A couple mornings ago I woke up and no one else in the house was awake. I LOVE this time because when you have a family of 5 there is rarely a time when there’s no noise of some kind. So I woke up and it was just me and the house and all the creaks and cracks that come with a house that’s 112 years old. I sat down on the couch and was thinking about what to write. Nothing was working. I couldn’t get any inspiration from what happened the day before, or anything that I had read. I was drawing a major blank. So I just sat there. I started to get up to do something else and I heard the Lord speaking to me. He said, “I know you’re wondering what’s going on. I know you are confused and don’t understand this process you’re in. But son, trust me. I hear you. I got your back. Do what you know to do.” I didn’t end up writing that day. I was overwhelmed by God’s voice and the assurance of Him hearing me and having me taken care of. I couldn’t help but leave that time totally infused with joy and the confidence that the God of the universe had things taken care of.

Sometimes we sit and it seems like everything is falling all around us. We cry out and feel like we aren’t being heard and it is frustrating and disheartening. But we have to remember that God always hears you. Sometimes we need to be able to sit back and talk to God and realize that He does hear you. For me, I had to sit in the quietness of my own home to hear what God had to say to me. I’m SO glad I did. It changed my perspective on life. I pray that you all get a chance to take some time and listen for God. You will be surprised to know that He’s heard you the whole time.

I spend lots of time reading articles and blogs and talking to people about where contemporary worship is today. Everyone has their own opinions and I don’t know if anyone that I’ve talked to shares opinions of any kind. But I guess that’s people for you… Anyway, it seems that we have gotten disgruntled with where contemporary worship music stands today. Some people think that it’s all lame and don’t listen to it at all. Some people are mad because the music sounds like something someone else has already done. Hymn enthusiasts young and old think that contemporary music is theologically thin.

So the question today is pretty simple. Do you think that contemporary music can ever climb out of the enormous hole that it has been placed in? It seems like no matter what contemporary worship music writers do, they can’t seem to win. It’s either not original or too lame to listen to. I come from the angle that it has it’s place in the church and in the hearts of the people of Christ. I also know that there is a whole city of people here in St. Louis who love contemporary music because there is an awesome radio station dedicated to just that and they are reaching people left and right. So I know that it fits in a certain place, but will the genre as a whole ever be able to do something to make it back to a level playing field? That’s my question for today. What say you?

I have been having many conversations about this question from many different fronts. I decided that I should probably write about it because I’m sure that there are others who will want to weigh in. But the simple question doesn’t really have a simple answer. There’s the disclaimer. Right now I am sitting in my office and the day has begun and, among other things, I will be getting preparations made for Easter Sunday which is over a month from now. As I’m thinking about that whole week, Holy Week as it is called, I wonder just how much stock we put into that the other 51 weeks out of the year.

I was talking with a member of our church about Lent and how every time he thinks about it he shudders. Why? Because he spent almost 20 years in a church where Lent happened whether you wanted it to or not and you HAD to do it. It was much later after leaving that church he realized WHY Lent was important. It had become a ritual for millions of people.

I spent some time talking to someone who didn’t really understand the point of Communion in the church even though it was explained each time it was done in her church. She “sort of understood that Jesus died and stuff”, but that was the extent of it.

I see people running day in and day out to their jobs and outings and schedule fillers and wonder, “Why are they doing what they are doing?” Do we do these things because it’s what we want to do? Do we do these things because society says we should be busy? Do we do these things because Christ wants us to run around with our crazy schedules, not taking time to spend with Him because we are “doing stuff” for Him?

For me, this question is speaking directly to our churches. We have lots of programs and “liturgies”, if you will allow me to use that word, that are a part of who we are. Service happens this way each time. We handle situations like this because our laws say so. This schedule works best for most of the people, so we choose this way. We want to reach a certain demographic, so we do this particular thing.

What if Christ started speaking to you to change everything you do completely around? Let’s not jump THAT far yet.  What if He said that your meeting with your girlfriends wasn’t glorifying to Him and that you should find something else to do during that time slot? What if He said that the job that  you are so dedicated to wasn’t the one for you anymore? What if He said, put the sermon at the very front of the service? What if He said do only 2 songs this week in the whole service? What if He said the church needs to hear from the lady who lost everything in a tragic storm and then wanted you to spend the rest of the time praying for her? What if He said I want you to move your service time to 7:45 in the morning? Or 5:30 in the evening? What if He said stop sending your money to the kids oversees and send yourself? What if He said to stop doing all the things that don’t bring Him glory? Can you look at your life and really see those things? Will you try to rationalize the things that you want to keep?

From a Sunday morning standpoint, I struggle with this every week. “Are the songs we sing speaking more about Him than me? Are the lights aiding in what we do, or are they distracting people from the message? Are we giving a clear message of the cross from start to finish? Are we giving people a false sense of hope? Are we giving them hope at all? Would people sing with us if the words weren’t on that screen? Are we really developing worshipers of Spirit and truth?” There are definitely more questions than that, but I don’t want to be writing forever. Each day I am challenged with the idea that I need to be living a life that brings glory to God at all times. The hard part is then making the adjustments where they need to be made.

Are we willing to make the adjustments?

Do  you ever feel like….Wow that sounded like I was about to recite “Firework” by Katy Perry. Let’s try this again…

How many times have you gone to do something and were really excited about it, only to have your world crumble when no one else is as excited about it as you are? I happen to live in a house where, as the only male old enough to care about anything other than milk and climbing out of a crib, I find myself here quite a bit. I like different things than the people in my family. When I get excited about those things, generally everyone gives me the “okay, Dad” look. So at the end of the day I tend to just do whatever the rest of the crowd is doing. I end up coloring Dora the Explorer pages or reading Mother Goose nursery rhymes. Sometimes that means playing Club Penguin Snow Day or watching people continuously jump into a hole on Super Mario Bros. Wii.

Unfortunately for me, sometimes that same mentality spills over into my walk with Christ. There are times when I feel like God is saying that I need to step up and do something that is going to bring glory to His name. And I’ll bring it to a group of people with great passion and vigor. I’ve prayed through this thing and really felt like I this is where God is leading. Upon presentation I get, “yeah, that’s cool or whatever. So….what are you gonna do?” In the end it’s just me sitting there and I give in to the group and I let go of that thing. The major difference here is that it means I’m being disobedient. The Lord didn’t say to me “you will know this is what I want you to do because everyone will agree and jump on board immediately”. He gave me a command, and it is my job to fulfill his commands. It doesn’t matter if I end up having to do it alone. Sometimes that’s what He is asking me to do. Though none go with me…

What is God asking you to do? Is He asking you to step up into that leadership role? Is He asking you to share your heart with someone who needs it? Is He asking you to give time to mentor a new Christian? Are you being asked to speak out against an injustice or something you see happening in your church that doesn’t fit what God says? In today’s world, these are unpopular steps to take. We have chosen to fuse ourselves to the crooked backbone of the culture to the point that we aren’t able to break away and do what God is calling us to do. We are perfectly okay with sitting back and either letting someone else do it or not doing it at all. Not only is it detrimental to the body of Christ, but it’s blatantly disobedient. You are called to stand out. You are called to be different. You are called to look awkward in some situations. Though none go with me…

Though none go with me, still I will follow

Though none go with me, still I will follow

Though none go with me, still I will follow

No turning back, no turning back.

Think about that today.

When I was in high school, I played baseball. As a matter of fact, I played baseball starting at age 6. I’ve always been on a team. I love the game. I love the strategy. I love that you have to think through each and every move. It’s a fun, calculated game that I can’t get enough of. During my years of playing, I was on some good teams and some not so good teams. Each team had its own personality. One year we had a team that was like The Rams of the late 9os. They would let the other team score 48 cause they knew they would score at least 50. Everyone on that team could hit. Only about 3 of us could play defense. I was also on a team that couldn’t win to save a life. Both of those teams had struggles, but only one of them really cared about the struggle.

See, when you are losing the main goal and focus is to stop losing. So we kept trying to find ways to NOT lose games. We pretty much lost all of those. We weren’t set up to win games. We were set up to not lose them. I played every position on the field that season. Although I was a plus defender, I wasn’t suited for every position. So I didn’t always succeed. That team fought and struggled for quite awhile until that season thankfully ended. We didn’t get to the postseason, but we didn’t care.

The second team was the one that made me the most upset. This team made me upset because we settled. Sure, we won most of our games. We even got to play in Busch Stadium. But we settled. Our coach first, and then the players second, didn’t care that we most of our outfield couldn’t catch.  We didn’t care that we would consistently give up 3, 4 and 5 runs per inning. Because we were sure to grab 7 when we came back to hit. So our 7 inning games would have scores like 23-19. It would have been so much easier to get better — just a little bit more infield practice. Less meeting at the batting cages and more in the field. A few minutes working on defensive technique. Any of these things could have turned those scores from 23-19 to 23-4. I mean, I’m not trying to demolish people. For crying out loud, we were 12! But I was always confused at why we were just okay with winning and as a result it didn’t matter that our defense looked like the pitcher was playing with no one behind him. I’m pretty sure that my dad sitting in the stands caught more of the tosses to first from the short stop than I did, and I was the one playing first.

So where am I going with my little trip down memory lane? Well, I have a lot of things on my heart and I’ve been trying to figure out the best way to share them all. However, this post is as much for me as it is for whomever happens to read it. There are some things in my life that I should really be pushing for and continuing to move forward. But lately I have just been happy with what I have and saying that is enough. For a while I had become spiritually complacent. I had become musically complacent. I had become content with whatever I was being told and wasn’t searching the scripture for myself as much. I wasn’t doing my best to present myself approved to God (2 Tim. 2:15). I wasn’t practicing piano anymore. I had become complacent. What did it matter? People enjoyed what we were singing on Sunday. I was receiving compliments on the service and how things flowed and that the Gospel was being presented. Those things were true. But, at the same time there were a lot of things that would happen that were a result of complacent leadership. Just like that baseball team that didn’t care about the fundamentals because the outcome was still winning, I stopped pushing people to move forward because we had gotten “good enough for Sunday morning to work”.

What’s that thing in your life that you have decided is “good enough”? Is there something that you have let settle? Think about it. Share. Even more importantly, what’s the next step?

Have you ever seen the “Like Mike” Gatorade commercial? It’s from the early nineties when Michael Jordan had taken the world by storm. There’s all these little kids trying to do some of his signature moves on courts in their driveways and at various parks while this song “If I could be like Mike” was playing in the background.

Check out the Gatorade Commercial if you’ve never seen it.

I don’t know the specifics, but I’m positive that the sales for Gatorade, basketballs and garage hung basketball goals when up significantly during this time. They portray this guy who does extraordinary things on the basketball court and at the same time makes it look easy enough to make us think that we can do it as well. Even better, we are told to believe that the only thing missing from our lives is Gatorade. I bet the other numbers that really jumped was the enrollment in youth basketball leagues and high school tryouts. Everyone was told that they have the ability to do what the great Michael Jordan does. So everyone tried. There were some pretty good players. There were a bunch more that never made the cut. There were some that were playing with 2 left feet, a knee brace and an eye patch. But everyone tried. We felt empowered to do so.

Flash forward and switch genres. This smiling Texas boy starts writing songs and they are catchy enough. Then the Christian world gets a hold of them and now you can’t find a church on a Sunday morning that isn’t singing at least one of his songs. He plays four chords, writes what seems to be some pretty simple words, throws in a catchy hook and we’re all singing and praising God. Before too long someone decides, “If Chris Tomlin can write 52 songs in 47 minutes, so can I. None of his songs are that difficult, I bet I could do that too. He’s only playing 4 chords. It can’t be THAT hard to learn to play guitar!” Then youth group kids begin to flood Guitar Center, spending their allowances on a $2500 Taylor or Martin guitar when they barely know the difference between major and minor.

Why am I writing this one today? Well it’s sort of a follow up from yesterday’s post about creativity. Granted, I’m not blaming Chris Tomlin for anything, so don’t go and tweet him and tell him that I think he’s the problem with churches today. That’s not what I’m saying. What I AM saying is this: when someone is so good at something that they make it look easy, everyone starts to believe that they can do it as well. Now there are all of these imitators, or even better, people who think they are going to one up one of the most influential songwriters in contemporary Christian music today. The major problem comes when these kids step into our church and show minimal at best talent, and then they are throw up front and now they are leading worship for the youth and then maybe they get a shot in the main service. Some of them are the ones with talent that end up going pretty far in the game. Some of them are decent and with a little coaching could be pretty good. Some of them are playing with two left feet, a knee brace and an eye patch. But in the church we have let them all flow through. It has lowered the quality level of the music in our churches and somewhere along the line we just became okay with that.

Again, before you start beating me up, I know that this doesn’t apply to everyone. Some churches just don’t have a lot of talented people in them. Right now, in my own church, I can’t seem to find a guitar player to save my life! Even though what I just said is true in most churches, it is not the case in my own. So I spend most of my time trying to find someone to play guitar with me and I end up more times than not just going without one. So I understand that this may not apply to your church. And if you’re getting super mad about this one, I may be talking about you. Just saying…

At some point I believe that we have to find ways to allow people to use their creativity in ways that bring glory to God. Again, we were created by God. Created being the key word there. Why is it that we have gotten to the point where the “creative” stuff is good outside the walls of the church, but doesn’t work on the inside? I have another theory about that one, but maybe I’ll start my creativity theories next week. Chew on this one for a minute and let me know if you agree or disagree.

Those of you who haven’t spent much time with me will not know this. Those of you who spend a lot of time with me might not even recognize this. But whenever we are in a room or go out to eat, I try to sit with my back to the wall. It has been my thing for quite a while. I like it because it gives me a full view of the room and everyone there. I love to sit and people watch. Also, I can see what’s going on in the room and can assess situations from that spot. Case in point, when my family was on our road trip this past summer, we were sitting in the middle of this restaurant and all of a sudden a man comes up to me and puts his hand on my shoulder. It freaked me out because I didn’t know where he had come from or what was about to happen. My girls were there and I went into protect mode. It didn’t end up being a big deal at all, but I wasn’t able to prepare for that moment and I didn’t like it. As a result, I always try to put myself in a position to see everything.

I also approach leading worship that way sometimes. I feel like I need to be able to see everyone on stage to make sure they are doing what I need them to do. The leader is generally in the front of the stage leading the people so everyone can see them and know where they are going. Most Sundays I stand in front of my band with the congregation watching me and wondering if everything behind and to the side of me is going to do what it is supposed to do. I know we rehearsed and had sound checks, but I always wonder in the back of my head about what just might happen. Should I be that worried about anything? No, not at all. And I know that. But for some reason I get stuck there and it is hard for me to get out. On my own. So I decided to try something different. I’m here at the church a fair amount during the week and most of the time I’m the only one here. So this past week (and a little bit later today) I went up into the sanctuary and just sat down in the middle of the room. Right in the floor. It was there that I had to come face to face with God and give Him control of the worship band and the singers and the tech booth and everything else that was under my supervision and “control”. At the end of the day, I’m not fighting for control with the others on the stage, I’m fighting with God. I will, and have, lost that fight every time. But I’m stupid enough to keep up with the fight.

See, I don’t do what I do because I’m so good at it. I don’t get the results that I get because of everything that I have done to research songs and the people and what instrumentation may work and the range of the voices I have and all that good stuff. Anything that I do is because God has called me to that place and then equipped me to do the work. So why would I try to take that control from Him? That’s why I have started sitting in the middle of the room. In the middle of the room, I can’t see everyone, but the One who needs to see all of me can.

In the middle of the room there is nowhere for me to hide. All of my insecurities, inadequacies and feelings of failure are out in the open. I notice how messed up I am. But the abrogation of my sins, inadequacies and insecurities by Christ’s death on the cross covers all those things up. So when a note is played wrong, God can handle that. When a cue is missed, God can handle that. When a light blows out in the middle of the service or a headphone blows in the middle of a song set, God can handle that. Most importantly, when your heart is broken and you’re lost and alone, God can handle that. When you feel like there is nothing for you to hold on to, God can handle that. Come to the middle of the room. There’s balance and warmth. The outside edge may seem like the place to be, but it’s cold and you’re causing things to tip over. Take the walk toward the middle. Then grab my hand cause I’m heading that way too.

Every February I’m reminded of how grateful I am to be doing what I do. This February is no different. I’m so glad that God had it in His plans to include my story and my life in a way that could only be orchestrated by my Creator. Part of that orchestration is the battle that generations before me had to fight to get to this point. As an African American, I know that I must never forget to give thanks to people like Martin Luther King and Medger Evers for fighting with an unending passion to see Black people have freedom in this country that we all call home. And whenever I hear stories of people I know personally, like my grandparents on even my own parents, or people like Pastor Frances Cleveland, I know that I’m not too far removed from a time that is SO unlike what we live in today.

I often wonder how I would have fared in a segregated America. What type of person would I be? Would I have been able to express my feelings about Christ, worship, family, life and other things the way I am today? Would I be one of the few to have a platform to share the heart for giving God the praise He deserves? Would I have the opportunity to connect with people the way I’m able to through music? How different would my life have been 50, 60, 70 years ago? We will never know the answers to those questions, but I do know that I’m here today because God put a fire in the hearts of some special people. He also gave some intelligence to Black people to invent many of the things we use today. Many of them we take for granted in everyday life, but would be lost without in most cases.

The argument is and probably always will be “Why is Black History confined to only one month?” “And why is that month the shortest one of the year?” and other ridiculous things. I have always thought it an honor that my people were given a whole month dedicated to their struggles and accomplishments and how they overcame such a torrid life and paved the way for us today to live in the freedom that this country boasts. But even Black History is deeper than that for me. The only reason we can have this discussion today is because God is in the plans. I worship a God who saw the struggle and put the right people in place to fight through it. It was the Holy Spirit and ONLY the Holy Spirit that got all those people through the torture and pain and the marches and the sit-ins and the arrests and the name calling.

There is an intense amount of pride for me that comes from being a Black person. I’m thankful for that everyday. The intensity of that pride is dwarfed by the intensity of the pride I have in being able to call Christ my Savior. I rejoice greatly in the fact that we can stand confidently and live freely in this country when there are some that looked like me not too long ago that couldn’t do that. I rejoice even more in the fact that I “once was lost, but now am found. Was blind but now I see”. See, I’m can never be anything but the person that I was made to be. No one can take that from me. People argue about why there’s only one month dedicated to Black History. I would say that no one is stopping you from teaching your children about it everyday. You have that freedom. For me, Black History is wrapped up in a much bigger story. That’s what I choose to teach my children. Is Black History important? You better believe it. Is it more important than Christ’s history? Not even close. Does Christ’s history directly impact Black History? Thankfully yes. Without Christ nothing else would matter. And for that reason, I don’t care HOW many days or months they dedicate. In the end, the truth remains the same. We HAVE overcome.

I will admit before I even get started. Someone will probably get mad at this. Granted, there aren’t hundreds of people reading what I write, but I’m convinced that out of the few of you that read this someone will get mad at me. That. Is. Totally. Cool. With that being said…

I’ve been thinking a lot about faith impacts culture and vice versa. As I continue to look at it, it seems like both have been generally bad influences on each other. It reminds me of when I was a little boy. I am an only child, but with my mom being eighth of 9 and my dad being the oldest of 6, I’ve got a TON of cousins. We used to do so many crazy things and we would get the other in trouble all the time. I guess that’s just part of life as a kid. One of us would dare the other to jump off the bed. Trouble. In retaliation, one dares the other to grab an extra cookie. Trouble.  We are good at influencing each other to push the envelope, and we usually pushed it too far.

So how have faith a culture been mutually bad influences on each other? Well, as I sit here in my office and have been thinking about the upcoming weeks in our church from a worship standpoint, one of the things that continues to be at the forefront of my thinking is the relevancy of our worship experience. Don’t get me wrong, I believe that we have to be relevancy is tremendously important to the church. So I don’t see that as a negative thing. I think the line gets blurry when we are striving to look so much like the world in the things that we do that “they can’t tell the difference”. I don’t think it is my job as a worship leader to confuse the people that walk in the door. I don’t want to put them in such a trance that when the service is over they say, “I didn’t even know I was in church! How did I get here???” Especially since I’m called to be different. As a Christian, it’s an honor for me to BE different. Look at 1 Peter 2:9. Being different is part of the job description. But I’ve been to churches where the people are trying to be relevant, or cool and trendy and they pull some things off. But inevitably, there’s one thing that starts to waver when we try to look like the rest of the culture we live in. That’s the gospel. I feel that in the different times I’ve gone to places that are trying SO hard to be attractive to the rest of the world, they end up diluting the one beautiful difference between the two.

This is the hinge between both faith and culture. As I said yesterday, when we turn both of these fast moving cars toward each other, there is only one place for them to crash. What was done at the cross changes both sides dramatically. I believe the reason that the church has influenced the rest of culture negatively is because of the way they look at culture. Just as you have some churches who try too hard to be cool, you have just as many trying too hard to make sure you know that they AREN’T anything like the rest of the world. Granted, we are called to not be lovers of the world or the things of the world (1 John 2:15-16). That doesn’t mean that we should shun the people that are in the world. As a matter of fact, they are the reason we are still here. Some of us have run so far away from the line that we are simply screaming at the cruel, vile world far from the other side. The rest of the world and the culture we live in has never asked us to change ourselves and then maybe they would be a part of the church. We are to look different and they will hate us for it. Bible says so. BUT, there is a lot more room closer to the cross for us in the faith as well. When we run so far the other way, no one can hear you except for when you scream about how bad the other side is. No one wants to hear that. Come a little bit closer. A lot of things change at the foot of the cross. The other side even looks a lot different than you think.

As someone who spends his days sculpting a service that is designed to bring glory to the Father, I have to keep in mind that in my church there are some people who will have never had this experience before. Do I want to alienate them so much that they feel uncomfortable and never want to come back? Heck no. But do I want to present the gospel in a way that it challenges everything they have ever thought about life and Christ and the people around them? Heck yes. But here’s the secret: I’m doing that for you Christians as well. Think about it. Then meet me as I push toward the foot of the cross.

Do you ever see to people and wonder how in the world they ended up together? You see a really tall woman and a short dude and wonder what in the world happened? How many of you paid attention to either the NFL or the NBA labor disputes? When they were in the midst of all of that, it seemed like we would never get football or basketball back. But as time went on and the two sides got closer together things started to fall off the table until they were able to reach an agreement. The middle ground caused each side to lose some thing that was a part of them going in just to make the situation work.

What about in the instance of our faith and our culture? When I look at the two of them, I see a lot of stuff connected to both that probably shouldn’t be there. There are some things in this culture that I have to actively shield my children from because I don’t want it to become a part of their lives and thought processes. And if I’m completely honest, there are some things in faith that I have to actively shield my children from because I don’t want it to become a part of their lives and thought processes. So how do we get them to move toward the middle? Do we think that there IS a middle for the two? Well, I stand here today (actually I’m sitting, but I digress) saying that there is. Why? Because the church should be part of the culture. And because the people in the church are part of the culture they live in. They are married whether we like it or not. However, we have spent so much time trying to separate the two that we forget that there’s really not a way to separate the two. Most of the time they are fighting like teenage sisters who both have a date and one is taking too long in the bathroom. The church has alienated the culture in which we live to the point that when you mention church to some people they have already turned a deaf ear to anything you might have to say. Culture has gone so far south in many ways that the church believes that nothing good can EVER come from outside the doors of the church. So they sit at opposite sides of the room staring at the wall with their arms folded, occasionally looking back to give a scowl to the other. Someone needs to get the two of them in a room and mediate a conversation. Are there distinct differences between the two? Heck yes! Don’t get me wrong here. There are some things that won’t work in either place, but I’m convinced that is because both sides have traveled so far that neither side will ever be able to release some things.

So the question remains, where is the middle? I believe that the middle sits right at the foot of the cross. To those more embraced in the culture than the church, you might already see that as leaning to the wrong side. And that’s okay. To those of you more embraced in the faith than the culture, you’re probably excited about that. But as Lee Corso says, “Not so fast, my friend!” The cross is so welcoming and polarizing at the same time that it is able to handle being the middle of this complex spot. I like to think of it as the impact point for the collision between faith and culture. When we look at all the things that we hold on to in faith, some of those things aren’t necessarily things that we should be holding on to. We created things that we were never supposed to create. And then it threw the other side for a loop. When it comes to culture, there are things that just aren’t right. When people are left to their own devices, we get some crazy mess. Unfortunately, that can be said for both sides.

So why is the cross an impact point? Well, when you bring all of your baggage to the foot of the cross, it just can’t all stay there. Some of it was never meant to be. When two cars collide, there are parts of each car that are impacted. Neither of those cars come away looking like they did before they hit each other. They end up exchanging paint, losing windshields, denting doors…they both change. Both cars are changed individually, but they both end up sharing parts of themselves with the other. I tend to believe that the close faith and culture come to the cross, the faster things will fall off from either side. And if they ever collide at the cross, both sides will be amazingly surprised at what happens. Faith will be left with some bits of culture in it and the other way around.

What does this look like? Well, what does it look like to you? It’s my blog, so I can take your hypothetical question and turn it around on you. HA!