Discovering the Church, the Culture, and the Truth
August 25th, 2009

Dangers of the young “New Calvinist”

There’s a good bit of press surrounding the idea of “The New Calvinist.” The buzz started after Time Magazine gave a name to the idea and deemed it one of the “10 Ideas Changing the World Right Now.” The issue was further pushed in the press by the numerous replies from what the article labeled as the fore-runners of the movement.

I think smarter and more involved people than myself can comment on the actual idea of “New Calvinism,” what I do believe I am well qualified to speak about are the dangers I have seen emerge from the new reformed movement because I am reformed in theology, I live on a Christian university campus and get to see these dangers lived out every day, and because all of these warnings come out of self-realizations from the past four months. So here are some detrimental details I’ve observed that we must be very cautious of in the young, new Calvinist:

1) Pride: Upon arriving at College I was bombarded by reformed theology, I had it shoved in my face by people who called themselves Calvinists. I even attended a ministry on campus where I was asked what I thought of predestination and eternal security… before I was asked my name. After the first week of school I swore I would never be reformed. By the first week of my Sophomore year I would candidly call myself a Calvinist, engage in frequent conversations about limited atonement, and make fun of anyone who didn’t read out of an ESV as if I were Steve Jobs asking the Bill Gates of the world why he couldn’t get with the program. The result: I gave good theology a bad name.

It wasn’t until I got very annoyed with a young “missionary” in India who thought it was more important to talk about the Jewish traditions and contexts behind the prodigal son than to use it as a tool to present the message of Jesus that I realized I was disgusted with what I had become, repented of putting my drive for intellect and knowledge before my need for love and wisdom, and started asking the Spirit to interpret scripture for me rather than depend on my own human knowledge.

2) The Approach: Do I really love people and want people to know Jesus more deeply or do I just want them to understand and agree with my theology? Do I care more about Jesus’ words or Paul’s words? Do I talk and blog more about Jesus and His love or the theology behind the Nicene Creed? Am I more concerned about leading people to Jesus or away from other teachers I deem theologically unsound? While these things do matter, I always have to ask myself what matters more. Doctrine is important, very important. But we often use it to alienate people rather than lead them into a deeper understanding and relationship with Christ

3) The Name: Any person who titles himself a Calvinist sends off red flag to me. As believers, we belong to Christ. Not Calvin. We are Christians. Not Calvinists. Not Arminionist. Our theology is one or the other, but our belief is not in any man, organization, our system of beliefs, it is in Jesus.

by Micah Taylor | Posted in Christianity, The Church, Theology | No Comments » | Tags: ,
June 25th, 2009

What to do about a wandering governor

I am currently in India and consequently very disconnected from what’s happening in my home state of South Carolina. Today I just heard the news that our governor, Mark Sanford came out as having an affair (biblical term: committing adultery) with an Argentine woman.

A very good friend of mine works in the state house, her father is a representative, and my uncle went to Furman University with Gov. Sanford. While I have only met the governor twice, people I know interact with him and possibly his family quite often and, while I’m sure everyone of them is displeased with his actions, have found him to be a moral man. So the question comes, what do we do with Mark Sanford?

  1. Forgive- It is indisputable the Gov. Sanford has committed an immoral, unbiblical act. But before we are so quick to cast stones, let’s not forget that we would be doing  to hold his mistakes against him. He has asked for forgiveness, we forgive.

  2. Learn - In his press conference, Sanford stated that it started as an eight year relationship with “a dear, dear friend.” Married men and women should learn well not to get too close to the opposite sex. 1 Peter 5:8 states:

    “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”

    It is very easy for married men and women to confide in “dear friends” of the opposite sex. To avoid falling prey to temptation, avoid it.

  3. Pray- This is a time to pray for Gov. Sanford, his family, the woman with who he committed adultery, and even our nation as a whole, as another leader has fallen into temptation. 1 Timothy 2:1-4 states:

    “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”

It is my hope that God’s grace and sovereignty will be shown through this.

May 19th, 2009

Where are we leading?

I met with my mentors, some of the teachers in my life, today and one of them brought a few things to light in my life that I thought should be addressed in a public forum… since much of the road I’ve taken to get where I am was in public forum this just seemed right.

He said something like this: Micah, you lead people. But is your main concern leading them towards Christ or away from other things?

Let me break that down. As you well know, if you’re a faithful reader of this blog (hi mom), I’ve run numerous posts on what I would call impurities in the church, heresies, etc. The very self reflective question I have to ask myself is “am I so concerned with showing people how wrong this pastor or this author is that I forget that the much bigger goal is to show them how great Jesus is?”

I fear the answer… for the most part in the past few months has been… yes.

Does this mean that I’m not going to call people out or attempt to purify the DNA of the Body? No. But it does mean that I do believe relaying Christ’s love is much more important than relaying His disapproval. Blogs are especially not the ideal place to discuss the impurities in the Church. If that is my means of communicating the speck I find in my brother’s eye, then I am doing exactly what I criticize him for doing: publicly generalizing and criticizing the body of Christ and using Him as the excuse to do so.

Yes, there are problems that need to be addressed. Yes, churches and pastors need to be held accountable for the way they present Christ. But so do I. And until I make leading people towards Jesus central, rather than leading them away from the flaws of man, I am but an infant in my understanding of the gifts of prophesy and teaching.

May 18th, 2009

Worship leadership 101: planning a set

Dr. Duncan recently posed the question on his blog: “can we use just anything in worship?” In this article, as well as others, he addresses secular, and even further, completely inappropriate songs being used in a worship service.

At this moment I would like to dig a little deeper into this initial question and at the same time, look at the broader scope of how a worship leader plans a musical worship set. This stems from my 3 years in experience of worship leading, two years of doing it wrong and learning from it, observations of scriptural worship, and my conversations with other worship leaders. So, for what it’s worth, here’s the very little wisdom I have to offer, and much more that I am restating that I have learned from others.

First and foremost: every song must communicate the gospel well.

This is such an important point and many… probably most worship leaders miss and I myself just recently learned. The function of worship is to bring glory to God. The best way to do this is to look to scripture to see how it’s done. All of the psalms model this. Depravity, brokenness, salvation in Christ Jesus resulting in hope and joy from the Lord.

This of course, immediately rules out all secular music. The excuse that it is making a point for the service is not only an inadequate excuse, but is really just downright ignorant of the Word, oblivious of the calling of worship, and shows severe lack in the faith that the Gospel can communicate in its own merit.

Beyond just secular songs, this also rules out a large number of worship songs and even hymns. It started in the 90s when Contemporary Christian Music (CCM, it’s an organization actually, not just a title) realized that worship was a big hit. Ever since, mediocre artists have been substituting Jesus’ name into bland love songs, overproducing them, and selling the sheet music for loads of money. The result is an influx of shallow, theologically incorrect, trite songs void of any substance. Somewhere in the mix we have Michael W. Smith and a dozen others focusing worship on the worshiper, singing Jesus

“took the fall and thought of me above all”

which does not at all hold up to scripture!

“For my name’s sake I defer my anger, for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you, that I may not cut you off.” - Isaiah 48:9

Communicate the gospel. That is the worship pastor’s (just like any other pastor’s) first and foremost goal. That requires a sound judgement, theological discernment, and sound doctrine.

by Micah Taylor | Posted in Christianity, Music, The Church, Worship | 12 Comments » | Tags: ,
May 13th, 2009

Furtick sticks foot in mouth… yet again

This is ironic: a “pastor” blogging slanderously about slanderous bloggers.

by Micah Taylor | Posted in Ramblings, The Church | 3 Comments » | Tags: ,
May 2nd, 2009

The Church [R]evolution Doccumentary: Clip 2

View More

by Micah Taylor | Posted in Film, The Church | 2 Comments » | Tags: , ,
April 29th, 2009

Worship leaders as pastors

Barry Keldie wrote a very well done article about worship leaders being pastors first and formost. This really put things into perspective for me as a worship leader.

by Micah Taylor | Posted in Music, The Church, Worship | No Comments » | Tags: ,
April 23rd, 2009

The Church [R]evolution Documentary: Clip 1

This is a clip from the new documentary project I’m working on with Matt Brammer and Taylor Cash.

The title is The Church [R]evolution, it explores the changing role of the church and its clergy in modern culture.

I’ll be posting more later, in the meantime you can check out the site in full.

April 17th, 2009

Perception of pastors…

As a frequent of Dr. Duncan’s blog, Pajama Pages (I’ve found that I check it much more frequently than my facebook during the day now) I recently saw a post alluding Perry Noble’s image and I would actually like to come to his defense… sort of.

So BigStuf made this deck and Cooper gets excited, posts it on his Twitter because he knows other members will be as well. I’m going to go ahead and say that we can’t use this particular case to pass judgment on Perry’s humility.

What can be spoken on, though is the way members perceive him.

There two groups of members at Newspring, and for that matter, most likely, any church that draws a young, predominantly college crowd. There are those who are fully into the vision of the church, the activities, the work, and the ideas behind ministry. Then there are those who are fully into the pastor, his spreaking style, his trendiness, his swagger, and his personallity.

I know many who are in the first group and who attend NS. I rarely, in fact, almost never hear them talking about Perry. Not that they don’t like him, I’m sure they do, but when they talk about NS, it’s more about the work they are involved in there, how they are being the church in accordance with the way NS outlines it. I respect these people. A couple of them are actually college workers, employed by NS.

I don’t know many in the second group personally. I’ve met plenty, but I typically get annoyed by them and try to find a way to leave their presence. All they talk about when they meantion NS is Perry; how great he is, how they hated church before they heard him speak, how excited they are about his new series, how awesome he is for coming out in a coffin/wearing a torn up suit, etc. They often know little to nothing about what goes on at the church outside of its services and to my knowledge, only one of these people is employed by the church, and not closely.

It is interesting that the people closest to Perry talk about him the least and seem to be more genuinely concerned with the purpose behind the church. This could be good or bad. In a way it reflects that those who are most involved at NS, who probably know its heart best, are less concerned with a man and more concerned with the Father. Maybe Perry communicates his image as a servant leader well to the people who work around him.

On the other hand, there is also a huge, freekishly stalker-like following among who those who merely watch Perry. Many of them idolize him. That is apparent in their talk, and the fact that tons of people attend church each week to watch a screen with him on it. Maybe Perry doesn’t do such a great job at communicating his image as a humble, lowly servant of the gospel to the vast amounts (thousands) of church-goers who see him every week.

Newspring isn’t the only place we see this. I’ve seen it in other churches I like, whose pastors I greatly respect. It is important, though, that we always remember, the gospel and every church exists to glorify the Son of Man, not a man leader.

by Micah Taylor | Posted in Christianity, The Church | 6 Comments » | Tags: , , ,
April 17th, 2009

Megachurch… done biblically

Kudos to Cornerstone Church in California for the thought process behind their new building project.

by Micah Taylor | Posted in Christianity, The Church | No Comments » | Tags: ,
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