And . . . Five of My Favorite Albums

By Chaplain Mike

Mr. Dunn has thrown down the gauntlet. Nothing sparks a good discussion more than “Top ______” lists. And for those of us who are baby boomers, there’s nothing we love discussing more than music.

I recently went to reunion of friends who graduated from 8th grade together — that’s right, 8th grade. We had all moved into a new housing development in the Chicago suburbs at about the same time, went through the middle school years together walking around the streets of our subdivision, hanging around the pool, going to dances, dealing with adolescent angst, and most of all, listening to music. When we got together earlier this summer, we could still sing the lyrics of our favorite songs and remember which records related to each experience we recalled.

Our generation has lived life to a soundtrack. Ask me what I think about something, and I’ll try to give you an answer. Ask me how I feel, and I’ll sing you a song.

Before I list five of my favorite albums, let me mention a few “DUH” selections that represent picks most critics would make when selecting the best or most influential albums:

  • Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (The Beatles). The record that institutionalized “the album” as an art form. With a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts, Sgt. Pepper holds your attention from its opening curtain until that final, unforgettable orchestral chord of “A Day in the Life.” Many critics pick Revolver as the best album of all time, but to me it’s all surf n’ turf when it comes to Beatles’ records. Lobster or filet mignon? Yes, please.
  • Blonde on Blonde (Bob Dylan). Picking a favorite Dylan album is like choosing a best Beatles album. I could name a dozen others. This one, recorded at a manic pace at the height of Dylan’s early popularity, represents well.
  • Pet Sounds (The Beach Boys). On every critic’s top albums list, Brian Wilson’s tortured genius is creatively and evocatively expressed in this exquisite music.
  • Thriller (Michael Jackson). Number One for thirty-seven weeks, seven Top Ten singles, eight Grammys. ‘Nuff said. King of pop had the king of albums in the 80’s. Jeff doesn’t like it, but you gotta give it up when a record gets that kind of attention. Seems kind of tame today, but it was way cutting-edge then.

There are perhaps dozens of other “duh” selections that could be listed here, from The Stones, Led Zeppelin, and Hendrix, to BS&T, CSN&Y, Carole King, and Simon & Garfunkel, to Pink Floyd and Fleetwood Mac, to The Clash, U2, R.E.M., and Springsteen, and other artists.

Now, five of the Chaplain’s personal favorites…Continue reading “And . . . Five of My Favorite Albums”

My Five Favorite Albums

Note: We really are planning a discussion of Robert Capon’s Between Noon And Three. No, really we are. Still waiting responses from a couple of writers. (You do know that none of these writers get paid, right? Which makes it kind of hard for me to crack the whip on them…) So stay tuned…it’s coming. In the meantime, enjoy this medley of delightful dinner tunes…

I am a writer, editor and publisher by trade. I deal in the written word—English, preferably. But written words are not my primary language. Neither is the spoken word. If you want to talk to me and be sure to get my attention, you’ll use music. I relate better to music than any other form of communication. Words seem to go to my head and often stop there. Music goes all the way to my soul—deep into my soul in the case of really good music.

“A person who…does not regard music as a marvelous creation of God, must be a clodhopper indeed and does not deserve to be called a human being; he should be permitted to hear nothing but the braying of asses and the grunting of hogs.”
— Martin Luther

Continue reading “My Five Favorite Albums”

Redefining Greatness

By Chaplain Mike

The older I get, the more my definition of “greatness” changes.

For many of us who grew up in the age of mass media, great has often equaled “famous” in our minds.

The great are those with public celebrity. Whose faces are seen in print and on screen. Whose words are captured in sound bites and interviews. Whose stories are chronicled in memoirs, biographies, and documentaries.

Household names.

Many of them have earned the respect of acquaintances and audiences far and wide. Their prodigious talents and gifts, and their impressive achievements and awards speak for themselves. They work hard, with tireless dedication and lofty ambitions. They reach for the stars, and give off their own glow in the process. We call them heroes and examples—”Person of the Year!”—and reserve places of honor for them on walls and in halls of fame.

Continue reading “Redefining Greatness”

iMonk Classic: Dumb Up, Brother: A Spirituality of Ignorance

Classic iMonk Post
by Michael Spencer
Originally posted September 27, 2007

Somewhere in the backlogs of this web site I recounted what it was like being on staff at a church full of seminary students. Everyone knew so much that we had real difficulty doing anything- like buying stamps- without endless debate.

Of course, there were advantages to having a lot of smart people in the church. Our liturgy was far ahead of most churches, so on an intellectual and aesthetic level, it was a thing of beauty. We never had problems getting Sunday School teachers. We had problems getting our Sunday School teachers to not use too much Hebrew grammar. And, of course, because we were a rather intelligent bunch, we enjoyed the blessing of not being ignorant.

I’m quite serious. It’s not a good thing to be ignorant, and Christians shouldn’t hold up ignorance itself as any sort as a virtue. As much trouble as it was, I was glad there was always someone around to remind us that economic decisions had connections and repercussions in the real world. I was glad we were made sensitive to racism, sexism, discrimination against the disabled and so forth. I was even glad when some homosexual Christians came by to talk with the pastoral staff about their concerns. They didn’t get what they wanted from us, but it was a conversation that I wasn’t ashamed to participate in.Continue reading “iMonk Classic: Dumb Up, Brother: A Spirituality of Ignorance”

It Is Happening

By Chaplain Mike

Although the church of Jesus Christ is found in many different places, she is one true church, not many. After all, there are many rays of sunlight, but only one sun. A tree has many boughs, each slightly different from others, but all drawing their strength from one source. Many streams may flow down a hillside, but they all originate from the same spring. In exactly the same way each local congregation belongs to the one true church.

• Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, 3rd Century

In the spring, we ran a series of posts on John H. Armstrong’s excellent book, Your Church Is Too Small: Why Unity in Christ’s Mission Is Vital to the Future of the Church. One of the concepts Armstrong advocates involves implementing an alternative perspective on the nature of the church.

I commented on this different perspective in one of the review posts:

When we hear the word “church” it is common to think either in terms of a local congregation or of the “universal” church—the church everywhere and throughout history.  However, there is a third way to imagine the church.

The N.T. speaks of the “Church” that exists in multiple forms throughout a city or region. In any particular place, there may be many “churches” of various denominations and types, but they are all part of God’s “Church” in that area. Any individual congregation may view itself as one part of a larger whole rather than as the sole local expression of the church, autonomous, self-existing, and self-sustaining. This change is perception alone could be beneficial in achieving a deeper sense of unity among us.

“Missional-ecumenism” (Armstrong’s name for how churches today can practice unity), can happen when when we see our congregations as individual expressions of God’s Church (singular) in a given region.

According to an encouraging article in Leadership Journal, we have an example of this that seems to be working very well in the northern suburbs of Chicago.Continue reading “It Is Happening”

The Masks of God

By Chaplain Mike

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

– Ephesians 2:8-10 (TNIV)

God does not need our good works. Our neighbor does. Strictly speaking, we do not ever “serve God.” He always serves us, and through us, he serves our neighbors. God always works through means. In the spiritual kingdom, he graciously provides salvation in Christ through the means of Word and Sacrament. In the earthly realm, he works through human beings fulfilling their vocations.

This, in a nutshell, is one of the most important contributions to Christian theology that Martin Luther and his heirs have given to the church — the doctrine of vocation.

In the future, we will explore this further, but on this “Labor Day” in the United States, when we honor workers and their contributions to our lives and society, I offer the following quote from Gene Edward Veith for your meditation.

When I go into a restaurant, the waitress who brings me my meal, the cook in the back who prepared it, the delivery men, the wholesalers, the workers in the food-processing factories, the butchers, the farmers, the ranchers, and everyone else in the economic food chain are all being used by God to “give me this day my daily bread.”

This is the doctrine of vocation. God works through people, in their ordinary stations of life to which He has called them, to care for His creation. In this way, He cares for everyone — Christian and non-Christian — whom He has given life.

Luther puts it even more strongly: Vocations are “masks of God.” On the surface, we see an ordinary human face — our mother, the doctor, the teacher, the waitress, our pastor — but, beneath the appearances, God is ministering to us through them. God is hidden in human vocations.

The other side of the coin is that God is hidden in us. When we live out our callings — as spouses, parents, children, employers, employees, citizens, and the rest — God is working through us. Even when we do not realize it, when we fulfill our callings, we too are masks of God.

– Gene Edward Leith, “The Masks of God”

For Further Reading
A full set of links to Veith’s articles on vocation, which he wrote for The Lutheran Witness in 2001, may be found at Justin Taylor’s website here.

I also recommend Veith’s book, God at Work: Your Christian Vocation in All of Life (Focal Point Series)

The Annual Internet Monk Family Series

By Chaplain Mike

Hey, I have an idea. Let’s make this a Labor Day tradition.

  • Since the Bible is our instruction book for family relationships, and since it spells out detailed instructions for every situation in life about how husbands ought to fulfill their roles as manly leaders, how wives ought to exemplify femininity and deference as they live submissive lives, and how children ought to obey cheerfully without murmuring or complaining,
  • Since the inerrant Scriptures set forth the clear pattern for how we ought to behave and what roles each of us ought to fulfill in living room, kitchen, bedroom, and garage,
  • Since the Word of God calls us on nearly every page to focus on the family and uphold the traditional values of the home in its nuclear family form,
  • Since the church and America itself is depending upon voices like ours to raise the flag and give sound Biblical teaching about family matters,
  • Since this is one of the watershed issues that shows who is a true Biblical Christian by the stands that are taken and the bumper stickers displayed,

Since we believe these truths to be self-evident…we also know without a doubt that God has called the white, male writers (who are in authority) here at Internet Monk, represented by Chaplain Mike, to give you clear, detailed, comprehensive, solid, Biblical instruction about how to create and maintain a Christian family.

* Exceptions:

  • If you’re from another country, you can disregard this post. We American know this is not about you. Most of you are socialists anyway and your country has likely already gone down the drain.
  • If you are single — wait a minute so I can don my look of pity — there. Don’t you feel better? Even though we don’t have much to say about your situation, you might want to hang around so that you can learn how to control our kids properly when we ask you to babysit.
  • Homosexual? Sorry, you don’t make it past page one of the Bible. You might as well leave now. We can talk when you tell me you want to change.

With those words of introduction, we present the annual Internet Monk Family Series on how to have an exemplary Christian family.

Continue reading “The Annual Internet Monk Family Series”

Remembering Explo ’72

By Chaplain Mike

MOD Note: I am enjoying the personal stories so much! Please keep them coming!

In my Gospel reflections this morning, I mentioned Explo 72, the conference some called the “Christian Woodstock,” held in Dallas, TX at the height of the Jesus Movement. What a blast from the past to think about those days again! You know those baby boomers who’ve been leading churches for the past generation? This is the era in which they got their start. This was probably also the main event that kick-started “contemporary Christian music” (then called, “Jesus music”) into the limelight.

Bill Bright of Campus Crusade for Christ, which sponsored the event, wrote the following words in welcoming people to Explo:

EXPLO ’72 is a call to commitment and action, a call to prayer, a call for a holy life, a call to be about our Father’s business.

Let us not be satisfied with the religious mediocrity of our age. The New Testament church, the zeal of the New Testament Christians is our example.

Join us in expecting God to perform a miracle in our hearts as we make ourselves available to Him and all that He has to teach us during this coming week.

Here’s a brief video documentary to give you a taste of what it was like:

Hey, if anyone was there, we’d love to hear your stories and reflections!

One way, man. Peace.

Try Before You Buy?

By Chaplain Mike

Today’s Gospel: Luke 14:25-33

Many products these days are offered on a “try before you buy” basis. You go to the grocery store or warehouse club and there are tables set up where people are stationed, ready to give you free samples of foods the store is promoting. Likewise, you can taste the wine at a winery before purchasing just the right kind to go with the dinner you are planning. Or, if you want a software program that will do certain things a certain way, you go online and download a free trial version, work with it for 30 days and decide if it suits your needs.

You want a new driver to improve your golf game. So, you go to the sporting goods store or pro shop and they hand you a sample club and let you go whack a few on the range or into the simulator to see how it feels. In the market for a new car? You go to the showroom, kick a few tires, talk to the salesman, and take a test drive.

Maybe you want to learn a new skill or hobby. Gail and I took some dance lessons a year ago. We tried it out. I’m not sure when I grew a second left foot, but I know now I have one. You who have children realize that you have to let them try certain activities sometimes before you know if they will like them or want to participate for the long haul. Music lessons. Gymnastics. Baseball. Art. You try it out. You give a try for six weeks, or a summer. Maybe you find something you like, maybe you don’t. No problem. You experimented. It didn’t cost you much.

I find something interesting about this “try before you buy” phenomenon.

In life, it seems like the bigger, or more expensive, or the more important the commitment is, the less you get to actually try something out before having to make a decision.

Continue reading “Try Before You Buy?”

A Letter to the North American Church

By Chaplain Mike

In the tradition of Jesus’ seven letters to the churches in Revelation, a group called Epiphaneia Network has challenged writers to present a “letter” or communication of some sort to the North American Church, expressing God’s desires and concerns. They call this the “Eighth Letter” project. On Oct. 1-2 in Toronto, submissions that have been selected will be read, along with letters from folks like Shane Claiborne, Andy Crouch, Len Sweet, Jonathan Wilson Hartgrove, Ron Sider, Wendy Gritter, Tim Challies, Sarah Lance, Makoto Fujimura, Jason Hildebrand.

The opportunity came at a timely moment for me, because what I’m writing is a summary of what I think Jesus would say to his people here at the end of our three week series on three streams in the post-evangelical wilderness.

So, here is my “Eighth” letter…

Continue reading “A Letter to the North American Church”