"Windermere Christian centre x 142 on 12.08.2018. plus many more during a time of personal prayer..."
On a chilly Sunday morning during our "summer" holiday in the Lake District, northern England, I attended the Windermere Christian Centre for their weekly service. The venue was fairly full, although a strong contingent of visitors helped swell the ranks - Windermere is something of a tourist Mecca in the beautiful Lake District area, filled with beautiful scenery... and unpredictable weather.
I went in, curious as ever, to discover how yet another Christian church expressed and celebrated their faith together. At the same time, I am abrim, as followers of the blog will realise, with the revelation that "Lord" language is firmly anchored in an old-fashioned form of English Christianity that derrives its precious translation underpinning "Lord" (Kyrios) so far back that it is pretty much a sacred word in its own right, despite its ambiguity. So I decided it might be of some value to see how different expressions of church use the "sacred" word, Lord. Why not start here?
I downloaded a simple counter app on my phone and happily proceeded to count every time someone said the word "Lord" from the front, prayed it in collective prayer from a pew or we sang it in worship. By the end, my total count was 142. "The Lord" seemed to permeate every aspect of the meeting, even more than the name "Jesus" itself. Interesting. The style of the meeting also seemed a bit old fashioned - while still "Charismatic evangelical" (there was even a word spoken "in tongues" and interpreted), I think it would not have shocked me too much to have sung the exact same songs and been exhorted with the same language 20 years ago in my parents' church. Copy-Paste!
At the end of the meeting, things went from interesting to almost comical. A prophetic word had been given by the pastor of the church that I decided might well concern me and so at the end of the service (the time designated to respond to this prophetic message), I made my way forward to the front.
The pastor had been chatting to a small, stout lady in her 50s, with frizzy auburn coloured hair and a ruddy complexion. In fact, while bodily appearance varied, the age of most of the stage personalities could be similarly described, folks in their 50s.
The pastor smiled at me and gestured that the lady he had been talking to should stay for this time of prayer. It seemed fitting to give a few words of why I requested this prayer and as I did so this lady seemed to have an idea deposited in her evangelical mind: just make him say Jesus is Lord.
Despite the seriousness of the time of prayer I almost gave away a smile at the irony of this situation, but I felt that there was a way through without giving up my new convictions ("Lord" cannot be our staple in a culture and language that no longer has any use for it). So I said yes, he is king of kings, reigning over the heavens and the earth: is that good enough? And that was very acceptable to the pastor who seemed keen not to ruffle the feathers of this visiting Christian and generally extend to me his trust. However, I suspected a bit of puzzlement from the lady as to why I didn't want to repeat her special formula when she repeated the confessional requirements.
But why not just go with the flow for goodness' sake? Am I a spiritual rebel? Do I have a problem with the authority of Jesus in my life? I don't think I have a huge personal problem here as I don't reject Jesus' kyrios-ship, but no-one says kyrios-ship. The point is that my work on the redundancy of "Lord" as an adequate one-size-fits-all translation for Kyrios, it needs trailblazers for it to fly. I don't feel like a trailblazer, but I just know I need to start applying more meaningful language to the Kyrios-ship of Jesus and God in and around me, while of course also finding ways to be faithful to my roots.
So for the sake of that lady, I could have readily said "Jesus is Lord". However, she was ministering to me, to my soul. So, yes, since I have glimpsed both culturally and textually how Lord is no longer a good translation for these ancient words, I simply can't hide that information from other more intimate parts of me like my "soul".
One week later and I found myself in a more modern yet less charismatic Evangelical Church based in Swansea known as the Cornerstone Church. It was slightly warmer, but slightly wetter than the week before.
Once in the warm and dry and having enjoyed friendly conversation with two folk I didn't know, I sat down to an almost movie-like spectacle introduction. The tone quickly became very friendly, however, but I noticed here that the leadership were really into fasting and, as someone who struggles with being underweight myself, I was concerned even by some of the weakened demeanors that resulted from this leadership decision and emphasis. In particular, thinking of fasting in Daniel, I see a sharp contrast in that Daniel and his friends were in great physical shape as they fasted.
Anyway, that's not really the point. I decided to measure in a similar way as I had measured in the Lake District, the dependency of the meeting on Lord language.
All of the songs were new to me. One or two contained a reference to it and it was mentioned a few times during the service too but people in this church want the name of Jesus itself to resonate in people's hearts. As a result I think of this I only noted around 30 currencies throughout.
142 against 30, that's one heck of a difference and not reducible to any particular choice of songs or even leader personality. With the Message translation in hand, modern culturally adapted churches are steadily releasing themselves from old fashioned, retired language including, incredibly, "the Lord" in favour of "Jesus".
This sociological observation should be deeply significant for the church and for Bible translators Who also have a responsibility to maintain accurate translations of the Bible that actually function within the context of Modern Church.
I am encouraged because it feels like this only adds extra purpose and worth to my endeavours with the Obstacles series we are navigating, as I imagine a world of Lord-free translations that accurately represent the Kyrios themes in today's terminology.
On a chilly Sunday morning during our "summer" holiday in the Lake District, northern England, I attended the Windermere Christian Centre for their weekly service. The venue was fairly full, although a strong contingent of visitors helped swell the ranks - Windermere is something of a tourist Mecca in the beautiful Lake District area, filled with beautiful scenery... and unpredictable weather.
I went in, curious as ever, to discover how yet another Christian church expressed and celebrated their faith together. At the same time, I am abrim, as followers of the blog will realise, with the revelation that "Lord" language is firmly anchored in an old-fashioned form of English Christianity that derrives its precious translation underpinning "Lord" (Kyrios) so far back that it is pretty much a sacred word in its own right, despite its ambiguity. So I decided it might be of some value to see how different expressions of church use the "sacred" word, Lord. Why not start here?
I downloaded a simple counter app on my phone and happily proceeded to count every time someone said the word "Lord" from the front, prayed it in collective prayer from a pew or we sang it in worship. By the end, my total count was 142. "The Lord" seemed to permeate every aspect of the meeting, even more than the name "Jesus" itself. Interesting. The style of the meeting also seemed a bit old fashioned - while still "Charismatic evangelical" (there was even a word spoken "in tongues" and interpreted), I think it would not have shocked me too much to have sung the exact same songs and been exhorted with the same language 20 years ago in my parents' church. Copy-Paste!
At the end of the meeting, things went from interesting to almost comical. A prophetic word had been given by the pastor of the church that I decided might well concern me and so at the end of the service (the time designated to respond to this prophetic message), I made my way forward to the front.
The pastor had been chatting to a small, stout lady in her 50s, with frizzy auburn coloured hair and a ruddy complexion. In fact, while bodily appearance varied, the age of most of the stage personalities could be similarly described, folks in their 50s.
The pastor smiled at me and gestured that the lady he had been talking to should stay for this time of prayer. It seemed fitting to give a few words of why I requested this prayer and as I did so this lady seemed to have an idea deposited in her evangelical mind: just make him say Jesus is Lord.
Despite the seriousness of the time of prayer I almost gave away a smile at the irony of this situation, but I felt that there was a way through without giving up my new convictions ("Lord" cannot be our staple in a culture and language that no longer has any use for it). So I said yes, he is king of kings, reigning over the heavens and the earth: is that good enough? And that was very acceptable to the pastor who seemed keen not to ruffle the feathers of this visiting Christian and generally extend to me his trust. However, I suspected a bit of puzzlement from the lady as to why I didn't want to repeat her special formula when she repeated the confessional requirements.
But why not just go with the flow for goodness' sake? Am I a spiritual rebel? Do I have a problem with the authority of Jesus in my life? I don't think I have a huge personal problem here as I don't reject Jesus' kyrios-ship, but no-one says kyrios-ship. The point is that my work on the redundancy of "Lord" as an adequate one-size-fits-all translation for Kyrios, it needs trailblazers for it to fly. I don't feel like a trailblazer, but I just know I need to start applying more meaningful language to the Kyrios-ship of Jesus and God in and around me, while of course also finding ways to be faithful to my roots.
So for the sake of that lady, I could have readily said "Jesus is Lord". However, she was ministering to me, to my soul. So, yes, since I have glimpsed both culturally and textually how Lord is no longer a good translation for these ancient words, I simply can't hide that information from other more intimate parts of me like my "soul".
One week later and I found myself in a more modern yet less charismatic Evangelical Church based in Swansea known as the Cornerstone Church. It was slightly warmer, but slightly wetter than the week before.
Once in the warm and dry and having enjoyed friendly conversation with two folk I didn't know, I sat down to an almost movie-like spectacle introduction. The tone quickly became very friendly, however, but I noticed here that the leadership were really into fasting and, as someone who struggles with being underweight myself, I was concerned even by some of the weakened demeanors that resulted from this leadership decision and emphasis. In particular, thinking of fasting in Daniel, I see a sharp contrast in that Daniel and his friends were in great physical shape as they fasted.
Anyway, that's not really the point. I decided to measure in a similar way as I had measured in the Lake District, the dependency of the meeting on Lord language.
All of the songs were new to me. One or two contained a reference to it and it was mentioned a few times during the service too but people in this church want the name of Jesus itself to resonate in people's hearts. As a result I think of this I only noted around 30 currencies throughout.
142 against 30, that's one heck of a difference and not reducible to any particular choice of songs or even leader personality. With the Message translation in hand, modern culturally adapted churches are steadily releasing themselves from old fashioned, retired language including, incredibly, "the Lord" in favour of "Jesus".
This sociological observation should be deeply significant for the church and for Bible translators Who also have a responsibility to maintain accurate translations of the Bible that actually function within the context of Modern Church.
I am encouraged because it feels like this only adds extra purpose and worth to my endeavours with the Obstacles series we are navigating, as I imagine a world of Lord-free translations that accurately represent the Kyrios themes in today's terminology.
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