Thanks for all the kind words this weekend as we traveled to my grandfather's funeral. It was great to see family amidst the sad day.
Lent starts today and I am oddly caught out of whack. I guess I will blog more about Lent in the next few days. If you are looking for my thoughts on Lent over the last few years check out this link.
Last week I started making videos talking about Eschatology. Here is the first one. You can subscribe to the Youtube channel for updates.
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Over the last few weeks I have been remembering how important a visual culture of worship used to be for me. My long time readers will remember the various strains of visual worship and creativity in worship that used to be really important to me. Last week while I was in NYC I bought a magazine that I haven't for years and remembered how I use to seriously eat art up.
I don't think I ever quit thinking this was important, but since I was no longer connected to a worshipping community that had a serious commitment to it, it fell by the wayside. As I think about next steps as well as designing worship in new and different ways I have come back to some of my older thoughts.
My bud Drew Causey has turned me onto Scott Erickson, and his blog on creating a visual culture. Scott is the artist in residence at Ecclesia Houston, a church I have visited before and really enjoyed. His blog is a great place to spend some time reading on how visual elements act in worship.
Years ago (2005-2006), when I first started thinking about worship seriously, I was responsible for designing a communion service at the college ministry I worked at. While I would do things very different now (mainly theologically), it was a good example of how visual elements were used to create a non traditional space for worship. I had to plump the bottom of the depths of the internet to find the video, but here it is....
How do you think your worship communities would respond to a more intentional visual element? This community was very visual and very artistic, so this service was not a great stretch. When doing (and especially introducing) things like this, it is important to remember the contextual place of the element and community. That is probably the most important issue of all. It isn't our job to be creative just because we can, but because it leads people to the Triune God in greater ways.
How are visuals used currently in your services, and how would you like them to be used?
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I know I have posted this clip before, but it does such a good job of storytelling. This ill-informed group of kids attempt to tell "their" story every night, so the young ones won't forget who they are and where they came from. It is full of interpretation and prophecy, and it has a liturgical element to it.
I was spending time yesterday in the Book of Common Prayer and Psalm 78 was one of the readings. It made this clip jump out at me again and I wanted to share it. The psalmist understands the necessity of retelling, and so should we.
When we (the church) forgets who we are, we start scrambling. Just start telling the story again....
1 O my people, hear my teaching;
listen to the words of my mouth.
2 I will open my mouth in parables,
I will utter hidden things, things from of old-
3 what we have heard and known,
what our fathers have told us.
4 We will not hide them from their children;
we will tell the next generation
the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD,
his power, and the wonders he has done.
5 He decreed statutes for Jacob
and established the law in Israel,
which he commanded our forefathers
to teach their children,
6 so the next generation would know them,
even the children yet to be born,
and they in turn would tell their children.
7 Then they would put their trust in God
and would not forget his deeds
but would keep his commands.
8 They would not be like their forefathers—
a stubborn and rebellious generation,
whose hearts were not loyal to God,
whose spirits were not faithful to him.
9 The men of Ephraim, though armed with bows,
turned back on the day of battle;
10 they did not keep God's covenant
and refused to live by his law.
11 They forgot what he had done,
the wonders he had shown them.
12 He did miracles in the sight of their fathers
in the land of Egypt, in the region of Zoan.
13 He divided the sea and led them through;
he made the water stand firm like a wall.
14 He guided them with the cloud by day
and with light from the fire all night.
15 He split the rocks in the desert
and gave them water as abundant as the seas;
16 he brought streams out of a rocky crag
and made water flow down like rivers.
17 But they continued to sin against him,
rebelling in the desert against the Most High.
18 They willfully put God to the test
by demanding the food they craved.
19 They spoke against God, saying,
"Can God spread a table in the desert?
20 When he struck the rock, water gushed out,
and streams flowed abundantly.
But can he also give us food?
Can he supply meat for his people?"
21 When the LORD heard them, he was very angry;
his fire broke out against Jacob,
and his wrath rose against Israel,
22 for they did not believe in God
or trust in his deliverance.
23 Yet he gave a command to the skies above
and opened the doors of the heavens;
24 he rained down manna for the people to eat,
he gave them the grain of heaven.
25 Men ate the bread of angels;
he sent them all the food they could eat.
26 He let loose the east wind from the heavens
and led forth the south wind by his power.
27 He rained meat down on them like dust,
flying birds like sand on the seashore.
28 He made them come down inside their camp,
all around their tents.
29 They ate till they had more than enough,
for he had given them what they craved.
30 But before they turned from the food they craved,
even while it was still in their mouths,
31 God's anger rose against them;
he put to death the sturdiest among them,
cutting down the young men of Israel.
32 In spite of all this, they kept on sinning;
in spite of his wonders, they did not believe.
33 So he ended their days in futility
and their years in terror.
34 Whenever God slew them, they would seek him;
they eagerly turned to him again.
35 They remembered that God was their Rock,
that God Most High was their Redeemer.
36 But then they would flatter him with their mouths,
lying to him with their tongues;
37 their hearts were not loyal to him,
they were not faithful to his covenant.
38 Yet he was merciful;
he forgave their iniquities
and did not destroy them.
Time after time he restrained his anger
and did not stir up his full wrath.
39 He remembered that they were but flesh,
a passing breeze that does not return.
40 How often they rebelled against him in the desert
and grieved him in the wasteland!
41 Again and again they put God to the test;
they vexed the Holy One of Israel.
42 They did not remember his power—
the day he redeemed them from the oppressor,
43 the day he displayed his miraculous signs in Egypt,
his wonders in the region of Zoan.
44 He turned their rivers to blood;
they could not drink from their streams.
45 He sent swarms of flies that devoured them,
and frogs that devastated them.
46 He gave their crops to the grasshopper,
their produce to the locust.
47 He destroyed their vines with hail
and their sycamore-figs with sleet.
48 He gave over their cattle to the hail,
their livestock to bolts of lightning.
49 He unleashed against them his hot anger,
his wrath, indignation and hostility—
a band of destroying angels.
50 He prepared a path for his anger;
he did not spare them from death
but gave them over to the plague.
51 He struck down all the firstborn of Egypt,
the firstfruits of manhood in the tents of Ham.
52 But he brought his people out like a flock;
he led them like sheep through the desert.
53 He guided them safely, so they were unafraid;
but the sea engulfed their enemies.
54 Thus he brought them to the border of his holy land,
to the hill country his right hand had taken.
55 He drove out nations before them
and allotted their lands to them as an inheritance;
he settled the tribes of Israel in their homes.
56 But they put God to the test
and rebelled against the Most High;
they did not keep his statutes.
57 Like their fathers they were disloyal and faithless,
as unreliable as a faulty bow.
58 They angered him with their high places;
they aroused his jealousy with their idols.
59 When God heard them, he was very angry;
he rejected Israel completely.
60 He abandoned the tabernacle of Shiloh,
the tent he had set up among men.
61 He sent the ark of his might into captivity,
his splendor into the hands of the enemy.
62 He gave his people over to the sword;
he was very angry with his inheritance.
63 Fire consumed their young men,
and their maidens had no wedding songs;
64 their priests were put to the sword,
and their widows could not weep.
65 Then the Lord awoke as from sleep,
as a man wakes from the stupor of wine.
66 He beat back his enemies;
he put them to everlasting shame.
67 Then he rejected the tents of Joseph,
he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim;
68 but he chose the tribe of Judah,
Mount Zion, which he loved.
69 He built his sanctuary like the heights,
like the earth that he established forever.
70 He chose David his servant
and took him from the sheep pens;
71 from tending the sheep he brought him
to be the shepherd of his people Jacob,
of Israel his inheritance.
72 And David shepherded them with integrity of heart;
with skillful hands he led them.
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I know that this video has been rolling over the internet the last few weeks, and I have had my share of laughs at it. Before we dive in, check it out.
We have had some laughs about it over at JD's blog too. I think doug is responsible for posting the video, you can read his story here. Boing Boing linked it, and has now posted another link to download the entire record.
So now you have a full list of links to check out and see what the fervor is surrounding this. Now I want to offer my take on the whole phenomenon.
I am pretty sure we all have things we regret from the 80's, heck I had lines shaved in my head like Vanilla Ice. When I watch this video with friends, we are actually amazed at the chops Sonseed has.
But that is not what people are fascinated with. People love this video because it is oddly addictive and because it is horrible. But I think it is portraying a accurate picture of what many Christian artists are trying to work through. I guess the title of this post is decieving, because we aren't talking about worship per se, but the issue of the Christian Artist, more specifically the musician.
Christian music is notoriosly bad, and I have never been able to listen to it. At times it has played on the "cheese" factor (think Audio A's Big House) or it has been way to self reflective. I have had bands that are somewhat mainstream that I have enjoyed, and Christian metal,hardcore, whatever you want to call it fares pretty well with their secular counterparts. Besides that, I usually roll my eyes at most Christian music, and I wish I didn't.
So how does the Christian artist get out of the cookie-cutter idea of what Christian music is? Do they stop calling themselves "Christian" and attempt to go into the secular industry (like Sufjan)? I think that builds up this idea of dualism that is just dangerous, because we can't live in an idea of a sacred/secular split. It fails to give God control over everything, and we admit that their is a sector of life that he has no control over.
As long as Christian music is industry driven, not artist, we will continue to make music that non-Christians don't want to listen too...and isn't that against the purpose that many artists "evangelize" through their music? This is a bigger issue than just music, because it most of the protestant church any artist thinking to far outside of the box is labeled as dangerous.
But this does affect our worship, because expression of God towards him is a current that should run deep in Christianity. We have to find new ways to express the classic message of 'Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again'.
I have been wrestling over how to express faith through music in manners that doesn't seem to either be so overt it is corny, or so introspective that it is bullshit. If we are truly going to make "Christian" music for God's purposes and not just to ghettoize the church even more, we have to think about these things.
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To make ends meet I masquerade as many things at Asbury. One of them is a graphic designer. I have churned out a few things that I like, but for the most part it is me just trying to get stuff done. Over the last couple of months I have been busy learning motion/animation software. This little video is some various motion clips from a loop that what used at a benefit concert for Darfur here in Wilmore.
The audio is something I just slapped on there that I did a few years ago, because it was too boring with nothing behind it. The entire loop was silent, so I felt the need to spice this little clip up for the internet.
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I have spent the last few days holed up in my office finishing some media work. It has had me thinking about something. A friend of mine and I have mentioned trying to write an article about the use of technology in worship and some ideas came a few days ago.
I also had read an article about late 4th century baptismal practices in Jerusalem (can you get more geeky than that?), and I think I have found a point where they converge. Reading the baptism article, I was thinking about how these practices remained secret even after Constantine made Christianity the legal religion. There are alot of myths involving what happened when Constantine did this, but lets just think about how the church now had some imperial money to play with, especially the church (not a church, but the church) in Jerusalem. Part of their structure still exists in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Inside of the baptismal room (no longer existing), was a tremendous amount of imagery, and they also took advantage at the fact that they were located at the place of crucifixion and burial of Christ.
The only thing that had really changed for the church at this point was the ability to practice their religon in the open and in more permanent places. In our words, lets just say the Church got some bling. While everything was heavily ornamented, it all had purpose, and those being baptized had been educated to be aware of the imagery.
So what if us, in the 21st century, used our technology to transmit images that would be in the minds of the worshippers, aiding them in their worship, and not serving as decoration or backgrounds for song lyrics. How can we invoke worship with images, and communicate that this is not "idolatry", but then again, we never really hear that word today anyway...
The church in this article played with senses, realizing that they were an important part of the experience of being baptised, and made sure to take advantage of every option to make sure the person knew this would be a night remembered forever. In fact, unless you were a deacon or deaconess assisting in the service, your own baptism was the only one you ever saw!
I wish I could find a copy of this article online, but I can't. I really think that they are some important thought in it regarding how we use technology in worship. Theirs was mosaic and a gigantic heated pool, ours is a powerful projector and motion software, but both have their rightful place in worship. So how do we separate un-necessary show from technology that actually leads people in worship? How do the technicians not take advantage of the tools in front of them to influence the act of worship (believe me, they do)? I think putting these two together really is moving this article to be seen in a good direction.
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At Asbury we do a Reader for Fall and Spring. It is put together by a team of students and since I have been here we have also been doing stuff online. These last two readers have had wonderful design done by Teresa VanderMolen here at the school. She was kind enough to give me her images for the cover to play with and make some promo's. The school just bought me a new system and I have been learning Motion and this is what came out today.
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I know that I said I wouldn't blog this week, but I really wanted to get the video up and talk about a few things.
I really have been praying through luke 8 this week, and learning about patience and devotion. The really seem to go hand in hand with the pursuit of holiness. I am really more interested in the sort of embodied holiness that we see in people like John and Charles Wesley, Mother Theresa and some monastic fathers. I really think there is an element of concentration and contemplation involved.
That is just where I am at right now. No deep thoughts about it, but I am in the middle of it right now.
Well here is a meditation piece made for chapel at Asbury...We run it before chapel, probably off and on for the rest of Kingdomtide. It is the start of some digital narration that I am working on and how that fits into the idea of liturgy. Enjoy
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I spent this week finishing up some summer projects and getting into gear for the next semester. It was odd having to read for class again after three months. I have officially switched over to the Academic track of the Mdiv at Asbury for various reasons.
One of the things I did this week was to get some video's ready for New Student Orientation.
I also found this tidbit from my past. It was the first piece I ever did thinking I would make video's for worship use. It was my attempt to make what I call a "Youth Group" video. So for a blast from the past you can enjoy it.
I think this is even pre final cut pro.
On a different note. I now have a tent set up in the second floor of my house. More on that to come.
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I found a few of these floating around youtube.com this week. I think that they are two really good explanation's of web 2.0. The first is a more "classroom" idea, and I think that the second one really speaks out to the artistic quality that technology has allowed more people to connect with. But mainly, it just looks really cool.
These are great tools if you are still trying to think out what exactly web 2.0 means.
I really think that harnessing the power of these sort of apps, even if you are a late-comer to them, can really impact ministry and just general community.
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