Death has been swallowed up in victory!

I finished reading a very good book today. I am a little emotionally drained from it. It was beautiful, and I'm very thankful for the auther who put it out there. I have many friends still reading the book, so I will remain (though I'm sure I'm failing miserably to accomplish this) enigmatic about it. The book offers hope to a world that seems to have lost it. I'm just glad it appears we have a new Inkling.

The Center

So, I recently attended a Worship Central conference at Holy Trinity Brompton in London. It is a ministry kind of headed up by Tim Hughes to equip worship leaders in the area. It was a wonderful day of Biblically saturated teaching with special application for worship leaders. I learned a lot and had some beautiful times of worship, but there was one thing that I want to focus on.

I had blogged earlier (Unveiling Ourselves, I think was the title) about my challenges in approaching God. He is this powerful God, infinitely above and beyond us, yet our intimate friend, closer than anyone else, in fact inside our hearts. It was a challenge to me that I hadn't reconciled. Though it wasn't the direct focus of the talk, I believe I found the answer. As simple and obvious as it is, the answer is Jesus. Now I could have told you that worship had to be Christ-centered, that he "made a way for us," but I hadn't realized just how central He is.

You see, the way God comes to have this paradoxical relationship with us is through the paradoxical nature of Jesus, the God-man. Jesus is constantly revealing both aspects of His nature, calming the storm and crying with friends. Shining in glory and crying out as He sweat blood. Jesus is the Divine and human in one Person. It is through this union that we come to worship God in the way we do. Were Jesus not human, we could not "approach Him with confidence." The intimacy would be impossible. He would always seem to us a thundering God atop a mountain. Were He not God, we would have nothing to worship. We could love Him and draw near, but He would not have the power over us in order to save us. You see, as much as it scares us, we need the Thundering God of the Old Testament to defeat sin and death. Jesus fulfills both needs.

Without Jesus, I see no way that we could reconcile them. We would find it difficult to grow in both relationships, as I in fact did when Christ was not my entry point of communication to God. To further illustrate that this is how we should still relate to Christ, let's look at Revelation 1. John, the beloved disciple who had rested his head on Christ's chest at dinner, now seems to not recognize his Savior. I'll let you read it, but John searches for words to describe Jesus. It does not seem as if he is seeing his old friend, and this use to bother me greatly. But, a speaker this weekend pointed out something cool. When in verse 16 John is describing Jesus, he writes, "In his right hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance." Then he writes in 17, "When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: "Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades."

Did you catch it? In 16, Jesus is holding the stars in His right hand. In 17, He is laying His right on John's shoulder, saying, "Don't be afraid, it's me!" The same hand that holds the stars reaches out to assure and comfort us! This is the glory of the King calling us friends. In Jesus, we find it all. The all-powerful King, and the intimate Savior. This is why he must be the starting point! The focus of our worship. He is "the First and the Last. The Living One!" He is the One standing victorious over death and Hades, and He is our closest, deepest friend. He has made a way for us. Praise Jesus!

We Love to See You Smile

I meant to write about this earlier, but was too consumed with Harry Potter excitement. On Thursday, when I arrived to Leicester Square a little early for the movie, I was feeling that my small portioned British dinner was not going to hold out. So, I did the American thing and slipped into the nearby McDonald's. It was a little hectic, but ok. However, I quickly realised (British spelling) that the Brits didn't quite have this fast food thing down. It didn't look like people had assigned tasks. People were all doing different things. Someone working at the cash register would abandon it to go start making meals while some others walked around confused. Despite the warning signs, I went ahead and placed my standard order: Quarter pounder with cheese, ketchup, and pickles only, medium fries and a coke. The lady at the cash register looked terrified at my custom burger order. I knew I had made a mistake.

I waited 10 minutes for my sandwich while everyone around me was getting their food. She looked at me apologetically and said, "I'm so sorry, it will be ready in a few minutes." I replied, "It's fine. I know there's nothing you can do about it, but I am going to have to go. I've got tickets to a movie, and I just had time to drop in and eat on the way." She said, "Ok, we can fix this! Pick anything on the menu that doesn't need to be custom made. Anything you want. And you can have any dessert you want. Just whatever you want!" I told her some chicken tenders with my coke and fries would be great. She scurried to grab them, and I thanked her profusely. I walked away very content with my meal. You know, we've mastered efficiency and all that good business stuff back in the States, but somewhere along the way, I think we forgot how to take care of people. I walked away thinking it was possibly the best fast food experience I'd ever had. Silly, I know, but it was refreshing. I wonder how many disastrous situations could be avoided by just working hard to take care of people.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Well, I got to see The Order of the Phoenix with I don't know how many hundred other people at London's Odeon Cinema in Leicester Square. It is a beautiful theatre and the environment was great! Now, I'm not a trained film critic, so I won't try to pretend to be one. This is just a brief synopsis of my opinion.

David Yates is new to the Harry Potter world and makes a good impression with his take on the 5th installment of the series. The movie opens with some really nice cinematography. There are just some very nice shots, that might not be expected for a film of this nature. I'm going to avoid discussing matters of plot for those who have not seen it. The story progresses rather quickly. This script is more faithful to the book than any Harry Potter film since Chamber of Secrets. However, this book is also the longest Harry Potter book. The producers kept the film under 2 1/2 hours so that it would remain approachable to younger audiences, resulting in at times a very hurried feel. It is an understandable call, but there are some nice moments of dialogue where you long to slow down and enjoy the moment, instead of the quick flash to another scene.

The acting is great! Now, I'm not saying there are any Oscar bids here, but the young actors have really come into their own. Daniel Radcliffe (Harry) especially gives an outstanding performance. As most of the story centers around his emotional struggles, he has many challenges that come of quite nicely. The new additions to the cast, Imelda Staunton (Professor Umbridge) and Evanna Lynch (Luna Lovegood), are a delight! Rupert Grint (Ron Weasely) and Emma Watson (Hermione Granger) also show growth with great performances, but are deprived of screen time to give way to Harry's development.

The visual effects are fantastic! Not wanting to give anything away, but there is a wizard battle that looks like nothing I've seen on screen before. One criticism might be the cg on the giant Grawp. He looked pretty unbelievable. He needed some very human characteristics, and I don't know if cg has gotten to that point yet.

My only major gripe is one scene that I had eagerly anticipated. There is a particular conversation at the end of the story that is one of the most beautiful moments of the series. I couldn't wait to see it on screen, and it was reduced to a few seconds of flashback. I can only hope that an extended dvd will give me the conversation in its entirety.

Overall, this is the best Harry Potter to date, and it promises big things for future films (David Yates will direct the 6th installment) and the rest of this young cast's careers. It's a great deal of fun, so I hope you enjoy it.

A Tale of Two Churches Part 1: Hillsong London

I had the privilege of visiting two churches in the London area this Sunday, Hillsong and Holy Trinity Brompton. Hillsong is a relatively new part of a large church in 3 locations, the original home being in Sydney, Australia. Holy Trinty Brompton is an Anglican church with a nice heritage in London. I found out about each church by their worship. Hillsong United has put out several well known worship albums which have been put to good use at my home church. HTB is home to worship leader Time Hughes, composer of the songs "Here am to Worship" and "Beautiful One" and a leader at the Passion conferences in the States. So I went to Hillsong in the morning with some friends here. We accidentally (I got confused) got there an hour early. So we went around the corner to Starbucks. While we were there I asked the guy at the counter if he knew when Hillsong started. He looked confused, but another guy there overheard me and said, "Were you asking about Hillsong, mate?" I told him I was. The man's name was Jeremy. He was very friendly and excited to tell me about his church. It turned out that about 80% of the people in Starbucks that morning were from Hillsong. Apparently it's the community thing to do, which is quite cool. You could feel the thickness of community among these people. While talking to Jeremy, several people came to ask about his wife, who is due to give birth in 2 weeks. Everyone seemed very excited for him.

Once we got there, everyone was very nice and welcoming. We had several people come and introduce themselves. It felt so natural, not like they were "programmed greaters," but genuine people who loved their church and wanted you to feel at home there. There was an energy and freshness in the air. Even though the church had been there for, I think, 5 or 6 years, it felt as if this was the first Sunday of a very new thing. I excused myself to walk around and look at the displays and information. They meet in the Old Dominion theatre, which houses the musical "We Will Rock You" during the week. There was information about getting involved in the community, with the campaign slogan "Because We Can." I saw several of these t-shirts. At the resource desk I found all of the Hillsong cd's and dvd's. I also saw their pastor's books and sermon series. I only saw one resource that didn't come directly from Hillsong. Prominently displayed was Joel Osteen's Your Best Life Now. Now, I've never personally read the book, so I will refrain from comment. But, this put me on edge a little bit.

I asked a young lady what defined her church, what made Hillsong what it is. She replied, "I think it's the friendships. Everyone is very close. The worship is also great! I love to worship here!" Curious from the book I had seen, I asked, "What's the teaching like?" She sheepishly replied, "Well, it's pretty soft. I guess they want everyone to feel at home, so they don't really push you with the teaching. They expect you to grow in the small groups. I do sometimes wish they would challenge us with the teaching though." After that we were guided down to some seats near the front.

The stage was impressive with amazing rock show lighting and large risers for the instrumentalists. A countdown started on the screen that stood behind where the band would soon be. Some music started playing to a series of phrases that talked about the church being the body of Christ. I do remember the phrase, "The Church is not peripheral to the world, the world is peripheral to the Church." I'm not entirely sure what that means.

The band then came out. It was an army. Two electric guitars, bass, drums, two keyboard players, an acoustic guitar player, a lead male singer, two female leaders, and two more vocalists who stood more back to the side. They were all very energetic. They would dance as they lead, jump up and down and pump their fists. The room was electric; you would almost think they were singing to a Jesus who was actually alive. Fancy that. They debuted some new songs to be on the recently released album, "Savior King." There were a few things that bothered me through the worship. There was very little depth to the words. This was as far from liturgy as you can get. The next problem was that the music often did not match the words. This became very problematic for me on some lyrics. Some words we sang felt awkward to dance to. People would smile and dance to "You died for us!" It just had no dynamics. No quiet reflection. We also only ever sang about what God had done for us; very man-centered worship. Nothing about God being great, just because He's God. I grew tired of singing, "We're you're church" "We'll take it to the streets" "In Your freedom I will live" "I love you" "You've set me free." I just walked away feeling like what made God great was us. Like the thing that made God praiseworthy was that he saved mankind. There was strong excitement about the church and the people in the church, what God is doing there. But, that seemed to be God's only entry point, us. It felt more like a celebration of us, and thank God that he kept this good thing called humanity going. Now, I am probably exaggerating badly; this was my impression. However, the theme of the talk may have justified it.

The pastor got up and started with some staggering statistics about how lost the UK was. After giving the number of lost people in England he said, "Those numbers aren't going to fit in the Old Dominion Theatre, so if they're to hear the gospel, you're going to have to take it to them." He went on to say that it was time for Hillsong to teach on the deeper truths of the gospel for the first time. He said they had to understand why Jesus had to die, not just that he did, if they were going to be equipped to evangelize England. This was my first Sunday at Hillsong, but I got the impression I was witnessing something significant in the life of this church. I applaud this teacher for taking this direction.

He went on to teach Romans 5. He did an exceptional job of making some difficult doctrinal issues relatively simple and approachable. He started by posing the question, "Is it what you do for God, or what God has done for you that matters?" I'll refrain from regurgitating his entire sermon, but he very effectively taught on Christ as the Second Adam and the atonement. He had one memorable analogy involving computers. He said when you get the multi-colored spinning wheel of death (for windows people, it's the sign a mac has locked up, and yes, macs do lock up), you have three options. One is to accept the thing has gone wrong and leave it to deteriorate. The next is to kick the screen in and throw it out the window, destroying it. And finally, you can hit the reset button and start it over, preserving the original computer, but restarting the software without the problem. He said God had these three options when mankind and the world went wrong through one man, Adam. Jesus, he said, is God's reset button for mankind, preserving the people, but offering a new righteousness for them. He concluded that salvation is not our work, but Jesus' in us. He said if we live in worshipful response to this truth, a moral life will be the natural result. Overall, a wonderful word.

I did have one criticism of the teaching. Being on high alert for the prosperity gospel, I definitely sensed it creeping in. He toted a dangerous line at one point, saying "You don't have to work to earn God's love and salvation. He gives them freely. You already have his approval. It's not about us living to make God happy, it's about God..." he stuttered, apparently realizing where he was going. "God wants to give you all you need, just because he loves you" he concluded. Earlier, when praying for the congregation, he prayed, "For those in blessed times, we thank you. For those in trials and challenging times, we pray that those will end and that they will experience your joy." At the start of the talk, he told us to stand and imagine a door. With us on our side were all of our challenges and problems. On the other side was Jesus waiting to receive and free us. He asked us to physically reach out and take hold of the handle and walk through the door. I stood still, a little uncomfortable. The general idea was that the true Christian life was free of trouble and trial, and that was Jesus had to offer for us.

Overall, a good learning experience. Great example of community and passion. A church that is definitely growing and going somewhere. I'll be interested to see where this new line of teaching leads them. Next time, Holy Trinity Brompton.

A Magical Circus

Well, today in Leicester Square (a really neat little square in London) I had the opportunity to join literally thousands of screaming fans in celebrating the glory of the pretty people who have given us the Harry Potter films. Yes, it was the red carpet (the carpet was green) celebrity London premiere of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Knowing that people had begun camping out the night before, I left immediately after my afternoon class in hopes of being able to see at least something. I found myself a nice spot directly beneath the screen where they would show the interviews and within a decent distance outside where the celebrities would pass the fortunate fans who were on the inside of the fence that separated the rest of the world. I sat and watched as people filed into Leicester Square and the Euphoria began to grow.

It was truly exciting to see J.K Rowling and the slew of actors and actresses who play the characters from the world of Hogwarts with my own eyes. You can see more pictures on my facebook. However excited this nerdy Potter fan may have gotten, my perspective did allow one interesting bit of incite. You see, Leicester Square is literally a square with a little park in the middle. At the center of the park is a statue. The organizers of this event had created a ring of fans around the little park with a tunnel on one side leading to the theatre (British spelling... Ha!). From standing both right outside the ring and under the screen, I got two very distinct perspectives. From the screen, I saw the glamorous camera angles that make these things look so amazing. But peering in I saw what was really happening. These actors would get out of a car, and then start their way around the ring. They would walk slowly around with people screaming loudly as they came near. On the screen they looked larger than life; from my spot they looked very small. As they trudged around the circle signing autographs, the image became comical. The only thing I could relate the image to was that of elephants circling an arena. It looked like such a joke. These normal human beings, so real. For the first time flesh and blood to me. The glamor seemed to fade away. They were just people, being screamed at and bustled around a circle under flashing lights.

Now I'm not condemning this event or the people involved. I was there and enjoyed the poop out of it. It was really cool, and I would have jumped on Rupert Grint (Ron Weasely) if given the chance. I was merely observing the absurdity of what we do.