Year End Sale

It's the year-end at Robbymac, and we'd like to offer these selected posts to YOU, our valued reader, completely FREE OF CHARGE! That's right! Parking is free, and friendly people are everywhere. C'mon down and view these year-end posts while it's still 2006!

Numerous blogging compadres have been posting their "best of 2006" and encouraging other bloggers to do the same.

Looking over the last year of posts here, I'm not sure which ones would be "best"; I'm my own worst critic. But here's a few links to posts that generated a lot of discussion -- good, bad, and ugly.

The Feminization of Worship Series

These were some of the most commented-on, and I felt honoured to have such thoughtful and honest voices joining the conversation on Near/Far, then Near/Far: Second Iteration, and finally, Near/Far: Second Iteration, Subset One. And as a worship musician and sometimes leader, this subject remains near and dear to my heart.

The Friend of Missional Saga

The Friend of Missional post created quite a stir in greater blogdom. While the comments here remained respectful and conversational, I was tarred and feathered on more than a few other blogs, and received some of the most, uh, colourful emails I've ever read. The subsequent Clarification and Apology did little to mollify some irate bloggers. I stand by what I wrote.

Pastoral

Boanerges: Part Deux is my confessional rationale as to why I recommend avoiding contact with heresy-hunters. Holy Mañana is a reflection on the disasters surrounding a prominent American pastor, meth, and massages. The topic of Dreams has been a recurring theme ever since this blog started. Do we still dare to dream? Or are our Dreams in the Dirt?

As more and more people experience a Detoxing from Church, eventually they have to grapple with what a healthy resolution to the detox looks like, and also how to avoid the trap of the Crabby Detox.

Final Brain Morsels

I should also mention that the discussion resulting from the online version of Post-Charismatic? was overwhelming -- in a positive way; the book version should be available in spring 2007. And of course, we also did a DTS with YWAM Okanagan and subsequently joined staff full-time. Other than that, we've been mostly sitting around watching reruns of M*A*S*H.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Take the Best and Go

I finished reading The Charismatic Century, by Jack Hayford (with S. David Moore, author of the very thorough The Shepherding Movement), and as requested by KSG, here's a few thoughts on the book. I think a quote from the late John Wimber actually might serve as the thesis statement of this book: "Take the best and go!"

Hayford and Moore do an admirable job of tracing the history of North American Pentecostals, Charismatics, and Third Wave movements in a very engaging and readable style. While acknowledging the charismatic-like movements that occurred independently in other countries -- at times pre-dating the Azusa Street Revival of 1906 -- the focus is largely on the roots and fruit of the Azusa event.

The good news for me is that, after reading their timelines and records of theological development, I didn't slap my forehead and rush to my Post-Charismatic manuscript to make changes! :)

Keeping the quote from Wimber in mind -- "Take the best and go" -- the book is helpful in tracing the history of early Pentecostalism, the Charismatic Renewal, and the Third Wave. While some controversies are acknowledged (the Oneness debate, the Shepherding Movement, the Latter Rain), it may appear as though Hayford and Moore are letting them "off the hook", so to speak, by not going into greater detail on some of the problematic teachings.

For example, William Branham is acknowledged as having developed some "erratic" teachings towards the end of his ministry, but that's about it. Branham is mostly viewed as a significant personality in the era of the healing evangelists; the only other healing evangelist who gets more than a passing mention is Oral Roberts. As someone who has researched Branham in more depth, I was a little disappointed that he seemed to get a "get out of jail free" card, as a significant number of teachings from Branham are -- to be charitable -- highly questionable at best.
Likewise, the Latter Rain movement from North Battleford, Canada gets a brief mention, but the teachings that led to its denunciation by other Pentecostals aren't even mentioned.

However, remembering "take the best and go" as a lens to view this book through, and recognizing that the authors never intended nor claimed to be writing a theological critique or defense of various streams of thought, this book is both encouraging and helpful.

The authors end each major chapter with a short section on what "take the best and go" could look like. They highlight things like:

• the strong emphasis on missions and missional living that characterized the early Pentecostals
  
• the graciousness towards other denominations -- particularly as a result of the Charismatic Renewal of the 60's & 70's impacting the older mainline denominations
  
• reminding us that -- whatever our reaction to things like healing evangelists and spurious "deliverance" ministries -- praying for the sick and demonized is a normal part of Christian life
  
• rather than letting negative examples and experiences occlude our spiritual sight, to seek the Holy Spirit to give us a fresh look and understanding of how we pursue a charis-missional life (except they don't use the word "charis-missional")

If it's a critique of charismatic theology and/or excesses that you're looking for, this isn't your book. However, if you'd like a good historical primer which highlights, well, the "highlights" and invites you to consider how you might "take the best and go", then I would recommend The Charismatic Century.

Boxing Week

No, this is not a reference to Rocky Balboa. In Canada, like our distant cousins across The Pond, we have a national holiday the day after Christmas called "Boxing Day". Well, it's a holiday except for anyone who works retail in a mall. If I avoided malls before Christmas because of the lemmings-on-acid crowds, you can be assured I stay even farther away when the lemmings added greed to their acid.

Just been enjoying time with my family; my parents flew in on Christmas Day and we're having a great time hanging out with them. Just takin' it easy -- for a week, anyway.

Currently reading:

Perspectives on Spirit Baptism: Five Views

The Charismatic Century: The Enduring Impact of the Azusa Street Revival

Exiles: Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture

Currently -- as a result of Christmas presents -- listening to:

Bob Seger: Face the Promise Good to hear ol' Bob crankin' out the tunes.

Christmas with Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby Now this is truly RETRO!

My daughter Jo was thrilled to also get a Frank Sinatra CD for Christmas (dancers are much more eclectic in their musical tastes -- she also likes Underoath, The Februarys and Johnny Cash). I'm liking the Christmas CD with Sinatra & Crosby for two reasons: (A) it really is "classic", even though these guys are way before my time, and (B) I've been disappointed that recent Christmas projects sing about everything BUT Jesus' birth, but Sinatra & Bing do both. So, if you want a mix of fun Christmas songs AND some great Christmas hymns/carols, you might want to check out the oldskewl dudes from the 1940's.

Favourite Christmas Carol

Everyone has their favourites. A tradition in the robbymac clan is that the tree gets decorated on the first Saturday of December, and the soundtrack is always A Charlie Brown Christmas on CD, and later we watch The Muppet Christmas Carol as we drink eggnog.

But when it comes to Christmas carols, I have absolutely ZERO difficulty picking out a favourite: O Holy Night. The melody of this song is incredibly beautiful and powerful, and the lyrics -- oh man, the LYRICS -- are just in a class of their own.

Oh holy night! The stars are brightly shining,
It is the night of the dear Savior's birth.
Long lay the world in sin and error pining,
Till He appear'd and the soul felt its worth.
A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.
Fall on your knees! Oh, hear the angel voices!
Oh night divine, Oh night when Christ was born;
Oh night divine, Oh holy night.

Truly He taught us to love one another;
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother;
And in His name all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
Let all within us praise His holy name.
Christ is the Lord! O praise His Name forever,
His power and glory evermore proclaim.
His power and glory evermore proclaim.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Christmas Truce

(NOTE: this is not an urban myth. It really happened in 1914, during the First World War)

The "Christmas truce" is a term used to describe the brief unofficial cessation of hostilities that occurred between German and British troops stationed on the Western Front of World War I during Christmas 1914. The truce began on Christmas Eve, December 24, 1914, when German troops began decorating the area around their trenches in the region of Ypres, Belgium, for Christmas. They began by placing candles on trees, then continued the celebration by singing Christmas carols, namely Stille Nacht (Silent Night). The British troops in the trenches across from them responded by singing English carols.

The two sides continued by shouting Christmas greetings to each other. Soon thereafter, there were calls for visits across the "No Man's Land" where small gifts were exchanged — whiskey, jam, cigars, and the like. The artillery in the region fell silent that night. The truce also allowed a breathing spell where recently-fallen soldiers could be brought back behind their lines by burial parties. Proper burials took place as soldiers from both sides mourned the dead together and paid their respects. At one funeral in No Man's Land, soldiers from both sides gathered and read a passage from the 23rd Psalm:

"The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the path of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil."

The truce spread to other areas of the lines, and there are many stories — some perhaps apocryphal — of football (soccer) matches between the opposing forces. The film Merry Christmas suggests that letters sent home from the war related that the score was 3-2 in favor of the Germans.

(source: Wikipedia -- Christmas Truce)

Pernell the Tagger Repents

No, he didn't. This has nothing to do with Pernell's tagging proclivities. It was just an attempt at a catchy blog post title.

But Pernell's young sons (ages 4 and 6) seem to have figured out The Real Meaning of Christmas. Surf on by Pernell's post to be uplifted and encouraged on the last Saturday of crazed mall-crawling before Christmas. It's a great perspective!

Pernell, as a father, you're definitely doing something right!

Pernell the Tagger

Taggers have targeted my blog. Specifically, one tagger in particular. My good friend Pernell Goodyear has become a tagger. Figures that a guy who plants a church in the downtown area of The Hammer would pick up a tagging habit.

Oh, wait, my confused...

This actually has nothing to do with graffiti after all. Well, well... a-hem. Start over: my good friend Pernell Goodyear, who in real life is an innovative and missional church-planter for the Salvation Army, tagged me to follow his lead into historical vulnerability, and list five not-so-well-known things about me.

First off, I have been known to wear tie-dye. It actually started as a joke, but people thought I was serious, and kept giving me tie-dye shirts as gifts, and the rest is history. Tie-dye is fashion livin' large! Second, my hair is NOT a really dark brown like most normal caucasians. It's black, black, BLACK (well, now sprinkled with premature wisdom), and strongly resists being dyed (Jules managed to dye it purple mid-90's but you could only tell in direct sunlight).

Third, I escaped my entire childhood and teenage years without (A) breaking a bone, (B) chipping a tooth, or (C) getting stitches. One false step while rock-climbing at 25 (and I was only about ten feet above ground at the time!) took care of all three in one fell swoop (emphasis on the word "fell").

Fourth, I didn't start playing bass until I was 18 years old. I had picked up guitar when I was 16, but the reality is that my first instrument (from age 8 to 14) was piano. I finished Grade Eight Royal Conservatory after six years of lessons, and was so sick of "taking lessons" that I played nothing but the stereo for two years, before picking up guitar in Grade 10. Things like harmonica, mandolin, djembe, and dulcimer came later.

Fifth and finally, like my good friend Brother Maynard, who blogs under a pseudonym for self-preservation instincts, I have also used a pseudonym while writing for the college paper back in the day. Brother Maynard also wrote for the paper, under the moniker -- wait for it -- "Brother Maynard". I, on the other hand, used the pen-name "Bubba Schlapbutnik" whenever I wrote something deliberately bizarre and Monty Python-esque. Not being anywhere near as intelligent as Bro. Maynard, however, I freely let my "real" name stand for the many (usually controversial) articles that I wrote. I think Brother Maynard opted for his pseudonym after observing the gracious and loving treatment that my articles inspired in others (to be fair, I was just a wee bit caustic in my writing, as this article documents.

I now follow Pernell's illustrious example and "tag" five others: Emerging Grace, Brother Maynard, Neil McKeever (feel free to use the comments for your list, Neil!), Gerry Milchalski, and Jamie Arpin-Ricci.

December 21: Update for KSG

Do these fingers look "fat" to you?!?!?

Fatherless & Fine With It

There has been a lot of talk and print about the "fatherless generation" over the past fifteen-to-twenty years or so. Conferences, books and ministries such as Ed Piorek's The Father Loves You, and Floyd McClung's, The Father Heart of God, have become staples for a generation that felt -- to greater or lesser degree -- ripped off and alienated from fathers.

These resources touched a very raw nerve for many people. McClung's book was written over twenty years ago, and has long been one of YWAM's signature teachings, yet is still as needed and profound today for putting language to the feeling of being "fatherless" that so many have expressed. For many people, this was a deep wound that needed healing.

But something seems to have changed in recent years. The emerging generations aren't necessarily LESS "fatherless" than the previous, but for some reason, there doesn't often appear to be the same sense of loss involved.

Being "fatherless" used to be equated with something that was missing, something that should have been but hadn't materialized, or at times was actually abusive instead of nurturing. If you asked someone about it, and they considered themselves somehow "fatherless" (either through neglect, absence, shaming, desertion or abuse), you could see the pain in their eyes; they felt the hollowness inside of missing out on something that they really wanted.

Maybe I hang out with a rough crowd, but I'm beginning to see more instances where youth who would still be considered fatherless don't seem to see it as a problem. If the topic comes up, they shrug it off as an obvious reality, but also an irrelevant one. It's almost as palpable as them saying something to the effect of, "Yeah, so I'm 'fatherless'. Why should that make a difference? Most of us are. It's 'normal' now..."

Again, perhaps it's only a select few that are saying these things; maybe I just have conversations with the extreme fringe. But I'm beginning -- just beginning, mind you -- to get an uneasy feeling that being "fatherless" has changed from being a wound that needed healing, and has become just another cold hard factual assumption of 'reality'.

Musical Homage Part Two

The first one was so fun, why not franchise it?

These represent a smattering of the recording artists that were significant influences (for me, anyway) in the 80's. Hopefully, more people can play than when we were dipping into the ancient history of the 70's. Name the artist and album (again, some are no-brainers...)!

And for even more fun, how about these influential Christian artists from the 80's? (Brother Maynard should definitely get the last one!)

And now, in keeping with my yearly goal of NOT shopping in the crazed lemmings-on-acid malls the weekend before Christmas, I'll be back in a bit...

Crabby Detox

When I was but a wee lad, one of my dad's many job transfers took us to Chattanooga, Tennessee. It was a beautiful place, although apparently Canucks talk funny, according to the locals. And while we lived there, we discovered that Southern hospitality in Chattanooga is alive and well.
We also learned various slang expressions, and folklore wisdom of the Southerners (although our immediate neighbours were an Italian family from New Yawk and had the accents to prove it), but I can't honestly remember if I first heard about crab-in-a-bucket behaviour while I was there or not.

It's a fairly well-known story that you can put one crab in a bucket, and it can easily escape. But if you put several crabs -- even a LOT of crabs -- within easy reach of the rim, they'll never get out. If a crab attempts to escape, the others simply reach up and pull them back down.

This picture reminds me of a potential trap to be found when people go through detoxing from church in a group setting. Sometimes, people who are in detox join an existing house or simple church, and find safety and healing. Also common is when "a whole whack of" people (another colloquilism apparently peculiar to Canada, or so friends in California tell me) who are ALL in detox start their own group. And that's where crab mentality can show up.

These groups start off as a place of safety and nurture, as people feel free to share their stories and be heard and understood by others who have been through the same thing (often from the same church). But as time goes on, when you'd expect to see at least some of the people starting to come back to life again, there instead seems to be a perpetual commitment to staying angry, bitter, and cynical.

As soon as one person starts to show signs of returning spiritual and emotional health, and ventures to share this with the group, they are immediately pulled back into the vortex of cynicism by their crabbishly-endowed group. It's REVENGE OF THE CRABS, with their patron saint Mordac the Preventer.

Sadly, I've seen some situations where those who were -- for lack of a better phrase -- "coming back to life" actually felt they had no other recourse but to leave the group behind, in order to escape the Crabbites. This tended to produce a second, albeit much milder and shorter-lived, period of detoxing from the disillusionment of what they'd hoped for in the home group versus how it turned out.

I know I've made this plea here several times before, but please indulge me yet again:

We all talk about "journey" -- and even the original byline of this blog was "robbymac: an ecclesiastical anarchist's journey" -- but we need to respect where others are at in their journey as much as we'd like them to respect our journey. And that has to include allowing people to come to terms with how they will relate to the larger Body of Christ around them, without imposing some kind of uniformity enforced by cynicism.

Some people may stay in house churches for the rest of their lives. Others may return to a more "institutional" setting, perhaps even -- *GASP* -- the same church they left. Does that make them a "sell-out"? A quitter? No longer considered part of the Enlightened Remnant?

And finally, have you ever seen a happy crab? One capable of being extremely jaded and simultaneously Christ-like? If you have, please adjust your medication let me know.

Musical Homage

Last night, our whole family was at a Christmas banquet at our local church here in Kelowna. It wasn't a typical banquet in that it was potluck (everybody brings something to contribute), and it was based on an unlikely Christmas theme of "The Seventies". You haven't lived till you've seen your own children dancing to 70's music; the fun thing that we and several other parents commented on was how gratifying it was to see our teenagers having so much (to use the oldskewl term) "good clean fun". And some of the costumes were a hoot!

On an unfortunate note for those of us who at least vaguely recall the 70's, whenever there's a theme party for that extravagant and overindulgent decade, the first thing that pops to peoples minds is: DISCO.

I have never, ever, no never liked disco. I was part of that crowd that thought The Ramones were sent from God to deliver us from disco.

Here, then, is a pictorial sampling of the music that influenced me as a guitarist/bassist in my early years of playing. I've mentioned many times already that my musical influences as a Christian included Larry Norman, Randy Stonehill, Keith Green, Servant & Resurrection Band. But here's a smattering of the bands which influenced (and continue to some degree to influence) my "sound" and musical preferences.

Contest begins now:

1. Who are the artists behind these album covers (some of them will be no-brainers), and
2. For bonus points, what is the name of the album pictured.

Robby's 4 or 5 Theses

Has anyone else noticed that it's impossible to nail something to a blog? Or even harder to nail something to a computer screen? Has anyone learned this lesson through unfortunate and rueful happenstance?

I've never had much of a "commenting policy" here. Honestly, with the exception of the occasional troll shuffling by, it's never really been much of an issue. People here have generally been respectful, thoughtful, and I've always been grateful for that.

But, just for the record, here's a few "blogging theses" that I'd like to nail up for robbymac.org (these may sound eerily familiar to anyone who's ever been a part of any youth or young adult ministry I've been in):

1. Nobody can be sent to hell for voicing their honest opinion.
   
   True, when in youth/young adult ministry, this meant that at times we had to patiently endure some questionable ideas as people worked out their salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12), but creating a "safe place" that was "safe" for everyone -- even those who belonged but did not yet believe -- was worth it. Same goes for this blog.
   
   
2. We listened to you with respect, so (of course) you will listen to others with respect.
   
   Should be a no-brainer, but just so it's said: When iron sharpens iron, sparks sometimes fly (Proverbs 27:17). But there's a difference between spirited conversation and the typical troll-like behaviour of, well... trolls.
   
   
3. Normally, in an "analog" situation involving youth and young adults, I'd say at this point: "One at a time, people, one at a time!" But blog visitors are so mature and respectful when it comes to taking turns, looking to the interests of others (Philippians 2:3-4), that it really isn't necessary here.
   
   
4. No Squirrels!
   
   This related to a goofy & cheezy apocryphal story of a little boy who wanted to sound super-spiritual, a well-intentioned Sunday School teacher trying to get her class of kids to say "squirrel" but they thought the safest answer was "Jesus", because it was Sunday School, after all, but the joke was lame even when it was analog in the 1990's, which just shows how old I am, and the cheezy illustration is pretty much impossible to replicate digitally online, so maybe I'll just shut up and get to the point by saying:
   
   No plastic, super-spiritual-wanna-be, Sunday School-ish, Christianese-based, jargon-infested clap-trap. Please and thank-you.

I had a fifth one in mind when I started this post, but it's escaped me now. Possibly a squirrel is to blame, but I'm not sure I can come up with a plausible explanation of how a squirrel -- hyper-religious or not -- could successfully cause my mind to go blank.

Wow. Just... wow.

Remember the protest that was scheduled for this weekend against Mark Driscoll's church? And the open letter that Rose Swetman posted about it?

Wow. Just wow. They all met together in peace and listened to each other. You can read all about the Meeting With Mark Driscoll at Rose's blog. It's the most grace-filled and refreshing blog post I've read in quite a while. Way to go, all participants in that meeting. And Rose, well done and well blogged.

And Mark Driscoll's musings on the meeting can be read at his blog as well. (HT Bob Hyatt)

Wow. Just... wow.