The Big Diehl

I was just thinking about the Worship of America. Not Worship IN America . . . but the Worship OF America. You know, the nonsense about how all our founding fathers were sold-out Christians (5 minutes of intellectual research will show you that although they were all extremely religious and believed in the supreme being, few of them would acknowledge Jesus Christ as their Savior and the only way to heaven). It shocks me to find a hymn lyrics in my hymnal such as, “My country … sweet land of liberty … of thee I sing!” and “I like the sound of America, the best sounding word I know.” What? That’s a worship song? I believe we SHOULD pray for our troops — but because they are doing a difficult thing and need prayer, not because they are in the God-Army fighting terrorism.

Now a lot of people get way over sensitive about this and they won’t vote in elections claiming, “My King is in heaven, and he’s coming back.” That’s just ridiculous. My King is in heaven, and he’s coming back . . . but he also told us to respect our government and work within its structures . . . in other words - VOTE. I am a proud American - but my first priority is my faith in Jesus, not in my country. It’s not evil that they are connected - Christianity and government SHOULD be connected; Christians should have their lives SO effected by being in love with Jesus that their Christianity effects EVERYTHING (anything less turns Christianity into a religion). But being an American doesn’t make you a Christian. Jesus does.

How did Christianity and Americanism get so connected? That’s what confused me for the longest time. So I started thinking about the foundations of both: America was founded because there was a group of people that were in bondage to a repressive government. The patriots fought against this repressive government to declare their freedom. Christianity was founded because mankind was in bondage to a sinful nature and destined to hell. God fought against this sinful nature and defeated it; bridging the gap OVER sin and declaring all of humanity’s freedom (should they accept it).

I’ve heard it said Christians have an easier time forgiving people than non-Christians do. I think that’s true because Christians have BEEN forgiven. Christians know what lousy sacks of crap they were, and that Jesus forgave them and redeemed them anyway… so its easier for a Christian to show forgiveness to someone who doesn’t deserve it because they’ve experienced it themselves.

Maybe America’s foundation in FREEDOM got mixed in with Christianity because of its similar theme. Hmm.

If you read about the early church in the Book of Acts, you will see a drastic difference between today’s Christianity and the church described in the Book of Acts. Extraordinary events today were ordinary for first century Christians: healing, dead being raised to life, hundreds coming to Christ every day, miracle after miracle after miracle. So I dug into the Book of Acts to answer this question, “What did the early Church do that Christians today are not doing?” This post is a part of a series of posts that aim to answer this question.

I grew up hearing about persecution and how we should stand up for what we believe in even when we are persecuted.

In sixth grade, my older brother had a really cool cross necklace made from bent nails that he got at a “D.C. Talk: Jesus Freak” concert. One morning he gave me permission to wear it to school. Of course I was jazzed about this because I would be COOL. I wore it all day and I remember in gym class another guy named Jacob called out to get my attention, “Hey Cross Boy!” I got really excited when he called me cross boy. I remember leaving the 6th Grade locker room with a big smile on my face thinking, “YESSSSS, I’m being persecuted for Christ!” Being called a name like this was hardly persecution but I didn’t realize that in 6th grade!

As I studied the book of Acts, I was shocked at what the Early Church went through in order to tell others about Jesus. Right
here is a huge list. They had opposition to the gospel EVERYWHERE they went! After the stoning of Stephen in Acts 7, persecution broke out against ALL Christians. Now we’re not talking about calling them “Cross boy” — I mean serious persecution! Serious enough that everyone MOVED and scattered all over the region. I can only imagine they were running for fear of their LIVES. Yet this life threatening persecution drove them CLOSER to Christ and they told others about God ALL THE MORE!

So let’s compare this with American Christianity. There are two things I think the early church had that we are missing. We aren’t driven to Christ, and we back down at persecution.

We aren’t driven to Christ. When the early Church was persecuted it stirred their faith even more. In America, especially in the Midwest region, we aren’t stirred in our faith. We don’t have extreme persecution. If there is to be a revival we MUST be stirred in our faith. I’m not a prophet nor do I feel I am prophesying, however I want to make a PREDICTION (based on my own gut instincts and not on anything God told me). I predict that the economy will get much worse than it is right now. I predict the value of the US $ will plummet and financial difficulties will turn hearts back to the Church, and then to God. God wants ALL of ALL our hearts - and he’ll use an economic depression if that’s what it takes to get us stirred in our faith. We must be driven towards Christ!

We back down at persecution. This is an understatement. American Christians DON’T back down at persecution - American Christians do not live loud enough for the slightest speck of persecution to arise! We are petrified of being persecuted! Christians are the only religious followers who seem to be scared to tell others what they believe. Very few American Christians get any sort of persecution because they don’t do what they believe in the first place. This is a significant problem. I’ve heard it said, “If you don’t have someone mad at you, you’re probably not making much of a difference.” I think there’s a lot of truth to that statement.

I’m inspired to write this blog post because I’m frankly quite tired of hearing people complain about musical styles in churches (contemporary vs. traditional). Some of you are TEACHERS, and when someone teaches something inaccurate you have a cow. I’m a church musician (among other things), and when mistaken people make inaccurate assumptions about music in the church - I’m gonna have a cow. So here’s my cow.

Myth: Adding Drums and guitars to a hymn will make it sound contemporary.

The truth is that the instrumentation and arrangement of the song has very little to do with the historical placement. The key is song structure. It’s been this way for centuries. The first written music used in the organized Christian church was chant. It sounds like chant not because it is a capella, but because of the song structure. The Classical era of music is most noted for its Sonata form. The Sonata form is a SONG STRUCTURE where there is an exposition, development, recapitulation, and then coda. I could go on and on with example after example but the bottom line is that musical styles have always been and are marked by a changed in musical structure. Adding guitars and drums to a Mozart Sonata will not make it sound contemporary - the structure would still make it sound classical (although they’d probably call it “neoclassical”).

In popular music today, the structure isn’t exposition, development, recapitulation, and coda. It’s more like Verse, Chorus, Verse, Chorus, Bridge, Chorus. Modern music today relies on a HOOK (which is in the chorus). It’s all about getting back to the chorus. Every good modern song written today has a hook in the chorus. Nearly all hymns were written in “Strophic” form; several verses sung to the same melody. Adding guitars and drums to a strophic song (hymn) won’t make it sound any less strophic, and therefore any less old.

Am I against hymns? Of course not. I’m just saying that hymns sound old because they’re HYMNS, not because there’s an organ in them.

A great example is the NEW song “In Christ Alone.” It was written in the past 10 years, but it sounds like an ancient hymn simply because it was composed with the strophic (old) song structure. What if we took things the other way? What if we took an ancient song and used a NEW song structure? In other words, give it a chorus.

Chris Tomlin = Genius.

Chris Tomlin understood what I’m saying when he gave hymns like Amazing Grace and The Wondrous Cross a facelift. He added a chorus to both of these and transformed them from strophic hymns to modern songs: “My Chains are Gone” and “The Wonderful Cross.” A first time church attender could listen to these songs and not realize the song is hundreds of years old. It sound modern because there is a modern song structure. If you were to play “Amazing Grace: My Chains are Gone” with only an organ, imo it wouldn’t sound as hip - BUT IT WOULD STILL SOUND MODERN.

Another thing that goes into this is time signatures. Triple time doesn’t get used much anymore, but hymns were almost always written in 3-4 (the really old ones HAD to have been written in triple meter because the Church sanctioned 3-4 meter to be the only time signature holy enough for church (three beats per measure = one beat per God head)). Today, 4-4 meter is most common. Time signatures aren’t nearly as big of a deal as the song structure though.

The implication . . .

In modern music, the chorus has the hook and the verses have the information. In the hymn’s strophic form there were only verses, and that means ONLY information. So if you put a modern song and a strophic hymn side by side, guess which one will have more theology? THE HYMN. That’s because the strophic hymns ONLY had theology - that was their purpose! Putting a modern song and a strophic hymn side by side isn’t really fair. The strophic hymn has ONLY information because that was the purpose of the song… teaching theology. Today, modern music in the church has a myriad of OTHER uses (teaching theology isn’t as necessary in music because today people know how to read.. . . but that’s not to say songs should be any less theologically sound!)

Let me give you an example of this. My church just started doing Houghton and Gungor’s song “Say So” which was nominated for the GMA’s best song of the year. It deserves that award, I think. The chorus contains the hook - “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so!” And we repeat it several times. That’s all there is to it. Is it a scripturally sound statement? Yes. Does it provide information? Not really - that’s the job of the verse: “What does it meant to be saved? Isn’t it more than just a prayer to pray? More than just a way to Heaven? What does it mean to be His? To be formed in his likelness, know that we have a purpose: TO BE SALT AND LIGHT IN THE WORLD!” This hook-less verse gives the information. And its doctrinally sound, however it isn’t teaching theology as much as its inspiring the church to rise up and tell the world they are redeemed! (Although that becomes abundantly clear in the second verse.

I hate it when people complain about hook-filled choruses of songs simply because they don’t contain as much information as a hymn. They are two completely different forms of music - and not comparable. Here are a few more examples of hook-filled worship songs that repeat several lines: Open the Eyes, Friend of God, We Want to See Jesus, I Love You Lord I Love You I Love You (I’m thinking of the David Crowder song), and I Could Sing of Your Love Forever. These songs are not any less spiritual than information-filled hymns. They’ve just taken on a modern STRUCTURE of music in order to fulfill a different felt need of the church.

Hop on iTunes and get the song “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy” by “The Buddy Rich Band.”

If you ever need to get your blood flowing sometime … pop that in. Make it a “Buddy Rich Day.” That’s what I did today. And crank it. Brass and saxophones always sound best when they’re loud.

This is how I feel:

In case you can’t tell, that’s the bottom of an empty barrel! Man, have I been drained lately. I’ve got to make some serious adjustments to my schedule, starting with a big massive hunk of time exclusively set aside for praying and connecting with God (not my normal time, but like a “recovery” time!). In the past 24 hours I’ve had two friends call and ask if I could get together with them, and I’ve had to tell them both, “I’m sorry, I’m not available. I’m going to be praying on that day.” Which is totally the truth!

You know, its cool how God works things out. One thing that had been pressuring me greatly was a speaking engagement that was scheduled for this month. Deadlines for some outlines and such were coming up just next week and I was starting to feel a lot of pressure. Just a few minutes ago, an organizer for the event called me and apologized but asked if he could move my speaking day back a month to May.

I love serving Jesus. He’s got my back, that’s for sure.

If you read about the early church in the Book of Acts, you will see a drastic difference between today’s Christianity and the church described in the Book of Acts. Extraordinary events today were ordinary for first century Christians: healing, dead being raised to life, hundreds coming to Christ every day, miracle after miracle after miracle. So I dug into the Book of Acts to answer this question, “What did the early Church do that Christians today are not doing?” This post is a part of a series of posts that aim to answer this question.

Let this video play while you are reading this post:

In 1864, Elder Joseph wrote this song, “Simple Gifts” while living in a Shaker Community:

‘Tis the gift to be simple, ’tis the gift to be free,

‘Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be,

And when we find ourselves in the place just right,

‘Twill be in the valley of love and delight.

When true simplicity is gain’d,

To bow and to bend we shan’t be asham’d,

To turn, turn will be our delight,

Till by turning, turning we come round right.

The concept of living simply is clearly rooted in the early church in the book of Acts. Check these references from Acts. The early church lived a simple life in order to help others. There are two areas where I think we are too complicated.

Firstly, our finances are too complicated. We have far more things than we have any use for. Do we really need extra vehicles? How many T.V.’s do we actually need? Now I’m not trying to shake a finger and claim that we should live in poverty. If you are financially blessed, be blessed, but remember that you are blessed to be a blessing.

Secondly, our minds are too complicated. We need to shut up and listen more. I wrote about that a couple years ago.

Spend a couple minutes meditating on the words of “Simple Gifts” and/or the scriptures listed behind the reference link above (feel free to check the contexts). Ask God how he may want you to live more simply in order to help the Church.

Okay, I need to take this silly April Fools Day opportunity to tell everyone about my favorite website: www.something.com. Check out the website - its amazing. I found this website when I was in the 10th grade bored on a computer and I just typed in “www.something.com” to see what was there. I laughed and laughed. To this day, I laugh hysterically every time I visit the page. I can only imagine the enjoyment the site owner gets . . . seeing how many millions or billions of hits he gets on his nonsense page every day. It just cracks me up.

For the html-ers out there, you also might enjoy to look at the simplicity of the html code.

If you read about the early church in the Book of Acts, you will see a drastic difference between today’s Christianity and the church described in the Book of Acts. Extraordinary events today were ordinary for first century Christians: healing, dead being raised to life, hundreds coming to Christ every day, miracle after miracle after miracle. So I dug into the Book of Acts to answer this question, “What did the early Church do that Christians today are not doing?” This post is a part of a series of posts that aim to answer this question.

As I read through the book of Acts there was a huge theme that kept coming up - FAMILY. I didn’t recognize this pattern until chapter 21, so that’s why this list of scriptures is not comprehensive.

There were many people traveling and spreading Christianity in the first century church - and they were all treated like family. When Paul is writing to churches, he often says things like, “I long to be with you . . .” The church viewed themselves as family.

I think this is one thing that’s challenging the American church today - we aren’t a family. Take Galatians 6:2 for example, “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” What does it mean to carry each other’s burden?

About a year ago I had a friend that came to me and confessed to me that he was struggling with a sexual addiction. All it took was a girl to wink at him and he would have her in bed by the end of the day, sometimes within the hour. He was a Christian, but he was struggling. He came to me because he wanted to be healed and he trusted me. I prayed for him. A few days later he called me up and explained that he had sex with another girl again. I couldn’t believe that he was so far into sin and did it again! I couldn’t believe he was such a lousy human being - that’s really what I was thinking. His situation made me very uncomfortable and I began avoiding his phone calls and text messages until he stopped calling and leaving messages.

When I read Galatians 6:1-2 last month I felt great conviction from my actions a year earlier. I didn’t treat this brother like a brother - I treated him like an enemy simply because the nature of his sin made me uncomfortable. That’s my problem, not his. I wanted Christianity to be nice, clean, orderly, and easy. He was making it messy. In reality my friend had a healthier perspective of Christianity than I did - Christianity should be filled with messy poop, because poop is a sign of life!

If the American church really grasped this idea of our spiritual family ties, I think we would see more people openly confessing their sins. We would have a much healthier Christianity — we would be carrying each other’s burden.

Can I give you the same challenge I’m giving myself? It has two parts. First, be accepting of a Christian who’s confessing their sins to you. Remember they’re confessing because James 5:16 says “Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you can be healed.” Secondly, don’t disobey the Bible - find people you can confess your sins to that will pray for you. And then do it!

**Cue Exit music: Sister Sledge doing “We Are Family“**

In the 1980s, my dad heard a list of ministry myths about pastors at a convention of the Fort Wayne Bible College (later bought by Taylor University). Many of these are specifically regarding full-time pastors. I thought they were very interesting, and very applicaple for today as well.

1. Pastors have perfect kids.  People actually think it should be that way!
   
2. Pastors have the answers to everything. Don’t me how to change your oil!
   
3. Pastors are super-Christians. The only difference is a Calling to full-time ministry. Pastors get tempted like everyone else.
   
4. Pastors need less money. Historically this was actually true — Pastors used to get discounts for everything. But that hasn’t been the case for several decades. Pastors have bills to pay like everyone else. 
5. Pastors only work one day a week. I’ve actually heard of a person who frequently would stop in to speak with a pastor and start out by saying, “I figured you didn’t have anything to do so I wanted to stop by and talk to you.”
   
6. I lost it.
7. I can’t find these.
8. Not sure where I wrote 6-10 at…
9. Hmmm…
10. When/if I find 6-10 I’ll post them, too. But I didn’t want to mess up the beautiful numbering system…
11. Pastors know what’s happening. Pastors do not magically know if you’re in the hospital or if you are offended or if your life is going down the tubes and you want someone to pray for you.
12. It’s easy for a pastor to be a Christian. See note on #3.
    
13. It’s easy for a pastor to witness.
14. Pastors have no retirement needs.
15. The pastor and his family are immune to troubles.
16. Pastors always have their head in the clouds. Although many pastors need to be visionaries and look towards the future, so it may seem this way because pastors often talk about what COULD happen.
    
17. Pastors are a third sex. Ha ha. This made me laugh. A pastor is either a male or a female - and you’re going to get all the emotions and characteristics that go with that sex.
    
18. The Pastor’s home belongs to the church. This was the case many years ago but the parsonage idea is quickly vanishing across all denominations.  Parsonages were often bitter experiences because the family could go away for a day and when they return the walls and furniture could be completely changed– whether the pastor liked it or not!
    
19. Pastors don’t need a vacation.
20. Pastors should always be available. A good church should have a MINISTRY TEAM that is always available. If the pastor is on a date with his wife - leave him alone. This is why deacons were originally created.
    
21. Pastors appreciate inside information (aka. GOSSIP).
22. Pastors sleep in every morning. Sometimes a pastor needs to work 2nd and 3rd shift. I’ll never forget getting home at 2 or 3 a.m. from a youth group event and just as I was arriving home, my dad was leaving to go minister to someone in a hospital.
    
23. The pastor’s wife enjoys all facets of the church ministry. My mom (a pastor’s wife) is an exception. But we shouldn’t assume that the pastor’s wife is Called to ministry - she is firstly Called to her husband. (If it makes you feel better, reverse the husband/wife thing to be politically correct). 
24. If you hire the pastor, the pastor’s wife is part of the deal as well. I’ve heard of one church asking a potential pastor, “If we hire you, what will your wife do for us?”
    
25. A pastor is Mr. Fixit. Pastors don’t know how to fix other individuals and all problems in the world. Don’t have an unrealistic expectations — pastors can give you Godly spiritual counsel.
    
26. The pastor’s family appreciate hand-me-downs. Pastors families appreciate it just as much as any other family (its not bad, but its not exactly “Christmas” either).
27. The pastor’s car is the church taxi. “Pastor, I need to get to a doctor’s appointment, can you drive me there?” This actually happens.
28. Pastor’s don’t need study time or devotional time - they already know all spiritual truth.
29. Pastors like to eat. Fellowship is important for a pastor - and food often comes with it… too much. 

The past several weeks I’ve been amazed at two CDs. I wanted to give a plug for them.

Israel and New Breed’s “A Deeper Level”
It’s got the classic “Israel Hougton” sound (and beats) that makes my mind spin, energy that competes with the Energizer Bunny, and a deeper message than most of Israel’s stuff. It is well deserving of its Grammy for the best pop/Contemporary Gospel album of the year. You can buy it here.

Leeland’s “Opposite Way”
Leeland is the best. That’s all there is to it. It is a powerful, powerful CD. God’s raising up a new generation of worshipers who aren’t afraid to go “the opposite way.” It’s great stuff. You’ve got to check them out. Their website has a link to where you can buy the CD and also has a thing on the front page where you can click to listen to the entire album (streaming). Go check them out.