Today in Worship - Shai Linne's "The Glory of God (Not to Us)"

I need to start sharing some interesting things going on in worship - both in our Sunday morning services and in our community group.  Some amazing things are happening!

Our church tries to embody blended worship in a really unique way that touches both our reformed heritage and the urban/arts district in which we worship (and many of us live).  The liturgy does not shy away from some daring combinations of ancient and modern, and the results are sometimes uncomfortable but always challenging and edifying.

One thing that I love is that we recite a different creed every Sunday.  Sometimes, it's old school (a scripture passage, the Nicene Creed, Apostles' Creed, Te Deum, excerpts from the Westminster or Heidelberg Confessions etc.), sometimes it's created by that week's liturgist, and sometimes it's taken from current bold professions of faith that brothers and sisters around the world (and across traditions!) have proclaimed.

Today's was a new experience.  Pastor Howard printed the entire text of a song by Christian hip-hop artist Shai Linne, a name that - sadly - I had never heard before today.  But our entire congregation, young-old-black-brown-white, were saying these current rhymes with all the conviction that we give to the ancient creeds of the faith.  Because these truths, though wrapped in new words and phrases, are older than time.

God ____ America Sermon Series

Pastor Howard has been doing a sermon series called God ____ America, taking a biblical look at the blessings and curses of our great, and greatly flawed, nation.  He does a beautiful job of striking the kind of balance many pastors try to hit - somewhere between the two extremes of blasting America and idolizing her.  Here, in the midst of the series, are links to the three sermons on civil rights.

Racial Equality and Ethnicity (warning - some strong, but contextually appropriate, language):
http://soundcloud.com/solidrock171/civil-rights-part-one-race
Women's Equality:
http://soundcloud.com/solidrock171/civil-rights-part-two-womens
Age...
http://soundcloud.com/solidrock171/civil-rights-part-three-age

Some lyrics...

Em - C vamp (with some Bm - F#m thrown in for a bridge), real "They'll Know We Are Christians" vibe...

How ... shall I love You?
How ... shall I obey?
How ... shall I worship and adore Your Name?


If you call me ... to care for Your flock,
I will obey.
I will worship and love You in this way...


Kind of a random start.  The first stanza above would be the chorus / refrain.
The second is an example of a possible verse.  The idea is, we say we love Jesus.  Well, how does that live itself out in life?  Through warm feelings or through action?  Perhaps both?

I want this to be a wrestling kind of prayer...

From Our Children's Church Summer Songwriting Workshop...

This post is mainly for parents of our children's church kids.  During our summer vacation, we've been having some pretty awesome workshops on various aspects of the arts as they find expression in our faith and worship. My little part of this series was two sessions on songwriting.

As part of this mini-workshop, we:

1. created new verses to traditional, patterned songs, such as "God Is So Good" and "Ain't No Rock";
2. used a simple pattern to brainstorm lyrics for a "group-written" song (both the rough and finished version can be heard below);
3. shared about scripture songs as a way to memorize and apply God's Word; and
4. recorded some of our creations!

Here are a few clips of what went on.  Feel free to listen or download.

The kids brainstorm lyrics to create their own song:


Results of the brainstorm... a bluesy new song called "He's Better to Me...":


Paul Major intros his talk about scripture songs:


Paul shares some of his own scripture songs:

In the Greenhouse - Capable Hands

I have had the phrase "in Your capable hands..." running around my head for a few years.  I use the phrase a lot in prayer when submitting some fear or concern or desire to the Lord.  I have just felt it is an apt way to refer to the Lord.

It also feels, "songish", like it wants to be put to music.

So... I am messing a bit with that phrase and what can be done with it.

C - G
The hands that shifted continents...
The hands that took dirt to form the human race...
The hands that hold back the warring nations...
The hands that took my scars...

D - Em
In Your capable hands, I rest... I find my peace... I know I can lay it all...
In Your capable, Your beautiful, Your wounded, Your ...  perfect hands...

Musings, just musings...

A peculiar spiritual discipline

So, here I am, with my latest blog (I abandoned WordPress after they just kept getting less and less free), and I know what I want to do with it: I want to work through the songwriting process here, sometimes posting finished stuff, sometimes posting things in process.  Mainly this is a journal - left open on the kitchen table of the world, in the hope that some other struggling part-time songwriter will see it, pick it up, and fellowship can be joyously had over the weird and wondrous spiritual discipline of writing songs as a method of prayer, worship and chronicling the journey.

I also want to record some of my favorite hymns and post guitar-friendly lead sheets of them... and perhaps, after a decade or so, I will have a nice compilation that some worship leader in a small church somewhere will find useful.

So, I see here a combination of three "spiritual disciplines" of mine colliding a bit: Songwriting, hymnody and journaling (thru blogging).  And here's the thing: I'm not very good at being consistent, which is why I'm calling them spiritual disciplines.  Spiritual disciplines, according to Dallas Willard, are things we do because a) they build us up and mold us into the image of Christ so that our lives can begin to resemble His and b) we aren't good at them so we need discipline!

For some people, these might not look like spiritual disciplines.  But songwriting is like a prayer form to me; and the great hymns proclaim Truth to me in ways I would never have come up with; and journaling/blogging, helps me to remember the things I need to never forget.

So, if you happen upon this here blog, and you see no posts for a few weeks, please get on me about it.  Iron sharpens iron.

From my readings in World Missions class...

Ooooh, I like this: "... a profound and lasting impact is made on society through evangelism coupled with sweeping social transformation, not by evangelism alone." (Engel and Dyrness on the legacy of Wesley and Whitefield, Changing the Mind of Missions, p. 65)

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www.noisetrade.com/tomfisher

"The Hymn Shop" - http://tomfishermusic.blogspot.com