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Matt_Gertz
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Name: Matt
Birthday: 6/27/1973
Gender: Male
Interests: Following Jesus, theology, engineering, music, cycling, surfing, skiing, medicine, running, computers
Expertise: Engineering, Project Management, Pastoring
Occupation: Professional Job Hunter and Re
Message: message me
AIM:  mattgertz
MSN: mrphoton
Yahoo:  mattandcolleengertz
ICQ:  Try Google Talk!
Member Since:
10/24/2006
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| We decided to begin to incorporate some of the ordinaries from corporate worship into our suppertime routine to cement them into the kids (and our) memories and have the chance to discuss them. Tonight we began by singing "Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might..." Colleen and Michaelah pretty much have the whole thing down. Nathan, on the other hand, tends toward a more "freestyle" interpretation of our worship songs--not exactly in tongues, but it might as well be. Except for the ending:
Family (singing): A----men.
Nathan (not singing): Please have a seat... And give me a hot dog with cheese.
A pastor in the making, perhaps?
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| Back to the issue of "the story" with regard to what Yahweh is doing in history. It seems apparent from Scripture that the Lord intends to cover the globe with the knowledge of Himself, and that the Kingdom of God will expand until it fills the whole earth just like a plant grows in a garden. Now does anyone really think that the Lord intends to grow the Kingdom without the involvement of those already in the Kingdom? And is any area of life meant to be unaffected by this transformation? How is it then that our thinking is so fuzzy about what we as Christians are supposed to be doing during the short span of our lives? We seem to have so little corporate purpose, to say nothing of planning or strategy when it comes to what we are to be doing with our lives individually and together.
And no, I'm not even talking about missions and evangelism (yet). I propose that one of the goals of our lives ought to be to begin to transform the culture within our various disciplines and occupations. What happens when all of God's people begin practicing medicine, art, architecture, interior design, politics (yes, politics), reading, music, banking, flower-arranging, writing, engineering, driving, table-waiting, etc. etc. etc. to the glory of God and according to the rules of the Kingdom instead of the ways of the world? I don't know exactly, but I do know we had better get busy finding out. You see, the Christian life, and the life of the Church as a whole is part of the story of Christ's complete and irresistible conquest over His enemies and everything that stands at odds with Him. That means that those who know Him must take a keen interest in the state of the culture and in the particular circumstances into which God has placed us After all, culture belongs to the One we love most deeply, and our love for Christ must stir in us a desire to see His will done as it is in Heaven in all areas of life. Perhaps seeking His Kingdom first is a lot more practical of an exercise than we think.
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| We all live more or less in accordance with our understanding of the Universal Story as well as the sub-plots of our own stories. In other words, our actions are largely governed by our understanding of the purpose and direction of ourselves and of creation as a whole. As Christians, our lives are permanently changed by the story of what God has done in the past as recounted in Scripture and we gain encouragement from our understanding of what He is doing in the present.
However, our lives and the life of the Church in general are perhaps more influenced by our understanding of the future. I am not thinking of the eternal joy in the presence of God that awaits His people, although that is a tremendous comfort to us and our greatest hope. I am thinking of how we understand the future story of humanity prior to Christ's return. Contrary to its neglect in the doctrinal statements of many churches, our understanding of the end times is critical to the church conducting itself rightly and pursuing the right ends. Without rehashing the whole dispensational time line, I think it is sufficient to note that this school of thought, immortalized in the "Left Behind" series does little for our cultural aspirations as the Church. This view would have us anticipate nothing but decline and dissolution for the Church until the coming of Christ, completely ignoring the 2,000 year spread of western Christendom and the expansion of the Church throughout the world. Because of this eschatological innovation, much of the Church has been lulled to sleep in the expectation that there is nothing to do but tend to our individual spiritual condition, save souls as we can, and wait for the unpleasant end to come.
If the dispensational view is correct, so be it. But I believe the church as a whole suffers from an overweighting, combined with a misunderstanding, of Revelation to the neglect of what God says in the rest of Scripture concerning His plan for the Gospel and the world. We cannot neglect all the places in Scripture that God says His kingdom will expand throughout the world and that the entire world will be covered with the knowledge of Yahweh and that the nations will worship Him. Our Lord intends to do much through the Church prior to His returning in gathering the nations to Himself and in transforming culture. He intends to conquer all His enemies before handing the world over to the Father. It is time that the Church (especially in American Evangelicalism) awake from its "Left Behind" mentality and put its shoulder to the work of expanding the Gospel and its benefits to the ends of the earth and to every part of every culture.
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| I've been reading some N.T. Wright lately, and he has reminded me that there are no such things as "bare facts". There is no "neutral" vantage point from which to view reality, and there is no way to have any significant understanding of a fact until you grasp how it fits into its larger context. Try giving a description of anything or any event without reference to its larger story and you will not be left with much. So if you want to rightly understand anything, you must rightly understand its story first. I plan to follow up the implications of this truth in the next few entries.
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| Not that this probably needs to be said, but in light of this morning's worship service, I propose an eternal ban on the use of the word "yeah" in any song intended to be offered to the Lord in worship. Corporal punishment for those writing or perpetuating such lyrics should not be out of the question.
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