Twins - one,two

We recently started a series on Christian music with our students. I find the whole nature of Christian music intriguing and think that, when done well, it offers healthy supplementation of the music diet.
It scares me to look back on what my options were back in the day. I'd listen to the Dynamic Twins just to try Christian rap, but I always felt like I was staying in the music relationship out of obligation.
I'm excited that there are now great artists who are getting a chance to share God's gifts.
I am curious to know who you're listening to today, or better yet, who you've suffered through (maybe you liked it then, and that's okay).