Victory for a Free Press

Being a journalist, I am heartened by the response

to an attempt at censorship that this news video

shows.

The day we lose our freedom of the press in this

country is the day we are no longer living in a

republic. The other news outlets that stood by

Fox News are to be commended. They didn't

just defend Fox News, they defended their

journalistic calling.

"Does not wisdom call, does not understanding

raise her voice?

On the heights beside the way, in the paths she

takes her stand;

beside the gates in front of the town, at the

entrance of the portals she cries aloud:

' To you, O men, I call, and my cry is to the

sons of men.

O simple ones, learn prudence; O foolish men,

pay attention.

Hear, for I will speak noble things,

and from my lips will come what

is right.'" Proverbs 8:1-6

Love Means Saying "I'm Sorry"

Many people may remember the line from the movie “Love Story” that says, “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.” As warm and fuzzy as that sentiment may be, I’ve come to learn, through faith, that it simply isn’t true. Cowardice and smugness mean never having to say you’re sorry. Pride means never having to say you’re sorry. Self-righteousness means never having to say you’re sorry. But love--true Godly love--repents of wrongs and apologizes to God and to whomever has been wronged.

Before I was saved and born again through Christ, I could act rudely or knowingly hurt someone’s feelings and then go on my merry way. No matter how inappropriate my actions, in my mind they were justifiable. I, alone, was accountable to me, which meant I could just let myself off the hook. I was judge and jury of my own attitudes and actions. And let me tell you, when self is the arbiter of integrity and justice, look out. Both become arbitrary, based on the current level of maturity, emotion and circumstance. I operated under the self-deluded impression that I was a person of integrity when I wasn’t, and that I didn’t owe anybody an apology when, in actuality, I did!

Apologizing is one of the great challenges of the Christian faith; at least it is for me. I’m only just beginning to live out the biblical precept of owning up to my mistakes. One reason I find making amends difficult may be because I never had it modeled. I grew up in a family and with friends that didn’t apologize. Silent treatments and talking about people behind their back followed every conflict and altercation. With time, relationships would eventually morph back together, until the next dispute, wherein the cycle would repeat. The words “I’m sorry” never crossed my, or anyone else’s, lips.

I credit my husband with being my mentor in how to say “I’m sorry.” He’s the only person I know who will be the first to freely and quickly make an apology, even if he didn’t start the conflict and even if he’s not at fault. That’s humility--something I didn’t have that God is now cultivating and that is helping me to learn to say “I’m sorry.”

Micah 6:8 says, “He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” How does an attitude of not ever being sorry fit into this verse? It doesn’t. Comparing my attitude and actions against Scripture is always the ticket to changed behavior. My faith, more and more, is such that when I sin against God and another person, I can no longer just sweep it under the rug. Instead, I feel deeply grieved for God and the poor representation I am of Him. That old selfish urge to not apologize is now being overtaken by a deep need to right my wrong: for God first, and then the other person, and then myself.

And that’s what God requires of us: justice (being accountable for wrongs) mercy (towards others who took the brunt of our insensitivity) and walking humbly with God (repenting and then going forward in the full knowledge of what it took for God to forgive us in His Son, Jesus Christ). Walking humbly may also keep our apologies to a minimum because we’re living God-honoring and other-centered lives that are bereft of behavior that would require an apology!

And for those times we slip up, as we most inevitably will this side of heaven, the truest way to love God, others and ourselves is to say, “I’m sorry.”

“As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love." Ephesians 4:1

Charles Colson's The Faith: God Is

“I was seeing God’s magnificent creation as if it were newborn. There was no explanation for what I was seeing—the intricate details of nature, genuine beauty—apart from a creator God. This could not be an illusion, an accident, or the result of some random process.” So says Chuck Colson in Chapter two of his book, “The Faith: What Christians Believe, Why They Believe It, and Why It Matters.”

Titled simply, “God Is,” this chapter looks at three options of what to believe when it comes to the origin of the universe: A Godless material universe; a God-is-present-in-all-things Universal Mind theory; and a personal God.

In the first theory, Colson writes that one must accept the premise that “life must be considered simply the product of blind, unintelligible chance, when a single cell popped into existence in the primordial sea. The material theory leaps from nonexistence to intelligible existence to information-based life on the basis—literally—of nothing.”

The second theory’s contention is that “life’s origin is based in reason or a Universal Mind.” Colson writes, “This is one of today’s prominent ideas, not only among scientists but among those interested in Eastern religions…Believers in the Universal Mind usually see their god and the universe as synonymous and assume an attitude of reverence toward creation; they join environmental groups and even flock to mountain tops to experience the “harmonic convergence” of natural forces…Often they see the world’s evolution as the way in which this universal intelligence comes to consciousness. This view leaves the human mind without any real purpose. Scientists who believe in a Universal Mind, as Einstein did, are strict determinists—they don’t believe people make their own decisions…(Einstein) thought human beings were no more responsible for their own actions than a chicken laying an egg.”

The third theory, that of a personal God, is explained by Colson this way: “Christians believe that the most likely explanation for a reasonable universe and one in which we experience ourselves as free can be found in a reasonable, personal God. Christians see the creation as an indicator of God’s character.”

I would like to stop here and interject that this view is not to be limited to creation in a let’s-go-hiking-in-the-woods only sense. I like to expand this to an entire Christian worldview that sees everything as created by God, not just the majestic sunsets and pretty flowers that God’s creation abilities are so often limited to. I see God’s creation in the ability of a brain surgeon to operate on a human being, or an engineer’s knowledge to build complicated and intricate highway structures, or a chemist’s insight into molecules. Think about peoples’ apparent “knack” for whatever it is they excel at. People ask me why my son plays bagpipe so well and how was he able to learn it seemingly without effort in just one year. I always respond: “God.” That’s the only way to explain why he plays bagpipe so well or why another person can ride a snowboard down a mountain at 50 miles per hour and do tricks as he goes. God is behind all of it: it is His sovereign design.

Ultimately, Colson says, “The choice we make among these three options as to the universe’s origin is the most important choice in life. Everything else follows from it. It’s the place where the search for the truth begins.”

So what are the roadblocks to seeing God as the one through whom all things came to be? Colson says, “Few people actually think through these choices; rather, most are influenced by cultural prejudice.”

He shares an experience he had when, at a prayer breakfast, he was seated at a table next to a man who was an atheist. Colson asked this man, “An atheist believes the existence of God can be disproved. So please, tell me how you’ve done that.”

The man, after an awkward silence, said, “Well, perhaps I should say I’m an agnostic.”

Colson then asked the man, “When did you give up studying about God?”

The atheist/agnostic admitted he’d never really tried to study about God. Colson said, “But an agnostic is one who says he doesn’t think God can be known, and you can only be an agnostic if you’ve tried to know Him and exhausted the search.” Colson finished with, “So I would say that while you appear to be a very well-educated person, you’ve made an unsupportable statement.”

I, too, was, at one time, a non-believing believer in a vague god. That required a blind, human-based, conjured-up-by-pure-imagination faith that was completely exhausting and self-defeating because I could never trust it. How could I trust a faith I came up with myself when I didn’t even trust myself?

The chapter goes on to look at the evidence of intelligent design (much thanks to God-created DNA and the scientists gifted by God to reveal it), the transformed lives of people who found faith in God through Jesus Christ, and a fair and well-reasoned puncturing of Richard Dawkins’ (author of "The God Delusion") claims.

Colson re-emphasizes at the close of the chapter that what we believe about how the universe and everything in it was and is created “determines the kind of life we make.”

I would expand that to say it determines whether or not we have hope, joy, and confidence, and the attitude we carry regarding death. One of the many God-given reasons I have hope is that I no longer fear death for me or anyone else who has put their faith in God through Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit. That frees me up to live fully here on earth, to serve motivated by God—not pride, and to remember joy even in pain. I know that God is the Intelligent Creator who is always in control. And that has made all the difference.

“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.” Psalm 19:1-4

“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” Psalm 139:13-14

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Ephesians 2:8-9

Speaking the Truth in Love, sort of...

It’s never an easy thing to go into that dark night of speaking one’s mind. But when push comes to shove, go we must. I, the proverbial introvert, would rather not sit in a room, say, with public school administrators, a teacher, a friend, or even a pastor, and air a grievance. But the sooner we understand that disagreements with others are not a matter of if, but when, the better. As certainly as the sun shines, they will arrive, and arrive with all their attendant emotion and conviction. And as uncomfortable as it is to wear one’s true thoughts on one’s sleeve and get what’s bothering us out into the open, it sure beats trying to ignore the problem, which only breeds resentment.

Because I tend to be an “amiable” in temperament: the kind of person where everything’s okay until it’s not, I’m learning—slowly--the Biblical precept to speak the truth in love. And it’s tough going, the “in love” part! When you go from simply agreeing with people all your life because you never want to disappoint them or are afraid of being judged, to suddenly speaking an opposing viewpoint, it can go poorly at first! I tend to blurt things out or steamroll right over diplomacy, leaving the people who were used to my undying compliance confused at this sudden turn of events!

For me, it’s been an arduous process of finding that exceedingly delicate balance between sticking to my convictions and remaining gracious. But as sloppy as speaking up can be (and learning what battles are worth picking and when is a huge part of it) it gets us where we need to be: out in the open with our comments, constructive criticisms and opinions so that we are no longer giving people the wrong impression and misleading them as to what we think. The more consistent we are in this, the less and less we’ll blurt and steamroll, because we’ve been honest all along. I also don’t have to kick myself later because my false amiableness allowed people to walk all over me in their beliefs and opinions. This nips resentment against others, and me, in the bud.

When we speak truthfully, and the powers-that-be don’t see it our way, or a relative, co-worker or friend is offended at our honesty, at least we’ve gotten it off our chest in the interest of speaking the truth in the best love we know how to muster at the time. Though our voices and hands shake, we are beginning to set the boundary of honesty. We are beginning to grow up.

Do I wish I could stand firm in my Christian convictions every step of the way and calmly, graciously, gently and kindly share a concern or confront a problem? Absolutely. I fail at this miserably. But to expect to do it perfectly with little or no practice means to continue to be compliant and say nothing at all. I’m a firm believer that we have to start somewhere (the beginning is a good place) and, with practice, we will get better. The Holy Spirit will let us know where we held God’s grace and where we dropped it in our frank discussions with another person. That’s been true for me every time. It’s very clear in my post-game review of conversations where I could have spoken less and listened more, and spoken more kindly when I did speak. It’s good to review when the Holy Spirit is our coach.

My advice to myself when I’ve had a run-in or tough confrontation is to learn from it, repent of where I went wrong, forgive others where they went wrong and move on. Stewing over past conflicts only makes them grow more dramatic in retrospect. When I next see the person, I hold my head high (while inwardly trembling), and attempt to show the graciousness of God that may have been lacking in my last meeting with that person. If they aren’t interested in smiling back, then forgiveness and holding a grudge becomes their issue. And I can, in compassion, understand them, because I myself have been unforgiving and grudge-holding. But as a born-again Christian, I am not my own: I was bought at a price (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). I must forgive as Jesus forgives me.

It is my prayer that one day I will look back on some of the bumpier discussions I’ve had and appreciate how far I’ve come, just like I’ve been able to do in other areas of my life since becoming a Christian. I can go forward in the confidence that "When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.” But “When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.” (1 Corinthians 13:11)

"Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.” Ephesians 4:15

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." James 1:2-4

This is Life

I thought I’d handle dropping my son off at college with aplomb, ready to pass the baton on to his Christian college professors and mentors, relieved that he’d made it. I was sure that I’d sail on into the sunset--perhaps with a tinge of sadness when we said goodbye--but then energetic to move on to the next phase. Instead, what I’m feeling these first days and nights home without him is something like death.

I had no idea that the sight of the front porch as we pulled into the drive—the porch where my son and I spent many hours together over the years talking—would send the tears flowing. Then there was the first walk past the open door of his bedroom…more tears. The movie reel of 18 years of memories runs in my head and there is nothing I can do to stop it. I think to myself, “I want life to feel good again, with the surety, strength and stability that we’ve experienced for the last several years. Life was in a great groove, and more than anything, I want that again!” My younger son is feeling the same way. He misses his brother terribly, and that is hard to see.

But I know that as good and wonderful and spectacular as each and every day can be, situations change. Toddlers grow up. People die. Living arrangements transform. And as confident as I am that God walks with me and blesses me in the good times, I need to be just as confident that God walks with me and blesses me in the sad times. As much as He carries the warm, fuzzy and stable moments in His hand, He carries the turbulence, sorrow and melancholy. As much as He imparts Hope for the future, He imparts comfort for when we miss the days gone by.

“This is life,” I keep telling myself. Yet as my nostalgia works its way out through tears, it pales in comparison to what my friend on the other side of town is going through. In the last two weeks, her mother underwent breast cancer surgery and her brother died of cancer. The 73-year old mother, while recovering from her surgery, had to say goodbye to her own 47-year old son. And my friend had to be there for both of them. Saved Christians all, feeling the pain nevertheless.

This is life. We can’t orchestrate all parts of it or dictate how to run time. We often can’t even prepare for events that we know are coming and have known are coming for most of our lives: like our children leaving and our parents dying and our bodies aging. Even though we can see it in the distance, we can’t know pain until we are in it.

Yes, this is life as God allows it. We’re tempted to ask Him, “Why?” and “How could You?” and to just come right out and say “Nobody in their right mind would design things this way!” And I imagine no human ever would. So thank God that God is God. When all is right with the world, thank Him. And when all is not right with the world, thank Him all the same: for His Holy Spirit Counselor, His Word that meets every season, His Son who wipes away our tears now and forever in Heaven, and His Sovereignty. Though our circumstances change, God doesn’t. Though our hearts break, His promises to us never do.

“Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.” Psalm 43:5

“God is our refuge and our strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea.” Psalm 46:1-2

“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” Isaiah 41:10

“Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” 1 Peter 5:7

Is There Hope for the American Marriage?

I picked up a July 2 copy of Time Magazine in the hair salon today, and was surprised to find an excellent—no actually quite remarkable—article on the state of marriage titled, "Is There Hope for the American Marriage?" Exceedingly well-written by Caitlin Flanagan, who doesn’t mince words, the article can be found here: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1908243-1,00.html

Here is a reporter who is more concerned, finally, with the facts regarding the state of marriage than with the wishful thinking that is often promulgated. In short, marriage, whose reason for being, in Flanagan’s words, is “to raise the next generation, to protect and teach it, to instill in it the habits of conduct and character that will ensure the generation's own safe passage into adulthood” is, for many, morphing out of that intended state. Instead, it is at risk of becoming nothing more than a self-serving institution that implodes when mommy or daddy simply are no longer happy. So the parents split up and think, since they themselves are now happy, their kids must be too. How many of us have heard people talk themselves into the lie that “the kids are happier now that we’re separated.” Right. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the research and facts do not bear that out. On the whole, kids of divorced parents are not happy and do not function as well as they would in a non-divorced home. (I am not talking about cases of physical and emotional abuse: nobody need stay in a relationship that is dangerous to themselves or the children.)

“There is no other single force causing as much measurable hardship and human misery in this country as the collapse of marriage. It hurts children, it reduces mothers' financial security, and it has landed with particular devastation on those who can bear it least: the nation's underclass,” writes Flanagan.

She goes on to say how “few things hamper a child as much as not having a father at home.” This is something Barack Obama concurs with when he says, "We need fathers to step up, to realize that their job does not end at conception; that what makes you a man is not the ability to have a child but the courage to raise one."

But this is the winning quote from the article: ‘"As a feminist, I didn't want to believe it," says Maria Kefalas, a sociologist who studies marriage and family issues and co-authored a seminal book on low-income mothers called Promises I Can Keep: Why Poor Women Put Motherhood Before Marriage. "Women always tell me, 'I can be a mother and a father to a child,' but it's not true." Growing up without a father has a deep psychological effect on a child. "The mom may not need that man," Kefalas says, "but her children still do."’

Of course they do, and this backs up and supports God’s design: families begin with marriage and then stay that way. But many people think they can ignore God’s design, go their own way and actually make it work. But they are often living in denial.

‘"There's a 'sleeper effect' to divorce that we are just beginning to understand," says David Blankenhorn, president of the Institute for American Values. It is an effect that pioneering scholars like McLanahan and Judith Wallerstein have devoted their careers to studying, revealing truths that many of us may find uncomfortable. It's dismissive of the human experience, says Blankenhorn, to suggest that kids don't suffer, extraordinarily, from divorce: "Children have a primal need to know who they are, to love and be loved by the two people whose physical union brought them here. To lose that connection, that sense of identity, is to experience a wound that no child-support check or fancy school can ever heal."

Of course, there is only one way to heal from anything, and that is through Jesus Christ. Although the article doesn’t get into faith, I can unequivocally say here that kids of divorce can always find a connection--the most important connection ever-- along with a sense of identity, through a relationship with Jesus Christ.

So why the mess in so many marriages and why so much divorce?

Flanagan, in very few words, pretty much hits the nail on the head.

“We recognize that it (marriage) is something of great worth, but we are increasingly less willing to put in the hard work and personal sacrifice to get there.” Yes indeed. Self-centeredness rules the day. And until that pride is dealt with, families that could thrive will wilt, and children that could themselves be learning about other-centeredness are at risk of repeating the “me” patterns of mom and dad.

As Flanagan says, “What we teach about the true meaning of marriage will determine a great deal about our fate.”

"Has not the Lord made them one? In flesh and spirit they are his. And why one? Because he was seeking godly offspring. So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith with the wife of your youth. 'I hate divorce,' says the Lord God of Israel,...so guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith." Malachi 2:15-16

Music in Worship

Sooner or later we need to admit that, for many churches, the music used in church is not the non-essential or secondary element that everybody pretends it to be. In actual practice, music, for more and more churches, is often thee focus and center of the church service. And contemporary Christian music is what Dan Lucarini talks about in this article titled: "Ex-Worship Leader: Why I Left the CCM Movement" written by Lillian Kwon of the Christian Post. Read it in its entirety at

http://www.christianpost.com/article/20090722/former-worship-leader-why-i-left-ccm-movement/index.html

You’ll find a lot of excellent points to test against Scripture and on which to seek the Lord.

I like this article because, through my experience and that of my son who, for a short time, played electric guitar in a praise band, I’ve come to many of the same conclusions that Lucarini has.

I’ve attended all kinds of churches that used all kinds of music. Growing up as a non-Christian in a liberal church, I sat respectfully and listened to the choir. The hymns the congregation sang out of the hymnals were sung with about as much enthusiasm as a trip to the dentist, and I often wondered why we didn’t just let the choir sing and leave it at that. You could almost hear the relief in the air every time the congregation was allowed to slide the hymnals back into their slots in the pew. I went on to attend similar liberal churches that followed the exact same format.

The church in which I first heard the Gospel offered both a traditional and contemporary service. We attended the contemporary service more out of convenience than anything: it was later in the morning enabling us to be on time with our two small children. I didn’t really care about the music, since it was Jesus I was seeking.

Our next church offered four different worship services with varying types of music. We again selected the contemporary service because it began at 10:45 a.m. This service had a regular worship band that played contemporary Christian music with pretty much the same people playing each week, along with a worship leader who also was the lead singer each Sunday. It was loud and full of guitars, amps and electrified instruments. I’ll wait until the end of this post to say what kind of service my family and I currently attend.

Now, I’ll say right up front that I love and respect many Christian rock bands out there and listen to them in my free time (Specifically Newsboys and Third Day, whose walk lines up with their talk). I always say that I can listen to Christian rock all week long, so I don’t need to hear it in church. And the reasons I don’t need to hear it in church are the same reasons that Lucarini describes in the article.

First of all, with any kind of performance, be it a soloist, choir, worship band, etc. there is always the opportunity and risk for ego to rear its ugly head. However, that being said, I never saw or heard about ego in a choir, or with a soloist who appears infrequently. It seems a choir is protected by the fact that it’s more of a team effort--a level playing field. Choir members all seem to realize that every voice is an equal contributor (not to mention they're all wearing the same choir robe).

But there’s something, just something that tends to snap in the ego department when electric guitars, drums, lead singers, a stage and lighting are introduced...It sure starts to look a bit like show business, doesn’t it? Before you know it, the guy with the loudest voice and biggest ego gets the loudest amp via the soundboard, the lead singer is always the lead singer and people start to wig out at practice sessions because they’re more concerned with how they sound in front of the congregation (the world) than with being up there for God.

I have a friend who used to be a drummer in a worship band and he will not play in a worship band ever again because of the ego involved. And he’s referring to himself! He doesn’t want to be reminded of his own ego that loomed when he put on his worship “show,” and he doesn’t want to have to fight the temptation of being a “show off” (his words) on stage again. Good for him for acknowledging the intense temptation of being a regular musician or lead singer in a worship band that plays once a week on a stage in front of an audience. It’s not supposed to be an audience, but it often is. I say this because I’ve noticed that many people stop singing all together when a worship band leads the song. The congregation listens instead. And the listeners are the ones who will comment negatively on the band if it isn’t up to par because the listener is more concerned with being entertained than on coming to God in humility and reverence.

Lucarini hits the nail on the head when he says,

"Worship, first and foremost, is a personal response to the revelation of God through Jesus Christ," he said. "And it does not involve me having a self-fulfilling experience. It’s very much a one-sided act as the scriptures teach. It’s acknowledging that God and Jesus are Lord, Master, King. I bring nothing to that equation at all."

The other common problem, and yes, I truly see it as a problem, is that some of the people in the worship bands are often not believers in Jesus Christ. My drummer friend said some of his band-mates were not Christians, yet they were up there supposedly for the glory and worship of God. A neighbor shared how a church in Vegas hires a professional band from outside to play. He said they were awesome. But, is that band worshipping God and leading others to do so or just playing a gig for money? Are worshippers in church to hear a concert or to come before God with a grateful and contrite heart? Have we come to the place that music is so important that we only want talent in church, regardless of what the person believes or stands for? What is church, anyway? A concert hall or God’s House?

The article says “when Lucarini and other like-minded Christians challenge the popular music style in church services, they're often labeled as legalistic Pharisees and dismissed because of the generation gap."

But I would submit that legalisms abound in contemporary Christian worship. One pastor of a multi-sensory worship service told me unequivocally that “we only use music that is sung directly to God.” So, that then would eliminate songs that sing about God and testify as to what God has done in our lives, such as Amazing Grace, for example? Amazing Grace--a song which has brought many folks to their knees acknowledging their need of a Savior, would not be welcome based on this legalism.

I’ve also seen a near-legalistic desire in contemporary services to have everyone raise their hands up high while singing, as if we’re not praising God correctly or aren’t experiencing a connection to God if we don’t. And then there’s the wearing of jeans and a general goal of creating a casual atmosphere; sort of an irreverent reverence, if you will, that we are all to aspire to and model. Heaven forbid anyone show up in a tie!

And don’t even get me going on how much I had to repent for falling for the green light to drink coffee during the church service. I went right along with it, until one day I realized the disgusting fact that we now cannot even sit through an hour of church without pouring coffee down our gullet. And I was even more disgusted when I realized that, since almost every one of us had already had our coffee at home, the reason most of us drink coffee during church is to be cool, hip and rebellious. We sit back, drink coffee in our jeans and rock out to the praise band. It got to where I couldn’t stand myself. I had drunk the contemporary worship Kool-Aid.

The bottom line is that contemporary church service fans who think it is only the traditionalists who have cornered the market on legalisms need to think again.

In the article we find out that “Lucarini currently attends a Baptist church in Denver where they sing hymns as well as contemporary songs (not CCM)."

After going through a contemporary Christian music/worship journey similar to Lucarini’s, I, too, am now in a Baptist church that sings hymns and an occasional contemporary Christian song (without a band or worship leader). The thing I first noticed when I began attending this church was that when the congregation lifts their hymnals to sing, they actually sing. And they sing with adoration, love and reverence. I actually looked up and around, because I heard, not only voices raised up in song together, but loudly, so you could hear it, get caught up in the fellowship of it and know that we’re all here for this reason: to worship God and praise Him for the Faith He gives us. When this church raises its voice as one body to sing, they mean it, and it is faith that is heard! That is true worship.

If you can get this with guitars, sound boards, lights and drummers throwing sticks in the air--and without performance ego--great! But if you can’t, maybe it’s time to re-think the purpose of worship music in church.

"Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth." John 4:23-24