As I sit here listening to some music, I’m reminded of the first time I heard it and the conundrum it created in my soul.
Flashback to Nov. 2006… it was another desperate Sunday morning filled with faint, hope and much cynicism. The previous weekend we had been in a city hundreds of miles away looking at houses so we could relocate. The reason for moving? There was a church in the area we thought we may find what our souls so achingly longed for, fellowship in the gospel with like-minded believers. I’ve had a lot of experience looking for churches. We’d looked for 6 months straight, called dozens of churches in the area sic. But before we committed to moving we’d heard about one church in the area and wanted to check it out. On the surface, it didn’t appear to be anything we would be interested in continuationist, contemporary, meeting in a gym, informal… From a cultural perspective this was nearly like going to the outback of Papa New Guinea. The people seemed friendly enough which isn’t terribly unusual when visiting churches. Then the music started and with it a mind-bending struggle.
The drums kicked up and my nerves jangled, that fingernails on a chalkboard feeling that starts as a tingle in the lower spine and rips up your back until it explodes in your cranium sending spasms down to your toes. My previous idea of wild music was the 1812 Overture or Beethoven’s 5th. Then the words were projected on a screen, another very irritating cultural thing, give me a hymn book for crying out loud. Then the lyrics began like drops of rain on parched earth.
My Savior’s sacrifice paid for all my sin
So in my suffering I look to the cross again
No need, no want, no trial, no pain
Can compare to this
The wrath of God, once meant for me
Was all spent on Him
My mind was stunned that Penal Substitutionary Atonement could be so beautifully stated in a contemporary manner. All, not some but all God’s wrath due me was spent on Jesus at the Cross intermixed with the difficult theme of suffering. Awesome. Beautiful. Stunning.
The rest of the songs were musically irritating but theologically deep yet accessible to the average person in America.
Nearly three years later we are still going to the same church. The music is no longer foreign to my ears, in fact, I quite enjoy it. All the other cultural idioms are no longer strange. We found what we were looking for and more than we ever thought possible. This is truly a church of believers living life together in a way that I couldn’t even have imagined.
…
Recently I was checking out a very popular blog on the internet and a post along the lines of, “Looking for a church post a comment, know of a good church post a comment.” Almost 100% of what people were looking for was “Traditional vs. Contemporary, Baptist vs. Non-denominational vs… etc. What was missing was any doctrinal distinctives. The thing we believers should join around is the Gospel and other first-level doctrinal issues. If you go to a church and you don’t hear references to the Gospel constantly in music, prayers, and, sermons odds are you should keep looking. If they do things that you find irritating in customs or culture accept that God has placed you in a different culture and adapt.
In Conclusion, when looking for a church Hold fast to the Gospel, disregard as much as possible all non-essential cultural idioms realizing your body and mind will adapt to various contexts. Keep the main thing the main thing when looking for a Church.
My favorite CD: Songs for the Cross Centered Life.. Buy it listen to it let the theology drive deep into your soul until it explodes in worship of the Triune God. http://www.sovereigngraceministries.org/Resources/Music/SFTCCL.aspx
Penuel 