Sing Unto the Lord

so… I got one. I wasn’t going to, and then vodafone called me and offered one to me on a deal ten dollars cheaper than I was already paying. Hard to resist. Any sweet bible software apps I should be aware of other than youversion?

Nitechurch live is due out in less than two months. I put together this vid for Nite EV (the new name for nitechurch – don’t know what we are going to do with the cd name…)

For more info check out www.myspace.com/niteev

Had an awesome night last night. I actually learnt a stack about ministry. But, first… a few more humorous observations:

Chris Tomlin looks like what you would look like if Tony Abbott and Michael J fox had a baby

Chris’ drummer looks exactly like a friend of mine greg, so the whole time Chris played I was stoked because it felt like my mate was on stage.

All of that aside there was heaps to learn last night about ministry to Gen Y people. It mainly was in three different areas: Cause, Music and Preaching

Cause

Gen Y love causes. Look at Make Poverty History or the massive increase in TEAR support among uni age students as examples. We love causes that are tangible and right in front of us. Its difficult for us (generalising) to conceptualise the future so causes for the distant future are almost lost on us (Our church is having this issue now with helping Nitechurch understand the importance of giving to our building project) but we love giving to things that are instant and tangible… like building a well or buying a cow for a village in Africa.

Passion recognise this.

Lots of things last night were cause related. The way that we prayed for the city. The way that we gave to support another city. The way that we were excited by cities all over the world giving to one another. The way that we were encouraged as poor uni students to give what we could towards onemillioncan.com.

The cause of passion was clear. To spread Jesus fame and renown among uni students. Gen Y love cause and they can be captured by cause. I reckon we need to hone this and keep helping our Generation see the cause of making Jesus known.

Music

Dave Crowder is a Gen Y worship leader. His songs (generalising) have poetic, ambiguous phrases that are difficult to sing but easy to listen to, then he sings strong, anthemic choruses. I was talking to a guy who oversees a large Christian music festival and he was talking about how he was struggling to understand it but younger generation love having parts of songs being sung to them rather than with them. Increasingly Hillsong united and others are following the pattern of more popular styles with more complicated verses but with anthemic choruses. If you listen to your radio you’ll find the same.

While twenty years ago songs were good if you could sing along with them, now it doesn’t matter so much. If theres a good tag or line that we can sing, thats cool, but other than that a good song doesn’t have to have an easy melody or simple phrasing.

I’m still unsure whether this is a good, bad or cultural thing. The Bible tells us to sing to one another. There are also cases in the Old testament where people listen to others singing. Not sure…

But, a friend I was with said that if he had brought an unbelieving friend, Dave Crowder would have been the best part of the night. Maybe its a missional thing.

Preaching

In our circles I reckon preachers work hard at not allowing themselves to be emotionally vulnerable or expressive because they see the danger of emotional manipulation. I wonder though if for Gen Y, a preacher who conveys authentic personal attachment to what they are saying, carries more weight. I think our Generation appreciate people wearing their hearts on their sleeve. Not in a manipulative way, but in a genuine, authentic way. If Jesus really is your only hope do you convey it in your voice, in your body language, in your inflection as you preach it?

I wonder if thats why we love American preachers so much. There seems to be a bunch of them who can convey emotion and are obviously personally attached to what they are saying and are theologically grounded and preach biblical truth. We are used to good Bible teaching being dry in Australia (generalising) but we can see another way over the pacific. I’m obviously generalising on this point, but I found last night an encouragement to be more personal when I’m preaching because my generation appreciate testimony and authentic emotion. I think thats why we blog. We love people and so we want to love and hear how the word is shaping the one preaching to us. I think Louie Giglio is pretty good at doing that in an appropriate way.

They are just some of my thoughts from last night…. Did anyone else go and glean some other reflections?

Hey all. Weekend at Bernies was off the hook.
Off to Passion tonight. should be fun.
While you are on the web… check out www.noisetrade.com
Its a site dedicated to independent musicians in the states. Its kind of Radiohead style in that you pay what you want for each album. There’s tons of good music on there including:
Derek Webb
Sandra McCracken
Sixpence none the Richer

I’m just downloading Derek Webb’s new album as we speak.