Convicting

I've been "reading" the book Vintage Jesus by Mark Driscoll for quite some time now... I brought it along on my family vacation and decided to actually read read it.  This book has a question for each chapter, and then Driscoll breaks it all down, backing everything up with sound theology and scripture.  Chapter four is called "Why did Jesus come to Earth?"  This chapter talks a lot about the tri-perspective of Jesus, Jesus the Priest, Jesus the Prophet, and Jesus the King.  I thought that it was awesome that I was reading this chapter while in the middle of studying Hebrews with Jeremy.  Hebrews is the book that covers the priestly role of Jesus most.  Anyway, there are a couple pages talking about each side of Jesus, priest, prophet and king which were all insightful and enlightening.  Then came the convicting part.

While reading this, it is easy to understand how all three need to be represented for Jesus to be wholly Him.  However, do each of us truly emphasize every aspect of Him?  Here is how Driscoll breaks it down:

Prophet + King - Priest = Jesus of Fundamentalism
Fundamentalist Christians who are prone to legalism, moralism, and a general lack of love, grace, mercy or patience are often the product of a deficient understanding of Jesus as priest.  The strength of fundamentalism is its keen awareness of Jesus' prophetic role as bold truth-teller and commander of repentance, along with his role as king who rules and reigns in all authority.  However, they are also prone not to appreciate fully the priestly role of Jesus.  As a result, God seems primarily cold, distant, stern, harsh,m and even cruel.  Their Jesus sits on a throne far away and yells at us but never gets off that throne to help.  He's just sitting there, disappointed, waiting for us to mess up.  In short, this is a God that we are more prone to run away from than toward in our time of need.  The result of this error is either despair or pride, but not worship, humility, or joy.  Because God is a boss who yells at us, this form of religion traps us into a cycle where if we think we're doing well, we get proud, and if we think we're doing poorly, we get depressed.  At no point do we receive loving help because Jesus is not fully valued as a priest.

Prophet + Priest - King = Jesus of Evangelicalism
The curious fact of modern evangelicalism is that there is both a general assent to basic Christian truths, and a moral life that is virtually indistinguishable from the average non-Christian in areas such as sexual sin. Researchers such as George Barna have built entire ministries quantifying these facts statistically.  Why does this happen? Becuase the role of Jesus as king is apparently diminished or dismissed.
In this form of religion, people know that Jesus speaks the truth as their prophet and loves them as their priest.  So when they sin, they know that Jesus will forgive them and still love them.  But they still rule over their own life.  When they need help, they read the Bible or ask Jesus to serve them.  Practically, they don't see Jesus ruling over them, but rather coming alongside them to help them achieve their objectives.  He is only allowed to do so when He is invited.  The result is a double-life of hypocrisy in which we call Jesus Lord, call His Word true, and then do whatever we want in some areas of our life because the pants are mine, the money is mine, the we browser is mine, the food is mine, the alcohol is mine, the schedule is mind, the life is mine, and the glory is mine, and I will rule as king over aspects of my own life with Jesus as little more than my trusty assistant.

Priest + King - Prophet = Jesus of Liberalism
Liberal Christianity is prone to understanding Jesus as our priest, who is filled with grace, love, mercy, and tolerant patience, as well as our king, who rules over all peoples and seeks to extend them to grace, love and mercy.  However, the weakness of typical liberal Christianity is that it fails to fully appreciate Jesus as prophet.  The sad result is that Jesus is seen as someone who would never offend us, raise His voice, hurt our feelings, speak harshly, or command individuals to repent with a sense of urgency because His is only infinitely patient, tolerant, and understanding.
By way of illustration, I recall a conversation I once had with a liberal Christian pastor who was president of a large network of liberal churches.  He told me that a pastor should never say anything that would offend anyone because the only way we offend someone is when we speak out of a place of pride.  I asked him if Jesus was therefore guilty of the sin of pride because many people were furious with Him to the degree that they shouted, "Crucify Him!"  Seeing he was on the horns of a dilemma, he agreed that Jesus was both the most humble person who has ever lived and did say some things that His hearers considered harsh because of their prophetic edge.  Jesus sometimes spoke tenderly as a priest, but He also spoke tersely as a prophet to ensure that the sword of truth was removed from its scabbard and wielded with full force.
When Jesus is not seen as prophet, sinful beliefs and behaviors are blessed because to speak the truth and command repentance would require a prophetic voice.  Subsequently, liberal Christianity is mired in such things as homosexuality and universalism, as if every sexual practice and every religious belief were acceptable in the eyes of Jesus.

Jesus came to the earth to reveal Himself to us as our prophet who speaks to us, priest who walks with us, and king who rules over us.  Jesus' ministry continues today and His roles are the same yesterday, today, and forever.  For the three offices of Jesus to be of the greatest benefit to us, we must humbly ask God to reveal to us which aspect of Jesus' ministry we are most likely to misunderstand or even ignore and read Scripture with a humble heart seeking to see Jesus in the fullness of His glory.

(Driscoll, Mark. Vintage Jesus. Wheaton: Crossway. 2007. 82-84.)

I would challenge you to think about which category you might fit under, and really understand the importance of each of Jesus' ministries.  I know for me, it was really convicting to realize that I under appreciate one of these aspects.  However, now that I have had it so blatantly pointed out to me, I know how I can be working on my understanding and relationship of Christ. 

Human

Human.  It is what I am.  I am a human.  With this comes many faults.  I fall short in so many areas of my life.  I was rereading my blog just a few minutes ago because I wanted to find a certain entry that I will probably end up showing someone, but that is beside the point.  While reading, I see all these promises for new posts which never happened and probably never will happen.  I said I was going to write more about Reflect. That didn't happen.  Denominations?  Nope.  That didn't happen either!  So, if anyone really wants me to write about either of those, I will.  Granted, if it's about Reflect, I'll have to find all my notes and re-process everything.  But that could be a very good thing for me to do anyway...

Anyway, it's crazy though, seeing some of my posts and being like, "Woah! I was thinking about that that long ago??"  I have had a lot of "new" ideas recently, but they apparently aren't new at all.  I guess things are just becoming way more real in my life.  Things that I thought would be cool if they happened actually look like they may actually happen.  It's almost like before, I was merely dreaming of the future, and now God is giving me nudges in that direction.  I can't say what the future will hold -- no one can.  However, I am, once again, very excited to see the way God is moving in my life.  And I am becoming more and more willing every day to turn everything over to Him.  I want nothing more in my life right now than for everything to be completely out of my hands and into His.  

hum.

I know, I said that I would write more about the Aletheia REFLECT conference... and I will... sometime. But not right now :)

Anyway, this past weekend was great.  I got to meet a lot of awesome people that go to Aletheia through various events and just at church.  Most of them happened to be guys.  While I talked to each of them, naturally the question of "what's your major?" came up every time.  Everyone without fail asked me what I wanted to do with my major.  I. Don't. Know.  haha. I normally can tell people that I just don't want to teach, and they let it go at that.  Not people at Aletheia! They always ask 5,000 questions about things, which is pretty great.  (I actually really love that about people.)  It just makes it hard when you don't know what you want to do with your life.  So I told a bunch of people that I pretty much just wanted to be a mom.  Afterward, I was like, hummm... Maybe that can be sort of intimidating to a guy... for a girl to be like, "Hey! I'm Janelle.  I want to be a mom. Oh, and, in case you didn't know, I'm single!" ...not that I was advertising that I was single... Whelpsk. anyway...  I promise my next post will neither be this lame or... something... :)

Work

For the first time in my life, I have a summer job -- other than babysitting.  I'm two days into it, and I really don't know if I am cut out for it.  I've only had the crash course in running and hosting so far, and hosting is a piece of cake.  But I feel like I don't understand the running, mainly cause the guy who trained me is really chill and has only worked there for like, 2 weeks.  Basically, he didn't really know what he was doing either.  Also, if you know me, you know that I don't drink, and I probably won't when I am 21 either.  Therefore, I don't know my liquors, mixed drinks or brands of alcohol.  We have to know every kind of alcohol that they carry.  How am I supposed to learn that? I have a test on Friday. Pass fail. haha. Something tells me I'm going to fail.

Plus, all my coworkers talk about is sex and getting smashed.  Once again, two things that I can not relate to, nor do I want to.  People ask off on Sunday mornings, but it's not to go to church.  It's to nurse their hangovers.  I know that this would be a great place to try to bring people to Christ, but I already feel like everyone thinks I'm lame cause I don't smoke, drink, cuss and hook up with random people (well, anyone.)  

One good thing, is this is really making me appreciate my awesome friends.  It seems like a lot of the workers only have their coworkers as friends.  One of the kids just turned 21 today (well, tomorrow... they're going out at midnight) so most everyone is going drinking with him.  I was like, man.  I'm so glad that I have legit friends who I can hang out with and not drink.  I dunno.  This job is just already stressing me out.  I'm sure I'd be fine if I only got customers like my family, but I know that's not going to be the case. 

Anyway.

Time to go read the Bible, cause I'm reading through it chronologically this summer with some 50 + cool kids from Aletheia :)

REFLECT pt. 1

These past few days I was in Richmond with my fellow "Aletheians" as Matt Light likes to put it. For those of you who don't know, Aletheia (which means 'Truth') is the church I attend.  It was started 10 years ago by a father son duo, Dave and Aaron Proffitt.  (Whenever I talked about the Proffitts, my mom thought I was saying 'prophets' and was quite skeptical...)  They both have a heart for missions and church planting, especially in college cities.  I don't really know how, but they decided to move from California all the way to JMU in good ol' Harrisonburg, VA.  Since then, 3 churches have been planted in the USA (Virginia Commonwealth, Old Dominion, and University of South Florida) with a 4th (University of Florida) on its way.

We had 5 sessions where we heard from all the lead pastors:

Session 1:  The Church & its Message, Ephesians 1 &2 - Josh Soto, Richmond VA
Session 2:  The Church as a Mystery, Ephesians 3 - Dave Proffitt, Tampa FL
Session 3:  The Church & its Mission, Ephesians 4 - Paul Fiske, Harrisonburg, VA
Session 4:  The Church & its Maturity, Ephesians 5-6:9 - Aaron Proffitt, Tampa FL
Session 5:  The Church & its Spiritual Morale, Ephesians 6:10-24 - Jamie Limato, Norfolk VA

Right from the bat, I was once again struck by Aletheia's ability to keep everything focused on God.  The pastors each went up and spoke straight from God.  They had no agenda to push except Jesus.  I'll get to it later when I talk about AP's session, but they really all demonstrated that if it isn't furthering God's kingdom, there is no need to even be talking about it.

I learned so much more about myself, things I need to work on in my life, and my relationship with Christ at this conference than I did at both the Mennonite Conventions combined.  Maybe it's because I am growing stronger in my faith since I started going to Aletheia, but I somehow, I doubt it.  I mean, at Aletheia's sessions, we talked about Christ and how we can further His kingdom.  We used our Bibles (woah). We didn't have a "Christian magician" for a session, or have a dialogue between those who think homosexuality in the church is okay, and those who don't.  Everything at REFLECT was upfront, blunt, and true.  I'm not out to bash Mennonites, but Aletheia works for me.  I like how it is black and white; nonnegotiable.  The Bible is God's Word, and God is Truth.  It is what it is.  Aletheia doesn't blur lines by obscuring Bible verses to make them try to say what they want them to.

I love the passion that everyone has for people they don't know.  It has changed me in big ways.  For instance, I was driving on the outskirts of Harrisonburg today, and I stopped at a stop sign, then pulled out onto the new road.  The speed limit was 45, which I quickly got to because there was a rather large SUV speeding up behind me.  They proceeded to pass me where it was quite illegal to, drove half a mile, then pulled into an apartment complex.  I wanted so badly to follow them and invite them to church tomorrow.  Ya know?  I don't know if they were Christians or not, and that was the first thing I thought of.  I wanted them to be saved.  I wanted them to have this awesome salvation which is available for them.  It also has made me hyper aware of my friends now and past friends who aren't Christians.  Before, I've had this mindset of, "Oh, well, if God wants them to be Christians, then someone more equipped will surely come along and guide them."  No, Janelle.  That's not okay.  I have more than enough resources to do something, even if it is as simple as praying for them every day.  So that's precisely what I'm going to do.  I wrote their names out on a piece of paper which I put by my bed so I will remember to pray for them in the mornings when I wake up and at night when I go to sleep, and in the afternoons when I take an occasional nap (which is really quite often.)

Wow, I got really off topic from where I wanted to go.  Oh well.  I guess I'll have 5 more posts on Reflect having to do with the 5 sessions that I have not talked about yet.

Another thing that made this so awesome was the people.  God has put some pretty amazing people into the Aletheia network.  He's doing crazy awesome stuff in them too.  I'm excited about seeing those people again next year, or if or when I visit various Aletheias.  I'm also super excited about getting to know some of the Harrisonburg people I barely knew, or did know at all, over the summer.

I'll be sure to post links to the podcasts if they are making podcasts for everyone to hear the sessions.  And as always, let me know if you want to come to church -- I'm always available to give rides :)

Degree

Ugh.  College is stressful.  I've been thinking a lot about this recently as I just finished the half way marker for my undergrad.  There are things that I am definitely looking forward to in my last two years:  Going on cross cultural next spring to the Middle East in my number one motivator to stay in school.  Others include, but are not limited to, friends, choir, the occasional fun class, friends, voice lessons, friends, um... yup. Music and friends basically sum it all up for me.  I know college isn't necessarily enjoyable for everyone.  There are plenty of hard times, but there are also those rewarding times which for me, outweigh the hard.

But then I think about the degree that I will be getting:  a B.A. in Music -- Vocal Performance.  For those of you who know a thing or two about music, if you really want to have a job at all related to your degree, you need to go to grad school.  I guess I should say what I really want to do music wise with my life.  I would love love love to be an aria soloist with a symphony.  I don't have enough acting experience to be an opera singer, but that too would be awesome. (I really really want to be the Queen of the Night from Mozart's Magic Flute.)

More than singing though, I want to be a mommy.  For me, this most definitely involves being married first.  There are just so many things I want to do.  I just feel like I don't know what I'm supposed to do.  If I'm going to be a mom soon (soon is a very relative term) should I even be pursuing a career in music? I want to be a stay at home mom, which just would not be possible as a soloist.  There is a lot of traveling involved in this job, even if just for the weekends.  I don't think I'd be okay with that while I had a family, but at the same time, it's something I'm really passionate about.  But really, being a soloist and having a family just don't go together.  And let's be honest.  I'm at EMU.  I'm a big fish in a teeny tiny itsy bitsy pond.  I can't even imagine being thrown into Juilliard or Peabody or some other big conservatory.  I feel like I would be eaten alive.

I would also love to help Aletheia plant a church.  Ever since I started attending Aletheia, I have loved their passion for spreading the Gospel to college students.  As a student, I definitely appreciate this, because I know how difficult, yet incredibly important it is to reach out to this age group.  To avoid a long story, I didn't really want to go to school in Harrisonburg -- it just happened.  And now I know that God had way bigger plans for me than I had made for myself.  At first, I saw Church Planting as way to get out of Harrisonburg while spreading God's Word.  That was pretty selfish of me to think though -- I would have been going for all the wrong reasons. But now, as I pray more and more about it, I really feel like going on a Church Plant is something the Lord is calling me to.  I know that it would stretch my relationship with Christ and others in a way that nothing else ever could.  I know there will be plenty of ups and downs, but it is something I really want to look into more.

But when I think of planting a church with Aletheia, I always picture myself going with my husband or future husband.  He would be someone that I could depend on spiritually to help guide my footsteps.  I don't know if I could move somewhere (probably Florida, seeing as how it is the next plant) as a single woman in her young 20's.  I feel so inexperienced.  I wouldn't know what to do by myself.  Will I be willing to drop my life here in Harrisonburg to help plant a church in a place I don't know all by myself as a single woman?  What can I offer to this new church in Gainesville?

You know what the beauty of it all is? I have time.  But it would be great if someone (God) would smack me upside the face and tell me not to worry about the future.  Matthew 6. I know, I know.

Offended

I am offended.  EMU has a lot of diversity.  While yes, we are a Christian institution, we have many people of other faiths in attendance.  Our Center for Justice and Peacebuilding is especially diverse.  I'm sure some of you want to smack me right now for not being open minded, but don't.  I'm not offended that we have diversity.  I'm offended that we're okay with taming our Jesus as to not offend people who aren't Christians.

One very obvious way that I see this is in our twice a week chapels.  On Wednesday, the goal is to have more scripturally based teaching, where as on Fridays, it is more relaxed and based on social issues.  I was talking to a campus pastor about this, and how it really bothered me.  He made it seem like there wasn't much that we could do.  We are supposed to cater to all types of people that attend our school.  We need to represent all views.

I'm sorry, but no.  No we do not.  As a Christian school, we need to be preaching the Gospel -- the Good News of Christ.  Paul is one of my favorite authors.  He is upfront, blatant and honest.  In Galatians 1, he talks about No Other Gospel.  He says,

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel-- which is really no gospel at all.  Evidently, some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.  But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned! Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ. (Galatians 1:6-10)

Are we too eager to loose sight of the teachings Christ has given us?  I think that the last verse especially hits home for EMU.  We are so eager to please men, even if it means that we loose our objective -- to spread the word of God.  We can't be okay being friends with those of different faiths without showing them the one and only Truth.

Today is Easter.  It is arguably the biggest Christian holiday.  Jesus fought death and won.  The grave has nothing on my Jesus.  He remained on earth for a while after His resurrection, seeing people, showing His wounds, thus making them believe.  The last recorded thing in the gospel according to Matthew is the Great Commission.  Most Christians would agree that this is one of the most important thing Jesus tells us. He says,

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.  And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.

This is His last piece of advise He gives us.  It is clearly defined what we are supposed to do.  We are supposed to go.  Make disciples of all nations, not just those who seem open to it at first.  We can't just throw out the Truth in a sentence and let people pry if they want to know more.  We have to be surrounding them with the gospel.

Anyway, I have a bunch of vocal pedagogy I need to get done. so. yup.

Summer Goals

Here are some summer goals of mine... just in case you were wondering.  They are in no specific order at all.

Learn some more violin! I have one... so I should probably learn how to play it.
Learn some oboe. I think it will be a much easier endeavor since I already know flute.
Learn a kick a** Italian aria (as James keeps saying...)
Research said aria for assessment next fall -- one less thing for me to do during the semester!
Learn some more Wolf music. Love that man!

Grow my hair enough to cut it for locks of love... ya know... since I have the power and authority to do that...

Become more involved at Aletheia -- get to know more people.
Finish reading the New Testament.

Read in general.

Compile recipes for our awesome apartment next year... I can't wait to live with Ruth and Becca, and whoever our 4th person may be. haha.

Not be a lazy bum.
Get a job.



Ya know....

Just be.

Vintage

If you're a bird, I'm a bird.

I love The Notebook, as should everyone.  I just finished watching it with Meg and Amanda-Grace.  I am now sitting on my floor thinking about how I have to read a chapter in Vocal Pedagogy and do the questions at the end of the chapter, but I just have no motivation.  I was talking to some friends about what classes we put forth the most effort, and we came to a general consensus that it was for classes where we respected our teachers -- ones where we could tell that they put forth effort in their lessons and thought about ways to best help everyone. Sadly, Vocal Ped is just not one of those classes.  I have very little interest in the subject to start with, but then having an unorganized structure doesn't help either.  We only meet once a week, and those days, we just talk about the chapter that we read from our $93 "textbook" which is a 200 page soft cover book.  We answer nonsense questions at the end of chapters that basically prove that we read (or can pick out bold words).

I'm thinking that if I could do anything right now, I'd be reading Mark Driscoll's Vintage Jesus.  It's been a really great book so far.  While so far, I've know basically everything he's written about, I like his outlook.  Mark puts subjects and ideas that would typically see mundane and make them interesting and exciting.  I definitely would recommend this book even though I've only finished chapter 3.  Too bad I can't use that as an excuse... "Sorry, James.  I was reading about Jesus so I didn't do my homework."

haha.

I would probably get kicked out of the music department... or at least get a 0% on that homework.

Sad.

Plans

Fact of life: Plans change.

        I had an epic idea for a blog post, but it was 5 minutes before I had to leave for class and assumed that I would be able to remember it when I got back. Well, I can't remember.
When I was a little girl, I wanted to be a vet just because I loved animals.  I wanted to be around them all the time.  I then grew up more and realized that I really don't enjoy chemistry and I wouldn't be able to put an animal down.  Around that time, I was developing my love of singing.  I had an awesome plan then to go to the Juilliard School of Music, major in vocal performance, and move to Italy as a missionary.  Looking back on that plan, I'm sure God was laughing at me.  Did I really want to spread His ministry?  No.  I wanted to study at an Italian Opera School.  Looking back, I can't believe that I ever thought it could work out.  God wasn't calling me to do that.  I was calling myself. 

        This week, my college choir toured around the Mennonite hot spots in the Midwestish areas (Kalona, Goshen, Ohio, and Pa) for all of Spring Break.  We spent all but one night in host homes.  My most meaningful and probably favorite night was spent with Kelley in Goshen.  We were with an older couple who shared their very cute story of their path to finding love again.  They were newlyweds of 5 years.  They were both so sweet and caring and I could tell that they genuinely cared about us.

        Kelley and I were asked the typical questions such as our grade, where we were from, who our parents are, and what we are majoring in.  After I told them I was a Vocal Performance major, I received the typical follow up question of what I wanted to do with my major... Teach?  Even though it's not always true, I typically say that I want to be a soloist for symphonic works.  It's an easy response.  Most people feel they don't know enough about classical music to press any further than that.  I don't know why I didn't just tell them this because I typically don't like it when the conversation revolves around me.  I told them though that I was really unsure of what I wanted to do.  I know I don't want to teach.  I know that I want to glorify God and spread His word.  I told them a lot about Aletheia Church and how it was a huge step for me to attend a church that isn't Mennonite. AH! Now I remember -- I was going to blog about denominations.  Another time...  Anyway, I told them about how I was thinking about picking up a Church Music major.  About how I wanted to help plant Churches.  Sure, the thought had crossed my mind a few times, and I've even been praying on the sly about it, but I never expected to hear those words come out of my mouth.  I even went so far as to talk about relationships and how I wasn't in one, but how I wanted to wait and make sure that I was dating a Godly man.  I shared about how I wanted him to have a driving passion for church planting as well -- How he will guide me spiritually as I submit to him, but ultimately to God.  I wanted to make sure that he will always put God first, and that we would not hesitate as a couple to follow the will of Jesus.   

        I was surprised about half the things I said.  They were things that I had thought some about, but kind of pushed them in the back of my mind.  Our host parents were very attentive when listening to my story and were very encouraging.  He said he had a son who worked in Seattle for a church and was moving to Chicago to help plant a church in a very similar way Aletheia does.  I asked if the church by any chance was Mars Hill, and he looked a little surprised that I knew of the church and said yes.  That's just a little fun fact for you.  Anyway, it was just such an awesome home stay.  I felt like God was laying it on my heart to say all those things to them.  The whole thing was just so encouraging to me.  I know that I am at the right place.  Any place is the right place.  God can use me no matter what my major is or where I am going to school.

        So where is God leading me? Answer?  I'm not really sure, but I do know that I can't wait to see what He has in store for me after college.