Preaching to the Choir

I grew up in the church and my earliest memories involve the church. I have very vague memories of the first church that we attended, Black Springs Baptist Church, in rural Baldwin county. When I was around 5 years old, my mother started playing organ at First Christian Church, in Milledgeville, and that’s the place I called home for most of my life. It was there I met my first friends, and spending my life there made me the person I am today. Besides my family, the people of First Christian had the most influence on me and helped to form my character. I owe everything to that church.

I attended Atlanta Christian College (now Point University) where I delved deeper into the study of the teachings of my faith and of ministry. Although I’m not now working directly in that field, I learned from some very great professors and leaders.  I met a lot of interesting - and not so interesting - people who were also preparing for ministry.

That being said, from my life of growing up in the church and being surrounded by well-meaning people, and having grown in my faith, I must say that I have grown very disappointed in the modern church and its focus. Christians will declare that Jesus is the only hope for this dying world, but when you step back and look at many Christians’ actions, those actions just don’t match the message. So much money is spent on huge buildings, state of the art technology, church vans, conferences, etc, but where is the focus on the poor, the hurting, those who have never heard the Gospel? Go to any town in the USA, no matter what size, and there is almost literally a church on every corner. The USA is saturated with churches and Christians who are trying to “reach” others. Just in my home turf of Baldwin county, population c. 45,000, there are over 100 churches, if not more.

From what I’ve read and learned around 80-90% of new church members come from other churches. How is this “reaching” the lost? Where is the effort to go to foreign lands where the need is greatest? Why aren’t more Christians actually willing to leave their homes and go into the world to actually make a difference? What I honestly think is that most Christians don’t TRULY believe that their message is the hope for the world. If they really believed that and really cared, they would have the desire to leave everything and go. Most don’t, nor are they at least willing. If you really believe that your message can save people, wouldn’t you try to go to places where people know nothing of it? Why would you stay and waste resources and time in places where that message is repeated over and over? Most missionaries that I know and have known have had to nearly beg and plead for support for their work. Many of them just give up and come home, defeated and tired. Instead of churches with staff members for every little thing and program, churches should have staff missionaries.

Church has become a club where people go to socialize, and to feel good. It’s tiresome to attend church after church, and they are all cookie-cutter, with the same music, the same cliché videos, and a feel-good message. There’s no substance, and it both angers and saddens me. You have a land overflowing with people preaching to the choir, while people are on the outside starving. 

That high lonesome sound

I don’t get starstruck very easily, and there aren’t a lot of famous people that I really care to meet. I’ve always just had the attitude that they are just the same as everyone else, but more people know who they are. I have been fortunate to have had the opportunity to meet some of my musical heroes: Ron Block, Jerry Douglas, Alison Krauss, Ralph Stanley, Rhonda Vincent, and the members of the band Caedmon’s Call.  One of the highlights of my life was at a bluegrass festival on Jekyll Island in 1995. I was only 18 years old and I had gone to the festival mostly to see Dr. Ralph Stanley play. During his set, right before one song, he said, “This next song is dedicated to Ralph Tanner, from Milledgeville, Georgia.” I was shocked and elated! Unbeknownst to me, my dad had spoken to Ralph Stanley beforehand and asked him to mention my name sometime during his set. He knew how much I loved and admired Dr. Stanley, and wanted to surprise me. Needless to say, I was floored!

There are only two other people in the world that I’ve ever wanted to meet. One of them was Bill Monroe, the Father of bluegrass music. The other was Earl Scruggs, the master of the banjo.  I didn’t really get into bluegrass until I was in my mid teens, but I feel in love fast. The first bluegrass CD I ever bought was purchased indiscriminately. I was in a music store and I wanted to buy something different that I wasn’t too familiar with. So I just began looking through the different categories of music and I made it to the bluegrass section. One CD that caught my eye was “Two Highways”, by Alison Krauss & Union Station. Though I had heard of Alison Krauss before, I wasn’t familiar with her music. So, I bought the CD and listened to it on the way home. From the very first plink of the banjo on that first song to the final pull of the fiddle across the bow on the last, I was hooked. What really impressed me was that Alison Krauss was 17 at the time that CD was recorded, and I was about to turn 17 myself. From then on I was completely addicted to bluegrass music. Its stripped down sound with the combination of guitar, banjo, mandolin, fiddle, dobro, and bass sounded so simple, yet very complex. There was nothing like it, and my ears rejoiced.

From Union Station I worked my way back to the Seldom Scene, Bela Fleck, the Cox Family, The Nashville Bluegrass Band, John McCuen, Claire Lynch, Mac Wiseman, Jimmy Martin, Ralph Stanley, Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs, and ultimately to the founder of bluegrass, Bill Monroe. The more I listened to bluegrass, the more interested I became in it. It blew my mind that this wonderful and exciting form of music could be traced back to one man, Bill Monroe. Though he didn’t do it all by himself, there would be no bluegrass music if it hadn’t been for Bill Monroe. His unique music, with its trademark ‘high lonesome sound’ was the basis of what was to later be known as bluegrass, named after his band, the Bluegrass Boys. At the time, he was still living and performing, even though he was already in his 80s. I did get to see him perform once at the Grand Ole Opry, in Nashville. It was a highlight. But, alas, I never got to meet him. He passed away in September 1996. The one person I wanted to meet was now out of this world.

This week marked the passing of one of the founders of what was to become bluegrass, Earl Scruggs. He was another person that I really wanted to meet, but that never happened. He was an innovator of the banjo and it was his and Lester Flatt’s addition to Bill Monroe’s band that really set the standard of the sound of bluegrass. I, along with millions of other music lovers, am eternally grateful for his contribution to music and life. His legacy will live on in his recordings and whenever anyone picks up a banjo and plays in the three-finger style. 

Birthday Post

Today I turn 35 years old. It really doesn’t seem like I should be this age. I feel like I’ve lived a dozen lifetimes in these 35 years.  I’ve been pretty fortunate and blessed to have had lots of really interesting experiences so far.  There have been too many to name, but a few highlights are:

• Being baptized on my 15^th birthday in 1992
• Seeing and climbing the Chocolate Hills of Bohol, Philippines
• Watching a sea turtle lay its eggs at night in Ostional,  Costa Rica
• Celebrating Easter at sunrise on a beach in the Philippines
•  Swimming in the Caribbean after hiking through a rain forest in Bocas del Toro, Panama
• Having a song dedicated to me by Ralph Stanley at a bluegrass festival
• Celebrating my 22^nd birthday in the Philippines with two cakes
• Looking out over the cities of Juarez, Mexico and El Paso, Texas from the mountaintop home of a Mexican friend after building a house for a family in Juarez 
• Going to the summit of and looking into the craters of two active volcanoes and watching another spew lava at night, in Costa Rica

I’ve had some pretty cool experiences in my life, and God is the one to thank for the opportunities. Following Jesus hasn’t always been easy, and in fact, it can be rather difficult. One of my favorite lines in a Caedmon’s Call song is “I had to walk the rocks to see the mountainview; looking back I see the lead of love.” Many people think that when one decides to follow Jesus that life becomes perfect. Sometimes we get dashed against those rocks, but that just makes the mountaintop view that much sweeter. Rich Mullins called God’s love a “reckless, raging fury.” Being loved is hard, but it’s worth it. I know I’m loved, even when I don’t feel like I am. I don’t know how many more years I’ll walk this earth, but for as long as I do, I’ll do my best to follow Jesus. I am His.