Day 4: Songs of Justice

Well, my time wrapped up nicely yesterday at the Emergent Worship, Art, Liturgy and Preaching conference. Randy and I had a great trip home, even though it was raining much of the way...(I got to drive the VW...what a sweet ride.)...I'll never think of Twizzlers the same way again.

Well, Randy and I started thinking of nick-names for some of the Emergent leaders present at the conference. First there was Robert "Hands" Webber. I've never seen a dude use his hands so well in a presentation. Then there was Doug "Shorty" Pagitt. That guy was flippin huge. And we can't forget Barry "Yellow Pants" Taylor. He had some seriously yellow pants on. That's all we could think of, but I'm sure there will be more eventually.

The final session basically asked these questions: Can we worship God without serving Him? Can we sing praises and not love our neighbor? Can we read the Scripture together without remembering our starving brothers and sisters in Africa? Can we be redeemed without changing the world around us?

Claude, from Africa, spoke about how the gospel was presented in his churches. The gospel was about Jesus saving you from your sins to get you into heaven. The church was the place to wait for Jesus to come back. So, when the genocides came in Rwanda, the churches did nothing. As a matter of fact, there was a memorable story that two survivors told of a band of men bearing machetes and clubs singing worship songs. How empty those songs were. How empty are our songs if we do nothing to partner with God to change the world.

My question would be: how can I help my students bring about change? How can I make them aware? How can I stop the bastard gospel of "salvation only in heaven" and bear the truth of God's desire to change the hear and now?