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On October 12, 2022 By In Culture, Music

A Culture of Singing

Some Practical Ways to Expand Singing in the Church, Home, and School

I work in music and choir roles for both a church and a school. A significant portion of my week involves training people to read music and sing music together. I enjoy helping people learn to sing and read music with greater understanding. Because of this, I occasionally get the opportunity to speak with the heads of schools in our association about their music programs. 

The number one question I receive from school administrators who are already convinced of the benefits of singing and music literacy for all of their school is, “How do we build up a singing culture at our school? In the book Raise the Song: A Classical Christian Guide to Music Education there is a chapter titled, “Singing School” that talks about this very thing. We want schools that are singing and that are teaching students to sing. But a singing culture must be present in more than the school. It needs to be in the church and in the home as well. Here are some things that help strengthen and identify strong singing cultures in churches, homes, and schools. This list is not exhaustive. Hopefully, you are doing many of these things and maybe this list sparks you to think of how to keep moving further up and in the singing culture around you. Feel free to comment at the bottom of the post if there are other ways that singing is happening and strengthening you and your community.

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On October 11, 2022 By In Church, Culture

A Creational Apologetic for Mockery

Several recent essays have offered a rich description of what has happened to the winsome phenomenon. Evangelical writers and theologians once known for defending the good have sought to minimize Gospel realities by maximizing opportunities for ecumenical endeavors. These endeavors did not produce the fruit expected, and, instead, it has led inevitably to the prodigalness of the evangelical left.

The result is a Babylonian conundrum leaving these figures defending the other side instead of protecting the voices most closely aligned with the cause of the Gospel. The winsome project has led to the adulteration of the good by compromising the good. My premise is that these authors have failed to see the Church’s role as that of protecting the creational order and priorities at all costs. These priorities negate the winsome strategy and advocate for something more distinctly aggressive regarding our relationship with ungodliness in this world.

To provide a bit of a rationale for what I call “A creational apologetic for mockery,” let me begin by offering some propositions and then conclude with some observations about the state of things in the Church.

First, I argue that creational theology compels us to use mockery against evil. Creation, by its very nature, is an apologetic against principalities and powers. Sun, moon, and stars are not merely heavenly descriptors but symbolic ones which proclaim the heavenly reality as the mode of operation for all of history. This reality presents the dignity of man, the labor of man, the complementarity of woman, and the establishment of priestly categories as fundamental antagonists to the attempts of evil men and their institutions to reverse the created order. Thus, the creation account supplants other accounts with an ideal established order and decency for both private and public arenas.

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On September 28, 2022 By In Culture

Will the Ice Hold?

Photo courtesy of Pexels.com

The promise of the gospel is that whoever believes in Christ shall not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16). The believer is saved through believing. Faith is the instrument by which one receives the atoning benefits and saving righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Moreover, faith is the alone instrument by which the grace given to the world by various means can be efficaciously received for justification. Preaching is a means of grace. So is baptism, prayer, Bible reading, and the Eucharist. Who among us has not received grace through the fellowship of the saints and a brother’s loving encouragement or admonition? Faith is not a means of distributing grace; it is an instrument for receiving grace. And we receive that grace not by earning it, not by qualifying for it through our good works, but by faith alone.

All this is standard fare in Reformed circles, even if it is sometimes forgotten in the midst of polemical pedantry, but so too is the affirmation that we are not saved by faith. Faith cannot save anyone; it can only receive the gift of salvation. Faith is completely powerless by itself. The Belgic Confession states it well: “However, we do not mean, properly speaking, that it is faith itself that justifies us—for faith is only the instrument by which we embrace Christ, our righteousness” (Article 22). Believers are saved, if they are saved at all, by Christ.

Christians often suffer from a lack of assurance for very misguided and unnecessary reasons. For example, they might wonder, “Do I believe enough? Am I sufficiently sincere?” Reformed Christians are particularly high brow and theological in their doubts: “Perhaps I was not chosen from the foundation of the world. Maybe I am unregenerate. My anguish over my sin, my persistent crying out to God, may only be the self-deception of a hypocrite whose heart remains bound fast in sin!” But if your salvation depends upon the adequacy of your faith, you will be lost. No one has perfect faith or even sufficient faith. After all, faith is a work of God (John 6:29), and your faith is imperfect, just like all of your other works.

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On September 28, 2022 By In Church, Culture

#NATCON and David French

The National Conservatism movement has received much attention from various media publications. I have detailed my experience and annotations in the latest Perspectivalist podcast, and don’t want to belabor the point too much. Much of the work is being done in the background, and conversations about the future are happening all around.

One of the latest pieces on #NatCon2022 comes from The Dispatch, written by Alec Dent, representing the leftist side of the Evangelical/Roman Catholic wing. David French, the founder of this national media company has articulated a vision of politics that opposes any state imposition of a moral code. He even argues favorably for the liberty for drag queen hour in public libraries:

“There are going to be Drag Queen Story Hours. They’re going to happen. And, by the way, the fact that a person can get a room in a library and hold a Drag Queen Story Hour and get people to come? That’s one of the blessings of liberty,” French said.

Suffice it to say, my body of writing opposes such absurdities. I affirm that the very essence of the Christian faith compels the body politic to legislate Christian morality. Further, that deacons of righteousness exist to pass righteous laws. In my estimation, that entails removing obscenities like drag queen hour from all public spaces and spheres. The spheres belong to Jesus, and opposition to it is opposition to Jesus as Lord.

When I was invited to be interviewed by the journalist from the Dispatch, I came prepared to answer several different questions, and should I have taken the Doug Wilson approach, I should have recorded the 15-minute interview. But I learned a valuable lesson, and thankfully the author quoted me briefly but accurately while overlooking the body of my main points.

The concern from the Dispatch is that we build a movement that minimizes liberties for unchristian groups and unchristian practices. The goal, according to them, is to provide a society where social liberties are accepted in the public square and that Christians should advocate for a virtuous and winsome approach in our engagement.

But the Statement of Principles from National Conservatism offers a stark alternative, which is that “where a Christian majority exists, public life should be rooted in Christianity and its moral vision.” Even its main philosophical head, Yoram Hazony, a Jew, states that biblical Christianity should be the source of any society. He understands that America is a sea of Protestant, biblical faith, even though only 65% of the population identifies with Christianity.

When asked whether #NatCon favors the presence of atheists, the journalist quotes me:

Some national conservatives are still willing to work with the post-religious right—so long as everyone remembers who is running the show. “I wouldn’t mind them joining the cause, as long as they submitted to the general rules and principles thereof, which I think can be guided by sacred scriptures,” Rev. Uri Brito, who delivered one of NatCon 3’s benedictions, told The Dispatch. “I would not want to be a part of a movement where atheists are guiding that movement.”

The quotation is not inaccurate, though it misses my entire build-up to it. Fine and dandy. I reaffirm that there is no future in the United States where atheism is leading. I agree with R.R. Reno that atheists may find #NatCon appealing because of our defense of country and its priorities, but they will undoubtedly demur regarding faith and family.

In the interview, I delved further into other aspects of what a true nationalism should look like and proceed from, which is an ecclesial conservatism. I developed those in my ten theses over at Kuyperian and hope others may benefit from them as well. I argued with the Dispatch that fundamentally, any movement towards a Christian orientation must be ecclesially focused and that the first priority of any true Christian nationalist is that of worshipping the Triune God. I also spoke favorably about the resurgence of Christian, Classical education and how necessary it is to re-engage our Western tradition and train our children to see the West not as a curse but as a crucial piece of our history and that Christendom flourished through this history.

Overall, I am pleased to see intensified attention on #NatCon and the principles that undergird it, and hope to see these conversations even more prevalent in the days to come.

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On September 20, 2022 By In Culture

No Sunday School at a Funeral

The passing of Queen Elizabeth II and her funeral liturgy gives Americans the unique opportunity to see the distance that exists between modern American versions of Christian worship and the worship as it was during the Reformation. The Church of England’s liturgical traditions are preserved in word and ceremony through their use of the Book of Common Prayer. Officially the English are bound to the reformed heritage of the Protestant Reformation in the historic 1662 edition. We could sneer at the stiltedness of such endeavors or perhaps even mock it based on the hypocritical participation of various royal and ecclesiastical apostates—yet I would charge that there is something special preserved here in two ways.

Gospel through Liturgy

The first is in the presentation of the Gospel through the liturgy. Since the service requires the use of Bible passages through its lectionary, more Scripture was read at this funeral than is typically read in most American Churches on any given Sunday. Even more, the Scripture lessons were more comprehensive in that portions were read from the Psalms, Gospels, and Epistles. Without the established tradition of the prayer book liturgy, who could say which Scripture (if any) might be read at a state funeral. Yet here the words of our Lord through St. John and St. Paul are clearly presented for the entire onlooking world to hear and “it shall not return void.” (Isaiah 55:11)

Death at a Funeral

A funeral with the casket in full view is similar to the imagery of the Lord’s table. Jesus offers the Lord’s Supper as part of Christian worship to commemorate his death. Therefore, when Christians continue to remember the last supper with bread and wine they are bringing to mind the death of Jesus. In addition to the imagery of the meal at a table, Christian tradition has also brought the Lord’s table to represent a type of ancient sepulcher. Early Christians burying their dead would not have dug a hole, but placed them upon the raised platform in a tomb. Traditions around eucharistic tables reflect this in their use of linen coverings, which were also used as shrouds for the dead. Another tradition that points to the Lord’s Table as a funeral image is the frequent engraving of five crosses on the surface of the table to represent the five wounds of Christ, who was laid upon the sepulcher. Additionally, we see as early as the 3rd century that church tables were constructed over the tombs of the martyrs. a Only a few example needs be offered, but many more examples can be drawn in the various traditions and ceremonies in the Church East and West.

Family Integrated Funeral

Drawing this connection between the Lord’s Supper and Funeral is helpful in that it shows how deformed modern views of the Lord’s Supper have become. American children are typically excluded from Lord’s Day services by the use of Sunday School. Most American churches additionally refuse to admit children to the table based on their misreading of St. Paul’s admonitions to examine oneself. (1 Corinthians 11:28)

But when we look at the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, we see the children of the royal family attending and participating in the service.

In fact, their absence would have brought shame upon their parents and scandal upon the entire family. People would have noticed if these children didn’t attend. Imagine for a moment how improper it would be for the royal children to be ushered away from the funeral and instead told to color a picture of the Queen or perhaps glue some macaroni, or learn a dumbed down version of “God Save the Queen.”

Instead Prince George, 9, and Princess Charlotte, 7, suited up in their Sunday best and followed along with the order of worship. They even walked in train with the casket.

This is formative behavior that the church needs for its children. In the Book, The Church Friendly Family, Rich Luck writes:

“Some parents feel it is completely within their rights to impose piano lessons and swimming practices on their children. But when it comes to religious things, they say they want their children to ‘make their own decision.’ But God tells parents they must impose a religious identity on their children—a specifically Christian religious identity. God says our children are His. He has claimed them from the beginning. We are to raise them up in His way. Beginning with baptism, we are to give our children to God and claim the promises He makes to and about them.”

  1. Liber Pontificalis attributes this to Felix I  (back)

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On September 10, 2022 By In Culture

Staying the course: Christian higher education

Not far from our home in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, is one of southern Ontario’s premier universities, McMaster, known internationally as a centre for advanced scientific and medical research. What few remember is that the university once had a connection with the Baptist Convention of Ontario and Québec, the only remnant of which is the presence on campus of McMaster Divinity College, whose most famous faculty member was probably the late Clark Pinnock. 

During my first years of teaching at a neighbouring institution, I often found myself in the Mills Library at McMaster. During one visit, I happened to notice the university’s crest outside the elevators, and I was surprised to read the motto emblazoned in Greek letters above the shield: ΤΑ ΠΑΝΤΑ ΕΝ ΧΡΙΣΤΩΙ ΣΥΝΕΣΤΗΚΕΝ: “In Christ all things hold together.” This, of course, is a reference to Colossians 1:17. I imagined that hundreds of people would walk past this coat of arms every day as they moved between the floors of the library, unaware of what the words meant or of their history. According to the university’s website, “One may suppose that the motto and book were intended to express the concept, espoused in the Will of Senator McMaster, of ‘a Christian school of learning’.”

Some months ago, I came across a scanned copy of an issue of The Silhouette, the student newspaper, dated 20 September 1957. The headline reads: BAPTIST TIE IS BROKEN, followed by “Gilmour sees little change in campus atmosphere, work.” Dr. George P. Gilmour was president of the university at the time the Ontario Legislature approved the requested changes to its status.

The article hints at the motivation for the move:

Dr. Gilmour pointed out that this break with the Baptists “will make relatively little change in the atmosphere and the work of the university as far as the students are concerned. But,” he added, “it is extremely important from the point of view of public relations and community support.”

Historically, it has been difficult for universities established on an explicitly Christian basis to maintain their religious identity over the long term. The list of universities that began their existence under the auspices of the church, only to relinquish that connection much later, is a long one. The university itself started as an institution closely connected to the monasteries in mediaeval Europe. In the United States, Harvard began as a Puritan institution in 1636. Yale followed in 1701, founded at least in part in response to secularizing trends at Harvard. Princeton was started in 1746 by Reformed Christians, with its religious character lasting into the 20th century but not much beyond the first decade. I could go on, but, as I said, the list is long.

One possible reason for a university losing its confessional moorings is an underlying worldview which divides the curriculum between divinity/theology on the one hand and so-called secular disciplines on the other, parallel to the historic scholastic division between sacred and secular. Because it was assumed that these latter disciplines were subject to the canons of a neutral reason, any connection with the faith would be extrinsic at least and unnecessary at most. In McMaster’s case, this is undoubtedly why the university could so easily restrict the historic Baptist element to the Divinity College, still situated uneasily on campus as a curious vestige of its earlier affiliation.

A connection with the institutional church, even if maintained, was no guarantee that the subjects taught at the school would be approached from an integrally Christian perspective. Once more, I could rattle off a litany of universities that remain under the auspices of mainline protestant denominations but where an effort to think Christianly beyond the bounds of theology is foreign to its educational mission and has been for a long time. At the same time, the lack of a church connection is by no means a hindrance to a university maintaining a Christian identity, as seen at an institution of higher education in my hometown.

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On September 3, 2022 By In Culture, Family and Children

Dispelling Hospitality Excuses 

Guest Post by Randy Booth

“Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. 10 Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another; 11 not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; 12 rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer; 13 distributing to the needs of the saints, GIVEN TO HOSPITALITY.”

―Romans 12:9-13

It’s a common trait of humanity (even redeemed humanity) to sit in judgment of God’s word. It all started in the Garden of Eden, where our first parents wanted to decide what was and was not good for them. God has some pretty good suggestions, some of which we’re willing to follow, but in other matters, we’ll need to think about it a bit more. We do need to be pragmatic. God’s word might work out for a lot of people, but sometimes, my extenuating circumstances lead me to conclude that it’s not going to work for me. There are exceptions to the rules which can exempt me.

Now hospitality isn’t the only area where we’re tempted to think like this, but it is one of the common topics where excuses for not following the clear and simple command of Scripture are frequent. Like Adam and Eve, we think we know better than God what is good for us. Below are several commonplace excuses why we can’t be “GIVEN TO HOSPITALITY.” I hope to challenge them all.

1.       I’m Not Good at It.

We’re seldom good at the things we never do. Practice makes perfect. One of the reasons God wants us to be given to hospitality is so that we will get good at it. Less-than-perfect hospitality is still hospitality, and it is still obedience to God. Read a book (e.g., Face to Face, Steve Wilkins). Get some advice. Watch others who are good at it. Ask some questions. You can learn to do this. You can get better at it. But you can’t get better at it if you don’t do it. You know what to do (i.e., be “GIVEN TO HOSPITALITY”), now set out to learn how to do it. If needed, get some help doing it. If you do these things, the only reason left for not doing it is, “I don’t want to do it.” That would be a sin.

2.       My House is Too Small.

Your house can’t be that small. It might be crowded, but I’m pretty sure that many saints from the past, who were GIVEN TO HOSPITALITY, had houses smaller than yours. If you’re an American, your house is probably bigger than the houses of most Christians in the world. Moreover, you don’t even have to have a house to be hospitable; have a picnic!

3.       My House is Too Dirty.

If your house is dirty, there are two options: 1) clean your house; 2) swallow your pride and have people over to your dirty house. The command to be GIVEN TO HOSPITALITY is not a conditional command. God doesn’t say, “Be GIVEN TO HOSPITALITY if your house is clean.” Cleaning your house is an option; showing hospitality is not an option.

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On September 1, 2022 By In Culture, Politics

Pastoral Prayers at City Council

My church meets in a small city in the metropolitan area of Houston, Texas. Our city council meetings always begin with an opening invocation. A local pastor is invited to lead the prayer at each meeting. I am grateful to be in the regular rotation of pastors. It is an honor to represent Christ before elected officials and pray for them as the Bible commands (1 Timothy 2:2).

How should a pastor pray at such meetings? Praying at a public event can be intimidating. Any type of person, with any type of belief, might be in attendance. You have to assume that a variety of religious and political affiliations will be present: Christians, non-Christians, conservatives, liberals, and anyone in-between. You know going in that not everyone will like your prayer. Some might be offended by it.

Because of this, a pastor could be tempted to offer a shallow prayer. A short, generalized prayer would avoid controversy. Being vague would keep everyone happy. But this temptation must be avoided by every minister of the gospel. We shouldn’t be controversial for the sake of being controversial, but we must proclaim the truth boldly and clearly.

As a public representative of Christ, a pastor should want to emphasize the basics of the faith: The Triune God (not a generic “God”), the sinfulness of man, redemption through Jesus’s death and resurrection, and that Jesus is Lord of heaven and earth. The prayer should then address city-specific issues: That elected officials would rule according to godly wisdom, that judges and police officers would be a terror to evildoers, that crime would cease, and that there would be true peace in the community. At the end of the prayer, no one should have to wonder what you believe or what kind of Christian you are.

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On August 19, 2022 By In Culture

Contemporary Worship and the Performer’s Burden

Guest Post by Charles Jacobi

The contemporary worship so widespread today is often accompanied by lights, screens, and other strobes that all form the stage into the epicenter of attention. By design, the congregation is led to follow a select few from a distance—the performers—in lieu of the intimate, participatory nature of regulated worship. A chasm splits the observing congregation and performers in this contemporary scene.

Among Christians who enjoy its regulated counterpart, there is consensus contemporary worship is detrimental to the congregation facing the stage for the aforementioned reasons. Such is rightly agreed on. But, we should consider how contemporary worship affects the performers as well. The members on stage may suffer the most, albeit gone unnoticed by many. Their burden might be concealed on the surface though the observant eye will notice the performers never fail to be emotive. They have few bleak moments, less during dramatic songs demanding sentimental mannerisms. The pressure to manufacture expressions with the repeated choruses and mood-setting strobes must be great under the crowd’s gaze. Everything points to the stage.

This is not to say some performers could be sincere in their expression throughout the entire service, as some are surely capable, but to suppose every gleaming mannerism on stage is backed by genuine emotion is untenable. Here is where the contemporary culprit lies.

The performers do not bear the brunt of the error, and, indeed, church members should stray from ingenuine expression during worship, but the contemporary environment’s design pressures the performers into doing so. Individuals in the crowd may not reserve explicit expectations for the performers. But the performers will feel implicit expectations, then pressured to generate an outward passion to satisfy the crowd lest they appear unspiritual. The architecture of the worship is to blame. It can be exhausting, at times heart-wrenching, to watch the members on stage satisfy their demands.

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On August 18, 2022 By In Church, Music

The Liturgical Duty of Men and Women in Singing

We must restore the role of biblical femininity into the space of worship. The woman plays the role of sacred beautifier in history. The bride finishes what the groom begins. Adam was first, and Eve was second (I Cor. 11). The Ascension was first, and Pentecost was second. This chronology of creation is the starting point of any good anthropology. This is especially appropriate when it comes to worship.

When the woman sings, she glorifies what the man started. She enhances beauty. She cannot, therefore, be the initiator. This is why men must lead in worship as ministers or chief musicians and why women must follow as glorifiers and beautifiers of music.

This stated reality exemplifies why women are so easily enamored by harmonization and ornamental melodies. She adds the descant of the closing hymn, and she layers the music with happy complexities.

The voice of the Church’s music, however, must be dominantly male. The reason men are attracted to churches where male voices are dominant is that men were created to be starters, to offer the opening pitches, to make the first movements, and to utter the first poem (Gen. 2:23). Man leads the dance, and the woman follows.

The resounding voice is Christocentric, which means the prevailing sounds of a church singing are the sounds of a church leading into battle followed by a God/Man. In fact, the men lead with their voices as an act of protection for the women in the congregation. The men sing loudly to project to the enemies that we are doing warfare in the name of Yahweh God. The opponents of the holy Gospel should know that we are not interested in bargaining for a verse here or there, nor will we put the ones needing protection in front of the line.

Music is warfare, but if we change the order by giving the church a distinctly female voice, we reverse the chronology of creation. If we persist in putting the weak vessels (I Peter 3:7) meant for protection and honor in front, we are sending the message that the voice of Christ needs protection rather than the One who protects.

Therefore, it is even more crucial that men and women in the life of the Church pick up their hymnals and music sheets and proceed to train themselves to see music as their fundamental duty in initiating, beautifying, and glorifying the Church’s music.

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