Can a fish comprehend the ocean?

This morning we had our usual staff prayer. Aaron Henning, the executive director of Harambee youth training, was leading us from Habakkuk.

Habakkuk was a man with a problem. He was burned out. He was angry at God. He was tired of watching the wicked prosper and the righteous oppressed. He brought his complaint to the Lord and waited for a response. Here’s a part of Habakkuk’s complaint:

You have made people like the fish in the sea,
like the sea creatures that have no ruler.
The wicked foe pulls all of them up with hooks,
he catches them in his net,
he gathers them up in his dragnet;
and so he rejoices and is glad.
Therefore he sacrifices to his net
and burns incense to his dragnet,
for by his net he lives in luxury
and enjoys the choicest food.
Is he to keep on emptying his net,
destroying nations without mercy?

This sounds very current to our lives today. We can all see how wicked people exploit and oppress. They use the power structures that exist in the world like a dragnet to suck the resources from a community or a country. Then they celebrate their success and worship their tools of oppression. Do you get angry at God for appearing to be absent from this mess? Do you look at your own heart and wonder why God is not more present when you fall into despair at the state of things? God responds to Habakkuk’s complaint with a bold vision for how he is moving in the earth.

 “Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed
and establishes a town by injustice!
Has not the LORD Almighty determined
that the people’s labor is only fuel for the fire,
that the nations exhaust themselves for nothing?
For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD 
as the waters cover the sea.

In our meeting, my coworker, Heidi Vincent, pointed out something that I also noticed, but I’ll give her credit. God’s response might have been deliberately designed to play off of Habakkuk’s “fish in the sea” metaphor. As if God was saying, “If people are fish in the sea, then I will make my glory envelop them as the water in which fish live and breathe.” The wicked might be the fishermen, but the Lord is the ocean. They can worship their nets, but the Lord controls the sea. They live and move by his mercy until their appointed time of judgement. In Exodus, God hardened the heart of Pharaoh in order to bring him to a point of confrontation and ultimate judgement at the Red Sea.

There’s a lot of outrage these days about injustice. I come from a generation of Habakkuk’s who are filled with disappointment and frustration with the American Dream and with the American version of Karma. Where’s my American dream when I worked hard to get through school only to be unemployed and in debt? How is it possible that an innocent man is murdered and his killer walks free? The vision that the book of Habakkuk has for this generation is that of hope that is deeper than any promise of the world’s idols. Can we open our eyes to see his glory? The knowledge of the glory of the Lord surrounds us like water surrounds fish and yet we are blind to it. We say that God can’t exist or can’t be known because we can’t comprehend something so glorious and omnipotent. Why are you so downcast, O my soul? He has revealed this all encompassing glory to us in the teaching, ministry, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus.

The LORD is in his holy temple;
let all the earth be silent before him.

We might have a baby in may

A birth mom has selected us to adopt her baby who is due in May. She had actually selected us in December, dropped us in January, and is now back with us. Please pray for her and for her baby boy who have been through a lot.

In case you are wondering, I’m not sure how this affects my plans to go to the DR Congo but if things progress with the adoption, I will not be going this year.

Jesus is Lord!

Psalm 68:4-6
Sing to God, sing in praise of his name, extol him who rides on the clouds rejoice before him—his name is the LORD. A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families, he leads out the prisoners with singing; but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land.

Watch this video

Watch this video.

Romans 5:1-10

5  Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. ² Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. ³ Not only that, but werejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, ⁴ and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, ⁵ and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

⁶ For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷ For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— ⁸ but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. ⁹ Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. ¹⁰ For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved byhis life. ¹¹ More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Phoenix AZ, Food For The Hungry

This weekend, I have the rare privileged to take the New City Fellowship show on the road. A few of my NCF team members, Jesse Heirendt and Joshua Saleem, and I are flying to Phoenix this week to lead worship music for an event hosted by Food For The Hungry. I am super excited about being involved in this event because FH is an organization that is walking out the kingdom in real tangible  acts of justice and mercy. This weekend is a special conference for folks who are being invited into the vision of FH in order to become partners with them financially and spiritually.

Nathan Corbitt wrote a book called “The Sound of the Harvest” . The title refers to a story he tells about visiting a region that was suffering in a famine. When he asked a local friend if there was music being made this year, the man responded, “Bila mavuno hakuna kuimba” or “Without a harvest, there is no singing.” This reflects the same meaning as Psalm 137 in which the artists in oppressive captivity hung their harps from the trees instead of using them to rejoice. Food for the Hungry’s mission statement reveals that they are about more than charity for the sake of easing our Western guilt. They are about restoring communities to a state of balance with nature and with God in which their hearts and bodies are restored to their intended pre-fall condition. This act of restoration brings with it “the sound of the harvest” when new songs and new forms of worship are born.

It will be a lot of fun to travel and to participate in this event, but it’s also taking me out of my comfort zones. Instead of our usual 10-piece bands at NCF, we will be limited to a trio. I’ve also experienced a type of spiritual oppression leading up to this event in which my character, my experience, and my standing in Christ have been attacked by my flesh and the accusations of the enemy. I’ve shared in the past about the kind of spiritual warfare that can be involved with crossing into unfamiliar territory, and so if you are reading this, please take a moment to pray for me and my friends as we put our faith into practice this week.

Help Me Get To Kinshasa, DR Congo

I’m excited to share with you about an opportunity that I have to go to Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo. My church, New City Fellowship sends a team to Kinshasa every year to maintain relationships with pastors there as we work on building health clinics and caring for orphans. These relationships developed as Congolese immigrants became part of our church family in St Louis, and we began to share their concern for the welfare of the DRC. Our vision is to partner with churches in Kinshasa to encourage each other in the gospel of Jesus Christ to walk in the light of the kingdom and to produce good works of love and mercy.

Whenever we hear about the D.R. Congo in the States, we usually hear about the violent civil wars or the widespread poverty. However, despite its hardships, the D.R. Congo produces unique and exciting forms of music known as Soukous and Rhumba. The Congolese style of virtuosic guitar playing has garnered fans all over the world, and is a technique that I aspire to master. Every year, when the New City Fellowship team returns from Kinshasa, they share with me stories of amazing musicians and passionate worship that defies the suffering in which it is born.

Last summer, I had the opportunity to meet with Athoms Mbuma, a pastor and musician from Kinshasa. Athoms and his wife are members of Le Groupe Adorons L’Éternel or G.A.E.L., a band of musicians who produce the best known worship music from the Congo. Athoms led songs in our worship service, gave a special concert, taught a clinic on Congolese music, and even gave me a guitar lesson. I was very blessed to meet Athoms for his skill, his faith, and his encouragement. Before he returned to Kinshasa, Athoms invited me to come visit him and to experience Congolese worship at its source.

The door has opened for me to accept that invitation by traveling to Kinshasa with the New City Fellowship team from May 25-June 6. In addition to pastors and medical professionals, we will have two other musicians on the team, Tony Myles and Suzanne Bates. We hope to both learn more about Congolese music and to share some about American music at a 3 day pastor’s conference. Pastor Athoms plans to return with us at the conclusion of our visit in order to have a special concert and worship clinic in St Louis.

Obviously, we need your prayers for safe travel and for spiritual fruit, but we also need financial help. This trip will cost $3000 for each member to travel. My family and I will use $1000 of our personal funds toward the costs, but we need your help to cover the additional $2000 which would be possible if 40 families gave $50 each. If you would like to contribute, please write a check to “NEW CITY FELLOWSHIP” with “WARD-CONGO” in the memo and send it to New City Fellowship, 1142 Hodiamont, St Louis MO 63112.

 

French Worship Resources

Bonjour!

At my church, we have the unusual priveledge of worshiping with a small community of Congolese immigrants who have become part of our congregation. In the Congo, there are many tribal dialects, but the common language is French as a result of their to the Belgian colonial influence. In American, there is a growing influence of Spanish, but French is mainly left out of the mainstream. As a result, I haven’t run into a lot of resources for French worship songs. This week, I did a little digging and found several cool ministries who have done a lot of translation and are giving away chord sheets for these resources. I’m planning on traveling this summer to the Congo and so I’m excite to try out some of these tunes that are familiar to me en français. (This list does not include actual Congolese artists, but that’s for another post).

I found all these artist’s recordings on iTunes.

 

Sebastian Demrey & Jimmy Lahaie 

http://heritagemusique.com/ - these guys are a kind of hymn revival group out of Canada. Acoustic, laid back, a real PCA sound. There’s a nice recording of “I Surrender All” on their “Heritage II”

CREATIV Prod

http://www.creativ-prod.fr/ - This appears to be a ministry that promotes Francophone worship. Phila is a group from a cross-cultural church in Paris that has done a lot of hip tunes like ” In Christ Alone” and “Friend of God” and they have some nice originals (I liked “A La Croix”)

Stéphane Quéry

http://stephanequery.com/wp/ - This guy is another Canadian. He’s done a ton of recordings. There’s some nice covers that he’s done of “Hosanna (Fraiser)” and “Everlasting God”.

Impact 

http://impactmusique.bandcamp.com/album/infiniment-grand - This is a youth band out of Quebec. They have a real Hillsongs vibe. They do a solid cover of “Our God”.

Paul Baloche

http://www.leadworship.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=22&products_id=57 - Paul Baloche is the composer of “Open the Eyes of My Heart”, “Above all” and a number of other solid modern worship staples. Apparently, he has Canadian roots, so he did a greatest hits in French recording.

ICC Gospel Choir

Not sure where these guys are from, but you can check out the video and get and idea of what they’re like.

How to prepare for a big performance

This weekend, we’re putting on a big show. I know there’s a lot of folks who will shudder at the use of such crass terms. However, I want to be clear that musicians have to prepare for a worship service in the same way that we do a recital or a concert. We have to strengthen our voices, to train our hands, to focus our minds. Artists are given special gifts by God to do amazing things, but those gifts manifest themselves in ways that look just like learning to read, write or speak. We have to discipline our minds and bodies to produce skilled music expression. So for the musicians who lead God’s people in worship, the first and most important preparation for worship is to actually practice your part. Maybe that seems un-spiritual. The truth is that music is work and work takes…work. You have to invest time and energy in order to do it well. If you opt to spend your Friday night in prayer and fasting, you will have a mind focused on God’s wonderful grace and power, but it will not make you play the guitar better on Saturday. For worship musicians, practicing your instrument must become a spiritual act of service and devotion.

Here’s another way to think about it: loving your neighbor is expressed in action not in “spiritual” thoughts. If you see a neighbor in need and you don’t take action to help them, then you are not loving them. Faith and love are nothing if they are not expressed. Practice and preparation for worship is an act of love and faith. It’s love because you are putting the needs of your neighbor ahead of your own. Your preparations are not for your benefit but for the benefit of your neighbor who needs you to lead. If you are ready to go, then by all means sit down and rest, but if you know that you have work to do, then get in the wood shed and practice – out of love. Practice is an act of faith because you are acknowledging that your work is not in vain. Investing time in the work of worship is expressing faith that the kingdom of God is real and that Jesus is Lord. We can give our lives away as living sacrifices because we know that our lives have been redeemed for the purposes of the kingdom.

But…

The battle is not ours to fight. Well executed music does not change hearts from self-worship to God-worship. My pastor has been sharing with us about the book of Joshua and it’s got me thinking about our job as worship musicians. Joshua is a book about the conquest of Canaan. In most historical writings, a book of conquest would include battle strategy. Reading the Iliad, you get lots of descriptions of people’s heads getting split open and the glorious power of the warrior. In Joshua, you read about the glorious power of Jehovah being demonstrated. The battle strategy of Joshua is stuff like, march around for seven days and then blow a trumpet or make the sun stand still in the sky. Joshua’s army had to be ready to fight with training and equipment, but they were God’s instruments being used to win God’s victory. After you are practiced and prepared for battle, be ready to see the glory of God demonstrated in ways you can’t even imagine or prepare for.  God’s called you into this act of service, but the movement of his kingdom is one that will proceed whether you are ready or not. It’s a miraculous demonstration of power that envious, self-obsessed, vain, fearful, cynical, melancholic, and boastful musicians can be redeemed for the purpose of serving at the front lines of the Lord’s army.

Black History Celebration this weekend

This weekend we have our annual Black History Celebration. Last weekend, I was sick as a dog with a cold that is currently laying waste to the entire population of St Louis. Apparently they had a fun and productive final rehearsal without me. It’s nice to know that the world goes on without me so that I can rest and recoup when necessary.

Here’s the details on the event if you would like to come (graphic design by Carrie Jones):

The event is at our church New City Fellowship – 1483 82nd Blvd St Louis MO 63132

Here’s a stag plot that I’ve created to be ready for the enormous band that we’ll be rocking with. Notice that I’m not playing any guitar this year. If you have a problem with that, then talk to the men in our church about joining the choir so that I can leave the tenor section.

I’ve also created some schedules for the busy day. Somehow, every time I try to communicate information to people, it doesn’t seem to be received. Part of the problem is that people process information in different ways. To compensate for that, I’ve created two versions of the same schedule, one for Left-brained people and one for Right-brained people.

Schedule – Left Brains

Schedule -Right Brains

 

 

Christ died to defeat sin – for the sinner and the sinned against

Harvie Conn taught that everyone is both a sinner and the sinned against. If we preach the gospel to sinners and leave out the sinned against, then we are only speaking to half of the problem. Christ died to save me from my sin, but he also died to save me from being sinned against.

I asked the question of my pastor, how do we bring this element back into worship services which have become so individualistic. My colleague, Anthony Johnson, spoke up and reminded me that gospel music is full of the response of the sinned against to the power of the gospel. (I was a little embarrassed that I missed that.)

What does “Kumbaya” mean and why should we care?

Race, culture, humor, politics, stereotypes, class, language – a few topics that come up around the song “Kumbaya”.

Kumbaya is pigeon English of the phrase “Come By Here”.  I came across an excellent arrangement of “Come By Here” in the GIA African American Church Music Series. It was done by Uzee Brown Jr.  As I meditated on the meaning of the song, I was struck by the cry of the oppressed for the Lord to hear and respond. It’s a lament and a statement of faith in a God who does see and hear and is able to intercede and deliver. However, it’s a song that is plagued by an unfair stereotype as a symbol of irrelevant and meaningless expressions of pseudo-unity.

Wikipedia led me to this excellent 2006 article by Jeffrey Weiss published in the Dallas Morning News. Here’s a few select quotes:

Sometime between 1922 and 1931, members of an organization called the Society for the Preservation of Spirituals collected a song from the South Carolina coast. “Come By Yuh,” as they called it, was sung in Gullah, the Creole dialect spoken by the former slaves living on the Sea Islands. [...]

Jump forward to the mid-1950s and the Cooperative Recreation Service, an Ohio-based publisher of songbooks for camps and scouts. Joe Hickerson, a folksinger and former director of acquisitions for the American Folklife Center, credits Lynn Rohrbough, the owner of Cooperative Recreation, with getting “Kumbaya” to the masses. If a camp wanted a music book with, say, 40 songs, Ms. Rohrbough would offer 30 from her stock inventory and add 10 new ones, Mr. Hickerson said. ”Kum By Yah” – described only as an “African” song – was part of the Rohrbough inventory by 1956. As a result, it showed up in countless books of camp songs used by the Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts and others. ”The camp counselors who played guitar liked it because it only has three chords,” Mr. Hickerson said. [...]

For the next 25 years, it was just one folksong among many. But in the early 1980s, something happened. “Kumbaya” became the English-speaking world’s favorite folksong to ridicule, the musical metaphor for corny camaraderie. How? Someone’s wondering, Lord. An extensive (and we do mean extensive) search of databases of newspapers, magazines and other sources turned up what may be the first ironic reference to “Kumbaya” in print, from Aug. 16, 1985. The line is from a Washington Post review by Rita Kempley of the comedy movie Volunteers: “Tom Hanks and John Candy make war on the Peace Corps inVolunteers, a belated lampoon of ’60s altruism and the idealistic young Kumbayahoos who went off to save the Third World.”

Read the article to get the whole story.

Anyhow, the whole topic seems to be a mixed bag of cultural misappropriation, political rhetoric, Baby-boomer nostalgia, commercialization of racial stereotypes, the American-style cross-pollination of  black and white music, to name a few. I’m not sure what to make of it all except to take the song for what it is, cultural baggage and all. In a lot of ways, this song tells a lot more about Black History than if a hypothetical slave-composed spiritual was unearthed by archaeologists in it’s original 19th century form. It tells a more complicated story that goes deeper than face value. Much of African American cultural has been either repackaged in a derogatory form for mass consumption (as in the Minstrel Shows) or (despite good intentions) has been dissected and sterilized by academic study. Kumbaya is an excellent example of a song that was made internationally available but in the process it was robbed of it’s meaning. What would the song have meant if it was left as the local prayer a few saints on the coast of South Carolina?