Filed under: Everything else
Hey guys. Cleaned up my categories. Hopefully the site is a bit more useful. I have categorised everything back to June last year. If you want to find something else look in uncategorised. I’m too lazy to do everything.
For a while I have been pretty immersed in reading lots of stuff by Jonathan Edwards. I started by listening to ‘the Religious Affections’ and then I started reading his biography by Marsden. I found it very challenging. I am blown away by this guy who was sold out for Christ. He believed that this world was nothing but a shadow of things to come and he lived his life in line with this conviction. Edward’s sermons can be downloaded from just about anywhere and they are well worth a read. Take a small chunk and let it sit with you for a while.
You’ll come to realise that Edwards takes the next step. If you truly believe that Christ is your saviour and that he is the only hope you have before a holy, just God, then your life as it was is over. You can’t keep living the same way, seeing things the same way, feeling the same way. As creatures we are given the gift of emotions to highlight things that we believe strongly. Edwards calls these the affections. When converted, a divine and supernatural light enters you and you can see and feel things you never could before. You are overcome with love for your Great Father and you will fall before His Son in thankfulness.
Edwards was overcome by God’s grace shown to him in creation. He would spend hours looking at spiders and their webs – blown away by a God who could create such beauty. Edwards saw this and reminded himself of the beauty of God’s grace to him and of the beauty that would be his in the new creation that was already birthed within him and would be fulfilled physically on that last day.
Edwards valued music as a tool that God had given the church for encouraging these affections towards himself. Music helps christians to ‘feel what they know.’
This is my prayer for our church. We want God to work in us so that we too feel what we know. What glory God would recieve if his people obeyed him out of love not out of duty. If they confessed in prayer out of despair at their sin rather than out of habit. If they sang of their love for Christ with love springing from a true sense and conviction of being saved from hell.
If you are involved in music in your church it would be well worth your while to spend some time with Edwards. Read his sermons. Read biographies about him and be encouraged by his life. Catch his vision for a church that are affected by Jesus.
Had a weird thought in the shower this morning. I think that for the most part music teams in churches are filled with people who fall into four different categories or they demonstrate each category at one time or another.
Leonardo
Some are Leonardo’s. They are the ones who lead (not necessarily from the front). They are the facilitators of ideas. They are attempting to be the ones who get the team to gel together. The positive things of being a Leonardo are that people look to you for guidance and leadership, however you can fall into the trap of ignoring other’s ideas and running with your own all the time. Leonardo was like that. Sometimes I’m a bit of a Leonardo
Michaelangelo
Michaelangelos are the guys or girls who make the whole experience of jamming together fun. They are the people who crack all the jokes. They muck around and make people laugh. Sometimes Michaelangelos turn up late for practice. Sometimes they muck around so much that nothing gets done and people’s time is wasted. Sometimes I turn into a Michaelangelo to avoid being seen as a Leonardo. Thats a disaster.
Raphael
Raph is sick at fighting. He’s pretty much the most awesome turtle at killing foot soldiers. In church he’s the one who gets what Leonardo is trying to do. He goes home to practice his music. He listens to stuff in his own time and writes stuff. All that being said… he’s moody. He can’t take criticism. He gets angry at the team and the world (like Raph). I’m this at times too. I feel like I spend all week working out arrangements and no one likes them (boo hoo). This is precious muso syndrome.
Donatello
Don is a tech head. He is the best with the gadgets. In music he’s the guy who knows every modal scale and position all over the fretboard and has memorized the 230 different sounds he can make on his keyboard.
Downside – He’s a nerd.
Splinter
For the purposes of my post… Splinter is Jesus.
I know this is a stretch but next time you are part of a team practicing, think about which turtle you are most like at that time. I reckon I could turn this turtle theory into a group dynamics book!
I decided to change everything all together. Hope you like the feel of the new site. Give me forgiveness as I stuff around for a while. Fresh content next week
This last week I have been involved in our church’s annual mission, Summerfest. It was a fantastic week and many people have indicated that they would love to hear more about Jesus. It is exciting to be on mission with Jesus. In 2 Corinthians chapter 2 Paul expresses that same joy:
‘But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.’
What a God! he leads us on his mission and it is a TRIUMPHAL PROCESSION!
I have been thinking for some time about how we can be spreading the fragrance a bit more through music in our church. Our culture on the Central Coast (Sydney too) is soaked with music. I went to shows probably every second weekend of my late high school years. I don’t think that I’m too unique in that. I would say on the coast that particularly outside of surf culture there is an underground music culture that many belong to. Music is important and good music is important. The Coast has had some of the country’s best acts start here. We have an ear for good music.
God loves good music too.
Psalm 33:3 says ‘Sing to him a new song. Play skillfully and shout for joy’
So why not use good music as an avenue for mission? In the past I think that music at mission events has been thrown together at the last minute in conversations that generally go like this..
“We are having an event tonight to people to invite their friends to. It will be informal and relaxed.”
“Do we have music?”
“We could put on a CD.”
“No live music is better.”
“alright I’ll call bob. He can play guitar.”
I’m exaggerating of course but you get the drift. And this is as musch my fault as anyones. I never give time to thinking about how music can be integrated in a much better way. Adrian, our Nite church mission coordinator saw this as a problem and he and I came up with a little idea.
We have started an initiative in our music team to create a band that is skillful and well suited to doing this sort of stuff. We want to have music that is an attraction for outsiders, not an added extra and not a distraction. It will take time and practice but there already some who have committed to making good music for cafe style stuff. They are going to practice regularly and hopefully will help in creating a culture of good music at events.
My mind boggles at the endless possibilities for a group like this. They won’t play ‘church songs’ but to start with they are doing Jazz standards and maybe in the future their own compositions. Come and hear their first efforts this Friday nite at ‘Cafe del Freeo’ – Bakehouse cafe, Erina. Bring your friends and they will be challenged to consider Jesus and his claims – all while listening to some sweet tunes!
Filed under: General Music
If you missed Radiohead’s album that was available for whatever you wanted to pay.. don’t miss seeing them play it live on Youtube (I don’t think you can miss it because it may just stay there forever).
It is an awesome album!
Filed under: Uncategorized
This is a bit more conventional. It’s probably very unprofessional to comment on my editing through posts, but the two of you who read this will have to get over that. Just to make the page look extra special, heres a photo:
Sing Unto the Lord 