Deeply Committed Has Moved to Wordpress

Deeply Committed has moved to word press. Please go to deeplycommitted.wordpress.com to read the most recent posts and updates. I will talk about some of the changes that will happen at deeply committed 2.0 in the future.

If you have subscribed to deeply committed either via email or through a reader, you will need to re-subscribe. The new feed address is: feeds.feedburner.com/DeeplyCommitted

You can still subscribe by clicking on the subscription links on the new wordpress site (note, subscribing on this page will subscribe you to this page, which I will no longer be updating.)

Also, if you have graciously put deeply committed in your blogroll, I would appreciate your updating the link in your blogroll as well. Again, the new address is deeplycommitted.wordpress.com.

Finally, I will monitor this post for a few weeks, so if you have any questions about this, or any problems getting to the new site, feel free to post them, and I will do my best to sort out any possible difficulties.

The wordpress version will have all of the old posts and comments, as I imported this blog to wordpress at 10:45 am (CT) on June 13, 2007. Comments made from the time that this is posted on will not show up on the wordpress site.

Thanks for taking the time to update your info and for continuing to read deeply committed!

In This Together

This past Sunday was the first sunday of my third year here in Lamont. I tried to start this next year off by first taking a look back. I highlighted some of the ways that we have seen God at work in the past and drew attention to some of the areas where we have room for improvement. If you are interested you can listen to the sermon by clicking on the deeply committed sermons link on the right, or by clicking here.

The Scripture passage I focused on was Romans 12:3-8. This part of the passage really grabbed my attention:

For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us.

I believe that the best is yet to come for Lamont United Methodist Church and for the United Methodist Church in general if we take this passage seriously. To me, it says that we are not called to some generic form of Christianity where faithfulness will look the same for every one of us. Instead, it says that God has created each of us with a unique combination of gifts and grace. Each one of us can make a contribution to the church that no one else can match.

That means that we have a freedom to exercise our gifts with passion and enthusiasm. I think it also means that we don't have to spend a lot of time pretending to have gifts that we don't have. It also means that if we refuse to exercise our gifts within the church, the church will be missing a key contribution, the church will not be all that God is calling it to be.

Since Sunday, I have found myself wondering what the UMC itself would look like if we were all faithful in exercising the gifts that have been given to us. I sometimes wonder if we value certain gifts above others in the way things play out within the institutional UMC, and as a result we unintentionally encourage members and pastors to try to have these "ideal" gifts, rather than simply using the gifts that actually have been given to them, and trusting that God has given those gifts for a reason.

Derek Webb in Christianity Today

In light of last week's post about Derek Webb's music, I thought I would draw attention to the article in the current issue of Christianity Today that discusses Derek Webb's new CD, The Ringing Bell. You can read the article here.

I found this quote to be particularly insightful:

Webb is the rare Christian songwriter who calls us to conversation. Rather than merely reciting timeless scriptural truths, he asks listeners to use God's Word to examine current events. More importantly, he does so without pushing an overtly political agenda. Rather, he asks questions.

By the way, as you might guess, I would recommend The Ringing Bell!

Blogger vs. Wordpress

I am thinking about moving deeply committed to wordpress. I like the option that wordpress gives me to have pages and the ability to upload documents without having to include them in an immediate post. Advantages I see of this are being able to upload sermon texts or other documents.

I am looking for advice from those of you who have more experience than I do with either blogger or wordpress. What do you think are the advantages/disadvantages? Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

Derek Webb Is Crooked Deep Down

If you are like me, there are albums or songs that you listen to when you want to turn up the volume and sing along because life is good. Then there are songs that you crank up and listen to because they help you to feel the pain that you are trying to find a way to let out. And then, there is, at least in my experience, the hardest to find variety... the music that you listen to because it is actually a conversation. The lyrics resonate with you in many ways, challenge you in others, and help you think through the same old ideas in new ways.

In some ways Derek Webb's music has played all of those roles in my life. Center Aisle and Table for Two from his Caedmon's Call days helped me to wrestle with the loneliness that I occasionally wrestled with in college. I have also been known to just turn up the volume and sing along to Daring Daylight Escape and Thankful (also from Caedmon's days).

But then in seminary I went to a concert to hear Caedmon's Call. I was honestly going to hear Derek Webb sing the songs that were almost all of my favorite songs by Caedmon's. Except he wasn't there. After the concert I learned that he had left Caedmon's to start a solo career.

And then came album after album that have brought both good music, and challenging, edifying lyrics. Each album has had different themes, but they have all had songs on them that were profound. "Crooked Deep Down" was my favorite on his first solo album, "She Must and Shall Go Free". He sings:

my life looks good i do confess, you can ask anyone
just don’t ask my real good friends
because they will lie to you
or worse, they’ll tell the truth

because there are things you would not believe
that travel into my mind
i swear i try and capture them
but always set ‘em free
it seems bad things comfort me

chorus: good lord, I am crooked deep down,
everyone is crooked deep down.

and then there are the occasional lyrics that are just awesome, like at the end of "Crooked Deep Down" when he admits to having one thing on his mind, "squeezing me and my camel through the needles eye."

And then there are the lyrics that just make you stop and think, because they are so powerful and so confrontational. A great example is from "My Enemies Are Men Like Me" from the album "Mockingbird":

peace by way of war is like purity by way of fornication
it’s like telling someone murder is wrong
and then showing them by way of execution

He is one of the few people who I do not know who has helped me to grow in my faith. I am grateful for his music and his ministry. If you have not heard the music of Caedmon's Call or Derek Webb, I would recommend them both to you. You can see the full listing of Derek Webb's albums here.

What Are You Reading?

Last night I realized I need to update my "currently reading" list. I recently finished Free of Charge by Miroslav Volf and was wondering what to read next. I thought, hey why don't I go and check out what I'm currently reading on my blog. And there was one book left. Then this morning I thought, why don't I ask for help from the blogosphere...

So, what are you reading? Or, what have you recently read that you would highly recommend?

Excellent Sermon by Philip Yancey

The June 2007 issue of Christianity Today has an excellent sermon by Philip Yancey that he preached on the Virginia Tech campus two weeks after the massacre. His pastoral sensitivity in preaching to students whose lives have been changed forever by this tragedy is amazing. This is one of the best pieces of writing that I have ever read that attempts to provide something for Christians to cling to in the midst of events that turn one's life upside down. I can't even describe it with justice, I found it to be very well said. You can read the sermon here.