(Below is an excerpt from an email i sent to a friend in our discussion about the modern church.)

I don’t believe that ‘church’ or, more specifically, our worship gatherings should be viewed as an evangelistic outreach. In my opinion, and from what i understand of the new testament church, our worship gatherings should be for the sole purpose of edifying the believers. Thus, the believers are built up in their faith so that they can go out and be a personal light to the world. Not for the purpose of bringing unbelievers to church, but for the purpose of making deciples. So what i’m saying is that it is our job, not the churches, or the pastor’s job to lead the unsaved to Jesus. THEN they should be brought into the church.

I think that too often we (i’m referring to the church collective) are willing to dumb down our worship and dumb down our message and lower the bar to such an extent that believers aren’t challenged and built up, and unbelievers don’t really care anyway. Don’t get me wrong…i’m not against preaching the gospel in our churches–in fact, i believe it should be preached…mostly because all of us need to hear it over and over. Most christians don’t live like they believe the gospel anyway. We’re the ones that need it. Then, we need to love each other–specifically, other believers. Jesus told us quite bluntly that we would be known by our love for one another. The resulting progression is that we won’t be fighting to get our friends to attend church–they will be hunting us down and begging to know where such love comes from. This won’t be accomplished by hiding our humanity, pretending to have it all together, conscious displays of piety, lavish church sponsored servant evangelism, the perfect worship band, blazing computer graphics or a kickass sound system. It’ll happen when we are willing to become transparent and show the world that we are simply as human as the next guy down the street, and that we are willing to love each other in spite of those character flaws and problems.

I would like to see us shift our focus from caring so much about our services being attractive to the unsaved, and our message so attainable to the unbelieving. God uses His word to convict lives and hearts…He doesn’t need us to water it down so that people can ‘get it.’

Modern music would not be what it is without the CD. These shiny, colorful, and virtually indestructable discs have become as common (and as revered) in most american homes as toilet paper. Until the ipod came along CD was the only way to go.

I say CDs are nearly indestructible because we all know that they can be scratched. If you don’t take care of them, they will eventually become unreadable by the cd player. This morning i was in the process of ripping my favorite cds to my computer. I recently made the jump from PC to MAC and with the new ACC compression (which is higher quality, smaller sized files) i wanted to start fresh (my collection was previously in MP3 format.) Sadly, i’ve discovered that my confidence in CD’s wasn’t as well founded as i thought.

I found that quite a few of my cds have become the victims of ‘cd rot,’ a process that occurs when the metalic layer inside the disc is exposed to air, causing the aluminum to oxidize. Bummer. Basically, all that work trying to keep the shiny side from being scratched was usless because the discs have been ruined from the label side. In researching this problem i’ve found that there are different theories and even fanatics on each side of the debate about what the problem really is (big surprise there).

Here’s the best that i can figure. Stacking CDs disc to disc (without putting them in a case) will scratch the data side of the disc. But that’s not the problem. The data side (the side without the label) was designed to withstand as much scratching as possible. However, the label side wasn’t. You are, in reality, scratching both sides of the disc. When the label side is scratched it sometimes allows air to penetrate and oxidized the aluminum underneath…which will cause errors and sometimes make the cd unplayable. In looking through my collection i’ve found several damaged discs, and a couple of those are serious enough that certain songs won’t play at all. Most of the cds are older ones (it seems that quality has gotten a bit better recently).

In order to do your best to save your CDs, follow a few common sense rules. Store the discs in their cases, don’t stack them disc to disc, and if possible wipe both sides with a disc with a clean cloth occasionally (to remove abrasive dust). Another helpful move is to archive your collection digitally. Rip the cds to MP3 (mac or pc) or M4A files (mac) and put them on CD-R discs. A CD-R disc will hold fifteen CDs worth of MP3 files. Then, even if your discs are damaged, you’ll have acess to the music (even with the debate on MP3 and digital music files, there is nothing wrong with burning a new copy of a CD you already own, if the new CD is for personal use.)

In thinking about this problem i’ve come to the inevitable parallels to our lives. Often i think that we heavily armor one side of life, in order to make our stands against the world. In my life i’ve found that most of the things that really penetrate my defenses have penetrated from the side that wasn’t protected. Just like we don’t expect CDs to scratch through the label, we don’t expect trial to come through certain aspects of our lives. We expect to be hit from the front–from the world. Not from behind. Not from our friends. Not from our churches. Often these problems happen unnoticed and slowly begin to rot away at the parts of our lives that we should protect. In my life it has often started with small offense that i’ve taken with something someone said, or did. Unchecked it can eat away and destroy us from the inside.

Enough of my moralizing. Y’all get the idea. There are dozens of examples of ways that rot can creep into our lives and minds. The good news is that, although a rotted cd is pretty much a lost cause, we can do something about the rot in our lives. We can deal with it, ask for forgiveness, and find healing.

Ever have one of those days when you realize that everything you thought was cool about yourself isn’t? I’m having one of them. It’s interesting to look at the way we view ourselves–our ego and our self-worth.

We often view ourselves in relation to the people we hang around. I do that. In the past i’ve lived, worked, served and laughed in the company of some of the most brillient people i’ve ever known. I’ve listened to what they’ve said, watched what they’ve done, read what they’ve written and judged myself accordingly. In those instances i found myself blatantly lacking in every area by comparison.

It’s been a few years since those days. I don’t share the friendships i once did, and my life has become very limited in scope. I have very close friends (by choice) and don’t have the stimulation that i once did. What’s happened? I’ve grown comfortable where i am. I’ve stagnated (in many areas of my life, not all), and i’ve become convinced that my life is one that should be regarded as accomplished. In short, i’ve lowered the bar on every side so that i easily step over it every time.

Things need to change. I’ve always known that i need to change many issues in my life, and i think today’s realization is a good one. I believe that we should all strive to become people who, like Paul, can say “look at me and do what i do.” That’s the sort of man i want to be. But i’m not there yet.