Wayward Son

Musician. Composer. Recovering perfectionist. Minister-in-transition. Lover of puns. Hijacker of rock song references. Questioner of the status quo. I'm not really a rebel. Just a sincere Christ-follower with a thirst for significance that gets me into trouble. My quest has taken me over the fence of institutional Christianity. Here are some of my random thoughts along the way. Read along, join in the conversation. Just be nice.

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Sunday Summary: The Incarnate Christ

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Categories: changing mindsets, church

For the benefit of some of our out-of-town friends that can’t make it to house church but want to know what we talked about… 🙂 …we’ve been discussing the idea of doing an online video summary. Something fun that condenses our complete discussion down to about 10 minutes or so. That’s still in the “thinking about it” stage, but we have the technology. The Director (my son) is standing by. But for now, I thought I’d start the ball rolling with a blog summary from time to time of what we talked about in house church the previous Sunday.

THE INCARNATE CHRIST
We have talking about the humanity of Christ, how so many of us acknowledge that Jesus was “fully God and fully man”, yet we act more on the “fully God” part than the “fully man” part. When we treat Jesus as purely divine, He is only one to be worshiped from afar, but not really followed. We can excuse ourselves from doing what He did by saying in our hearts, “Well, that was JESUS.” We act as though the “Son of God” thing gives Him an unfair advantage. But He did everything He did on earth as a human being–and in doing so, He set an example for us. It is Jesus’ humanity, not His divinity, that challenges us to live as He lived.

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"Goodbye, my friends, goodbye"

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Categories: music

There are a lot of people who probably don’t know who this man is (I got his picture here.) But if you are a Christian and/or if you play or listen to any form of modern Christian music, you owe him a debt of gratitude, because he pretty much started the ball rolling.

I just found out that Larry Norman, the widely acknowledged father of Christian rock, died early Sunday morning at the age of 60. Partly because he was a pioneer, his early Christian rock albums didn’t get a lot of acclaim early on. The mainstream music field didn’t really know what to do with him, and the religious community didn’t like him for obvious reasons. He was never high on the Billboard charts. But there are few musicians from the Jesus movement that would not cite him as a huge influence. Many of his songs, like “Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music?” and “I Wish We’d All Been Ready” are considered classics.

I didn’t know Larry Norman personally. The closest I got to him was as a teenager when I was working security for a Mylon LeFevre concert at a local amusement park. Larry showed up in the audience, standing toward the back of the crowd, to see Mylon, and I watched as he was escorted backstage to see him. No one thought to introduce me. Oh, well. But even then (1980s) his influence was deeply felt. And likewise, he will be deeply missed. Go to http://www.larrynorman.com/ to see a goodbye letter he dictated days before his death, as well as links to other information about his life.

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BUT WHAT ABOUT…Assembling Together?

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Categories: BUT WHAT ABOUT...?, changing mindsets, church, food for thought

(Continuing the “But What About…?” thread…in this series we’re discussing various concerns people have about the growing number of people exiting insitutional churches for more organic forms of expression.)

When I was deeply entrenched in institutional Christianity–especially as a leader–I would categorize someone who migrated away from “church” in one of four ways:

  1. They are backsliding.
  2. They are deceived.
  3. They are rebellious.
  4. They have their own issues.

In my mind–and I believe in the minds of many within institutional churches–leaving the church is essentially breaking a cardinal rule of Scripture. Many of us know the Scripture by heart…

This is a preview of BUT WHAT ABOUT…Assembling Together?. Read the full post (838 words, 1 image, estimated 3:21 mins reading time)

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About Music

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Categories: Meanderings (look it up), music

I am not sure why I haven’t made this a topic sooner, but…I’m into music. A lot.

As far as what it is I do, especially in a ministry sense…music is probably my primary gift. I am a songwriter, a singer, a keyboard player, a worship leader. I’ve been musically inclined my whole life, and although I’m pushing 41 now, there are still a lot of things I want to do in this area of my life. I’ll probably talk more about that stuff later on…for now, I just thought it would be good to introduce you to this part of me.

This is a preview of About Music. Read the full post (470 words, 2 images, estimated 1:53 mins reading time)

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An Open Letter to People From My Past…

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Categories: food for thought

It seems there are more people from my past reading this blog than I once thought.

Last night I received a comment from someone who attended the church where we had been worship pastors, someone who was apparently quite hostile….well, I should just let you read a little bit of what this person said:

This is a preview of An Open Letter to People From My Past…. Read the full post (993 words, 1 image, estimated 3:58 mins reading time)

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POP QUIZ…

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Categories: fun

Okay, folks, it’s time to see if you’ve been paying attention. 🙂 Pop quiz time…

What is the January/Feburary “WORD OF THE MONTH?”

INSTRUCTIONS:

  1. Reply in the COMMENTS with the correct answer. Include your blog’s URL in the comments if you have one. (I am temporarily moderating comments to prevent spoiling and to conceal the number of people responding.)
  2. This is an “open-web” test. Feel free to check back to previous entries in this blog to find the correct answer, if you don’t already know it.
This is a preview of POP QUIZ…. Read the full post (217 words, 2 images, estimated 52 secs reading time)

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BUT WHAT ABOUT….Accountability?

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Categories: BUT WHAT ABOUT...?, food for thought

This is the first installment of what I hope will be several entries called “BUT WHAT ABOUT….?” These probably won’t occur on consecutive days, but they’ll be categorized in the sidebar, so it will be easy to find them. In this set of entries, I hope to address some common concerns people have about the idea of leaving institutional churches for more organic expressions of faith.

This is a preview of BUT WHAT ABOUT….Accountability?. Read the full post (1055 words, 1 image, estimated 4:13 mins reading time)

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Off the Subject: The Stupid Weather

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Categories: Rantings, What the heck was THAT?

It seems like Tulsa has these themed winters or something. The winters aren’t the same year after year; it’s like each winter the weather finds its own pattern, and does the same stuff over and over again. Each winter is its own barrel of fun. Yeah, right.

We went through a couple of winters a few years ago where the theme must have been “Warm, Windy, and Drought-like”. The main dangers were grassfires and being over-dressed. Almost no snow. Lots of people lost trees due to not enough rain.

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Un-persuaded

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Categories: changing mindsets, church, Meanderings (look it up)

I am a skeptic by nature, but I am not a cynic.

It is difficult to persuade me; but once I am persuaded, it is difficult to un-persuade me.

Once I am convinced of something–even if it ultimately proves to be wrong–I tend to hold onto that belief until it draws its last breath in my life.

This is why I say I am not a cynic. I am an optimist. I tend to keep believing in something long after it stops working. This is something that can be a virtue but can also work against me.

This is a preview of Un-persuaded. Read the full post (759 words, 2 images, estimated 3:02 mins reading time)
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