Spelling Tests and Tangents

Word #4 was "media". The sentence I made up was "People say that the media is biased."

"What's biased?" a student asked.

"That means they only talk about one side," I replied, trying to think up a quick definition so that we could back to the spelling test.

"Are they?" another student asked.
Unfortunately I had difficulty passing this one by. "Yes," I said. I told them how on the 30th anniversary of Roe v Wade, the local TV station in the only state that Reagan did not carry in '84 gave pro-lifers 30 seconds of coverage, but gave pro-choicers at least 4 times that much. At this point, one student asked, "What's abortion?" [Hey, they are only 7th & 8th graders--don't be too harsh on them. . . at least THEY know that England is not in France, but I digress. . .]

"That's killing babies before they are born," I responded.

I am not sure where the conversation went from there. One person asked if Lutherans were pro-life or pro-choice. Another asked if you have to believe everything the church teaches. Soon questions were flying, and I answered as best and honestly as I could. We touched on abortion, repentance, forgiveness, faith--I think that's about it. One person asked if we could continue the spelling test. Another person said that because they didn't have religion class that day (long story) it was okay. Twenty minutes later we resumed the spelling test, although a couple students were trying to figure out how to get me off topic again. Nice try, ladies, I pick when I go off-topic.

I enjoy being at a Lutheran school where I can have a candid conversation like this with my students. It is nice to be able to have a class where one can have such a conversation. It was good to go off-topic here. It is sad to see how engrained post-modern culture is in my students. I can't remember the specific statements or questions my students asked, but it what stuck in my mind is that their weltanschauung [world outlook] is truly colored by the weltanschauung society wants them to have. They choose what seems right for them. Don't get me wrong, they're good kids, but we have to dare them to be Lutheran now and not be clouded by the false inconsistencies post-modernism has to offer.

Worship Skirmishes

It's not eavesdropping if they are talking in your office, full voice, two feet from your desk, is it? Today it was a conversation about our church's "blended" worship service. One party of the conversation, our church music director, is still convinced that it is a "contemporary" service, though our bulletin says otherwise. Okay, whatever, I'm not going to quibble about nomenclature there. Coming up is our single service Sunday where we have one church service instead of two and the style flip-flops between "traditional" and "blended". Apparently part of the flap was that the pastor told the music director to pick songs the people know which led to this soundbite about "quasi contemporary songs so as not to offend." It was at this point I feigned busyness. The music director then asserted that "you can't have it both ways," to which I whole-heartedly agree. The second party of the conversation also agreed and stated that they personally did not like the "contemporary" style, but said that as long as it is sound, the church should give the people what they want.
Uh huh. . . Then people wonder what's wrong with this picture in the church today.
Problem one: If you're going to do it, do it wholeheartedly, not half-baked. Just call yourself whatever that is. I'm here to say it ain't Lutheran.
Problem two: Even quasi-contemporary songs offend when they are not Christ-centered and have a theology of glory. Not to mention they're poorly written. I can say this from a musical standpoint. They have difficult, syncopated rhythms (most people had difficulty with a straight rhythm, let alone syncopated), they follow the same formula--verse, refrain, verse, refrain, repeat refrain, bridge, key change, refrain again--you get the idea, and they could be sung about a generic god, Jesus, Allah, yourself, your boy/girlfriend. They sound fun and say nothing.
Problem three: It's not about you, it's about Jesus for you. (Yes, I stole that from Issues, Etc.) It's not about what you want in worship but what gifts God gives in worship. We say back to God what He says to us. You can't boost your self-esteem to channel positive feelings and confess you are a "poor, miserable sinner" at the same time. You can't look for health, wealth and prosperity concurrently with taking up your cross. The theology of glory cannot coexist with the theology of the cross.
No, I will agree with them on that point--you can't have it both ways.

The Muny and other Worship Thoughts

Here am I in Seward, NE; no corn jokes please; for the "Institute on Liturgy, Preaching, & Church music. It's been fun so far--okay, one day. I've seen many people, learned a few things, had some mammoth choir rehearsals, and the like. The opening worship service was fantastic. The music, the singing; and the sermon was pretty good. I'm sure some would have not liked it. Ah, such is life.
It's interesting hearing other folks' conversations. I'm not eavesdropping when they speak loudly enough for others to hear. Perspectives are always fascinating.
This is not a complaint post, as much of what I have seen so far has been positive, but there were a few things that set me on edge. Such as the liturgical dancer at the evening service. I'm sorry, but I don't find it worshipful when it was much like what I saw at the Muny a couple nights ago for their 90th anniversary show. I'm not exaggerating, either. The ballet dancer at the Muny for the reprise of "If I Loved You" had movements very similar to the liturgical dancer. No joke.
The thing that quite irked me was this, however: My roommate for this conference is a nice lady from a midwestern state. She is "typical" Lutheran. Listening to her, I see she is an average churchgoing woman. She is in a seminar (I'm not sure how she ended up in it) which unsettled her after the first day. There are 2 more sessions left. The presenter was essentially advocating church growth and not calling new plants Lutheran to be more sensitive to people's biases. This did not sit well with her. She is "forward thinking" (some would call it church growth or liberal), but she didn't like the idea of throwing the baby out with the bathwater, so to speak. It bothered her. I imagine there are many in our church who would not go for this. Average member Joe wants church to be recognizable. Lutheran is our identity, our heritage, and yes, our future. When we don't want to say who we are, who are we. In the summarized words of Romeo, without a name, who are we? Without our heritage, we are no one. Sorry guys, we can't be Lutheran and Rick Warren too.

LHM Mission

I am confused. Could anyone clarify how Lutheran Hour Ministries is doing a "Work and witness" project with the California-Nevada-Hawaii District of the LC-MS and have two members of their team be ELCA? One an ELCA pastor, no less.
I don't have a problem with mission work [humanitarian] trips that are pan-Lutheran. I am wondering about the witness part. How does that work? Lutheran is not Lutheran is not Lutheran. If we were all the same there would not be the different Lutheran synods; therefore, we must have diverging areas in our beliefs.
All I wish to do in this post is pose questions. If anyone can supply some answers, I'd appreciate it. I'm apprehensive about the answers which may come up. Maybe there's a simple explanation for it, and I'm over-analyzing it. Then again, maybe not.

I am a C

I don't understand why people think that Lutherans (or another denomination) aren't Christians. I had a conversation with someone just the other day who didn't know what a Lutheran is and then informed me that her mom is Catholic, and she was a Christian. I can excuse her; it was clear she wasn't very aware of denominational differences. It fries me, on the other hand, when I find people who should know better saying things like this: "I'm first a Christian, then I'm a [pick your denom]."
Sorry, but that's like saying, "First I'm an American, then I'm a Texan." Being a Texan makes you American by default (not that Texans would admit that--maybe using them is a bad analogy). Just like being Lutheran makes you a Christian by default. Let's be proud of who we are, people. Dare to be what you confess to be, and if you don't know what that is, please find out what you belive and confess.