Rev. Brent L. White

I used to listen this E.G. Marshall-hosted radio drama on a handheld Coke-bottle-shaped radio when I was a kid in the ’70s. WSB Radio broadcast it. (Yes, there was a time when AM radio wasn’t just political blow-hards 24/7.) Mystery Theater was a revival of radio drama in the age of TV. I fell in love with it. Thanks to a friend who gave me several DVDs worth of episodes on mp3, I’ve been listening again.

I like this episode. I know it’s dated: we no longer live in the Cold War era, and most of us don’t fear nuclear annihilation (although we fear plenty of other things). And it’s heavy-handed (the way these Twilight Zone-ish sci-fi stories tend to be) as it knocks the listener over the head with its message of love. But more than anything it speaks to our deep and persistent longing for God.

(I regret that the original commercials were edited out. That’s the best part!)

This video was shown in Vinebranch on August 22 as part of our celebration of the newly renovated chapel.

This is beyond trivial—not to mention ancient history—but for reasons I can’t explain I was mesmerized by this clip from the making of “We Are the World,” in which Daryl Hall for some reason can’t stop looking at his music—even though he only has one short line! And it’s not like he’s reading the music because he sings it differently each take! But he’s not nearly as bad as Kim Carnes. Huey Lewis must be a genuinely nice guy, because notice how patient he is with her as she continually fails to stay on key.

Steve Perry is the real hero here, though. He changes the phrasing and vocal melody each time through, but whatever he does sounds perfect. He’s so nonchalant about it, too.

All that to say that while I was wasting time on YouTube, I heard the original song for the first time in 25 years. I noticed something I had never noticed before: Willie Nelson sings, “As God has shown us/ By turning stone to bread…”

What?

Isn’t that exactly what God (through Jesus) doesn’t do during the wilderness temptation? Moses gets water from a rock, but Jesus refuses to turn stone to bread—because, as he quotes from scripture, we human beings don’t live by bread alone.

How come nobody caught this? (I hope that if it were Bob Dylan’s line to sing, he would have pointed out this error.)

Someone with more time on their hands should probably reflect on the irony in this mistake—as it relates to the nature of temptation, celebrity, and greed, etc.—but that’s not me. Not that I credit Michael Jackson or Lionel Richie (who wrote those words?) with being Bible scholars, but I’m genuinely surprised that that mistake slipped through.

Someone sent me a link to this recent Wall Street Journal op-ed and wanted to know my thoughts…

My first thought is that the Wall Street Journal must have had some space to fill! There is very little substance here. Notice that the author, Brett McCracken (who has a blog here), doesn’t cite any evidence that young people either like or dislike these recent church trends that he criticizes. Young adults may be fleeing church in droves (I doubt that’s anything new), but it’s hardly because of what people like Rob Bell and Mark Driscoll are doing.

On the contrary, I’ll bet that young people disproportionately go to Rob Bell’s and Mark Driscoll’s churches. Are young people going to these churches and somehow not being “reached” with the gospel? Are they not growing in discipleship and love? If Bell and Driscoll are—as I suspect—filling their churches with young adults, another interpretation could be, “We need more churches like this!”

I can’t say, but neither can McCracken. The long and short of the piece is, “I’m 27 years old, and I don’t like it. I can speak authoritatively for my generation.” He’s also able to see into the hearts of pastors and worship leaders who have edgier sermon topics and music, and who take advantage of the latest technology. He implies that they’re acting in bad faith: they’re only doing these things to attract young people, not because they really believe in the messages they’re communicating.

How does he know? Since I only have a passing knowledge of Rob Bell and Mark Driscoll (who are very different from one another), I have no idea to what extent I “agree,” theologically, with either of them. But I have no reason to doubt that, like most pastors, they’re sincerely doing the best they can to share the good news of Jesus Christ with people who need to hear it.

By all means, we worship planners—especially those of us who are involved in something usually called “contemporary worship”—don’t want to pander. We don’t want to chase after a demographic. The questions we need to ask are the following: “Are we being faithful to the gospel in the messages that we communicate? Are we leading worship with integrity? Do we really mean the words that we say and sing and pray?” If we answer these questions “yes,” what does it matter what style or form worship takes?

As someone with otherwise strong opinions about liturgy and tradition, I’m almost surprised to read that last sentence, but that’s what I believe! After all, regardless of our best and most thoughtful worship planning, the Holy Spirit enables true worship and makes it effective. It’s not ultimately up to us. Didn’t Paul say something about that? “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth” (1 Corinthians 3:6).