Sunrise Over Superior by JU5T1N

For: Essentials Blue Online Worship History Course with Dan Wilt

I really resonate with beauty as our ever present reminder of God in the midst of day to day life. I find myself startled awake to the world around me when I pause long enough to take a deliberate look at the beauty surrounding me. The bleakness of the morning commute shattered by the beams of a beautiful sunrise.

Moments when the beauty breaks in and completely reframes how I see the world.

I see parallels between how I see beauty and how I walk with God. He breaks into my world and engages my heart, effectively resetting how I’m seeing the world and my place in it.

In both cases I desperately want to spend more of my life “awake” to the real world happening around me.

From a worship perspective, we sing a lot of songs about opening our eyes in the midst of darkness and having God change the way we see in the midst of praising Him. With lyrics like:

“You make everything glorious … What does that make me?” [1]

“You lift my head, and You steel my gaze. You cast out fear, and I’m moved to faith.” [2]

Songs like these move my heart and give me hope, so I try to bring them to our congregation in hopes that they might find similar encouragement in them.

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[1] David Crowder Band, “Everything Glorious”
[2] Jeremy Riddle “Surrendered in Praise”

After sliding through the second half of the Essentials*Blue module in May, I decided to retake E*B so that I could properly finish the class.

I’ve really enjoyed this class and have felt that it’s been tremendously helpful in my development as a worship leader. Becoming much more thoughtful and deliberate in my theology and how it impacts what I do as a worship leader. It’s definitely taken some effort … but it’s definitely been worthwhile.

Fizzling out for the final few weeks seemed like a pathetic way to finish the course. On top of that, I had been thinking that N.T.Wright’s “Simply Christian” deserved a lot more of my time to dig deeper. So it seemed like the only logical choice was to jump back in for the fall session of E*B and see what more God has for me in this.

For anybody actually reading this (I’m guessing *very* few…) feel free to leave comments. I’d love to hear what you think on all of this.

For: The Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Blue Online Worship History Course with Dan Wilt

Light at the End of the Tunnel by JU5T1N

When I think about what it means to be more “fully human”, I think about it in terms of coming into better understanding of what God intended when He made people and living in a way that more fully embraces that reality.

The topic of creativity hits very close to home for me. Professionally, I work in the realm of product design and I am a firm believer that *everyone* can (and should) be creative. As we are made in the image of the ultimate Creator, I think it is one of our primary callings for us to also create. While I know that I’m biased on this topic, I honestly think the ability to create and be creative in whatever area we are called to is critical to fulfilling the larger calling(s) God has placed on our lives. The world around us needs our creativity as we follow God into the challenges and opportunities surrounding us and come up with creative solutions for them. Sadly, I think this area has been woefully neglected and we desperately need to reclaim it.

I am challenged in the area of doing well at this whole “relationship” thing. I’m another introvert and it takes effort to step outside of that to make the choice to be an active part in the community around me. But I’m convinced that we are created to be together and that we’re actually *better* together. In the midst of struggling through the challenges community brings, we are also given the opportunity to find the strength and joy that comes from true community. Community helps us to find a bigger world beyond our self-absorption and become more like God as we learn to love and to give of ourselves.

On the topic of living as “just” beings, I come back to the idea that we are endeavoring to live in line with God’s original intent for mankind. He placed us in a position of authority and stewardship to rule over and care for the earth and everything in it. I think that mandate still holds. As we’re living in this present age, we’re working with God to make things right – seeking for His kingdom to come here on Earth as it is in Heaven.

I connected with Wright’s idea that we are made to be “intersection points” where Heaven and Earth come together. To me, for us to live more fully as spiritual beings means for us to come into a growing knowledge of God (in terms of depth and accuracy) and responding to that knowledge. Our response is both one of worship and adoration and also practically living out our lives in light of His larger story. That revelation changes us and how we choose to live out our lives in response to His love towards us.

For: The Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Blue Online Worship History Course with Dan Wilt

On Closer Inspection by JU5T1N

In reading through “Simply Christian”, I’ve found myself very engaged with what N.T. Wright has to say about the Christian faith. I’m simultaneously finding new clarity on theological issues that had previously been very fuzzy while also getting a glimpse of just how much I don’t know.

If I had to narrow it down to one single point, the part that has struck me the most in his discussion on the kingdom of God is looking at it in terms of the complete fulfillment of God’s promises and plans – He is coming to rescue and make things right. And more specifically, how this future Kingdom is brought into reality through Jesus.

Wright says that “the whole point of Jesus work was to bring heaven to earth and join them together forever, to bring God’s future into the present and make it stick there.”[1] Building on this is the startling statement that “those in whom the Spirit comes to dwell are to be people who live at the intersection between heaven and earth”[2] – we are called to continue Jesus’ ministry and be a part of bringing this Kingdom into the here and now.

These ideas tie directly with my understanding of the tension between the “now and not yet”, but I have never heard things distilled down so well and clear as N.T. Wright has done here.

In looking at the theological ideas Dan presented, I would loosely say that the idea of God as Savior (or the God who acts) is most critical for our current day and age. The main idea here is that God is deeply committed to interaction with mankind and that He is the one pursuing us (far in excess of any pursuing we are doing of Him).

The reason I think this is so important right now is that our culture seems to have fully embraced the idea that God is angry and removed from us (if He exists at all). Most people seem to have no framework to even consider the possibility that He is pursuing them with love. I think that if we can help people to see that reality, we can help them to open up to actually receiving His gift of salvation (and restored relationship with God).

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[1] N.T. Wright, “Simply Christian”, p102
[2] N.T. Wright, “Simply Christian”, p133

For: The Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Blue Online Worship History Course with Dan Wilt

Thirsty? by JU5T1N

In reading through Wright’s discussion on the four echoes, I connected most with the idea of beauty. As someone who enjoys photography, I have spent a lot of time out “looking” and in that process of looking, what I am really trying to do is to *see* better.

I am captured by the realization that I am surrounded by beauty at every moment of every day. To see it I simply need to learn to look. This past weekend I was out shooting pictures in an abandoned building. Even in the midst of profound decay, there are constant opportunities to create interesting and beautiful images.[1]

For me this is a constant process of trying to get a better glimpse of the Creator’s glory around me. As Wright said “What is the whole masterpiece like, and how can we hear the music in the way that it was intended?” [2]

I think this worldview carries over into my song selections as a worship leader. I sing a lot about God’s beauty and finding Him in the midst of the good and bad of everyday life. I think that’s good as far as it goes … but I’m also realizing that it doesn’t necessarily fit with what Dan called “Deliberate Theology”. [3] The challenge to me is in digging in deeper to refine the good bits of my theology while expanding it to include things that are currently missing or underrepresented.

[1] If you’re interested in seeing some of these images: http://bit.ly/rLezP
[2] N.T. Wright “Simply Christian” p.47
[3] Dan Wilt, “Essentials in Worship Theology: An Introduction”

For: The Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Green Online Worship History Course with Dan Wilt

Well I guess I haven’t done much posting for this second round of class. We just completed the Essentials*Green class and posted up the final projects.

I got ambitious with this project and decided I’d make a run at songwriting this time around. I’ve been wanting to start writing forever, but just never done it. This exercise was very educational … but pretty painful. It was fun to work on, but the process itself was massively frustrating to me. Seemed like I spent most of the time establishing what *not* to do again next time.

Anyway… here’s the link to the project page (with audio and chord chart):

A Heart That Sings

Originally I’d intended this song to go into video format with a spring photo project I’ve been working on. Unfortunately that was beyond my technical capabilities at the time. Here’s the photo slideshow (without music) to check out as well:

Transitioning Into Spring – Photo Slideshow

For: The Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Green Online Worship History Course with Dan Wilt

Week #2 Question: In what ways does your faith community currently embody the values of 1) Accessibility and 2) Cultural Relevance in your worship expressions? How are these values reflected in your own life as a leader?

To be effective in our church’s mission of reaching out to a hurting world, accessibility is a requirement to be able to share that message of hope

As a church, we try to drop unnecessary churchy jargon and make an effort to explain things in everyday language. That idea extends to worship. As a worship leader, the song catalog I work from is largely defined by what works congregationally. While there are exceptions, one primary criteria for selecting songs is making sure people can actually sing along with it. That means picking relatively simple and singable songs so that the congregation can engage with them as tools to enter into worship.

Cultural relevance is a lot harder for me to sort out. While we wrestle with the tension of balancing familiar songs with new ones to stay fresh, I can’t help but wonder if we’re actually staying relevant on a larger scale. Are we so locked within such a fixed musical style that we’re becoming more disconnected from culture? I’m not sure at this point, but this has gotten me thinking…

As a counterpoint to that comment on relevance, I read a fabulous piece on the value of music based on pianist Karl Paulnack’s address to incoming freshmen at the Boston Conservatory. While I disagree with his crediting the Greek for the power in music, I think he’s onto something profound.

“…being a musician isn’t about dispensing a product, like selling used Chevies. I’m not an entertainer; I’m a lot closer to a paramedic, a firefighter, a rescue worker. You’re here to become a sort of therapist for the human soul…”[1]

Music *is* relevant. Period. And worship is all the more so.

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[1] Karl Paulnack – Welcome Address to Freshmen at the Boston Conservatory (via http://stretta.blogspot.com/2009/03/why-music.html )

For: The Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Green Online Worship History Course with Dan Wilt

Week#1 Question: In what ways does your faith community currently embody the values of 1) Intimacy  2) Integrity in your worship expressions? How are these values reflected in your own life as a leader?

Our church community takes the idea living out these values pretty seriously. We regularly revisit these topics in worship training events and try to articulate these values why we value them. We encourage our team members to be serving the church in other avenues (outside of the worship teams) and any potential leaders to start serving by leading in smaller settings (like small groups). We really value having good music but more than that, we want to make sure we’re all living out these values ahead of simply being good musicians. I think Dan Wilt summed it up well with his comment that “our heart attitudes, on such a visible leadership platform, eventually influence every member of the congregation or group that we lead.”[1]

For me personally, John Wimber’s quote that “we value character above giftedness” fits pretty well [2]. I’m constantly seeking to grow and improve as a musician, but my real ability seems to be with connecting with people and helping them step into worship. It is hugely important to me to be able to actually lead the congregation into God’s presence in worship. *Far* ahead of any desire to rock out with a good band (as fun as that is…). My main vehicle for doing this is try to always be leading by example. I want to make sure that even in the midst of all the technical aspects of leading worship that I’m actually worshiping with my heart.

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[1] Dan Wilt, Inside Worship Magazine – Vol. 46, Feb 2002, p 7
[2] John Wimber, Inside Worship Magazine – Vol. 46, Feb 2002, p 7

For: The Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Red Online Worship History Course with Dan Wilt

My summary post for the Facebook discussion:

I continue to be intrigued by the possibilities and potential of these (largely) forgotten worship languages in the context of today’s church. We have a long and rich heritage that has contributed to bringing us where we are today. I think we are well served in looking to see what God might be saying to us through these traditions today.

In the arena of time, I see opportunity in finding fresh ways to incorporate the liturgical calendar into our lives and church activities. These various celebrations and events are already a part of our culture and provide an an open door for discussing deeper aspects of our faith.

For the application of corporate prayer, our church has been setting aside regular times to gather for prayer. These events have been very helpful in building unity and in helping us to learn to pray. Incorporating scripture has been a key element of that process as it gives us language to begin this dialogue with God.

In looking at symbolic actions, I see significant opportunity in area of teaching. Much of the meaning and value of these actions has been lost as they’ve become hollow traditions. If we can reconnect to their intended meaning we will begin to value them and subsequently be reconnected to their power as we enact them.

As musicians and artisans, we can go deeper as we become more intentional in using our craft to connect with the Holy. We can emphasize and grow in God’s message of rescue and redemption. And as we work collaboratively towards this goal, I think our impact will be multiplied.

God is opening my eyes and I am excited at the potential and the possibilities. These different languages of worship allow us new and fresh ways of growing in relationship with Him. Our challenge is with making the transition from intellectual exercise to real world actions that draw us into personal dialogue and interaction with Him.

Trying to consolidate my thoughts this much (324 words) was painful to say the least. It feels a little abrupt, but I think it captures the essence of what I pulled out of this class.

Overall, I have found this class to have been very educational and it has challenged me to do more digging in these areas. Even though it was mostly a high level survey of the topics, I realized that I knew almost nothing about them. The reading and discussion has helped fill in a lot of gaps for me. And given me a whole new round of questions…

I’m excited to see how we can dig into this and find real and relevant application for our particular church community.

For: The Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Red Online Worship History Course with Dan Wilt

I’m slowly plowing my way through the stack of reading for the E*R class and keep hitting upon a common theme. As I’m learning about the history surrounding these different forms of worship within the church, I’m struck by the realization that I really don’t know much of anything about these traditions. And I’m seeing that observation hold true for both the traditions I’ve embraced (like music / singing) and those that I’ve ignored and rejected (like the church calendar).

Over and over I’m seeing that as I learn more about the original rationale and heart behind a certain tradition, I’m seeing value in them in a way that I had not expected. There are still some practices and traditions that hold more (and less) appeal to me personally, but it’s been stretching for me to how people have expressed and cultivated their faith throughout history.

I think the challenge for us to take the time to learn about these various traditions so that we can effectively discern the heart of these symbolic actions. From there we can more effectively look at how we can potentially incorporate them into our modern faith experiences.

As someone noted in our FaceBook class discussion, it’s like we’re learning new languages. New ways of communicating and connecting with each other and with God. The potential here seems enormous, but learning these languages definitely requires an investment of time and effort on our part.

I continue to be intrigued by the idea of incorporating these traditions and practices into our services in new ways. As we all learn and think in different ways, I see tremendous potential in being able to provide our congregations with new tools and approaches that might help them better connect and engage with God. I’m not at all sure how this will look in practice … but the ideas are started to form and develop. I’m looking forward to our final class project as an opportunity to begin to flesh out these ideas and see where they might lead us.