The Upper Room in Minneapolis (Updated)

I have attended the Upper Room many times over the years, following my kids while they were in High School.  But once they left home I stayed at my own church.  However, last night I went with my daughter to visit the Upper Room for the first time in a few years and was able to experience worship.

2015 - I wrote the above paragraph a little over one year ago.  Since then Upper Room has moved to Colonial Church of Edina and has changed some.  I went last night again and need to update my experience a little.


THE HISTORY

The Upper Room used to worship in Christ Presbyterian Church (which is where I used to attend their worship), while the main church was facing a crisis.  As I was told the story, the building belonged to the denomination which was welcoming certain teachings with which Christ Pres. did not agree.  The dilemma then became this: the church leadership wanted to break away from its denomination but couldn't because the building belonged to the denomination.  I don't know what ever became of this dilemma.

When I attended Upper Room in the past, hundreds of young people came and worshiped.  The services and music seemed to be full of life and energy.  And it grew.

Sometime after I stopped going, the Upper Room broke away from Christ Pres. for reasons I don't know - but I suspect that it did so because of the denomination's stands on certain doctrines and practices.  When I visited last night, I realized that it had become a small part of what it was when I used to go. 

2015 - Upper Room has grown and does a decent job of packing out the auditorium with White 20 something young families.  The service was filled with the noises of children playing, talking, and crying.  

THE MUSIC

I believe that the music is the one of two reasons the Upper Room continues to have 2 services that can hold 100 +.  The musicians were top notch and the girl who led singing was as good as singers get.  She was awesome.

The band was tight and did a great job with a room that wasn't designed for the best acoustics.

The song choices were great. 

2015 - I only got to hear two songs, because I came late.  The band was okay - something may have changed since last year - I am not sure.  There was one woman in the band who had an amazing voice, but the main singer usually sang out of key.  My suggestion would be to focus more on the girl with the voice and have her lead most of the music.

IMAGES

I think the Upper Room holds on to some of their Presbyterian past with icons such as centuries' old paintings, tile, and stain glass windows of Jesus provided in the background for the words of the songs.  This may provide familiarity for people coming out of high church tradition, but it does little good for those who have grown up outside of the church or for those who were brought up in churches that were not steeped in ancient tradition.  These images suggest that Jesus was a White European who looked like he lived in the Middle Ages.  I appreciate the art involved but don't think its good for background in worship service trying to reach outsiders.

2015 - I didn't see the creative images last night, which is neither good nor bad in my opinion.

THE ATMOSPHERE

The Upper Room was a bit quaint.  They had people from the congregation come up to the center of the room to drop off the offerings and they invited mothers to come forward to pick up flowers.  They also invited people to come up to pick up homework sheets to be practiced in response to the sermons.  The quaintness and feel of everything reminded me of a cutting edge 1970s church.

I felt like the Upper Room had devolved into a group where most of the people knew each other and focused on each other with little or no concern for outsiders.  It had a family-like atmosphere that was not there years ago when it was in its heyday.  But family-like may be dysfunctional or it may be healthy.  I can't tell one way or another from an outsider's view.  I only know that visitors like church to be more about them, and this family-like atmosphere made me feel like I wasn't in the family.

Furthermore, in between songs, the music was interrupted by a message about church finances directed to the insiders.  As a first time visitor, I cared nothing for this and found myself thanking God that my daughter's boyfriend did not join us that day, because as a rare-church goer, if he hears anything about money, he will tune out the rest of the service.

To add to this feeling of being an outsider, there were no greeters at the door and nothing in the service that addressed visitors.  I left feeling like the Upper Room had become a group of insiders that were not interested in me or in anyone else who may visit.  This is an easy fix for any church - Get greeters at the door!

Upper Room had a lot going for them years ago.  They still have a lot going on for them, but can do a heck of a lot better.  They need to focus on those coming into the church.  Perhaps the leaders should should go on field trips, checking out other growing churches in the area to get good ideas from them.  I believe that Upper Room can make a big come back with a few small changes.

2015 - Because I came in late, I didn't get the greeters which would have been nice to help me find my way to the service.  It was no big deal at all, but would have been nice for us late comers.

THE MESSAGE

It seems that too few Evangelical churches have women who preach, so when I saw a woman pastor stand up to preach I was looking forward to hearing her.  But after the service, my daughter turned to me and said, "No offense, but what was she saying?  She seemed to be all over the place."  Unfortunately I couldn't answer her.  For a good 25 to 30 minutes the pastor rambled on about "the soul,"  quoting extensively from a couple of books she obviously liked a lot, but for us, the book's quotes made no sense and neither did her message.  She was "all over the place."

The pastor may have had a lot of interesting ideas, but they never came together very well.  All pastors and teachers need to spell out messages step by step and clearly.  They need to speak as if we (people in the seats) are needing things explained and simplified.

If I would be invited to sit down with the pastor to talk to her in person (its always easy to talk big when not face to face), I would give the following suggestions:
1.  Reflect about the message.  Was it just a random bad message.  Sometimes pastors have a message that goes bad.  I don't think this was the case however.  The message was too far gone.
2.  Find a class (better yet a string of classes) in a school somewhere to study how to preach.  The pastor had passion for her message, and that is a great foundation for any message.  A good class or two or three could help channel the passion in ways that the congregation can appreciate.
3.  Study past preachers and what made them work.
4.  Never quote more than a phrase or a sentence in a message.
5.  Never quote more than 2 or 3 quotes in a message.  People want to see and hear the pastor.  I wanted to hear what the pastor had to say, not some author I had no appreciation for.
6.  If you can't summarize an author in a way that we all understand, and if you can't make it your own and deliver it accordingly, then leave it out entirely.
7.  Build material on no more than 3 concepts.
8.  Focus on the audience and their needs.  I felt like this message had nothing to do with anybody.  I felt like it was trying to be philosophical and theological at the same time, but failed in both areas.
9.  Stay more with the Bible and less with this attempt at philosophy/theology.
10.  Find a team at church (without more than one "yes" person) that can critique each sermon in love and in support.  Create a panel of judges who will listen to the pastor and tell her what works and what doesn't.  Ideally, this team will hear the message before the final presentation.

2015 - The speaker was much better than last year's speaker.  He used the scripture well. If I had one thing to say, it would be a suggestion that more time would be used in preparation for the delivery of the message.  The speaker read most of his sermon from his notes on the podium.  It would have been nice if he could have broken away from the papers and freed himself up to get more animated - he could be a good preacher.

CONCLUSIONS

Even though I had quite a disappointing experience, my hope and prayer is that the Upper Room will rebound.  The Upper Room has the ingredients it needs to return bigger than ever and with all my heart I hope they will.

2015 - Judging from last night, I think the Upper Room is turning around and is growing.

Summary for them or any church lacking these things:
1. Get greeters at the door.
2. Brainstorm ideas about how to help new people find the upper parking lot.  One church that meets at Northwestern University has people lined along the roads that flag in the rest.  They dance and get real animated about their job as they direct people at every turn.
3. Focus more on non-Christians and outsiders coming to visit.
4. Make sure sermons are simple and to the point and get a team of judges.
5. Keep the music great.  Upper Room's band may the biggest part of what's holding people at the Upper Room.

2015 - Most of this was last year's thought, and there is a lot I don't know about the Upper Room.  Some of what I say may not hit the mark from others' points of view; but I would hope that like any great work, the leaders can examine and work on making a good work better.

Returning to Jesus

In many of our Christian walks, we fall away for one reason or another. 

There are different reasons and different ways we fall away. 

Some of us stop believing entirely, no longer holding on to the beliefs we once held dear.

Some of us just stop living the life of a Christian, not realizing that our faith is no longer being put into practice.

Some of us just stop living the life of a Christian, realizing that our faith is no longer being being put into practice.

SIGNS OF BACKSLIDING

1.  If you make excuses for bad behavior, for not going to church, and for not being a good Christian, chances are you have backslidden.
2.  If you find fault with the church and people in the church, and criticize them, chances are, you are backslidden.
3.  If Christians seem fake to you, and phony, like they are putting on an act, chances are you are backslidden.
4.  If you no longer read the Bible regularly, chances are you are backslidden.
5.  If you no longer pray regularly, chances are you are backsidden.
6.  If you start justifying friends who do bad things, chances are you are backslidden.
7.  If you justify or fall into sexual promiscuity, chances are you are backslidden.

HOW TO DEAL WITH BACKSLIDING

1.  Admit you have backslidden.
2.  Ask God to forgive you.
3.  Rededicate your life to Christ.

THE APOSTLE PETER

Peter was in a boat when Jesus called to him into ministry from the shores of Galilee.  Months later, after Peter denied Jesus and fell away from his faith, Jesus called him back into ministry - oddly enough, Peter Peter was again in a boat and Jesus again called him from the shores of Galilee.

The fact is, you need to return to that place when you were a good Christian; when you were at peace with God; when you felt His presence; and knew that your life was worth living.

God still loves you and He still has a plan for you.

Admit you have backslidden, ask God to forgive you, and rededicate your life to Him.

The Search for the Historical Jesus

Many of today's modern theologians are searching for the real Jesus.  They are looking for the Jesus who walked in Galilee and taught his disciples and the masses.  They want to know what he really taught and what he really did.  They believe that the early church created and embellished stories, turning a real man into a god-like prophet/messiah.

These theologians (the seekers in this game of hide-and-go-seek) are mostly White men.  Why that makes a difference, I don't know.  Neither do I know why it is mostly a White Man's obsession.  Nevertheless, they are looking for the real Jesus.

Jesus is hiding somewhere and they believe that with the right tools, they can strip away what the early church added (the Jesus of Faith) and find his hiding places, thus meeting the real Jesus - the Jesus of history.  Jesus is hiding under a pile of Early Christian fabrication and exaggeration called the New Testament writings and the Gospels.  But thanks to First and Second Century writings such as Josephus and the Book of Thomas, and thanks to modern scientific thinking and creativity, we are finding his hiding places by scaling back the layers of early Christian zeal and faith.

A common critique states that these men are only finding themselves in their search for Jesus and perhaps this is true to some extent; men like Morton Smith, who have concluded that Jesus was Gay was in fact himself gay.  So it is likely that many seekers are finding their own selves - reading themselves into their studies.  But I believe that many of these seekers are finding a Jesus who looks more like the areas of interest these seekers have.  Let me explain:

Some scholars (such as John Dominic Crossan or Burton Mack), for whatever reason, might focus his studies on Cynics in the ancient world.  They begin to see similarities between Jesus and the Cynics, so they pursue that direction more and more.  Our scholars look for all the similarities they can find, and in the end will be convinced that Jesus was a Jewish Cynic. Our scholars are not necessarily modern Cynics or Cynic wanna-bees.  But for some reason, our scholars stumbled upon or somehow were intrigued with the Cynics.  It may also be that our scholars had little or no fascination with the Cynics until one day, while reading about Jesus, it dawned on them that from time to time Jesus did things Cynical.  Our scholars then began to look for more evidence; and upon finding more, arm themselves with ways to disregard evidence to the contrary.  Before long our scholars become convinced that Jesus was a Jewish Cynic.

Other scholars have discovered other parallels with ancient groups or individuals.  And discovering those parallels, they become convinced that they have found the historical Jesus' true hiding place.  So one seeker discovers that Jesus was a healer, another that Jesus was a political zealot fighting Rome's domination, another discovers that Jesus was a wandering prophet, and so on.

The weird thing is this:  I believe by studying the past and by searching for the historical Jesus, our modern seekers are many times discovering, not so much the historical person of Jesus, but the historical expectations of the people of Jesus' day.  Our scholars are helping us to see what people in Jesus day expected to see in Jesus, because they too read into Jesus what they needed to see; what they wanted to see; or what they expected to see.  Their opinions and expectations were dictated by the world around them at the time.  And because our present day seekers study the times of Jesus to help discover the historical Jesus, they come closer to learning what people in Jesus' day expected to see in Jesus.

The people in Jesus' Day were seeking to know who this Jesus was and where his miracles came from.  The Gospels are filled with questions the First Century Jew asked such as, "Are you the Messiah?  Are you the Prophet?" and "Who is this man?"  The Synoptic Gospels highlight the discovery of the disciples in the middle of Jesus' ministry, "You are the Christ!"  But even though the disciples learned that Jesus was the Messiah, their understanding of the Messiah was not spot on.  In fact, it was considered demonic and serving the political needs of the people of Jesus day.

Like most in their world and like many modern day seekers, the disciples believed the Messiah was a political figure.  The Gospels are filled with people who had different questions and answers that reflected what people expected to see from Jesus, and because they (like the disciples themselves) read into Jesus what their times and desires held dear, they did not truly find who Jesus was.  They could only see in part.  Metaphorically, they were like the blind man who being healed by Jesus saw men like trees walking - their vision was blurred.

So I congratulate the modern seekers for coming closer to discovering and joining in the opinions of those who saw Jesus and who asked, "Who is this man?"  But to answer that question, they have failed.

How to Memorize the New Testament - Getting Sloppy

My memorizing journey started out with a bang and ended with a whimper.  I started memorizing every day of the week but went down to 5 days a week after a few months.  At the time I was in school and reading the Bible for devotions every day, but found the time for working on memorization 45 minutes a day.

During that 45 minutes I spent about 5 minutes memorizing one verse a day and 35 to 40 minutes in what I call recover study.  Recover study is going over 90 past memorized verses and refreshing myself so that I didn't forget what I already put to memory.  I explain this all in a video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJtG3nsjeWQ

Out of school I added to my Bible study.  I was teaching myself Biblical Hebrew, reading the Bible and reading books about the Bible - every day.  Years later, I cut down on memorizing to 4 days a week and then 3.  By the time I had 20 years in, I was burning out and felt like I needed to cut back on something.  I had memorized most of the New Testament books I wanted to and a few Psalms, so to keep my sanity, I quit memorizing but continued with all my other studies which at that time included preparing for sermons.

The memorizing helped me a lot through the years in my ministry.  I quoted verses in sermons, and also found that memorizing had helped me to remember and find passages I wanted to use in life and in sermons.

Ten years later I stepped out of being a pastor for a short time (it turned out to be much longer than I planned) and I taught in several local Christian universities.  But years without working on recovering scripture, while teaching in local universities, I began getting a bit sloppy in quoting the Bible.  When students asked questions about any topic, I had chapters and verses (in their own proper context) to help support whatever answer I gave (of course I only quoted a verse or two - not a whole chapter).  But those quotes began to get sloppy and I would forget what followed the verse I was quoting.  I found myself paraphrasing more and more and quoting word for word less and less.

That's what happens when you no longer keep up with what you memorized; when you no longer recover scripture put to memory.  And so after 10 more years of paraphrasing and being sloppy, I decided to go back to those books I had memorized, work through them again, get updated, memorize again if needed, test myself, push myself to be accurate word for word again.  I returned to my recovery process. 

LESSON LEARNED

Years ago, I pushed myself to memorize a good portion of the New Testament, and when I had enough, I quit.  For some reason, it didn't enter my mind until lately, that I didn't have to quit entirely.  At the time I quit I had a regimen of memorizing one verse a day which only took a few minutes.  However, it took me up to 40 minutes a day to cover past books I had already memorized, which meant working through and testing myself on 90 verses a day on verses I had put to memory.

For some reason it was all or nothing for me - it hadn't occurred to me that I could stop memorizing verses and cut recovery time in half or less.  It wouldn't be as good as a whole 40 minutes, but it would have helped a lot and helped me to quote better.

Memorizing the New Testament - Anyone Can Di It

If you are reading this, you have stumbled upon something you may be quite willing and more than capable to do.

FACE YOUR LIES

I am convinced that that more than anything else, what holds people back from taking on such a task are lies that say they can't for some reason or another.  And I am convinced the same lies fill many people who want to run 26 mile marathons but think they can't.  Here are some basic ones:
- I don't have the time.
- I am not smart enough.
- That's just too difficult.

The truth is, you do have enough time.
The truth is, you are probably more than smart enough.
The truth is, it is not as difficult as you think it is.
The truth is, you are selling yourself short.

MANURE

I think most of the excuses we use are designed to protect our habits, whether those habits are good or bad.  Think about it. 

A friend used to tell me, "I know that I am in 5 feet of manure and it stinks, but I don't want to get out of it  because it's warm."  The metaphorical manure piles we sit in are warm because we are creatures of habit, and we get used to the habits we make for ourselves - even the bad ones.

Moving out of manure is not easy.  We convince ourselves that we need and want the manure, and we think we are better off for it.

Think about the manure piles you have made for yourself - bitterness, overeating, love of money, lack of discipline, too much discipline, the desire to make everybody happy, being grumpy, feeling sorry for yourself, feeling better than others, getting attention from talking too much, getting attention from lashing out, turning inward, etc. and etc.

We build our piles and live in those piles.  We get used to our piles and feel most comfortable staying in those piles, even when those piles of manure are self-destructive.

The excuses you use to keep from reading the Bible, memorizing the Bible, and praying more regularly are simply protection of your warm manure pile.

GEAR UP FOR CHANGE

Stepping out of manure is cold at first.  You may have a moment of euphoria because you are clean for once, but believe me, you will feel cold and you will become tempted to return to the warmth of manure.

But in time you will be used to living a cleaner life.

Philosophy of Worship - Full Version

PHIOLOSOPHY OF WORSHIP

THE OBJECT OF WORSHIP

My body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water (Psalm 63:1).

The inner need to worship is found in every group, every culture and in every individual.  Everybody has a need to look beyond oneself, weather it is looking to humans, a group of people, or to deity/deities.  Christian worship helps direct that need to the proper place, to the one God who made us.  True worship is directed to Him and only Him.

The God who created us revealed Himself to us through the writings of the Old and New Testament and ultimately through His Son Jesus, who together with the Father and the Holy Spirit are the proper objects of our worship.

FORMS OF WORSHIP

God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth (John 4:2).

Although true worship is directed to the one God through His Son, worship takes on different forms for each individual, for each church, for each generation, and for each culture.  However diverse forms worship may take, the above mentioned scripture defines the universal elements of worship. 

THE TIMES OF WORSHIP

One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his/her own mind (Romans 14:5).

The Law of Moses set aside days or weeks for the Sabbath and for festivals.  During the Church’s 2,000 year history, some generations, groups or individuals focused on certain times to worship (in chapter 8:1-3, the Didache set aside 3 times a day for prayer and 2 days a week for fasting).   The New Testament, however, gives no preference for one day over the others, but rather suggests that each person walk according to his/her own convictions.

THE PLACES OF WORSHIP

…For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them (Matthew 18:20).

And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near (Hebrews 10:25).

Although we can worship God any time and in any place, individually and corporately, the Bible encourages regular corporate worship.  When Paul said you are the temple of the Holy Spirit, he did not say “you” as an individual are the temple, he said “you (plural)” are the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:16 & 2 Corinthians 6:16).

THE DISCIPLINES OF WORSHIP

We worship in many ways which include devotions, in prayer, fasting, preaching of sermons, sacraments, reading and in times set apart for God such as church attendance and involvement in church activities.

THE GENERATIONS OF WORSHIP

Then the people of Israel—the priests, the Levites and the rest of the exiles—celebrated the dedication of the house of God with joy (Ezra 6:16).

Tradition connects present and oncoming generations with generations of the past.  Tradition also connects us to our own past in that when we get older we like to connect to what we grew up in.  When young and old worked together on God’s house in the Book of Ezra, there was a division between generations, so that when work had begun on the temple, the older generation wept while the younger one celebrated (see chapter 3).  However, when the temple was finished, they all celebrated together.  As we worship and build the kingdom together, we find unity in worship.

THE QUALITY OF WORSHIP

When Moses was building the tabernacle, God chose certain people who were filled with the Spirit of God and with skill, with intelligence, with knowledge, and with all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs (Exodus 35:31).  God is still concerned about the craftsmanship, about excellence, and about the creative details of worship today. 

According to Pope John Paul II:

Today, as yesterday, musicians, composers, liturgical chapel cantors, church organists and instrumentalists must feel the necessity of serious and rigorous professional training. They should be especially conscious of the fact that each of their creations or interpretations cannot escape the requirement of being a work that is inspired, appropriate and attentive to aesthetic dignity, transformed into a prayer of worship when, in the course of the liturgy, it expresses the mystery of faith in sound.

(Hakim, Naji (2003). "Music in the Catholic liturgy in France at the end of the 20th century". Retrieved 2010-08-16)

THE RELEVANCE OF WORSHIP

21^st Century cultures are changing faster than at any other time in all of history.  Because we are facing such speed in change, the church cannot hold on tightly to what worked in the past.  For sure, we must learn from the past, build upon what the past has accomplished, and  use many of the tools past generations has given to us; but we must change with the times to remain effective servants to the present generation.  We are continuously moving into a new world and we must be able to adjust with the changes in our culture, or we will lose much of the next generation.

In this generation, media and technology has dominated our culture and changed the way we work, the way we play and the way we live.  It is no surprise that the churches that grow the most have learned how to use these tools for the glory of God.

Even though we must be relevant, we must also be careful about allowing the world to dictate too much of what worship should be.  We are to use the world's tools in godly ways, and not allow the world to dictate to us what worship can and should be.

THE SACRIFICE OF WORSHIP

Believers in the Old Testament offered sacrifices that were costly for most people of the day, giving from their flocks and from their crops.  Although they gave for different reasons (such as for sin, fellowship, thanksgiving, and tithing), there was one dynamic that was the same for every sacrifice.  Every sacrifice cost the giver something they needed connected to their survival.  Givers sacrificed for the work of God in their lives and in the lives of the worshiping community.

Sacrificing animals and crops is no longer a Biblical command, as Jesus has become our supreme sacrifice, but we still sacrifice financially by tithing according to the command of Jesus (Matthew 23:23).

THE CHALLENGES OF 21ST CENTURY WORSHIP

1. Remaining theologically sound while focusing on being relevant.
2. Bringing in past traditions and forms and staying relevant.
3. Connecting worship of the individual to the entire body of believers.  We are not simply a Church of individuals with each person individually worshiping God.  We are a body of believers connected in faith and in corporate worship. 
4. Using neglected forms of worship.  Many of the psalms praise God, and most churches focus every service around praise; but there are also psalms of lament, psalms of thanksgiving, and psalms of supplication.  The challenge today to find ways to include these other forms psalms into worship.
5. Not falling into the traps of the culture the 21^st Century American culture.  While much in our culture can be used for good and can be used for God’s glory in worship, there are some things that can hinder growth in our faith.  Some examples include our American individualism and “can do” spirit.  Although there is a lot of good in these cultural values, we must be careful to bring Christ and the Bible into these cultural principles and not let these values to become preeminent in our faith.
6. Teaching and experiencing the holiness and the fear of God. 

Memorizing the New Testament - Books not Verses

There really are two ways to memorize the Scripture of the Old and New Testaments. 

The most common way is to pick a verse and memorize it.  John 3:16 is probably the most popular.  After John 3:16, one memorizes another verse from another book, like Romans 3:10, then on to another.  Kids who go to Sunday School get a hand full of these.  Kids who are homeschooled or go to a private Christian schools generally get more. 

The second way to memorize, which I think is rare, is to memorize whole books of the Bible.  I prefer this for the reasons I am about to explain.

THE PROBLEM WITH MEMORIZING INDIVIDUAL VERSES - CREATING NEW CONTEXT

Scripture is meant to be memorized, studied and pulled apart in order to understand it better. Unfortuneately, memorizing key verses is not the best way to understand the Bible.  In fact, it can be misleading at times.

I know a preacher who decided to memorize thousands of individual verses, pulling them out of the nest of each book they lie.  In other words, he memorizes each verse without any concern for the rest of the book.  He assumes that each verse has its own message apart from the rest of its context.  Each verse for him stands alone. 

As a result of his style of memorizing, he is able to make individual verses fit into his teachings a whole lot easier than letting them remain within their original surroundings, and because his focus is the end times, he is able to fit hundreds and thousands of verses into his "end times" framework.  What he misses is that each verse he quotes belongs to a chapter which belongs to a book - all of which is called "context." 

One cannot truely understand a verse without understanding its context; and to pull a verse out of its context, which this preacher does (as so many other people do), is to strip it away from its moorings.  It fills the verse with other meaning it was never intended to have; and it strips the verse from meaning it had when the writer wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

People who memorize individual verses never intend to take them out of context.  Actually, they assume the context of the verse supports the modern meaning they give to it, but in reality that verse is forced to say what the person assumes it means.  Eventually that verse completely takes on the meaning the person has assigned to it.  And in time, as that person shares that verse from the pulpit, with others, or on TV, the verse begins to come alive in its new context, no longer just for the preacher/teacher, but now for a whole group of Christians.  No longer belonging to its original context, the verse now has found a new home in the context of some 21st Century issue or supporting some 21st Century doctrine, whether that issue or doctrine is good or bad. 

Among the classes I teach, one of my favorites is one that teaches students how to study the Bible.  In it we learn the importance of context, and we learn how to study each verse in relation to its context - its surrounding verses and its surrounding chapters.  Most students love the class, because they learn how to read and how to study the Bible. 

During the class each student chooses one small passage to study in context of its day and its context within the book it was written.  They study the grammar and the words within their passage.  At the end of the class, we get together and discuss what stood out in the class.  For many, they learn that their life time's favorite verses had a different meaning than they gave it until that class.  In other words, until that class, they read their own lives so much into the verses, that those verses took on a meaning they weren't designed to give. 

I think a lot of the students are as disappointed as they are excited.  Excited to learn the importance of context and grammar.  They are excited to learn new depths to the verses they loved so much, but disappointed because the meaning they gave to the verses meant a lot to them.
THE PROBLEM WITH MEMORIZING INDIVIDUAL VERSES - CREATING NEW HIERARCHY
As I mentioned above, the purpuse of memorizing individual verses is to support a theological / emotional doctrine or to support some arguement in some 21st Century issue.  But taking verses out of their nest and filling them with 21st Century meaning is not the only problem of memorizing individual verses.  By picking certain verses, one gives the chosen verses more imortance than other scripture.

Now at this point I do have to clarify - Jesus himself said there are weightier matters of the Law; so, yes, there are some issues that are more important in the Bible than others.  However, memorizing verses and not books focuses the importance on today's issues and on supporting today's group doctrines rather than the issues, problems and doctrines of the original writings.  And once again, I admit that the issues of the 1st Century were different than today's.  Sometimes this is okay, but sometimes we can neglect important issues because we are so wrapped up in our own group's focus of the day.

The weightier matters that Jesus spoke about in Matthew 23 are not the weightier matters of most of today's Christians.  Faith was important to Jesus, and it is important to us today, but Jesus also said justice and mercy were on top of the list of what is important, and those are poorly defined if not neglected today, just as they were in Jesus' day. 
In Jesus' day the religious focused on the details of tithing, keeping the Sabbath, keeping holy, and following the Law.  But Jesus saw that by focusing on those things (which Jesus admitted needed not to be neglected), they neglected even more important things. 

So there are some things in the Bible that are more important than others.  Choosing individual verses does not reflect the importance that the writers of the Bible chose; choosing individual verses reflects what is important to us.