Theology

Sharing Our Songs!

3 comments Written on September 24th, 2009     
Filed under: Culture, Event Worship Resources, Liturgy, Local Church, Missional, Music, Resources for Worship, Songwriting, Theology
We’re working to develop and promote indigenous Covenant music – songs written in the Covenant church, that are an overflow of the missional life that we share. Through the Department of Christian Formation we are excited to start a pilot project of gathering and redistributing music written within our midst. Here’s how it works.

We’re looking for songs that can potentially become “theme songs” for various Covenant wide events. Each year we have a theme for our denominational events that flows out of our core values and theology. Send us any of your original songs that might support these themes. If your song is selected by the committee, it will be featured at the event, and a recording of the song will be distributed to all the participants so that they can take them back to their churches to the song can be sung in the local church.

Submit a song

The 2010 Midwinter the theme is “The Necessity of the New Birth.” Send us your original songs that flow out of that theme. We would love to hear them and pass the best songs on! Pass the word around! There’s a lot of “untapped” songwriting talent in the Covenant. We’re hoping this is a first step of many in helping to uncover some of that talent.

Rooting for you,

Andrew Thompson

of the Event Song Selection Committee

(A sub-committee of the Worship Commission)



We Are What We Eat (But We Become What We Sing)

2 comments Written on June 3rd, 2009     
Filed under: Articles, Books, Culture, Dangerous Worship, Intergenerational, Local Church, Music, Prayer, Songwriting, Theology, Writing and blogging
Last Sunday one of the members of our worship team, a 15 year old girl, lead the worship band and the congregation in singing the song “Whatever You’re Doing” written by the band Sanctus Real. Lead by her, it was so authentic, and sung with such passion, that across all ages and musical background/tastes, everyone was able to relate and enter into the experience of the song. It was a reflection of the story of her faith and the remarkable “awakening” that has taken place in her life over the past two year as her faith has come alive, a journey that many in the congregation have been able to share with her. There were few dry eyes.

I would not be surprised if this song continues to be a regular in our worship vocabulary, because it touched the congregation so deeply.

This also got me thinking. This is how songs shape us. A moving song reflects God’s work in our midst, and then lives on to shape the language by which we relate to God in the future. In  the future, people in our church will relate to God with the metaphor of peace in the midst of “chaos,” in part because they related to this girl’s experience as expressed in song – and the way they experienced God in the musical retelling of the story.

This song, and the way we experienced it, will influence our theology.

If you tell me the song themes your church sings the most right now, I’ll tell you what your church’s core theology will be in the future. We become what we sing.

What do you think? Do you disagree with this idea? Why?

What songs were present in significant spiritual moments in your life? How did those ideas shape the Christian you became?

Or the big picture questions: What songs are your church singing the most right now? How will those songs shape the future core theology of the Covenant church?

And the flip side question: what core theological ideas we hold as priorities now will lose influence in the future because we do not sing about them?

Rooting for you,

Andrew



Silly Things We Sing to God in Worship Songs

4 comments Written on May 26th, 2009     
Filed under: Core Values, Dangerous Worship, Songwriting, Theology, Uncategorized, Writing and blogging

Do you ever wonder if God chuckles at some of the silly things we say to him in our worship songs? From his perspective, I wonder if he thinks we say some weird stuff.

For example: Things we don’t really mean.

“I surrender all!” (Really? – Everything? – You have money to buy a new car, and you tithe how much?)

“Draw me close to you.” (You’re interested in having a near death experience? I think you’re actually hoping I will do the “moving” closer.)

“I’m desperate for you. “ (That’s funny… you’ve been acting pretty self-reliant all week long.)

Things that contradict themselves.

“O to grace how great a debtor, daily I’m constrained to be. Let thy goodness like a fetter bind my wondering heart to thee. “ (But grace is NEITHER about being a debtor NOR being bound.)

I don’t mean to be harsh to any song, or songwriter, but I think it’s appropriate to laugh at our own weirdness. What do you think? What are some of the silly things you have heard yourself say to God in worship? Or do you disagree that we (and you) are wierd?

Rooting for you,

Andrew



Song Review: Mighty to Save

Post a Comment » Written on March 13th, 2009     
Filed under: Music, Resources for Worship, Songwriting, Theology

I mentioned earlier this week how the phrase “mighty to save” caught my eye in the Prayer for the Week. Maybe you want to weigh in on the merits (or demerits) of said-song.

First the info: Mighty to Save was written by Ben Fielding and Reuben Morgan. 2006, Hillsong Publishing. CCLI Song #: 4591782. You can watch the Hillsong video in this earlier post.

Here’s what I notice:

  • I like the juxtaposition of personal faith/experience and “Hope of Nations.”
  • Verse two nicely acknowledges how the mercy of God prompts us to follow Jesus and give our lives in response to his goodness.
  • This song locates hope in the power of the resurrection. Rare.
  • The bridge takes the discipleship theme to the highest possible level, as it invokes Jesus’ light of the world metaphor.
  • This is a big song. It deals with sweeping themes– connecting them poetically and theologically.

What do you notice?



The Bleak Midwinter

7 comments Written on December 8th, 2008     
Filed under: Music, Order of Worship, Style of Worship, Theology

I’ve heard these reasons for not singing traditional advent music:

  1. The songs are depressing
  2. Most people don’t know they are seasonal, and would not make that connection in worship
  3. The songs are unfamiliar
  4. The Christmas songs are so good, it’s a shame to only sing them once
  5. We already know the end of the story, so it’s no fun to sing about the stuff that’s already happened

What do you think/do about this issue? 



9.5 Theses on Worship

Post a Comment » Written on November 21st, 2008     
Filed under: Articles, Bible, Core Values, Theology

No doubt, some of you have already seen this article by Gary Parrett; since it was posted at Christianity Today in 2005. I guess I’m behind in my reading. 9.5 Theses on Worship: A disputation on the role of music.

Some of you who are pastor or colleague to a younger worship leader/artists or those without formal theological training, might recommend the professor’s audio lectures on the same topic. They are very easy to access, the audio is great quality, and Parrett provides outline and notes to follow along.

You may not agree with every point of the theology, but his is an orthodox and biblical point of view, and I suspect you will say, “Amen” to most of what you hear/read.

I’m interested in hearing your response to his 9.5 Theses. How do they map with your understanding of worship? What about your ministry volunteers? If you or the volunteers are on a different page, what are the differences?

Have a great weekend,
Katie



Liturgical Turn?

5 comments Written on September 22nd, 2008     
Filed under: Church History, Church Year, Liturgy, Style of Worship, Theology
Tags:

Are churches becoming more liturgical? Check out these reports.

Today, Scot McKnight is talking about college students converting from evangelicalism to other traditions. He asks:

What is going on? There is a rise, a burgeoning rise, of young college students converting from low church evangelicalism, with its anemic, unhistorical ecclesiology, to the great liturgical traditions: Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism. Three students this semester have already told me they are considering converting.

I know people who have converted for this reason. I also know evangelical pastors and worship leaders who use all manner of traditional worship resources for two reasons: 1.) They have a personal affinity for high church language and 2.) They are students of culture, who notice our growing interest in the words and symbols of historic Christianity.

Scot ends his post with a charge:

The conversion of young low church evangelicals to liturgical traditions should hardly surprise us. What we should be doing is correcting our weaknesses by listening to those converting.

Any thoughts?



Yahweh?

4 comments Written on September 17th, 2008     
Filed under: Articles, Bible, Liturgy, Theology
Tags: , , , ,

According to this article on the Christianity Today website the Vatican
has ruled that the word “Yahweh” should no longer be used in worship in
Roman Catholic churches.  The reason for this ruling is the longstanding
Jewish practice of not pronouncing this name of God–known in its Hebrew
form as the “Tetragrammaton.”  The original word contains no vowels,
making it unpronounceable, and even transliterations of the word like
“Yahweh” and “Jehovah” are not spoken by Jews (and now Catholics) out of
respect for the holiness of God.

Continue Reading »



Now in Orbit

2 comments Written on September 16th, 2008     
Filed under: Music, Network, News, Style of Worship, Theology, Video
Tags: , , , ,
  1. Those of you familiar with the work of Bob Stromberg will appreciate this cartoon.
  2. We started a facebook group called Worship Connect.
  3. Krys Van Slyke and Matt Nightingale recommend this video.  Well, “recommend” may the wrong word. Warning: Satire in play.

 



Women who Lead

Post a Comment » Written on September 5th, 2008     
Filed under: Gender, Leadership, Theology, Vocation and Call

Scot McKnight posted, today, on the topic of women in church leadership. By the time you read his entry, the comment thread will be dead. So… post your comments here. How has this issue presented itself in your life and ministry?



Newer Entries »