the song of the first born

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: 'holy'days, Christian season, Christianity, Gospel, New Testament, cross, kingdom of God
• Date: Apr 12,2009

going guiltless

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: 'holy'days, Bible, Christian season, New Testament, culture, family, missional living, parenting, social justice
• Date: Jan 8,2009

Photo by hickory hardscrabble

I thought I’d wait until we had a little space from Christmas to re-post something here on the blog so your visceral reaction would not so closely connected to the present tense.

Just before Christmas, my friend Shaun Groves wrote a four-part series on the idea of “going giftless.” (And yes, I’m using the word “guiltless” in my blog title on purpose; a little turn of the phrase)

It’s challenging. You may not agree with everything in the series but I think it will be good for your soul to wrestle with this. Holly and I took a big step in this direction with our family this Christmas. I’ll tell you about that tomorrow…

Here is the series:

Going Giftless Part 1
Going Giftless Part 2
Going Giftless Part 3
Going Giftless Part 4

redeeming the liturgy intro

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: Christian season, church, liturgy, sacraments, sacred space, worship
• Date: Dec 21,2008

Liturgy.

What does that word conjure when you hear it? Dead ritualism? Lifeless forms of worship? The Catholic church?

For me, growing up in a church with a more revivalist tradition – hymns; choral music by a choir, soloist, or both; the reading of Scripture; the collection of offerings; a sermon; an invitation to respond to the sermon – liturgy was the weird thing that my mainline friends did across town. Not until recently have I begun to see liturgy in a different light.

Over the next week, I am going to do a three-part series on “redeeming” the liturgy. I think you will find that the idea of liturgy in the context of corporate worship could be a good thing for our souls on many levels. Here is how the series will break down:

Part 1: The Canterbury Trail
My journey towards being “liturgy-friendly

Part 2: A Liturgical Sojourn
A brief overview of liturgy in church history

Part 3: Attention to Redemption
A look at the how my church, The Journey, is “redeeming” the liturgy

Stay tuned…

[Photo by dheinen]

the 7

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: Christian season, Psalms, church, incarnational, music, pastoring, web, world issues, worship
• Date: May 16,2008

1. Very cool to see young pastors putting their ministry philosophy on paper – literally – for other young pastors to see. See the different incarnations of The Pulpit, The Table, and The Square: Joe Thorn, Steve McCoy, and Kevin Larson.

2. I found this very interesting. It comes via Alan Hirsch. It is a map from the World Values Survey that shows the levels of traditional and secular values in the major countries of the world. America isn’t as traditional as you might think. We better get ‘missional’ real quick…

3. Andy Farmer, pastor of discipleship and counseling at Covenant Fellowship Church, has put together a great document expressing important values to be affirmed by Christian artists. This would be a great framework for a covenant for a church’s worship ministry…

4. I’m a closet geek when it comes to the Internet, especially Web 2.0 stuff. I found this article intriguing regarding IP addresses – particularly the IPv4’s – and their “exhaustion.”

5. My love for the Christian year was peaked by this from T-Wax. I think you know what my answer would be…

6. Can a Christian sing the blues? I-Monk unpacks a very biblical concept that is resurfacing in the language of Christians.

7. This is almost three years old, but the Tall Skinny one linked to it recently and I thought it was an insightful blog entry on the debate about attractional/incarnational ministry.

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: 'holy'days, Christian season, Gospel, New Testament, art, examining
• Date: Mar 23,2008

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: 'holy'days, Christian season, Gospel, New Testament, art, examining
• Date: Mar 21,2008

baker’s worship tricks

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: Christian season, art, blogging, books, church, emerging church, media, music, photography, planning, prayer, sacred space, technology, video, worship
• Date: May 27,2007

If you’re a worship leader and you haven’t heard of Jonny Baker, let me introduce you. Worship world meet Jonny. Jonny meet the worship world…

Baker is a London postmodern; author of Alternative Worship – a great resource for holiday planning btw; director of independent record label, Proost; a member of Grace, an emerging church/alternative worship community; works for CMS helping reimagine church and mission; coordinator of worship at Greenbelt Arts Festival; and blogger. Whew! I can’t even keep my to do’s organized…

I keep up with Baker via his blog. And though his blog modus operandi is well, very postmodern in its approach and thus for some, probably a bit ambiguous, his Worship Tricks are worth the price of admission alone.

Baker’s Worship Tricks are creative ideas, video loops, pieces of liturgy etc that Baker has stumbled across that have been used or could be used in worship. As a side note, I’ve always thought the words ‘tricks’ seemed weird, but in a English sort of way, I’m giving some rope.

Baker has just started his third installment of his Worship Tricks series. His previous two, Series 1 and Series 2, each contain 100 ‘tricks.’

Below is Baker’s kickoff to Series 3 of Worship Tricks. It is a beautiful confession:

When our thoughtless criticism stifles the creativity of others,

Lord, have mercy.

Lord, have mercy

When we keep a tight hold on power and deny others the chance to participate.

Christ, have mercy.

Christ, have mercy.

When we prefer the safety of our holy huddle to the wideness of God’s world.

Christ, have mercy.

Christ, have mercy.

When we decline to take risks for fear that we might fail.

Lord, have mercy.

Lord, have mercy.

But when we praise the gifts of others,

share the power that we are given,

engage with communities beyond the boundaries of our comfort,

and risk everything we have for the sake of others,

then, God rejoices in us.

Almighty God,

who forgives all who truly repent,

Have mercy uponus,

pardon and deliverusfrom all our sins,

confirm and strengthenusis all goodness,

and keepusin life eternal,

through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

the 7

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: Bible, Christian season, Gospel, emerging church, music, quotes of note, songwriting, worship
• Date: Apr 29,2007

I know its been a while since The 7 has graced relevintage [at least a month]. I think I should make it a rule not to worry too much about The 7 around the Easter season. It’s just too busy with ministry.

With that said, things are settling down so its good time to get back in the swing of things. Instead of going back through the last month, I’m going to go a different direction for this edition of The 7. Each week I highlight seven blog entries that stood out from the past week in the blogosphere, particularly for those who are ministering to the ‘younger evangelicals.’ Want to know where the moniker ‘younger evangelicals’ comes from? None other than the late champion of worship Robert Webber who passed this week.

So in honor of Webber, this week’s The 7 will be seven quotes that epitomize the prophet we knew as Bob. Enjoy…

The 7

1. “Worship old and new recognizes theology as a discipline that reflects on its experience, particularly the experience of worship. From a theological point of view, worship constitutes the gospel in motion. Worship celebrates God’s great acts of salvation.”

-from Webber’s book Worship Old and New

2. “…if we are ‘doing truth’ in our worship, then worship will be making the church alive and full of hope because it is the place where the truth about the world is lived out. But if worship is not a thankful journey into God’s story, replaced, say, with a journey into self, then worship is killing Christianity because it is killing the truth.”

-from the article “Is Our Worship Killing Christianity in America?” from the November/December 2005 edition of Worship Leader magazine

3. “…evangelicals will do well to affirm a Christianity that has a deep kinship with the faith of the early church… For here is a faith that, like a tapestry, weaves everything in and out of the main thread – Christ… Here I believe is a faith for our time, a faith that finds in the ancient Christian tradition a power to speak to the postmodern world.”

-from Webber’s book Ancient-Future Faith

4. “I suggest that songs preoccupied with ‘I’ and ‘me’ be dropped… I also suggest that we drop the ‘Hurrah for Jesus’ songs. Worship is not a pep rally for God or to be likened to the enthusiasm we exhibit at a football game. Worship, of course, needs to be passionate, but passion without truth is empty even as truth without passion is dry.”

-from the article “Worship Discipleship” from the September/October 2004 edition of Worship Leader magazine

5. “There is no finer definition of worship than Te Deum [latin for "You are God].”

-from Webber’s book Planning Blended Worship

6. “Worship and spirituality are both situated in God’s story… Worship, instead of being God’s story sung, proclaimed, and enacted, has been grounded in the self – what I do for God. And spirituality, instead of being an embodiment of God’s story in all of life, has turned inward into the journey of self. Only the recovery of God’s story as the source of both worship and spirituality can correct the dangerous trend of self-focused worship and spirituality.”

-from the article “What We’ve Learned Along the Way” from the September 2005 edition of Reformed Worship magazine

7. “I am confident that God sustained me today but I’m also painfully aware that I am ‘terminal’ at some point, in the larger sense of the word, as we all are. Thanks be to God that Jesus Christ has conquered sin and death and we all face a great future.”

-from Webber’s last Ancient-Future Talk e-letter, February 2007

virtual memorial: robert webber 1933-2007

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: Christian season, church, emerging church, quotes of note, worship
• Date: Apr 28,2007

Many have expressed their gratitude to Dr. Robert Webber for his ministry to the body of Christ. As a worship pastor/leader, I would like to extend a tribute.

Webber [along with Dan Kimball] had a profound impact on my formation as a young, burgeoning worship pastor. I remember coming across one of his lesser known books, Evangelicals On the Canterbury Trail, in my previous church’s library and reading it cover to cover. That begin my journey through Webber’s other books, worship materials, and passion for evangelical reconciliation vis a vis The Chicago Call and The Call to an Ancient Evangelical Future. In fact, as I’ve mentioned before, the very name of this blog was inspired by Webber’s ‘ancient-future’ moniker.

IMHO, Webber was more than out on the front end, he was the front end of what is considered ‘emerging worship’ today. As a man in his second half of his life, he embraced the worship ‘future’ or better, the worship of the contextualized present, which was so encouraging to young worship leaders. And he took the worship ‘ancient’ beyond the 60’s Fanny Crosby era to a more robust Biblical and historical perspective, encouraging to all worship leaders.

You can’t read Kimball’s words in Emerging Worship on the revitalization of liturgy, Jewish traditions, Christian seasons, etc. without hearing Webber’s inflection. You can’t listen to hymns played by Seattle’s Mars Hill Church without hearing Webber’s ‘ancient-future’ philosophical influence. And you can’t read any book on the emerging church without hearing the echoes from the words of Webber’s The Younger Evangelicals.

Read more tributes:

David Fitch: I have learned that in times of death, that there are two extreme ways to die in our society. One extreme way is to die technologized, put out of our misery, where we expire in the company of machines. The other extreme is to put suffering and death into the context of the whole story of our lives and what God has done in and through us, so that the meaning of suffering and death takes on a quality of holy struggle in witness to the ultimate victory of Christ over sin and death. Here, all the time is redeemed. Here, love, reconciliation, and appreciation are shared in a community. Suffering is borne with grace as somehow these sufferings take on the very task of entering Christ’s sufferings for our salvation. Tragically many in our world die close to the first extreme. Rarely do we see alot of saints die in the second extreme. Bob Webber, and Joanne his wife and partner, showed us how to walk faithfully in this second way. For this I thank God. [Read entire tribute here]

Dan Kimball: Death is a weird thing – as I sit here and type and ponder the news of his death. One day we all shall be in our Maker’s presence. I hope when I am old, or whenever it is that is God’s timing for me, that I will end serving well and faithfully as Bob did. We are here for a short time, although it sometimes feel long, but it is short and we each have a mission and task that we are assigned with in this life. [Read entire tribute here]

Andrew Jones: Bob has done an incredible amount of good in bringing people together and educating the church. He was the guy behind the Chicago Declaration and more recently, I signed Bob’s ecumenical document when he sent it to us. What a remarkable contribution to the family of Christ! [Read entire tribute here]

Michael Spencer: The tireless reclaimer of the Great Tradition and the man who gave post-evangelicalism meaning for thousands of us, is gone to be with the Lord. He passed Friday after a recent serious illness… God give his rest to the soul of Professor Robert Webber, now with the gathered children of light. [Read entire tribute here]

Doug Pagitt: We love you, Bob. Go in the peace and joy of the Lord. Prayers and blessing be with Joanne and the entire family. [Read entire tribute here]

it’s a wonderful movie

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: Christian season, movies, television
• Date: Jan 8,2007

It’s post-Christmas but I thought I’d second Terry Mattingly on his take on It’s a Wonderful Life from his blog, Get Religion, this week.

…this is a movie that actually takes faith and religious symbolism seriously. It’s true that the American Film Institute named Capra’s flick the most inspiring motion picture ever made. But it is also one of the most important Christmas, and thus Christian, movies ever made. There is more to Christmas than parties and the mall, and this is a fact often missing from Christmas media, news and otherwise.

Every Christmas, my wife and I make it tradition to watch this movie. Some summer sausage, cheeses, wassail, and a box of Kleenex. It is hands down the best movie ever made. Ever.

I’ve used this phrase before, but this movie, like many things in life, holds up the mirror to all of us-if we let it. It shows us how selfish and insular we can be when things are bad and how the most important things in life-faith, hope, love, family-are the very things that give ‘bad’ things their true perspective.

In other words, no matter how bad things may be, God’s goodness is always bigger. Always.