Dixie Chicks On The Tune-o-meter

“Favorite Year”

We were young and so inspired
We weren’t the only ones who thought
We’d change the world
No sun would set without us
No one we knew could ever doubt us

We had our future figured out
We knew a love like ours would always save the day
And that we’d always be ok

But would you know me now
Would you lay me down beside you
Tell me everything I want to hear
Like that was your favorite year
Like that was your favorite year

You looked at me like no one else
But sometimes love just doesn’t seem to conquer all
We search for someone else to blame
But sometimes things can’t stay the same

But would you know me now
Would you lay me down beside you
Tell me everything I want to hear
Like that was your favorite year
Like that was your favorite year

Holding on to the memories
Of when we were younger
I can’t forget
Cause when we were together
That’s when I was at my best

And would you know me now
Would you lay me down beside you
Tell me all the things I long to hear
Like that was your favorite year
Like that was your favorite year
Cause that was my favorite year

I’m at a loss most mornings when I wake up now. I have a great dream unfolding. It’s stinking hard work, but I’m working at it. I’m working with great people – and it’s all like I’m standing on ice, sliding into the deep. In the midst of this work/life/mission creative energy, is the dangerous precipice of standing alone.

I used to write that the drive home is the loneliest place, but I think I’m about to change that. I’m discovering the loneliness of happiness that happens on the outside of everything and everyone else. I’m discovering afresh the loneliness of the trusted not being there. I’m taunted in the small, dark, icicles of morning with the emptiness of my house, and the silence in between my breaths.

I never knew I was this needy – that I required so much sharing of the dream. Maybe J knew this all along and that was part of the magic of his friendship at d:camp and eastercamp, and on all the projects and journeys. The beauty for me is in the sharing of the laughter and the stories. The magic of the dreaming is all about the community of them.. that they exist bigger than just my own imaginings and deeper than my own heart and mind.

Some friends are like wallpaper. In a beautiful necessary sort of way. It’s important, and you certainly know if you replace wallpaper with paint, but you can get away with all sorts.. bare walls still make a house. Others, though, are like electrical wiring. They hide and curl around all the inside parts of you, and light you up, heat you up, spark inside you until you need their spark before you have anything to offer into the world.

Some journeys require more than a slap of a paint, or a 40watt bulb. They live on the livewire of the spark with the heartbeat of the mains throbbing at the end of the line. Hook me up.

Beating
Yeah, my heart is definitely beating. Definitely beating. Thumping.

Questions That Have To Be Answered. Questions I’d Never Have Written.

1. who is the target audience in terms of music genre?
2. What is the paradigm that is driving our style (ie: what models are we emulating?)
3. what is the process for adopting new songs into our repertoire> how is the selection of songs made> how are they tested for congregational sing-ability and theological content?
4. how loud is okay and how loud is excessive?
5. what is the impact of our seating layout?
6. how do we (ought we) to define worship?
7. what can we do that allows for meaningful response to preaching and worship?
8. what systems of critiquing (making good even better) could we develop of our services?
9. what does ‘seekerfriendly” mean or look like in a youth and young adult context?
10. how is important is stage appearance (what it looks like from the congregation’s perspective)?
11. what are the appropriate/inappropriate ways of asking people to respond?
12. what are the appropriate/inappropriate ways on engaging the congregation in activity? (is it appropriate to ask them to discuss a question/pray together in groups?)
13. what are we looking for in worship leaders? what are the critieria in their selection?

Hmmm… watch for the questions I’d really like to ask.