The Best of Cerulean Sanctum 2005

Cerulean Sanctum logo 2005 has been a year of tremendous growth at Cerulean Sanctum. Hundreds of readers left comments and blessed me by what they wrote. Most of the posts linked here were cited as being particularly helpful (or contentious) by the folks who stop by here on a regular basis, so I hope this collection of the best of this blog will provide plenty of reading material for anyone looking for challenging ideas that seek to reflect the heart of the Lord.

God bless you all in 2006 and beyond!

General Church Issues

I ended 2005 with a series covering damaging messages that worm their way into the Gospel presentation in American Christianity.

The Little Things series looked at issues within the Church that often go ignored, but which can contribute to hurting others, failing in our ministry, and sabotaging the mission of the Church.

On the Brink of a Quantum Singularity with Calvin and Arminius asks if the Church is better served by staying at the feet of Christ rather than exploring the fringes of what it means to be in Him.

That Nutty Small Group Dialectic discusses Hegel’s “thesis + antithesis = synthesis” ideal and how it can wreck small group Bible studies.

The Reason the Church Exists explores the mission of the Church.

Ford, GM, and the Church and More Signs We Are Not Ready ask whether the Church in America is ready to go through difficult times, and if not, why not?

Is Christianity Broken? and its follow-up, Recovering Christianity’s Balance, look at the plethora of beliefs within Christian thought today, searching for a holy middle ground that best fits the narrow way.

A Long Obedience in the Same Direction seeks to restore a rational view of long-term Christian discipleship when we confront folks who are making mistakes in their walk with Christ.

Lifestyle Issues and Christian Living

The Christian & the Business World series garnered much attention throughout the blogosphere, providing an in-depth analysis of how the Church in America underestimated the power of the Industrial Revolution to profoundly change not only our society, but the Church itself—neither for the better. In the end, I called for a radical rethinking of how we live as countercultural Christians in a world altered by business practices rooted in Darwinian survival of the fittest morality.

Are You a Hamster? Sometimes it feels like we’re on a spinning wheel with no way to get off. But a countercultural Christian solution exists.

The American Church’s Five Most Pressing Needs—the title says it all.

Love Sin / Hate Sin—What do we do when we say we hate sin—but not really?

What the Church Is Not Learning explores the lessons the Church in America resists.

The Humble Warrior demolishes the faux-manliness trumpeted in bestselling men’s books.

The To-Do List Christian is a peculiar creature that is half human, half PDA, and not entirely alive.

Stay-at-Home Dads (or “Guys the Church Would Like to Forget Exist”) As one of those men, I ask why so many Christians are willing to point fingers at us, but offer no solutions to the broken system that made us.

Singleness: Radical Answers for a Harsh Reality goes deep into the abandonment of many singles by their churches and the Christian culture we’ve erected in the early 21st century.

The Problem of Porn examines the underlying causes and issues that afflict those trapped in pornography.

Another Look at the Church’s Missing Men is a follow-up to a post last year, with an explanation as to why men are dropping out of our churches.

Trying to Get By sees the lost as sheep without a shepherd.

Isolationism, Materialism, and the Evils of Our Age blasts the accommodations we have made to our culture, but which the Church may unwittingly support because it has sought no better way.

Tougher People looks at the wimpiness of the West.

A Hodgepodge of Thoughts on This July Fourth offers some thoughts on cultural accommodation.

Controversial Subjects

The Myths of Homeschooling Series examined the hype that often surrounds the homeschooling movement, seeking common sense and true Christian charity from all sides of the discussion.

Creating a Theology from Unbelief was perhaps the most contentious post this year as I asked if we truly believe the Bible the way we claim to.

The Truth About Women (and Men) posits that we Christians have done a terrible job raising young women (and men) for the Lord.

Christian Blogging: A Waste of Time? Well, ask a bunch of bloggers if they’re wasting their time blogging and you’re sure to stir up a hornet’s nest.

Psychology a Pseudo-Science? asks the hard question of psychology as it further penetrates Christian thought.

Not So Wild About Harry—bring up Harry Potter and not get varying opinions? Hah!

Charismatic Issues

The last quarter of 2005 found the Godblogosphere choosing sides over cessationist and charismatic (or as it has been called recently, “continualist”) positions. As a non-charismaniac charismatic, I took up the cause that God still works supernaturally, not only by His own action, but through us, His human agents. In addition, a couple posts addressed the low position afforded the Holy Spirit in many of our churches.

Advertising Ashes and Overflowing both ask if the Church is honoring the third Person of the Trinity in faith and practice.

The Least-Believed Verse in the Bible wonders why so few believe that the mountain can be cast into the sea if we only have faith.

God Is Still Speaking counters a post by Steve Camp claiming that He is not.

Response to “Some Say It Blundered” reverses the burden of proof on charismatics to prove that the gifts still exist today.

How Not to Be a Charismatic Headcase is a companion post to 2003’s Charismatic Churches and the Cult of New asking charismatics to ditch the charismania.

Heretic Hunting and Judgment

Each of the posts listed here sought some sanity in the ongoing battle of who’s right and who’s wrong in American Christianity. So many times we try to justify our own positions while ignoring our own foibles. There have been several pitched battles between bloggers and church movements that amounted to nothing more than namecalling and ugliness. Let’s hope 2006 is a finer year for all of us.

Let’s Play “Spot the Heretic!” Soon everyone will be a heretic.

Witch Hunt questions our willingness to so easily find fault in other Christians.

Arrogance, Ignorance, and “I Don’t Know” wonders why so few are willing to say “I don’t know.”

Nyah, Nyah, Nyah, We’re Not Listening! asks why the traditional church and emerging church are so unwilling to listen to each other’s criticisms while also examining their own faults.

On Consigning Enemies of Christ to Hell asks why it is so easy to condemn others, but so hard to help them grow in Christ.

Tearing Down the Gallows calls for a greater willingness to correct others in true Christian love.

Has the Christian Blogosphere Lost Its Collective Mind? questions the Christian blogosphere’s cannibalistic practice of consuming its own in a fit of pique.

A Long Obedience in the Same Direction is a cautionary tale of judging God’s timetable in working out His perfect will in other believers’ lives.

Evil

Curses are real and can hamstring Christians if we fail to understand them.

The Chthonic Unmentionable delves into the world of the demonic and asks why so many Evangelicals start whistling in the air when confronted with the work of fallen angels.

Writing and Publishing

I work as a freelance writer, plus I’m finishing up my first novel. These two posts received plenty of commentary from other Christian writers.

Rock { Christian Author } Hard Place discusses the fine line a Christian novelist must walk in order to be all things to all Christians.

The Desperate Need for Heroes examines the trend in Christian fiction toward fitting heroes with progressively larger feet of clay.

More Cowbell Awards

The More Cowbell Award—the award no one wants to win—is a tongue-in-cheek look at the lunatic fringe of American Christianity.

Announcing the “More Cowbell Award” at Cerulean Sanctum explains the whole silly concept.

The More Cowbell Award I wonders how the Church Growth Movement managed to lose the Gospel along with all that church growth stuff.

The More Cowbell Award II has the courage to ask why producers of Christian music feel the need to back up adult singers with kiddie choirs.

The More Cowbell Award III delves into the seamy underbelly of Christian adware. Say no to fish stickers!

Christmas…Resurrection

We may all have heard the statistics:

More heart attacks occur in December than any other month
More people are treated for depression in December than any other month

What is it about this time of year that people are so stressed, so sad?

I’ll admit that Christmastime has not been the same for me since my parents died. My father died at Christmastime five years ago, and Mom was clearly terminal, living with us, but in many ways already gone. Charlie Brown's Christmas The following Christmas in 2001 drove home the fact , now that they were both gone, that they had borne a far greater role in the joy of the season for me than I had understood. You are always a child at Christmastime as long as you’ve got a surviving parent, but take that away and now it’s up to you to be the one who maintains the Christmas spirit. Now it’s for your children more than for you. It’s a role we never think about accepting until it is thrust upon us and there is no one else to turn to.

Big families make up for some of that loss, but Christmas is a bit sad for me now because I see that my own little family is probably going to stay little. The dynamic of having brothers and sisters at Christmastime will be lost on my son, something I never thought would be the case when my wife and I got married, but that is how things are, quite apart from our best intentions. Just the three of us creates a certain vulnerability at Christmastime that is hard to explain. I had my brothers around growing up, but my son will probably just have us.

Today, I was going to bake cookies, but my son may have chickenpox and my wife is very sick. Illness at Christmastime is the worst time for being under the weather. I remembered a couple Christmases growing up when one of my family was sick, but that was rare. However, in the last few years someone has always been sick at Christmas, usually me. When we were excited about hosting my wife’s family for Christmas a couple years ago, the real flu hit just about everyone and the whole enterprise shriveled up because no one was in the mood to do anything. The whole house should have been quarantined. Lots of planning and effort, but not much realization.

Whatever planning I had this year didn’t materialize. We can’t go see my brother across town for Christmas because he and his wife are expecting a child any day now and chickenpox and ready-to-birth moms are an absolute no-no. I had great plans for my wife and I to wrap presents together this year and relax, but she is in bed sick, and with my meager present-wrapping skills, I labored for six hours over what amounted to a little more than a dozen presents. Doing things alone at Christmas is not how it should be.

That meager stack of presents isn’t how it should be, either. I grew up with a Christmas tradition that said that Dec. 25th was the day that you got everything you were going to get for the year. All the toys came then. Most of the clothes came then. As a result, Christmases were huge at our house. Despite having a large family room, between the genuine tree and the tsunami of gifts pouring out from under it, there was hardly room to walk. I loved to shop for people, too, being one of those people who got more excited by what he gave then by what he received. I always tried to think of marvelous gifts to give, and more often than not, those gifts were spectacular and exactly the right thing to for each person.

Today, though, financial considerations have cut back our Christmases to the point that whatever boost I got from giving has been dampened by the realization that few of the things I’d like to give are within our reach anymore. If there’s a tree, it swallows whatever may be under it. And every year we are asked to cut back even more. Two out of the last five Christmases found us without an income, vulnerable at the one time of the year when plenty is assumed. Those were hard. I’m not sure I ever really got over them, either. You wonder what the next Christmas holds, a bit more fearful than the Christmas before.

None of this is how it should be. It’s not how I remember Christmas.

For four hundred years, the world lay waiting. There was no word from the Lord. The pagans swept in, and with them came darkness. Medes, Persians, Babylonians, Romans—one horde after another asserted control over the people of God.

Then came the light, the promise, the hope.

Christmas is a sad time for many who remember that it was good once, but doesn’t seem that way anymore. They are the ones who cry out, “Maranatha!” Christmas reminds us of all that should be right with the world, but the world isn’t always right. And as time goes on, it seems a little less right every year. It is our groaning, awaiting something better, the second Advent.

Nostalgia can bring paralysis. When I see people paralyzed by Christmastime, I know how they got that way. If you had a great childhood and things aren’t so great now, Christmas is missing that spark of life. An emptiness resides where the expectation once lived, nagging and frustrating.

But it’s not about Christmas, is it? It’s about an empty tomb. Christians were never the Christmas people, those concentrated on the First Advent. No, we are the resurrection people, born to die, then to live again. And at this point in time, as we move farther away from our own birth and closer to the time of our own death, we live in that stasis between the two, caught between opposing worlds, to die to the one and be raised into the other.

No one said it would be easy walking out that dying. When I look at Christmas 2005, I see a lot of little deaths. In the midst of that sadness, though, is the hope of the world to come.

If you’re sad this Christmas, let someone else know. It’s not something you struggle with alone—millions of others have a heavy heart as the shortest days of the year roll around. Don’t bear that by yourself.

…but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
—Romans 8:23b-25 ESV

Hidden Messages of American Christianity Wrap-up

Megaphone This series has proven to be popular and some have suggested it’s too early to be concluding it. No doubt there are dozens of hidden messages we Christians send along with the Gospel, confusing its purity, especially in the ears of the lost. Stepping back and analyzing what we say and how we say it should be an essential part of all we do. We live in an age when truth is lacking or is filled with so much noise as to be obscured altogether, so diligence in keeping the Gospel free from extraneous garbage has never been more needed.

A commenter wondered why I did not talk about the mixing of the Gospel with political messages. That’s a good one that I should have discussed, so I’ll give it a few words. Personally, I believe that neither of the two major parties in the United States is pursuing righteousness in governance. Aside from one or two important hot-button issues, both the Democrat and Republican parties are so highly compromised on truth that Christians should avoid the rah-rah tendencies we might have to wholeheartedly advocate either. This is not a call to drop out of the proper role each citizen has to utilize the freedoms this country affords, but to always vote soberly and with the understanding that political entities will, by nature, always be compromised. Blending the pulpit with politics will always degrade the Gospel message. Ultimately, the Christian’s allegiance is not to kingdoms of this world. When we forget that, we go off-message.

It was suggested that something be said about denominationalism, while another commenter noted that most denominations operate by emphasizing one aspect of the Gospel over another. I believe that is largely true from my own experience. Balance is needed at all times lest the Church of Jesus Christ operate more like the seven blind men examining the elephant. Each man thought his description of the mysterious beast most apt, but each fell short of understanding. It is a sad truth that the Church in America lurches from emphasis to emphasis, but I don’t have any answer for this other than to speak to individual Christians and exhort them to consider what all the major Christian voices are saying and try to find the middle ground without compromising on truth. Christianity, while it does make exclusive truth claims, walks a narrow road between extremes of practice and belief. We Christians today need to stay doctrinally pure, but also understand the competing ideals within different denominations that might exist to make us more fully rounded in the Lord.

I think I need to move on to other things, though, so in ending this series I have only one further comment.

Of all the hidden messages of American Christianity, none is more hidden than you and me. While it is a cliché to say that you and I might be the only Jesus that some will ever see, it’s a good cliché to remember. What we are, no matter how young or old in the Lord we might be, reflects out to the dying world. Of all the hidden messages then, none is more important than how each of us personally reflects Christ and His Gospel. Understanding where we need to improve in our own transmission of the pure message is critical. What noise does each of us transmit that shouts out over the Gospel message, obscuring it? Does our self-righteous cause others to turn away from the Lord? Does our lack of knowledge of the Scriptures make it seem that we’re not all that interested in knowing what we supposedly believe, even as we try to tell others that they should believe as we do? Does our forgetting our neighbor in his time of need speak more words to him than our attempts to share the Lord? What are our own lacks that blur truth with lies?

In the end, the hidden messages of American Christianity start and end with the way we live out the Gospel before the dying world. That calls for us to soberly consider where each of us has compromised the message by the ways in which we live. That will look different for each of us, but no matter the case, God is greater if we only let Him be:

The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: “Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.” So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do.
—Jeremiah 18:1-4 ESV

The series posts:

1. Hidden Messages of American Christianity: Classism

2. Hidden Messages of American Christianity: Kneeling at the Altar of Excellence

3. Hidden Messages of American Christianity: Correctness Before Love

4. Hidden Messages of American Christianity: Pastor O’Gill and the Little People

5. Hidden Messages of American Christianity: “We’re Cool, Too!”

6. Hidden Messages of American Christianity: “Family Cocooning Session: No Trespassing Allowed!”

7. Hidden Messages of American Christianity: The Outstretched Hand