Wisdom from the Newsboys

Over the weekend Ashley, Janette, Jesse and I went to Spirit West Coast in Del Mar. This was our second year. I’ve always loved “Christian Music” but the culture that surrounds it seems to either depresses me or just ticks me off. The next few blog posts will probably be inspired by some of the theological statements that I heard there but we won’t discuss those right now.

Christian pop culture is filled with its problems. All the bumper stickers, t-shirts and CDs being sold hardly looks “Christian” to me. How can it be? A Christian is a person if I remember correctly. No song or bumper sticker or t-shirt can ever be a Christian. And out of all the money being thrown around at that place… what’s it all for? So some teenager can wear a shirt that says “Virginity Rocks” which makes anyone who isn’t a virgin feel like crap? And we believe that somehow our spending is especially justified or different because what we’re buying has been slapped with a “Christian label.” Sometimes the least Christian thing to do is wear a “Christian” shirt and yet we still call it a “Christian” shirt.

In the midst of all this there was a glimpse of beauty when the Newsboys singer Peter Furler began to speak during their performance (which was amazing to say the least). He said something that should have opened the eyes of anyone who really heard what he was saying. He said that there are “three types pf Christians.” There are the Christians who believe that the world is going to burn and their job is to “wait upon the rooftops” until Jesus comes back to save them. Then there are those who have spent all their time “trying to make God look cool… God doesn’t need us to make Him look cool.” They’ve immersed themselves so much into the culture that they’ve “lost their voice.” Then there is another group, a group that knows that there is hope and that they have something to do with that hope. They know that “now is their time in history” to act and change the world. “That kingdom thing that started 2000 years ago is still going on…” and ours is the task and time to act. Then he said something which was music to my ears. “God doesn’t need our Christian bumper stickers, our Christian music, and He sure doesn’t need our Christian Festivals!” He needs us. He needs His people to believe that God loves the very world that many of us have been taught to hate. He needs us to believe the prayer her gave, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."

Comments

SteveW said…
Yes, we are told in Hebrews 8 how that Jesus entered into the true temple in the heavens, pitched by God, not man, as the perfect High Priest, and presented the blood of the Perfect Lamb in fulfillment of all the law demanded resulting in a new and better covenant.

Christ accomplished the Father's will in His earthly ministry and took His place on the throne of God, the true mercy seat.

So as the heavens have observed that it is finished, may the earth do likewise.

You are so right. So much of the stuff valued so highly by Christians is really not needed at all.
Anonymous said…
This next generation is an in your face generation and I think that it takes a bold individual to stand for purity in this society. Wearing a Virginity Rocks t-shirt is not designed to make people feel like crap but rather to be a prophet to the next generation. The only reason one would feel like crap as you put it is because they feel the wait of their own sin. There is no gospel unless people come to grips with their own sin. Any message of purity or truth will awaken brokeness inside people.

Don't slam the kids who stand for purity in their high schools. Seriously...