Amazing Grace Baptist Church in Canton, NC, is holding a book-burning on Halloween. They are burning satanic books. But you might be surprised at what they consider satanic:

• Any Bible that isn’t the King James Version. All other versions are “satanic” and “perversions” of God’s Word. That includes the New King James Version, in addition to my beloved NIV. The fact that they aren’t reading the original King James–that the KJV itself has been revised many times over the years–is probably lost on them. They prefer their issues in black-and-white, with no grays.
• Books by such heretics as Billy Graham, Rick Warren, Chuck Colson, Bill Bright, Tim Lahaye,  James Dobson, and a slew of others.
• Practically any kind of music: country, rap, rock, pop, heavy metal, weastern, southern gospel, contemporary Christian, jazz, soul, or oldies. I guess that leaves classical and hymns. Oh, I didn’t see blues in that list.

Well, good for Amazing Grace and their grand total of 14 members.

Did you know there is a “Christian Hall of Fame“? It’s even located in Canton, Ohio, home of the pro football Hall of Fame. It’s a creation of Canton Baptist Temple. The most recent inductee is Jerry Falwell, added September 23.

When I read about that, I immediately fell into my default cynical mode. I assumed it would be populated mainly by fundamentalist Baptist Republicans. And I figured it would be fertile ground for a very satirical blog post, as if that would edify the Kingdom.

Then I took a look…and I’m fascinated by it!

First of all, the website is very, very well done. As user-friendly as can be.

The inductees span the last 2000 years. Click on a name, and you get a picture and description of that person. Click on a period of history (say, “The Church in Reformation: AD 1000-1500”), and you get a list of persons from that period–some that you’ve heard of, some that you haven’t.  In the Reformation period, there were eight persons: Wycliffe, Huss, Savonarola, Hubmaler, Zwingli, Tyndale, Luther, Simons. I’d never heard of Savonarola or Hubmaler, so it was interesting reading about them and their contribution to Christianity.

The last period, “The Church Expands: 1900-2000,” has 50 entries. Of those, all were English-speaking Caucasians–ten from Great Britain, one from Canada, the rest from the US of A. So I guess the world’s significant Christians mostly lived during the last 100 years, and apparently almost entirely in the United States, or at least they spoke English. There is only one person of color in the list (John Jasper, from the 1800s) and only one woman (hymn-writer Fanny Crosby). It’s too bad that, according to the Christian Hall of Fame, there has not been a single significant black or Asian Christian in the whole world during the last 100 years.

So if you want to make it into the Christian Hall of Fame, you really need to be a modern-day white English-speaking American man. And I’m guessing that you need orthodox fundie credentials. 

But still, it’s interesting. 

My favorite entry was the very last entry, for “The Unknown Christian.” It says:

This Christian never made the headlines as a greet theologian or a silver-tongued orator. He (or she) is a faithful, consecrated, born-again layman. The foot solder in the Gospel army. He (or she) is a Sunday School teacher, an usher, a singer, a bus worker, a nursery helper, a parking lot attendance, or a prayer warrior. His (or her) service is unheralded but vital in the cause of Christ. His (or her) testimony adorns the gospel as he (or she) faithfully witnesses daily “in the temple and in every house,” sacrificing time, talent, and tithe to the Lord.

Having served the Lord in the home, the church, and the world, this Christian will one day hear the Master say, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things. I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of the lord” (Matthew 25:21).

I’ve always felt guilty, spiritually inferior even, that I don’t have a life verse. I work around ministers, and I’ll bet every one of them can recite their life verse. I think they can’t graduate from seminary without one. And somewhere, the Bible says, “Thou shalt have a life verse.” Somewhere. Otherwise, ministers wouldn’t emphasize it so much.

A life verse is quintessentially American. It goes along with our love for mission statements, goals, and purpose-drivenness. Our leadership books insist that you have a mission statement to be effective. It guides you, keeps you on track.

Some life verses are very common, like:

• Matthew 5:16–“Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”
• Proverbs 3:6–“In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.”
• Matthew 6:33–“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
• Psalm 37:4–“Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.”

Multitudes of people choose those life verses. What’s really impressive is the preachers who find some obscure verse in a minor prophet, and turn it into a life verse fraught with contemporary significance. They take pride in their verse, and love every opportunity to quote it, thereby exhibiting their profound depth and biblical scholarship. It would be fun to get a bunch of ministers in a room and let them take turns reciting their life verse. Pity the poor fool who can only quote John 3:16 or Philippians 4:13. There is no status in those verses.

ChristianBook.com asked a slew of Christian authors for their life verses, and they could all give one. Except Ted Dekker, who replied honestly, “I have none. How can you choose one verse over another from the word of God?”

You can buy Life Verse Jewelry. You can get a life verse tattoo. Tyndale has a One Year Life Verse Devotional. And if you can’t think of anything, you can look up your birthverse. Mine is Hebrews 10:23, “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.” I was born on October 23 (10:23), so this is obviously of God.

But there is one life verse I’ve never heard anyone use. It’s the one Jesus chose in what’s called the Nazareth Manifesto, when he is just starting his ministry. In Luke 4:18-19, Jesus quotes Isaiah 61:1 to let people know what his ministry will be about:

The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

I’ve never heard anyone use that life verse. And I can’t imagine a United Brethren minister selecting it. It just doesn’t fit what our churches are about–to preach to the poor, and to seek justice and healing. We’re in favor of those things (except for the “year of the Lord’s favor” income-redistribution thing), but keep them on the back-burner.

I suppose every generation of Christians in every country reinvents Jesus to fit their priorities, their interpretations of Scripture. The Nazareth Manifesto just doesn’t fit what 21st Century American Christians are about. We’re about evangelism and discipleship–saving people from eternal death, and teaching them the Bible. How can that NOT be good. Of COURSE we need to do that. But when Jesus had the chance to say what he was about, he focused on the poor, on injustice, and on healing–three things very, very foreign to the evangelical Christianity we have created.

When none of us would pick Isaiah 61:1 as our life verse, as Jesus sort of did, it just makes me wonder, again. How well does the American Christianity that we have fashioned and taught to the rest of the world truly reflect what Jesus was about?

If you visit the homepage for Lakewood Church, you’ll find four photos of Joel Osteen. Make that 5, when you count the one in the rotating banner (and three of the Mrs.).

I think it’s safe to say this isn’t a “purpose-driven” church but a “personality-driven” church.

(I make this generalization with only surface knowledge of Lakewood and Osteen. This is what bloggers do.)

At any rate: I like seeing photos of people on church sites, but not a photo of the pastor front-and-center. The latter just tells me this church puts too much emphasis on the pastor (or maybe the pastor puts too much emphasis on himself).