Here are three video segments from “The Gathering” at Scotiabank Place here in Ottawa, Oct. 25, 2008.

I’ll be hitting the old stomping grounds this week. I’ll be in Windsor visiting my family. If you’re in the area I’d love to see you at Cameron’s on Wednesday night, or at my concert on Friday night at Southwood Community Church’s Slavic Campus. I’ll also be leading worship this weekend at Heritage Park Alliance Church. It’ll be a busy week but I’m looking forward to great times of ministry and making new friends and meeting some old ones.

A few years ago I read about Francis Beckwith, the former president of the Evangelical Theological Society converting (or rather, returning) to Catholicism.  It rocked the evangelical world, that such an eminent theologian could leave protestantism to return to Rome.  Well, Francis has written a book entitled “Return To Rome” which chronicles his journey out of the Catholic church and then back into it.  Here are my quick hit thoughts on Beckwith’s book:

Here is Beckwith’s take on the “folk mass” – one of the American Catholic church’s implementations of the Vatican II reforms:

Looking back, I believe that the Catholic Church’s weakness was presenting the renewal movements like the charismatic movement as something new and not part of the Church’s theological traditions.  For someone like me, interested in both the spiritual and intellectual grounding of the Christian faith, I didn’t need the “folk Mass” with cute nuns and hip priests playing “Kumbaya” with guitars, tambourines and harmonicas.  And it was usually not done very well, if my experiences and those of many of my friends and scores of my contemporaries with whom I have spoken and corresponded are correct.  Combine that with a watered-down and intellectually vapid presentation of the Gospel, and is it any wonder that many of us made the mad dash to where we saw Christ lifted up in Evangelical Protestantism?  Instead of playing to its strengths – historical continuity with the early church, theological sophistication, a high view of scripture, a true counter-cultural understanding of the human person and social justice, and profound and life changing spiritual practices and traditions – the American Church offered to the young people of my day a lousy pop music, a gutted Mass, theological shallowness, and “social justice” pabulum that was a proxy for far left politics.”

Ouch!  But if you change the phrase in the last sentence to “far right politics” then you get a good description of a lot of contemporary protestant churches.

• A very good discussion of the doctrine of justification and the reformed position versus the Catholic position.  It was puzzling out this doctrine that was the tipping point for Beckwith to return to Catholicism.
• Beckwith makes a strong case that converting to Catholicism is compatible with his evangelicalism.
• Beckwith’s views the issues strictly on a theological basis and doesn’t really deal with praxis issues.

That’s all for now!

I find economics fascinating.  Probably because I know very little about it.  I took one economics course in university and remember something about supply and demand.  I also remember phrases such as “inelastic demand”, “negative supply shock”, “guns and butter”, “velocity of money” among others.  Don’t ask me to say anything sensible about them, but I’ve been thinking about economics with our current fiscal meltdown.  So as I was reading in Genesis I came across what may be the first instance of monetary policy in history.

Gen 23:16 “Abraham agreed to Ephron’s terms and weighed out for him the price he had named in the hearing of the Hittites: four hundred shekels of silver, according to the weight current among the merchants.”

The weight of a shekel was variable.  They had a floating currency!  I doubt there was some central banker that set the weight… but I would guess that it would go up and down based on certain economic conditions.  Don’t ask me what those conditions would be.  Also… don’t ask me what the spiritual significance of this is either.

I’m back to work after a few weeks away.  It is really energizing to step back into worship leading after a break.  Sabbath is so important to the rhythm of our lives.  It’s essential for ministry and for life that we keep the rhythm of work and rest.  Last night at my rehearsal with the band I was just so energized to be “back in the saddle” again.  Even when you’re doing what you love it can become a grind without any sabbath breaks.

Another interesting thing happened at rehearsal that got me thinking along these lines.  We hooked up the metronome to our in-ear monitors as we worked through a song with a couple of different grooves.  It was pretty depressing to see how tough it was for us to keep time!  That stubborn metronome just won’t speed up with the rest of us!  Most of us tend to rush.. in music and in life.  But we have a rhythm that God has given us in Genesis one of work for six days and and then rest.  If we don’t keep good time… a train wreck is just around the corner.

So get out there and get some sabbath rest.

Christopher Hitchens is my favorite atheist.  He’s brilliant and his sense of humour is wicked (pun intended).  I listen to him regularly on Hugh Hewitt’s podcast and have read his most recent book “God is not Great”.  I think it is important to be familiar with what those opposed to the faith are thinking so that’s why I keep up with Hitchens.  Much of his objections to what he observes in people of faith are valid.  I’ve learned a lot from Hitchens, and I think my faith is stronger for it (much to his chagrin, I’m sure).

In any case, he has an article registering his protest against Obama asking Rick Warren to pray at his inauguration.  Here’s my favorite part:

… one wishes them all the best of luck in their energetic fundraising and their happy-clappy Sunday “Churchianity” mega-feel-good fiestas.”

I wonder if the services I’ve led look like this to outsiders.  Certainly Hitchnes views the world of faith with a jaundiced eye, but if I’m honest I must admit that sometimes our worship looks more like his description than something that proclaims the story of God and draws us more deeply into our roles with His story.

Hey all… sorry I haven’t blogged at you in a while.  Here’s a post I’ve been meaning to make for a while.  I recently read Scot McKnight’s latest release “The Blue Parakeet – Rethinking How You Read the Bible“.  My overall review is a huge thumbs up.  Here are 5 shortcuts that he says many of us take in reading the Bible.

1. Morsels of Law – viewing the Bible only as a compendium of commandments
2. Morsels of Blessing – viewing the Bible as simply 1001 promises from God
3. Mirrors and Inkblots – viewing the Bible as a mirror or a Rorschach ink blot upon which we project whatever we want
4. Puzzling together the Pieces -  With this approach we treat the Bible as a brain-teaser and try to puzzle together the pieces to map God’s mind.
5. Maestro’s – looking at the Bible only through the perspective of one author.  This often happens in evangelical circles when we view the rest of the Bible through Paul rather than a balanced view of the entire Bible.  This shortcut was the hardest for me to wrap my head around.

Scot’s answer is that we read the Bible as a Story.  It is a story made up of stories and we each have our place within the story.  I have found that viewing the Bible as The Story has affected my entire spirituality.  The story of Creation::Fall::Incarnation::Redemption::Re-Creation has changed everything for me.

Anyway, I highly recommend the book as well as Scot’s excellent blog (much better than mine!)

We had our Remembrance Day observance this morning at church.  We had a pilot from the armed forces share about his work flying wounded soldiers home and then he read a poem by Robert Service called “Young Fellow My Lad”.  I’ve linked it here.  It was very moving and makes a great alternative for to John Macrae’s “In Flanders Fields” which we’ve all heard many times.

Pics from “The Gathering 2008″ are now available in the gallery.  Check’em out!