If Jerry Falwell were to have his way - If every line of U.S. Law and Constitution were made up entirely of God’s Law and nothing else, would we have justice in America? Would it result in utopia. Would every conflict be settled fairly as if God Himself were on the bench and in the White House?
Here’s another bunch of related questions: Should Christians look to the nation’s laws and courts for justice at all? How important is the law of the land in the Christian’s life? When she’s wronged should she exercise her rights as a citizen and press charges? Should she sue if she’s taken advantage of? Can Christians be lawyers? Judges?
These are just some of the questions I’ve been wrestling while studying 1 Corinthians chapter 6 for this Tuesday’s ikon. William Barclay gives this partial answer in his commentary on Paul’s letters to Corinthian Christians:
“To go to the law at all, and especially to go to the law with a fellow Christian, is to fall far below the Christian standard of behavior. Long ago, Plato had laid it down that the good will always choose to suffer wrong than to do wrong. If Christians have even the remotest tinge of the love of Christ within their hearts, they will prefer to suffer insult and loss and injury rather than try to inflict them on someone else - still more so if that person is a fellow Christian… [Christians arrange their dealings] according to the spirit of love, and the spirit of love will insist that they live at peace with one another, and will forbid them to demean themselves by going to the law.”
What do you think? Come talk about it with us at ikon this Tuesday around 8PM at the people’s church in Franklin, TN.
CMJ writes:
Due to “high demand,” Clear Channel is programming stations that cater to the “best unsigned artists across the globe.” The largest radio conglomerate on the planet, which owns about 1,200 stations in the US, has launched several HD stations across the nation with more to follow. The Clear Channel NEW Music Network, or NEW!, aims to bring unsigned and up-and-coming artists to a hungry-for-new-music audience. Early last year, Clear Channel launched a website in association with garageband.com that aimed to achieve the same goal. The latest move is a step to provide listeners with subscription-free new music in high-definition sound.
To learn more visit Clear Channel’s new music indie website.
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I met with an older wiser pastor friend recently who questioned whether Brian and I were doing everything “right” since ikon isn’t massive yet, isn’t growing quickly but is still growing and definitely isn’t as big as WIllow Creek’s version of a twenty-something bible study.
I listened. I paused, leaned back and pondered. I examined what we’re doing well, not well, the aspects we could improve. I imagined us doing everything “right” and doing it for a long time. Then I pictured what we’d become in the end. I realized, we still might be small - we’d probably be small. And I was OK with that.
I explained to the wiser man sipping sweet tea across from me that I believe doing what is “right” when you’re a minister won’t always result in measurable growth, won’t always look successful on the outside. I confessed that there is room for improvement at ikon and admitted that Peter sure enough grew his church by thousands each week doing right. But I also refreshed his memory about Jesus, the perfect minister, who, after three years of perfect ministering, healing, feeding thousands and appearing to five hundred with holes in his newly resurrected hands and feet STILL had less than, it’s been estimated, two hundred followers on the day of Pentecost shortly after his ascension.
“Besides,” I said, “I know every name and every face in the crowd at this size and they can find me and talk to me face to face right now too. We can discuss - I don’t have to just lecture. They can interrupt me when I’m speaking and ask questions and we notice when a regular isn’t there. People like to be noticed, to be missed.”
Then HE looked puzzled. He paused, leaned back in his seat and pondered. “Yea, I see where you’re coming from but I bet you can get those numbers up...”
I went home, hopped on my laptop and reread these words from Seth Godin, marketing preacher to the numbers obsessed business world, and I dreamt of the day when pastors get what CEOs are beginning to: Small is big sometimes.
...Small means the founder makes a far greater percentage of the customer interactions. Small means the founder is close to the decisions that matter and can make them, quickly.
Small is the new big because small gives you the flexibility to change the business model when your competition changes theirs.
Small means you can tell the truth on your blog.
Small means that you can answer email from your customers.
...A small restaurant has an owner who greets you by name.
...A small church has a minister with the time to visit you in the hospital when you’re sick.
Read the rest of Seth Godin’s thoughts on the greatness of small here.
”Evangelicals believe in many things: the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, church attendance, homeschooling, Fox News, abstinence, personal holiness, toupees, leisure suits, mission work, Dockers, golf, spanking, and dinner, early and often. But the natural starting point for identifying evangelicals by their beliefs is with their best known doctrine: hell” From the hilariously true new book “A Field Guide To Evangelicals And Their Habitat”
The author Joel Kilpatrick, creator of Lark News, goes on to explain that this belief in hell and the imminent return of Jesus drives evangelicals to engage in tract distribution, televangelizing and other behaviors in an effort to “rescue” people from hell. He admits this “fixation” with hell can seem a bit violent to outsiders but explains:
“...from a sociological point of view, believing in hell is thought to be less violence-inducing than believing in heaven. Members of some religions go on suicide runs, thinking they will earn a vaunted position in heaven, including dozens of “extra virgins.” In contrast, evangelicals don’t want anyone to die until they have received Jesus [except, he notes later, “perhaps death row inmates, abortionists, truculent Arabs, Democrats, homosexuals and ACLU members"]. There is no reward in evangelical theology for killing other people, and there hasn’t been since about 1270 A.D. (The reward for enslaving people also ran out, in about 1865, and in some southern states in 1972.)”
And in case you’re not clear on who’s going and who’s not, a chart (click to enlarge):
Read more from “A Field Guide To Evangelicals And Their Habitat” right here. Or just buy it.
(HT:BS)
Burnlounge is a novel approach to music distribution and marketing based on consumer empowerment and reward: After signing up in minutes, paid members of Burnlounge set up on-line searchable digital music stores stocked with music they choose. And the best part? Members make money from every download sold.
The downsides to Burnlounge are myriad though. For starters, it requires Internet Explorer - not a technologically forward-thinking move likely to be popular with it’s forward-thinking target audience. Secondly, the catalog of music available while Burnlounge is still beta is miniscule in comparison to other catalogs from digital music powerhouses like Rhapsody and iTunes. And indie music is, as is the case with it’s competitors too, left out altogether.
But Burnlounge is doing a lot right. And it’s serving a purpose in the evolution of the music business I believe. It’s the ghost of music future. It is sending a message to Nashville, LA and New York that consumers are willing to work for labels - marketing and selling - if they’re rewarded for it. I hope my friends in the music business are listening: Some rabid music fans happen to like money so much that they will do whatever is necessary to make you money if you’ll just share a little with them.
Instead of listening though, labels are in a slugfest with Apple over royalties for iTunes and other issues and have threatened to deny Apple permission to sell their wares in Apple’s popular music store in the future - denying fans a service they apparently love. And, in another short-sighted move, labels like Warner are starting purely digital labels: Labels signing a plethora of artists who then release “clusters” of two or three songs every few months to the company’s on-line store.
It’s more of the same old me-first thinking that contributed to industry shortfalls in the first place. A plummet in service quality and musical quality. No profit participation for fans. No collaboration by fans. It’s still the “Just buy what we’re selling and be happy” model we consumers have already rebelled against.
Burnlounge has preached, “Share and you’ll make more.” The organ is playing. Softly and tenderly the future is calling. Every label head bowed and business textbook closed. What will you choose today Mr.Music Label President? Will you get burned by your own worn out selfish ways once again? Or will you be born again in the likeness of Burnlounge? Consumers will serve you when you serve them. That’s the truth. The truth that will set you free.
If Jerry Falwell were to have his way - If every line of U.S. Law and Constitution were made up entirely of God’s Law and nothing else, would we have justice in America? Would it result in utopia. Would every conflict be settled fairly as if God Himself were on the bench and in the White House?
