Overhead, Part II

I seemed to have created quite a bit of controversy over the overly used use of overheads on my last post. Whoa! The response is overwhelming, over the top, and overboard! Everyone is over reacting. People all across this great land are over running their praise leaders and ripping down the projector screens in fits of carnal rage.

What? Oh, not really?

Oh well.

I don't want to give the impression that I loathe the overhead as much as I loathed the five o'clock youth service when I was a kid.  Our little Pilgrim Holiness church in Lancaster, Ohio, as a favor to us kids, had a service specially designed for us young teens on Sunday evenings. It mostly consisted of someone asking us Bible trivia questions and conducting "sword drills".  Then at six we got to go to the regular "adult" service.

So no, I don't hate the overhead, I just don't see what's so wrong with the hymn books.

"But if we use the hymn books, we can't sing all of those wonderful praise songs they play on KLOVE."

Exactly.

I'm glad I just linked to KLOVE. They list the songs they play right there on the web site. For instance, as I type this, they confess to playing:

• Josh Wilson
• Toby Mac
• Jeremy Camp
• Jason Gray

All singer/song writers I presume. 

OK, I admit to knowing who Toby Mac is (though I don't know his Christian name). He used to rap, but presumably still loves that kind of music, because he recorded a whole song once that said,

I love rap music/Always have and always will
There ain't no other kind/Of music in the world
That makes me feel quite as chill

I have heard of Jeremy Camp, the other two I can't place, but currently there is a pic of Josh Wilson on the KLOVE site. Mr. Wilson sports enough beard to say, "I'm non-conformist, I'm growing facial hair like the other hipsters", but enough Bieber hair to say, "But I'm still young!"

KLOVE, like NPR, needs your money to stay on the air. So yes, there are pledge drives every so often. About as often as I tune in to KLOVE it seems like. They're no worse than my local NPR station, though. When 90.9 The Bridge says they're having a Spring pledge drive, they mean from March 21 to June 21 they will be conducting a pledge drive.

But hey, the KLOVE songs of today are the hymns of tomorrow, right?  There are Gaither songs in the song book! I just searched the most popular hymns and on one list was El Shaddai. Amy Grant sang that! At least with the overhead we don't have to hear things like, "Now turn in your hymnal to 431, Luv is a Verb."

In fact, with the overhead you get precious little info about the song. I've already said you can't see the music, that's for the pros, but you don't get to see who wrote the song, when it was published, or if anyone is still making money from it. How can you really appreciate a song if you don't know who wrote it?

"Ah, words and music by Asa Hull.  I love Asa Hull."
"I thought this was Fanny Crosby."
"No, see down here on the page, Asa Hull."
"For heaven's sake, you're right. Published 1871!"

I'm really starting to sound old. What did they say when they first put hymnals in churches?

"Oh great, what's next? Bibles in English?"

Get Rid of the Overhead, Once and for All

Sunday at church we sang a song I don't ever remember singing.  I grew up in holiness churches and we sang from the hymnal Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, and every night at revivals and camp meetings.  I knew the melody to a good number of songs in those hymnals, and had a good number of them memorized.  We just about always, always sang all four verses (or five, six), or however many verses were printed in the book.  The music was right there in front of us, printed right on the staff with both the treble and bass clefs.

Though I recognized the song from Sunday as a song that was probably in a hymnal somewhere based on its construction and melody, I could only guess because we weren't singing from a song book. No, we were all looking at the ubiquitous overhead.  Yes, our church building is over a hundred years old, but we project all of our songs onto a screen that can be retracted to reveal a baptismal font. I assume the screen and projector is an aftermarket add on.  There are hymnals in our pews, but we never use them. Everyone under twenty-five thinks they're props.

Who decided that the overhead was a good idea? I'm quite certain that the only reason the first church to use one installed it is because they hadn't saved up enough to buy a bunch of hymnals. So they got some songs printed on some slides and presented the hymns as a slide show. Some song leader from another church was visiting that day, thought it was a great idea, and the rest is history.

So why couldn't I place the song we sang? I said earlier, I grew up in holiness, read Wesleyan/Pilgrim Holiness, churches, and half of the parishioners would have fainted if we had sung Once for All.  We believed back then that, like the hymnal, salvation couldn't last forever.

And here, for your reading enjoyment, Once for All...words and music by Philip P. Bliss.

Free from the law, O happy condition,
Jesus has bled and there is remission,
Cursed by the law and bruised by the fall,
Grace hath redeemed us once for all.

Refrain

Once for all, O sinner, receive it,
Once for all, O brother, believe it;
Cling to the cross, the burden will fall,
Christ hath redeemed us once for all.

Refrain

Now we are free, there’s no condemnation,
Jesus provides a perfect salvation.
“Come unto Me,” O hear His sweet call,
Come, and He saves us once for all.

Refrain

“Children of God,” O glorious calling,
Surely His grace will keep us from falling;
Passing from death to life at His call;
Blessèd salvation once for all.

Refrain

---

Facebook Devotions

As a Christian, I realize that it is my responsibility to read some sort of daily devotional.  We Christians don't have a book that accompanies the Bible, like the Talmud, Book of Mormon, or Twilight, so it's up to each one of us to find some other book authored by a famous Christian man or woman divided up into 365 easy to read sections that will provide inspiration and/or instruction without which we'd find our day intolerable. These kind of devotional books ought to be given as gifts at Christmas time, so that the recipient will have it in time for the new year and the first entry in the book dated January 1. If there is someone in your office who is known as a Christian, then you must give him a devotional book at the Christmas gift exchange. He will not wish for the chocolate or the cashews. He will most definitely desire a devotional book with a pastoral scene on the cover and a ribbon book mark. If he doesn't act thrilled to receive it, then he is probably not a Christian.

I must confess, however, I do not read a devotional. I know, it is a sin unto my soul.  My guilt is multiplied by the fact that I do in fact own several devotional books, given to me at various Christmas gift exchanges. So like the heathens, I am without excuse.

Additionally, when you consider the multitude of daily devotionals available via email and the internet, and the fact that I still don't read them, it's not hard to imagine that I must have been given over to a reprobate mind.  I don't read a devotional even though it would be convenient.

So while we're confessing, let me admit that I don't read those "devotional" status updates on Facebook either.  I read Facebook updates to see what interesting things people who purport to be my friends are doing, or to see how an acquaintance is embarrassing themselves today.  I hardly post a status update anymore, so basically I'm a voyeur.  But when I come across a devotional, I keep on scrolling. Someone could confess to killing his wife in the middle of a devotional post and I'd never notice.

I suppose it's only Christian people with Christian friends who are subject to the devotional updates. It surprises me that I never see evangelistic messages on Facebook. Perhaps we don't have enough sinner Facebook friends to spare a gospel oriented update. "Hey all you sinners, repent and be baptized!" Or, "Christ died for us while we were yet sinners." I could hit "Like" on those.

If you don't have friends who post inspirational messages four times per day, there are Facebook apps that will give you what you need.


 And yes, there are iPhone apps that will send you a devotional. Oh, how can I flee from the wrath to come?!  Wait! I don't have an iPhone. Whew, dodged one there.

If you diligently post devotions on Facebook, please don't stop just because no one reads them. That doesn't stop me from writing blog posts.

The Sinner Christian

Let me tell you what the blog is not. It is not a devotional, nor is it a series of sermonettes.  It's not something to which you'll look every day for a little inspiration.  I am not a theologian, and I'm not a pastor.  I've never formally studied religion or the Bible.  I don't know Greek, Hebrew, or even Aramaic.  I don't read popular Christian books and I don't watch Christian movies or television shows.  I don't listen to Christian radio and really couldn't tell you who the current popular cultural figures in the Christian world are. I am not a member of a church.  I am not part of a "men's group."

There's nothing wrong with any of the above, with the exception of a Christian pop culture, perhaps.  Isn't that how we got the Newsboys? Otherwise, Christians, or sinners, have no reason to be ashamed for being a part of anything listed above, in my view.

Let me say what I am, in contrast to the above, and then maybe get into what I hope the blog will be.  I wanted to call this blog The Bad Christian, but as you can see, the title and URL were taken by this guy, and this guy. Those guys haven't blogged since '07 and '09 respectively. They are bad, bad, bad.  But The Sinner Christian is alright, isn't it?  We're all just sinners, aren't we? Sinners saved by grace?

I said above I'm not a member of a church, but I do attend church, and contribute regularly. I don't say that  to commend myself, I say that to prove I am not against attending church, or being a part of a church. On the contrary, I'm very much for it.  I love to hear people say they don't believe in organized religion. My thought? So what do you believe in, disorganized religion?  Others say, "Well, I'm not religious, but I'm spiritual."  I know what religious means, but I don't know what they mean by spiritual.  I'm like, "I can see you sitting in that chair. You have spinach on your teeth." Not religious but spiritual? Is that like church and state? They have to be kept separate? It's a little like saying, "I'm not an actor, but I love potato chips." I think what they really mean is, "Well, I don't like people, or God, telling me what to do, but I think I'm going to heaven."

I said I haven't studied the Bible, but I have read it several times in various English translations. Currently I'm working on the 1560 version of the Geneva Bible. It's the most challenging version I've picked up yet.  I grew up with KJVers who believed Peter and Paul spoke the Queen's English, 1611 style.  I wonder now why they didn't latch on to Geneva version. It's even more archaic and harder to read. But I digress from my point. I read the Bible, yes. So I'm not hating on the Scripture. In fact, I believe it.

Christian pop culture? That area is murky. And I really hope to poke fun of it, but it's hard not knowing much about it, anymore.  I used to be better informed, but that was a long time ago. That was a time when I attended Petra and Carmen concerts, went to Youth for Christ rallies and saw DC Talk when they rapped.  I bought Christian music CDs. Christian movies have always been far and few between, but I'm sure I watched them.

Now I have a Christian movie on my shelf that I've yet to watch. It has Kirk Cameron in it, who I understand is a popular Christian actor now, and it is called Firehose, or something like that.  There was another one out not too long ago about some football players called They Might Be Giants, or something similar. I haven't seen either of those.  Sever years ago now, however, I did watch another Kirk Cameron flick called Left Behind.  Oh my goodness! I thought I'd missed the rapture and that movie was my tribulation.

Don't get me started on KLOVE! That's for another rant!

So, since I feel like a sinner most of the time for not being interested in all the stuff they sell at Christian bookstores outside of the Bibles and commentaries, I'm calling it The Sinner Christian.

BTW, Carmen and Petra are on my iPod right now, and I dig every song on there! But if I die in a car wreck, please oh please don't assume I want those played at my funeral. You will see a corpse blush.  Use the songs from the hymn book. It's that book in the back of the pew with all of those funny marks on the inside above and below the words.

In the spirit of other Christian blogs that leave you with a Scripture verse, here is mine, from the Geneva Bible:

And God bleffed them, and God faid to them, Bring forthe frute and multiplie, and fil the earth, and fubdue it, and rule ouer the fifh of the fea and ouer the foule of the heauen, & ouer euerie beaft that moueth vpon the earth. Genefis 1:28

God Bleff!