outside is better

Jeff Tweedy and Wilco on Colbert

And now the song

I don't think I need to talk about how much I dig Wilco.  I am staying away from all the banter regarding the election..but I will always campaign for Wilco.

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 Genre of Worship?

Music styles seem to be the churches favorite battlegrounds.  Today I spent around 30 minutes on Youtube watching various churches worship bands lead worship.  I am not surprised that they sound the same for the most part.  The elements seem to be this.

1.  Decent Singer, a crooner perhaps.
2.  Lead guitar player capable of pulling of various U2 licks
3.  Coldplay style drums

Now I know that some people really dig this style of music, my wife is one of them.  The worst thing that we can do is to be some sort of elitist hipster and turn away from worship just because of music styles.  WE CAN'T TURN AWAY FROM WORSHIPING, no matter how uncool it may seem.

With the last post (here) regarding the death of CCM magazines hard copy, it seems that there are issues regarding the genre of Christian music.  I think that in regard to worship, it is a deeper issue.  Even when I have gone to church at a "cool" location (such as Ecclesia in Houston), the music is fairly standard to what you see at most contemporary churches.

Some people's answers would be to encourage Christian artists that play in different styles to just come up with some worship songs and sing them in front of people.  But I think the act of worship leading is Holier than that.  Sure, it would be sweet to Jeff Tweedy come and sing "In Christ Alone" (I even posted about it here), but I don't think it would cut it.  Our worship leaders don't need to be aspiring Jesus rock stars either.  Last week at the local coffee shop, I saw a worship leader play a set of his tunes dressed like one of the Jonas Brothers.

Getting out of the genre of worship also means leaders being content to have a deep connection to a local congregation, not looking upon it as a jump start to a career.  The unique artistic role of the worship leader is usually neglected, because the worship leader is the only artist in residence at most churches.

So where is this going?  I am not sure, but I say lets start with the idea that worship is a holy act that requires Holy leader.  My worship Jedi master, JD lists the roles of a worship leader as 4 primary tasks

1. Theologian
2. Priest
3. Pastor
4. Prophet

More explanations in the next few days, but I think this places us at a good starting point. 
What do you think?

Any Wilco fan will love this one.  Uncle Tupelo's last song doing an encore with the bottle rockets playing "Gimme Three Steps".  This made pre-finals week so much better.  Check out the skinny, long-haired Jeff Tweedy

From Chaplaincy to Community...pt 1

Working at a small church has it's good points and it's hard (I didn't want to call them bad) points.  I think it is also easy for a seminary student to try to project many things upon the situation that would most likely end up hurting the church.  But here are some thoughts that have been running through my head lately.

I said something in class last year about the difference between chaplaincy and ministry, and I want to re-apply that inside the greater context of the local church.  This is also a response to how I used to think that church planting was the way to go for younger ministers.

I serve a great little church.  I work with the youth, teach the married sunday school class (called "the pairs and spare's), teach from the pulpit when needed, and serve in a variety of other tasks.  Theologically, I am not in the most comfortable place, but I realize that it is worth more for me to be serving than to be picky and not give help when it is so needed.  The congregation has been in existence for over 150 years, and has been in the same building since the early 1850's.  The longevity that is a part of the community is something that is very important to the people.

With this kind of history, I think it would be dangerous to come in and try to re-configure everything that is going on, but the need for change should still be recognized.  The hard part is finding the middle point between progressive church polity and where the congregation would feel comfortable.  The American ecclesiology that I think really makes the biggest difference is that practiced by more established pseudo-emerging congregations like Ecclesia in Houston and Solomons Porch in the Twin Cities 1.  But there is a huge difference between these "Hip" urban meccas and the small town central Kentucky community is which I serve.

There is also a huge age difference.  How can a minister in the early part of his adult life (let's say 25-35) find a common ground with a crowd that is retired and is generally content with how "safe" their church is?  By safe, I mean comfortable, and that is where the chaplaincy analogy comes into play.  For the most part, the minister/pastor is serving in a role that is focused more on the needs of the people, and being the primary evangelist than acting as the catalyst for leadership and kingdom growth.

How can a young minister come in and apply his/her seminary training using the praxis that is developing in relation to the 21st century and post-modernity and still be relevant to a congregation that remembers the Cuban Missile Crisis.  What relationship does this church have with it's greater community and how can the church begin to live a gosple life out amongst the people

So this is the beginning of the question.  I am excited about fleshing these things out here.  I do want to say that I am happy with where I am  and what I am doing, and I can see God in my Church.  I guess this is more of a theological springboard than a critique of my current situation.  I also don't think this is a time to analyze the validity of post-modernism and it's relation to ministry. 

________________
1.  Both of these being established worshiping bodies with a history of impact.  I picked these two in order to separate from the mass of "churches" that have a 2-3 year lifespan that never get into a regenerative state.

Radical Orthodoxy and book soundtracks

I just finished reading James K.A. Smith's "Introducing Radical Orthodoxy: Mapping a Post-Secular Theology", after about three months.  It was a great treatment of the affects that modernity have had on the Church and it gave a reformed perspective on the theological project known as "Radical Orthodoxy".

I'm not smart enough to try to give any sort of a book review so don't worry about that. I'll leave that to Alan.  But what I do want to talk about is the addition of a "soundtrack" for the book.  In the acknowledgments Smith thanks a friend for giving him 2 records, Radiohead's "Hail to the Thief" and Coldplay's "A rush of blood to the head".  So I read the last chapter while listening to "Hail to the the thief".  And I will tell you, it helped it make more sense.  The music fit the reading, but radiohead always helps me concentrate when reading heavy theology.

Donald Miller mention a music list in "Blue Like Jazz", and part of it was the best record of the last Decade "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" by Wilco.  I can't think of a better record to write too.  Actually, I can't think of anything that shouldn't be done to that record.

I really like this addition.  Music is such a part of our lives it is nice to almost match up what was being played while a book was worked on.  It's like food and wine. 

This makes me wish that more of my books mentioned if there was a music pairing, because the few examples I have found make sense.  My doctrine notebook in the fall was written to Godspeed You! Black Emperor.  Most of my IBS work on the Gospel of Mark was done while listening to Low.

I think I may start adding these to my blog posts at the least.  It is the one feature I miss from xanga.

So guys, any interesting music and reading pairs you have or know about?
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Listening to:  Low+the  Dirty Three, In the Fishtank series  7 (purchase on emusic).

Wilco Day

Today is Wilco Day.  Meredith and I are really excited to be going to Cincinnati to see Wilco and Low tonight.  We have really enjoyed "Sky Blue Sky" (the new wilco record) and I have been listening to Low almost non-stop for the last month.  It should be a fun time.  Tomorrow Meredith has something up her sleeve for my birthday, and I really want to get some use out of my new smoker this week.

My creation exercise has been interesting.  I have made something each day since starting and I am hoping to gather some more random crap for making collage.  I almost want to start working on my monks again and dropping them off around Lexington.

For those of you interested in my sermon from last weekend you can find it here.  I think I may start doing podcasts again, in conjunction with heavier posts.

Links for this week

You can preview the new Wilco record here.  If you don't know who Wilco is this is a great introduction.  The new record Sky Blue Sky comes out on May 15th.

A new way to kill time on the Internet if you are a Bible Geek...www.biblemap.org/.  Imagine matching the Bible with Google Maps.  Plus, an even geekier think, they use the ESV as the primary translation.  This little engine allows you to find locations in the scriptures using a google map interface. Sweet.

HT to Andrew Jones

my geek night

Tonight was a geek night. Asbury had a continuing education class called "Emergent Landscape", with featured speakers Steve Chalke and Brian McLaren.  While it has been a few years since I was really heavy to the "emergent church", it was great to hear from these two guys. Meredith and I went and I used my new microphone (more to come on that experience) to record the conversation.  That will go up in the next few days, although I don't know if there was some sort of policy regarding recording.

McLaren's works meant alot to me back when I thought I was the odd one having some of these thoughts. Generous Orthodoxy really showed me how I was not alone in thinking this way.

I compared the evening to the drive last year to see Wilco. You know, when you are really anticipating being allowed part in an experience that involves someone you really respect.  One of the things that I love about some of the more "Emerging" authors is their accessibility. I really respect the way that they want to put themselves out there, and allow people to interact with them.

I am really looking forward to the Lexington/Wilmore emergent co-hort meeting with Brian later next week.

What both of us really enjoyed was Steve.  While I had heard his name, I had never really done that much research into him, and I really dug what he said.  Meredith was really into what he had to say, and I look forward to tomorrow to hear him again.

In the next few days I will start posting these audio files.

So as this semester is winding down, I am already thinking about class in the spring.  I am taking a theology of song lyrics class.  I checked out the syllabus and am I kinda freaked out by how we are going to be sharing lyrics with each other and analyzing them for their theological content and application.

I haven't really written music in years. I have posted thoughts dealing with worship several times, the most notable being "worship.....or would jeff tweedy get a church job."  But over the last month or so I have started working on my first original music in around 5 years.  I am more interested in creating liturgical instrumental music, but I want to start writing lyrics again too.

So what I plan to do over break is look at my two favorite songwriters, Jeff Tweedy of Wilco fame (did you think I would post about music and talk about wilco), and Andrew Osenga formally of "The Normals" and now with Caedmon's Call.  I also really like Don and Lori from Waterdeep, but I don't dig their lyrics as much.  But I want to start looking at what makes their lyrics really jump out the most to me.

Over the next few days I will post my favorite music of the year....

I am really excited about this class.