A Young Example

After quite a few suggestions, hints, etc., I have decided to try blogging on Blogger again. I love Vox, but one of my goals has always been to get people who are actually reading this stuff to post comments. The required registration has been a pretty big deterrent from progress on that front, so I'm trying out Blogger again. My new address will be ayoungexample.blogspot.com. Pretty much the same thing, but a different format. I'll just have to get used to not being able to see the archive of my photos, videos, etc. easily accessible on the front page. I'm sure there's a way past that, but whatever. It's late. I'm lazy. We'll see how this turns out soon enough.

-Caleb

I am happy to say that another semester is behind me and that my time away from blogging has ended. I will be posting again on a regular basis. Below is a list of things I learned in my nearly three weeks away from this space:

Somewhere in Asia, a family smiles.

• I am badly out of shape. It is possible for me to be 5'11” and 140 lbs. and still be getting my Roker on. Justice O'Connor used to grill her engaged law clerks to make sure they were staying in shape for their significant others. I point this out only because I am starting to look like Justice Scalia. I have seven months. (Michael Scott says always leave them with an ultimatum.)
• After watching him in Spike Lee's Kobe Doin' Work, Kobe Bryant has convinced me that it is possible to possess enough talent to take all joy from its use.
• I'm pretty sure Damien Jurado is in my “Top Ten Artists of All Time” list. Watch the music video for “Caskets” from his new album. It feels a lot like There Will Be Blood, only happier.

• Somehow, the equation for a successful grad school semester has been discovered: me - free time - sleep + panic + prayer = straight A's. If I had figured that out sooner, I'd be a much better student. Still, this will come in handy when I start my thesis next semester.
• Star Trek is completely nerdy but still totally enthralling, in a generally awesome and still slightly embarrassing way.
• Aziz Ansari continues to be the funniest guy in the entertainment industry that looks like me. (Kal Penn is just too Indian, and Aladdin doesn't count, as he's a fictional cartoon character. I will accept, however, “that guy from Slumdog Millionaire” as a close second.)

• For the first time in a long time, I really felt like I worshiped while playing guitar on stage. Sometimes in life you have to use the E-Bow.
  
• The best Spurs blog on the internet is, like the organization it follows, highly accessible for its fans. I even got to write a post for it! This last season was great for Spurs fans, even considering the early playoff exit, and Graydon Gordian's blog had a lot to do with it.
  

Dude, he's right there.

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Well, it's that time again. Finals are here, and I've got a pretty full plate over the next two weeks. For the two or three of you (and I know I'm reaching there) who read this, I'll be back in a few days. You know, when I'm not bombarded by 20+ page papers and exams over dead philosophers. If you're in school, too, good luck. Just a few more meters left in this race. Go summer!

I'll Be Yr Bird (M. Ward Cover)

Me!

Jen likes to call this her "golden year." She's turning 25 on the 25th. That only happens once. (Obviously.) But it's more than that. She just finished her first year of teaching. She won first year teacher of the year at th elementary school where she teaches. She even wrote the school song! She got engaged, which I had a little something to do with. She's going to get married. I could go on and on and on. She's pretty amazing. And all in all, 2009 is going to be a pretty amazing year for her (and me).

Since it's going to be such a great one, I thought I'd give her something different. I recorded this M. Ward cover on GarageBand today, and it's nothing special. It's just a quiet guitar song, lyrics half-nonsense and easy melodies. But I've never had the chance to sing just for her, and I wanted to use this medium to preserve what I recorded. Years from now, when I laugh at my naivete at thinking I could record this song, I hope that I don't look back in regret. I hope I don't look at this time in my life with Jennifer as better days. May I always sing for her with the kind of youthful abandon I put into the recording and posting of this little song. May I always love her like she deserves to be loved.

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Oh, and about that artwork. If you've seen Scrubs, you may have heard the nickname "Chocolate Bear." One of my good buddies calls me that, and I made this fake album cover a few years ago on Photoshop as a joke. That explains the name, but don't ask me about the clouds. I don't remember what that was about...

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Wordle.net

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Vice Rag

A.A. Bondy

Again, though, Bondy is not a Christian. "Vice Rag" holds its place in the American folk tradition, written in the music and lyrics of the distant past. Be that as it may, the song is yet to have died, even after repeated listens, and that's likely due in large part to that tradition and not in spite of it. I suppose we could all substitute something here in place of the vices Bondy lists and still find his conclusion equally compelling. How true it is to see the end of these trails.

If you like this song, Bondy has a free Daytrotter session online with some new material, most of it great. Here is what Genius gave me for a playlist:

"Vice Rag"
A.A. Bondy

"The Rabbit, The Bat, And The Reindeer"
Dr. Dog

"Paper Money"
Soulsavers

"She's Got A Hold On Me"
Hacienda

"Various Stages"
Great Lake Swimmers

"Memphis, Tennesse"
Mason Jennings

"Promise"
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

"Brand New Start"
Little Joy
[Solo project from the drummer of The Strokes. Sounds almost nothing like them.]

"Sometimes The Wheels"
Neil Halstead

"Requiem"
M. Ward

"Crossed Out Nature"
Ryan Adams

"Angels' Share"
Vetiver

"Walking"
The Dodos

"The Gardener"
The Tallest Man On Earth

"Still Beating"
Josh Ritter

"Bloodhounds On My Trail"
The Black Angels

"Masterfade"
Andrew Bird

"People, Turn Around"
Delta Spirit

"Oliver James"
Fleet Foxes

"There's A Reason"
A.A. Bondy

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The end is the beginning is the end.

The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.
-- Mark Twain

It is fashionable today, among young and passionate Christians, to say that the church -- as an institution, as a ministry, as a place -- is doomed. There is a big difference within this camp between the Church and church. It is the latter, the uncapitalized locale in all its pitiful expiration, that represents the true problem for the members of this creed. The church has come to represent the last vestige of a dying day. The way we do church today, the logic goes, has nothing to say to the people of this world. The modern church, in short, has lost its value, and worse still, it has lost its use to both the saved and the wanting.

I have not subscribed to this reasoning, and at best, I find it suspect. The popularity of catchphrases like “we won't have 'church' in twenty years” or “God is not in a building” among young intellectuals in the Church only serves to muddle a very important debate. I believe it is vital to analyze what the church means in modern culture, what it has meant, and what it could mean in the future. Obviously, this is not the space to do something of that considerable length. What I will discuss here, though, are three relatively brief reasons why I do not believe the church is going anywhere any time soon. The church will remain a factor in Christianity precisely because it will retain its usefulness. In spite of the naysayers, what made the church important in the first place will ensure its constancy in the world of tomorrow, in a time of post-post-modernism or whatever novel philosophy to which the world might subscribe.

Reason #1: The church is global.

There is no use denying every criticism of the church as hopelessly illogical. Only an optimist of the delusional type would look at churches today and see a field of beautiful flowers lifting up their Creator. I still laugh hysterically (even as I cry inside) when I watch Sunday night BET. “Call and receive my Holy Prayer Handkerchief, and all your dreams will come true.” “Send my ministry a financial contribution, and God will open the storehouses of His blessing.” I have heard this kind of language on TV and witnessed it myself in churches here in San Antonio. As huge buildings are erected to the self-importance and perceived necessity of local ministries, it is difficult to not get angry and wonder where we're headed. But these aren't points I need to stress. John Piper has said the same (and more) much better than I ever could:

John Piper and the Prosperity Gospel

But deep within this clip is something you might have missed. It is certainly true that America is manufacturing a dangerous idea of church, a delusional approach to ministry that focuses on people and not the kingdom. But this is America. This is not the entire world. The funny thing about the people who blame American ministries for focusing only on themselves is that they commit the same sin. The idea that we are witnessing the end of the church is an American response to an American problem.

Allow me to elaborate. The young and the passionate who amplify the creed of a “no-church Church” have also come out of America. The Church they see has evolved past the need for an institution that is prone to focusing on the vanity of its human leaders and audience. These same thinkers cry out -- and rightfully so -- for a renewed focus on the world outside of America, but at the same time, they present a  solution to church that ignores the world around them. John Piper hits the nail on the head when he says that America is exporting an idea of Christianity that focuses on goods and on people instead of the Good and the Kingdom. But what good would it for Americans to export a very different idea, that the church is unnecessary and a thing of the past. What past would we be speaking of? Our past. But what about their past?

If we are to subscribe to the idea that the church is dead, we will have localized the Church. We will have committed the same sin as the vain preachers, only in a different way, toward the other end of the spectrum. Like the foolish leaders who erect “Landmarks  for Jesus,” we will have created an approach to Christianity that is only focused on our local problems. We will have prescribed an American solution to a global church. For millions of Christians outside of America, who number well above the swelling masses of the me-first West, the church is the future.

In places like India and Africa and Asia, the saved have not become disillusioned, as we have, from the onslaught of postmodernism. There is joy to be taken in this fact. There is a world outside of the gates of the West whose people long for something only the church can offer. And not the church of HD cameras. Not the church of three-piece suits. Not the church that takes offerings for the pastor's private jet (which I actually attended at one point in time). When these things become the focus of a church, we are right to criticize. But the church -- as an institution, as a ministry, as a place  -- still has something to offer the vast majority of the world.

Perhaps we have become too spoiled in our history. And perhaps the church will make changes. It should. But we cannot localize the Church because of our history. Regardless of which way we turn, we will be exporting an idea of church to the rest of the world. The utility of this idea -- as opposed to “host home” or “coffee shop meet-up” -- is priceless for places of poverty and war and desolation.

A correct response to this argument would be that in places like Africa, people only have the church because they need it. People will walk miles to a church because they don't have a choice. But how advanced do we really think a poverty-stricken community would be if they had no more meetings in an established gathering? What would a village be like if everyone had a Bible and didn't have to take the long walk to a church? Surely, this would solve all of the community's problems! I mean, I can't ever think of a time where I was involved in a Bible study where someone said something horribly misinformed or heretical! I can't ever recall a time where meeting with fellow Christians who thought exactly like me and lived in exactly the same area left me wanting interaction with people outside of the “circle!”

Sarcasm is often difficult to put into type, but hopefully you get my point. (I am laying it on pretty thick.) The church continues to represent the opportunity for people to come together from different areas, and this is true in the Third World and in America. Can churches become stale? Can they get to a point where all they do is scratch their own backs and pick their own pockets? Sure. I'd recommend a few places here in town, but I'm sure you already have some in mind. All of these places -- I find it difficult to call them “churches” proper -- should change or dissolve. But this does not end the discussion for all churches. I hate to use the trite adage that one bad apple does not spoil the bunch, but it bears mentioning in this discussion. To say something like “the church as we know it won't exist in twenty years” brings up useful questions. How do you “know it?” What church? Whose church? How we truthfully answer questions like these is unlikely to lead us to sound the clarion call for a future without church. It is because the church is global -- and not simply American -- that it will remain a fixture of Christianity.

A church in Africa.

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Don't pull out the middle one!

Butterfly #1.

Psalm 104:24 (ESV)
O Lord, how manifold are your works!
In wisdom have you made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures.

Last week, the usual breakfast gang at La Bandera Molina was discussing a characteristically wide assortment of subjects. Though much of what we talked about could be called frivolous, if not harmlessly entertaining (sports, music, television, etc.), our conversation eventually turned toward more weighty thoughts. What is popular culture? How can and should Christians interact with it? What makes certain aspects of it so enjoyable?

A monkey of some kind.

Butterfly #2.

An alligator.

An okapi.

Butterfly, #3.

A capybara.

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Malachi and a butterfly, #1.

Malachi and a butterfly, #2.

Colossians 1:21-23 (ESV, emphasis added)
And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.

Jennifer and Malachi.

"No evil" / New creatures.