All week the New Zealand news media has been digging hard into Destiny Church and Brian Tamaki over the walkout of the head pastor of the church’s Brisbane congregation. Some of the media reports have been a little over the top in their criticisms and approaches such as TV3’s John Campbell who has gone from being a very good investigative journalist to be a little bit creepy in his abilities to stalk people involved in the Church. Another major criticism of the church has been the fact that it uses and EFTPOS machine for receiving offerings. In the last 10 years I would have not been in a single church that did not have an EFTPOS machine for receiving offerings.

Having said this I commend the actions of Andrew Stock who stood up for what he believed in a walked away from the church. There are a lot of things that Destiny practice and believe that I fundamentally disagree with. However, until this morning, I have been muted in heavy criticism of the church as other blogs have been doing this well. I also hold a strong belief in John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” And that the differences in beliefs between church denominations come down to additions of man and not God and that fundamentally the majority of churches that have John 3:16 as their base are on the right track.

However as pointed out by Scrubone at Half Done and before that Dave at Big News, Brian Tamaki has now gone beyond the point of just being another brand of Christianity with his personal website declaring: “Bishop Brian Tamaki is the physical manifestation of God.”

Manifestation is one of those “church words” that you hear tossed about from time to time, “manifestations of the spirit” for instance. But I am certain that I have never heard someone be described as the “manifestation of God”.  To figure out exactly what Tamaki means by this I looked up the dictionary definition:

manifestation
–noun

1. an act of manifesting.
2. the state of being manifested.
3. outward or perceptible indication; materialization: At first there was no manifestation of the disease.
4. a public demonstration, as for political effect.
5. Spiritualism. a materialization.

I think point 3 sums up what Tamaki is saying. Tamaki is saying that he is the materialization of God. That makes me sick to the depths of my stomach for a “church” leader to be saying that. There is only one person ever who was the manifestation of God and that was Jesus Christ.

Unless Tamaki is trying to say that he is the second coming of the Messiah then he is very badly off track in his beliefs. Anyone who truly believes in the words of God written in the scriptures needs to get out of that church because it is no longer a church it is as the media has been reporting now  a cult of personality.

Furthermore in doing some research into this post I came across this:

The Manifestation of God is a concept in the Bahá’í Faith that refers to what are commonly called prophets. The Manifestations of God are a series of personages who reflect the attributes of the divine into the human world for the progress and advancement of human morals and civilization. The Manifestations of God are the only channel for humanity to know about God, and they act as perfect mirrors reflecting the attributes of God into the physical world.

Now I know that Tamaki is not practicing Bahá’í, however, it just shows the terribly poor choice of words that have been used.

I just had an awesome Christian friend ask me what the meaning of this life was – as Christians.

This is how I replied (after a few minutes of pausing a thinking about it). And it is a little cliche but so what!

I think our Christian purpose in life is to be light houses, and city on the hills to the world, it is to live our lives as Christians in the world, but not of the world, so we are not isolated into little religious communities but we are interacting with other people on a day to day people, and when we interact those people we share bits of what we believe with them, we don’t force it down their throats, but through us doing good in a very dark and evil world we show what it really means to do god’s work.

Maybe tomorrow night I will expand on it a little more and include the scriptures that I have paraphrased as well.

Jon Stewart deals to Pat Robertson’s digusting comments on the Haiti Earthquake by quoting scripture back to him. Nice way to deal with the situation. However, it remains very sad that a comedian has to show a church leader how to have compassion.

I got this tweet from Parachute Music a few minutes ago:

Download Derek Webb’s controversial new song What Matters More on www.derekwebb.com. INO Records wouldn’t release it. What do you think?

http://twitter.com/Parachute_Music/statuses/5432917972

Not knowing any controversy around the song I went and downloaded it wondering what could be possibly so wrong with the song that a record label wouldn’t include it on a CD. Well listen to it yourself below and see what you notice and what you think.

At first I noticed the words “damn” and “shit” in the lyrics. Surely this was not enough to get it banned. It was a little unusual given that Derek Webb is a former member of Caedmon’s Call a popular Christian alternative rock/worship band however in the context of the song the words fit and are relevant. And lets face it we hear far worse things everyday and probably nearly all of us have music be it “Christian” or non-Christian that has far worse things said in it.

To try and get my head around the whole issue a little bit more I did a little bit of searching for the lyrics, news and blog posts on the song. It turns out the main controversy is not only around those two “swear” words but also around these lyrics in the second verse:

If I can tell what’s in your heart by what comes out of your mouth
Then it sure looks to me like being straight is all it’s about
It looks like being hated for all the wrong things
Like chasin’ the wind while the pendulum swings

‘Cause we can talk and debate until we’re blue in the face
About the language and tradition that he’s comin’ to save
Meanwhile we sit just like we don’t give a shit
About 50,000 people who are dyin’ today

Tell me, brother, what matters more to you?
Tell me, sister, what matters more to you?

Webb makes a direct statement saying that the church is more concerned about being straight and hating on people for being different then caring about people. In fact I believe Webb is bibically correct here Jesus speaking in Mark 12:29-31 clearly states:

Mar 12:29 Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: `Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord.
Mar 12:30 And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’
Mar 12:31 The second is equally important: `Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.”

Love not hate, care not judge. But this seems to have fallen on death ears in a lot of the Christian community and subsequently the song was censored off his album.

The thing I find most ironic about this entire situation is that I have so much music that critises the church and the way we act:

Delirious sing in “Our God Reigns”

40 million babies lost to Gods great orphanage,
It’s a modern day genocide and a modern day disgrace
If this is a human right then why aren’t we free?
The only freedom we have is in a man nailed to a tree.

100 million faces, staring at the sky,
Wondering if this HIV will ever pass us by.
The devil stole the rain and hope trickles down the plug,
But still my Chinese take away could pay for someone’s drugs.

Our God reigns, Our God reigns,
Forever your kingdom reigns.

The west has found a gun and it’s loaded with ‘unsure’
Nip and tuck if you have the bucks in a race to find a cure.
Psalm one hundred and thirty nine is the conscience to our selfish crime,
God didn’t screw up when he made you,
He’s a father who loves to parade you.

Yes he reigns, yes you reign, yes you reign,
For there is only one true God,
But we’ve lost the reins on this world,
Forgive us all, forgive us please,
As we fight for this broken world on our knees.

Casting Crowns sing in “What this world needs”

What this world needs is not another one hit wonder with an axe to grind
Another two bit politician peddling lies
Another three ring circus society
What this world needs is not another sign waving super saint that’s better than you
Another ear pleasing candy man afraid of the truth
Another prophet in an Armani suit

What this world needs is a Savior who will rescue
A Spirit who will lead
A Father who will love them in their time of need
A Savior who will rescue
A Spirit who will lead
A Father who will love
That’s what this world needs

What this world needs is for us to care more about the inside than the outside
Have we become so blind that we can’t see
God’s gotta change her heart before He changes her shirt
What this world needs is for us to stop hiding behind our relevance
Blending in so well that people can’t see the difference
And it’s the difference that sets the world free

Jesus is our Savior, that’s what this world needs
Father’s arms around you, that’s what this world needs
That’s what this world needs

So what is the difference this time, is it the mere mention of homosexuality that has everyone sticking their heads into the sand pretending they live on Mars and not Earth?

from the Dunedin School Blog. Their ten proofs of why New Zealand Prime Minister John Key is the Anti-Christ are:

1. He has been to the south and east as prophesied in Daniel 8:9-12
2. He has spoken arrogant words
3. He has risen to the top quickly
4. He has spoken against God with the anti-smacking law
5. The merchants from the Earth will prosper from the Anti-Christ and he is a former merchant banker
6. He joined the National Party in 1998, and 1998 is 666×3.
7. The Anti-Christ will be different from his predecessors
8. He will be called the Messiah, which means he must have Jewish blood – which he does have.
9. He will be miraculously healed – and didn’t his arm heal quickly
10. His video blog is erecting a living image of him

They conclude that the chance of this all happening randomly is 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, so John Key is definitely the Anti-Christ

Seriously, some people need to get a life. This is just nuts.

Jesus Freak Hideout have got their writers to each list their 15 favourite albums of all time.

It is pretty cool, check it out here: http://www.jesusfreakhideout.com/features/favorites/top15_2008/default.asp

Which made me think. If I could only have 15 albums from my collection what would they be?

So in no particular order, and I limited myself to only one album per band my list is:

Audio Adrenaline – Until My Heart Caves In

This was Audio A’s last original studio release. And it rocks. Opening up with Clap Your Hands, and featuring King, Starting Over, Are You Ready For Love, Undefeated and Losing Control it rocked from start to finish. Easily one of my favourite albums.

Delirious? – Access:D

Access:D was a great live album from the D boys. Featuring all the hits from the Cutting Edge era and more recent Touch material it was a great two disc live collection that really defined what it means to be a fan of Delirious.

Eight – Unfinished

Eight are a local Kiwi band, or were. Unfinished was released after the band went their seperate ways. Openning up with Build a 7 minute instrumental really does Build the album. Featuring Depends and Fall Apart the album really shows the beauty of Eight a very well polished band and album.

Jeff Deyo – Surrender

I really coundn’t leave this album of the list. I was front row at Parachute 2005 where it was recorded live. Other then the personal connection to the album it is a great collection of modern worship songs such as Let It Flow, Be Lifted Up, More Love More Power, Nothing Less Than All Of Me and Bless The Lord.

Kutless – Hearts of the Innocent

The highlight of this album is Winds of Change a beautiful rock song. But like almost all the other albums on this list it the entire album rocks. Million Dollar Man is a great description of our modern lust for greed.

The Lads – Lost at Sea

We all said it was okay to live our own way without God. The Lad’s late 1990s album Lost at Sea is powerful because it successfuly blends punk/pop rock with songs about God and life. The highlight of this album is the ballard Ode To Joy. A must have.

Lifehouse – No Name Face

Your all I want, your all I need, your everything. Lifehouse’s No Name Face album is fantastic. It contains a large amount of spiritual metaphors mixed into a mainstream rock album. Hanging by a Moment was the most requested radio single of 2001 in the United States and propelled the band to stardom.

Newsboys – Adoration

The Newsboys’ worship project is one of their best albums. Opening with He Reigns and containing a live version of It is You the album is exactly what it says it is, A worship album.

OneRepublic – Dreaming Out Loud

OneRepublic are a lot like Lifehouse sucessful at mixing God and the mainstream. My favourite song is Dreaming Out Loud which at first listen is a very confussed song, but on more indepth thought it contains many powerful metaphors about God and Church.

Paul Colman Trio – New Map of the World

The Paul Colman Trio was one of the best bands that never quite made it. Turn featured heavily on World Vision ads and helped the band get airplay on Christian Radio. The best song on the album is Killing Tree closely followed by Selfish Song.

Rapture Ruckus – I Believe

The third homegrown artist on my list. Rapture Ruckus has been very successful in proving you can have rap without having the negative images that go with it. A nice album with a powerful message.

Skillet – Alien Youth

Choosing what Skillet album to add to this list was hard. In the end Alien Youth was settled on because of the dynamic songs on the album such as Alien Youth, The Thirst is Taking Over and Will You Be There.

Thousand Foot Krutch – The Art of Breaking.

If you haven’t heard the song Hurt go and listen to it now. This album is brilliant at showing the success of christian rock, being well polished, clean and simply great!

TobyMac – Alive and Transported

Probably the best live album I own. Alive and Transported features all of the best songs from TobyMac and DC Talk, the lead in for Jesus Freak is fantastic.

Tree63 – Tree63

Tree63’s debut album is their best. Features: Joy, Look What You’ve Done, 1*0*1. Brilliant, just Brilliant.

As many people who know me know, I am a big fan of music, in particular music with powerful or interesting lyrics.

Mute Math – Typical, has been a song that has caught my attention for some time, and every time I hear it I think, can I/we break the spell of the typical?

As Christians we are called to be different, to be honest, upright, etc. However how can we be that and also fit into this world. The Bible says live in this world but don’t be of the world. However without acting like a weird religious drone this is very difficult. We need to be relevant to the world at the same time of not being of the world. It is a very hard balancing act.

I don’t have an answer for this balancing act, however, it is always good to get some encouragement or something that makes you think.

Come on, can’t I dream for one day
There’s nothing that can’t be done?
But how long should it take somebody
Before they can be someone?’Cause I know there’s got to be another level
Somewhere closer to the other side
And I’m feeling like it’s now or never
Can I break the spell of the typical?

I’ve lived through my share of misfortune
And I’ve worked in the blazing sun
But how long should it take somebody
Before they can be someone?

‘Cause I know there’s got to be another level
Somewhere closer to the other side
And I’m feeling like it’s now or never
Can I break the spell of the typical?

Because it’s dragging me down
I’d like to know about when,
When does it all turn around?

You can see their music video here: