Here is a link to a eight video sessions regarding worship, worship practices, theology, and music. Dr. Chip Stam is featured along side of Dr. Harold Best. Dr. Stam had a great impact upon my own ideas of worship and music. I was not only fortunate enough to come under Stam’s leadership at Southern Seminary, but I had the greater privilege of having been blessed by his service as worship minister at the church I attended in Louisville.
These discussions are so needed in our day when we often equate style over substance. We need both leaders and members to hear these words.
Last weekend was the start of Canton’s Farmers Market in Historic Downtown Canton. The market is open every Saturday until October from 9am to 1pm. You can find fresh lettuce, greens, flowers, hand made soaps, baked goods, wood carving, and perhaps the greatest commodity to be found: community. Live music is also performed throughout the day. The market is a great place to meet others while supporting the local farmers and economy.
I’m excited that Isaac’s Keep is getting involved and providing shoppers with FREE bags made of recycled material for produce and other goods. If you would like to help we are collecting material scraps to make bags with, you can contact us at church@isaacskeep.org or just bring the scraps with you to the market and we will be glad to take them from you and make you a bag for next week. If you’re interested in getting involved with the Farmers Market contact Ginger Garrard at the City of Canton at 770.704.1548. See you at the market!
Christian human rights attorney Gao Zhisheng, disappeared February 4, and was last seen being taken away by a dozen police officers. Gao Zhisheng has been repeatedly kidnapped, arrested, imprisoned and tortured by Chinese authorities, because he has defended the persecuted and has been an unyielding voice for justice in the Chinese courts. Gao has been missing for 103 days.
Art is the process of deliberately arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions. It involves a range of human creations and expressions. Art influences our lives whether we acknowledge it or not. Art can portray things of beauty. For the Christian, art can be a praise in itself. I’m not really an artist, not a very good one, but I’m fascinated by art. The sensibility, the wonder, the intent of the artist, these things challenge me. That’s why I’m so excited that Canton is hosting an Arts Festival.
This weekendCantongets it right! A juried show for fine arts and crafts called the Canton Festival of the Arts in Historic Canton’s coolest site, literally and stylistically, Brown Park (223 E. Marietta St.). The festival is two days, Saturday May 16th and Sunday May 17th, from 10am to 5pm. What’s going to be there? Artists market, literary celebration, serenity gardens, Camp Imagine, live entertainment, family activities, beer and wine garden. Cost is just right, FREE! Parking is scarce in Canton but there should be plenty of room to park at the Justice Center parking deck.
Historic downtown Canton is quickly becoming a refuge for artists as new galleries and artists are relocating to Canton’s tranquil little downtown. Which makes the Festival of the Arts a perfect event to welcome them to our community and to invite friends and neighbors for a day of enjoying the more cultured side of Canton. I’m personally excited that Canton is investing in the Arts and I hope to see a festival succeed that doesn’t include dropping a million Easter eggs and giving away free Wii’s and PS3’s or cost a family $50 to attend. So come on out and support the arts and hopefully we can learn more about each other as we look at the creativity and wonder of art. Francis Bacon once stated, “Man by the Fall fell at the same time from his state of innocence and from his dominion over nature. Both of these losses, however, can even in this life be in some part repaired; the former by religion and faith, the latter by the arts and sciences.” As Christians we should have interest in the arts, in fact we should use them in our worship for the glory of God. As Francis Schaeffer once said, “our imaginations should fly beyond the stars.”
I’ll be volunteering and serving concessions at the Festival on Saturday at 1:30pm, come by, I’d love to meet you and serve you a Coke!
#6 Communicate the “neo-Calvinist” tradition to the next generation in a revitalizing way.
Just a few weeks ago I was shocked to read that Time Magazine wrote the #3 idea that is changing the world is New Calvinism. It doesn’t really validate the calling as much at it encourages me. When I first wrote down my call in 2000 I wrote out my conviction to doctrines and truths that often fall under the banner of Calvinism. I wrote that I would not be ashamed of these doctrines no matter how misunderstood they may be because I believe first in the truth revealed in Scripture and if that happens to fall under a label of Calvinism, so be it. As the years passed I found that indeed being labeled a Calvinist helped people to classify me and put me away as some foreign class of Christian. That convinced me of the need to communicate doctrine and truths that may indeed fall under the label of Calvinism in a new, revitalizing way to the next generation.
I must communicate and live contrary to the stereotypes given to Calvinists, which isn’t really hard because the stereotypes are usually just straw men. The way to communicate truth or conviction is not by arguing, I tried that method and it didn’t work, but to be truly Calvinist in word and deed by simply applying the truth to my life and methods of ministry. What I’ve found is that living out these truths, letting these truths shape the methodology and the ministry of my life has been far more convincing to people who otherwise don’t like Calvinism or have misunderstood Calvinism.
So I am encouraged that an applied Calvinism (isn’t even new, Abraham Kuyper was doing this long before it was ever cool) which is what is being termed New Calvinism or Neo-Calvinism, is getting some attention. I don’t think anyone should cry victory quite yet, but we can rejoice that truth is at least being noticed. The ministry of so many others like John Piper,Al Mohler, Mark Driscoll, and Matt Chandler is largely responsible for this attention, “the passion of evangelicalism lies in the new Calvinist,” and I simply want to continue being a part, living out the truth of God’s Word and letting the labels fall where they may as long as the glory is God’s. The day of apology for being labeled a Calvinist must end, and living out the truths of God’s Word must continue. I love communicating applied Calvinism to others, to see the freedom that bibilcal truth brings into a person’s life is truly remarkable.
