from corners and shadows the echoes of blue shattered with moonlight falling from below the world
i have learned from your lips the sound of hunger and from your touch the sight of horror from your lips wonder and sorrow comes in the breath of the night like a lamp set on fire
in daylight and winter the crisp burn of the frosthit ground rising in the aftermath
i have learned from your lips the endless thirsting and from your words the silence of love from your lips promise and sadness falls in the breath of the night like a lamp set on fire
in dying flames and blue smoke the embers and the ash of warstrikes to the heart and truth of it
i have learned from your lips the satisfaction and from your want, the never coming from your lips the true and untrue kiss in the breath of the night like a lamp set on fire
“..because the keys to the Kingdom got locked inside the Kingdom..” “..i got a girl in the war and the only thing I know to do is turn up the music and pray that she makes it through..” “..and the angels fly around in there but we can’t see them..”
Calling… There are plenty of days when I find myself wishing that Auckland and Wellington shared more of the Space/Time Continuum, because finding myself in the middle of the same conversation at both ends of the island is refreshing and comforting. As if in response to my heartache in this weeks posts and musings of the last month, Sam posts here from his sermon notes of last week, including some precious thoughts, metaphors and quotes borrowed and gathered from all over.. devour with hope while listening to Josh.
Church Is Not The Destination.
In the gospels Jesus mentions the word Kingdom 121 times in 114 verses Church is mentioned 3 times in two verses
I think there is a misconception that the Church is the destination. Its such a small bandwidth.
When an airport confuses itself as the destination, it thinks its winning when all the planes are on the ground and the airport ground is just packed with people. Look how many people we have!
But every time it does that it screws up people’s lives. The Airport is a connector going to somewhere I want to go. People are meant to move through it, not stay put in it.
The Church is not the destination, it’s a connector getting people to where they really want to go. To life… its pointing to the Kingdom “I came to give you church, and church more abundantly”. I came to bring life. The role of the church is to proclaim the Kingdom. And the Kingdom brings life.
Furthermore on Art & Kingdom NT Wright: “When art comes to terms with both the wounds of the world and the promise of resurrection and learns how to express and respond to both at once, we will be on the way to fresh vision, a fresh mission”.
The kingdom is every act of love, gratitude, and kindness, every work of art or music inspired by the love God and the delight in the beauty of creation; every act of care and nuture, of comfort and support for others, all spirit led teaching, every prayer, every deed that embodies holiness rather than corruption, and makes the name of Jesus honoured in the world.
Far out. A list of ten songs.. let alone a top ten of songs about God is probably one of the greater ‘High Fidelity’ challenges. However, after a night’s sleep on it, in no particular order…
1. Water Into Wine by Bruce Cockburn. First released in 1976 on ‘In The Falling Dark’. It’s an instrumental piece that is foundational in the Cockburn back catalogue. It’s a moment to lose yourself.
2. Roll Away by Dave Dobbyn. From the album ‘Accustomed to the Light’. Post his own spiritual awakening, Dobbyn writes “Roll Away is about rolling back anything that may be getting in the way with you. In my case pleading with God that obstacles be removed so that I can get on without them. It comes from a yearning that’s been around a while. This song brings me back to the hymns & solemn harmonies – simple harmony singing that the Latin masses had back when I was a small boy.”
3. Not Dark Yet by Bob Dylan. First released on the 1997 project ‘Time Out Of Mind’. This isn’t directly about God, and yet the words about humanity and the absence of a prayer, the falling darkness.. they invoke a sense of God in me. So it counts.
4. I was going to choose Hallelujah by Cohen, recorded by Kd Lang for the album “Hymns Of the 49th Parallel”, a tribute to Canadian songwriters. No doubt this tune will appear on several lists, but this version is covered in the emotions of the constant human/divine battle. Again, it’s not necessarily about God, but it’s still a God song. BUT… instead I am choosing from the same album Simple written by kd lang and David Pitch.
Flawless light in a darkening air Alone…and shining there Love will not elude you
Love is simple I worship this tenacity And the beautiful struggle we’re in Love will not elude us
Love is simple Be sure to know that
All in love Is ours And love, as a philosophy Is simple
I am calm in oblivion Calm, as I ever have been Love will not elude me Love is simple Be sure to know that All in love Is ours… Is ours…
That all in love Is ours And love, as philosophy Is simple… And ours…
5. St Matthew Passion by Bach.
6. There By The Grace Of God by Manic Street Preachers. Released in 2002 and a strange throwback to the eighties, there are glimpses of hard synth here. Musically it’s lacklustre but the lyrics and compassion are the gripper of this track and make it a worthy placing in this list.
7. ágætis byrjun by Sigur Ros. The title track of the 1999 release is the first track that I ever heard and it remains my favourite. I’ve used it as the soundtrack to a number of deep worship moments in my own private life as well as in corporate gatherings. Hence it’s become a God song.
8. Sky Flashings by Earthsuit, followed by You are Mine by rebirthed Mutemath. These are stunning tapestries of sound where lyrics, ideas and musical soundscape both point toward and draw the Spirit close to wherever you are.
10. The Lords Prayer performed by Mahalia Jackson, at the 1958 Newport Jazz festival and seen in the doco-film “Jazz on a Summers Day”. The first time and every time I see this, it brings tears to my eyes, even after all this time.
I’m passing on the tag now… to Sam, Danielle, Stu. Feel free to add your own thoughts in the comments. Also – I would have included Leeland’s Opposite Way too, but I ran out of numbers.
UPDATE: How could I neglect the Etnobofin… I’m a fool. In fact, I suspect that Richard’s list will be worth downloading for myself..
there are the dark days that cloud the mind right from the start there are the eulogies i compose for my own goodbyes there are the melodies i’ve learned to sing by heart when i’m alone, afraid my life has been a song of sorrows
there is a quietness that i have never shaken a terrifying absence and depression that most of what i dream of will never come to pass cos i imagine life too big before i even start
and my ambition is to make a difference as large a one as i ever could concieve and my name may never be made known my ambition stays the same i’d make a difference to your heart
i’ve read ten thousand names and whispered them aloud i’ve spent long nights awake perfecting every part i’ve listened to the heartbeat of a thousand lives and heard the same refrain, and i’ve tried to make a difference
there are the words that stick within the corners of the mind there are the tears that start with any memory of long hard nights there are the sad songs and poems that walk me through the days my life has been a song of sorrows
and my ambition is to make a difference collecting all the stories my life is made of and if i could somehow remember all their names my ambition was to make a difference to your heart and their names would make the finest start
my eulogy can start anytime you like as soon as you feel satisfied, i’ll take the walk i simply ask to see a thousand faces beside the Son and remember me where i made a difference to your heart
And the problem it seems Is with you and me Not the Love who came To repair everything
And I don’t know What to do with a love like that And I don’t know How to be a love like that
What I really wish Blogger would do is create an application that allows me to determine the soundtrack you read this to. The collection of tunes for the last weeks posting is really cool. So … in case you feel really motivated.. you should line up these tracks on your iTunes and just soak in it for a while. Oh yes, you should. It will heal your soul. You should also drink a large and exceptionally fine single malt whisky no less than 12 years old (ht marko) and enjoy it under a dark black sky somewhere.
Soundtrack for the next few minutes of your life – my Christmas gift to you is 61.53 minutes of music for the Soul.
Catch Your Fall (Blow Out Your Candles) – David Yetton – 3.55min Ran For Miles (Night On My Side) – Gemma Hayes – 4.32min Naked As We Came (Our Endless Numbered Days) – Iron & Wine – 2.33min West (West) – Lucinda Williams – 3.33min Beside You (The Islander) – Dave Dobbyn – 3.43min Won’t Give In (Everyone Is Here) – The Finn Brothers – 4.17min Inside of Me (Real Life) – Evermore – 4.07min Stall Out (Mutemath) – Mutemath – 7.10min Colorblind (Cruel Intentions) – Counting Crows – 3.26min Stable Song (Plans) – Death Cab For Cutie – 3.43min No Ordinary Thing (You Are Here) – Opshop – 4.06min Two Places At A Table (Last Fair Deal) – Rory Block – 3.38min Ez (Music For The Morning After) – Pete Yorn – 4.42min My Lover’s Prayer (Unknown) – Otis Redding – 3.12min Ágætis byrjun (Ágætis byrjun) – Sigur Rós – 7.56min
Responsiveness In Mass Communication Had an interesting meeting today with the new young adults guy at church, who also has responsbility for Sunday night services. Talked a lot about my observations over the past four weeks and the experimentation that we’ve been doing, the responses to it as well. The energy in the room has been at an all time low – people simply not engaging at any point in the service. The rise in room atmosphere has been happening around the notices – usually where there is a bit of comedy just in people doing their thing. The atmosphere relaxes and feels more personable. Consequently we’ve adopted some of this into our singing worship and seen a great response.
It was pretty obvious I was skating on some thin ice, which I can understand. After all, I live and breathe community gatherings, how to shape them into genuine and signficant experiences. I also don’t take it too seriously, and realise that there is room for safe experimentation. It’s going to be uncomfortable if I’m talking about things that they haven’t noticed or thought about in regards to the room. Right now there’s even confusion over what kind of atmosphere is the goal in the room. The ‘feeling’ around celebration even brings different things to the surface for different people. Still.. I brought it to the table, regardless of how it’s received. I offered to be on the frontline of doing something to make it work.
Yup, I’m still feeling about as frustrated as I was before. Lame-o. I think I need a holiday quickly followed by an attitude adjustment. From my perspective I think the basics would be to start with creating the kind of atmosphere that people can engage with, that energizes the room and helps buoy the whole thing along. Laughter is key, as is earnestness. Earnestness is not the same as seriousness. I think I put a serious foot in it when I commented on the overall tonality of the services finishing in the same low-frequency, mellow and reflective comtemplation. There is a space for it but it’s very difficult for some introverted comtemplatives to easily build spaces for energised, extroverted teenagers. I’m making some gross generalisations based on anecdotal observations… but I think the research would back me up. At least we could both acknowledge the absence of many that would formally have helped to shape our services.
I’m in the middle of a wrestle here between personal boundaries and social responsibility. We are still in the middle of transition in staff positions at my local church, with more to come in the form of a new senior pastor sometime in the new year.
There is a high density of structure being introduced in the new youth group plan for 2008 forward. However the Sunday night service is the domain of the young adults pastor, who has recently come from the very traditional church I spoke at last week. There is some hangover of this, as well as personality coming through at the moment and I feel highly conflicted about this quasi-worship leader, quasi-youthworker role at the moment. Everything in my life is about youthwork – everything influences or is influenced by youthwork and impacting young people – which for the sake of this post reflects my heart for the young at heart. I think in reflection I have found preaching at Milford last week one of the more spiritually fulfilling experiences of the year.
However – there is a big gap starting to emerge in the Sunday night service. I was very surprised when I came back at the larger exodus of young adults and 13-14year olds from a youth ministry that has previously been vibrant, full of energy and life in this age range. The kids are switching off and switching on their cellphones in a way that we haven’t seen before. We’re observing a culture shift within our community, a specific response to a set of variables that can almost be measured.
Having observed now for several months, and then refreshed the information since being back from the States for a month> the common trends are unfortunately becoming more obvious. The preaching roster is almost turnabout, as is the populus. There is a core that will sit through one preacher and not the other. They are walking with their feet. The others that stay are demonstrating something that we’ve rarely seen before. A record 17 cellphones were picked up and used throughout the duration of the sermon on Sunday night. They were mostly all youth group members rather than young adults. The young adults have a week-about attendance cycle as well.
The mid-week programme is being decimated in the younger age group as well. The older groups are more established in relationship with one another, so there are less consumer impact variables to deal with. Kids are literally flowing out the back door, something that is painful and hard to watch.
In addition to this, the overwhelming flavour of Sunday nights has moved from a sense of celebration and community to a very serious, intense time of worship. While I can totally support a proposition that suggests effective communication in the 20-30 year bracket will have some buy-in and attraction with teenage ministry groups, I’m not convinced that the 20-30 year olds that are also walking are going to buy the package.
What is there to be done about it? The first thing that struck me when I got home was the absence of fun. There was an enormous sense of energy missing from the room. In the past two weeks as a music team, we’ve simply focussed on recreating energy and engagement. That’s meant lots of songs that are easy to clap to and fun to sing. That’s where DCB come in.
I spoke last Sunday niht in worship about the joy it is to be able to sing songs together and share in our story. I spoke about my previous post regardless ‘one-worship’ and ‘others-worship’. It went down really well as the kids took hold of each other by the hand, around the shoulder. They moved closer together so as to embrace one another and then laughed together.
Sure enough – there was a slight complaint about the nature of that voice break.
So what to do? I’m out of the youth ministry loop and the current staff just don’t want to talk about it, most approaches from a wide range of players are being rebuffed with a defensive offense. The hard part is how bad I want to see these guys suceed. The youth pastor especially is young and full of energy – he should be in the prime of it, enjoying the ease of the first couple of years – finding his feet, developing a team of leaders around him in good relationship. Instead, we’ve got energy disappearing and job descriptions that would be tough for anyone, let alone fulltime youthworkers, let alone volunteer leaders. Partly, my empathetic heart just wants to tell them to relax, but it seems there is no voice .. advice welcome.
I said that I would stay, especially now that the senior role is in flux. If nothing else, I’ve been through this before and I know that I can provide support leadership to my community within my role. But how, where, when to address the other stuff in the broader context. But there are so many church communities struggling with little to no youth ministry leadership – and I feel that if I was to leave, I would need to go to one of these communities.
I feel so frustrated and useless in my church community at the moment. It’s like seeing all we could be and we’re only a degree and a half away. Slight adjustments, a little bit of fun, flavour and relaxation and we’d be there – back in the fertile soil that breeds great community. I’m more and more convinced that spiritual formation as a key value doesn’t translate to spiritual growth in young people. I think that healthy holistic communities will raise healthy, whole young people who are engaged in journey with God.
Tash McGill is a broadcaster, writer and strategist who works with people and organisations to solve problems and create transformation. She believes people are the most important thing and that stories are powerful ways of changing the world. You can find out more at tashmcgill.com or by visiting her LinkedIn profile.
