Hanging with Derek

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Tom, Katie, Sarah and I got the chance last night to go see Derek Webb in a free concert in Old Bridge.

Well, at least, we thought it was a free concert. It actually turned out to be a 45 minute performance in the middle of a Monday-night church service–a service that included a meandering, 45-minute-long, largely Arminian alter-call. And, when I say meandering, I mean meandering: the guy must have pulled in at least ten different passages of Scripture and used just about every Evangelical one-liner in his repertoire. That’s the thing about Arminians: every sermon is a sales pitch. They’ll say anything in order to get you to stick around a little while longer.

(This, in contrast to our pastor who, after giving a particularly challenging message about sex last week said, “if you want to pray with someone, there will be people up front here that you can pray with, and if you want to leave, the doors are right there in the back.” Only a Calvinist would trust peoples’ lives into God’s hands like that.) :)

This made me mad, and I had almost entitled this blog “Evangelical Bait ‘n’ Switch Campaigns Considered Harmful,” but you get the point, and the night was still yet young.

After the service, we stuck around to get a chance to meet Derek, which paid off. This was a relatively small venue so the crowd was only a couple hundred people and mostly in high school, so by about a quarter to ten, we were able to get to talk with him in group of only a handful of people. After chatting a bit and hearing about how Derek met his wife and a bit about his tatoos, Tom, who is a freakishly jazzy guy (and still needs a blog), asked him to play Wedding Dress (lyrics, MP3). He gave the slightest moment’s hesitation as he thought it over, but consented to come back with his guitar.

After a few minutes, he came back with his Taylor twelve-string. We talked shop about his guitar for a bit and about the controversial nature of some of his latest music. He admitted that many churches he’s played for request specifically that he not play Wedding Dress. We joked at the irony that his bar venues will let him play whatever he wants, but the church would restrict his freedom to speak truth into people’s lives.

The song was beautiful and I wished briefly I’d brought the camera to capture the moment, but appreciated the added intimacy that we could enjoy without flashbulbs or camera angles. After he’d finished, we chatted a bit more. Tom asked something about how the church portrays a secular/Christian art dichotemy, eschewing the one for the other in the vain hope of “purifying” our communities. Derek noted that most Christians don’t possess the skill set to take apart “secular” music in order to discover the truth they might portray (cf. The Village Church for more discussion).

Later on, this struck me as fascinating. How is it that the church has neglected the pursuit of truth in art and literature? We, who are (supposedly) sold on the idea of a God who would stretch His hand across the silent void of time and space to communicate with mankind in the form of a text–how is it that we’ve walked away from the skills and abilities necessary to discern truths from that text? Have we, as Derek’s lyrics would seem to resonate, traded in these things for counterfeits…our comfort, our plans, or, worse yet, because we seem to know better?

I am so easily satisfied
By the call of lovers so less wild
That I would take a little cash
Over your very flesh and blood
–Derek Webb

9 thoughts on “Hanging with Derek”

  1. You’re really not a fan of the extended entry, are you? Tom is definitely freakishly jazzy.

    About this: Evangelical Bait n Switch Campaigns Considered Harmful

    Glad you didn’t use that, because there is no “switch” in that “campain”. I agree, that often it comes across as a game of numbers; how many people have you brought to Christ today? But let’s not forget that unless the arminian preacher is preaching herasy, He is not misleading anyone- regardless of your preconceptions on how evangelism should be handled. There is nothing at all actually wrong with that preaching-style, except maybe for the fact that it is somewhat outdated by current culture.

    Sounded to me like you were angry at a man who was prodding the hearts of people to shatter their resistance to Christ, and that’s problematic! Sure, he was possibly “going about it al wrong”, but K- seriously- he is going about it, which is more than I can say for many Christians (myself included often times).

    It’s not the (specific) job of the preacher to disciple, but to evangelize. It is the job of the WHOLE body to disciple.

    I care about you as a brother- that’s why I said all that stuff. I’d hate to see your ferver turn into divisiveness in the Body (and your ferver is awesome!). And mind you, I’m not disagreeing with you. Rather, I’m attempting to spin the focus off of the preacher and onto how you may be used to disciple those people who may begin to feel “baited and switched”- so that they may feel “Baited and then they ate the bait and it was really really good for all eternity and the fisherman took them home and put them in a hugemongous fish tank with the purest water and the choicest meals and no more fear of evil anglers or sharks!”

    Mathew 7:1-2 (I’d reference it but no more HTML :( )
    1″Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

    P.S. – Those lyrics by Derek were great. That truely upsets me, that churches would censor those lyrics, but allow the story of Hosea and Gomer to be told. That story is much more “offensive” than Derek’s lyrics. Try explaining to your congregation “if God tells you to marry a hooker, go buy an engangement ring”! (of course, anyone reading that has no idea what that means- so to clarify, God used Gomer- a prostitute- as a symbol of Isreal, who was unfaithful to God from the start- that’s the gist of it.)

  2. Jai,

    re: “Youre really not a fan of the extended entry, are you?”

    Ugh. Strongbad is to “how can you type with those boxing gloves on?” as Ken is to “why don’t you use extended entry more often?” Perhaps I need to add a web design clause to our content policy.

    http://www.kennsarah.net/beta/about.shtml#content-policy

    re: “Glad you didnt use that, because there is no ‘switch’ in that ‘campain’”

    I disagree. Part of worshiping in spirit and truth (cf. John 4:24) means calling a spade a spade. If it’s a concert, call it a concert. If it’s service, call it a service. Don’t switch one term for the other in order to dupe people into coming and catch them unawares with the Gospel. I am not criticizing because I happen to disagree with a particular style or means of evangelism. I’m criticizing on the grounds of being honest. If we can’t swing even that in our Gospel presentations, then any words beyond that are completely and entirely meaningless.

    Now, I should probably note here in passing that it’s entirely possible that I was simply misinformed, which is fine. However, this isn’t the first evangelical “slight of hand” that I’ve seen, so the pump was already primed to jump into this criticism.

    re: “Sounded to me like you were angry at a man who was prodding the hearts of people to shatter their resistance to Christ”

    Jai, this is just wrong, and you should know that because you know me. I was angry at being deceived–even if it was for the “best of intentions.” I was also angry at a number of other evangelicalisms that I experienced that night that I won’t get into because I can’t articulate them yet (trust me, I’ve tried).

    Paul said whatever we do outside of faith is sin (cf. Romans 14:23). Whenever we take a Gospel presentation and attempt to infuse it with our own ideas of how to net as many people as possible, we are not believing that God is capable of working through His word to pierce people’s hearts. This is not faith, no matter how “well intentioned.” Rather, it is offensive to God.

    re: Mathew 7:1-2

    While this verse does not nullify our ability–scratch that, our *responsibility*–to criticize and confront issues in our communities (note that Paul does this in Galatians 4), I do pray that my life would be a meaningful expression of faith and truth.

  3. Oh. Wow, I guess I got my signals crossed a bit! I thought you went to a service that had a concert in it! I’ll have to partially retract alot of that stuff I said!

    Re: re: Mathew 7:1-2
    Of course it doesn’t nullify our responsibility to exhort! But we have no responsibility to criticize- and caling a spade a spade, might I add, is not criticizing. But it does say flat out DO NOT judge- though that’s almost a lost point, being that I misinterpereted your post.

    But in full agreement worth you, in the context-rather pretense- of a concert, there is no place for a 45 minute PLANNED sermon. Should the spirit move the musician to speak, then let him speak- he is not decieving anybody then. But having a planned, unadvertised, speaker is “bait and switch”- and I am also appauled by it. (keep in mind, my sharp change in direction is because I misinterperated your initial post with a dyslexic concern!)

    Put the speaker on the playbill if you ae going to do that. Not that the “bait and switch” cannot be used of God- He can use anything- but we as representitives of Him should not be about deceiving the people but “telling them the Truth” (at the risk of being thought of as the enemy, as in Paul’s perplexity at why the Galatians responded weirdly to his speaking of the Truth).

    Geez, one dsylexic read and I get all worried! I guess I just know that words are powerful, and you write them powerfully- a gift of God- and so I almost worry that you- being a powerful writer and “critic” (you know what I mean)- would write things truthfully. I know, I know… I’m sending MYESELF to the content policy ;) , which is completely appropriate, BTW.

    Now, go back and read my initial comment with this in mind- “Ken went to a service that had a concert in the middle of it”. It’ll make alot more sense then (I hope)!

  4. Jai, Matthew 7 would appear to be referring to self-righteousness. This is where Jesus tells the disciples to take the plank out of their own eye when they look at a speck in their brothers’:

    http://bible.gospelcom.net/cgi-bin/bible?language=english&passage=matthew%207&version=NASB

    Criticism is different from self-righteousness. It would be self-righteous of me to tell you not to smoke, when, in fact, I eat to excess. Criticism, on the other hand, is a necessary component of teaching and administration–we saw Priscilla and Aquilla exercise this component when they corrected Apollos in Bible study last week:

    http://bible.gospelcom.net/cgi-bin/bible?language=english&version=NASB&passage=acts+18%3A23-28&x=0&y=0

  5. That’s not criticism though- that’s exhortaion:

    criticism ( P ) Pronunciation Key (krt-szm)
    n.

    1. The act of criticizing, especially adversely.
    –> 2. A critical comment or judgment.
    3.
    1. The practice of analyzing, classifying, interpreting, or evaluating literary or other artistic works.
    2. A critical article or essay; a critique.
    3. The investigation of the origin and history of literary documents; textual criticism.

    exhortation ( P ) Pronunciation Key (gzr-tshn, ksr-)
    n.

    1. The act or an instance of exhorting.
    –> 2. A speech or discourse that encourages, incites, or earnestly advises.

    I think we are actually on the same page, but have differing understandings of the symantics of the word “criticize”. I hope this clarifies what I meant a bit.

    (and seriously, If I offended you bro, I didn’t mean to by any means!)

  7. I think the term <em>analyze and evaluate<em> make all the difference in the world there! Also, that definition is not proactive- as in “be critical”. That one is passive, as in “judge without being judgemental”. Cool!

    (as you can se, I reverted to being a <em>geek<em> since I miss the formating options :P !)

  8. hi, ken and sarah. this is a nice site–my first time looking around says so, anyway. i like the dw cd and appreciate his focus on loving the Church as she is, both wretched (in herself) and radiant (in her Groom) at once.

  9. Joy–thanks for stopping by, and for the kind words. :) I dug your site and look forward to checking it out more in depth when I get some free time…

    By the way, are you in the NJ area at all?