This past week a new album by the artist Propaganda dropped and it’s fantastic! You can get it for free here and for the price, it’s worth it! I hadn’t heard of Propaganda (or hadn’t paid attention to him) until he was at the youth conference I took my youth group on this past summer but the man is gifted! Others have most likely heard him on Lecrae’s Church Clothes CD on the song ‘Misconception’

Now, as I said before, I really like this CD, I think it’s very well done and he hits on some very important issues in Christian’s lives today, but one of the tracks was very troubling to me. The one track called ‘Precious Puritans’ was interesting. You can see the lyrics and what Propaganda said about them here. After reading the interview I was much more at ease, but how many people are going to read that interview, and how many more of them will read it as Propaganda dissing everything the Puritans did. Yes, I will admit, they had their flaws and slavery was a very big flaw in that era. But not all of the Puritans were, as Propaganda put it, “chaplains on slave ships,” and for many of them, slavery was much different than we view slavery today. I’m not advocating for going along with the social norms (in those days it was slavery) but at the same time, that does need to be taken into account. For example, today many men use technology as a way to get a “quick fix” instead of pursuing holiness and purity, but I don’t think that means we need to completely do away with technology. The same way with the Puritans, while they were very flawed, I don’t think we should throw out their theology just because they had blinders on to some of their cultural “norms.” In the interview, Propaganda admits that he was overstating to make a point in his song, and at the end shows how God’s grace uses people despite them being “crooked sticks” but I still think he could have made the same point without completely dismissing the Puritans.

So despite what I consider to be an overstated argument, the CD is definitely worth getting and listening to, he deals with some heavy topics that need to be covered. For more on the song ‘Precious Puritans,’ Owen Strachan has written a very helpful blog on it, and specifically look at the first comment on the blog.

This past weekend I started reading ‘What Is the Mission of the Church‘ by Kevin DeYoung and Greg Gilbert and while it’s too early in the book for me to give many thoughts on it, I came across something that really stuck out to me. So often, books in the Bible state explicitly why they were written. For example, in the very first chapter of Mark, in verse 38, Jesus explicitly states the purpose of his ministry. “And he said to them, “Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out.” Jesus didn’t come to heal the lame and sick (although that was a byproduct of his preaching) but to preach! We can’t preach the Gospel unless we use words, for then we are no different then the world who is here just to help those who are less fortunate than they.

Another example of this is in John 20:31 which says, “but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” The whole point and purpose of the Gospel of John is to lead people into repentance. It’s so easy to get caught up in reading through the text of the book and pass over some of these very key passages that give us a framework to understand the whole book. As you continue in your Bible reading this week, I encourage you to slow down and take in the verse and the contexts. Pray for God to illuminate in light of the context and apply it to your life.

In my Bible reading last week I was reading in 1 Timothy and came across 5:17 which says, “Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching.” (ESV) As I’ve had the privilege to teach and preach on a few occasions (my first time preaching here in Cheyenne wil be September 2, Lord willing, prayers are greatly appreciated!), I’ve learned just how exhausting it is. Sunday is the culmination of everything Pastors work toward during the week, and you never know how well it will go or who it will impact. It seems the weeks that you are least prepared are the weeks most people are affected (not advocating for lack of preparation). Tim Challies has a very helpful blog today on how to encourage your pastor this week, I encourage you to read it. 

An ever increasing number of people have been trying to grow in their Christian faith apart from a local body of the church. I’ve heard many people complain that church is boring, doesn’t meet their needs and ultimately isn’t necessary for growth in the Christian faith. While the church on this side of heaven is imperfect, it is still the representation of Christ to the world.

The key verse for this discussion, “is answered definitively in Hebrews 10:25. “Let us not… [forsake] the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but [exhort] one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.” This verse requires more than regularly attending worship services, but it doesn’t require less. Believers go to church. The writer says that church attendance is more important today than it was yesterday!”

I have always encourages those people I’ve talked to to get plugged in to a local church body. When I miss a week I am so very desperate for the fellowship of the body, and if I wasn’t involved in a local body I wouldn’t have a complete picture of the church. God made us to be in community with each other, to hold each other accountable and to encourage growth and support within the body.

I have many more thoughts on this, which I’m sure will come up at some point, but what started this thinking today was a blog found here. Don’t neglect Jesus’ bride.