Thinking About Metallica in Church and Other Things

I wrote a response to a piece in Perspective's Journal that was published a few issues ago. My essay, "The Liturgical Question of Metallica: A Response to Jason Lief's "Leave Metallica Alone!" is in this month's issue.

Tonight I'm going to hopefully finish my techno-pessimist essay on the smartphone that will be in next month's issue of The Cresset. I'll link to that when it's available.

It is nice to have some places to publish bits and pieces here and there especially after being at Calvin's Festival of Faith and Writing last weekend. It was great to see old professors and friends and to meet new friends. The festival was a huge gift for Susanna. She was involved in four different sessions, sold a bunch of books and moved lots of people with her workshops and readings. She inspired me. We are exhausted still from the event. Casper is getting over a cold, but Sus and I are both still feeling the goodness of a great weekend.

Also, Susanna has won another award! Her newest book, Entering the House of Awe was selected to with The Society of Midland Authors prize in poetry. If we can make it work out, she'll receive her award at a reception in Chicago on May 8. The challenge here is to see what a pregnant woman can't do.

While time at Calvin was excellent, stumbling upon William Baskinki and his disintegration loops yesterday is probably the best discovery I've made in a long while. Enjoy this please:

Eighth Day Farm's New Urban Location & Thanks

One of my glad joys is the privilege to serve on the board of directors for Eighth Day Farm. Last year the farm moved into a plot of land that used to be a preschool. That just over half an acre produced more food than the 3 acres of remote, rural land we farm. Based on that success, a developer of the Holland Town Center, a dying outlet strip mall, has worked together with us to expand into another urban location. After a great morning meeting with the board, I was inspired to finally drive out to the location and see the roughly 1.5 acres of parking lot that has been removed and the 'new' dirt that is being laid in.

It is mind blowing to imagine what this this land will look like in four to six months.

This place:

Will look like this place:

So yesterday morning I hosted the Eighth Day board for breakfast at the house. Jeff, good friend and our farmer, brought a large dish of steel cut oats with apples and walnuts. I threw together some quiches and made a pot of coffee. Susanna graciously set the table. If our aim is to help our community to redeem food from the ground to the table, I assumed it'd be good for the board to share more time around a table too.

I'd asked everyone to come prepared to share for 3-5 minutes about what is inspiring each of them respectively to give their time, energy and even financial resources to the farm. Each board member had differing stories, different details, different explanations, but each exuded a tangible sense of enthusiasm about what we are doing together. We watched a fantastic new video that has been produced to help get the word out (which I'll be posting here soon hopefully). It was an exciting morning, a morning to believe in spring, and new life, sunshine and plants.

Being involved in community development, organic food and just good old-fashioned neighborliness...this farm, these people...it all keeps me, the busy busy worship leader, somewhat sane, grounded (figuratively and literally), placed, and thankful.

I just came from brunch with renowned painter, Makoto Fujimura and a dozen or so Hope College students. Mako is presenting tomorrow in our chapel and doing a late afternoon lecture on what he calls "visual theology." The students asked questions that filled up almost two hours of discussion. At the end of our time together, looking around the table, Mako quoted Dana Gioia, former chairman of the NEA who often said in Mako's presence to any given group of people he was working with, there is enough creativity and energy in this room to change the world.

Driving home just now, I thought about how this describes much of my daily and weekly encounters with students, the ministry staff I serve with, the people I pray with, my good friends who are just now starting The School For Contemplatives in Action, and especially the board of directors who met here in my home yesterday. Thoughts like this along with the intoxicating weather outside, my baby boy sleeping upstairs (finally), and my pregnant professor-wife sitting over at the dining table grading papers make me a rich, happy man.


You have put gladness in my heart
   more than when their grain and wine abound. 
Psalm 4:7

Mysticism vis a vis Theology

Recently I posted a series of relatively benign political statements on facebook. I guess all the heat of the Michigan primary boiled something in me. I felt like I was going to pop, so I tried to offer a smattering of 10 political thoughts that could hopefully be so wide ranging that they would either stir up some conversation (perhaps something like, "Josh, what do you mean by ________") or so wide ranging that it wouldn't be easy for someone to just pin me down to one club or team or box or caricature.

Attempting a political statement that way in our day and age of internet and twitter vitriol seemed instinctual and not premeditated. Upon reflection I've realized that the wide range of political thoughts is a kind of dialectical polemic. This is the way I've learned to take my theology, so it's no surprise that my politics are eking their less than formed nature in a similar way.

A dialectic is a statement of point and counter point in a manner of a 'both/and' summation rather than an 'either/or' where two counter points either cancel one or the other or both points altogether. It is a way of looking at two sides of a coin rather than the yin and yang, yet it does lean toward more of an Eastern way of thinking rather than a Western set of rational categories. Christianity, after all, began in a Hebraic tradition before it was spread throughout Europe.

Right there we might begin to identify a dialectic: East vis a vis West. The way I identify Christianity as originally of the East might lead one to read me as saying, "East good. West bad." This would be the same confusion and error that is made when we pit faith against reason or religion against science or the imagination versus reason for that matter (Romanticism against the Rationalism).

It seems just as overly simplistic to pit Mysticism against Theology or contemplative prayer against doctrinal formation. I'm sad there continues to be so much baggage with what people call "religion." It is popular to say, I am spiritual but I'm not religious. Yet this is by definition misguided. Anthropologically speaking a human being is essentialy made up of cult and culture. 'Cult' is the ordering of our spiritual being. 'Culture' is the ordering of our physical being. Even atheism is cultic in its negative view. Hermits, likewise, are just as involved in a kind of culture as the most cosmopolitan. They just chose to order their earthly existence in solitude. So the most mystical of persons are also doing a kind of theology, it just may not be as defined as other theologically minded people would like.

I will say, however, that theologians of any era have always been in desperate need of prayer just like the rest of us. Orthodoxy, the pursuit of straight, true doctrine is also the pursuit of straight and true worship. Ortho, as in orthodontist or straight teeth, plus doxa, as in glory or worship. Theology and doxology must be married. 

I am currently on a journey that is leading me into a joyful discovery of what might be characterized as the mystery of God's presence as revealed through vigil and prayer. My life is being transformed. I admit on one hand, that my theological formation does at times act like a kind of doctrinal radar scanning for half truths and mistruths. Richard Rohr, for example, is a resource I've just barely begun to explore. So far he has been very helpful. In the video below I completely sympathize with his sentiment that all seminaries might better be transformed into places that teach pastors to pray. This new season includes a bit of grieving. Little of my training has taught me how to come to the well and drink. Further, the work culture of vocational ministry itself contains little guarantee that a pastor will have access to time and rhythms for prayer and meditation unless he or she goes to great lengths to create that time. So the likes of Richard Rohr or Parker Palmer or Thomas Merton are a healing balm.

However, appreciating the kind of stream of Christian spirituality that Richard Rohr champions does not necessitate the abandonment of doctrine. An author and teacher like Rohr seems to fall into the prophetic tradition that rails against empty tradition in search of the true, "you honor me with your lips, but your hearts are far from me." Such mystical portions of the church do avoid an overemphasis on naming God, "the one before whom our words recoil." Yet it is interesting that the Roman Catholic church has always sustained within its fellowship some of the breadth between the Franciscan and the Jesuit, between the contemplative and the scholastic. Can such mystical teaching lead to confusion and even heresy? Sure. You can find many examples of mystical transgressions throughout the history of the church.

Yet, there is also such a danger in merely toting the doctrinal line as it were. Theological correctness can lend itself to stagnant, institutionalized, the-form-of-without-the-substance-of religiosity. I did a little search last night of "richard rohr" and "heresy" and found stuff like this "appraising ministries" site. I don't have much of an appetite for watchdog 'ministries.' After all it is the King of England that carries the title of "defender of the faith." I don't want it. Yes we are admonished to test spirits and to not be led astray (1 John 4, Ephesians 4 etc.), yet I am leery of giving too much attention to people and ministries who feel their primary calling is to sniff out and root out false teaching. In my experience these people are more interested in their own power and their control. They lead us toward fear and panic when the grace of God in truth leads us to peace and charity, patience and surrender and trust.

While my theological training can function as a kind of radar, the greater benefit of it is how it has led me to this place of prayer and how it guides me in it. My two knowings of God are becoming one. They work together instead of against each other. The Trinitarian godhead is the One in whom my heart is found. Further, I don't know if my faith would still be intact if it weren't for the clarity of my doctrinal formation. Who knows how the Spirit works? I have watched friends lose their faith, distance themselves from the Church, stray into dark clouds of confusion and suffer tremendously. These words have been an anchor and a harbor:

I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
    the Maker of heaven and earth,
    and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord:

Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost,
    born of the virgin Mary,
    suffered under Pontius Pilate,
    was crucified, dead, and buried;

He descended into hell.

The third day He arose again from the dead;

He ascended into heaven,
    and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
    from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Ghost;
    the holy catholic church;
    the communion of saints;
    the forgiveness of sins;
    the resurrection of the body;
    and the life everlasting.

Amen.

Watch Richard Rohr on PBS. See more from Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly.

Derek Webb & Sandra McCracken At Hope College All Day, March 2

Announcement of visiting artists, Derek Webb and Sandra McCracken

March 2, 2012

Please join us as we welcome husband and wife Derek Webb and Sandra McCracken to Hope College. Derek and Sandra will appear in our:

10:30 AM worship service, Dimnent Chapel

3:00 PM Seminar/Discussion, Hemenway Auditorium, Martha Miller Center

8:00 PM performance, DeWitt Theater $5 student/$10 public. Doors open at 7:30pm. With special guest: Just Married of Grand Rapids.

 SEMINAR/DISCUSSION DESCRIPTION

"The Christian Artist Vocation: Worshipper or Activist? A Conversation With Husband & Wife, Derek Webb & Sandra McCracken"

An important question that might occur to a young Christian seeking to discern her calling as an artist is, “should my creative gifts be directed toward explicit Christian spirituality and worship (heaven) or toward a Christian perspective of how we shall live (earth)?”

Are these tensions between a heavenly or earthly focus arbitrary?

Are some artists explicitly called to emphasize on one rather than the other?

Should all artists stretch to incorporate both within the scope of their life’s work?
How have each of these two artists wrestled with these questions individually?

How have these artists wrestled with these questions as a married couple?

How have these artists wrestled with these questions as artistic collaborators?

Derek Webb has had a prolific career as a Christian artist whose music does not necessarily always address what might seem on the surface to be explicitly Christian topics. His solo work has been considered controversial in the way he has addressed topics of poverty, war, gender identity and government.

Sandra McCraken has also had a substantial music career starting as part of Indelible Grace, the worship ministry of Reformed University Fellowship at Belmont University. She has also released eight solo records along with two EPs with Derek.

While Sandra’s recordings as a singer/songwriter cover many topics, she has freely engaged corporate worship music as a genre. Conversely, Derek’s only explicitly worshipful offering of music is Feedback, nine instrumental songs responding to the Lord’s Prayer.  

"what would you tell someone who is just taking on the role of a worship leader in a church?"

A graduate from Hope College and the chapel worship team has written me a big, open-ended question that I figure is a good occasion for another post here. It's not that I believe I have the best or the final word on these things. I hope mostly this blog will stir up more conversation like it has in the past. Perhaps you are a Hope student who reads something here and you'd like a further conversation. I have a tab at Lemonjellos, our local corner coffee shop, and would be glad to buy you a cup and sit down to chat further.

This is what she sent my way:

I was also hoping get some insight from you on worship...I'm not really working underneath anyone because our church doesn't have a worship leader. Basically, I'm it. Period. My pastors are really good at giving me encouragement--right now they are all just so happy to have me because we haven't had someone in so long, but I'm finding that no one really knows how to give me constructive criticism or guide me in a musical sense because none of them are musical people....tough, right? I've definitely taken SO much from what I learned on worship team with you and the group, but I know there's a lot I don't know. For instance...what is your process for choosing songs/repeating songs? I'm in a weird position because I've been away for four years, so I'm not completely familiar with all the music [her church name here] does. I've introduced a small handful of new songs, but I know I need to take it slow...

HMmm...now that I'm finally writing you, I can't seem to think of questions....but maybe I should just ask, what would you tell someone who is just taking on the role of a worship leader in a church? And I was wondering if you could suggest some readings/books about worship, maybe the ones from your class?

Dear friend,

Some topics here: song selection, critical feedback, how to familiarize yourself with your congregation and serve them well...and book recommendations.

Let me begin with "what would you tell someone who is just taking on the role of a worship leader in a church?" Those other topics are good, but there are some fundamental basic ideas I work with that should be touched on first.

Back in college, John Willison, the worship leader at my church taught me the difference between:

• Song leader, aka a musician
• Worship leader, someone who is musically and spiritually capable of leading a group of people into the presence of God.
• Worship pastor, a worship leader who also has nurturing gifts with a long view of how to shepherd a congregation through music.

This can get tricky in regards to semantics because I always taught you and the rest of the students on the worship team that each one of you are called to be worship leaders with me. I don't want just good musicians who warm a drum throne or sound good on a mic. I want each member to participate in the discernment and the public presence of drawing people to God. A side benefit of this for a person like myself with limited musical abilities like is that when we get stuck creatively, we can always fall back to the long conversation of answering the question, "how can we best use these instruments to focus on God," or said differently "what does that guitar sound like when you worship through it?"

So now you are not just a member of the team. You are the point person introducing the songs, creating the liturgical flow. You are no doubt leading prayers and interacting with the pastoral leadership at some level to consider the scope of the worship services. Here is the semantic trouble: while I want the whole band to be filled with worship leaders, there are some people who have specific gifting in being able to lead the worship leaders: lead worship leaders, or further...the worship pastor.

I'm excited for you. You have the musical ability and the charisma no doubt to be a worship leader, but I read in your email a deeper question that leads to the question of what a worship pastor is. More on that in a bit.

As you wade deeper into this new, unexpected position of leadership, there will be many things that you don't quite know yet, both practical things and also instinctual things. All leaders feel a deep sense of inadequacy at the beginning, middle and endings of their tenure in any given place. I know this based on my own experiences and from watching others. There will always be more to know, better ways to serve people, more creative approaches, but ultimately we have to accept our limitations and just go to sleep at night.

Focus more now on finding some regular personal time to worship on your own. You are busy with other things too, so schedule in 30 min or an hour a day or every other day. Spend some time praying, time in the Scriptures and singing through songs. Sing, sing, sing. You are a very well trained musician. You have the skill. Now the goal is to nourish your personal worship space, your worship self. You knew who you were as a worshiper as part of our team, but do you know what you will sound like, feel like, think like...what presence you should project as the lead worship leader? This kind of leadership only comes from a secret place of solitude with the songs and silence. The more you nourish this place in your being, the more resilient you will be with challenges and the more focused you will be on learning what next is necessary.

I have a curriculum for Theology of Worship & Music, MIN 21, the course I teach. I can recommend some books to you , but in your development as a worship leader there is a curriculum of the Holy Spirit that only comes with time, love and patience.

Quick thoughts about:

Song selection: find some people you really trust who know the church well and brainstorm. Start making lists of possible songs that you know would easily serve the congregation well. Then add to that list a set of songs that really inspire you personally. Then spend as much time alone with the songs as possible before you lead them.  A good worship set should be focused on worship that will both truthfully (Biblically) form and also immediately serve the congregation. Being a worship pastor means you will grow in the ability to pick songs out of love for the people you are serving, loving them by aesthetically connecting with them but also loving them by making sure the music you serve up is worth singing.

While worship pastoral decisions are largely other focused on the congregation, you will also need to connect with a portion of the music. You need to do some music that makes sense to you creatively and spiritually. I lead songs that aren't my favorite. They are like my "yellow zone." I rarely do songs that I dislike ("red zone"). I'd say at least half of the services I plan are in my "green zone," stuff I connect to and enjoy. But I've been in this position for six years and the distance between my preferences and what connects with the college students has gotten smaller each year as I learn to love college students more and as I have shaped the sound (aka tricked them into liking what I like...joke).

Critical Feedback: very important. I wouldn't sweat the musical feedback right now as much as I'd focus on ministry feedback and surely your pastors have the intuition to help you know if your leadership is spiritually feeding the congregation. They are likely able to identify certain moments in the service, a transition, a prayer, a particular song...that can be improved upon. Try to find some people who love you but who will speak honestly about your leadership. My chapter in For the Beauty of The Church has some further thoughts on critical feedback. If you aren't interested in purchasing the book, I can send you a .pdf of the essay.

Getting familiar with the congregation: in order to know what songs and what aesthetic are best for a congregation, yes, you need to know your people. You can't fake this. So don't worry if you miss the mark for now. From what it sounds like everyone is just happy to have you. In a year or so that will wear off and people will start to get picky, but in a year you will know this church better.

Always place yourself in a learning/listening posture even with people your not ready to trust. Some of the best things I've learned come from people that I might not ever be able to consider a friend. I tend to go out of my way to listen to people who are different than me. I want to connect with those people too and especially. There are several songs I've picked up over the years that were chosen precisely because I knew I this other person would enjoy it. Even though I would never have picked such a song on my own, sometimes these are the very songs that really connect with the congregation. And when I can see my people worshiping, I learn to like the song. But of course I don't just pander and grab any song willy nilly. There is a set of criteria that I have internalized so deeply that it'd worthless for me to try and write out here when I can just recommend Constance Cherry's The Worship Architect. She includes, among other great material, a long list of evaluation questions for song selection.

A good book to start with for asking good questions: How Shall We Worship? Marva Dawn

For thinking about Biblical, Psalm oriented worship leading: Answering God Eugene Peterson

For theological, heart warming Christianity Augustine's Confessions...(seriously)

The best "how to" worship leadership manual The Art of Worship Greg Scheer (I don't like these kinds of books, but Greg's is thoughtful, experienced and gets to the point)

For thinking about worship language Worship Word Deb and Ron Rienstra

For deepening your understanding of the church calendar and an abundant source of material: The Worship Sourcebook Calvin Institute of Worship

A good website with lots of resources: http://cardiphonia.org/

Isaac Wardell has some good thoughts here: http://bifrostarts.com/curriculum/

You honor me by inviting me to spew out some thoughts, friend. I hope this is helpful. Please feel free to continue with any further questions.

Heschel on the Sabbath

The section below is very helpful and only from the beginning of the book. The question is how to live Sabbath everyday and pray without ceasing while still also protecting a single day.


From The Sabbath by Abraham Joshua Heschel pp. 1-2

When the Romans met the Jews and noticed their strict adherence to the law of abstaining from labor on the Sabbath, their only reaction was contempt. The Sabbath is a sign of Jewish indolence, was the opinion held by Juvenal, Seneca and others.

In defense of the Sabbath, Philo, the spokesman of the Greek-speaking Jews of Alexandria, says: "On this day we are commanded to abstain from all work, not because the law inculcates slackness....Its object is rather to give man relaxation from continuous and unending toil and by refreshing their bodies with a regularly calculated system of remissions to send them out renewed to their old activities. For a breathing spell enables not merely ordinary people but athletes also to collect their strength with a  stronger force behind them to undertake promptly and patiently each of the tasks set before them."

Here teh Sabbath is represented not in the spirit of the Bible but in the spirit of Aristotle. According to the Stagirite, "we need relaxation, because we cannot work continuously. Relaxation, then, is not an end"; it is "for the sake of activity," for the sake of gaining strength for new efforts. To the biblical mind, however, labor is the means toward and end, and the Sabbath as a day of rest, as a day of abstaining from toil, is not for the purpose of recovering from toil, is not for the purpose of recovering one's lost strength and becoming for the forthe-coming labor. The Sabbath is a day for the sake of life. Man is not a beast of burden, and the Sabbath is not for the purpose of enhancing the efficiency of his work. "Last in creation, first in intention," the Sabbath is "the end of the creation of heaven and earth."

The Sabbath is not for the sake of the weekdays; the weekdays are for the sake of Sabbath. It is not an interlude but the climax of living.

Great News: Psalm 126 From the Bifrost Arts!

Isaac Wardell has given us permission to include the new Bifrost tune, Psalm 126, on this year's annual chapel CD. I'm incredibly thankful since Bifrost won't be able to release the song themselves until next Fall. The agreement is to release our live version of the song on 'hard' disc only and not for download on the internet. CDs will be available for sale on Monday, March 12 right before Spring Break. Internet downloads will take a bit longer.

The circumstance of how we learned Psalm 126 makes a good story: Isaac called me the week before arriving at Calvin's Worship Symposium and said they were free on Friday...would I be free for breakfast or would I be interested in having them join us for chapel? I quickly put together a small choir, vibes, upright bass, fiddle to complement the Bifrost players. It was a setup very similar to what we did with Welcome Wagon last year. I had asked Isaac if we could do a standard hymn (we decided on Come Thou Fount) and if he could teach us a new song. It wasn't until Thursday, the day before chapel that Isaac was able to send me an mp3 of a demo of the song. I listened to it. Thought, nice song, but it was just two vocalists and a guitar. I had no idea how it would be arranged with this somewhat large ensemble. Rehearsal started at 7am Friday morning as always. Introductions were made and Isaac quickly pulled together the arrangement. It was exciting that the song went so well for the service itself. It is even more exciting that the live take was solid. And its more exciting that its such a great song that many people have asked about it since.

Over a dozen emails...what was that Psalm song? Where can I find it online? Who wrote it?

Well, the song is unavailable because its new.  And you should all check out greatcomfortrecords.com to check out Bifrost's previous recordings. We have several copies of "Come, O Spirit!" for sale at the Keppel House, $10.

In the past few years I've found myself picking songs I might never have considered four or five years ago. On one hand we have pushed into some more aggressive contemporary expressions (Philip Rice's Hallelujah and Your Love Never Fails last year, Furious and Search My Heart this year). As I stretch to understand more about the intensity of those kinds of songs, I find that we become more free to also push in other directions: adding the Gospel Choir to our regular worship, drawing upon the hymns even more intentionally, looking forward to our Monday contemplative "Be" chapels, and then there are these songs from the Welcome Wagon and now Bifrost. The area I want to continue to grow more in is global or non-western songs, but overall there is much joy in stretching the boundaries of the sound of our worship. I can't do this on my own. I'm not a good enough musician. It's people and friends and students who stretch us. Thanks again Isaac.

Another little crazy anecdote: we are focusing on the Psalter this semester in chapel and using it as an occasion to enter into the "school of prayer." So having a song written directly from the Psalms given to us with such little planning on my part...this is a sign of the Spirit's work. Then that morning in our staff prayer, Isaac joined us. We've been using Shane Claiborne's Common Prayer book and the reading for that morning was Psalm 126 too.

I'm looking forward to the CD release. Paul Chamness is finishing up the mixes as I write this and they sound better than ever. Matt Odmark will master the disc this week polishing the record up even further. Chris Cox has put together another smart, well-crafted CD design that includes some more images of Dimnent chapel.

With nine new recruits at the beginning of the year spread out between two bands, I didn't know what to expect from this year's recording. I had thought we might only attempt an EP, roughly 5 or six songs. Surprisingly, the disc will have 10 tracks if you include the doxology. I'll let the track list remain a surprise.

Online sales of the CD will be available through CD Baby, iTunes and hopecollegeworship.bandcamp.com