Disqus - Latest Comments for findo

Re: 11 Golden Rules For Worship Guitarists

Findo — Sun, 18 Feb 2018 09:11:03 -0000

We don't conjure up the Spirit through our playing. God freely pours out His Spirit on those who trust in Jesus. We can't quench the spirit by our playing (except perhaps if we're playing for our own ego.. but certainly not because we played a wrong chord or dynamic). The Spirit may be *equally* present and active in a church with a fantastic rock band as in a group of older folk singing hymns around an out of tune piano, or an underground church in North Korea where they're singing in secret.

We shouldn't mistake the euphoria or feelings that certain kinds of music can invoke with the work of the Spirit. We don't sing to connect people to God - Jesus has already done that in his death and resurrection (Col 1:22), and all who trust in Him are already filled with the Holy Spirit (Gal 3:14) - therefore, *because* we are filled with the Spirit, and *because* God is present when we gather in Jesus' name, we sing (Eph 5:18-19; Matt 18:20). And in any case, Jesus sings in the midst of His people and perfects our song (Heb 2:12)... so I'm not worried about a musical mistake accidentally quenching the work of the Spirit, because that sounds more like paganism than what we read in the New Testament.

Yes, we are to offer our best. Yes, we are to strive for authentic musical excellence and expression, and yes, we may use musicality to help people focus on Jesus (and yes, the Spirit does gives us guidance and wisdom and leading about how best to lead a congregation - what to sing etc. not only spontaneously, but through prayerful preparation), but we need to remember that we merely point people to the one mediator between God and people: Jesus. Our musical worship is the overflow of the gospel already at work in our lives (Col 3:16).

Jesus is my worship leader ;)

Re: How to fix lipstick and correct lip lines

Findo — Wed, 06 Dec 2017 04:45:59 -0000

I got lost at step 4.. my high layer doesn't look weird like that... and changing it to linear light makes it look overblown, not normal.

Re: 11 Golden Rules For Worship Guitarists

Findo — Tue, 28 Nov 2017 03:23:21 -0000

The recording is a good reference point, but there's no rule that we need to copy it slavishly. Radio versions are almost always too high for congregations anyway, so a better rule is to take from the commercial recordings anything that will work in your own context.

I also think an acoustic is usually a much better option for leading congregational singing than a single electric.. unless it's a really rocky song, the consistent rhythm and tone of an acoustic will work much better in most contexts.

Re: 11 Golden Rules For Worship Guitarists

Findo — Tue, 28 Nov 2017 03:20:08 -0000

Mate, it's a congregation, not a crowd or audience, and the Holy Spirit is there already (because we meet in Jesus' name), and connecting with the Spirit has nothing to do with how we play our instruments.

Have a read of Bob Kauflin's book 'Worship Matters' for a really solid biblical understanding of music and worship.

Re: The Denver Statement

Findo — Wed, 30 Aug 2017 14:30:35 -0000

Yes, of course Christ fulfils the law, and does what it cannot do, and means that we are no longer under it (that's part of how it points to him!). My point about the OT was that there are many progressive theologians who reject that the OT is God-breathed scripture, and only want the so-called 'red letters', but this is a futile attempt to pit Jesus against texts he said were about him and which the apostles said were Spirit-breathed.

Re: The Denver Statement

Findo — Wed, 30 Aug 2017 11:41:33 -0000

No, Jesus wasn't outside of orthodoxy. He corrected their understanding of the law and prophets to show that it all pointed to Him (so good luck with having a Jesus devoid of the OT).

Re: The Denver Statement

Findo — Wed, 30 Aug 2017 11:40:11 -0000

Also interesting to see how you dropped repentance from yours version of article 14, even though Jesus himself says he came to call sinners to repentance.

Re: The Denver Statement

Findo — Wed, 30 Aug 2017 11:20:18 -0000

"Western culture has embarked upon a massive revision of what it means to be a human being by expanding the limits and definitions previously imposed by fundamentalist Christians. By and large, the spirit of our age discerns and delights in the beauty of God’s design for human life that is so much richer and more diverse than we have previously understood it to be."

At least you're honest about it being the spirit of the (western) age that leads to your conclusions.
Apparently American Christians in the 21st century just know better than christians from every other time and place.

Re: Episode 25 - Sin — The Liturgists

Findo — Fri, 22 Apr 2016 04:01:14 -0000

I'm not normally a podcast listening kind of person, but I was pointed here following a Twitter conversation.. interesting, thought provoking, challenging, helpful & frustrating - thanks!

My big take-away is a reminder of how systematising theology - making it into ideas and concepts we assent to, divorced from the process of living in relationship - *can* be unhelpful. For example, although I'd consider myself reformedish, I think the reductionism of the '5 points' totally unhelpful. When I read the NT writers talking about things like election, predestination etc it's not some dry question of 'who is in, who is out?' but rather always takes place in a pastoral context of encouraging believers to persevere - it's a call to keep going because it is God who has been at work in us.
So then asking what does Sin have to do, not only with the individual vertical relationship with God, but also on the horizontal level with our fellow humans is really helpful.

Just a couple of comments on the idea of sin - the best definition I've come across is to say that sin is living in God's world as if he doesn't exist. Morevoer, it cannot create, it can only distort the good of God's creation.

Re: Don’t Like Diversity? You’ll Hate Heaven

Findo — Fri, 25 Mar 2016 11:35:08 -0000

I love that as I scrolled back up to the top, I saw that this site is available in English, Spanish, French and Australian. Given that Australian is my heart language, I appreciate that :)
More seriously though, Sandra Maria Van Opstal has recently put out a fantastic new book (http://www.ivpress.com/cgi-... ) on this issue of cultural diversity in worship, which has been really encouraging and challenging. I cannot recommend it enough.

Re: The Case against Evangelical Higher Education

Findo — Sun, 21 Feb 2016 23:50:36 -0000

The writer seems to mistakenly assume that secular humanists are the only ones who don't bring assumptions and pre-suppositions to the philosophical table.

Re: What The Fiascos At Liberty University And Wheaton College Reveal About The State Of American Christianity

Findo — Wed, 03 Feb 2016 05:53:13 -0000

How do you propose we actually do discipleship without doctrine? How can we rightly follow Jesus if we aren't seeking to know Him and who He is. Surely, failing to challenge wrong views on God within a Christian community is in fact a failure to disciple. After all, when Jesus gives the 'great commission' to make disciples he tells them to teach. So I don't buy this false dichotomy you present. It looks much more like just being upset that one of your own liberal dogmas was challenged as unorthodox. In any case, as I've understood it, Prof. Hawkins was not suspended for wearing a hijab in solidarity, but for refusing to clarify public comments which could easily be seen as contrary to the beliefs she agreed to uphold. Again, what kind of discipleship doesn't seek the truth about Him we claim to follow?

Re: Kill Your (Celebrity Culture) Worship

Findo — Mon, 01 Feb 2016 04:02:11 -0000

"What’s truly needed today is what was needed in every age: liturgical renewal—faithful pastors leading in worship that is faithful to the gospel, comprehensible to the congregation, and formative of the soul. That will look radically depending on whether you’re gathering with an Orthodox parish in Louisiana or a multiethnic congregation in an impoverished Louisville neighborhood." - This!

A point I've tried to raise a number of times with Jonathan is that cultural context is really important. The cultural 'vernacular' (to borrow the term from the reformers) is going to be different in different places. A north korean house church probably isn't going to look like, or be helped by an organ-choir led service. CCM isn't necessarily the cultural vernacular of a church in Pakistan.

Re: French ex-atheist: only God can make sense of the evil in Paris

Findo — Sun, 29 Nov 2015 10:11:37 -0000

Moral judgement is made in reference to standards of moral values and duties - no one is saying the universe makes moral judgements - but if no objective moral values and duties exists within the universe (which is what Dawkins et al are saying) then logically, there is nothing objective to hold anyone accountable to - actions or events are not evil, for such a moral value doesn't objectively exist. We are left with socially invented subjective preferences, for which we've no actual justification to hold others accountable to.

Re: French ex-atheist: only God can make sense of the evil in Paris

Findo — Sun, 29 Nov 2015 10:08:58 -0000

True, it is my opinion about what is true. I meant that the search for truth is more important than hurt feelings.
It is not a smoke screen to point out that for the argument from evil requires first that the premise be supported. I agree that the reality of evil is a problem, and that there may not be any clean answers, but the point remains that evil is a reality, and atheism, imo, cannot logically affirm that.

Re: French ex-atheist: only God can make sense of the evil in Paris

Findo — Fri, 27 Nov 2015 17:51:23 -0000

I agree that we'd see such a consensus. I don't think the atheistic worldview can account for it sufficiently. If you find that distasteful, sorry... but truth is more important than taste, is it not?

Re: French ex-atheist: only God can make sense of the evil in Paris

Findo — Fri, 27 Nov 2015 17:49:49 -0000

I've no doubt that Dawkins would agree that it's wrong - because he's totally inconsistent with his own stated belief that there is, in an atheistic universe, at bottom, no right and wrong, no evil, no justice... his words. So the question remains as to why so many atheists are not following their worldview to its logical end as Nietzsche did). To me, it shows that the worldview is actually unable to sufficiently account for the world as we actually experience it - a world in which some things are actually, really, evil, and demand justice.

Re: French ex-atheist: only God can make sense of the evil in Paris

Findo — Mon, 23 Nov 2015 16:34:09 -0000

So you disagree with Dawkins et al on the idea that atheistic naturalism holds that there's no such thing as objective right and wrong?

Re: French ex-atheist: only God can make sense of the evil in Paris

Findo — Mon, 23 Nov 2015 16:31:48 -0000

Well that would depend if one wishes to hold a coherent framework or not.

Re: French ex-atheist: only God can make sense of the evil in Paris

Findo — Mon, 23 Nov 2015 16:30:54 -0000

That's a complete strawman.
No one is saying you don't have a right to think this is bad - it agrees with you that 'we all agree' on the evilness of it - the point is to ask why it is so, and whether, from a philosophical perspective, our worldview actually supports this apparent fact of morality or not.

Re: French ex-atheist: only God can make sense of the evil in Paris

Findo — Tue, 17 Nov 2015 13:31:00 -0000

That's a strawman.
The argument is that if what happened was truly evil, then atheism cannot account for this.

Re: French ex-atheist: only God can make sense of the evil in Paris

Findo — Tue, 17 Nov 2015 13:29:27 -0000

Of course it's appropriate - if we're to have a discussion around how to makes sense of an apparent evil, then we have to first recognise whether our framework for understanding the world actually accounts for this evil or not.

Re: Bill Nye Gets Science Wrong on Abortion | National Review Online

Findo — Wed, 28 Oct 2015 04:52:44 -0000

"This is why Harvard ethicist Michael Sandel told President Bush’s bioethics committee, “If the embryo loss that accompanies natural procreation were the moral equivalent of infant death, then pregnancy would have to be regarded as a public health crisis of epidemic proportions: Alleviating natural embryo loss would be a more urgent moral cause than abortion, in vitro fertilization, and stem cell research combined.”

That makes about as much sense as saying the epidemic of people dying from old age is a health crisis. There is a difference between those things we have no control over and those, like infant mortality, for which our actions can have significant impact.
In any case, it still does not logically follow that the entity in question is not a human one. Indeed, to move the definition of human based on embryo loss is akin to the time the NSW government changed the definition of 'on-time' in order to improve their train system punctuality!

Re: 8 Reasons the Worship Industry Is Killing Worship

Findo — Mon, 26 Oct 2015 08:37:19 -0000

Yeah, they are styles when you're referencing music (or at least, umbrella labels for various styles with certain fundamental connections).

Contemporary music is a part of the history of the church too. I agree that sung worship should be with an engaged mind as well as an engaged heart. Again, there is nothing inherent in contemporary or commercial styles which prohibits this.

Re: 8 Reasons the Worship Industry Is Killing Worship

Findo — Mon, 26 Oct 2015 08:23:36 -0000

John, don't get me wrong, I'm certainly not against hymnody - on the contrary, being a professional classical singer, I love hymns (I also was part of a church for which the Getty's wrote 'come people of the risen King' btw). I'm also aware of the danger of emotional response divorced from theologically sound lyrics.

My objection to Jonathan's approach is the unfair broad-brushing of contemporary worship music as inherently unsuitable.