OK, I promise this is the last installment of this piece. With any luck we’ll get our own Joe Day to weigh in on this “Confessions” rant too. Stay tuned. In the meantime, if you happened to miss the previous instalments of this series, check out the “Confessions of a.” category on the sidebar..

V.) How Something as Uncool as Playing Christian Music Helped a Snob See the Light

In my early twenties I’d vowed to myself I would never sell out for the sake of a solid paycheck. Of course I’ve never believed I was going to make piles of money being a rock star. Most of my music has existed under the radar and never quite lent itself to radio friendliness anyway. But in my mind, it was better to live in a crappy house with a bunch of directionless bachelors and barely scrape by financially for the sake of making music with integrity. This is all good in theory but doesn’t play out too well in practice.

I was living simply at the time but it’s always a good idea to at least have an address and a telephone. But these expenses weren’t always affordable within my budget. So go ahead and call me a sellout but ramen noodles three meals a day, stacks of shutoff notices and annoying roommates gets old after a while. Especially when you reach the midpoint of your twenties. Throw a nice girl into the mix who’s unafraid of taking a risk on the abovementioned loser and everything changes. So do the math. Unmarried gals usually prefer their prospective mate be employed and as we all know, it’s not good for a man to be alone. (more…)

For some reason bumper stickers and personalized license plates have caught my attention for years.  I suppose a lot of it is due to the many annoying hours I’ve lost looking at the back of cars in front of me.  The concept of a bumper sticker alone is weird, but there’s something mind-boggling about what a lot of people choose to put on the back of their cars for thousands of strangers to see.  I can understand wanting to spice up an automobile or support a cause, but then there are just the completely inexplicable ones that make me really wonder about the fate of mankind.  (more…)

I’ve been thinking about Good Friday. Why do we call it Good Friday anyway?

A few weeks ago I began putting together a list of songs to choose from for our annual Good Friday service at Mars Hill Church in Seattle. Mostly hymns because hymns are good at the bloody and violent aspects of the cross, which is essential to the theme. Hymns are also really good at one other thing that, to me, seems out of place during the Good Friday service: Hope. Or, more clearly, the result of the finished work on the cross complete with the resurrection 3 days later. This is at the center of Christian hope: that Jesus lived a sinless life and conquered death and therefore has something of pure and true value to offer us. But focusing on the hope while trying to grasp the gravity of Jesus’ death may going too far if we’re trying to understand what happened on the 1st day.

The idea goes like this. We focus on the death of Christ, the devastating act it was, and the ensuing confusion that must have taken place directly after. I thought he was the Messiah!? But now he’s dead! We attempt to understand the loss. We mourn. We reflect. Some people cry. Some weep. Others internalize it. You know, we all respond differently. But then the band plays and leads us in songs that, no matter how bloody they are, seemingly always end in resurrection and hope!

Ordinarily, this is good.

But Good Friday is different.

I think we should leave devastated. Let down. Maybe even depressed. After all, that’s how the disciples left. “And all the crowds that had assembled for this spectacle, when they saw what had taken place, returned home beating their breasts. And all his acquaintances and the women who had followed him from Galilee stood at a distance watching these things.” (Luke 23:48-49) Not so much a hopeful image.

If the goal is to put ourselves in their shoes, then we need songs that end in death. We need songs that end in injustice, the killing of the innocent man. We need songs that highlight our participation in the crucifixion because, after all, if we have committed one sin, then Jesus died for it, and therefore was put on the cross by our own dirty hands.

We must think highly of Jesus’ death. It’s the only way we can truly rejoice on the 3rd day when we gather to celebrate His resurrection, restoring our hope, restoring our affection, and glorifying God like the angels do in heaven, “Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God forever and ever, amen.”
 

I recently attended a conference called Re:Create  at the national capitol of Christian culture, Nashville, Tennessee.  It was a small gathering of “worship & arts” pastors of primarily large churches.  The first night began with a dinner sponsored by a large, CCM (Contemporary Christian Music) record label.  We ate dinner while the label put on a showcase of their latest and greatest “worship” artists.  It was kind like a worship music VH1 Storytellers where each guy told the story of their song and then played it (solo acoustic style of course).  This went on for almost 2 hours. 

As my ADD began to kick in full force I began to feel like the poor kid with the chunky taped together glasses who always gets picked last for the basketball team because he runs the wrong way whenever he gets the ball.  I felt like the only one who just didn’t get it.  As a good Baptist kid, it felt like the first time I went to a Lutheran church; everyone knew the music and when to stand and say, “and also with you,” except me.

But then, out nowhere, my evening was redeemed by a most unlikely savior.  When the modern worship songfest finally concluded the emcee got up and introduced a very special guest:  Amy Grant.  (more…)