outside is better

Advent Voices: Jeffrey Rudy

Jeffrey Rudy is a Phd student focused on Wesley Studies. We run in the same network, but I don't think we have actually met, although just joined a small group with him!!  This Advent Jeffrey is going through Charles Wesley's Hymns for the nativity of our Lord This is a great collection of hymns and it would be good addition to your devotion time this month. Jeffrey is posting his thoughts on his blog Anglo-Methodist as well as at Levite Camp. 

The Throne Room or the Kingdom

Often I think about how the worship leader describes him or herself.  Even in the idea of resumes and job applications.  I remember reading one once where the leader in question noted the distinct ability to bring people to the throne of God quicker and better than others.....

There are several things troubling about that statement, but one has stuck out the most in the last few months.  What action are we doing in Christian worship that makes it distinct from any other religion?  Attributing qualities to God, or praising his character with our devoted actions?  These are elements of worship, but they are just that....elements.  Ultimately, the gathered qualities of worship are what make it Christian worship.  Yes-our worship is Triune and Yes-our worship is pointed towards the distinct eternal worldview of the Christian.  In the end, all worship is eschatological in nature (and yes, I know that I can get to the end of the world in two steps), and this is what makes it distinctly Christian.

In this manner, the throne room language becomes very important.  I say this because we shouldn't escape in worship.  Often we might hear something like this, "Just prepare yourself for worship in any way that is comfortable to you".  Somehow, in the last century, we have understood worship as an individual action.  But historically that wasn't the case.  Worship was seen as an earthly reality of the company of heaven.  When we want to "go to the throne room", we want worship to be a pragmatic event and take us out of this world.  We want to set boundaries on our home, sinful as it may be, and be taken out of it.

Instead, I want to challenge you to this.  Think of worship as the realization of the Kingdom of God on earth.  In worship, we grab hold of the reality that Christ gave us and we pull it down to earth.  We remember Revelation 21 when we find out that the home of God will be on the redeemed earth with His people.  Yes, worship is a beautiful vision of the Triune God. But worship is what also gives us the eyes to see the reality that He is in this world through the incarnation of Jesus Christ. In worship, through our devotion our tears are wiped away (Rev 7:17 and 21:4), and grace remakes us.

What is Contemporary?

On Twitter yesterday I posed the question “What is contemporary?” in reference to worship design.  That came from some thoughts I have had regarding one of the places I lead worship semi-regularly.

Hopefully, we are at the end of the worship wars.  My primary place of worship, Asbury Seminary, managed to traverse those times without to many casualties.  We are able to have really different services and have folks who have communally learned to worship in a variety of settings.

Most churches response to the issue was to create different services, or branch out to new congregations.  It is in these “new” services that I think the question is really relevant.  What makes worship “contemporary” in these congregations.  Most of the literature I have read mentions things such as “pop tunes”, highly syncopated rhythm, drums and guitars, etc....

But how do we just simple attach music styles to what is called “contemporary”?  I have said before if you use the term contemporary you aren’t.  We could use another buzzword “contextual”, but that would be falling into the same trap.  To whom is your service contemporary to? At a lecture at Asbury Seminary, N.T.Wright said we shouldn’t sing more than 1 song from a century in worship.  While I think that is taking it a little to far, he might be on to something.

In my twitter survey, a good friend responded with the idea that it might be a better idea to describe what isn’t contemporary?

So what would we say isn’t contemporary....and what is the regulations of the reality in which we use to define contemporary?

These are alot of questions, and they mean we take seriously that act of looking at our worshiping communities.  These are important steps to take in design, because we have to think outside of the songs we want to lead,sing, or shore up our sermon.  This is bigger than music.  What is our primary responsibility when Christians come to gather? 

No matter what-when designing worship we have to learn to ask questions and learn what questions others are asking.  Remember-this is bigger than us.

John Mark McMillan

I have previously decried the lack of artistry in blatant Christian music and worship artistry on the blog.  A few weeks ago, a friend and I listened to John Mark McMillan's record "The Medicine" in the car one night.  I have to eat my words now, because I went out and got the CD the next day.  I actually bought most of the catalog.  Wile the previous two records under his belt don't jive with me as much, The Medicine does.

Some people will recognize his name for the whole "sloppy wet kiss" controversy a few years ago and David Crowder's version of the song "How he loves us".  I wasn't really concerned with any of this, I just love the atmosphere and Southern Gothic feel to his music. 

Here is a studio version of the song "Skeleton Bones" off The Medicine

Action on the Tumblr--->

This last week I have had a singular focus of cleaning house and garage.  It has allowed me the ability to make use of the creative space I so decidedly wanted when we moved here.  The fruits are flowing, so in tribute there are some songs on the tumblr, including an outtake from my lent record that should be finished in a few days and Country cover song EP I recorded 4 years ago at the end of my bachelorhood.  So hit up the Tumblr, thats what the link on the side is for.

Brite Revolution

Besides my fascination with Audio Adrenaline's Bloom record, I have never really kept up with the Christian music scene.  I payed attention to some worship artists because of friends, but for the most part I was more interested in artistry than labels and youth group samplers.  There have been few constants thought, and it was usually Waterdeep and The Normals.  I always could get into them.

I received an email a few days ago telling me about Brite Revolution, a somewhat faith based website that is dedicated to bringing DRM free content to the subscriber.  For 5 bucks a month you get access to downloads and some other stuff.  To my enjoyment, Waterdeep and Andy Osenga (of The Normals) are both on the site. 

If you are interested in faith based music that is out of the box, but not weird, you can get a free month.  Check it out.

In the shuffle

I have blogged before about listening to music while doing various tasks, and one of my most missed features of my super old xanga blog was the currently listening, reading, or watching links.  I have been thinking about how to use my twitter feed better and I think one of my ideas is to use it to talk about what I am ingesting.  So follow me on twitter, and lets have this conversation.  My listening posts are titled "In the Shuffle", because my little purple guy is way to handy for listening on the go (and not having the temptation of time waste by using the laptop for a glorified music player).

Seminary homework and music are like pulled pork and coleslaw

I have to listen to music when I study.  I catch myself listening to the same thing for different subjects, and I have even posted about these habits in the past.  This semester I am taking my first Hebrew class and a pretty intensive exegesis class on the general epistles.  Both of these involve alot of language work and memorization, this means I will try to find either really complicated stuff to listen to or something very repetitive.  My usual go-to's are Radiohead and Wilco, although Low got some serious listen time last year and I figure that some new things might creep in.  I wrote my entire doctrine notebook to Godspeed You Black Emperor! and it seemed to be a good fit.  If you check out my last.fm widget on the side of the page you can see what is getting playtime.

So what do you listen to when you study?

The future of Christian Music

I was scanning through my feedreader today and came upon a great post from Collide Magazine, and found something that was really surprising. CCM, the giant of Christian Music publishing, is stopping their paper based magazine.  As an artist that pulled out of music altogether for several years, and is just now thinking about starting again, I find this really interesting.

The Collide article (written by Scott McClellan) is a response to this article in the last print issue of CCM. McClellan really offers some good thoughts into the original CCM article by Charlie Peacock.

The basic gist of the whole thing is the the contemporary Christian music machine was just a vehicle for business and to offer an alternative to mainstream rock acts.  Anyone remember those posters that had band comparison's  ie..."If you like Sepultura and Napalm Death check out Audio Adrenaline"?  The only "Christian" artists that I have continually liked have been The Normals and Waterdeep, both bands writing highly innovative music.  Their are a score of other bands that happen to be christian but don't actively pursue an evangelistic career (anything on Tooth and Nail/SolidState).

What I liked the most about McClellan's article was that the segmentation of Christian Music lead to a non-holistic experience.  Their almost seemed to be a checklist of what you could write songs about, and I remember this sort of frustration when I was playing CCMish music.

I really agree with what Peacock said, as an artist whose faith happens to be the primary influence this really speaks what some of us have been struggling with for years.  I actually feel like I picked a good time to start writing and playing music again.

 

What happens to them?

I was going through the Christian education section of the bookstore here on campus yesterday picking up a few books on youth ministry.  I flipped through them at lunch and noticed something that I have read in other books before, and that is you have to have a worshiping group of students for them to become disciples.  I agree with this, but I really don't know how to bring this into the youth that I have.

For example:  Last night they were playing hide and seek with the lights off on the 2nd floor (which they have complete use of, it is really nice).  They were wanting to use the stereo/pa I bought for a timer to know when they had to be hidden.  The song considerations brought up where "Enter Sandman", "Back in Black" and "Chocolate Rain"...I really didn't know what to think about the last one.  This is the same group where one of the kids lists his influences on myspace as "God the Father, Jesus, The Holy Spirit..." and then the rest are all of the members of AC/DC".

When I worked with college students we dealt with the problem of relevant worship music by creating our own.  It worked because most of these students had grown up around CCM worship and were just ready for something different.  It was usually good and we had a great experience doing it.

But these youth are different.  Only 2 of them have really grown up in church singing hymns, and none have ever been exposed to anything remotely like modern worship music, and when their mp3 players are full of really good metal and the complete history of the smashing pumpkins I really think they would laugh in the face of anything put out by Six Steps records.  I overheard two of them having a argument over the lyrical differences between "Let it Be" and the "White Album".

All this means I have no problem relating to them on a cultural level, but how I do I bring worship into the mix.  I am taking them to camp for the first time this summer so there will be some exposure there, but I want to get there feet wet before that.

I guess the thing that frustrates me the most is the cookie cutter worship music that seems so prevalent today.  Then you get the CCM machine behind it all and it really starts to get over-rated.  Last night I saw a flyer that looks like it was made in Microsoft Paint in 1997 advertising "The Latest Emerging Worship Songs in Your Church-featuring songs by Mercy Me"! 

Really, how bad has it gotten?  I guess that is my frustration with the American Protestant Church, that we have turned out faith into a marketable item, and it in turn really affects the way we do church. 

Sorry for the rant...